lifetimecoaster

Sarcasm duly noted!! I'm not sure what the questions will look like, but if I'm to be 100% honest, I won't be going until mask is a word that people only use to describe Halloween. I know, I'm a jerk for not wearing a mask, people tell me every day. LOL

You're welcome to your straw man argument, and your fear. The difference between a shirt and sweaty armpits, and a mask soaked with sweat is that you don't breathe through your armpits. It's a neat argument, that can be combated by saying "wear a tank top then". Also, I'm not going to qualify to be able to visit this year anyway, because if I have to be able to say I've not been in contact with anyone with the virus.... I can't. I'm an essential employee and have been working with customers that work for the major hospitals in my area.

I will likely be shamed for this... or at least someone will say "good, one less person", but I'm not waterboarding myself in sweat to ride a roller coaster this summer. This requiring everyone to wear masks is not something I will support. I'm still on team "you should be responsible for yourself".

This may be a sign of things to come for small regional parks. Folks have been frightened to a point where you really have to weigh the likelihood of people actually showing up at the parks. If they think that people aren't going to come, they won't open, because it will end up costing more to open than to actually just call the season a loss and move on. It's a sad thing to think of, but it's a reality. The fear has been ingrained in folks now, and I'm watching as things are opening here in Indianapolis, and seeing that people are coming out, people are moving around a bit, but there is still a strong "I'm not willing to risk it" that's floating around.

I did effectively that once. We stood on the road past Diamondback, and I waved at the camera, then stood there watching for myself on the camera. Turns out, it's about 5 minutes behind usually. I also wave to the Mystic camera when I'm on Diamondback.

At this point, theme parks opening is something that I'm not sure is even worth it for the industry. As a park, there will always be the "do we put a full staff in today?" "Should we open all of the restaurants today?" "Will we have enough people here to open the freestyle stand by the train?" If you decide to do it, and then have roughly 20 percent customers come in, then you've wasted money. If you didn't do it, and have a huge day, then you've screwed up. It's a huge money thing.

You're likely very much on to something. In situations like Orion, with 4 wide seating, it is going to take far longer to sanitize a train than it will on say, Beast. There's also much to be said for the "but you let them" crowd. There's also the "turn in the people not following the rules" crowd, and I can assure you, there will be people at the park taking pictures of full train rows with the sole idea in mind to turn them into the Ohio government to get KI in trouble for "not following the rules". We all know these folks are out there, and they will strike anywhere they get an opportunity to, no one is safe from them.

This is my main concern about masks at theme parks. Those N95's that have the big plastic valve on the front of them sure would do some major damage to a persons face 3 rows back when they blow off at 90 mph.

Sounds to me that if they're out and about they've made that choice. They've made the choice to go get groceries instead of having them delivered, and why would you need to be at a gas station if you've chosen to stay at home. See, this is where a lot of people are really losing me. There's all these things that you "have to do" but you don't actually have to do them. Most folks are having groceries delivered. Most folks are having their drugs delivered. If you're staying home, you won't need to purchase gas, because your car isn't going anywhere to require gas. If you're currently leaving your house, you're choosing to do so. I work in an essential business. I've been out here in this terrifying world every day. I'm being fed to the wolves because I'm "essential" (to those of us that are tired of hearing that word, we actually hear "expendable" FYI). Most of us are getting really tired of people who are sitting in their safe zones talking about how dangerous it is to reopen businesses. It's too dangerous for you, but for us, well, if we die, we die. And yup, you're right (I can read your mind) I've made the decision to still go to work and do my thing, because that's what I do. Most of my customers are doctors and nurses that are working with this virus, so for all intents and purposes, my likelihood of exposure is SIGNIFICANTLY high. I'm just over here doing what I do, but I'm getting real sick and tired of folks telling me in a round about way how unimportant we are.

Awesome, I suppose that means Indiana will end up doing the same. I'm done, it's time to start thinking about looking for another country to live in now.

I think in a way, you just continued his point, as opposed to disproving it. If it's up to people if they want to risk it, then it's up to those people. If someone goes to a concert, and gets infected, the only people they should be coming into contact with, are other people that have chosen to risk it, because people who don't want to risk it, should be in their house. In the "lets let people decide on their own what's right for them" model, the only people getting sick, should be the people who have rightly chosen to risk their health by being out and living.

Here in Indianapolis we've already experienced this. The mountain bike trail I regularly ride at almost got shut down... and it wasn't because of what you'd think. Part of what has been asked of people is to do your outdoor activities, socially distant. I have no issue with that. I'm cruising through on a bike at a fairly decent rate of speed. It's not often I'm close to much of anyone on my bike. Our own group (the mountain bikers) were calling into Indy parks and complaining, not because of people not being socially distant, but because the trail was too crowded with hikers. It is a multi use trail, hikers, runners, bikers, families, all can use it for their enjoyment. It's very close to a lot of populous here in Indy, when you're asked to not travel far for your outdoor activities, you're going to use the closest location. Our own group almost got the place shut down because they couldn't race through as fast as possible because people were out hiking with their kids. It's disgusting to me what this has done to society as a whole. People are mean, that's a fact, but it's gotten so far worse with all of this. I do not look forward to the general attitude of humans when things open back up and start looking more normal.

The old pics of Vortex when it still had its vivid orange and dark blue paint... it was so pretty.

Well... getting wordy again, but how about B&M BO Jigga?

For some reason I got stuck on calling MT Chicken Tenders. My daughter finds it funny, so at least I'm cool in the eyes of her. LOL

Got ya. Well that's sad, he was certainly very useful for photos of the park, and likely could have brought some images of The Vortex destruction that we all are so interested in seeing.

I feel like I missed something interesting, because I honestly hadn't even really noticed he hasn't been around.

Along with the cargo shorts, I also will usually carry a ziplock for the phone and car keys to go in when I ride WWC.

Mine is the same way until I start to play the feed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there just 1 crane on it? From what I can see on the webcam, it appears that they've picked it up with 1 crane. These dudes know what they're doing if they can pick it up in the exact spot on the track to get the exact angle they need to install it!!

Seeing the scope of the actual real ride, it is going to carry a lot of speed through the whole ride. Some of these "small" hills are still huge!!

I would say 2019 was my best season yet!! I visited more times in one season than I had ever. Made 4 solo visits, and then 1 visit with my wife. Got a surprise visit right at the end of the regular season when my mother in law decided to take all of us for a "last ride on The Vortex visit". Well that visit ended up being a major awesome, because my daughter the roller coaster nut ended up reaching 48 inches. Once we got her arm band, we headed straight away to Vortex... a ride that she wanted to try. My wife and I had discussed it, and my wife was a little on the fence thinking it would be too forceful for her, and would possibly end up scaring her away from coasters for a while. I agreed, but my daughter persisted that she was going to ride Vortex. (she is 7, I rode it opening season at roughly 6 years old). The first go round we got front seat. She squealed and screamed through the whole ride, and I just thought to myself, "well those are either good screams, or this is the last lap she will do on this coaster ever". We came off the ride, and she just giggled "I wanna ride again daddy". And we did. All in, we rode 3 laps of Vortex that day. On the second lap she didn't scream, or yell, or squeal. She just smiled. While upside down in the second loop, she yelled to me "daddy, I thought you said this goes upside down 6 times, but that isn't six". It was at that point I knew, it's going to take a LOT of roller coaster to scare that kid off of roller coasters!! Looking forward to 2020, I'm likely as not going to be getting a season pass this year, because last year without one, I would say I easily spent WELL over what a season pass would cost buying the Indy Saver tickets.

I concur with this post. There are cranes I can see. I'm assuming more of the overbank is being installed, and I can't see it because of a perfectly placed rain drop!!

2 years ago I was on Vortex on a Sunday afternoon and the park was dead. The woman that was working the deck told me I could ride until someone was in line for my seat if I wanted to. Did 5 laps before I started to gray out pretty bad, and decided it was time to get off. Went over and rode wind seeker, saw empty trains coming out on Vortex, and decided to go do it again. Glad I got that opportunity for sure, now that it's going to be a defunct ride.

It's fun to think that the motivation is riding rides!! I lost a ton of weight and had a great summer riding anything I wanted at KI. I used to be a tough fit on some, but this summer was a cake walk. Bonus point, that 15 miles of walking around the park hurts way less 40 lbs lighter!!