Delirium33

And there is this new flying roller coaster too, as you might have heard of. I think it is definitely one of the best rides in the park as well. The flying experience is sensational. Firehawk is definitely worth checking out, even if there is a long line.

The testers seemed very professional-looking and expressionless on the ride. Even if the ride was painful or extremely enjoyable, I don't think they would show it. They rode it at least three times that I saw, and one time after they got off, a mechanic started walking the track (as if to take a look at a rough spot that they may have reported). They rode it at least twice within a short amount of time (<10 minutes maybe?), which would mean that the ride is at least bearable enough to ride it that often.

I am 110% positive that there were 4 people on the ride. I would bet my lunch on it. I was with Beastfan11, and he will also confirm this. My guess is that they were some experts on the ride. They rode the ride at least two or three times, and one time after they got off, a mechanic started walking the track, my guess would be to inspect a rough area that the testers had. Sorry that I don't have photo proof, I didn't have a camera, or a camera phone, and I wasn't about to buy one in the park. You'll just have to take my word for it. Seeing people on the ride, and hearing the loading spiel made me extremely excited!

I was at the park today, Tuesday, and had an excellent trip. I rode Firehawk twice, waiting 40 minutes in the morning, then 15 minutes at around 6. After now being on Firehawk 3 times, I can say with confidence that it is currently my second favorite ride in the park, passing FoF, and second only to The Beast. The second time on the ride today, I rode the front car, and a have to say it makes the flying experience three times better, with no one being in front of you. Firehawk is definitely worth at least an hour wait. Also, the ride capacity seemed to be great with both stations running. Don't let a long line full you. I rode The Beast four times within 25 minutes, because of the double ride Tuesday perk. (We had to get back in line after the second ride). That just made my day. All four rides were equally smooth, maybe the smoothest Beast rides I have ever had. Most rides in the park were walk-ons or less than a 10 minute wait, except for Firehawk and Flight of Fear (which was about a 20 minute wait.) I saw Son of Beast testing, and I have posted some exciting details here.My Son of Beast update. Overall a great day, the only downsides were the humidity and Drop Zone still being closed. Food prices are ridiculous. Thank God for those little courtesy cups of water, or else I would have been dying of dehydration by the end of the day. Also, the crews for many rides were awesome today, including Beast, Vortex, Adventure Express, Delirium, and especially Firehawk. When they have fun, it just makes the ride much more exciting.

~Son of Beast Testing Update 6/26~ I was at KI from 10-6:30 today, I sat on a bench in some shade, gladly watching Son of Beast run several (at least 5) test cycles. I have never been so happy to hear the loud roar of a chain in my life. I saw at least 10 test cycles throughout the day (Me and a friend kept our eyes on the ride throughout the day.) They have added a new, redesigned Son of Beast logo on the front the the train, with the words 'Kings Island' on the bottom, much like Firehawk. There was only one train that we could see on the track today (with six, two-row cars, as said before). One thing that concerned me a little is that the trains would screech loudly on the top of the hill and going into the station, but maybe they just aren't broken-into yet. Also, there were not only water dummies in the train, but real people riding the ride as well! They were wearing white shirts and trying to stay VERY still, to try to blend in with the water dummies, but from Top Gun's exit you could clearly tell that 4 people were in the first car. We kind of waited by the exit of the ride for a while, hoping to catch the white-shirted testers on their way out, to ask them how their ride was (if they would even answer), but they left in a service truck. There were several employees in the station, including the white-shirted testers, the CF blue-tie people, regular ride ops, and several mechanics. We could also hear the "Welcome back riders../secure loose articles" spiel playing in the station, which just got me wanting to ride SOB even more. From what I could see, the ride still seems to FLY down the first hill and around the second helix, which made me happy, because I was fearing that the ride would be too slow due to more breaks and lighter trains. I CAN NOT WAIT to get back on Sonny, especially after seeing him up and running again! An employee said that he was told the ride should open some time in July if all goes well, but Guest Relations would not speculate at all.

As I said before, I think a tunnel (or two) would be a good investment for the ride to compensate for the loss-of-loop, and to respark some interest in the ride. I think a lot more people would want to give the ride another try after it opens if there was a new element, something different (and better) from what they remember. This is just my opinion.

Yes, but I was asuming that they would only be testing about 10-12 hours a day / 70-84 hours of the week. But I was just guessing, maybe they would test through the night, I really don't know.

Unless my quick math is wrong, it takes about 4-5 mins/cycle per train, so we're talking about several HUNDREDS of HOURS of testing, which would take at least a month or two to complete. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) That number just doesn't seem realistic to me.

My guess is that KI's website will undergo some major rehab in the near future. Because not only are the pictures on the site terribly out dated, but my guess is that Cedar Fair will want to change the site's URL soon, to drop the 'P' from pki.com. Hopefully they completely redo the site to make it in the same format as Cedar Point's site.

If there is such a thing as an addicting ride, its MIB in Universal Orlando. I have ridden it like 5-6 times in a row, because what is said in the article is so true. You want to go back to beat your own score, and rematch your family/friends. You can shoot your other vehicles, causing them to spin violently, which is soo much fun. On top of that, the theming in the que and the ride is incredible. KI's Scooby-Doo is in that category, but on a much smaller scale. I can see how a rides like that would be great investments for parks.

Gotta disagree. Aside from early in the season, Beast has been giving me some crap rides lately. Racer isn't much better. We all rode both during our run of the Park last Thursday and all came up with splitting headaches. Beast just bounces all over the flippin' track. Racer has a horrible jack-hammering going on in the axle seats. - Todd I have to agree with Skywriter. I have ridden The Beast probably 7-10 times this year, and only once did I have a very rough ride. Most of my rides this year have been very smooth and pleasurable. Also, I had the best Racer-ride of my life last time I was at the park. It was like a totally different ride, very smooth and tons of airtime. However I also had a jack-hammering ride (like you said) on an earlier ride on The Racer.

Do they let you pass the ERT gate by just flashing your Maxx pass? Because thats all I had to do with my Gold pass when we used ERT for coney mall . Just wondering...

Make sure you are in the 'Bird's Eye View' mode, by clicking the icon next to the zoom slider. If you are seeing green trees, a full parking ect., you are still in the traditional satellite view, the same view that Google Earth has. The aerials I'm talking about (Bird's eye) are 10x better than Google Earth.

I wonder if there will be a push to get Son of Beast operating in time for this event. I understand that the 17th is this Sunday, but you never know... It does say: Also, is The Racer considered 2 coasters, or is Avatar considered a coaster (to equal 14)?

This does put Google Earth to shame (for the moment). I have no idea how often it is updated, but my guess is not very often. I also noticed the off-season SoB track work, and many of the trains are not on their transfer track, including SoB, IJ, and Top Gun. Are the trains usually taken off the track during the off-season? (Maybe for weather purposes or for heavy maintenance?)

I found this tool on Windows Live. It allows you to view Kings Island (along with many other inner-cities and Cedar Point) from a 'Bird's Eye view'. The images are interactive and are of much higher quality compared to regular satellite images. When I found this, I literally was toying with it for hours. *Click the link below and make sure you are viewing in '2D', Then click the 'Bird's Eye view' icon (located next to the zoom slider). Remember that you can drag and rotate the image. Zooming is limited. The link: Kings Island Bird's Eye View Things I noticed: -King Cobra track is clearly seen down the service road past FoF (Very close to Psycho Path) -The images of KI seemed to have been taken in the early months of 2006. (Notice the NU construction and Avatar track in the parking lot.) -Lots of room for future X-base construction between FoF and Racer. -Some clearing beyond the far end of the frontwards Racer. -More King Cobra track and parking trams stored Behind SoB -Great Wolf Lodge construction -Phantom Theater cars among other stuff in some sort of junkyard just north the the BB train stop. If the link doesn't work, let me know. Enjoy!

On Face/Off, we had a 'break miss-tap', and didn't catch the mechanism that takes the train up the second hill. We rolled back to the bottom of the the loop and it took them about 20-30 minutes to get us off by means of a rising platform. We were told this is common, and got to walk on a ride afterwords. Also last year's Fear Fest on The Beast at 11 at night, they had a problem in the station and we sat on the break run for 20 minutes.

Both my friend and my Mother bought passes before the deadline, and got their picture taken this week. They rightfully recieved their gold passes, no problems.

I would reccomend Breakers Express. The price wasn't too bad, but the rates go up as the season goes on and hours of the park expand/crowds start to come. My only complaints about Breakers were that I had to be in the main lobby to use Wi-Fi and that the room was pretty small, i dont know how big your family is but the 5 of us were pretty cramped and we rented a pull out bed which could only fit in the doorway. A very nice place over all to stay though. Oh but the breakfest isnt free! Most things didnt open up before 10 A.M. but I imagine most of that was due to weather reasons. Millenium eventually did get going at around 9:45 and it was only a 10 minute wait. Im glad you liked the trip report, Cedar Point is such an awesome place! Thanks for your advice/info. I think that hotel sounds great for what we're planning. Now I can't wait for my first visit to the Point!

After looking at all the pictures with the various scenes, its hard to believe it's under a half hour! Looks amazing! Now I'll have to see it...

Two of the five times I have been to the park this year have been Saturdays. In both cases, many lines were outside (or nearly-outside) their ques by 3:00, but both trips were before Firehawk's opening. My advice: Get in line for Firehawk at 10, but if it doesn't open within 1/2 hour or so, try riding it in the evening when the crowds start to die down. Also keep an eye on the ride throughout the day, because you might be lucky and catch it opening (or about to open) after some down-time, causing the line to be much shorter. The ride is definitely worth waiting 1-2 hours in my opinion. Other rides should be shorter due to Firehawk's crowd, especially in the morning. (as was the case my last two visits.)

I agree 100%

Sounds like you had a blast. This report was PERFECT for me to read, because my family is in the process of planning our first trip to Cedar Point. We are planning a two day trip and are considering staying in Breakers Express, because of its much-lower prices than the resorts, but still with the ERT. So would you recommend Breakers Express for a trip like that? And did anything at all open before 10 for you? Your trip seems to be identical to what we are planning. Weird...

Both times I walked by Firehawk today, they had both stations running, and the line seemed to be moving at a nice pace. I didn't ride it because I have already been on it and didn't want to wait in the pretty long line. I did notice that one time the left station ran twice in a row while people were just sitting in the upright position in the right station for a while. Didn't know what was up with that. Besides that, the capacity seems wayy better than it was with one train last Friday.

I think that KI should (If its not too late) build a tunnel or two on Son of Beast before reopening it for several reasons. A) Because it would make it more beast-like (IMO it was the only thing the ride has been missing) Because it would kind of compensate for the loss of the loop C) It would help spark interest in the ride again. ("Ride the reborn Son of Beast, now with a new terrifying (x)-foot tunnel") I understand the park probably doesn't have $$ for this, but I still believe something more should be done if Son of Beast wants to have a successful second-life.