Kings Island 2021 Discussion

[disco2000]

What do people hate about the restraints?  I find the Banshee ones so much better than head banging OTSR!

I'll take a little tight on the chest and walking off without a headache than freedom in the chest and head banging LOL.

[Snowball]

4 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I love Banshee's vests over the old OTSRs. Are you wanting a whole new design?

Just anything that doesn’t hurt my chest and shoulders. Something about the shape of my body and how my shoulders hit the vest just hurts really bad. I think have a pretty tall torso so that could be contributing.

[King Ding Dong]

4 hours ago, disco2000 said:

What do people hate about the restraints?  I find the Banshee ones so much better than head banging OTSR!

I'll take a little tight on the chest and walking off without a headache than freedom in the chest and head banging LOL.

This X1000.   I mean the restraints totally suck they just suck a 1000X less.

[CoachD]

On 5/19/2021 at 4:14 PM, Benjamin22 said:

Right, but relying on the honor system is an absolute joke. The point I’m trying to make is in an ideal world the parks would have a system in place where the park can verify wether or not someone has the vaccine.

I am vaccinated, which means I, mathematically speaking, am at zero risk to contract or spread the virus. If you or anyone else is not vaccinated, why should I care if we are near each other in line for an hour?  You are taking the one taking the risk. That is why I don’t care about vaccine passports and honor systems. 

[Benjamin22]

1 hour ago, CoachD said:

I am vaccinated, which means I, mathematically speaking, am at zero risk to contract or spread the virus. If you or anyone else is not vaccinated, why should I care if we are near each other in line for an hour?  You are taking the one taking the risk. That is why I don’t care about vaccine passports and honor systems. 

That is false, none of the vaccines are 100% effective. Although you’re vaccinated there is still a chance that you could become infected. Because of this I don’t find the appeal of potentially standing next to an unvaccinated person for hours that appealing since they could still infect me or others.

[Twirly]

I keep trying to take the nihilistic approach of, everyone has access to the vaccine, it’s really on them at this point. Or as my husband more succinctly says “f ‘em, our people are good” but it’s hard.


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[chuck norris]

Park is filling quickly. I’m heading out for the day, but the “front” portion of the parking lot (closest to the parking entrance) is basically full and there’s still plenty of cars rolling in.


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[silver2005]

Daily operations can't get here soon enough.

[disco2000]

28 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Daily operations can't get here soon enough.

I have posted this in another thread somewhere, but I think daily will be attended more than in the past as well.  I do not think season attendance records will be set due to shorter schedule, but I fully expect the per day average number for each day of the week to be up a lot.  Too much pent up demand.

I can see Q2 call now - "The parks that are open are rebounding nicely with an increase of over 10,000 guests per day over historical numbers"

A typical light Tuesday of about 15,000-20,000 guests with 10,000 more turns it into a not so light Tuesday...

Basically, I am trying to say if we are telling everyone to manage their expectations that the park will be crowded because it is right now weekend only operations, I think we have to lower our expectations for the coming weekday operations as well.

Especially if CP will have to continue with reservations to keep attendance somewhat in-line with available staff, people will come to KI instead.  And for Tuesday's and Wednesday's in June, that is a certainty...

CP loss in attendance will be KI's gain!

[silver2005]

A few notes from today- 

- LOVE the TLC they did to Adventure Express.  The tunnels being brought back to life, especially the last one, is a great refreshing touch.  Also love the Tomb Raider music in the station.  Loved that music building up the ride back in the day.

- Spotted signs of potential painting and other things going on at Bat, cones with flags on top of the station along with brown and white tarps along with buckets and even a pulley.  Also a dumpster with wood and plywood panels around underneath the station and brake run, plywood was grey (from Wolfpack or Blackout maybe?)

- Heat made all the steel coasters haul a** today

-Impressed with the staff overall for being this early in the season, glad I didn't let last night deter me from going, had a good day

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

2 hours ago, silver2005 said:

- Spotted signs of potential painting and other things going on at Bat, cones with flags on top of the station along with brown and white tarps along with buckets and even a pulley.  Also a dumpster with wood and plywood panels around underneath the station and brake run, plywood was grey (from Wolfpack or Blackout maybe?)

 

rMc Son of Beast CoNfIrMeD lol

[FUN&ONLY!]

I would actually be surprised if they repaint The Bat. I have no problem with it, but other rides need a repaint more in my opinion. Cough. Cough. Diamondback.

[silver2005]

^But the roof of the station?  That's where the buckets, tarps, cones and flags, and pulley were located. 

The wood in the dumpster appeared to be mostly poles and some of the plywood.  More of the grey plywood was sitting next to the dumpster and a pile was also seen under Bat's brakerun. 

I would check the SOB station for missing Wolfpack bits though.

[FUN&ONLY!]

3 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

^But the roof of the station?  That's where the buckets, tarps, cones and flags, and pulley were located. 

The wood in the dumpster appeared to be mostly poles and some of the plywood.  More of the grey plywood was sitting next to the dumpster and a pile was also seen under Bat's brakerun. 

I would check the SOB station for missing Wolfpack bits though.

That actually makes sense. The Bat’s station could use some love. I would be glad if they give it a little TLC. Ideally Kings Island would add new theming to replace the removed Top Gun theming, but a repaint will do.

[FUN&ONLY!]

Sorry for the double post, but it is funny how little of Orion you can see on Kings Island’s map.

https://cdn-cloudfront.cfauthx.com/binaries/content/assets/ki-en-us/general-information/explore/directions/2021-ki-park-map-and-guide-digital.pdf

[amapan]

12 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

That actually makes sense. The Bat’s station could use some love. I would be glad if they give it a little TLC. Ideally Kings Island would add new theming to replace the removed Top Gun theming, but a repaint will do.

Nothing is getting painted if Orion didn’t even get sod

[FUN&ONLY!]

1 minute ago, amapan said:

Nothing is getting painted if Orion didn’t even get sod

That doesn’t mean Kings Island won’t invest in TLC. While I wish Kings Island did plant grass seed or put sod down when Orion opened, they still have repainted buildings and given The Racer some TLC.

[BeeastFarmer]

I have no inside information, but sodding the entire course of Orion would be cost prohibitive with more detriment than benefit.  It would add quite a bit to the mowing bill too.  

It does need a covering, so maybe they will seed it with pasturegrass (KY 31 Tall Fescue) and sweet clover.  That solves the erosion problem, it will look good, and they can just bush hog it monthly.  Then again, they may seed it with turf-type fescue and mow it like they did with Diamondback.  It will have vegetation eventually.

 

[jackinbox]

I'm not sure what was up with Diamondback yesterday but it rattled really bad during my two rides.  Normally it's fairly smooth with maybe a hint of a rattle.  Yesterday I could even feel the vibrations in my seat.  Perhaps it had to do with the heat?  The only other time I've felt something similar on a B&M Hyper was at Six Flags Over Georgia on Goliath last year.

[silver2005]

Call me crazy, but I like the rattle.  I feel DB is running a bit more aggressively this season, in a good way.  

[coaster sally]

44 minutes ago, jackinbox said:

I'm not sure what was up with Diamondback yesterday but it rattled really bad during my two rides.  Normally it's fairly smooth with maybe a hint of a rattle.  Yesterday I could even feel the vibrations in my seat.  Perhaps it had to do with the heat?  The only other time I've felt something similar on a B&M Hyper was at Six Flags Over Georgia on Goliath last year.

It's always felt like a jackhammer between the hammerhead and the onride photo

[Benjamin22]

1 hour ago, amapan said:

Nothing is getting painted if Orion didn’t even get sod

Could be worse, Fury has the parks junkyard under the first drop.

[NightlyBeast]

On 5/21/2021 at 3:43 PM, grsupercity said:

I did not mind the rattle on Banshee I just cant stand the vests. Put regular trains on it and I could picture it being near the top of my invert list. Sadly with the trains for me its at the bottom 

An Invert without shoulder restraints? Yea... Cedar Fair isn't in the business of killing guests so that's not happening. 

[coaster sally]

Just now, NightlyBeast said:

An Invert without shoulder restrains? Yea... Cedar Fair isn't in the business of killing guest's so that's not happening. 

Newer Intamin and Vekoma inverts has lap bars only.

[PassingU]

Looks like the park opens at 11am on the weekends, but what time are they actually letting people in? Is ERT a thing right now? I think I saw somewhere on here that there is no ERT, but they were letting folks in the gates at 10:30---or at least prior to 11? I think we're going this weekend. Would like to be in as early as possible and out early as well. Thx.

[chad_1138]

15 minutes ago, PassingU said:

Looks like the park opens at 11am on the weekends, but what time are they actually letting people in? Is ERT a thing right now? I think I saw somewhere on here that there is no ERT, but they were letting folks in the gates at 10:30---or at least prior to 11? I think we're going this weekend. Would like to be in as early as possible and out early as well. Thx.

ERT begins this Friday at 1030.  We are planning on arriving at about 10.

Not going anywhere near the park Saturday.  Just going to stay home and watch Fight Club.

[amapan]

12 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I have no inside information, but sodding the entire course of Orion would be cost prohibitive with more detriment than benefit.  It would add quite a bit to the mowing bill too.  

It does need a covering, so maybe they will seed it with pasturegrass (KY 31 Tall Fescue) and sweet clover.  That solves the erosion problem, it will look good, and they can just bush hog it monthly.  Then again, they may seed it with turf-type fescue and mow it like they did with Diamondback.  It will have vegetation eventually.

 

I basically meant that if the park didn’t install a ground cover under their brand new showpiece it signals to me that aesthetic maintenance isn’t in the budget. I think it can only be seen from a few high vantage points anyway. Someone mentioned the work on The Racer in the thread too. I would argue that was a multi-year overhaul and necessary to preserve and maintain a staple asset.  This was the second or third year it had extensive work, if I am remembering correctly. And you can see it represented visually because new wood stands out! The Racer really does look great and the ride experience has improved so much! As for the steel coasters, their mandatory maintenance isn’t as easy to visualize. New paint doesn’t do anything to make steel coaster run correctly. And I can’t be sure, but I  imagine hiring a crew to paint a steel coaster is nowhere near the cost of some grass seed. Or even sod for that matter. 

[King Ding Dong]

4 hours ago, chad_1138 said:

ERT begins this Friday at 1030.  We are planning on arriving at about 10.

Not going anywhere near the park Saturday.  Just going to stay home and watch Fight Club.

You could, but the park has the real thing.

[chad_1138]

4 hours ago, King Ding Dong said:

You could, but the park has the real thing.

...and based on the crowds, a lot of people were breaking rules #1 and #2.

[FUN&ONLY!]

12 hours ago, amapan said:

I basically meant that if the park didn’t install a ground cover under their brand new showpiece it signals to me that aesthetic maintenance isn’t in the budget. I think it can only be seen from a few high vantage points anyway.

Are you referring to the new bandstand or the International Showplace. Because I kind of think the International Showplace is ugly.