jcgoble3

Something tells me that they can not say that to an insurance company. You always prepare for something like that with a backup. It wont happen it does. That ride in China where the car came off and went flying...... Also, do you think this ride will be the full 3 minutes. I have watched the CW version testing and it was a 2 min video and I do agree it might be a little more in time but not much. This will have a very long slow line since it is single threaded. So 3 min ride, 1 minute load, 1 min unload...... not sure aboui that. If you want to compare, its equal to if Diamondback had one train running all the time... Except that WindSeeker can take twice as many people per cycle than Diamondback. WindSeeker can take 64 people per cycle, Diamondback 32 per train. So essentially, it's like Diamondback with two trains running. I think that's what a lot of people overlook when considering WindSeeker's true capacity (as opposed to advertised capacity, which would require a load/unload time of zero) is that it can take more people per cycle than any other ride at KI except KI&MVRR. It won't be super-fast, but it won't be as slow as some people think, either. If you calculate an average unload/load time of 2 minutes per cycle, that equals 12 cycles per hour, which equals 768 riders per hour. If they move faster and can complete unloading and loading in one minute (which may not be realistic), that would be 960 riders per hour. All in all, even the 768 figure isn't too bad for a flat ride. Also, keep in mind that when I was there on the 13th, IIRC I saw numbers on each seat, suggesting that seats may be assigned in a similar fashion to Drop Tower or Delirium, which would speed up the loading process.

He did:

Nice report. I'm heading to Holiday World for the first time on the first weekend of June for Holiwood Nights, and this report just got me a little more excited for that trip.

I've already been to Kings Island twice this year and will be back Saturday for the GOCC Spring Fling and several other times throughout the summer. I'll also be picking up a season pass to The Beach Waterpark soon (though it remains to be seen how much I'll use it), and I'll be hitting Holiday World for Holiwood Nights as well as Cedar Point June 20–24. What am I most looking forward too? That's a tough question, but I would have to say Cedar Point, since that will be my main vacation for the year.

Nice photos! I was also in line for DB (back around the final corner before the stairs up to the station) when it went down for weather at around 4:20. I decided I didn't want to get any wetter than I already was (I had just gone through all four water attractions), so I elected to wait out the storm in the station. People kept getting out of line and leaving, and by the time DB resumed operation almost two hours later, I was the first in line for the very back seat. Only about 40 people stuck it out in the station the whole time. On our way out of the station the ride op did one of those "on the count of three, how crazy can you be?" things that usually gets a lukewarm response, and this time it was the loudest cheer I had ever heard in response to that question. The response to "how was your ride" three minutes later was equally loud.

1. Have fun. 2. Tell us about it. Seriously, I have yet to go to any SeaWorld park, so I can't really help you. I hope to make it down there someday, though.

http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/news/newsletter/index.cfm?item=174 This is the part I don't like: So now not only is FX Theater an upcharge, but it appears that you can't buy it separate from the main Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit. This is not IMO a good move by the park. EDIT/UPDATE: Disregard note about not being able to buy the movie separate from Dinosaurs Alive! According to http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/park/dinosaurs_alive/index.cfm, the movie can be purchased separately for $4.00.

Just one lowly KI Gold Pass here, though that will soon be upgraded to Platinum in preparation for my trip to Cedar Point in June.

First it showed this: Then this, which is what you referred to: And now the first webcam isn't working at all. EDIT: Now that I think about it, that first image looks like a hand.

That will confirm that it works at KI, but I won't know whether it works at Cedar Point until I get there on June 20. There is a history of people reporting on these boards that their KI Platinum Passes failed to work at other Cedar Fair parks. I'll definitely make sure to keep the receipt, though.

Regular parking is NOT up at Kings Island; on the contrary, it's still $10. Preferred parking, as pointed out above, did indeed go up to $20, though. I'm curious, though, whether you can in fact use a Gold or Platinum Pass to get preferred parking for the difference in cost; has anybody here tried that, and did they let you do that, or do you have to pay full price for preferred parking even with a Gold/Platinum Pass?

^Same here. Renewed my Gold Pass online in October, and it worked perfectly. Next time I'm at KI though, I'll be upgrading it to Platinum in preparation for my trip to Cedar Point in June, so it remains to be seen how well that will work.

I remember this from way back when I visited COSI when in I was in Cub Scouts. I need to get back there. I may do that this summer. They were $3.75 last year.

I like the WindSeeker cup also. The photo of it is deceiving in that the WindSeeker cup is actually the same size as last year's Diamondback cup; the WindSeeker cup is thinner, but it's also taller. Here's a photo of them side by side:

OK, my first trip report. If you're wondering why the P in PTR is in scare quotes, I'll explain later. I left Xenia around 8:00 and arrived at 8:50 after catching just about every traffic light red. I got parked and got in the metal detector line. Ten minutes later, they opened the park and the scramble was on. I was too far back in line to have any chance at first train, but I ran back to Diamondback, saw that the line there was already spilling out into the midway, and headed for The Beast, where I was able to walk on to the third train of the year. The retracked section of The Beast was significantly smoother, and it was good to be back on a coaster after the long offseason. I then headed to Diamondback, where I had about a 20?-minute wait in the single rider line. On my way up the DB lift hill, I noticed that a Beast train was stuck at the bottom of the first lift hill, and there was a ride op standing beside it. Looks like I was right to hit The Beast first and then Diamondback. After Diamondback, I then headed to the rope past The Beast and waited. After the national anthem played, the rope was dropped and another mad scramble was on. I jogged over to X-Base and got in line for Firehawk. I made in there in time to be third train, but the yellow train broke down while I was waiting. I waited about twenty minutes while they ran some tests on both trains, then they sent me over to the red train. While waiting on it to come back, they announced that the yellow side was operational again, started loading riders onto it, and sent it out, while I was still waiting on the red side—essentially allowing everybody on that train to jump the riders on my train in line. So I ended up with fourth train on Firehawk. After that, I wandered down Coney Mall, looking at the improvements, and wasted $3 at the Speed Pitch game. My first two pitches were 37 and 44 mph, so I guessed 41 and got 36 on my third pitch. I then made my way down to Flight Deck, but it had just broken down, so I bought a ticket for Xtreme Skyflyer while it was still $5. I got in line immediately and surprised myself by being a little scared as they lifted me up. I hadn't had a problem with fear on it last year after my first ride, but apparently I had just gotten used to it and wasn't used to it any more because of the offseason. Once I pulled the ripcord, though, I was fine. I then wandered around for a while before I left for lunch. Last year, I had eaten in the park, but this year, I decided to drive elsewhere. I ended up at the Waffle House nearby, where I had a Texas Bacon Cheesesteak Melt, more hashbrowns than I could possibly eat, and free refills on my pop, all for $8.52—definitely a lot better than eating in the park. I gave my server two fives and told her to keep the change. Upon return to the park, the Gold Pass parking lot was so full that I ended up parking on the other side of the grass divider in the regular parking area. I walked back to Flight Deck, but it was still down, so I dug through my fanny pack, put everything in Ziploc bags, and hit Congo Falls. By this point in the day, all of the other rides had long waits, but Congo Falls was a walk-on, probably because it wasn't that warm yet. I sat in the front row and got absolutely drenched; not only did I get the initial splash, but I got a second dose from the wave bouncing off the bottom of the bridge. After getting off, I stood on the bridge and took one wave in the face, but I was so soaked to begin with that the wave didn't make any difference as to how wet I was. I then walked all the way across the park to White Water Canyon, which was about a 5–10 minute wait. It seemed a little wilder than last year; the first couple of rapids were bigger, and the second one got all of me. By the time I got back to the turntable, everyone in my boat was soaked. On the way out, I pulled out a $5 bill and tried to put it in the change machine so I could shoot some water at riders, but the change machine wasn't working, so I just headed back into the park. I walked back to Flight Deck again to find that it was still down, so I headed for The Racer. Only the blue side was running, and the line spilled all the way out into the midway and past the basketball games, but they only had a couple of switchbacks open in the queue house. I think it ended up being about a 15-minute wait. I actually hadn't ever ridden the blue side, so that ride gave me my last missing credit at KI. Next, I wandered over to the Eiffel Tower, went up, and took a crappy photo of WindSeeker (see below). I then bought a 2011 souvenir cup, which I've decided will be the main item that I collect every year from every park I go to that sells souvenir cups. Next, I walked back to The Vortex area, got as close as security would let me, and took a few photos of WindSeeker. I then walked back to Flight Deck one more time to find that it was still closed. Since practically everything had really long lines by now and I'm not a fan of waiting in long lines, I decided to leave. Out in the parking lot, I snapped a few more pictures before leaving. NOW, for the "P", including the scare quotes. These hardly qualify as "photos" because they're ridiculously low quality; I didn't have my good camera with me, so all I had was the 0.3-megapixel (640x480) camera on my cell phone. On top of that, it turns out that all the zoom function does is make it look worse. So with that, I'll add the disclaimer that these "photos" may hurt your eyes. Out of respect for users with dial-up or very slow broadband connections, rather than embed the photos here, I'll just link to the Flickr set and let you browse them there: click here to view the "photos". Feel free to make fun of the photo quality.

Nice photos. Correct. The vending machines were $3.75 last year. It did indeed open later.

Since parking prices have been discussed here, I'd like to point this out (taken from http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/visit/faq.cfm) That has clearly been updated for this season, since preferred parking was only $15 last year, so it appears that the price of regular parking will not be going up.

According to WLWT, WindSeeker will not be open Saturday. Discuss here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23711

Wow. That is awesome lighting.

The holes in The Racer behind WindSeeker are for Action Theater, not Dinosaurs Alive.

From KI's Facebook page:

Either that, or maybe they're just on lunch break.

Since it's not showing up, here's the link for the picture that jdawg1998 posted: http://twitpic.com/4ns37q