violakat03

Beast is a landmark coaster. Landmark status does not require the 'historic' ride experience. Landmark simply means that it started or had significant influence on something within the coaster world. Beast for it's innovative use of terrain and unheard of length. Racer for starting the second golden age of coasters. Magnum at CP for being the first hypercoaster. Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain for being the first looping steel coaster. Phoenix at Knoebels for it's influence on renewing interest in coaster preservation. Stuff like that. Coaster Classics are coasters that still operate in the classic way, such as during the first golden age of coasters. Classic wooden coasters provide an incredible sense of freedom, because of the less restrictive restraints, and the headrests remove from the experience by significantly reducing visibility to the front. I have only ridden one coaster that fits the classic criteria (though it's award was rescinded and I'm not sure why), the Zippin Pippin, which is a currently SBNO Miller coaster. It was a drastically different ride experience than a restrictive train will give you. There is nothing that can compare to the feeling of literally flying all over the car and holding on because you have to! Single position lap bars + no seat belts + no seat dividers = insanity. I was by myself in the seat so I was sliding all over the place and it was amazing.

Oh man, that's a good close up! You can see two iPhones in that, as well as many things that I couldn't make out from my perspective in line without standing in the single rider line. Lots of little shreds of phone, like just a faceplate, or a screen surround, or just a smashed screen. Wow. The remains of the disposable camera made me laugh. Still incredibly thankful my BlackBerry survived it's fall.

It was fun figuring out what some of the pieces used to belong to. Some were obvious, such as the smashed iPhone, some were a little tougher when all that was left was the keyboard. There's also one gold pass and one regular season pass in there, as well as 2 pairs of sunglasses and a flip flop. I do see a back cover for a black BlackBerry Pearl in there. Wonder if I can talk them into giving it to me. It'd look kinda funny on my pearl white phone though.

Kiddie coaster "junior coaster" Wood and Steel Wood: Beastie Steel: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (WDW) Major Wood and Steel non looping Wood: Racer Steel: Top Gun Looping Steel and Wood sorry I had to do it. Wood: SOB of course! Steel: Flight of Fear Suspended Top Gun Inverted Raptor Launched looped and Non looped Looped: Flight of Fear Non-looped: Top Thrill Dragster Stand up King Cobra! Water Ride I have no earthly idea. Probably Wild Thornberry's before it was Wild Thornberry's. The name has blanked on me. Whatever the shortest height requirement would have been in the late 80's to early 90's.

Speed. Airtime would be second, but it's a recent addiction, really just since riding Diamondback have I come to truly appreciate it. But give me speed over airtime any day. Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, The Beast, Big Bad Wolf ... all are in my top coasters and are speed machines, not airtime machines. The only true airtime machines in my top coasters are Diamondback, Voyage and El Toro.

Son of Beast is the only ride that has ever bothered my back injury. The side-to-side shuffling of the new trains is something it just cannot handle. However, I have ridden it multiple times (I used to adore it with the loop) and will continue to ride it on rare occasion because I absolutely love the first drop. The rest of the ride ... meh. But a 200 foot drop on a woodie is something I can't stay away from indefinitely. And Terpy - I haven't figured out how Ninja ended up an honorable mention on your list. Now, I've never ridden any of the others on your list, but Ninja was downright awful. It's the only ride I've ever come off of with a headache so bad I had to stop and buy Tylenol! Far worse than FOF with the OTSRs, though that was pretty bad as well. For those that are suggesting you can't be a Ride Warrior unless you ride everything ... Jackson and I are all about the bigger and badder the thrill, the better. Rides like Ninja have no thrill and all pain. It's just a multi-looper (and a Vekoma at that!!) with, IMO a boring layout compared to Vortex. After the first drop, Son of Beast is a pointless ride if you ask me. I've never turned down a ride just for credit due to the violence of it, but I definitely have no intention of ever riding Ninja again. However, rides that usually scare the pants off of people (such as Top Thrill Dragster) due to their height or speed, tend to be our favorites.

Raptor is longest early in the day... 1. Millennium 2. Maverick 3. Top Thrill Dragster 4. Raptor 5. Magnum If you are there at rope drop it will be shorter. From rope drop to about 30 minutes after, it will be 30 minutes or less. Then the GP starts swarming - those that aren't there for rope drop immediately head to Raptor because it's the first coaster they come across when entering. Usually those there at rope drop immediately run for Millie and Maverick.

They were probably in a hurry and assumed that the parent was responsible enough to be telling the truth that he'd been height checked. Unfortunately things like that happen. On the non-separated lines, the ops usually can tell when a kid's right around the height limit and will pull them out of the train for a measurement if they aren't wearing a wristband. I don't blame the op for this incident - I blame the parent who knew better. Also, I will make sure to grab a picture of that box today!!! That is too funny!! I'm still grateful beyond words that my BlackBerry survived it's dive off Gemini.

Wow. That is really, really cool and very touching. My sister-in-law keeps promising me that she'll go with me when I get my first (and only) tattoo. She's going to get one for her son after he's born in September so I'll probably be getting mine then. I'm getting an alto clef on my shoulder. The alto clef is pretty much the 'sign' of the viola and I'm having it done so it looks like it's got the texture and color of either a purple ribbon or purple marble, since purple is the color of the viola.

It's funny to watch hats come off too. They sort of tumble about in the air. My husband snagged one on Snake River Falls at Cedar Point once. I never realized his reaction time was that fast! I haven't physically watched a cell phone flying yet, but I did catch clbehymer's with my foot on Voyage.

I would have to agree with the ride op. I love Adventure Express because it was the one roller coaster my mom would actually ride. She hated drops (ever since her first ride on KCKC when she was younger) and heights (she would close her eyes on the way up the lift), but since AE has a turning drop she enjoyed the ride. I always enjoyed riding with her. That's a great memory to have of your mom. My mom loves Adventure Express too. When she goes to the park (she hasn't been since Paramount days), that's one of the few dry rides she rides! She adores the water rides though. I'll never figure out why she'll ride Congo Falls and not Racer, which she has never been on! My goal is to get her on it at least once. After all, she's ridden the Screechin' Eagle, Coney's Shooting Star and even the very first Flying Turns at Lakeside Park!! A.K.A. three coasters that I never had a chance to but are coaster legends!

The park comes alive at night. If you ever get a chance to be there long after close and the public has gone, you will be amazed at just how busy the park gets. When I worked at Emporium, we were not allowed to close our doors to begin night-time closing procedures (drawer counts, stocking, etc) until the last guest had left I-Street. As soon as the front gates are shut, it's like all these people come out of the woodwork. Cleanup crew, maintenance, etc. I-street starts looking like Kings Island Dr during the day with all the pickup trucks! They do non-essential maintenance during the evening hours. This is when they fix things like burned-out lightbulbs, falling signs, damaged scenery such as on storefronts, stuff like that. I wouldn't be surprised if they had the lights on so they could hunt for burned out bulbs.

My husband got it for me as a gift last year, I have no idea where he got it, honestly.

Dur forgot magnum. Make it number 5. Blue streak, corkscrew, and iron dragon should be walk on. Magnum and gemini will be walk on or short waits. Raptor is shortest early in the day and at night, and wicked twister is always walk on at night, so it depends when you get there. Expect at least a 45 minute wait for millie, dragster and maverick. If you see them less than that, jump in line immediately!

If you've never been there before: 1 millie 2 dragster 3 raptor 4 maverick 5 either gemini or blue streak If you have been there and ridden it, drop dragster and do gemini and blue streak Posted from my BlackBerry mobile device.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Ka's horn sounds the same. I had just gotten out of my car when I heard Ka's and I was like "Diamondback?!" I can definitely imagine it got very annoying very fast when it sounded for each launch. That sucker is loud! Posted from my BlackBerry mobile device.

If you sit on the left side of Diamondback and look to your left (kinda upside down and under the track) as you're going through the hammerhead you can see the double helix very clearly. It also gives you an interesting perspective of it! (Thanks to Jackson for pointing this out to me!)

I really believe they will continue to do as they did with Diamondback and leave The Beast a wide berth. They seem to understand what an amazing ride it can give at night. However, I've been disappointed to ride it with the lights in the center of the double helix on, which makes a ride through the tunnel the same as it is during the day. Luckily this has only happened to me once this year, I'm hoping it was a fluke! Even with the trim brakes that we all love to hate, I still feel The Beast is one of (if not the) most amazing night rides there is.

But you see, in that video, there are trim brakes - they are just a different style (skid then, magnetic now). The magnetic just makes the ride feel different - quick hit of a brake versus a long ride on a brake. They are also located in all the same places that they exist today I think (first lift hill drop, second hill, brake shed, second lift hill drop enterring double helix). And if you want to test if they take the same amount of speed out, take a look at how far up the second lift hill that video shows a train going and compare it to what happens now (it's about the same - just past what I assume is an evacuation area). It doesn't quite clear the first staircase any longer. I also noticed on Thursday that the brake shed is grabbing much harder, I believe they added that extra block of magnets that there had been discussion about being a possibility. With the skid brakes on a wet track, you would make it close to the third staircase on the second lift hill. I've never seen it pass just past the mid-way point between the first two staircases on the magnetic brakes. The staircases are a very good way to measure how much speed the train has at that point. It seems like it's supposed to go to slightly past the first staircase as that is where it gets to most of the time.

^ I need to let you borrow my Rubik's cube... It's an Ohio State cube that's got different pictures on each side. I'm hopeless at solving them so it's still all messed up.

You rock. I couldn't figure out how to embed it without using html tags (which don't work on the forums).

It was one of the drive/kick tires. The ones that are used to push it out of the station onto the lift. They had it back up by 6:00. I recorded it's all-clear horn at 5:47 according to my phone and Jackson and I were on the first train out after the breakdown.

RaptorJo is there any way we can get pics of all your tats? I've only seen the skyline on your leg and would love to see the rest. Plus there's a less creepy logo of Diamondback than the one this guy chose. I personally like the one on the sign and on the First Rider shirts.

Was Ka that unmemorable? Terpy, funnin' Yes. Yes it was. Wait until you hear the story about the dragster noises. Actually, the TTD reference would be because people would be more likely to have ridden/seen/heard about TTD in this area. I honestly enjoyed Kingda Ka, enough that I bought a shirt with Ka on it instead of El Toro, though that was partially because I didn't see any Toro shirts I really loved and I loved the design on my Ka shirt.