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Thank you all for your feedback! Seems like the majority prefers Kings Dominion. I still think we might go with Carowinds. For me Kings Dominion is not complete without Volcano. We definitely love giga‘s and hypercoasters which are rerideable. I think Kings Dominion has the nicer setting and the more complete experience with all the trees and relaxing rides like Blue Ridge Tollway or the ferris wheel, were are not much into flats or second tier coasters like FoF or Stunt Coaster. In conclusion: we are looking forward to riding the hell out of the 3 B&M‘s at Carowinds and save nearly 3 hours of driving.

Hi folks, as we are getting closer to our US trip I, need your help/tips: Basically, we have to choose between Carowinds or Kings Dominion as our 4th stop on our road trip. We do Cedar Point at the beginning, then Kings Island, Dollywood (we would have liked to cancel this part because of Lightning Rod, but we have a cabin which is non refundable), Carowinds or Kings Dominion and Cedar Point again. We have been to Carowinds in 2015 and Kings Dominion in 2016 (Busch Gardens as well), and we will visit both parks next year again. It's a tough choice this time as we had planned to try Twisted Timbers, but as our beloved Volcano is closed and we are not really grey out fans (I305), we might prefer Fury, Intimidator and Afterburn at Carowinds - but we are not sure.... So what would you do in our case? Which park do you like better? Hope to get some input. Thank you.

Someone on reddit talked to a Lightning Rod employee and he was told that the coaster might be closed up to 2 months from now as they still haven't started track work - that's a real bummer as it would be the second time we might miss the ride during our mid August visit after the 2016 desaster.....

So when did they actually close, at 6pm? Well, we thought about going to Six Flags Great Adventure during our yearly US-Coastertour, but hearing that they often close early makes us drop Six Flags and go for Carowinds instead...(we have been to Great Adventure 2016 and 2013). Cannot understand their policies, seems like a common Six Flags problem as New England does this as well quite often I guess. We are flying over from Germany and would be bummed if the park closes much earlier. After all these years we prefer the Cedar Fair parks over Six Flags.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/38419337/woman-injured-by-flying-cell-phone-on-roller-coaster Maybe because of this story......

This is the calendar of ERT dates for season pass and it still has LR as the ERT for Saturday August 4th but that could be wishful thinking on their part. https://www.dollywood.com/themepark/Guest-Services/Early-Entry Word is that the park handed the problem over to RMC again as there is still warranty going on. The ride might be closed at least for the next two weeks, the ERT yesterday was cancelled last minute.... Source: well its from reddit but better than nothing as the park does not say anything at all...

Well, the park changed the Lightning Rod closure info, now it says: "NOTICE: Lightning Rod is closed for repair. We apologize for any inconvenience." instead of "closed for maintenance". Wonder what exactly went wrong...

That coaster is actually straining my nerves........Hope they figure it out until mid August..... Besides that, has anybody experience with contacting the parks guest services via email? I emailed them 2 times in the last few months asking some questions regarding our upcoming trip and never got a response....

Sorry to bring this up again but is anyone at the park and could give an update on the status of Lightning Rod? The app shows it closed for the day and our trip will happen in a few weeks...

Timesaver Unlimited gives you unlimited rides on Lightning Rod, regular Timesaver gives you one ride, unless you forego dropline and then you can go a second time. Yeah, sounds logical, but the website tells something different: ""TimeSaver - For rides, enjoy using expedited entrances ten times throughout the day at your choice of TimeSaver attractions. Your combination of ten rides can include ten different TimeSaver attractions, or you can ride your favorite rides* up to ten times. For theaters, enjoy unlimited daily show reservations. TimeSaver Unlimited – Allows unlimited access to expedited entrances at your choice of participating TimeSaver attractions* and unlimited show reservations at participating theaters. *Which rides and shows are eligible for TimeSaver? Rides - Your choice of ten different attractions or ride your favorite rides up to ten times. Barnstormer Dizzy Disk FireChaser Express Mystery Mine Sky Rider Smoky Mountain River Rampage Tennessee Tornado Thunderhead Waltzing Swinger Wild Eagle Drop Line (limit one ride per person) Lightning Rod ® (limit one ride per person)""

So did you get unlimited rides on Lightningrod with time saver or was is it like one time only, because that is what the website states....?

Well at least the additional seatbelts will hopefully hold you in place just in case the restraints fail.....Seriously, whoever is responsible for that issue (Cedar Point, RMC or IOE) they should really look into that..... Anyway, Twisted Timbers seems to be down to 1 train ops again, don't know if that might also be related to the same issue....

I cannot believe that the restraint came loose after they checked it, what would have happened if they had not noticed that and sent the train off? Sounds like a serious issue.....I hope we will never experience such a thing during our visit this coming August. I remember hearing a report earlier this season when the restraint came loose after they launched the train and the guy screaming and shouting to stop the train......I am not sure how accurate these reports are or if there is a real safety concern...

I told them that we are going in late August and they still were not sure about Volcano......

Just got an email from Kings Dominion stating that they do not expect to open Volcano anytime soon.....seems there are some major headaches with the ride....well, it's an Intamin.

There is talk on reddit.com about extreme swaying on Steel Vengeance. The ride was down a few hours in the morning and there were several engineers watching the structure......Did anybody notice heavy swaying on that coaster as well? Wonder what they might do about it..... QUOTE from reddit.com: [Looks like a few engineers watching the ride pretty closely. The inversion under the lift hill is swaying pretty badly. I’d imagine that’s what they were working on earlier today. Still running as normal at the moment. 3 Heel_Paul • 4h a board fell from about that area on Monday. I hope to Christ this ride isn't ripping itself apart. ● fumar • 9h When I was there last week both inversions were swaying after the train came through but the bad part was the turn between the inversions. That turn was shaking like crazy after every train. There's also some compression on the first drop but that looked just like what happens the bottom of Goliath's dive loop. (I spent a lot of time in the infield last week) The amount of shaking is really concerning to me. It makes me think of the videos of son of beast. It would suck if they had to put trims in before the mcbr. 3 mynameisntjeffrey • 6h How does the coaster swaying compare to something like this part of this lightning rod video? I feel like the above is normal. If you want to see some real crazy swaying watch this video of the original rattler. 3 ginger_man_9001I305 >> Fury (101) • 5h Engineer here. I was riding it yesterday and noticed it was swaying pretty bad in the turnaround. Not surprised they are concerned about it. I hope their solution is not to trim the drop. Hopefully additional bracing will be a more economical solution. ● jhoosteenSteel Vengeance, Lightning Rod, Storm Chaser • 5h I was able to find this on Instagram. It does move quite a bit, but I wouldn’t say it’s much worse than Lightning Rod’s last turn (Not my video) https://instagram.com/p/BjfhBTvhtwH/ ● fumar • 2h That part doesn't seem bad and neither does the first drop (even though that's where they were looking at this morning). The first inversion shakes more and the turnaround shakes a ton. ● shanew21 • 9h Yes it’s the same part that we were watching. It was more swaying than I had seen on a coaster before. What concerned me is the backstage truck with 3 employees/engineers staring at that exact spot. I’m sure it’s not supposed to be happening to that extent. 1 texx2818 • 8h They were working on the drop this morning.]

Actually, according to http://dw.jonstoddart.com/ride.php?ride=Lightning%20Rod&day=2018-04-15, the ride ran for one hour each day (except) yesterday and then went down for the rest of the day. Not looking good..... That was last month. Also have you seen the weather we are having right now? You just have to adjust the date on that site and you will see what I meant .

Actually, according to http://dw.jonstoddart.com/ride.php?ride=Lightning%20Rod&day=2018-04-15, the ride ran for one hour each day (except) yesterday and then went down for the rest of the day. Not looking good.....

Is there anyone at the park today? Lightning Rod has been down for at least most of the day and yesterday, just curious if the downtime might be related to the new train design?

Will they ever figure out how to run Lightning Rod constantly? I am not sure.....

So how are the lines so far? Especially Lightning Rod?

I guess they can run two trains consistently in the meanwhile, but they stack horribly. That's what someone said in the Dollywood forum.

Well I guess the main problem might be opening the Yahoo japan account as you need to type in Japanese captcha, I don't know how to manage that.....

........especially why there is no availability from January until June?

I would like to have some advice how to buy the fastpass online?