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You've answered your own question. None of them. Welcome to KIC! (Your back is not worth a coaster ride?)

Invertigo. 16 years. And it seems like yesterday I watched them build it. Or X-Flight at Geauga Lake. Or the exciting announcement for Outer Limits: Flight of Fear. Where DOES the time go? wow.

^Exactly! Cedar Fair has kept on with what KECO and later Paramount started. Witchdoctor/Black Widow 1973-1988 Oaken Bucket/Whirling Well 1973-1988 Monorail 1973 - 1994 Sternwheeler 1973 - 2003 Log Flume(grant we got a great coaster out of this) 1973 - 2008 Wagon Wheel 1975 - 1980s(will have to check my sources) Plantation House 1973 - 2014 And now Thunder Road.

What's more engaging to a customer? "This year, Boomerang Bay has new slides and has been repainted!" OR "Kings Island's brand new and totally expanded Soak City water park!"

Retheming the water park to Carolina Harbor would be a nice nod to the historical Carolinas theme that the rest of the park was supposed to have. Certainly makes more sense than an Australian water park or a generic Soak City one. Each of the park's themed lands represents an era / area of the Carolinas. Then, Australia??

We don't have that much history left in the park to appreciate. I think that's what #SaveThunderRoad is all about. To many who have visited the park for a long time, they are tired of seeing ride after ride sent to the grave, and this is the last straw. I hate to agree with them but Carowinds has kind of lost its identity. I like to fantasize about how the park would look today if Paramount hadn't gotten hold of it (or at least left after 1999). I personally think Carowinds was the best "Disneyland Clone" built during the golden age of amusement parks. I hope Cedar Fair could bring back that charm the park had in the 70's.

Sorry again for the ridiculously long TR. I always add way too much haha. After my wife and my first trip to Carowinds we ended up heading to Virginia to take our first visit to Kings Dominion. We have heard all about how the park was and we were pretty excited to start the day. We left to each breakfast early and we ended up getting to the park 15 minutes before opening. We headed into the park and noticed that they had everyone walk through security metal detectors. This drastically slowed down the entrance process. We finally got through the line as it took about 10 minutes to get through security. We were told that Volcano: The Blast Coaster was always a long wait so we headed over to the ride for the ERT session. Now at Kings Dominion they have a 30 minute ERT session for those with platinum and gold passes. The ERT list was The Crypt and Volcano: The Blast Coaster. Well it just so happened that neither of the parks ERT lineup was up and functional at all. We walked and waited in line at the entrance for Volcano for almost the entire ERT time. So basically the ERT was a waste of time as we didn’t get to ride it until the park actually opened at 1030. We took a ride in the second row for our first trip around. The first launch was very quick and we were into the turn and out of it in no time. Then the vertical launch was spectacular! Rolling out of the Volcano was really cool then the slow turns and rolls were pretty fun also. I felt like the ride could’ve ended better though. It sped up really well and I thought it was going to give us some speed at the end but it basically stopped right when it was getting really quick. We ended up getting two rides in before leaving to ride Intimidator 305. Now a funny short story about this was my wife watched all the POVs of the rides at KD and Carowinds before and she said that I305 was a “lame” coaster. I wasn’t really sure if she was joking but she said she didn’t like the layout and that it just didn’t look fun. So I followed it up with it will probably the most intense coaster we have ever been on. I mentioned how the majority of people grayout or blackout on the ride. She said it didn’t look intense enough and that she wasn’t scared. I just told her to wait and see! So we finally were able to hop on I305 after about a 10 minutes wait. Once on we headed up the hill very quickly with the cable lift. After we crested the hill the view was amazing and the drop was great as well. Once we hit the turn right after the drop the forces were just crazy. I grayed out without a doubt. Luckily they altered the ride so I started to clear up as soon as we hit the first airtime hill. The airtime was great on the first hill. The laterals and quick turns were pretty fun but once we got to the second airtime hill it was completely neutered by a heavy trim brake. The final turns were pretty fun as well and we hit the brakes and it was all over. The ride was unbelievable how fast and forceful it was. When we got off of the ride I asked my wife how it was and she said it was scary. She grayed out during the first turn and really didn’t like the feeling. I wanted to ride again so we ended up getting back in line and I was teasing her saying I told you that the ride is intense and she replied I didn’t think it was going to be that crazy. Once we got into the station she stated that she was going to ride this one more time and never ride it again. I really don’t blame her the graying out really does take away from the fun of the ride. It is really scary if you aren’t expecting it or if you don’t feel comfortable experiencing it. So she rode twice and I rode 3 times then we headed out to the next ride. It was BLSC it was pretty much the same as KI’s BLSC except the entire mid ride show with the helicopter was off (no flame, shots, or anything) and the water splashdown was active. We then headed to ride Anaconda and my wife wanted to ride it only once. I thought it was pretty good. The ride going into the water for the first drop as well as the inversions over the water made this ride very fun. I didn’t really like the pretzel turns (or whatever you want to call them) before the final inversion. But it was a fun ride in general. We then headed to Boo Blasters. Which had no wait. It was really fun. They even had lasers pointing to the targets so it made it easier to shoot the targets. I actually like the idea of having lasers on the gun. Finally we headed to Dominator. It is a floorless coaster with ridiculously huge inversions. The first loop and cobra roll are insane. I was really impressed with how smooth it was. It wasn’t too fast but the inversions were great and I thought the ride was paced pretty well. We ended up leaving the park and heading to eat outside the park and take a nap at the hotel. Well that might have been a mistake because it rained when we got to the hotel. We waited until it cleared up around 4 to head back to the park but as soon as we got into the parking lot the rain kicked back up we went into the park and all of the rides were closed and the rain continued so we ended up leaving and head back to the hotel for the night. It ended up being a good decision as the rain never stopped and it stormed pretty bad (lightning/wind) the rest of the night. For day 2 since we started the same way a couple of rides on Volcano I was able to get 3 rides in on I305. Also on I305 the first we were there Thursday they only had one train operation the entire day. On the second day Friday it was the same thing single train operation all day. Now I am not sure about how the inner workings of KD works so if anyone has any idea as to why they do this please let me know. Just to me it seems really silly to have your marquee ride that is constantly ranked in the top 15 in the world by Golden Tickets and ranked in the top 4 in the world on the Mitch Hawker awards running one train operations all day. That would be similar to running only two trains on Banshee or Millennium Force and not utilizing its full capacity. It made lines that should’ve been a couple of cycles extend to 30-40 minute waits. If you have been to the park and know how the queues work the line used none of the switchbacks and lead to the entrance of the ride and from what I experienced before might have stretched the ride into an hour wait. I just never understood why they did this. It was intentionally lowering the capacity of the ride just to do it. The only thing I could think of was that it was to either keep wear and tear on the cable to a minimum, keep wear and tear on the trains to a minimum, or the ride was so intense that they don’t want the general public riding as many times as they want. I just didn’t really understand it. But after my couple of cycles on I305 minus the wife we headed to Flight of Fear. It was actually really fun. I feel like the ride was much smoother than the one at KI. I don’t know if it was because the ride was a little bit more illuminated or just launched at a different speed but we both enjoyed the ride much more than the one at KI. After that we headed to Avalanche. It is a bobsled coaster and it was the first one that my wife and I have ever been on. It was really unique the riding style allowed us to share a car. It enjoyed the ride and my wife thought it was the best ride they had. I’m not sure why she enjoyed it so much but she loved it. Next we headed back to Drop Tower. This ride was really cool. The employee in the drop box came over the microphone while heading up and she sang “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) and timed it up perfectly to drop us as soon as she said goodbye. I was beyond blown away at how low the train got before actually braking. I usually don’t get nervous on Drop Towers but I really said please stop because it felt like we were going to hit the ground. I wish we had this Drop Tower at KI it really pushes the envelope on using the brakes. I ended up riding DT a couple of more times then we headed to Rebel Yell. We rode in the second row. It was a classic racing coaster that was of course not racing. The airtime on it was a bit more than Thunder Road and just about the same as Racer at KI. It was a fun spin but the queue was a bit longer than it needed to be. We decided to leave the park for lunch and take a nap at the hotel again. When we came back we immediately headed for Dominator and then headed back to ride their Flying Eagles. It was very similar to the ones at KI where the tub was just too heavy to snap. We headed to Grizzly where my wife rode it once and I stayed on for a couple of more cycles. I heard many crazy stories about how it is one of the worst wooden coasters ever but I thought it was a great ride. It didn’t beat me up and the woods made it seem like it was completely separated from the rest of the park. We then headed to WindSeeker. Which was a fantastic ride. The view was great and again it seemed like the cycle was longer than KI. We headed to ride Hurler and man was it rough. The trim brake after the first drop was awful. It was almost as if the brake didn’t hit the train the right way so the train just shuffled and bounced (or atleast it felt like it) for the entire first turn. It made the ride unenjoyable. I thought Carowinds’ Hurler was much better. We then went to ride Ricochet and we both enjoyed this one. We went up towards the front to hop on the Eiffel Tower. We then strolled the park taking in the beauty of the ride. Finally we headed to Shockwave and boy it was interesting. First this was the first TOGO I have been on and the restraints were really weird to me. The first portion of the ride was great, then we got to the helix… Headbanging like none other. The rest of the ride was decent. But when we got off my wife said that was the worst ride that she has ever been on. I think she just wasn’t ready for the helix because it really made you go almost sideways so she hit her head on the restraint really hard. She said it was like she got punched. We then headed over to I305 as it was getting dark. I got in 3 rides during the last 45 minutes, including one with the fireworks going off. Overall it was a good day but the way the ride ops worked many of the rides had slow operations all day. Many rides had waits that could have been 5-10 minutes turn into 15-20 minute waits due to the staff working extremely slow. I would’ve given them the benefit of the doubt if it was an extremely hot day like we experienced in Carowinds a couple of days before. But the ops were just super slow even though the heat index was close to 25 degrees cooler than Carowinds. Maybe we just were spoiled by the staff at Carowinds but it seemed as if we went to a Six Flags park instead of a Cedar Fair park. The ride ops were that slow. But we still enjoyed ourselves and decided to head back to the hotel. After heading back to the hotel we decided since we didn’t feel like we were able to get a lot of rides in (especially compared to earlier in the week at Carowinds) we came back for ERT on Saturday morning and got some rides on Volcano, I305, and Avalanche before leaving the park an hour after we got in for good to head back to family in Maryland. Overall we had a great time at the park. I think the mix of rides was pretty good. I think that I305 is definitely more intense than it looks on the POVs and to be honest the gray outs happened every time that I rode it. It was almost too intense if that makes sense. I almost had to focus on not blacking out so it took away some of the enjoyment for me. The guy in the drive box was doing spiels and he was giving instructions on how to not pass out on the turn. I just think that if you have to be instructed on how to ride a ride it may be overkill. It was right on the edge for me but I thought it was still enjoyable to me. Now if you ask my wife you will get a totally different answer. They had some good entertainment, the clown band put on a good show. They had everyone dancing during their show. The singing mushrooms were cool too. I thought the park had very good scenery. The entrance plaza was very similar to KI but I thought the fountains and shrubbery was much better. In fact I really loved how many trees were in the park. It made the weather which wasn’t hot to begin with even more enjoyable. I think the only complaint that both my wife and I had was the slow ride ops. I think we might have been spoiled by the way Carowinds worked hard in the 108 degree heat index so we just assumed that when it was high 70s/low 80s and breezy that we would’ve been able to get more rides in. It was enough to knock the park down a few notches in our books. We have now been to 4 parks and we ranked them as follows: Carowinds, KI, CP, and KD. We would definitely go back and do this trip a couple of years from now. I feel like both, Carowinds and KD, had extremely small crowds for being the middle of summer. I don’t know why it was but at both parks many of the “smaller” rides were walk ons for the entire week. Even with the big Christian concert they had going on the lines were really short at Kings Dominion. I went to KI the week after on a Wednesday and The Bat had a 20 minute wait. I just think that KI has a central location so they bring in way bigger crowds. But the trip is fun if you ever have the time and the funds to go to either Carowinds or KD I would recommend both parks as they are fun places to visit. Final Ride Count and some photos are below: I305- 13 Volcano- 7 Dominator- 5 Grizzly-4 Avalanche- 3 Anaconda- 3 Ricochet- 3 Rebel Yell- 2 FOF- 1 BLSC- 1 Shockwave- 1 Hurler-1

According to the English term for the contraption, "roll-er coast-er," sure. In many other languages, the name translates to Russian mountain. Does a Russian mountain need to "coast?" The whole thing is murky. If "coasting" via gravity is the official requirement, why is Devil's Den not considered a roller coaster? Just because it doesn't look or act like a traditional roller coaster? Why does Thunder Run count despite being called a "powered coaster?" Just because it looks more like a traditional roller coaster than Devil's Den? Even by that strict definition, you'd have a lot of convincing to do to make me believe that gravity doesn't power Surf Dog at all for any portion of the ride's course. Even the downhill portions are powered in such a way to overcome gravity? Hmm. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter anyway. But it's an interesting arbitrary classification that no one seems to be able to perfectly define when things get complex.

When I was there on July 2, I sat in the front row in the right section in the seat closest to one of the inner aisles. It was so cool seeing it from that close, and even a little scary when Trevor (the bicyclist) rode straight at me with the illusion he was going to run into me! it was a cool experience. I see why some people wait a while to go in even before the doors open!

For me, My Father and I would ride the bluestreak as much as we could at night for two reasons. #1 the line was extremely short so you could get off and get into line and your on the station platform again. It feels like your going faster at night than in the daytime so its much more of a rush and excitement for us. Thats my personal experience with the bluestreak so it may vary for others.

Magnum! Rolling along the beach and seeing the water at night is awesome. Plus the tunnels are super dark at night. Its my favorite night ride there at Cedar Point

I have had two cervical spinal fusion surgeries since 2003 and I do NOT ride any roller coasters. I value my health more than any thrill that I might get from going down the hill or around the bend on any roller coaster. Terpy is correct when he said none of the coasters should be ridden. Warning signs are posted and I heed them.

Yep, he definitely needs additional work done, but it's somewhat better. Sent from my SM-G860P using Tapatalk

I'm laughing pretty hard at Pipe Scream being counted as a coaster. Only Rougarou remains...

Unfortunately I'm not so sure I would risk riding any of them. I mean, it is your body and you know it better than anyone but those signs are posted for a reason.

^ I'd love this type of ride, but maybe without the inner tubes. I'm not sure how many people would want to get into the water just to ride, unless it was over in Soak City or something. I'd much prefer this type of ride (or as you suggested, a flooded Mayan Temple!) on the dry side with boats like the old Enchanted Voyage had. Now that would be amazing!

Millennium Force back seat for sure! Maverick is even crazier at night, best ride in the park! Magnum XL 200 delivers a great night ride as well!

Wouldn't it be cool to have an inner tube water/dark slide ride? Maybe a haunted house type slide with drops and scares? Maybe a flooded Mayan Temple?

Offer apparently not applicable to the District of Columbia...or least not for a specific, targeted, profiled resident thereof...

Fireworks were at 9:45pm tonight. I'm not sure if that meant the rides and attractions closed at that time as well, but I heard they made this change due to the incoming weather.

There might be more historical appreciation about Kings Island and not as much with Carowinds because many older Cincinnatians understand historically that Kings Island was a relocation of the beloved Cincinnati staple, Coney Island. Many of these people visited Coney until the very end (My father and his family were present at Coney on September 6th, 1971, when it closed). It's the rich history of Coney and Kings Island that dates back to 1867. Its the spirit of old Coney Island that still holds Kings Island up to this day, that's sole the purpose of Coney Mall and The Racer. Carowinds, on the other hand, doesn't have a history that dates as far back as Kings Island, so that might be the reason why Kings Island's history is more appreciated than Carowinds. I think that's tragic, as Carowinds has a very interesting history. It is the younger park goers that seem to not care about the history as much. I can't tell you how many times I have read things on social media, calling for The Racer to get the Rocky Mountain hybrid conversion, despite what it has meant for the present day coaster industry. It always makes me nervous about the history and the future of our park; I even had two nightmares in a row where The Racer was being torn down. However, I'm sure there are younger people out there who understand significance of the remaining original aspects of Kings Island, as well as Carowinds. I'm only sixteen years of age, and I respect the history of these parks because both of my parents visited Coney Island and have watched Kings Island change, evolve and grow for over 43 years. Understand the concern for appreciation, and hope more of it will come from people my age and younger, and not just myself. Blondy, who appoligizes for such a long comment.

After the problems with Intamin* Fixed that for you

Time is an illusion. Passing events get stored in our memories, but the lengths of time do not (otherwise, we would have to "replay" entire processes as we remembered them in order to reach a specific memory, rather than being able to recall instantly like we do). Therefore, anticipation and present-time experiences are perceived as slightly longer in terms of time content. If we think of events in reverse order, it helps us to orient ourselves as to how "long ago" something happened. Because of known limitations, such as lengths of days, life spans, physical distances, etc., our minds naturally gravitate towards plotting events onto a path, rather than stacking them in a fixed, randomly-accessible point. If it "goes" anywhere, it's always here, now.

I don't know why, but it's really striking to me how different the capacities of those rides are compared to Banshee. Of course, these numbers are rounded one way or another and don't truly take into account all of the riders for this year, but I think it's accurate enough to get the point across: In 43 years, Woodstock Express has averaged 1,046,512 riders a year. In 33 years, Viking Fury has averaged 909,091 riders a year, and Character Carousel has averaged 363,636 riders a year. In 20 years, Xtreme Skyflier has averaged 50,000 riders a year. In 19 years, Flight of Fear has averaged 789,474 riders a year. In 16 years, Invertigo has averaged 625,000 riders a year. In 8 years, Firehawk has also averaged 625,000 riders a year. And in one year, Banshee thrilled 2,000,000 riders. That's almost as much as the total average ridership per year of Flight of Fear, Invertigo, and Firehawk combined. I guess I never really perceived the capacities of those rides as being as low as they are, but then again, that's why people around here tell you not to base a ride's popularity on the length of the line. I mean, I knew Invertigo and Firehawk especially don't have great capacities, but this just kinda put it in perspective for me.

I found this interesting: "Several attractions are poised to reach notable milestones in 2015: Woodstock Express 45 millionth ride Viking Fury 30 millionth ride Flight of Fear 15 millionth ride Character Carousel 12 millionth ride Invertigo 10 millionth ride Firehawk 5 millionth ride Skyflyer 1 millionth ride" From https://www.visitkingsisland.com/media-center/ride-record-book I wonder if we'll see any prize celebrations at any of those milestones. I really enjoyed trying to be the winner during the ones last summer, and even managed to be on the same train as the 50-millionth Beast rider.

I have always been partial to Magnum at night dating back to '89. The wave. A beach ball. Great Taste/ Less Filling. -----LESS BUGS----- The Magnum line was always fun.

Is it worth the risk of something happening? For me it wouldn't be...regardless of how much I love rides. Keep in mind that if your grandson is tall enough to ride by himself, you can still stand in line together until it is his turn. Then, you can cross over before he sits down and then wait until the ride is over. I do that quite frequently with the spinning rides depending on which kids I have with me. It let's us still spend time together and they love waving and shouting at me as they pass. My oldest nephew was diagnosed with epilepsy right before the 12-13 season and was not allowed to ride anything bigger than Woodstock Express. It didn't matter that he had been on them before. As the doctor said, you never know and it wasn't worth the risk. He still had fun going to the park...even if he stared longingly at the coasters. His medicine works and he was given the "take it slow" instructions last season but I wouldn't let him ride Vortex and he had to wait until the very end of the season for Banshee. This year...Vortex is still off the list and I'm making him wait another year of no seizures before visiting Cedar Point. As much as this disappoints him, his health is far more important than any ride.

Millennium Force is great at night assuming you get past the bug stage of the evening. We tend to favor the back of the train to reduce the wind and bugs, but the back is just fun. Had our first Top Thrill Dragster at night, and that was pretty cool too. August 6 is an Evening Ride Event with Top Thrill Dragster and hope to make it. Unfortunately Maverick's line always seems too long to wait for at night, but our next trip, we will have to force ourselves to experience that.

Maverick is the best ride in the park day or night!

Neither is Schlitterbahn, but they have this.... https://youtu.be/GXOsssacYC4 and this

Maverick is crazy awesome at night. The train offers a nice relaxing night ride as well.

KI allows 3 "i forgot my pass times" not 1, as my ex wife found out this year when taking my daughter and forgot to ask me for her pass, at least she did this 2x this year and they told her she could only do this 1 more time then would have to buy a replacement pass.

All this talk of the disappearing airtime on Hurler... If you want to know what Hurler would be like with great airtime, there's a park in Louisville that can demonstrate a pretty darn good facsimile of that experience. You could go check that out. Ed Hart will thank you. Especially if you're from the Carolinas (or anywhere that could be described as "not Kentucky", for that matter...)

Fireworks usually are 9:55 and by the time they finish it's like 10:05 or something like that. But they probably did it early for as you said, incoming weather. Plus the park wasn't THAT busy at all.

I would be happy with a Giga or Woodie but would love a ride like Maverick.

There isn't much activity that has gone in in Soak City. I've never noticed any markers. BUT, that doesn't stop them from using the grassy are between the gate and Tidal Wave Bay. By the way, The reason I didn't mark the whole area is that I am smart enough to know that Kings Island has to be cautious with the power lines that run right through the middle of Soak City. I know the Kiddie pool in the middle is pretty close, but it's still far enough away. That's why I didn't highlight the entire area. But anyways, I could see a new 4 person slide thing, or maybe 2 to 4 individual tube slides right there.

Good news! The dinosaur has seen the dentist and it appears that a small bridge of teeth has been replaced. Although he might need to brush, floss and rinse more often now. Im sure he needs to eat more fiber though, and stay away from the crunchy stuff too.

Steel Venom was ALWAYS at Valleyfair!, and one that should be ridden. The rear spike has a holding brake at max height, and that alone makes it better by far than Wicked Twister. Steel Venom at Geauga Lake, was moved to Dorney Park and renamed Possessed. It also has the holding brake on the non-twisting rear spike. Also note, that Wild Thing is a Morgan hyper coaster, and is the predecessor to Mamba at Worlds of Fun. I LOVE Morgan hypers, and while quasi-similar to Magnum, the bunny hills on the Morgan hypers are insurmountably more comfortable than the pyramids that pass as bunny/airtime hills on Magnum.

People from ACE will tell you it was good, because the ACE code of conduct (specifically, section C, number 4) prohibits them from saying otherwise. One of many reasons I am not a member of ACE.

And, were I there, which is unlikely, my phone would still live in my Bahroo. Sometimes parks need to realize some of us try to vacation AWAY from extraneous technology--I don't want to make ride reservations months in advance, I don't want to be chained to a phone in a park...and I will not do either. The day either be becomes necessary is the day I decide to spend my discretionary leisure dollars someplace else. Phones IN a park. Harumph.

Found this on Imgur just now... https://imgur.com/gallery/sFm3wan You can probably just imagine the comments...

Magnum and Iron Dragon were my favorites.

I totally understand your position on this, i tend to leave my phone in my truck when im there too and just enjoy myself. That said for this particular event having one would be nice just for being able to take pics and video of the tour that for many of us may be a once in a lifetime opportunity and may want to show family etc. True though a digital camera would work just as well.

Sorry. I have mentioned where I moved to on numerous occasions. Just left it out this time and named a ride. He also loves Shiekra and Manta.

Sadly you are right, but I think the appreciation for such things is stronger at KI than at Carowinds. At least by those in charge of removing attractions.

Barely any of the GP anywhere cares about history. Until it's gone.

Nasty storms with high winds headed to Cincy. If you're in the area, stay safe.

Was listening to the Drop Tower and I heard as the ride was at the top "10. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5" -ride releases- As soon as the ride slowed down the operator said "oops, sorry I miss counted.

My mom is still angry that my dad took me on a kid roller coaster when I was 7 years old, because I said "I'm scared" once before we got on. I ended up loving it and I love coasters a lot to this day. When I tell her this, she says "you're just saying that because you don't want to upset him!" (Never mind that I'm 28 now and I go to Kings Island by myself and ride on the roller coasters because I like them. Even though I was scared that first time it's a fond memory now.) There will always be parents who push their kids too much and parents who don't push their kids enough. So it's a good policy to have in place, to see if a kid genuinely wants to ride despite being scared or not.

I feel like the park should have a consistent answer to that question