KIBeast

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?

No thanks on looking down from the Sears Tower. I have a fear of heights. It doesn't bother me on coasters, but to look over the edge of a building or something like that just terrifies me. I am more afraid of ferris wheels and skyline type rides.

Ryan, couldn't have said it better myself. The Paramount years were horrendous in my opinion. Some of the movies chosen were ok, but a lot of them were flops. Drop Zone...not a great movie and I don't know anyone who actually went to the theatre to watch it. Italian Job movie was mediocre at best. I liked the movie Face/Off and thought it appropriate to name that particular coaster after, however, I've heard many groans about that movie as well. Tomb Raider was probably the best movie overall that Paramount could have used, but as Ryan stated, the theming died a slow death. It also annoyed me to come to the boards and nearly every Paramount movie was released, people thought there should be a ride themed to their piece of crap excuses for movies.

Be careful what you wish for. If that's really what you want, I hope you get Talon and Dorney then got Volcano: The Blast Coaster. I'd probably never go to Kings Dominion again, at least not until they got another coaster. Silly, say you? Not gonna happen, say you? Tell that to Jeff Gramke at Kings Island. What was it he said last year? (mutter) ride rotation (mutter). You could re-locate Volcano, but wouldn't it be a little more difficult to remove the actual Volcano section of that ride? Just asking.

This would be a cool event...like 15 years ago. Except, I thought they stunk and it wouldn't have mattered to me then. Mark Wahlberg is the superior actor between the two.

KI will not suffer the same fate as GL. People actually attend KI. I do not miss one thing about Paramount. Not one...

You said it all, Interpreter. People should be glad that CF bought the Paramount Parks. KI would now be exactly as you described. And who knows what "family" rides would have been installed.

I like Chaos. Although considering the problems and accidents associated with that type of ride, this does not surprise me. The loading time is pretty slow, but at a smaller park with less crowds, I think it could fit in well. Maybe KI would get it, but that would really surprise me considering they have enough flats/thrill rides with slow loading times.

Firehawk ate my cell phone about 2 years ago. Gotta wear something with deep pockets and that velcros at the top!