silver2005

Hotels all booked for Michigan and northern Ohio! I did contemplate skipping a night on a hotel stay, aka, pulling a malem and going straight from my house to MIA, thus, only staying the one night in Muskegon, but then saw I'll be on the road for roughly 7 hours, so that's a big nope. Oh, and my hotel in Port Clinton on the shore of Lake Erie. Just out of curiosity, given the nature that MIA is Cedar Fair's smallest park, are there any types of policies regarding early closure for low attendance or other such not well known park policies I should be aware of (for Kennywood, too)? EDIT: Day by Day Itinerary of Trip June 18- Leave for Muskegon June 19- MIA June 20- go from Muskegon to Port Clinton June 21-22- Cedar Point June 23- back to Cincy

I can't really say I had many funny memories working in food, but there were the hardships. Anytime leaves clogged the drain during a rain storm, the stand (RT Potato Works) flooded with about an inch of water on the floor. Same would happen at the very back of WINGS' (now Reds HOF Grille) kitchen (I closed there a few times, even on weekdays I didn't get out until well after midnight). Also, from what I remember, the storage areas of RT LaRosa's weren't kept up very well (we got rotated to Happy Days as well and on rare occasions, Festhaus, that place is the worst place to close just on its sheer size alone). We did have a few incidents involving customers. Example, the park had a system where if you spotted anyone drunk ordering alcohol, you had to report it to the food department HQ and describe the person where it was told to every stand that served alcohol. We've also had lost and stolen credit cards, plus fake $50 and $100 bills. The worst time of day was while the water park was closing and that train rolled in and gave us instant midway crossing lines (at least on weekends). We also got a lot of trays of food from WINGS and LaRosa's for people who wanted the big fries with it. I also saw that not a lot of people fully finish those fries. Lots of salt, pepper, ketchup and malt vinegar everywhere as well. It's amazing to see how messy people can be with a simple cup of fries (this is before they added cheese and chili cheese fries). Also of note is that they used to have registers which didn't print out receipts unless you paid with a credit card, so memorizing orders was a bit of a chore (you'd be surprised, though, our stand also sold popcorn shrimp and chicken along with a chicken sandwich). The worst part of it was the fact I was working there in 2004 when they were slowly taking out Antique Cars within a stones' throw of the stand which was heartbreaking enough, but one day, they hit a sewer line which sent a pretty strong smell through I-Street around the Eiffel Tower and Carousel, and half of RT and CM.

Aside from Spiritsong, when was the last time Timberwolf actually hosted a high profile band/artist? I'm honestly surprised Spiritsong puts up with Timberwolf given the severe lack of upgrades to the place. It feels like an arbitrary relationship because KI offers a great experience on top of it with having the whole park at their disposal, but hasn't felt obligated to throw Spiritsong a bone by giving them a nicer venue. Overall, I don't think the removal of Timberwolf would be as bad as we might believe.

In addition to what shark6495 said, the park has had better food and service therein. I feel its been going downhill within the last 5+ years. What made those previous seasons different than now? As much as we bark about the bad stuff Paramount did, they trained their food staff much, much better than Cedar Fair and they staffed food venues better. Other parks go through the same thing and still have better service than Kings Island. There are employees at Holiday World younger than the average staff age at KI that were much more professional and confident in their jobs than KI. As for training them before they get working, couldn't KI partner with local restaurants that are already in the area that are in the park (Skyline, LaRosa's, Panda Express, Chick-fil-A, Subway) and let the employees train there before the season starts? The Glenway Skyline has perks for working up at the KI Skyline (which I just found out yesterday). When I was trained at Potato Works (at the actual stand right after they did the mass training during their orientation style training), I felt I was prepared and confident about my job with a few days. Granted, its easier food to make than most stands, but that also includes the areas like working register, interacting with customers and such.

I can do coasters in a light or misty rain. Anything harder than that gets uncomfortable. It's like being shot with a bunch of needle guns.

Just bumping this thread for use this season.

^Yeah, I got the day plan of CP down to a science after previous visits.

^A giant noodle supporting the radio playing X-mas music with pictures of Vortex strung up behind.

After glancing at CP's Fast Lane prices, I'm more likely than not avoiding Fast Lane.

^I'm guessing it'll be something Goble won't appreciate.

^Part of it is also to avoid or get the tail end of mayfly season. I got a cut across my forehead from hitting one at 120 mph on Dragster during my last visit. Also hoping for just enough wind to keep TTD open and a bit of rain beforehand so I can attempt a roll back ride.

Just out of curiosity, I just realized we can attach photos to posts now. Is that okay to do or do you guys still encourage use of 3rd party sites like Photobucket?

We're playing that in the West Side Community Band at our concert this Sunday as part of a Jersey Boys medley. I get a solo matching the first verse, which, I get to play around with the melody a bit (aka ad lib).

I finally chose the week for my CP/MIA trip- June 18-25.

Beast being open for Winterfest would help fulfill one of my lifetime goals on Beast- a snow ride.

Something tells me I'll be eating a meal along I-Street this season with one reason being to document and list all the music in this new soundtrack.

I like Beast better than any GCI I've ridden and I have my reasons. I like the out of the box design that Beast has as well as the old school design traits such as the more abrupt banking transitions, the lack thereof of banking angles which have better laterals which are sustained longer (even minus the helix), and I like the design aspects towards big moments with great build up. Of the 3 GCI's I've ridden that were designed originally with Millennium Flyers (all of which I prefer over Wildcat with MF's), Mystic Timbers is just below Thunderhead and Lightning Racer. I prefer GCI's with a twister layout because its more difficult to see the layout and thus makes them more unpredictable. All those crossovers and wooden beams flying by just make the GCI package complete to me. Thunderhead is my favorite GCI as I feel it outpaces and is more aggressive than LR by just a tad plus its more integrated into the hillside and terrain, though its a very, very small margin of error as LR makes up for it with the dueling/racing aspect. Legend remains my favorite woodie thus far due to the right mixture of pacing, length, airtime, laterals, and a bang bang ending with the work GCI did in redesigning the last few hills.

I think all rides that had bins kept them, even Diamondback.

With the exceptions, I'll edit my statement in saying that 90% of GCI's age well (mostly newer ones, ones designed primarily with the Flyers, ones not in harsh environments, ones that may be in parks that have lax woodie maintenance). With KI's history with wooden coasters (sans SOB), I'm not the least bit worried.

There's only one spot I would agree with that with- the final hill up to the brakes. I was way, way up against the lap bar as it leveled off and made that turn in combination. My only ride was just in front of the middle of the train (row 4 I think on the right), but that one spot was easily the point where it had the strongest negative g's.

Additionally, the restraints on Drop Tower are new.

Apocalypse is also out in the middle of a desert and has much harsher elements to deal with. Lightning Racer, Thunderhead and Wildcat were still good when I rode them nearly a decade after the respective ride was built IMO.

From my experience, GCIs age rather well. It will develop some bite in time, but the comfort level shouldn't falter too much. To those who have ridden this as your first GCI and loved it- the power of GCI compells you.

While Mystic Timbers is a fantastic ride, in my opinion, I still prefer Thunderhead and Lightning Racer. For me, GCI's perform better when they are more of a twister layout. The out of control feeling just gets amped up when you have all those crossovers plus LR has the racing/dueling aspect.

Hersheypark would like a word with the LA Times.