KBrylczyk

And the hits keep coming, Knott's... Seriously, what happened to this place? It used to be one of the best around but now it's a mere shadow of its former self. This has happened in the past few years. Was there a change in the management or executive offices? I can't understand how Knott's has fallen off so quickly.

Alright, so yesterday was pretty dang awesome. The park was a bit slow to wake up with a bunch of coasters being closed until 10:30/11am or so, but once things were in the groove it was smooth sailing. Crowd levels had waits at 15-30 minutes for most everything. Operations could use a little work as I noticed every single coaster stacking trains, though. Still, every coaster that had the capability to run three trains WAS running three trains. Stacking or not, that's appreciated. Hate to see that go-get-em attitude disappear once the Six Flags merger completes and we're down to one train being half-loaded. Coasters - Orion - Hoo buddy, this one surprised me. This bad boy RIPS through the layout and has some damn good airtime to boot! Definitely a front seat ride, though the back ain't bad at all, either. The wind in front, though, is the cherry on top. Diamondback - The airtime on this ride is legitimately scary. This isn't standard B&M floater air but instead it's "bucking bronco trying to send you into Kentucky" air. Back seat is best. Mystic Timbers - Fast and wicked ride through the woods with a phenomenal first drop. Tons of laterals and some nice air pops. The shed is a complete waste of time, effort, and money, though. Back row is intense, especially getting ripped down the first drop. Banshee - Holy hot dicks from hell! I had absolutely NO IDEA how great this ride is. I'd heard the good reviews and I've seen the POVs but lawd almighty this monster is completely different than I was expecting. It rides like a mid-90s Beemer! Forces out the yin-yang on every element, especially the batwing and second vertical loop. Back row is is my fave, if for no other reason than that first drop. Best ride in the park alongside... The Beast - It's The Beast. It's one of the greatest rides on the planet. It also has some truly awful trims in the first bit (first drop, second hill, and the long shed) but after the long shed it returns to the incredibly wild run through the woods we all know and love. The trim before the helix has mercifully been moved to the top of the hill, so now you hit the tunnel full-bore and go screaming around that bitch like a bat out of hell. All hail the king, especially in the front row. The Bat - I love this ride, even if it does have a horrible location compared to the rest of the park. IIRC, back in 2003 it was much more visible and accessible with SoB in the area. Instead it's now a relic hiding behind a 5-mile hike with an entrance hardly seen at Banshee's exit. Damn shame, because this is a very fun and fast suspended coaster. Racer - Third row has some great airtime on this classic. Fun stuff! Backlot Stunt Coaster - Great launch and helix, boring everything else. Slowest line in the park. Flight Of Fear - Closed most of the day, broke down when I was entering the UFO. Didn't ride. Adventure Express - Packs a punch! I love me a good mine train and this one didn't disappoint. Ride it in the back to get the real janked-out experience, ya jabronis. This ride is great. Invertigo - Pass. I rode Two-Face when it was at SFA. I'm good. Other Rides - Boo Blasters - Yeah, this has seen better days. Cute enough and an easy way to escape the sun, but the guns hardly work and there's a large amount of broken effects. Delirium - Fun ride but after riding a larger version it didn't feel as wacky. Windseeker - This was my first Windseeker after riding many Star Flyers. Let's just say there's a reason these haven't been built in a while. Star Flyers are a much simpler mechanical ride and much more reliable. This was also pretty uncomfortable, for some reason. Good view, though. Blue Ice Cream - Yummy yummy in my tummy.

Funnily enough, I chose Kings Island over Cedar Point because TT2 is dead in the water. I saw Beast went down and was a little disappointed, but I already got multiple laps, including a night ride during the fireworks, in 2003 so it wouldn't yuck my yum for the day. If it's actually open, though, great!

Hiya - I'm gonna be at the park next Monday, June 3rd, for the first time in 21 years. Tomb Raider was still a big deal (and a bonkshit awesome ride, fight me), Scooby's Ghoster Coaster weird suspended thing was operating, and Son Of Beast was still running its original trains (I still ache to this day). Point is, it's been a loooooong time since I've been to the park and there have been some massive changes since then. I'm quite aware of what rides are there and what rides are dead and gone (RIP Vortex), so I'm just looking for pointers. Since I'm visiting on a Monday I'm not too worried about crowds but please tell me if I'm wrong. I'll have all day at the park so I can deal with a few lines. Which coasters have the best/worst operations (I know the Beemers are people eaters), any F&B hidden gems, regional recommendations, etc. Stuff like that. I'll be getting into town Sunday night after a day at Indiana Beach, anywhere I should stop for dinner? Thanks!

Batman.

Ten bucks says its the T3 trains.

I miss the old "just dump your crap in this bin" systems that were so ubiquitous before Six Flags decided that single-use pay-per-ride lockers were the way to go. Like surge pricing, it has only led to frustrations and annoyance across the industry.

So, the only Bayern Kurve I've ever ridden was the one that used to be at SFGAdv and, good lord, I can't imagine that thing ever going 70mph. Is the Knoebels version an XL model or something? Because godDAMN that'll be a wacky ride.

This place started as an interesting concept that had the unfortunate timing of Covid destroying its potential for a growing audience. Shame to see it go but I'm curious about the future plans for the site. It could make for a nice little outdoor FEC if given the right team.

Did they hire Richard Branson to design the interior? These looks like a ripoff of Virgin Las Vegas, just at a healthier price point.

^ They could restore it to the original version, for one. I know they're not but hopefully they'll at least bring back the crash test scene. Coming around the corner, seeing the dummy car crash into the wall, then lining up in front of your own target while they announced the final test was a crash test was great. The wall opening up to reveal the outdoor portion right before you hit was fantastic. The current version was such a letdown for me when I rode last year. Still a fun ride but nowhere near as great as the original.

If that's the name, I'm betting on another Vekoma Super Boomerang.

Meanwhile, Holiday World continues to make money with free drinks. Imagine that.

Surge pricing is a plague...

Sooooo, has any construction actually begun?

Not to poop on the parade or anything, but back when I worked for Carnival Cruise Lines, the Carnival Destiny was known amongst the crew as The Death Star. It was plagued with problems, constant leaks, etc. There's a reason they gave it a massive overhaul and renamed it to Sunshine. The name is cursed. I wish better luck for Disney.

Accurate. That being said, when I stayed at Timbers Lodge back in 2012 it was fantastic. Twelve years makes a load of difference, though, so buyer beware.

No, but I certainly could imagine them replacing Ninja with the zombie-fied remains of GASM or Shockwave. That's assuming they're not already replacing track with the remains, of course.

Samesies. When we visited last September I understood why Universal Studios closed early, it was an HHN night, but IOA was only open until 8pm that night, as well. Like, holy hell, if you're gonna boot everyone out of one park, at least keep the other park open to a decent time. We only had one day to do both parks. Thankfully since it was such a slow week we were able to bang out every single attraction, even the horrible ones (F&F&F: Fast & Furious & Fallon), but it would have been lovely to have the extra evening time to enjoy IOA's atmosphere and a few more rides rather than going back to our hotel and being bored. Dinner at Antojito's was friggin great, though. They put us right next to the stage and the evening guitarist was wonderful. Edit - Just for comparison's sake, the next day we were at EPCOT by 9:30am and didn't get back to our hotel until nearly midnight. Park closed at 10, we took our time after the fireworks to walk from the Japan pavilion, browsed the gift shop, and were among the last few groups walking out of the park, never once feeling pressured to GTFO. Universal felt like they were actively pushing us out of the park the instant the HHN corrals began around 3pm and IOA had a ton of disinterested employees that were happier to talk amongst themselves than engage with the park guests. It felt very Six Flags in terms of service.

Alright, so we'll split down the middle. Rebuild it but give it a brand new launch system that pays homage to the ancient technology. Trebuchet launch.

^ You joke but if RMC built a bench I'd ride it and expect airtime. Plot twist - there's actually airtime.

I'm not an engineer and I have questionable intelligence at the best of times, but wouldn't building a new, exact clone from scratch be fairly simple? It's not like it was a difficult ride system.

If I were to speculate, I'd say they replaced all the water with gasoline. There's video going around of the big explody and hot damn, it looks like a Michael Bay movie.

Knoebel's has a way of saving historic rides. Just putting that out there.

It's gutter trash. You're given a gun that's way too bulky and told to stand on a dot while the moving sidewalk drags you through the seven circles of hell. We only went into the building because it started raining. Funnily enough, that's the same reason we ended up on Jimmy Fallon's Dumpster Fire. Why couldn't the rain show up outside of a decent attraction? Christ on a cracker, I can't imagine what this place is going to cost per night.