medford

just watched a POV of the ride in question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_BX3IJdy3o frankly, I have no clue why that ride even has a weight limit, or at least a weight limit of 200 lbs. Doesn't seem like someone would be in any sort of risk riding that if they weighed 300 lbs. Tunnel of Terror is a 2 person slide, though possibly (and likely) they allow singles to ride.

90 kg is a shade under 200 lbs. That seems like a pretty low max weight capacity for a ride. I do have an issue with the paper calling it "fat shaming". 200 lbs is pretty big for a 13 year old girl (my 13 year old son is roughly 5-10 and certainly not skinny, weighs roughly 160-165 lbs) but non the less; its about safety and ride manufacturer recommendations. I'm sure the parents and paper would have been fine had the park allowed 200 lb visitors to ride and one of them fell off the slide and got seriously injured (or worse).

I doubt they have ever officially said "it will never run backwards again". Perhaps something to the effect that there are no plans to run it backwards again, but it wouldn't be good PR to paint yourself into such a corner with the words "never" on such a subject. It may not have been designed to run backwards and PTC instructions may instruct them to only run it forward (though I've always felt this was a dubious claim, instructions were likely how to mount it with no mention or thought to ever reversing the seats on the train. The ride had a rather lengthy history of running one side backwards with few to no incidents that I'm aware of. I doubt it would be that hard to have an engineer or design professional form an approval letter for running it backwards again if that is all it takes. Its always been my belief that PR's claim that they turned the far side around was primarily because that is the way it was intended and originally ran to bull. I believe the main reason they turned it around was so that both ride experiences were essentially the same and on slow days or at park opening, they could keep one side running, and the other side down and not take anything away from their guests. I don't recall if ridership (at least when I was there) was significantly less on the backwards side or not, but that could potentially play a role as well if the general public just didn't like the backwards experience near as much. Personally, I always loved the backwards experience and it always gave me a reason to ride it twice on each visit.

I get where Coaster Salley is going. Its certainly not legally the parents fault, but if it was me, that would be of little solace cause I'd still blame myself. Personally, I've never really thought much about it, I always check my youngest kids seastbelts before doing my own, but that is mostly a function of just helping them get the mechanics down. My oldest (13) I never check and trust me if it was learned that he was injured or killed because he thought it would be 'cool' to sit on top of the seat belt rather than be secure I'd be besides myself. Similarly, without knowing the height requirements nor the height of the child, it is entirely possible that the kid was old enough to ride it without an adult, with perhaps an older brother or even by him/herself. My 5 year old is tall enough to ride The Beast and Mystic Timbers by himself, but I wouldn't let that happen as I'd want to keep an eye on him. However, I've let my then 9 year old ride The Racer by himself while I watched my then 1 year old in a stroller and my wife and middle daughter rode The scrambler together. Again, I'd certainly be kicking myself if something had happened to my oldest on those occasions. Blame is 100% on the ride ops, but the feeling of guilt will remain with both the ride ops and the parents for the rest of their lives.

How is the capacity on Jersery Devil? POV makes it look like they could run a 4 train operation, 3 at least, do they have that many trains? Do they ever run it that way? I assume Great Adventure gets large crowds, and if they can make it work there from a capacity standpoint, then I think something like that could work at KI. Can the Raptors do launches? Imagine what they could do with that plot of land and cutting thru the forest with a multi-launcher raptor. They could make one heck of an awesome ride. With that said, have there been any rumors of what will replace Wicked Twister up at the Pointe? If Raptor's are the rage, I could see something similar to Jersey Devil working around the rumored board walk themed area they will create around Wicked Twister's plot.

In the last 20+ years, there have been 2 Stand up rollercoaster installed in parks. One is a clone of KI's King Cobra that was relocated from Canada's Wonderland to some park in Italy. The other was relocated from Kentucky (Chang) to Six Flag's great Adventure. The odds of a completely new one (or even a relocated one) being installed at KI is very, very small. Heck, I'd say the odds of a new one being installed anywhere as very, very small, and a relocated one being only a tad less small.

Congo Falls.....best air time in the park Even on hot days when I've been this summer, on sunday's since mid week wasn't possible for much of this summer like it has been in the past for my family, Congo falls rarely had much of al line. It does tend to eat lines pretty quickly even with only 2 boats running like it seems like it usually does. My kids love it, I love it, but I do agree that its location is no longer ideal and I'll assume its somewhere near the end of its service life (though for all I know, those things could run forever with minimal maintenance, I just know its been around for a while). I'd love to see it relocate elsewhere in the park, but that seems unlikely/expensive relative to what, if any increase in customer satisfaction it would provide elsewhere. I'd love to see something similar to it takes its place elsewhere in the park to make room in that spot, along with the removal of Invertigo and perhaps Timberwolf for a B&M dive machine. I know some don't get all that excited for dive machines, and with Cedar Point getting their not all that long ago, I suspect KI would have to wait another 10 years or so, but that is an ideal location for a B&M dive machine. Station back by the lift hill for Congo Falls, hold/drop/dive facing out towards the entrance where Invertigo's lift hills, loop back towards the front of Invertigo/congo falls, loop around with some interaction with the plaza area, etc... Just not sure there is enough room there for all of that w/o eating into Timberwolf's spot (which wouldn't be much of a loss in my mind)

I think you could do a bit of theming on all the older coasters. When they re-themed The Bat, I suggested that they take the bridge to SOB station and transform that to a cave looking entrance. Made you feel like you were entering the jungle. Could possibly even try and that bridge to a semi-local attraction down at Daniel Boone state park, the Natural land bridge. The Racers could be a good spot to redo the line area and add some pieces of KI history in there. A sort of mini-hall of fame that you could switch up story boards every once in a while to keep it fresh. I don't know if they still have it, but the recreation of The Shooting Star at the entertainment junction is awesome; doing a recreation of The Racers or The Beast in that que would garner some eye balls and add to the experience. BLSC has a ton of theming already; most don't like it, and I've suggesting switching it out from a Hollywood theme to a cincy-275 theme, but theming it has. Beast is OK, if they could get the water back on near the station, otherwise the working mock up of The Racers that I suggested earlier, but done for The Beast and its history would work great in that back que. Diamondback, I have no great answers for, but the ride just kind of exists. Great ride, but they could add some sort of "story" similar to what Cedar Pointe has done with some of their coasters, perhaps play on that theming a bit to be the "down south" cousins, etc...

The better plan would be to have it open in a limited capacity and sell the crap out of it as a conference center where businesses could hold meetings and their employees families could use the park during the day while the employee's sat thru morning meetings. then everyone joins up for lunch and goes about their way to enjoy the park in the afternoon. Seems like there would be/should be a market for that during the week. Then let the restaurant serve as a reservation only restaurant during the evenings and on weekends. Could even clear it out for a reservation only "dessert and fireworks" special starting around 9:30. How many families would want to take advantage of a nice ice cream sunday, cakes, pies, fudge, etc.... right before the start of fireworks. Seems like that could be a money maker on a daily basis.

This came up as a rec on my phone yesterday: Like the content creator, I don't really want this to happen, but have to admit it would be fantastic.

Oh my, so much for my hope that the victim was transported just to be closer to home. That doesn't sound good at all. I'm sure this is being examined to determine if its a manufacturing defect or a maintenance issue (or perhaps both). Seeing how the que line is in the middle of the ride and near the break area, I wonder if this incident will lead to future que lines being less interactive with the ride itself to avoid any potential future incidents

Stunt coaster is a great family ride, and the type of coaster that KI needs more of. I've mentioned several times that KI needs a nice intermediate coaster, something like fire chaser express that could accomadate the 44" height crowd and still appeal to the 48" and up crowd and especially the 30+ crowd that is taking their 44" height children to the park. While stunt coaster is a 48" requirement, it fits a lot of the same gaps that fire chase express does. fire chaser express is an awesome ride by the way. BUT (there is always a but), I agree that it is an eyesore. Personally, I'd change the name to Cincy Stunt coaster, then theme the billboards and attractions to cincy are places and themes. Perhaps one for mason, something in Northern Kentucky and Indiana, one of the billboards for LaRosa's or skyline, etc.... Perhaps not worth the costs, but make it more unique to the area, perhaps exchange out some of the cargo containers for replicas of area attractions.

While the incident sounds terrible, and I pray for a full recovery, I will hold out hope that the victim was transported to be closer to their home, not because the injury was so serious that a level 3 trauma center couldn't handle it.

I skimmed thru most of this, and I've mentioned this before, but I'd love to see the park (and Cedar Pointe as well) hook up with Schmidt's out of columbus. Multiple type of sausages or side to choose from, plus one of their cream puffs to polish it off. If only there were a German themed restaurant building to place them in..... Between Skyline, LaRossa's Greaters and Tom and Chee's....they have a nice mix of "local" and traditional fare to choose from.

agreen browntggrr. We've been talking about a boo blaster reboot for at least as long as I've been here, and probably well before then Ironically, just looked at my registered date, and it was 2011, so happy 10 years to me, but perhaps we haven't been talking about a reboot of boo hill for that long. Then again, people were probably talking about a reboot back to phantom theater when boo Blasters go rethemed back in 2010. anyhoo, its time. I'm happy with the concept, just needs improved functionability and theming.

Finish retracking and repaint The Racer, ideally with the original scheme, but just repainting it white would be satisfactory. Redo boo blasters (I'm actually fine with the attraction concept, just needs revamped, refreshed and consistently working guns). I know many want a return to phantom theater, which would be great, but I have trouble envisioning that going thru. I'd actually prefer a boat ride like they had years ago, but don't see that as possible either. Kids love boo blasters, so here's my idea: most important, all the guns need to work and work well. Revamp all the rooms to a different background. Pay some homage to phantom theater and even previous incarnations like the smurf boat ride (if possible w/o infringing on trademark licenses) at various points. Load up on easter eggs that pay homage to the parks history, present and perhaps even future. Make several items in each room easily interchangeable so that each day the ride is slightly different than the last. Even better if it could be done automatically while the ride is operating, but that would seem troublesome with each room constantly in vision of one or more cars.

I haven't been to near as many parks as a lot of people on here, but on my 1 visit to ValleyFair, I wondered why that park received so little love. We did not originally plan to attend, but on a trip up that way to visit my wife's family, we found out that my wife's cousin was going to be there at the same time we were swinging thru Minneapolis, so we altered plans and met him and his kids there. Obviously, the attendance numbers must be lower otherwise it would receive more love from CF. Minneapolis is a huge city in its back yard, but i suspect the Dells pull a lot of the would be Wisconsin population away from an annual visit or two. Lots of Iowa and South Dakota plates in the parking lot but neither are huge population centers. Anyhoo, Mystic Timbers is my favorite ride at KI, I like Renegade a tad bit more than Mystic (though perhaps some of that is because it was my first CGI and I had 0 idea of what to expect; it blew my son and I away). wild thing has a great first drop, fantastic air time hill on the 2nd hill, and solid set of bunny hills at the end, unfortunately the middle section takes away a lot from the ride. Maybe give some TLC to High Roller, add in a decent invert and a modern looping coaster (I think their version of corkscrew is the only looper out there and well we all know how those bang you around) and you would have a very solid set of coasters. throw in some decent flats (not a bad set of flats last time I went, though flats are not my thing as I can't do a bunch of spinning things) and you'd be cooking. Don't know if the area would support that kind of investment or not.

Random thoughts.... Peanut characters used to (perhaps still do) roam around the tower for their show on that small stage by the fountains. A peanut parade to "open" up the park could be a good idea, help lead the kids back into Planet Snoopy. The animal farm......it stinks, literally. I don't know how popular that is, but that is a big area devoted to animals that do what animals do (and often cleaner than their human counterparts) but causes an unpleasant order. My plan... Reboot Boo Blasters... Concept is good for kids, but need fresh targets and guns that consistently work. Take the other half of the building, or at least part of it to leave some room for storage and turn it into an indoor playground, foam ball shooter area. ValleyFair has one and it was a great place to cool off while kids could run around and have fun. Remove Whirly Birds. I'm thankfully it was never a huge draw for my kids. Ride was hot, the pedals never seemed to do anything, lines were long and slow. I'd take this area and create your indoor dining area here. Probably need to relocate the Snoopy Boutique as well. There seems to be a bit of a dead area next to the Linus Launcher, plus in that area you are close to rivertown and rides that get you wet. Remove the snack shack in that area to again open up that path, then in the dead area (behind the fence with the peanuts pictures) I'd do some sort of aqua feature/maze/splash area thing that the kids could run around in and cool down. Finally, I'd remove the snoopy junction train ride, plus the Peanuts off road rally and the petting zoo, old stage and add a couple of small rides to compliment the beetle bugs (wooden ship, or hot air ballon type rides like Cedar Pointe has plus a new family coaster aimed at the 42" or 44" crowd. Ideally, a fire chaser express clone, but something that helps bridge the gap between Woodstock express and Adventure Express that only FAAC seems to fill. With the sit down dining expeirence, that would leave room to relocate a few of the snack shacks they have scattered around, some of which are rarely open to open up more space perhaps even add a new building that could help faciliate Picnic Groove's need (or enhance what they do back there, I've never been)

I hope they never change the essence of the front entrance to the park. Updates, for sure, new restaurant/ticket counters/customer service/entry ques....absolutely. Essence - leave it like it is. What is this Essence that I'm talking about? Its about the slow gradual incline from the parking lot up to the front entry plaza. I could do w/o the security aspect cluttering things up, but its the reality we have to live with, and as such, I actually think they have placed the security clearances fairly well. Anhoo, back to the point.... the slow walk up the inclined entry, sure you see the tower, you see some rides, you hear some going, but you don't really get a feel for the park. You proceed to the ticket counter if needed, or straight for the pass/ticket scanners. Now the ground is relatively flat, its relatively quit and its absolutely shady. You can hear the excitement in the air, but if you've never been you don't get a sense for what is about to hit you. As you proceed into the park, you get the 180 flip from shaded cover to full sun. You get the full view of the tower, the sounds of the fountains, the smell of the baked goods, food and sweets. It all combines in a flash to hit you like a ton of bricks and lets you know that you've arrived somewhere special. Above all else, the essence of the front entry they nailed. I have never been to an amusement park that nails it quite like Kings Island has nailed their front entrance. Disneyworld is pretty solid with the castle in view, but you don't get the rush of fountains that makes KI's better. I haven't been to as many amusement parks as others, but in my mind, they couldn't have done it any better. Sure the building/restaurant could use a face lift/update as mentioned earlier, but the feel, the smells, the sounds as you step into the open area is as good a feeling as you can find.

After reading some of the recent comments here, are Sundays the new Wednesdays at KI? Went after church yesterday, expecting it to be fairly crowded but hoping the early morning rain (that happened before most woke up) might lessen things a bit. Got to the park around 10:30 and lines at the parking lot were light, got a spot up fairly close. Got into the park shortly before 11:00, got my youngest son measured (oh so close to 48") while the wife and oldest son went to ride Orion. Shortly after getting him measured (or perhaps while he was getting his band) they had rope drop so we walked back to Planet Snoopy. 0 wait for FAAC, my son and daughter got front row, I got second and I think there were 2-4 other people on the train. Jumped over to woodstock express and again a station wait. By the time we were done, my 2 youngest wanted to ride it again, so I had them get in line and I was texting with my wife who was off of Orion and headed back our way. Line at Woodstock Express had grown to a 3-4 train wait as parents and their kids started getting there, nothing terrible but my wife was at WE before my kids even got on again. Daughter wanted to ride Mystic Timbers for the first time (she's finally braving up a bit) so we headed there while my wife and youngest son did the peanut 500. Mystic at 0 line, got front row seats with my daughter on her first ride. As we got off, my wife meet us there and rode with her for her second ride and again it was station wait. Two youngest wanted to do WWC, so I took them there kinda expecting some sort of line with the hot humid weather, nope, they were sending out empty boats. Wife and oldest son rode The Beast with maybe a 5-10 min wait. Next was Stunt coaster, with about a 10 min wait, lunch, then Racers with a station wait (twice). Banshee was maybe 5 minutes. Congo falls was a station wait, Viking Fury the same. Back to Planet Snoopy and the Pumpkin coaster was a 10 min wait, Beastie was down to a 5 min wait, maybe less and nobody was in line for boo blasters (seemed darker in there, and odd that they had no line separator, not that you really needed one). Super fun day, got in way more rides than I ever would anticipate. Think my daughter is ready to do The Bat next time, and The Beast. She's growing confidence on coasters that she didn't have even a few months ago. Racers were waaaaaayyyyyyy to big in May, now they look tiny I think she realizes that once her younger brother hits 48" he's gonna want to ride everything that opens up to him. Oh, one other thought, when we were at CP a couple of weeks ago, I took notice, and appreciation for the old ride height signs that Melt had in on display. Would love to see those come back as they add a bit of theming for each ride that is unique from the last, plus a good photo opp. Approx wait times would be nice as well, not that you needed them yesterday but noticed those aren't even shown on the rides we were on.

I've never been there, but found this extended clip to gt a sense for the park. One thing I noticed, was there didn't appear to be an abundance of life gaurds stationed. Maybe saw one in the whole video. Certainly its possible there were plenty there off camera, but just seems like there is a lack of life gaurd stations to even stage them and keep an eye on everything. Having just been to Cedar Pointe's water park, there are life gaurds everywhere that people can get in the water. Lazy river? One is never out of site and often there are 2 or more in site (and clearly they are trainied to have their eyes constantly scanning the river). Same story in the wave pool, seemed like there were always 12 or more on duty, didn't count by they had many stationed on each side of the wave pool. Multiple guards at the top of each ride, multiple guards at the bottom. Are life jackets mandatory? Seems like from a liability standpoint, they should be at that park. Don't know how deep the water is, but gotta figure its at least 10 feet deep in several areas where they are jumping off of large "cliffs". Tragic to here that anyone died, I wonder what lead up to the incident. Was she a good swimmer? Hit her head on something where she feel too far down due to not having a life jacket on. Get caught under a float? How many life guards were stationed? Lots of questions to be asked.

I was at CP last week. though a vast majority of the general public has no idea who makes what coaster...for those that do would have seen Gate Keeper testing on Tuesday (but no guest ever were on that I saw) and listed as down on Thursday (not sure about Wednesday we were in the water park.) Meanwhile, Dragster was down both tuesday and wednesday (obviously visible from the water park) and testing about noonish on tuesday then giving rides 30 min or so later. At the other end of the park, on both Tuesday and thursday (and from what I observed on Wednesday while walking from our cabin to the waterpark) Steel Vengance was late to open. 3 rides, 3 different manufacturers, none running full steam all day, every day. Maverick was a ton of fun...something like that in Vortex's space would be well received. Not sure about the maintenance on that vs other intamen's but a fun ride none the less. Seemed to be running (sans rain delays) all day both Tuesday and Thursday (and presumably Wednesday). Back to my 1st point however, the general public isn't going to care who makes the ride, so long as its fun and reliable. A mack multi launch would be equally well received, and given CF's history with Intamen, a more likely addition. I'm guessing if one were built at KI, you'd overhear more than once someone in line telling someone else "yeah, this is just like Maverick up at Cedar Point"

Thanks for the feedback. For a place that likes to themselves America's Roller Coast, you would think they'd be active in getting some of their bigger attractions open and ready at the public entry time. Anyhoo, still a ton of fun.

Some questions about Cedar Point, Took the kids there this past week, it had been roughly 15 years since I last visited that park. Kids loved it, many great experiences, but there were a few that left me scratching my head a bit. First day, there were some early morning rain and storms in the area that had a bunch of rids down (never rained too hard in the park so we just sat under some table umbrellas and waited it out. We were just outside of MF, right next to the lift hills for Iron Dragon and Ragouru (or however that is spelled). Ragouru started running so my wife and son jumped on. Fairly quick turnaround once things got going, however, right next to it, Iron Dragon was sitting on the lift hill not cycling or testing or anything. Didn't think too much about it, but eventually came back. My daughter, who is shall we say roller coaster hesitant, decided that she would brave Iron Dragon. Line was 45 min, but to get her on a new ride and help her overcome that fear, that was a small price to pay. However, they were only cycling 1 train while the 2nd just stood on the side. Could have trimmed that 45 min wait to 30 or less by running the 2nd train. Why only run 1? Wait times were fairly short 2 days later, I assume they were running both, but not sure if running 1 is standard. Later, while finishing up lunch, we saw that the app said Steel Vengance was a 30 min wait. Great, my son and I headed over there. When we got there, the wait indicator in the front said it was a 60 min wait, in actuality, it took about 90 min. Meanwhile, the app updated while in line and eventually came up to a 2 hour wait as we were still in the early stages. Seems like a pretty wide gap, enough not to feel like I could trust the app, is that normal? SV was well worth the 90 min wait however, what an awesome ride. 2nd day, we went to the water park. Kids all enjoyed it, were wiped out by the end, but thought it was interesting that they closed the water park at 6:00. Is it always that early, or is that a Covid/staffing thing? 3rd day, my wife and son headed over to wait in line for SV right at the open; we got into the park right around 9:30 and figured waiting in line for it to open would have been the easiest route to ensure my wife got to experience it. I had the 2 younger kids over by Camp Snoopy and while they were riding the Monster, I noticed at 10:15 or so, a train was still parked on the lift hill for SV. They eventually started cycyling, but were still running empty trains around 10:30 or so, and eventually had a regular flow of packed trains around 10:45. Gemini never cycled any trains until 10:30, then stayed closed until around 11:30. Looking at the app, there were several other coasters that were also listed as "closed" until after 10:30. Gate keeper tested some on Tuesday (lift chain issues I think I read somewhere), but I never did see it carry any passengers. Dragster was dead tuesday and wednesday, eventually started testing on Thursday, then started running full trains around 1200 on thursday. I realize Gate keeper had/has issues with his chain, and dragster is often down, but so many other rides were starting significantly later than 10:00, plus I'm not sure Maverick, which was supposed to be on ERT was open prior to 10:00 either. Is that Covid-staffing issues, or is that normal? For a place that likes to pride itself as the Roller Coaster capital of the world, seems like they need more ride open and running as the park fully opens up to guests. On the plus side, since my youngest is tall enough to ride pipe scream, we did that on thursday morning, walked over to get in line around 9:55 knowing it wasn't supposed to open for a few more minutes, but the kid working the gate opened things up and started early. 2 youngest enjoyed the frontier trail adventure thing they did on the island, theming and acting were great, but overall it seems like the setup could have been much better; it feels like a forgotten area of the park that has a lot more potential with a little more thought behind the setup. And to the question above, they did let someone wait an extra cycle to get front row seats on Maverick so I assume they would do that elsewhere if you ask and are willing to wait.

dollywood? While it doesn't have the high end super thrills that CP or KI does, it has an awesome collection of coasters for a young family with kids in the 2-18 range. Also, when you average things out, how do the kiddie coasters affect things? KI has 3 family coasters while CP has 2 and Holiday World has 1? I love FAAC and The Beastie, I assume neither made the top 500 because they are what they are, designed for smaller riders 3