Kenban

For anyone not familiar with Knott's Berry Farm, this ride is located next to the former location of a Huss Top Spin called Riptide which was removed last year. On the other side of the boomerang is an observation tower called Sky Cabin which I would not be surprised to see removed after the problems back in December. I would expect a new ride announcement later this year for 2018. Would not be surprised to see a B&M Dive coaster because they are pretty compact.

Looking at the map on Warren Counties website I noticed something strange I had never noticed before. Why did Warren County Annex a 200 ft by 200 ft piece of land in 1997? It is located a little ways behind where Firehawk is now located. If you look at the account page for Kings Island which was linked earlier you will see two pieces of land which are cut out of the property. The one by the parking lot is an old cemetery. But I have no clue what the other one is. http://www.co.warren.oh.us/property_search/summary.aspx?account_nbr=1202235

I went through the list and all I saw which stands out these companies Exhibit 3 Fabrications LLC - Sign work, did the sign for Banshee Kingdom Production Inc - Exhibits and Displays, from the companies website it appears to do a lot of work for the zoo. Schmidt Progressive - Custom Fiberglass work I think this is a dead end. If I am correct only the company doing the install work would be listed. A company doing design and fabrication would not need to be listed unless they have employees in the park.

The best discounts I have ever seen on Six Flags admission was with an ACE membership but I have not seen a 2017 discount yet. Last year they had a set of two coupons the first was for completely free admission, the second was for 50% off. Annual passes to Six Flags are often very cheap so if you can get to two or three different parks in one year it is still frequently cheaper to just buy an annual pass. SFMM is tough to do in one day without a flash pass. The biggest problem with Magic Mountain is that the entire park has terrible capacity. If the park is busy, which I would expect on a Sunday in June then you will be looking at long waits for just about everything. Plus the park is pretty much only coasters, there are almost no flat rides and few shows. Every time I go to the park I find myself wishing I would have just gone to Knotts but once I start riding the coasters, I typically am happy I made the time. Last spring when I went to SFMM it took two hours to get through security, purchase a ticket, and get through the gate. Then I found out the lines to the rides were shorter than the line to get into the park. Do not underestimate the size of Magic Mountain, the pathways can be very steep and it is a long distance between rides. Do not think you will be going back and forth across the park. Knott's is completely different, the rides are themed, the lines actually move, and there are good shows. I would try to do everything in the park if possible. Because the shows really are worth watching at least once, the train is well themed and worth your time, the log flume is amazing, and do not miss the mine ride. The park is compact and mostly easy to get around. Plus typically the lines at Knott's are shorter than at SFMM. My advice would be to spend a full day at Knott's then decide what you want to do with the half day. Magic Mountain has a few good coasters and a lot of junk, but more likely than not you will find yourself disappointed.

Because nothing has been officially announced there are people who continue to argue it can open this year. But realistically it is for 2018.

Last year on Saturday I took the last Beast tour, and had an early lunch. This gave me a large enough gap to hop in my car and drive to my hotel and get an hour or two of sleep in a bed. The bad part is you loose your parking spot, but I feel like it was worth it and might try it again this year.

It has never sold out in the past. But this is the first year where there is a new coaster.

If you look at either the Diamondback or Mystic Timbers webcams they are pouring concrete right now.

Pretty sure lunch with the Peanuts Gang is in Festhaus. The schedule lines up perfectly with back to the 90's.

ACE sent out a newsletter this morning with the registration details for media day. The event will be 5 AM to 11 AM on the 13th. Speculation for a while now has been no coaster clubs would be invited so this is a pleasant surprise.

I received the bottle which includes refills for only the day of purchase. You can use it the rest of the year but refills are a dollar each.

My guess for 2018 is one or more flat rides. We have seen new coasters, new water slides, and the one thing we seem to not be receiving is new flat rides. The general manager of the park hinted at new rides in both 2017 and 2018, last year I believe it was during the opening for Tropical Plunge. Since I doubt we will see back to back coasters that likely means flat rides.

Knott's has a Vekoma Boomerang and I have seen multiple rumors about its removal. So I could see it moving to another park maybe Michigan's Adventure. It was originally installed in 1990, it might not be new enough to justify moving.

Part of the problem with shuttle coasters is that the ride vehicle never gets to the top of the track. Escape from Krypton is very guilty of this. The track is 415 ft tall but I would be surprised if the vehicle is passing 350 ft most days. More than anything I think it goes back to the original definitions. Originally it defined a type of coaster and was not a rigid height description it has become. So for instance a hyper coaster was not a 200ft tall coaster it was a coaster which was tall, fast, and had a lot of airtime. Even though Valravn is 223 ft tall should it be considered a hyper coaster at all?

Last year I do not remember any rides being closed. The food stands were short staffed and had long lines but the rides were all operating. I am more worried about the fact that the park schedule lists the park as closed for a private event. Pure speculation but I suspect that the park has been bought out during the day so it might not just be pass holders in the park.

^ 400 - 499 would be a Strata Coaster. There are only two full circuit strata coasters Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka since shuttle coasters like Super Man Escape from Krypton do not count. Both strata coasters were built by Intamin and utilize a hydraulic launch system.

I hate to say it but I feel like RHoFG has largely been a failure. I would love for the park to just change it over to more of a casual restaurant where you order at a register and are given a puck. Then when it vibrates you just get up and pick up your food. The food is fantastic but leaving half the restaurant empty is just pointless. I would also be completely for splitting the restaurant in half, where one side still has table service and the other does not. But if the park cannot manage to figure out how to staff the restaurant maybe it is time to change the restaurant.

My problem with the 15-minute wait is that the freestyle machines are frequently out of popular drinks. If your cup is scanned before you try to fill it then you have no way to know if you will want to walk across the park to try to get a specific beverage. I almost exclusively drink the light lemonade and typically try to get some flavor mix in, and I do have to agree strawberry is likely the best. From what I was able to figure out the employees mostly seem to have no clue how to fill the machine and just ignore it when they run out of something.

A giga coaster is a coaster between 300 and 399 feet tall, the original is Millenium Force.

Looking at the ride list I feel like the park could offer season long Fast Lane as an option. As long as it is the regular Fast Lane and not Fast Lane plus I think it would be manageable. This would mean no Mystic Timbers, Beast, Firehawk, or Flight of Fear. The problem being that while the rest of the list has some great rides many of those do not typically have long lines.

You will have a difficult time finding anything. Almost everything related to theme parks is regulated at the state level. So it ranges from states where almost anything goes to states which have very strict set in stone rules.

I am really torn on this. I want it and based on the prices I have seen so far I feel like it would likely be around $150 at Kings Island and I would purchase it at that price. But I do feel like it would be detrimental to the lines at Kings Island. Not sure any of the parks listed so far will see too large of an effect. For example Carowinds lines are typically short even on Saturday, but they only have a total attendance around 2 million (announced by Cedar Fair around when Fury 325 was built). Kings Island is claimed by third parties to be around 3.3 million. Cedar Point is the only park with the new website which does not list the season long Fast Lane plus. If parks of similar size also do not receive the option that means, Kings Island, and Canada's Wonderland.

I do not want to directly post the photo because it even admits it was taken with a drone. I know the park and this site do not want photos from drones but the photo is fantastic and I would hate for people to miss it. If you take a look at this thread on reddit they discuss and link to a really good photo of the park. You can clearly see that the people who speculated the work being done next to timberwolf is related to the photo posted by KI entertainment are correct.

I changed my post to make it clear I am talking about the helix tunnel. While it is not at Kings Island I have been wondering about the clearances on Storm Chaser.

The helix tunnel was not added until after the first season on The Beast. EDIT: Added helix to specify that I am only talking about the helix tunnel.