violakat03

Great PTR. Your comprehensive photos really brought back a lot of fond memories of my trip in '06. I'm hoping to hit up this park again this summer to revive them in person, but I can live vicariously through your PTR in the mean time.

I'll try and find a pic of it, but I know I can describe it as I was one of those who experienced it and can say there was nothing interesting about it. Basically, after you walk forever and ever and ever on the concrete path, where you actually get to the ride structure itself, right now you walk along a catwalk type path on the edge of the structure, to a staircase. To the left of that pathway is a lot of semi-open space. That is the "lower queue" area. You used to turn left into it and wait underneath the station before heading up the stairs.

I'm surprised you had peeps riding it at that intensity rating! I always had people walk up, have their jaws drop and their hair stand on end, and run away when I built coasters with intensity that high.

That is AMAZING! And especially that you've kept it going for 10 weeks straight. Congrats and have fun with your hiking, especially knowing that you won't get tired as quickly now.

One thing I noticed about CP's gift shops versus KI's gift shops, is a lot of KI's gift shops have non-KI related clothing. Stuff you could buy at Hot Topic or even Wal-Mart. That makes no sense to have at a park, IMO. If I'm paying the increased price for clothing at a park, I want it to relate to the park, not be something I could buy anywhere out in the general public shopping world. When I worked at the park and had a really nice discount, I did buy quite a bit of that sort of clothing (especially in the store that used to be called The Rock Shop, not sure what it's name is now) but only because I had a nice discount. I'd never buy it at KI's full price. CP had tons and tons of shirts with their name on them, and lots of shirts for each coaster. The only thing I had a problem finding was one that had the 'skyline' of the park on it rather than just the name. I got a towel and a magnet with the design I wanted but they only had the fitted girl's shirts with that design. I asked a merch supervisor about it, they call the design "Diamond Dust" and it's one of their most popular designs, yet they only put it on clothes that fit a small percentage of the population (they only carried 'teen' sizes - Angie, you might have been able to wear it, but I sure couldn't), which makes no sense to me.

Yeah, that definitely was not on that page the last time I looked at it, because I saw it there on SFOG's site and then looked at SFA's to see if they had it also. I'm hoping that's the same as the one sold at SFOG and is good at all parks.

A quick look-sey of the SFA website reveals, yes, you can get a PP there for $45! How did you find that so fast when I spent an hour searching all over not only SFA's site but also other parks and the main site for word of a PP? This was a couple weeks ago though so maybe it was just a recent addition and I'm not really that blind after all.

I'd argue that hypercoaster is used more often than megacoaster, and though hypercoaster was coined as a term to describe a 200+ foot non-inverting coaster (such as Magnum, Diamondback, etc), it has become a blanket term along with megacoaster. It's basically all in who says it, but I definitely hear the term hypercoaster more often. In watching shows on TV, which is outside the realm of 'coaster geekdom' that we all tend to live in ( ), they tend to use hypercoaster more often to describe any 200+ coaster, though I have heard both terms used interchangeably. I'd say KIFan hit the nail on the head. A lot of the words used to classify coasters have originations from certain types of coasters but have become interchangeably used, so it's all in how you look at it. If you were to ask a member of the GP what the difference between a hypercoaster and a megacoaster is, they'd either look at you blankly or give you a variety of answers.

That's the model, in the way it is listed on RCDB. It lists Magnum XL-200 as an "Arrow Hyper Coaster" and it is one of five of that model, just like Millennium Force is an "Intamin AG Giga Coaster" and Goliath is a "B&M Mega Coaster." You can click on the model in each RCDB listing to view other coasters of the same model. This is handy when you're looking to see something like all Cyclone copies, or Schwatzkopf shuttle loops. I have always heard the term "hyper" along with "giga" and "strata" in referring to their height classifications. Diamondback is a B&M Mega Coaster like Goliath, but is always referenced as Kings Island's first hypercoaster. Though if you're classifying it by height, Son of Beast is also a hyper, and is actually the only wooden hyper. Hypercoaster is usually a term given to steel continuous circuit coasters, but there's not really a definition of what it is and what it isn't. Like so much in the coaster name/record game, it's up for interpretation. Is ring°racer technically a coaster and therefore a new speed record holder? A lot of people would say yes, but a lot would say no.

I'll agree with you on that. I'm a big girl, and every time I find 'girls' shirts that I like, they curve in in places that I don't... For instance, I found a shirt that I was in love with at CP last year, but it was a fitted tee and only available as a fitted tee, so I had to pass on it because it was not fitted to me! I never did find a shirt that I really wanted there, as I wanted one that showed the 'skyline' of the coasters rather than one specific coaster. I think they should have more general coaster merch rather than just ride-specific, also. My favorite hoodie is my "Coaster Freak" one, but I haven't found many other general coaster shirts that I liked. I think it's Angie that has the "Ohio is for coasters" shirt that I love but have not seen at the park. Stuff like that is what I really like.

Terpy, in your infinite Six Flags wisdom, do you know if Six Flags America (near D.C.) sells parking passes? That's probably where I will get my pass, as it's the same price as SFKK but close to my brother's place and opens earlier. Though I really want to get the parking pass, so I may go out of my way to get to SFGAm if they have parking.

Are TTD and WT considered hypers? They are 420' and 215' respectively. Though WT is kind of in a category with the Superman rides, as it is not a continuous circuit coaster. TTD is most definitely considered a hypercoaster, though they've coined new phrases for each 100' of height, so it's a stratacoaster by that definition, just as Millie is a gigacoaster.

Top Thrill Dragster. This thread made me investigate what the next highest coasters I've ridden are. I've ridden a total of 6 hypercoasters (Top Thrill Dragster, Millennium Force, Son of Beast, Wicked Twister, Magnum and Goliath at SFOG). Diamondback will be #7.

Cause you bought yours in the fall. I didn't have the money for mine before the price went up.

I found the loading position to be better on the B&Ms. I get major head bloodrush on Firehawk, but I think a lot of that is you sit in the station for a long time in that slightly tipped-back position before you actually leave the station. It's highly uncomfortable for me, far more so than being lifted up and laying face-down. And that's not even counting the eye-burning! They need to put some shade on that lift hill!! But then, that's why all of us like different coasters! I still feel like I'm the only person on earth who did not like Maverick...

I've ridden one Vekoma and one B&M. I preferred the trains and comfort of Firehawk but I preferred the ride experience of Superman:Ultimate Flight. You spend more time 'flying' on S:UF than you do on Firehawk, where you spend too much time on your back IMO.

I'll second the Flash Pass. We bought the one that cut 75% of wait time off. On a busy weekend in early August, we waited no more than 10 minutes for any ride, and that was Goliath in it's inaugural year. We spent two days there, the first day with no flash pass and the second day with it. During the 5 or 6 hours we were there the first day, we managed to get Georgia Cyclone, S:UF (2 hour wait!!), GASM and Ninja. We hit everything else on the second day in about 4 hours. I don't remember riding anything other than coasters, but this was 2 1/2 years ago and we were on our honeymoon, so a lot of things are kind of blurry about my memories. I'm hoping to go back to the park some time and re-ride some of the things I really loved, such as S:UF and Georgia Scorcher. We returned for the second day only because I insisted on riding Georgia Scorcher and my husband finally gave in. When we saw the flash passes, we jumped on them and it was well worth it.

When are you looking at getting them? I plan on getting mine at the beginning of April, if you haven't gotten yours by then I'd be happy to join in the 'group buy.' Cause you're right, and $20 is a tank of gas.

I did that every Friday and Saturday during Haunt. I was working 5-10 pm and my husband would meet me at work with a change of shirt and we'd make the 45 minute drive down there for the last 2 hours. Usually all things were walk-on, so that was definitely a nice stress reliever!

My plan is to meet up with my friend Gabe outside the park (he's coming from Indy, I'll be coming from Dayton), hopefully carpool in together, and head straight for Dback with him. After that, we're just going to explore the park together, and hopefully I'll be getting my first ride on Xtreme Skyflyer as well! I won't pay full price for it so I'm hoping they'll run an opening day special or something. I'd also like to ride Slingshot. Basically I only have three definites for opening day: Diamondback, Flight of Fear and The Beast at night. Past that, whatever goes! I've also noticed a lot of people plan out the first half of their summer visits and have the dates listed in their signature - I tend to visit the park on the whim, sometimes with as little decision time as 5 minutes, but the farthest I've ever planned a trip in advance (excepting opening day) is a week or two, if I'm going with friends. Am I the only one who doesn't pre-plan their trips? If it's just my husband and myself, we tend to decide the night before or the morning of, if it's just me, I'll pick up and go at a moment's notice. Off topic aside - I just noticed I have the shiny title of KIC enthusiast. I have no idea when I got it, but I like it! It'll probably change in 10 posts, but for the time being I shall admire it.

Alright people, please quit quoting the entire post and reposting the pictures. Not just because it bogs down the load time on this page, but seriously, how many times do we need to see a pink roller coaster? It hurt bad enough the first time around!

I think Cedar Fair has overdone the red tracks for now - but black supports with dark blue track would be very nice indeed. Or even grey supports with dark blue track to fit the flight theme.

.... I have never ridden Xtreme Skyflyer. Ever. I don't want to go by myself, and my mom wouldn't let me go when I was younger. Once I got older and started going to the park by myself, I either didn't have the money or couldn't find someone to go with me. I've had several people promise to go with me and all have either backed out or never gone to the park with me. Same thing with Slingshot, but Skyflyer annoys me more because it's been there for so long and I've never been on it. I started going to the park by myself at 16 so that's 7 years that it's been taunting me. Hopefully this year will be the year, as I finally have a friend that plans to go to the park with me multiple times this summer, including opening day, and has promised to ride both with me.

pikeman - it sounds like you are down to about the same size as my husband was last summer. He rode everything at Cedar Point (though TTD was a snug fit) and fit in everything at Kings Island. It's sometimes tight and I've had to help him push the lapbar down on Beast and FOF on occasion, but he's never been turned away at either park. I'm a big girl as well (at the beginning of last summer I was 220 lbs at 5'6" tall, I've dropped about 25 lbs since then) and I have fit in every ride I've tried, though like my husband, TTD was close. The ride op actually hooked my belt for me, I think he only did it because I was having trouble seeing what I was doing, but it would have clicked if I'd been able to find where it went by myself as well. The one inch of slack was the hard part - it required a little squishing. My biggest problems is I've got those annoying female child-bearing hips, so all the woodies with their seat dividers are a tight horizontal fit for me. I have to pull the seatbelt out before I sit or I can't get to it. For those of us who are completely sedentary, like I was, a little bit of activity will make an amazing amount of difference. I've lost about 35 lbs total in the past year and a half, and I've made very few changes to my diet. The only thing I have changed is my portions - I get full on half as much food now - but I attribute that to a stomach flu I got shortly after I moved here. I am a lot more active though. I ride my bike whenever the weather is warm, take my dog on walks more often, and do a lot of walking. I take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator everywhere I go (unless it's more than 2 stories, cause I get winded still). When I'm at school, I don't take the bus around campus at all, I ride my bike or walk everywhere. I park farther away when I go shopping. And most of all, I get involved in activities that require moving. I play DDR as often as I can (I have hard pads for my PS2 so I can play at home) and I started taking ballroom dance lessons once a week. Every little bit counts!!

I'm afraid of the ferris wheel at CP too. It's kind of like the Eiffel Tower, I did it once for pictures at sunset and I'm perfectly content not doing it again. I'm also terrified of the Sky Ride but I'll ride it because I'm lazy. It got stuck for about an hour while I was there last summer (I wasn't on it at the time, thankfully - that probably would have caused a panic attack) and I swore after seeing that I wouldn't ride it again ... I rode it twice later that day...