Raptor Jo

That's not me!! Imagine, me on Raptor--who would've thought! I have got to be some sort of nut-Raptor green nail polish and even CP socks! You'd think the tattoos would be enough!! I've been busy the past couple days trying to figure out how to add Skyhawk and MaxAir to my tattoo. I think I should just leave it to my ink man, he can figure something out Im sure! Be sure you introduce yourself next time I love meeting new friends! Jo

I didn't think last years was as good as this years (PM ERT on Maggie was messed up big time) I really did enjoy this years alot. It was a LONG 2 days but fun none the less! PM ERT on Raptor was a dream come true--Raptor so rocks at night!! I've had better CMs in years past ('00 was one of the best) but this one ranks right up there. Sorry you couldnt go! Thanks for the congrats on my 2k...never thought I'd ever get there!

Being lazy I am just copy and pasting my TR from Pointbuzz for the KI freaks to enjoy! Friday June 5th I was so looking forward to CM this season, maybe because it was my 10th or maybe because I just knew it was going to be an event to remember! I couldn’t understand why my hubby wanted to follow me on his Harley, that is until I saw Roeder Harley Davidson in Sandusky. Seems he had neglected to mention it was bike week and what do you know, it was right in Sandusky! His Harley safe at home, hubby had no choice but to join the CoasterMania fun. We checked into our hotel (and thanks to the aforementioned bike week even our hotel was sold out) and headed to the park early. It was then we found out we would be treated to CM t-shirt this year. They were pretty cool. I had made my own CM shirt but really like and appreciate the ones they gave us. Even the lanyards were cool. Of course headed right for Raptor. I swear I was the oldest person in the queue. It seemed like every single kid under the age of 16 was there. I had CM buttons made for the crew so wanted to drop them off. We only rode 1x and then I was busy taking pictures before the social hour. The food was outstanding! There was veggies, cheeses. dips, sausage, hot pockets type things, fruits, chocolate, and drinks. Kudos to the food service people, they went way beyond, everything was outstanding. I met one of my CP buds there Tim, and we had a blast sharing stories about the KI Ride Warriors Weekend. We then enjoyed the special presentation for Maggies 20th Anniversary. The PR department had put together a film showing the media hoopla in 1989. John Hildebrandt and Mr. Kinzel spoke with us briefly before Ron Toomer shared with us stories about designing Maggie. His co-designer Lee shared some funny things with us also. When the Q&A time came, naturally we were subjected to that same person who asks a (usually stupid) question/comment without fail. As soon as he stood up there was a mutual groan. Hubby and I took in the park, and when the buses were about done pulling out, we headed back to Raptor and managed 9 more flights (mouths closed and no front rides) before it was almost time for PM ERT. Mere words can not describe the sworms of muffleheads-OMG! The swarms were so big hubby thought it was smoke and something was on fire! Blech! My shirt was so trashed from those things. Hate em! We walked thru the Starlight Experience, not really knowing what to expect and wow! It was the coolest thing we had ever seen! I highly recommend you do not miss it! By law (ok not really law) we would have to ride Maggie for the ERT. It seemed everyone had that same idea at 1st. Dave (Rideman) was with us so naturally had to hit him up with a bunch of technical questions about TTD. The beginning of ERT was pretty crowded, but as the rides progressed there were less and less people and each ride was more and more fun for hubby and I. The trims were off and the rides became more and more intense. Watching the people in front of us around the pretzel turn and during the bunny hill airtime I was literally crying I was laughing so hard. We got to sing Happy Birthday to Maggie-that was so fun too. We decided (DUMB move) to skip the final 2 rides and head to Maverick for some ERT. Maverick’s ERT ended up taking us 45 minutes and we got 1 ride. Please do not misunderstand, I said dumb move because honestly we had so much fun on Maggie we could have been content just staying there and then calling it a night. Maverick was fun as always, then we had the LONG walk back to the car-knew should have parked in Soak City-duh. On the ride back to the hotel we were on the causeway and when we got to First Street I noticed there was a car that looked like it was going to make a left right in front of us. I said wtf before I saw the car was going to definitely going to pull out right in front of us. I hit the horn, hit my brakes and swirved to the right and know that idiot missed hitting us by a matter of inches. My hubby was freaking-I almost had to pull over cause I was shaking so bad. My guess is it may have been a CP employee coming home from Louies. Who ever it was lucky I learned how to drive in NYC-defensive is an understatement. Still that person was a stupid idiot and lucky they didn’t get someone killed. Jerk! In hotel bed by 1:45-wake up call for 4am. Yikes. 1st day of CoasterMania was so fun (less the drive back to hotel) We couldn’t wait to see how day 2 would go. Saturday June 6th Nothing like getting 2 hours sleep and then heading back to the park again. We got coffee on the way (HAD to) and were 2 of about 20 people already there. MF and TTD ERT so when gates opened, we headed to MF. Donuts, coffee and juice awaited everyone! Nice! I ended up doing an interview for some unnamed show. We rode 4 laps and then headed to TTD, where there was more coffee, juice and donuts! We decided to wait on front car. That launch gets me every single time--but 1 ride was enough for us and headed back to MF. By this time they were letting us walk thru the special access gate and get right back in line. Cool deal. Hubby and I managed 6 more laps on MF before heading to Raptor for some early ride time. Hubby and I rode Raptor 10x before gates opened and the GP swarmed into the park. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and took pictures. I also hit up some of the stores for much wanted (but not needed) CP merchandise. We were basically just trying to kill time before lunch. We rode the train and I ended up crashing on hubby. I was OUT. A couple of our friends had seen us and apparently got a big kick out of me sleeping on the train. I drank 3 Mountain Dews (love the pop bracelet!) and was good to go for lunch. Lunch was great, hot dogs, potato salad, grilled chicken, and vegetable lasagna. Dessert was shortcakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yummy. Again, Kudos to the food services people, they really out did themselves again! Hubby and I booked out of the park after lunch and headed back to the hotel. When we got to First Street (location of almost accident night before) we saw these huge skid marks where I had slammed on my brakes before I swerved out of the way. Seeing that made me sick to my tummy. Back at hotel, hubby and I crashed. OUT as soon as we got horizontal. We got up at 8pm, showered and headed back to the park. We ate at Johnny Rockets and then we rode Raptor 8x before ride was closed and waited there for the PM ERT fun to begin. We were the 1st ones in the line and ended up meeting with 2 of my KI friends. We had a nice conversation with them. They were shocked when they found out that KI is actually my home park. They had assumed it was CP since I spend so much time there. There actually had been quite a few people who mentioned they had seen me at KI a couple of times this season....amazing how just a new coaster can get me to KI more often!! Go figure! Raptor ERT was beyond awesome. I don’t know what was more fun, the actual ERT or listening to the ride op Ben dogging Diamondback! He was saying such funny stuff. Making fun of all the trim brakes on DB and someone said to him “we have trim brakes but you have Mean Streak.” Ben said “yes I must apologize for Mean Streak” - too funny!! Anyway I finally made my 2k rides, which they announced! I ended up with 10 rides (8 of which were rerides) past that before the train after us ended up stuck on the mid course block brake. I was so mad I wasn’t on that train! So basically no more rides for us but it was about time for the ERT to end so no big whoppie. I heard they had to be evac'd-I am so jealous!!! So with another CoasterMania under my belt we left CP Saturday night laughing about the fun we had and how sad we were it was over already. Sunday June 7th We woke up Sunday morning and I asked hubby if he would mind if we headed back to CP again for a couple rides. He didn’t want to at first but then I said if we didn’t go back to CP then could we go to KI instead. Hubby immediately opted for CP We got to CP around 9:30am-stayed at Raptor and got 9 more rides (no it never gets boring to me) and instead of leaving (as we had planned on doing) we ended up taking in the whole park and riding quite a few more rides. It was a blast-that spur of the moment stuff always is! We ended up seeing a few of my KI friends (Brian and Karen to name a couple) this same morning too. They only stayed to ride Raptor a couple times and headed home. Speaking of which, does anyone know that the big round flowerbed is going to say?? We tried reading it from Raptor and the sky ride and could not really read it. I think it is going to say Happy Birthday XL 200-but not sure-any ideas? We said our final farewell to CP around 1ish. My payback was I had to stop at Roeders so hubby could hang out for while---a while turned out to be 3 hours so we didn’t even leave Sandusky till almost 4ish. Had I known I might’ve headed back to CP. Oh well, I’ve got my horses, he’s got his Harley and I suppose I owed him for the gazillion Raptor rides he rode with me. All in all CM ‘09 was way fun and one of the best ones ever. My thanks to the PR group who worked so hard on the event. My thanks to the crews who had so much enthusiasm despite the long day and having to tolerate all of us. Again the food was all yummy. My thanks to all my friends too who hung out with us, plus all the people we ended up meeting. Cant wait till CoasterMania ‘10! Jo Lifetime Raptor flights: 2019

When I was on the Raptor crew, and especially when I was on controls where the mike is real loud, if I saw someone sitting on the handrails, I used to love to say "please do not sit, sit, sit, sit, sit or sit on the handrails-they are for hands!" or: "attention guests on the platform, please look down, if there is a handrail under your butt please remove it--thank you" Jo

It depended on the time of the day. During early ride time it was cake, once open to GP it got pretty crowded but honestly I would be willing to bet thru out the day the wait was never longer than 45 minutes. The longest wait we had all day was maybe 30 minutes. Congrats on your 50+! Im going to try for my 2k on Raptor this season! That is if I stop going to KI and riding DB! Jo

What a fun day at the park today!! My hubby and I were married on Raptor 5 years ago today and decided to head to KI to celebrate. Yeah, I know that doesnt sound right but CP just way too far a drive. I had to get both my horses ridden this evening too so we couldnt spend all day at any park, so KI was the better choice. Once arrived at KI, naturally went right for Diamondback. Again I have to say here how impressed I am with that crew. How they can all stay so enthusiastic and excited for everyone is beyond me. I especially have to send kudos to the ride ops assigning seats! Very courteous, and BEST line of the day for us was when we were asked "is row 1 ok with you guys?" Are you kidding me? DB kicking butt--keep waiting to get sick of that ride....not happening! Best ride was when someone in seats in front of us lost a quarter, came flying by us and the kid next to me grabbed it. Hubby told me when he rode in row 16 someone in the front lost their cell phone and the guy sitting next to him caught it in mid air. Cool! We rode DB 5x before taking on park. We rode Beast and just gotta love that old woodie! Hard to believe it is 30 this year! Made the dire mistake of riding Vortex and OMG! Now I remember why I always ride in the front row. When we hit the top of the 1st hill my knees slammed into the seat in front of me. Then after the 1st loop, I got slammed in my jugular by the OTSR. I was saying "owww!" during the rest of the ride, the guys in front of us were cracking up! Needless to say, one ride was enough! FOF was awesome-again no film going on, yet all the background noise that accompanied the film still going on. I wonder if they ever plan on using that film again? I sure hope so cause when there's a long line it is a great time killer, plus explains to the first timers the whole premise of the ride. On the flip side the final lift hill on Adventure Express is working again!! YEAH! Even including lava pouring dude's eyes!! They were changing color! Awesome!! We rode Flight Deck-fun--but way too long a walk to a ride that is way too short. Not to mention it is all uphill getting back to the entrance! SOB was actually running but we did NOT ride it. The ride last week was plenty for us-we are set for the rest of the season! BSC was fun-although it does look to me that some of the props need some TLC. I got a new camera phone (Voyager) and I was a lost puppy trying to take pictures with it-guess it would have helped if I had read the instructions how to do that! I texted my younger daughter asking her how to use it, and when I looked at the pictures and videos I took, my fingers were in all of them! Also this phone doesnt take the picture right when you hit the button-there is a delay which made for ALOT of horrible pictures. My Razor took the pic as soon as you hit the button so that was never an issue. So I plan on getting the Voyager instructions out and learning how to do it right before CoasterMania later this week! I was real sorry I left my real camera home! The weather today was outstanding for just walking around the park and enjoying the sights. We got to see the one magician (dont know his name-he has purple hair and wears a purple and black vest) he was wonderful! The rope tricks were great but the fork trick was unreal! I totally recommend if you see him performing around the park be sure to stop and watch him--he is GREAT!!! Before we left the park we rode DB 2 more times-wanted 2 more rides to get my 100th but hubby wanted to go...bummer The park itself didnt look overly crowded (longest wait of the day looks to be Firehawk thankfully so hubby didnt want to wait on it--good-it makes me want to vomit) but the parking lot was PACKED! All in all a wonderful day at KI. Park looks great, the crews were awesome and Diamondback so totally rocks!!! Plan on another trip after CM-want my 100th DB ride! Jo ps-Raptor doesn't need to know ANY of this!!!

Hubby and I stopped at McD's in Mason and when we were heading back to truck we heard the DB horn blow. Wow-knew it was loud but didn't figure it was THAT loud! We arrived at KI shortly before opening. I was sporting one of my DB t-shirts where I had added bling to the tracks. Many people commented on the shirt. I thought it looked rather cool myself! It was apparent today was "forget you cant fit into those shorts or that bathing suit top-wear it anyway" day. Yikes!! Let me just say that my daughters would NEVER, EVER walk around any park looking the way some of these females do. I wouldnt have let them out of the house to begin with, and my daughters both have a sense of pride. How can some of the female guests think that a huge bare muffin top is attractivel? Just when you think it can't possibly get any worse was a girl on Beast who was so fat we thought for a minute she was preggy, and if her front wasn't bad enough when she turned around you could literally hear her shorts screaming to help them. Yes, I am totally sure she was getting all sorts of attention all day but does she know NO one was looking at her in "aw" it was more like "ewww"!! Also let me also say here that alittle cleavage is ok too but NOT if it hangs to your belly button. Again, I totally understand a female wanting to look nice, but there is a fine line between nice and holy c! Even women my age were shocking me all day! I go far and beyond to hide my muffin top-maybe I am wrong???? Ok-off the Mommy and fashion patrol rant.... Once gates opened we headed for DB where we managed 3 rides. Once GP came into park, we headed to The Beast for a nice morning ride (front car of course). Headed to FOF (praying the a/c was on because by noon it was getting quite toasty) a/c on-but the corney film wasnt. But, the various background noises during the film was, the shot of the queues were, and the aliens talking at the end was-without anything on the tvs. I know many think that whole film thing is a waste of time and many of us know it by heart but I always kind of enjoyed it. That one goofy guy that looks like Paulie Shore always cracked me up. It was always a great time killer to me and explained to the people on line kind of what the whole thing was. 2 people behind us asked me what the ride was, and even fell for the "look-we have that whole other side to walk thru yet" seeing the reflection in the mirror. I explained it and told them to wait till they hear and see the coaster. We got to enjoy their faces when they finally got to the platform and saw the train take off. Classic! I swear I want to get into that queue and do some serious cleaning. There is so much dust and stuff all over all that ship and stuff, blech. Scariest moment in the park was when some girl with a white mohawk, a huge ring thru her nose and those white contacts grabbed me and said "I was the one last year who took a picture of your tattoo and just have to lyk how much I love it" The funny thing is I did remember her...no clue how! Eventually met up with one of our CP buds Ben who finally got to ride DB, needless to say he LOVED it. By the time we caught up with him at DB it went down. Hubby and I were on the platform getting ready to be assigned our row and Ben was actually on the train they had to unload because ride down. Turned out to be the block brake sensor, we were down for maybe 45 minutes. No big deal to us but many were whining, and eventually tons of them left the line, but we stayed, and even managed to get into the 1st row due to the ops were trying to get everyone on the steps on the platform into the shade. Kudos to the crews at this point-one op was playing KI trivia with the guests on the platform, the others were hanging out with the other 2 trains stuck on runways, even getting water to them. Eventually they got the trains got back into stations and cleared out and DB up and running just peachy. I didnt know hubby had never ridden in the front before (he's only been on ride a few times) and he really liked the front. After that ride we jumped back on again a couple times, this time with Ben and Brian. Can NOT get sick of that ride! Us 4 then leasurely took on the rest of the park. We had lunch at LaRosas and were forced against our wills to ride SOB so Ben could get the coaster count. Even on line we were complaining to Ben about forcing us to ride. We made sure we were in the front car, Ben and Brian in front and hubby and I behind them. It didnt take long for Ben to realize he had made a horrible mistake - I was screaming at him "I hate you" during some of the ride and my hubby smacked him a couple of times. Ben said "Im sorry!!" so many times during the ride it was hilarious! But---we had preplanned to make painful faces for the photo and ended up with one of the funniest on ride photos I had EVER seen. Literally I was laughing so hard when I 1st saw it I cried Man that ride still stinks, makes Mean Streak seem smooth! We rode more rides here and there and eventually Hubby, Ben (who was heading to HW today) and I departed the park (Brian stayed for fireworks) around 8:30ish and headed to Perkins for a late dinner. We have eaten at Perkins before for breakfast and it hasnt been too bad but OMG the waitress we had was SOOO slow she was horrid. Then she kept forgetting our drinks, the list goes on and on. No, it wasnt crowded, but you'd think it was a full house with the service we got. Ben and hubby wanted to go to Waffle House (the gas station bathroom that serves waffles - lol) I overrode that choice, and I am sure when we saw the disaster service we got at Perkins both men were not happy with me. My bad! All in all a wonderful day at KI. Full of laughs and great memories. Hubby and I were planning on going to CP today but decided that 2.75 hour drive after spending 12 hours at KI just didn't seem all that appealing to us. Besides, we've got DB right in our backyard! Whoops--did I say that out loud??? 11 more rides and I get 100! Thanks to Ben and Brian for a great time, thanks to all the crews working so hard on such a hot day and a special thanks to the DB crew who as always was kicking major butt getting trains in and out and getting intervals about every single time!! You guys totally rock!!

OMG someone using the SRL the way it's supposed to be used!!!

82 rides to date and counting!! I can't see myself ever getting sick of that coaster!!!

Why not have tons of groups doing that same thing and then the wait for the single line will be longer than the regular line??

There are always odd# of riders which can fill the rows, especially when you have one of the ops assigning seats. I also 100% agree with you should be a single rider - not a group that breaks up-that is unfair to the other groups who went on the regular line like they should have. Other major coasters have existed without the SRL for YEARS. Other coasters (Raptor) some times have to send out empty seats. You will notice MF rarely has an empty seat because the ops fill each row. TTD very rarely will allow an empty seat because it needs the weight. After seeing the types of idiots using DBs SRL Sunday (read my TR from RWW to fully understand) I say get rid of it. It is bound to get ten fold by the time the real crowds start showing up. It is NOT Fastpass!

All the CF parks have that same shirt and magnets with a very simular background-but as someone said it has Peanuts characters. My fav shirt like it is from Geauga Lake Melli??? You mean Maggie? So far my fav KI shirt would have to be the RWW t-shirt I wore Sunday, even the DB crew loved it. I also bought a shirt 2 years ago that just says KI on the front, but adding bling to it really made it blingalicious! OD people kept asking me where I got the shirt! 2 years ago I bought TONS of the Paramount polo shirts because I could wear them to work. The faces on co-workers when they saw me with KI stuff on the 1st time was priceless! Those shirts only cost me $5.00/piece and they stay real nice.

I have so got to learn not to wait 2 days before writing a TR for any coaster event. You’d think after 9 CoasterManias and various other coaster events I would have learned my lesson by now! I am sure my event order may be off but will give you an idea of what a great time I had! Only managed 3 hours sleep Friday night, left at 3am, so the drive to KI Saturday morning was less excitement filled and more “watch out for the drunks and deer” filled. Saturday arrived at park early and let the “are those tattoos real?” questions begin--or just the staring and whispering! Immediately ended up teaming up with one of my CP buds Tim and off to Beast ERT we headed. I think we got 2 ERT rides, then I headed to Vortex, then hit up BSC 3x. I really do love that ride! During the boring helicopter and OMG fire pause, the fire actually felt good cause it was still so damp and chilly outside! When park opened, Tim and I rode FOF, Racer, Adventure Express. I headed over to DB and got in 5 rides. It was shortly there after I ended up seeing Mr. Kinzel and Rob Decker, got hugs from both and talked to them for a while before deciding if I didn’t get some sleep I was never going to last through the evening events. Headed back to hotel and crashed. After a couple hours sleep headed back to park for the guest speakers (and honestly I so thought Mr. Kinzel was going to be one of the speakers so I was kinda bummed) Again teamed up with Tim where we hit up the park for a few more rides (and Scooby Doo where I kicked his butt) Beast walk back fun---although I am sure I am not the only one who misses being able to walk WAY back to the turn after the tunnel. But it is always classic to see the riders faces when they see this huge group of people at the bottom of the 1st hill. Eventually time for Beast’s birthday bash-the cake was way yummy. Naturally I didn’t win anything. Headed back to truck to put on some more clothes (smart!) then got 2 more Beast rides (in the dark!!) before heading to DB for some awesome ERT rides. Wow-DB totally kicks butt at night! I ended up with a total of 15 ERT rides so a total of 21 DB rides for the day. I couldn’t feel the end of my fingers and my nose and ears were totally numb. By 1am. The DB crew totally rocks - how they can stay that enthusiastic for us for so long is awesome!! And let’s not forget how well DB was running. I have always loved B&Ms but the dependability of that ride just blows other rides away (*cough* TTD *cough*) All it took for me to fall asleep was to get horizontal. I had planned on waking up early enough for FOF ERT but that didn’t happen. Ended up getting back to park early enough for one FOF ride, then The Racer walk back. Finally 2 Racer trains running so got some really good shots. Lucky thing too cause it was shortly after that no more 2 trains. I ended up teaming up with another one of my CP buds Greg for the SOB walk back. I will tell you for a nightmare coaster you can get some really awesome shots. It is always fun to see how the structure bends when a train passes. I headed back to DB for some more rides. This is where things got bad. Of course being solo I did utilize the SRL and started to notice more and more that groups of people were lining up for it as well. At one point there was a line waiting on the SR tickets to come back down from the platform. There was a lippy know it all guest getting all loud about the fact he had been standing there for 20 minutes. I asked him what the big deal was-he said if it was Universal or Disney we wouldn’t be standing there. I reminded him that he is referring to Fastpass which is something totally different. I told him the reason the line was so long was because there were groups of people waiting not just single riders. The tl came down to talk to him and he went on and on about how long he had been standing there and of course all the tl could do was apologize. The guy then said he wanted to speak to a manager, (a blue shirt as he referred to it) and then said he’d just go to GR later. Jerk Guests like that so remind me of working on Raptor and remind me why I don’t want to do it again. Can you imagine how this guy would be at CP waiting on MF or TTD for 2 hours? OMG! He was one of those people who got real loud and just kept complaining to the people around him the entire time. Of course he wouldn’t even look at me since I had already made it clear what I thought of him and his testosterone rant. My RWW lanyard was no where is sight so no worries that he’d know who I was with. On this same SRL, there was a family right in front of me, Mom, Dad, 2 kids and 1 kid in stroller. Mom said that they were on that line because they had kids. Excuse me? It is still a group, not to mention she intended on taking the stroller up the stairs and across the train? Yup she did! In front of them was a Mom and daughter, when we got to the station and the ride op attempted to separate them (single riders duh) the Mom got upset saying she wanted to ride with her daughter. Mom copped an attitude when the ride op mentioned to her nicely it was a single rider line. They waited maybe 2 trains before they were finally put together to ride. Nice. So my personal opinion on the SRL, either enforce the rules or eliminate the single rider line all together. If people can’t follow the rules it makes it unfair to the other guests waiting in the real line then stop it. I know it has to be hard on the entrance op, especially to deal with the nightmare guests. It is easy enough to fill empty seats on the platform, there is always that odd # of guests in a group. I think once the real season gets rolling issues may only get worse, again that is jmho for what ever that's worth. Stayed on DB for a few more rides then headed over to Beast to get one final ride. Wow it was kicking major butt! Greg was riding in the back of the train and when we got back to the station he said “in the helix there were 2 arms up-both of them were yours” The final ride on DB was final rides-awesome. The last ride of the night I turned backwards and got to watch the rest of the riders and it was hilarious! Got to watch their faces and see all the airtime. I HAD to buy that on ride photo, it looks like I am just having this conversation on this coaster with my friend Greg. Classic! I ended up managing a total of 42 more rides on DB in 2 days! Yeah! But Raptor doesn’t need to know that!! All in all I would have to say that the 1st annual RWW event was a total success I loved meeting a bunch of new friends and seeing a bunch of old friends! I want to personally thank Don and all the KI crews who made the event such fun for all of us!! Special kudos to the ERT crews you guys so totally rocked! I hope you all liked the buttons I had made for you and next year I promise to make more! Also thanks to the KIC group for the walk out of the park Sunday had me crying I was laughing so hard. I will never look at the Mystery Machine the same way again!!! See some of you at CP for CM! You can find me at Raptor!!!

The last ERT ride of Sunday night I turned all the way around the whole ride. It was HILARIOUS! I got to watch everyones faces and watch them during airtime it was so fun! I did HAVE to buy the on ride photo - it looks like my friend Greg (who was sitting behind me) and I were just having a normal conversation while riding this awesome coaster! If RWW was that awesome CM is gonna totally rock this year-will be my 10th!

Totals for both days: Diamondback: 42 Beast: 6 Vortex: 3 FOF: 3 Train: 2 Racer: 1 Scooby Doo: 1 I could be wrong but it sure looks like I spent way too much time at DB!

OMG HILARIOUS!! I always thought he looked like Andrew Zimmerman!!! Let's just hope his taste in food is a bit different or we may find LaRosas deep fried goat intestines!

OMG that was the FUNNIEST thing EVER!!! That picture was the best picture I took in 2 days!!! Will be posting TR later! Had great time!!

I didn't want to wait to see if they were going to sell any shirts so made my own! I actually came up with 2 different designs so will be wearing the 1st design Saturday and the 2nd design Sunday. My hubby and a couple lucky friends will also be sporting the same shirt. I also designed RW buttons for some of the crews too. Of course if you can't figure out its me by the shirts then the CP and Raptor tats are a great hint! (if it will be warm enough for shorts...gotta love Ohio weather....NOT!) see yas there! Jo

Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure) and Afterburn (Carowinds). Raptor did twice. Once during test runs before park opened in '04 (?) and then in '06 (?) on closing day. It had everything to do with the wind. The actual Raptor manual states: "If the wind speed is greater than 20 mph, an empty train should not be dispatched from the station." It also states "if the wind speed is greater than 30 mph and the wind is blowing directly off the bay, Raptor must be closed" This is the reason why they will not let an empty train out early in the morning anymore, keeping in mind the wheels aren't warmed up yet and that causes a slower run also. Also someone here mentioned about the ride ops getting annoyed that they had to announce to the crowd about DB being down. That I am afraid is CF policy. We have a spiel we have to say to any guests waiting on the platform and in the queues. I even know that one by heart (thanks to riding MF so many times ) It is far better to let the crowds know what is going on then to let them stand there and get upset or annoyed. Of course the MOST annoying thing after that is these questions: "what's wrong with the ride?" "how long will it be down?" "I paid good money to get in and only wanted to ride this ride" "I drove X amount of miles and can't ride this?" "Is (fill in your own ride name) running?" "I want a refund" As ride ops we have no idea how long the ride will be down (although sometimes we do have an idea what's wrong) we have to take the information we get from the mechanics, the ATL or park ops. I know when a ride is down, entrance is NOT the position you want to be! You so have to give kudos to the ride crews in these type situations Despite all that I am considering working on Raptor on Halloweekends again this season! Someone please stop me!!! Jo

You have got to be kidding!! '02- Wicked Twister was down for maintenance constantly. Was down during CoasterMania that year that went over real well '03- TTD barely ran during media day-its performance has been less than steath 5 years later. Does anyone remember the really cool wheels and racing fins that were on the trains?? Ask Intamin why they are gone. '07-Maverick's media day cancelled the day before the event due to Intaride decided their heartline roll wasn't good for the trains. Diamondback has been running like a champ, and it sounds to be that this incident was nothing major. It is a machine and as such things can go wrong. I worked on the Raptor crew for 3 years and can count on my hand the # of times in those 3 years we were down more than 4 hours for non-weather related probs. Raptor is 15 this year and still going strong, as are most B&Ms Jo

OMG where were you a few days ago???? But I must admit (now that I figured it out) I do like the "making a non-club member pay" idea....I know CoasterMania has a tendency to be way too crowded. At one time you could bring up to 4 guests-now I think its down to 1. Besides someone needs to pay for Diamondback I know how great past Beast Bash's have been and I am sure RWW is going to rock too! Jo

Im glad to see Im not the only person who found registering rules a tad confusing When I registered I put my GOCC membership# on the registration form and added my hubby as a guest. I only did that because his GOCC membership was due to expire and I was afraid he wouldn't get his renewed ID in time. I emailed someone at KI and asked him specifically if he would have to buy a ticket since he was my guest, since we were both platinum pass holders. Well apparently the person felt my ?? was too stupid or something because I recieved no reply In trying to make heads or tails of all the verbage and different answers everywhere thankfully my hubby did get his GOCC renewal card in time. I just registered him alone using his GOCC membership#-and at least figuring out that he didnt need a ticket since he wasn't anyone's guest anymore and he is a platinum pass holder. Since it is the 1st event of this type hopefully KI will get rid of all the confusion. Still hoping on a great event!! See you all there! Jo

You do know Maggie's not a B&M, right? Yes, of course I know that I was being sarcastic

Thank goodness because TTD (aka: Top Thrill Dumpster) and Kingda Ka (aka: Kinda Kaka) both stink. They are the biggest waste of land ever, I still can't believe how CP destroyed that part of the park for 1 big hill. Total ride time on TTD? 14 seconds...no thanks. If it is a walk on I might ride but Id rather ride Raptor or even Maggie any day. Intamin cant even come close to touching B&Ms. JMHO Jo

I was going to post this ? over on Coasterbuzz but figured there are more KI experts here so here's the ??... Did KI decide on the stats for DB or did B&M decide what the stats should be? Unlike Dorney and the likes, I know that KI doesnt have a height limitation so was wondering why they decided the 1st hill should be 230' instead of going for some huge/crazy 1st drop? I was thinking it seemed rather odd that Nitro, Behemoth and now Diamondback all have the same 1st hill height. Don't misunderstand, I absolutely LOVE everything about Diamondback it totally rocks...but then again I am slightly impartial to B&M's anyway! Jo