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Everything posted by PKI Jizzman
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Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Damn people must have been reading the stellar TPR reviews of KD Haunt! I heard it's 35k? -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
This is a lucky guy is all I gotta say as far as this year goes visiting KI. I had 3/10 good experiences summer, spring fall visits w/o FL. -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
That's a fun report but on the other hand, without fast lane, I've only been on Diamondback a handful of times because how long the lines were. When did you visit? -
Dollywood Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to crispy's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
So when they remove Lightning Rod you think they'll lower or increase ticket prices? -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Agreed, Kill Mart and Madame are very solid and the rest are bleh. When they demo'd the building by Scrambler they got rid of their best indoor haunt which was usually just a classic haunted house. Trail of Terror would have been straight back beyond Orion and the classic haunted woods walk through was always great. They used to have the train + haunt using the old white water canyon trail but since MT was added I don't believe it can run anymore. No more Urgent Scare...maybe they will demo that old action theater? KI used to be a premier event that I thought could be elevated to Knott's level but it's gone backwards. It's a bummer that KI seems to read the local area before adding anything that's not a coaster. The haunted house scene is decimated in the area so they don't feel competition nowadays. They only added new slides when the competitor, the Beach, added a slide. This year we have no Beach, and like 4 haunts in the area so no surprise KI is just absolutely slammed. -
Photo TR: A Tale of Two Orlando Halloweens
PKI Jizzman replied to cfc's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Great report, thanks for sharing the photos and reviews of all the houses, looked like a very well rounded trip! -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
"When it became clear that she was never going to get the last two rows filled before the gates opened, I tried walking back there and she actually came over and told me to go sit in row 5 to keep the train as full as possible. I figured maybe there were exit passes going to the back two rows, but nope they went empty." That's so frustrating and it's happened to me specifically at Cedar Fair parks this year. The worst example was at CGA requesting the back row on Flight Deck and Railblazer which is 8 single people per train. My group was put in the front row and the back 3 rows went empty. It's so stupid it's almost funny. -
Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to OzCatter's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
The Prowler ERT session was on Saturday morning at open. It was a good 30ish minute wait on Friday night during Haunt. -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
It seems like every park in America has been absolutely packed this month. I never thought it was possible for KI to have these crazy FL waits. I intended to buy FL and do one long Saturday at KI before it closes for the season but maybe I'll just settle with going on a Friday or Sunday at opening. There's a clear lack of good workers across the board, and it seems like the incentive pay is bringing in folks who want to do the bare minimum and never considered working at a theme park previously. That's been noticed at Worlds of Fun, KI, CP, SDC, Carowinds, BGT, and SWO from my experience this year. Glad you made it out to KI @prozach626 ! -
A quick update before I do a report later: We heard yesterday/Saturday was one of the busiest days in recent history so that explains things. Almost 30k people at SDC! Sunday today was much more manageable. Even still food sells out and they don't tell you until you've waited 30 minutes to get to the cashier. The cinnamon bread house only uses one cashier and they combined it with a Starbucks. We waited 30-40 minutes for cinnamon bread, because there's 1 person getting coffee, cashing you out, so you're just standing there holding your bread as it goes from warm to lukewarm to room temp. Please separate those who want coffee from those who just want to swiftly pick up a loaf and move on. Time Traveler's line wasn't that bad yet they closed it off at 815, when the park closed at 9pm. That was a major bummer but Outlaw Run kept open until 9pm so the trip ended with 4x rides in 30 minutes. As beautiful as the park is, the rides are awesome, I have to say the park is slipping. The pumpkin coconut chicken curry had barely any flavor, the tater patch skillet was gross mush, the artist selling bird paintings upon further look was selling printed off framed photos not hand drawn art... SDC is still an elite American park but when I started to look at the details of things it's just not as amazing as it once was. Oh and yeah one train ops on everything. Even Giant Barn Swing was only running one side! You really need Trailblazer if you are going on weekends. So I hope it's just a flukey 2021 visit but SDC really needs to focus on the details to contend for best park in America.
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Outlaw Run was holding an hour wait all day yesterday with one train and 20 minutes Trailblazer, Time Traveler was 2-3 hours stand by and 30 min with Trailblazer. Outlaw Run is a saint, who said this thing is rough? It's running like a dream! No different than my rides 6 years ago, what a beast. Time Traveler was running in total darkness which was really cool although I think I'll appreciate the turning more in the daytime as a first time rider. The first drop is definitely one of the best in the world, wow is that fantastic. Here's why it's one train for TT: they have 3 trains. Train 1 and 2 were running fine. They decided to put train 3 to bed for the season and it's in parts right now. At some point train 2 had 'major issues' with the wheels and it's waiting on parts from Mack/Germany so here we are with 1 train. Guests are frustrated and disappointed, so are the ops. At a 10pm closing they were likely going to have to work until midnight or 1am since TT is only 16 riders per train. Ouch. We were only at the park 6pm-10pm and rode Outlaw once and TT 2x with Trailblazer. If you're going to the park without Trailblazer, keep a look out in the last 2 hours at the park - people leaving the park were just hanging their lanyards up at the ride exit and or just giving them away to anyone they saw. Folks can be pretty friendly down here! There's still plenty of jackasses though (many people seriously pissed about the slow lines for regular and Trailblazer) along with unruly kids who couldn't understand why one line moved and theirs didn't. Full day 2 today coming up!
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Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to OzCatter's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Hooray Mamba actually opened today! It was a fun surprise, it's like mini Steel Dragon 2000. The first two hills were great and had some funky floaty airtime. Prowler is running really well. Just finished a 6 ride power hour front and back, it's fantastic. Don't talk crap about this kitty coaster! -
Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
I hope Orion eventually opened! -
Worlds of Fun (WOF) Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to OzCatter's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Right next to the airport is Scott's Kitchen and Hanger, go get some burnt ends that will rock your world! https://www.scottskitchenandcatering.com Worlds of Fun is a mostly pretty park that just needs so more rides. Patriot was better than anticipated, Prowler is funning fantastic, Timberwolf was alright, but Mamba was down all day and we were told is down the weekend. We overheard airbrake issues, but who knows. The Pumpkin Eater scare zone was really well done, it should be a maze! People kinda forgot about it, I walked through it 2x nearly by myself until a black and white fuzzy friend decided to join me: -
Carowinds Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
We had yellow jacket and friggin' bald. faced. hornets. issues around our house this year, never had that in the past! I'm not sure my dumb theory is they thrived in 2020 with people being in quarantine, and now we're seeing more of them >.< -
Carowinds Discussion Thread
PKI Jizzman replied to robbalvey's topic in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Here's my report from my weekend trip to Carowinds with friends! Flew in Saturday at 530, quickly got a ride over to Carowinds new Spring Hill Suites hotel. It's right across from the parking lot so it's an easy 5 minute walk over to the park. The hotel does have a full bar, but does not have food or a restaurant. Amazingly the lyft driver had no sweat weaving in and out of the batshit insane traffic. Carowinds is right off the high way, but there's 2 huge intersections that really slow down traffic, so it just backs up for miles when busy. Carowinds needs their own exit if they can somehow make that work. So once we got to the hotel, we were pretty much stuck. No lyft/uber would ever want to come in and get us, and it would have taken an hour to get in; spoiler, the traffic stayed until probably 2am. Famous Dave's is within walking distance, but it closes at 8pm daily. Sooo we were forced to eat at Harmony Hall and I've still yet to have a good meal there. It's.....edible. Really disappointed that they can't serve better quality food. Saturday night was seemingly like all other American parks - so packed you could barely navigate some areas. We just had drinks, checked out the atmosphere, and were lucky to get 1 ride on Fury at night with a one use fast lane. Sunday much more manageable, although fast lane was needed to get in multiple rides and re-ride some coasters I hadn't done in years (Nighthawk). Let me first applaud Carowinds for their Haunt event. Their scare zones were packed with actors as were the mazes. The park really felt different at night and had me second guessing how to navigate with all of the different lights, fog, and decorations shining. Depths of Darkness: This maze should be your #1 priority if you're going to Scarowinds. An awesome blend of new technology, big physical sets, great scares, some find mind tricks, and you get some different angles of Intimidator as you walk under it! The best CF maze I've done in some time. Tooth Fairy: This is new for 2021 and you know you're in for some disappointment when it's called Tooth Fairy but the exterior of the build is.... it's themed to ...windows? There wasn't enough happening in this maze, nor were the decorations or effects much of anything to make it stand out. It was over too soon, and the finale was ok. But hey at least there was a finale. Slaughterhouse: Can we get rid of these mazes already? This one looked like a lengthy maze, but it was actually only one small section of the area being used and it ended before the scares started to come. Bummer. Silver Screen Studios: This seemed like a fun idea on paper, checking out this old movie set from a director that figured the best horror movie should be made by actually killing the actors! It was fun, but seemed like they just threw a lot of random things together. Missed our on the Reaping, I like those scarecrow mazes and it looked like they use part of rapids ride like CP does, I'm sure it was good. Rides! Or...coasters! We didn't do any flat rides because the drop tower is so small, sorry..., electro spin was down, and I've done enough Boo Hill shooters. What else is there? Windseeker was down uhhh... there's no pendulum/frisbee ride. Alright Carowinds let's get some flats in there. Coasters: Carolina Cyclone - Hey guess what! Vortex lives on, the trains were re-painted and are in use. It's takes the course pretty fast, so hold on right, it's a wild arrow looper. Goldrusher - This is an olddddd mine train where each the 3 rows in 1 car have to move the lap bar together, like at CP. So if you have 2 adults and 4 kids in 1 car, you're gonna have to be very stapled. Even still, we saw 2 young girls unbuckle there seatbelt and fold themselves out of the train right as it pulled into the station. They just...wiggled up and out. Our jaws were on the floor. So it's uncomfortable, but it's got a really fun layout. This thing spends half the time in trenches/in tunnels! Nighthawk - What the hell, might as well ride the OG Vekoma flyer. I have always like how the corkscrews ride vs the rolling trash can barrel rolls. Shocking... this thing is smooth. I don't think it's going anywhere for a while as Firehawk's trains are there on site for parts. Intimidator - It's just a fun re-rideable hyper, it's right next to the bar, it's a walk on with FL. Afterburn - Okay okay okay I've been on Montu now. No it doesn't have Montu's intensity but it's still a great B&M invert and I still think that final wing over between the trees is one of the best inversions on an invert in the states. It just rips your legs off! Fury 325 - It's loved by all for good reason. The drop seems endless, the speed keeps up the whole ride, the airtime is great, and sometimes that trim didn't hit. What was weird was we heard it making noises off ride walking in/out of the park, I didn't remember that. andddddd now..... new for me.... Copperhead Strike! I will be honest I passed up going to Carowinds a few times since it was added since I just didn't think it'd be worth going out of my way for and damn I am mad at myself. Copperhead will treat you to every G Force that's possible - the launches are barely worth a mention but you do feel them get you going. Laterals on tight turns, amazing hangtime in 4 different types, airtime ranging from floater to ejector, and this coaster has Cedar Fair's best attempt at theming. Copperhead is so unique, I really really enjoyed it and I really wanted to claim it as my favorite coaster in the park, but you can't compare this to anything else, especially Fury. What a gem Carowinds has and I can finally say Carowinds is a pretty well rounded park. They still need some more flat rides and they have a glaring need for a new wooden coaster. Hopefully they get one soon to really elevate the line up! I couldn't bring myself to ride the old Vortex stand up, haha. Do you prefer daytime or nighttime Fury? I think I choose night specifically for no wasps. There was tons on Sunday. Let's get the day going with a 1999 B&M invert! It still kicks ass! The biggest issue with the park right now. Not enough staff. There were no separators/groupers at the station so if you're a shitty kid/adult, you could just hop over into the FL line after the queue entry and walk right in. On top of that, guests had to merge themselves and this was a sticky situation since you'd get supervise-less kids not sure what to do/how to assert themselves; and then later in the day you'd have liquored up adults/teens getting into it when one tried to get in front of the other. Hoooooboy I hope they fix this ASAP. I made a number of team members aware of the issues I saw. Love the views of Afterburn from back here! Time for some Copperhead love! First time on one of these newer Mack launchers/loopers. The trains are gorgeous, lap bars are comfy, seats are fine but they do I guess give you a necessary hug around the sides, I wish they were a bit more open but I can understand the design. Very cool looking. Copperhead is so packed full of amazing elements that after the launch I forgot about the jojo roll start! You don't need to hang on, that's the lap bar's job! Some surprises await in here. Great job, Mack + CF team! A beautiful tangled mess of track! Copperhead is long, has great airtime, unique hangtime in 4 different ways, and it seems to go on forever. Definitely an elite coaster my book! I've always enjoyed this old mine train since it spend a lot of time below ground. Don't miss it! Carowinds has adopted the whole "don't touch your lap bar!!!!! never touch it!!!!!!!" ride op spiels.... whatever as long as the trains are moving quickly... Sycamore's puts out some amazing beer (Mountain Candy), but this one was just okay. Still, love the coaster brews! The ops had a funny "don't text and drive" spiel, yet they didn't want to actually address half the train that had their phones out on many of my rides. It's a solid B&M hyper, you can't not have fun on this thing. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (of course it was some stupid teen who did this, and no, his friend didn't fall for it) I could lay under the grass and watch Fury fly around me all day. I love how interactive it is. Uh-mazing. Take a 10 minute ride around the corner to Mac's Speed Shop for amazing friendly service, fantastic smoked meats, and the best onion rings in the world. This whole plate cost $11, by the way. Don't eat in the parks if you don't have to. Time for some night rides! Depths of Darkness takes you under Intimidator, cool! Hello Vortex trains! This wing over, man.....whew! Here's some funny photos the round it out. While it can be stressful to visit Scarowinds, just do yourself a favor and stay on site at the hotel. You get guaranteed entry, you can walk to and from, and it had plenty of available rooms so I guess it's mainly locals packing the park. Get back there for Copperhead if you haven't been on it yet!!! -Zach