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Just wanted to share... Took the day off yesterday and took my kiddo to KI and she finally just barely hit the 54 inch mark! After putting on the coveted orange bracelet and lots of high fives and victory dancing all around, we practically ran all the way to Diamondback. Once we got there though she just about had herself talked into being scared of it and kept trying to talk me in leaving the line because she was too hungry to ride / she had to pee / her stomach was hurting and she might have to go home / etc. but we finally made it on and by the time we hit the bottom of the first hill she was holding her arms in the air like a pro screaming about how awesome it was. I had been holding off riding the 54 inch coasters (except Diamondback) for the past two summers waiting for her to be tall enough, so we had a really fun day only riding rides we had never ridden before She liked Diamondback, Invertigo, and FoF but she thought Firehawk was not very exciting. I remembered hating FoF the last time I rode it in like the late 90's but I really like it now... the different harnesses made a world of difference! All in all good day!

Hmm... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Park to remain closed until the cause of the accident is determined; scrapping the ride being considered. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11650536/Alton-Towers-to-remain-closed-as-bosses-consider-scrapping-The-Smiler.html

On the benches across from the Rivertown Fries shop, (it's a smoking area, be warned)' you can watch the support of the Diamondback shake to bejesus. It's not dangerous. If it were brittle, THAT would be dangerous.

I have not been to Great Wolf but it does look nice. My point however is how can we bash them for not advertising and then turn around and take another swing when they do? Is this conversation still a reasonable critique or are we just going after KK for every single action/inaction good or bad? The former can be very interesting to read and discuss, the latter not so much.

Wow this is not good especially if this is the truth! http://www.itv.com/news/2015-06-04/alton-towers-visitor-who-warned-staff-about-carriage-on-rollercoaster-told-to-mind-his-own-business/

I can't believe that people are that close to the front of the train. You look at Intamin and B&M, at least the sit down models, have something in the very front of the cars.

Those are some great shots you grabbed with your phone. I cant wait to get out to Holiday World for the first time ever! Yes I know, I live under a rock.

Is parking included on all Gold Passes, or only on passes of people who are old enough to drive? If i send my child with another family, who does not have gold passes, will my child's Gold Pass cover their parking?

So judging by the articles what I'm reading now. A defect can still be plausible. So far we just have bystander and random twitter posts. I take everything with a grain of salt until the official reports come out. Not discrediting anyone, however I'll keep a reserved judgement. If the reports presented are correct then we have a HUGE operational error. If the train stopped and was held on the lift that means the train valleyed and did not get into the next block triggering the PLC to show a cleared block from the lift hill to the brake before the second lift, as the system should be designed to do. This most likely setup the ride and locked all brakes down and stopped the lift. Notice though this could have happened two ways, I haven't been to the park to see how it operates normally, so going off of Youtube I see two ways. 1. Stopped at lift bottom. If you notice, the lift chain isn't set to jog and let the chain dog on the train engage and start climbing. It jogs up when the train is stopped at the base and then engages and hoists the train up the lift hill. I doubt this though as it'd lower the capacity on the ride drastically versus getting to the top once the next block is clear. 2. It stops, engages, and climbs. However when reaching the sensors before lift crest the train is detected by these sensors and has not received a block clear as the first train has valleyed. From here the ride sets up as described and the train is stopped on the lift. Notice this ride does not feature anti rollbacks, but contains eddy current brakes to slowly control the ride if it does end up going down the hill. The chain dog stays coupled to the chain to keep the train in place. Then with the ride setup either way, the ride will not dispatch from the station or allow any train movement other than what is necessary to clear blocks as outlined in the rides operating procedures. Usually this means moving the trains behind the setup block (safety brake, transfer table, etc) and then clearing the blocks. However for my understanding clearing the blocks is NEVER done by ride operations except on a restart or first thing in the morning before trains are moved (when the ride is turned on in the morning, the blocks are automatically setup). So this would mean someone cleared the blocks, the fault, and enabled the lift to continue pulling the train over to drop it into the circuit. Considering it wouldn't know the location of the valleyed train, this would lead the ride to think there is a clear block after the lift, and thus, we have a collision. It sadly looks like MAJOR operational error, which shouldn't have happened to begin with. If this ride was cleared and the train sent, all pressure will be on those who dispatched and enabled movement of the train. The safety system did what it was supposed to do and was purposefully bypassed after the ride system entered a failsafe. The only other scenario I've already described is if the ride was run in maintenance mode or a full manual mode, which shouldn't be allowed to happen with loaded trains by operations EVER.

Its on all gold passes person just has to be in car to use.

But the question is this: Did USA Today independently come up with that ranking, or did it come from a sponsored story written for the newspaper by Ed Hart himself? There have been several of the latter, including two in the Indianapolis Star, which is owned by the same company. At this point, I would not put it past Mr. Hart to claim superlatives in advertising based on his own vanity puffery piece.

^ Which Hartland has one of. Deluge. And it's a great ride.

Nature has taken over already, see trees growing inside of Big Dipper's structure. However much of Geauga Lake was concrete or areas filled in with rubble. Things won't grow for quite some time. Then what grows will be mainly weeds and tall grasses, not really a great sight seeing concrete rubble and grass. I'm all for development or a recreational area of some sorts. Amusement business in Geauga and Portage, not one bit. If a city fights on bringing wider roads and tourism services (hotel chains, etc.) then it's not a good investment, as it's been shown.

Had a nice visit to KI last night. Wanted to mention that my ride on The Beast was the smoothest I can ever remember. Not just my smoothest Beast ride, but as smooth as my best rides on any major wooden coaster. It was B&M, baby butt, butter bliss. We sat somewhere near the middle of the train, middle bench. Kudos to the folks who keep our Beast running great.

Have there been any reports of any other rides with those trains being closed as a precaution until the investigation is complete? Why has this particular installation been so problematic when others have not? My gut feeling on this is that theory of the ride being in maintenance mode is probably correct.

This year I've noticed they seem to be doing a very good job of starting the red and blue trains at the same time.

Gerstlauer trains are similar even on this ride at Mall of America. http://www.coastercommunity.com/photos/index.php/Parks/moa/SpongeBob-SquarePants-Rock-Bottom-Plunge5 I am sure that this incident will change many of the future ride. It is always sad to see something like this happens. As an enthusiast and an engineer, the community learns from this whatever the cause may have been.

I don't think the ride reservation systems would necessarily make the day at the park any shorter. Most of them are set up right now where you get to skip the line on a ride but can't book your nex ride until that one is done, or like at Disney you pick your timesbut they are generaly spread out a bit as well, or else lmited to a certain numer. So you will be in line less but at the park just as long. This means you essentially have mroe time to spend in the shops adn restaurants. Many will probably use the time to get an extra few rides in, but if you don't have enough time between your ride time and the wait time for another ride you're likely to spend it looking at other stuff in the park. This will result in more purchases being made as many more people will be going into shops that would not have before or sit down to eat versus just grabbing a snack.

There are many comments that have already expressed my thoughts on this. Every child and adult is different. A smart and aware adult knows how to gauge their kids. With my three youngest nephews and niece and my best friend's son, there have been four different approaches. My best friend's 14-year-old son refuses to ride all major coasters and rides at Carowinds. No amount of guilt-tripping, cajoling, puppy-dog eyes, or science/technology facts will convince him to ride. I've tried them all and no dice. He just doesn't like how the rides make him feel. That may change as he gets older...but if not, that's okay. I convinced my oldest nephew that it was a rule that you couldn't visit KI without riding The Beast. Also, hearing that his favorite uncle first rode it at a younger age may have sealed the deal. It took many visits for him to get up the courage to ride Diamondback; I compared the sensations and height to other rides. Science, a touch of guilt trip (you're going to make me ride alone?!) with a side of double dare tends to work for him. The youngest nephew has absolutely no fear and would ride everything now if he was tall enough. The niece takes some gentle coaxing and quiet encouragement before, an arm around her during the ride, and praise/hi-fives after. I know her mode of "escape" for rides and how to work around it. I haven't forced any of them to ride anything. If we go to get on a ride and they change their mind, they get to wait in the "cage" or sit outside the exit until we are done. No drama, no "I'm disappointed", just a quick "are you sure" and "okay, wait for me at the exit". We watch the rides and talk about what we see and I encourage their questions. None of them have started or ended their rides with tears. I watch them closely and encourage them as needed. So far, my game plan has worked. The two youngest talk about how tall they are and which rides they can now ride...and how many more inches until they ride XYZ. The oldest is looking forward to getting the all clear for a CP trip. If things change for the kids, I will change my approach. For now, this works.

I went Sunday, got on both sides in the morning and then went back to Voyage. When I came back it was broken down. It finally came back on around 7:30 and I got 3 more rides in 20 minutes

. Such has been the fate of many local race tracks across the country. Motor racing at the local level has really suffered due to this.

...and wheels coming off...

Oops, three trains. Goldrusher came with four but both were damaged. So they made one out of two.

That depends on which events at which parks you plan to go to.

I will never understand why they fought development so much. Now they have almost no tourism to bring in money AND a giant eyesore that has lowered property values in the area. They sorta shot themselves in the foot.

Dynamic pricing is always going to upset someone...They probably should have just pushed the cheap season passes in Indy and Nashville rather than cheap day tickets.

The main critique has been how a park that is able to operate thanks in large part to KY taxpayer $$ is then able to turn around and offer a steep discount on admission to residents of Indiana and Tennessee, yet their own home state residents are expected to pay full freight. I'm certain that issue will be raised in the fall elections. As mentioned before, the fate of the park beyond this year does hinge in large part on who becomes Gov.

In the case of Disney, I got to experience firsthand what happens when all my prearranged FP+ times get wiped out for no particular reason. They simply reinstate your selections with open-ended times (park open to close). Not an issue for KI Fastlane since its paper-based, but more of an issue for SIX.

While the discounts offered may reflect a lower base price, be aware that KI charges a convenience fee of several dollars if purchased online, which often puts the total price above what you'd pay at a Kroger. Currently, Kroger has the best deal available, at least here in Indy.

A Great Wolf Lodge that hasn't been updated in several years has everything open and is a more enjoyable waterpark than Kentucky Kingdom. However, I'm a sucker for Proslide Hydromagnetic Coasters

So for all their faults are we now knocking them when they do run an ad and in such tout a positive about the park. KK does have a pretty nice water park (even if all the slides are not open at the same time...) No offense man but I just don't how this is a negative. It's one thing to discuss the parks missteps here in hopes that they do certain things better in the future but some of the posts here boggle my mind. If a national newspaper ranked them as one of the best water parks in the US I would expect they run that in an ad and be proud of that.

Wow is right! If it is true they def should have listened to him.

I believe the "serious leg injuries" were previously discussed in this thread, but this article confirms that at least one of the patients needed a leg amputation as a result of the accident: http://airgates.co.uk/2015/06/03/smiler-collision-results-in-loss-of-leg/

It is "normal" for that water park. They did that last season as well except as the season went on and employees quit. The water park then did not have enough employees and this bad habit continued.

Plus, by listing them separately, you know if they're running both sides, only one, or none at all.

It official says "coming soon" on their website too. No bueno. Can't blame this on an inspector. I guess I'd rather it actually be safe than have it be opened and kill someone. Also, I noticed their notice about Hurricane Bay. Is that normal for a waterpark to rotate attractions because of as school's extended year? That makes no sense to me.

YES! Like I said, not all kids will be happy with the experience they have on a roller coaster, and some being forced to ride may cause a bad memory which will make them avoid it in the future. I can be a real chicken on some of the big and bad coasters. However, I'm a much better person to go to a theme park with if I'm not being forced to ride something I'm not ready for. With each trip I make, I become a little more comfortable and brave and eventually ride some things I would have never imagined in the past.

You can see a lot of children being forced on rides at Flying Ace and Woodstock Express. Twice I saw KI employees ask the kids specifically if they wanted to ride, and in one scenario, the kid was told the ride operator he did not want to ride, and was told to go towards the exit. I think that's exactly how it should be. Each guest is his own person, not his parents. If said guest wishes not to ride, he will not ride; regardless of whether or not he would have enjoyed the attraction. Everyone moves at their own pace, and whenever younger guests are ready to conquer the bigger rides, they will.

I heard about what happened from this thread, but I just read an article (http://www.pixelsattheparks.com/2015/06/03/the-smiler-not-so-happy-now/)that told of multiple problems that occurred with Smiler before this incident (I know this point has been discussed previously, I just didn't know the extent of the problems- especially knowing that one incident included the ride valleying during tests in the same spot where this accident occurred)! Oh my...

There are also some reports that guests (perhaps even those on the loaded train) noticed the valleyed train and attempted to alert the operators. Obviously, take all of this and bury it under several tons of sodium chloride.

There was an article that features updates that had a witness say that after the initial train had valleyed, the train full of people did stop on the lift. That sounds like the ride systems were working properly. That could only mean that either a maintence personnel did a manual advance of the train via maint. Mode without looking out on the track and assuming it was just a fault that needed to be reset or that a ride operator failed to call maintence and took it into their own hands and manually operated themselves. Assuming that the witness report is true

I don't know if I'm the only one who was worried KI Five might not be back this year, but today I ran into what appeared to be either a practice or try-outs for the group. I'm so happy they're going to be back!

New math?

What's not wrong with Kentucky Kingdom? Well, they have one of the finest wooden coasters ever built, so at least they have that going for them.

Well we see how the riders lost legs in one picture. Oh and for the record. Carolina Goldrusher at Carowinds had a similar accident without passengers a long time ago. That's why it only has four trains instead the four it came with. The story is that one train valleyed in the tunnel and the second one went over the second lift. The accident happened during test runs.

Responses are coming quick so I won't edit, in case this is a double post. Something as simple as the gates wont open, if in maintenance mode.

But if the contraption was allowed to operate in maintenance mode with public aboard, is that not operator error?

I really hate seeing items like this, and I hope that everyone involved is OK. On a sidenote - those enthusiasts who question why parks continue to buy B&M coasters now have one of their answers.

Ask Camden Park. Spider. Ironically. See also Holiday World. One park acted in time. The other....didn't. As a newbie to this world I find myself googling after almost all of your posts it seems terp. Haha. That isn't a complaint either just to make sure I didn't come across as whining.