silver2005

Oh, I have another request- what's the best strategy to get a rollback on TTD?

Yeah, I'm really hoping they bring back Off The Charts or a variation thereof as they did most of their shows in the evening. Also, I usually reserve one day at KI for a Fast Lane day and splurge, but I think I will save that for one of the days I'm at Cedar Point.

This season, I plan on making more short evening trips than full day trips due to the work schedule (unless I can get a few off days switched around). I'm used to going more for full days, and I was just curious on how to approach it. To put it another way, switching mindsets to be able to get the most out of short trips as someone used to going for a full days (those will still happen).

Heart lining techniques are a big part of why you can do lap bars on looping coasters. Heart lining uses track transitions which center the lateral rotations (such as entering a banked curve or a heart line roll) around the rider at the point of the rider's heart. This decreases head movement, which, allows for more open restraints. Decreasing head movement is pretty important, its why a lot of early looping coasters have restricting head movement in utilizing OTSR's. Notice how the seats all nearly line up together with the cars creating a circle around them. Every modern manufacture of inverting coasters (sans Vekoma) and even GCI and Gravity Group use this technique. Its also why you can now use lap bars on looping coasters. In SOB's and Schwarzkopf's cases (almost all of Schwarzkopf's looping coasters use lap bars and those were built as early as the 70's), vertical loops don't create lateral forces.

The fact that the shed is right after a set of brakes with only enough downward track to let gravity gradually roll trains into the shed, not to mention right before a sharp curve into the station should have been evidence enough to rule out an inversion.

Uh...Premier can also create shuttle coasters and/or multi-launch coasters that do exactly what they described in the write up.

B&M, Mack and Premier can hit 200 ft with LIM's. I doubt its Intamin.

I didn't realize how much a size difference there was between the first 2 hills and the rest of the layout. This thing will have the afterburners turned up to 11. Oh, and this is longer than Thunderhead. WWC should be a more interesting experience as well, not only in anticipating water cannons, but with this thing flying all around.

Does the 11th Commandment allow for duplicates?

While Voyage is pretty decent at night, I have to give the nod to Beast. Voyage keeps up its intensity a bit too long for my tastes. If it were about 1,500 ft shorter, I'd give it more consideration. While Beast isn't as crazy on the forces, I like that its sprawled out over such a big area and the helix finale is pretty hard to top, even if it needs a 2nd lift. It handles the psychology aspect of coasters better IMO. Legend gets it just right though.

^And of course, they put it in a section that's one of the most out of the way points of the park along with the fact it isn't open the entire year.

Thunderhead has a similar hill and curve into its final brakes. The fact its making a pretty big leap up there should show how much momentum it'll have finishing things off.

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.