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*sigh* Never mind.

We're on it with improving the mobile app. You'll see changes to the app in the foreseeable future.

Back then, he wasn't an underdog contending with viral social media, expectations of failure, and instant communication, and with the taxpaying citizens of Kentucky on his hind side looking for answers.

Well now you're just trying to be a turd as that was posted a while ago and an obvious mistake given the correct capitalization throughout the rest of the post.

In the sense of mass production/off the shelf...possibly. But the idea of any part/device/mechanism simply no longer available is incorrect. Anything can be reverse engineered and duplicated to the original specs......albeit, given enough money. Trust me, it's one of the many things I do to put food on my family's table.

The mere thought of Kumba... BGT...about the only thing that attracts Terp to Florida.

Talk about getting hung up on the blandest things...

I will definitely have to take a ride on one to fully understand the experience. I will be in the Tampa Bay area in October... hmm... perhaps Busch Gardens will call my name!

Arrow is a registered trademark used by its successor in interest. As such, it is always capitalized here. (Imagine an Arrow dive coaster. That, my friends, would be something!)

We've done a number of tweet-ups this summer including last night when we gave away Banshee posters. Done randomly and unexpectedly, we're getting different winners every time. As for the blog, a lot of the things you'll see other parks post in blogs in the news section of our website. Essentially the same thing, different name.

Sometimes conversations evolve naturally. We almost always find our way back to the words in the topic title. Until then, posts begging people to "get back on topic" only add to the chaos. We're flexible here. Welcome.

BB7 cool it dude. You have done a lot in your short time here to have created a reputation.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don't get it either.

Wow. I don't even know what I'll do three hours from now. Terp, telling truth (and also pondering whether to take another spin on the old Career-O-Matic....)

In line for Adventure Express: "This used to be called The Beatles: The Ride when this was owned by Disney and you went through Paul McCartney's head. But when the park switched owners to DreamWorks they changed it to Madagascar: The Ride but now that Kings Isle is owned by Universal it is called this, but next year they will change the name to The Beast."

In line for Diamondback: "You know, this used to be 777 feet tall, but then it fell over in 2007, so they took the part that was still there and rounded it off, and downsized the rest of the ride as well and switched the name from Top Hill Dragsters to Diamondback."

Poor SR&R....

If you're able to go, don't skip it. It's my favorite park and I know others also hold it in high regard.

The Banshee and Beast pages on our website have POV footage. We may add Diamondback and Vortex before the end of the season.

My Mommie Dearest doesn't allow me to have wire coat hangers.

If the drop on an Arrow dive machine were anything like the first drop on Vortex while seated in 7-1, it would be magical.

The mobile app's vendor also supplies the mobile website. Hopefully they'll be improved simultaneously. I still think that the parks' main websites should be properly functional on mobile devices, rather than redirecting to the outside vendor's site. It's 2014, not 2008.

Not to mention it has a VERY poorly designed, poorly lit, and poorly marked south exit.

I don't know if I'd call that sad necessarily. The website serves a lot of functions, but I'd say the priorities are park hours, ticket prices and purchasing, season pass information, food allergy information, ride lineup, etc. That's not to say that Kings Island's website excels in all of those areas, but that is really what the site is for. Stuff like web cams, live cameras, ride trivia, blogs, and POV videos are fun for folks like us, and the general public that searches through it would enjoy it too. But that The Bat is sometimes shown with gray track instead of orange isn't really a failure or anything. So they haven't taken the time and energy and money to film crystal clear official POV videos and update every attraction detail. *shrug* You win some, you lose some. Now, if the website still referenced The Crypt or Drop Zone or Flight Deck by name, that would be a whole different story... (EDIT: And for a while, the misinformation and many errors on the official website had a whole thread here...) Visit visit Kings Island dot com for more information!

Malaysia needs a better airline. Sigh, indeed. Terp, cross threading.

One Terpy is generally enough. (Regarding incorrect capitalization, he was specifically asked to help with that.)

It looks like some great causes are benefiting this year. I am curious about the soccer balls: what happens when guests kick them too hard? As part of this campaign, KI is looking for at least 184 heads to shave on Friday, August 1 to raise awareness and break a world record: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b4baeaa23a13-kings Greg Sheid registered to have his head shaved, according to his Twitter account. Presumably Don will join in on the fun as well?

The forums do permit the action, but you must alter your theme into mobile mode first.

This happened a few weeks ago at Carowinds but I forgot to post: "Oh yeah, I have ridden The WindSeekers. It is like 600 feet tall and easily the best ride here."

Its been many years since my last PTR mainly because of all the work involved, but here it goes. Last week we took advantage of the 4th of July holiday, and started our East Coaster trip. Our crew included My wife, Teenage Son and Tween daughter. I did not take as many pictures as usual, since we were trying to hit as much as possible Day 1 July 5 Busch Gardens Williamsburg The Park The day was great, sunny and not too hot. The parking lot was a little strange where you had to cross the incoming traffic to get to the park entrance. The entryway was gorgeous, as is the whole park. Lots of mature trees and shade. We went through England, took a left and headed immediately to Festa Italia for the first coaster of the trip The fun begins here The rides Apollos Chariot. B&M hypercoaster was a very fun ride. Son's favorite. Unlike Diamondback it has a 52 inch height limit. Alpengeist. B%M Inverted. This was a good ride too. Skis were built into the supports on the back of the seats, like they were ment to be there. In addition a G-meter was placed on the seat in front of us which added to the effect. Curse of Darkastle. Not surprisingly a Dark ride. Cool effects, but the line got really long towards the end of the day. Verbolten. Great launch coaster. Favorite in the park with an interesting effect in the middle of the ride. The ride stopped for 10 minutes at one point, and with half the people looking at their phones. After it started, A guy ended up dropping his Iphone at the brake run. Lochness monster. This older looping coaster was a head banger. Griffon, dive coaster. Similar to the one at BGT Escape from Pompeii is a big wave water ride. Unfortunately the fire effect inside the ride heated you up more than the splash at the end. We also enjoyed Le Scoot, Europe In The Air (simulator), and Mach Tower(Drop Tower). The shows Our usual M.O. was to hit the shows during the heat of the day before returning to the rides. The shows at busch gardens were the best of the trip. Mix it Up. This is a chef themed percussion and marching band show that was really really well done. More Pet Shenanigans. Similar to any rescue pet show like the one at the Columbus zoo. This is Oktoberfest. This was a German dance/ music show in their Festhaus (which actually serves good German food) and encouraged audience participation which included embarrassing our too cool teenage son. Final thoughts IN the afternoon, the park got super crowded. Even with the crowds, the food service was quick, and the rides ops kept things moving. No major downtime either. People were staking out their location for the big fireworks show. the bridges to and from Italy had marked standing and moving areas. We watched the fireworks from the parking lot, which actually had a great picnic area. Day 2 Colonial Williamsburg My youngest just finished a unit on williamsburg, so we had to do this. If you are a history buff (like me), this is for you. To walk around the town is free, but if you want to see some of the re-enactors, you have to buy a pass. I really liked the fact that the did not shy away from the slavery issue. Be warned that there are not to many snack options in the area, and the re-enactors are done by 5pm. One great thing they did was to hide all the vending machines in barns and other small buildings with just period signs directing you. Day 3 Kings Dominion The park Sister park to the Island, you come right off the highway to see the Eiffel Tower. I had been there once a few years ago, but my fam had not. The park is half well shaded, but has a more confusing layout. We took the preferred parking where you scan your receipt to open the automatic gate. This was actually a waste since the park was dead this day. We had a lot of sun, but it was not too hot. Love this eatery name The rides Dominator, a Big Looping B&M coaster. A smooth and big fun coaster. This was the son's favorite. Intimidator 305. Similar to Millennium Force. When I rode it last, there were brakes on the first drop. Since then the turn at the bottom was re-profiled. Now we all got tunnel vision before that first high speed turn is done. This is my best of the park. The ride ops were fast, but not very attentive to height checks. Volcano - launched suspended coaster. great ride launching out of the volcano. Even with the park being empty, there was a wait. I think they need to look at the loading sequence. Woodstock express Similar to The Beastie Shockwave - Togo standup similar but different from the King. Not a comfortable ride Avalanche - Toboggan coaster. I liked this ride and it was my girl's favorite. WindSeeker-Like the one at Kings Island. We got a kick out of the choice of music as we were riding-The theme to Star Trek: the Next Generation. The Crypt - Smaller than the one you may be familiar with, but still running outside with fire and water effects. Ricochet - wild mouse Rebel Yell - Classic similar to The Racer Grizzley - Their classic woodie. Who decide to hide the entry to the queue behind the Dino's Alive gift shop. I never saw a sign to go through that shop. Berserker - a swinging ship that goes upside down. Thumbs up from the son Backlot Stunt Coaster - You know this one Anaconda - Head banging arrow looper, not liked by any of us. Waterworks - Overall the waterpark seems small with few rides and a poor streached out layout. And that bridge is REALLY hot on the feet. Boo Blasters - Same ride as at KI, but the ride vehicals are completely different. YOu have two rows of two seats like the typical shoot them up ride. The vehicle absolutely looks like a van with the initials MM. The "SD" on the spare tire in front is replaced by a "BB" avalanche with volcano Snoopy has a nice driving school The shows All wheel sports show - This stunt show is almost the same as the one we saw at Cedar Point a couple of years ago. Including the surprise. Dominion at Dusk - I was expecting a Ignight type show, but instead it was just some singers with some pop hits and a little dancing in front of the tower Singing Mushrooms - we had to see the short show since it was advertised so many times in the que line TV It runs every 15 minutes or so. Final thoughts Overall great rides, good employees. Just seems to need a little polish. I remembered the food was not too good last time, but we were surprised at the quality. (Shrimp Po boy at Outer Hanks. Yum Yum) We watched the fireworks from the parking lot.

It's not that the "diving gimmick gets old", it's that it simply IS a gimmick and a boring one at that. One lap on ShieKra was enough for me to figure that out. At least that's my opinion. YMMV.

It may not be the greatest incarnation, however it is not the worst. I'm happy the park has kept this tradition, as it has been abscent in so many other places in our country. I'm more upset with guests not paying their respects to the flag when the song is played.

^ I appreciate that they sing the national anthem live every morning. It's much more personal than a canned recording. I'm positive that the performers involved care a lot about they song they are singing.

Having worked in a customer service position for years now, I've come to learn that people in general don't read signs these days, then come up with any excuse they can when they're inconvenienced by their failure to read - my favorite being "I'm not from here" or "I've never been here before". Who goes to an unfamiliar place without reading informational signs?

*Terms Helping out in my own way, I guess.

Please post the article, I'm curious Regardless the amount of germs you have from either is substantially less than someone who has not washed their hands. As soon as you touch those queue rails or restraints, back to square one however

Why are we talking about acres in a thread about the Skeleton Keys... *sigh*

In Maverick's station during ERT, getting ready to camp out next to the ride: "I don't like roller coasters."

^ Kings Island's competition extends beyond just amusement parks. They compete for time and dollars with many other forms of entertainment. Everything from travel to museums to theatre to sporting events.

And yet I still see people trying to get in line with backpacks and then consequently getting mad when they are told they need a locker. This effects me because of the cluster **** it can cause at the line entrance not allowing those who know the rules to proceed. Do these people walk around with blinders and earplugs? Heck....it's even clearly displayed at the front gate on large LCD's before you even get in the park.

I am so glad I gave up drinking, it keeps me from saying (typing?) things that I shouldn't.

That's why I go in October a lot. Cool breeze and short lines! Hahaha

I really hope that isn't true. And if it is I feel terrible for the baby with an idiotic mother.

Day 7 Hersheypark The park Hershey is an older park located far away from the turnpike, so was difficult to get to. I am surprised the signage was so poor. But thanks Bill for the current effectiveness of free GPS! We ended up parking at chocolate world which is like the preferred parking since you can walk it instead of riding the tram. There is like a mini villiage before you even get to the gates for the park. One nice thing was the inclusion of old pictures of the park on posts around the park. Since this was a Friday, it was a bit crowded. Hershey has a great app for their park which shows us current ride times. Unfortuantely it drained the smartphone batteries. The rides Fahrenheit - Coaster with a huge 97 degree drop. A long wait, but well worth it. The lift hill is completely vertical like Mystery Mine at Dollywood. There are two separate chains with separate drives. The drop is over way too fast, but the rest of the ride is entertaining Skyrush - Hypercoaster. One of the best there. The forces are quite high but good. Great Bear - B&M suspended. Quite a fun ride. The first drop only goes half way down, you have to wait to the second drop to hit the deck Sidewinder - Standard boomerang, was my daughters favorite Suerdooperlooper - This older looper was enjoyable Storm Runner - Launched coaster, that has quite a kick at the beginning but the launch is shorter Wild Mouse - Standard wild mouse Wildcat - Looking at this I had high hopes, but it was way to rough and uninteresting Lightning Racer - Our second woodie here was much better than wildcat. It is a racing coaster, but the two tracks cross and interact with each other. Smooth and lots of directional changes coal cracker - Log Flume that did not get us very wet. flying falcon - Enjoyed by the kids merry derry dip fun slides - A good old fashioned sack slide. There are actually two slides with three lanes each side by side. I dont know why one was a permanent installation and the other one was on a trailer like a carnival ride monorail - The girls enjoyed riding this Reeses xtreme cup - This is a shoot them up ride, where you compete as teams against other cars You are either peanut butter or chocolate (Reeses!) The claw - Unfortunately this was down for the day Whip - Classic ride that I like. It appears to have been located several places Waterpark - The waterpark is very integrated into the rest of the park. Since it was completely packed with people we skipped. Can't miss the scrambler The shows Piano Duel - I have been to severl dueling piano bars, so we were interrested in this one. There are 3 pianists that had a good time playing great songs Zoo America - The zoo is included in your hershey park admission. It is centered on north american critters, and seemed on the small side Chocolate world - Is basically a big store with a Epcot like ride explaining how chocolate is made Roving park - Several groups were running around the park entertaining guests. Very interactive and cool. Final thoughts we went to the Hershey sit down resteraunt which is just outside the gates to hersheypark. It was well themed to rides in the park and had good food. There was a lot of walking up and down hill. I had not had any feet problems during the trip until this day. Don't forget all the good sweets available in the park. We had peanut butter cup s'mores with chocolate chip cookies instead of the graham. The rides were well run and the lines moved pretty fast. Dueling popcorn carts with plinko in the background Day 8 Kennywood The park Our final park was the classic kennywood. Finding the park was OK following the little yellow arrows. Their parking lot is not very well signed, but half of it is free. Another strange thing was that the park opened at 10:30 but no rides opened till 11, and some waited till 12. The ride ops, while happy and fast seemed less polished an trained than the other parks The rides Black widow - familiar spinny ride but with a lower height limit Aero 360 - This upside down looping ride has the nice Kennywood Arrows built in Thunderbolt - This classic woodie was great. Single position lap bars and the drop immediately out of the station make it unique. Why is this old gal smoother than many of the more modern woodies? Garfield's Nightmare - Signs indicated that this ride was the old mill house and the panama canal in previous lives. It is a boat ride through a bunch of 3d Garfield scenes, but the line was very very slow. Ghostwood estates - This is another shoot them up dark ride, but with a twist. The cars are trackless. The pre-show is well done. Phantoms Revenge - I guess this is a rebuild of a previous ride. The second drop is a 200+ foot one that was great. I am not sure about the trains they were running, but the were really roomy on the leg side. Those restraints are also unique. They consist of a seat belt and a single bar that rotates down from the side of the car. Skinny little girl was not restrained very well, but had a blast, Mom did not. RAcer - A classic 20's coaster. The racing sides actually switch when returning. Why is this old coaster so smooth. The line took a while due to the wierd loading procedure. When the trains get back in the station they both exit in the middle. Then the people in a singe que walk into the middle of the loading area and fill up those seats. No rows per train, just one big open area inbetween. One ride op went on a break and we only had one checking all the restraints for both trains Sky Rocket - Launch coaster. Pretty entertaining. Cosmic Chaos - Think Dizzy Disk at Dollywood. My son mentioned that the three aliens on the ride were all different species The exterminator - We were not sure what this ride was originally. The queue had what i think is an old steel mill control panel. It gave off the old factory vibe. We go around the corner and see that it is a spinny wild mouse ride similar to dark night. Auto Race - A long driving ride for the kids that is apparently one of the older rides at the park. It has power rails and photoeyes sequencing the cars, so I think it has been a little modified. Kangaroo - Another last one of a kind ride. This little carnival ride was really fun to ride Noahs Ark - I would describe this fun house as one that could never be built today. Throwing you down the stairs? WE went through twice. Again last of its kind. Paratrooper- Another classic carnival ride Turtle - We had to ride this classic Whip - This was a very old whip too. It was a little bigger than the Hersheypark one and provided a bit of a better ride. Give me a Greasy Rack, pinion and cable! The shows The band - I can't remember the name of the band, but they were pretty good while we were eating our kettle corn Pirate Stunt show - This stunt show was not quite as advanced as the one at Six Flags America, but was entertaining. Two of the pirates were members of the band. Final Thoughts Even with a nice Saturday, the lines were not too long. I loved the old classic feel to the place. The park was well signed and laid out, so finding your way was easy. What's that number????

Well that just blew away all my preconcieved notions of Kentuckians! Thanks! GYK, the guy who attempted to nonchalantly blame KK's troubles on psychological (EDIT: and cultural) biases that we all possess. Same guy who made the case that those biases made me imagine Kentucky as a place I'd feel unwelcome. At least now I have a presumed-Kentuckian telling me I'm unwelcome! No imagination needed. Having fun footing the bill for Kentucky Kingdom while Mr. Hart and his "PR" team spend your tax dollars into the ground? Hey-oh!

I think Mantis is intense because of its layout. Certainly standing has its own exhaustive quality, but the layout itself is pretty... shall we say, convoluted? I always compared it to the old coaster-building PC games where you'd try to connect back to the brakes only to find that you're off a square or something, so you add a loop... Then you have to bring it back around so you add a helix. But you need an S-turn to line up to complete the circuit, etc etc. By time you're done, you look back and find you've built... Frankencoaster. Just twists and rolls and bumps and turns and loops. And not even in an attractive and inspired way like Flight of Fear. I don't know a thing about engineering or physics. Doesn't seem to me that changing the train or heartline would have some disastrous result on riders, but I literally have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Really.

The guy behind me in line for The Racer looked at the ride and said in a very serious and shocked tone of voice "Oh!! There's TWO of them!" .....

And oh so exciting. Snooze.