KIfan1980

While I had a 4-way from Skyline just last night, I'd also recommend Blue Ash Chili (just around the corner from KI in Mason) if you want some good chili but have others in your group that are not fans of "Cincinnati Style"

Wow, a "But, but, but..." from Terpy, I really must have been wrong this time! I understand Mr. Kinzel and others have a lot riding on this deal passing, however, I'm going with the simple percentages and logic. - Q and N-B seem to own/control enough units to block this deal unless almost every other unit is voted in favor - Why would people vote in favor of selling units for $11.50 now when they could have sold at >$12 very recently - If Apollo wanted to walk, they would push to have the vote and walk The result of this to me is that Apollo remains interested and plans to raise the offer price (assuming they can get the support of Q and/or N-B , hence they are probably discussing this. As for the debt covenants, I'd also guess that since there is well funded interest in CF on at least two fronts, both of which seem capable of refinancing (Apollo has a plan and I can't believe Q would invest as much as they have without a plan to avoid bankruptcy if they gain control of the company), a relatively minor delay will not cause significant problems. Most people prefer to get paid off in full even if they have to wait a little.

I guess Jackson will now have to listen to his teachers all day tomorrow instead of checking KIC on his droid My analysis of this, albeit still a guess, is that it means that Apollo is not planning to go away quietly (Recall a no vote would leave them with a nice multi-million $ parting gift). It will be interesting to see if an updated offer is made by Apollo whether it is announced with the support of Q and/or Neuberger Berman.

KD Fansite/coaster crew has video of testing on YouTube.

Some would say Cedar Fair overpaid for this problem.

So tonight, I gathered the 6.5 year old and the almost 4 year old around the computer and showed them the new names. I've been teasing them with the KI facebook pictures and we even stopped at passenger pickup to look at the blue paint on "Woodstock Express" earlier this week - which caused the question "but what is it going to be called this year?" to be asked many times. Their verdict on the names and website images - excitement, laughter, smiles. I'm guessing this is what CF/KI would have wanted. They also immediately recognized Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Woodstock - although for the life of me I can't tell you why they should know them. I'd also note that they also liked FOC, Flyers, Reptar, and River Adventure the last couple of years despite never watching Cosmo & Wanda, Danny Phantom, Rugrats, or Wild Thornberries (assuming those are the correct names of the shows). To me, this indicates that the cheaper option was the better option for the park, although I'll follow others and wait for a final assessment until I see the actual in park decor.

Just to note, during the GG tour, they answered a question by saying something along the lines of the following - they would be willing to sell/install Timberliners on any coaster that met their stringent track specifications.

You are assuming that a final decision has been (or will be) made prior to having the park maps sent to print for the season. At this time the park is still saying a decision has not been made.

Regarding Kumba - I would note that this was probably the ride I was most excited for going in - the pictures, layout, and descriptions (I don't watch POV's before riding) looked great. Of course this probably made it more disappointing when I didn't get the ride I was hoping for. That said, I don't want to make it seem like it was awful - it does have some great features - but it banged me around a little which I wasn't expecting. On the flip side, I was pleasantly surprised by SheiKra - I was worried that it might be just a gimmick coaster - and blown away by Montu.

As my younger son is not yet in school and my parents "snowbird" near Tampa, I took the opportunity to take him to visit them this past weekend (Feb 27th - March 1st). Following are some quick descriptions and some pics from the trip. Day 1 - started with rain and temp only got to ~60 degrees. While this was not as warm as we might have liked, it was still better than the 20's to 30's that we'd had here recently in Ohio. Started off the day with a visit to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium - a neat place that's primary purpose is rescuing and returning turtles, dolphins, and other marine animals to the wild - but provides permanent homes and exhibits animals that would not survive in their natural habitat. We followed this up with a trip to the beach where Neil enjoyed the playground in the sand! One of the "permanent resident" turtles The dolphin on the platform is Winter. She is somewhat famous as she lost her entire tail after getting trapped in a crab trap line and now sometimes uses a prosthetic tail to swim. Gotta love the feel of sand in your toes! Day 2 - While the others hit up the local zoo for the day, I took the chance to visit Busch Gardens. This is a wonderful park - it has some awesome rides, an unbelievable number of animals, along with great atmosphere (food, music, theme, and landscaping). Coaster summary: Gwazi (Tiger side): Loved the front seat ride - good speed, forces, and pop or two of air. Hated the back seat ride - painful. SheiKra: Good ride - not a fan of hanging over the edge, but enjoyed the speed, drop, turns. Best enjoyed in the outside of the front row. Montu: Has to be one of my favorite coasters - I love inverted coasters to begin with and think the layout of this one rocks. Scorpion: Would have loved to have my six year old with me - this would have been a good first looping coaster for him. Kumba: My first B&M disapointment - OTSR head banging through 7 inversions. Also - if you thought Flight Deck needed a paint job ... Also, totally enjoyed the sky ride and rhino rally (animal views), Phoenix (ship ride that goes full 360), and a nice carrousel. Looking over the elephants toward SheiKra Montu - a good choice for my 50th Coaster Up Close and Personal with the Animals A nice place to have lunch Day 3 - Temperatures were finally pushing 70 so we went on a boat to watch dolphins and played at the beach. I highly recommend the "Little Toot" sailing out of Clearwater (this is my 3rd trip on it and have seen dolphins playing and jumping in the wake literally feet from where I stood every time) - they treat you well and are very friendly. All in all a fun trip - and I totally enjoyed riding some coasters in February!

Now I think that looks really good! Can't wait to see the finished look of Planet Snoopy. I'm also interested to see what color the former FOC trains are this year - I'm assuming not green and purple!

Most exhilarating ride experience for me: Big Shot on the Stratosphere tower in Vegas. I struggle for words to describe how that felt the first time (before I'd ever ridden another power/Drop Tower ride) - the rush of the initial launch followed by the weightless and unrestrained feeling as you look out at the desert floor 1000+ feet below. Most exhilarating coaster experiences: - Diamondback: Sooooo much airtime - Wildfire (Silver Dollar City): Incredible first drop into the Immelmann - Montu (Busch Gardens Tampa): Amazing forces exceed my memories of Raptor, but I'll have to check this year!

I hate it when the billionaires are fighting over their next millions. It just gets so ugly.

It was the same - one hour Saturday, half hour on Sunday

For some reason - this statement made me think of Gwazi after my rear of the train ride on Sunday.

While I'm not going, the portion I bolded above would have to be the biggest concern for me if I was planning a trip. As I recall, Diamondback started testing about a month and a half before opening day. I've also heard references to Intamin not being as consistent as B&M at opening on schedule. Is anyone on these forums knowledgeable and able to shed any light on what an approximate testing schedule would look like for this coaster and/or whether KD is "on-schedule" with I305? EDIT: Oops - as I was catching up from being gone for a long weekend, I missed the thread discussing this topic found at this link.

For those of us that are not up to date on our coaster history, would you care to share some more words that might better help us interpret this statement. I can obviously look up the era on rcdb, and recognize a common designer, but am lost as to the "certain reason"

First, congratulations to you on your upcoming wedding. As to me, I've got so many things to look forward to with my family this year that it's hard to say what I'm looking forward to most - and the truly special moment with my kids is usually an unplanned surprise. On the coaster front, I'd have to say Holiwood Nights. On the sports front, I'd have to say watching the World Cup.

I wonder if the blue paint is just being added as "yet another layer" on S-D/Beastie/FOC or if they actually stripped of the old paint.

The bolded statement looked like new news to me. Indicates that ERT for Diamondback and Beast will not be in effect on April 17th, 24th or 25th.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=323527981948#!/visitkingsisland

Oops - I didn't even read that far

And in case you were wondering - this is NOT a direct quote from "Austin Benton". He asked "What are the details about Planet Snoopy?...like names of rides..scooby's haunted mansion etc." so it was KI editing that added the word former (as well as corrected the name).

Ahh, but isn't 'no decision' in fact a decision in some respects (it at least will be on April 17th).

There is a picture of the test seat on a friends facebook page (which I can't make show up on KIC). It is basically a lap bar that pivots down from the headrest and has a seatbelt that attaches from the center of the lapbar to the seat between a riders legs. Nothing should interfere with the head or upper body. Edit - although looking again at the Tornado restraints from an earlier post, it looks identical to the test seat, except with the shoulder straps. I'm guessing they are just not used on the test seat - the test seat even looks to have the "attachment points" for the straps.