Midgetman82

A very heartfelt blog post and video. Comparing the layout for the invert to Thunderbird, I'm certain Will would have been more than happy to see what had been constructed at the park! Congratulations on it, again.

This would be a nice change. More families enjoying the park together and not treating it like a daycare, and less unaccompanied kids/teens causing any ruckus at the parks.----- Sorry to break it to you guys, at my place of work we have dealt with this problem since season passes have been introduced, and free parking and even free general admission doesn't seem to make a difference one bit. Even on the days we restrict free general admission for unaccompanied minors, they still arrive with parents and the parents seem to turn them loose on the place. Management addresses the issue the best they can by threatening and following through with revoking passes either temporarily or for the entire season for those who misbehave (our wristband bar-code system tells us which season pass each wristband belongs to). I haven't been to KK to see how well they handle it, but I have found that you need to set the standard early and follow through with it to keep the "daycare" kids from thinking they run the place. Local parks that are reasonably priced and easily accessible from major residential areas are never going to fully eliminate the daycare problem, but they are forced to have make the best of the situation. Without giving names, I do know of one park that severely put a dent into this problem by outright jacking up the prices for season passes. Pass volume was reduced obviously, but many of the problems that they believed ruined the value of the park for others were reduced to a minimum. I went many times last year and it wasn't really too much of a problem. I know KK got a bad reputation in the past for having lots of uncapponaied kids, but this year it didn't seem any worse than Kings Island or other major parks. It is worse than Holiday World, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the park in any way. I did see one instance of line cutting and security took the kid out. I also saw one kid being taken out of the park (or appears to be) and this was in 10 or so full day visits. I'm not sure I would even have noticed otherwise. So whatever the park is doing, it must be working to some extent. I think we will see lots of small noticeable improvements this year, especially in the food offerings. I talked to someone in management there and they said it was very hard to even know how much food, cups, plates, etc to order. Which caused them to run out of stuff occasionally. We talked about some of the food and they said they cooked a lot more things in house than most parks, which I really appreciated. They had fresh pita chips, tap beers, good salsa, and lots of things I didnt find at other parks which have chains taking care of the bulk of the food. Plus the prices were good if you have a season pass. I'm still just impressed that they took that overgrown, pillaged, shell of a park that six flags left behind and made it into KK in a year. The park had far less problems with guests (especially younger ones) after the initial days of opening. They took care of the problems right away, and I think some of the things that helped were having ambassadors as well as a small handful of LPD wander throughout the park to keep peace. It wasn't a major issue (if any issue at all) in the latter 3/4ths of when the park was open. And you're definitely right about not completely eliminating the "daycare" aspect, especially since there are neighborhoods that are merely walking-distance from the park.

This would be a nice change. More families enjoying the park together and not treating it like a daycare, and less unaccompanied kids/teens causing any ruckus at the parks.----- A quick blurb from WDRB

I just saw it on Facebook, and my jaw absolutely dropped! You know you pay off your season pass in just two visits to the park, right?! Two visits with at-gate pricing: $99.90 Two visits with online pricing: $79.90 Two (or more) visits with current price of Season Pass: $69.95 I didn't include the $8 parking cost in those, so this is a SPLENDID deal! (I feel like I'm marketing for them now... but it's a big deal for locals!)

^I'm sure they already got them beat with the catapult they said they're installing.

Was the tower colored when you saw it erected? It looks like it's unpainted in the picture posted by KK.

Didn't the park already have a ride very similar to it... Or did that one tilt?

After the old in-bay automatic at my dad's carwash got totaled, we got insured for a brand new one. The whole process of putting it in felt a lot like opening a brand new ride at an amusement park. I got to be beside him at the design choice and signing of the new machine, and I got to see some of the process of it being installed (which took 5 weeks total). I've seen it do test runs, and we've taken my car through it over 20 times. Just yesterday (after 12 more washes) we did soft openings where whoever was in the area and needed a wash got one with the new machine for free. Same day shortly after, we went ahead and made it fully operational on its own. We've been watching it closely since then, and noticing it's been doing FAR better than the old machine. Even returning customers have been telling us that they love the new machine more than the old!

It's that Intamin accelerator we've been asking for.

A quick look through RCDB shows: Vekoma Stingray at Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou -- 103.7 feet tall Kirnu (smallest current Intamin ZacSpin) at Linnanmäki -- 83.3 feet tall. Keeping in mind: Spongebob: Rock Bottom Plunge -- 74.5 feet tall Avatar Airbender -- 70 feet

People joke about owning a Gerstlauer in their back yard, but I think the company is pushing that notion way too far.

^Ah, you're correct. And I completely agree.

Road Runner Express, a Gerstlauer wild mouse that used to be at the park during the Six Flags era.

Lightning Run takes up more of Sky Coaster's previous space. RRE's pad is still vacant, and directly behind Professor John Flying Machines (the flying scooters).

I'm not crazy for the bowl,but those slide walls are amzing! Also, that's prbably one of the best slide names ever!

It got a lot better after the first few weeks, though it was still very far from being called a "high-capacity ride."

Do you mean roots like when they had Stengel design their layouts, or when they were building coasters that broke records and made headlines?

I'm so excited to try this soon! That launch actually looks fairly forceful, too! Gotta give Wicked Cyclone and Twisted Colossus their credit too, 'ya know. But I wholeheartedly agree! It seems each Timezone in the U.S. is getting at least one spectacular coaster!

A good classic ride. Easy to skip (mostly applying to thrill seeekers), but kids and families are sure to love it! (Guest 2082: "I want to go on something more thrilling than Twister1." )

^But then the park wouldn't get the B&M we see before us.

Heavy metal + coffee

If only. It sucks knowing that KI has a coaster that should be ours. Personally, Kings Island can keep Firehawk for all I care. I'd rather lap Lightning Run multiple times anyways!

1. Do you have your videos set to auto-play on your: a. desktop computer and/or b. mobile device? (or if you don't know, just tell us if the videos auto-play or not in your newsfeed.) I don't always auto play videos, but when i do, it's prefer my computer. Stay classy, my friends. Edit: Oh, you meant Facebook timeline instead of YouTube playlists?! Then no, I turn it off. 2. Do you regularly "share" content from Facebook "page" (like the TPR page) to your own personal Facebook page? And have you shared something from the TPR page? No, and no. 3. What kind of content are you most likely to share? (Videos, Photos, News Stories, etc?) News stories, or retweeting photos/videos mainly. 4. How long on average do you watch a video posted to Facebook for? Do you watch the entire video? First 30 seconds? Until you get bored? Depends on the type of content, regardless if it autoplays or not. 5. How important are "video thumbnails" to you? (the image you see with the > Play icon before you click to watch a video) Very important, except when words cover about or more than half of the image. 6. What do you like/dislike about Facebook? What features do you use the most and which ones annoy you? My honest opinion about Facebook in general: I can't help but feel like every post on my timeline is always trying to lead me out of Facebook and onto another website, or trying to sell me something. It's just plastered with posts/links trying to get the most of my attention, which gets quite overwhelming for me and is part of the reason why I don't like using Facebook. Funny how when you're using Facebook as a "page," you don't see any advertisements. 7. Is there anything that TPR does or doesn't do on Facebook that you think we should be doing more/less of? Nothing major. Maybe feature more content made by users on the TPR forums?

Well, they had let the coaster rot along with the rest of the park, so I'm not too surprised that the train was left behind as well (though I am surprised that the park STILL has the trains!) if that image is current. Well thank you. you answered my questions I couldn't figure out what trains those where lol. Apologies for over-looking your comment. I didn't notice you pointed it out as wel.

^^Or they're just using that space to temporarily store the dragster cars until they move them to a new spot. Apart from that, am I the only one that notices the trains of the old Greezed Lightning sitting behind them...?!