Oldiesmann

The park map indicates that they have lockers in three locations (it can be found under "Explore Our Resort" on the menu). I didn't see anything about changing rooms but I would assume they have those near the water park.

I think I heard this on WindSeeker on Thursday as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzf0rvQa4Mc (Bonus note: The conductor in this video, James Levine, is from Cincinnati)

I saw such a situation on Thursday night - a larger guest was in the seat and the belt was buckled, but the light on the side of the seat indicated that his restraint was still unlocked.

Nice weather plus the first weekend that WindSeeker is open. You chose a bad day to go.

I can understand that it's difficult for staff to stand out there in the summer heat, but there are plenty of solutions that the park could come up with to get around this. Option 1: Replace the little stand thingy with an actual booth like you'd find at many parking garages. This gives them protection from the weather and makes things more comfortable for their staff. Option 2: Automation. Remove the staff altogether, install a couple of gates and a pass-scanner. This would be expensive initially, and would require the park to get their pass system working properly (so a platinum pass is guaranteed to scan at any park in the chain regardless of where it was originally purchased), but it would save them money in the long run because they wouldn't have to staff the lot. Of course, this could cause some problems, and it's still not perfect (if someone was sneaky enough, they could tailgate a passholder and get into the lot even without a pass), but it might work better than having a staff member there. I doubt we'll see either option right away, but if the park gets enough complaints, they may eventually do something about it. I wonder if any of the other CF parks have this problem.

My sister got there around 1 today and said nobody was there checking passes.

You haven't ridden it recently have you? The first 3 cars basically fly past the brakes, the brakes slow down the last 2 cars and tries to stop, but it doesn't stop the train anymore. At least that's how it was 2 weeks ago. Really helps the pacing, IMO. I rode it just last week. The brake brings the train to a complete standstill. It's particularly annoying due to the angle of the track just beyond that point.

For those curious, the Soundhound app I have on my phone identified this music as "Omaha Beach" from the Saving Private Ryan soundtrack. Update to this... Apparently Soundhound didn't hear the music correctly the first time. The actual queue music is "Arrival To Earth" from the first Transformers film. Haven't identified the queue music at The Beast yet.

Thanks for the merger Jesse. Guess I should have looked harder While I was in line for The Beast last week, one of the female ride ops was singing a "We love The Beast" song to the tune of Queen's "We Will Rock You". Didn't catch her name, but it was quite creative and the other guests in the station seemed to enjoy it as well.

I know there used to be a thread on this, but I can't find it, so I'm starting a new one. While I was in line for Flight Deck yesterday: "Enjoy your ride on Flight Deck... The coaster that pushes you through the danger zone and takes your breath away!".

I've got Soundhound on my phone, which is similar to Shazam. I'm not sure how well that idea will work as it's not always easy to hear the ws music from the ground. I did hear the Star Trek theme, the fanfare from Also spracht Zarathustra (2001 theme) and one other tune I recognized but can't remember the name of.

Aaron, yes it was. It initially opened around 4:40pm and went down a few more times for wind. However, it was open pretty much nonstop after 8. I ended up getting 5 rides on it. As far as the wind speed, one of the ops said they weren't running it if winds were above 30mph. It is rated for 40, but they're being extra careful since it's new.

I'm hoping KI will do something special for their 40th anniversary. Historic photos would be great since the park has changed so much over the years. The only problem is that the 40th anniversary is the last Sunday in April (April 29th), so if the park opens on the last Saturday of April next year like they did this year, there's a possibility they won't be open to the public that day.

I think I'm going to have to plan a trip to Dollywood for next year...

I plan to ride WS tomorrow (assuming it's not closed due to wind, which it apparently has been for some time today), and will see if I can recognize any of the music.

This what you're talking about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w

I wasn't too far from you. I was along the fence above the Lake Como boat dock, in between Scrambler and the mining town play area. I had to laugh at the poor ducks that scrambled across the lake as the fireworks were going off. On the way out, I heard a Coney employee (a security person I think) saying that the Coney Island sign used at the end was made by Arthur Rozzi in the 1950s and was dug out of a garage somewhere for the show. I had a great time yesterday, and am looking forward to my next visit to Coney in a couple of weeks (if all goes as planned, I'll be there for the Balloon Glow on the 3rd). On a related note, any ETA on when the bumper boats will be open again?

As far as Flight of Fear - I'd love to see that ride returned to its original glory (minus the OTS restraints that gave your ears a nice beating...). The one thing that annoys me the most about that ride now is the "bring the train to a complete standstill" brake on the MCBR. I realize that they need to slow the train down some, but why is it necessary to slow it down that much?

Did a little research on it... The ride was known as a Top Star Tour and was made by a company called Soriani and Moser, which was bought by Zamperla. Zamperla apparently made two sizes of the ride, but it's not listed on their website, so I assume it isn't made anymore. There was apparently an installation of the smaller version in the Myrtle Beach area at one time, but that park (Myrtle Beach Grand Prix) closed in 2006.

It would normally cost more than that (when I was there a few weeks ago, it was $8.19 for two slices of pizza and a large soda), but yes, it would be nice if KI's food prices were as cheap as Coney's food prices.

Found this on Youtube... See http://www.cetconnect.org/Television/Cincinnati_Reflections.aspx for more info on this series (I'm guessing this was originally a 3-part series, but the uploader had to split it up due to Youtube's limit on video run time). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmhVzQYtGOA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDpKzEboYL4

I swung by Coney after work yesterday (I had to work from 9-4, so I missed the opening of the time capsule), and really enjoyed the festivities. I got a free hot dog and two pieces of free cake (I got some around 5, then came back a few hours later and they were still setting out pieces, so I helped myself again). There were longer lines for the rides (at times, the line for the bumper cars was back to the soda machines), but I still got to ride everything, even doing three straight rides on Tempest (I love that ride). The $1.25 deals were especially fun - during a rain shower, I ducked into Larosas and picked up two slices of pizza and a 16oz Mountain Dew for $3.99 with tax. The nostalgic photos and other memorabilia in Lakeside Pavilion really made me wish I could have visited Coney in its heyday - the Dip the Dips coaster/log flume looked like a lot of fun. I was also surprised to see that there were plans to build a 3rd Island Queen.

I was in line for The Beast during the fireworks so I missed this. I did see it on the ground though and it looked beautiful. Some of the ride operators were doing practice with opening and closing the harnesses, they said they were hoping to open it up within the next week. I also got an upclose look at the testing dummies, and they said B@M on them so I'm assuming these are the same ones used on DB. I commented on that not long ago. If you see them more closely, "B&M" is crossed out with permanent ink marker and "Carowinds" is written below that (also with permanent-ink marker).

Adventure Express - fix the squeaky tiki guys and the ones that aren't working properly. I'd also like to restore the original effects on that ride (as I recall, the ride originally had fog/mist, but I can't find any videos from that time).

Apparently Platinum passes from Michgan's Adventure and Worlds of Fun don't work at KI either. I had to go to Guest Relations yesterday to get my gold pass straightened out (it had been voided when I reported it stolen along with the other items in my backpack a couple weeks ago), and GR had to print off vouchers for guests who had MA and WoF platinum passes. I find it odd that they're still having problems with passes 5 years after CF purchased the former Paramount parks...