homestar92

It seems we have re-entered an age where theming is Paramount. Will the magic of the movies meet the thrills of a lifetime this year at Kings Island? Where else?

You can still help by donating to another KICentral member! I'm not raising funds myself, but I plan to throw some money at some members' campaigns when I get paid this week.

Until people complain that Diamondback isn't included and it gets changed like in 2011... -homestar92, still angry about how short lived Vortex ERT was...

You are correct, but Mozilla only capitalizes the first "F", as seen on their site http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Only Banshee has been officially announced. I'd bet there'll be at least one more major attraction, but nothing for sure yet.

Bah. Humbug. I suppose that for Kings Island, I can deal with walking to my car and back. I guess I'll just buy an all-day locker at other parks I go to. Or perhaps I should invest in a really nasty, horrible looking case so I can just chuck it in the bins and nobody will WANT to steal it

Yeah, I know that now, I just didn't remember your name on here to match you up to your online presence.

And suddenly, I realize that I have met you at an event before. One more screenname that I can match to a face!

While we're on the subject, does anyone know of a good, affordable waist pack for a DSLR camera and at least one lens (possibly two)? I will have a fancy new DSLR to use this season and I want to take lots of pictures to share on my favorite Kings Island fansite, but I don't want to be renting lockers every time I go to Kings Island. Oh, and preferably one that will bring the risk of camera damage when riding a coaster to a minimum.

The Beast's brake run is as long as it is because the ride was built to run four trains. I don't know if it ever opened with four trains, but at very least I believe that it ran with four at some point while it was testing. While The Beast lacks an MCBR, it has its second lift which can be used to serve the same purpose.

I noticed that. I wonder if they'll ever take that off the map. Or even make the map more realistic. Hint hint. I know I'm replying to an old post, but be careful what you say. Long ago, somebody decided that a realistic map was needed and we got this: (1989 park map picture from http://www.themeparkbrochures.net/ )

It's not a wooden coaster??It is steel, with a wooden support structure.

Oh, you make a good point. I didn't even think about the fact that Canada has different holidays. I could always push the trip back a day and spend Sunday at Darien Lake, Monday traveling, and then Tuesday and Wednesday at CW.

Absolutely. A train will not be allowed to crest the lift hill unless The previous train has passed the next set of brakes.There will be space before the station for two trains. Imagine the first of these as acting as the MCBR.

I'll start out with the question that gets pounded into the ground every time anyone is going to a new park. I know, I know, it's impossible to predict crowds on any particular day, etc. But that's not what I'm asking. My question is much more simple and easier to answer. On Saturday May 17th (which is the second operating weekend) what are the odds that I would be unable to ride all of the major rides at Darien Lake due to high wait times? I'm guessing since it's early May and they aren't a huge park, it won't be a problem, but I know next to nothing about that park in general. I'm going there on a Saturday so I can go to Canada's Wonderland on Monday and Tuesday. I figure that riding everything on a weekend (without Fast Lane) would be much more difficult at CW than at Darien Lake, so that's how I scheduled my trip. If anyone has any relevant info on either Darien Lake or Canada's Wonderland, I'd love to know it. Anything from which rides are the best night rides to what places offer the best food in each park. I do plan on taking a full day to travel from Buffalo to Toronto, and in that day, I should be able to enjoy Niagra Falls, as well as do a little exploring in both cities. I just hope that I don't witness any Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. That would be horrible to watch.

Shameles plug time http://Vortex.beansisland.com/pics/KI/Banshee

You would be correct, as seen here. http://www.hollaender.com/?page=speedrail Also, Speed-Rail is a registered trademark of Hollaender, and as such should be capitalized and spelled with a hyphen. Though since you didn't know the term, this is more of a "for future reference" post. As an added easter egg, if you go to Hollaender's web page http://www.hollaender.com/ on a flash-enabled device, you may see something familiar in the site's header. Looking at the site, I really like the look of the black rails. I would love to see some of those at Kings Island. Wink wink, nudge nudge. EDIT: ^What he said. Plus, everything I said that he didn't.

I think one of these buckles would be appropriate. Picture from here: http://www.mustangdepot.com/OnLineCatalog/Interior/images/SB-BK-H.jpg Found on Google Images. I wonder how many members have been around long enough to actually get the joke...

Not all of the rides are going to need to move the lines as quickly to keep wait times down. With Banshee being the new ride for 2014, a lot of people will be waiting in line for it. Perhaps we will see bins added a few years down the road when/if the popularity decreases a bit, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Diamondback is still pretty much as popular as the day it opened.

Minimize, maybe. But eliminate, absolutely not, and that's the real concern here. I know little of the science behind Diamondback's seat design, but I have heard exactly what you said. But that having been said (cue Bill Nye voice here) consider the following: Let's say that you're riding Diamondback and your restraint completely disengages. You WILL panic. It's human nature. Others around you will panic. A sack of potatoes may be able to arrive back at the station with no restraints, but a panicking human, flailing their arms about and certainly NOT sitting calmly still, would be at a much greater risk of being ejected from their seat. I get that the idea of adding seatbelts is all about the perception of increased safety, as the systems already in place on B&M hypercoasters are some of the safest in the industry, but if the unthinkable happened, and a restraint DID fail, they might help alleviate the panic. I have to wonder how much of B&M spotless safety record comes from their design and how much of it is due to fortunate circumstances. If Ride of Steel had been a B&M, would its incident have still happened? I'm not willing to say that it wouldn't. As an added aside, being in the "undeweight" BMI range and having ridden Phantom's Revenge, there are times when the seatbelt does quite a lot to ease your mind. I know that the lap bar on that coaster is almost certainly adequate even for a rider of my size. But let me tell you, if not for that seatbelt I almost certainly would have refused to ride what is now my second favorite non-inverting steel coaster.

I missed the part of your post where you specified restraint-related issues. My bad. Nothing to see here...

Tell that to Fabio. I hear he didn't have the best of times on that ride.

That's a good idea. I mean, we're obviously facing great danger here and we Muskies gotta look out for each other.

IF that is one of the park's concerns, and IF the rumor is true, then I would assume we would see belts more akin to Steel Dragon 2000 than Nitro. Also, if the rumors are true, then Intimidator will tell the tale next weekend. I'd happily do some investigative reporting if anyone wants to buy me a plane ticket to Charlotte for this weekend. I'd go to the park and ride the ride, and I'd be happy to report back to you

If the seatbelts are similar to the cables on Nitro, I could see them being relatively non-intrusive as long as you fit on the ride. As it stands, Diamondback is one of the more "fluffy friendly" of the major rides in the park. That could be impacted. It isn't a problem for me, as I'm nearly as thin as they come, but I could see that keeping people away who could once ride the coaster. Hasn't it been established that Diamondback could technically be run safely with no restraints at all as long as the person in the seat was sitting calmly?