CedarFlags

Went to the park yesterday and had a couple weird experiences... 1. At Drop of Doom, the grouper argued with me into taking a VR headset that I didn't want. He wouldn't take no for an answer and insisted that I take the headset and just leave it on the ground if I didn't want to use it. It seemed to weird for him to make extra work for the guy who has to clean them. Also, he made me wait an extra cycle when there were 3 open seats in the group before me. 2. At Batman, it took the crew 2 solid minutes to dispatch my train that was literally only half full. They were talking with each other and filling out paperwork while we just sat there. Also, when returning to the station, I saw one of the employees break a huge safety rule. Literally a second after sending the train out, he walked outside his painted line box and LEANED ONTO THE TRACK to stretch. Then he stepped back into his box after a couple seconds to bring my train in from the brakes. CraZanity was a lot of fun. At the apex of the swing, you re literally looking behind yourself and it is a very weird and thrilling feeling. I'd say you go probably 20 degrees passed horizontal at the highest point. I started to feel a little queasy just as the ride was winding down, so I think the cycle length is just right. Though, the time between dispatches is LONG (7-8 minutes), so this line is going to kind of suck. The ROs also kept calling the harnesses "lap bars", and I was like... uh, not really? The lighting package on it is also beautiful.

I recently took my first visit to Kennywood, so my oldest coaster is now Jack Rabbit. I didn't even know how old it was until I saw the plaque in the station.

Another fun Tony fact... this year, Mean Girls has tied with Scottsboro Boys for the record of the most Tony losses. Each show won 0 out of 12 nominations

I went to the park for my 2nd ever visit a couple weeks ago, finally have some time to log on and post. Not a whole lot to say that hasn't been said at least a dozen times, but.... 1. Everyone is fired for not telling me about the train ride through Boneville. I just happened to take a full loop toward the end of the day, and that was such a charming and fun surprise. I loved it. 2. The smell of the dead bugs cooking on the flood lights below Steel Veng was awful. I hope the park has figured out how to fix that by now. 3. Millennium Force is still my one true love (even though I got a face full of bugs on my night ride). 4. The Country Rocks show was fabulous. The new Lusty Lil show was a very weird hodgepodge, but the cast did a great job. It boggles my mind that their live shows have one cast and one tech, and everyone just works 6 days per week for months on end.

Too bad the incident wasn't serious enough to make them demolish and replace it with an S&S FreeFly. *le sigh* If only they'd waited 4 more years.

Bullet can get quite a few, and so can Pony. It's most noticeable on GhostRider though. The Guest Assistance Pass at Knott's gets so majorly abused, and I wish the park would grow some stones and make people stick to the rules without the fear of the complaints from people who don't get their way. My biggest pet peeve is the grandma in a wheelchair who gets the pass and then doesn't go on any of the rides, but just lets the kids skip the line with it.

I agree on single rider, but it's doubtful... none of the other rides in the park do it. But, cross my fingers. Re: the seatbelts. My friend was one of the actors in the safety video, and he told me they just did a re-shoot specifically regarding the seatbelts. The hope being that it'll help people not get stuck trying to exit.

So... apparently it's going to rain in all of Ohio from Wednesday until Sunday. I arrive on Wednesday and leave on Saturday.

Man, I was really hoping that RMC would have the bugs worked out of Steel Veng by now. Come on... *crosses fingers for next week*

that's great! how many times a day do you have to perform? Oh no, I'm just playing. lol

I will actually be there the same day. From what I've heard on here, FL+ is pretty essential to a good King's Island visit. But, it would be nice if the park was chill and we didn't need it.

The seats / restraints on the new infinity coaster at Knott's Berry Farm (Hangtime) are surprisingly roomy. I'm not that big, but I'm tall, and I felt very comfortable the whole time.

This is going to be a really exciting month at Knott's. Hangtime opened this past weekend, Ghost Town Alive opens this coming weekend, and then we get two new summer shows (with trampolines!?) two weeks after that. (that's me on one of the giant trampolines at the Calico Stage)

Also.... she's so pretty at night

Re: Hangtime.... I got invited to the employee party on Thursday night by a friend and was able to ride. Seats are super comfortable and surprisingly spacious. One comment I heard from some people who were under 6ft is that their feet didn't touch the floor of the train. So, that's kind of a fun extra. Trying not to judge too harshly, but the ride isn't really what gets me excited... I'm more of a sustained speed kind of guy. The drop is great, the airtime hill before the cobra roll is great, and the rest was a little blah for me. There is a very slight rattle on that weird nameless inversion in the middle of the course. But, because you're traveling so slowly through the inversion, it's not uncomfortable at all. Two surprises: #1. The seat backs aren't perfectly straight, but slightly reclined. When you go vertical on the lift hill, your seat back is actually on a slight downward angle and you get the sensation of sliding backward out of the seat. It's very weird. #2. There is an insane head chopper at the bottom of the first drop, going underneath the cobra roll. I know things always seem closer than they really are, but when you're sitting on the further right side seat (from rider's pov), it seems reeeeeally close. Verdict: I feel like it's kind of like Silver Bullet (which I think doesn't get enough credit)... maybe not the wildest or more exhilarating, but definitely fun, enjoyable, and comfortable.

I remember in the 2015 season, Wicked Twister took like two extra weeks to open... maybe they do their off-season rehabs in alphabetical order? Haha. Re: SteelVeng... Hopefully it's just a programming / sensor issue that can be resolved relatively quickly.

I just noticed on the KI website that they are rolling out the Peanuts Celebration in June. A lot of the shows appear to be the same as what was done when Knott's Berry Farm debuted the event earlier this year. It was a lot of fun and very charming... I highly recommend it! https://www.visitkingsisland.com/play/events/peanuts-celebration

I might be down to see the giant shark dinosaur jump out of the water, tbh... Hopefully there's only one animatronic Chris Pratt.

Ahhh, okay

I don't think there is an exclusivity clause that would affect Knott's. I'm told that Knott's had a few bids (including RMC) when deciding to refurb GhostRider and the park chose GCI because they were cheaper. I wish everyday that they chose differently... Or that I could at least see what could have been I remember there being a pretty healthy debate on here in 2016 whether or not that exclusivity clause was even real. Can't remember if we ever got a reliable straight answer.

But like... they literally added a trim brake to the first drop... brakes slow things down, that's what they do.

Never thought of that. Thank you for the clarification. I can't imagine that being the spot on the course that it would valley... it's one of the quickest / snappiest cobra rolls I've ever been on

I REALLY wanted RMC to do Ghostrider. The GCI retrack made it comfortable again, but at the expense of some of the thrills. The reprofiling work definitely flattened out some angles and took some chutzpah out of the experience. RMC's topper track would have let them make it both more comfortable AND more thrilling, and they probably wouldn't have to shut it down 4 times a year for rehab work. I have a suspicion that RMC probably wasn't interested in doing a straight re-track of an existing layout when they were getting tons of orders for re-imagined layouts and/or totally new coasters.

Lights were testing again when I drove past the park around 8:00. It's really gorgeous and definitely a big wow factor. And they're BRIGHT too. At night you'll be able to see if from the freeway.

I'm also very pro-grab bar. It's just more comfortable for me to have somewhere for my hands to rest, even if only lightly. Also the RMC lapbars are so tough to lift up, hopefully some kind of handle on them will assist.