johnjniehaus

Thoughts - The Good 1. Looks like a really fun ride actually 2. Love to see a modern Vekoma going into CP 3. Love to see them cramming it into that space by iron Dragon (I'm surprised it isn't going into the Snake River falls plot) The Bad 1. Two train ops? For CP that's bad for a new ride 2. Why are they building a tilt coaster next to a dive coaster that has sort of the same purpose in the lineup? 3. That section by Iron Dragon is always packed as it is. Hopefully they consider that and have a good walkway design. The Ugly 1. Why on earth does CP get 3 rollercoasters back to back to back years? That seems a little ridiculous when parks like valleyfair and Michigan's Adventure have been waiting for over 10 years for a new coaster. 2. I thought after SSBR, we'd see the next Vekoma come to KI. Was KI the vekoma experiment so that CP could benefit from another major addition while we get stuck with Mike's budget blasters? 3. Not saying Vekoma tilt is my first pick for The Vortex plot but why on earth does CP get this after receiving two coasters back to back years while KI has been waiting nearly 5 years for them to fill that gaping hole at the end of Coney Mall??? This kinda came out of nowhere for me as I was expecting snake River falls to be replaced either next season or in 2026. I'm going to go up there next year, ride siren's curse (which I actually love the name and logo), I'm going to love having a vekoma tilt within a days drive or Cincinnati, and at the end of the day CP is one of my favorite parks and this ride is going to make it so much better. Hopefully they get TT2 up next season as well and if they do essentially having two new coasters will make 2025 one of the biggest, wildest seasons CP has ever seen. Having said all that I'm still upset by the fact arguably the best park in the combined six flags chain is getting another rollercoaster when they just got wild Mouse and TT2 and I would have thought their time and resources would be exhausted after TT2 and all the follow up issues. CP doesn't need a new coaster next year IF TT2 actually does reopen as a reliable attraction. Meanwhile you have KI still waiting for a Vortex replacement. I'm thinking about how great this coaster would have been had it gone to valleyfair. The two train ops wouldn't be an issue, VF needs a modern looping coaster, and it would be the first coaster they've received in MANY MANY YEARS! not like they just got new coasters in 2023 and 2024...

I still have mixed feelings about them building a BBW 2.0 but it being a B&M family invert. Sometimes it's best to leave the legacy of a beloved ride alone... If they had come out with a new swinging train system or S&S had just brought back the arrow model I would have been all for it. However, if the ride or the layout is lacking there's going to be a lot of original fans that are upset that they used the legacy of a beloved former ride to market a subpar one. For me personally I wasn't a huge fan of any of the names but Geisterwolf made the most sense to me. This ride is a ghost of one in the past while "wolf storm" and "wolf reign" made less sense to me... besides aren't DarKoaster and verboten already themed to storms?

Am I the only one who saw the announcement today? https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/vote2025/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFRjx1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYJISROajnXE7xkoffFM4RyXJglfbm-9XnNJLXwlkWptWvcv6kVWAK8HCQ_aem_xNyJNa2smoJFXQtn5dTC4Q%2F

Silverwood Photos

Puyallup State Fair Photos

Wild Waves Photos

I made a friend during the ACE Spring Con at KI who lives in Seattle so I decided to travel out to see him and to go to the amusement parks in Washington State and of course Silverwood. One of our other ACE friends flew out as well so we had a grand group of 3. On the first day we did a half day at Wild Waves and then went to the State Fair for the remainder of the day. The second day we drove 5 hours to Silverwood and spent the entire day at that park finishing up at the indoor raptors reef water park at the Triple Play Resort. Wild Waves: I really had bad expectations about this park as I'd never heard much about it and my friend who lives in Seattle had never actually been to it despite it being his home park. When we arrived, we immediately went to the back of the park to try to snag the Klondike Gold Rusher wild mouse credit but it was not scheduled to open until after lunch. So our first ride was the Kiddy Coaster. Very enjoyable powered children's ride. We then did the Ferris wheel which is the common Eli Bridge model found at most amusement parks. Next we headed up the hill past an abandoned wheel of fortune trabaunt to their wooden rollercoaster Timberhawk Ride of Prey which is a rare S&S wooden coaster. I was definitely expecting it to be a rough ride but surprisingly it ran very smoothly and had some punchy laterals and a minor pop of two of airtime. Next we hit their Zamperla disko which was one of the more intense ones I've ridden. Up next was their Arrow Looper which features a vertical loop and two corkscrews. Despite it being a very short ride, the paint job looked really cool and it rode very smooth for an aging arrow coaster. We then decided to walk around a gift shop where we bought shirts that were on sale for $8 instead of the regular $20 (it was the final operating weekend for the park and I think they wanted to clear the inventory). We then went back up to the Klondike Gold Rusher which was now running and had a rather long line. We waited it out and enjoyed the laterals on the nearly trim-less ride. The final ride we rode was Timberaxe which is a very unique flat ride in the park as it swings back and forth and flips you upside down at the top. Honestly, it was probably the best ride in the park. After we were finished my friend upgraded his ticket to a season pass as he was surprised by how much he enjoyed the wooden coaster and Timberaxe (besides he doesn't have anywhere else to go to ride a couple coasters after work). Puyallup State Fair: So my friend's husband got us free admission to the state fair through his work so thankfully we didn't have to pay for admission. We also snagged a street parking spot and avoided the expensive fair parking. We kinda screwed up and bought single tickets to start out because we thought the lines would be so long that we wouldn't get our money's worth out of an unlimited ride wristband. However, we quickly realized that we'd messed up so we did purchase wristbands after our first batch of tickets disappeared almost instantly! I ended up dropping $65 on the wristband and $15 on tickets for a grand total of $80. The Puyallup Fair is definitely not cheap. Anyway, we managed to ride 4 rollercoasters including the wacky mouse kiddy coaster which was my first wacky worm clone. We also did the Zamperla spinning wild mouse which was one of the most boring rides I've ever been on due to the excessive trims. The Schwarzkopf wildcat was a rare credit I didn't have as I never rode the one at CP despite it being there when I was a kid. I definitely enjoyed the laterals and zippy drops on the wildcat and was surprised by how tall and large the ride actually was. They seem much smaller in the pictures. Finally I got a front row and back row ride on the Classic Coaster which delivers the best airtime of any coaster other than the Pheonix at Knoebels. Classic Coaster was amazing in the back row and I hit the lap bar so many times. We made sure to ride the Skyride which was a von roll relocated from the Seattle world's fair. It still has the smaller round 2 person buckets like the KI skyride had and not the squarish 4 person buckets used by CP, BGW, and SFGAv. As for the flats, they had a very good lineup. We rode two dark rides (haunted house and ghost pirates), the zipper (which I got 20 flips on), Tilt-a-Whirl, a huss Enterprise (getting harder to find these days), the starship 2000, a super orbiter, the tornado, giant slide, and an extremely rare Hexentanz (one of only two left in the world). They also had many flats we didn't ride such as multiple falling stars, kamikaze, scrambler , wave Swinger, swinging ship, s&s Drop Tower, and so many others. The fair also had quite a collection of food items including dole whip and these wonderful raspberry scones. Silverwood: after a 5 hour drive we arrived at the park and immediately knocked out the two children's coasters (Tiny Toot and Krazy Koaster). We then hit the Big Eli Ferris Wheel which.was larger than any of the other ones I've seen having 16 seats instead of 12. We then rode the arrow dynamics log flume which was surrounded by beautiful trees. Stunt Pilot was the first major coaster and while it was not as good as Jersey Devil it was a solid #2 in the park for me. Both my friends ranked it as their #1 in the park. Fun, whippy, and good inversions there was nothing not to like about stunt Pilot which we rode 3x during the day. Up next was Timber Terror which is an out and back CCI with some RMC experimental track woven in. It ran very smooth and was a very solid classic experience. We then rode Tremors! which became my favorite coaster in the park for its unpredictable layout, 4 tunnels, and combination of strong airtime and crazy lateral turns. It ran great due to the RMC track dispersed through the layout. It was everything I want out of a CCI and it easily ranks in my top 10 Woodies. After lunch, we rode Aftershock which I'd carefully planned to be my 300th rollercoaster credit. We rode once in the middle and then also in the front row and the front inside seats are definitely smoother than the outside seats towards the back. My friends both thought the ride was too rough/intense. I enjoyed Aftershock and thought if one can forgive an occasional head banging moment, it was a very good, intense ride. Spin Cycle was next wish was not my personal favorite. I felt like the spin was too fast for the speed of the swing and I just didn't feel very well after riding. Maybe I shouldn't have done two rides on Aftershock and then spin Cycle after lunch or maybe I was dehydrated. Regardless I took some time to sit in the shade before we got a second ride on tremors! and made our way over towards thunder canyon. Thunder Canyon was a big surprise was I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a really fun river rapids ride with some surprisingly good drops and rapids sections. It also had a decently long tunnel near the end which was a wonderful element. Up next was Corkscrew which I thought ran a bit rough but it's a wonderful piece of history (being the first modern looping coaster) and is nestled into the perfect spot in the park. We then rode the Tilt-a-Whirl and got some of the huckleberry ice cream. Silverwood has insanely cheap ice cream. Their "four scoops" is the equivalent to about 12 scoops and it only cost $8. After finishing the ice cream we rode the train which had actors and train robbers along the route. It also went through some good terrain in the back of the park. Our final ride of the day was on the carousel which was nothing special but is always a classic attraction. We then hit the gift shop before heading to our hotel (Triple Play Resort)for the evening.

Charlie Brown Fairgrounds dark ride shooter new in 2026! The park has to know at this point people want phantom theater back and that if they did it correctly it would be a big hit. However, they have to be willing to shell out the money for an animatronic based dark ride because while I'm sure screens are cheaper, they would not be the same nor satisfy the fans of the old attraction. I think it's great that KI has brought back some classics like the antique cars and flying scooter but the phantom theater would be the biggest return of a former attraction we've seen yet

Drove past Coney on labor day...very sad to see how barren and empty the place looks. I remember driving past lesourdsville as a kid and a few old flat rides and the rollercoaster were still standing. The place looked abandoned but not empty like Coney does now. In my mind I know that Cincinnati is probably not big enough to justify having Coney Island and Kings Island but I do miss Coney sometimes. It's a pity that many of the historical buildings will probably meet the same fate as sunlight Pool. Driving past reminded me of childhood memories of going in the early/mid 2000s but it's also a hard pill to swallow that a once charming amusement park is going to be flattened for a music venue

I think there's a lot of projects the park plans to address such as Vortex replacement, boo blaster replacement, and maybe a new attraction in the tomb raider building before they retheme Action Zone. At the end of the day, Action Zone is ugly but it's functioning just fine as it is while The Vortex left a section of the park with no major rollercoaster and boo blaster is literally falling apart!

My personal opinion is that landscaping does help but there's many other factors in the appeal of a rollercoaster. Terrain, landscape, tunnels/hardscape, and water features all make a ride more unique and aesthetically pleasing. For example I much prefer the trees, tunnels, and scenery around Adventure Express rather than the concrete and gravel around Backlot Stunt Coaster

I miss that it was a unique ride but Orion is definitely better, has higher capacity, and not as much downtime. I actually miss it more when I ride nighthawk or batwing because both of those ones are super janky and rough that it makes me miss how Firehawk was decently smooth for an old Vekoma and it's unfortunate that the best of the Vekoma flying Dutchman coasters reached the end of its service life somehow before then others which are much worse in my opinion. I think reach the end of its service life is relative to the park because if Firehawk had been relocated to let's say, valleyfair or Michigan's Adventure, it would have to have had pieces of the track falling off of it to be removed because those park never remove anything because of their smaller budgets and the fact they NEVER get new coasters. Maybe it did have some huge issue at KI that I don't know about but I assume that KI knew it was down alot and problematic, expensive to maintain, and when an opportunity came along to replace it with "the Orion project" inherited from CGA they jumped on it... I will say at least they replaced it unlike a much more beloved coaster they claimed had "reached the end of its service life" and was removed in favor of a grassy field and a drone launch pad...

If only someone was able to convince the parks not to sue togo and arrow over their flunks... imagine them still being in business after all these years! What would they even be building now? How many defunct coasters would still be around?

I'm just looking at how some of these comments have aged. It's really sad that arrow never did resurface and that most parks don't maintain them or restore them like BGW did with lochness monster. I also think it's a crime that S&S discontinued all the models including the suspended coaster which was one of the best models arrow produced and nobody else has ever come close to touching.

Just gonna say that I've seen kids of all races, sizes, ages, and genders act like idiots unsupervised at KI so I don't think you can just say "oh (fill in the blank) kids" are who anyone is referencing when they make a comment suggesting that the intoxicated woman was getting drunk and not watching kids she was responsible for. Did it ever occur to anyone that hypothetically if she actually was supposed to be watching 10 children that not all of them would be the same race, gender, or ages? I'm white and when I was in school, my sister and I were friends with twin sisters who were biracial and my dad would be the driver and supervising adult for all of us...now if we acted like hooligans (which we never did) could you blame that on any one race, gender, or age kids? No because we were diverse...If you saw us in the park, would you assume my dad was only supervising the white kids? No he was supervising a group of kids which included kids of different races, genders, and ages.

For the most part people are probably just exaggerating or making crap up but boxwoods when they bloom seriously do smell like cat pee... I'm sure KI has some boxwoods but I'm not sure if they are "all over the park" Guess I'll have to look for them next time I'm there

BGW: I hadn't been to this park in over 2 years so it was time to get back there! Unfortunately Verboten was closed and is not scheduled to reopen until Sept 6 so that was a disappointment. However, I did get to experience DarKoaster for the first time. It was enjoyable but honestly seemed kind of similar to verboten in many ways. I did appreciate that you go through the circuit twice and that they special effects are slightly different both times. The other big ride of the trip was of course Loch Ness Monster having been refurbished since I was there two years ago. I honestly didn't notice much difference in the way it ran because it has always been really smooth. The back rides ridiculously smooth. The front has a few jolts but still is a fun ride. I previously did not enjoy alpengeist as it really banged my head around but I decided to try the front row and I enjoyed it much better than I had previously. Of course Griffon, Pantheon, and Apollo's chariot are all pretty good. I rode tempesto and was reminded why I'm not crazy about that model. I managed to ride all 3 water rides including Roman rapids which had been closed during my 2022 visit. While it's not a water ride necessarily, I did take a trip down stream on the Rhine River Cruise. Grovers Alpine Express was a last minute credit snag for me and was surprisingly good! I made sure to ride the skyride all the way around and the railroad. In terms of flats I rode finagans flyer, Turkish Delight, and the flying machine. Ate lunch at the festhaus and that German sausage and the different types of cabbage was amazing! One final thing, I hope BGW wins most beautiful park this year because it was immaculate! KD: It's been a year since I last rode I-305 (my #1 fav coaster) and I managed to get 3 laps on it this visit. I also got to ride tumbili for the first time as I had skipped it my previous visit. Rode all the coasters with the exception of Great Pumpkin and Anaconda (which was closed for some unknown reason). Their Flight of Fear is definitely smoother than ours but despite not stopping on the midcourse, seemingly runs slower than the KI version. The backlot stunt cars also felt slightly slower than the KI clone. I managed to get front row on Racer 75, Grizzly, I-305, and Apple Zapple and back row on I-305, Flight of Fear, and Reptilian. During my visit, I also got to take a spin on most of the flats including Arachinidia, Bad Apple, Wave Swinger, Delirium, Flying Eagles, Drop Tower, Berserker, Wind Seeker, and Flying Aces. I also loved their iteration of boo Blaster much better than ours at KI. While I did not get to ride the water rides, I had ridden both of them during my visit last year. It was just too late in the day by the time I made it around to that side of the park. Kings Dominion has always impressed me with being a beautiful park and with their massive trees. It was also cool to see Rapterra nearly complete! Camden Park: Just stopped in for about 2 hours on the return trip. I had been to this park once as a kid maybe around 2012/2013ish? I was young enough to have chickened out of riding the Hawnted House which I made sure to ride during this short stop. Such a fun classic attraction and definitely debatable if it counts as a coaster credit. Even if it doesn't count as a rollercoaster it's a very rare dark ride credit as there are only two gravity driven haunted houses in the USA and devil's den at Conneaut Lake Park I believe is currently SBNO....In addition to the Hawnted House, I rode the three other coasters in the park (Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Slingshot). Big Dipper was still running pretty smooth and had some new lumber on the lift so I'm glad to see they are replacing some of the wood. I also rode the Tilt-a-Whirl, the paratrooper, flying scooter, and the classic whip (which is one of only 4 in the USA I believe). I didn't ride the world's slowest log Flume but I have memories of it from being a kid at the park. Overall an enjoyable couple hours. I do wish that someone would show the park more love as many of the rides and coasters need repainted and the food stands could definitely be updated. However, it's still a classic park and has some unique attractions that are hard to come by these days. Would definitely recommend going to it if you have never made the trip down there.

Well said!

You're cracking me up! Y'all know what I'm referencing. BBW in rollercoaster lingo is Big Bad Wolf just like "riding a woodie" is not what comes to mind for some people. Haha

I was just there yesterday and saw the new footers in the drachen fire area. There's definitely some kind of rollercoaster going in back there. It would pain me to see a cheap rip off of big bad wolf as an arrow suspended coaster that utilized the terrain is worlds better than some family b&m invert that runs across a grassy field. I wish someone would bring back the arrow suspended model with the swinging gondola cars but alas we will probably never see anything like that again. I'm just curious if this new coaster is going to be marketed as BBW 2.0 and while the GP and younger guests who never rode the original might not care, I don't think anyone is replacing BBW in the hearts and minds of it's huge fanbase including many middle age and older guests.

Yes that one is my personal favorite and I will definitely try to make a trip to ride it if they ever announce it's closure. If it lasts till 2028 I'm going to make a motion for it to become an ACE Landmark for holding the record of highest G-force in the USA for 50 years.

Enthusiasts are a very rough crowd but I had GP friends threatening to back out of going to CP when they knew it was down. I was told why would we go when the best ride isn't open? I had to convince them that the park was still good enough to justify a 4hr one way drive. My GP Kings Island crowd friends basically weren't going to give the park their business over the entire thing. I convinced them to give the park a chance and I (the enthusiast) happened to make CP $120 in tickets sales that day. I have many family members and friends saying things to me about what a disappointment it is or how it looks really bad on Cedar Point to have additional issues with a ride that already had an major accident. I've got GP people telling me "TT2 is like Son of Beast". It hasn't gone unnoticed by the general public it's just that enthusiasts are the loudest critics and have the platform to voice their opinions. The GP is probably just as upset and in the case of my family and friends who aren't enthusiasts none of them went to CP this year except the couple of guys I work with that I convinced to give the park a shot despite the fact TT2 was closed.

Sad this is going but it was running pretty janky for a Schwarzkopf when I rode it two years ago. The only way a park is going to keep a Schwarzkopf these days is if it's a beloved classic/historically significant or if the park doesn't have a lot of investment put into it. For example, revolution at magic mountain isn't going anywhere anytime soon because it's a classic. I'd guess frontier city is also going to hang silver bullet as long as possible. A park like BGT doesn't have one that is an ACE coaster landmark or as iconic as something like super-duper-looper but they do invest in BGT quite often so it makes sense it's being retired for a modern replacement

Can't lie I'm not surprised. I'm hoping for next spring but at this point I think I'm done getting my hopes up. I'm viewing this project as a disaster until I see at least 3 months of steady, reliable operations out of TT2

I'm not an economist but I'd say based on my limited knowledge this is a true statement. I think there's a limit to what people can/will pay for an amusement park during a time of inflation. If they raised the rates to $200 for a gold pass would they still have the same amount of people buying them? Maybe if they had done it over the course of the past 10 years people wouldn't have noticed as much? However you never know because people were standing in soup lines during the great depression but somehow found enough money to go to the movie theater and to keep the amusement parks afloat... people have money for what they want to have money for