gad198

I was thinking the same thing too before I spoke with the rep. I did a quick Google search for Dollywood season passholder days and found all of three entries, so word certainly hasn't spread on the net. I did see the forecast for showers, and I'm hoping that forecast will keep some people away. Honestly though, as long as the parking lot isn't packed I'm not too concerned because the park handles crowds really well. It'll also be interesting how much interest Adventure Mountain draws. That'll certainly be our first destination if for no other reason than that line will move the slowest.

Ditto. I called down there and asked a representative whether everything (including Adventure Mountain and shows) would be open and they indicated that it would. I also asked how busy SP days tend to be there and the representative said that it would likely be pretty busy and to get down there early (earlier than 10) if possible. Just a heads up. I just hope that the weather cooperates!

I think this only part of the reason why the ride looks how it does. Did you see the relatively small parcel of land this thing sits on? They really scrunched this thing into a relatively tight area and I think Intamin and the park did a good job of putting together an interesting layout under the circumstances. My only concern at this point are the restraints and how they'll handle those quick transitions. I really hope that this doesn't become a front seat ride only (ala Maverick) because of them.

Zach, it's always great seeing your photos. Diamondback really captured the attention of a lot of people this year and I think that part of that is due to pictures like this really capturing the essence of the ride. Keep up the good work!

We had a chance to stop there on a trip last year and I'd second this wholeheartedly. It's very reasonably priced and the food is good. They also have the best onion rings we've had anywhere, so make sure you try those if you do stop by!

I finally got the opportunity to ride Acrophobia at SFOG last year. OUCH!!!! My understanding is that the seats wouldn't tilt until the top, but alas, that was not my experience. We actually loaded in the "seats already tilted" position and needless to say that was the longest minute of my year last year. It's a great drop, but it'd be nice to enjoy it without the, em, discomfort.

Thanks for the heads up on that. Link: http://visitkingsisland.com/events/events.cfm?ec_id=33

There have been two coasters that have made me giddy after the first ride: Millennium Force back in 2001. This was the coaster I had always wanted to ride and it absolutely delivered. The view form the top is unlike anything else, and then to be dropped at that angle and bone-crushing speed was just fantastic. We rode in the second seat, and interestingly enough this was the first and last time I got significant airtime on that second hill. Still one of the few rides I can think of where most everyone on the train starts clapping after the ride. Voyage back in 2008. I wasn't much of an enthusiast back then but this single ride changed everything. You get a little bit of air on the first few hills and then it just gets insane, all the way through to the finish. My brother and I got off the ride and both looked at each other in this "I have no idea that a coaster ride could be life-altering" way and then promptly re-rode. The only issue I have with this ride is that it changed how I looked at every other wooden coaster. We rode El Toro a few weeks later and got off thinking "well, that was great but it's no Voyage." I really hate thinking that way! Every ride experience should be judged for what it is, but it's really hard to do that after riding the Voyage.

I'm not sure the NBA would like that very much! It would be interesting to see if that phrase is trademarked by them or not. They've been using it for a few years now.

I think the ride will open on time. First, it's not a prototype. There's nothing in this ride that hasn't been done already, except for that wicked first drop/turn combo done at >90 mph. Second, I don't think they'd want to aggravate anyone participating in that First Rider Auction, as it would create too much negative PR for the park. Having said all of that, there's a reason why I'm not heading down that first weekend. I'm sure that KD is a nice park, but someone on this site wisely stated that you shouldn't go to a park just to ride one ride. I really hope that for everyone involved that this ride isn't problematic, because this is will be the highest profile coaster this year and I'd really hate for any undue negative sentiment to develop because of downtime.

I agree that I'd rather see a good Gravity Group or great GCI coaster before another Intamin pre-fab. There are moments on El Toro that are absolutely fantastic (the first three hills, the hill under Rolling Thunder), but there are also times where the ride doesn't do much. GG and GCI coasters don't suffer that same affliction. GG and GCI's will also run you much less than an Intamin pre-fab, and I would think that would be part of the reason why CF has installed GCI's recently (Renegade, Prowler). Honestly, I'm kind glad that we got SOB in 2000. Yeah, we may have gotten a B&M hyper back then instead but it's my experience that B&M hypers are just getting better as you move through the progression (I think DB, Behemoth and Goliath (SFOG) are the three best B&M hypers to date), so I'd be very hesitant to trade DB for the hyper-behind-door-number-one. Looking back we also could have gotten a GCI creation, Gwazi, which is usually in the roughest wooden coaster discussion. You just never know.

This is being discussed here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20602

I just saw this today and thought that this looks pretty cool. I'd really love to be able to get loads of nighttime rides on Nitro! I don't know much else about the event besides what's listed on the flier: http://www.aceonline...bration2010.pdf (1) Is this event open to anyone? (2) How many people usually attend, and in your opinion, is this worth traveling to? Any advice is appreciated!

Anytime you get another one of these installed you're going to be intrigued simply because there are so few of them. However, as much as I enjoyed what X/X2 brought to the table, there's no way I'd install one of these if I were operating a park. There's too much downtime, capacity is terrible (this and Firehawk have about the same capacity) and the ride itself is extremely short (except for the lift that takes FOREVER to climb). It's a ride that doesn't have any peers from a ride experience standpoint, but I'd rather ride a lot of other coasters before this one.

If I am riding a coaster for the first time I usually decide what seat I ride in using the following: Front Seat Better: * any full circuit Intamin coaster (TTD, Maverick, MF) * any ride with a shorter train (Maverick, Mystery Mine) * any ride with a deserved reputation for being rough (Mean Streak, SOB) * B&M floorless (for the floorless effect) Back Seat Better: * most B&M coasters (other than the floorless) * most wooden coasters * most multi-loopers of any style For the poll I'm in the Millennium Force camp. The first drop is much better in the back, but after that the sense of speed and the airtime pops you get on the third hill and on the final bunny hill are much more pronounced up front. Maverick comes in a very close second.

It's amazing how as I get older the less I'm inclined to wait in a line over an hour unless one of the following applies: * I'm at a park other than KI (unless a big new ride at KI is opening, i.e. DB) * I'm at a park where there's a new-to-me ride that I'd kick myself for not getting on and that isn't feasible to travel back soon (ex.: X2 at Magic Mountain) * I'm with someone who is in the above category * Every other wait in said park is over an hour (Cedar Point if you catch an unlucky break with crowds/school trips in late May or early June) Having said that, I've waited 6 hours for our inaugural ride on Flight of Fear, 3 hours for our first ride on SOB, and like many others here were at KI at just after 7 am on DBs opening day. I wouldn't have it any other way because of the stories involved in each, but waiting in line now for more than an hour for any ride just becomes more of a chore than anything else unless one of the above conditions apply.

I think a lot of the construction speed can be attributed to the fact that the worksite has been easy to access. A lot of the site has been paved (the parking lot), so even if the ground hasn't been great they can still get things done, whereas with the KD site they're working on mud. Big difference. I'm also pretty sure that DB was mostly done by this time last year too, and that was a much harder job due to the site that most of DB sits on. Also, KD's project now is mostly about stuff that's closer to the ground. There's only one more "big" hill they need to take care of, so I'm betting that construction will go much more quickly now then it has up until this point. Has an official opening date for either of these parks been announced yet?

Great advice (along with the show advice). I'd also add Tennessee Tornado to the must do list. If you're looking for a nice little snack make sure you check out the cinnamon bread in the Grist Mill. We've missed this on every trip there prior to our last a few weeks ago but we won't be making that mistake again! In regards to the season passes these are definitely the way to go if you have any intentions of visiting next year as well. You'll also get a season pass book for 2010, and while it's not quite as good as this years it'll allow you to bring down a friend select days either free or with a 50% discount. Enjoy your trip! Sidenote: If you're looking for a restaurant down in Knoxville I'd highly recommend Puleo's Grille. I'd be curious if anyone else from the board has tried this restaurant as well.

I really hope they don't go the Six Flags way of doing this. The only deals I've seen are the family meal deals they have. They aren't offering a real good discount to begin with, and they have WAY too much food in them for anyone who doesn't have at least 3 people in their group. Make it simple; 15% (or hopefully 20%!) discount on any food purchase. One simple button for attendants to press for the discount and it's much more uniform across the park. It also has the added benefit of passholders not trying to fiddle around with where the discount may or may not apply. Color me curious as to exactly how the deals will work out.

That totally depends on how they allocate seats. If they're allowing 100% Fastpass usage first and then (and only then) taking from the standby line then you'd opt for the Fastpass line. Front of the line privileges are entirely different altogether. I think we can agree on the fact that the more people use VQ/Fastpass, etc. the slower the standby lines become (as long as you're dealing with a fixed capacity). EDIT: ^ I completely agree with the Quick Queue assessment. The key phrase in that sentence is "limiting the number" of passes. My original thought was that if you make that privilege too cheap then you're no longer in that realm because there would be a lot of people using the passes.

There would be very little chance of any virtual queueing system costing $10-$15 at Kings Island. That's way too low a price point IMO and would not come even remotely close to maximizing revenue. What it would do, however, is make it so affordable that everyone would use it, thereby making standby lines move much more slowly. VQing also makes it much more difficult to gauge how long lines are in actuality unless you have some type of computerized monitoring system giving you an estimate on what the regular lines looks like in addition to how many people are VQing. I'm now starting to see the reason why Six Flags usually grossly overestimates wait times because they don't want the backlash in GR if signs prove to be wrong going the other direction. I remember reading on another site that at some point we may see a system where all park patrons VQ. I can't envison that unless they find a way to figure out how to account for ride breakdowns, what happens if someone queues later than their scheduled time, etc. It also seems as though there would be a real lack of efficiency in a system like that. The system would be able to account for the breakdowns, but wouldn't be able to account for people not showing up at their scheduled time (making for more than necessary empty seats), ride ops not moving at optimum efficiency, etc.

Excellent post. I truly believe that Dollywood's got the best system going right now. It's cheap, you get into the shows withough the hassle of standing in lines before the doors open, and because you're still waiting the same amount of time as everyone else for rides, just not in line. You therefore know that someone isn't getting two or three rides in the time you might get one (ala the Gold Flashpass at Six Flags parks). Someone previously mentioned that pay-to-cut systems are straight profit. That is true to some degree, but I know I've seen reports that for the Lo-Q system (Q-bots) that Lo-Q gets half of the proceeds. Even if that's not completely true then Lo-Q has to get something for providing the system, so saying that it's 100% profit isn't exactly true even if there's not the huge capital investment.

The more I ride this the more I like it. It's not a wait-for-30-minute ride, but we had a surprisingly good time on this, particularly in the front. There's a pop of airtime just before you enter the subway portion I didn't know existed before this year! I'd go with Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia. I love how they were imaginative they were with how they fit the ride in, love the airtime, love the bone-crushing helix and like the fact that there's no MCBR to slow it down.

B&M coasters are works of art as well as great coasters. Diamondback is easily the best coaster at KI to photograph. I think about seeing Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa, Nitro at SFGAdv and Behemoth and they are all amazing beautiful to look at. I'm sure that Manta would probably fit into this category as well, so it'll be fun to see that one up close and personal soon!

^ Off-topic, but that is a great avatar. We saw that on-ride photo as we were leaving the park on closing day. Best on-ride photo we happened to see this year, so well done!