jcgoble3

Well, I was typing a response to Snowman, but I discovered another new feature I like: the forums notified me of a new post in the thread and gave me a link to show the new post without losing what I was typing. It saved me from cluttering up the thread with a duplicate answer. I like that.

Why am I now forced to view only 15 posts per page?!? I have always had my preferences set to display 50 posts per page, as I find that makes reading long threads easier. Any chance of getting that option back? It's ridiculous to force only 15 ppp; it's fine as a default, since people with slow connections may have trouble loading longer pages, but give us the option to change it if we want.

On a related note, what about Friday nights during Haunt? How bad are the crowds then, and are they generally worse earlier or later in the Haunt season? I'm in the process of working up the courage to try Haunt this year (I'm a big chicken when it comes to being scared), but don't want to have to wait two hours for my first maze only to discover I'm too chicken and leave right away.

The most FLers I saw on a single cycle was ten on Delirium (20% of the disc) and nine on Firehawk (3/8 of a train, though FLers were only placed on the red train, so the yellow train was always all "regular" guests). Definitely not so many that "regulars" couldn't get on the same cycle/train, but enough that it could add up over the course of a one-hour wait. Yes, trains/cycles were being completely filled except for the occasional empty seat where they couldn't quickly find a single rider. On Beast and Flight of Fear, I was asked to go to an empty row just like the regulars, but was never turned down when I asked to wait for a particular seat. Diamondback let me choose, while Firehawk and BLSC assigned seats and I didn't attempt to request a specific seat on either of them.

The Beast (2) vs. Millennium Force (5)

Yesterday, at the former split point, the back lane was blocked by a trash can and all guests were funneled through the former front lane. I saw that on 7/24 as well, and they were still doing it yesterday. I rode it multiple times yesterday and never saw it down. I did see them them stop a train at the bottom of the lift hill to take away some sort of electronic device once, so somebody might have seen that and assumed it was down.

OK, my report from yesterday, as promised. From the time I came back from lunch around 1:00 (I didn't start using the pass until then) until about 11:30 (with an hour break for dinner), in no particular order I got in about 8 rides on Diamondback, 7 on The Beast, 2 on the log flume, 2 on Drop Tower, 3 on Firehawk, 3 on BLSC, 1 on Boo Blasters, 2 on WindSeeker (including one during the fireworks), 3 on Flight of Fear, and 2 on Delirium. In total, I estimate that I saved roughly 16 to 18 hours of waiting. Sometimes, I was the only Fast Laner in sight at a ride; other times there were several other Fast Laners with me on the same cycle (the latter was especially noticeable at Delirium and Firehawk). Two observations: 1. I think this system has value to more than just the traveling family that can only make one visit a year and can only do that on a Saturday and that wants to get everything in. Enthusiasts who want a "power-riding" day can get plenty of use out of it too. 2. Back on 7/24, afkifan reported that the Fast Lane system had a very minimal impact on wait times. I think that was because the system was still less than a week old and not many people knew about it. I (obviously) didn't actually wait in any regular lines when the Fast Lane was available for that ride, so I don't know what the impact of Fast Lane on wait times yesterday was, but based on the number of Fast Lane wristbands I saw and the number of Fast Laners with me on a cycle (as said before, especially on Delirium and Firehawk), there probably was a noticeable impact on wait times. A bit of a late reply: no, those are something related to Great Wolf Lodge (probably their waterpark passes). The Fast Lane wristbands are waterproof paper with a Kings Island logo on one side and the date printed on the other.

And so we're down to four. KI's last chance to win is The Beast, while CP has three coasters left. Semifinal matchups, with my votes included: Match 1 The Beast (1) vs. Top Thrill Dragster (0) Match 2 Magnum XL-200 (0) vs. Millennium Force (1)

OK, I'm officially out of patience. Once a battle is over (i.e. one coaster has 10 votes), please do not continue to vote on that battle. Adding additional votes beyond the 10 required before victory slightly complicates setting up the next round (ok, it's a very minor annoyance, but still...), and adding additional votes to the loser both misrepresents the true margin of victory and runs the risk of giving the loser 10 or more votes as well, forcing whoever sets up the next round to dig back in the voting history to see which one reached 10 votes first. So please don't add votes to a match where the winner has already been determined. Pretty please? With that in mind, here's the correct quarterfinal vote totals, with the totals for the first three matches reset to the totals immediately following the winning vote: Match 1 The Beast (10) vs. Flight Deck (2) Match 2 Magnum XL-200 (10) vs. Vortex (3) Match 3 Top Thrill Dragster (10) vs. The Racer (5) Match 4 Millennium Force (9) vs. Diamondback (7)

Done! Hope you win!

Yes it is, and you spelled it correctly. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theming

Well, I got paid today plus I had some leftover cash in my budget from last month, so I decided to splurge on a Fast Lane pass for this Saturday. I've wanted to go on a midnight closing day for a while now, but I've never done so because I know those days are super busy. I have yet to witness the system in action from either side yet (the only day I've been there since the Fast Lane began was for Coasting for Kids, so I was on The Racer until 7pm that day), but this should give me a look into how well it's run from the "inside", as well as letting me get plenty of rides in. I'll try to keep track of how it goes and report back, either here or in a trip report.

^ Your link is broken. Here's the corrected link: http://seekingalpha.com/article/284416-cedar-fair-s-ceo-discusses-q2-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript

Can someone clue me in on the background of Carl's accomplishment, e.g. how long has he been doing this?

According to this comment thread on Facebook, apparently a video on the HW website was accidentally leaked briefly. It appears that it was quickly locked away. Oh, how I wish I had seen the video... guess it won't hurt to wait another eleven or so hours.

And Son of Beast experienced none of that. Oh wait...

That round went by a lot quicker! Then again, there weren't any real contests that time. Anyway, quarterfinal matchups are as follows, with my own votes included: Match 1 The Beast (0) vs. Flight Deck (1) Match 2 Magnum XL-200 (0) vs. Vortex (1) Match 3 Top Thrill Dragster (1) vs. The Racer (0) Match 4 Millennium Force (1) vs. Diamondback (0) Five KI rides and three CP rides... who will come out on top?

Odd, I thought Maverick would put up more of a fight than this over Millie.

HW commented on Facebook that the blog post you linked contains both "hints" and "non-hints". So some of the things in that post that appear to be hints aren't hints? This isn't teasing, it's torture!

Yes it has. Round 2 matchups are as follows (based on the formula McSalsa gave in post #23) with my votes already included: Match 1 The Beast (1) vs. Raptor (0) Match 2 Firehawk (1) vs. Magnum XL-200 (0) Match 3 Top Thrill Dragster (1) vs. Gemini (0) Match 4 Maverick (0) vs. Millennium Force (1) Match 5 Diamondback (1) vs. Flight of Fear (0) Match 6 Iron Dragon (0) vs. The Racer (1) Match 7 Vortex (1) vs. Mean Streak (0) Match 8 Blue Streak (0) vs. Flight Deck (1) I can tell Match 4 is going to be a tough call.

In the afternoon, the two family raft rides (Tazmanian Typhoon and Snowy River Rampage) will have the longest lines, so try to hit them before noon before the general public migrates from the dry park into the waterpark. Down Under Thunder, Coolangatta Racer, and Sydney Sidewinder can also get long lines. The line for the lazy river moves very fast. I recommend leaving as much of your valuables (including your glasses, if you can see well enough to get around without them) as possible in your car. What you can't leave in your car, go into one of the shops near Coolangatta Racer and purchase a waterproof beach safe ($4 + tax) to store them in. Alternatively, you can rent a locker, but that will set you back $15 (though you'll get $5 back when you return the key). If you absolutely cannot go without your glasses, I recommend getting and wearing a glasses strap, though I'm not sure where to direct you to get one (I got mine at Cedar Point) if you don't already have one. The wavepool goes out to about 6 feet deep at the deep end; none of the other attractions have water deeper than 3 1/2 feet.

No, I'm not talking about the admin. I'm talking about the pictures some users upload to display next to their posts. It seems like some avatars suddenly get squashed vertically, seemingly at random. It's only happened to a few that I've noticed. Fire-Beast-OF FEAR's avatar is an example of this (see here). Notice that if you right-click on the avatar and select "View Image", it displays the unsquashed version. EssentiallyCoaster's old avatar had this problem for a while as well before he changed it. Sorry, but I can't find any more examples right now. I'm using Firefox 5.0 and Windows Vista. EDIT: Now that I take a closer look, Fire-Beast-OF FEAR's avatar has also been stretched horizontally to fill the available space. What is going on here?

So both sides of the park are getting something. Nice! Interesting. First, they say it's two projects, one for each side of the park. Then they say that the $9M is for "a single ride project". Makes me wonder how much they're spending on the other project...

Go to the upper corner of your screen (left or right side will depend on which skin you use) and locate your username next to the "sign out" link. Click on your username and then "Manage Ignored Users". Enter the user's name, select whether you want to ignore PMs, posts, or both from that user, and hit "Save Changes".

Lockers are $15 including the $5 key deposit. To clarify, since the original poster only mentioned the $2 lockers: The $2 lockers are single-use lockers, which are not available in the waterpark. The only lockers available in the waterpark are of the all-day rental variety.