silver2005

In the State of Ohio (last I checked), you get a temporary drivers permit at 15 where someone has to be monitoring you while you drive (aka, sober) and you're limited to how many people you can have in the car. You have to clock in so many hours plus take drivers ed to get a license from there.

GCI could do a lot with straightaways, like double ups, double downs, maybe some trick track thrown in there.

Well, there is one potential use out of the building that we all want. Send in the plumbers for the coolest looking restroom building ever!

Another thing I should throw in- there were lots of Six Flags references still present. The front entrance has 6 American flags, RRR has its Batman/Penguin theming, and the shop and theater for the Angry Birds show looks heavily influenced by WB/Six Flags (I've been to NJFTP, a lot of things looked similar to the way those shops and buildings looked).

So they built yet another big elaborate building that they aren't going to use it anymore? Sounds like a theme going on at the park. What's with KI and abandoned buildings?

BTW, here is a Hart cup.

BTW, in terms of crowds, early on rides were 1 cycle wait (flats) or walk on (coasters). LR averaged around 15 minutes, SC about 20, TR was 30 minutes though it died down later in the day, and T3 was 10. Also Terpy, I saw a guy walking around in a Blue shirt with a Hoosier hat on. Thoughts?

Here's the rest of my photos. I'll probably drop a few in the random photo thread from time to time as well. http://s515.photobucket.com/user/Strobelyte/library/Kentucky%20Kingdom?sort=3&page=1

Kentucky Kingdom PTR July 1st My day began at 7 am. Got up early, took some time to wake up and check email and such before I left, and proceeded to my local Frisch's for breakfast. Was on the road at 8 am. There was a steady overcast for the early portions of the trip, but just after I passed Sparta/Kentucky Speedway, a giant wall of black clouds loomed ahead. The forecast I saw was a 40% chance so I didn't expect it all day, but it was pretty slow going from Sparta until I just got within the Louisville city limits (I was approaching I-264 as the rain stopped). Louisville itself has a massive 3 way interchange between I-71, I-65, and I-64, and I-264 (some of those are merged). On top of that was loads of construction downtown. The mileage going around the loop was about the same, but I imagine it would have been just as hectic with everyone detouring around downtown. It got better as I passed a part of the world that has all things evil to Cincinnatians (U of L). The parking situation at KK is odd. There are several entrances to the Expo center area, some of which require massive looping around to get to Kentucky Kingdom, like the one I picked to enter. I did get to drive under what was soon to be the aggravating bridge at KK to see how all of this was put together. Despite the black death rain cloud and the construction, I pulled in with a great parking spot at 10, an hour before opening. Hey KK/Fair Board, would you please install restrooms outside the park gate? Would have helped me out a lot after hydrating on the way down. Sky was still overcast with some sprinkling (like a drop here and there every minute or so). The park opened and the way they open rides is that they wait until there's a group large enough to fill a train/cycle and then let people in line. I went to Lightning Run first out of proximity and was told such by the employee at the entrance. Got 2 rides on that (I'll get to coaster reviews later) and started with the coasters first. Then hit Thunder Run and Storm Chaser (T3 was down until around lunch). Oddly enough, they had 2 trains on LR and 1 going on SC (contrary to most trip reports I've been reading). I rode TR and LR twice for front and back seat rides while only getting 1 in on SC during that time. After that, I was feeling the heat as the clouds were breaking up so I did Raging River Rapids and Mile High Falls. RRR was pretty quick for a rapids ride and it had way more spinning than WWC does, though didn't get that wet on it. Mile High Falls was a nice soaking, but it didn't have that pop of air like Congo Falls. MHF also felt like the track underneath the turn was tacky sheet metal with the noises going on up there. It had this nice wall of water come up as it bottomed out. I was trying to buy time to see if T3 was going to open, so I took a breather and ate an early lunch. Had some decent flat bread pizza at the stand by Thunder Run. I forgot which one was the flat bread, but it turned out to be just the right food. I walked back over the bridge to Enterprise. I haven't ridden one since Skylab left and was eager to get back on one. Someone check on this, but did Skylab go full vertical during its cycle? KK's did. I also don't remember the cars swaying like they did. I did make me quite dizzy, too. I went back for another round on the coasters and whlie on Thunder Run for round two, I saw that T3 had opened. Made a bee-line for that before going for Storm Chaser on round 2. The combination of T3 and SC gave me a bit of a migraine, but this breather was sort of planned as I met up briefly with jrto223 to TCB. I set out to ride Fearfall and Skycatcher. Fearfall was actually nice for being a smaller dropping tower. It goes up pretty fast and doesn't hold you at the top and also have the view above you blocked by the car, so you get 0 anticipation. An odd design I saw about Skycatcher is that the entire tower spins, not just the mechanism that supports the seats. It seemed rather inefficient a design choice to me, especially considering the weight. It did run despite slight winds. I contemplated Cyclos, but 1) I didn't know the ride cycle was so long and 2) I didn't know it swung all the way around. I'm pretty sure it would have kicked my butt. I was starting to run out of gas, so I got 1 more ride on the big coasters not named T3 and left, though I initially wanted to get 3-4 in on Thunder Run, but it developed a bit of a temper as the track dried and it got hotter. Grabbed a map for my collection as well as a Thunder Run shirt and left at about 5:15. Also, I did spot the Greezed Lighting train behind LR and the front portion of the train in the shop by Enterprise. Had a great day overall. If some of you have noticed, I have been avoiding posting in the KK thread as I wanted to genuinely give the park a fair chance at winning me over. In terms of good things, the landscaping was very nice, it was very colorful overall in aesthetics, especially around the entrance, the area by Lightning Run, and the water park. The overall park layout was odd. The part on the side of the main entrance was okay overall. The bridge could be done better. I found it easy to get to from the main entrance side, but the incline was awfully steep. I imagine some people might have a hard time getting up to it. At least they had a street crossing as well. I didn't like the water park side of the bridge. To get up to it via ramps from that side requires a lot of circling around. There's also an awful lot of stairs and narrow paths along the midways. The water park side was all sorts of what the heck. It's like they took a bunch of small rides, water park rides, and the remaining 4 coasters, put them in a blender, and then went with whatever layout it spat out. Flycatcher is just sitting way out on its own on a far side of the water park, T3 and RRR are by their lonesome on their own path, and Storm Chaser is way, way out of the way from the rest of the park. The entrance to Lightning Run was kind of tucked away as well. The area by Storm Chaser and the former home of the drag racers looked a bit messy. I hope they either fill it in or make it look a bit nicer. It looks like SC was just plopped on top of a demolished warehouse. I also think the 3 steel coasters could use automatic restraints. I found it odd they were fastening the seat belts even on seats with no riders. OK, so things KK does better than KI- 1. Landscaping 2. Food Service (by a mile) 3. Staff in general (all very courteous and professional, though the ride ops weren't very on the up and up on dispatching, a few times I saw them call all clear while employees were still checking restraints). 4. Staff who enforces rules (KK was on their A-game going by the few encounters I saw that required such responses) At least going by what I saw and heard from other people, there was a great deal of satisfaction of how the park was handling their business. People like the rides and like having something closer to Louisville than trekking out to KI or HW, though HW seemed to be many of the guests 2nd option. I think KK is going in the right direction, they just need to solidify some things. I'm still baffled there is a park where KK sits, but if they can get to a point to make it work well and in a way that benefits all parties involved (including tax payers), then I say let them try it. Obviously, we've gone over the crap that goes on between the Fair Board and Ed Hart, but it is what it is. Next, my good googly moogly moments- 1. Seeing a slide (Deep Water Dive) that's taller than T3 (which is over 100 ft tall) 2. Getting what I'll call a 'plane ride' on my 2nd time on Storm Chaser- here's what my brain was doing - Brain relaxed going up lift - See's plane, its how far above us? The noise takes you by surprise, even over the fairly loud anti-rollbacks - Oh wait, I'm sitting in the back and we're already dropping - Going through the turn, I'm still contemplating seeing a plane that close to a coaster - Oh CRRRrrrraaa... as I'm going down the first drop, which is an inversion too 3. Seeing SC and LR fly through the hills in person before riding them along with the actual air time they delivered. 4. Seeing Cyclos go all the way around without having prior knowledge of such a thing Lastly, here are my coaster reviews. I rode all but T3 at least 3 times, at least once in the front and back seats for each to get acquainted. Lightning Run- I was very impressed by it. Every single hill has you up against the lap bar, very similar to the hills on Magnum on its return run, but all of LR's hills are like that. Its very smooth, the restraints are comfortable, but it does have this bump on the back rest that, I guess, is supposed to line up with the small of your back. Wasn't too big a factor, but on the lift and as it finished on the brake run, it was uncomfortable. I'm hoping Chance-Morgan's actual hyper coasters deliver similar air. Storm Chaser- Air time similar to LR but the transitions were smoother, except for the hills after the 2nd roll. The first drop is funky, in a good way. As it inverts, it starts out as hang time, but at the angle its dropping, it instantly converts to air time. Once you start rolling, you stay in that 0g sweet spot until you bottom out. A lot of the hills from the first drop until the 2nd roll had some sort of lateral motion at the crests (except the first camel back which is just straight up air time), so it throws you around quite a bit. The transitions from negative to positive g's are very quick like LR. LR's excuse is the track is constantly changing direction. On SC, its raw speed that makes them quick. As smooth as LR is, SC is smoother. I also dug the head choppers. However, I do still like GCI better. 1) I simply like wood coasters better than steel and 2) all the non-inverted elements on SC feel better to me on a GCI. SC is still an amazing ride regardless though. T3- This was my introduction to Vekoma full circuit SLC's. I went in expecting the worst. The restraints on the new trains are similar to the new restraints B&M has been using, but instead of metal bars with that rubber material, its seatbelts. It kind of resembled a 5 point harness with part of it being an overhead lap bar. That lap bar crushes into your legs throughout, and with it being a positive g beast, that part wasn't fun. It was quite smooth, my head didn't rattle around much, and I did rather like the layout. I could tell it was the prototype though. Some of the elements didn't feel shaped right in how the g forces weren't consistent and with a bit of a lot of the pulsing shifts in the pacing. I do want to get on the newer ones to see how they differ. Overall, it was just alright. Wasn't horrible, but didn't stand out much. One ride was enough for me. Thunder Run- This is the absolute crown jewel of Kentucky Kingdom. I got lucky in that my first 2 rides were after a good soaking rain, so it ran like gold. It started to get rougher as it got warmer, but it still ran great. Perfect air time for a woodie. One of the best bits are the first bunny hop as there is a slight turn to the right as you go back down. Your butt is still in the air and it suddenly slams to the side as its not banked. A lot of the drops except for the first set of hops have some sort of turn or difference in banking which adds some nice lateral motion to it, plus with it rattling below you, its just great at being a good wooden coaster. The turns later in the course also seem to get tighter in radius as you go through them. The pacing is phenomenal. A fantastic coaster overall.

Believe it or not, a Hart cup is even bigger.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), that means another more depressing 10 year anniversary is coming up concerning the park in a few days. The result of which (ultimately) being Banshee.

B&M can do anything, forceless that is... Rhyano, an Intamin fanboy Says you. I don't find B&M's forceless.

As much as I wouldn't trust Intamin currently, I do hope they're at least trying to do better in that area. They do have some interesting concepts.

^In all seriousness, I wouldn't put it past Intamin or RMC to do it. Part of me at the time was hopeful RMC would get to re-design SOB. Having seen the forensic reports from the 2006 accident, I knew it probably wouldn't happen.

^I'm pretty confident in guessing that CCI either wouldn't touch the project or (knowing how Paramount Parks operated) was simply more expensive than the RCCA proposal.

On SOB- how you design a 200+ ft wooden coaster with 0 air time and nothing but helices and a loop with positive and lateral g's is beyond me. The Premier and Gerstlauer trains were both garbage. The only redeeming things were the 214 ft drop and the loop.

I wonder if the record KI will break will be the most wooden coaster track in one park? I do believe KI lost that when SOB was shut down/demolished. The only park I think that tops us is Holiday World. This post may be edited. Going to crunch numbers. EDIT: The park with the most wooden track is Six Flags Great America at around 16,558 ft (I'm begrudgingly counting Goliath). KI has about 15,539 ft. Even a small GCI should put KI over.

You could also put in an elaborate pre-lift section starting from SOB's station (a coaster book I have says that SOB's drop out of the station was about 50 ft). B&M giga's have brake runs that sit pretty high off the ground, and with the terrain back behind Banshee, you could get a pretty wicked layout out of a giga.

Could someone get a shot of all this clearing (if possible) from the Eiffel Tower just to get an idea of where this all is (especially for those of us not able to make it to the park this season)?

Quoted from our ToS- Care to remedy this GavPenn?

^Not if they're different names altogether.

Seeing the PR nightmare that Dollywood is going through, I really hope that this is a GCI.

^Maybe in its efforts to create homeless cardinals .

Crap, there's no connection between axes/lumberjacking with Bearcats... Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

I don't have a name in mind (most I do have either refer to disasters or are too cliche), but I wouldn't mind seeing Congo Falls get renamed.