Flat Freak

Thanks to you both!

This didn't seem worthy of a new thread, so I'll ask here: What are the details of Coastermania 2013? I have searched here, pointbuzz, CP's site, google news, and haven't found much. I was sure that details came out by this time in prior years. The only info I've found for 2013 is a mention on pointbuzz's home page of the date: June 7. We are thinking of a trip northward for some Gatekeeper ERTs!

The parking lot has trash cans? You'd certainly never know it by observing all the trash laying around at the end of the night. It makes me sick. Trashy people! If you can't walk 50 feet to dispose of it, just throw it in your car and take it home.

They're going to take the top spin out of the Crypt building, bolt some wheels on the bottom, and run it on the SOB tracks. Rumor?

We were there on closing day last year. A decent day, somewhat overcast, about 45*F by closing time. The park was crowded earlier with families with young children, and some spillover into the big rides. By 6pm, most everything was almost a walk-on. By 8pm closing, we did four consecutive re-rides on Diamondback. We were there today (Sunday) for three hours open until about 130. Diamondback, Delirium, Beast, Racer, Drop Zone were all walk-on. BLSC was about a five train wait. WindSeeker was a two-cycle wait because they were only running at half capacity when we rode. The Gold Pass lot was COMPLETELY full when we left, but there were a LOT of young kids in costumes.

I heard good things about Wild Bear Falls, which is in Gatlinburg (which can be a loooooong drive from Dollywood depending on traffic) from my cousin that has stayed there. Can't answer the fireworks question. I got a good laugh out of your thread title "hotels near Dollywood." Yes, there are one or two. Hundred.

Related, for those that don't know, every Sunday in October is bring-a-friend for passholders for $21.99. Sorry that won't help the original poster, just FYI.

The right hand turn immediately before the shed is going to need some offseason attention. I rode today 5x for the first time in two months, and it really stood out. Lots of uncomfortable side-to-side motion in that turn.

Yes.

I think WindSeeker is a great development. A ride that so significantly changes the skyline of any park, especially at night, creates visual interest and off-season buzz...all for only $5 million...I would wager that Cedar Fair is verrrrrry happy with WindSeeker. It's ridiculously high, but it's family friendly. There really aren't many 300' rides that are so stable and so accessible. No, it's not the most thrilling ride ever (except for those afraid of heights!) Yes, the first four had some technical difficulties at open, but as far as I know, they've been running almost continuously ever since the initial construction kinks were worked out. The only closures have been for wind, which is of course the height of irony.

I'm trying to see what part of that is wrong My daughter and I get a kick out of this thread and similar "rumors" like Vortex sinking and the like. So joking around, we repeat a lot of them. Here's two: In line for only our third ride ever on Millennium Force, she had forgotten that the riders exit before the train returns to the loading part of the station. Thinking that maybe they had dispatched an empty train, completely deadpan, she said "Wonder why the train's empty?" I responded with "they all fell out on the loop." The two girls next to us looked at me like I was the devil. In line for WindSeeker at Kings Island: Ride op: How many? Us: Two. Ride op: seats 1 and 2 please Me: Sweet! We're in the front row! Totally humorless guy behind us: You know the seats are in a circle and there's no front seat, right? (I half expected to see that last exchange posted on here from the other perspective.)

Your experience is as peculiar as it is shocking. I would chalk it up as one bad ride as to a bad ride and certainly give it a few more tries. I'll take your word for it, and try it again. Right now, Magnum is 0/1. It was a really miserable experience for both of us. Mean Streak, on the other hand, wasn't as rough as I've been led to believe and was actually quite fun. It was still rough, but what woodie isn't. I remembered the comments from last year when part of Mean Streak caught on fire and many people said they should have just let it burn. Unless there is a consistant wait, GW has to be loaded equally on opposite sides so that it does not malfunction. They do have a prominent sign at the entrance mentioning balance/equal loading. That and common sense make the reason for the partial capacity understandable. It's just frustrating to wait in line, watching empty carriages go around, while getting only three full revolutions yourself. Whoa! No Gemini? Yeah, that's a regret. It was closed when we headed back there on Tuesday, and we never made it back.

Starlight is on Frontier Trail not in Frontier Town. Thanks for the correction! I did not know there was a difference. Correct that to say Frontier Trail is great. It really is neat walking through there at night after a closing ride on Skyhawk or Maverick.

Thanks for the kind words. Opinions are great, and I love hearing opposing opinions. Life would be boring if we all agreed on everything. Easy, but boring. Magm - how are you not getting airtime on Diamondback? Stapling yourself? Or getting stapled? Riding in the middle every time? I'm no coaster expert with lots of other rides to compare it to, but sometimes I think I'm floating half the ride on Diamondback. I do agree about the end of Millie. The rush past the station and the last overbanked turn are pretty exciting. Also, I loved Millie at night where the lack of visual interest was countered by the incredible sensation of flying blind at 35198 mph. The "theme" of Millennium Force as far as I can tell is "techno music." Not that it matters a lot, the ride doesn't need theme, it's great regardless. It's not what my inexpert eye would call a "well-themed ride." Both of you...as far as the ID/FD "debate" goes, I don't really like either much, but one of the ways I grade a ride is on the thrill/pain ratio. To me, the thrill of FD is not worth the pain (from slamming into the OTSRs over and over and over again. That pain is virtually non-existent on ID. Except for the last turn, you rarely get slammed sideways, and the second lift hill and the visual interest of soaring over the water add just enough to that ride to put it into my "would ride once per visit if the wait is short enough" category. I am aware that some people like the side-to-side motion of FD; that's why they're called "opinions." One thing we can agree on for sure...Maverick is an EXCELLENT roller coaster. IMO, it doesn't even need the 95 degree drop to be great (but that helps). One tip for those reading this that haven't ridden...close your eyes during the curve through the rock wall when riding at night. The flash from the ride photo will blind you for the last 15 seconds of the ride and ruin the ending.

As the thread title says, I haven't been to CP in at least 25 years. I remember very little of the trip then or the rides. I was in the 10-15 year old range, don't remember exactly. I just finished taking my ride warrior daughter (11) there for four consecutive days. We didn't spend all of each day in the park. We spent most of Monday (left in the afternoon for naps as we had arrived very late Sunday night), most of Tuesday (left in the afternoon to meet friends in Sandusky), afternoon and evening Wednesday (spent the early part of the day at Put-In-Bay), and until noon Thursday (went for some morning rides before heading to Chicago to continue part two of vacation). I won't bore everybody with a full trip report that will be a lot like things they've read a million times before, but I'll share some things that are different as conversation starters. Stream of consciousness: 1) If you don't know the back way from the east, learn it. It's fantastic, no traffic, little/no wait to get in the lot, fast exits at night. We went out the causeway one night intending to get food on Milan Rd., huge difference (especially on weekends I'd imagine). 2) I recommend the Rivers' Edge Inn in Huron if you are looking for a $50/night budget that is cleaner than the average $50/night room and don't mind driving 15 minutes to the park. Oh, and if you don't mind threadbare towels and threadbare continental breakfasts. 3) The food prices seemed worse at CP than KI, if that's possible. We ate very little in the park. I'd rather stop at a chain outside the park for a decent sit-down meal. 4) For a nice diversion from the park, step out onto the beach through the beach gate (next to WindSeeker) and spend a few minutes wading in the lake. It's amazing how being next to a large body of water with your toes in the sand relaxes the brain. 5) Maverick > Millennium Force. Maverick is an awesome ride. Great trains, great transitions, great landscpaing, great launch out of the tunnel. Our favorite ride at CP by a mile. 6) Diamondback > Millennium Force during the daytime. Better visual elements on the first drop, better incorporation into the landscape, better ride elements. Millie might as well be in the parking lot. The corrugated metal tunnels are terrible and cheap looking. There's very little airtime. If it wasn't for the great lift hill/lake view/first drop/insane speed, Millie has nothing to even approach Diamondback. The overbanked turns seem to be there only to tame the speed, not for the pleasure of the riders. That said, I still loved riding it, just not as much as Diamondback. MF was AWESOME at night, though. 7) CP's WindSeeker > KI's WindSeeker during the day, KI's wins at night. 8) Iron Dragon > Flight Deck. 9) Mantis makes me want King Cobra back, at least for a day. 10) Mean Streak wasn't that rough. If you prepare yourself for the rough spot between the first two banked turns (where it's especially bad), we really liked the ride. (rode in 2-1, 3-1, and 3-1) Going through the structure is visually interesting. It's too bad space and terrain restricts them from doing a more Beast-like design, but we liked this woodie quite a bit. 11) Magnum was rougher than Mean Streak and is the roughest steel coaster I've ridden (not many, admittedly). Ten seconds after exiting Magnum, we looked at each other and said "never again." Rode in 4-1 IIRC. Absolutely miserable. 12) CCMR>AE. Expressed in another topic. 13) Maxair = Delirium, but Skyhawk > both of them. Our second favorite ride at CP by a mile. I am a Flat Freak, after all. 14) I wish KI had a Ferris Wheel. I wish CP had filled theirs to capacity and given us a longer ride. 15) I wish KI had a Skyride. I barely remember the one we had there. 16) Theming on CP&LE RR blows away the theming on KI&MV RR, and it wasn't always that way. 17) Souvenir photographers at CP were positively timid compared to those at KI. 18) Using the marina gate to get into Millie or Maverick during ERT is a big win. 19) Frontiertown is great, and especially during Starlight Spectacular. Note that I've never paid attention to KI's Starlight, as we're always rushing to get home after a night ride on Beast. 20) We didn't ride Power Tower. The up didn't seem to be running when we looked (didn't ask), and the down looks lame compared to Drop Zone Tower. 21) We didn't ride Gemini; looking forward to that one for some nostalgia. 22) TTD was fun, as there was no expectation of anything but insane speed and insane height. Great theming, queue music, dragster sounds. I wouldn't wait more than 30 minutes, though, only got to ride twice.