McSalsa

Rumor has it the reduction of cars on The Voyage is due to wear & tear- running 6 cars per train does less damage to the track than running 7. And keeping a 160+ foot high, 67mph, 6400ft. long wooden coaster with twists and turns like The Voyage has running well has to be a MONSTER task each and every offseason. I would dread to see what would happen to that ride if the wooden coaster upkeep budget got cut for whatever reason, or if Holiday World sold out to a big park chain (I don't think Cedar Fair, Six Flags, or any other big-name chain would be able to handle the task of keeping such a wooden coaster running even remotely well)... And, thinking more, Legend can't be too easy to upkeep either with those super-hard laterals...I must give Holiday World's wooden coaster team props for keeping those rides running as well as they have.

Nice trip report. Also, Legend is SUPPOSED to have two trains (as is the current case for all 3 woodies though Voyage originally had 3), so if the 2nd train was not on the transfer track for the ride (located near the ride's start) then it may be in the shop for some reason- they might even be already winding down operations on the coaster since it historically does not operate during the fall as they begin the offseason work on it then (though Raven & Voyage stay open, likely due to the fact coaster nuts would go nuts if they closed either of those during the fall).

Also here is an awesome off-ride video I found on ThemeParkReview: I love how they animated nearly EVERY ride in the park in that video- if you look closely, you can even see, for example, Afterburn running in the background all the way on the other side of the park.

Err, B&M broke the 300-foot barrier in 2012 with the 306-foot Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland. Though I don't think Fury 325 would be 325 feet tall if Kinzel were still in charge- the "No Surpassing Cedar Point and Millennium Force!" rule he kinda had has clearly been broken here. Carowinds coaster lineup just got a major boost with this ride. As for the ride itself, it looks interesting- based on the animated POV, some of the transitions looked sharper than what B&M has done in the past (dare I even say Intamin-like?), and the ride appears to have a heavy focus on twists and overbanked turns instead of pure airtime hills like the B&M Hypers (like Diamondback, Behemoth, and Intimidator) so far have had so it will be a very different ride than Intimidator. And it has a underground tunnel- almost always a plus to do that in my book. And no MCBR- B&M has seemingly phased these out it seems in recent years, and if Leviathan and Banshee are good guides to use, it hasn't hurt their capacity much if at all to not have it. If Kings Island does get a Giga, I hope it's something like this- improved upon further and made even larger of course. B&M has started to expand their portfolio in recent years, and this company is really looking strong right now. They at one point were unwilling to build either a launched coaster or a 300+ foot coaster...and now, in just one year, they are doing both with Thunderbird and Fury 325! And I'm still fairly sure we're going to see that B&M 4th Dimension coaster at some point in the future...

^ Good coaster, yes indeed. Very much so. Wooden? No, (at least in my eyes) it still rides like steel. 1980's-style Arrow steel with some uneven transitions but steel nonetheless.

^^^ True- RMC's coasters are very, very unique. I guess I can see SOME wooden coasters getting this treatment- woodies that, in spite of constant overhauls and attempts at tradtional upkeep just can't seem to be "fixed" due to a design problem or something. Texas Giant and Rattler, in this case, made sense. Those rides were going to be insanely expensive to run long-term, and were according to many becoming painfully rough. In cases like that, RMC gives parks an option to revive rides that were otherwise un-saveable. Now, doing this to a "normal" wooden coaster just for the sake of saving a bit on upkeep...not cool. Or demolishing the woodie as whole (RIP Rolling Thunder)- even worse. Now, a brand-new RMC, like Outlaw Run, Golitah, or Wildfire (coming to Europe in 2015)? I have zero problem with those at all- they (usually) aren't destroying anything in order to be built. (Though Six Flags Great America did remove Iron Wolf to build Goliath...though Iron Wolf does still live on as Apocalypse). Though wether they are wood or steel is still up in the air.

^ On the SIX Wooden Coaster topic, I have to agree 100%- they need to slow down and reconsider their "war on wood", if it's RMC remakes or pure destruction...the classic wooden coaster, aka no prefab stuff or topper track, has its place among traditional amusement parks. When I think of an amusement park in vague, a traditional wooden coaster is one of the first things that pops in my head, and if I were actually hired to build and run my own park building a signature wooden coaster (or possibly more) would be near the top of my to-do list during park construction. What I fear further fuels SIX's desire to remove many of its wooden coasters is that there seems to be a growing trend of park-goers who could care less or would even WANT their parks to remove their older wooden coasters. One such case of this: I was Facebook once, and a Cedar Point post was in my feed. They had just posted a new POV of Blue Streak, and I just had to read the comments, and then one of them shocked me...it was along the lines of "Stupid Wooden Coaster. It needs torn down 'cuz its rough and boring." This was not Mean Streak, mind you, it was Blue Streak- a coaster generally considered by most a hidden gem and usually rated well by enthusiasts. Of course, to my relief, at least a few people responded in Blue Streak's defense but the mere fact that such people exist scares me because if they are or become the norm- the ones who are constantly visiting parks like Cedar Point, Kings Island, Six Flags etc.- the parks will just go where the money is and will just remove these rides if there is no demand for them. As a fan of classic wooden coasters, this scares me. The modern wooden stuff like RMC's and Intamin Prefabs? I have nothing against them, or steel coasters in general- in fact I also enjoy them a lot- but those should exist alongside the classic-style wooden coasters, not replace them. Adds more variety to a park that way too.

I'm inclined to agree since this is also my stance- with Son of Beast gone, Kings Island does IMO need a new, modern wooden coaster. And my view on the companies that could do it... Intamin: I'd like them to do it the most, but it's the least likely to happen. An El Toro type wooden coaster would be incredible and add some serious thrills to the coaster selection at Kings Island, and could be built very large and thus with its wooden structure have a profound impact on the park's skyline. And, with Intamin's Prefabs being uber-smooth, you would not get the "it's rough!" complaints at all. The problem and why it likely would not happen is simple- Cedar Fair and Intamin are not really anywhere near on the same page right now, especially since nearly every Intamin installed in the last few years has had some sort of issues. GCI: The most likely choice, since Cedar Fair does go to them whenever they have wanted a wooden coaster in recent years and rides like Prowler & Gold Striker have been met with solid reviews. And GCI seems to be suggesting they may be willing to start building larger (150+ foot tall) wooden coasters, which would be right up the alley of a larger park like Kings Island as it could be built to run 3 trains then instead of GCI's "normal" two. They have also worked with Kings Island in the past, but not on any coasters. They also specialize in "Twister" type woodies, which would compliment Beast (terrain) & Racer (out-and-back+racing) well. RMC: A 3rd option, more likely than Intamin but less than GCI. Though this would really be a steel coaster in disguise, just looking somewhat like a woodie. And if it is like Goliath @ SFGam it wouldn't even do that. But there is a slim chance Cedar Fair could actually talk RMC into doing a real woodie...but I have no idea how that would turn out. Gravity Group: Option #4, and one of the more unlikely ones. While many of their rides are top-rated, the larger designs like Hades & Voyage have shown to need insane amounts of TLC to continue to run well and Kings Island may not be willing to put up with that- especially with 3 other woodies and numerous steel coasters to take care of as well. One thing that has been brought up in the past- and I'll say it again here as well- it also that the park will likely not want to do another wooden coaster until the memories of Son of Beast are very, very faded at least. That ride left a negative mark on the park's wooden coaster reputation and it will likely be a while before the GP is ready to accept a new wooden coaster (though many- especially on here- would know immediatley this new woodie would have nothing to do with SOB and be excited for it I assume). So the park's next major coaster will likely be steel. What type, I am not sure- B&M would be very likely due to how well their rides have been recieved here, but if the park does want some variety they could go with Mack or something...

As well as 3 other parks you could say Holiday World "competes" with: Dollywood, Six Flags St. Louis, and Silver Dollar City- all 3 along with Kings Island are not too far from where Holiday World is. However, there is one noticeable omission...did Kentucky Kingdom already do this, or is Holiday World basically saying "We are nominating every park we feel can compete with us and that does NOT include you" and thus "slapping" KK in the face? (A google search for Kentucky Kingdom Ice Bucket challenge returned no positive results)

^ I can confirm- the employees were indeed all wearing red polo shirts and khaki pants, and they did seem pretty nice & fairly professional.

Hi Everybody! I went to the Indiana State Fair for the first time in years today. Here is my trip report- this trip included me, my sister, and her best friend. Later on one of my sister's friends I didn't know also joined us. We didn't do rides until VERY late in he day, so I'll break this into 2 secions: a general section of what I did during the day, then the rides at night. PART 1: THE FAIR Our day started off with arriving at the parking lot, and I was a bit suprised at how many rides the fair had- and some looked quite fun. We entered and I was told to find some food (my sister basically paid for this trip, I thanked her of course at the end). Since it was $2 day, I looked for something at that price and eventually got some curly fries- they were OK but not anything remarkable. After my sister and her friend came out from the new-for-2014 beer & wine tasting area (I don't drink at all so I skipped), we headed around checking out more of the fair's food options, where I tried a Gyro for the first time, and it was great! We then wandered around for a bit, searching for the "Deep Fried Girl Scout Cookies" my sister badly wanted to try- we did find them, but that didn't happen until much later. I needed to use the Bathroom, and went into the "Cattle" Pavillion to do so. Couldn't resist checking out the "champion" cow while there- what a beauty she was. Later, we entered an exhibit that had awesome displays with local fish (Rainbow Trout are huge and Salmon are even more monstrous), another was a cool butterfly garden, and a exhibit with goats and other small farm animals- including Zebus! And there was a cool parade with a old school fire truck, the Butler Bulldog (who is awesome), and more tractors than I could count including some VERY old ones. I then got a $2 slice of pizza, which was HUGE and tasty for that price (a rival pizza vendor was only giving half slices for the same price- I went for the bigger one for the money). After that, we headed up for a free concert (I didn't bother to watch but did listen to the music- it was Dustin Lynch, who sounded more "rock" than I expected and it was actually very good sounding music). I had looked over the map of the fair and we discovered the location of the deep fried cookies at the Girl Scouts booth, so after the concert we headed to the ride midway as the cookies were being sold in front of the Giant Wheel. We still didn't ride anything as the lines for tickets were crazy at this point. The deep fried cookies were incredible as my sister had hoped. We then met up with another of her friends who I didn't know before this point and headed to get more food mainly for my sister (I was still fairly full from the pizza slice earlier). She got a grilled cheese, and I was given half of it- it was awesome. After this, it was finally time for rides, and thankfully the lines for tickets had gone way down... PART 2: THE RIDES We rode 4 rides during the night- not to much but my sister didn't have THAT much money to blow. Here they are...the names may or may not be accurate as for carnival flats, I really don't care to much... Ride #1: Crazy Mouse (Spinning Wild Mouse) ***** Having never been on a Wild Mouse before, I was very curious to try this out. And to my suprise- this little thing gave Backlot Stunt Coaster a run for its money, and I'd put it above Invertigo! It had some good laterals (but not nearly as strong as I was expecting) and the drops were very fun. It didn't spin too much though, which dissapointed my sister. It also looked very small and could easily fit in the old Crypt building at KI. I wish I knew who made this as well. Mack? Gerstlauer? Is this an old Arrow ride? I dunno... Score: 8 out of 10 Ride #2: Giant Wheel (Ferris Wheel) ***** OK...I have figured something out. Huge roller coasters? No problem for me anymore. But put me on something with minimal restraints, that rocks and sways 100+ feet up, for a few minutes? That scares me. A lot. When the ride actually started it felt a lot better, but to my dismay the ride cycle was PATHETIC and it only went around once, so I never got used to it. It was OK I guess once I got over the initial fear... Score: 6 out of 10 Ride #3: ??? I Forget The Name (Hammer) ***** One of the more interesting-looking flat rides I have ever seen but not ridden, and now I realize why you need a OTSR, lap bar, foot restraints AND cage around you here- this has EPIC hang time and great forces! It also, unlike most of the other flat rides, had a very long, thrilling cycle. Probably my favorite ride of the night. My only complaint is it can also kinda hurt- especially when it "stalls" at the top. Score: 9 out of 10 Ride #4: FireBall (Frisbee) ***** I was interested in this since I have heard Terpy state that the smaller Frisbees are more fun than the big ones, like Delirium, and while this was a good-sized ride it was no Delirium in terms of sheer size. However, where this ride shined was the fact it felt like Delirium...if Delirium somehow ran at DOUBLE SPEED. Sadly, it also ended at seemingly the same speed- it was a very short ride cycle again. And it was less comfortable and much harder to get in versus Delirium. If it had a longer cycle, it'd be worlds better. As-is, it just barley beats Delirium, but that still means an awesome ride. Also for some reason they had TWO of these- I didn't really see too much of a difference in them. They also had TWO Round-Up Rides...WTF!?!? Score: 9 out of 10 Interesting-Looking Rides I Never Rode ***** There was a "Skyscraper (@ Cedar Point)" type ride called Speed, which was the biggest ride at the fair but it had a crazy long line. The Drop Tower seemed about 100 feet or so. You had your classic Spider, Yo-Yo, Scrambler, Tilt-A-Whirl, Thunder Bobs, etc etc. as well as more exotic rides like the Tornado Swings and some crazy "Remix" ride that looked INSANE but also had an insane line. Oh, and a Gravitron UFO I personally made note to avoid after one of them made me a bit sick last time. Yet I enjoy Round-Ups...weird eh? Well, that's it. After FireBall, we headed out and here I am now at my home. It was a pretty fun day overall. Hope you enjoyed this trip report- even if it wasn't an amusement park, it did still have rides. To finish this TR, here are my usual Pros/Cons... PROS +Good ride lineup for a fair +Very Cool Animals +Affordable Tasty Food- the $2 deals were solid +Good music, even though normally Country isn't my go-to +Lots of bathrooms and hand sanitizer stations +Pretty clean for a fair CONS -Ferris Wheels are scary...(OK- not really a con and I should get used to them eventually but still...for now...) -Was quite crowded for the most part -Weak ride cycles on some rides Hope you liked this! McSalsa away! (Flies off) OH @!^!& DA FERRIS WHEEL!!! (Crashes into the Ferris Wheel) KABOOM!!!!!

Ahh, my early days here on KIC (2009-2010)...hmm, have my views changed since then? Yes...somewhat. I actually do love both of these parks (TBH these are still the only 2 parks I have been to in recent years- I STILL really need to get to more but money hasn't flowed too well and these 2 have been the closest & most affordable larger parks in the region- well now there's Kentucky Kingdom too but that just opened back up so...). Usually, when me and my family/friends are planning these trips, and these 2 parks are the main options our choice hinges on: do we want to go to a park for roller coasters and thrill rides (in which case KI wins) or do we want to hit the waterpark (in which case Holiday World wins). And man, looking at how much has changed since I made this... Now "Dead" Rides Kings Island: The Crypt, Son of Beast, Thunder Alley Holiday World: Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, AmaZOOM, Bamboo Chute, Congo River, Freedom Train, Giraffica Newcomer Rides Kings Island: WindSeeker, Tidal Wave Bay, Banshee Holiday World: Safari Sam's Splashland, Rudolph's Round-Up, Mammoth, Hyena Falls, Kitty's Tea Party, Holidog Express, Mayflower, Thunderbird (WOW- even if many of these are kinda small that's a lot of new rides in just 5 seasons!) Not to mention the major changes in leadership at both parks Terpy brought up- Ouimet as CEO for Cedar Fair and thus Kings Island and the whole turnover at Holiday World since Will Koch's death. Crazy how much can change in just 5 years.

Well, while I only have Kings Island and Holiday World to choose from really...so here are my "picks" for best first drops in those parks... Kings Island The Beast This one's pretty much a given. For a first time rider, at the top of that hill you are (unless you watched a POV or something) FINALLY able to see some of the ride as most of it is hidden in the woods and not visible from the main park. And then you see that itty bitty tunnel, and realize you're going in it. The second lift and drop into the helix would also count as one of my favorites, simply due to the stunning visuals (seeing all of Kings Island, especially at night, is stunning) and the fact the drop seemingly takes FOREVER before you actually hit the tunnel but this is about first drops- but for the record, BOTH huge drops on Beast are awesome. Banshee Perhaps the most "intimidating" drop in the entire park, as not only is this a pretty tall coaster at 167 feet, but it's inverted and to further amplify how high you are you're looking down at Flight of Fear, Racer, and Adventure Express as you reach the top. Then the Banshee screams and you drop 150 feet- and it's curved. Simply awesome. Diamondback Of course, being 230 feet tall has its advantages. It's crazy how you are looking down at Vortex & Beast from the top- and those are 2 HUGE attractions- and then the image of the rest of the track ahead of you is impressive. And then the drop itself, especially from the back- WHEE! AIRTIME UP DA WAZZOO!!! Vortex Like Banshee and Diamondback, Vortex's drop is going to get auto-points due to its huge size. Add a cool pre-drop and nice airtime in the back seats, and you have a pretty darn solid first drop. The Bat Unlike the other coasters listed, The Bat's drop isn't all that big in comparison, as it's under 80 feet tall, but where this ride shines is the visuals. It's like Beast's 2nd lift view in reverse- you get to see the whole park again, but from a VERY different angle. And the fact you aren't quite as high makes the other rides look bigger as well. HOLIDAY WORLD While all 3 wooden coasters at the park have nice first drops, I'm only going to list the one I consider the best of the bunch... The Legend While it's not as large as the drop on Voyage, Legend's first drop is still superior to its bigger, younger stablemate. Voyage just takes you straight up with a pretty standard drop, though it has a nice view of the woods ahead. But Legend's drop is epic: first, there is a pre-drop dip similar to what Son of Beast had but on a smaller scale. Then, you have special audio effects- a wolf howls and you are warned NOT to look back. You also have a GREAT view of the waterpark and Voyage from the top. Then comes the drop- not only does it mimic Beast with a teeny weeny tunnel (Raven also does this but Legend does it better), but it curves, giving you a mix of airtime on the way down (especially from the last car) and then some good laterals at the bottom. THIS is how you kick off a ride.

According to Holiday World's Facebook page, ticket prices will NOT go up in 2015 in spite of the huge new coaster. This kind of suprises me, though HW has raised prices quite a bit in just the last 5 years alone...

^ Yep- in the last few years, we have started to see B&M begin doing stuff that once they would not touch- mainly Giga Coasters (their famous "We won't go higher than 300 feet" thing is now dead) and now launched coasters. A 4th Dimension coaster could also be coming soon. For B&M, I see nothing but good things in the near future- they are pretty firmly established as the #1 supplier for big steel coasters right now, especially in the US and for larger parks.

^^ Uhh, they spent more than 14.5 million since 2007. They spent $10,000,000 last year alone on park improvements, mainly in the parking lot, and Mammoth was $9 million, etc etc. I also assume Hyena Falls and Wildebeest weren't dirt cheap, nor the now-already-defunct Pilgrims Plunge/Giraffica. However, even if Holiday World can afford this (and perhaps they still can, I dunno) there could be one more issue- a crowd spike.But Terpy beat me to this and explained that. I do hope this does work out though- if it does, it could help push Holiday World to "the next level" and we could see more big things at the park.

^^^^^ (Homestar92) Yep- each train only has 5 cars versus 8 for Gatekeeper. Though the launch needing to have less weight was likely a factor for that. And now that I'm cooled off a bit and have watched more videos, some thoughts: -Probably won't be Banshee-level forcefulness, but it doesn't need to be really. The shorter trains may allow it to be a bit more forceful than Gatekeeper though. -The level of theming is very good, and the fact the woods around the ride should be intact (this is Holiday World- not Cedar Fair) should be a plus. -Interaction with Voyage is cool. -Nice choice of colors. -Great name even if it has to be "squeezed in" to fit the theme of the area. -According to Ed Hart's bid to re-open Kentucky Kingdom I read a while back, he didn't think Holiday World could build something like this...Mr. Hart, I fear you have underestimated your "opponent" in this case. -I'll bet this will push HW Attendance from 1 million or so to around 1.5 million. Holiday World will be MUCH more crowded in 2015 IMO. -B&M has been kickin' butt in recent years with their new rides and this seems it will continue that trend- not to mention the rumored Carowinds Giga will also likely help this recent push. Overall, this ride looks awesome. Nice job, Holiday World. I think Will would be proud...Raven. Legend. Voyage. Wildebeest. Mammoth. And now Thunderbird. A pretty darn solid "coaster"* lineup if you ask me... *=Counting the water coasters as coasters of course.

Holy Macaroni!!! THUNDERBIRD!!!

Crashed for me earlier but is up now...

A heads-up: apparently Holiday World will be streaming the announcement or something on their web site: http://www.holidayworld.com/66days/ Yeah, it's the 66 days site apparently. I went back to check them one more time and got a new link...

To further put this in perspective- I randomly took Don Helbig's 12000+ Racer rides and divided by 100,000,000 to see how much % of the total rides he alone has taken- it was a mere 0.012%! Much better than me though- my 6 rides from 2000 and 2009-2014 account for 0.000006% of Racer's total. Just some random numbers for thought.

Well, the obvious clues begin on Day 60... "...we STEEL ourselves for what lies ahead..." Then again, by now, a steel coaster is pretty clearly what is coming...

^ It'll probably be either Banshee or Goliath @ SFGam...since the RMC Coasters that have been built so far (New Texas Giant, Iron Rattler, Outlaw Run, etc etc.) have done very well in the Golden Ticket Awards...then you have the Mitch Hawker poll, where I assume Lightning Run could be a major player based on the reviews I have read of it- though the restraints it has could hold it back. One other thing that could limit Banshee in the GTA's- they seem to HEAVILY perfer airtime-centric rides without inversions. Then I also remembered- Harry Potter Expansion at Universal Florida. Last time they did this, it won out over a Intamin Giga Coaster and B&M Hyper both with Intimidator in their names. Banshee's awesome, but I don't know how well it'll fare against this competition.

Ehh- yeah, on second thought, this one will do fine then.

Also- I had a thought. I kind of wanted to merge the Batman Clones together as 1 option to save space and make the poll much neater, and split up Dragon Challenge since both tracks have very different layouts. And sort the options so Banshee would be in the right spot, since this was originally sorted alphabetically. Any way to do this without deleting a bunch of votes? Or should I just make a new "Best B&M Invert in the USA- 2014 Edition" poll to replace this one?