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Well, Cyclone was just on TODAY. How horrible that they had to climb down stairs after the ride safely shut down!

Don't mind the fact that there are numerous redundant safety systems on a roller coaster intended to leave a safe amount of space between trains at all times. A train has to have a clear path or else it's sent into a hard stop at the nearest block brake. Therefore, both theoretically in practice, there is a minute chance of trains colliding. Thus, what benefit would air bags provide? Okay, so there's the freak instance where something such as a tree falls on the track mid-course or the track tears itself apart (what a SOB), but those are extraordinarily rare. In a car, however, you have humans operating vehicles in close proximity (usually a lot closer than could possibly be considered safe), with no central control system like on a roller coaster. Both in theory and in practice, this system is a lot more liable to result in vehicles colliding. I know it's not the best explanation, but yep, you are many orders of magnitude safer on a roller coaster than driving to the amusement park. On a short drive, I usually have many moments where either I'm nearly in an accident or someone else is, because a driver is not paying attention. I've never felt like I was about to get into an accident on a roller coaster. In fact, I often feel like trains creep around too slowly between the brakes, station, and entering the lift. But hey, they don't want to accept that there's some serious safety systems behind these machines, way better than on the roads. You can only provide the facts, you can't convince everyone.

Obviously somebody is going there, otherwise they wouldn't bother to open. Besides, you just said you're going, so clearly somebody is.

Where's the article about Fury 325 having a late-night evac from the brake run on opening day? Or, where's the article that quotes my sheer torture of having to evac from Gatekeeper while double stacked on the brakes? It was CoasterMania! at the end of the night, and had the evil contraption not broken down, I would've gotten one more ride! That's like everything to me! </sarcasm>

Ah, but Son of Beast's incident was not a simple matter of valleying. There's a difference between a train simply not having the momentum, the energy to complete its course and the course tearing itself apart and taking a trainload of passengers with it.

Valleying doesn't really count against a coaster being a complete circuit. The course is a complete circuit whether or not trains successfully manage to make it around without unanticipated assistance.

Why isn't what counted? Here's another example. When you turn 20, you've completed 20 years of life and are celebrating that. Since you've already lived through 20 whole years, you're living your 21st year.

Should've seen that one coming...

40th anniversary was 2012, but it was the 41st season.

Sure, Terpy couldn't let me have all the glory... :'(

It is 44. Your math excludes the first year, as it calls it year zero. You found the age of the park, not the season count. 1972, 73, 74, 75 is four years. 76-85 86-95 96-05 06-15 are each another decade. 4 + 4*10 = 44

It was later in the day during Haunt at the end of last season. There have been times the weather kept crowds down, but that's by far the best I've seen that theory in action.

I was in line for Adventure Express when... Oh, who am I kidding, there were no guests. The darnest thing was that we had an entire train for two people. Sorry, still feeling special to have experienced that. Okay, so imagine walking through the queue all the way into the station. Ride ops just standing around, you sit down, and they kinda send you on your way. With no other guests in sight. So unusual but so cool.

I know! Banshee is such a horrible, horrible ride and any park would be ashamed to have it. Oh, wait...

It still has some extreme thrills. After all, it has the first INTAMIN accelerator coaster, the prototype for Top Thrill Dragster. Silver Bullet isn't too bad, either.

Online comment threads in general tend to bring out a lot of really negative responses. See also: Facebook (particularly news articles, company feedback requests, etc.), TPR, etc... Luckily, KIC is usually a lot more civilized.

I love that. Smucker's legit suggested that Knott's Berry Farm sell Smucker's-branded products rather than Knott's Berry Farm products? At their berry farm? lol, fail, Smucker's.

Inverts just have the most (best?) action.

There have been times at both CP and KI that at least certain shops were sold out of FastLane. They could've just sold out of the wristbands there, though.

Walking through Kings Island toward the end of last season, during Haunt, when it was rainy and the park was almost completely dead.. That was creepy. We had three coasters in a row where we walked right into the station and had an entire train for two people. Those were Adventure Express, The Racer, and even Firehawk. Banshee wasn't that dead, though we did end up waiting out a rain delay in the station. All but two other people left, though the rest of the park was also shut down. Can you say creepy?

But it is a camp out.. They just included some festivities that don't require camping and invited non-campers to join.

You don't have to have an account. Google: "Laresa Thompson Twitter"

I'm not guaranteeing no one will ever have a problem, but I personally never have had any issues with Velcro- (or Velcro-like) enclosed cargo pockets on roller coasters. That being said, I do feel better with buttons or zippers. Zippers are way more convenient. The one only time I've had something come loose on a ride was a pair of magnetic sunglass clips (the kind designed for that eyeglass frame). My head bumped against one of those horrible OTSRs on Mantis and they were knocked right off. Luckily, this happened after the final inversion so they were caught by the floor. I don't even have those glasses anymore but I'd never do it again. They did hold on Dragster just fine, though..

Someone posted it on Carowinds Connection; someone else later said that it was taken by Carowinds' public relations manager, Laresa Thompson, and posted on her Twitter account. I think this is what you meant to post... https://twitter.com/laresathompson/status/580184547054194688

Only because that's what they did last year.