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An absolutely perfect addition to the park that desperately needs flat rides. Big win in my book! Can't wait to ride next year. Also - off topic - today is my 10 year anniversary of posting on TPR!

https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/mason/iphone-14-calls-911-when-users-ride-kings-island-roller-coasters iPhone 14 calls 911 when users ride Kings Island roller coaster MASON, Ohio — Roller coaster rides are setting off a new Apple crash detection feature launched in September that automatically alerts emergency services. The Warren County Communications Center has received six calls generated by iPhones while their users were riding a Kings Island coaster, said Melissa Bour, director of Warren County emergency services. Additional calls were made over the weekend, but Bour said the total number of calls would not be available until Tuesday. The new feature works on the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watches and is intended to detect severe car crashes. Sara White, a 39-year-old dentist, told the Wall Street Journal that her iPhone 14 Pro automatically called 911 when she went on Mystic Timbers at Kings Island. The wooden roller coaster is 109 feet tall with top speeds of 53 mph. “The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone,” an automated voice says in the call to 911, before also providing longitude and latitude coordinates. Screams from others on the ride can be heard in the background of the call, the Journal reported. Kings Island has not immediately returned a request for comment.

Thnaks! I don't think it was temps though. Beast was down then up then down on Fri night and it was just as cold on Sat night (down to about 40 by midnight) and everything was up until close.

We had a fabulous time at haunt last weekend. No massive line to get in on Friday night but we showed up about 5:40 and they had clearly been letting people in for a while which I think diminished the backup. In my opinion the best themed maze was Killmart but the best scareactors were at Cornered. They were hilarious. Also, the scare zone in that area was done really really well. Rides had a bit of a rough night on Fri. At various points Beast, DB, and Orion were all down and lines were pretty terrible, 1-2 hours. Most of the mazes had at least hour long lines on both Fri and Sat nights as well. We got Frightlanes for Fri night to do mazes and FL+ for Sat to focus on rides and that was perfect as far as maximizing our time. Don't miss the pumpkin beignets and apple cider doughnuts.....they were amazing!

Really enjoying this trip report. Bringing back lots of fantastic memories. You have called me John a couple of times (picture of poseidon and it was me and Ryan who left to ride Silver Star) but I will forgive you - James.

thanks. I've done trip reports here for years tho. . and I think, perhaps, they sometimes are more detailed than this one. LOL. .if you wanna dig, I've done two prior ones with TPR. . . the 2018 USA trip, and the 2019 Japan trip. Plus several ones I do on trips with my late husband. but really glad you are enjoying. .thanks!

So much great content (pictures and info) from your trip so far. So sorry for your loss. I hope/pray this journaling helps with your healing process.

Check out Busch Gardens Tampa's new attraction for 2023 - Serengeti Flyer, the tallest and fastest Screamin' Swing attraction yet! https://buschgardens.com/tampa/rides/serengeti-flyer/ Busch Gardens Tampa Bay today announced Serengeti Flyer as the park’s all-new 2023 attraction. Serengeti Flyer will be the world’s tallest and fastest ride of its kind, a screamin’ swing, upon opening in spring 2023. With each swing, riders will soar higher and higher above Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s expansive 65-acre Serengeti Plain while experiencing multiple negative-G moments before plunging back toward the Earth. Serengeti Flyer will feature twin dueling arms that soar progressively higher reaching speeds of 68 mph and a maximum height of 135 feet at the ride’s peak. Guests will be seated back-to-back in rows of 10 across two gondolas, allowing for 40 guests to experience the ride at once. “Serengeti Flyer’s thrilling ride experience is bound to provide riders with a pulse-pounding encounter that can only be found at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay,” said Neal Thurman, Park President of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. “We believe that Serengeti Flyer will be the perfect high-thrill addition to our world-class portfolio of attractions including Iron Gwazi, the Golden Ticket Award Winner for the Best New Roller Coaster in 2022.” Busch Gardens Tampa Bay annual pass members will be among the first to experience the new attraction upon opening in spring 2023.

Trying to understand the reasoning behind anything from the current CEO or what's left of corporate is pointless. Once the mentally unstable CEO is removed, hopefully sooner rather than later, we should start seeing a lot of delayed projects continue.

Europa Park, day 2, part III. . the conclusion: after the Taxis, we hit up a few things we'd already been on, but loved and wanted to ride again. such as Can Can Coaster (this phone booth was outside it, and I bought a few souvenirs there from it - such as a Can Can Coaster coin, and Euro) the Dinosaur Birthday Party WTF ride: and Can Can coaster again. . as well as Arthur. this time discovering there were a couple of smaller rides hidden at the end of the path near the exit: I think at this point Ryan wanted to go ride Silverstar, so he (and James (who's John???)) went off to do that, while the rest of us headed towards the lagoon for the slow boat ride, that I was determined I was going to ride. turns out it's called: Josephina's fairytale wedding . . or something like that. . . it was slow, it was stupid. . and OMG. . I loved EVERY. SECOND. OF. IT !!!! and yes it has animatronics water features. . wait. . there's a boat ride coming from the other dock on the other side of the lagoon too? and that boat is equipped with water guns???? luckily, the folks riding weren't able to crank them fast enough for the water to reach us. wait? our slow boat ride has a dark ride section? you bet your ass it does. . .EVERYTHING does. . ha! but it all ends well. . with Josephina getting her prince. . .i think? I dunno what the hell was going on. after we relaxed on the slow boat, we headed back to Ireland. . we had tractors to ride! we werent sure adults were allowed to ride them, but the operators assured us "yes" although there was no way to sit in the front seat to do so! (teeny tiny kiddie seats) but they moved on their own, and were "gas" powered. . so you chugged your way slowly around the course. mah tiddies were jiggling for the whole 5 minute ride, and I was laughing like a moronic hyena the whole time. in other words? yeah, i loved it. the tiny seats adults can't sit in. . so had to ride in the back. theming among the tractors! and yes.. Animatronic. . . it was getting close to time to meet over by Wodan for our ERT. . so we started heading back that way. taking pics as I walked. . sad the day was over. but with the park closing by 6:30? it made the day go pretty fast. but we DID manage to pass the train as it was loading. . so we managed to get a ride on it. Something I totally forgot, until I saw this picture. I don't remember if it was good. . hell, I didn't even remember that I rode it. but we did. Paddington catching a train as we passed thru England. more "Mushrooms" oh. . but we can't leave this part of the park without riding Kurse of Kassandra again! (remember, I'd never been on a Madhouse, and didn't realize they'd be in every park). we also rode over here, an "underwater" dark shooting ride. . but I don't seem to have ANY pictures of it, nor much of a memory of it other than we rode it. so there's that I guess. . . Poseidon had been rough the day before, so just took some pics of it, but didn't ride it. ah. . THIS time I did take some pics of Kassandra. . .yay me. getting ready to "spin" such a cool effect. . . I really loved it. even the restrooms over here are heavily themed. . so well done. we headed over to Blue Fire/Wodan for our ERT, and I think we had to store our bags? as the only pic I have from the ERT is this one from Wodan, courtesy of either Robb or Elissa. but I LOVED Wodan. .favorite coaster in the park. rode this at least 5 times during our ERT. .maybe 6 or 7 . . . but we couldn't hang out on it too long, as we had time on Blue Fire as well. . and funnily, the park had warned Robb/us that they were filming a reality show and they didn't know when they might show up. and of course they showed up during our ERT session, so one of the trains was given over to what looked like a reality dating show (some of the women were dressed quite provocatively. . so I'd assume as show like Love Island?). It was funny. . most of them tapped out after 1 or 2 rides. . while the TPR folks kept going until we had to get off, because we had dinner scheduled back at the hotel. I only rode it 3-4 times. . I mean, I loved the dark ride section prior to the launch, and as mentioned yesterday, the first loop is amazing. .but that slow hangtime in the heartline roll (or whatever it is). .is just NOT my cuppa. . didn't like that part at all, and affected overall how much I liked the ride. but I didn't shut down the ERT, and headed over towards the hotel to make the dinner reservation a little earlier than some of the hardcore riders on this trip. dinner was at the Brazilian Steakhouse restaurant in the hotel. . .you know. . "MEAT ON STICKS". . . MEAT-A-PAL-OOZ-A everything was really good. and we stuffed ourselves. and drinks were included. . so lots of wine Cheers to a great start of a great trip. I may have overdone it on the deserts (as full as I was already). but I had Pepcid back in the room.. which I DID need. . whoops. heading back up to the room after dinner. . or should I say "waddling" we had to get everything packed up, as we were headed out pretty early the next morning (I think it was 6am at the bus?). . . we were gonna have a long day tomorrow. starting off at Tripsdrill, and ending with nighttime ERT on Expedition GE-Force at Holiday Park. so it was time to say farewell to Europa Park, and go to bed. Id been having a great time thus far. and tho had no idea what was going to eventually happen? between now and going home? the trip would only get better and better and I'd have such a good time. back as soon as I can with the next day. . . Tripsdrill. . . thanks for reading!

Well this might be it for us. We have had season passes every year since 2005. I had not been paying attention until Lance posted it over on Screamscape. Next year's gold pass, on sale now for $55, does not include Hurricane Harbor or Frightfest. You need to at least buy the platinum pass to include those. No HH, no FF, no HITP. Sadly looks like it is time for our family to move on from SFSTL. I have not been one of the naysayers, but I do now think our park is dying. Mike

looks like Herschend will be great for KK.

Hope it's still cool to drop photo TR's in discussion threads... let me know if otherwise. Happy month of spooks! Yesterday I got to squeeze out some time to come check out the Pumpkins at Kentucky Kingdom event. Kentucky Kingdom's been doing a huge "family friendly" push this year, and this event certainly epitomizes it, imo. It's a night and day difference between 2019's HalloScream event with haunted houses, spooky sculptures, and even playing a shortened version of Friday the 13th movie in the 5D cinema. Now it's all about Pumpkins! Lots and lots of pumpkins! Frankly speaking, I think this event works really well for Kentucky Kingdom. It's a very local-focused event geared toward families having a place to bring their children without any worry of scares or safety issues (decent security and police presence throughout the park). There were multiple new shows in the park including a glow drumming show, a magician, and a country singer from Bardstown, KY named Will Wright. Thrill seekers can still get night rides on all of the park's major coasters (except T3, which is closed for the rest of the season). People of all ages were out in the park donning halloween costumes, and there were booths set up throughout the front circle of the park for kids to trick or treat at throughout the day. Here's something I don't think I've ever seen at Kentucky Kingdom before: a parade! The Glow Drummers as well as some familiar and new mascots marched the full front circle of the park twice a day starting and ending at the amphitheater. In front of Prof. John's Flying Machines, they cleared out some tables to put in a very small hay maze. The walls are just high enough that most kids can't see over. The two new shows playing in the amphitheater are Glow Drummers and local magician David Garrard (didn't catch his show unfortunately). They do two shows, a daytime show and a nighttime show. There's a second stage with two other acts, including Bardstown country singer Will Wright playing his songs between the carousel and Thunder Run. And last but not least... the pumpkins! And another friendly reminder, night rides are back as well! They're not quite the pitch-black rides you'd expect at other parks, but still nice getting to experience these rides during unusual hours of the day (and in the colder weather). I managed to be on the last train of the night on Storm Chaser which was also cool.

I agree with Kim. Velocicoaster is beyond spectacular! Mike

Can confirm, there is indeed a wall built around Falcon's Fury and there's a notice posted on the wall saying (paraphrased) that it's down for refurbishment so it can be enjoyed for many more years to come, but due to the supply chain issues it is taking them longer than expected to get parts. I wouldn't expect it to be open until next year at the earliest. That being said, here's some other thoughts from my family's visit last Sunday, September 25th. This was my second visit to the park, but the rest of my family's first trip. We got there right at opening with the intention of making Iron Gwazi the first ride of the day. When we walked over to it, we were greeted with a line sprawling back the length of a football field and a sign up in front of the gate stating "We are working hard to get this ride up and running today!". So, um, yeah... and that's how Air Grover became our first coaster of the day instead. From there, we followed a circle path around the park. My son and I hit the 54" coasters in succession; Sheikra, Tigris, Kumba. All of them were running well. The lines at this point were still pretty short, so we were able to stay on for a re-ride on Sheikra, and we only had a 5 minute wait for the front row on Tigris. Kumba on the other hand was only running a single train, and although there was one family in front of us, it ended up taking about ten minutes for us to get a front row ride over there. My wife and daughter rejoined us to hit Scorpion and Sand Serpent before grabbing lunch. I pitched Scorpion to my wife as SooperDooperLooper's little cousin, as that was her first looping coaster, and to my surprise she actually enjoyed herself! The ride was running amazing without any rattling or headbanging, and it still had some serious bite to its forces. A heck of a lot of fun. Sand Serpent on the other hand, well, it was definitely a credit. We grabbed lunch at the nearby Dragonfire Grill. They honored the SWSA platinum pass discount and knocked about $15 off the cost of the meal. It was here that we learned about their new policy, which is no straws. At all. "Not even paper straws?" "Nope, we gotta save the animals." (Never mind the fact that their reusable cups came with those thick reusable plastic straws, which is more than Six Flags can say over the past few years.) Is this a chain wide thing now? I swear when we were at SWSD back in April, they still had straws there. Whatever. So I ate an ICEE with a spoon. Don't judge me. As the girls were wrapping up their lunch and my daughter really wanted to get some spooky face paint, my son and I headed off to the last 54" coaster of the batch, Montu. In case you didn't already know, he's a huge fan of inverts. His top three for the longest time were Talon, Banshee, and Alpengeist. This only recently changed when we went to IOA back in June and Velocicoaster took the #2 spot from Banshee. We got to Montu to find it a verifiable walk-on in the middle of the day, hopped in the back row, and headed out from the station. Instantly I saw the smile on his face begin to form, and he was laughing, screaming, and having a ball the entire ride. We got back to the station with his hair sticking straight up and he said "I think I have to take Talon out of my top spot." I asked him if he'd like to ride again but this time in the front row since there was next to no one there. We walked around, got back in line for a two-train wait for the front, and in his words "it was even better up front! Oh my god! There was so much going on!" So a back row ride was good enough for #1 and a front row ride firmly solidified that opinion for him. After Montu, my wife and daughter met up with us again for Cobra's Curse, a short ten minute wait from the room with the video projections. This ended up being my daughter's favorite coaster of the day. She wasn't expecting it to go backwards, much less start spinning! My wife handled the first two parts pretty well, but she isn't really a fan of the spinning parts understandably. The theming is pretty great overall, and it definitely stands out amongst the rest of the park's collection of coasters. Cheetah Hunt was up next, and this was the longest wait of the day for us at nearly one hour. I told my wife it was somewhere in between Hagrid (which she loved) and Velocicoaster (which she passed on riding). This turned out to be her favorite of the day, though there were some spots that caught her off guard. We all agreed it would be better without the overhead restraints, though. By this point in the day, it was about 4:30 PM, and we found ourselves back at the beginning of the park. Checked the wait time on Iron Gwazi which had now opened and it was posting a 45 minute wait. We all hopped in line, but my wife decided to sit this one out as well; she's not great with heights, having had bad experiences on her two hypers so far, and her only other RMC hybrid (Wicked Cyclone) took her about six months of contemplation to decide that no, she didn't like it after all. The wait time was significantly less than posted, with a mostly empty station up top, but it was definitely being hampered by the fact that they were only sending on average one train approximately every 5-7 minutes. Even still, we ended up only waiting 25 minutes after putting our stuff in the locker. The ride itself? My son absolutely loved it and has put it as his #3. My daughter unfortunately had the same issues she tends to have with most of RMC's trains, which is the seatbelt buckle digging directly into her thigh, which means every time there's any bit of airtime she winces in pain. I ended up focusing more on her throughout the ride and wasn't able to give IG my full attention, so I'm probably going to have to give it another ride before I can fully form my own opinion about it, but after that first ride I liked it more than Steel Vengeance but less than Twisted Timbers. I'm weird, I guess. After the ride on Iron Gwazi, we decided we didn't want to hop back in line a second time since our flight out of Florida was early the following morning. Instead, we called it an hour before park close, hopped back in the car, made a stop off the highway to grab some Waffle House for dinner as one does, and said our final goodbyes to this very cool park. We still prefer Williamsburg over Tampa, but I can see an argument to be made either way! And I'm pretty pleased with the fact that we were able to hit all of the park's coasters on a Sunday without having to shell out for any skip-the-line passes. Always a plus.

https://6abc.com/phantom-fall-fest-allegheny-county-west-mifflin-police-pennsylvania-amusement-park/12308853/