XGatorHead 8904

I recently paid $4.75 for a single ride on Boardwalk Bullet. Gator, just sayin'

Congrats, pcc! Good to see you're raising her right! I'm looking forward to the day that GatorGirl can ride the big rides with me. I recently came up with the idea of when she reaches 48", having her ride the coasters in the order they appeared at the park: Racer, Beast, Vortex, Adventure Express, Flight Deck, BLSC. But now that I look at the order written out, it seems a little anticlimactic. I think Racer should remain first, and maybe I'll push Beast and Vortex a little further back in the lineup.

He'll be glad to hear that. I'm pretty sure they only got one Meals on Wheels shipment last year, so Sam will enjoy having another. You sure were. Of course, going through a haunt that many times will do that!

Vortex isn't a skyline ride? I can see that pretty clearly from 71 & Kings Island Dr. I haven't seen anything from the park saying it's "the tallest ride they've ever had." The only thing they've said is it's taller than Diamondback. This to me indicates it's taller then DB, but shorter than ET & DT. That explains a lot about Screamscape. Thankfully Lance had the good sense to go with what the park said about being taller than DB, and not what you posted about it being the tallest ride they've ever had. Yeah... not gonna happen... I wanna know where they got their reliable information! They probably got it from Firehawkboy. A Star Flyer / Wind Seeker would be a thrill ride to me. One of my greatest fears is unsupported heights. It began years ago on Zodiac, knowing I was just hanging there by a few chains. Tall ladders also get me, as do SkyFlyer, the two-seater ferris wheels that swing with every little move, and ski lifts. Strap me into any coaster or put me behind bars like Eiffel Tower or CP's Giant Wheel and I'm fine, but if I don't feel secure that's pushing my limits. Wind Seeker would do that to me. But I'll ride it because I love the adrenaline rush of facing that particular fear. For people like me. Different people have different things that thrill them. I'll happily take your place in line for a Wind Seeker. Yes! I love this post! Alright! Another person I won't have to wait in a Wind Seeker's line behind! My wait keeps getting shorter!

It was where the eurobobbles are now, at the back end of Coney Mall. EDIT: Got beat by a few people...

I can't find anything on the park's website that says minimum 40" for Monster. On the ride page it just has the 46" to ride alone and the Height Guide page says the same. I know it's been a few days since anyone's posted in this topic, so if it was truly on the park's website at one point, maybe it was an error that the park has since fixed.

HAHAHAHA! I wish they really sold "Jump to conclusions" mats. They do sell one, as part of the Office Space Kit.

Oh buts thats the great joy of Halloween Haunt, oh how I miss working in the cold, and getting the occasional cups of hot chocolate, really chocolate too....oh yum You got hot chocolate?!?! Where was mine? Why would you think Slaughterhouse wouldn't be back? You say you're judging based on the park in the past... Slaughterhouse was new just last year and the park usually keeps attractions around for more than one year. I would take that bet too. I've recently been in touch with Sam the Butcher and he told me that as of now he plans on being at the park in one way or another. This happens every year, and I love the anticipation that builds up in August through September. Nothing on KI's website about them doing it, and I don't think they need to. I'm not sure what Scarowinds attendance numbers are like, but IMO KI gets enough of a crowd without the BAF offer. Nonono. It's not FREE but it's at quite a discount. I'm not 100% positive on the exact price of their Halloween Haunt, but if it's what it says on the website the normal price is $42. For bring a friend days, they're mostly every day and depending on the day its either $15 or $19. Which is a pretty nice discount. Only one guest per platinum/gold pass though. But still. I'm kinda worried about the crowds it will bring. I have never been to scarowinds and plan on going every weekend so we shall see how crowded it gets. I looked at Carowinds' season pass page at the discount for gold and platinum passes. The BAF is $15 on the first two Fridays & Saturdays (in September) and the one and only Thursday they're open, Oct. 28th. BAF is $19.99 on the Fridays and Sundays in October. There is no discount the Saturdays in October. This may actually be smart for them, the way they have it set up. As you know Fridays are big high school football nights, so they have that as competition. Sundays are a school night, so they have that working against them too.

^Totally agree with you there. -Gator, KIC's #1 2009-2010 Off-Season Peanuts Defender And I also liked Signed Sealed Delivered much better than Flashback: Totally 80's!

Hopefully the weather this October is dryer and warmer for us. I got pretty cold working Haunt last year (but I still had a great time!)

Guy behind me on Adventure Express to his girlfriend, after the last lifthill: "This used to be an Indiana Jones ride." Intoxicated man walking through Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular: "Look at that! The tower's even f***in' Charlie Brown'd up!"

Yes, some of us know but value our jobs so we can't tell. Like CincyMan said, just wait for the announcement to be made. Should be in the next few weeks.

Already being discussed here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22359&view=findpost&p=398254, and in a few posts above that one.

They recently gave away cookies for a certain beagle's birthday...

^Um... the ice show??? I thought that would be easy to figure out. We need to see it at least one more time before it goes away for 9 months...

And remember, they were built nearly half a decade apart. One was overseen by Cedar Fair, one by what amounted to be Paramount Parks by time the trains were on order. That could have something to do with it. I'm only surprised Iron Dragon hasn't since been retrofitted with seat-belts... Strange indeed. I'm pretty certain FD didn't have seatbelts when the ride first opened, and they were added later. I could be wrong, but I don't rememeber them back in the early days of Top Gun.

Already being discussed here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22467

Huh... last week there was a discrepency on the website. On the Halloween Haunt schedule they only listed Fridays and Saturdays, while the Kings Island schedule had three Thursdays (10/7, 10/14 and 10/21) and three Sundays (10/10, 10/17 and 10/24) listed as Haunt days. I know because I printed out both schedules directly from the website. They have now changed the KI schedule to match what was on the HH page. Interesting... We'll have to watch this as the weeks progress...

^Thank you so much for letting us know that the ice show ends Sunday! I wasn't aware of that, and it's a great show. I've seen it 3 times (Mrs. Gator and GatorGirl have only seen it twice). Guess where we'll be this weekend!

I assume you're speaking of Beast and Racer. IMO, the park has 3 great woodies. Don't underestimate Scooby Doo Beastie Fairly OddCoaster Woodstock Express just because it's a kiddie coaster. That thing packs some good little pops of airtime. I was thinking about something the other day. I've grown up knowing the story of "The Beast" lurking in the woods. But my daughter, with her penchant for Disney princesses, will probably think that coaster is named after a prince whose entire castle and everyone in it has fallen under an enchantress's spell. I'll make sure she knows the correct backstory when the time comes (after she's ridden it a few times... don't want to scare her from riding it right away just because of a made up backstory). Wow. I could not disagree more with that statement. Racer does not provide the same experience of rushing through the woods as Beast. Beast does not provide the airtime that Voyage does. Thunderhead does not provide the amount of pain that Mean Streak does. Just because a ride is made of the same basic material does not mean they're the same. It's like saying all Scramblers are the same. They're not, as I learned last year after riding Coney's. If everyone's in Splashin Safari and not in line for Voyage, then why have I waited in line for it for 45 minutes to an hour? And I'm sure that SFKK's closure has had some effect on HW's attendance being up. What? FoF is a rinky dink coaster? Never mind that it goes 54 mph, has 4 inversions and, along with its counterpart in Virginia, was the first coaster to use LIM's. I wouldn't exactly call Firehawk a rinky dink either. Now before anyone says "it's not new, it was relocated from Geauga Lake", I would bet money that the average parkgoer doesn't know or doesn't care. I know I don't care. It was new to KI, and new to a lot of park guests. And sure, some here may think it's a gimmick coaster (I don't) but definitely not "rinky dink". And yes I know you said the Paramount era was littered with rinky dink steel coasters, and Firehawk was moved by CF, but you also said the last major steel was Vortex. Give me a break...

You call that a dream? If I dreamt about more trims I'd consider that a nightmare!

Wood: 1. Voyage 2. The Beast 3. Thunderhead 4. Legend 5. Giant Dipper (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk) Steel: 1. Diamondback 2. Millennium Force 3. Magnum 4. Mystery Mine 5. Hurricane (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk) I know my #4 & #5 Steels might catch some people off guard. I fell in love with the themeing and fun elements of Mystery Mine when I rode it in November. Hurricane is a small little coaster, but it had an element that completely caught me by surprise. A wicked little turn & drop that you can see in this picture and this picture that is unlike anything I've experienced on any other coaster. It may not look like much in the pictures, but that is one intense turn & drop when you ride it. I thought I was only going to ride Hurricane one time and be done with it, but that one element alone made me ride it several times, and was one of the many factors that made us stay at SCBB a lot longer than we had planned (not to mention Mrs. Gator and I both fell in love with that little park!). Both of these coasters just show that to me, a coaster doesn't have to be the biggest or fastest to be one of the best.

I have always tried not to let them pass. But last year, I became more vocal about confronting line jumpers. This led to two particularly uncomfortable situations (one at KI, one at Sesame Place... of all places!) that could have ended violently if I didn't let it drop as quickly as I did. So this year I have gone back to just not letting them pass. What I do if I see a line jumper approaching me from behind is I'll put a hand on each queue rail. I'm big enough that they usually won't try to pass me when I do that. In the rare instance that say something to me, I'll tell them they need to get to the end of the line. And like markr, when I see someone in the DB line go to the SRL that's at the bottom of the stairs, I just quietly laugh to myself.

Then there are those of us, like me, who HATE having to buckle seatbelts on coasters. I understand the reason for them and it's not going to prevent me from riding a coaster, but I long for the good old days of buzz bars and no seat dividers. Racer and Beast were a completely different experience back then. But anyway, congratulations on your achievement, and welcome to the family of hands-up riders!

I've ridden: King Cobra - KI Chang - Kentucky Kingdom Vortex - Carowinds Mantis - CP King Cobra was my favorite of all of those. I like them all, but KC was so much better IMO than all the others, especially front seat! I didn't ride Shockwave or SkyRider since when I went to KD and CW, KC was still standing and I just saw them as clones. Plus I wasn't counting credits then. If I ever make it back to those parks while those coasters are still around, you can bet I'll ride them now!