jcgoble3

Question for locals: I know Louisville-area Kroger stores sell discounted season passes (as well as in Lexington, but that's too far out of my way). Do those same Kroger stores also offer discounted single-day admission tickets, and at what price? I'm planning to make a run to KK once T3 opens and want to know my options. (I'm considering getting a season pass anyway, but I'm not sure that's in my budget.)

The 1 in 24 million number is the risk of being injured on an amusement ride in general, not a risk specifically related to this individual accident. That figure is also mentioned in this 2014 New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/sunday-review/when-thrill-rides-are-real-risks.html?_r=0

Sounds like a great day! Congratulations on the engagement!

Looks pretty busy on the app. 30 minutes for Banshee, 20 for Adventure Express. Drop Tower is down. 40 for Diamondback, an hour for each of Firehawk and FOF, 20 for Racer. 45 for Flying Ace Aerial Chase and Woodstock Express. On the bright side, 20 minutes for Beast and Vortex. Again, I'm not at the park, so I can't verify these times. If you have an Android device, you should really look into the method I linked to earlier in the thread. It's really easy to do.

On Education Days, and I think on other days when school is still in session, the park typically does not offer any alcohol sales until 5pm due to the large number of students in the park. Most of the school groups leave around 5pm.

If you really want to detour around Dayton but want to stay on the highways, take exit 43 off of I-75 to I-675 N. Then follow I-675 its entire length before taking the last possible exit (26B) onto I-70 W. Then follow the signs for I-75 N at exit 33. Coming in reverse, take exit 61 to I-70 E, then exit 44A to I-675 S. Again, follow I-675 its entire length without taking any exits, then keep left when it splits into ramps to merge onto I-75 S. There is some construction on I-675 a few miles north of US-35, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

See? I knew somebody would chime in with a third route.

Ask three different people, and you'll probably get three different answers. My preference is to get on Route 4 and take it straight into Sandusky. However, a lot of people dislike that route because it involves long, boring, straight stretches of nothingness, sprinkled with a few small towns where speed traps are likely. It's also a rather narrow two-lane road almost the entire way, and passing can be difficult or impossible. The other major route is I-75 north to US-6 east. This has the advantage of using major highways for the most part (some portions of US-6 are two-lane, though), which bring higher speed limits and much easier passing, with the trade-off being a longer journey in terms of mileage (elapsed time is the same from Xenia due to the higher speed limits) and thus possibly consuming more gas.

According to the app: FOF is at 45 minutes. Beast and Backlot around half an hour. Diamondback and Firehawk 15 minutes. Banshee, 5. Vortex, 10. Note that I'm not actually at the park, so I can't verify these times.

The next two coasters, Corkscrew and Gemini, have been added to the timeline: Photo credit: Great Ohio Coaster Club

IIRC, the gas station just down the road to the west (maybe a quarter of a mile) sells discount tickets. I don't remember for sure, though. Alternatively, if you are a member of a coaster club that is accepted for HoliWood Nights, then the lowest price can be had by showing your unexpired membership card and photo ID at the ticket window (details and list of clubs in the right sidebar here). The club price is the absolute lowest price offered anywhere, except for possibly group sales.

Includes brontosaurus, but not the Hanna-Barbara license agreement: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/flintstones-bedrock-city-arizona-sale-million-brontosaurus-included/story?id=31523653

Specifically, from I-71 exit 25, just head west on Kings Mills Road a short distance, and Kroger is on the right.

^ Yes, that too. I wasn't sure who or what provided medical helicopters for the Cincy area. I know that for the Dayton area, helicopter transport is provided by Miami Valley Hospital's CareFlight team, but KI is probably a bit south of their area of coverage.

But the question is this: Did USA Today independently come up with that ranking, or did it come from a sponsored story written for the newspaper by Ed Hart himself? There have been several of the latter, including two in the Indianapolis Star, which is owned by the same company. At this point, I would not put it past Mr. Hart to claim superlatives in advertising based on his own vanity puffery piece.

City of Mason Fire Department would respond to any incident requiring outside assistance, as they already do when a guest requires emergency medical treatment that the park's First Aid station is not equipped to provide. In a major accident like this, it would be up to Mason FD to call in mutual aid from other nearby departments if they feel they need the extra help.

My guess? Because the help center display, wait time display, and backstage computer systems all pull ride data (open/closed, wait times, etc.) from a single internal database, which contains Racer N and Racer S as separate rides (because from an operational standpoint, they are). And it would be a whole lot easier to simply blacklist one ride (Racer S, in this case) from the wait time display, than it would be to add code to detect a particular ride name as a special case and modify it before displaying it, but only do so on a particular type of display (as the help center display and backstage computer systems would still need to display both and distinguish between them)

If you look at the display above the help center (to the left of the Fast Lane sales booth next to Skyline on IS), it displays which rides are up or down at any given time. It should list both Racer N and Racer S, IIRC. I believe (but don't hold me to this) that Racer N is the red side. The display I mentioned above would clearly tell which is which, as it also gives the scheduled operating hours for each ride that day. The blue side would have shorter hours (usually noon to 8pm) than the red side (park opening to park closing). And wait time signs need only display one of the two, since they share a single queue and station.

^ North. Likewise, Racer S is the south side. EDIT: Given that The Racer runs nearly perfectly north and south, maybe I'm wrong. "E" and "W" (for east and west) would make more sense.

Those wristbands, I believe, are only for souvenir bottles that were purchased earlier in the season. I know that no such wristbands are available for "regular" drinks, at least not to the general public. I was specifically informed of that at Guest Services last month.

I wouldn't be shocked if it never reopens after this. In fact, given the ride's history of incidents, if this turns out to be anything other than purely operator error (which at this point, I doubt, and for the sake of the person manning the controls, I sincerely hope it isn't), I would be at least mildly surprised if it DOES reopen at any point in the future.

In other words, they're not "free"; they're "included with purchase". Same as when a park (e.g. Holiday World) gives out "free" soft drinks; they're not free, but included with admission. Let me extend a common saying. There are four types of untruths: lies, darned lies, statistics, and marketing. (Now watch the word filter auto-censor that to darned...)

I'm GOCC myself. Never had a problem with them.

Great report! Sounds like you had a FUN day in your own way. Not everyone here is a fan of the biggest and baddest roller coasters, and that's perfectly acceptable. Don't worry about it. It was a good read, and a great way to procrastinate on sleep for a little bit longer (for both of us, I'm guessing ).

^ Good point. I'm not really familiar with the history of the land before KI moved in.