silver2005

I wish Firehawk's queue was more in the center of the layout because then you could put paths below Firehawk towards the back end of the layout to get behind it.

Here's an update on what Vortex now looks like as Patriot. Photo credit to californiacoasterkings.com Link

Be warned if you go into food, you'll probably be under the most scrutiny of any of the areas in the park sans HR and PR. Just look at posts here for evidence of that. That'd be the last area I'd work in at Kings Island with their food situation right now. silver2005, former employee at Rivertown Potato Works when there were none of the promotions that the food employees can't consistently get right.

I believe food services accept applicants at 15. That's an adventure in and of itself.

I figured now would be a good time to get this thread going and start gathering info for my 2 summer trips. I mostly know what I'm doing at Cedar Point and I'll be going 2 days so getting everything I want to in shouldn't be a problem. I haven't been since 2011, and so any info pertaining to things that are new (aside from rides) would be nice. Having heard the lack of food quality there, any tips on food would be nice as well. Also, how necessary is Fast Lane during the week in mid-June? Also, with the addition of Gatekeeper and Valravn, how do the crowds flow during the day? I'm used to parking back by Soak City, starting in the back and making my way towards the front. I hope to grab a rollback on TTD as well (if its on ERT). Michigan's Adventure should be a easy park to navigate, but I welcome tips, particularly with decent lodging around Muskegon. My trip to Kennywood and Pittsburgh is something entirely new to me. I will (hopefully) have malem along for that so getting all the ins and outs there won't be an issue. I am spending a day in Pittsburgh for a Reds/Pirates game in early August on top of that, regardless of how the Reds do this season. If anyone wants to tag along with any of these trips, I'm open to it, though for at least one day at CP and MIA, I would like some time for me, myself and I.

^I'm iffy for Opening Day as well. I try to avoid taking off of Saturdays if I can. Most of my visits once summer gets here will be evenings for most of the week and Wednesdays and Fridays for when I want to go for a full day. I may sneak in a visit when I take a week off for my Sandusky/Muskegon trip.

When Ohio weather can't make up its mind what season it is.

Whatever is in the shed, it seems like something that either can be removed easily or turned on and off in a way that doesn't appear to riders when off.

I've ridden Lightning Racer at night plenty of times with many lights nearby (not just from the midway but nearly the entire ride is draped in chaser lights) and they didn't deter from the night experience at all.

This will be great with my schedule, assuming I'll still have Wednesdays off come summertime.

While not a GCI, GhostRider has a straight drop with the Flyers.

Another part I'm looking forward to is the turn around. It makes a high banked s-curve as it rises up and as its switching to make the turn, it enters the tunnel. That's got a whole lot of potential to be awesome.

I'll put it this way- they are pretty much anti-straight track between the lift and brake run. The entire track will be littered with pops of air, slight laterals, and very sudden forces you won't see coming because GCI is very subtle about adding them in. I call it elements within elements. What you think is a simple banked curve may have a unexpected pop of air in the middle. The pacing is very fast paced, you won't catch your breath until the ride ends. A reason Millennium Flyers are more comfortable than PTC's or any multi-bench cars is due to each row being its own car (an articulated design as the industry calls it). Each row of wheels can independently steer so there's not as much shimmying and thus they track better. GCI isn't afraid to take advantage of that, and you'll see transitions that are much more aggressive than a lot of other wooden coasters. They age quite well and are comfortable despite those more aggressive lines. I don't think the renderings will do it a justice (that 2nd hill in the computer rendering is way more stretched out that how GCI normally shapes their hills, but the actual construction does reflect that). I do wish they would have squeezed in a station fly-through as that was unexpectedly slick on Thunderhead, but regardless, this will be a great ride. I've ridden HP's Wildcat, Lightning Racer, and Thunderhead. I rode the later 2 both early in their existence and about a decade after they were built and they ran very good each time. Wildcat is a different story as it was GCI's first coaster and designed with PTC's (MF's didn't come until 1999, Wildcat was in 1996) and I am of the opinion it was better with the PTC's. All 3 are near the top of my favorite woodies list.

If anything, I think they should be developing more non-coaster attractions towards Storm Chaser as well as expanding the water park and then maybe add a coaster once you have a healthier amount of midway traffic going on. Storm Chaser is nice, but its so far out of the way from the next nearest attractions (at least Mt Thunderbird at HW has more than the coaster at the end of its even longer, hillier path from the rest of the park) and I think some easier rides around what is a very intense coaster would be wise.

FoF has always had a hard brake set up on the MCBR (I've ridden it at least once a year since 1997). The KI and KD versions are prototypes of a completely new propulsion system and were supposed to run 4 trains after all. I'd speculate that Premier's thinking was that the faster lap times/average speed on the track with a MCBR along with quick loading times (I remember early FoF crews having pretty quick loading times when the ride wasn't deluged in downtime) and a separate unloading station would equate to ungodly capacity. I think the FoF twins might have been the first launch coasters that were also full circuit as well. The only launched coasters prior to that which I can think of are Arrow's launched loops (see Screamin' Demon) and Schwarzkopf's launched shuttle coasters. Premier got their act together with the bigger (and faster) outdoor versions (ex. SFA's Joker's Jinx and and SFFT's Poltergeist) of that layout which all have the MCBR scrapped.

Where in the world would they even put a coaster as dynamic as a B&M? They're gridlocked as is and that line where all the taller coasters' lifts line up has nothing in terms of that kind of space. A launched B&M that isn't very tall perhaps, but nothing like Chang. I also don't think they need another coaster quite yet with what they've already spent along with their current spending rate (after Storm Chaser, their budget goes way down if you look at past proposals).

Personal goal of opening day- make the first ride of MT in the very back.

The GCI fanboy in me is getting very giddy looking at these photos. Drop #2 looks to be excellent.

^Nothing is a near clone of Vortex. Its a completely custom design.

Those trains, developed by Vekoma, have only ever been installed on Vekoma's own rides. No Arrow coaster has them and I don't think one ever will. They have somewhat different track designing.

Mystic Timbers followed shortly by Diamondback and Beast.

If they are doing lights, I've always envisioned having lights accent the loops, corkscrews and batwing a la CP's Corkscrew as well. Using LED's on those elements would be slick.

^Sign upgrade as a prelude to a LED makeover? wishful silver.

^I've always been used to the park going to daily operations either much closer or even after Memorial Day.

Just looked at the 2017 operating calendar and I find it interesting that the park is going into daily operation in mid-May. Also included is the Winterfest calendar.