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Just a few words..... I love this ride, although due to current size and swelling, I cannot ride it. They should make a Son of Monster - you know....bigger than daddy, faster and taller than daddy....maybe even having a loop!....there are so many possibilities!

Riding the wave. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/travel/talking-with-rob-decker-a-real-life-roller-coaster-tycoon.html?_r=0&gwh=C3EB1BE2399D63EDEA13132B7E155062&gwt=pay>

Well, we did hear it here first. Just sometime between the 17th and the 24th.

Hey all, MDMC01 here. I just got back from an amazing trip that I'd love to share with you all. I recently took my first major coaster trip that I titled "The Edge of the Millennium Tour". The title was apt for a number of reasons, one of which being that at least one ride in both of the parks we visited originally opened in the year 2000 (these rides were known as our "icon" rides). My cousin Ryan and I left on Sunday for our hotel and came back today (Wednesday). During our stay in PA, we visited Hersheypark and Dorney Park and had a great time! Below is the trip report for Hersheypark: Hersheypark: We got there close to opening, and after getting into the park, getting our photo taken and putting our stuff in our locker, we made Fahrenheit our first ride of the day. Although I was really pumped to ride Storm Runner, I chose Fahrenheit because I was just so excited and wanted to ride something right away. The line wasn’t too bad and the ride op even asked us if we wanted front seat. Of course I said yes and we had a great time. It wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be, but it was still fun. After this, we headed to Storm Runner. This is one ride that I’ve been wanting to go on since it came out (in 2004) and it was awesome! Just like Fahrenheit, we got front seat and it was incredible. The launch was really fast and the inversions were crazy. One thing I love about this ride is the auto-spiels because the guy’s voice reminds me of the Powerthirst Youtube videos. I almost feel that if Powerthirst was a real energy drink, Storm Runner would be sponsored by Powerthirst. In addition to the manly Powerthirst voice, there was also this woman’s voice that sounded like someone I heard on a roller coaster video made in the 90’s. After that awesomeness, we decided to ride Sidewinder because it was close. This was Ryan’s first boomerang and my first standard (as in, not inverted) boomerang. I noticed the new restraints and it was a good ride, but not worth riding again. Not surprisingly, it did remind me a lot of Invertigo and I imagined what the ride would have been like with the older, more confining restraints. Next, it was Ryan’s turn to pick 3 rides, so he chose Skyrush. The lines at the front of the park were longer than the back, but we waited it out. I compared the line length and speed to Banshee on a good day. I got a wing seat, and while the ride looked fun, it killed my thighs too much to fully enjoy it. After that, we decided to tackle Wildcat since we knew lines were short towards the back of the park. We sat towards the front and it was a pretty good ride. Next was Lightning Racer, which is something both of us had wanted to ride and it was our “icon” ride since it debuted in the year 2000 (it was also my first dueling coaster). Since lines were relatively short, we decided to duel; he chose Lightning, I chose Thunder. I really like this ride, but I was surprised it only dueled twice. We then switched sides and I had a blast riding Lightning in the back. After that, it was back to me and we both chose Laff Track only because the line was somewhat shorter that the last time we passed. It was our first real wait, but it ended up being a fun ride. There were a lot of brakes throughout the ride and I thought it would spin more, but it was still enjoyable. After this, we took a break for lunch at Subway, which was really good. They serve UTZ products with their meals and the cheese curls were amazing; they tasted just like the cheese balls I get at Walmart sometimes. While letting our food settle, I decided to take some pictures of Lightning Racer. After lunch, we decided to tackle Wild Mouse. It was a pretty good ride and some had interesting forces to get used to as I hadn’t been on a Wild Mouse coaster in a while. My last pick was Lightning Racer again. I wanted to try Thunder in the back since Lightning was so incredible in the back. It was pretty good, but not as good as Lightning. I then rode Lightning again because it was awesome. After that, I decided I was done with dueling for now and since it was Ryan’s turn to pick, we decided to do the waterpark. Before we got our swimsuits on, he wanted to do Tidal Force. This thing may remind you of Congo Falls at KI, but it’s not. It lives up to its name as you get rained on after the large drop. No seriously, we were soaked! When the water was coming down, I was like, “Is it going to stop, is it gonna stop…”. So, yeah. After that, we changed and we both wanted to do this purple waterslide at East Coast Waterworks, a water play area for all ages. I didn’t appreciated getting wet on the way up (there were water toys to play with along the way),but the slide was good and it wasn’t as fast as I thought it would be because it looked really intense. After that, we tried one of the tube slides called Vortex. It was what you’d call a “toilet bowl” slide and it was fun. After that, we decided to split off because he wanted to do more waterpark stuff and I was done with the waterpark. So, while he stayed in the waterpark, I made my way to The Claw. It’s similar to Delirium at KI, but the seats face inward and there are “cars” that seat 4 at a time. I got an end seat on one of the cars and it was pretty fun. After this, I decided to take another ride on Storm Runner. I wanted to try it in the back (they had just opened the back seat up as I guess it got more crowded; there were only 4 rows open when we rode that morning) and it was amazing. I got some sweet airtime and one of the spirals felt like sitting in the back of Top Thrill Dragster. After this, I found him and we regrouped. After finishing his gelati/custard mix from Rita's, we decided to ride Trailblazer as I still had four more coasters to tackle before the day ended. It was OK, but Adventure Express is better. After this, we walked a ways and decided to take a spin on Flying Falcon. For those who don’t know, this ride looks like a scrambler in mid-air. I had never been on one before this trip, and it was pretty cool; it reminded me of Shake Rattle and Roll (at least the beginning of SRR). After that, we decided to check out ZooAmerica. It was a really cool walkthrough and a break from all the rides. We saw foxes, elk, a bear and lots of snakes. I also saw a Pronghorn antelope, which I had previously only seen in animal books when I was a kid. After that amazing adventure, we decided to tackle Great Bear. Apparently, it was Ryan’s first inverted coaster, and he really liked it, as did I. We sat in the third row and I liked how it was a mix between chill and thrill. I had so much fun, I rode again, this time in the front. Surprisingly, it was more intense in the front, but it was still a fun ride. After this, I rode sooperdooperlooper as it was close to Great Bear. I rode with a local and it turned out to be really fun. After that, I wanted to try Skyrush again only because I thought the theigh-crushing was because I was sitting in a wing seat. Per the local’s suggestion, I got the front and got a non-wing seat on the right. It was better, but still very theih-crushing on the airtime hills. Another little surprise is that some bugs flew in my face during the ride as it was dusk, but that just made the ride more interesting. So, to summarize, I don’t think SkyRush lives up to the hype that I’ve heard. Though the ride itself is tolerable at best, I do love the enthusiastic autospiel lady you hear as you board. I forgot to mention this earlier, but although Skyrush has wing seats like Diamondback, all seats are loaded together instead of having separate rows for the wing seats. What I mean is that riders are loaded four across instead of two by two. After this, Ryan rejoined me (he sat out for my 2nd round of GB, SDL and Skyrush because he was starting to get a headache) for the last new coaster of the day, Comet. When we visited Skyrush earlier, Comet had an insanely long line, but the line wasn’t too bad now. We had a good night ride and were surprised how long the ride is as you can only see some of the course from the midway. I commented that it just kept going and going and going. We were starting to get tired, but I wanted to take one last spin on Great Bear before our time at Hershey ended. I sat in the second row and had a great ride. We then went to retrieve our stuff from our lockers before buying souvenirs and leaving for the night. I got a Storm Runner and a Great Bear t-shirt and he got some kettle corn. All in all, it was a great day, and the weather was perfect. -MDMC01 Favorite Rides: Lightning Racer (Lightning, then Thunder), Storm Runner, Great Bear Ride/Attraction Count: The Claw- 1 Comet- 1 East Coast Waterworks Purple Slide- 1 Fahrenheit- 1 Flying Falcon- 1 Great Bear- 3 Laff Track- 1 Lightning Racer: Thunder- 2, Lightning- 2 Sidewinder- 1 Skyrush- 2 Sooperdooperlooper- 1 Storm Runner- 2 Tidal Force- 1 Trailblazer- 1 Vortex (water slide)- 1 Wildcat- 1 Wild Mouse- 1 ZooAmerica- 1 Stay tuned for my Dorney Park trip report! EDIT: I did take pictures during the trip, but it will take a while for me to upload them due to some technical difficulties on my end...

If you think that is scary...I got a better one. My last full season as an employee I approached this gentleman and his girlfriend over by Delirium when I saw him looking at the park map confused and then looking at Son of Beast, which was still operating, then he saw me (while he was pointing at SOB) "is that The Racer?" I never could figure that out but then again I had someone ask for direction to Raptor while at KI several years before CF took over. (I thought he was referring to Reptar but nope...he was looking for Raptor)

We as many of you are surprised this morning logging in. I reverted to a backup I made just before the forums being upgraded. The new software was just too buggy, constantly crashing, and lacked support. (8 days ticket response times) Last night the forums kept getting themselves in a "get" loop meaning they were fetching pages on pages on the same page in a loop like it was out of the movie Inception and 503 crash the server. At about 4:30am still up working on it I threw in the towel and reverted. What's next? Well we will be trying this upgrade again in the future once we are in the new server. (getting configured right now) As for now. I apologize for the missing posts from the past week and all the work you put into them but we will bounce back. This isn't our first rodeo.

If you think that is scary...I got a better one. My last full season as an employee I approached this gentleman and his girlfriend over by Delirium when I saw him looking at the park map confused and then looking at Son of Beast, which was still operating, then he saw me (while he was pointing at SOB) "is that The Racer?" I never could figure that out but then again I had someone ask for direction to Raptor while at KI several years before CF took over. (I thought he was referring to Reptar but nope...he was looking for Raptor) Did you tell him to get in his car and driver several hours north to get to it?

Malem we who write and read really appreciate the effort and work you have done. Thank you.

^ There is a theme selector at the bottom of each forum page. Click "Change theme". I personally pick "IP Board", since I prefer reading text against light backgrounds. Regarding the lost posts, I got back most of the recent trip reports from web caches and reposted them. People spend a lot of time writing those, so it was good to restore them. Dane increased the frequency & longevity of backups, so hopefully content won't be lost going forward. Stuff happens; it could have been worse.

The Whip ride at Hershey was not nearly as fun as the one at Dorney. I mean, I rode it twice in a row just to verify and compare. It is fun...but not AS fun. It seemed to me that Dorney's whipped me around the ends with a bit more force than Hershey's. And to add to the comparisons for dispatch, at Busch Gardens they don't do anything visual. They have wireless mic and earpiece systems and they have each have some sort of button or foot pedal to hit before the train can go. It's interesting to see the different ways to dispatch.

Hey all, as promised, here is my Dorney Park trip report from The Edge of the Millennium Tour. I have a ton of pictures from the trip, but unfortunately, I can't access my Flikr account as I'm using a different computer than normal and my Flikr account is tied to Facebook and a non-working(?) e-mail address. I'll try to get this fixed soon (or just get a new Flikr account) so that you all can see the pics. Dorney Park: My cousin Ryan and I got to the park around 10:45 and after finding a locker, we decided to make Talon our first ride of the day. It was fun and reminded me a bit of Banshee. After that, I wanted to ride Hydra as I’d never been on a floorless coaster before. We sat front row and it was pretty fun with lots of twists and turns. Surprisingly, the dangling of your legs wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. After that, we decided to ride Meteor since it was nearby. Although this was one of the two non-coaster rides I really wanted to ride at Dorney, it was legitimately terrifying. From the moment we got strapped in, I was thinking what did I get myself into? The ride itself was “nuts”! It’s basically like a “salt and pepper shaker” ride, but your legs are dangling. Like I said, it was pretty crazy. After that, I really wanted to ride Possessed, our other “icon” ride of the trip. We rode front and it was pretty fun. It was Ryan’s first inverted impulse coaster, and he was pretty blown away. Afterwards, we rode Steel Force. This was an interesting ride since I’d never been on a Morgan hypercoaster before. It was sort-of fun, but I guess I was expecting more airtime. After that ride, I rode it again in the back to see how much airtime it had. Again, not as much as I expected, but it was still really fast. After that, we decided to ride the park’s single wooden coaster, Thunderhawk. Getting to the ride was weird, but we had the ride all to ourselves as we sat in the front. It was really fun with some unexpected ejector air. Up to that point, that was probably my favorite coaster at the park. We then decided to tackle Dominator, the other non-coaster ride I really wanted to ride. We started with the up side, which was pretty fun, but short. I then rode again and picked the down side, which was a bit more enjoyable. After this, we decided to head to the Whip as we had missed riding the Whip at Hershey. I’d never been on an adult whip before and I don’t think Ryan had ever been on one before, but it was pretty fun and unique. After getting whipped around, we were super hungry, so we got our stuff from the locker and stopped by Chickie and Pete’s for a break from all the rides. I ordered mottzeralla sticks while Ryan ordered chicken tenders and we both split crabfries. Like everyone says, those crabfries are amazing! The mottzerella sticks were pretty good too and the both the pizza sauce and special sauce for the crabfries (I’ll keep that a secret…) were also good. After filling our stomachs, we decided to extend the break from the rides and walk through Dinosaurs Alive. It was towards the back of the park and was pretty cool. I noticed some differences between their display and Kings Island’s such as jokes along the way, an object showing layers of rock/earth, and a map at the entrance detailing the areas. It was pretty cool and I took a ton of pictures. After this, I really wanted to ride Possessed again since we were close. I rode in Row 12 (towards the back) and it was amazing. Before I boarded, the crew rotated, so there was a different person at each “station” (greeter, driver, etc.). Before the launch, they do a countdown: “You will be possessed in 3, 2, 1!”. Well, the cool (or scary thing, depending on how you look at it), was the new driver launched us after “3”, so it was like “You will be possessed in 3, [pause], launch”, which added to the thrill. That ride made it one of my favorites, so I decided to go again. This time, I rode in the back and it was still pretty fun, but I liked row 12 a bit more because you get some of the spin. After those amazing rides, we decided to ride the last new coaster left to ride (because Stinger was being really fickle and was either down or testing the whole day…), Wild Mouse. Unlike the Wild Mouse at Dorney, this thing goes hard and makes the turns super forceful. I only rode again to test the theory if it was just because I sat with Ryan that I got whipped around so badly. Nope. So, that zen ride led to the conclusion that this wild mouse really was pretty wild. After this, we decided to give Talon another spin. I rode in the very back on the right (my favorite seat on Banshee) to see how intense this ride got. It was really good in the back and I got some surprising amounts of airtime. After this, we changed lockers (as ours was an hourly rental) headed for the waterpark. After getting changed, we decided to start off with Patriot’s Plunge, a tube slide. I chose the red slide while Ryan chose the enclosed blue slide and we both had a good time. After this, we did the Python Plummet side of Snake Pit. These were body slides that had a drop capsule like Deep Water Dive at Kentucky Kingdom. This was Ryan’s first drop slide and he really liked it. He chose the yellow slide on the right while I chose Red as it looked very twisty. It was a fun ride and interesting to ride on a drop slide that provides more than just the drop. After that, we decided to do Jumpin’ Jack Splash, which is another body slide complex. I chose blue (on the right) and he chose the left most slide. It was also pretty fun. After the body slides, we did Aqua Racer, which is a mat racing slide. I had trouble getting staretd, but I ended up beating him. After this, I tried to do the Speed Slides, but a lifeguard had just closed the slide due to weather. Surpringly, the Wildwater River lazy river was still open, so we did that. I got stuck a few times due to empty tubes, which was frustrating, but I was still a good ride. After we got off, we were told that the waterpark was officially closed due to the thunderstorm that was moving in. We then changed and decided to wait out the storm a bit just to see if rides would start running again. There were only a few smaller rides running, so Ryan got a t-shirt and some Rita’s (Italian ice mix of gelati and custard) and we tried to ride it out. After deciding that Possessed (or anything else) probably wouldn’t open back up, we started to make our way to the lockers. It was then that I saw the Tilt-a-Whirl running and I wanted to go ride that. It was pretty fun and I got a lot of spins. After that last ride of the day, we went to go get our stuff and I took some pictures. When we got to the parking lot, it looked like the storm had cleared and some of the big rides (even Stinger!) were testing. Though I wished we could have waited it out some more, it was probably best that we left when we did as we had about an hour drive back to our hotel and there looked to be another big storm behind us. All in all, it was a pretty good day. -MDMC01 Favorites/Highlights: Possessed, Meteor, Thunderhawk, Hydra, Talon, Chickie and Pete’s Ride/Attraction Count: Aqua Racer: 1 Dominator: Up- 1, Down-1 Dinosaurs Alive: 1 Hydra: 1 Jumpin’ Jack Splash- Blue: 1 Patriot’s Plunge- Red: 1 Possessed: 3 Snake Pit: Python’s Plunge- Red: 1 Steel Force: 2 Talon: 2 Thunderhawk: 1 Tilt-a-Whirl: 1 Wild Mouse: 2 Wildwater River: 1 Whip: 1 PS: Before I end this trip report, I’d like the comment on the fact that I noticed both parks had different methods of starting the rides. While KI uses “All Clear” with a thumbs up, Hershey says “Dispatch” with the “OK” symbol while Dorney says “All Clear for Dispatch” with a thumbs up.

Nope. The last time I rode it I felt like I wasn't secure enough, actually.

If you think that is scary...I got a better one. My last full season as an employee I approached this gentleman and his girlfriend over by Delirium when I saw him looking at the park map confused and then looking at Son of Beast, which was still operating, then he saw me (while he was pointing at SOB) "is that The Racer?" I never could figure that out but then again I had someone ask for direction to Raptor while at KI several years before CF took over. (I thought he was referring to Reptar but nope...he was looking for Raptor) Did you tell him to get in his car and driver several hours north to get to it? Nah, I did explain he was at the wrong park though. That would be the type of response you'd get out of a Knott's scare actor if you approach asking how to get to Splash Mountain.

Glad to heard ole Monster is running again! Way to go KI Maintenance!

Where did that first number even come from?

I feel like a hard drive that's just been reformatted!

But, fear not. Invertigo will still provide all of the signature... sensations... of a typical Vekoma SLC, just with the benefit of it being over fairly quickly. I kid, sort of. I've ridden SLCs that were entirely tolerable (Mind Eraser at Darien Lake) and that were outlandishly awful (such as Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland, which is literally the only coaster on my "absolutely never again" list).

Monster is up and running again! You heard it here first...well...kinda.

Posts were lost, but the ride is back open as of Saturday. Some pictures that were posted on June 17 by Bansheeback:

(Restored post) VekomaRulz: First I want to thank everyone from these forums for all the great information posted. I started reading the forums not knowing when I was going to get to Kings Island but wanted to read up on information about the park and the forums were really helpful. My home parks are Great Adventure and Dorney Park and I thought it would be great to try some new coaster types that both of those parks don't have. The reason for this trip was to go to Great American Ballpark and see the Phillies play the Reds. We left Monday 6/8 and drove to Cincinnati. The baseball game was on Tuesday and I thought maybe I could get to Kings Island before the game but didn't want to go to the park and not have time for all the rides I wanted to try so we decided to drive to Louisville and go to the Louisville Slugger Factory Tour and Museum. I never expected to go to Kentucky anytime soon and although Kentucky Kingdom was right near by, there wasn't time for it and wasn't really a priority for me. Tuesday night we went to the baseball game and not surprisingly, the Phillies lost 11 - 2 which sounds bad but is nothing compared to the 19 - 3 loss that just happened a few hours ago. On Wednesday morning, we saw they changed the forecast and it wasn't supposed to rain until 9 pm on Thursday so it looked like we would be able to get to Kings Island and then drive to Cedar Point that night and go to the park on Thursday. Cedar Fair has a good deal on their site with a 1 day admission to Kings Island and a 1 day admission to Cedar Point for $64.99. Cedar Point discounted tickets were $44.99 so adding on Kings Island for $20 with the combo ticket was a good value. They also offered discounted parking online at $12 instead of $15 and a souvenir cup for $10.99 with free refills all day and $0.99 refills the rest of the year like the red cup at Great Adventure. We got to Kings Island just after 10 and although it was going up to 90, the humidity was low so it wasn't that bad. I later saw it was 95 in Sandusky with a 99 heat index so I was glad we waited a day to go to Cedar Point. Banshee was the first coaster we saw but it was broken down. A worker announced to the riders waiting that they suggested we go to other rides as they didn't know how long the breakdown would be. We left about 5 minutes later and then right after we walked away they opened the ride so I got back in line and got on the 3rd train after the ride had reopened. They were not assigning rows and I went to the last row. I was looking forward to this coaster not only because it has great reviews but also because it was my 100th coaster. I have been waiting to get my coaster count to triple digits for a while now and this was a good coaster to be my 100th after my 50th coaster was a somewhat bad coaster- Rollie's Coaster at Morey's Piers. The new restraints were comfortable and at first I felt like I was about to ride Superman Ultimate Flight with the vest restraints. Banshee was an excellent coaster with lots of inversions and the dive loop was different compared to the immelmann that other B&M inverts have. I also liked the pretzel knot and the in line twist taken at a slow speed. It is a great addition to the park and really complements Diamondback for 2 great major steel coasters. I skipped Drop Tower for now since it had a bit of a line and thought I would go back to it later if I had time. I also skipped Invertigo since I really don't like Stinger at Dorney and knowing how unreliable Stinger is, I didn't want to take a chance on getting stuck on Invertigo (which turned out to be an issue with another ride later in the report). Next to Banshee was The Bat. I have wanted to try an Arrow Suspended coaster for a few years and didn't get a chance to get back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg before Big Bad Wolf was removed. The queue was a long walk similar to Superman and Green Lantern both at Great Adventure. The station was mostly empty and I thought for our first Arrow Suspended coaster, we should wait 2 extra trains for the front row. I didn't realize it at the time that it was my sister's 50th coaster and if I had realized it, I would have ridden The Bat first so we could get our 50th coaster and 100th coaster credits at the same time. The Bat was a fun ride and didn't let up until the brake run where the car was still and a high angle entering the brake run. It's a shame that Arrow didn't build more of these coasters and more parks didn't keep the ones that are open since they are really fun and good for kids who want an "in between" coaster that is more than a family coaster but not a major thrill coaster. Adventure Express was next with a 2 train wait. It had individual lap bars like Runaway Mine Train and Trailblazer and I liked how right out of the station there wasn't a lift and the train started the circuit right away. The ending lifthill that was enclosed with the moving statues was cool and felt like it could fit in an Orlando park. Racer only had the blue side running with about a 10 minute wait. I should have waited for a non wheel seat and picked the 3rd row of a car since that was a shorter wait. It wasn't really rough but not as smooth as some other wooden coasters I have ridden and I knew since I didn't like Rebel Yell that much, I probably wouldn't think this ride was that great either. It was still not a bad coaster and Kings Island was a local park, it would probably be a coaster I tried to ride once a trip if the line was short. Firehawk had a posted 90 minute wait with even the Fast Lane Plus line being 30 minutes (I decided against Fast Lane since the lines were so short except for Flight of Fear and Firehawk). The coaster wasn't worth a 90 minute wait to me and I didn't feel like even taking the chance on how I would feel knowing how the pressure of the pretzel loop at Superman Ultimate Flight can be forceful and didn't want to possibly get a headache with the warm weather. Flight of Fear had a posted 45 minute wait but took about 30 minutes. I was looking forward to Flight of Fear since I never rode Batman and Robin The Chiller and the launch into the cobra roll would probably be the closest I would get riding the Robin track of Chiller. The ankle grabbers were kind of annoying not leaving a lot of room for your feet but I was glad that the ride had lap bars as I can imagine that this ride was brutal when it had OTSR's. The launch into the inversions reminded me a little of Rock N Rollerocaster and I wasn't expected a complete stop when the train got to the MCBR. Overall the ride was fun and I'll have to get to Six Flags America to try Joker's Jinx and see what the ride looks like outside. WindSeeker was closed which didn't matter to me since there was no way I was going to try it with the problems they have had at other parks. Vortex was next with a 5 minute wait. I was looking forward to Vortex because I miss Scream Machine at Great Adventure and other than Viper at Magic Mountain, Vortex looked like it would be the next closest ride to Scream Machine. I liked how after the drop there was a hill and a turnaround before going into the double loop and I also liked how the corkscrews weren't at the end like most Arrow loopers to make the ride a little different. The batwing reminded me of how much I miss that inversion from riding Scream Machine. It was a little rough but not too bad and another good coaster. Backlot Stunt Coaster was next with about a 10 minute wait. I could see this ride having a very slow moving line on a crowded day with the low capacity, I had seen a POV of the ride before a few years ago and never expected to like the coaster as much as I did. The uphill helix was fun and the show scene with the helicopter and fire was cool. I forgot from the POV that there was an indoor section. This was probably the surprise coaster of the park for me. Next was a coaster I have been wanting to ride after a friend from school told me about Kings Island in 2nd grade and how great The Beast was. There was just under a 10 minute wait. While it won't be overtaking Boulder Dash or El Toro, it is a top 10 wooden coaster for me with the great ride time, a great first drop and the forceful helix during the ride. I hear that night rides are even better but sunset wasn't until after 9:00 and there was no way we could stay until closing since that would have meant getting to Sandusky at around 2:00 a.m. The train was next with a great ride op at the microphone giving lots of information about the train and the park. From what I could see from the train, Soak City looked really nice and not very crowded and if we had more time, I would have spent a couple of hours there. We had lunch at the Reds Hall of Fame Grille. The prices were reasonable for an amusement park with most sandwiches under $10. It was themed nicely with lots of Reds memorabilia. They had multiple TV's in the restaurant but for some reason the Reds vs Phillies game was not being shown, maybe because the game started at 12:35 which isn't that common so no one realized the game was being played then? I was going to try Diamondback next but it had broken down with riders stuck on the lift. The train was not that far out of the station. I kept checking back while we were in Planet Snoopy and the riders still hadn't been evacuated. We later found out that the riders were stuck for 90 minutes before being evacuated. While it wouldn't be pleasant to be sitting for 90 minutes in the train, I didn't think it would be a news story that we later found out many of the local news stations and papers were reporting on. Race For Your Life Charlie Brown was next with about a 5 minute wait. I was glad to see Kings Island still had a log flume with so many parks removing them. I also wasn't expected to get drenched on the final drop with it being a smaller flume and then have a Snoopy figure at the end shoot some jets of water at you. With the warm weather, it didn't matter though. Flying Ace Aerial Chase was the next coaster. It only runs 1 train but today that didn't matter with it being a 2 train wait. I had heard the earlier Vekoma Junior inverted coasters were rough compared to newer models like Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot with a lap bar but the coaster was mostly smooth with just a few spots of headbanging. I'd rather ride this version over a regular SLC any day. We saw Woodstocks Whirlybirds and were happy to see no rule about needing a kid under 54" to ride. At Dorney, the only ride in Planet Snoopy that has that requirement is the rocket ship monorail even though other parks in the chain don't require a kid to ride. The difference with Woodstock's Whirlybirds is that they are pedal powered although they still move without pedaling. They were running 9 cars and loading 3 at a time. It was about a 10 minute wait and this is another ride I can see having a very slow moving line on a crowded day. Boo Blasters on Boo Hill was another ride I was looking forward to as I really like dark rides, especially interactive dark rides. I liked how it had an omnimover system for faster loading. The ride was very well done with lots of show scenes, lots of targets to shoot at and when shot at, many of the props moved. I still hope that Great Adventure gets the Justice League Dark ride since I'd like to have an interactive dark ride closer to home besides the one at Hersheypark. Woodstocks Express was running 2 trains with no wait. Other than the Junior PTC trains not having a lot of leg room, it was fun for a smaller coaster. Diamondback's riders were now evacuated but the ride was still closed. They weren't sure when or if it would re-open that day so we left the ride area and went to some of the shops at the front of the park. We were ready to leave when we saw a couple of trains test and then 2 trains with riders. We quickly walked back to the ride and it was open with a short wait of 10 minutes. I knew Diamondback was supposed to be good but thought it would probably be equal to Nitro. I liked the different seating with the last row of each car away from each other so you don't have any seats close to you on either side giving the ride a more open feeling. I ended up liking the ride a lot more than Nitro with the better hammerhead, lots of air time hills (it seemed like more than Nitro, not counting Nitro's smaller hills after the MCBR) and the splashdown. I was disappointed that I was going to miss Diamondback but thought since it's a B&M Hyper and not something I have never ridden before like some other coaster types in the park, it wouldn't be a huge deal. After riding Diamondback and seeing how great it was, I would have really regretted missing it now knowing how great it was. It was around 6:00 and with the drive to Cedar Point, we decided we should leave now to get there at a reasonable hour so we wouldn't be tired the next day. Kings Island was a very nice park with some signature attractions and a good collection of other coasters as well plus some great family rides. It was a better park than I had expected. I also want to mention that I really liked Kings Island and Cedar Points bins in the station for loose articles. Although I didn't use them, I thought it was great how they used a seatbelt buckle to close the bins for the train running the circuit and that could only be opened with a key from a ride operator similar to the seatbelts used on the kiddie rides. violakat03: Awesome trip report! I really enjoyed reading it. I love seeing my home park from the perspective of someone who's never been there before and I really saw KI through your eyes when reading this. Glad you enjoyed our park and I hope you can get back here again some time in the future for a legendary Beast night ride. It really is amazing and it's a huge difference from a day time ride. MDMC01 Great stuff; I too like hearing from a first-timer about the park that I also call home. Speaking of home parks, I'll be heading up to Dorney (and Hershey) in a few days, and I'll be sure to post a trip report soon afterward detailing the trip. Also, next time you visit KI, you should check out Drop Tower (it's really a great ride) and Cirque Imagine. Cirque Imagine is an amazing show that a lot of people on here (including myself) love. Again, I'm glad you had a great time! EDIT: Congrats on making Banshee your 100th coaster; I'm hoping to hit 100 next year! electricsun: I agree with violakat03 and MDMC01 - it's nice to hear someone's experience with Kings Island. I find myself at times taking what we have for granted. It is good to reminded that we are pretty lucky. (My niece and nephew's reaction tend to serve as my reality check.) Thank you for sharing! I too will be at Dorney Park and Hershey later this week/weekend. (What a coincidence MDMC01!) VekomaRulz - will you add a trip report for Cedar Point? I'm curious as to how that experience was and how you would compare the parks. VekomaRulz: Thank you all. I don't know when I will get back but next time I am in Ohio, I'm going to try to return to the park. Besides trying Drop Tower and to stay until closing for a Beast night ride I also hope I can spend some time in Soak City. I'm going to write a Cedar Point trip report sometime later this week. I found Kings Island to be more relaxing of a park, that might have been because of the lower crowds though. Dorney and Hershey are both nice parks. Although Dorney doesn't have a lot of coasters Talon and Steel Force are great (although I think Banshee and Diamondback are much better) and the park rarely has lines except for the water park. Hersheypark has one of my favorite coaster collections of any park I have been to.

Judging from the photo on the menu for the combo, it appeared to only come with one slice of pizza. There is a chance that I could be mistaken. Two slices of pizza for that price would make a little more sense.

In your example, the combo meal includes 2 slices of pizza. The combo price usually isn't much less than buying the same items individually, but it should never be more. (Not to say that a pricing error isn't possible.) Of course, gold/platinum passholders save 10% on most food purchases.

My wife and I were at Kings Island Monday and noticed something crazy at the LaRosa's down by The Beast. It started when my wife mentioned she was sorta hungry and might want to grab a little something. We had just gotten off Stunt Track and were on our way to The Beast. We decided to pop in the LaRosa's and find out how much just one slice of pizza was. Upon entering, I looked up at the menu and noticed that a combo with one slice of pizza, two breadsticks, and a drink was $14.29. I thought that was a ridiculous price for that amount of food. So we asked how much just a slice would be. We were told $3.99 a slice. Now it gets interesting. I decided to add up all the items from the combo individually based on the listed prices from the menu and the info we were told about the cost of a slice. 1 slice of pizza = $3.99, an order of breadsticks = $3.99, a large drink = $4.59, Total Price = $12.57. Now for the same items of food bundled in a combo, it costs $14.29! Why in the world would I pay $1.72 more for the same amount of food? What is Kings Island trying to pull here? Why is the combo almost $2 more than if I bought the food items separately? I just can't figure this one out. Anyone have any ideas?

Because that idea worked SO WELL the first time.

Thanks for all your hard work on this Dane! I am sure it has been frustrating. Hopefully we can try the new version again!

When I went on Monday the 22 it was operating with a maintenance guy sitting on the right side exit watching it with a bag of tools.

The hottest thing at Disney World right now is... poo. What? http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/the-daily-disney/os-dewayne-bevil-disney-poop-harambe-20150625-column.html (If you get a message requiring you to subscribe to view the article, reload the page and then hit the Esc key the instant the article comes up to prevent the subscription message from loading.)

It's neat to read your report as I had some similar and different thoughts. I was at Dorney on Saturday and Hershey on Sunday (and a bit of Monday late morning). Skyrush was intense and yeah...the pain of the restraint on the thighs was not fun. I realized that it tightened as the ride went along so if I started with it not as snug as any other coaster, it didn't hurt so much. Looking forward to reading your thoughts about Dorney!

Sounds like a fun day! I want to get to Hersheypark someday, but there are a lot of other parks that I've never been to ahead of it on my to-do list (Carowinds, Dollywood, BGW, and Indiana Beach all come to mind, in no particular order).

Keep up Coney improvements

My dopey PC thanks you Dane.

Phew. Actually glad to see it back.

shark6495 on June 21: Just returned from WDW, may do a write up in a bit. Not sure yet. But the initial reaction to everything down there from the possible changes to FP+ is all positive... FP+: It doesnt really remove any spontaneity from the trip at all, IMO. We had a group of 6 adults and 2 kiddos. We knew what rides we wanted to ride so we FP+ those early before arrival. Once we used those 3 up we would hit a kiosk on our route and schedule another ride for us to use. I think at Magic Kingdom we used 7-8 FP+ rides. Only ride we did not ride was Big Thunder Mountain because we were exhausted. Dinner reservations: These came in handy as our longest wait for a sit down dinner was 10 minutes. Good choice here. EPCOT: Needs, something. Either more shows or more rides. The shows seem to be scheduled around the same time in each land which hurts a traveler. You finish one show and you miss the next. EPCOT is a good visit, dont get me wrong, but having left EPCOT and if we return next year it is not a must do. Future Expansion for Avatar Land: Love the idea. Having spent part of the day in Dino Land which is centered around Dinosaurs or Asia with its center on a snow monster, Avatar Land would not take away from the real world experience of the rest of the park. Plus the safari ride is top notch! Hollywood Studios: You can tell this park is in transition. But a Star Wars Land and a Pixar Land would fit well into what the studios is coming now... Meal Plan: had a basic table and QS meal plan. By the middle of the week our appetites shrank considerably and it become just too much food. But it was nice to have all of the food purchased before we arrived... It was very nice to be able to leave the hotel room and only need to take a phone and the magic band. Magic Band held all of our data on it and we could charge to the room for purchases as needed...

Perhaps now some of our legacy members like Terp can return.

you made a time machine out of a internet forum? this is heavy

Reminds me of "New Coke" from the 80s. Sometimes its better to just leave well enough alone, and when something is working, keep it.

Hopefully it won't be as prominent at the "sponsorships" that are over at Flags.

I don't think the new update has gone so well.

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

"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too popular." --Yogi Berra

Son of Beast was a far different ride than Beast. They were the same in that they shared part of a name and they were both wooden. That's about it.

Cedar Point's Monster seemed operational on June 5th during CoasterMania! At a minimum, it was not in any state of disassembly.

Did you correct her? As soon as my mom said that, Mrs. Gator quickly turned her head and asked me, "Racer was at Coney?" I shook my head no, and my mom just gave me that look that says "You don't know what you're talking about," so I quickly stopped. Some battles are just not worth the effort!

Some pictures from today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wonder if they would ever consider making a souviner cup specifically for every part of the park, like for Action Zone, International Street, Coney Mall, etch. They could design each cup to look like that part of the park, I would collect them all!

3 times this year I have seen people with old souvenir cups that had WindSeeker on them and much larger bottles presented for refill and the cashier obliged. I was surprised by that.

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!

Yeah, but it didn't, fortunately. The app is just wrong (at least on the times it shows outside the description). The outside of the theater says 3/5/7 like it should. I'm waiting for the 3:00 right now. Heh, it only took a couple years but I think "Let It Go" has finally started to reach ultimate saturation. When it started before the show, there was a large amount of groaning, and most of that was /children./ A few are singing along, but when kids are even tired of it...

till you rent a locker to ride Banshee then it's a bad deal. That reason alone swayed me from buying one.

Not all amusement parks have expensive food. Theme parks, maybe. Large amusement parks, probably. But many small parks have very fair food prices. Stricker's Grove comes to mind.Disney, Universal, SeaWorld...All have dramatically lower food prices for much higher quality food than Cedar Fair or Six Flags. Ir's truly sad what has happened to Mrs. Knott's chicken, for instance. Reds Hall of Fame Grill, as good as it is, is no Mythos. Not even close.