coasterbill

Oh no... I'm never going to get anything done at work ever again.

And sorry for the double post but amazingly the ride is open today. www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/06/02/reports-fire-at-kings-island-flight-of-fear-cleared-out/9876127/

If that's the case then I really don't know what their thought process is. It seems very inconstant.

It does but I'm no expert on that sort of thing (or the rain thing, I'm just going off of what other parks do with similar rides in similar conditions). The layout might have a lot to do with this policy too as Raptor has been known to valley and I don't think Mantis has ever done that. Out of curiosity, on windy days if the ride may need a bit more speed (as the policy seems to be driven by a concern about the rides valleying) can they turn the first drop trim off on Mantis?

When we were there last year we also noticed all of the B&M coasters running in the rain, but I guess if it rains and it's windy everyone has to settle for Mantis. It's a shame as it's probably their worst coaster. Personally I think the only ride in the park that should close in the rain is Dragster. All of their other coaster types run just fine in the rain everywhere else. I think the highlight for me on our visit last year was during a brief sun shower where it drizzled for about 20 minutes in the middle of an otherwise nice day on Labor Day weekend. Every single ride in the park closed except for the flats that were covered, Gatekeeper, Raptor, Skyride and Mantis (and maybe a few others we didn't walk by). This included Snake River Falls, a ride that's only purpose is to create a massive wall of water that soaks everyone on the boats and on the nearby bridge. I had no intention of riding it but when I saw that it was closed I had to walk up to the ride host sitting at the entrance just to make sure it was really closed due to weather and not something mechanical... they confirmed that it was closed due to the light drizzle that at that point had ended 10 minutes prior. I swear on my life this ride really closes in light rain, I'm not making this up.

There's no way of knowing. Any answer we give you will just be speculation.

I'd love to get out to this park one day to ride this, this looks amazing.

Not to mention that Top Thrill Dragster's bleachers fit the theme of being at a drag strip. Even if they could build them, something like that would look ridiculous in the Golden Kingdom.

It sounds like a fire in the Flight of Fear building. www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/warren-county/mason/report-kings-island-flight-of-fear-indoor-roller-coaster-catches-fire EDIT: The fire has been put out and there were no injuries. www.whio.com/news/news/fire-put-out-at-kings-island/ngCF4/

The only coaster that's given me a physical bruise was Magnum but we rode it a lot before that happened.

This reminds me so much of Harbor Cruise from Inselfieber... which is of course a good thing.

I'm glad it won you over. I always thought it was strange how people could have such different experiences on the same ride. There have been times where I've ridden a ride with my girlfriend (who's much shorter than me) and when we got off a ride that I really enjoyed she said it was rough and she hated it (the opposite happens too of course, usually on stand-up coasters which she likes and I hate). I guess if you ever do experience a rough ride on Batman again just ride it in the front and this will eliminate the problem. I know we always ride Kingda Ka and Batman in the front and that might have something to do with the fact that we never experience the roughness other people talk about. As far as El Toro it's strange but I don't think I've ever ridden it in the morning. Normally when I go to a park I ride Intamin Rides first as they break down frequently but because we go to the park so often we usually start the day on Batman and Nitro as they never have lines for the first few hours of the day. As far as El Toro I'm glad you enjoyed it... you absolutely picked the best seat on the train.

Parts have been spotted near the ride. KI Central Hopefully that's a good sign.

While I do prefer Superman, I agree that Wild One is a great coaster and the only real stand-out ride at SFA as all of the other coasters are clones (except for Apocalypse but that ride is horrible).

I'm glad you had fun. I agree with you on Skull Mountain... the ride isn't anything to write home about but it's a lot of fun. I'll never understand why so many people claim that Batman is / was a headbanger. It's very possible that it's the smoothest ride I've ever ridden despite it's incredible intensity. I think the fact that it's a clone combined with the fact that the ride isn't very long cause people to overlook how good it is.

That sounds like a typical SFNE day. At first it's really annoying when the park puts specific policies in place and operators ignore all of them in the most obnoxious ways possible but eventually you just get used to it as it happens so frequently. I wouldn't even mind it as much if everyone that worked in the park wasn't so incredibly rude. That's too bad about Goliath, for awhile it was one of the only rides in the park that didn't have awful ride ops. EDIT: I realized that I shouldn't have referred to the park as "SFNE", the proper term is "Six Flags New England, the 5th Friendliest Park in the World!".

You're right, but my point was really that the more desirable seats will always have the longer lines. On Sheikra the back isn't really that desirable for most people, everyone wants to sit in the front. Sheikra also sits approximately 11,000 people per row which helps.

I think that's ridiculous. I'm not saying they should use all the four as that apparently slows down the queue once it splits but they could use one side of the station with both the loading and unloading platform working. Given the trains only carry 18 it would be significantly better. Also, why did they go with only one row for the last car in the first place? I know the trains are made so that a last row can be added but why haven't they done that? someone wrote on the SFGAdv thread that only using one loading/unloading area and only running 3 trains gives them the best capacity. i dodnt buy it, and still think its a money issue. TTD uses 5 trains and has 2 loading areas and the separate unloading areas. I work at GADV and I know for a fact the ride gets better numbers now then it did when it used all 4 load stations. Last year was the first time the ride gave over one million riders in a season. The switch track would slow down cycles because you had to wait for it transfer which wasn't the quickest process. Plus the switch track would have problems a lot and cause the ride to go down. Idk why the park doesn't switch in the last row of seats in on Ka but that's up to management. 1 loading platform is used in place of four for better capacity and to save on expenses. I love the way they run Kingda Ka now. The fact that the queue slows down once it splits shouldn't be downplayed because it makes a big difference when you want to wait for a certain seat. For example... the wait for the front row of Kingda Ka is usually about 20 minutes once you get in line for it. That same line in the past would have been at least 80 minutes (20 times 4 stations)... probably more because you have to add time for switching the track like Ryan was saying. Logic would tell you that this wouldn't happen because if the line was 80 minutes it wouldn't be as long... people wouldn't get in it. This is not the case. For some reason people always fill the lines for each row... I don't know why that is, I guess it's because they assume that if it's within the area they have set up then it's a standard wait time. The line is rarely longer than the allotted space but it's almost never shorter. A perfect example is on a ride like Raptor compared to a ride like Montu. Raptor always has a 5 minute wait for the front because the line is only long enough to fit a 5 minute wait. Montu has some switchbacks for the front so the line always fills up and there's a 45 minute wait for the front. People will always fill the line, it's rarely shorter or longer than the line unless there's a very convenient waiting area like the back wall of the station (Dragster) that naturally flows in to the line for a specific row. My point is that if you prefer the front or back row on a specific coaster like most enthusiasts do then you shouldn't ever want a duel loading station. It doesn't matter as much on the other rows because if there was just one station the queue would have been longer and it evens out, but if you prefer a row that will have a longer queue then having more than one loading station is awful.

Pretty soon people are going to start blaming him every time it rains. Seriously... say what you want about the guy but not everything is his fault. Anyway I normally agree that environmentalists can be pretty annoying but seriously... eat at Best of the West and look at the water. There are more turtles in that lake than I've ever seen anywhere else. There's a floating log over by the flume and it will always be so packed with turtles that you can't even see the log that they're standing on. There are a ton of them. They'll have a really hard time building anything there, especially when they have a ton of room for a coaster in Chiller's old spot which won't disrupt any wildlife at all.

The city is very serious about protecting those wetlands. The wetlands in question are also home to an unbelievable amount of turtles and fish (eat at Best of the West and you'll see what I mean) I don't think there's any chance of this happening, especially when they have plenty of open space they can use to build a coaster. I also don't see it happening because they already have El Toro but that's a different story.

I addressed the fact that I was unfamiliar with the park. I didn't have a knee jerk reaction where I just decided not to go based on one incident before asking about it, but I think for someone who knows basically nothing about the park to ask a question about the parks clientele after someone gets stabbed in the neck as a result of potential gang violence (according to police) is completely justified and not "silly" at all. Edit: Especially when I want to go on Labor day weekend and a few posts above mine someone said that Memorial Day and Labor Day fireworks shows tend to bring out "unruliness at the park". As I said, if this is an isolated incident then of course I'll go to the park, but knowing nothing about the place I wanted to ask.

Even though I live about an hour and a half away I haven't paid much attention to this ride because of the manufcaturer and the park that's building it but I have to admit this ride looks great and after watching that video we'll definitely be making our way out there to ride it this summer.

We were thinking about visiting on Labor Day weekend on our way back from Cedar Point but obviously I'm a little hesitant to do so now. I know this incident is extreme no matter what kind of crowd the park draws but do they typically have a rougher crowd? Forgive my ignorance, I just don't know much about the park other than the fact that they have a great wood coaster.

I would have voted for a tree, but that wasn't on the list... oh well, maybe they'll plant one or two in 2016.