malem

^ The media would seek accounts from spectators regardless of the PR statement. It's more sensational that way. What was the media statement missing? It seemed to be fairly complete, for what could be known for certain in the initial hours of the investigation.

^ If you win a front-of-the-line pass with Plinko or another game, you don't have to wait in the Fast Lane queue. You can* go directly through the exit for immediate boarding. *Many game winners do use the Fast Lane queues, and these passes are officially accepted there. Policies change often; ask the game host or Guest Services for current rules and procedures.

^ Most guests don't know anything about the mechanics of the attractions they ride. The media needs to be responsible with what it reports as "news". Verbatim interviews with random people usually wouldn't qualify.

^ I assume that they will leave just that part of the park open. Saturday, August 9 is also the CoasterBuzz event at KI with night ERT (after park close) on select rides for participants.

Some (not necessarily reliable) accounts via Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=skyhawk&src=typd As always, initial reports of an incident can be inaccurate. Hoping the best for anyone who was injured at the park.

From NWS in Wilmington: Leaving now is definitely a good idea.

^ Stop by Guest Services and ask. Since the event is cancelled, I suspect that you would get a refund. (Perhaps in Beagle Bucks, if not a credit in your original form of payment.)

A very good decision; I certainly wouldn't want to be back in those woods during a big storm. Hopefully they'll reschedule for next week's (final) midnight close.

^ Let's just make sure that we are good the rest of this season and this off-season. Many members here already had exclusive tours this year with the Coaster Crew event. Meetups for Haunt and Closing Day should be fun, as always. Perhaps some big things going on at KI around Labor Day weekend as well...

If you visit Kennywood, make sure to avoid the special deal days. (Passholder bring-a-friend-cheap, buy-one-get-one admission tickets, etc) It wasn't crowded at all when I went. I didn't ride the Flying Coaster or most of the other flat rides. I need to return at some point. Perhaps venturing further east to Knoebels as well. Those from Cincinnati might combine Kennywood with a trip to Cedar Point to save a considerable number of miles.

There will be a tweet-up at Kings Island today, according to @KingsIslandPR on Twitter. Make sure to follow http://twitter.com/kingsislandpr if you're at the park. EDIT: Actually, it already happened. Twitter neglected to include the second tweet (with the details) in my account feed for whatever reason.

One effect on today's crowds could be that discount tickets with "Kings Island Kicks Cancer" are starting one week earlier than with previous years' Susan G. Komen partnerships. For the first time, heavily discounted admission is offered on a July Saturday. Also, the weather's pretty nice... for now.

Banshee added significant capacity to Kings Island, yet wait times seem to be higher this season. The number of times that the average guest rides each roller coaster is very unlikely to go down. I'd actually expect it to go up, with a new headliner attraction in the dry park. You're right, though; the length of built queues does cap wait times. However, if they overflow too often, more queue may become necessary. If people turn away due to an overflowing queue, they would likely return later when lines would have otherwise died down. I'm actually most worried about waterpark crowds. That's currently the main draw for the general public, and waits for Wildebeest and Mammoth already become excessive. A new roller coaster may cause waterpark guests to spend more time in the dry park, but I would expect the effect of larger attendance to be much more pronounced.

This looks like an absolutely fantastic addition to the park. I am convinced that the Wing Coaster is the right model for Holiday World. This type of coaster has delivered high thrills to a very wide demographic, which seems perfect for a "family" park that might not offer the same selection as bigger parks. With the unique launch, record-breaking loop and great near-miss elements, this should be a very special ride. Meanwhile, Kentucky Kingdom's new ride is apparently not very accommodating and will look minor compared to Thunderbird. It will be interesting to see how Ed Hart & Co respond in the coming seasons, provided of course that KK remains operational as an amusement park. I definitely want to make the trip next season to ride this. I'm also tempted to visit this season, which I wasn't planning to do, to get ahead of the many people that Thunderbird will draw into the park. Capacity on existing signature attractions is somewhat limited, so longer lines could become normal.

That would be the type of rider that might really want to avoid publicity and eternal fame. If the milestone rider doesn't participate (provide name, pose for photo, etc), I wonder if they'd pick 100,000,001.

No Fast Lane means no line separator, so the UFO and station are packed full. This makes the line longer than it looks, which has increased wait times by some extent. Capacity is down by 20% with 1 car unused. Depending on the day, this could be more or less than the capacity hit from Fast Lane (Plus). (Earlier this season, they'd fill up to 1/3 of the capacity with Fast Lane riders. When the Fast Lane queue didn't have that many waiting, more standby riders would be taken.)

In no particular order: Vortex @ KI, back car Maverick @ CP, any row Magnum @ CP, back car Mantis @ CP, front row (The drop is the one part of the ride where I'm glad to be standing)

^ I'm pretty certain that the souvenir cup refill promotion is intended to apply only when that specific cup is being refilled. Customer-supplied containers could cause sanitation problems with the fountains and (at service locations) with the employees filling your cup. Also, using your own generic cup defeats many benefits that the park gets out of the promotion. Namely: You as a walking advertisement for souvenir cups You needing to buy a locker (or have a non-rider in your party) to ride attractions that forbid loose articles A constant reminder for you to come back to the park Promotion of the park's refreshment beverage partner

Don probably wouldn't be able to take 9 hours out of his day to give the VIP tour himself, no matter how exciting it would be. That would be a really neat tour, though.

This is what was going through my head:

All I can say for now is that the execution of this announcement was great. I almost wish I had driven the 300 miles each way to see it in person. The layout is unique, and I do enjoy both huge vertical loops and launches, so the ride looks great at first glance. Great to see innovation.

The stream is working great for me here, on Linux with Time Warner Cable.

I'm sure that park officials will take care not to ride when the milestone is imminent. But hopefully he'll be rider number ~100,000,300. Ideally with the milestone rider re-riding as 100,000,301. If he were giving the VIP tour for the 100 millionth rider, I'm sure that it would be exciting for him. Not many rides have seen that milestone.

(That post contains sarcasm.) In popular speech, "could care less" is - paradoxically and incorrectly - a synonym of "couldn't care less".

Sadly, most people could care less about correctly using the language.