TombRaiderFTW

I bought it online, so technically, I suppose, there was nothing Six Flags could have done to avoid that. (It's not like they could have updated the website beforehand to say, "Hey! Probably shouldn't buy a pass today, as we're going to close the park in an hour. Thanks, and have a Six Flags day!") And no, I didn't. Part of the closure announcement included a means of getting a pass refunded, which included mailing all evidence of purchase to Texas. That was the last I heard of the $40-$50 I spent on a pass. On the plus side, I now jokingly threaten to shut down parks my friends are interested in visiting by purchasing a pass.

Bad luck at Kings Island: I rode Son of Beast. Elsewhere: Once upon a time, I bought a Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom season pass with the intention of visiting regularly, given the park's close proximity to Holiday World (for which I'd already purchased a season pass.) An hour after purchasing that pass on February 4, 2010, Six Flags announced Kentucky Kingdom's closure. I never got to visit.

Am I the only one that's been impressed by how quickly the ride is coming down? Not meaning to come down on you, SonofBaconador. I just had this idea that this thing wouldn't totally be down till just before opening day 2013, but they're well on their way to have it down before New Years'. Is it just me, or is a page not a page in this thread until someone's joked about burning the ride down and someone's swooped in with a "the fumes would kill you" retort? (Not coming down on you, either, TheCrypt. Heck, I'm probably the pot calling the kettle black. I'm just saying!)

In case anyone else is having trouble understanding where that video was taken, I'm pretty sure it's been horizontally flipped. On that note: wow, that's impressive to watch.

Of the ones I've been to: 1. Kings Dominion 2. Kings Island, Cedar Point, Michigan's Adventure (tie)

When I was young, Vortex was the "big" ride that officially made you a tough guy if you rode it. Because of that, I still have a nostalgic appreciation for the ride. As a rider now, it's okay. Not the worst Arrow looper I've been on, but I don't think I've ever found myself craving a ride on it. Several of my friends don't care for it, which means I usually only ride it when I'm at the park by myself or if I'm there with someone who's never been to KI before. There are many things to like about it, but I'm just not very excited about many of them, especially if I'm not sitting in one of the last three cars. That being said, Vortex's corkscrews are one of my favorite coaster elements, and the turn before the MCBR always surprises me with how intense it is. When it leaves Kings Island when its time comes, the place will definitely lose something for me.

^ For the sake of fairness: Son of Beast was inspected all the time, too. In the ride experience? Nah, not really. It would just be a nice touch.

See, posts like this are what's cool about the park interacting on these forums. Don's got a ton of info, especially about The Racer. As always, thank you for sharing! Makes sense about why they'd add protection for the skids... ...but I gotta agree with this. I'd imagine there are liability concerns with people on the brake run throwing something at the people crossing beneath, but it would be nice to have an open-air brake run instead of the walls now that the skid brakes are gone. Then again, Beast has the same possibilities on its brake run, and that seems to work out mostly well. Out of curiosity, Don--happen to know when the skid brakes were removed? Was it at the same time as Beast?

^ The turn after the first drop, as well as where the mid-course brake run once stood.

Now part of me's wondering what Son of Beast would have looked like in 20 years if left to its own devices, much like the Coney Island Thunderbolt (which sat SBNO along Surf Avenue in NYC from 1983 to 2000.) (Courtesy RCDB.) Something tells me it would have been the world's tallest planter. Probably a pretty cool-looking one, too, in its own way.

I was going to answer Son of Beast, but then I saw your double edit, haha. Suddenly I can't remember if I first visited Coney Island (Cincinnati) and Stricker's Grove in 2008 or 2009... Regardless, Python, Tornado, and Teddy Bear are it for me, whether or not it's been 3 or 4 years since I last rode them. If we're talking about the time between wanting to ride a ride and actually riding it, like Terp did in his post, it's probably been a decade since I saw X at Magic Mountain on TV and thought it looked pretty cool.

^^ Le click! It's from circa 2002-2003, so it goes into more detail than average on Tomb Raider: The Ride and Delirium. Certainly interesting to read about the park a decade ago, even if the information is mostly out-of-date. EDIT: Terp beat me to it! I'm leaving this post anyway.

Ohhhh yeah. I don't think I've ever seen KI as busy as it was last night. (Of course, this was the first time I've gone on a Haunt Saturday, so it probably was to be expected.) Around 10pm, Beast's queue was entirely filled and spilling out to the main midway. And then we bought Fast Lane, so... *awkward cough* (If you non-Fast Laners want to shame me for "crossing the picketing line," so to speak, rest assured that I got the stink eye from several people in the regular lines!)

Granted, I've only been here since 2008, but along with italianchef (whose PKI guidebook I still very much enjoy), I also really miss posts by violakat03, gigacoaster2k, Beast1979, etc. He's here more often than he used to be, but I miss when TombraiderTy used to post more, particularly on KIE (monthly quizzes, anyone?)

Actually, she still is there. It's the angle you look at her that determines how well you can see her. When you're underneath, it's almost impossible to see anything but the columns, but she becomes more visible about halfway into the house and beyond. It's great to hear so many reviews of the Haunts from so many members. I enjoy hearing other people's reactions to the houses and trails. Keep them coming!

^ Really? It goes down every time I ride it...

^ No one's been in the loop since 2006, silly. In particular, I will not miss that turn. The helices were bad, but I don't think any coaster's ever thunked me back and forth like that turn did. It wasn't like jackhammering; it was much slower. It was like the train couldn't decide which rail it wanted to sit on, so it changed its mind every 0.5-1 seconds by rocking back and forth. In retrospect, the natural sway of the structure probably had something to do with that, too. At its worst (meaning before 2011*), Mean Streak has a similar but much milder effect on the big, swooping turns. *I'm assuming, of course, that MS hasn't returned to its old ways this season. I haven't ridden it this year, but I haven't heard much about it being horrible the way it once was.

There was this one time when a fairly new member started a topic using a picture of the on-ride photo monitors when taking such a picture is against park rules...

^ Guess it wasn't a very good Subway, then, because it was all pretty much done the way I mentioned.

^ Having once worked at a Subway in recent years, I can tell you that it's because those "special" subs are still rung up as the equivalent regular sub in the register, at least at my old store. The Chicken Pizziola still went into the register as a Chicken Breast, and so on. Unfortunately, that meant that there was also no "Radioactive Goop" button for a toasted tuna sub. *shudder* I didn't see the new store when I went to the park on Friday, but I also didn't look for it much. If my plans to head there sometime this weekend pan out, I'll see what I can find.

Probably one involving a sister.

^ Yes. For whatever reason, though, the put the sign for it over White Water Canyon's entrance... which never comes into play at all. Consider me confused.

I'm pretty sure it is real. According to the description, they're still working on the theming, which, I assume, is why it's not opening till 2013.

I'm not much of a KIC enthusiast. I've never even met Dane, Boddah, or The Interpreter. Actual (slightly mushy) answer: I don't know. I know enough random KI ride trivia to make my non-coastering friends' eyes roll, but I don't get psyched every time I go to the park like I used to. I still love the park very much, but it's become less of "this is the best mini-vacation ever" and more of a place where I can relax and get away with each trip. I've come nowhere near the 18-ish visits I made in 2008 in this year or last, but I feel like I've learned to appreciate the place in a new way. (I guess that's one thing that can be said for the removal of The Crypt for me: I never really noticed this until this year. Once upon a time, riding it and Son of Beast were the meat and potatoes of a KI trip for me and my friends.) If you told me a year, I probably couldn't tell you with much certainty (unless we're talking the late 90's, 2000's, and whatever you want to call this decade) what rides came or went, but I can point out several places in the park where I've had fun experiences since I started buying my own passes four years ago. More times than not, the fun we've had was because we were at Kings Island. Summarized: I love the place, but not for any particular reason related to what's there, haha. EDIT: Except for Adventure Express.

Is it weird if I say that I'd rather the park got some kind of B&M with inversions than any other coaster type? I'm not that jazzed about most B&M rides, but one of their loopers feels more appropriate than a gigacoaster. Floorless coasters seem to have fallen out of style on this side of the Pacific (much to my dismay), so I guess it would be either an invert or a wing coaster. Heck, I think even a Batman clone would be pretty neat. Given that Kinzel's gone and we've met Ouimet, I don't look for a super thrilling coaster to land at the park anytime soon, though. In fact, I think I'd almost prefer the park expanding its flat ride collection. It's a pipe dream, but I'd be incredibly happy if the park installed some Larson flying scooters. (They're no Flying Eagles, but I'm incredibly doubtful our old set's going to return from Carowinds for no real reason.) They'd have to have higher capacity than the average set to be effective, but they're certainly a fun family ride.