XGatorHead 8904

I voted Sat/Sun just because it's easier than having to take a day off from work on Friday. Although this year I took the Friday before RWCW off anyway, but I had that planned way before RWCW was ever announced. I somewhat agree with others about not having other events on those days, but I actually didn't mind too much. I rarely visit on Saturdays anyway because of the crowds, so I knew to expect them. Sunday didn't seem too bad to me, Mother's Day seems to keep people away. But then, I left in the middle of both days so I didn't get the full experience of the crowds that many of you did. If it's Mother's Day weekend again I'll have to leave in the middle of the day again on Sunday, and hopefully won't have a repeat of what took me away on Saturday (had to leave to have the insurance co. look at the car after Mrs. Gator was involved in a wreck). But the park could run into problems with scheduling if they try to ensure there are no other events. The music events have historically been in May, which is a great time to hold them. And the Bring a Friend for $10 is a great idea to try to boost attendance on Mother's Day. Plus they have to take into account the enthusiast events at other parks.

Overheard a few weeks ago while waiting in the brakes before pulling into Beast's station: "What's that building over there?" "That's Tomb Raider." "It's that tall? I thought it was all underground!" (Funny... I don't remember the queue line taking a downward slant anywhere... although the ride itself does tend to be down a lot...) Overheard during The Racer walkback at RWW, near the old Flight Commander site: Father to son: "That right there used to be the queue area for Flight Deck." (I know Flight Deck has a long queue, but all the way back to the opposite end of Coney?)

Has this friend ridden DB yet? I used to share your friend's opinion years ago. Back in '91, I was was having a conversation with dorm-mates about coasters. I had never been to CP, but my friend Paul (who was from the Cleveland area and had never been to KI) was trying to convince me that Magnum was the best coaster ever. I said, "What's the point of a steel coaster without loops?" After all, I was used to Vortex and Demon. Oddly, it didn't even dawn on me at the time that AE was a steel coaster. A few years later I finally made it to CP, rode Magnum and could see his point. (Or should that be see der point?) From then on I was a little more open-minded!

This from the person who said that there are two coasters that use tunnels correctly... Voyage and Beast!

Thanks for the correction. I changed my post to say Memorial Day. When I go fast I tend to switch the two quite often, even though I know the difference! And I agree about the park employees. I'm not sure what kind of training they receive about how to deal with line jumpers, but from my one experience so far this year and from reading about others' experiences here, it doesn't seem to be enough. Either that or they're too timid to follow through with the procedures that they've been taught when the time comes. And there's no need to apologize, Justin. Any discussion is more than welcome here, especially about line jumping. Like I said, it's my mission this year, one that I hopefully don't have to face too often at the parks. With seven visits to KI and one to HW under my belt so far this year, and only one line jumping incident, I'd say I'm having good luck so far!

So it's not just me! I was thinking the same thing about the speed (or lack thereof), but I was wondering if it just seemed slower because Voyage is so fresh in my mind.

I don't see why. It worked when they had shows in there years ago. I thought it was working last year, but I could be mistaken. It could have been 2007.

Sunday, May 24th: Memorial Day Weekend, ASA Action Sports and a Line Jumping Showdown We knew we were going to KI at some point in the weekend, and we decided on Sunday because of the special events. After lunch at Waffle House, we arrived at the park at about 2:15, with me in my anti-line jumping shirt (this detail will become important later in the TR). We made a quick stop by the half-pipe and saw the last bike rider do his thing. We then moved on to Viking Fury. After watching a long legged bird in the lake for about 10 minutes, we went for a ride in row 1, then another in row 14. GatorGirl wanted to ride Backyardigans next. With it being muggy, we decided to fill up our cups with water from the drinking fountains at the front gate. While there, I saw Ryan and Dane and chatted with them awhile. Before heading to Backyardigans, we convinced GatorGirl that watching motorcycles jumping would be fun. After about 10 minutes of watching some very talented jumpers, GatorGirl decided she had enough. Then we ran into a traffic flow nightmare. We had been watching the jumps from the front gate side of the barricades. The only way to get to Nick U was to go past Kings Island Theater towards Action Zone, around Festhaus past Viking Fury, down the remainder of International Street, all the way around Eiffel Tower and into Nick U at LBGC. What a roundabout way to have to get to the south side of the park. After Backyardigans, we went to see Marty’s Party (which might actually be growing on me! ). We sat in the second row, right in front of the crate that opens up with the water cannons. We were ready to get wet! Saw Ryan and Dane again, then made our way to Atom Smashers, then Blue’s Skidoo. They really need a “singles will be paired” policy on Blue’s Skidoo. We had to wait four cycles before she got on the ride because a majority of the riders were in the dogs by themselves. The cycle before GatorGirl rode was nothing but single riders. Don’t they know this severely cuts down their capacity? And now the main event: The Line Jumping Showdown! In this corner, The Gator Family. And in the opposite corner, the line jumper, her seven kids and a completely unrelated guest who took up sides with the line jumper. After Blue’s Skidoo, we went to FOC. The end of the line was on the downward ramp on the loading side of the station. About three groups ahead of us was a group of seven kids, ranging in age from about 4 to 10 with no adult. One of the boys left the line, and not even a minute later a girl made her way past me to join the group. A one for one trade off, I was going to let it slide. Shortly after the girl joined the group, an adult woman made her way past me to join the group of kids. I let this slide also, because I thought she would bring order to the group, who all wanted to ride together. She even made a point to say to them “I ain’t even tryin’ to get on dis ride.” When her group gets to the station, she lines them up in the appropriate queues for their seats. I line up behind a boy from the group for seat 2-2, Mrs. Gator and GatorGirl are in line for 2-1. In front of him are a woman in a white shirt and her daughter. The boy leaves the line to go towards the back of the train with the adult woman who had joined the group of kids. So I step up behind the woman in the white shirt, and my group is set to ride together. As I’m standing in line for 2-2, the Line Jumping Woman puts the boy, who had left the line, in front of me. I said “Excuse me, I was in line here.” She said “He was in line in front of you.” I said “Well, he was, but then he left the line, so he’s not in line anymore.” She started raising her voice and said “He was in front of you all the way back there,” pointing towards the entrance ramp. I said “Yes, but he left this line, so I’m next in line now.” The White-Shirted Woman, who is first in line for 2-2, turns around and says to me, “Is this really something to raise your voice over? She’s just trying to get her group to ride together.” I again make the point that he left the line, so by getting in front of me he’s now cutting. I move into line for 3-2, Mrs. Gator and GatorGirl move to 3-1 as the two women continue to argue with me until White-Shirted Woman gets on the ride. A man behind me says, “Yeah, she cut in front of all of us back there,” referring to the Line Jumping Woman. I agreed, and Line Jumping Woman, who was now in line herself for 5-2, started saying something again. I just hold out my hand in a “I’m not listening to you anymore/talk to the hand” gesture. The next train pulls in and Line Jumping Woman gets on the ride with a kid (after she had made a point to say “I ain’t even tryin’ to get on dis ride.”). The man getting onto that train in 4-1 says to me, “You’re right, the kid wasn’t there.” I say thank you to him. Line Jumping Woman makes a comment on that, and it’s at that time that Mrs. Gator reminds me of what I’m wearing. I point to the “No Line Jumping” logo on the front of my shirt and say “No Line Jumping” to her several times. I then turn around and show her the “Line Jumping is Not a Sporting Event”. The guy in 4-1 says “That’s great!” and I smile and say “There’s a reason I wear this shirt!” At this time I hear someone say “You’re still going on about this?” I look across the track, and there’s White-Shirted Woman standing on the exit ramp, waiting for the rest of her group who will be in 1-1 on my train. I said “Sure am!” She said, “Get over yourself.” I tell her “Sorry, I don't put up with line jumping.” It’s at this time our train pulls in and we start loading. White-Shirted Woman says “If you don’t like it, why don’t you write a letter?” I say “To whom? To her?” and she says “No, the President of Paramount Kings Island” (that’s correct… Paramount without the “’s”). I said “That’ll be hard to do since it’s not Paramount anymore.” White-Shirted Woman says “You know, you’re a real jerk.” I smile at her and say “Thank you!” and she says “You’re welcome” back to me as we pull out of the station. I have pretty much made it my mission this year to call out line jumping when I see it. Call me a jerk, ***hole or whatever you want, I will not put up with it. Never in my life would I even dream that someone would actually side with a line jumper like White-Shirted Woman did. There were several people who sided with me, but they were not nearly as vocal as I was, and I can’t really blame them because it wasn’t their fight. I looked over at the ride ops several times during the showdown, and they were looking at us, wide-eyed. But that wonderful () FOC crew did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to step in and mediate the situation. They were well aware of what was going on. There was no way that they could not be with as loud as the three of us were carrying on, and with me leaning over the gate pointing to my shirt saying “No Line Jumping”. I was just waiting for White-Shirted Woman to say something about how I was conducting myself in front of my daughter (I found out later that Mrs. Gator was waiting for that too). She never said it, but I was prepared with a response. For the record, I did not use profanity, I did raise my voice a little bit but did not yell, and I stood my ground. I feel I conducted myself just fine. I want GatorGirl to learn how to stand up for herself, and to learn that sometimes in order to stand up for yourself you have to speak up and be heard. I want her to learn right and wrong, and that when you see something wrong, take action and do something about it. And that's what I feel I displayed in front of her. Looking back, the sad thing is this whole situation could have been avoided very simply. If Line Jumping Woman had said to me something to the effect of “Excuse me, do you mind if he gets back in line in front of you?”, I would have been perfectly fine and more than happy to oblige. But as it was, the boy left the line in front of me to go back to where she was, and she pushed him back in front of me after a period of time had passed. How was I to know that he wasn’t riding with her, or with someone else in the group in another seat? Was I supposed to automatically save his place in line? I don’t think so. So thanks to the inaction of the FOC crew, the score so far this year is Line Jumpers: 1, Gator: 0. After the Showdown at FOC, we did a lot of other things in Nick U then headed over to Festhaus to catch Down Home Country. Along the way I heard someone call my name, I look up and there’s Avatar. Sorry I didn’t stop to talk… I was distracted by my phone and by trying to get to the show! Mrs. Gator & GatorGirl had a slice of pizza each during the show. The show itself was pretty good, but I think I liked Girl’s Night Out a little better. GatorGirl fell asleep during the show, so we saw it as the perfect opportunity for Diamondback! Mrs. Gator hadn’t ridden it at all yet, so she went first. The queue line was listed as a 45 minute wait, and the SRL was closed but there was a line forming for it. What they were doing was letting a line form, then pulse people through once the SRL got low enough near the station. I think I noticed the ride op standing out there pick up the phone right before each time she opened the SRL. It seemed to work pretty well. Mrs. Gator got in line and 15 minutes later she was walking down the exit. She loved it (of course) and wanted to immediately ride again. But she was gracious enough to let me have a turn. It took me about 20 minutes in the SRL. As I was in the station, I wave to Mrs. Gator who’s waiting outside the entrance. GatorGirl had woken up, and she waved back to me. As I was going up the lift, I turned around and waved to them again, and GatorGirl was smiling and waving, watching me go up. As I exited, I signaled to Mrs. Gator to go inside to see my ORP. I had my hands behind my head with my eyes closed. They pulled it up on the screen at the counter and I said to GatorGirl, “Look, I fell asleep on the ride!” She laughed and said “No you didn’t!” Mrs. Gator wanted to ride again, so while she got in line I took GatorGirl to Scrambler. We were just getting off the ride when Mrs. Gator came by, so probably a total of 20 minutes had passed. Hurray for the SRL! After Scrambler we all rode Monster, then spent 20 nickels in the arcade on skeeball and the chicken game, then Carousel and Eiffel Tower. While we were up on ET, Collective Soul was onstage at Timberwolf playing “December”. Next was LBGC, another ride on FOC (without incident this time) then Phantom Flyers. We got off that at 9:45, and we had just enough time to get ice cream and get to our fireworks viewing spot. While in line for some yummy blue ice cream, I talked to keiko_coaster (who had spent most of the night in First Aid), Justin_M17, pkiruler and another person who I didn’t recognize (if I met you before, sorry I don't remember your name!). Pkiruler said that he would have liked me to join them for his first night ride on DB, but we had ice cream to eat and fireworks to watch. We got to our usual slab of concrete between ET and BLSC, and there was a family already there. So we sat on the other side of it and enjoyed our ice cream. GatorGirl loved the pyro skydivers, and as usual she just loved the fireworks. They were, in her words, “Beautiful”. A good ending to an interesting day.

If it's open today, then people have been on it. Gator, who just HAD to...

Gee Gabe, thanks for pointing out it was a decade and making me feel old! And that's not even taking into account the other 6 years I worked at the park before Admissions...

Waist size is not really an issue on DB. Mine is larger than yours (don't ask me by how much, 'cause I ain't tellin'! ) and I have plenty of belly room. The issue is thigh size. It's a tight fit for me, but the ride ops have always been gracious enough to help get me in. Even with being stapled in, I experience loads of airtime. I've heard varying things about the test seat, how it's not always accurate, etc. You can try it to get an idea. If you get the green light, you'll be fine. If you get the red light, try the actual train anyway. I've heard of people not passing on the test seat but being just fine on the actual coaster. But with your dimensions, I think you should be fine. Have fun, and welcome to KIC!

Grammar police: that should be wolves. Grammar-policing the media is so much fun!

I'd be very surprised if a coaster club membership wasn't a requirement. The flier is even addressed at the top to "Coaster Enthusiasts". Yeah, seriously, no Volcano or Hurler? I enjoyed Grizzly too. And how sad is it that they actually have to advertise on the flier that Rebel Yell will be racing? At least it's not in the name like it is in The Racer... And no walkbacks? This kind of seems like it pales in comparison to RWW.

Has anyone heard/read any rumors about what they're doing with Nights in White Satin? I wish that I could have ridden it since I love The Moody Blues. The current park map just says "Coming Soon" where that ride was.

I voted King Cobra for this one, but it was a tough choice between that and recaR.

I had to vote The Beast. I've been on every coaster on the list except for Bavarian Beetle (not sure why I never rode it, maybe my mom had something against it so she never took me on it as a kid ) and Ghoster Coaster (I never could fit on that thing no matter how hard I tried). None of them, no matter how innovative or ground-breaking they may be, can live up to the legend of The Beast.

Whew, I'm glad it wasn't just me then. I thought I would have been much better at "Barracuda" than I turned out to be on that machine! I've found myself spending 20-40 nickels in the arcade everytime I go with GatorGirl. Every time we get off Monster, she's drawn over to the arcade by the allure of playing skeeball. As long as skeeball remains a quarter a game, I don't mind.

Only if you want to enter Timberwolf and sit down, right? That's right. Or you can marathon Congo Falls and see it that way!

^You'll get through it. Take it from someone who worked in Admissions for 10 years, the busiest days are the days that just fly by, as long as you don't think about how busy you are. Don't look at how far the line goes, just get into a groove and work as fast and efficiently as you can. Help one person at a time. You'll be so relieved at the end of your shift that it's over! If you have time after your shift, a ride on Diamondback will make any stress you have left go away!

That sounds like a challenge to me... We need to have a showdown next time we see each other at the park!

I remember hearing "Finding My Way" too. It was late in the day (I think it was opening day) and we were finding our way over to the carousel to get a ride on that before it closed. Oddly enough, speaking of carousels, I was getting on Nick-O-Round when I heard "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by Genesis which dakota2112 had mentioned. My ears automatically perk up when I hear that piano intro since I very seldom hear it outside of my playing the cd.

D'oh! I wish I had seen this sooner! Maybe then Mrs. Gator wouldn't have cancelled our HW trip next month. Now I just have the "Save $7" coupon they gave us when we were exiting the park. Oh well...

^Normally I would agree with you about comparing steel to wood being like comparing apples to oranges. But I think a Racer/Gemini comparison is valid because both are racing/twin coasters. When talking to other coaster-knowledgeable people, I always seem to be in the minority when it comes to my opinion on Gemini. It's not a bad coaster by any means, I just never found it as thrilling as a lot of people have. It's still a must-ride on my rare trips to the Point. The only coasters there that I'm not upset about missing when I go are CCMR, Mean Streak and Iron Dragon.

My inner conspiracy theorist has been saying since opening day that Nick U will soon be headed the way of the rest of Paramount. Here's my reasoning: As the season goes on, I'll be looking for more clues to support my theory. Why do I suddenly feel like a member of the Scooby Gang? They would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for us meddling kids...

I was wondering why there weren't any pictures in your TR. Then I realized... work just put in a new internet filter starting today, which apparently blocks out ALL pictures in the TR's!!! I tried looking at my TR's... nothing! Well, it could be worse... they could have blocked out this site entirely! I thought about you on Saturday when the weather turned out to be not too bad, and wondered if you made the trip up. Good to see you all went and had a good time!