thrillseeker4552

With my flight delayed at the airport, I just wanted to pop in and write up a mini-report about how much I LOVED my first ever visit to this park yesterday. Those of you may have seen my posts in the Kentucky Kingdom thread trying to decide how to do HW and KK in the same day. I ended up dropping KK entirely for another visit and dedicating my day to Holiday World and I am very happy I did! Kentucky Kingdom is just another reason to come back to the area in the future. I thought all three woodies were wonderful. I don't know how rough or smooth they usually run, but I didn't think any of them were overly brutal. Just a usual intense woodie experience. I also wasn't expecting how different the 3 were. Raven in the back car surprised me a LOT (that drop mid-ride and the whole ending is insane) and is probably my second favorite ride in the park. Legend is very good but almost has too many laterals for my taste, I think the GCI trains would be more comfortable with all those laterals. And of course, Voyage was... Voyage. Absolutely relentless and insane from start to finish. This has been a big bucket list coaster for me for a long time and I'm so happy I got several rides on it, and it didn't disappoint. I don't think anything can dethrone El Toro as my favorite wooden coaster but Voyage is a very solid #2. Oh, and Thunderbird was great too. Perhaps a tad underwhelming with the layout, but the launch had more kick than I anticipated and the setting is wonderful. Good operations too. As for the park itself, this is where I was most surprised. First off, my favorite thing about this park is the free drinks. What an absolutely brilliant idea. There are so many locations to conveniently grab a drink and that is the BEST idea ever. I don't know how they offset that cost or sneak it in elsewhere but I wish more parks did it. So many parks make you jump through hoops just for a water cup or simple refill - long lines, bad service, few locations, lug around a souvenir bottle, etc. Holiday World does it RIGHT. I don't think I have ever been more hydrated at a theme park! And they also had water, lemonade, and vitamin water options, which as a pretty infrequent soda drinker (especially at parks) was nice to have. The park also looked very well-kept, clean, and very friendly employees. And I know many people way be annoyed with the lack of a line-skip service here, but I will say it did make the regular lines move quite well, and their operations as a whole were pretty decent with two trains on all coasters (although they did removed a train on Raven mid-day, but it was a walk-on anyway). Those of you that said the lines die down in the afternoon when everyone is at the waterpark are absolutely right. There was a morning rush on everything but by lunchtime the dry coasters were all walk-ons. I got multiple rides on all coasters and I was not expecting that on Memorial Day weekend. Overall I absolutely love this park and can't wait to visit again. Another major steel coaster would do them wonders - perhaps where Giraffica used to be. That area is, admittedly, an eyesore.

Count me in for loving the "new" Beast as well. It's running SO well based on my rides this weekend. Even the wheel seats were totally fine! It really climbed up in my woodie rankings. And, of course, the night rides are superb. I will also say that Orion impressed me too. Objectively it is probably my least favorite Giga among the 4 I've ridden (the 4 in the U.S.) but it's still a very good ride. I am 100% convinced that if this coaster was located anywhere on the West coast (or really anywhere other than Kings Island) it would receive entirely different reviews.

Thanks for the advice. I think I have decided that I will do Kentucky Kingdom at opening until around lunchtime, then head over to Holiday World for the rest of the day. Luckily the weather on Sunday looks clear, sunny, and hot - so I'm hoping the Splashin' Safari absorbs a lot of the crowds and arriving midday isn't too much of a problem for the dry coasters. Since this is the KK thread, I feel I should ask. What is the best order to attack the coasters at opening? Lightning Run first or would it be beneficial to hit T3 and Kentucky Flyer first since they seem low capacity? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm really just interested in doing Thunder Run, Kentucky Flyer, and T3 once (unless one of them blows me away) and hoping for a couple re-rides on Lightning Run and Storm Chaser all in the first couple hours of opening if possible.

Thank you (and Kim) for the tips. Sounds like arriving mid-day at Holiday World, especially on a holiday weekend, is a no-go. Perhaps I'll take your guys' advice and do the reverse and start there, and hit KK on the way back if time/weather allows. I think I'm more interested in HW than KK. I've been on a million RMCs but the Voyage has been a huge bucket list ride for me, rough or not lol. Sad to hear you guys had a rough experience there. So hopefully arriving at KK mid-day wouldn't be as bad as HW, and if so I'd just skip it and go back to KI. I guess I'll see how things play out before buying tickets. Thanks

Alright, I need some advice. I will be in the Cincinnati area this weekend. I'm going to Kings Island on Saturday, that is locked in. I have a hotel right near Kings Island on Saturday night and Sunday night. Considering I have all day Saturday with FL+ at Kings Island (which I've been to before minus Orion), I am heavily considering going to KK and HW on Sunday while I am in the area since I don't really need two entire full days at KI. Can someone please let me know if this plan is crazy or somewhat doable? Keep in mind it is a holiday weekend. Get up early Sunday morning at my hotel near KI and drive to KK, getting there at 10am opening. Stay for 2-ish hours (however long necessary to ride the major coasters and re-ride a couple). Leave around lunch and head to HW, gaining the hour drive back. Getting to Holiday World around 1-2pm and staying until closing at 7pm. Drive 3 hours back to hotel near KI. Is this too crazy? Any weird traffic patterns I should know about? Would arriving in the afternoon at Holiday World on Memorial Day Sunday be way too crowded to make it worth it? I'm not really a water park person so I am primarily interested in the woodies and Thunderbird. I suppose I could ask this in the HW thread too. But I am asking about both parks, and if attempting this on Memorial Day weekend is a death wish or perhaps doable. Thank you all!

Great report, thank you for sharing! Storm looks like a really solid ride that many small-to-medium parks could use.

They would absolutely have to close the roadway (or a portion at a time) if they needed to construct a box culvert/bridge in that area for the coaster to pass through. Especially considering that Beach Blvd is a state route maintained by the DOT, the tunnel would require a whole slew of permitting, approvals, and construction phasing on its own by encroaching in the DOT's right-of-way. Whether this all affects the possibility of this project happening is debatable... but yeah, building a coaster under a state road would be complicated. With that being said, regarding the City's tweets, I guess we just take from that what we will. I'm not sold on this project (or any variation) happening but those drawings also look just a little *too* good to be drawn up by some coaster dorks with spare time. As someone who works in site planning, land development, and roadway - these plans are fun and interesting to dissect no matter how legit they are!

^For the extension of 2020 passes to the end of 2022, it was prorated given the special circumstances. But on regular occasion, yeah, it's best to purchase passes early in the year for highest value.

The park allowed my family to renew their 2020 passes for a discounted price to last until the end of 2022. But they did it physically in the park at guest services, I doubt that option is available online. The park has a LOT of 2020 passholders whose passes just expired last week and I bet many of them want to continue to the end of 2022. I think you may have to do it over the phone or at the park though. EDIT: And yeah, for whatever reason, Knott's is the only year-round 365 park I can think of that uses seasonal passes that expire December 31 rather than 12-month passes like SeaWorld/Busch/Disney/Universal.

Thanks all. I just bought it for both days. I was pleasantly surprised (relatively speaking) to see it was only $115 each day that weekend. I paid $250 for FL+ at Cedar Point last summer.

Officially booked my trip to Kings Island for Memorial Day weekend. I haven't been since 2017 so I am very excited. I know FastLane+ at this park is magic, it gets you to the station everywhere right? Is there any chance of them selling out on Memorial Day weekend? Just wondering if I should purchase now or wait until I'm at the park, even though it's basically guaranteed to be crowded that weekend.

Regarding the vest restraints, I will say that the ones on Emperor felt a little more comfortable and forgiving than Valravn's/Gatekeeper's. During the hold on the drop the vests actually "gave" quite a bit and my whole body leaned forward a lot. No super tight locking, but I'm also only 5'9" so I can see how they could ruin the experience for a taller or larger person. Obviously the original restraints will always be better and more freeing due to their ratcheting nature but I do think B&M has improved their vest restraints from the days of their early wing coasters. The beyond vertical drop and airtime hill on Dr. D will be awesome.

Iron Gwazi last Tuesday. Still as good as ever and it feels wrong to have this coaster at my home park.

I had the exact same experience at Alpengeist. The line had built up and my dad and I decided to try the single rider line, fully expecting to be split up and assigned rows like we should. But nope, the attendant waved us through to pick any line we want. It basically was free QQ. We ended up pairing with a group of 2 to fill the row anyway but obviously that could've been done from the regular line too. It was a head scratcher.

I think Gwazi's lack of a MCBR helps its case so much. When I rode SV last August it was trimming very heavily on the MCBR and made the second half just so repetitive and tedious IMO. By the final bunny hops it was like, "Is it over yet? Is it done yet?" The first half is excellent though. Iron Gwazi feels like SV's first half the whole ride and it never lets up and powers to the end with speed. Obviously SV needed the edge with capacity though, so I understand CP's reason for adding a MCBR. Iron Gwazi is just consistent from top to bottom, beginning to end, without a single dead spot or trim. When I rode SV that was very much not the case. But I can see anybody's reason for preferring either coaster based on personal preference and taste. Neither is a bad coaster and they are both some of RMC's best work.

Whatever it is, I hope it has a <54" height restriction. With Ice Breaker being bumped up to 54" it would really be a shame if the park plopped in a 5th coaster with a 54" height restriction and nothing in between those and Super Grover. Although, unfortunately, with this being a B&M coaster I suppose that is unlikely unless it is something entirely new from them. Nonetheless it is exciting to see their original post-2020 plans ramp back up again!

I visited this park for the first time last weekend and just wanted to pop in and say I loved this park. Despite the cool temperatures and early-season timeframe, all rides were open and we had a fantastic time. Pantheon had some hiccups as expected but generally operated most of both days we were there after late openings in the morning. What an awesome coaster. It's so unique and has some great elements and lived up to my expectations. It feels like a marriage of Ice Breaker and Velocicoaster with some RMC mixed in. Although on my first ride, somebody's phone flew out on the drop off the top hat and hit the forehead of the person in front of me and nearly hit me. Please secure/don't ride with loose articles guys.... sigh. The coaster also has a pretty decent capacity when both trains are rolling through with no breakdowns. The wait from the entrance sign was often 30 minutes or less. Big surprise was also Alpengeist. I may prefer it to Montu, it was an absolute blast. The other B&Ms were about what I expected. Verbolten and InvadR were fun too and were also generally better than I expected. Despite their comparable ride lineups it has a completely different feel than BGT. The park layout also took some navigation and getting used to. I really have nothing negative to say at all, I know there have been some comments about this park lately. I absolutely loved it and they seem to be off to a great start this year now that all their coasters have re-opened. I can't wait to go back.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but does the 50% off QQ for Platinum holders apply to all parks? I have a Florida Platinum pass and am going to BGW in 2 weeks and wondering if my 50% off QQ applies there. I know the parking, admission, and retail discounts apply there but my single-use daily QQ ticket does not apply, so this was a gray area. Thanks for any info!

My dream is for the park to RMC Hurler (ideally not a carbon copy of Twisted Timbers), then add a sweet new GCI somewhere in the park. Oh, and scrap Vortex. One can dream.

Not gonna lie, I've had some suspicions lately that Xcelerator may be on its last legs for the park, but ever since they dumped a bunch of money on a fancy color scheme that definitely couldn't have been cheap (and they even painted it post-Dragster incident), that solidified for me that it's staying for a while longer. I'll be at the park in a week so that'll stink if it's down but I'm really just going for the Boysenberry Fest anyway.

That drawing perfectly captures what I was imagining in my head for how this happened. I don't dare watch the video and never will. What a horrible, horrible accident. It's 2022 and this should not be happening. And the ride has been operating for barely 3 months. It never made sense to me that this does not have the redundancy belt that clips to the restraint, when the slingshot immediately next door features the exact same seats and restraints and has a seat belt. I hope this ride gets those redundancy belts, and perhaps even a separate lap belt underneath the restraint. I would 100% welcome that change. Slowing down so abruptly at that angle really was a strange and unnerving feeling, versus a regular drop tower where you are completely into your seat or like Falcon's Fury where you are completely into your restraint. This puts you in between the two. What an awful, awful thing to happen. I can't imagine what the poor family is going through, or the bystanders who witnessed it.

Very happy to see this! I was concerned this coaster was going to get canned or delayed given the park's situation recently. With that being said, I will be pretty surprised if they get this thing open by summer. And it's Colorado so they can't open it too late into the fall either. Fingers crossed all goes well for them. I also really like the color scheme. It should blend in nicely with the surroundings.

While perfectly plausible this could be for a few track sections on Kumba (I don't see it listed on the website as going down soon?), I also wouldn't discount this being for SeaWorld Orlando since they are quick ramping up construction. It could also be for something overseas since they are building a new B&M just about every day. Thanks for sharing!

Looks amazing, thanks for all the photos. Can't wait to visit at the end of the month. This is my first Boysenberry Festival since... 2017 I think? And the park hasn't had one since 2019 (well, a proper one with rides open, etc.) so I'm sure they're thrilled about it too!

I kinda assumed this ride would never operate again and they would quietly close it but glad to see it may open! I'm not a big fan of these rides but anything to take in more crowds and add to the park's capacity sounds good to me. I really, really want this park to get a Screamin' Swing or a Giant Discovery - they could really use some help in the flat rides department now that Iron Gwazi is open and their coaster lineup is perfectly topped off for the time being. And neither of these flats exist anywhere in Florida.