thegajone

Mt. Washington Chili or Price Hill Chili for me. Glad to see you enjoyed the park. I've lived in Cincinnati my whole life and been to KI countless times, yet I've never been to The Beach.

Fair enough, but TR:TR and Delirium were the first of their kind, prototypes. They were part of HUSS's then focus on "giant" rides. The Breakdance is one of the most established flat rides there is, (largely in Europe). Shake Rattle and Roll is a HUSS. They are capable of making a reliable, quality rides just maybe not giant ones. Yes, I know SR&R is down right now, but that is definitely not the norm.I doubt HUSS is using Dollywood as a reference these days.... They had room to build Delirium elsewhere. And look at the other TOGO Stand-Ups.Room is not the only factor, though. For instance, in the late 90's, Paramount planned to put Drop Zone in Coney Mall, and even put up a tease sign. Then they did foundation investigations. The location was deemed not suitable, the ride was delayed, and showed up in Action Zone years later. Situating rides in real parks involves many other factors than just plopping them down where there's room. Take the interesting story of why the Flying Eagles departed Kings Island. Moving highly talented general managers can also involve moving their treasured goods as well, including company goods. I kind of remember that now. Was the teaser sign right where Flight Commander used to be? For some reason I remember thinking that's where it was going to be installed.

I vaguely remember a year back in the early 90's where SRR was down for seemed like most of the season. The only reason I remember this is because it was the first year of many where we had season passes and I remember seeing it and not knowing what the heck the ride experience was like for what felt like the longest time.

Cool looking ride, but as many have said in this thread already, I wouldn't expect a HUSS any time soon.

Of all the message boards I've frequented, this board has by far the least amount of trolling/baiting/flaming/etc. It's not even close. I can only think of one of the regulars on here who comes off as a bit obnoxious, but I think he just gets excited and doesn't mean to be that way. Other than that this is far and away the most friendly message board in which I've ever participated.

As a die-hard Cincinnati sports fan, I am a huge fan of LeBron James. "The decision" was one of the best sports moments to happen in decades here. If LeBron doesn't return to Cleveland, then Kings Island should name a ride after him.

Cedar Point attacked by mysterious 300-foot monster, caught on live webcam on cedarpoint.com:

I was really pleased with the Firehawk crew on Tuesday. They had the trains on a nice rhythm and were a lot happier and enthusiastic than I usually see them. The ride ended up being walk on almost all day. Firehawk crew was fantastic on Monday as well. Very friendly and energetic

Unrelated, but that reminds me of a fun fact: the full name for the university most commonly known by the abbreviation KU actually has the proper name of The University of Kansas, not Kansas University as one might think. Same goes for The University of Missouri, which goes by MU, and I believe a few others.

I would want a stuffed donut. It would go along great next to the stuffed hotdog I have that my mom won at the park in the 70s.

Yeah I can't imagine the Banshee line being that long on a weekday before 11.

The sad part is, I still saw empty rows going off even with the op assigning seats. Row 16 went off empty in my train. The next few groups of riders were groups of 4+, and by the time he found a pair, we were being strapped in and he didn't want to slow things down by moving them through. Kind of defeats the purpose, I would think.

Yeppers. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to sue, despite how weak the case may seem.

Thanks! I don't recall seeing you but I did see one young man who looked to be around 13 years old in a KIC shirt, so I figured I wasn't too far from your group. If you saw a random guy sitting on a bench next to the Firehawk photo booth, then you walked right past me!

My thoughts exactly. I'll never boo the park for putting something new in that I might personally not enjoy. I'll almost certainly never go through this maze, but as long as others enjoy it, I'm all for it.

I think maybe the employee who pulses/assigns seats has has a clicker, but I haven't really paid enough attention. Otherwise, I'm not really sure.

That has way more to do with timing than anything. Remember, I rode Delirium, Banshee, Firehawk, FoF, BLSC, Beast and DB all before 11:30.

Yesterday was another good visit where I didn't witness any of the poor guest behavior described in this thread. The only thing that annoyed me a little bit was in the Splash River, a lot of people (not just little kids but teens and even adults, too) just wanted to power through as quickly as possible, and in the process either bumped me into "splash zones" that I didn't really feel like going under, or flat-out directly splashed me while trying to "swim" by while in their inner tubes. What happened to floating in a lazy river? I thought that was the whole point of a lazy river? I can see younger kids getting excited and not just sitting there while floating along, but a group of 4 or 5 adults at least my age or older (I'm 29) came through at one point, as did several groups of older teens. Needless to say 1 trip around the Splash River was enough for me.

TL:DR warning.... I had a very nice and fun visit to the park yesterday. I showed up for ERT and went straight for Delirium while the masses headed for Banshee. I was the first guest of the day to board Delirium, and as I entered the queue 2 guys in there early 20's applauded me for choosing Delirium over Banshee, much to my amusement. Later on in the day I saw them again near Vortex and they shouted "Delirium guy!", again to my amusement. I rode it with those 2 and maybe 3-5 others. Great start to the day. I wanted to hit up DT next but it wasn't running and about 5 park employees were standing at the bottom of it chatting. I thought it might be the crew preparing for their shift, but it turns out DT never ran at any point during the day (even though the marquee out front listed SR&R as the only ride that wouldn't be operating). So I hit up Banshee instead and rode in 5-1. That was the first time I rode in the middle of the train and I actually enjoyed that more than the front, which is a little too disorienting for me. I still haven't sat in the middle of a car, but I think I like the right side more than the left. I started heading towards X Base but it was still a few minutes before 10. I had no idea they played the National Anthem before opening the park. The only other time I've ever done ERT I think I was on The Bat right around 10 so I missed it. After the rope dropped I went straight for Firehawk as the vast majority of guests who also headed for X Base as the park opened opted for FoF. After riding Delirium, Banshee and Firehawk in about a 30 minute span I had to sit down for a bit. Not sure if it's just a sign of aging or if I need to see a physician or what, but I sweat like crazy while riding intense rides like those 3, especially in succession like that. Anyway after a short recovery period I rode FoF after a 3 train wait. Like I pointed out in another thread, it looked to me like the restraints were removed from the last 2 rows but I couldn't tell for sure, especially since I rode in 1-2 and didn't have a great view of the back car. As someone else pointed out on the main KI discussion board, it seems like it's a lot darker than it was earlier in the year. And this particular experience wasn't quite as rough on me as others for whatever reason. Following that I wanted to hit up the last low-capacity coaster of the day for me (wasn't planning on doing Invertigo) before the crowds hit, which of course is BLSC. I miss the antique car ride and Flying Eagles, but I still think this ride is fun, even if all the effects aren't in working order. Next was Beast, which was only a 2 train wait and was as fun as ever. It just doesn't get old. I planned on marathoning DB for a while next, but like I said on the main KI discussion board they were assigning seats, so I only rode once in 7-2 after a 5-10 minute wait. It was great as always but I think I like both the front and middle more. By now it was only just 11:30 and I had ridden 7 rides and taken a couple small breaks. I hit up Rivertown Potato Works for lunch and headed back to WWC to drench some guests while eating. Always a good time. Side note: I'm sure Coney Mall's Potato Works is exactly the same, but I will never order from there. It's just tradition for me to get Potato Works in Rivertown, and as such is the only one I recognize as a dining option. Following my meal and a bit of a break I headed back east to Vortex. I planned on riding in 1-1 but so did half the other guests in the park it felt like, so instead I waited only 1 train for 1-2. I actually think I like the front more than 5-1. WindSeeker would have been next but it was pretty windy yesterday so I didn't expect it to run much, and this proved to be the case (again, despite SR&R being the only ride on the marquee listed as not operating for the day). Racer was next, and I opted for Blue because I felt like being a winner today. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe the Blue track is shorter than Red, or maybe Blue is faster (doubt it), but Blue always wins, even though Red almost always leaves the station a second or 2 before Blue and has about a 1 car advantage going up the lift hill. Side note #2: walking around in Coney Mall and listening to the chain of The Racer lift hill just never, ever gets old. If I could some up KI in just 1 way, it would be standing in Coney Mall and listening to that. THAT, to me, is Kings Island in a nutshell and always will be. AE was next and had the longest line of the day for me to that point of just under 10 minutes. The Bat followed and had a wait of a little over 10 minutes, which coupled with the walk to and fro, added up to about a 45 minute wait (I kid, I kid). Following those 2 I got a Banshee Twist. Delicious, but I blew it and got a waffle cone. Terrible idea. Mess everywhere. Never again. After eating (and wearing) my soft serve while watching Banshee for a while in the former Action Zone circle target area, I decided to go up ET. I hadn't been up there in probably 15 years, but I really like going up there when it's windy and yesterday certainly fit the bill. I stayed up there for probably 20 minutes while soaking it all in. While up there I saw Congo Falls stop on the lift hill and all of the water shut off, then it cut back on a couple minutes later and started moving again. Not sure why that was entertaining, but I kept my eyes glued on it for the whole ordeal. By then it was 2:20 and I headed for the exit, having already ridden everything I wanted to. When I got to my car I saw that my swim trunks, towel, flip flops and sunscreen were still in my car from a 4th of July pool party. Impromptu Soak City visit time! I drove over to the Soak City gate and got a killer parking spot, which was ideal for my multiple back-and-forth trips to my car, which also acted as my locker. I hadn't been to the water park in roughly 10 years, maybe more. While I had minimal wait times in the main park, I waited close to 30 minutes for Mondo Monsoon. I had never ridden that before, but that was great and well worth the wait! I did a few more slides and the Splash River -- which is appropriately titled since I was splashed the entire time by patrons of all ages that felt the need to burn through a lazy river as quickly as possible -- before deciding to throw on a shirt and hop on the train to the main park to ride WWC and RFYLCB while still in my trunks and flip flops. WWC ended up being my longest wait of the day at the main park (15-20 minutes). Both were fun, but afterwards I decided that I'd had enough and jumped on the train back to Soak City and headed for the exit. Unfortunately it will probably be my final trip of the season to KI. Sadly round #3 with osteosarcoma is right around the corner, and recovery from surgery will very likely keep me out of the park for the rest of the season. It's a bummer for sure but my spirits are high and it makes me appreciate trips to the park like yesterday's even more than I would have normally.

I thought it was interesting yesterday that they WERE assigning seats on DB, but were NOT assigning seats on Banshee. If I had to guess I'd say the DB crew has been pressured to move a little quicker by someone higher up. I was half-paying attention when I heard over the loudspeaker "blah blah blah 23, 14 cycles". I don't know what was said before the "23" (could have had something to do with what time it was; when I checked my phone after riding it was a minute or 2 before 11:30, so it's plausible that it could have been 11:23 at the time), or why they said anything at all, but they definitely said "14 cycles". Additionally, there were ride ops taking loose articles from guests as they approached the train, I assume in an effort to speed things up. Whatever they were doing seemed to be working as the stacking was minimal during my 5-10 minute wait time. I was bummed though because I kind of wanted to marathon DB while riding in different seats each time, but the assigned seating deterred me from doing so.

Either way, trademarked names need to have appropriate spelling and grammar on theses boards per the TOS.

While riding today I thought of another reason why I like when it comes to a full stop at the MCBR: you can hear the eerie music for a bit.

Not only are those rows blocked off, but unless my eyes were deceiving me, the restraints in those rows were taken out completely.

Getting off Racer, I was walking behind a guy as he told his son "we'll ride Vortex next. It's a lot smoother than this one because it's steel and steel coasters are always smoother." Edit: just now, coming down the elevator on ET, the ride op asked if anyone had any questions and a lady, while facing out the window towards Vortex, responded "when did they take out Vortex?" The look on the ride op's face was priceless. "They didn't, and you're looking right at it" she responded. I thought the lady might have been having one of those "moments" that I sometimes have and meant to say something else but accidently said "'Vortex" because she happened to be staring at Vortex, but this was not the case.

I have not seen WindSeeker or Drop Tower run yet today.