SFOGdude25

^Haha it's all good.

^No I'm in Nashville. About 3.5 hours away.

Good grief man I was just there Monday haha. I think I may try to find a random day to go within the next two weeks as hopefully it'll stay open LOL. Sheesh, trying to get a ride on this thing this season has been a complete crapshoot for me.

Just for some perspective on Mystic Timbers, the lift hill will be 109 feet tall, and The Beast's lift hill is 110 feet tall, and it looks pretty big when looking at it in line. I think Mystic Timbers will look MUCH bigger than people anticipate. The rendering makes it look smaller, and much of the GP are thinking of this as barely bigger than a kiddie coaster. They're in for a surprise. I can't wait for this one.

I've never been to CP during Halloweekends so I didn't know. All I saw was a dark forboding graphic that looked like it had a Boneville animatronic in it. When we enter speculation mode anything goes LOL.

The graphic makes me wonder if (assuming that an RMC conversion would happen) the new name will be related to Boneville in some way, like a Ghostrider-esque theme. You could name it "Spirit Outlaw" or something similar.

ITS HAPPENING!!! YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!! Bring on the RMC action!!!!

I appreciate the feedback, Samuel! Really the only reason I didn't attempt an RMC conversion is because someone else already made an excellent RMC concept (OpticalKiwi I think). Plus I just wanted to show people that say the layout is too boring to stay a wood coaster that you could make it a really good one. Granted it certainly would not be the most thrilling option, in which case RMC is the clear choice. It really depends on what Cedar Point wants Mean Streak to be. Do they want it to be an above average wood coaster or an amazing balls-to-the-wall steel coaster?

Just posted this last night. This is my interpretation of what Cedar Point could do with Mean Streak if GCI got their hands on it. You wouldn't have to change much layout wise to turn it into a really good wood coaster. I just made the first drop steeper, added some high banking and more airtime hills, and lowered the track elevation in a few spots to make it a faster ride. The footprint is pretty much identical to the current version of the ride.

This may be the 'Mean Streak is "closing"' tweet/announcement. I wonder with all the GCI love if they will RMC it or give it the Ghost Rider treatment and have GCI re-profile some drops and update the ride. IF this is the case, I wonder if they will remove the mid course brake run like they did with Ghostrider. Probably not. Mean Streak is over 5000 feet long, so going to a 2 train operation with no midcourse would make operations really slow.

If you want the most airtime on Magnum, yes, seat 1-3, but it's also probably the most painful row. Seats 1-2 and 6-2 though are both smooth and really good for airtime. Also, ride closure anyone?

Also it made me laugh how Greg Scheid basically admitted that they wanted a Prowler at KI but bigger.

The complainers are out in full force on Facebook. I think I could even feel much of the crowd tonight going "What the hell?" LOL. This ride is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be, which in one sense is disappointing since I didn't feel surprised watching the videos, but on the other hand I'm stoked that a GCI is coming to KI. While they may not be 10/10 amazing, every single one I've ridden is at least REALLY fun (except Gwazi, but that's BGT's fault lol), and pretty re-ridable. Though the whole shed thing makes me really perplexed. The thing I'm most curious about is the appearance of a lack of any radial turn into the station. It just looks like one track ends and another begins. Very odd, though it may make more sense when they actually build it. KI, you have me really curious... Also, regarding the second announcement coming later, my prediction is it will be a 45th anniversary celebration with various small park upgrades. I'm not sure I would expect a second major attraction. Who knows though.

Just over an hour before the gate opens. Already there's a pretty sizable line.

I'll get to be there tonight!!! We are 12 hours away!

^Yeah I've been seeing pictures elsewhere that show the announcement will happen against the back of the Crypt building. Pretty interesting! BTW, here's where the live stream will be for those of us that won't be there. I think you have to make an account, but you can just log in through Facebook. KI Announcement 2017 Stream

My hometown! Glad you enjoyed yourself here! I think more and more people are realizing how great of a city Nashville is as there's quite a lot of fun stuff to do here! Just in the past 5 or so years the population has grown SO much (I can tell because traffic is getting bad here LOL).

^I would think there's not much of a demand for stand up coasters these days if not none at all. They were a gimmick that grew out of the "let's see what kind of ways can we ride a coaster" days, and they can be very uncomfortable to ride. All the blood rushes to your feet during high g forces, and the bicycle style seat between your legs is also pretty uncomfortable on the groin. The last new stand up to be built was Georgia Scorcher at SFOG in 1999, 17 years ago. If it's been that long, I don't think we'll be seeing anymore built.

I'm ok with this, and here's why. California's Tower has always been inferior to Florida's Tower, which I consider to be THE Tower of Terror (Disney, you better not lay a finger on that one). If this retheme is done right, it'll be a really fun immersive attraction. Looking forward to it.

Deleted.

I'll be back this coming Sunday and Monday. Really hoping that Lightning Rod will be running by then. I'm optimistic that it'll be back open by then since recent reports say it's back to testing again.

To go along with that, it's awesome that Monster Mansion is NOT going away for this addition!

I would think there's enough of a footprint with Mean Streak that RMC could raise the height of the lift hill to over 200 feet, which is only 40ish feet taller than what's already there. Would make it either the world's first hyper hybrid or world's tallest wood coaster depending on whether topper or I-Box track is used. I was at the park a few days ago and didn't see anything other than the stakes and spray painted footers people have already pointed out. I will say that I'm one of the few people here that finds Mean Streak ok, but it's clear that the GP is ready for something new. Even on a decently crowded July weekday, Mean Streak had nothing more than a station wait. I am keeping my eyes peeled for August/September.

Finally got to check out Kentucky Kingdom today for the first time since it reopened. My last visit was 2006 back in the Six Flags days, and I didn't realize just how much changed until I stepped through the gates again. It's basically a brand new park sans the few rides/slides that survived the closure. Even though there was still quite a bit of cracked and faded walkways and some buildings that could use a coat, I was really surprised at how cleaned up the park is now. It's a couple of thrill rides away from being a serious competitor in the Midwest market. I'm interested to see what Ed has in store. Of course the main reason I came was for Storm Chaser and Lightning Run. Lightning Run was freaking awesome! So much airtime packed into such a modest looking roller coaster! I couldn't stop laughing through the whole thing it was such a blast. No joke, one of the best steel coasters I've ever ridden. Smooth and fast-paced with a perfectly-designed sequence of elements from beginning to end. Unfortunately because of my limited time I had a the park I only rode it once, but it's only 3 hours from me so I'll be back for sure. More parks around the country should get these Hyper GT-X's! Rating: 10/10. Thunder Run is a coaster I had done before, but not in several years so I was curious to see how well it rode after reopening. Turns out it runs VERY well! In fact I forgot just how much fun it is! The series of camelbacks after the first drop and turn are some of the best floater air moments on a wood coaster. Overall the ride is nothing super special, but it is a lot of fun. Rating: 7/10 I was not exactly looking forward to trying T3 again as I have some bad memories of it as T2, so I was just hoping that I wouldn't be beat up to death. The Kumbak trains are a big improvement over the awful Vekoma seats and restraints, but the bad news is they didn't exactly help. Yes there's no more head banging, but I still took a beating from this thing. The real problem with T3 is the track itself. The transitions are not smooth. At all. Even though they may look smooth, at least compared to your average Arrow coaster, they ride terribly. On top of all this the restraints nearly crushed my thighs. I'm a small guy and the restraint sat right in the middle of my legs, nowhere close to my stomach. You can only polish a turd so much... Rating: 2/10 And then there's Storm Chaser. Only my second RMC and first I-Box coaster. Holy crap this thing was great. Very similar to Lightning Run in a lot of ways. Lots of strong airtime (that first hill was heavenly) and super quick pacing through the whole thing. Ironically the least forceful part is the barrel roll drop, arguably the ride's one stand-out feature, but I digress. This ride proves how much RMC can do with such a small footprint to work with. It also amazed me how ridiculously smooth this thing was. No rattle, no vibration, nothing of the sort. Just rock-solid smooth track that rode better than many B&Ms lol. To be honest though, I think I prefer Lightning Run JUST a little more only because I love its layout so much, and Storm Chaser has some awkward bits toward the end, but both are excellent coasters. Rating: 9/10 I also did the water park for a couple of hours and was very impressed with how much was added. Lots of good slides, pools, rivers etc. Not quite Splashin Safari, but still pretty darn good. Plus there's Deep Water Dive. I'm not lying one bit when I say that contraption is scarier than any roller coaster I've ever ridden. Having a trap door that high up is just wrong. Absolutely nuts, but I did it. I couldn't not do it LOL. I like how this park is turning out. There are times that I miss having a large-scale coaster that that park once had in Chang, but I still had a lot of fun.

Hey don't forget to take a few minutes to do the Larson drop tower! That thing drops like a rock it's awesome!