Diamondback_Is_King

I think if we lost the trims on that drop, it might become THE SCARIEST ride ever created. It has enough speed as it is, I can't imagine what it would be like without those trims. Now if we lost the trims at the beginning in the long straightaway, that would be sick! The pacing on that ride would be amazing!

Beast 2.0! Very interesting! Is it normal for them to be doing this? I thought they would just do some pre-cut track if they were going to do some referb, not necessarily take off a whole section of track. Anyway, thanks for the update and picture!

Nice that The Racer and SSBR are running again this year! Although, everything is always subject to change

No I ever thought of it like that...I suppose I could see it, but I don't think that was where the inspiration came from for the name. Here's a Tower Topics video made a while back that talks about it. The history behind the name starts around 5:55.

It's cool to see the difference in the park back when the old picture was taken to the present day picture! For some reason, I forgot how cool the Winterfest lights look until I saw that picture. Very excited to return this year, I just hope it won't be as cold as it was last year!

Villian Con Minion Blast uses blaster type guns. The thing was actually kind of heavy. But it looks like the flashlights will be much smaller and lighter, with a light attached. Seems like you'll be pressing in a button for the flashlights? We may learn more on how this works at IAPPA. Photo credit: Universal Orlando and Kings Island

Nice trip review! How does Iron Gwazi rank with the rest of the coasters you have ridden? For me, it's #1 even better than SteVe. BGT is home to my favorite ride of 3 different types. Sheikra is my favorite dive, Montu is my favorite invert, and Iron Gwazi is my favorite hybrid. I absolutely love that park!

12th now! I did vote for KI, but I have to say Dollywood's Christmas event is really fun! One of my favorites, if not my #1 favorite Christmas event at a theme park!

Far more convenient, but I hope it doesn't take forever to load. Just imagine all those people who have to load the app before using their meal plan... I've never used the Six Flags app before. Is it better, worse, or about the same as the Cedar Fair apps?

Loved hearing your thoughts on your trip and these two amazing new rides! I love both of them but I think I like SC better. My CP rankings are: 1. SteVe 2. Maverick 3. Siren's Curse 4. TT2 5. Milie or Valravn

I went one time last year when it was too cold even Mystic Timbers and The Racer couldn't run. I highly doubt Express will be added, but I think they could do some really cool Christmas theming on that ride!

A couple mazes were changed this year, and some were improved. We even got a new maze this year! But my question is: Which was your favorite this year? My favorite was Order of the Dragon. I think it's a great maze addition, and hope to see more like this in the future!

Hey shout out to the Banshee crew last night-they were crushing it! Super fast operations and just a station wait. They ops were so fast, that we got the slow chain going up the lift hill because the train in front hadn't cleared the break run yet! Actually, all the lines were super short last night and the only thing we waited for was The Beast (about 15 minutes). Overall a good visit, but it was SUPER cold especially when the wind blew. I can definitely see them dropping the Thursday Haunts next year, because there weren't a lot of people there last night, not have there been on Thursdays.

Operations are usually very very good a this park, they all got headsets and everything. Velocicoaster hits like 60 second intervals pretty consistently. Velocicoaster and Hagrid's are both amazing rides, but I would add the Hulk to that list too. Islands of Adventure Must-Rides: Velocicoaster Hagrid's Incredible Hulk Coaster Spiderman Jurassic Park River Adventure (although it closes January 5th, 2026 until November of next year-MAJOR referb) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey Those are just the best rides there in my opinion, but there are more rides that are good too. Universal Studios Orlando Must-Rides: Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts Revenge of the Mummy Transformers the Ride: 3D (not a must-ride, but pretty good in my opinion) Those are the must-rides I would say, but there are other rides there that are good too Single Rider: Universal uses Single Rider Lines, and they save quite a bit of time. But I will say Velocicaoster Single Rider will not save you much or any time at all. Plus, the regular queue line is super cool and much better than the Single Rider Line. So don't use the Single Rider Line on Velocicoaster. But, every other ride will definitely save time going in the Single Rider Line. Mummy, Gringotts, Hulk, and DEFINITELY Hagrid's will save you time. Now the Single Rider Line does often skips big portions of the queue theming, so if that matters to you I would recommend doing the regular line the first time. But after that if you want to save time and don't necessarily care about seeing the lien again, then go ahead and do Single Rider. Hagrid's Single Rider Line is amazing, and can save you tons of time!!! Now if you are a huge HP fan, then you might want to go in the regular line, but otherwise do Single Rider. The wait was a posted 125 minute wait and we waited 10. Such a time-saver. Sometimes the line can be hard to find off of the regular queue, but it is there. The Single Rider Line may be closed, but if you just step over the chain and go down there they don't say anything and just let you go. That's my biggest hack at Universal: USE THE SINGLE RIDER LINES!!! That's all I got right now, but if you have more questions feel free to ask!!

Very cool design! I love the barn/flight theme and like how it goes over the pathways and everything!

Don't tell Logan...

I personally like the staggered trains because they are longer and you get some serious airtime in the back of those super long trains. I do feel like the 4 across trains are faster, but Diamondback isn't meant to be a super fast paced speed ride-that's Orion's job. Diamondback is there for the massive airtime. I wouldn't change a thing on Diamondback. It's perfect and is my all-time favorite hyper!

Also, looks like 2026 ticket plans at Epic came out, and no season passes

Cool concept @ethancoaster! Did you use custom supports?

Rode this twice over my two or three visits to Lagoon and always thought of it as a very unique coaster...it always struck me odd there were no real restraints and just a seatbelt. But definitely sad to see it go, as it is for any ride really except for maybe Skyrush pre new restraints (although I'm not a fan of the new ones either). Hopefully something new and exciting will replace this ride!

I've been to the Universal parks 50+ times, and here's what I would do: If it were me and I had never been before, I would choose Studios and Islands. Velocicoaster, Hagrid's, Hulk, Spiderman, Forbidden Journey are all super fun rides that you should definitely do. Over at Studios, Mummy and Gringotts are my faves. Sure, Epic definitely has some great rides and attractions and some of the best in-land theming I've ever seen, but it is REALLY hard to get everything done in one day. We chose to go 2 days so we didn't necessarily have to feel rushed to get everything done in one day, and we were even rushing then to get everything done. With breakdowns, weather, and long lines it is really hard to get everything done. If you can afford an Express, it would definitely be worth it and would let you get everything done much faster and you could get everything done for sure. That doesn't mean it can't be done though. I had a friend go about a week ago and did most things, while skipping some others. If I was going to skip rides, I would skip Curse, Yoshi, Dragon's Racers Rally, Constellation Carousel, and possibly Fyre Drill if you didn't care to get wet. The HTTYD show is much better than the HP one in my opinion, and I think you could skip the HP one. I would recommend the HTTYD show if you have time and it's not broken (I had a rough experience with this show. Tried 3 different times over 2 days to do it before it finally opened). I did not see the HP show fully, as it broke down right before it started. I did get free Express though! Sadly no Ministry with the Express card we got. The reason I would choose Studios and Islands though is simply because there are more rides and more big hitters there. You mentioned wanting to get on Velocicoaster, which is an absolute amazing ride. I just feel like you would get more out of Studios and Islands than you would from Epic. Epic might even be frustrating if you can't get everything done you wanted to do. Not sure what the crowd trends have been lately, but the best day to go to Epic was surprising the weekend. As of right now (7:50) the wait times are actually pretty good right now (everything under and hour with Monsters and Fyre Drill on delay). All that said, if it were me I would choose Studios and Islands over Epic, but Epic is a great park too. You didn't ask for all of that, but maybe it helped. I love talking all things Universal! Let me know if you have any questions, I'll probably have an answer

Same ride, just different screen scenes

Based on what I've heard about AlpenFury, I wouldn't mind a Premier multi-launch either.

Let's go! I love the idea of a new gen Vekoma! So much potential with that type of model. Not sure if I like the concept layout, but it's just a concept. But another strong launch coaster would be great, even better if it has multiple! Looks like they are still wondering if people want the indoor/outdoor attraction, as it makes it's way onto another survey. So is it possible they are still considering using the Crypt building for something other than the Conjuring?

The Racer may not have a designated story, but the ride has a story built into it. The Racer is perhaps one of the most iconic rides at KI (behind Beast) and has such a rich history with the park. If anything, the ride tells a story about the park. The Racer needs no story, the ride is a story itself