luff

Here we go B&M Hypercoaster Diamondback vs. Raging Bull Flying Coaster No choice, I have not ridden both Firehawk vs. Superman Ultimate Flight Racing Woodies The Racer vs. American Eagle Signature Woodies Not a fair comparison. I like them both but they are completely different The Beast vs. Viper "Short" Inverted Coasters Invertigo vs. V2 Vertical Velocity Dark Indoor Coasters Flight of Fear vs. Dark Knight Compact Steel Coasters (I got this idea because the track style appears similar...) Backlot Stunt Coaster vs. Whizzer Looping Steel Coasters Vortex vs. Demon The whole family can ride Demon Family Steel Coaster (If only SFGA had a Mine Train...) Adventure Express vs. Ragin' Cajun Inverted/Suspended Coasters Not an even comparison Flight Deck vs. Batman The Ride Drop Ride Not a fan of either. Drop Tower vs. Giant Drop Defunct Coasters King Cobra vs. Shockwave The "Unliked" Coasters Son of Beast vs. Iron Wolf (I have heard people complain about B&M Standups...) River Rapids Rides White Water Canyon vs. Roaring Rapids Train Rides KI & Miami Valley Railroad vs. Scenic Railway Spinning Disc Rides Have not been on both. Delirium vs. Revolution Top Spin Rides Have not been on either The Crypt vs. King Chaos Staff KI Staff vs. SFGA Staff Park Appearance KI vs. SFGA AND 2 BONUS QUESTIONS (Non-Related to the parks themselves...) Celebrity (LOLZ) It should be obvious Don Helbig vs. Mr.Six Local Football Team Although both my teams, I cheer for the Bears when they play each other. Bengals vs. Bears 9-7-1 Edit. I also remember Marriott's Great America as a kid!

I'm not a big fan either. I usually hurt my ankles or other bits. Still I've gone on a few Riddler's Revenge at SFMM King Cobra at KI Mantis at Cedar Point Iron Wolf at SFGAm Chang at SFKK

Again, great trip report. Keep up the good work!

Terpy- My wife took a picture for you... A few quick notes: The Mexican restaurant is still open. The Hellcat name is not promoted very well. Only place I saw the name was on some shirts they were selling. There are still signs that say this way to the Avalanche roller coaster. With 1/2 inch heels on her sandals, my daughter could ride it. She commented that her posterior was off the seat. Three of us preferred Hades over Hellcat, but the cat over all the other coasters at Olympus.

Its kind of scary to think of what can happen to your kids while you are videoing them. It was also weird to see Extreme World closed this weekend with even their marquis dark.

I still have a RRC t-shirt Coasting through cyberspace

Dark Knight is not bad. But its that exciting. It was not worth the 1:20 hour wait last Sunday.

And the ride ops at Six Flags Great America have been announcing that they are the cleanest theme park in the world.

Basically Holiday World has height limits on the lower side of the average, while Kings Island has the restrictions on the upper side. My daughter is tiny for her age. She loves Holiday World. What you need to look out for is if she can not hold on. Some rides require you to either be able to sit upright or hold on. The basic double tube rides she will be between someone's legs which will help her be secure.

She's not quite there yet, depending on the shoes she is in.

I've been to carnivals that had many rides ... that my Grandmother had ridden. I was truly afraid to have my kids ride them.

I completely agree. KI is great for younger kids, and great for thrill seekers, but not for the in between. My daughter is short for her age, but is looking for the more thrilling rides. She has been on an arrow looper (Demon @42 inches), but she is stuck in Planet Snoopy at KI. This is one of the reasons we went to Dollywood this year instead of KI.

Timber Falls Adventure park. I will have to add that to my trip. And Hellcat has a 46 inch height requirement. Hmm my youngest is very close to 46, she might make it.

Thanks for the great TR. I will probably be taking the kids to the Dells for the first time this year, and have been looking for info like this.

Looks like SFGAm got quite far in the process before "changing their mind" http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=393014

Nice TR. Holiday World is a great park. I was planning on going there Monday, but due to a last minute cancellation of my friend, I ended up taking the kids to the Indy Zoo. Not nearly as fun.

How does Millennium Force not scare you but Maverick does? I can certainly see this. Milli, in my opinion, is fast, smooth, long extended G forces, and full of coaster goodness. Maverick is starting, stopping, and whipping you around (still smooth though). I have no fears of Mili after the first ride.

The food was great, but the Heartburn killed me that night. My son loved the do not ___ signs in that picture. A few times he has said, "Hey no Bumm Music in here!"

Each ride was between 1.50 and 5.00 euro. They had deals for multiple rides. I think the coaster was about $5 to ride which puts it much less than that rough ride at the NYNY casino in Vegas. I did eat at the carnival. Pricing was only about 50% higher than a normal restaurant over there. At several booths I saw a Hungarian specialty. It is basically fried dough with the choice of either sweet toppings or what I went with, Garlic sauce, cheese, and salami I also consumed a few beverages in the many Bier gardens. It took me a little while to figure out that they were charging a 1euro deposit on the glasses. I was trying to figure out why my change was light as one bartender blathered on in German. Then it dawned on me. I guess I left a few euros at behind.

Over two weeks of traveling to Karlsruhe I witnessed the local messe (fair) under construction. When I saw the loops going up on the portable roller coaster, I knew I had to visit. Below are some pictures of this trip and a few observations of the difference between US carnivals and this one in Germany. The main attraction for me was the looping coaster called Test Strecke (Track) Two loops, a big drop, comfortable lap restraints added to the fun. This coaster had three trains. Only one, the British F1 style train, was running. Its amazing that this is assembled, torn down and re-assembled multiple times a year. All of the rides seemed to be much larger than their stateside versions. The little kids rides looked interesting. Notice that they don't put fencing around the rides. Just one guy in a yellow shirt to remind you not to step in the moving flat ride. I did not expect to see a portable Log Flume. This thing was huge. Two big drops Most of the rides had spec lists. The flume took 38 trucks to transport it, and contains 600,000 liters of water. The ferris wheel is huge too... It's specs The octopus ride like most rides there were greatly themed. Octopus kasse (cashier). There was not a ticket based system for the rides. Each one had their own booth with a cashier giving you little reciepts to ride. Corn on the cob is universally a fair food Dark rides looked like they went to the extreme. If you look at the one below, notice that there are three levels that the cars ride on. I don't know what this ride was, but the screams of the teenagers made this look like fun This thing was BIG One last thing. I saw this kids ride that was truly multi purpose. This had circular cars on the bottom. A dumbo style up and down ride in the middle, and a fun house on the top. Here is one last look down the midway at some of the most unique carnival rides I have ever seen

WHAT? O.K. I am going to ignore the 2nd line. I have always thought from the first day I rode it that Top-Swoops-Deck has had tons of energy at the brake run. I could easily see a couple of elements added before the brake. How about a big swooping turn over the queue?

Great story Gator. Isn't it fun to have something to tease your wife about from time to time!

Yea! Now all I have to do is get back to Chicago, grab the kids with their free tickets and go ride it for the first time.

Those theme park review trips look fun. I was only at the park one day, I am in Germany on business and the weather has been poor. I think staying at one of the hotels would be great. They seemed very themed. At the US themed hotel, you can sleep in either a Tepee or a covered wagon, and it looks like they have a cowboy show at night.

That is a tough question. Europa has more to do when you don't want rides, but KI has the thrill rides and wooden coasters. Of course the 5.5 hour drive against the 9 hour flight and 2 hour drive make it a pretty easy decision for my fam.