LiftThrill

Mondays all summer have been BAFF, avoid Mondays. Saturdays have your typical weekend crowds. To maximize fun, go on any day that's not Monday or Saturday.

I mean, my favorite coaster is Millennium Force followed by one of the "lamest" RMCs (or so they say) so it's not like intense is my immediate go-to thing either I just find it odd that people talk about the giga so much when the park already has a tall, fast, rerideable coaster and an insane supporting tier. But when I look at KI's lineup, if I want to be laughing from stuff that's ridiculous and intense, I'd probably go for Flight of Fear (or maybe Mystic Timbers. honestly, Mystic Timbers may nullify my argument entirely. I've heard people say it's the best GCI, and if that's true then I'm probably completely wrong because GCI is pretty good at that whole "intense" thing). Bill, I'm ashamed to say that I completely forgot that The Bat existed for a second there. Forgive my transgression. The Bat is awesome.

See, I thought Viper was a perfectly average wooden coaster with some laterals, a coaster that tracks a little below "smooth" territory. It's amazing what opinions are, lol I get the Goliath thing, its transitions are taken a little too fast and feel a little underengineered (in a way that even RMC didn't manage to pull off super well). Still an awesome ride. If Raging Bull wasn't trimmed it'd easily be the best coaster in the park for me, but even with the trim I really enjoyed it. That might've been aggravated a little by my feelings on Titan, though, since Raging Bull is basically what Titan would be if it didn't completely suck in nearly every conceivable way.

I wouldn't say bleh. KI has awesome coasters, but their top 3 (again, I think Timbers probably counters this to some extent) are not intense rides at all. The most "intense" coaster at KI is probably Flight of Fear. I'm using the dumb nerdy enthusiast definition of intensity and not just "it's tall and fast" for this because honestly, KI's lineup is pretty great and would be fine without ANY new coasters. But what I'd personally look for in a new coaster is fast pace and strong forces because that's something they're kind of lacking in. Just as a point of reference (that's hard to compare ANYTHING to, but whatever) CP has Raptor, TTD, SV, and Maverick in the high intensity department and MF, Rougarou, Valravn, and GateKeeper in the more chill department. At a smaller scale, SDC has an insanely balanced lineup in that regard and they have half the coasters that KI does.

I haven't been on Mystic Timbers, but my thing with KI when I went was that all of their good major coasters are kinda lacking in intensity. Diamondback and Banshee are more of chill rides, and Beast is about going really f*cking fast through straight or slightly banked track through the woods. This isn't really something the general audiences of the park care about, though, so the next addition will just be whatever the park and corporate decide to add and what will keep people going to KI. I talk to people from the Indiana/Ohio/Kentucky area a lot and a very surprising number of them absolutely swear by Kings Island, over CP and other parks in that area that they've been to.

It's really interesting that the hill before the midcourse is the strongest on SV, because it's basically a larger, more modern-RMC version of NTaG layout-wise and the hill before the midcourse on NTaG has the strongest air on that coaster as well.

Six Flags - New Texas Giant Cedar Fair - Millennium Force Herschend - Outlaw Run Independent - Voyage

I only rode it once, in the very front, but the airtime was hilariously strong and it wasn't any rougher than other woodies of similar size and style. I'd imagine in other seats, though, that it could get pretty bad

They're gonna replace the Mystic Timbers shed with room where you sit there and watch a POV of Son of Beast. You heard it here first.

Iron Rattler right as it began to rain. A little painful but quite fun.

SFFT's wind policies in general don't make sense. One day it's Cedar Point tier and the bumper cars go down for wind even though it's not windy at all, the next day there's 15mph winds all day and every ride operates with no issue. I think it has to do with the quarry walls, because they bounce wind around and screw with everything.

Awesome TR! BGW is a park that's pretty out of the way for me right now but I hope to get out there sometime somewhat soon.

We stayed at that Sleep Inn in 2016 and had no issues with it. The location was quite convenient. I don't have experience with the trolley system or bowling museum, but I did enjoy the Dr. Pepper museum in 2015.

All of the ones I've ridden are quite different from each other. They have some similar elements but overall the experiences are pretty unique. 1. New Texas Giant - when it's not warmed up I'd put it #2 or 3, but once it's running it hauls through a ton of really fun overbanks and airtime hills. The second overbank in and the airtime hill before the midcourse are my favorite elements. 2. Outlaw Run - incredibly well paced coaster with insane elements. It's basically the opposite of NTaG in that it's pretty short and intense but has near flawless pacing, and is a little rougher. 3. Iron Rattler - this coaster is the happy medium between Outlaw Run and New Texas Giant but doesn't have quite as many strengths as either. Great setting and great first drop, but lacks the intensity of Outlaw Run or the length of New Texas Giant. 4. Goliath - awesome elements and a breathtaking first drop, but the pacing is kinda janky. Intensity is similar to Outlaw Run. 5. WWGLC/Raptors - crazy insane intensity but the restraints are a little uncomfortable and it's not super rerideable.

New Texas Giant at sunset yesterday. When it's fully warmed up, it hauls some serious A$$.

You can't really go wrong here, but my thought is KD. My reasoning is - KD has new hotness this year, and since you're apparently going to both next year I'd save Carowinds and their new Mack for then since you've already been to both anyway so it doesn't matter a ton

Road Runner at SFFT. I didn't notice just how loud that lift hill was until it was down for two months and then reopened but jeez it's so loud you can hear it everywhere in the water park and probably over half of the dry park lol

I believe the shorter waits are influencing people's decisions, even if they won't admit it. That's an interesting observation - MF never had longer than a 15 minute wait when I was at CP in 2016 and I never hesitated to call it my favorite coaster (except after riding Maverick in the back... it took some more rides on MF to stop me from doing something silly and normal like putting Maverick above it). I wonder if waiting longer for something screws with your expectations psychologically, aside from just being able to ride something more times.

Goliath @ SFFT Batman clones are one of the most awesome cloned rides and although they're everywhere they're always worth a spin.

Thanks to the heat, the park is positively dead today. IRat was a walk-on or one train wait for every row, including the front. Wonder Woman maybe 15-20? breaks down a lot so it's hard to tell. Road Runner is running great (although with only one train). Water park is moderately busy but even that has tolerable waits. If you can brave the heat it's a great day to be here, lol

Circles! lions or tigers?

Normal people aren't in touch with the industry enough to associate the NTaG incident with Lightning Rod because of RMC or RMC trains or anything related to RMC. Normal people don't know who or what RMC is, let alone associate them with specific rides. They may remember the NTaG incident as "some lady fell off a wood roller coaster so they made it a hybrid roller coaster" or "didja hear that SOMEONE FELL OFF THIS RIDE??" or something dumb like that, but it'll have nothing to do with RMC. People think they're going to die on Lightning Rod because it's an intense ride that gives a lot of extreme airtime so it's meant to simulate that feeling in the first place, plus apparently it's not exactly butter smooth so they think it's gonna fall apart or something. Add constant breakdowns into the mix and it's no wonder people are coming up with "rumors" about things.

That's awesome! I'm gonna be at SFFT sometime early this week so I'll definitely make sure to see how it's running now that it's back.

SFFT has trained me well for heat - unlike SFOT, the heat precautions are a little lacking there so a souvenir cup, free ice water cups, and staying in the shade are all nice. I can only believe that the Mr. Freeze queue being so amazing is considered theming, and Titan when it's 95+ is probably one of the worst coaster experiences of all time.

We've come full circle. First it was the best coaster in the world, then it was a forceless rattly powered coaster, now it's back to being the best coaster in the world. Who's ready for the same thing for Steel Vengeance?