TombRaiderFTW

^ Better stay away from Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, then... After the Cedar Point rumors, I honestly don't know what I think about what's next for KI. I liked Wild Eagle very much, but I don't know that I'd enjoy a wing rider from B&M at KI nearly as much. Part of what I enjoy about WE is the view, as the ride sits very high up relative to the rest of the park. If you take that away, you're left with an unusually forceful but somewhat generic B&M progression of a couple inversions and then some turns to maximize the ride time. I doubt theming is any more of Ouimet's method of operation than Kinzel's, but I like the looks of Busch Gardens' Verbolten. I'm curious to see what else Zierer produces in the near future, as they've been designing some unique rides lately. It'd be neat to see one of their rides at KI.

I can't believe I almost forgot it, but I've had some legendary rides on Magnum in the front car. The trimless ride I once had in 2008 after a heavy rain was absolutely insane. I've never had ejector air come close in intensity since, and my lap is thanking me for that. Besides that, there's also Flight Deck, like others have said. I also enjoy riding towards the front on GCI's, particularly Thunderhead (where the front row, despite my preferences, entirely blows the back out of the water.) There are aspects of riding in the front on The Racer, Invertigo, and Blue Streak (CP) that I enjoy, but I don't have to sit there. I moreso make a point to sit in the last row on coasters. Be glad the topic isn't about that, because I could probably write a book about the last rows on Adventure Express, Voyage, Legend, and Raven. Or Kennywood's Thunderbolt and Jack Rabbit. Or Dollywood's Tennessee Tornado. Or...

Excellent article. Geauga Lake was before my 'time'--I joined online enthusiast sites in April 2008. I never knew it existed until it didn't. It seems like it would have been the sort of place I liked in its smaller, apparently more charming years. I do agree with the Online Enthusiast Morality, though, and find it very accurate. I'm guilty of participating in it, too. But I can't make up my mind on how I feel about the notion that enthusiasts should band together to make a change in their favorite parks. On one hand, as they are a loyal fanbase, it feels like helpful criticism (i.e., something besides beating the dead horse of reopening x attraction or changing y area back to what it used to be) can be taken seriously, as they know the way their parks work better than the guests who make, at most, a visit or two a summer. (By comparison: we hear that Diamondback's been down, and the general consensus seems to be that we understand it's just a hiccup. We expect that there's likely some part on its way from the B&M headquarters, and we're excited to get the ride back as soon as possible. Several recent visitors to the park's Facebook page, whether the type to visit once a summer or frequent pass purchasers who don't have an understanding of mechanical issues, have expressed a feeling of betrayal and of having been ripped off. I realize that the world is not solely represented by the opinions expressed on Facebook, but it demonstrates an understanding that doesn't exist in any other customer opinion representations I've seen.) And if we've actually got the enthusiasm that our name suggests, then why shouldn't we be good PR for a park? On the other hand, I don't think it's a secret that several of the largest enthusiast sites are home to several of the largest enthusiast complainers. These are the people who represent the enthusiast persona, at least in the age of the Online Enthusiast Morality. If we could actually band together to get parks' attentions, would it even be anything worthwhile? Would we continue unrealistically begging for our favorite ideal coaster models to make our way to the parks or the nostalgic rides from our younger years to make a reappearance? What exactly is a good thing for enthusiasts to suggest without the park asking first, anyway? I guess I'm just thinking out loud.

Someone please assure me I wasn't this persistent in 2008 when The Crypt was "new". (Just teasing... kind of. I know you miss how things used to be, but do realize there are good things about what is. Enjoy what's there now, because you never know when a tweet's going to take it away. ) Excluding the Boomerang Bay bit, I've actually wondered about Cedar Fair buying it. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing Ouimet would do right now, as he seems to be more focused on increasing the quality of the park experience. I do wonder if it could become something like Knott's Soak Cities, though--separate from the dry park, and offering its own experience. Maybe it could become the "Kings Island Resort" if KI ever became important enough in the Cedar Fair chain to warrant its own resort; they could build a nice hotel on the side.

I know I've seen mention of the starlight tickets on their Facebook page--you may want to check on there, as several others have asked the same questions. I do know from experience that you do have to purchase starlight tickets in person at the park. Couldn't tell you what Meijer's charging, but I do believe I've seen two-day admission being sold there this year. You may want to try contacting your local Meijer by phone to find the pricing and availability. Oh, and welcome to KIC!

The evening of opening day, this group of college students marathoned Adventure Express something like ten times in a row because of the nonexistent line. Towards the end of that marathon, they started yelling random things as the train left the station, such as "FOR NARNIA!" I'm pretty sure the ride op asked the people who finally entered the line a couple minutes before closing to get in line for their rows so they would leave. ...I may or may not have been one of said college students. Pretty sure that night was one of the best times I've had at KI in recent memory.

Well, that explains how they were anticipating being open by 2013. It does sound an awful lot like they're not going to do much with Twisted Twins, T2, or Greezed Lightning, though--or, at least, not for a while. I get the impression that they're trying to rebuild Kentucky Kingdom using the same model that Santa Claus Land (and then Holiday World) started with, only with a full waterpark: run a few smaller rides, and then build up the coaster count as the park gains popularity. If a family's going to do it right, I'd say the Kochs are the best bet... But I can't help but wonder how all those SBNO rides are going to look. Without at least something small that's new, it just feels like they're trying to dress up the attractions the locals already know pretty well as being new. Or are they hoping that the Holiday World "freebies" will be enough to keep the locals coming back? Just thinking out loud, I guess. It just feels like they're saying "well, it worked at Holiday World for the past 60 years, so it'll work if we just do it the same way at Bluegrass Boardwalk." Maybe that's the case and I don't understand business, but... I don't know. It just feels like a place with the population density of Louisville would require more aggressive actions to keep the people who've seen the almost the exact same things at the park for practically the last decade of Six Flags coming back.

^ I thought they first showed up on either Knott's or Wonderland's model sometime last year... Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly?

^^^ Nah, I doubt they'll noticeably limit how far the seats swing (unless they're a LOT stronger than the old ones, but I could be wrong.) In general, the amount of force dampers exert is a function of speed. It's like the damper on a screen door- as the spring pulls the door shut, it accelerates. Then, as the door reaches higher speeds as it nears the doorframe, the damper force increases (which is what causes that hissing noise your screen door might make if you open it wide and then let it shut.) The door slows and reverses repeatedly, and eventually it oscillates until it approaches the doorframe and a slow enough speed that the damper doesn't exert enough force to reverse the direction, and the door shuts. The way WindSeeker's dampers likely work, assuming there isn't something unique about them: the speed is determined by how quickly one chair approaches another. If the chairs are moving too quickly towards one another, the dampers will kick in, thus avoiding collisions like the Cedar Point video. If they change the dampers, it may affect how long it takes for the chairs to fully extend, as the dampers will be more sensitive to speed, but they'll get to the regular angle at some point during the ride cycle... If that makes sense? It's a little hard to explain unless you guys have taken a Differential Equations or Mechanical Vibrations college course.

^ Yes. It doesn't walk anywhere. I'm so bummed. From a mechanical standpoint, the new arm-to-arm dampers make sense, as they'll act more strongly when the chairs near each other. It prevents things like that video of Cedar Point's WindSeeker where the chairs were bumping into one another much better than the original design, as the force keeping the chairs apart is now determined by the position of the chairs relative to one another rather than how far each chair swings relative to the carriage. In other words, this update to the models is more than likely allowing the WindSeekers to operate in higher wind speeds. Such is the sort of thing that happens with prototypes, I guess. The only thing I find curious about this situation is that it wasn't started earlier in the year/is taking this long into the season to implement the new dampers, but there's probably more to it than meets the eye. I don't think any park would be too excited about their new-ish ride being down a month and a half into each season.

Fixed. For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever had any reception issues on my non-smartphone Verizon phone. Then again, I'm not reliant on 3G or 4G service.

Great TR, Dvo. And thanks for the comparison to Wild Eagle! I've been very curious as to how X-Flight would compare to WE, so now I'm very interested in getting up to SFGAm sometime soon.

How many times did you have to visit and/or how much did you have to purchase in order to get to level 2?

^ Not really. It looks like a wooden coaster built in an area prone to earthquakes, thus requiring that the supports be overdesigned lest the ride require being rebuilt after such an event. Which, as a matter of fact, it is. Take a look at the solid wall of supports of Nagashima Spaland's White Cyclone for another example of that. (Then again, it's not like I've got any of the design data for either ride--for all I know, the truss is horrible somewhere inside both of them. I'm just making the point that having seemingly overdone supports doesn't mean they were done poorly.) shark6495: If you mean the supports we just talked about, several of the visible ones seem to have been there from the beginning, as is somewhat visible in this photo: If you mean the supports they added after the incident... It's kind of hard to guess. I got the impression from the accident report that the train's shuffling caused forces to go in directions that hadn't have been accounted for in the initial design. But, in that case, you do make a good point: if there were additional types of supports that could dampen those sorts of movements in the supports when necessary, should they have been installed as part of the initial construction? Or did the trains cause a unique movement that couldn't have been planned for until the problem presented itself, so the only way to adjust the structure was by testing? (I don't know the answer to those questions--just thinking out loud.) Also, if anyone happens to find that video, I'd love to see it. From an engineering standpoint, the 2006 incident is very interesting to me (in a respectful way, of course. Experiencing the incident would have been very scary.)

Horrible...I cross the front with my arms crossed in front of my face, saying "no, no, no, no", and STILL, they hound you. They need to be much, MUCH less pushy. My friend and I had a photographer sincerely scream the "hi, welcome to Kings Island, squeeze together for me" spiel on opening day. It was actually really humorous--it was like she had had just the wrong number of no's for the day, and she was not having any more. That being said, it's like 16gwoods said: they've got quotas they need to fill. You can't fault them that much, even if you think they're annoying--it's no different than the people working the floor at electronics stores or the average worker on an assembly floor. They probably know it's a pain in the butt to be asked, as it's probably a pain to do the asking. They probably get attitudes left and right from people, especially if park guests "leave their brains in the car," as the phrase goes around here sometimes. So don't come down too hard on them, guys. They aren't there with their cameras to bother you; they're just trying to make money.

You guys kinda have your expectations set a little high. Remember, it's a prototype. These sorts of things happen.

Yeah, that's pretty much the basics of structural mechanics. Son of Beast looks like that because it has to look something like that. With wood piled that high, I'm sure they don't want all the weight of the train and the upper supports going to the supports directly beneath the track. It's actually a pretty remarkable engineering accomplishment. I actually think they look quite a bit like Dinn Corp.'s and CCI's supports, except they just have those extra beams both parallel and perpendicular to the track.

^ Which, in the opinions of at least two members on here, is a pretty good thing! I love the change. The Racer station went from being pretty cramped and annoying on busy-ish days to flowing pretty nicely. You can actually get to the back of the station most times now. Thanks, KI!

^ Don't you mean downtown? Or has that joke finally been sent to The Crypt?

Does KI usually have bee problems around mid-June? I seem to remember this happen before, possibly multiple times.

Yeah, it seems to be up now. Just a thought on the site being down earlier: it might be a stretch, but maybe enough people were trying to use the site that they crashed the server?

I'd say their biggest change will be $0.99, unless someone wants change for a bill or something.

There are SO MANY coaster enthusiast-related jokes coming to mind right now...

^ Or maybe they could simultaneously launch a new rewards program that, upon registration, gives the participant a coupon for a free all-day drink wristband. Those people could get excited to hear through Facebook or Twitter that this new machine with weird flavors of pop has just shown up at the park, and they hurry to try it on their next visit. Then those people tell their friends, "Hey, I got this free pop at Kings Island, and they had this pop machine that had lime Fanta*. It was weird, but it was really good. You should try it sometime!" Or something. *An actual flavor, by the way, or at least in the Freestyle machine I've tried. It's delicious!

kblanken's link worked for me; I got a free all-day drinks wristband! This is such a cool idea. EDIT: Just checked my username and password on the funperks.com site, and it works.