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Nice report I_heart_pki I enjoyed the read and sounds like you broke your friend in right on DB with first car second seat. I am like you, Glad the shows have returned to Kings Island.

Sparky - I am glad you had a good experience at Kings Island and while I'm at it you know your one of us too don't you? I mean we really can not stay away. As has been said in other ways; "you can take the fanboy out of Kings Island, but you can not take Kings Island out of the fanboy". Welcome Home!!!

Great report Sean and I loved the pictures and the wide angle you used, also I am so glad you got some of the KICentral group on ride as mine got blurred. Thanks for the video shot I REALLY liked that and I need a copy of it. You know one of the best thing about getting together especially with fellow KICentral members is getting to know everyone better and making shared memories. I learned that Zach has traveled a lot and has some great stories to tell and Sean I found out that you and I have something else in common, we both are secret ICarly and Jake & Josh fans. That may have something to do with the kids in our lives. What??? you must elaborate on this further. Was it because I was trying to stabbing my lime in my drink, if that was it then that served as duel purposes fist to get the lime juice out of the lime and the second was for practice for later that night. Hey if you ever need a coaster buddy just let me know and I will be there. Thanks for everything. Note; if you want to AIM me then I need to be home otherwise text me so I can turn on AIM on the phone.

Kat Thanks for the report sounds like you made some new friends there. Hopefully we end up with Busch Parks season pass and if we do Busch Europe will be high on our list to go to. Thanks for the picture and videos, it makes me want to got today.

Thanks J.D. for the comments. It must have been a built in camera that came with the rental car because I did not see anything. I know you have questions and I think Sean will need to answer those questions but if I may i would like to add a question too. Sean in the second picture of us driving home the one that looks like your picking my nose (and he ask if I was picking on him earlier...huh) What did you do with the boogie? Well it was a topic of intrest for us as we did not know that we were. I mean imagine waking up and reading on KICentral and Facebook that we were Rapist, Killers and reckless drivers. At first I had to reread that statement to make sure that it did not say that a concerned mother was saying that we "could be" but no it said we "were" . I meant to get a picture of us at CP in the publis lock stocks, but that did not pan out.

Angie - Sounds like i may have missed something Kat - Thank you so much for adding the names to the photos. Sorry about the blurry picture I took four from there of you guys but the camera self adjusted for a night shot and looks like I did not hold the camera still long enough to get the proper shot. Ok chunks, what happen???? come on you can fess up.... ha ha I'll leave it up to Jesse if he wants to tell the story. I'm not gonna embarass him or myself on his topic! Tom I also enjoyed riding with you too, you have a great personality and always seem to be smiling . Now for the room for rest incident. I left it out of the report because I did not want to embarrass Tom or have anyone think less of him. To cover myself I did explain to Angie and Kat what had happen so if any verification of what happened needs to be explored, I'm sure they can back me up. Also if you recall no other explanation was given about the incident. So here is what happened; I went to to the rest room by TTD and because my right foot was sore I was leaning more to one side in a stall, well out of no where someone (Tom) pushes me violently forwards from behind well I almost lost complete balance but at the last second was able to recover but not before getting my hands a bit wet. I could not believe what had happend and when I saw who had done this and seen he was laughing at my misfortune I was appauld, and laughed it off. Tom told me not to tell anybody about it but I had to tell Angie and Kat so that if Tom decided to buley me around any futher someone would know what had happend. But now it looks like I am being threntend and intimidated again as Tom feels he needs to get me back for telling. I will not stand silent as us older folks are being pushed around by big young bullies. Cory sorry we missed you I did see Captain Picard and his wife a couple times and suprised I missed you guys all day. I did sign the I'm going to Coaster Mania list though. Funny story though,At 6AM as we entered through the parking gate at Cedar Point the man told us "well we should call Kings Island and tell them to close today" we asked why and he said" because it looks like everyone from there is here today". Well hopfully soon we can catch up and get soom rides in togeter.

No we did not try the custard this trip, we thought it would be great to wait until you could join us, hopefully next time. and yes that is Ron Toomer, i was just trying to point out that Dick attended a few of the events. i should have made that more clearer. Yes count me in for loving Millie too. I always enjoy riding with you guys and it was cool doing so outside of KI. KICentral should be proud of the group that went and the way the group stuck together while having good clean fun. Pick on you? Oh I guess I picked the wrong picture of the room, that one should be in the next trip report. Here is the one from our room. Thanks for the info House I'll try to remember that for my next trip I was surprised how my neck and head was bounced around, I was ready for the ride to end about half way through. It was good to see you up there too DVO and maybe next time you can ride more with us. I did catch you in a picture at the picnic, I did not know iI did till I got home and looked at them. If anyone is interested in seeing all the photos and videos here is the link to my online album, If you go to the album may I suggest seeing them in the slide show with the roller coaster music playing in the background http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/1Vc4O86C/1009485/4036903

Coaster Mania 2009 Note I am behind on two other trip reports that will be done here in the near future (KI RWCW and ASA weekend) and apologize for the delay but due to unexpected work demands and various May activities (birthday, graduation, ect) I have not had the time to complete them. So this past weekend (June 5-6) I had the choice to finish them or attend Coaster Mania, well no self respecting amusement fanboy would pass up an opportunity to attend Coaster Mania, so the other trip reports we need to wait just a bit longer. Cedar Point Coaster Mania 2009 Hi everyone it feels good to finally be doing another trip report, a month ago I would have never dreamed that my next trip report would be about Cedar Point Coaster Mania weekend, but life has a way of making the unthinkable a reality. I received a text a few weeks back from Indianapolisman (that man is always texting, never AIMing) and suggested I could join him as a guest to Coaster Mania and suggested the cost of the trip. I quickly contacted a few people to see if I could take the Friday the 5th of June off and that paved the way for me to be able to go. I accepted and thanked Indianapolisman (Sean) several times for for the opportunity and told him I have never been to Cedar Point. One big reason was because of the reports of the lines for rides are usually long and I could not think of a better way to go to Cedar Point than to go during Coaster Mania with several ERT scheduled. Well June 5th arrived and Sean picked me up at my home at 8AM and we went to pick up Unrealsk8er (Zach). So the three of us set out for hopefully a great weekend We were supposed to pick up another member but it there seems to be some confusion about us all being rapist, killers and reckless drivers so the other member would not be joining us on this trip. It seemed we needed to make a few stops along the way like Quiznos I kept kidding Sean about us getting to Coaster Mania late so I started to take pictures of him with clocks in the back ground so I could show how long all the detours and such were taking. In truth we were in no super hurry and arrived in Sandusky about 2PM and promptly checked into the Econo Lodge hotel right by the CP causeway . We quickly stashed our clothes in the room and headed back out to go to Cedar Point We check in early for Coaster Mania and wanted to get some early rides in before everything started. I was awe struck with the size of the many coaster Cedar Point has and enjoyed walking down their front of the park Midway full of shops, eateries and it had plenty of exciting atmosphere. The guys wanted to start the coaster weekend off right and picked Millennium Force to be our first ride at the park. From there we rode several other coasters as most line were only about a half an hour long. At 6PM we decided to go to the Coaster Mania Social at the Coral Courtyard by the Hotel Breakers which over looked lake Erie. They listed on the site that they would offer some appetizers and a open bar and we found the appetizer choices to be many and plentiful. Hats off to the food department they where very friendly and knew how to make everyone feel welcomed and appreciated. Then we head inside the convention Center just a few steps away to hear speakers including Dick Kinzel in talk about how Magnum was put in place 20 years ago. I always enjoy listening to amusement industry insiders telling stories of various activities around various parks. Following the wonderful speakers, video and question and answer segment of the Magnum 20th Anniversary Presentation we decided it was time to get a ride on Top Thrill Dragster Since many of the bus tour groups had left it was close to a walk on as you can see. Then it was time to ride the birthday coaster Magnum Force we had a great time riding Magnum with all her back ejector hills and hanging out with fellow enthusiast. The bugs flying around got really thick and Sean and Zach tried to devise a bug sheild for their face while riding. I think I know now where they get the ingredients for the popular kids drink, Bug Juice. After a few rides there we went and rode Skyhawk and loved it so much that re kept reriding it over and over. We then got in line for Maverick which I have looked forward to riding since it was announced. I was disappointed with the long line here and the short ERT time of only one hour which limited me to only one ride. That was OK too because the Over The Shoulder restraints were chopping on my neck something fierce. Below is a blurred shot of some fellow KICentral crew enjoying there ride on Maverick. The best part of Maverick ERT was getting some insider rider tips from Single Rider Bob. Since Mavericks line was so long we decided to leave for the night. Saturday June 6 Morning came quick and with only about 3 hours of sleep it was hard to get up. The only thing that could motivate us enough to get up was that rare opportunity to ride Millennium Force as the sun was rising over Lake Erie. WOW What A Ride at 6AM in the morning and now we are good to go for the rest of the day (sorta) Next ERT up was Top Thrill Dragster. Man is it short (17 seconds) but it is so worth the wait. We wanted to fill a full train with KICentral members but only had 10 available in the ride area. but we did get a good after the ride photo of us after the ride. After our many rides on Top Thrill Dragster we rode some rides together as a group including Raptor Then broke off into smaller groups to hit up some more rides before they let the general public in for the day. for the Indianapolis delegation we rode Wicked Twisted and Disaster Transport followed by many less busy attractions like the Cedar Creek Mine and since we were in the area decided to have a early lunch at Chuck Wagon since it comes highly recommended by someone who know how to interpret good pizza places. We checked on the line for Maverick but it was way to long to wait, especially seeing how the restrsints beat you up. So we decided to have a nice ride on Paddlewheel Excursion. I really enjoyed the ride and the ride operator had some good corny jokes. We rode some more rides like corkscrew and then headed out of the park to change into some shorts. At 2:30PM Cedar Point provide lunch for us at the Point Pavilion. At this point we were getting tired from lack of sleep plus all the walking at such a huge park so we decided to head out to the beach to get some rest. As I was sitting there I kept thinking how nice the beach area was and how far away from the park it seemed even though it was only steps away. . So then early in the evening we ran into Jackson, Trooper Mom and Aunt Amy, we caught them on a ride of Wildcat. Believe it or not Trooper Mom even rode Iron Dragon, don't ask me how I know this as a fact, just trust me it's true. Well we ran into the group again and rode many more rides then split up as a group so some could go shopping, sight seeing or to get more rides in. I decided I wanted to see the Starlight Experience on the frontier Trail area of the park. I really enjoyed the lighting experience and it was very scenic. I was just awed with it. I then grabbed some chips from the chipery and found a seat to view the Hot Summer Lights Show where I met back up with my group. I enjoyed the show but the video above is one of the best parts. I wish they would have spent less time running Cedar Point info commercials as part of the show. I kept saying why all the advertisement in the show I am already here now just wow me with a great show. After the shows it was time for the final ERT consiting of maXair, Raptor and Blue Streak. Since we were hungry we decided to head to Taco bell. When we tried to order at the window with three separate orders they said they could not do that so we had to go around three times to get our order. The next morning we had to leave by 8AM so Zach could go to work and we foud out he is not a morning person. Everything went well going home and I was in charge of making sure Sean did not fall asleep I say everything went well. I thought Sean was a good friend but when I checked my pictures I found this I guess from the looks of thing I did not do my part. In conclusion of this report I would like to say Thank-You to Sean (indianpolisman) for inviting me to go to Coaster Mania as his guest. I also want to say I was overwhelmed with all that Cedar Point has to offer not only for coaster enthusiast but also to groups and families. I wish I had not waited so long to go to Cedar Point and now that I know all it has to offer I look forward to taking my family the first chance I get. I think Coaster Mania had a lot to offer as far as ERT rides, speakers, activities and food offerings. Cedar Point should really be proud of themselves as I feel they went way above and beyond in offering coaster enthusiast a great weekend of fun and never ending coaster rides. Thanks for reading and hopefully see you real soon with another report. Avatar/Jesse

Raptor Jo I enjoyed your report and was impressed with the event. I have seen you at several events this year at KI and as well as this past event at CP. I did happen to catch you in in a photo at Raptor about the time you said you went from Mille to ride Raptor, I was taking a picture of a friend who I attended the event with named Sean (Indianpolisman). Well hope you all got some rest and I'm sure well see you again at KI in the near future.

I'm so jealous! I have never been but have always thought it would be great if I got the chance to go so I'll be looking forward to your report and hopefully you have a water proof camera. From the media I have read about it sounds like Schlitterbahn offers far more then the KI or CP water parks and they have awards to back them up on that. Have a great time please share when you come back I'll be interested in what you have to say about it.

Dave You have an adorable daughter and looks like she'll be a great coaster buddy for you for years to come. I must admit though you look a little different than in your avatar picture. As others have said it was a pleasure to meet you finally and hope we have an opportunity to meet again to swap some amusement park stories. This trip was my first trip to Cedar Point so I was dependent on others schedule to get me to where I needed to be and when, so I'll say I'm sorry my ride did not get me to the scheduled dinner. Seriously though I hope we have an opportunity to meet up in the park and you can hang out with us for a bit and ride some rides with us, that would be great.

Thanks for the report. As creepy as the place seems now it looks like it might have been a decent facility many years ago. Medication and other treatment have come a long way, I just feel sorry for the consumers of the mentally ill and there families it must have been hard to deal with without proper treatments (I sure they got proper care for the era) . I also admire those who could go to work day after day dealing with old treatments or remedies of consumers with mental illness.

I agree with the articles premise, but Miley did say "she loves roller coasters" and not "I love thrill rides" , Since Disneyland does have coasters, Miley was correct in saying it the way she wanted too. I know some girls who like Miley's choice of Disneyland style coasters over some others expectation of Thrill Coasters.

LOL nice answer!!!

OK J.D. Get off the floor now, your the one who reminds me to be honest for credibility sake. As I said in my first post of this thread, I seen this coming last year and with the other park announcements I knew it would be wise to change things up for this year. I have been looking at Sea World/Busch Gardens Passes and Platinum Passes and noticed if we buy them in Florida it will cost us $429.00 per person (good for 2 years) to go to all the parks (9 nation wide) with excellent perks. But for the same pass bought in San Antonio TX Sea World it only costs $199.00 per person (good for 2 years) with the stipulations you need to activate it in TX. So I calculated the cost savings of $230 x 4 = $920.00 then subtracted what it would cost for the difference of airfare plus car rental and hotel for 2 nights and we ended up still saving over $100.00. Thats like getting two extra days of vacation and going to a park I probably would never go to plus save an extra $100 so we are seriously thinking about adding this to the front of our trip. Problem is we would need to make a adjustment of either not going to Daytona beach for a couple days or drop a couple Disney days, which would cut into a couple Eat to the Beat concerts I'm looking forward too.. Well see what happens Edit to add; Yeah last year when I went to the Horror Nights at Universal I got to do the major attractions including Revenge of the Mummy. I loved it and wish I had time to have done it again before I left. I have said many times that I thought I new what a dark ride was until I went to Universal, now I long for Kings Islands next major attraction to be a great dark ride.

DeLorean Rider thanks for the wonderful well thought out post your love and understanding for Disney World shows in posts like that. I myself as you know am a huge Disney World fan for a variety of reasons and the biggest is the theme they immerse guests into. So to be fair as guests that have gone the past 3 years and one scheduled for this fall my perspective is still similar to the articles perspective and here is why I feel this way (I'll be using your list to aid me) Since we are talking about the parks I am going to stick to them because we both know the whole that has bee created from removing Pleasure Island and recently closed Virgin Mega Store. So well leave the downtown Disney stuff out of this list. Also I am going to leave out past years completed park projects Paradiso 37 Resturant Characters in Flight at Downtown Disney Again since we are talking about Parks and not other Disney divisions we need to take out the movie project and Resort time share projects. Star Tours II is currently in filming (here) four Seasons under construction / (which is not a Disney resort) Kidani Village DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge / Time Share Bay Lake Tower (hello?) / Time Share really new to park guest? Cat Cora's restaurant to replace Spoodles: Kouzzina / not in a park but in resort area Western Beltway Expansion / State deal helps the local area to go through Also I am going to leave out past years completed park projects Completion of Spaceship Earth Descent New for 2008 Disney is a year round park and often have their rides in Rehab like seasonal parks do but mostly done in the slower months and carefully making not to much at one time. I am glad they do this but those are always on going and the Space Mountain one is long over due but will fall way short of the overhaul the one in Disneyland got. Here is what I I feel should be off my list and why Refurbishment of Space Mountain / will not be done until winter Refurbishment of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority / not open till Winter, you can not have a ride going through a construction zone. What rehab other than minor work Refurbishment of the San Francisco facade / I consider routine like everything else I have seen pictures of the rework and it looks very much the same Backlot Tour just came back from rehab / whats new about this attraction now. Ellen's Universe of Energy just came back up from refurb / this attraction goes into rehab when crowds thin out and comes back during the summer and x-mas season to help with crowd disbursement. Recent overhaul of the Country Bear Jamboree / Whats new here Annual Star Wars Weekend's just began / That is a yearly event like coaster mania The new (and very nice) Frontierland fry resturant (that no longer sells McDonalds frys :-) ) / A cart food refreshment stand does not motivate me to make a trip down there. One you left off the list is the major overhaul of Typhoon Lagoons wave pool / I look forward to see this one, much needed. That leaves the rest here, I will give my own opinions about them The complete overhaul of the Hall of Presidents. (I thought everybody knew this) / I give you this one and because of the change of presidents it was going to change so they did what they needed to do. I will enjoy seeing this one Construction in Pixar place adding the interactive animatronic Luxo. / This is a good one too and was supposed to be with the opening but was held back because of work delays. Stitch's Super Sonic Celebration in Tomorrowland / I like shows but with out it why would we go to that area? I have seen the video and I will reserve commit but at least it is better than nothing. The Sum of All Thrills by Raytheon in Innoventions East / who's paying for this, and the reviews are boring. Recent opening of the American Idol Experience (did everyone simply forget about this?) Yeah I forgot about this one and in fact looking forward to it the problem with it is that they now severely have limited the Fantasmic show because of it ( rumored to help get crowds to go to AIE) Recent debut of the Kim Possible World Shocase Adventure (which is awesome btw) / I don't know enough to comment one way or the other Two new parades at Magic Kingdom ("Celebrate a Dream Come True" and "Move it Shake it Celebrate it") / these are just replacing the older and out dated ones, I am looking forward to seeing something different. Albeit the Move it one is bigger than the family parade. The Jungle Cruise just went digital (big undertaking though guests would never know) / Great crew and love the attraction but if I don't know something is new then why get excited about it. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure in Innoventions / Again who is paying for this attraction and please do not read the reviews about kids going to EPCOT to learn to save money. Look I am not complaining about Dismay's lack of new supper draw attraction but in four parks and even with the list you so thoughtfully posted, I am not that excited about going this year like I have in the past. I still love Disney and still want to go especially AI and Typhoon Lagoon. What I am super excited about is going to Sea World this time to ride Manta and to Universal to ride Rip Ride Rocket otherwise I would not go to those parks this year and wait until next year for Hairy Potter whole new area. Like I said I love Disney and I am a huge fan but I still agree this year there is little for this fan to get excited about. Now to be honest (hurts to say this) if it was not for the Free Dinning Plan deal which makes it cheaper to stay on Disney property than to stay at my brother for free, We would not be going to Disney this year at all but doing other Central Florida tourist activities. That is the honest truth, so as the article says Disney is only really offering the big deals, thats the draw for this family this year. Keep in mind this is only my take on it as I have been going for several years now, so others may find it all new and exciting. Disney needs to do what they need to do, I do not fault them on that but as a regular, there just not much there for me this year.

I seen this coming last year and questioned it, the Disney forums members are perplexed about the nothing new this year too but are loving the discounts. While planning or annual Disney trip this year I took in account that nothing new would be coming so we are set to visit the other Orlando area parks this year and we are looking forward to those parks more than we are Disney.

Lets hope for the best for everyone involved.

Maybe, I need a date to commit though. Maybe we could discuss this this weekend if your still going?

Wow Angie that was a great trip report!!!! Looks and sounds like it was worth your trip and I am glad you like Holiday World, I never understood why some seem to want to down play their success. Thanks for posting I enjoyed the read.

I am glad your family had such a great time at Kings Island, remember the season is young so there is plenty of time to return. Thanks for sharing you trip with us and welcome to KICentral.

Another situation at Diamondback that I witnessed one day when I was there, I am not complaining but just noticed it was a odd situation. Several guests as a group waited in the regular line and did not choose to try and cycle through quicker in the stand by line. Well the group was assigned there seats by the assigner and when the train was ready to be boarded, the group stated to go to their assigned seats a employee asked that two in the group go back to the line queue so that a waiting guest on the other side (Possible Disability or Guests Relation Rider) could ride in their seats. The ones being told polity said "but we are with a group and they all are on now". everything worked out OK but it was a odd situation.

So true, they state that you can save $20.00 a night staying off site but leave out the fact that you will pay for a rental car and then pay to park. Which means they may pay more staying off site.

WOW what a scourge, one thing the title won't tell you is; you'll swear not to go to a Theme Park again after reading the article (if we did not know better). First couple was good advice then it gets misleading and as they state do some homework before hand they could solve the third issue better than than their misleading apples to oranges scenario. The rest just comes across as a disgruntled writer.

Thanks Cat, I will post the two links for you that you suggested. General discussion on the weekend http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?...t=0&start=0 Coaster Mania 2009 Roll Call http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17771