homestar92

Everything accounted for except teeter board... If it helps, I know for certain that it is the same track as was used for the ladder scene in Skeleton Crew last year.

It's not that uncommon for amusement parks and similar facilities to be divided by a roadway. See also The Columbus Zoo. And Holiday World and Kennywood, but those have parking lots that require you to pass through a tunnel under a road. The parks themselves are not divided by a road.

I like how a list of underrated amusement parks includes Canada's Wonderland. There are a lot of words and phrases I can use to describe Canada's Wonderland. Underrated is NOT on that list.

^ I love the picture of Greezed Lightnin' almost as much as I love the fact that Kings Island has a Flight Deck section in their parking lot...

So, this is a thing, apparently...

As someone who spent the first 18 years of his life absolutely mortified of pretty much any thrill ride, I can relate to kids who don't want to ride and it really hurts me to see parents trying to make them ride. The only thing that's going to do is traumatize them and greatly reduce the chance that they will enjoy the ride later in life. Case in point, when I was younger, I went to Disney World with my family, who all decided to ride Tower of Terror. I didn't want to, but none of them were willing to sit out the ride and I didn't want to sit by myself and wait for them to ride, so I got on. Was I forced? No, not really, but I did have to choose between two undesirable options. Anyway, the point is, anyone who knows my ride preferences knows that I'll do anything except droppy rides. And I have a sneaking suspicion that that experience is a big part of that. My next attempt at a droppy ride was in 2011, when my (now ex) girlfriend strongly urged me to ride Drop Tower. I told her over and over that I didn't want to, but she insisted. And not wanting to appear a coward, I rode it. Upon seeing my reaction, she apologized profusely for making me ride that infernal machine. I don't take well to those rides. I am getting better. I can handle small ones like you'd find at Hartland or Carowinds, and I'll ride S&S Space Shots all day (but you could not pay me to get on a Turbo Drop). But the point is, I was "forced" to ride a ride I didn't want to ride when I was young, and now I can't stand anything the slightest bit similar. Maybe they're unrelated, but since I can handle Dragster with no problems, I'd be willing to bet that my reluctance with droppy rides is a direct result of that incident at Disney. Side note: You don't even have to be a kid. I'm a full-grown adult and I could very easily get out of the restraints on any Arrow Looper if I so chose. It really isn't difficult, especially on older coasters.

I've been saying since FUNtv was implemented that they should use it to market other parks in the chain... I mean, why not? The infrastructure is in place, at this point, it's free advertising to a basically captive audience...

A few other coasters at Thorpe Park and Chessington (both Merlin parks, as is Alton Towers) have been closed now, including Saw, which is another Gerstlauer. The two at Chessington are Maurer-Sohne coasters. Saw makes sense, but I find it interesting that they would specifically cherry-pick the other two coasters to close. I wonder if this means they've learned something and that they feel those particular coasters have the potential to cause a similar issue...

^ for multitudinous reasons.

^ And how much you want to pay. GOCC is a much less expensive club to join than ACE. As a general rule, expect GOCC events to be in the general vicinity of Ohio, while ACE events are more likely to be all over America and the world.

^ Which Hartland has one of. Deluge. And it's a great ride.

Wouldn't be surprised at all if CP being down a little bit is accurate, considering that they lost an entire weekend, and a typically busy one at that.

What's not wrong with Kentucky Kingdom? Well, they have one of the finest wooden coasters ever built, so at least they have that going for them.

I don't understand how this happened... The blocking system should not have allowed a train to enter the block section if there was another train in it... Is there some kind of maintenance override that may have been left enabled? Prayers to everyone involved. The reports are making this look like a pretty nasty situation.

Perhaps the reason that the promotional price is only open to residents of certain states is something of a scapegoat. Pick the states you feel most likely to get out-of-state visitors from and target them exclusively. This way, it looks to the average Joe like a marketing promotion. Whereas, if they said, anyone who doesn't live in Kentucky gets a discount, I feel that would appear considerably more fishy (and be considerably more upsetting to the people who DO live in Kentucky). Funny enough, as a season passholder from Ohio, I will be hard-pressed to visit the park often enough to match the insanely low price-per-visit of this promo (free parking might make it worthwhile, but keep in mind, that was not a factor in the purchasing decision). And even that is considering that I paid only marginally more for my KK season pass than I would have for a day ticket at the gate for Kings Island...

And here I thought metal fatigue was when I rock out too hard and have to take a nap to recuperate.

At least one foodservice employee thought that we were with upper management because he had never seen anyone else show up at the park in a suit. Just goes to show the sad state of affairs in the world today... I put on my finest clothes so that I can show proper respect for the magnificence of a good roller coaster while everyone else just throws on a T-shirt and shorts and apparently I'M the weird one... And for the foodservice employees, if I WERE there as a secret shopper and evaluate your performance, I certainly wouldn't dress so conspicuously as to make it obvious... OR WOULD I? On an unrelated note, this picture has made me realize just how infrequently the bottom of my arms are exposed to sunlight... I'm ghostly white 0_o

As for the wait times, Delirium seats 50 people per cycle. As such, the line moves quite a few people per cycle (almost a full row of switchbacks). I would estimate about 45 minutes to one hour of waiting when the queue is absolutely filled to capacity.

I was encountering issues initially with a photo pass purchased on May 30th as well. It took over a day, but they did make it onto the website a few hours ago. Cool thing about the photos is that they provide you both with the version with the themed frame around the photo as well as just the photo itself. And the result is much better than buying the printed picture and scanning it. Also of note, an all-season photo pass is ostensibly coming soon at a price point somewhere between $50 and $60 (I don't remember the exact number) but it is not available yet. And I have one of the photos here. And yes, I was very hot in my suit... In more ways than one, if I do say so myself.

I have a theory as to what's going to happen. Let it be known that I have absolutely no insider information - this is 100% a complete and total guess on my part based solely on conjecture and observations of trends. That said, I still want to post it, if for no other reason than so that I can have a timestamp and gloat about being first if it ends up being true (even though a timestamp does a fat lot of good on a forum where posts are editable - but I digress). Do not take this as scripture or use it as the springboard for a rumor (looking at you, Screamscape!) as it is a total guess like I said. And if I'm wrong, that's cool, too. My personal belief is that we're going to see a waterpark expansion for Carowinds. Now, what would be the most economical means to do this? To use rides and attractions that you already own, of course. There is one glaring elephant in the Cedar Fair portfolio - one property that is unlike any of the others. One, and only one, standalone waterpark. That would be Wildwater Kingdom (of the Geauga Lake variety, not the Dorney variety). I could see Cedar Fair finally closing this property down. It is kind of the oddball among their parks, and frankly, their list of attractions doesn't really appear to be on par even with the attached waterparks at most of their dry parks. There are three attractions at Wildwater Kingdom that appear to be movable: Thunder Falls, Liquid Lightning, and Splash Landing (a slide complex, Proslide Tornado, and childrens' play area, respectively). Any waterpark can always use an extra slide complex or childrens' play area, and as for the Proslide Tornado, Carowinds doesn't have one, and those are a popular attraction at every waterpark I've seen that has one. I see all three of these making their way to Carowinds and the last remaining vestige of what was once the largest amusement park in the world finally being closed down for good. Now, where does that leave Thunder Road? Why remove it rather than build a path under it? Well of course, there could be maintenance reasons for its removal, but even if there is no issue whatsoever with maintenance or ridership, I see one big thing that eats up a lot of land. Precious land if Carowinds wants to expand the waterpark. The straightaways don't have a huge footprint, and you could reasonably just build a path below and be done with it, just like what happened at KI with Racer. However, the turnarounds DO take up space. Quite a lot of it, in fact. Coincidentally, just about enough to throw a Proslide Tornado down precisely where they sit. By removing Thunder Road, you free up enough land that you can install a Proslide Tornado and a slide complex without taking away any parking, which is something of a precious resource in their lot - especially after losing quite a bit of it to Fury. That lot can get filled. On Good Friday, it very nearly did (I saw it in person, almost completely full before noon). If this were all true, it would bring an additional eight slides to the waterpark at Carowinds. That's a large number. Talk about "making a splash". As I said, this is a complete and total guess. But I don't think it's too far-fetched. Widwater Kingdom has received such a spectacular lack of attention in the last several years that it's almost comical. In fact, want a good chuckle? Go to their website (which is http://www.wildwaterfun.com in case you don't know) on a desktop and hover over the "What's New" header on their menu... The park is clearly an afterthought, to put it kindly. Their social media presence is nearly nonexistant. They are the only Cedar Fair property that did not receive one of the stylized skyline images that can be seen on the Cedar Fair corporate website. They are, as mentioned before, an elephant in the room. And for locals to the former Geauga Lake market, a market to which two of my closest friends belonged, the very existence of that waterpark is a painful reminder of what once was. I really think its days are numbered, and I think Carowinds is going to be the park to reap the benefits. I don't know if my theory holds any water at all. It may be exactly what's happening, or it could be that I couldn't be farther from the truth. But I've made my guess. Let's see what happens. If the park has decided to remove an ostensibly popular ride, they must have very, very good reasons. I'm sure after all is said and done, Carowinds visitors won't be disappointed. And on the bright side, Rebel Yell is more or less an identical ride, and it's only a hop, a skip, and a jump away. Also - a side note. I'd be willing to bet money that a waterpark expansion would also be paired with a rebranding of the waterpark to the Soak City brand seen at other parks. The Wildwater Kingdom trademark is also currently less than a year away from its renewal deadline. I could also see a rebranding of the Dorney Park waterpark for the 2016 season because of this. I don't know much about trademarks, but it seems that a year is a bit too close to the renewal deadline for comfort if the trademark is intended to see continued use. But again, I may be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time and God-willing, it won't be the last.

^ Absolutely full queues on both of The Runs are about an hour each (less if Lightning Run is operating two trains. I wouldn't hold my breath). And, documented for those who aren't on Facebook:

^ I'll agree, I haven't seen much representation for Canada's Wonderland at all.

Soundhound has also been unhelpful in getting a hold of the track information. However, this video from the park promoting the show features the song from the clowns on box scene: I know that there is a certain PR guy from the park who has an account on this site who might be able to tell us what these songs are, if he could be so kind as to chime in...

Surf Dog is one of my favorite flat rides at Kings Island. And my word choice in that sentence was very deliberate.

I could watch Cirque over and over... And have done so already. I didn't think they could do it, but they actually made the show even better than last year. The new scenes are fantastic and all of my favorites from last year remained. The two ladies on the trapeze DEFINITELY steal the show. Such incredible talent.