coasterbill

I find a few things interesting about banshee.com. 1) The domain is registered with GoDaddy and is being pointed to GoDaddy servers. No other Kings Island websites seem to be hosted at GoDaddy. They're pointing to these Namesevers (I only checked the Diamondback website and the park website). Name Server: NS1.CLT.PEAK-10.COM Name Server: NS1.JAX.PEAK-10.COM So if they're planning on putting this up on GoDaddy they're doing it for the sole purpose of screwing with us. This seems entirely plausible at this point but I wanted to point it out. Also... this page is being worked on right now. A few minutes ago it showed an error page but not the default page for a GoDaddy site. It was an Apache error page. The only thing is it looked like it was built in HTML to look like an error page but wasn't a real error page. Now it's showing "Various Banshees around the web" which is what was there a few months ago according to the web archive. Since it just changed, someone is working on it... and that seems like it can't be a coincidence given the time. It could still be them screwing with us. But it's definitely them.

I prefer Ka to Storm Runner and Xcellerator IF you ride in the front seat but I agree with you otherwise. Riding Ka or Dragster in the front seat is an amazing experience. You literally feel like the skin is being pulled off of your face, and Ka isn't really all that rough in the front compared to the other rows.

Last week we rode El Toro in the pouring rain 3 times, it was absolutely amazing.

We went to Canobie on Sunday for the first time ever and had a great time. The park was very crowded which is great to see at a regional, non-corporate park. All of the flats had at least a 10-15 minute wait and Corkscrew and Yankee Cannonball had 30 minute waits all day (Untamed was pumping out cars so even though the line was long it was only about 20 minutes). I really wanted to ride Equinox but it opened in the morning and then was closed the rest of the day after it got stuck in the air with riders for 5-10 minutes so we never got the chance. Untamed and Yankee Cannonball were a lot of fun and very re-rideable. I also loved the the Mine of Lost Souls and the Flume (which apparently uses a real saw mill for it's station), the Psychodrome (which had a great program) and just the general atmosphere of the park. You can tell that they put a lot of love into the place, and everything is well themed and maintained. We spent about 9-10 hours at the park and would love to visit again in a few years. I think the 4-6 hours suggestion in the TPR park index is a bit misleading unless the crowds were larger than normal due to the mild weather. This is an all day park.

Possibly, it's our home park for all intents and purposes. My girlfriend and I go all the time so feel free to pm me when you find out when you're going and maybe we can meet up.

It was something mechanical, they had people walking the lift until it finally opened around 1:00 with 2 trains. We had a great day at the park today despite all outdoor coasters closing around 6:30 due to lightning and never re-opening. Six Flags had every ride staffed and ready to re-open but the lightning never let up. We still got a ton of rides in including Kingda Ka which was down most of the day since it can't operate in the rain but opened for a few hours. Every other ride operated despite the rain until the lightning started. One thing I found interesting was that when it was storming and every coaster was closed, Batman the Dark Knight and Skull Mountain were walk-ons. We got 2 rides in a row on Skull Mountain without getting off when it was one of only 2 coasters in the park that were operating... pathetic.

I'm not sure why but this made me (literally) laugh out loud.

I have a question for those that are more educated than I am about ride regulations. The lawyer speaking out against theme parks and the hosts of the show keep pointing to the fact that carnival rides are regulated by the federal government and rides at permanent parks aren't. My understanding is that amusement rides are regulated by state governments or organizations within each state while carnivals travel between states which is likely why they need to be federally regulated. Am I correct in this? If so, it seems like they're using some strategic language here. They act outraged because carnivals are regulated by the "feds" and theme parks aren't but carefully leave out the fact that theme parks are regulated by state organizations. By leaving that out they imply that theme parks aren't regulated at all or are internally regulated but obviously this isn't the case. Thanks in advance for clarifying this. Oh, and great job Robb!

I usually know better than to even click on this thread anymore. I'm not sure why I clicked on it today, but I now feel dumber for having done so.

Am I the only one that really likes the Parachute drop? It's now the only ride of it's kind in the United States and is an enjoyable ride that caters to a lot of people. The capacity is low, the ride is short and it's probably closed due to weather conditions more than every other ride in the park but it's still unique and it would be a shame if the park removed it. I could understand it from a business standpoint, but it would still be a shame.

I've ridden a little over 180 coasters and find them very hard to rank. There are 3 coasters that stand far above the rest, and those are (not in order) Phoenix, El Toro and (I feel like I have to apologize for this, lol) Millennium Force. I also have a few coasters that are so awful that they're easy to rank at the bottom (Mind Eraser at SFA, Mind Eraser at SFNE, the Great Adventure Viper and Green Lantern at SFMM. Filling in coasters in the top and bottom 10 or 20 takes some time but isn't too tough. I know a top or bottom 20 coaster when I come across it in my track record. When I come across something like Hercules or Anaconda Ill move it to the bottom and when I see a ride like Tatsu, Raptor or I305 ill move it to the top and then it's pretty easy to arrange them. What I find difficult is ranking the middle of the road coasters, especially if I haven't ridden them in awhile and when they're very different types of rides. I have no idea how to rank something like Avalanche at KD against Canyon Blaster at the Adventuredome. Things like that take forever.

The Zipper is the king of the flat ride. I've never been on a ride that disorienting.

We visited in February of this year so I'll rank everything we rode. Tatsu ranks in my top 5 overall coasters and X2 and Green lantern rank in my bottom 5 coasters. Green Lantern is the worst coaster I have ever ridden besides Viper at Great Adventure. It's a terrible ride. Best: Tatsu Apocalpse Batman Lex Luthor (my favorite drop tower besides StratosFear at Knoebels) Goliath Scream (Bizarro is much better but it's a good ride) Ninja (This ride is very unique and I think very underrated) Viper (I can't believe how smooth this ride is) Superman Jet Stream Gold Rusher Colossus Revolution Riddlers Revenge X2 (I rode it in 2002 and hated it, but after hearing about how good it was for the next decade and seeing the X2 transformation we rode it again this year. It was just as awful as I remembered. A great first drop and then a world of pain) Worst: Green Lantern

All aboard the pain train. I of course realize that there was nobody on the train and they would never allow anyone to ride this in the rain but could you imagine?

I was going to post that too but didn't because Arrow's don't have test seats.

This ride should be a ton of fun but it looks like the capacity will be pretty low. When this thing first opens after years of construction I wouldn't be shocked to see multi-hour waits. I don't even want to think about what the wait time would be during PPP. Oh, and kudos to Knoebels on the free carousel rides. This is why Knoebels is awesome.

We went to Great Adventure last 4th of July and had a great day. The park was dead and it was a beautiful day. There was a threat of rain that never showed up which might have something to do with the light crowds but the 4th might be a dead day in general. Oh, and if you go to Great Adventure on the 4th and want to see the fireworks... watch them from the walkway between El Toro and the bridge to Bizarro. You get a great view and there are no crowds.

Here are some more images of Flying Turns testing at All American Thrills. I think this might finally be it!

Went to Six Flags New England the other day and noticed that they now let you wait for the front seat on Batman... sort of. They have a line painted on the steps so that riders wishing to wait for the front seat can stay right and everyone else can stay left. They also have signs at the bottom and top of the steps clearly explaining that front seat riders should keep right. When we got to the top of the steps, the ride op on a power trip told the people in front of us they couldn't wait for the front, and he kept talking over them and telling them they asked why the signs all said we could. The operator finally got frustrated and gave in and then asked how many were in our group. I said 2 but we want to wait or the front too and he only gave in after I pointed out the sign that he was leaning on that said we could wait for the front. Nobody in our group or the group in front of us said anything in a nasty tone... we were just really confused, so I don't know why he felt the need to be so obnoxious. When he decided to let us wait for the front he announced "this is why people shouldn't be able to wait for the front" loudly and walked away. Just because you don't like the parks new policy doesn't mean you don't have to abide by it... it's your job. Six Flags New England's operators are the rudest I've seen in the chain. There are always exceptions but overall it's been this way for a few years (I haven't been to all the parks but operators are much better at Great Escape, Great Adventure, Magic Mountain and even Six Flags America). There was no sign on Goliath about front seat rides, but if you asked, they let you wait. Golitah operators always seem to be fast and friendly and are definitely the exception to the rule.

I don't know much about Top Spins other than the fact that they suck, but isn't it interesting that SFNE is removing theirs the same time Great Adventure's has been closed for over a week? It seems like maybe they're going to use New England's for parts for Great Adventure as it's clearly the more popular of the two. Is that plausible?

Sorry but this is hilarious.

That video is excellent. Great job! I really enjoyed it.

Apparently Goliath is testing with it's old train. Finally!

I like credit whoring but I also like not being dead... so I'll pass. What the hell is with that drop after the loop?