gad198

Yeah, I knew that yesterday after the rain would be good. Unfortunately, life has a way of interfering with plans! Glad you had a great time!

Thanks for the post. How long were the DB (and other) lines once the rain stopped?

That's cool. Just remember that schools are back in session during that time as well, so the crowds probably won't be as bad the weekend you're going compared to the initial poster going down this weekend, so enjoy your trip. Let me know how the GFP works out at that park, as we've never really had the need to use it there. I'm betting you'll probably reride the Goliath/Mindbender/Batman trilogy a bunch!

I would be less than thrilled if they decided to build an Aquatrax. I've always been curious to see why more parks haven't built one if they're simply that awesome (same thing goes for their Wing Rider design). The low capacity nature of the ride doesn't really help get me excited either. Did I mention this is an Intamin? The last thing Cedar Point needs is another new ride to go through the inevitable ups and downs of being up again, down again. CP does need another water ride, but I really hope they go in another direction if they choose that route.

^ I see in your signature that you're going to SFOG on a Sunday. If you have a FLIP camcorder (or know someone who has one), you may want to check this offer out: Flash Pass Offer. Regarding the flash pass, I would absolutely, positively not get the flash pass unless the park looks like it'll be really busy from the start of the day. SFOG shouldn't pick up on a Sunday until around 1, so you should have enough time to do the rides you need to hit w/o the FP. The only reason that I'd get the FP is if you're interested in a TON of rerides, or again, if the park looks to be super busy. The park usually opens around 10:30. In my visits there (all on Sunday) I have seen The Georgia Cyclone open up a little earlier than 10:30, so there will be a line for this early. If you can hit it at this time that's OK, but you need to make absolutely sure you get back to the rope drop by 10:30. Everyone will be heading for Goliath (much like the ROTB back to Diamondback) at 10:30, so if you find yourself at the front of this line go there first. If you aren't at the front of the line, skip Goliath for later and go to Mindbender and Batman first to get those out of the way. Head to Monster Mansion to knock that out and then head back to Superman, Great American Scream Machine, and Ninja (if you dare!). You can then head back to the front of the park to pick up the mine train, Acrophobia, and the Georgia Cyclone (in case you missed it before park opening). You can now pick up Georgia Scorcher and Goliath at this time, as the lines for these should be more manageable by this time. ^^ Don't know much about the shows. Be warned that food prices are expensive, though not nearly as bad as CF parks. Many places in the park offer meal deals so that should help some if you decide to go that route. I know that for some families it's not practical to go outside the park, but there are a ton of food options at the next exit up I-20 going west. Regarding your Friday/Sat/Sun question, definitely DO NOT go on that Saturday unless you absolutely have to. It looks like there will be a concert on that day (the 8th), so I'd avoid that at all costs. Friday or Sunday should be much more doable, but if I had to choose personally I'd go Sunday. As I mentioned earlier, crowds early on Sunday (first two hours) will generally be the best you'll see during those three days unless weather intervenes, so make sure you get those rides in early!

^ Particularly on those Thursdays. I can't think of too many seasonal parks that have events like this on Thursdays. I think it's smart to try it on a very limited schedule first to see if it'll work on an expanded level. "The day that shall not be mentioned" should be interesting. We went to Canada's Wonderland last year on that day and there were very few people in the park (Behemoth had a five minute line). Granted, their event is a separate gate charge, but this was a 65 degree day in October up there so I can't envision this would affect crowds too much, particularly for those willing to go earlier in the day.

^ Ditto, unless that ride happens to be a mega-lite. Honestly, I can't see HW getting anything with a larger height requirement (52" or 54"), which may rule any bigger steel coaster, but we'll see!

I remember seeing the crews on Behemoth and Nitro working so fast they were practically pushing people out of the station! Not incidentally, these were some of the fastest moving lines I had seen at any park on any ride outside of Disney. My original intent with this topic was to give the DB crew working that day some love because they were hauling! Good crew = good capacity = shorter wait for all of us, and I think we can both agree on that. We can continue to debate the seat assigning at a future time

^ Good to see you back on the boards sir! Having said that, I must respectfully disagree. The last 10 minutes of the evening yesterday they did away with the seat assigner and simply let everyone into the station. The line, thankfully, was short enough where it wasn't too much of a cluster, but there were trains going out with 4 or 5 empty seats with plenty of people still in the station waiting for other seats. I'm not saying that would happen every train, but still, those seats add up, and each one of those seats increases your wait in line, albeit a small amount incrementally. I'd also tend to believe they would have done away with the seat assigner by now if that position didn't help in some capacity (no pun intended). You really had to see how fast the line was moving in order to appreciate it. Every time I see this particular crew there I know that the line will move quick, and, therefore, I think they deserve some praise. It's especially appreciated when the line isn't really long to begin with. Turning a 15 minute line into 10 isn't that big a deal, whereas turning a 45 into 30 is a big deal; therefore, to continue working hard even though they really didn't have to is awesome. That simply would not have been possible without (at the very least) making sure every seat was filled, seat assigning or otherwise.

I just wanted to say a big "thank you" to all of the members of the Diamondback crew last night. They were working on setting a capacity record, but "only" had 49 dispatches in an hour, one short of their record. They dispatched some trains so quickly that they were actually waiting for a train that just finished the course to come into the station for more than 15 seconds. Most dispatches were such that trains were just shy of the top of the lift hill before the other train hit the splashdown! The line moved incredibly quickly, and only stopped moving a handful of times. I'm betting they would have moved through a full queue of people in a half hour! Big thanks to Captain Nemo, KI Man, and the other members of the team yesterday! You all are awesome!

IMO this is one of the best threads created on this site. I know that many of us, including yours truly, don't have mobile access, but we appreciate all of the timely updates from those of you who do post them (Dvo and Violakat immediately come to mind). Between this and the DB webcam it's great to be able to have this kind of info!

This is the biggest issue going with the SRL. Many groups enter the SRL knowing only that that line is shorter than the main line. They can't understand why they have to be split up when the separator asks them to go to a specific row while the other members of their party are left behind in the SRL. This is the main reason why all of the behaviors that KI Man mentioned in an earlier post exist. The solution to this is very simple...there needs to be signage at the front of the SRL near the entrance indicating that single riders, one at a time, will be paired with someone from the main line. I also realize that more aggressive signage (i.e., that single riders will in absolutely no circumstances be paired with one another) because they'd get a load of complaints over it at Guest Relations if two people were paired up from the SRL at once (namely, when there isn't a group of two in the main line ready to take two available seats immediately) and the separator won't let another group of two ride together from that line. Really, when you boil it all down, the SRL requires a separator who will enforce the SRL guidelines without equivocation. You can have all the signage up in the world, but if the rules are not enforced then they may as well not exist.

Manta will probably win this going away. It's a MUCH larger coaster than pictures might indicate, and simply don't do justice to how tall this is. The height at the top is 140', which is only slightly smaller than the top of Vortex at KI. The reason that this will win, however, is the theming that went into the area the ride sits in, the queue (which I might add looks fantastic), and the aquarium that partially sits within the queue. This and Prowler are the only new for 09 rides I'll be willing to travel to this year to check out. Prowler looks great. It was good to see that GCI can build something other than twisters. Many of the posters who've ridden this have seemed to have very positive things to say about this one, particularly at night, so we shall see. I'd expect a Manta/Prowler 1/2 finish. **EDIT** Don't be surprised to see Blue Fire in Germany or, to a lesser degree because of when it opened, ISpeed in Italy finish well in these rankings, either. I would doubt they'd place in the top 3 but both of these coasters look really nice!

I voted for B&M. Having said that... I am almost always more intrigued when a new Intamin creation comes out. I think Intamin rides usually are more thrilling. I just don't like the "will I go to park X and find this ride down?" routine. This reason alone is why I won't be at Kings Dominion opening day next year, because there's an excellent chance it'll be either down or simply not ready to be open to the public yet. I also won't even begin to rant on about Intamin's safety record. B&M's are superbly engineered rides that deliver the goods. Many of their creations litter my top 10...DB, Behemoth, Montu, SheiKra, Tatsu, Afterburn. B&M coasters when running at full capacity move loads of people through an hour. The best capacity Intamin coaster I can think of is Millennium Force, and even then the capacity on most B&Ms is way better. I can't think of any B&M running at full capacity that averages less than 1000 pph, where there are a TON of Intamins that will never see that even on great days with great crews.

^ For the skeeball game, every good player I've ever seen uses the sidewalls. If you're right handed you should be able to start the ball rolling from the right side, hit the left sidewall about 75% of the way up the ramp and get 40s every time once you get the right speed. Simply aim a little further up the sidewalls for the 50s. If you want the 100s simply roll the ball so that you just miss the left sidewall entirely. The issue now is that game takes 210 points to win, which means you have to average 35 points a ball just to get a small prize! Again, once you get the hang of this you should do quite well for yourself! For Bowler Roller you should do two things: use both hands to roll the ball for increased control, and make sure you roll the ball as close to the red foul line as legally close as possible. It's all about touch from there. If you simply want a prize as cheaply as possible I'd definitely go with the skeeball. Skeeball is just much easier to win consistently once you get comfortable with the roll. Let us know how you do!

^ Understood completely! You can't put a price on peace of mind, though, and believe me, the few $$ you may save in many circumstances just isn't worth it because of the hotel conditions. Have a great time up there and let us know how your trip goes!

^ Yeah, that is true. However, I would also say that many people who've responded to your topic have been up there, some on many occasions, and none thus far have recommended any rooms that might fit what you've described. I do hope that if you go that route that you find a good one!

Sure, we don't have a Flying Dutchman at the front of the park- we've just got a Vekoma Invertigo up there that I'd wager a guess as having even worse capacity. (Can't seem to find cold, hard facts to back this up, so take it with a grain of salt; anybody know of a pph for Invertigo?) I don't mean to smash your point; I'm just sayin'. If you took an informal poll of frequent KI visitors and asked them the following: "You have 500 people in front of you. I'll give you $500 if you can make it off either Invertigo or Firehawk in an hour." Which one would they choose? Which one would you choose?

I'm sure the original poster probably already found something by now, but this point is important enough to repeat. If you're going to the Point here in the next few weeks, particularly Friday-Sunday, then please keep this in mind. The $70 (standard) hotel room rates mentioned earlier simply are not available right now anywhere near CP. I spent hours (yes, plural) looking for decent hotel options in Sandusky. I only needed two rooms, but any room within a reasonable (<30 minute) drop from CP is going to run you $90 or up. We simply decided it would be worth it to upgrade to a room at the Kalahari and work it out that way. We would have paid $230 total with tax for anything halfway decent, so we figured that for $80 more we might as well get something that gave us some room to sprawl out a little.

Very nice trip report. I agree that Raging Bull is definitely the best coaster there, but wasn't this a coaster you thought looked better than it actually rode? I've always wondered whether the experience would change drastically without that nasty trim. Giordano's > every other pizza out there. This stuff is simply outstanding, it fills you up, and is reasonably priced for what you get. I love it!

Ugh, those basketballs were terrible! The ones they have now, however, are 5,000 times better, as they actually have grip and will last for more than a few dribbles. The best prize thus far was a really nice prize pack from Cedar Point last year. The prize consisted of a suite to a Cavs game and a Cedar Point VIP tour for 4, which incidentally we'll be using in the next two weeks. Full details will follow!

I'm actually in the same boat, less the opinion regarding Nighthawk down at Carowinds. Firehawk and Nighthawk to me were basically the same ride experience, although the corkscrews on Nighthawk (vs. the barrel rolls on Firehawk) were unique. I'd also add that we should be VERY thankful that Firehawk isn't right at the front of the park (and the first coaster you see entering the front gates) like Nighthawk is. Vekoma flying coasters lines move very slowly, but I guess that's to be expected when you're dealing with those types of restraints. B&M's restraints are much easier to load, thus, the lines tend to move much more quickly. The downside is that B&M's are VERY uncomfortable if you stay in that position for a long time (i.e., if you get stuck in the brake run for an extended time). Firehawk/Nighthawk are much better than the Supermen: Ultimate Flights, but Tatsu is WAY above any of the other flying coasters (haven't ridden Manta yet, either). Part of it is the environment (there's much more open space around Tatsu and it actually feels like you're flying around the mountain) and the other part is the fact that it is much faster and more intense from start to finish.

This is such a subjective question! I think Son of Beasts drop at 56 degrees is MUCH more thrilling than Goliath @ SFMM's drop at 61 degrees, even though Goliath's drop is much higher and much longer. Maverick's drop at 95 degrees is more thrilling than SheiKra's drop at 90 degrees (but both are incredibly fun). It might have something to do with the speed Maverick is going when it first drops, though. Having said that, I like Thunderhead's drop at Dollywood more than most. While not incredibly steep the twisting action of the drop gets me every time. If I had to choose one all-time drop, though, it'd have to be MF in the very back seat, followed closely by El Toro @ Great Adventure.

MF and Diamondback are 1a and 1b for me...which one I like more really depends on the day I'm riding. Magnum is in a very distant 3rd. If I want sheer speed then I'll take MF. If I want the airtime I'll take DB. Magnum has more air than DB but I don't feel like having to use "techniques" to make it tolerable. Also, regarding the air on MF, I've only gotten the air on those two big airtime hills in the first four rows (and yes, this includes the very back). However, if you catch those hills on the right day, and in the aforementioned seats, they do provide a nice pop. This is also why I will usually opt for row two over the back, even though the back is MUCH more fun on the first drop (the same thing applies to Maverick).

Nice trip report from a park we don't hear too much about! T-Express looks awesome and it's definitely on a short list of wooden coasters I'd love to experience. How were the lines (and operations) at the park?