homestar92

If Terp is trying to be Beta, these upgraded forums must be a Brave New World.

It's times like this that make me glad I live in, and pay my state taxes to, Ohio...

Also, hate to double-post, but their new website is a hot mess. On a desktop it's clunky and its UI seems to be layered incorrectly, and on a mobile phone (or at least, my Android phone running Chrome) it isn't even functional, as I can't scroll past the part of the page advertising the new attractions. It makes me like Cedar Fair's mobile websites, and that's saying something. You've got roughly 50% of users on desktop platforms and 50% on mobile, and you've managed to make a poor experience for all of them. And seriously, guys? Animated GIFs? Is this 1997? The software developer in me is scratching his head and the QA tester in me is weeping...

I can't quite tell, but looking at their map, it appears that one of the new attractions will be reusing Superman's old pad. Presumably Flutterfly, as the others are all clearly accounted for. For their sake, I REALLY hope the ride's structure doesn't appear too... tower-like...

I wouldn't be surprised to see black trains. Black is a pretty safe color when you're trying to make things look nice together. Very few colors don't look good with black. Of course, they could stick with pink, since they're going back to the original colors.

I will be on snapping duty on another set of Scooters a bit south of here on Saturday. I can Hartly believe all of these parks are opening up for the season again! And to Terp, I will be sure to report on here my findings regarding how many subjects I estimate to be present in the Kingdom.

How sad That was far and away the best Scrambler in the area. The Scramblers at Stricker's Grove and KI really don't have anything on that one.

From Kentucky Kingdom's Facebook: ( https://www.facebook.com/kentuckykingdom/posts/966216956745810 ) Ow... My eyes... To quote a good friend of mine after seeing this, "It looks like a bad Photoshop job... But it isn't..." On the other hand, they are now (sort of) pushing T3 on their social media. Maybe it will be ready for opening day after all. Currently, I plan to go, so I will be sure to report. Unfortunately, you can't really see inside the station or transfer track to know if there is a train there. Supposedly, the park was open Saturday for a private event. I will be scouring the internet to see if I can find any word about said event to figure out which, if any, of the 7 (8 if you count the 5D Theater's new movie) "new" rides were running.

Re: the new Flyers and snappability, from someone who can snap the Carowinds and KD flyers with ease, and has snapped Larsons before. Ours are a maybe. I feel like if the cycle were 3 or 4 laps longer, it would be very doable. As it is, on my first cycle, I got very, very close, but couldn't quite get it to snap. I think they, like most other Larsons I've ridden, are snappable iff conditions are right and the rider knows the technique. Also, the control panel is not the same as the one at Hartland, so without looking closely, I cannot say if a high and low speed setting exists and which is in use if it does. The rudders are also very resistant to being moved compared to any other set I've ridden, which makes it harder. I assume that this will improve as they get broken in.

Well, tonight is also not part of the 2014 season, so I'd reckon that you can't use last year's cups. I'd assume that if any souvenir cups are being honored, it will be the 2015 ones. But considering that you get free refills on the day of purchase, I wouldn't buy one tonight and would instead get one during a full operating day.

The ride looks so different now... Is that really our old Troika? It makes me wonder, Huss ride is it anyway? All joking aside, I'm glad to have the ride back. It's one of my favorite small flats and it really was missed last year (by me at least). It's a top priority for me tomorrow, along with Vortex and our new scooters. As long as I get in a ride on each of those three, I'm happy.

I mean, it's supposedly coming to 27 states, and while you do not live in any United State, you do live NEAR two of them, so maybe...

When I hear "Immersive Dark Ride" I immediately think along the lines of Curse of DarKastle and not the Triotech creations, but they are quite a bit better than the Boo Blasters, so there is that.

Another thing with coasters, and The Bat is no exception, is that with just the right flow of people, a ride can theoretically hit its capacity and literally not ever have a line.

Which, thanks to smartwatches, can now be done FROM a ride that is broken down or otherwise stopped without the rider actually breaking any park rules (I'm assuming that parks aren't so Draconian as to consider a watch to be a loose article). - homestar92, waiting with bated breath for Twitter support on the Moto 360 so he can live-tweet commentary while on his favorite roller coasters.

True, Big Bad Wolf was removed. But Iron Dragon and Vortex at Canada's Wonderland haven't been, and those, unlike Big Bad Wolf, are in the same chain as The Bat. And they are also both older than The Bat. GASM was removed, But Corkscrew (of the CP, Valleyfair, and Michigan's Adventure varieties), Carolina Cyclone, Demon, and Dragon Fire are all the same make and model as Vortex, in the same chain as it is, and older than it is and are still around. Heck, even Nessie, in the same park that removed Big Bad Wolf, is older than Vortex and is still around. If age were the ONLY factor, I think these would point to Vortex and Bat sticking around for a while. Bat has a little more going for it though. The land it sits on is not flat, is out of the way, and anything built back there would almost have to be custom-designed for that terrain (or lots of expensive landscaping would have to occur). Vortex has the disadvantage of being on a large, relatively flat (by comparison to The Bat anyway) plot of land in a prime location (right next to the midway). In my completely non-expert opinion, I think The Bat outlives Vortex. But I tend to doubt that the removal of either is in the park's plans for the immediate future.

Carowinds is indeed honoring their mistake and allowing Chickie's and Pete's on the dining plan. The Philly Cheesesteak was delicious and I highly recommend it.

Speaking of preview night, I'm curious as to whether there will be fireworks. It IS a 10 PM closing, after all.

I don't want to be that guy, but since proper use of trademarks is part of the TOS and all, I feel I should share this screenshot from the LEGO (which is always written in all-caps, BTW) website a few years back that would appear if you tried to access it by typing in legos.com. The same disclaimer also once appeared in the back of every LEGO catalog. (image found on a StackExchange discussion at http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/556/can-anyone-find-a-photo-of-the-lego-bricks-not-legos-insert )

Unless ours are the most spectacular Larsons ever built, I'd actually still say that yes, I would like our old Eagles back, please.

It goes from being at rest to being in motion, so depending upon one's definition of a "launch"... Not that Surf Dog is relevant to the question of whether coasters launch, what with its not being a coaster and all.

When my High School had a Kings Island day, there were groups who had to do the packets together, but once those were done, we were free to go our own ways until we had to meet back together to catch the bus. The de facto "everyone has to agree" rule when going to amusement parks with groups is why I usually go alone. Because I don't want to ride Diamondback over and over, and they probably don't want to ride Vortex over and over.

^By CW, I meant Canada's Wonderland. Though I realize now that there's probably a more proper abbreviation, because CW makes perfect sense for both Canada's Wonderland and Carowinds.

I could be wrong, but I could swear I heard an interview with a CF higher-up a few years back (when CW's fountains last got updated) in which he referred to KI, KD, and CW as the "Kings" parks. It's entirely possible that my memory is faulty.At any rate, those three are the ones to which I was referring.

And I still can't get over the location... Will it even be accessible when the water park is closed?