Emiroo

Welcome aboard Mindy. If you are going to the Gatlinburg area, you would be very well served to check out this thread. It covers the entire area.

Seriously though, if it's still snowing come opening day, just put the Polar Bear Club spin on it and you'll be fine! What's the outlook on the future Bowl Slide & Mat Racers additions like?

Street Fighter High. Hilarious!

QFT! "We don't do that." I love it! W&C are pimps! I can just see them now, "You want a launched coaster? Go F yourselves!" http://www.expedia.com/Kings-Island-Hotels.0-l6087333-0.Travel-Guide-Filter-Hotels

Dumb question: How many trains does EGF have/typically run? I wonder if there was another train on the course at the time of the incident. And of course if there was, put yet another checkmark in the "Safety Systems Worked Flawlessly" category.

This was my first thought too! And in all seriousness, I hope Holiday World does not choose a mega lite for their first major steel installation. While awesome, mega-lites have a major focus on airtime which HW is not lacking in. They definitely need to put something with inversions in for their first major steelie. My vote is for a custom B&M inverted. Something terrain-based like Nemesis would rule. I can however, see them putting in a spinner before something with inversions. And as somebody else posted a here a long time ago, they also need a "jr woodie". It's a big (too big IMO) leap from The Howler to The Raven. Just my 2 cents.

^

I finally dove into Final Fantasy XIII. I'm enjoying the visuals and gameplay. The story is pretty incoherent (so far) but that's to be expected in FF games. I'm pretty worried though because I'm about 5 hours in and I still don't really give a s**t about any of the characters (or any of their problems) yet. I liked the "Moms are tough" chick, but she bit it five minutes after you meet her. Hopefully she's not really gone. My love of the FF games has always been strictly character based so the danger meter on XIII is rising. I'm sure as hell not going to put 50+ hours in on a game to find out what happens to people I could care less about.

I believe the policy is that they can only use the weirdos. There's also a policy that says only redneck hick trailer trash are allowed to witness tornados...

HOLY CRAP! There goes what's left of my productivity this afternoon. Simply amazing!

After sitting on it for two weeks, I finally got around to watching Surrogates last night. It was a nice little surprise. It pretty much took a unique plot device from Strange Days, expanded it and turned it into a whole movie. I was pleased because the "surrogate" was the hook that drew me into Strange Days in the first place. Bruce Willis did a repectable job, though his surrogate appearance was a bit too similar to his look in The Sixth Sense for my taste. However, in addition to suspending reality (obviously), you're gonna need to overlook the details of the ending to be satisfied. It was a good ending, (one that I would have picked personally), but if you allow yourself to consider the "true" reprucussions of what happens it spoils it slightly. With a run time right at an hour and a half, Surrogates is a neat and tidy sci-fi mystery with a unique concept. 3.5/5 stars in my book. Next on deck: Sherlock Holmes.

You.Are.Awesome!

I'm with you Robb, but not everyone gets "our" humor.

Just for clarification: Intamin is not the vendor of the cables. The cables can come from just about any cable vendor. Intamin simply makes the recommendation of what type/strength/etc cable must be used in each application. They do not manufacture the cables themselves. Case in point is the attached receipt for the cables that broke at SFKK. (The complete case findings and discovery documents were made public after it was settled. You can look at everything here.) If you'll notice, not only was the vendor not Intamin, but the vendor even changed as indicated by the scribbled out section on page two. Just want to give peeps the facts. SFKKappendix27.pdf SFKK Tower Cable Receipt

Given the multiple cable breaks in the last 5 years, I am still flabber-ghasted that so much time is spend finger pointing. Why doesn't someone just come up with some sort of shield/housing for the cable so that in the event it does break, it stays confined to the housing and doesn't whip up/around and hit riders in the face/legs/feet/wherever. This concept is in no way complicated. I just don't understand why it hasn't been designed and implemented.

Though I have never ridden SOB, I must concur that the best choice is to blow it up as the finale at the 4th of July Spectacular. Nobody can say that KI didn't give its best effort trying to make the thing work, but at the end of the day a pig with lipstick and a dress and new trains and trackwork is still a pig...or something like that. I mean they didn't even put a fraction of the time, effort or money into reworking The Bat as they did SOB. They just cut their losses and yanked it out. It's time to do the same here. Of course hindsight is always 20/20, but just think what they could have done with the $30M+ they have invested in the thing. I will however (assuming they do remove it), miss the outstanding aesthetic visual SOB provides. I mean that thing looks menacing as hell. That aspect will be very difficult to replace.

^ You are correct:

Speaking as someone who has the Toy Story movies on both DVD and Blu-Ray, I can assure you there is a major video and audio fidelity difference between the two formats. So much so that even my 4 year old said it (blu-ray) was awesome. Once you see it you'll never go back. Buzz practically jumps off the screen! Now obviously, not all blu-ray transfers will be as meticulious as I'm sure Pixar was with the TS series (and your hdtv specs also factor in too), but there is definitely enough improvement to warrant the $$$. And as FeelTheForce pointed out, when you get modern titles that were filmed with digital technology to begin with, it'll really blow you hair back.

The "overview shows" such as most of the ones on the Travel Channel have just enough to keep you tuned in, but leave out enough so that you usually feel disappointed when they are over. The Extreme Terror Ride shows are a prime example of this. In the end, they typically feel like a missed opportunity. Decent GP viewing though. The better shows are the ones that focus on a single aspect of a park/ride. Without a doubt, the two best pieces of rollercoaster journalism I've seen focus on construction: Megabuilders - The Construction of Tatsu at SFMM Build It Bigger - The Construction of Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Renegade at Valleyfair I've had both of these saved on DVR for over two years and still watch them regularly. They play them both a few times a season. Don't miss them.

I will 100% definitely buy this when it comes out. I can't wait! Will the sound be lossless or have any sort of special surround mix?

If I remember correctly, to save design/constuction time B&M simply used a copy of Silver Bullet's station for Patriot. It doesn't fit the theme, but who really cares? I love WoF and Patriot is my favorite ride there. Color scheme is perfect and that white racing strip is damn sexy if you ask me. I wonder why that hasn't caught on more. I'll be returning to WoF in 3 weeks, so of course this TR has me even more pumped about it. Amazing pics. I'm sure Larry will steal more than a few for the Park Index. Very well done.

Great report! I was disappointed that they didn't put a large Snoopy on a surfboard on top of Snoopy Surf Dog and I just don't understand why CF doesn't pop the $$$ to go buy some vinyl decals and skin/decal the BLSC cars. It could be flames, crazy Fast & Furious stuff, etc. It's practically free and would go a looong way to improve visual appeal. Heck, put RideWarrior stuff all over it if you like. Even that would be better than the naked cars. I swear I am going to make it back to KI this season. Oh and here's a free and easy to use Photo Resizer.

Great to see a new report Erik. I'd love to see a TR featuring the craziest/crudest t-shirts you can find. That's one of my favorite parts of going to Florida; browsing the shirt shops. And of couse, the sketchier the shop, the crazier/cruder the shirts! And am I the only one who is irked that every coin-op fortune teller is now generically called Zoltar? IT'S NOT THE REAL ZOLTAR! This is the one and only Zoltar: [/crazyrant]

My neck! My back! My neckandmyback!

Well that's a bummer, but I'm still pumped about opening day. And I have no worries about the one train ops. It's surprisingly light every opening day due to it always being held the same day as the Kentucky Derby (among other reasons). The longest wait is always to get season passes processed and even that only takes 10-15 min. I'm just glad the off season is over!