PGalati

Fortunately we got to visit Carowinds in early June and got a handful of rides on Thunder Road. I really enjoyed the ride even though we have The Racer in our backyard. Since it was our first visit and not really being a water park guy, I did not pay close attention to the needs of water park expansion. I guess is it unfortunate that Carowinds created the water park so close to Thunder Road thinking they would not have the need to expand it. Every park should have their monster woodie (Racer, Rebel Yell, El toro, Voyage, argueably Meanstreak, etc) and Carowinds is choosing to remove theirs to benefit the water park audience. Hurler is the only adult wooden coaster at Carowinds. Do they plan or deserve the right to build another wooden coaster in their park, probably not in both cases, IMO. You can only have so many B&M's. Hopefully they will dismantle it with some dignity rather than a wrecking ball. Is all that wood going to scrap or can it be saved for use on Hurler and WE? Any chance of a relocate? Is that economically possible with a wooden coaster?

CoasterDirected, There are 2 Firehawk posters available if interested. Read this post for my link to the pics. <http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/30728-kings-island-collection-for-sale/>

CoasterOhio, I am requesting permission to provide you with the seller's email address. Once granted, I will PM you the information. Paul

<http://xythos.jackrouse.com:8080/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-432736_1-t_XohBNp9f> Here is a link to the pictures of the stuff that is for sale. When you reach the site, on the right side toolbar click on the view icon and choose thumbnail view. Then increase the thumbnail size using the slider directly under the view pulldown. This should give you the best view of the items that are for sale. The current prices for the items are as follows: The Beast 25 Years T-shirt $19.99 1993 -2005 KI Beast hat new with tag $14.99 Firehawk 2007 Poster (2 different poster) $8 Kings Island 2004 Beast Hat $24 KI glass with gold writing $7.50 Bubba Gump tall glass $5 Beast 2004 tall plastic glass $6 Delirium Purchased directly from KI. Made of wood, plastic, and metal. 27x27x36" high. The swing arm really works. One of a kind. $150 Face Off Coaster model. Brought directly from KI. Made of wood, metal and plastic. Metal cars included. 53 1/2 x 21 12x 29" high. $195 Heavy Please let me know if you have any questions about these items. Thanks for your interest. Paul

A friend of mine just retired from KI and has a few items he would like to sell. Would anyone be interested in the Delirium or Face Off models? Delirium = $150 Face Off = $195 Face off does include the metal train cars. I can provide pictures if needed. Thanks

Millennium Force is great at night assuming you get past the bug stage of the evening. We tend to favor the back of the train to reduce the wind and bugs, but the back is just fun. Had our first Top Thrill Dragster at night, and that was pretty cool too. August 6 is an Evening Ride Event with Top Thrill Dragster and hope to make it. Unfortunately Maverick's line always seems too long to wait for at night, but our next trip, we will have to force ourselves to experience that.

We were there Thursday and Friday (July 9 and 10) and Rougarou was not running Thursday. During our travel there were a lot of standing water along Route 6, and Cedar Point Drive looked higher than normal. I would not be surprised if water was in the queue. We got 7 Millennium Force rides during the evening ride event. More riders than last time.

Riding the wave. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/travel/talking-with-rob-decker-a-real-life-roller-coaster-tycoon.html?_r=0&gwh=C3EB1BE2399D63EDEA13132B7E155062&gwt=pay>

After getting off of the Carolina Cobra boomerang at Carowinds, I immediately thought that these trains would make Vortex at KI a fun ride again. I guess enough people still ride Vortex that if it ain't broke don't fix it yet mentality still applies. I do admit that riding 7-1 on Vortex was a decent experience.

While at Carowinds having lunch in Harmony Hall, the large TV screen said something like "connecting to Kings Island" and brought up the POV of The Beast. I was watching how many people we paying attention to the video. There were several people pointing at the screen, smiling and commenting. I saw more than 1 person say "that is a long ride". I take for granted for having the greatest wooden coaster in our backyard. It truly is a legendary coaster.

I ordered a Carowinds cup online in march sometime. We took our KI 2015 cup (Coasterstock) to Carowinds and used it during our half day visit for $.99 refills, then redeemed our Fury 325 cup the following full day at the park for free refills. The last day we drank nothing but water.

Sorry for the long post. 1. I like 325, but I feel like it is 2 rides in one, before and after going underneath the bridge. The first part is about speed and high speed turns, the 2nd part was more of a typical B&M air time party similar to Intimidator, DBack, Behemoth, etc. I understand they are wanting to eliminate alot of momentum before the final break run and the bunny hops help. Watching from the parking lot, the trains sound awesome as it flies along the track. When we got to the park on Sunday afternoon, we (my wife and I) went straight to Fury 325 to ride. There was a ride op assigning the rows rather than a free for all. Our very first ride, ROW 1. WOW, what a rush staring 325 feet down waiting for the rest of the train to push us over. Lots of wind and the banked turns are really cool. We immediately got back in line for a second ride, ROW 8. That was fun to watch the train twist as we flew through the first part of the course. Overall great ride. I like the high speed banked turns and hope they introduce those elements in future rides. Honestly though, Millennium Force, for me, is still a better ride simply because MF never lets up. I also like the Intamin trains better than the B&M trains, sitting lower, maybe less drag. 2. That is the original model created in the Cedar Point model shop. We met the designer during our June trip in 2014.

I do live in Hamilton County but we were there Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening. We stayed at the Qualty Suites at Carolina Place Mall. The hotel is about 4 miles from the park but the rates were very reasonable, rooms were great, and the included hot breakfast bar was a nice plus. Will stay there again when we visit next. One other thing I failed to mention is that I was happy to see Carowinds placing walking paths underneath multiple rides that allowed you to enjoy the ride without being on the ride, Carolina Cyclone, Nighthawk, and Afterburn each had great access to watch riders enjoying their ride. For me, Nighthawk is more fun to watch than ride.

We just returned from our first ever visit to Carowinds. Except for the lift hill of Intimidator and Fury 325, Thunder Road was the first glimpse of structure letting us know we made it to the park. I was surprised to see the coaster at the intersection. We got to ride Thunder Road multiple times during our 2.5 day visit. Unfortunately they did not have both sides running simultaneously but we did get to ride both sides. We both enjoyed the ride very much. The last hop on the SC side is a bit rough. I liked that the 2nd hill was not as tall as say The Racer so the train was able to keep speed and the turnaround hill was the taller hill. During our visit while riding Afterburn and Thunder Road, the parking lot near Thunder Road was completely empty. They must be using the new gate as the primary lot and will reclaim the parking lot and Thunder Road to allow expansion of the Water Park. It makes sense but sad to see that Thunder Road has to go. Carowinds is a very nice park, and hope to visit again sometime.

If you do stay off the peninsula but have tickets that allow early ride time, I would suggest requesting a park pass to park back by Soak City. This allows you to enter at Magnum which is the closest entrance to Maverick. We used to get lockers, now we simply go back to the car for whatever we used to store in the locker. We usually get 4-6 rides on Maverick for ERT. We then make it to TTD by 10 to get a couple of those out of the way while the general public is still making their way into the park from the main gate. Ride On!

Having just got home from Carowinds and reading this discussion, I ask the question. For this type of ride vehicle (Is there a specific name for DBack, Behemoth, Fury 325, etc), the tallest HYPER in the U.S.A is 232 feet, Intimidator at Carowinds. Carowinds has the tallest US Hyper and World's tallest Giga coaster, currently. Why isn't Mako reaching for 250ft, 260ft or higher lift hill? Correct me if I am wrong but is there anything between 232 and 305 in North America? That is a decent gap to fill. Is it money? Is it space limitations? Yeah, it will be a one of it's kind in the Orlando area, but like some have said, this is not a something some would go out of their way to ride. Build a 255 footer and introduce some of Fury's banked turns, you would have a coaster to talk about.

Visited Cedar Point from 5-20 through 5-22. We like to park around back at the Soak City lot so we can enter the park near Magnum. On the 20th we got to the park around 4:30 and found it erie-ly quiet. As we drove back to the Soak City lot, we saw several Ohio Edison utility trucks parked along the access road. The Gemini Midway looked like a Zombieland as that entire area of the park had lost power which meant no music. People looked lost. The only 3 coasters running were Gatekeeper, Raptor, and Top Thrill Dragster. We got 2 TTD rides in 30 minutes. That ride still makes me nervous. I can only speculate but it appears that Millenium Force got new train(s). On the the 21st while in the station preparing to ride, the ride ops activated the switch track to load the yellow train into service. The yellow train ran all day EMPTY. Then around 7:30 in the evening did they finally start loading riders. They claim 100 cycles were required to certify it safe. That made the queue slower running 3 trains and only loading 2. Some on the Intamin ID tags that I remember seeing were not on these trains. I think Cedar Point made too much Rougarou memorabilia. The ride is certainly better being floorless than a stand up but the restraints are still painful. The line was longer but I am not sure it will get the increase in numbers that they are hoping for. At least more people would agree to ride it if other lines are too long to wait.

Thanks Don, Sara, and Kings Island for a great CoasterStock event. Kim and I had an absolute blast and are both exhausted. Made it into the park around 8:30AM We got 4 Banshee, 2 Bat and 1 Adventure Express before Pass holder ERT started. We probably could have done more but too many Banshees makes Paul a dull boy. I didn't expect Saturday to be as busy as it was, but it got pretty crowded quickly despite the weather. The Banshee photoshoot was nice but somewhat limiting. I understand all the ramifications for something like that and appreciate the opportunity. Dennis Spiegel was certainly a treat and to listen to his story from Coney Island to Kings Island. Didn't expect the shoutout during the Q&A, caught me off guard really. My employer and Dennis opened KI, KD, and CW together. I also found it interesting about the number of people in favor of Thunderbird over Gatekeeper. Is it the launch, terrain? Ride time seems too short to be a competitor. The dinner was good. The ribs tasted good but were more work than they should have been. Desert was tasty as well. The Best was saved for last on Saturday night, I felt The Beast was running amazingly well and tuned for speed at the right places. Got a couple rides before we called it a night to get enough sleep to survive Sunday. 29k steps We chose to decline the train Behind the Scenes Tour and arrive at 9:00 for coaster ERT. Because Flight of Fear always seems to have the longest wait times, we chose to make that ride a priority. We got on and off that ride twice in 10 minutes, which was great but 2 rides is enough for me. 3 rides on The Racer is always fun for this classic coaster. Lunch was great on Sunday. The blue ice cream was Kimmy's favorite. Our local whippy dip get's the blue during KI season. Due to an already scheduled conflict, we left the park at noon and would return at 7:15PM. I wanted to hear Jeff Gramke's talk but I understood it was to start at 1:00, but tweets on the way home indicated more of a 12:30 start, rats. Since I did The Beast Behind the Scenes on Tuesday, I felt it wasn't a priority to do it again, although it would have been nice to see DBack. Was it similar to Banshee's photo op? Ended the night once again riding The Beast in the dark. Added a few DBack rides in for good measure. 20k steps. Got to meet some fun people and hope to meet again at another event.

As of 5-14-15, the meal plan pdf on Cedar Point's website does not mention the Midway Market or Subway as a participant, and the pdf looks to be dated May 11. <https://www.cedarpoint.com/images/uploads/file/2015%20CP%20MEAL%20PLANS%20rev%205_11.pdf> So, is Cedar Point only upcharging the participating food choices that were added after the meal plan was supposedly finalized? It seems that the all season meal plan is a constantly moving target in favor of the park. Cedar Point's web page for meal plans mention absolutely nothing about any surcharges to specific restaurants or not. Would that not be false advertising to buy the plan only finding out later the meals you prepaid for are no longer paid in full? <https://www.cedarpoint.com/things-to-do/dining-plans> With multiple trips to KI, CP, and 1 trip to Carowinds this year, I thought the all season dining plan would be a good value. It still is under KI's plan at this time. As the season moves along, the rules that were stated at the time of purchase have been changed (or attempted to) assuming we would simply accept them. If this continues, our first all season plan will probably be our last. The meal plan is a luxury and is not required.

Magenta Lizard, here is the link to the youtube video that I mentioned yesterday at the park. It is trial run before the ride opened to the public. Pay attention to how low the right rail is making the left turn after the first tunnel, not very banked as heard by the squeals, plus they were using 4 bench cars. Notice the momentum before entering the ravine. I remember as a kid getting some good airtime there. It is trimmed now. There are some other goodies that we no longer experience today. < Remember Don mentioned that the left turn at the bottom of the first hill was the most worked on section of track. He had us pay attention to how high and close the right rail is banked and is just inches away from what could be a hand rail. The below video shows that well. < Is the chain link fence between tunnel 2 and lifthill 2 new for 2015? It's kind of a distraction.

Also got to enjoy this behind the scenes tour. Decent group showed up for some photo ops. It was cool walking amongst the trees and hearing a train race by periodically. Hope the weather holds out this weekend to do it again. Got to meet Magenta Lizard as well. Hope you were able to get Toto. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum area but I felt it might be appropriate as it could have affected platinum pass holders if this was in fact true. I feel this is simply the case of incorrect copy and paste but I would like to see if others have seen it as well. This post refers to Cedar Point's mobile app, iOS in particular. Open the app and click on the dining icon located on the bottom right corner. Now click on the Bay Harbor icon, a table with wine glasses on it. It should actually take you to the dining plan information screen and nothing specific about Bay Harbor's food offerings. Anyway, scroll down to the very very bottom and read the last paragraph. Again, I think this is a simple mistake, but who does one contact to inform them of this misinformation. Thanks.

I printed the original tweet. For whatever reason, I never got the whole twitter thing, so my experience is limited, but it appears as of this post there are 67 retweets, which is more than I expected. They are requesting a retweet to be eligible for this "meetup". I hope I accomplished that task as requested.

So the rules are just follow their twitter account and be there at 4PM on Tuesday, no upcharge?

Thanks to all who answered my questions about CoasterStock, this helps a lot. Has KI released any info about the number of tickets sold for CoasterStock? I wonder if Beast ERT will require a full trip around the station to get back in line or if they will open the fastlane lane so you simply make a left instead of a right at the bottom of the exit ramp. When I did Millenium Force Evening Ride Time last year, it started out with about 100 people. After a couple rides it got to the point where we got off and got back on the same train. Fortunately MF has the gate for quick reentry to the queue. 10 Beast rides would be great. Tag along question, how do I post images in these forums, via URL only?