TheGreatOne

Glad to see NM Rattler getting some TLC. It was a really fun ride that had outstanding pacing. It was well worth the travel from Phoenix to get there.

Yep, back in 2000...Villain was amazing. It was my favorite ride in the park. If they really are doing a full rehab, it will help take the sting of losing Superman and X-Flight.

Actually, I have a feeling it might make FoF's line longer since Fireowl will be right next door. People exiting Fireowl will probably head to FoF next or people turned off by Fireowl's line size might opt for FoF instead. Bummer.

http://photos.pkicentral.com/thumbnails.php?album=181&page=2 Really not much going on right now.

Everyone was talking to me yesterday about how excited they were for this ride. This ride offers a completely new experience for 98% of people who are going to visit KI this year. People do want to ride this, and there will be long lines for it. There were long lines for it at Six Flags when it first opened, and they saw a major attendance bump....4% over a year in which they installed 4 new coasters. This ride is unique enough to get the job done. You're right, wanting your home park to have some decent rides is not wrong at all. But saying that KI hasn't been smart over the past years with their ride selection is spoiled. You see, they are a business, they need to make money. They found that catering to families gives them the best chance to succeed. Even Cedar Point realized plopping down a new coaster every other year isn't the best thing...which is why they installed Maxair and Skyhawk to bolster their non-coaster selection. KI's improvements since 2002: 2002: Tomb Raider 2003: Scooby Doo, Delirium, Spongebob 3D 2004: Massive revamp of waterpark 2005: Italian Job 2006: Expansion of kids area with Avatar (which is actually quite fun) Kings Island is trying to cater to EVERYONE, not just spoiled enthusiasts. It's no mistake that their annual attendance has jumped 8% in this decade. Catering to everybody gets business booming. Sorry but merely saying that my point sucks doesn't make it so. Why does it suck? You neglected to clarify that. I still believe it's a valid point. It points to what an second rate park PKI is. Valleyfair! has less than 1/3rd the attendance that PKI has, but they're getting an awesome new coaster. So now the amount of people that comes to your park determines what you should receive at your park? Seriously? If that were the case, Cedar Point would get everything and all other CF parks would get nothing. Valleyfair is getting Renegade because it expands their ride portfolio and it is a safe bet. Not to mention GCII coasters with MF trains are easier to maintain and require less maintenance than most wooden coasters. This ride was selected for Valleyfair well before CF bought KI. You have yet to make a halfway logical point. You've just bolstered my point. All you want to ride at PKI is a few flat rides. Doesn't that suck? Wouldn't it be nice to have a real coaster there? Oh wait, we're just spoiled enthusiasts. Nevermind. This quote right here proves my point that you're spoiled. "real coasters". First of all, KI has a ton of real roller coasters. Flight of Fear is an excellent ride. Face/Off, Top Gun, Racer, Vortex, Italian Job and Beast are all fairly decent and fun rides. As far as myself wanting to ride a "few flat rides", that's putting words in my mouth. Delirium and Drop Zone regularly have long lines on busier days and I was simply expressing hope that those lines would shorten. I have no problems with their ride selection. Be lucky you have a decent-sized park close to you. I once lived in Phoenix where we had nothing but Castles n' Coasters. If you want "amazing" coasters, get your Maxx Pass and go to Cedar Point. Wait in line for an hour and a half in line for every good coaster like the rest of the enthusiass minions. But please, stop spewing your verbal diarrhea on this board. I don't think you realize what a fool you're making of yourself. Seriously.

I'm not defending the decision, but this reasoning sucks and reeks of Spoiled Enthusiast Syndrome. Here are some arguments with shreds of legitimacy: 1.) X-Flight has been marred by technical problems from day one. Those problems have been somewhat remedied, but the ride is still prone to awful breakdowns. 2.) The ride has a capacity of 400 riders per train an hour. That is INSANELY low. It has only two operable trains. 800 riders per hour is the MAXIMUM throughput of the ride. That means if the ride ops are slow (and they will be at the beginning trying to figure out how to run this complicated ride) or if a rider gets sick and vomits, you can lose 100 riders per hour somewhat easily. 3.) The ride has so many advanced technologies built into the trains that if one or two minor things go wrong, you can lose a train for most or the entirety of the day. (This is according to someone who "op-ed" the ride at GL) That knocks down capacity to a maximum of 400 riders an hour. 4.) At Geauga Lake, a park that annually gets 1/5th of the attendance of Kings Island, people were waiting at least 30 minutes for the ride on slow days. Why then would you move it to a park that easily has 5 times as many people to jam the lines? There are going to be some angry, angry guests at Kings Island. See? Those arguments are at least halfway legitimate. If you're whining that KI isn't getting a Maverick or Mystery Mine, get a CF Maxx Pass and go to CP a lot and shill for a Dollywood pass (they're fairly cheap to upgrade from a one-day ticket early in the year) and you can make a few trips to Dollywood to ride Mystery Mine since it's only 5 hours away. But don't point at what other parks are getting and base it off of what Fireowl is. That just sucks. I can't say that I'm thrilled with the addition of Fireowl, but I'm hoping it will shorten lines for Delirium and Drop Zone...that will make me happy. -Bryan "already has his CF Maxx Pass" Wood

Actually, I was talking to a co-worker who's pretty much ontop of things about global warming (he recommends us all to watch Inconvient Truth) and he was telling me that this global warming is actually throwing things off: giving us freak weather (like the coldness) and as said, offsetting things. I recall, a miserably hot summer (when I went to SFMW) and it remained spring/summer like through late October and November felt spring-like up to the Wii campout. Well, that was around here. Lastly, is Antarctica going through summer right now? Is 23 degrees (f) normal for that location? The cold snaps in the southwest have a lot to do with the jet stream, alignment of low pressure systems and a semi-strong El Nino as opposed to Global Warming "throwing things off". If you look at the map below, you'll notice Low pressure on the Nevada/Utah border along with one further east that has helped pull cold Canadaian air south to California (the white color on the map). While I do believe in Global Warming, it really doesn't have much to do with the cold in California or the above-warm winter we're having in the East. You can thank El Nino for that.

One news website actually posted the injury report. Under "extent of injury" it said "none". These people are just looking for attention. Hilariously, the website didn't even black out these people's home address or phone number. I imagine they're getting some nasty calls and letters.

Boylan's Black Cherry Soda (Boylan's uses pure cane sugar instead of corn syrup and it is delish).

The following movies come out on Tuesday 1/9: The Illusionist: Wow, this is a good movie. I think it's unfair that a ton of people compare it to The Prestige just because both movies have magicians as the main character. This movie is basically a love story that is also very tolerable for men. The acting is really, really good in this movie. 4/5 stars Crank: This movie isn't very good if you try to think. It's pretty much mindless violence and a ridiculous amount of very cheesy plot holes. Luckily, there's so many that you laugh. This movie is also good if you ever wandered what Amy Smart's O face looks like. 2/5 stars Idiocracy: Mike Judge's second "live people" film...how this didn't get any publicity love from FOX is beyond me. It has absolutely hilarious,biting mindless and crude satire. Probably one of the funniest comedies I've seen in a while. 4/5 stars Bandidas: Wow, the camera work sucks in this movie. However, Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek are hot and are entertaining enough to carry this film. It's not a great film by any means, but it was entertaining. 3/5 stars

Yep, that's the way to do it. I stretched out a visit there for a few hours, but it was stretching it big time. Plus, Silver Comet seemed to get a little faster as the day went on.

Was it a ball he fumbled or threw for an interception? There's probably a lot of those.

Cedar Fair Maxx Pass (heck, it's a given living in Ohio) Phillips Norelco "goo" Electric Razor Scrubs Season 4 DVD Troy 2-disc DVD Destroy All Humans 2 on PS2 Khakis and Jeans 2007 National Championship Game T-Shirt (Go Bucks) $140 cash Dr. Pepper hoodie Shirt and Tie Set $15 giftcard to Quizno's $20 Speedway (Midwestern Gas Station Chain) giftcard Ohio State Championship Season Magazine

Uhhh...Michael Bay had nothing to do with Miami Vice. That was Michael Mann. Michael Bay's last movie was The Island. D'Oh! That was a brain fart on my end. I guess I'm more optimistic, now.

No – I was referring to a bad show. As an example, look at the front of Expedition Everest. How much of the ride do you see? Not much, and that’s a very good show. In my opinion, Paramount took a great idea and theme, but didn’t execute it very well. End result was bad show. Same thing with filling in the lake. In my opinion (again), that ranks right up there with building a coaster in a parking lot, and not adding any scenery! Sorry, but comparing Volcano to EE is just ignorant. First of all, Paramount was dealing with a structure already in place. It is much smaller than the Mountain of EE. Second, Disney planned everything around EE (including scenery) at the same time! Paramount was simply revamping a "dead" area that was left from the Taft days, if I'm not mistaken. I was going to say more, but Robb covered everything else pretty well. -Bryan "Cedar Fair and Paramount are NOT Disney" Wood

There's absolutely no way a DiskO Coaster can fit it in the spot that Flying Carpet is vacating. It's way too long. A Mega Disko is just a higher capacity Disko that is slightly taller. -Bryan "I'd much rather they have kept Flying Carpet" Wood

I'd like to see this in theaters, but if it sucks as much as Michael Bay's last remake (Miami Vice), then count me out. Hopefully with Spielberg behind it, it will be a decent film.

If you want to see what CF can do to a nice park, just have someone post some pictures of Knott's from 1990 and compare it to today's Knott's. It's much, much worse than what Paramount did to PKD. Expect a ton more trees to be removed.

While in line for Silver Comet a few years back, a brilliant ride op decided that the proper way to release a stuck lapbar on the PTC train was to STICK HER HAND INSIDE the mechanical part of the train. A bar locked on her hand and she started screaming for help. Yeah, that was pretty dumb...

So does I-10 traffic still come to an almost grinding halt at night when Santa's is all lit up?

Can anyone second this? I was getting excited it was leaving! Yep, I got the e-mail, too.

To be fair to the Gravity Group, they build what kinds of coasters parks ask of them. So, Voyage and Hades were big rides because the parks wanted it that way, not because Gravity Group wants to build all record-breaking coasters.

http://www.hornymanatee.com Conan is hilarious...if you haven't heard about this, just google "horny manatee" and it will explain why this site exists.

A Gravity Group twister-style woodie is going to Kemah Boardwalk in Texas. The M&V booth at IAAPA had a model of it, I believe.

You can also watch all episodes streaming online for free at http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ I do agree with the last episode being one of the best of any show I've ever seen. The writing in the show is absolutely fantastic...except for the Jessica/Niki arc, I wish they'd kill her off or explain things a lot better there.