WayCool64

I just got to visit Coney Island/Luna Park during my first-time trip to NYC last week. Honestly, it was a complete mixed bag for me. Even from what I heard/seen, I didn't have a lot of expectations. I was kinda expecting it to be similar to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. But boy have I never had such a curveball thrown at my expectations. Now I'm not saying the park was bad, but it does have some major flaws. The whole park feels disorganized with rides crammed in every possible space (some looked like they were run down), and the point pass/wristband system does have faults. But other than that, the park was pretty good. The rides were fun, the staff was great, I kinda liked their own idea for stowing personal items by placing it in a specific cubby and giving you a numbered wristband for it, and the lines didn't feel that long. I didn't ride a lot of the rides, but the ones I did ride were all pretty good. I really loved the Cyclone, it was everything I expected and more. The ride felt longer than I had expected, which made for a more fun ride. I was impressed at the use of it's primitive technology, with the station brakes being manual and the cars themselves (which felt like sitting on a couch btw). I seemed to always sit in empty seats which made for a cool moment where during the airtime turns I was able to float to different sides of the seat. If I did have one complaint, it would be that I did feel nauseous after my first ride (which rarely happens to me on a lot of coasters). But I would say this ride can definitely go in my top 3 wooden coasters. For the other rides; I actually didn't think Thunderbolt was that bad, but the restraints did feel uncomfortable (it was like a panini press to my legs), also the vertical lift felt really weird (it was my first time experiencing one of these). I actually liked Soarin' Eagle, despite me not being a fan of flying coasters. The Tickler was an interesting coaster as it was the first spinning wild mouse coaster I ever rode, though I did think with its short lapbars it felt a tiny bit unsafe. I thought Steeplechase was a really fun ride and was worth riding twice. And I did enjoy riding the Wonder Wheel, the swinging cars weren't as bad as I thought, and it felt pretty peaceful, though I did wish there wasn't a lot of steel within the wheel so it could be easier to take pictures. All in all, while not as perfect as I thought it would be, Coney Island was a fun and interesting little place to visit. Though I really wouldn't spend the whole day there or even go there the day after.

Beast - Kings Island

Though I'm more of a cartoon guy, one of my favorite TV shows of all-time is definitely MST3K. I always have a good time when watching an episode of it. And in case you're wondering, Crow is my favorite robot, and I prefer the Joel era more than the Mike era (not to say I didn't like the latter, I just watched more Joel episodes than ones with Mike). And I'm still excited for the potential reboot that's been announced for a while.

Racer - Kings Island

Of the ones I've been to: 1. Cedar Point (A park that exceeded my expectations. I'd go so far to call it my all-time favorite non-Disney amusement park) 2. Knott's Berry Farm (I've only been there once a few years ago, but I enjoyed it for what it was and it definitely lived up to my expectations, with the exception of Ghostrider) 3. Kings Island (It was a great park with an excellent wooden coaster. But compared to CP, there were a few elements that seemed underwhelming) 4. California's Great America (my home park) I'd love to visit the other parks and give my opinion on them.

This is my family's dog, Dharma. She's a Jack Russell Terrier mix (we believe she may be part chihuahua or beagle) who's been with us for more than three years now. She is the first dog we ever got and we didn't even think that would happen had it not been for her intense cuteness at the animal shelter. She was a hassle to work with, but she's mellowed out over the months (with a lot of help and training), albeit for some constant barking and shadow chasing.

My username is kind of a funny story. The WayCool part comes from playing Earthworm Jim 2, when you pick up a certain item, a voice would shout "Way Cool!", and it kinda stuck with me. The 64 part came from my love of the Nintendo 64 (despite the fact that I never owned one). My avatar (at the time of this post) is a character I created named Minnesota Maxwell, who's design is mostly based off my fursona, Maxwell Squirrel. He's supposed to be a mix/parody of Indiana Jones and James Bond, except his missions are centered around amusement parks (whether he's uncovering some lost history from some forgotten rides or parks, or trying to protect others from criminals). I'd actually like to do more stuff centered around him. I have ideas for stories and other possibilities.

I've been playing the game for a long while. My Origin account name is Waycool64. Feel free to add me, I've been looking for some more neighbors lately.

1995 1. Jaguar - KBF (One of my favorites) 2. Space Mountain - DLP (Even though I never rode it yet, it looks to be a well-crafted successor to the original in the US. And I like the original version of the ride more than Mission: 2) 3. Dragon Khan - PortAventura (another ride that looks impressive yet never rode yet)

Well, I can safely say that Opening Day 2015 (while not the worst) was the most stressful time I had ever had. The biggest problem was the lines. It wasn't the number of people, it was the employees who made everything, from the rides, to the food, to the season pass processing, slower than molasses. I had to wait two hours in the Food Festival just to get one hot dog, not only that, but a friend of mine waited the same time to get a burger, and the order was wrong. The first ride we went on was Gold Striker, but that line was also slow because they were running only one train, thankfully they were running two later in the day. I also heard people complain that they had to go in circles to get their FastLane wristbands. I know I may seem a bit harsh, it was opening day after all so I can't blame, but I don't think the lines/processes should be this slow (saying from past experiences with such). And at the end of the day, half my group separated and we spent almost an hour trying to find them. With all that said, you might think that I had a bad day. Well it wasn't all bad. I did finally gt my fix of GS since it was closed every time I went last year. Things also started to mellow out at the end of the day. The park's improvements look nice, especially the new Planet Snoopy area. All the rides still run great. And above all, me and my group had a lot of fun. It was a mixed day for me, and I know I'll be going back more often for some more enjoyable experiences. Though I can say, I will never go to anymore opening days again.

I'll be going today with my friend and a group of relatives (it's their first time at CGA, and I'll be showing them around the place). I'll be wearing a ride warriors shirt in case anyone's interested in saying hi to me.

I thought Hypersonic was supposed to be where Psycho Mouse is now? That's what I thought last time I heard about it (it's been a long while since I've heard about this story, so forgive me if I'm wrong)

Awesome! I'm correct in assuming this is the same Rare game that eventually became Starfox Adventures? Rare is my favorite company so I'd love to check out your project when it's complete! Yep, you're indeed correct. You can check out my team's production blog, which usually gets updated every few weeks or so, here: http://dinoplanetfanseries.tumblr.com/ Our team and followers have been increasing more recently, and we're always looking for more talented people who are willing to join in the project.

I've been working on an animated fanproject based on the unreleased N64 game Dinosaur Planet for a long time (I'm directing the project). And just recently there were articles about the project overnight! This was a really big shock towards me and my team. And It's giving us huge motivation to continue working on the project.

I know this might sound a bit hypocritical given that I've used FastLane at Kings Island and will be probably using FastPasses at Disneyland more often, but I really never understood the full concept of these passes. I can understand waiting for a certain time to get on the ride, but what if you're waiting during peak season and there's nothing else to do because every corner is packed? What if you had limited time visiting a park far away from home and wanted to ride all the rides? Maybe it's just coming from someone who likes to try and ride all the rides in one day. And like I said, I have become more open minded to them. Despite having to shell out more cash for them, I found the FastLane to be efficient and well worth on a busy day. And I've started to figure out ways I can use my time to wait for a certain time to get on an attraction.

All the other Six Flags and Cedar Fair owned parks (I've already been to SFDK, CGA, KBF, SFMM, CP, and KI) All of the Orlando parks (most especially WDW and Universal) Tokyo Disneyland Disneyland Paris Universal Studios Singapore Universal Studios Japan Probably most of the big UK parks (most especially Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Blackpool Pleasure Beach) Europa Park Dollywood Hersheypark Kennywood Nagashima Spa Land Coney Island, NY Ferrari World Holiday World Both Busch Gardens parks

I bought that book months ago and I'm glad I did. I was supposed to mention it on this thread when it was first announced, but I never got around to doing it. I'm kinda surprised about some of the stuff the park had that I never knew about. And yeah I agree, looking at the pics of the park back in it's early days, makes the park of today feel somewhat empty. I really hope that future improvements can try to make the park feel stronger.

Pleasant Surprise: Mantis (soon to be Rougarou) (Cedar Point) - I had heard a lot of negative reviews about how rough it was. Given my past on B&M standups (Vortex being an ungodly painful experience while Riddler was surprisingly butter smooth), I had low expectations when riding this. When I rode however, I felt absolutely no headbanging! Uncomfortable g-forces sure, but no physical head to restraint pain. I'm not sure how the experience will be different when it reopens as Rougarou (It'll be a long while before I return to Ohio), but for what I got, it wasn't as bad as people said. Flight of Fear (KI) - A bit of the same with what I said about Mantis, I heard that is was a very shaky ride that would bang you up. However when I rode it, I didn't find it to be that rough. Now it's my 2nd favorite roller coaster at KI, the first being the Beast of course. Unpleasant Surprise: Vortex (CGA) - Like I said, my history with B&M standups have been a mixed bag. This was the first standup coaster I had ever ridden. I distinctly remember it was about seven years ago, I had finally gotten over my fear of inversions after riding the Demon. I wanted to go on all the looping coasters after going on Demon. When I got on Vortex however, I had a different experience. I was not prepared for the seemingly endless headbanging that would occur after the loop. That thing gave me an immediate headache after it was over. And to this day, I will never ride it again. Let's hope it either goes away or gets the Rougarou treatment. Ghostrider (Knott's) - I had known a lot about this ride prior to my first visit to Knott's in 2008, and I was really excited to ride it. I had heard some people say that it was really rough, but I wanted to evaluate it for myself. When I finally got on the ride, what I experience was not fun nor excitement, but a near death experience. This ride was so rough and so shaky, I was literally suffocating on this ride. I screamed for this ride to stop just so I could breathe. I was lucky that I didn't pass out on this ride. To this day, I curse this ride's very existence (even more so than Mean Streak), I curse the wood that it was built from, and I curse the cars (or death chariots) that have to travel along such an uncomfortable track. I hope for the day this ride either gets the RMC treatment or burns to the ground. Tatsu/Firehawk - I put these two coasters together because they're sort of the same, and I had the same experience on both. I've made a realization that I don't like flying coasters. I'd always love the thought of flying through the air like Superman, but these kinds of coasters gave me a different experience from what I expected. I never feel safe on them. I feel like some of the stuff that are tightly secured in my pockets will fall off or that the car will break off from the track. During my first ride on Tatsu, when the train was heading up to the station, it stopped midway. I started to worry a bit and had those feelings of the car wanting to break off. After about a half hour or so, the ride became operational again and I was so relived to be back on the ground. When I went on Firehawk, even though it was a laydown type, I still had those feeling kicked up again. Thankfully it didn't break down midway like Tatsu, though given it was a laydown type, I wouldn't have worried too much. Maverick (Cedar Point) - This was a ride that I was excited to go on. I had known about this coaster since it's construction and always wanted to know how it felt to actually ride it. When I rode it, my expectations were a lot different than what I had in mind. The heavy g-forces made the turns unbearable, trying to make me slam into the restraints. I'm still mixed on this ride, but I may give it another chance one day.

Well, what do you know? My prediction for next year came true!

Nah, I saw those footers on the train, which is in between the Rivertown area and Soak City. From what I understand, King Cobra was in the Action Zone area which is far away from the train station.

I just took the usual magic seat on most Arrow loopers (be it Demon or Canyon Blaster), which is mainly the first row of the last car. It was a bit smoother than the row we took on our first ride, and at least I didn't bang my neck on the magic seat.

If that's the case, then from the looks of it, I imagined there must've been some sort of stage with the animatronics, because I can't imagine animatronics having something like footers (at least not from most of the animatronics that I've seen). Actually, are there any pictures of what it looked like back then?

This actually looks very interesting and fun. At least I now have another reason to buy an Xbox One (aside from Killer Instinct)

Part 2: Kings Island After our two and a half day visit to Cedar Point, it was time to head to the next park, Kings Island. Given what I had heard about the park and my experience at CP, I had the same expectations for KI as I did with CP. Unfortunately, those expectations didn't hold as well as I thought. I think the problem was that I was a bit spoiled by Cedar Point with its size and seemingly endless things to do. Kings Island genuinely felt more limited. The park felt smaller, and there really wasn't much else to do other than the coasters. Now, that's not to say my experience at Kings Island was bad, me and my friend actually did have fun at the park, it just felt a bit underwhelming compared to Cedar Point. First day (Sunday): Just like our first trip to Cedar Point, we didn't arrive at the park until late afternoon. When we got there, we came across the typical weekend crowd. So we went to the Eiffel Tower first to spot out where to go first. And after some hard thinking, we wen to Planet Snoopy first. After riding a few of the rides there, we decided to play the front of the line pass game in front of Diamondback. We were able to win twice and use one for Diamondback (of course) and Firehawk. Unlike CP where we did some of the coasters on the first day, we did most of the coasters at KI on the first day. We decided to end our day on our first ride on the Beast. But as we got halfway through the line, operations stopped just so they could show their fireworks display, so we had to wait another half hour or so in line. Thankfully we were able to get on soon as operations continued. Something I forgot to mention in my CP report, the new FunTV in the queue was okay, but similar to a problem I had with Six Flags' queue TVs where it was too many commercials and not enough of other stuff, the problem I had with FunTV was that there were too many music videos and not enough of other stuff. I know this is just a nitpick of mine, but whenever I think TVs in the queue line for a theme park ride, my mind does not turn to MTV (or at least MTV back when the actually showed music videos). Second day (Monday): We arrived around 9:30 for the ERT at Action Zone. Of course we wasted no time and immediately headed to Banshee and Flight Deck. Then after the rest of the park opened, we went to Flight of Fear and did pretty much the rest of the rides. However, since the park was starting to fill up more, we had no other choice but to get FastLane wristbands. And I admit, they were well worth the extra hundred bucks we had to shell out. About 3/4 in the day, we were trying to figure out where to go next since we did mostly everything (we even did the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit which felt a lot larger and longer than the one at CP, and apparently they weren't doing the 3D movie in the old Action Theater anymore, but that really didn't bother me since I prefer Action Theaters that still have motion seats (which unfortunately there's only one now, but thankfully it's the one where I live nearby)). As I mentioned before, it felt like there weren't as many rides at KI as there were at CP (or even CGA for that matter). So for the rest of the day, we looked in a few shops, then went on a few more rides. We almost got to do Banshee at night had it not been for a problem with those cursed lockers. Last day (Tuesday): Since we only had half the day, and since we already did pretty much everything, we didn't do as much. We were able to do the ERT again to make up for not getting on Banshee at night. The rest of the day we went on some of our favorite rides, looked into shops and bought souvenirs, and took some more photos (mainly on the Eiffel Tower). We left around 5:30-ish to head back to Cleveland for our flight back home to California the next day. Pros of the park: The "compact" size of the park makes heading to certain rides easier than at CP. GLUTEN-FREE CORN DOGS AND CHICKEN TENDERS!!! Seriously, it was unbelievable to see something like this, especially for one with a severe allergy to gluten. Some pretty awesome rides. Night Rides! Cons: That same locker BS rule. The park seemed smaller than most of the other parks I've been to. Not a lot of rides outside of the roller coasters. Some of the rides felt a bit to shaky, like I was going to crack something when bashing in at a curve (especially with Beast and Racer's PTC cars). Thoughts on Rides: The Beast (5x) - This is hands down not just my favorite ride at KI, not just my favorite coaster during the trip, but my favorite wooden coaster of all time. Yes, I loved it even more than Gold Striker. And yes, Night rides are a must and they are better than day rides, especially when they play that eerie music during the lift hills. I did get our ride photos, but I won't post it now. I'll save it for a bonus later. Banshee (2x) - I kinda felt this was just the Inverted version to Gatekeeper for a few reasons. It felt forceless, compared to other B&M inverted coasters such as Flight Deck @ CGA, Batman, and even Raptor, and I had the same problem with the new restraints (to which the "vest" portion felt like it was squeezing my collar bone). Other than that, it wasn't a bad ride, just not what I had expected. Flight of Fear (3x) - I love this ride for a few reasons. I love the theming within the entire ride (one of the last few rides that still had most of the stuff from the Paramount era). And the ride itself was pretty fun and exciting. I kept anticipating what part of the track we would go to next. I actually didn't find it as shaky/rough as everyone says it is. Diamondback (3x) - I think this ride should be renamed "Maximum Airtime the Ride". Seriously, even though the lapbar was tightly secured, I still felt like the ride wanted to throw me off when going through the hills. On the last ride, we sat in the very back row, and I actually got wet from the splashdown. Other than that, it was a great coaster. The Bat (2x) - Holy crap! This ride is nothing like Iron Dragon nor Ninja! The ride went really fast, and the swinging was really intense and heart-pounding. I kept thinking we were gonna crash into those supports until the last second, which kinda had my eyes closed. Now I know why it was renamed The Bat, because it makes you screaming like one out of Hell. Backlot Stunt Coaster (3x) - This was an interesting ride. I liked how most of the non-tie-in theming was still intact, making it a very unique coaster. And much like the Beast, this coaster is better ridden at night. Oh and let me also say.. FIRE! FIRE!! Vortex (2x) - On my first ride, I didn't like it as much. The reason being there were some points that made me slam my neck into the restraints. Though my opinion slightly changed on the second ride, mainly due to the "magic seat". Honestly, I think this one is tied with Viper @ SFMM. Invertigo (1x) - There are some rides that just don't age very well. This one, especially given it was made by Vekoma, is no exception. Now, I had ridden the CGA version a long time ago, but I only rode it once and now I can barely remember that experience. But I'll never forget the impact this one left one me. Good god, every time I kept banging my head on the restraints, I tried to keep my head outside of them, but when I did so the G-force felt like they were about to snap my neck. So it was either ear torture or possible death, and I went with the ear torture. Woodstock Express (1x) - This was a fun little family woodie, except for the fact that this coaster had some of the most slow as molasses operations I had ever seen. But then again, who am I to nitpick on a coaster that was made for kids. Adventure Express (5x) - Wow! This ride did not cease to amaze me. The theming was interesting, the thrills were punch-packing, and this is one of those rides that are better ridden at night. My one complaint however was that the turns were kind too sharp and rough on me. Fun Fact: Prior to riding, I had known about the ride's "disappointing ending", so I tried to make an exaggeration to my friend that the ending was going to be epic. But after we rode, he actually didn't mind the "disappointing end". Firehawk (1x) - I think it's dawned onto me that I don't like flying coasters. Whether it's facing down like Tatsu, or lying down like this one, I just never felt completely safe. I always felt like the ride was going to break and the train would fall off the track. I remember when riding this I just couldn't stop screaming. Honestly, it was only worth riding once. Racer (4x) - Much like Gemini, me and my friend raced on this ride a lot. Though I think I prefer Gemini over Racer because, this one felt a bit rougher. But it was still fun and it was an honor to ride another legendary coaster. Boo Blasters on Boo Hill (2x) - This was an interesting one here because it's the only dark ride at the park. The ride itself was fun and so were the visuals. The one problem I had was that I had a problem using the blasters. Unlike Ghost Blasters at SCBB, where the blaster guns had a laser pointer that showed where you were shooting, the blaster guns on BB didn't have one. I thought at first that the car was broken, but they were working just fine (even on our second ride it had the same problem). So we just kept shooting blindly, making it harder than playing Duck Hunt on NES (but at least there wasn't any dog that laughed at your misery). White Water Canyon (1x) - While not as wet as Thunder Canyon, we did get mildly soaked on this. I also liked it a bit better than TC because WWC felt longer. Also when we got off, we both got to control two geysers at the same time and "Double Soaked" oncoming riders (I think one time we did that one of the riders cursed at us), that was an awesome experience. Race For Your Life Charlie Brown (1x) - Well what do you know! A Paramount movie-themed ride in a park that isn't Paramount themed anymore! But in all seriousness, this was a fun little log flume ride, and there were some parts that reminded me of the late Log Jammer @ SFMM. And I think it was this ride that I got soaked the most on. Drop Tower (1x) - This one pretty much felt the same as any other drop ride I've been on, though the 360 spin was a nice touch. And now for the pics... Backlot Stunt Coaster, breaking out like a cool coaster should be Looks like not all of the Drop Zone theming is gone Banshee as seen from Drop Tower's line I love the indoor part of FOF's line Dat old outdated technology! Banshee sticking out I found these footers while on the train ride, can anyone tell me if they were from some old ride or something? more unknown footers Something strange was going on in the old Crypt building. The day before, all of this wasn't here in the area The Beast: A coaster to be reckoned with Couldn't leave without taking a pic of this I payed my respect to this gone but not forgotten coaster that I never went on Banshee looked cool by day... But at night, that's a completely different story And now, a slideshow of Vortex Lift hill.. Loop.. Corkscrew.. Batwing roll.. and Batwing roll part II: The Inversion Strikes Back! Nostalgia Overload! And for the rest of this photo section, I leave a boatload of Eiffel Tower pics Let's go inside shall we? Planet Snoopy Diamondback Coney Mall Banshee Action Zone Main Entrance/Fountains/International Street FIRE! FIRE!! Last pic of the day. And so ends my trip report on my first ever visit to Ohio. I hope you all enjoyed it. And stay tuned perhaps, I could show off a little memorabilia sometime soon.