Joncars05

I will say from my experience on Monday with my GF that the days for Education days to go on are everyday but Friday. Our Friday May 4th education day experience was awful. But yesterday Monday May 14th. Almost every ride was a walk on until we left at 5. The Beast was a one train waits. Invertigo/Diamondback/Vortex/ Racer/AE/Flight Deck/ BLSC were all walk ons or 1 train waits. most of the flats excluding Delirium and Drop Tower had to wait until more than 2 people got in line to operate rides. We had 11 rides on the Diamondback in an hour and a half. The longest the line ever got was at the bottom of the stairs leading into the station (just after the broken cell phone box). I will say that the FOF was a walk on until around noon/1pm then it was about a 25 minute wait. Firehawk was done a lot of the day because of a restraint issue. When they got it back up the line was atleast a 40+ minute wait because they only used one train... (That confused me because both times it was down (once was at the beginning of the day when we were next to go) it was the red train that was having trouble. Yet i never saw the yellow train be used as a substitute while they worked on the red train.) I would definitely go again on a Monday if I get the chance to. I really think that most school see a Thursday or Friday trip as the day to go to KI "education day" purely because it kicks off the kids weekend. It seems like the Monday crowd was better behaved and was less crowded compared to friday by a mile. (But friday was also the first "nice" weekend day the park was open for this year so the regular crowd was pretty big too. Just my opinion.

The more and more I read these linked articles and statements here under this Kentucky KIngdom post the more and more angry/disappointed I become. Did anyone else notice that the headlines have now changed from BB WILL open May 2013 to BB COULD/MAY open May 2013...? This park will: A. Not open on time. B. Not be a success. C. Not be worth visiting if the park somehow does open in May 2013 D. Ruin the reputation of the Koch family. They are expect to draw 5,660 people a day to this park? My question is what attractions will they have. $15 million doesn't go very far with amusement parks... $10 million got HW Mammoth and sparkler this year. If they are rehabbing rides there wont be very many that are salvageable (they have been untouched for years) all you have to do is look at the person's post from a couple of months ago to see these rides wont be reopening... The Koch's botched this idea from the get go. I wonder what Will would've thought of this... The park was and will be run by juvenile delinquents (If it ever opens). They have absolutely (despite what Dan claims) zero rides (Atleast the major ones) there that can be saved (If they do they cannot open an entire park with one ferris wheel and a tilt-a-whirl and expect people to pay $30 to enter). They should have stuck with their bread and butter HW and not been greedy and try and open a park that struggles with the fair board along with a cruddy population pool to draw attendance from. KK is a waste of space it would be better off as an extra barn for the cows whenever the state fair comes through once a month. I still can't believe the Koch's believe that this place is salvageable... It deserves to rot just like its doing right now.

I continue to hear wonderful things about the Voyage and its retracking that it went under this offseason. If The Beast was smoothed out this well this past offseason, I cannot wait until Holiwood Nights to test the Voyage out and see how smooth it is running. I have heard nothing but much praise about the work that was put in this offseason on the Voyage!

When we set fire to the SOB... I'll make sure to bring the marshmallows and hot dogs. It will be like a good exercise... We will feel the burn!

Blasphemy!

I think its the Roller Coasters that seperate KI from other parks. You have 13 operating roller coasters in one park If you count racer as 2 and remove great pumpkin coaster from the list. The thing I think that seperates BGT from KI is that it is a year round park. So they have more revenue to spend on theming. Also I don't have official statistics but BGT would make plenty of more money that KI based on admission prices alone. BGT one day pass (two day if you visit within 7 days of first visit) is $72 for one person. If you go to kroger atleast in Indianapolis you can purchase a one day pass at KI for $30. IMO the year round park operations plus a more expensive park means they have a more disposable income to spend on things like theming or animals attractions. You can see it with their shows and animal exhibits and other things when walking around the park. I think what helps too is their climate. You can plant a tree or flowers there and they will bloom and look good all year long (At BGT). With KI the snow will kill most of the plants and shrubs so they have to replant and garden different plants every year. Thats just my two cents.

(The point here is that if we assume FL usage is consistent, those 309 people who passed you were offset by 309 people who used FL before you got in line but would have otherwise still been in the regular line ahead of you when you got in line.) Maybe I just don't understand because I am a more visual person and Just see the 309 people passing us while i wait in line. I don't like assumptions because a lot of times they are wrong. (not an attack on you just seems like most of the times assuming leads to trouble). I could assume that those people who bought a Fast Lane pass would not ride at all without their FL pass. I could assume that if they didn't have a FL pass they wouldn't be in the same area i was. I could assume that If they didn't have the FL pass they wouldn't want to wait 45 minutes for a ride and they would skip the line. I could assume that they only ride the Diamondback in the latter hours of the day taking that assumption of them riding earlier with a FL off the table. Heck i could assume that they wouldn't even go to the KI if Fast Lane wasn't implemented. I'm not trying to be a jerk just trying to point out you could go down multiple avenues with assumptions. Heck I could be wrong and the lines would be 10x longer if everyone had to wait in the same line. Even if my wait isn't affected at all by Fast Lane, I just don't visually like seeing 309 people pass me in line just because they decided to spend $50 more. Thats just my personal opinion. Now if i follow my own advice here I'd say if you dont like it tough luck, you dont have to go to the park. But I as an individual can't do anything about FL so I have to either fork over the $50 and join the FL crowd or sit there and take it. Ill choose the latter because I like going to KI.

@IndyGuy4KI I know what you are saying but the people that entered the Fast Lane line when I was in line wouldve been behind me. You are correct in the fact that those 309 people could have been somewhere else in the park without a Fast Lane pass. I'm just going with the fact that I entered the Diamondback line before them therefore they would've been behind me in the regular line meaning my wait time wouldve been decreased by 17 minutes for my single ride. As for the video it shows the time from station to station (as soon as the train was dispatched until the train returned to the station and stopped) So thats how I counted the cycle for all three trains. But ultimately the people would have been behind me in the line therefore not affecting my wait time. But with Fast Lane they were allowed to jump in front of me, increasing my wait time by 35%. The arguement that they wouldve been in line anyways is a valid one, only if they were in line before me. Once I start waiting in line that arguement is null and void. Because they cut in front of me in the line. Fast Lane users increase my wait time by adding extra riders in front of me. Its fine up to a point. A 35% increase in wait time on a relatively light Sunday is frustrating. I don't like Fast Lane but I would love to see them find a good balance between the perk and the others waiting in the regular line.

Here is my complaint about Fast Lane. Yes it is a good if you want to visit the park and experience the park without major lines. But here is where it goes wrong for the people who stand in the regular line. This was my encounter with Fast Lane during my wait for the Diamondback on Sunday May 6th: We entered the Diamondback line at around 3:15pm the line was in both top and bottom queues with the top portion being just over half full. Me just being off of the convo with Don Helbig http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25503-convo-with-don-Helbig-5612-fast-lane-question/ I wanted to see how many people jumped in front of me and my GF while we waited in the regular line. So the counting began and when we ended up in the station in a total of 1 hour and 6 minutes. My final count was 309 people that passed us with Fast Lane. Now lets do some math here: A FULL Diamondback train holds 32 people. so 309/32= 9.66. This means 9 and 2/3rd trains for the DB were filled with just purely Fast Lane users before my turn to ride. That is 3 full cycles of the ride. I did not get an official cycle time for all three trains to make it around BUT based off of this POV the station to station time is right around 3:40 secound. Add around 1:20 (Generously added; I think it takes longer to load a train) We get a total of 5 minutes each cycle. So while waiting in the regular line our wait was extended by right around 17 minutes (+2 minutes for the final 2/3 train). That doesnt seem like much until you put it all together. The total wait time was 66 minutes. take away the 17 minutes that means the wait time without Fast Lane would have been 49 minutes. The total wait time for a person in the regular lane with Fast Lane implemented increased a whooping 35%!!! The worst part about this was there was a group of four that rode the ride 6 times while we waited. Another group of 2 rode the ride 3 times while we waited. So ultimately my wait time for the Diamondback was increased by 35% just purely because of the fact that I chose not to buy a Fast Lane Pass Now mind you this was not on a busy day in the park. I can only imgaine what would happen if the original wait was somewhere around 1 1/2 or 2 hours... This is the problem with Fast Lane. It does increase the wait time for the regular people while allowing people with Fast Lane to ride multiple times with a minimal if not any wait at all. The bad thing about it all is the 20% rule that Don told me about is not a very effective way to monitor. That is because the 20% of the park attendance that will be allowed to purchase Fast Lane Passes WILL ride rides. While NOT EVERYONE who is in the attending crowd (which they base the 20% of Fast Lane sales off of) will ride rides. That means longer lines for the general public who ride rides without a Fast Lane Pass. Its a sticky situation to be honest.

It is a KI education day so there will be a bunch of teens and kids running around the park in matching shirts and yelling and screaming/cursing their heads off. Spitting off the rails in the queue while climbing all over them. There will also probably be a bunch of high school senior trips so you get even more obnoxious teens with dumb outfits on strolling around the park in groups of 10. I for one don't like masses of children/teens/preteens going around the park without supervision so I will never go to the park again on an education day. But the waits probably will be around average. At least thats how it was when I went last friday. Bunch of kids wait times around 20-30 minutes for beast/db and waits around 45-1 hr for FOF/Firehawk/Invertigo. Good luck if you are going.

That is exactly what I really wanted and I was so glad he gave me a pretty straight forward answer off the cuff like that. I really appreciated that he took the time to answer my question while working on such a busy day for his department. I also think that is a pretty high percentage just purely for the fact that not everyone that enters the gates will ride rides but everyone who purchases a FL pass WILL ride rides. But that is a whole separate story... I'm just glad I got an answer!

I have been hearing and see great reviews from the riders this past weekend about the Voyage at Holiday World. The word is the ride is in great condition after the work was put in during the off season this year! I'm even more excited now for HoliWood Nights!

PREFACE: I am posting this with much hesitation because of the way you guys blasted and mocked theLip2 for his truthful comments. I believe he (theLip2) is telling the truth because of how my conversation went with Don this past Sunday. So if you don't believe me that is fine, just don't be a jerk about it because what I am saying happened. So here goes nothing... My GF and I were at KI this past Sunday. We were in the shed at the end of the queue line for The Vortex when we noticed that a film crew filming riders getting on and leaving the ride. (This crew as we all know was the travel channel crew filming for a future show that should include some KI rides) After we left the ride we noticed Don Helbig was around the photo area of the ride and I had to double take to make sure it was him but it was! I hesitated for a second and then turned around because I had one pressing question to ask him. I approached him and asked if he was in fact Don and he said Yes. (Funny/embarrassing sidenote: I think i called him Don Helberg instead of Helbig... I think I was nervous and felt like an idiot, but Don was nice and didn't correct me. I thank him for that.) We shook hands I told him my name and I told him that I didn't want to bombard him with a question but I had a question about the park that I always wanted to be answered. He replied go ahead and ask it. I said, I wanted to know what was the cap, if there was one, of Fast Lane passes sold per day? How did they determine when to stop selling them for a particular day? Was it based on a percentage or was it just a set amount of passes they had available? (I know thats 3 questions but I had followups because we held a convo for about 7 minutes or so) He mentioned that the sales of Fast Lane passes are based on a percentage off of the attendance for that particular day. The percentage of Fast Lane passes sold is around 20% of that day's attendance. He then quickly mentioned the fiasco we all remember from HH without me even posing the question. He stated that they learned from those HH nights and based the "newer system" in place this year should help alleviate the problem of overcrowding at attractions. He mentioned that they did a great amount of research before implementing the program at KI. He said they went to many parks (Dollywood, Six flags Locations, Busch Gardens) to take some of the good from each program and implementing the program here at KI. He said they didn't like the ride once quick queue program and they added an unlimited ride program that we see in use today. He said there hasn't been very many people who use Fast Lane that blatantly just ride one ride over and over again. (Which I do agree with, I haven't seen many people marathon on a single ride with Fast Lane. BUT if I ever bought a Fast Lane Pass I would do nothing but marathon ride on the Diamondback. they would literally have to peel me off the ride because I passed out after riding 25 times in a hour of so ) He also mentioned that they increased the price (starting at $50) this year so that it is an add on that people can buy but not everyone will buy. He said that was due to the fact of HH and how the line for Fast Lane were so long because everyone bought one that the regular lines were affected. He also mentioned that the role of Fast Lane was to have equal enjoyment of on both the people who visit only one day and want to experience everything as well as the people who choose not to purchase the Fast Lane passes and stay in the regular lines. He then asked me a few questions like If I was having a good time at the park? Which I responded with a "of course I am!" Where I was from and who I was here with? Indianapolis and my GF. If i was here with a pass or with a regular ticket? Gold Pass holder. He was very nice a courteous especially since I asked the question while he was in the middle of working with the travel channel crew helping film the park. He took the time out to answer my question fully as well as ask me about myself and how I was doing with my park experience. Don is definitely a good gentleman to have as the KI PR man. I thanked him for his time and we shook hands again and he said enjoy the rest of your day here at the park and we hope to see you here again soon.

I noticed that the lifter was nearly to the top of the tower as well. I found that pretty odd...

This is a simple poll. I just wanted to gauge which souvenir cup you all would prefer to buy.

Rode The Beast today and I totally applaud the offseason track work done for The Beast. It was amazingly smooth (especially compared to last year). The right turn headed into the brake shed had NO Bouncing! It seems they worked on the the turn right before the second lift hill as well as the final double helix. I agree completely with DBru. The Beast tracks extremely well right now and is a must ride before the track wears down again. Kudos again to the people who worked during the offseason on the track. They did an awesome job!

I thought the restraints were tighter this year (and I'm a little guy 5'11", 160lbs) But how about the vibrations of the trains this year... They really kick in around the hammerhead and dont stop until the helix. I felt the vibrations on both the green and red trains (I didn't ride the brown one). Both rides were on the back car of the train. Last row/ and second to last row.

I am not a fan of the restraints but I think this coaster still has some good parts. 1. The helix up after the launch. (It sends blood down to my feet everytime!) 2. The banked curve. I really like it for some reason (maybe just because I lean into it idk...) 3. The tunnel is still fun especially at night. I wouldnt wait more that 25 minutes for it but I would rate the ride 8/10. Its a bit on the slower side but still packs a little bit of a punch to make me ride it atleast once everytime I visit.

Sweet! I have no idea what direction they could go with this. But I'm excited to see what they will offer. What do you all think they could/will offer with the loyalty plan?

Anyone have any information of the gold/platinum pass loyalty plan Greg mentioned a couple of months back? I have been looking for a list of incentives but cant find anything.

Here are my favorites from my limited park experience! Holiday World- The Voyage Kings Island- Diamondback Busch Gardens Tampa- Sheikra

Along with MarketingExpress, I would advise against this technique. Just purely for the fact that the ride height restrictions/guidelines are in place for a reason. That reason being SAFETY. Even if its just a 1/4" I'd rather be safe than sorry. Sure you can get the kiddos on the ride when they are an inch too short but if something freak does happen where height play a factor, it would be devastating. There is plenty of more time for rides when they reach the required height. And there is plenty of other things to do if your kiddo doesn't reach the required height for big roller coasters. Heck my GF's cousin (who we are taking to the park this year for their first time, 8yr old twins) both grew about 3 inches this winter so they reached the minimum required height for all the rides!!! Now only if we can get them on the rides... Thats a whole other story!

So far we have three total! Anyone else making it to HW for HoliWood Nights?

thanks for the link. They have so much to do in basically a year. should be interesting to see the development of the park...

Where did you hear that at? I haven't even heard that they have found funding for the park yet...