rcoaster10

I would say I'm a combination of the both. This is one of the reasons I love Dollywood so much. They've got thrills and theming plus the location is beautiful. Being completely beautiful and not thrilling isn't as much of a draw for me though. For example, I'm not a big fan of Disney since the lack of thrills. Six Flags Great Adventure and Silver Dollar City are my two top priority parks to visit. The only reason I want to visit SF is because of El Toro and Kingda Ka, which just seem like world class thrills, where as SDC I'm looking forward to the entire experience. (And Outlaw Run especially )

Beast and Banshee for sure. I love them both.

My first coaster ride of the year was Tatsu. 235 coaster rides later, I ended the year with a front row night ride on Millennium Force.

My question exactly! Flight Deck I thought was a lot worse than Time Warp, but both were still horrible. Skyrider was actually a lot of fun, probably my 3rd favorite coaster there after Leviathan and Behemoth. It's unfortunate it's gone. Stand up airtime is a unique experience.

I just read through this whole story just now and wow! I loved the park development. And even though it's not filled with custom scenery and "beautiful" in the eyes of some, I think the way you told the story and how well you followed the timeline of what types of rides were out at that time were excellent. I loved the different writing perspectives and the accidents that happened. I honestly felt sad when I heard Vampyre was getting removed! Then I had to look at myself and realize I'm readig a story about a video game on a theme park site. I hope to make a park story soon.

On 10/3/2014 I went to Cedar Point for my first ever Halloweekends experience. For some reason I had never gone before this year and I decided I finally needed to go. I was a little worried about the weather since it had been raining all day, but by the time we got to the park, it had stopped. I went with my dad and we arrived at 4:55, just in time for early entry. We got in the park right at 5:00 and headed to GateKeeper. They hadn’t started testing it yet but we figured we’d wait for a little bit. After 15 minutes, still no activity, so we went over to Millennium Force. The park was dead and it was quite strange visiting with cool weather. I love the fall atmosphere at the park. Once we got to Millennium, we rode that once with no wait. We went over to Maverick after that and rode also with no wait. There were actually empty seats on our train. It started to rain again so Maverick closed. I met up with another member, Ride On_17, and his mom, aka “Millennium Force Mama” and us 4 stayed together the rest of the night. It was still raining a little but Millennium was still running so we decided to ride that twice. No wait for either time. It was still sprinkling a little but we went over towards the front of the park and rode Wicked Twister. No wait. Then we took a ride on GateKeeper which actually had a line, about 15 minutes. It was a lot smoother than previous rides on it earlier this year. I still don’t know if I like sitting in the very front where you hang over the drop or the very back where you get whipped over the drop. After GateKeeper, the rain became downpour so we got under a covering and waited it out. I was getting kind of hungry and none of the rides were open so we ate at Pinks while it rained. It was just about 8:00 when we finished, which is when the haunts started. We first went to Zombie High and waited about 15 minutes. Barely any of the rides were open that night so the lines for the haunts increased. Zombie High was cool. It was a ton of activity: loud booming music, tons of bangs on walls, tons of strobes. It was fun, but not necessarily scary. It got me really disoriented as well. After Zombie High, we went to Hexed, which had the longest wait of the night of about 20 minutes. I liked this one more than Zombie High. It had a ton of theming and the screamsters were very good. It was a lot more interactive than Zombie High was which primarily had just loud noises. Eerie Estate was next on our list, and it only had about a 5 minute wait. This was by far the best of the night. What I loved about this one is that it felt so much more personal. There were times where it was dead silent and just dim lights, which was very creepy. You have a lot more suspense when there’s no distracting noises or lights, and this is why this one made me jump a lot more. I loved it. We saw Dragster running earlier when we were in line for Hexed so we had hoped to get on that since 1) It’s my all-time favorite and 2) It was closed the last time I was there (Coastermania). We headed over to Dragster but unfortunately it had closed again and didn’t look like it would be opening up again that night, which it didn’t. We did Blood on the Bayou which was the best scare zone in my opinion. It was really long and tons of theming and screamsters who were really interactive. We took a ride on Magnum and it was amazing. For some reason, all of my rides on this have been amazing this year. We then went through CarnEvil which was neat. It wasn’t scary at all but it was cool. We also went through Tombstone Terror-tory which wasn’t really a scare zone, just a themed area with screamsters. There was a short line for Maverick so we decided to ride. It was only about 10 min. It was awesome riding it with all of the lights from Cut Throat Cove below. The next haunt we did was Eden Musee which was actually really cool. We waited about 10 min. It was so cool being surrounded by Mean Streak. It may not be a great ride but it is a beautiful structure. This haunt was pretty much a whole game of “is it real or not” which is fun and very startling. We went through Cut Throat Cove right after that and I was disappointed. It was the worst scare zone, as it barely had any screamsters and the ones that were in there didn’t even do anything. The theming you couldn’t even see as the entire path is just one blinder after another. We had one last haunt, Eternity Infirmary, so we did that. There was no wait. It was the worst haunt of the night, as there was a lack of theming and screamsters. The quality and detail of it is nothing compared to Eerie Estate and Hexed, which I think had fantastic theming. I did love the rotating tunnel and drop panel though. I was hoping to see both at least in one haunt that night and I’m glad that this one had them. We were going to do Cornstalkers but it was closed due to flooding. We went through Screamworks which was just okay. There was one screamster in there who just stood there and said “boo! I’m scary!” which everyone thought was hilarious. I think it’s really important for a good haunt to not only scare people but just make them have a good time. We had done all of the haunts and scare zones at this time so we decided to end the night with 5 rides on Millennium Force, which was a great way to end the night. It was a fantastic day and I overall loved the CP Halloweekends experience. If I had to rank the haunts, it would be these: 1. Eerie Estate 2. Hexed 3. Eden Musee 4. Zombie High 5. Eternity Infirmary We came back on Saturday since we have Platinum Passes and I still needed to get my last ride in on Mantis and I really had hoped to get on Dragster since it was closed the day before. The weather was a lot colder than the day before and a lot windier, which made it feel even colder. We got to the park at 10:00 for early entry but almost everything was closed due to wind. We rode Iron Dragon with no wait, then went to Maverick and waited about 30 minutes on early entry. Skyhawk had no line so we rode that. Dragster still had no signs of opening so we rode Mantis. We waited an hour total for it, which I never ever would have done given other circumstances, but since nothing else was open and I needed to get my last ride in, we decided to wait it out. It was actually a good last ride. We stood in the very front and it was very smooth. No B&M rattle, no headbanging, (except in the corkscrew), and no leg pain. For some reason it got me kind of nauseous which is strange because it never did before. Anyway, it was a good way to say goodbye. I really hope the floorless trains don’t have the B&M rattle. If it is as smooth as the stand up trains, it will actually be a fantastic ride. We continued to walk around the park to see if anything else was open. Magnum had just opened when we walked by so we rode that with about a 15 min wait. Fun as usual. We went around to the back of the park to see what was open. Mean Streak was open, walk on, while Maverick had an hour and a half wait. I wonder if that’s next. We rode Mean Streak front row and it wasn’t rough at all actually, just boring. This was our last ride of the day since we really had no desire to ride anything else since there were only limited rides open and the lines were long, plus it was still really cold. Overall, the trip was really fun. The weather on Friday scared people away which let us have minimum lines which was really nice. Saturday got me my last ride on Mantis. Unfortunately I never got on Dragster, but hopefully I can get on it when I go back next weekend. (10/25) Roubantis is looking beautiful. I've always wanted a giant orange loop Roubantis is an confused state of being right now Such a beautiful park Such a beautiful structure

I've been on 3 of them, Banshee, Goliath, and Firechaser. If I had to rank them it would be: 1. Goliath- it feels too short, but what it packs into that time is insane. It was my first RMC and I was very impressed with the ejector air both on the drop and airtime hill. The zero-g stall is totally unique as well. But best of all, it's SO smooth. 2. Banshee- a great fit for KI, and a great coaster. It has a perfect flow of elements and they're so large that it's an easy coaster to marathon even though it has 7 inversions. The only thing I don't like about it is the horrible rattle that it's had since day 1. The ride is very bouncy and has been on all 3 occasions I visited KI this summer. (Media day, Memorial day, Banshee Bash). It is unfortunate since if it was as smooth as Goliath it would probably be my number one of this year. 3. Firechaser- this is actually a great family coaster but it doesn't compare to the first 2 in terms of thrills. It is everything a family coaster should be, though. Forwards, backwards, fog, props, launches, lifts, this thing has it all! It fits in perfectly with Dollywood. It manages to gives some unique thrilling elements, yet still keep it family friendly.

I feel the same way about Maverick. I've heard many people call Maverick "rough" but it's just the word used wrong. It whips you around and has some intense transitions, but the actual ride is butter smooth. Definitely intense, not rough.

What a sad day that would be. I would choose El Toro since I've never ridden it.

I honestly don't think they're going to completely remove it. It's a reliable, expensive, high capacity B&M. They have a perfect marketing opportunity right now to make this a "new" coaster and I'm sure thats exactly what they're doing. My prediction is that we'll get some green paint, a new name, and new trains, floorless or sit down with the new B&M restraints. Less likely, but another idea is that they could run the trains backwards as a gimmick so it gives the park a little more diversity in terms of coaster opportunities. GateKeeper, Raptor, and Corkscrew are sit down looping coasters, so the backwards factor could give it that appeal.

I wasn't expecting the park to be bad at all, actually I expected it to be really great. And overall the park wasn't bad I just thought WMG was really disappointing. I had a lot higher expectations for it.

Canada's Wonderland Trip Report August 24th and 25th: I recently went to Canada's Wonderland for the first time on August 24th and 25th with my dad. My biggest priorities were Leviathan, Behemoth, Skyrider, and WMG. We were originally going to make use of the free FLP Platinum Pass renewal but it turns out it is only valid if you got your Platinum Pass from CW. We still forked out the $75 each anyway but it was worth it. We drove in through Sarnia at the Michigan/Canada border on the 24th. This was also my first time in Canada. We finally got to Toronto and Google Maps told us to go on this road called 407 ETR. It’s an all electronic toll road that apparently you’re only supposed to be using if you’re previously signed up. It didn’t even cross my mind until I saw the sign that said “Non-Ontario residents will be billed”. Then I thought back to reading something on this forum about it and it doesn’t sound good. We still have yet to get a bill for it but if you go on the site and calculate it, it came out be about $12 which isn’t THAT bad, but there’s also a $50 plate fee I’m not quite sure about so I’ll have to see what all comes of this. Finally, we got to the park and even trying to get into the parking lot it was packed and was about 1:00 pm. We knew we would need FLP so we purchased it as soon as we got into the park. Right away we headed to Leviathan. We got right into the station almost immediately and sat in the back row. The lift hill seems to go on forever which I love since it builds the anticipation. Finally, the drop comes and it was solid floater air the whole way down. I’ve never felt a drop that felt so long. By the time you feel like the drop should pull out, it doesn’t. It just keeps on dropping. It’s probably my favorite drop in terms of duration. The entire ride isn’t very forceful, but has a great feeling of speed. On Millennium, the bottom of the first drop and overbank is one of the most forceful coaster moments that I’ve experienced and I grey out almost every time. On Leviathan, I didn’t grey out at all. The speed hill that follows the first big turn is probably my favorite part besides the drop. It’s probably the strongest airtime on the whole ride and I love the immediate turn it does. The trims are noticeable and we’re used on both hills every ride. The biggest airtime hill is fun since you get such a long duration of airtime. Although not very strong, it seems like it’s never going to end. The main turnaround is quite banked and it felt like an inversion in my eyes. I thought ride was a little short but I don’t think it should have been any longer. The whole ride focuses on speed and by the last turn you can feel it’s definitely slowing down. We rode Leviathan again in the front and then we did Drop Tower. Drop Tower really disappointed me. I didn’t feel any of the freefall feeling that you usually get on drop towers. We went to Vortex next and rode in the front. It was obviously just like Bat at Kings Island except different location. I think I like Bat more though. After Vortex we went over to ride Behemoth. This was probably the longest wait of the day since the FL line was so long and they only let a few in at a time. It ended up being 10 minutes on FL which is still way better than the normal line, but still not a walk on like all the others had been. Behemoth was underwhelming. It just crawled over the airtime hills and felt slow, especially towards the end. Fun ride, but I like Leviathan more. It’s funny to hear my dad’s reactions to the rides since he’s not a coaster enthusiast and it gives a good perspective of how good the actual ride is like despite manufacturer, age, or ride type like us coaster enthusiasts judge coasters on. His reaction to Behemoth was “That’s a really tall family ride”. See, even the GP notices that B&Ms are forceless! He did love Leviathan, though. We took a ride on BLSC after that and it was fun. No effects at all; it didn’t even pause at the effect section like the one at KI does. I think this is one of the best family rides by far. After that we did Skyrider and I was impressed. I was expecting it to be a headbanger and to kill my legs like Mantis does, but it did neither. It was awesome having airtime on a stand up and it was just a giggly ride. Everyone was laughing coming into the brake run. Since Mighty Canadian Mine Buster was right across the midway we took a ride on that. It wasn’t rough but it wasn’t that thrilling and the airtime was lacking. I wanted to go on every coaster there so we headed over to Flight Deck and endured the pain. It was a lot worse than Thunderhawk and the restraints smelled so bad. This is definitely the worst coaster at CW. After experiencing the worst coaster, we decided to go on the best coaster again. We got another lap on Leviathan and then I rode Wild Beast. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The bottom of the first drop was jarring but the rest of it was just a lame woodie, not that particularly rough. We did another 2 laps on Leviathan and then headed over to Behemoth for another ride on that. We also rode BLSC again. I wanted to ride Windseeker since I love Windseekers so we rode that. It doesn’t play the dramatic movie soundtracks like the one at CP and KI. I wanted to take another ride on Skyrider so I did that and said goodbye to it. We took another ride on MCMB after that. We had a late lunch and sat on the huge lawn area that they have. It’s really nice. I wish more parks had that. After we ate we went back over to Vortex and rode that again, except in the back. I got 2 more rides on Leviathan before heading over to Behemoth for some sunset rides. The sunset was absolutely beautiful and it was awesome seeing it from 200ft. I rode Behemoth 4 times while the sun set and then went over to Leviathan for night rides. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea since the FLP line at Leviathan was a good 10 minutes each time. We ended up getting 6 night rides on Leviathan, finishing with the last one in the front row. We stayed at a hotel called Aloft and it was very nice and quite cheap compared to rooms you could find in the US for the same price. They ran out of the rooms with the 2 queen beds so they gave us 2 connected king beds instead for the same price. I would highly recommend staying there, although breakfast wasn’t included. We weren’t going to get FL on this day since we wouldn’t be there the whole day. We got to the park around 10:30 since traffic took so long coming in and our plan was to go straight to Wonder Mountain’s Guardian but we were too late. The line was already massive. Instead, we went to the Fly. It was about a 10 min wait. It was a fun wild mouse. After this we went over to Planet Snoopy. We rode Ghoster Coaster with another 10 minute wait, and after we got off the line had really built up. After this we rode Silver Streak and it was 10 minutes as well. The same thing happened with the line, it was huge after we were done. I was starving now and there was a Subway in that area so we ate there. It tasted a little different than the U.S. Subway. Not much different, but still not the same. Before I leave my review of Wonder Mountains Guardian, I’m going to quickly give my thoughts on what dark rides should be. I think the 1st element of a perfect dark ride is immersion. The ride should make you forget you’re at an amusement park and really have you involved in the storyline. That’s 2: a storyline. Dark rides should tell a story. It gives a purpose and gets everyone interested. The 3rd is detail. Detail is such a huge part of what a dark ride needs for it to be immersive. Finally 4th is no shooting. This is, in my opinion, the quickest way to ruin a dark ride. Everyone immediately ignores any potential story, detail, or theme so they can try and hit the targets. It individualizes the experience as everyone is so focused on where they’re shooting. After eating, we still had Wonder Mountains Guardian to ride and that was actually a little bit of a shorter line that in the morning. The line was still pouring out of the midway down the midway, and I was worried it would take a very, very long time. It only ended up being an hour and once you’re inside the mountain, there really isn’t much line at all. Immediately walking into the station/queue area inside, I noticed how unfinished it looks. Half of it has the rock and the dramatic lighting, the other half is literally a black warehouse. You can see the ending from there and the screens that show your score is right open to the queue and station. We were handed a pair of the 3d glasses and boarded in the very back, facing backwards at first. Going outside first immediately ruins the feeling of immersion as well. We go up the lift hill and do the little coaster park which was actually kind of rough which I found really weird. Now we enter the mountain and I see the piece of black plastic close ahead of us. We rotate and start heading through the series of screens which I immediately notice is extremely dim. There are speakers that play a really loud sound effect every time you shoot at something. I couldn’t tell where I was shooting anyway so I just stopped. There’s a few dead spots which I wasn’t expecting either. Before you know it, you stop and the dragon does its thing and then the track drops and actually that part was fun. I was disappointed in this ride, and it didn’t even fit into one of my “dark ride musts”. There were still 4 more credits to get and I was determined. We went over to Time Warp and got in line. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about this and I was actually quite scared it would be extremely painful. The line was only 15 minutes and the loading process is brilliant. Nothing makes the GP move faster than a moving car that looks like it’ll leave without them. I got strapped into the carnival style car and we started off up the spiral lift hill. I find it a bit strange that it doesn’t have anti rollbacks. Granted, it’s not a chain, but the rotator, wheel, or arm on the car still has the potential to fail. The ride was a lot better than expected and was actually kind of fun! The inversions were slow and you had some cool flying hang time. The turns were a little tight and transitions weren’t the best but those were the only things I found bad about it. I would actually ride it again. We didn’t though, as we now had 3 remaining coasters. Up next was Dragon Fire. There was a sign that said 60 minute wait from here which made no sense because it was literally on the ramp to the station. It was 15 min wait. This ride was nothing special, just an Arrow looper that hurt my neck. It’s probably one of my least favorites actually, if not my least favorite. I’ll have to ride Corkscrew at CP again to make up my mind. Now, for the one I was dreading that I still had to ride, the Bat. It had a huge line but then I saw the single rider line and got excited. My dad was sitting this one out anyway so it was perfect. Until I got into the line. Everyone in line was in a group thinking that this was their own personal Fastlane or something, totally abusing the purpose of the line for people that actually are single riders. They were complaining when they only let about 3 in each cycle, and there were at least 50 people in line. The wait was about 45 min in the single rider line and it was the most painful, slow moving, annoying line I have ever waited in. (I stand corrected, the winner of that award actually goes to Superman: Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Great America with 6 min dispatches and 2 ½ hours in line.) But this ride was not worth the wait one bit. I wouldn’t even ride again if it was a walk on. This was my first true sit down Vekoma boomerang, although I have ridden Invertigo at KI. It was rough, disorienting, and I felt nauseous the rest of the day. I don’t know if I hated this or Flight Deck more. At this time, we had one last remaining credit to get: Thunder Run. I thought this was a powered baby coaster that went partly inside the mountain. I was partially right. It’s not a baby coaster though. This thing actually was fast! 40mph according to RCDB. I thought it was better than WMG actually. It was about 4:30 at this time and we weren’t staying another night so we had to leave. We weren’t going to go on the 407 again. We got onto the main, and free, expressway, 401 at 5:00 on a Monday. I don’t know what the bigger mistake was: going on 407 or 401. We got onto 401 and it was completely packed. It ended up taking us an hour to drive the same distance we did in less than 15 min on the 407. Overall it was a good park. I’m glad I finally got to go but I don’t know if I would have a huge desire to go back unless they built something new. It’s hard to get to and the only coasters I’d want to go back for are Behemoth and Leviathan. What I've been waiting for! Behemoth's Fastlane line was even long Behemoth is a pretty coaster. That transition.... How does this count as an inversion..... ...when this doesn't. What does it take to technically count?

When I was little I always thought Magnum would be the best coaster I ever rode. I remember watching povs of it and thinking of how amazing it looked. Now that I've ridden it I'm less impressed. I think Leviathan is one of the most beautiful coasters. I love the roar and how smooth it is and it's so vibrant.

If this thing doesn't have the horrible B&M rattle that all of the new B&Ms have, I could easily see this becoming one of my favorite rides, and one of the best to marathon.

Here’s a TR from Banshee Bash that I finally got around to writing. On July 24, we (my grandpa and I) made our way to Mason, Ohio for Banshee Bash. Since we got there early, we decided to go to the park for that evening as well. We arrived around 4:30 and got into the park. It was moderately busy. I still had 5 coasters that I needed to ride so I headed off to Invertigo. The line was about 30 minutes long. This was my first boomerang style coaster. It got me really dizzy and the head banging wasn’t fun. I wasn’t a fan. 3/10 After this, we took a ride on Drop Tower since last time I was at the park it was down. It was a fantastic drop tower. I loved the rotating and you got an amazing view. The line was about 30 minutes. The crews were moving very slowly and it took at least 5 minutes per dispatch. I think I like this one more than Giant Drop at SFGAm and I definitely like it more than Power Tower. 9/10 Flight of Fear and Firehawk were 2 on the list that I still needed to ride so I was off to X-Base. I wanted to do FoF more so we got in line for that. It had a posted wait of 90 minutes. I was a bit hesitant at first but we got in line anyway. It was only about 45 minutes. I’m a fan of indoor coasters and I’m a fan of launching coasters, plus lapbars, I figured this is gonna be amazing! It wasn’t. The queue was very outdated but still neat. The launch was a bit weaker than expected and the rest of the ride was horribly rough. It hurt my neck from just throwing you around so much and I was ready for it to be done. I CANNOT IMAGINE this ride with OSTRs. The head banging would have been absolutely horrible. This ride was really disappointing. 2/10 Up next was Firehawk, which had a 60 minute wait posted. We got in line and it only ended up being about 45 minutes as well. I’ve only been on B&M flyers (Tatsu and Superman) so I was curious to see what a Vekoma would be like. Every coaster instinct you have would make you think that the B&M version would be much, much better. Strangely, I liked this coaster a lot more than Tatsu and Superman. Wait, did I just say I liked a Vekoma more than a B&M??? I absolutely hate laying face down on the B&M flyers and you always end up sitting on the brakes. I liked laying back a lot more than facing down, plus I liked how you weren’t just facing down the whole time. The flip over at the top is very fun and just the whole ride has great elements and pacing. It was also very smooth. Very loud anti-rollbacks though. Overall it was a lot better than I expected and one of my favorites at the park. 8/10 By this time I had gotten the 3 big coasters that I hadn’t ridden yet in. I still had to do Flying Ace and Woodstock Express, but I was in no rush for those. We were walking towards the back of the park and decided to take a ride on Windseeker. I hadn’t been on the one at KI yet and I enjoyed the one at CP so we decided to ride. The line took about 10 minutes. There was a great view and I loved the breeze you get and how open you feel. The only thing I don’t like about the Windseekers is that they spin too fast and the ride cycle is too short. 8/10 After Windseeker we noticed that Vortex had no line so we decided to ride in the very back. It was actually pretty fun and there was great airtime on the first drop. The double loops are fun and the super high corkscrews are neat too. 6/10 By this time it was about 8:30 and we wanted to make sure we could get in line for the Beast at night. We checked Diamondback’s line and it had a posted 90 minute wait but looking at it, there was no way it was 90 minutes. In line I met another coaster enthusiast and we talked about what we thought the new HW coaster was going to be. It turns out he had the same plan as us and was heading to Beast right after. We stayed with him for the rest of the night. Diamondback’s line was only about 45 minutes. We got a great sunset/night ride in and I was glad to find out they weren’t assigning rows. We sat towards the back. It was a great ride as usual, although there are 2 pretty bad spots where it rattles: at the bottom of the first drop and the valley coming out of the hammerhead. 9/10 I got in line for Beast and realized that the announcement for HW was starting soon. We all huddled around my phone and watched the announcement for Thunderbird. That was exciting. About an hour later we rode second to back. It was amazing as usual. 9/10 By this time the park was closed and we were very excited for the next day. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We arrived at the park around 8:00 and got our credentials. At 8:30 we were off to Banshee. It was very exciting being there early and reminded me a lot of media day (except it was much warmer and there were a lot less people!). I got 8 rides in a row in just under an hour. We also decided to get the all day photo pass which was well worth it. I think we got 13 pics total throughout the day. I still find it strange how this ride has a rattle considering it’s brand new. I still can’t decide if I liked the very front or the very back more on this ride. Nonetheless, it was a great ride as usual. 9/10 We had a half hour of ERT on Diamondback right after this so we got over there as fast as we could. It was funny walking right through the herd of people that were standing waiting for the rope drop. Diamondback was so empty they were letting us stay on and re-ride which was awesome! That was the first time I hadn’t had to leave my seat. I got on that 5 times in a row, which was great as usual. 9/10 By this time the park was open so we were off to Beast. It had no line at all so we rode it twice. Once in the second to front, once second to back. It’s definitely much better in the back. The front seemed a lot tamer. It’s definitely a better ride at night as well. 7/10 Since I had enjoyed Firehawk so much the previous day, we decided to ride it again. It only had about a 15 minute wait. It was just as fun as before. 8/10 By this time I had already gotten on the 4 best coasters, some multiple times, and it was just about 11. We took a ride on Racer, red side. It was about a 30 minute wait. The ride was fun. It reminds me of Blue Streak except less intense and out of control feeling. 6/10 We walked around the park a little more, looked at the lines. They were getting pretty long. I was debating if I should try to get one of my credits on Flying Ace or Woodstock Express but we decided not to since the lines were very long and we headed off to lunch. The lunch was really good and I loved the speakers. Howard Newstate, who is in charge of FunTV, had talked a little about that, as well as Don and Greg who told us about the story of how Beast came about. After lunch we just walked around for a while and waited for the Banshee behind the scenes photoshoot. At 2:00 we went across the fence towards Slingshot and got some cool pics of Banshee. It was neat seeing it from another perspective. Since Drop Tower was right there, we got a ride on that as soon as we were done taking pictures. It was about a 30 minute wait again. 9/10 At 3:00 the behind the scenes tour of Beast and Diamondback took place so we headed towards the back of the park. We first walked back to Beast’s first drop and everyone geeked out on photos . Then we walked even more to the second lift and there it was… the motor room. Swarms of enthusiasts came from all about, everyone getting a peek however they can, cameras everywhere! It was madnessssss. Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit. Well maybe that’s what the GP would see us like. But the motor room was cool and waving to the people on the train was fun as well. After taking a group photo, we went off to Diamondback. We stood right by the first airtime hill and took some pictures. I never realized the sudden change in elevation after that second hill. We all took another group photo and then headed back into the park. The behind the scenes were so awesome and it was fascinating seeing the coasters from different perspectives. We were really tired and hot after that so we took a break and got some Powerade. After that we took a ride on Windseeker. We waited about 15 minutes. It was a nice break from the heat. I still needed my 2 credits on Woodstock Express and Flying Ace so we headed over to Planet Snoopy. The lines were much shorter at this time so it was a good thing we waited. Woodstock Express had no line and we rode it. It was a lot like Zach’s Zoomer (Obviously) but I like Zach’s Zoomer a lot more. 5/10 After this we went over to Flying Ace and waited about 15 minutes for that. It was a decent family coaster. I don’t understand the OSTRs though. 5/10 Once we were done with this we had no clue what to do. It was a strange feeling since usually you’re trying to rush and rush at parks. For the rides we would ride (Diamondback, Banshee, Beast, Firehawk), they all had long lines, and we would have ERT on 3 of those tonight anyway. We got some ice cream at Graeter's before heading over to Drop Tower. After about a 15 minute wait we rode that and it was great as usual. 9/10 We weren’t originally planning on seeing the Cirque Imagine show, but we were really tired out by this time and we were right in the area, so we headed over to the Kings Island Theater and finally sat down in the TPR reserved area. It was so nice to have a break from standing. After about 45 minutes, the show started. It was an absolutely incredible show and totally exceeded my expectations. I’m very glad we decided to see it. The meet and greet was really neat afterwards too. When the show ended we were hungry so we went to Reds for some dinner. We sat outside right under Diamondback’s lift hill. It was such a great view, especially since it was around sunset. Since we loved the view so much, after dinner we headed over to the Eiffel Tower and looked around until sun down. It was great. We decided that we wanted to come back up here for the fireworks and went back to the car to get our sweatshirts first. We came back to the Eiffel Tower and watched the fireworks from above. It was really cool being at the same height as some of them. At this time, the park was just closing, and after our pretty slow, relaxing day during the “public hours”, we were ready to ride again. We got down to Banshee around 10:20 and rode it twice at night, once in the front, once in the back. This was my first time riding at night, and I must say, this is one of the best night rides ever. I love the colored lights all over the track and the 7 inversions make it even that much more disorienting. It was such a fantastic ride and I could have rode it all night, but Diamondback was open now so we headed over there. 10/10 By the time we got to the entrance of Diamondback, we had 12 minutes until the ERT stopped. We rode towards the middle, hoping that nobody would want our row so we could stay on. That worked and we got 2 consecutive rides in. After that we knew we would only get one more ride so we got off and waited for the second to front, which is still gives an unobstructed view due to the seating. It is such a fantastic ride at night, and the front is even better, smoother as well. 10/10 Now it was time for the best night ride in the world. The Beast. We got to ride 5 times and each and every one was fantastic. We rode second to back pretty much the whole time. I was extremely tired and the really slow chain lift almost put me to sleep every time but the drop always woke me up! Even though this ride is amazing at night, the magical feeling of it wears off after a while and you kind of get used to it. Nothing beats that final helix though, just such a great coaster element. 9/10 Finally, our 16 hour day at Kings Island was sadly over. It was such a fantastic day and was way better than I ever could have asked for. I’ve never been to such an involved event, between all the ERT, behind the scenes, and VIP treatment. For anyone that is ever considering going to one of these, I highly recommend it. I want to give a huge thank you to Robb, Elissa, and Kings Island for putting on these amazing events. You give us coaster enthusiasts opportunities barely any of us would be able to have without TPR. Behind the scenes tours get you some awesome photo opportunities Try getting this shot on the midway! Yay for airtime! Beast motor Behind the scenes tours get you some awesome photo opportunities Try getting this shot on the midway! Beast motor Beast motor Behind the scenes tours get you some awesome photo opportunities Try getting this shot on the midway! Gotta love ERT! I felt so VIP when we got to walk right past the GP waiting until 10:00 Did I mention how nice this ERT was? Banshee at night is a must ride Such a photogenic coaster I love how this coaster actually has some theming.

Yes.

Goliath at SFGAm, Maverick, and Silver Bullet would probably be the top 3 smoothest for me. I don't understand when people say coasters like Banshee, GateKeeper, Diamondback, and Wild Eagle are smooth. Banshee has a pretty bad rattle at the bottom of the valleys which I find strange and unfortunate for a brand new $24 million coaster. Diamondback has this too. GateKeeper and Wild Eagle feel like they're trying to flap their wings which results in a very bouncy ride. Millennium Force has a constant rattle throughout. It's not bad, but I definitely wouldn't say its the smoothest coaster I've ridden. Granted none of these rides are rough, I wouldn't say they're the smoothest like a lot of people say. Am I the only one that thinks these things?

All spinning rides make me sick but the only coaster that ever has is Tatsu.

I was at the park today, well from 6:00 to 10:00, and it was absolutely packed. I didn't even want to get near the waterpark since the lines would be absolutely insane. All of the coasters had giant lines, Shivering Timbers and Thunderhawk were both around 45 minutes. Thunderhawk was down for a while and there was a giant line waiting outside of the entrance for it. The main reason I came was to finally get my night ride on Shivering Timbers. The park is open until 10 this year on Saturdays so I figured I'd finally go ride it. I got in line around 9 and it was down. Stuck on the lift. It started running for probably 15 minutes then got stuck on the lift again. Ran again for maybe 30 minutes now and I was next to ride. It got stuck on the lift again. It was about 9:45 and they announced that "all the rides in the park are closed so if they want to wait it out then they can." The ride started running again but they wouldn't let anyone on. It continued to run just fine and all the sudden they announced the ride was staying closed and everyone had to leave. It didn't get stuck again, it was running just fine with the empty trains. I heard 2 of the employees saying they're worried it might break again. I was then going to go ride something else before the park closed but all the entrances were already closed and it wasn't even 10 yet. I found this VERY strange and a bit irritating considering every single other amusement park I've ever been to closes their lines and the time posted. Some of the rides barely had any lines and they still weren't letting anyone in line. Overall, I only got one ride on Shivering Timbers the whole 4 hours I was there, which by the way is running better than ever this year. I sat in the second to back and it was hauling through the course with awesome ejector air over every hill.

Not sure if you're allowed to release the info or not, but just curious of how many people will be there.

85 degrees

Based on the blueprints that were leaked, I created a concept coaster of what it could possibly look like. I wasn't really sure what to put as the colors, but I thought a gold/maroon color looked cool.

I am going to be in the area on July 24th for Banshee Bash and I'll have a few hours and I've never been here or Kentucky Kingdom. I'm having a hard time debating which park I should go to. I wouldn't be able to go to the waterpark at either. If I go to Kentucky Kingdom: I'll arrive at 3:30, but they close at 7:00 Tickets are $35 if I find a Kroger. I can ride Lighning Run which looks awesome. Thunder Run too, which looks decent. Fearfall, which I know would be awesome. If I go to Holiday World: I'll arrive at 4:30, and they close at 8:30. Tickets are $40 if I buy them online. I can ride Voyage which looks awesome. Raven and Legend look cool too. But most importantly, the 2015 announcement is that night. Unfortunately, its about 2 1/2 hours out of the way. What do you think would be the better park to go to? How are lines usually at Holiday World? Would 4 hours be enough time to ride the 3 mentioned above?

I am going to be in the area on July 24th for Banshee Bash and I'll have a few hours and I've never been here or Holiday World. I'm having a hard time debating which park I should go to. I wouldn't be able to go to the waterpark at either. If I go to Kentucky Kingdom: I'll arrive at 3:30, but they close at 7:00 Tickets are $35 if I find a Kroger. I can ride Lighning Run which looks awesome. Thunder Run too, which looks decent. Fearfall, which I know would be awesome. If I go to Holiday World: I'll arrive at 4:30, and they close at 8:30. Tickets are $40 if I buy them online. I can ride Voyage which looks awesome. Raven and Legend look cool too. But most importantly, the 2015 announcement is that night. Unfortunately, its about 2 1/2 hours out of the way. What do you think would be the better park to go to? How are lines usually at Kentucky Kingdom? Would 3 1/2 hours be enough time to ride the 3 mentioned above?

They're uncomfortable if you have 2 adults and you're sitting in the back. There's really nowhere for your legs to go and they awkwardly sit on the metal. They aren't nearly as bad as some seats, but definitely unique.