Jeorby Nanpa

Me: energetic Kings Island patron. I'm nearly a fanboi (bless your hearts, fanbois) but that's a fine line. Problem: Beast shuts down. 7:20PM on the last weekday of the season. Thursday. Amazing day otherwise. I'm gonna sound like a broken record here, but I hate those blank stares from the Ride Ops. "Yeah, this ride is a complicated thing, and it's gonna be shut down the rest of the night until some maintenance dude gets here and blesses it." No. This is not right. It's a sensor. It's a seat belt. 7:30PM, 7:20PM, I don't know. Beast is done for the season. This is the premiere ride, in the best small market roller coaster park in America. The fans will say "stuff happens." Needless to say, I'm a bit disappointed with Beast, and it mysteriously giving up its ability to work. A bit more hustle amongst the blue shirts and maint guys would go a long way. I just need to archive this complaint so those in charge know that urgency counts and your guests know it. Fire away!

>blushing< I know a Vortex/WindSeeker ride op but he doesn't talk shop much, I'd love to hear it. I also know a cop who works 3rd shift Winton Terrace (the hood) and he doesn't talk shop much. Coincidence?

Rumor had it that my friend "JD" did the voice of the organist. I find this hard to believe as he's not a voice actor but keep hearing this over and over. Oh hell, it's John Dillon, there's no need to keep some sort of anonymity is there? Can anyone vouch for this rumor?

There's a worse problem: the sign numbering. Say you enter from the south adn are driving in the center driveway towards the middle and you take a left turn (toward the marquee) before the 51 WindSeeker sign. You find a spot on the right and you're parked on the south side of aisle 51. Then you go to the park and forget which side you parked on. When you go back to find your car, do you walk down the aisle between 50/51 or between 51/52? Well, the latter of course, because this is just an example. But in real life it's easy to forget. Each of the numbered signs should be split in half, and a number should point toward each aisle, not each row of cars. 51 to the right of the sign, 52 to the left. Make sense? A little tongue in cheek here, but it would mitigate confusion. I have to remember "I parked in aisle 51 1/2 instead of I parked in row 51."

Breaking in late, I agree too and doubt many folks check the website. Or maybe they have few choices... "hmmm, Diamondback down, we'd better have the relatives drive back home." Would be touchy for me buying $200 of admission tickets. Even as a passholder I was a little ticked that I couldn't get from The Beast entrance plaque to *any* seat before the 9:45 shutdown last night and this should be easy. Officially my fault for cutting it close, arriving at 9:15 although just one queues was open! But the ops seemed a bit slow, and irritatingly chatty, with LOTS of fast pass folks jacking up the line. I wonder if the parks A-team of ride ops is working for the season yet?

Speaking of brakes and trims and stuff, how about Flight of Fear? The full stop in the middle of the ride is old news, but riding 5/22 I got the feeling it never quite reached full speed. It could be my imagination, but I swear they hit the brakes even before the first loop, just after launch. Anyone who's ridden, tell me if it seemed a bit slow to you. Reprogramming the thing for slower speeds would be a big deal. But... I'm usually in pain from being tossed around on FOF and no such thing happened. Definitely slower.

Yipes, I got to see the WindSeeker modifications firsthand and I was surprised. Shocked, even. Looking at glass half full, 98% of the ride works great (the lights, the music, restraints, it lifts, it doesn't fall over, etc) but that last 2% must be all the seats crashing. CF should have some heads on a platter for this thing.

I looked at the pic and I don't get what's going on there. Certainly there's a big piece of metal, but it's attached to a moving part. The blueish colored thing at the top is pushed against a moving surface (like a brake) and this couldn't be correct. Maybe this is some sort of storage fixture for winter? It would be interesting to see the same picture zoomed out a bit.

Link please, all I get is nothing on the regular webcam page. Figured I had Javascript turned of or something, but no. THANKS!

They used to have a cool informational section at the Syracuse, NY airport. It told all sorts of behind-the-scenes facts about airports, like how the runways are numbered, and purposes of signs and markings, etc. In addition, there was a metal detector there. My Hi-Tec boots had metal soles, and after a little bit of practice I could greatly diminish its ability to detect metal on me. This was a good strategy: 1) keep your feet low and shuffle them 2) move very slowly, 3) turn torso sideways if possible. A few times at CVG I did this and the workers asked "are you a pilot?" No. "Because that's how pilots walk through these detectors." I'd say pilots know the same tricks, just for convenience. This whole story takes place before 9/11 and I wonder if SYR still has a metal detector for practice? Maybe not. CSB.

Derailing the Nick thread a bit more: Brian Kosmac? That name sounds familiar. When The Beast tunnel lights were constantly on last May/June, I wrote on the KI feedback webpage. Some guy wrote an email back with a significant explanation of what was happening, a mea culpa (that's "dude, my bad" in latin) and promised to fix it. Rechecking that email, it was from Brian.

From what I heard, Flight of Fear is also being repainted. Here's a panoramic thumbnail picture: █████ I also heard that the anniversary of Vortex will be celebrated by installing a gold link in the lift chain. Not verified.

These were links in the online edition today. A few Skyride pictures: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/ourhistory/2012/01/23/kings-island-skyride-failure-stranded-27/ Construction slideshow: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=AB&Dato=20110810&Kategori=ENT&Lopenr=108100802&Ref=PH Sorry if this is old news. I searched!

Ya, looking back, that was a bit of a harsh criticism of the ride ops and that chafes some of the hardcore KIC fans. The thing broke and the workers walk around like zombies. It's their right to withhold information from the guests, but they seem befuddled by how the thing operates. It's sensors, motors, wires, computers and physics that makes the thing work. It's not an animal that wakes up at 7PM. When the ride is down 45 minutes and there's ten workers standing around, it's upsetting not to get a straight answer from any of them. I'm blaming this on ignorance, not malice. It's this ignorance that doesn't give me a good feeling. I ask questions because I'm genuinely curious, but also because it may be worth waiting around for a minor repair to complete.

Beast down tonight, 10/28/11 from about 7:15 to 8:00. I'm beginning to question if this ride is actually safe. I question the people operating it. /sorry to sound like such a downer //really KI, we're better than this, ya?

I thought this was a bit odd last Friday, Oct 21. We're in line for Beast, about 7:20PM. It's still a walk-on at this point and somehow there's nobody in line! It's 3-4 cycles to get in the front seat, so we go there. A ride operator gets on the PA, says "we're temporarily shutting down the ride so we can add the third train." This is 7:20. Friday. No sour grapes here, we rode and it was awesome. It seemed like a bit of an odd time to add a third train. ??? When we exited, the line was amazing.

coaster_junky, if you're spending $100 a visit, then it's clear what the marketing plan is. Everyone who buys one (including me) is thinking, OMG, those suckers, I got a pass for such a cheap price! Then, KI is saying, yeah, we let some passes go cheap to people like Jeorby, but what he doesn't spend will be made up by coaster_junky. The big question: if it's really about getting people in the door to buy merchandise, they should just give the passes away?

I see the KI commercial playing constantly in order to get people to buy the $69.99 season pass. And dat song... dat song... all we need is yuuuuuuou! But I digress. I suppose the whole catch with the cheap pass and the free parking is that you'll visit the park dozens of time over the summer, and each visit you'll spend $30 or so minimum. I'm a bit cheap, where I'll bring a Subway lunch and drinks, then eat under a tree in the parking lot. They're not recuperating any of that season pass money on me. To be worthwhile to a passholder, you need to visit KI only three times to match the price of admission. That's pretty easy to figure out. To be worthwhile to KI, a passholder needs to buy 'X' amount of merchandise and food in excess of the number of admission + merchandise. For example, a) one admission + $30 of stuff in one visit isn't as profitable as b ) pass + $90 of stuff in three visits. Or is it? This is where I get confused. I'd think KI would like to give passes to everyone as long as they visited a few times and bought stuff. But how many times does a passholder have to show up to make it profitable? 1) I wonder how much the typical passholder spends during the season, or at each visit? 2) I wonder how many passes are sold in a season? 3) If the goal is to get people to visit multiple times, maybe they should give you a pass after your third paid admission in a season? /disclosure - Oh heck, I bought a shirt or two. But I'm still cheap.

Howdy! I was looking for that checkered headband of yours and did not see it! Hope you all are having a good time as scareactors and Slaughter House was the highlight of a rather lackluster trip. I did recognize the gal in the first room and she even called me out as I walked by later. I was a bit creeped out and usually that's my role. She and I may be friends soon.

I just got back from KI after being a loyal season pass holder for three years. I'm feeling a bit negative about tonight's visit and this may upset the fanboys on this board. All I can do is tell the truth. Upon entering the gates, I went directly to Holiday Horror near Peanuts Playhouse. After standing in line about 25 minutes, I left at 7:40 since the attraction was not yet open. No explanation given. I went to Massacre Manor and the same was true here: for some reason, this attraction could not open on time! At this point I felt the haunt was quite an amateur production (fans, quench yourselves!) and someone should have worked out the kinks before opening night. Club Blood and Slaughter House were just fine. Wolf Pack was too dark to see the anthropomorphic characters but this is an old complaint. Urgent Scare was adequate, if not half the length of the previous production. Even standing in line you get the distinct feeling that everyone involved is "phoning it in" with the goal of making it to 1AM without falling asleep. As a loyal Kings Island customer, I can compare visits from year to year. Although I can expect change, I can assume that any changes will be for the better. Unfortunately, this year's Halloween Haunt did not live up to the high standards that KI usually gives. Its clear to see that there's no spark to motivate the management or actors to produce something special. It may be because I'm so familiar with the place. Tonight's trip feels a bit "corporate" instead giving visitors an emotional investment in entertainment.

In the first couple days of WindSeeker, a woman pushed her way past a bunch of people and joined her husband and kids who were immediately in front of me. I gave her THE LOOK and she felt compelled to give this weak explanation: "I just went to the bathroom." To which I said, "I just farted but I don't go around telling strangers." Surprisingly, that ended our conversation.

Hey, I didn't notice this until looking for "the link" today, but Vortex has what's called an Offset Link Chain: where Beast and bicycles and things have just your normal everyday chain: I need to research more, but the offset link looks a bit special.

They probably had the golden link stretch out a bit? I was told by two ride operators that there was no such thing as the golden link and if there were it would be greasy. Still, the quickness of their answer ("I assure you there is no 'Golden Link'") makes me wonder if they are protecting some secret. I'll have to ask again. ...and I'll give it a break after that ...but not like a chain break

At 3:00PM today there were five cars in the Preferred Parking area. I'm an engineer, not a marketer but... cha-ching, that's at least $40 in KI's pockets that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Shoot, I used that as a picture and I didn't even know the backstory from knowyourmeme. Kinda fits, doesn't it? By the way, next time I go to KI I'm looking for that GOLDEN LINK. I heard that's why it took so long to fix Vortex. There's a GOLDEN LINK in the lift chain.