Go Browns

I'll have to wait to see what it actually is until I pass judgment but my initial reaction is why mess with the last beautiful area of the park. I think I'd prefer to see this some where else but like I said I'll have to wait and see before deciding if I like it or not. Kind of weird how they will be closing that part of the midway for half an hour each night. Kind of ruins the plan to ride Maverick then run to Millie for one last ride or visa versa...

From Cedar Point's facebook: Today at 12:01pm Attention, Facebook fans! Ohio is full of great options when it comes to coasters, rides and waterpark fun. Now, we're giving you the opportunity to "test drive" what Cedar Fair's Platinum Pass has to offer. We're inviting one lucky winner (and their guest) to join Tony & Tyler at Kings Island in Cincinnati on Friday, April 17 for the media preview of their new steel monster, Diamondback! Be the first to conquer this steel serpent and ride over and over and over again! Try the front seat. Try the back seat. Try the middle seat! How do you enter? Send a postcard with your Name, Address, Phone Number and Email to: Cedar Point Facebook Contest 1 Cedar Point Drive Sandusky, OH 44870 Here's the catch: ALL POSTCARDS MUST BE POSTMARKED BY SATURDAY, APRIL 11! You have just a few days to get your card in the mail. We'll announce the winner here on Facebook by April 15. GOOD LUCK! RULES: - One entry per person, per household. Duplicates will be excluded. - Winner must provide own transportation to Kings Island as well as any costs incurred while doing so. - This is a working media event. Delays for filming and taping are possible. - You may be interviewed and/or filmed during this event and permit Cedar Fair to use your likeness in and on any website, advertising or other communication. - Invitation is non-transferable and winner must follow all rider and safety requirements for Diamondback. For more information on the ride, visit www.kiDiamondback.com. - More details to be provided to the winner.

You may be correct, but I'm willing to say that they will have temporary queues up for the first few weeks.

The longest line I waited in ended up being around 4 hours if I remember right for Top Thrill Dragster a few weeks after it opened. My buddy Rob and I had just gotten home from college for summer break and being life long Cedar Point fans decided we should go to Cedar Point for the single purpose of riding TTD regardless of the line. We got to the park one night about a half hour before it closed and parked in the back by Magnum so we could enter and go straight to TTD. Since we were both poor college kids we did something that I would not recommend to anyone else. I won't get into details but lets just say both of us entered the park and neither of us paid a cent. Anyway we go straight to TTD and the line is only an hour so were we're stoked. We're having a blast watching it fly by as we catch up talking about the year its been since we last saw each other. With some typical TTD downtime here and there it took about an hour and a half after getting in line before finally climbed the ramp to the station and were next to go in. Then it happened. If you remember when dragster opened the trains had this really cool dragster themeing with tires that actually spun around in the wind. A train launched and, as with every train, everyone in line was watching it from start to finish. This particular train came down the hill and just as it started pulling out of the drop one of the giant theme tires (right side if you on the ride) popped right off and rolled right between the queue and the lagoon, like it was possessed bounced over the little building at the end of the break run, and continued into the lagoon under iron dragon. Everyone in line was stunned but no one more than the ride ops in the station who were oblivious until the train actually came into the loading area minus one giant wheel. You should have seen their faces, they didn't know what to do so they shut the ride down and made some calls. This was still early in the season and Intamin's crew were still on hand in case of an emergency. With in minutes Sandor Kernacs was on hand and climbing all over the ride. Eventually, I'm thinking an hour and a half or so, they took off the train without the wheel and started to test a bit. After what seemed like an eternity and to a round of applause, we heard those words that eveyone who's been in line for a down ride yearns to hear, "Oncoming riders...." We figured hell we waited this long and the park is closed we might as well wait for the front seat. I think around 1:30AM Rob and I got our first ride on TTD. I was completely blown away at the intensity of the launch, I remember thinking, "@#!$ is this thing ever gonna stop accelerating I think thats enough!" That is definently the best first ride I've ever had and the longest I've ever waited for a coaster. Thank the lord it was the right tire that came off and not the left one. I don't even like to think about what would have happened if the left tire would have came off and ripped through the half full queue at that speed. Needless to say the dragster theme on the trains was removed shortly after and has not been seen yet. We were lucky we actually got on and that they didn't shut the ride down for the night after that. Especially since a day or so later the launch cable snapped and Dragster was down for about a month...Hell we were lucky we didn't get arrested sneaking into the park in the first place ha!

Looks like you will have to hop over three fences if you want to get your Darwin Award via Diamondback Splashdown.

You could be right but unfortunately we don't have the technology to prove your theory ahead of time. So we will just have to start a running tally of weekends while we wait for Diamond back to open. If its Saturday and Diamondback has not opened then add another hash mark to the running tally you have started. When Diamondback does in fact open you can then reference your tally and if it totals two weekends then we will know if in fact that at the time this thread was started that there was indeed only two weekends until Diamondback opens. For the record I hope its only one weekend but only time will tell...

Looks like they are adding a fence around the track in the splash down so I don't think we'll see any testing until everyone around the splashdown is out of the way.

I think it is much easier to fit a 200ft steel coaster in a tight space than a wood coaster. Steel can be built over existing areas a lot easier because they need fewer supports, just look at DB. Woodies however pretty much completely cover everything in their area. I'm sure someone can point out a wood coaster that overlaps another attraction somewhere but its not common. My dream wood coaster would take the place currently occupied by Diasaster Transport. If we see anything from B&M at CP I'd hope it was a new flyer not a floorless. A dive machine would fit nicely in the area in question but I'm not really a fan... I like the dueling zacspin idea too but I think those would fit better over by Wiked Twister.

As much as I'd like to see a wicked new twisted wood coaster at CP its really hard to imagine in that tiny space. However, CP always seems to surprise me with the locations of new coasters. I never would have imagined they would move the ferris wheel and build a 300 footer a long the bay and Top Thrill Dragster's location just shows they can squeeze a monsterous ride in anywhere. With only a few trees cleared at this point theres not much to go on though. We'll just have to wait for more clues to surface and put up with the wild specualtion and opinions until then. I'm just happy to see they are up to something on the peninsula and with CP's reputation its always exciting to see what they'll come up with next.

Well now that Diamondback is built and waiting for its first riders another mystery is starting to take shape up North on the shores of Lake Erie... or more specifically the shores of Cedar Points inner lagoon. As you can see here land clearing has begun on one corner of Millennium Island with additional space across the lagoon behind Snake River Falls. Fueling the rumor mill a recent blog post on OnPoint! The Cedar Point Blog showed pictures of the clearing and stated "As you may have guessed, we're doing something over there. But "what?" is the question...” The post was deleted a short time later and replaced with one showing their new web cam location with no mention of the previous post. A copy of the post can be seen over at our old friend screamscape.com. I seem to remember someone at CP, possible Dick Kinzel, saying that a water ride or log flume was planned for Cedar Point but postponed for the construcion of Maverick. Could this be that ride? I for one am hoping for some type of ground hugging, quick turning, wood coaster ala Intamin prefab, CCI, or GCI. None of which I've had the pleasure of riding but hear some pretty good things. Let the speculating begin!

No, think rain.

I'm pretty sure there are B&M engineers in combination with KI maintenance running the testing. I know from following the construction of CP's Intamin coasters that its pretty common for Intamin guys to rent houses and apartments near the park for the duration of testing. Probably a few B&M guys living temporarily around the KI area too but I'm curious for a more knowledgeable answer too.

Just a thought but maybe bring the family with you next time.

^^Go ahead and turn on your sarcasm detector someone must have turned it off when you weren't looking. It's no longer stuck anyway I just watched it go through the final helix splashdown and the stations.

*note to self cancel trip to Kings Island this summer

At least once but maybe more seeing as my future in laws live in West Chester.

Great PTR that park looks beautiful and really makes me eager to see some green on our trees in Ohio. Man I can't wait for spring! Wow Mind Bender looks fantastic. Some rides are intense and some like this are just fun and Mind Bender really looks scenic too. I had to check out a pov on youtube and found a pretty good one I would be so disappointed if I went all the way to SFOG and didn't get to ride a B&M Flyer but I'm glad to hear you had a good trip

Ride DB first! I was terrorfied as a kid of roller coasters and would only ride the smaller ones at CP and even those I had to be dragged on the first time. Then one day after some peer pressure I was dragged onto Magnum (I think it was still the tallest then or close to it). After that I felt like well I've done the biggest and the baddest and I loved it so I have no reason to be scared of any other ride. I have never been scared of a thrill ride since and have become a bit of a dare devil too skydiving cliff diving etc...

From the Diamondback blog. Q: What part of the ride does it reach its max speed of 80 miles per hour? It looks like from the renderings that some of the drops go into the valley, so I was wondering if it was after the first or second drop. Brandon – Villa Hills, KY A: Diamondback will reach a speed of nearly 80 miles per hour going down the 215-foot first drop and pick up an additional two or three miles per hour at the bottom of the second drop, which is 193 feet into the ravine.

Man I love that JOJO Roll on Hydra. I've never had the pleasure of riding it but the idea is just so cool. On topic for DB I can't wait to see a video of that splashdown and I really can't wait to hear what it sounds like when it hits the water

I didn't think I would care that they didn't paint the splashdown but seeing it now in day light it looks pretty ugly. I don't know that a prefer fake bright blue but some dark blue or maybe some natural looking green would be better than now, which looks like fresh poured concrete.

150 points to the first person to upload a webcam capture of the train going through the completely filled up splashdown... ready set go!

For those of you that aren't aware, Vortex and Canada's Wonderland is basically a clone of Flight Deck at Kings Island. It just looks all together more beautiful than Flight Deck. Vortex at CW isn't over some random land with gravel access roads below it, but over a lake. It's colors also seem to pop just like BeastinNight suggests. Photos from www.coastergallery.com sigh... I remember when Iron Dragon looked that good...

I'm guessing that they will use that seat for a test dummy with sensors that detect the effects DB will have on its riders. *Edited to clarify humorous spelling error