AmyUD06

Thanks for the tips Bert! I'm surprised a Dinn coaster is so well received. What do you think of Storm Chaser? My #150 (Steel Vengeance) and #200 (Twisted Cyclone) were both RMCs, and I was thinking of keeping that trend going.

So as it turns out, I'll be at KK when I hit my 250th coaster. Any suggestions for the best one at this park to bestow the honor upon?

Pretty much all coasters close if there's the slightest bit of rain, let alone thunderstorms.

This will never get old. I love it.

If that system works anywhere near as well as the ones at Steel Vengeance and Twisted Timbers, be prepared for a bunch of headaches and also Flash Pass merges before the locker system. They annoy me so much that I'll often use the regular, paid lockers instead.

Maybe it's a California thing? Like in NJ, how restaurants aren't allowed to give people straws unless the customer asks for one.

Might as well just quote the last time I posted this, when they spent almost all their money to make another payment... At least they made that one LOL.

Since we're going with 15ths for some reason, my prediction is November 15th at the absolutely earliest. This is SFMM we're talking about here. EDIT: Actually disregard that; my actual estimate is January 15th, so they can pull a SEAS-move to drive next year's pass sales.

Note that FL will not help on SV or MF if the natural lines are about 20-30 minutes or less, since that's about where the merge points are.

Who in their right mind would wait 2-3 hours for that?

Which lazy river was open? Please tell me it was the good one (the original) near the entrance to the park, not the smaller, weaker one in the back? I can third the fact that Dorney hasn't allowed multiple laps on either of their lazy rivers since at least when CF took over the park in the early '90s. I don't think they did before then either, but that might've just been my parents not wanting to do multiple laps LOL. That is great news!

So I'm back home; I'll get up a full report when I get a chance. But there's some notes I wanted to make for anyone shooting for a front-row night ride on Beast: 1. Operations at Beast just drag. The train inches its way forward upon arrival at the station until it is in the proper load/unload position; this takes a solid minute and then some. According to three of the restraint checkers, it's programmed to do that, and is not in the operator's control. 2. They shutdown for fireworks at 9:30 on the dot; I got in the FL queue at 9:25 and only saw two trains go out before they stopped loading guests. It also wasn't until after 10:40 that the ride got running again; the new fireworks/drone show for this year is a lot longer than the old one. 3. Finally, the worst news: a complete lack of honoring row requests after the fireworks shutdown. Maybe I just encountered some grumpy employees, but the grouper denied my front row request and the control panel op made an announcement that "row requests may not be honored." They weren't sending out trains less than full. Really hoping that it was just those employees, since row requests were being honored the rest of both days I was there. So, if you're dead set on getting a front-row night ride, you have to time it so you're lined up in a row in the station prior by 9:25 to be safe.

Quick update from Soak City at Kings Island. I arrived at around 4:30 after my drive from Delaware and checking in to my hotel. Place is packed, to be expected with the holiday weekend and perfect weather. 15 minute wait for the lazy river LOL, and they weren't letting people do multiple laps. Both wave pools now have Hersheypark-style controlled access. Rules pertaining to skinpiness of bikinis are not being enforced at all haha. More to come from my day and half at the park. Update: How the hell is their not a revised Beast review here yet? Full review to follow, but here are some bullet points: -Yes, the trims still hit. First drop and first hill are just as hard, but the old-MCBR-shed and drop into the helix trims have been softened. -It's hard to discern the increased drop angle on the first drop, but the pullout and first turn are infinitely smoother. I actually got some air in the back row coming down the first drop. -There is a little "hump" in the track right before the turn into the second tunnel, which provided a very minor pop of airtime with laterals in the back row. Very surprising. -It absolutely flies through the course after the shed trims. Instead of creeping into the second lift hill, you now go a third of the way up on momentum alone. -The helix. Holy shit. This was the best part of the ride before, and is even better now. You enter at a much more extreme bank, allowing the train to carry more speed through it, and it slowly levels out as it ends, leading to some insane laterals. All together I'm very, very impressed with the ride. My favorite woodie just cemented it's spot. Operations are another story but that can wait for my full report.

Fix'd that for you. Also, calling that Mind Eraser train "new" is a massive stretch of the definition of the word.

From the website: "Our webcam streams are currently down. It is undetermined at this time when they'll be back online." Things with technology happen, and it's not really anyone's business why. Parks aren't going to issue a statement unless it's a foreseen issue, and even then maybe not.

Because, as had been discussed previously, they hadn't planned on opening much if any of the amusement park initially.

My usual plan of action at this park if I'm trying to hit everything as quickly as possible is as follows: -Dominator and Berzerker during the pre-opening operation period. -Woodstock Express before the line of kids gets too long...this will never have beyond a 30 minute wait but I feel a little weird as a nearly-40 year old adult waiting for a "kids" ride. -Tumbili -Reptilian (it is on FL, but it has horrible capacity). -Anaconda -Racer 75 -Apple Zapple -Grizzly -Twisted Timbers (two laps to make the most of the locker situation) -Flight of Fear -Intimidator 305 Then I start on flats that I'm interested in that don't have FL, followed by flats that do have FL, followed by re-rides on coasters.

You can redeem your FL purchase at any store that sells it, but the easiest way if you get there at opening is to go to the upgrade center booth immediately to the right after entering the main gate. If the park has a posted opening time of 9:00, the main gates should open at 8:30, along with Dominator and Berzerker. Note that quite a few rides are not on Fast Lane at this park. For adult-rideable coasters, that's Anaconda, Apple Zapple, Tumbili, Racer 75, Woodstock Express, and Grizzly. If you're concerned about getting on any of these, I'd hit them first after the rest of the park opens at the posted opening time (especially Apple Zapple, Woodstock Express and Racer, in that order.).

43 years, actually. And yeah, those speculating about a "non-trimmed Beast," or even a "less trimmed Beast" ever having opened to the public are just plain wrong. You just feel it more since they switched to the magnetic trims, which slow the train down much quicker in a shorter period of time (to the same speed) compared to the old skid trims.

I think he meant "why are people, not the park, bothering the city, because absolutely nothing is going to happen."

I'm reminded of that time last year when I made a last minute trip to Cedar Point over Memorial Day weekend, and the only hotel in the area that wasn't $500 a night was the Maples Motel....about 5 miles down US 6 east of the park, and the only thing separating the hotel from the double-line freight tracks was US 6, and the hotel was right near an intersection that crossed the tracks. Literally every 30 minutes a train would roll past and blare the horns. The proprietor, who was admitted awesome, was gracious enough to offer ear plugs on check in.

Let the speculation about Adventure Express' future begin. Yes I know they just repainted it and it's not going anywhere.

Everything right near the park is kinda lower mid-grade, if that bothers you. I used to stay in the total shithole right on property, simply because you can walk across the parking lot to the park, but that hasn't been open for years. I now typically stay about 20 minutes north on I-95 in Thornburg; there's a Best Western there that is quite nice. Since you're coming from the south, I'd look in Ashland right off the highway. I see a Hampton Inn, a Tru by Hilton, a Days Inn, and a Quality Inn, so there's a good spectrum there. As a plus there's actually bars and restaurants nearby, whereas the Doswell exit off 95 near the park has a Burger King, a 7-11, and that's about it.

Ouch, I'm hurt? And yeah, the Golden Ticket Awards are kinda a joke around here, but with only 86 posts on a not-even-three-years-old account, I shouldn't expect you to know that. Have fun with your "amazing" Cedar Point experience, featuring: -30-minute-wait-after-merge with Fast Lane on two of their top 3 coasters -Their top four coasters being maintenance nightmares, and rarely running for an entire day straight. -Most of the flats not being on Fast Lane. -The only superb food being at Melt and Famous Dave's, which aren't even CP restaurants. -No sense of urgency by most ride ops. -Separate admission water park, without any Fast Lane-accepting rides (the swim up bar is nice, I'll give it that). -Complete lack of a log flume. Like I said, I do not question that CP has the better coaster lineup when compared to KI, and I still consider CP to be my number 2 favorite park. My opinion was, and is, that Kings Island is the better overall park experience. But this is a Six Flags thread, and arguing about CF parks belongs elsewhere.

There are more to parks than coasters. I'll put in in CF terms, maybe that'll help: Cedar Point, without any argument, ultimately has the better top-tier lineup of coasters than Kings Island. No one will question that. However, many people believe that KI is the overall "better park" - I'm one of them. KI just blows CP out of the water in terms of ride operations, Fast Lane offering and access design, food operations, food offerings, layout, overall quality of of coasters, and type of adult flats. Others really love Knott's Berry Farm for all of the shows and the historic Ghost Town section. Point is, you can't judge the quality of a park simply by it's top two coasters.