2012jarrett

Only one that really shocked me was X-Flight at SFGAm. I honestly didn't think that park would get anything and that the few rumors passed around about it were nothing more than other new coaster rumors that have no evidence. Though maybe I just missed the survey marker pictures. Wonder Mountain's Guardian surprised me a tad too. I guess I just found it weird that Cedar Fair would be taking that route.

That's great news! I think we're sold on pushing it back to early November. That should be more than enough time to avoid hurricane season and Howl-O-Scream, right? We plan to be those nuts waiting outside before the park opens and when gates open, shove small children out of the way while running to Cheetah Hunt (not even kidding, I saw a man shove a kid runni g to Diamondback last year at Kings Island) so we'll get there to no queue. So my three biggest concerns right now: *Hurricanes: Should the first weekend in November be safe or should we wait until the second? *Intamin: We're doing all we can to get it before it goes down (and you KNOW it will) but how reliable is Cheetah Hunt compared to other Intamins? (Mainly Maverick) *Fitting: 5'11 and 220 pounds but I should fit into Cheetah Hunt, right? I pulled 3 inches of slack when I tried Maverick's this past July. I'd assume they all have the same strap, right? Thanks for all the help!

We plan to go all day Friday and Saturday morning. Should that be enough time to get all the creds (particularly Cheetah Hunt) and a few others? I'll be getting my 75th credit on this trip too! I would like it to be Cheetah Hunt, but I refuse to take any chances skipping it since it's the main reason we're going. The other two I'm considering are Montu, even though my 50th was a B&M invert (Raptor) and Kumba. Which should it be? And do you think the first week of November will be late enough to avoid hurricane season?

Those are some great shots! It's not going up as quickly as I thought it would, but it seems like it's rising pretty fast still. A bit of follow up on our trip planning, I've heard that Howl-o-Scream was more popular than I thought it was. Is it worth putting the trip off to November? I don't have any reason to visit the haunts and I have no reason to ride Falcon's Fury, so somewhere in between there would be preferable, the sooner the better. Is the park always on daily operation?

Well that announcement video was...interesting. If I go next season I'll have to randomly run around Lake Eerie Eagles flapping my arms and cawing loudly (though I have skipped through that part of the park linking arms with my cousin, so it's not THAT out of the ordinary for me) and YouTube it. But I still respect the family. I'm a YouTuber myself and I know how hard camera presence can be, and we all have to find what works for us. And if acting overly goofy and cheesey and acting like a bird makes you work best and feel most comfortable on camera, then I commend them for doing it. About Jr. Gemini, it looked like they were repainting it brown in the sketch. I think if they removed the trim around the station roof and gave it that lot cabin texture used throughout Planet Snoopy it would match the Wilderness Run name. It appeared as if it would stay the same, and if they do they won't match the theme. I guess they could put Peanuts characters on each colored car and it would look okay. Though the front does say "Jr. Gemini" so they might have to paint over it or, if it's a decal, take it off. This looks good, though, and I'm glad they chose to update this section of the park.

Mystery Mine is strange. The first part is just a dark ride portion before a lift, and then it goes into a dip and into a brake run before dropping into a horseshoe turn into a figure eight...with ANOTHER brake run in it. And then two completely random airtime-less hops into the building for the second lift, and the I drops and does that strange dive loop-heart line tool combo into the brakes. Carolina Goldrusher and Dahlonega Mine Train were both odd coasters. I also think that Mean Streak is strange in that it's literally a giant undulating helix.

Me too! I love Mean Streak! Especially after Hades 360 I wouldn't say I liked it per say, but it wasn't AS bad as people say it is. Kings Island's Racer in the back is more painful than Mean Streak, and Son of Beast was even worse. I had fun when I rode it.

I've ridden three B&M standups and they were all equally horrible, maybe Georgia Scorcher was a little better than Vortex or Mantis. I do think Mantis is the worst non-kiddie coaster at the park and I think Cedar Fair should move it (give it to Valleyfair! It'd be the perfect addition there!) because you could fit something way better in thy spot. I honestly find it less pleasant than Mean Streak OR Iron Dragon, which are the two everyone wants to see ripped out. I vote they move Mantis, and in a few years when Iron Dragon gets relocated to the great theme park in the sky, Cedar Fair tries to fit something else there since correct me of I'm wrong, but the plots are adjacent. Wouldn't it be cool if try could fit two low-to-the-ground interacting coasters there? Maybe a B&M Minidiver and a Zierer elevated seating coaster weaving around each other?

I set foot in the queue at the end of last season and all of its cattlepens are still there, but the station is REALLY far away from Banshee's future station. They started using it for a haunt called Wolf Pack a few years ago, and I bet they intend to keep that. I actually got a piece of the last bit of track they left, and you can see the Wolf Pack sign on it. Not to nitpick, but I believe you meant "right" in both of these captions "those lonely pullout supports on the far RIGHT of the shot" in the first picture and "the dive loop will be just to the RIGHT of where I was standing when I got this shot" in the second picture. It looks like your standing right where the entry plaza/sign/queue will be. But I have yet to visit the park this year, so correct me if I'm wrong. Otherwise, awesome shots! I was REALLY tired when I posted that, don't judge!

I honestly disagree with this one. It could have been RMCed if the technology existed when it stopped operating, but after it spent three years rotting I don't think it could have been saved. I saw it during its final days after its removal was announced and before they started tearing it down and it looked horrible. There were bowed beams right and left in the structure and it looked like it would collapse any second. Now I COMPLETELY agree with you on Banshee. That thing's going to ROCK. Big Bad Wolf shocked me, especially since we didn't get to it when we went in 2007. It seemed to have good ridership and could have still been operating had they not built Verbolten (even though it looks better). Space Spiral really had me scratching my head. I know they wanted to redo that space around GateKeeper but nothing there even comes close to it. I think they made a bad call with this one. They probably could have given it a facelift. Painting it blue and giving the cabin a repaint with the CP skyline against a cool background. Though watching them blow it up was AWESOME!!!! Another where the removal itself didn't shock me but what was done afterwards was The Crypt at Kings Island. It was an awful ride and I'm glad they got rid of it, but did they REALLY need to leave that big stupid building there? It's like they got rid of one big stupid eyesore (SoB) and then they create another? I get wanting to use the QUEUE for the haunt event, but I see no type of haunt that could utilize such an enormous building. Tear it down and put something there!

Alright, I have a few videos for you. I'll post the PTR tomorrow or as soon as I finish it, I promise! Banshee Construction Update: EDIT: Posted the wrong video earlier. I've fixed it since. Banshee Advertised on Gift Shop Televison: Trip Music Video: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad On-Ride Footage: This one only takes you to Soak City. I got off there to go charge my phone in Planet Snoopy, but I do have an older video of the trip back:

My favorite coaster is Millennium Force, and while it does get ranked well in polls and some other enthusiasts like it, I think there's definitely a good portion of us that don't. It's not as intense as some newer Intamins but it's so smooth and has an amazing view. Wing coasters are another type of coaster only I seem to like. I rode Wild Eagle and GateKeeper, and both of them are in my top ten. Wing coasters aren't forceful, I get it. I just love being out on the wing and exposed while flying through the air like that. Only complaint I have about them is the restraint stapling in Wild Eagle's back left seat and GateKeeper's infamous camelback hill. Other than that, both rides (specifically GK) are amazing!

Home Park: Kings Island (1 hour), Cedar Point (3 hours) Favorite parks: Cedar Point, BGW, Dollywood So it's pretty far, but one of my home parks is my favorite. Hard to go there in a day, though.

Well I went with Garbanian earlier today and we had a blast...and I got to see Banshee's pieces for the first time in person! So I have construction shots from today! This transfer track assembly is flying up! They were lifting beams that ran perpendicular to the long sides of it earlier, and I saw a lot of track onsite, including two pieces towards the back of the lot near Adventure Express that looked like they could be for the drop. I FLIPPED when I saw this queueing for Adventure Express! Say hello to Mr. crane! Construction walls are updated with Banshee layout renderings and logos. Well the park has introduced this new ice cream cone called the Banshee Twist to go along with the coaster. It's a swirl of blueberry ice cream that boasts a suspicious shade of royal blue, and a mixture of vanilla ice cream and red dye number four that sports an equally sketchy shade of pink. And it's HUGE. Well this is me with mine... If you think that this oddly-colored ice cream wrecks your insides, you're probably right... I finished it, but not happily. I ate it all because it was four dollars, but honestly, I wanted to blow chunks afterwards. So we have the cinnamon challenge and the gallon of milk challenge, now we have the Banshee twist challenge! Eat an entire Banshee twist in under twenty minutes without vomitting! (Do NOT get one of these and eat it all in one sitting. They're messy, get all your stuff blue, and make you wish you were never born. I wish they made a smaller version, though, because it was actually good ice cream.) Footers and supports! I feel like those supports are for the lift hill. We can see a lift support rising out of that triangular footer soon! Those closely bunched beams that go perpendicular to where the track will be was what they were installing today. I have footage coming later. It might help in the future, but there's a large gap in the bottom of the construction fence. When more of this goes vertical, you might want to try using this in October to snag pictures. Supports! Those two track pieces behind the truck intrigued me since they were out all alone like that. Could these be for the first drop? Both of them a bit closer. They look like part of a pullout. It's small but here's a pretty clear picture of them. Didn't notice it at the park, but I noticed that they flattened out that area in the grass. Just ways for construction crew to get around or a temporary thing that will become permanent in the future? This one shows a bit of everything. You can see the brake run/transfer track supports on the far left, and those lonely pullout supports on the far left of the shot. Noticed that bar-shaped footer on the bottom left of this shot that had space for two supports. If I'm looking at the rendering correctly, the support on the left is for the entry into the dive loop, the one on the right will be used for the pullout. The fact that you can't see the transfer track assembly from here is a great indicator to just how huge this thing is going to be. I would definitely classify it as a giant invert with Alpengeist, Montu, and Jubilee Odyssey. Again, if I'm looking at this rendering correctly and matching the right supports to the right footers, the dive loop will be just to the left of where I was standing when I got this shot. Back to marketing the coaster. There is Banshee merchandise in the gift shops, which include (pretty plain) Banshee logo shot glasses, travel cups, and water bottles in black, blue, clear, and metallic. They're not that exciting right now, but they do have a second style of t-shirt with the Banshee logo against a night skyline of the park, and I bought the blue one. I also noticed that the generic logo t-shirt also came in pink, which I found fitting for Cedar Fair's first female-inspired thrill ride. Also noticed that they sold (very plain) Banshee hoodies. As much as I'm not keen on the plain merchandise, I did ask a cashier at Thrill Seekers (the logo merchandise shop on International Street) if they had anything more interesting. She told me that they would start getting the cooler stuff in next year when it opened, which is what I was expecting. This stuff's already pretty cool, can't wait to see the bulk of it! Diamondback and Beast have some great things already, I can't wait to see the cool stuff they sell for Banshee! About the marketing, I've lived in Dayton (an hour from Kings Island) for 13 years and I've NEVER seen them go at it with as much gusto as they are for Banshee! They left a lot of viral advertising stuff up in Action Zone (owls, Gaelic gravestones, video surveillance signs) and every now and then they'd sound the Banshee scream in the area. They had the different rendering videos playing on a cycle on all of the gift shop TVs, and it was working. I saw a lot of people stop and look up to see this, even recall one woman smiling at the end and saying "that looks awesome." So I have a few videos on the way (I'm still VERY tired, probably tomorrow for these) but that's how Banshee is. I realize some of it you've seen, maybe some of it you haven't, like those two lonely pullout supports in the back. Once I get my license this weekend or the next, on Tuesdays when I don't have class I'll be able to just run on down there and grab pictures. And even in the offseason, I might be able to borrow my dad's big, fancy camera with the telephoto lens and just find some place nearby to take pictures across the parking lot. Think Great Wolf Lodge would let me? Worse comes to worse I just pull over and hop out.

Steel: Top Thrill Dragster Wood: Son of Beast Invert: Alpengeist Wing: Wild Eagle or GateKeeper (depends on if you want lift height or drop height )

It's a freaking huge ice cream cone. They swirled their blueberry ice cream and some vanilla dyed pink a d made it extend five inches past the actual cone. I still feel sick.

Waiting out a storm in Flight Deck's station and saw them lift two beams into place. Pics when I get home. Also, those Banshee Twist ice cream comes are a NO. I ate one earlier and now want to puke my guts out. This needs to be like the cinnamon challenge or the gallon of milk challenge. The Banshee Twist Challenge: eat a whole Banshee Twist ice cream cone in under twenty minutes without vomiting.

I was on Backlot Stunt Coaster at Kings Island with my cousin and her husband. They're not enthusiasts like we are but they like coasters and will ride anything. Well they hadn't ridden Backlot in a while. My cousin was happy when she got in line and saw all the California theming since she lived in LA for a while. Well we got on the ride. She screamed the WHOLE time until the MCBR. And when that pyrotechnic effect went off, I heard a scream from behind me like somebody was getting murdered. We pulled into the final brakes with her trembling before she yelled "That's the scariest ride I've ever been on!" So she's ridden Dragster, Tatsu, X2, and BACKLOT STUNT COASTER was the scariest? XD And that same trip, they forced me on Drop Tower (I'm TERRIFIED of heights and loathed the experience with a burning passion) and about 1/3 of the way up a kid two seats away from me started crying. And at that same park on a different trip, we made the mistake of riding The Beast in a car full of teenage girls. Sounded like an entire Justin Bieber concert crammed into that little car. At Carowinds, my dad brought his new iPhone on Nighthawk and it fell out of his pocket and he caught it. Took my friend to Dollywood and got her on Thunderhead. She flashed the "rock on" hand gesture (fist with index and little fingers extended) to the camera. When we got off, her dad was looking at the photo booth and seemed very angry. We walk over and he asks "Patricia, WHAT is with the finger?" He pointed to our picture and the camera captured her metal fingers from the side and it looked like she was flipping the camera the "uh-oh" finger. Whenever I get my dad on a "first" for him (his first flyer, his first hyper, his first dive machine, ect.) it's tradition for him to say "another fine mess you've gotten me into" on the lift hill. At Kings Island, I wore an unbuttoned button-up shirt over a t-shirt on Diamondback. I didn't tuck the button-up into the bar very well, and whenever we went over a hill the restraint only had the tips of the shirt and it filled up with air like a sail and I looked like a giant blue blowfish flying over these hills.

Am I the only one here that has no problem with Screamin' Swings? Vekoma flying dutchmens scare me when they flip over at the top. Top Thrill scared me too waiting for the launch.

So are Garbanian, his friend and I the only ones going tomorrow? I have my ticket!

This. A million times. Ninja at SFOG was the worst coaster I'be ever ridden of my 71 credits. Son of Beast was a close second. *jumps on bandwagon* I'm not the only one that thinks this!

I was making a B&M giga in NoLimits and my sister's friends were over. One of them walked over and told me that it needed a loop. I was about to explain to him that coasters like this don't usually have inversions because they focus on speed and negative vertical Gs, but he just said "Oh, wait, it just has a lap bar, nevermind that." A few weeks back a friend of mine took me to Dollywood with her family on their family vacation to Gatlinburg. She had never ridden any big coasters (I think the biggest was Backlot at Kings Island) and while she was terrified of them, wanted to ride one with her enthusiast friend (MEEE!!!!! ) just to say she did it. The wait for Wild Eagle that day was spent with her asking me about all these horrible Final Destination-esque scenarios such as the NTG incident (that required an hour of explaining to her after it happened to convince her that it wasn't the coaster's fault) such as how they know the restraint won't come up, whether or not she fit (I explained that the woman thrown from NTG got thrown due to her larger size and that I fit despite the fact that she's much smaller than I am), how they make sure that all the bolts are tight and supports are sturdy, and other questions of the nature. I probably gave her enough of a lecture that day to make her an expert on the subject. After the ride, she said she STILL felt like she was going to die! XD I bought her a snowglobe from the gift shop to make up for having put her through that. So all's good!

This is an easy one for me...Smoky Mountain Speedpark in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I was there a while back with a friend and her family and we were just vacationing in the area, but we swung into this place to let me grab a credit. Six bucks got my friend and I on their little Dragon Wagon (yes, I'm a credit whore, I know ) but the place was literally a parking lot with a few cheapo carnival rides plopped down in it next to a few go kart tracks that were fun, but felt like they were going to just fall apart any second. Didn't enjoy the Dragon Wagon because I felt like it was going to fall apart any second, and I didn't even MESS with the 20$ tiny sling shot without a cage. We did Dollywood two days later and it was a BIT classier...

PMed! As much as I'd love to see Action Zone rethemed and modernized (seriously, the area feels VERY 90's) it simply doesn't seem like something Cedar Fair would ever do. The most we might see would probably be repainting/theming Flight Deck to The Bat. I think eventually we could see a path between Action Zone and X-Base constructed. Have it go under Banshee in Action Zone like the one that connects the midway to Blue Streak and goes under Raptor at Cedar Point but longer, and then loop it around Adventure Express (the final nail in the coffin for this ride's dying theming) and along the backside of Flight of Fear's launch tunnel portion of the building, maybe extending the X-Base section back down behind it and painting the building to look like a hangar and maybe put some appropriate midway games back there. I also always thought that an S&S Screamin' Swing or Gerstlauer Skyfly would work well back there. Maybe a ride like River Battle at Dollywood but themed to a sort of experimental battleship? I think the part that goes from Banshee to the X-Base extension could probably retain Banshee's Halloween theme. The park is also missing a good vertical/beyond vertical drop coaster, so I could see an S&S El Loco or a Eurofighter fitting in there. A water ride would work well too, I could see something themed to a swamp monster fitting n back there. Just my two cents.

I don't do we'll with drop towers and water slides. I can do S&S towers because they're quick, but Drop Tower (KI)'s holds you up there FOREVER, it's torture.