johnjniehaus

I'm not necessarily afraid of the Drop Tower when I'm standing on the ground but when I get to the top I always get the sensation that I'm going about to wet my pants then once it drops I'm perfectly fine. It's weird because I do ride it and enjoy it so idk if I'm subconsciously afraid of it or not. The one I worry about breaking down while I'm riding is definitely wind seeker because I don't want to be stuck on that ride at all let alone a couple hundred feet off the ground.

So yeah I ended up just using water fountains. It was just so strange that the staff kept pointing to the next food location and saying I could get water there but once I got there they didn't have it either. Jokeys Jalopies...so I just have a thing for car rides no matter what type they are. Yes the one at KI the guest has control (gas powered not electric or self powered) So I tried to ride Snoopy's Racing Railway and was told I couldn't ride without a kid by the operator working the que so that ended that venture real quick. And yeah I'd be mad about losing anything for time warp. That coaster sucked.

So my week long amusement park trip for 2023 has come to a close. I visited 7 different parks across numerous states and Ontario, CA. Here's my mini novel on how it went! 6/12/23: Carowinds - let's just say that this park was smaller than k thought but it still has a very diverse coaster collection. Fury was amazing and I really enjoyed intimidator as well. Nighthawk I thought was a lot rougher than Firehawk ever was at KI. I also got to experience our flying eagles (now mountain gliders) and they definitely lived up to the hype seeing as I was 2 when they were removed from KI I only have the stories of my dad and uncle to go off of. Now I can say yes they are absolutely one of the best flats out there. Ricochet, Carolina Gold Rusher, and Cyclone coasters weren't the best of their models but still enjoyable. I was happy to see a Schwarzkopf enterprise (scream Weaver) still in operation as well and got 2 rides on it. Vortex was closed still for whatever controls work they are doing on it (got that info from emailing the park about a week before my trip). Copperhead Strike was a great coaster and I could see something like that at KI one day. Also I found Hurler to be fun and not that rough if I wasn't in a wheel seat...rode it multiple times 6/13/23: Kings Dominion - Ok this was my favorite park of the trip! I was surprised how much I loved this park. First impressions were terrible so I'm glad that isn't everything. After waiting an excruciating 30 minutes to get through security at the front gate I finally got into the park. First ride of the day as Flight of Fear and their version is running much smoother than ours and also doesn't stop on the break at the top. Overall, theirs was running better than ours and the line was super short every time I rode it. Next was Intimidator 305 which I think is the child of Maverick and Millennium Force making it my new #1 coaster of all time. I rode it so many times that morning and I also ended the day with numerous rides on it. Anaconda is not as rough as people act like it is and in fact I enjoyed the ride quite a bit. Reptilian was a cool bobsled coaster that I rode a few times. Dominator was pretty smooth and forceful. Only got 1 ride on it seeing as it wasn't close to other coasters (had to walk through Planet Snoopy to get over there) it's really the only coaster at the park that looks like it was just plopped in there. All the others have alot of trees or terrain around them I think. The Woodstock Express here had an extra little hill at the end. Anyone know why that is? Did others have the additional hill right before the break run and it got removed or is KD version just different? Twisted Timbers was good but anyone saying it was a top tier RMC is wrong. There's numerous ones I've ridden better than that one. Sure it was probably way better than hurler but it's not the best ride in the park like some have claimed it to be. Apple Zapple was a good wild Mouse and Racer 75 was super smooth and running great. The red side won every single time though and it wasn't very close so for actual close racing ours is better. Ride/speed wise KD is probably better. Grizzly was a coaster I wanted to like because of all the hype about the re-tracking and sure those parts were great but you could immediately tell when you were back on the old stuff...those parts hurt! Idk who was riding this before they did re-tracking on the parts they did do. Overall I didn't hate it but it ranked middle to bottom of the lineup. Someone has told me that KI is the only park that has the stunt cars effects turned on however, KD had the fire working and some sound effects working. They also had water in the trough at the end under the bridge. So while I'm still not a fan of stunt cars, at least some stuff was working. KD flying eagles was pretty good as was the blue ridge parkway car ride. One other thing I'm questioning is why the Eiffel Tower was closed and when I say closed like que line fenced up with a privacy fence. It was like they boarded it up type of closed? Anyone got any info on how long it's been that way, why it's boarded up/closed, how long they plan to keep it that way? 6/14/23: Six Flags America - This was not a great park. I didn't stay all day and my biggest take away was the Marvin Martian t-shirt I bought in the gift shop. First, superman ride of Steel is pretty good (rode a couple of times) however the one train ops makes this one have a unnecessary long line. Batwing broke down right after I got off the first train of the day. Thankfully it ran smoother than Nighthawk at Carowinds. Jokers Jinx was a good ride as well but once again one train ops made that line crawl. Also, the operators weren't good on it. They checked the back half of the train before the lap bars actually locked and went on like nothing was wrong. I mean I could have pushed it up if I wanted to. Anyway of course the main operator activated the lock and everyone in the back pulled down but the checker op never did come back and check the lap bars after they locked. That's just not good operations if u ask me. The Firebird was probably one of the roughest b&m coasters I've ridden and Roar wasn't much better. Both of those were one and done. Ragin Cajun was a little too much spin after standing around for 45min in the blazing sun. Kinda felt a little icky after that one. The one coaster that exceeded expectations here was Wild One. For a coaster that's 100+ years old it's surprisingly tall and fast! Great layout and airtime and while it's not super smooth it wasn't painful rough either. It really did maintain its classic feel really well. 6/15/23: Dorney Park - this park blew expectations away! Why doesn't anyone really talk about Dorney? Sure it's small but all the rides I rode here were really good! Steel Force is a mini Magnum hyper that runs smoothly. Thunderhawk was running really smooth and is a classic. Hydra is unconventional but a fun floorless. Talon is a great invert that runs smoother than some newer ones (less rattle). Possessed was a lot of fun and the ops were killing it one that one too so wait time was minimal. The wild Mouse was well just a typical wild mouse but at least it was smooth! The demon drop was really amazing and I'm so glad Cedar Fair moved it to Dorney instead of scraping it after CP was done with it. Dorney also had a great collection of other rides like the huss enterprise, the unconventional log flume, and the zephyr railroad just to name a few. 6/16/23: Canada's Wonderland - alright this was the park I was most excited about and it delivered! Rode Leviathan first thing in the morning and I actually thought it was better than Orion meaning that Orion is my least favorite giga? (Still a great ride but I'm not a fan of wave turn or helix sections and leviathan had more airtime hills). Behemoth was a good hyper (in the back rows but unfortunately unlike Dback they wouldn't let you pick your row so half of my rides were towards the front with the weird acceleration as you get held over the drops waiting for the rest of the train to catch up) Yukon Striker was definitely better than Valravn and the vest restraints didn't bother me that much on this one. Vortex is an absolute beauty and rode well too. I prefer the back seat on The Bat (extra car gives it just a little more whip around the turns) but Vortex was still a great ride. Wilde Beast was the one I got the most rides on and I thought it rode extremely well (not smooth but just the perfect amount of rough to where it had some bite but wasn't uncomfortable in any way). Mighty Canadian Minebuster was a great layout (a few spots such as the helix were a little rough to me). Wonder Mountain Guardian is a great dark ride coaster (wish it was little longer). Thunder Run was really cool family ride and The Bat was the smoothest boomerang I've ridden yet. Dragon Fyre was good fun I just didn't get anything out of it's layout that I couldn't have gotten from another arrow looper. The stunt cars coaster is definitely the worst of the 3 installations as no effects worked and it doesn't even have all the signage anymore it appears. The Fly was a great wild mouse (just like apple Zapple) and of course I rode ghoster Coaster just for the credit. Now Flight Deck and Time Warp are two of the worst coasters ever! Both are extremely rough and both need to make way for something better. One ride and done on those. As for the flats, I rode Skyhawk, Wilde knightmares, and sledge Hammer. (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough for some of the other ones) sledge Hammer is my new favorite flat and I got 3 rides on it. So glad it was open during my visit. 6/17/23: Marineland - Ok so I had read some mixed reviews of this place some saying it should be closed for animal abuse and others praising it for its laid back atmosphere and good operations. So I drove there and after making sure Dragon Mountain was operating I bought a ticket and hiked back to that Coaster. The man made cavern that the station is in was way too cool to exist at that park. The ride itself was similar to Loch Ness Monster at Busch gardens in my opinion. Long Helix section through a tunnel and one of a kind inversion element (bowtie element on dragon mountain, interlocking loops on loch Ness) I rode this 10x and it made the trip to the park worth it. After DM I decided to explore the rest of the park and that's where things went south. The ladybug coaster was fine and the magic carpet ride was something I'd never experienced but the animal exhibits were disappointing. The penguin aquarium looked like it was 10,000 years old and the floor hadn't been mopped since 1980. The whale tank was smaller than sea world Orlando and had more whales in it. I don't profess to be a wildlife expert but the exhibits seemed super outdated and unlike sea world there was nothing about conservation at this park that I saw. So I know some people would say they wouldn't support this park because of the animal situation and I wouldn't blame anyone for that. Me personally, I figured I'd see for myself and I'm just telling myself that my $45 went towards the preservation of a wonderful arrow coaster. I really hope this park gets some new owners that either give the animal exhibits the upgrades/space they need or just revamp the park altogether and phase out the animals for more rides. 6/17/23: Six Flags Darien Lake - Ok so just like it's cousin at SFA ride of steel was fantastic. Prowler was also really good and I enjoyed the smooth ride in the metal track they put in places. Boomerang was typical, moto - coaster was closed for some reason, viper was fine, mind Eraser was the smoothest SLC I've been on yet, Tantrum was really fun but way too short of a ride (and running only one train with 8 seats on a euro fighter on a Saturday is terrible operations) overall not really impressed with Darien Lake but I still enjoyed the couple of hrs I spent there. Well that sums it up!

I mean was sand serpent great? No...but I'm still a bit sad to see it go. Hopefully they replace it with something that is actually awesome and not something that they say is awesome and then it's just kinda meh (aka Cedar Point ditches witches wheel for restaurant with outdoor seating)

Just a few pictures from yesterday. Lines weren't super long. Probably 30-45 for leviathan and 20 or less for everything else. Got quite a few rides in - Wilde Beast 4x, Behemoth 3x, Minebuster 3x, Vortex 3x, thunder Run 3x, wonder mountain guardian 3x, Vortex 3x, Sledge Hammer 3x, Yukon Striker 2x, Dragon Fyre 2x, Leviathan 2x, Backlot Stunt Coaster 1x, The Fly 1x, Wilde knightmares 1x, time warp 1x, flight Deck 1x, ghoster Coaster 1x, The Bat 1x, jokeys Jalopies 1x, Skyhawk 1x. My only complaint is I could never find a location that gives out the free mini cups of water... didn't have it at Coke places, beer places, counter service restaurant places. I was told they could charge me for a drink at one place. Is the free water not a thing at this park? I just decided to use water fountains the entire day.

While it's true that Cedar Fair will never let Kings Island be bigger or better than Cedar Point it is true that they have made some great investments at the park. They have just changed the market to local instead of destination. To be fair KI is still a bucket list park for enthusiasts but probably less for vacationers. That has pros and cons. Cons are that CP will always get better new coasters Pros are we don't have the insane wait times CP has. Also to be fair, the management of the park in 2004 was Paramount and they are the idiots who axed both our antique car tracks and gave our flying eagles away to Carowinds in the first place! If it wasn't for a bad move on the part of paramount, we wouldn't even have this discussion thread right now lol

I too think that Orion is too similar to Dback however it's still a great ride and no it's not as good as other Gigas but it's still a really good coaster....the complaints usually are that they could have done better and I hear you they could have but they gave us what they gave us and at least we have a giga of some sort. A "bad" giga (if there is such a thing) is better than no giga. Furthermore Orion is better than the coaster it replaced (Firehawk) so to me that counts for something. I say let's be thankful that Cedar Fair gave us the giga coaster instead of scraping the design altogether whenever it was clear it wasn't going to CA great America. Now back on topic, the zamperla flats aren't as nice as some other manufacturers however they fit well in the park, visually look nice, and fit the budget and seeing as the whole idea came together last minute, I think it's safe to say that originally 2023 would have been the down year with no new rides (just Dback repaint and Red Racer Re-tracking jobs). I really hope they have something good to follow this up with next year (Phantom Theater 2024 pretty please!) I personally think The Vortex replacement is coming in 2025 but who knows. Regardless I'm glad they spent some money and made a nice small investment instead of doing nothing basically.

I'm going tomorrow so I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for all the info!

I got it to snap a few times whenever I rode it this past Monday. It's a great ride! There's a reason we want it back and they won't give it up... I do want to make the point though that we sent them our old Vortex trains for Carolina Cyclone and our old Firehawk trains to use for parts on Nighthawk.... what has Carowinds done for us lately?

I'll be there this Friday (June16).... anyone got any recommendations or tips?

I voted no. First I'm not the target audience for an additional cost attraction because if it's more than $5 I'm not paying it. I rode eXtreme Skyflyer three times on a day where they ran a $5 special (I only paid once, friends paid other two times). I never rode slingshot and I have already ridden it's replacement Cargo Loco

So they have fixed the audio on first lift. I could hear the entire thing tonight. Anyone else think they turned it up?

I personally don't think we need any more kids rollercoasters. Our lineup is extremely solid with the 3/4 we do have and once kids hit 48" they are onto better things anyway. The only kids coaster I still ride is Woodstock Express because that's actually a good rollercoaster. I feel like if the park wants to target younger guests they should continue investing in more flats with low height requirements (like cargo loco for example) to get some of those kids out of kiddy land. People seem to forget that kids can ride things like the scrambler, monster, shake rattle and roll, viking fury before they hit 48". Maybe another family coaster would work but it would need to be something that adults/teen want to ride too (maybe something like Dollywood Big Bear Mountain, Wild Mouse at Cedar Point, or Seven Dwarves Mine Train at Disney) something that has a lower height requirement than 48" but will appeal to more than just kids.

I think The Beast (after re-tracking) is still one of our most popular rides that people travel to the park to ride. Some people may come to ride Mystic Timbers or Orion but those are probably the biggest rides with drawing power. Nobody plans a trip to Kings Island from out of town to ride Dback, Flight of Fear, Banshee, The Racer, or The Bat which are all top tier rides at the park as well (at least in my experience with out of towners I've talked to. As for the Orion VS Dback debate I personally think Orion is a good ride and it's far superior to Firehawk (which is what it more or less replaced). However, Orion has a few elements that don't do anything for me including the wave turn (top of second hill) and the "belt" section (helix). The ride also just feels short and while any row delivers good airtime, the back rows of Diamondback are better than any row on Orion. Diamondback is longer in ride time and provided you are in the back always delivers great airtime over every hill. Diamondback is my personal favorite coaster out of approx 170 credits. Now I personally LOVE millennium force and Magnum XL 200. They are my #2 and #3 right behind Dback. These two coasters are a perfect example of what makes a good hyper/giga combo. Magnum is an airtime machine and milli is all about the positive Gs and speed. Two vastly different rides unlike Orion and Dback which are too similar in my opinion. The contrast of Milli and Magnum at KI would be Dback and Beast to me. Dback has the airtime like Magnum and beast is a coaster built for speed much like milli. Did I forget to mention beast is my #4 of all time? (Sure I'm a little biased towards Ohio I think)

Some of mine have been - - - - - Racer needed a repaint Adventure Port wasn't open for Opening Weekend Phantom Theater needs to return We need to address the Tomb Raider building Vortex needs a replacement The Bat needs to be saved from demolition in the future

Yeah ITM doesn't always have their facts straight in my experience. They win the award for catchy click bait headlines but the actual article can be misleading or just have totally incorrect information. Take this article for example about Hershey park saving their 100 year old coaster Wildcat with an RMC treatment (sorry guys that isn't the same wildcat that opened in 1923).

See from reading reviews I was under the impression that tunnel one was the cobra caverns and that tunnel three was the gem mine however on my rides last night the first tunnel is clearly marked as gem mine on a small sign located on the right side of the track before entering the tunnel. The snakes in the third tunnel are more noticeable at night however there's one that's sitting on the top of the tunnel which can be seen from other outdoor portions of the track. Overall it's not 100% but it's a lot better than it was. I really hope they keep up on the maintenance and keep the animatronics working and the audio working.

Ok so here's my review as I just came up this evening to get my first rides on cargo loco and adv express. Cargo Loco to me personally is hard to spin though I got it going pretty fast I thought. Really nice visually and I'm glad we have another family ride near Adventure Express and viking fury. Adventure Express was really cool with all the additional thematic elements. I do think they need to bump up the audio because arrow mine trains are noisy and drown out the narrative. I couldn't make out the audio on the first lift hill (also noticed the masks/sphinx heads are not there) I hope they add some lighting/gems in the first tunnel which is marked as the gem mine. The second tunnel (the Kings tomb is wonderful with lots of props lighting and working effects) the third tunnel is the cobra caverns and I did see a few snakes but hopefully they are adding a few more and giving it better lighting. I saw one snake on the top of the tunnel before you enter and there's a cobra on the right side of the train near the end of the tunnel that you can see if you're looking for it. Perhaps there's more snakes in there and you are going too fast or it's too dark to notice? I'm not sure. The forbidden temple is of course the highlight as all but one fist guy was working and the audio was actually turned up loud enough to hear it well. Of course the station master is great and so are all the que line props. So all in all it's an amazing ride with great theme however there's a few audio bugs they could work out and I would like to see more gems and snakes in the gem mine and cobra caverns tunnels Ok so after a few night rides, I was able to see that there's at least 4 snakes in the 3rd tunnel and I was able to pick up on some audio without all the noise of the riders. The lift hill audio says something like "you are on the wrong track... you are headed for the forbidden temple...I will check in with you there" Now I'm sure I'm still missing bits of what the audio says however it's something kind of like that. The audio at the end is something like "you are back on track one ..... And remember the express is always on the right track."

I get the argument that this is "cheating" pass holders in a way so perhaps the timing is not the best however, I personally like the idea. Six Flags has the option to get a single use fast pass for $11 or something and when you only visit for 1 day and need to get all the credits on a budget you often just wait in line however if you can buy an affordable fast pass for the one ride you don't have enough time to ride it's a much more successful day. For example at Six Flags Over TX I had had moderate waits for Shockwave, Titan, Batman, and Runaway Mine Train during the morning. In the afternoon the park became swamped and I had to wait two hours for Mr Freeze and close to two hrs for New TX Giant. After those two coasters sucking down 4hrs of my day I had two hours till closing to get the remaining coasters - Pandemonium, Runaway Mountain, and La Vibora. I got the single use fast pass on Pandemonium and Runaway Mountain knocking both out in a half hour. I then discovered that runaway mountain had a single rider line (so I actually wasted $11 there). I decided to wait for La Vibora and because of a break down waited an hour. (I should have got the fast pass for it seeing as I would have been on and off before the break down delay). However in my final two hrs I was able to get one ride on Pandemonium, two on runaway mountain (1 fast pass, 1 single rider), one on La Vibora and two on Shockwave (which was station wait near park closing). I thought the single fast pass was worth it personally and I would probably use it at KI especially if going with friends who have limited time and just need to get on one more ride.

Did they do anything interesting with that third tunnel?

I'm happy to see they are running it at a pretty descent speed. The tea cups at some parks seem to crawl and you are forced to madly spin the cups to get any sort of thrill out of the ride.

Well that's the real trick isn't it because unfortunately many rides have fallen into disrepair in terms of theming. I mean maybe there's a reason Adventure Express is getting "enhancement" seeing as the theming that is there only works some of the time. Stunt Cars is another one where it feels like the theming could be restored or at least maintained a bit better. I'm not saying that the rides have to have movie themes or anything but I've really enjoyed the slight theme/storylines of the newer rides like Orion and Mystic Timbers. Flight of Fear has also maintained it's theme pretty well. I'm hoping with this investment into Adventure Express that we will see more money spent on the upkeep of the theming and possibly some future revamps for rides like stunt cars and see boo blaster converted back to Phantom Theater.

I just watched the POV of Phantom Theater and thought I'd revisit the subject of the return of the ride to the dark ride building currently occupied by boo blaster. After seeing the POV again I am still saddened and dumfounded by the decision to remove such an amazing looking dark ride for rides like Scooby Doo and Boo Blasters. I say that the Maestro and his gang need to kick Boocifer and his ghosts out once and for all and retake the dark ride building! Let's go Phantom Theater 2024! (This is also coming from a guy who never experienced the original seeing as it closed the year I was born. I also think it would be a hit amongst more than just the nostalgic park goers and would gather a whole new generation of fans)

I'm ashamed to admit it but I never did see the Phantom Theater Encore show last year so I will definitely make it a point to see it this year. I keep watching the POV of the ride and I still can't fathom why or how they destroyed such a masterpiece of a dark ride for Scooby Doo or the awful cardboard cutout ghosts known as boo blaster...

I wonder if the Eiffel Tower has seen an increase in ridership this year since it's the prime place to spy on Adventure Port construction?