malem

Dane applied a minor update to the IPS forum software tonight, which might have fixed that issue. Let us know, Chris. Also, report here if anything broke with the upgrade.

Being that it is a 5-minute ride, striking up a conversation is sometimes natural. Pretty sured I've never attempted to continue one in either tunnel, but my intuition says it would be harder in the helix tunnel. It seems louder, and it's also the most intense part of the ride. A Cash Coaster episode there could be funny.

^ The sooner you get to Nighthawk, the less chance you have of inadvertently riding something like Stinger at Dorney Park as your 100th. Not that I'd know anything about that.

I split this out into a separate thread, so that it's easier to find than in the general 2017 Kings Island thread. The pictured construction is near Breakers Bay, in the area calakapepe circled in his post above.

^ With respect to new content, does the digest contain PMs, forum threads you follow, some other selection, or everything? I'll look into it when I get a chance. Is anyone else getting more e-mails than they want?

Your hard work over the years and passion for Kings Island has been truly appreciated by us all. I can't thank you enough for helping build KIC as a place centered around mutual respect and friendship. It has become a special place for many. I'm still humbled to have been asked to help in a leadership role here. It has been a joy to work with a team of great people eager to make KIC even better. Thanks for your support and advice, and best of luck with your current projects!

WDW has implemented their annual ticket price increase. It's worth noting that all tickets now have expiration dates, so purchasing far in advance (to hedge against future price increases) no longer works. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/the-daily-disney/os-bz-disney-world-ticket-prices-increase-20170210-story.html

Shouldn't be a problem as long as I have a week or so notice of which day you want to visit Kennywood. Avoiding August 1 would be best. I'm definitely overdue for a return visit, having only visited once (in 2014). Knowing how much you enjoy Diamondback, I'll be curious to see how Phantom compares. (For me, Phantom is in a close race with Magnum as top hyper.) I generally agree about Dorney, but there's still charm in that park if you look for it. The entrance plaza and front half are very Dick Kinzel-esque.

I visited for the first time last summer. The park really is a great value; an evening ride wristband & two rides on Leap the Dips cost around $20. As a bonus, if driving across Pennsylvania, you can save $30+ on tolls by detouring to the park and away from the PA Turnpike. I second Chris on Skyliner; it's some of the best airtime I've had on a coaster with a buzz bar as the only restraint. It didn't strike me as particularly rough; I marathoned it since crowds were very light. Their collection of (mostly portable) flat rides is worth checking out as well. I rode a Sky Diver for the first time, which exscream team made more thrilling (and a bit terrifying) by spinning the cage as fast as he could. If you're my height or taller, be aware that it's a really tight fit.

We moved the site's hosting to Linode with the nginx web server, which should make things faster. If there are any problems, or if anything is slow, let me know. We have to decide by tonight (Wednesday) whether to revert to the old hosting provider for another month.

Thanks for the heads up; it does appear that they were taken from a (manned, licensed) aircraft. Sorry about that.

Aerial photos are allowed, yes. Several KIC members have contributed photos over the years from flights they've through the area. Drones are a more complex legal area. Operating them over the park, with 300' rides and active construction zones, would likely be considered trespassing. Park rules prohibit all unauthorized drone flights.

EDIT: I had removed a post embedding the Twitter images, as I thought they were from a drone. They apparently weren't, so I restored the post. Also, as drones become more popular, just a reminder to be mindful not to violate private property rights or FAA rules when operating them. At least one enthusiast has been caught flying a drone in the park this off-season.

There's not much new information, but the Universal Orlando website has been updated with pictures showing how the TapuTapu virtual queue system will work. https://www.universalorlando.com/Theme-Parks/Volcano-Bay.aspx#tap From the looks of things, maybe the Spirit of Reason from COSI is headed there?

^ Both the all-season and standard drink bottles are currently on sale at visitkingsisland.com. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/things-to-do/dining

It's easy to break even on a dining plan if you visit often. Mine typically pays for itself by the end of May, so it has been like getting free food the rest of the season.

Here's what the food lines looked like on Opening Day last year: Luckily, it wasn't like that all season. While there were exceptions (eg. Dollar Days), staffing & efficiency did improve. Things also got better as guests learned to use the new, dedicated drink stands to redeem and refill souvenir bottles. Some guests saw hour-plus waits, but that wasn't typical of the season as a whole. If you come across a food line like the one pictured, my advice would be to look elsewhere in the park or come back later. In 2016, I generally found the best service at Rivertown Potato Works. Leaving the park to eat is also an option; there are many choices a short drive away, or Great Wolf Lodge can be walked to.

In the years I've gone to CoasterMania (2014-2016), the park hasn't been too badly crowded. (The park was dead in 2014 and 2016; 2015 was crowded but not excessively so. ERT and meals were overcrowded in 2015.) I can't recommend one over the other, as I have yet to attend HoliWood Nights.

^^^ Wanding is only a small part of the park's security measures, and no amount of it would have stopped this individual. An incident like this is tragic beyond words. As much as we like to think of Kings Island as a magical place, we must remember that nowhere is immune to evil that exists in the real world. The park, local police departments, and the entire community will need to work to prevent a similar situation from ever happening again. This is a good time for us all to think about safety - at the park and elsewhere. Yell and get help if you see a dangerous situation. If you're meeting someone you don't know, be cautious and stay around other people. If you feel threatened, get away to a populated area and contact authorities. Followers of the amusement park industry will note that accessible, secluded areas in parks have disappeared over the years. I would expect this trend to continue. Consider even changes to White Water Canyon's queue before last season.

^ That's not likely with the current ownership of that brand, as much as many of us would love to see Scooby Doo there again.

The company that owns a controlling stake in the Peanuts brand is considering a sale. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iconix-brand-grp-peanuts-idUSKBN15F0G1

I might have to make a couple of evening trips on Tuesdays. Not having to choose between Beast & Mystic Timbers for a true night ride will be nice. As far as I know, passholder ERT is only for those with a current season pass. Employees can purchase a pass to get into passholder-specific ride times or to buy season dining plans, but it might not be worth the cost since you already get free admission & parking.

Before HWN, there was Stark Raven Mad.

^ Definitely e-mail the park about that; I'm sure they'd like feedback on a11y issues. It may or may not be via a printable calendar, but there should be a way to see hours on a particular day without matching color keys, especially since such a way exited before. This would also affect people browsing with screen readers & other non-graphical browsers. EDIT: upon closer inspection, the hours are available in an accessible format for browsers that can't display the graphical version. There's no easy way to see this in a regular web browser without using accessibility tools, so I'd still suggest e-mailing them. Here's what the hours look like in links:

Responsive layouts for the win. People are browsing the web on many devices, so it's great to see Cedar Fair catching up with the times on that front. I am surprised to see the old Cedar Point logo go away in favor of the standard Cedar Fair logo text. The previous logo survived several rounds of standardization between the parks.