KIBeast

I have heard also that B&M was approached about doing Millennium Force and that was pretty much the first time I had heard that they were not comfortable going to/over the 300ft. mark.

I have to agree somewhat that it would be a former shell of itself if/ when changes are made. However, I believe it has been discussed before that it has been trimmed before and it caused the ride to valley, so I can't really imagine that scenario playing out. I guess they could add trims if the ride is drastically changed, but again, the train would have to be able to complete the circuit.

The shuffling of the trains from side to side was far worse with the old trains than the new. The only real possibility to make it more rideable would be to take out the Rose Bowl and add some airtime hills. That's the worst part of the ride.

The reality is that the do know what they are doing. They are following a strategy that is carefully thought out and that they believe will result in improved results for themselves and the CF unit holders. It has worked for them in the past and they believe it will continue to work. I would agree with that sentiment except that the old way it worked in the past seems to work no longer. "If you build it, they will come" just isn't working any more. Which is exactly why the final paragraph I wrote - that you erased from the quote - was written. Repeated below: "The problem is that so many things have changed - the economic situation and its impact on customers, the availability/ability to refinance debt, the overall size of CF, and much more. Whether the strategy is going to work out long term is undefined." I just don't see that strategy ever working again is what I'm getting at. So, their long term strategy is pretty much defined by if you build it they will come and it's not working now, nor is it going to work any time soon. Time for a new strategy.

I guess people will believe what they want to believe. I had heard years ago that someone died falling off of The Bat. Didn't hurt the reputation of The Bat, although it was only open a few years. No one seemed to shy away from it when it was open. The GP really doesn't need to know the details until and unless the park wants to give those details. Stupid rumors about a certain coaster won't keep anyone from going to KI. You also have to consider that they want people to be assured that it's perfectly safe to ride SOB. It could mean a re-design or complete demolition. I think it is entirely possible that there's a huge discussion going on with the CF board members about what to do concerning SOB and that nothing has been decided.

The reality is that the do know what they are doing. They are following a strategy that is carefully thought out and that they believe will result in improved results for themselves and the CF unit holders. It has worked for them in the past and they believe it will continue to work. I would agree with that sentiment except that the old way it worked in the past seems to work no longer. "If you build it, they will come" just isn't working any more.

Thanks, Intepreter! We are very excited about future trips with the little one. My mother thinks about 2 summers from now, he'll be able to ride some of the smaller rides over at Nick or whatever the name will be by then.

I'm wondering what the price for this new coaster would be? $25 million to build Millennium Force and I can imagine this one won't be any cheaper. I understand CF needs to build new coasters occassionally at these newly acquired parks, but with their current debt situation, I'm kind of bewildered by this kind of investment at one park. And I just checked RCDB and it says 22 million for Diamondback. I hope these guys know what they're doing. If not, the next owners could have a nice coaster lineup already in place.

I think Invertigo is pretty intense for such a small footprint and I always try to get one lap every trip. However, I don't ride if the wait is more than one hour.

Well, the wife and I went to KI on July 21-22nd. It was a bit strange as we left our six month old baby back home with grandma. We missed him like crazy, but we did have a great time. On our first day, we arrived about 11:15 and we immediately headed for Diamondback. We just had to try out the newest to KI's lineup. I was very impressed with the lift hill over the midway as well as the other section that crossed the midway as well. We caught a glimpse of a splashdown as we headed for the line. We waited about 30 minutes, although the sign at the gate said 45 minute wait, so no disappointment there. We managed to be seated next to each other on the first ride which my wife was very pleased with. Not sure how steep that lift hill is, but it seemed pretty steep to me although not as steep as say Millennium Force. I must say that I didn't think there was one disappointing aspect of this ride. The floater airtime was great. Greatly paced and an overall awesome ride. I was also impressed with the operations as we never stood in line in one spot for very long. Very efficient and reminded my a lot of how Cedar Point's lines usually go. After that, we went over to The Beast, which had an hour wait. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that the wait had increased due to heavier traffic in that area since the addition of Diamondback. The Beast delivered as it always has. No surprises there. After that we headed out to the car to have lunch as we had packed a cooler. This is something I usually do as I am not interested in eating a heavy lunch inside the park. Next, it was on to Flight of Fear and Firehawk. We decided to get in line for FOF first, and it was an hour wait. I haven't seen an hour wait for that ride in quite some time. I guess those interested in a spin on Firehawk also stop at FOF on their way in or out. FOF is still a great coaster although I don't care for the MCBR which virtually brings you to a complete stop. From there, we went on to Firehawk which looked like a short wait from FOF, but turned out to be about 45minutes to an hour. I had previously been on Firehawk when it was X Flight at Geauga Lake. Funny, but at GL it was nearly always a walk-on. At KI, there is always a wait, which is a good thing. I still like Firehawk, just wish loading/unloading could be more efficient. I don't think that it was a result of bad operations, just a bad design flaw, even with dual loading stations. After that, we rode AE and it was fun as always. Around that time, we decided to head out of the park to go check in to our hotel, which was the Days Inn Kings Island about 6 miles from the park. It was nothing to write home about, but for less than $50.00 for a night, how could we complain? Although, some lady in the lobby was going balistic about how there were cobwebs in her room and a hair in the bath tub. The lady at the desk was very professional and offered to move her to another room. She seemed happy about that, but then added, " Can I get a larger room?", which to me sounded more like what was her problem with the room and not the minor problems mentioned before. Unfortunately for her, all of the rooms are the same size. The only difference being what size bed(s) you had. So, after about a 30 minute break, we headed back. I'm not really going to go into great detail about that evening other than we managed to hit up The Racer (great fun as always), La Rosa's for dinner (totally awesome pizza by the fountains), a great ride on Vortex (still love that first drop) and another ride on Diamondback, which turned out to be a night time ride. We headed over to The Beast for a final ride of the night, but we had seen a car on the lift hill from The Vortex and it was closed for the rest of the evening. That was a little disappointing, but we left happy none the less. We went back the next day, which I won't go into great detail about, but we had lots of fun despite the rain. We bought our $5.00 ponchos and just had a great day. We hit up Invertigo first with a one train wait. After that, we did Flight Deck with no wait and then onto Delirium with no wait. Still gotta love Delirium and it was an interesting ride in the rain. We pretty much hit every coaster on day two and added the Scrambler and Shake, Rattle and Roll. Oh and Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, which I won the war in points. I only had one complaint about the whole trip. I realize that on a rainy day that there aren't many park patrons there, but they ran one train on The Beast, which caused an hour wait. Not to say an hour is bad, but, I just thought that was completely unneccessary. I would share some photos with you, but we managed only to get about six. I didn't take too many the first day as I expected to do most picture taking the second day.

I missed the part about the WT track. However, a cable breaking on MF is something that has been happening for a while. CP always seem to have an extra on hand and it's back up in a day.

It's really a cool accomplishment considering it took a few years for Top Thrill Dragster to achieve 1,000,000 riders.

And one day, I'll be coming here to share pics of Trey with you Railrider. I can't wait for the day. On a side note, I took him swimming for the first time yesterday. Had him in a float in an inground pool and had him in a baby pool which he enjoyed much more.

Their reliability is pretty good and getting better from what I have heard and know. TTD, Millennium, Wicked Twister all run pretty well. Not sure about Maverick. I heard it had issues the first year, but not sure about now.

I didn't say that they couldn't spend money. However, one must be a little wiser about amounts spent and how often amounts are spent when their debt load and situation isn't much better than the one currently being suffered by Six Flags.

Not to say that you are incorrect, but I haven't heard any confirmation that Kings Dominion is getting a gigacoaster. If you know something, please explain. Truly interested. Technically you're absolutely correct. KD has NOT announced anything official. However, I'm also going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you haven't been following KD's "rumored" giga coaster construction. There are, however, pictures here and here to check out as a starting point. There are: - Track pieces on site - Packing slips clearly showing this is an Intamin shipment with the words "giga coaster" on them Yes, no official confirmation has been given, but I'm not sure how much more evidence you may need if these photos don't convince you. Very cool, the image of the packing slip confirming gigacoaster. I'm really surprised that CF will spend that much on a coaster again, considering their current financial situation. Guess KD will definitely have to be on my list to hit up next year. My brother went this year and absolutely loved it.

Not to say that you are incorrect, but I haven't heard any confirmation that Kings Dominion is getting a gigacoaster. If you know something, please explain. Truly interested.

What an awesome trip report! Zoe is soooo cute! I can't wait to experience Trey's first rides. You look like a very proud papa, as you should be. SDC sounds like a great time and I may have to give it a whirl in the future.

I would like to see an Intamin as well. They are not that unreliable. MF, TTD, WT and Maverick all seem to be doing ok, from what I have heard.

Not to diminish the rider's feeling, but dizziness could have been attributed to a number of things. Not eating, not drinking enough water amongst other things.

Sounds untrue. CF is not in that much better shape than SF. You just don't hear about it as much.

So is The Beast. Other than the chain lifts, where?

Hmmmm. You didn't like the 1 answer you received in the first thread you started identical to this one? Lastly, a coaster coasts on its' own power, whether it be after the lift hill or after a launch. Avatar is powered off and on throughout the ride cycle. Hence, not a coaster IMO.

Just a pet peeve of mine, but I hate the phrase "a whole nother" considering nother is not even a word. Anyhoo, back on topic, I'm sure KI has something in store already for 2012. What that may be, I have no idea. No doubt, it will be something spectacular.

I rode The Bat as well. Thought it was very intense, even though it was considerably slower than Top Gun. Maybe it had a more interesting layout?