TombRaiderFTW

^ The link doesn't seem to work for me, Interp. Still, given the amount of personality the op on my last (and probably last ever) Paddlewheel ride had, I'm a little vexed... I just don't see Kinzel cracking jokes with everything they pass by, which is the majority of why Paddlewheel is as cool as it is. Unless, of course, he actually went for the "and here we have downtown Sandusky" joke while passing the hillbilly shootout scene like the op did this year. In that case, he can pilot whatever boat he wants. I was laughing for the rest of the ride. EDIT: Nevermind! Link seems to work now.

I'm extremely mixed. I'm so glad to see the waterpark finally get some love, but it's a mix of bittersweet and super irritating that Kings Island's individuality is being removed by the switch to the generic "Soak City". I guess I don't see why the Boomerang Bay theme is being nixed, other than "because they can"...

^ Actually, CP doesn't have a gold pass. It's either the standard CP pass (which I don't think has parking) or the platinum pass, which has all that and a bag of chips, like ours.

...They're holding an announcement in the Room of Requirement?

I've noticed multiple times this year where Fast Lane is apparently free on WindSeeker--you just step right on ahead of everyone else at the beginning of the line and go ahead just as far as you darn well please. You know, that place with the "line jumping is prohibited" sign? Yeah. Great time to flick on the turn signal and zoom right on by everyone else. Though really, the multiple (as in 75% of the times I've ridden) occasions of this don't beat the one time I rode Great Bear at Hersheypark. There, if you happen to be a group of kids (who just saw someone get caught line jumping, as it were), you can just push (hard) right by everyone in line right up to the station, then turn around and give everyone you jumped the stank eye like they just cut you. (The vindication? We still got on the ride sooner than they did. If you're gonna line jump, you probably should avoid getting in the longest line in the station.)

Terp, you do make me wonder sometimes... That almost seemed a little too obvious. Combined with what you've said before, I've got a good idea of what's coming for a formerly premier(e) feature at KI. But on another train of thought, I think you're just taking us for a really rough ride to see who says, "Hey, are you taking us for a loop? Or are you maybe Gerst really excited about what's to come?" That's a really wide gauge of thought... But, seriously--are you teasing us?! (You know, it's kind of hard to stop trying to make Terp-worthy puns once you've started sometimes...)

^ If you look closely at unrealsk8r's picture, they're actually not straight there, either. The ride just looks like that--they're at very odd angles to each other. It's very different from what we've come to expect from KI's other woodies. It's not impossible that there might be some missing; I'm just saying what I've noticed.

^ A 120-foot loop on a 218-foot coaster? Sounds pretty reasonable, actually. Especially given its location halfway through the course.

Wow...not even close. They are decent, but pale in comparison to Beast, Diamonback, MF, TTD, Magnum....the list goes on. I personally think the coaster collection at HW is the most overrated in the industry. I can absolutely respect your opinion of HW's coasters, but his words were "people who'd prefer to ride those three roller coasters" than the CF ones. Even though you disagree in your opinion of the rides, he's still right. For example, I'm one of those people. I don't think the rides there are flawless like a large number of people in the enthusiast community seem to think, but I do prefer all three over a vast majority of KI's and CF's rides. I'm just saying for the sake of fairness.

^ Good point. Still, the context of the statement seemed to be that they were more comfortable with the idea of a loop because they now have control over the trains' design. I'm sure The Voyage has helped them realize the depth of that responsibility, but there's also a difference in the situation--we're comparing adding Timberliners on a ride that's spent five years running a different manufacturer's trains to them designing a new ride that has a loop and would be designed around Timberliners in the first place. The former is what's causing them problems; the latter, without the loop, has apparently given them few issues. Just see Wooden Warrior and Twister.

Actually, The Gravity Group said in a Gravitycast podcast episode from a few years ago that, now that the Timberliners are out, they'd pretty much just need to find the right client who wants a wooden coaster with a loop to do it.

Which I kind of don't understand... Are they afraid that a single rider will somehow injure him-/herself against the side of the car in the turns after the lift? Is it to maximize capacity? Is it required by insurance?

Can't say much about what the lines will be like, but I will say this: if you're pressed for time at Kennywood, I highly recommend a last-row ride on Thunderbolt. If that's unavailable, Jack Rabbit's last row will also do.

I don't mean to sound like I'm questioning whether or not you actually saw what you did, but I think what you saw was the first hill after the first drop. That hill actually is just that strongly banked... Outside of The Voyage, it's one of the biggest banking angles I think I've ever seen on a modern wooden coaster. From Adventure Express, it pretty much does look like you're looking at the track from the top, but that's just how the ride is. Until I started experiencing other parks, that was actually one of my favorite elements on a coaster--up until the train started knocking back and forth as you got closer to the top, that is. As far as the support boards go... I've got nothing. I was usually too preoccupied with avoiding cracked ribs after the first drop to care about what the supports look like.

Given my recent trip to Hersheypark and Kennywood, I HAD to go back and change my rankings... Check it out.

This isn't about Kings Island, but I heard quite a few interesting things at Kennywood and Hersheypark recently about several parks that I never knew before... For instance, did you guys know that Magnum XL-200 has a 220-foot lift hill and a 350-foot drop? They dug a tunnel so it could go underground. Or that Kingda Ka kills people regularly?

I can see the advertising now... "New for Halloween Haunt 2012: Holiday World! Brace yourself for a trail unlike any other... where a friendly Hoosier family hands you pop at no additional costs around every turn! And beware the coasters, where you may not find yourself slowing halfway through the course... Only at Kings Island's Halloween Haunt! Heh heh heh heh..."

No no, very little of it is still downtown. It isn't very Ferris to wheel that sort of judgment in here after the park's worked so hard to reduce how much time is wasted in downtown!

I think what everyone's referring to are the Son of Beast's ledgers, which, at least on the large banked turn after the first drop, are connected at very unusual angles compared to most other wooden coasters. Do a bit of research (e.g. look up an SoB POV, which I would link to were I not on my iPod) and you'll see they've been like that since the ride opened. Nothing's going into visible disrepair from at least what you can see on Adventure Express. TRFTW, who wonders what people here would make of Kennywood's Thunderbolt and its aging wood... which, as I found out yesterday, I love!

Favorite companies: 1. Koch Development Corporation 2. Parques Reunidos 3. Paramount Parks Favorite ride manufacturers: 1. Custom Coasters International 2. Either The Gravity Group or Great Coasters 3. Intamin Favorite parks: 1. Holiday World 2. Kennywood 3. Kings Dominion Favorite rides: 1. Tomb Raider: The Ride 2. The Voyage, Holiday World 3. Intimidator 305, Kings Dominion 4. Storm Runner, Hersheypark 5. Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point 6. Thunderbolt, Kennywood 7. Millennium Force, Cedar Point 8. Legend, Holiday World 9. Raven, Holiday World 10. Great Bear, Hersheypark

I've got a soft spot for Blue since it's so overlooked. I don't have much of a preference while standing in line for WindSeeker, though... The sound of the upstop wheels making contact on the hill before the turnaround is still one of my favorite coaster sounds, no matter what color.

^ The thing is, though... If everyone's allowed to bring a friend to ERT, doesn't it just become RT?

^^ Ironically, I think I like that name better for California's Great America. Rolls off the tongue a bit easier, in my opinion.

This is exactly what I was hoping for out of this ride. A copy-and-pasted series of airtime hills would have honestly underwhelmed me--the fact that this has many low-to-the-ground twists and turns (especially 4, 7, and 9) is awesome. Does Raging Bull even twist that much? I need to get to Canada's Wonderland next year... I never get this excited about a B&M!

I agree with Captain Nemo. It's Luh-vy-uh-than, which I do think is quite possibly one of the coolest ride names ever, in my opinion. In my head, Canada's Wonderland is this quaint little village with relatively tame rides... and then there's these monsters that loom over it. I don't know how far off base I am, but from this perspective, it's one of the coolest theme ideas I've heard in a long time. Especially coming from Cedar Fair. I don't know what to make of these B&M giga rumors, but the park must have something up its sleeve with this besides saying, "Oh, you liked Behemoth? Here, have it scaled up a bit on the tallest, fastest, longest, [insert adjectives ending in -est] ride in the country!" (Then again, I wouldn't have assumed Holiday World would do that with Mammoth, so what do I know? )