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Can't you at least be a little constructive with your criticism? He clearly put a lot of work into that, and it's obviously okay if you think it's crap but that's a bit harsh no?

Finally! Someone else can appreciate it, too. Emily always looks for the ones with one hand not moving, and giggles...

"Flip Flap Railway was the name of a looping wooden roller coaster which operated for a number of years at Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The coaster, which opened in 1895, was the first looping roller coaster to operate in North America." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_Flap_Railway "Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than any previous British monarch." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria It's bad enough being pedantic. Being pedantic and wrong? Bummer.

Some cars on Turo have a age listed. Did a quick search and found out most cars the age is 21 https://turo.com/ca/en/car-rental/united-states/cleveland-oh/toyota/corolla/639580 Found this for you. They pick you up from the airport it sounds like and on your way you go. Also I take it the park has been slammed most of the summer? Everyday when i look at the web came parking lot looks full.

I think what we're saying is that we are not counting the looping coasters that existed and sent craploads of people to the hospital because the loop was improperly designed. So sure, it should maybe say, "World's first looping coaster that won't send you to the hospital", but that doesn't have the same ring.

Was at the park from 9-noon today and it was slammed. Gatekeeper was down. FastLane waits for Maverick, Raptor and Valravn were about 30-45 minutes (a BIG difference from their other Ohio park), Dragster’s standby line was about 75% full, the sipper stand wasn’t open, and many of the rides were shut down during a light sprinkle of rain (to be fair, radar showed lightning in Toledo, so, you know there’s that…. ). I also saw Cedar Downs had a line extending out onto the midway, which may have been the first time I had ever seen that in all my years of visiting. I think I’ll stick with making the 4 hour drive to Kings Island the rest of the summer. Not sure I want to deal with the inconsistencies and longer waits at the Point for a while…

Glad you made it on Banshee! I agree, Banshe up front, Bat in the back. Invertigo is okay, better than the standard Boomerangs, but almost never worth the line it has, which gets long with only one train.

You know, there are groundhogs that hang around Ninja and Screaming Eagle at SFSTL and have been there for years. Are groundhogs secretly coaster enthusiasts? Or have they developed an affinity for theme park nachos?

Almost every major car rental company will rent a car to you, they will just charge an extra fee of like $20-30 a day for being under 25 so just browse the Cleveland Airport prices for rental cars and be sure to check their fees. Also if the prices are really high check out the rental prices at some rental locations not at the airport. Sometimes you can get a really good deal that makes it worth it to take an uber to another rental location. Personally I've been curious about Turo but never tried it cause some of the reviews I've read have made me eh about it, like some owners apparently can be super annoying and can keep contacting you and there are total miles / daily limits on some cars. Just has never seemed worth the hassle to me if I can get a similar priced car from a rental place. Personally I've always stuck with Budget and Enterprise because I've never had any issues with them.

I was able to update everyone's "seniority" again, but for now the regular "Donkey Title" ranks will be gone. Maybe it's time to retire them?

Patrick Wilson in a fitted white tee + RMC.... This content was made specifically for me and I would like to thank SFGAdv very much.

Accurate

Copy that. Dorney's waterpark isn't the most up to date (they've got a capsule-drop but that's about it in terms of "modern" slides), but I still find it a solid place to spend a day. Bonus: FL+ works on some of their slide towers, and both lazy rivers.

Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg is nice. Cades Cove is a nice drive. Plenty of good hikes in the mountains if you're into that. Dinner shows around the area. Hatfield and McCoys is typically the best food at those places from what I've heard.

Small correction - I do upside down stuff but also tend to be one and done with many inverts and tend to avoid most boomerangs at this point, since they are not only redundant but concussion inducing. KI coasters that have inversions aren't their best, remember I've been here more than once

Day 2 of Coasterstock! so after a long, and fantastic first day, we had decided that instead of being there at crack of opening (8:30 am parking lot open), we'd target getting to the park when ERT started - ~9am. so with that in mind, we had planned to meet downstairs at breakfast in the hotel ~8:30, and head out closer to 9. as usual, I was a little bit excited and was up early. Not only was it day 2, and we had our Flash Pass + for today, but we were gonna meet up and hang out with Zach most of the day (and he had messaged me that he had gotten FP+ as well even tho it's his home park). . . I had such a great time hanging out with him in Japan that I was looking forward to that as much as the rides. I didn't really plan on doing any of the Speakers or Book Signings - but that was because this was still my 1st ever visit to the park, and I wanted to cram as much in as I could. Next Year at CoasterStock, I intend to attend some of the speakers, and watch some of the games (the Kings Island Family Feud I heard was fun). but today? it was time to get ready for Day 2. so dressed and down in the Breakfast area, the offerings were slightly different today. I snapped this pic to get Kim to hustle down, since she had been displeased about the peppers included in yesterday's Omelettes.. so today's? just cheese. (it worked too, she was down to meet me in less than 2 minutes, tho Joel didn't join us until just before we headed out at ~8:50). once again, although I was passenging in the back seat, I was so excited watching the coasters on the skyline, that I AGAIN forgot to have my phone out. . so no pics of the main sign (whoops). Easy/Peasy in - and although we were at least 25 minutes later than we had been the prior day? we parked only two spaces over from where we had been yesterday. The ERT this morning was on Banshee and the Bat for the 1st hour, then adding in Invertigo and the Drop Tower until general park opening. So we went thru the main gates, took a left, and headed over to Banshee. ok. .so, admission time: I don't do well on suspended coasters. not just the occasional headbang, but i tend to get nauseous from them. . and the only one I can really ride are the Batman Clones for some reason. so in almost all cases, they are 1 and done for me, tho Batman clones I can do 2-3 times as long as not all in a row. Raptor, Alpengeist, even Montu (tho I did ride that one twice over 3 days). . yeah, 1 and done. Even as much as I loved Afterburn at Carowinds? I only rode that once too. so although Banshee looked AMAZING, I knew that I had to be careful. So I intended to ride it only one time during ERT, and after I had taken some Tylenol to be safe. If I was ok on it, then I'd ride it later with FastLane+. so we headed into the line (not Kim tho, she doesn't do upside-down stuff) I really liked the tombstone theming, tho I was expecting "jokey" tombstones, a la the Haunted Mansion. still very cool tho, and i really loved the Son of Beast tombstone with the eternal flame burning (tho it's hard to see in this picture), that you pass by in the queue. Nice nod to what used to be in this location. we got up to the station, and they were assigning rows. I asked the grouper if I could go into the front row, and he said we should go to the middle of the train. so I said to him, "I really need to sit in the front" and he said, "oh, you really do?" and I responded with: "unless you want to chance cleaning up vomit from the train? yeah, I really need to sit in the front, since i tend not to do well on suspended coasters unless I can see where I am going, so I need to sit in the front" I further explained that the only reason I was getting on it at all, was because I wanted to ride everything at least once on my 1st time at KI. he then shrugged and pointed us to the front row line - which had two other people in it, so Joel and I filled up that row of 4 anyways (and in talking to the two that were there, they were in the same situation, they asked for front so they didn't get ill). so was weird he gave me some grief, but he did let us go where I really needed to ride anyways. what did I think? i really liked it. It was just spread out enough, that the inversions didn't really overwhelm me, and sitting in the front allowed me to not get nauseated since I could watch the track ahead and above to keep myself grounded and lean into the directional changes. it DID make me a little light headed regardless, so had no desire to go back around and get back in line, tho I possibly would have ridden it again later if it hadn't gone down for the afternoon. regardless, it was a great ride, and I'm glad I did it: although we had ridden the Bat yesterday in the very back, since it too was on ERT, we walked over and got in the line, and this time got a front row ride on it. not quite as fast (seemingly) as in the back, so not as much 'swing', so I think on this one I did prefer back car. . but the front car gave a really good ride too. A nice hidden gem in this park. Got lucky here and got both Banshee and Bat trains in the same shot going on at the same time as the ERT was the "behind the scenes" Banshee tour. . .it wasn't really much of a tour, other than they opened the gates and let us back behind the restricted fences to get some nice shots of Banshee in action from some angles that the General Public can't usually get: I'm sure not many even notice that the theming continues around the ride. . but it's actually pretty cool that they put the stones even this far out from the queue. really gives a nice attention to detail feeling. Tis me (with a terrible, "Jowel-y" angle, catching Banshee doing it's famous lift thru the giant loop. [Robb] Loop-de-LOOOOOOOP [/Robb] after about 10 minutes back here watching Banshee cycle, we decided to head over to Invertigo, as that was about to open for ERT in the next 5 minutes. I knew it would be awful. . .I mean, it's a Vekoma Boomerang. . .but inverted, so it gets the added headbang (and by the way, the two worst coasters in the park: Invertigo and Flying Ace Arial Chase - are both Vekoma flyers. Coincidence? I think not. .LOL) anyways, I really wanted to ride it because: 1) I'd never been on an inverted boomerang & 2) I'd been told that Invertigo was running with the trains from Stinger at Dorney Park - a coaster that was SBNO on my 1st trip there, and gone on my next. so I wanted to ride it to say that I'd gotten on both of em (even if not quite the truth) we headed over that way, and there was NO ONE else waiting. LOL. In fact, by the time they opened it up, there were maybe 8 of us waiting to ride it? and at least 4 of them worked at KI and were doing Coasterstock on their days off - and at least two of them regularly staff this ride anyways (they kept talking about "their" ride. we were actually the very 1st people in the queue when they opened it, and Joel went to the very front. I didn't' mind, because although we didn't get to experience the awkwardness this ride is kinda famous for - staring at the people sitting across from you and staring at you - the front afforded me the same as the front on Banshee had: the ability to see where I was going to help cut down on the Nausea . but oh, did this really stink as a "fun" ride. . headbang for days. at least it's kind of short. still, I rode it and can check this off my list for a coaster type I've now ridden. waiting to go thru the gates for the front row. and now actually running.. with people! (from the 2nd ride of the day, after us): once we had ridden all 3 of the suspended coasters that were on ERT, it was still only ~10:15, and we really weren't interested in riding any of them again (and Kim hadn't ridden anything yet this morning), so I suggested we head towards the front gate, and see if maybe the Fast Lane Booth had opened early. Even if they had not, we still had to go there for our wristbands anyways, so we heade dup taht direction. as luck would have it, the boot was open and staffed, so we got our wristbands, and joined the group of folks queuing up by what would be the "rope drop" area - there was no rope tho, just a security guard on either side of the fountain, that were asking the crowd to wait until 10:30 (I guess that's early entry for pass holders, maybe?) we stood on the side with Starbucks, as I really wanted to start my day there, and besides, we planned to go to the Carousel to have a ride for the anniversary at 11:15, so seemed like a good plan, and we'd meet Zach just after. the sky, as you can see in the pics, was pretty overcast, and there was rain forecasted..so we weren't sure how the day was gonna go. But kept our fingers crossed. someone asked when the Starbucks would open (same plan as I), and the security checked and came back to tell them 10:50 . . but when it hit ~10:30, the National Anthem played, and then the guards let folks move into the park. And the Starbucks was open. The people who originally had asked the guard what time it opened were very annoyed that some "younger folks" had run ahead of them and got in line, but as far as I was concerned, they had opened up 20 minutes early, so all was good. here's a pic of folks pausing for the National Anthem. . that i may (or may not) have taken because of someone's certain body part that I kept noticing thruout the day. . . .hey, I'm married, not dead but(t) I'll say I snapped it to be patriotic. that's my story and I'm sticking with it! Starbucks in hand, ready to officially start to make use of Fast Lane + for my 2nd day at Kings Island CoasterStock! . . to be continued. . . .

As a German, I want to chime in: At the moment all parks are open. But all are short staffed, restricted capacity and you have to apply to th "3G rule". This means you have to be fully vaccinated for at least 14 days, to have recovered from COVID for at least 28 days but no longer than six month oder to be tested in the last 24 hours before entering the park. You have to prove that with a legal document. Some States, like Lower Saxoy, are not as strict as others. Numbers are rising again as I write, so there is a (small) possibility we are going into the next lockdown. The last lockdown for the amusement sector lasted from October 2020 until May/June 2021. All parks were closed. I, personally, would only book fully refundable vacations in Germany for fall. If parks are open, Europa-Park, Holiday-Park and Phantasialand are truly beautiful during the Halloween season and do a lot of effort with scare zones. Tripsdrill is also nicely dressed for fall. If it gets closer, you may contace me or write here for more save news.

Also, if you want to see wait times recently, you can check any day you want here: dollywoodwaittimes.com Can also use queue-times.com which is quicker and easier than using park apps. Link above for DW makes looking at historical much easier and quicker.

Heyo! I work there, so let me see if I can answer some of these for you. My biggest advice, is if you're coming during the summer months, PLEAsE DRINK WATER!!! Hydrate before you come to the park. Hydrate while you are at the park. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate! Drink water drink water! It sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed at the amount of times we have to call safety to get help for someone who has heat exhaustion or passes out due to dehydration. I literally saw it happen in person yesterday. Also, if you're coming for summer, do make sure to check out your sweet summer nights show. Its definitely worth the wait, starts at 9:40 in Wildwood Grove. Most, if not all your coasters will have bins. I think they all do. A lot of our flat rides will have them as well. Please note, Daredevil Falls does NOT have bins. You must carry your items on that one. so if you got a phone you don't want getting wet, I'd recommend leaving it with a friend in the que line. I'm not sure about smoky mountain rampage. Might be the same there as Daredevil falls. Front Porch Cafe is ALWAYs packed. same goes for Aunt Granny's. If you're coming during a weekday during the summer, expect lines. They will be long. Weekends tend to be less packed as far as I can tell, but my work time with dollywood is short, and I'm sure that will change. You may want to check out TIll and Harvest over in wildwood grove as well. Also, the cinnamon bread, you can get that at the Grist mill yes, but a lot of people don't realize you can get that at the bakery right as you enter the park too. The upstairs level to the Grist Mill is CLOsED, so don't try to go up there to get it, you'll be sorely disappointed. As far as what order to get to things, I don't really have an answer for you on that. Refer to the guys above me. They may know better about that than I will.... single rider lines are good, but not all rides have them. I do suggest the timesaver, particularly if you're coming on weekdays during the summer. This past Tuesday and Wednesday have been the busiest days we've had since I started working here. It does save you a lot of time, particularly if you get to the park after the morning rush at the gates. Get there early, and make sure you have the dollywood app on your phone. It does come in handy, and we update wait times on the rides about every 15 minutes. Please note, if you want to ride Daredevil falls, That ride closes at 8. The website may say differently, but Daredevil falls is a special case in that the ride itself has no lights, which means it closes when the sun sets. Rides in general close, starting at 9 across the park from Country Fair towards Wildwood grove. All the rides over in Timber Canyon up to Wilderness pass will close at 9:30. As for Lightning Rod. Well. It's at least opening every day. It is still having issues with it's launch every now and then, but it hasn't closed for an entire day during the time I've worked here yet. Typically if it does, it's down for an hour or so, then they get it fired back up. Keep the dollywood app on your phone, and you'll know when it goes down and gets back up and running. I've had a chance to ride it multiple times with the Ibox track, and the air time is still very much there. In fact I got a night ride, last ride of the night, ride on it a couple weeks ago. That was an experience. lol. Let me know if you have any other questions.

I get why people say this but I've really evolved to the point where I think that if Lightning Rod is the big draw for you then that's where you should go first. It's not a reliable ride. If it opens for the first hour and then closes for the day and you miss it because you were at Mystery Mine you'll be kicking yourself. You should absolutely, 100% go to Lightning Rod first, then do Mystery Mine and Firechaser after that because of their low capacity. Lightning Rod is more reliable lately. You'll probably be fine but don't mess around either. If it's open, ride it.

Yep you're right. The Orion definitely does not suck as much as your weird and endless attempts at haikus. The one almost rhymes, but not quite. But under no circumstances should you let that stop you.

I'm working. . so have my old man magnifiers on

The next morning we got to Kennywood early just to make sure we could tackle as much as possible for a busy Saturday. Unlike Cedar Point or Hersheypark, Kennywood was a totally new park for me (my first new park in several years). Kennywood definitely has that charming feel that you don't find in the bigger parks. I especially love how the park has gone out of their way to highlight historical structures and attractions--embracing the value of their history as something that sets the park apart. Kennywood was put on my radar years ago thanks to the TPR Coaster Expedition videos, which did an amazing job of highlighting Phantom's Revenge. The entrance plaza is simple and charming. An hour before park opening, this is what the park entrance looked like. It is interesting that this park intentionally opens its gates to guests at a time significantly before the rides open. Steel Curtain towers over most of the park's structures. This thing is absolutely imposing in person. Somebody must've had a lot of fun designing Steel Curtain! While I didn't get to ride Aero 360, I couldn't help but admire its design. Our first stop in the morning was Thuderbolt, as the coaster is running a one-train operation and waits can get lengthy. Only closed because the rides are not operational yet. Thunderbolt's entrance is also a nice vantage point to watch Phantom's Revenge and the Turtle operate. It should be noted that Thunderbolt has a strict no-single riders policy... Meaning that if you're riding alone or in an odd numbered party, be prepared to be paired with or wait for an additional single rider to even it up. These classic trains on Thunderbolt are awesome (and mildly terrifying)! I hope these trains continue to run for a long time! Almost time to ride this beauty... We hopped over to Noah's Ark while it had no line. This unique walk-through attraction just had reopened a few days before our visit, so I was excited to experience it firsthand. The attraction is definitely interesting... It lasts a lot longer than you'd expect. The namesake element for this attraction and one of the last of its kind in existence (and the last in operation, I believe). Noah's looking a little rough... Educational... And entertaining! Sometimes outright trippy. Thunderbolt definitely has a unique layout... I think it was a little overhyped for me but I'm still glad I experienced it once. Now here is something I was especially curious about... As of a few weeks before our visit, The Turtle ended up being the last of its kind in operation in the world. The ride's location is pretty fantastic. I love how Phantom's Revenge trace's The Turtle's edges. I couldn't help but admire... What a fun maneuver! Ok, back to The Turtle... The ride is super unique and throws you around a lot more than I expected. I was super glad I was able to experience this, knowing it is such a rare experience now. Time to head into Lost Kennywood... Hello beautiful! Long have I waited for this moment... Ooogah boogah boogah... Phantom's Revenge has a lot of things going for it. It is ridiculously smooth and it has a very unique layout (and history). And it has some fantastic airtime. Black Widow wasn't operating during our visit but it looked fun. I'm probably gonna get some flack for saying this... But The Exterminator was really, really fun! The combination of the (very standard) Reverchon spinning mouse coaster with a fairly solidly themed dark ride experience made this a pleasant surprise. A really charming corner of the park. SKLOOSH! Ghostwood Estate was operating without its Ghost Blasters... I should've brought my Turkey Caller. The interior is full of animated figures.. There are some projection effects as well. We noticed from across the way that Steel Curtain was finally operating... Sadly the coaster was only running one train, so wait times were abnormally high. We paid for the VIP Coaster Tour access (one time use per ride) and it allowed us to bypass a 120 minute standby queue in favor of being loaded two trains away from boarding in the station. We waited about 20 minutes when all was said and done. Steel Curtain is a really fun coaster for sure. Ridiculously smooth and fun of some maneuvers I'd only expect on an RMC coaster. The trains are themed to sportsball. Other than the themed trains, the color scheme and the venue next door, I don't get what makes it a Steelers coaster... But maybe I just don't care enough about the NFL to find out. All rides must end at the gift shop... The structure itself is pretty impressive. I love that these inverted stalls are finding their way into more coasters. Time for a classic... Really classic. Very, very classic. My first ever "mobius loop" coaster! It was quite fun! This thing is a sight to be seen. 100 years eh? I can see why! Jack Rabbit ended up being my favorite wooden coaster in the park! More history... More awesome trains. Looking back across the midway... Going out... Going over... They have their own Laffin' Sal! I found a model of Steel Curtain in the arcade! If ever you wondered how a family coaster could be if it had two launches and a 90 degree drop, you've been wondering about Sky Rocket. It is a fun little ride. The launches are "cute." Sky Rocket VR wasn't running during our visit but signage was still up for the experience... The hardware was charging and ready to go from what I could tell. Elissa had told me that Auto Race was amongst the park's unique attractions worth visiting for someone as interested in park history as me. More history. I was surprised by the wooden track and the powered rail combo. 15 years ago I might have considered trying to ride this... I've grown up quite a bit. Another unique experience I'm glad I had the chance to ride. This is about as close as I ever got to Thomas Town, but it looked nice. No one told me that Elton John was going to be playing at the park!!! Another recommendation from Elissa... And a delicious recommendation at that! Very RCT3. Turns out there's history here too! Time to take the tunnel to head out. I really enjoyed Kennywood and would definitely come back for another visit at some point in the future.

You're right it went up to $330 + tax, even August during the week. I'll go before they reduce their hours again, looks like 10pm weekdays go thru the week of Aug 9. If you aren't a weirdo and wanna tag along to make this trip more cost effective please DM me haha.

As far as Joel making it onto Orion from Beast with 5 minutes to spare...........he has pulled that sort of thing off a bunch of times. Amazing that he can make it all the way across a theme park in a couple minutes but takes him hours to clean up his room or do a simple homework assignment or take a shower, etc, etc, Teens. Are. Annoying.

I did the Racer/Orion walkback and took a few pics. It was drizzling the whole time and seemed a lot more crowded since there wasn't as much space as there was during the Beast walkback. Still cool to get these shots which I will post right now!

No real difference 4 years ago either. LOL

My birthday isn't for a few months but I just wanted to let the forum know that this would be a great gag gift for me.

Less than 3 weeks for my visit! Honestly cannot wait. Reading the past few pages hesring 15 rides over a 3 day visit is great. I'll make sure to check out that Bourne show @JRice92

While I do not wish to cause this thread to get too political, its worth noting from seeing this map how the Branson, MO area is essentially the epicenter of new COVID cases. It's quite unfortunate. I will be very curious to see if SDC will be forced to go back into doing health and safety restrictions in the park if this continues towards the fall/winter months.