Joncars05

I never noticed a difference in speed between when the brakes are applied fully in the MCBR or when it slid through in previous years. I have noticed sometimes that the ride does develop "potholes" but I thought this year it was running really smooth. I agree with IBEW_Sparky, Voyage is a ride that is supposed to feel out of control, as if the trains will fly off the tracks and into the woods. It does an absurdly good job at that very similar to Beast once you get through the trim. Voyage feels as if it will never end, because the ride time from first drop to final brakes is extremely long (Same with Beast). I absolutely love that feeling. There are very few rides that are like that. But I know others wouldn't ride Voyage more than once (or at all if they have their credit). And that is okay too. I understand why as well because the same things I love about it are the same reasons why others don't like it (length, rough, out of control).

I voted a while back on this topic (Giga) and I will definitely keep that same vote after riding Fury 325. That ride is unbelievable. If they are able to bring in B&M and create something similar if not better than Fury 325 then I will be all for it. The speed, pacing, airtime, and elements on that ride are just outstanding. Although a wooden coaster back near White Water Canyon without land clearing would be pretty awesome I would still go with a giga coaster.

Hey I will at least give it to Mr. Hart and KK for at least putting billboard and newspaper ads up in Indianapolis. At least now the general public here has an idea that KK is even open. Haha I honestly do want KK to succeed, I just wish they wouldn't make it so easy to rag on their park.

I guess I didn't copy the last part of my trip report in the original post so I will put it here. Carowinds had beautiful scenery. I really enjoyed the trees and how the park was presented. I really liked how almost every ride in the park either interacted with the walking paths or was easily seen from the walkways. Fury 325 goes over and under the entrance, Carolina Cyclone goes over a walkway, Nighthawk goes over a walkway, Afterburn goes under the south entrance pathway and over the pathways, even Intimidator goes right next to the south entrance gate. I thought that was really unique and it allows for some really neat photo ops if you a taking shots with something other than a camera phone. I really liked how the park seemed very compact. Many of the rides were very close to each other and I feel like there weren't very many long walks to get to where we needed to go. The trees and close proximity of all of the rides made the park more enjoyable even with the 108 degree heat index! Another big difference and its a big difference with Cedar Fair in general is the staff was very accommodating and helpful when needed. First the ride ops were fantastic. It didn't matter if the line was full or they were sending quarter filled trains through the line they were moving the trains out at capacity. It was fantastic. Secondly, I forget the employee's name but my wife and I must have looked a bit lost when we were trying to find Thunder Road because an employee stopped to help direct us to where we needed to go. She was very helpful and completed the conversation with have a nice day after we thanked her. It is such a small thing but little comments like that go a long way in how trips are remembered. Also the workers in the concession were great and friendly as well. The new era of employee/customer actions is really showing. Its a huge plus when heading to Cedar Fair parks and I couldn't praise the workers that we talked with enough for working hard and being polite to us. Overall we may not be able to make it to Carowinds every year but I feel like it is a park that we will go to every other year or so. We had a great experience and we would most definitely recommend the park to other people. Lastly check out my shirt that I bought from Fury 325's gift shop. The lettering in the front glows in the dark and it was a nice memento from the park.

I was surely glad I got to ride Thunder Road before they dimanteled it. I wasn't attached to it like others because I just made my first trip to Carowinds a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still surprised they are getting rid of a ride like that. It was a fun and great racing woodie. I understand why they are doing it, with the location and how often they use that parking lot, there is plenty of room for a water park expansion. But to be honest I don't know why they can't just clear the parking lot and use that for the water park expansion and just place a walking path underneath it similar to the water park pathway under Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion.

I guess I know which thread I am staying out of! haha Seriously though, I hope you get access soon so you don't have to start all over. I'm guessing you can be taken off of the blocked list and placed on the active list again! Joncars05, who felt as if he could've been blocked from this site a few times already. I am very thankful to still be a member of this forum! I'm not sure what I would do without it!

Awe man that's crazy. I knew that either Carowinds or KD had the old KI gliders. But knowing that Carowinds has them makes me even more sad because those gliders were insane! They were easy to snap and so much fun to ride in. All of the other CF gliders I have been on don't even compare. No wonder so many people we're upset when the old KI gliders left

Since my wife was pregnant last year we decided earlier this year to make good use of Cedar Fair letting us carry over our platinum passes to this year. My wife and I have never been to any other Cedar Fair park outside of Cedar Point and Kings Island, so we decided to do a Carowinds/Kings Dominion trip this year. We ended up going to Carowinds for two days (6/22-23 a Monday and Tuesday). We didn’t really know what to expect so we held off on buying Fast Lane passes until we got into the park. We got into the parking lot about 10 minutes before the park opened to season passholders. I was really worried that the crowd was going to be really big (especially with Fury 325 being added this year). But when we entered the park and headed to Fury the ERT session maybe sent out 1 full train. We ended up riding it 5 times in a row before switching rides once the park and "flood" (maybe about 10 minutes worth of riders) of people came to Fury325. Fury 325 is just as good as advertised, if not better. The ride is as close to perfect as you can get. The lift hill is fast enough to get you to the top quickly but slow enough to still allow you to freak out a little bit or take in the view. The drop was insane. The front hangs a bit before you head downhill but the back you get slung over the top. I enjoyed the drop more in the back than the front. I was literally thrown into the restraint while falling down. The first turn is high banked but you get a pop of airtime before you actually enter the turn. I was really shocked at how fast this ride is. The next couple of “s” turns that gave you a big pop of airtime. They come at the top of the hills so they give sideways airtime. It is incredible. Then into the high banked 90 degree turnaround you carry so much more speed than what is shown on the POV. The drop into the tunnel/under the bridge is fun because there is always someone there standing and waving at you so I almost always waved back. The ride then heads back towards the station but you hit a trimmed (ugh) but powerful airtime hill that gives you great floater air in the back and ejector (yes ejector!) air in the front. You roll through a massive helix that has a support beam that is a mega headchopper halfway through it. I ducked almost every time because it looks so close as if you could touch it. Then you are hit with two airtime hills that again provide ejector air in the front and very good airtime pops in the back. I think the back row is the best row on the ride. Overall I haven’t been on very many coasters (maybe 80+) but this ranks #2 for me. My wife who has been on the same amount I have ranks it as #1. The pacing is fantastic, the elements are awesome, and the ride is butter smooth. The only thing I could come close to saying was a drawback was the fact that they just cleared the land surrounding the ride. There were no trees near the ride and for as low to the ground this ride gets the trees and grass would make the ride seem like it is going even faster! The total land clearance has to be a Cedar Fair thing because almost all of their new rides have no trees around them. But that is just nitpicking this ride is fantastic and if you can get a chance to ride this thing then I would most definitely take that shot and get to Carowinds to ride Fury 325. We headed to Drop Tower next which provided a good ride. We went to Carolina Cobra next and that was an interesting boomerang coaster. We have never been on a sitdown boomerang and it was a bit rough on the backwards portion so it was a one and done. Our next ride was Nighthawk. It is very similar to Firehawk minus the station which is single loading and made the wait a little bit longer (25 minutes). It was really fun I liked how it went over water and the double corkscrew ending was unique. I think I would give it a very slight nudge over Firehawk at KI. Next we took a cycle on WindSeeker. It was a great view. The one thing that my wife and I noticed was that it seemed the Cycle for WindSeeker was way longer than the ones at KI and CP. I don’t know if that is true or not but it felt a little bit longer. Next we headed to Afterburn which I will say is probably tied for the 2nd best coaster in the park. The ride utilized the surrounding trees and hill to provide an awesome ride. The elements were very forceful but smooth enough to not be dizzying or painful. There was no headbanging whenever I rode it. The elements including a tunnel and a very good zero-g roll made this ride very good. I was very surprised how much it packed into such a small place. It was practically a walk on for us the entire time there. Next we went to Intimidator. It is a B&M Hyper that has a very long but not wide footprint. I liked the first drop and while sitting in the front you get a good pop of airtime over the turn to the right. In the back on that same turn you get some good lateral g’s and pull similar to the turnaround on The Legend roller coaster at Holiday World. The airtime was great and I really liked how the turn around was set up. After the brakes the ride slowed way down luckily it was only the helix after that and then we were done. I really liked this ride and I was surprised because the POV looked almost boring but that’s why you ride them I guess. We left the park for lunch and to take a break so we ate at Culver’s next to the park. After about 2.5 hour break we came back into the park to ride some of the smaller rides. We headed to the Carolina Skytower. It was a great view. I thought it was going to be a bit more air conditioned than it was but at least it wasn’t hot in the cabin. We left and headed to Thunder Road since it was closing down during this summer. We were able to get a ride on both state sides the first ride was without racing and the second one was with racing. It was a good ride. I went on Dodgems after our ride to perform my ritual of trying to avoid contact. I was only hit once. Next we headed to Afterburn again for a couple of laps. We then headed to ride Woodstock Gliders. Now I have been on 4 Cedar Fair gliders and this one without a doubt is the best. I have never been able to snap a glider until this one. It was super easy to do. Even my wife was snapping the ride. There were ten buckets and I will say about 6-7 of them were snapping the ride it was amazing. It almost felt as if we were going to break the ride. Without a doubt this was the best gliders I have been on. After a couple of rides there we ended up heading to Intimidator again to get a couple of rides in and we ended out night on Fury 325. Fury 325 at night is just insane. It gets pretty dark in the area plus the underground tunnel has the highlighter green color illuminating the tunnel. Fury is just out of control at night. After 5 cycles we headed to our friends place to rest up for day 2. Day 2 We started out with the ERT rides on Fury 325. After a couple of spins with Fury we headed to Hurler and rode it once. I was really expecting more airtime during the hills portion of it but it was a good coaster. My wife was happy it wasn’t rough. Next we headed to Carolina Cyclone. It is an old school arrow looper. It was an enjoyable ride. I really liked how the ride interacted with the walkway as well as the helix at the end. I enjoyed it. Next was Vortex. It is a standup coaster. I thought it was just okay. It wasn’t rough but I never really was a fan of standup coasters. Next we headed to Nighthawk for a spin. The final ride we rode before our break was Intimidator. We headed out of the park around 1230 and went back to our friends place for a longer break. We ended up not getting back into the park until 530. The reason for such a long break was because the parks temperature hit 100 degrees and it was a heat index of 108. I like how the park handled the heat. Instead of making people wait in line for water they made a tray of water cups and let people just walk up and take how many ever they needed. Once we were back in the park we hit Fury 325 with no wait, Carolina Skytower, WindSeeker, Carolina Goldrusher, Thunder Road, and dodgems. We did their Boo Blasters and it was pretty fun. Very similar to Kings Island but different enough to entertain us. We had about an hour and a half left in the park so we hit Woodstock gliders a couple more times. We were snapping so much that the announcer called out both my and my wife’s glider numbers for going so high. After that I took a couple of spins on Afterburn, we rode twice on Intimidator, and we were able to ride to close out the night with 3 night rides of Fury 325. Overall my wife and I thought that Carowinds was a better park than Kings Island. A major reason was due to the tiny crowds. I’m not sure if it was due to the heat or just that people didn’t come out but I was expecting atleast a 40 minute wait for Fury 325 on both days. But to my surprise the longest we waited was 10 minutes during the night. The crew was pumping out people so fast that the trains during the first night session were not able to proceed to the lift hill after being shuttled out of the station because the train in front of them hadn’t cleared the next block. It was amazing. The Fury crew was hands down the best crew we have seen this year. In fact all of the crews were extremely fast. It didn’t matter if there were 5 people or a full train of people riding all rides checked seats and cleared the station with great effort to maximize capacity. The longest line we had to wait was 25 minutes for Nighthawk on the first day. That was more due to everyone trying to ride it early. Because the line was less than 5 minutes later in the day. Everything was basically a walk on or a one cycle wait. Fury was a walk-on for ERT and a Walk on during the middle of the day. It was an amazing time to ride. Final Coaster Ride Count for 2 days: Fury 325- 22 Afterburn- 12 Intimidator- 9 Thunder Road- 3 Nighthawk- 2 Carolina Cyclone- 1 Carolina Cobra- 1 Carolina Goldrusher-1 Hurler- 1 Vortex- 1 Ricochet-1 Lastly here are some photos I snapped from my phone. I hope you enjoyed my TR. Sorry for it being so long I just like writing down a lot of details to save for our family memories.

Just wanting to play devils advocate here but if you look at the comment section on the article, it seems as if this happened at KI and the article was written by a local Ohio paper it would've been posted under the "media overreacting" topic on this forum. Please note that I am in no way downplaying the previous incident with The Smiler but according to the comments on this situation it seems like some people looking for a quick payday more than anything else.

^^ I can honestly say that this story doesn't surprise me at all. HW is much more about havin a great and fun experience. They don't need the slogan best day ever to know that they will do their best to provide that great experience to their customers. Much better than a certain public relations person at CP today that told me to leave the park if I didn't like the hour long registration line... Above and beyond are the words that I would describe HW and their staff.

I finally was able to ride Thunderbird during Holiwood Nights this past weekend. This ride does not disappoint! The theming of the ride is outstanding. The queue line is underneath the station. I like the fact that the lights in the queue under the station flicker and dim with the lightning and thunder when the train gets into the pre-show/launch area. Speaking of the pre show once you are rolled out of the station you enter the "launch area." The lighting, fog, and sound effects are great. The speakers are loud and the fog is good without being overbearing, thepreshow really does get you off to a thunderous start of the ride. The launch is smooth and more powerful than what the POV shows. And the Immelmann turn is fantastic. On the left side I felt weightlessness, on the right you get pulled over pretty quickly. The loop following is solid as well. I thought the turn arounds actually had some force to them at the bottom of the turns as they carried much more speed than I though they would. The zero g roll from the right side has a pretty good pop of air, from the left it has the airtime plus the roll feels like it takes forever to roll through(in a good way) and get upright again even though you carry a good amount of speed through it. The s curve before the barn on the left side is fast as you are closer to the ground but on the right side there is a good pop of airtime before getting pulled through the barn. Then the finale of going through the barn not once but twice is fantastic. The first time through you are ducking because it feels so tight when you are riding. The second one on the left side comes so fast you barely have time to react to the barn as you flow right through it upside down. On the right side during the second time through the barn you miss the barn but fly over the roof in such a slow fashion that it feels like you may land on top of the barn. My favorite seat I think the POV does a good job at describing the ride but the little things that I mentioned make the ride unique and a bit different from the POV. I think the biggest thing is that they literally saved every tree they could to make this ride happen. In this day in age of massive land clearing, building a new coaster, and having nothing to base the speed off of the ride truly unique. The tradition of ride rolling through the woods of Holiday World is indeed alive and well. With how heavily wooded the area is one would think the ride has been at Holiday World for years especially when you compare it with the newer rides being installed lately. Overall this is a fantastic ride addition to HW. It is intense enough to entertain enthusiasts and coaster fans in general public yet not so intense that a young kid would be intimidated into not riding it. It really is a family friendly addition that includes a 60 MPH launch and 4 inversions. My twin cousins that are 11 absolutely loved it. It was their first roller coaster that went upside down so it was a big deal to them that they could ride it and ride it over and over again during Holiwood Nights. I snapped a few pictures and videos from my phone:

Ah that's good to know that isn't a timed event. I felt like we were in the way when we were crossing the path to get to the parking lot. I feel like Coasterstock is a must do event for enthusiasts that enjoy Kings Island, ERT, behind the scenes talks, and good people. It was a really good event.

Ill post the positive and negatives (most are from my trip report) that I thought of the event here. Positives of Coasterstock: ERT! ERT! ERT!- The lines were extremely short most being complete walk-ons. We couldn't have asked for better crowds! Price- $25 for passholders was a great deal. I hope they keep this price point! Gift Bag- The gifts we received were awesome. The T-shirt, souvenir cup, on ride photo coupons, and lanyard were all a nice touch. The free refills on the souvenir cup were a huge plus! I was surprised they offer so much freebies. It was totally worth the $25 right away without the ERT. We enjoyed the gift bag for sure! Customer Service- The food prep crew that kept the lines supplied with food were fantastic! They were busting their tails to keep the buffet lines supplied. They were great and deserve kudos for their hard work! Also I was seriously surprised about how great all the employees (Ride ops, Food servers, cleaning staff, etc) were. Everyone was polite and either greeted us or wished us a great day (even the employees that didn’t know we were part of an event were polite). This change was a very pleasant surprise and we really hope that continues. It makes your trip so much more enjoyable when the staff is polite. The difference from two years ago is astounding. Now we get staff members asking 'How our day was,' 'Thanking us' for being there, and 'saying have a nice day/ enjoy the rest of your night.' These little conversations and greetings go a long way to help improve your trip and make it more memorable. Sunday morning Diamondback crew- These guys were hitting a dispatch that I haven’t seen on Diamondback in years… I can’t remember the last time I could watch the train go through the splashdown while we were halfway up the lift hill. It was amazing. I don’t understand how it can’t be like this every day of operation. This all happened while the park was open to the general public and not just with enthusiasts marathoning DB. It was great to see that and I hope that crew is there often. They busted their tails to never let the ride even come close to stacking. Date of the event: This was probably the best weekend to hold this event. The original rush of all of the passholders coming in during the first couple of weekends had passed. This allowed us to ride during the day on Saturday and Sunday with minimal waits. It also allowed us to not have the feeling of having to rush to be able to get everything in during the day. The relaxing pace allowed us to enjoy the event even more. We really hope that the park holds this event during the same weekend the next time they hold it. Needs improvement on Coasterstock: (Most of these are small things but everything helps to improve the event) Backstage tours: I know it might be a liability issue but the Banshee behind the scenes tour was disappointing. I figured we would be allowed on the service road and get some better shots. But I was happy they let us get a different angle no matter how short and limited it was. Also the timing of The Beast tour was not good. We were told 15-20 minutes per tour yet we did our DB tour in 15 minutes then waited for another 20-25 minutes before leaving because we didn’t want to wait any longer to start The Beast tour. I feel like the waiting part could’ve been straightened out by either staying on schedule or mentioning the length of the tour beforehand. Event badges: The badges were a bit large compared to previous events (Coastermania) so it made it hard to tuck into your t-shirt collar so it doesnt fly all around while riding your ride. Also the badges not being laminated allowed a lot of the badges to rip off of the lanyard. Looking at a lot of the people of the event it looked like this was a common occurrence. Laminating the passes would definitely prevent the badge ripping from happening as often as it did. The food: The food was about as bad as it could get. I know its Cedar Fair and most of the time food for large groups is subpar but man it was bad. The ribs were a wreck (I broke my fork and knife trying to cut them) and outside of the desserts of each meal there wasn’t much to eat at all. I think the next time you guys have this event we may just skip the meals unless some adjustments are made. I know costs come into play with this but I honestly would've taken Larosa's pizza and or the chicken shack chicken strips over what we had there. I don't know what could be done but there wasn't much appetizing food there. Just with Larosa's, Subway, Skyline, Reds Resturant, Potato Works, Hanks Burrito Shack, and the Chicken Shack in the park I expected better from the food department. Maybe next year Kings Island can provide food vouchers to allow us to choose where we eat next time. Entrance Saturday morning: I know that Kings Island wanted everyone to come in the employee entrance to not let anyone from the public sneak into the parking lot, but to have us cross the course of and ACTIVE RACE was about the silliest thing I could think of. We had to wait for a big enough gap between runners to be waived through the line. I had to wait just about 5 minutes but I could only imagine how long of a wait for the people who showed up 20 minutes after me. Especially if they made it when there was a large group of walkers crossing the street. If the two events do collide next year like they did this year I would suggest an alternate route to avoid having to wait in line while runners cross the road and avoid us interrupting the runners as well. Check in: The check in process was slow at best. There were only 3 windows opened for a group of over 500 people. From the time I turned onto Kings Island property to the time I actually entered the park for ERT 35-40 minutes had passed. I think that is way too long to check in. Souvenir cups- While getting free refills and a free souvenir cup was great. It limited you on being able to ride Banshee due to the no loose articles policy. So It was either hang on to the cup and not ride Banshee or put it in a locker (a.k.a. my car) and ride Banshee. I think for next year if there were drink wristbands that would be great. It allows you to get a drink whenever you want without having to carry the souvenir cup around the park the entire time. I understand that may be hard to pull off due to it being a two day event (bands break, wear down due to getting wet, etc) so if its not possible I am fine with the souvenir cups as long as the refills continue to be free! Again the "Needs Improvement" were small things that can be improved for next year. Neither of us had any major issue with the event and we loved that Kings Island now has its own coaster event. We had a great time being able to approach the park with a relaxed attitude and still being able to get a lot of things done. We created a lot of cool memories from this event and we cannot wait to attend the next event at Kings Island!

My wife and I headed to the park at 5:30 am Saturday to get to Coasterstock. We arrived at the park at 7:50 to a line of cars. At first I was really worried about how many people were showing up but then I realized the line was being held up by security guards clearing the line for the color run that was going on that morning. We were lucky because we were able to pass because there was a gap long enough to let us through. I honestly feel bad for people who came maybe 5 to 10 minutes later as they might have had to wait even longer for the walkers of the race to pass. After we parked we headed to the ticket booth to get our packages. We waited in line for what I thought was a long time. But we received our packages and headed back to the car. I checked my bag and of course it didn’t have the event tag so I had to go back and get a tag so I could even enter the event. After getting my lanyard and taking everything back to the car we finally entered the park at 8:30. The lines for ERT were surprisingly short. We immediately took 5 rides on Banshee. Then we ended up riding Drop Tower and Delirium for a cycle. We then went back to The Bat which again had no wait we went for 2 cycles. Firehawk and Flight of Fear were next. After that we decided to take a little bit of a break. We found out that the souvenir cups were free refills for the event so we got a refill. We went on the behind the scenes tour for Banshee but were kind of disappointed that we didn’t get to go back on any of the service roads. But we did get some cool shots of the ride and we enjoyed the tour. Since we have been going since 530 am we decided to head out of the park and eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the hotel to take a nap. We ended up coming back into the park and rode Adventure Express once and headed back to ride WindSeeker and Vortex to eat dinner at the picnic grove. Sadly the food was barely edible. I mean we sort of knew this coming in because it was Cedar Fair providing the food but we were hoping something simple like chicken tenders or something super easy to make in mass. It ended up being some really tough ribs and the only thing that I ended up eating was half of the baked chicken and some of the cake which actually was decent. After dinner we went to ride Banshee again for a couple of laps. Then we went to Dinosaur’s Alive. We were actually surprised at how well the trail was. After hearing about the animatronics and how people have lost interest in it I was worried. But the trail was really fun and informative as well. There were plenty of photo ops and the wife and I would most definitely go back when we go to the park again. Night ERT was a blast. We ended up riding Backlot Stunt Coaster for a couple of laps, Vortex for a couple of laps (One which was a zen ride for me!), then one The Beast in the dark. Lastly we finished up taking multiple laps on Diamondback. The first nights ride count was as follows: Banshee 10, The Bat 4, Vortex 3, Diamondback 3, Backlot Stunt Coaster 2, Drop Tower 1, Flight of Fear 1, Firehawk 1, WindSeeker 1, Delirium 1, The Beast 1, Adventure Express 1. The second day began with us skipping the behind the scenes train tour but heading and heading back to ride Flight of Fear and Firehawk. After that we went to Diamondback to ride for a while because we didn’t ride it much during the first day. We ended up riding Backlot Stunt Coaster and WindSeeker before heading to lunch. Once again when we got to lunch we were disappointed by the food provided. The burger was cold and the buns for both the hot dogs and burgers were stale and hard. Our hot dog buns actually split in half when we tried to open them to put the hot dog in. Again the only thing remotely good was the blue ice cream they provided. After lunch we ended up riding The Bat for a lap and Banshee for a couple of laps. The behind the scenes tour was pretty cool. We headed to Diamondback for the first portion of the tour. This was a pretty cool view as it was a great place to take videos and pictures. Then our time was done and we were to switch with the group that headed towards The Beast. We waited…. And waited… and waited… we finished the Diamondback tour at 315 and we waited for over 25 minutes and still couldn’t start the tour. The original Beast tour group didn’t come back and we could not go on the tour until they came back so we decided to leave the park and grab a late lunch and nap before the rest of the day. Once back in the park we rode Adventure Express and Delirium before the park closed for ERT. After the park closed we went to ride The Beast and rode in the front row for a lap. Then we headed to Woodstock Gliders and rode that a couple of times. The ride is actually really fun. I cannot snap a glider but I got pretty high off the ground and turned myself almost all the way around. A couple of guys on the cycles actually got a snap. I thought that was pretty cool. We soon headed to Diamondback and got a good amount of laps in before heading to Banshee for the last 25 minutes of the event. We ended up with 4 rides and we wanted to use our last Banshee on ride photo coupon but the cameras shut off before the last ride. So the camera guy in the shop ended up turning the cameras back on, talked with the ride ops, and they let us back on for one more cycle. It was really nice of them to do that because they definitely didn’t have to do that for us. After we were done we ended up seeing Don at the front gate. I thanked him for the great event and we left tired but glad we were able to attend the event. Second day ride count: Diamondback 10, Banshee 7, Flight of Fear 3, Woodstock Gliders 3, Backlot Stunt Coaster 2, Delirium 2, WindSeeker 1, Firehawk 1, The Bat 1, Adventure Express 1, The Beast 1. Positives of Coasterstock: ERT! ERT! ERT!- The lines were extremely short most being complete walk-ons. Price- $25 for passholders was a great deal. I hope they keep this price point! “Swag”- The gifts we received were awesome. The T-shirt, souvenir cup, on ride photo coupons, and lanyard were all a nice touch. The free refills on the souvenir cup were a huge plus! Customer Service- Although the food wasn’t what we were expecting the food crew that kept the lines supplied with food were fantastic! They were busting their tails to keep everything flowing. They were great! Also I was seriously surprised about how great all the employees were. Everyone was polite and either greeted us or wished us a great day (even the employees that didn’t know we were part of an event were polite). This change was a very pleasant surprise and we really hope that continues. Sunday morning Diamondback crew- These guys were hitting a dispatch that I haven’t seen on Diamondback in years… I can’t remember the last time I could watch the train go through the splashdown while halfway up the lift hill. It was amazing. I don’t understand how it can’t be like this every day of operation. This all happened while the park was open to the general public. Needs improvement on Coasterstock: (Most of these are small things but everything helps to improve the event) Backstage tours: I know it might be a liability issue but the Banshee behind the scenes tour was disappointing. I figured we would be allowed on the service road and get some better shots. But I was happy they let us get a different angle no matter how short and limited it was. Also the timing of The Beast tour was not good. We were told 15-20 minutes per tour yet we did our DB tour in 15 minutes then waited for another 20-25 minutes before leaving because we didn’t want to wait any longer to start The Beast tour. I feel like the waiting part could’ve been straightened out by either staying on schedule or mentioning the length of the tour beforehand. Event badges: The badges were a bit large compared to previous events (Coastermania) so it made it hard to tuck into your t-shirt collar. Also the badges not being laminated allowed a lot of the badges to rip off of the lanyard. Looking at a lot of the people of the event it looked like this was a common occurrence. Laminating the passes would definitely prevent the badge ripping from happening as often as it did. The food: The food was about as bad as it could get. I know its Cedar Fair and most of the time food for large groups is subpar but man it was bad. The ribs were a wreck and outside of the desserts of each meal there wasn’t much to eat at all. I think the next time you guys have this event we may just skip the meals unless some adjustments are made. Entrance Saturday morning: I know that KI wanted everyone to come in the employee entrance to not let anyone from the public sneak in. But to have us cross the course of and ACTIVE RACE was about the silliest thing I could think of. We had to wait for a big enough gap between runners to be waived through the line. I had to wait just about 5 minutes but I could only imagine how long of a wait for the people who showed up 20 minutes after me. Especially if they made it when there was a large group of walkers crossing the street. Check in: The check in process was slow at best. There were only 3 windows opened for a group of over 500 people. From the time I turned off of the road to the time I actually entered the park for ERT 35-40 minutes had passed. I think that is way too long to check in. Outside of those minor setbacks I think that the event was a blast! Both my wife and I would most definitely come back whenever KI has the event again. I consider this event a must do if you are close and like Kings Island. Enjoy some (a lot) of photos that I took at the park. (Sorry mobile users!

I'm working on a trip report that I will post in the trip reports section here tonight or tomorrow. Its way too long to be put here. It was a great event though! I would return for 2016 without a doubt.

A really awesome interview video by Jeff from CoasterBuzz about the origins of Thunderbird, how it began, and how the whole ride came to fruition. Source: CoasterBuzz

Great photos! Glad you guys had a good time!

I can't remember how old I was maybe 5 or 6 when we went to Kings Island for a trip and I was riding Beastie. It was pretty fun but I remember having a headache afterwards that got worse and worse so I decided that I would never get on another coaster again. I would literally go to parks with friends and not ride anything because I was afraid of getting headaches and not feeling well the rest of the trip. That was until I met my wife (girlfriend at the time) it was about 6 years ago. I was 22. She would go to HW every year for her birthday. She basically told me I was wuss and went on the rides and I would wait for her to get off. She said it wasn't fun without me riding and begged me to ride with her. So I summoned up the courage to hop on a ride and my first big coaster was Legend... I loved it! After we got off we rode it 2 more times then went back to Voyage to really test my courage. I was blown away with Voyage and its been my #1 coaster since then and I have been a coaster junkie ever since that day!

Sorry I took this topic off track a little bit. Ill try and get it back going here with this wonderful 4k HD video of both the left and right side of Thunderbird! Credit: Upstop Media https://youtu.be/CSgMAIXuyJw Well embeding isn't working so I'll put the link here until I can embed it.

That's the thing that I am thinking. This is the most recent article that I could find about Dan and Natalie. http://newsplusnotes.blogspot.com/2014/03/koch-family-branches-out-buys-alabamas.html?m=1 It says he still holds his 40%. I do know that ASA and HW indeed have no connection whatsoever. I know there was an Indystar article that said he would be open to selling his shares but I think they totaled $44 million and from what I have read it only cost the Kochs $7 million to purchase ASA. That amount should be easy to take out as a loan since he would have the KDC shares as collateral if he indeed still controls that 40%.

Not sure I follow did he sell his shares to start up Koch Family Parks? All of the articles I have read said he has Not commented on if he is selling his shares. So my assumptions could indeed be incorrect.

It would be foolish for Dan to sell his shares since he fought so hard to take them from Lori. Plus those shares still hold value and will only increase as HW and KDC increase in value. My assumption would be that Dan has no controlling interest in the day to day operations of HW, he was removed from the board, yet he still has 40% sharehold of KDC. Since he is now a minority holder in the company he has no final input since 60% belongs to Lori and she now makes the final decisions as she is the majority shareholder. I have yet to hear the park mention anything about shareholder or ownership.

Dan still has 40% control of Koch Development Corporation.

This is not aimed at you personally but what is wrong with people making a profit? If there is no profit there is now park. From what it looks like it Dan was the only one looking to cash in on a profit. He was the one as interim president no less that raised his salary 4 fold from just under 300k to over $1 million in just 2 years. "Dan Koch threatened to sue his sister-in-law. He was then fired as the park’s interim president and removed from the company board. Lori Koch filed a lawsuit, claiming Dan underestimated the shares’ value; the lawsuit also objected the $1 million salary raise Dan wanted to give himself as interim president." "In October 2013, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in a 3-0 decision that Lori Koch can retain her majority shares of Koch Development Co., which owns and operates Holiday World. The outcome affirms a ruling handed down by Judge Carl Heldt in Vanderburgh Circuit Court that Lori Koch did not have to sell shares formerly owned by her late husband. Last month, the Indiana Supreme Court decided it will not hear the case, effectively upholding the Court of Appeals’ decision." The case was so open and shut that they didn't even hear Dan's appeal. ^https://duboiscountyherald.com/b/koch-family-purchases-alabama-water-park Dan's greed is what got him in trouble. http://www.courierpress.com/business/indiana-supreme-court-declines-take-holiday-world "When Will died in 2010, Lori was appointed to represent his estate. Lori soon sent Dan a letter expressing a desire to keep Will's shares and Dan also sought to waive the requirements of the purchase agreement. Dan then took over as Holiday World president and CEO. However, when he sought to increase his salary, Lori objected and Dan then sought to buy her shares. That resulted in a disagreement between Lori and Dan over the share price and prompted Lori to file the lawsuit in January 2011." I seriously don't know how ANYONE can side with Dan after reading what the courts have concluded about the case. Dan according to the lawsuit tried to devalue and undermine his sister in law AND nieces and nephew what was rightfully theirs. I just don't know how anyone can back this guy when all the facts of what he has done is readily available for anyone to review. I mean he should be happy that he still has his 40 pecent sharehold in the company and that wasn't taken away from him. People try to make Lori out to be the greedy one when the courts and all the documents pertaining to this lawsuit point to Dan being the agressor and greedy party.

I understand a lot of people are still pessimistic about the future of the park. But this place was destined to be run by Will's kids. They all were in college studying something pertaining to the amusement park business. This park will not be sold and it will still have the Koch name running it for years to come. You can hear it and see it whenever you talk to Will's children. They have the drive to keep their father's dream alive.