violakat03

You must pay the admission price with a membership to one of the groups or if you are a guest of one of the members. However, the member themselves, if they have a gold or platinum pass, can get in to Ride Warriors for free. Guests of members and people with regular season passes or no season pass must pay the admission price, which I believe is actually closer to $40.

DH said on the 31st that there will be shading similar to what Firehawk's queue has. I missed that tidbit. I do remember hearing him say that the spray from the splashdown will be going directly up and will not spray onto the pathway at all. Apparently they learned from Sea World's mistake, who are 'wasting millions of gallons of water each year' on splashdown overspill. He said even on a windy day, it's unlikely anyone will get wet. And, for those who are interested ... the bumper cars POV! I have to say, these bumper cars had some speed to them! You could get a good bump out of them. Better than KI's!

Rebooting didn't fix it, but I came back on to see Cory's posts and that did indeed fix it. Thanks!!!

Just so we are not overlooking this fact, did Don confirm they're not doing any clearance tests of significant substance?? Excellent PTR, btw!! Yes, he did. He was asked when they would be running the clearance test and he said "We aren't going to do that. We're just going to fire it up and let 'er rip" ... and I remember that because it was so hilarious the way he said it. He also said that's it's usually done that way with these B&Ms - no clearance test. The plan is to put the water dummies in and run one train operation for a while, switching out each of the trains after so many runs. Then they will go to two trains, then three trains.

Well, I'm stuck with it until the video I'm uploading finishes. I wonder if there's a way to fix it without rebooting. Maybe one of the moderators knows a trick or a setting that can be changed.

That's exactly what I did! Maybe that's what caused it. Here's what it looks like.

While looking at the forums, my view suddenly got all messed up. Instead of sequential threaded views (all the posts go in sequential order and all are visible), I now have links at the bottom that I have to click on to get each reply. I'll take a screen shot of it if I can. I went into my settings but nothing has changed. I'm confused!!

Thanks! I'll fix it now. And, since for some reason YouTube is hating me, I'm putting my videos on photobucket for now. Here's the POV from Tornado (a Wisdom Industries Tornado park model) that you can see me shooting in Zosobeast's video. That's why I was the only one in the gondola not helping spin - I was trying to hold the camera still!

I liked it way better as Days of Thunder than SpongeBob. The James Bond version was pretty cool too. But Days of Thunder was the best. The theming was so good for Days of Thunder when it was new. Race cars and sound effects through the queue, and one of the Pettys (forget which one) on the screen talking and pumping you up before you went through the doors. Evidently, people just kind of got tired of the concept. The theming was definitely great. I remember when they changed it to James Bond, and I remember thinking "it looks like they just plopped this stuff on here without thinking how it would look." It really looked like someone had just tossed James Bond into a Nascar movie because it was such a hodgepodge of theme ideas. And I was 13 the year they did that and wasn't a park addict like I am now, so for me to have thought that gives you an idea how bad the new theming was and how good the old theming was!

I could snap the ones at KI. After someone told me how to do it, I was able to do it the next time I tried. However, I didn't find snapping as entertaining as simply flying high, so I didn't do it that often.

We were told that in training for the 2003 season. It was supposedly going to Terra Mitica in Spain. So either the trainers were misinformed or there actually was a plan for this at some time that was changed.

I updated the group pic from Jungle Jim's to reflect usernames, I'm only missing one now, and I'm hoping someone can provide it for me.

AHA! You're the guy in the red shirt that was shooting POVs also! I never caught your name. I love the video of me shooting a video on Tornado. It's funny watching how fast we were spinning from outside. My video is pretty much a bunch of blurred lights going past.

OMG I never even realized the trains have fangs! That is the greatest addition EVER.

LOL!!! I remember when you said that to your mom.

I liked it way better as Days of Thunder than SpongeBob. The James Bond version was pretty cool too. But Days of Thunder was the best.

According to Don Helbig at the Offseason Blues party, Action Theater will not be operating this season. However, they have not ruled out bringing a new attraction in the future, it is just not a priority this season. All their focus is going towards Diamondback and Rivertown.

After Jungle Jim's, we split again. My car went to Taco Bell (we're cheap and/or broke) and the other groups went to Great Wolf Lodge to eat at their dinner buffet. On the way back to Great Wolf, we passed KI again (imagine that?) and Diamondback just looked so picturesque we couldn't resist. Looking menacing yet beautiful with the storm clouds behind. The positioning of this coaster is so perfect because the first hill catches the sunset. Even Son of Beast was putting on a show for us with these vertical stripes of colors. We met up with the other group at GWL, and then headed off to the Tri-County Mall to spend some time at Krazy City, which is a bizarre mix between an arcade and a fair. But hey, they have go-karts! And they can be drifted! My little point & shoot camera really did not like the lighting in there, so most of the pictures turned out dark and grainy. Here's the few that came out ok. CoastersRZ enjoying the go karts. Angry bumper car face! I did shoot POVs from three of the rides (bumper cars, Tornado and Spring Ride) but YouTube is being annoying and I'm having trouble uploading them. I will upload and post them tomorrow, but for now, it's time for bed!!

After the tour finished, a group of us decided to spend some more time together and headed to Jungle Jim's to kill some time before the GWL dinner buffet opened. We were given a tour by none other than our very own Gordon Bombay. For those who aren't familiar with it, Jungle Jim's is the world's largest grocery store and is about 15 minutes from Kings Island. On the way to JJ, we split up into 3 carpools. My carpool decided to take a different direction, ended up going the wrong way on 275 at one point, and then had to chase down a car (to the complete befuddlement of Captain Nemo and Kawana, our backseat passengers) because, as complete Saturn nerds, my husband and I knew they only made a couple hundred of this particular model in this particular color and we wanted a picture of it. The car in question? A 2004 Saturn VUE (non-Red Line) in electric lime. It was only produced in that color for a month or two, with about 200-300 total being made. Gee that looks familiar! Ignore the silly looking guy at the bottom of the picture (a.k.a. Captain Nemo). The Kings Island monorail is alive and well at Jungle Jim's. They have both trains, which are fully operational, and are in the process of getting them running around the entire shopping center complex. They also have one of the cars from Days of Thunder. Not the ride, but the movie. One of the employees was kind enough to take a group picture of us in front of the second monorail train. I think this photo is in desperate need of a caption contest. From left to right (for the most part) is: CoastersRZ, Cory Butcher, Kawana, Gordon Bombay (standing on the light pole), violakat03, my husband, clbehymer, Captain Nemo, Beast08, Zosobeast, and Avatar.

I'll go ahead and start a new post. Wings Diner signs. Don told us to take pictures now because the signs would be gone because they are retheming the restaurant to match the surrounding area. Someone seems to have misplaced the Crypt. Or maybe they're renaming the train. Nothing in the world like standing directly underneath a 230' tall coaster hill. Trying to zoom in on the trains again. Exiting the splashdown. My husband spotted cones that said "Property of Paramount Studios" Pure poetry. Splashdown. Looking very snake-like as it ... snakes ... off into the woods. Have I ever mentioned I think the name Diamondback is perfect? Hi Beast! Happy early birthday! Hi helix! An idea of what the new Beast entrance will look like. Don said they will be adding some fencing, new signage, and other things but this is the direction it will be taking. The helix from The Beast's new entrance. Vortex hiding behind the buildings. Wooden fence being built around the construction site. Looks like it'll be pretty nice. Whoops. That waterfall is going to be pretty. BLSC's opening helix. The one and only place I ever experience coaster blackout. Whoops again. I really hope they aren't taking out all the gas lights. Eiffel Tower from the back side. The trains! The trains! Carousel - I'm still surprised that the horses are left on and uncovered in the winter. Don took us to the covered eating area in Coney Mall to thank us for coming and take questions. I think the funniest thing he said was about the clearance test. He said "no, we're just going to fire it up and let 'er rip!" After that it was time to head home. Or to Jungle Jim's. See next post!

This is going to be very picture-filled. Fair warning. I took about 200 pictures just during the tour and another 50 or so of some of the extracurricular activities after. My husband took probably double that, so I'm going to weed out some of the best from both our cameras. Jasper, I didn't forget you! The front half of our group starting on to International Street. The Royal Fountains looking rather ... empty. They had all the kiosks saran wrapped. Someone forgot to clean off the cobwebs from Haunt. I see it! The wind blew the menu board off the Chick-Fil-A store, and I took a picture of it laying on the ground. Nick Universe all packed up for the winter. The first hill just absolutely dominates this entire side of the park. Future site of the Diamondback gift shop. The station comes into view. Your usual construction site type of stuff. Wild Thornberry's. Side of Wings exposed. Everyone stopping to take pictures of the station (including me - I'm in the red/grey striped hat). Future queue area. Future queue area. The exit ramps split into a Y. One branch goes to the gift shop, the other exits to the Rivertown path. Trying to zoom in on the trains.

I never rode The Bat so I feel your pain. Though King Cobra was one of my favorite coasters.

I just used my gmail account for it. Hopefully it'll be sending updates to my email, which I check to the point of obsession multiple times a day.

There's plenty of those at KI as well. And from my memories of when I worked there, the internationals were easily the hardest workers and nicest people in the store.