TombRaiderFTW

Yeah, I would buy the heck out of a forest green Adventure Express shirt with this logo and the 1972-1992 Kings Island logo beneath it. Would have made a neat limited edition shirt for the 40th anniversary. Oh well. FTW, not faulting KI... Just pointing out how impressed he was with KD's 40th anniversary this year.

They don't. The most I've seen is a Bat shot glass. I think the new logo is awesome and would totally buy it on a shirt, but... alas.

Yep, you get to keep the key. The actors in each room are very, very good at what they do. The experience in Urgent Scare is not my sort of thing at all and is not what I would have put there, but I have much respect for the fact that that actor carries the whole experience single-handedly. I know I couldn't do it that well.

I've used it at Kings Island for regular one-day tickets. It works well. The only downside to this is that you then have your phone on you when you go to ride something, but if that doesn't bother you, I recommend it.

^ There are kangaroos in Kings Island's water park, and you're excited about some stinking goats? Who are you, and what have you done with BB1?!

Ah, Sam's posting on KIC. One of my favorite traditions. It's really that time of the year. Before we know it, it'll be time for the annual retelling of that classic Christmas tale, the Sinking of the S.S. Gator. But first, Haunt! For everyone heading out to the park tonight: have fun! And let us know how good Skeleton Crew is!

Per the Ital International, Inc. listing, SkyRider has been sold: click. That was unexpected, but it's definitely appreciated (as long as the ride is rebuilt somewhere I'll have a chance of riding it!) Hopefully it wasn't bought for scrap.

As someone who didn't know Paramount Parks from a hole in the ground in 2006, was Anheuser-Busch ever a possible purchaser when Paramount Parks was up for sale? Because a Kings Island with the attention to detail of BGW would have been glorious.

I still maintain that Twister at Knoebels would make a much better Beast "sequel" than Son of Beast ever did. It's got most of the elements that Beast has, but all jumbled up and with more intensity mixed in.

Sean Flaharty posted a video on August 28th that makes me so nostalgic for Tomb Raider: The Ride that I could just about cry: I've wanted to see video of Tomb Raider's media day forEVER, and that music and the video of the queue and that MUSIC and the fact that you can see the door to the preshow open with music and lights and THAT MUSIC. GAH. This video doesn't do the original ride justice, but it's the closest dang thing I've ever found (apart from a full queue walkthrough video I found several years ago that I've since lost and never recovered.) I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.

I've always heard (from enthusiasts, so take it with a large grain of salt) that these were added in case Intamin or Cedar Point wanted/needed to add trim brakes at that point in the ride. As far as I know, they've been there since the ride opened.

EDIT: Nevermind. I didn't like how this post sounded after I posted it.

If I remember right, Dorney usually opens one of the first weekends in May, KD opens either right at the end of March or at the start of April, and Carowinds usually opens mid-March. Of course, don't take my word for this--parks' operating schedules can and do change from time to time. But yeah, the operating schedules are typically announced in January or February.

I think Mean Streak has its decent seasons. I don't find it amazing, but it's not the worst ride ever. Blue Streak I actually find to be a lot of fun, and I'm curious to know where you sat when riding. It's definitely a violent ride, but the airtime in the first car usually more than makes up for it, in my opinion.

There is no coaster at Kings Island that I would want redone the way Six Flags has been doing recently. I would, however, be in favor of Beast sparingly using Topper Track in conjunction with minor reprofiling to remove/reduce trims and introduce stronger laterals. I do NOT want it to be fully retracked with Topper Track, because part of The Beast experience is the wooden feel of the ride. There's something somewhat disappointing about the fact that the hill after the first drop was obviously meant to have airtime but can't because the train's moving too slowly due to trims. (I know the ride's always operated with trims because the original ride was considered too intense and/or jarring, but still. It seems like this could be fixed with today's technology.) The laterals in the helix have felt somewhat reduced to me since a few years ago, too--there was talk about the helix banking being slightly increased, but I don't know if that was factual or just enthusiast speculation that I bought into. If that actually happened and was caused by maintenance costs, I'd like to see Topper Track used there, too. Think Tremors or Georgia Cyclone. Of course, I'm being a fanboy with a pipe dream that would probably offend several folks. But since we're on the subject...

Touché. Hopefully I'm not coming across too fanboyish in my post. I do love Knoebels a lot, but I actually do find Flying Turns genuinely impressive from an engineering standpoint. That was the context behind my post.

Flying Turns actually is appreciable as a candidate for Best New Ride in a coaster "awards" show, considering how unique of a ride it is and how long it took to get right. That's not saying the rest are unimportant, but none of the rest involved literally reinventing and modernizing a coaster style that hasn't been seen for a very long time. I'm very surprised the GTA's actually acknowledged it, though, considering the skewing we've all been discussing up till now.

^ As far as I remember, subscribing to Amusement Today did not involve asking what coaster club(s) I affiliate with. I'm a member of ACE, which has one of the more expensive club fees... So even if specific clubs did get more say, they're certainly being awfully picky about who they're asking. I, for one, tend to believe Terp's theory about more advertising meaning more awards.

Yeah, I'm an Amusement Today subscriber (my subscription is probably about to expire, now that I think about it) and I haven't gotten a ballot, either.

Did Great Adventure actually tease the announcement of Rolling Thunder's removal, though? Serious question, as I don't totally remember how the removal was announced.

Yes, but not because of Mantis and SkyRider closing. The aspect of standing up on a roller coaster hit its peak around fifteen to twenty years ago, and no one really managed to create a stand-up coaster that actually got decent capacity. The ones that were built are just living out their service lives. Stand-ups were a dying breed when people stopped building them. In my opinion, B&M did a better job of the restraints than TOGO (I was never around for an Arrow stand-up), but no layout I've ridden from either company really set my heart aflutter. I do enjoy Shockwave at KD more than Mantis, Green Lantern, Apocalypse, or Georgia Scorcher. I thought Vortex at Carowinds was decent, though. The restraints on Shockwave are comically awkward and difficult to get into.

In theory, yeah. There's just a LOT of variables that would theoretically go into designing new trains, like mass moment of inertia of the new trains vs. the old trains, rider heartline location on the trains vs. what heartline the track was designed around, service life changes, and braking configuration, off the top of my head. That's not mentioning the multiple station changes required on Cedar Point's part. It's not impossible, but it would be difficult, which I would believe would also make it very expensive. I'm by no means the expert on how everything mechanical is designed, and B&M clearly knows what they're doing when it comes to coasters, but I would be extremely impressed to see Mantis get new floorless (or any other style of) trains. Regardless: Based on the strangeness of hyping up a ride "removal" announcement, it seems like Cedar Point's got something unique up their sleeves. Parks don't really tend to say, "Now, for the moment you've been waiting for... We're going to remove a ride. GET PUMPED!" Even parks with the ever-teasing hype machine that is Tony Clark as their public relations guy. There's something big to this that's yet to come. Stay tuned.

^ Not just you. The server's been on and off for me for the better part of the last 48 hours.

Awesome! Thanks Don and Boddah and Dane (and whoever else) for putting this together!

By the by: ACE is showing an event on its website called "Rip Roarin' Rampage Returns" on October 25. I wonder how official the date is...