Leaderboard

It's nice to see a park that was closed in the 1990's reopening after so many years. Just like I did at the movie theater on Friday.

Indeed. In better news, pizza portions are back to two slices and prices have been reduced compared to 2014.

T3 train is in the station. Read that sentence very carefully.

Good news, I'm still allowed in! And glasses straps are no longer $5. Now $1.59.

Yes, full review coming later.The only out of state plate I've seen is an Ohio one, and it's mine...

The amusement industry just can't catch a break this month.

Hey guys! Crowds are here but lines are light.....just had a snapping good time on Woodstock Gliders.....so if you are in the area, come on down! You too can have a snapping good time!

After that restraint system, it's a wonder I remember anything!

Maybe. From the road that goes behind it, it LOOKED like track had been removed, but I can't say for certain. No idea, but they sell it.

I'm currently on the Eiffel Tower and observing them reatatch 3 arms to the base of the ride

I'm off to visit Hartland right now. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I'm allowed in... And if things have improved since opening day.

Was not sure if I should post about my first experiences at Kings Island but why not! Went to Kings Island for the first time about a week ago and again two days ago. I am combining the two days because I really only did half of the park both days. First trip (June 3): Decided to follow the suggestions of everyone here on the forums and head right to Flight of Fear. I was the first rider and alone on the first train. I felt special and fell in love with FoF. I really do love that ride. Went right back in line again instead of going to Firehawkand got another walk on ride. I still haven't gone on Firehawk yet. It's the one coaster I am a little skeptical about. After FoF, I went to Vortex and rode on yet another almost empty train. There were people in the first car so I decided to ride what y'all on the forums say is the best ride (5-1). Even in that seat it was fun yet really rough. Haven't ridden it since. After that I went to The Beast. Tons of fun and really rough for a woody, but not as bad since there are no OTS like Vortex. I'm hoping to ride it at night soon. After Beast, I went to Diamondback and rode that twice in about 10 minutes. Love it so much. After Diamondback, I decided to ride The Racer. They were running both sides so I rode on Red and lost... Figures. After that I had to call it a (half) day. Didn't have the time to ride Banshee that day. Second trip (June 12): I was not sure what to expect on a Friday. I again made a B-line right for FoF yet there was already a 15min wait. No problem. I had just entered the UFO in the queue and the ride was "experiencing a minor technical difficulty." My guess was that someone lost something in the spaghetti and they had to make sure it wasn't on the track. I could be wrong though. Since I had gotten through that much of the line I stuck it out and finally got to watch the entire corny queue movie they play on a loop. Kind of funny to watch. FoF was "fixed" after about 10 minutes. That day, they were assigning seats but I lucked out and got front row again. I've been on FoF three times and all in the front left seat. I really love that ride. After FoF I decided to go to Diamondback and it was a walk on for the front...ON A FRIDAY! I was shocked to say the least. I like the ride on Diamondback in the front more than the back because of the ejector air you feel on almost all of the hills. Though on the back, you get pulled down every hill. After Diamondback I headed to Beast for the traditional ride of the day. Unfortunately, I ended up in a wheel seat and had my legs bouncing sooooo much. It was hectic and fun. I love the final tunnel and turn. You really feel yourself being pushed into the seat. Love it! After Beast, I decided to finally ride Banshee. I again was shocked. There was literally NO line for Banshee on a Friday! It was mostly sunny for the first half of the day so the park seemed crowded. I really enjoyed Banshee. I feel like you lose so much blood in your head on that ride that the final barrel role is required to let gravity bring blood back into your head. I think I may have blacked out on the second loop. I really did love it. Since there was no line, and I had already payed for a locker, I figured I would go on Banshee again. Sat in the second row. Banshee is really nice! Poor guy on the other side of my row puked on the brake run. Thank goodness for the two seats between us. After Banshee, I decided to ride Racer on the blue side this time. Red got to the lift first and made it down the drop first, but when we hit the brakes, we were almost a train ahead. Does red have more trims or something? Maybe we just had a weight advantage or something then. Great fun to ride on a dueling coaster! After I rode racer, it started to downpour so I took the time to browse some of the shops on International Street and then leave. Great day with small crowds in the dry park for a Friday. I was pleasently surprised! Here is a mini list of what I still would like to do at Kings Island that I haven't yet: Ride all remaining coasters (Bat, Backlot, Firehawk, Woodstock, Aerial Chase, Invertigo ) Night rides on Beast, D-back, and Banshee. Lights on ride on FoF Eiffel Tower WindSeeker Soak City Marathon D-Back when there are almost no lines (Did this with Bizarro at SFNE. Got over 10 rides in on it within about 30 mins) Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Kings Island and I am hoping to go again next week if the predicted rain all week does not happen. Although maybe it would be good to go on a day of light rain. Crowds may be light then. Well thank you for reading!! Sorry I don't have pics. They are all on my phone still, and there wasn't much special to post. Hope I didn't bore anyone!

There are days at Cedar Point when there seem to be as many Michigan plates as Ohio plates.

Be careful. Were it not for repeat business, there'd be no amusement parks, bowling alleys, go-kart places...

Or people who pay to attend ERT events on rides they've rode hundreds of times before.

Heh.. I keep seeing the same out-of-state plate at Cedar Point, Kings Island, and even Knott's Berry Farm. Then I realize it's mine..

Also, correlation does not equal causation. The child also passed out "after", presumably, a car ride to the park, eating something, using the restroom, etc. It could have been caused by an undiagnosed medical problem, heat stroke, low blood sugar, dehydration*, etc. Just because it happened after a ride (and the article is scant on facts about how long after, why she was "discovered" rather than having people with her at the time, etc) doesn't mean the primary cause was the ride. *I have naturally low blood pressure. So, I often tend to grey out (my vision sparkles and/or goes entirely grey) when I encounter positive Gs. I can actually diagnose when I'm dehydrated and should drink something when I'm at the park because it becomes a lot worse. This doesn't mean the rides are unsafe or are the "cause" of the problem.

^Try uninstalling and reinstalling. That is exactly the problem I had been having after one of the updates, until I did a clean install. I'm going to try signing up with a different email address next time I go, and see if I can finally get that funnel cake offer! Other offers I received when I was there yesterday: free appetizer at RHOFG when you buy two entrees, only valid between certain hours (3-6 I think); Fast Lane Plus for $40, after 4:00 only; something buy one get one 50% off I think, but I can't remember what or where. Like the special gold bottle prize at the ring toss, I think they put more perks out on the weekends than weekdays. As they should.

Universal's "free" lockers are not free, but rather EVERY guest gets to pay for them with the exorbitant gate entry, whether they use them or not. Cedar Fair's system seems much fairer. There, I don't pay for lockers I never use.

I've never gotten the 50% off funnel cakes one either even tho it promised. I am disappointed about that because I wanted to try this month's special cheesecake one. I forget what it was, maybe on the website when they try to get you to download the app, but yesterday I saw something talking about a buy one get one free on funnel cakes after 5:00, but that didn't show up in the app either. Not that I need two of them. Note: none of the offers show up when you're not actually at the park (or if you have location services off). Unless you have a non-iPhone and spoof your location apparently. I know that works for ride times at least.

If you look at Theme Park Review's Kentucky Kingdom's discussion thread and look at page 591, someone has pictures of Twisted Twins construction underway. With a small crane AND removed track stacked in piles.

That little Beastie? It's a Fairly Odd Coaster!

Wow, just wow. What in the world is going on? If this stuff keeps happening, it may get hard to get people into any park. This is all just so sad.

The same kind of thing happened a few years ago when you had the Texas Giant incident and then the Shoot the Rapids incident happen mere moments afterwards. Its like deja vu. Please, no more.

^And what, pray tell, coaster would even fit there? You can't be serious.

So, this happened. Matt Ouimet has previously been quoted as saying the Rougarou transformation could start a trend throughout the company. If successful, it would seem that California's Great America will see the next ride transformation in a Cedar Fair park. Vortex at CGA is another B&M stand-up coaster. Source: Surging Cedar Fair isn't just enjoying the ride Note: You may have to Google the article title to get past the paywall.

You probably think you know what to expect in this trip report. You probably know what I think of this park. You're probably wrong. I decided today around noon to visit Kentucky Kingdom. I wanted to go for a drive, and that seemed as good a destination as any. So I hopped in my Sky, put the top down and got on the road. Yes, I drove my beloved Sky to Kentucky Kingdom, It's still in one piece, so hooray for that! Anyway, I drove all the way there and only got rained on for a few minutes. The rain wasn't very hard and the patch of rain wasn't very large, so I just soldiered it out and left the top down rather than try to get off and find a place to park. Side note, I got very badly sunburned on the way there and am now red like a lobster. I got to the park around 3:00 and happily, I'm still allowed in! I realized when I got there that I did not have a glasses strap with me, so I went to buy one. I was happy to see that they were a reasonable $1.59 rather than the outlandish $5 that they were selling for on opening day. I will not complain about dropping that amount of money in the name of safety, and I think the park has realized that they'd rather have people be safe than to gouge them for that little extra profit. I'm not going to go in detail about the rides (excluding the new ones that I rode). You all know what The Runs are like, and if you don't, GO EXPERIENCE THESE RIDES. Nothing I can say will do them justice. They are GREAT. Seriously. So, the first bit of my trip was just walking around, exploring the improvements. First new thing I saw was Cyclos. It looks great on the midway. Its lighting package is very eye-catching and makes the park feel alive. I didn't ride it because inverting pendulum rides are not my cup of tea. As I walked through the park, I noticed lots of misting fans everywhere. The misters were not turned on, but the fans were on. I could be wrong, but I'm ALMOST positive that these are new. I do not remember them being there at all. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, next I went to the back of the park, toward Raging Rapids and T3 (Which you can walk back to despite its being not open yet). There was one train sitting in the station. Nothing on the transfer track. This leads me to worry that T3 will remain a one-train coaster. That said, on opening day, only one train was on Lightning Run and the other was not on the transfer, and they were both there today. Perhaps train two will appear later. While the color scheme is still questionable, the paint job itself is VERY high quality. I'd almost guess Baynum was involved. It looks every bit as good as the new paint on Invertigo, Bat, and Rougarou in each of their first years after getting fresh paint. Very impressed. I stepped into the Taco Tequila stand to look at offerings and prices. It is a very small food stand (I believe that in the days of SIX, this was a simple clothing stand, so there wouldn't be much room for a restaurant) but there is a bar facing into Hurricane Bay with the restaurant and another side of the bar accessible from the dry side. I sent a picture of the menu to a friend who I might call an "alcohol enthusiast" and he had some complaints with the choices on the menu, but said that the prices appeared to be quite reasonable. Given that it is alcohol, I do not know if the 20% discount for season passholders applies, but if so, that's a nice savings. The menu had a lot more options than Hank's does, and prices were about the same. I did not see the portion sizes. While I was back there, I rode Raging Rapids. Most of the themeing from Penguin's Blizzard River is still there. There are a lot of penguin sculptures in the ride and it is obviously themed to the sewers of Gotham City. It even has one water effect involving The Penguin's signature black and white umbrella. Poor effort in de-themeing it, but honestly, if DC Comics is OK with it, then it's whatever. All in all, the ride is decent. I wish there were cannons that you can pay to blast people with like on every other rapids ride I've ridden, but you don't REALLY need them. The wettest riders will not get as drenched as on White Water Canyon, but unlike White Water Canyon, there is NO escaping completely bone-dry. The wetness is a lot more evenly dispersed. There is also no center hump on which to put your feet to escape them sitting in the bottom of a wet boat, so avoid riding this with socks if possible. One issue is that they only have three boats, and that leads to a lot of time sitting waiting for the next boat. But perhaps I've just been spoiled by WWC's continuous loading. Either way, I digress. Good ride. Not the best rapids ride I've ridden, but CERTAINLY not the worst. Better than the one at Holiday World, which I'm sure is the only thing they really care about. Next I went to SkyCatcher. I do not at all like its placement in the park. It's awkwardly located in a corner near the waterpark, and it's a chore to get to. The ride itself is pretty fun though, but very VERY scary. I don't mind WindSeeker. Heck, I LIKE WindSeeker. It's a great ride and it's very relaxing. SkyCatcher is not. It is much more open-feeling and the rotation is faster (by my guesstimation, 10RPM as opposed to WindSeeker's 8) and it really is a white-knuckle ride. I did encounter one disappointment. I went to Swampwater Jack's for food, and they were out of pepperoni pizza at 4:45 PM. Inexcusable. Yes, there is another pizza place nearby next to Thunder Run, but at that location, the pizza costs more (though the portions are larger) and it is a flatbread, whereas Swampwater Jack's is a bit smaller, almost $2 cheaper, and has a crust that is more to my liking. I did notice, however, that there is a flat path to get to Swampwater Jack's that is much more wheelchair accessible than the old bumpy bridge. I don't THINK this path is new, but I was specifically on the lookout for it today. I do not know if it is precisely ADA compliant in terms of width (I'd estimate it around 4.5 feet wide based on it being about one and a half arm-lengths on me) but it's something. Still no automatic door, but I've been told that isn't a hard-set requirement under the ADA. It would be very nice to have one or to prop the door, but it's something. Speaking of accessibility, there is NONE whatsoever for the Up, Up, and Away ride. to access the ride platform REQUIRES riders to walk up stairs. As for the other rides, I did notice that the ride operators were VERY focused on guest safety above ALL else, and I applaud that. Lightning Run operators reminded those waiting in line several times that they need to stand behind the yellow line. Most guests followed instructions the first time. One bull-headed guest decided to stand right on the gates, past the yellow line despite being told not to numerous times.. They were told that the ride cannot be dispatched until they stand behind the yellow line, and so, it sat, for about a minute and a half while the guest stubbornly stood there. When they finally decided that they were being a fool and got tired of waiting, they stepped back and the ride was dispatched. Security was present at every ride to check for line jumpers, and I saw line jumpers told to return to the end of the line on three occasions. Good on them for catching that and enforcing the rules. All in all, I had a good day. The park has improved tremendously since opening day and almost all of my complaints have been fixed since then. It's not perfect. It's still a small park. It still can't really expect to compete with Holiday World or Kings Island. And that's OK. Be a great small park before you try to be a big park. I'd rather have a straight-four that's firing on all cylinders than a V8 that is only firing on half of them.

I'll bet there's a good mixture of license plates at Carowinds.

When I was there last week they were both prices. Essentially they were the same except on had a quarter size KK logo and the other had a logo the ran across the whole back.

I'm not being a monster, but the temporarily passing out on looping roller coasters happens a lot- especially to small persons with low blood pressure. I have to put some time between looping rides when I go, or I'll grey out, or pass out. I passed out on the King Cobra once, and came too when it came to the sudden stop at the end. (It freaks me out how well KI's restraints works, and I'm very glad they exist as they do.) The newspapers are posting every unusual event that occurs after the Smiler accident to catch the wave of the news cycle. Eat more fries, drink some liquids, put time in between rides to enjoy the ambience of the park, and these passing out events will be less likely.

Rode for the first time yesterday morning with my 15-year-old daughter in the same glider. Never ridden one of these before, but I told my daughter, "I want to control the handle thingy". She'd never ridden either, but being in Planet Snoopy with an apparently too-ultra-cool teenager I got a, "Pffft, okay dad" response. Anyhoo, we both really liked it! I was able to get it whipping up and around pretty good, much to ultra-cool daughters surprise. My wife watching off-ride even made her fingers into an "L"---to symbolize "loser"---as we were going around. Apparently I was the only one taking the ride to its limits...lol. Being as it is in Planet Snoopy, and cannot handle a large quantity of riders, I probably will only ride again if and when I see a really small line. However, I really enjoyed it, and would be more than happy to do it again when the opportunity comes.

I'd been seeing signs they were doing something the past couple times at the park, but nothing distinctive enough to bother posting about (like a little forklift sitting inside the fences, a construction hat and tools left sitting on the center section, etc). I guess they do the work mostly in the hours the park is closed because I never saw any actual people. I'm so glad they're putting it back together now! I even had a dream earlier today when I took a nap that I saw it running with new LED lighting, although I know that hasn't happened (yet?).

Saw something interesting and new yesterday at the park. As we were walking along International Street, in the distance I heard drumming and initially thought it was The KI Five. But as we got closer, next to the fountains, there was a man wearing a multicolored-paint-splattered white painter's outfit, sitting next to a cart that said "Kings Island Paint Dept" with two overturned big plastic buckets that he was playing like drums. If this is a sign of bringing back multiple types of wandering entertainment, I must say I am a big fan. I hope it won't be only on weekends tho, because yesterday convinced me not to go on the weekend again for awhile Another highlight of the trip was a couple free offers showing up in the app. I got a rock candy stick at Sweet Spot and a Sally keychain at Peanuts Emporium. I discovered that with the latest update, I have to set my iPhone setting to "always allow" location based services before offers will show up. I had it set to "while in use", and it would show ride wait times but no offers.

They could just say "No photography". That concisely covers stills and video.

You must have missed the woodie in Planet Snoopy. I'm sure its in contention.

Ghost Town In The Sky: http://myfox8.com/2015/06/13/landmark-nc-amusement-park-ghost-town-in-the-sky-to-open-for-summer-season/

It has been said that S&S is not involved in the Polercoaster project anymore; it's all Intamin.

At least you were able to get the App to give you the discounts. My wife and I'd kept telling us 50% off a funnel cake after signing up but after sign up, nope. Only a discount for the Emporium. Oh well, empty calories we didn't need anyway.

Roller coaster accidents are big news didn't you know. Now to call what happened to the Diamondback an accident is a long stretch. The ride safety system did exactly what it was supposed to do. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It could just be me. But my last ride on BBoBH was better than any other ride I have taken on it in the past 3 years. It seemed like a lot more things than normal were working (Help get away from me!) was running again. The guns aim and targets seemed to be working seamlessly. I scored over 2000 and my friend scored like 1500. Which is pretty difficult to do most of the time. I did notice the "his and her" ghost were still somewhat broken. But overall it was a good ride.

There is a common superstition that bad things come in threes...

Yesterday or today(idk which)'s visit was one my most memorable yet for many different reasons. Here are a few quotes to sum it up. (Trip report coming soon!!) "If your gonna ride you either have to sit on your sandals or wear em'" "Dude where did my shoes go?" "Sir can we push down a little more?" "'Murica'" Just a few of them that made it memorable in both good and bad.

Actually, they are free for the posted wait time plus a 20- to 30-minute buffer.

There was a small event at KK the day after Holiwood Nights in which Hart said the announcement would be coming in a month.

And, it is still, after lo, these many years, the longest wooden roller coaster on the planet. Terp, channeling Jeff.

Ah tartar sauce

I beat you to that punch though last night, nice try my boy

^ sums it up better than I ever could have (partly because I never completed my training lol) The only regulation I could see someone using to get you in trouble relates flying over large crowds or crowded areas...or something like that. It was added to the FARs after 9/11 generated fears of terror attacks at large stadiums.

You can fly up and around Kings Island. The only stipulation I see pulling out my VFR maps is it's within Mode C meaning at an altitude of 4,000 feet above ground level, if you're flying in that area, you have to have a transponder on and sending your altitude to the control tower operating in that airspace. Aside from that, you're good. I think the only other stipulation I could remember is I think around structures such as this, you're supposed to stay clear ~500 feet or so. But that may be for fixed wing aircraft only, and with a helicoptor or other rotorcraft, different classifications may exist. I'm not rated for any rotorcraft, I only hold my recreational license for fixed wing, single engine.

KI is definitely NOT a no-fly zone. There are undoubtedly restrictions in place regarding flying over Kings Island, but there is no outright ban on it. If there were, the attraction that formerly occupied Firehawk's plot of land would never have been possible.