RailRider

Looks like it might have some solid pops of air time on a few of those hills.

^ I am shocked as well the number of us that experienced the Wabash Cannonball as our first inversion. What a great ride and awesome park. Still wish someone would open a Chaos clone. The wait always made me nervous with all the ticking clocks and such.

^ Love the picture, great memories

It is strange the legacy FP systems are still standing and many have questioned why. Seems like these would have been yanked out once FP+ went live. Im not sure if its just oversight or if there is a bigger issue at hand with removing the legacy systems. 4 trains running at once? That is crazy, but awesome. I didn't think the ride was long enough to do that, but with the 2 dark ride sections as blocks, a train in the station and one on the tracks I guess it is possible. I can see where keeping 4 trains going without stacking could be a big part of the training as well.

The Kiosks are present in the parks and are currently staffed within the park. Currently Magic Kingdom boasts 7 different locations. I see Disney incentivizing resort stays over off site, which I think will lead to resorts guests will be allowed a 4th scheduling before arrival and off site guests will only be allowed 3 pre books. Disney is still testing the capacity of the system and how it is effecting waits throughout the park. Once again to plug EasyWDW, Josh post real time waits, historicals and compares them to previous years. Some pretty interesting data to comb through to see how FastPass + is effecting wait times.

I was at Disney World last year from July 7th through the 12th and yes even with monsterous Summer crowds we never waited more than 5-10 minutes for any ride and managed to see every major character. A solid plan goes a long way.

Awesome review of the FastPass+ system and your time at WDW. No more running around is the part that excites me the most about FP+. No longer the FP Volunteer that races around the park gathering paper tickets a head of the crowds while everyone else in my party enjoys the scenery and a relaxing walk. One thing I did want to point out is there are more than the 3 or 4 FP+ locations, at least this is what EasyWDW reports. Locations as follows. Thanks again for the review of the system.

Me, too. (Not my first ever coaster, though. That would be The New Sensation at Camden Park, before I was born).Sigh. My dad made me ride the Wabash Cannonball with my mentally challenged Aunt. He proceeded not to. She was not amused. Well I am joining his crowd as well. Wabash Cannonball was my first upside down coaster and I was terrified at the sigh of it. Earlier in the day my Dad and Uncle were stuck on the lift hill while I watched from the stack of cannonballs. Only built the anticipation knowing is was ridding once they got off. Opryland is where I fell in love with amusement parks and still holds a place in my heart.

^ Not sure if you got this resolved, but I think I see where the hangup might be. The site automatically defaults to a 4 day ticket, but if you scroll down while making your choices it should give you the option to do less days under the multiday section.

I looked at this sign and instantly thought. Why does this remind me of Six Flags? Then I found this. Maybe I'm crazy but that was my initial reaction. Anyone else?

^ That makes sense about them being dampers. I was thinking they acted more like an actuator that caused the motion to happen. So by your explanation this problem would become exponentially worse once the gondola's are fully loaded with the addition of riders weight?

Undercover is ok, but the crowd calenders are questionable sometimes. I have compared theirs against EasyWDW and on days where Undercover calls it Red to avoid and Josh at EWDW calls it green. The park was empty.

^ Learned from the best. Not a trip we don't take that I am not thankful for Avatar and how he showed me how to plan originally.

^ Looks like a great event and Harambe is going to be very busy with both the Lion King show and the Savannah tours now. Animal Kingdom is soon to become an all day park with the additions that are planned over the next few years.

All manufacturers have some level of issues they deal with, some more than others. The thing that drives me insane about Intamin is they always seem to complicate things with their design. Looking at Falcons Fury, they designed the pneumatic arms to break off the gondola if it over pressurized. Rather than incorporate a release valve that could rupture with an over pressurization of the system. Many air compressor systems and propane tanks have a system similar to this and repairs are quite simple when the system pops. Also in that kind of system you don't have a giant pneumatic arm banging against the tower as the gondola drops. The free swinging arm is the part that makes me really nervous about this ride.

EasyWDW.com is the site to use. Crowd calendars, park cheat sheets and the most up to date touring plans around all for free. Josh at EasyWDW has become somewhat disliked by other Disney planning sites because he doesn't charge for his information and his recommendations for days to visit parks is typically more accurate. I have compared his crowd calendars compared to Touringplans, Uncderover Tourist, and Tour Guide Mike our past 3 trips and EasyWDW has been spot on.

Im not picking at your post, actually in wholehearted agreement. Lack of consistency is Intamin's major problem, which is probably why they change everything all the time. I am no engineer either, but I would imagine some would argue that a lack of consistency is a sign of poor engineering.

Jungle Jim has a thing for unloved and unused monorails.

While I agree about the long lines, I am still amazed from a parks perspective that Intamin is as popular as they are. The amount of downtime and maintenance required adds to the original cost. That is one reason that many parks find a reliable builder and stick with them. Disney with Vekoma, Cedar Fair (Under new Leadership) with B&M, Sea World/Busch Parks with B&M, Six with RMC. Just to name a few.

I can only imagine what this thing will do under load with riders, while it tears itself apart. After watching these test drops and the swinging motion from face down to sitting, I am a bit concerned on this motion and how quickly it happens. Seems to be a very rapid change in direction while you are still descending, which may cause a quick spike in positive g's. Two issues that concern me, being face down and dropping like that may cause a rush of blood to the head, then the rapid swing to a sitting position the blood will rush out of a ridders head. This may cause greying out, black out, or even worse. Just saying it is a much quicker motion than I expected and I seriously hope the engineering has been well executed, unlike previous Intamin rides that needed to be altered because of the effect on the rider.

So if the arm is designed to break off like this, which honestly seems like a horrible design flaw, wouldn't that swinging loose pneumatic arm cause a serious safety issue? In some of the videos the arms that are malfunctioning are clearly banging off the tower while the gondola drops. Now I am not an engineer but the last thing you would want is a loose object hitting the tower on the drop while still attached to the ride gondola. I would think a simple pressure relief valve that would rupture would be much safer, effective and easier to fix every time. Then again who am I to question Intamin's engineering?

Not sure how many have been following the issues with Falcons Fury. There are a few videos circulating the internet showing the pneumatic or hydraulic arms snapping off at the bottom of the drop when the seats rotate out.

I wonder if that did any damage to the electrical systems on the ride. Having lightning strike that close or even hit a structure can easily destroy electrical systems. I hope they either have or are reviewing the addition of a lightning suppression/protection system for this and other tall rides in the park.

I hope for the New Kentucky Kingdoms sake they can keep the momentum going through this season in to next. I also hope that not all 80,000 season pass holders show up opening day.

"This is not what I was expecting. Pretty sure this isn't Kings Island. This thing looks gorgeous." These were the first few thoughts I had about Banshee when I saw it for the first time in person at the A Kid Again event Thursday night. The entire theme and landscaping around the ride are far and above anything Kings Island has ever done. It is not hokey or gimmicky, but gorgeous. The lighting package, the flickering lights in the station, the fog rolling out from the Banshee sign, the eternal SoB flame, O'Terpy, details like these just add to the Banshee experience. Especially the Banshee experience at night. Well done KI for not just putting a new coaster in a field, but building a great story and theme around it. Banshee itself as many have previously state is amazing. The ride is non stop, continues picking up speed throughout the course and I really feel the ride takes off after the drop in to the valley and the Batwing. The whip in the back left side on the first drop is great, the pacing between inversions is top notch, the force at the bottom of inversions on the back half reminiscent of early B&M inverts, the final inline/zero g roll is amazing you actually leave your seat, and the restraints are as comfortable as anything around. I could go on, but Banshee is the total package and what KI has been missing. Some say that Banshee is the best inverted coaster around now, I haven't ridden them all, but it is by far the best of those that I have ridden. (Raptor, Afterburn, Alpengeist, Montu, Dragons Challenge, Batman The Ride, and Great Bear) Also this may be blasphemy around here, but the night ride experience on Banshee has kicked The Beast's experience to the curb and I think that speaks volumes to what Kings Island has accomplished with this ride.