jamesdillaman

In response to them not having a dry-run day: I'm only holding them up to standards other parks seem to have no problem keeping, besides, I went on Sunday, the park had already been open 2 days before. Any problems that are minor should have been weeded out. I know all the rides had been cycling before hand, because I talked with people who work there that I know who were there for training weeks ago. If they maintained there rides properly during the offseason, I doubt so many would not be working. Don't get me wrong, I love King's Island, just not the way Paramount has been running it. I hope they sell soon... then I'll get a season pass again with no hesitation. Great Bear Lodge seems to be coming along nicely No Line.... wait, it's closed, too. Action Zone only had Top Gun and Drop Zone runnning.... It was probably for the best... Look out, Jules! Top Gun's Coming! And it's squeaking horribly for some reason... ??? no comment Delirium wasn't running.... Sad, sad, sad SOB from the lift hill of Adventure Express I still miss King Cobra... The footers are still there My favorite mine train by far... WHAT?!? I knew pricing was bad, but after $10 for parking I thought we could at least eat for less than $20... oh well Finally time for lunch, we each had chicken fingers and a drink, nothing special or much I don't know derek, but he seems to like vertical loops, so here you go Vortex, Arrow Goodness at last Sad Me standing where the Flying Eagles once stood.... have to get down to Carowinds get my snaps now. The vehicle is completely different, though The layout of the track seems exactly like survivor at PGA The new nick universe was very nice. All the Hanna Barbera rides were re-themed into stuff children would understand now, and Avatar was awesome. Julia and Me at the obligatory front gate photo area, at least they used our camera... Any park with a giant phallus can't be that bad, right?

At least you got on delirium, it wasn't running sunday. Neither was face/off and of course SOB

Adventure Express! I always ride that one at least once when I go to PKI (less and less often these days, someone buy the parks from Paramount PLEASE!) Any TOGO standup is awesome. Loved King Cobra and Shockwave. Better than any B&M I totally agree! but my number one guilty pleasure is..... (drumroll please) Iron Dragon. I like going through the lagoon and good views of TTD and mantis. When the mister is on it's a good cool-down ride, too. Never a long line, either! -James

My gf Julia and I hit this park on Easter Sunday. I took a bunch of pictures, maybe I'll post them if anyone wants to see. The new ride - Avatar is very fun. Different than what we expected. As for park operations... PKI is the worst park I've been to in a long time... come to think of it, I wish six flags would take over!! wow, can't believe i just said that. Son of Beast had a sign in front saying it might open LATE spring, Delirium was closed the entire day, There was a 10 minute wait for Italian Job, and the crew wouldn't even let us wait 1 cycle for a front seat ride!! Wow, even Cedar point lets you wait for the front seat now on MF and TTD. Take a hint, PKI! When we finally got on it, the show sequence wasn't working for us, no fire, no gunshots, no nothing. The helicopter, we noticed later, is stopped in the up position, no popping up from behind the wall anymore. To top it all off, even Face-Off was closed. 1-cycle waits on Drop Zone and re-rides on Top Gun and Backwards Racer made the day. Adventure express is still good, and you get a nice view of the giant paperweight SOB from the lift hill. Julia wasn't too dissapointed she couldn't ride SOB, quote "My ovaries are thankful we didn't ride." Also for 2 chicken fingers baskets w/fries and drinks - $24.03 WOW! I have pictures as I said, I may post them. Some good shots of Avatar. -James

Beast - theres so much better out there, and now that it's so braked even the helix is tame to me. Some other commetns: Raven - If you've never had a night ride, don't even talk about raven, as that's the only time it's good IMO Coney Island Cyclone - You have to consider when a ride was built... Shivering timbers - If you wanted turns, why would you ride an out and back at all, it's a layout they wanted, they weren't building a terrain coaster... The airtime is good, especially at the end of the day and at night Just my opinions. I respect yours, but may not agree

Elissa, could you put "Flight of James: Ride of Steel the Revenge" Thanks.

I'd really like to have an opinon in this thread, but I've never ridden Hulk, never saw the movie, read the comic books, or had a brain tumor, so I guess my thoughts are best kept to myself... On the other hand, whatever Wes says is probably true, so I'll agree.

could be worse, when son of beast "opened" they kept closing it down, not to reset it, but to RETRACK the entire turn after the first drop. plus if kept valleying at the end of the ride as there was an uphill approache to the brake run.... Every ride has problems the first season. It sounds like this is little stuff, though. I'm confidant thorpe park will work all the kinks and little quirks out by next season.

I think sheer attendance numbers may have something to do with it. There are many more people each year at disney parks than at Six Flags or Paramount or Cedar Fair parks. It's Disney! The themepark juggernaut! More people = more chances for accidents. The 4-year old IMO is just an unfortunate accident. We had a lady die after riding top gun at PKI. She had a heart attack. Very very sad, her daughter rode with her, but it's an accident. Unfortunate, yes, but you can't prevent every death in the world. To sum up, sh$t happens.

I'd be worried about SFKK, the setup is much like this one from whatI gather, the land is leased as it is the site of the Fair in Kentucky. I'm not sure if it's the State fairgrounds or county, but they haven't had a new coaster in quite a while, and I'm not sure the parking lot is operated by Six Flags, either (shades of astroworld). Does anyone in Louisville know more? Is the parking operated by Six Flags, or is the land owned by the Chain or just leased? -James

I know, I just sort of feel like I should say SOMETHING as I have quite a few friends in the club, and I first joined because I was invited by the group of people that I came to enjoy hanging out with, and I was glad I joined. I take everything with a grain of salt, but I felt the poster of this topic, who just joined, and was concerned about whether joining any coaster club was worth it, might not see any sarcasm in the posts, so I felt I should at least stick up for my acers. That being said, I can attack a buffet "take no prisoners" style and am damn proud of it

well when you work for an airline and fly for free, it's more worth it to me than driving As long as Delta's pilots don't strike this tuesday I'll be set. -James "fingers crossed" dillaman

I knew it was coming, but whatever, if it makes everybody feel better about themselves by making fun of ace, have at it. Hope you sleep better at night

How far is MBP from the airport (MYR)? If it's not too far I can get down there sometime on my day off before it closes. btw... 100th post

I'd have to say skydiving in arizona... oh wait, not really a ride is it... darnit! gosh!

You also don't HAVE to be a member of a coaster club, you can go as someone's guest who is. Just saying... There's a lot of mebers in the cincy area (I'm one of them) who are definitely going to Holiwood Nights and Rumblerfest the next evening.

just saying this, because no one else has said it: you don't have to be fat to join ACE! 95% of my ACE friends are actually very thin. The perks are great for living in the midwest: Half-price at Paramounts, Half-price at HW, cheap all day ride bracelet @ Indiana Beach. Not to mention the events (like we rode Kentucky Rumbler in March, more than a month before anyone else can ride it!). Don't be so quick to jump on the ACE-hating bandwagon, because about the only thing lacking about ACE I've found is the sub-par newsletter and magazine. ECC's is way better. Besides that, I'm an ACE member and membership has saved me a lot of money over the years, as well as gotten me in to some awsome events and construction tours. -James "about to get blasted for being an acer" Dillaman

Iron Wolf

Superman: Ultimate Flight

I'm not gay, but I believe that if ohio won't let gays marry, the least they can enjoy is a day to themselves at cedar point...

If that's all true it came as a shock to CCI's bank, because I heard there's no way they could have owed MILLIONS without the bank knowing what was up. All companies operate with loans, especially one involved with building such huge projects as coasters. The company may have went under before paying off one such loan, but personal attacks on Denise without citing sources I tend to take with a grain of salt. As I stated before, I spent a lot of time in the CCI offices, and I think they made great rides. I also know she keeps in touch with ride message boards, and I think you should be careful what you say. This forum IMO is not about personal feelings towards anyone, it's about coasters, and you can't tell me Raven, Legend, Cornball... (I could go on, but we'll leave it in indiana) are great coasters we all enjoy riding. That's the bottom line.

I was wondering, (as i'm going to PKD in 2 weeks on April 22nd) how is Hypersonic running? I've never been on it, is it like an intamin ride in that it's relatively smooth? I heard it has rubber, air-filled tires instead of running on steel coaster wheels, any more info on that, or a close up picture perhaps?

I just asked my father for some more info, he went into a slight rant about privacy statements and banks and crap like that, but after bugging him he told me CCI really didn't have any problems financially, it was just a very messy divorce. Not like Arrow's downfall...

You are probably referring to "Tower Johnny". Back in the mid-80's, when the park hosted much rowdier (and more tolerant or drunken behavior) Grad Nights in May, a kid fell to his death on the Eiffel Tower. The story is that he was high or suicidal or something, and back in those days you could actually take the stairs all the way up to the top of the tower. Well, up near the top "Johnny" climbed out into the elevator's path (actually the counter weight) and got whacked in the head, falling and landing on top of the elevator coming up the shaft. The PKI legend is that he still roams the park, particularly out by the graveyard (north parking lot) and in the woods near the Beast. When I used to work there, stories about TJ would always kick into high gear around Halloween, but I don't think there's ever been an official "sighting" of Johnny! LOL Shari -being close to some of the park staff from the year it happened,this is what I've gathered: Tower Johnny actually was a park staff member. No one really knows if he was suicidal or not, but stories I've heard from people say he had seen his girlfriend with another guy going around the park. He worked on the eifel tower and was working in the shaft for the elevator. There was alcohol in his system and he was caught in the path of the elevator counterweight, falling several stories and dying. He's said to haunt the tower and also the beast woods, specifically the cables lying in the woods back by the second tunnel. These are the old cables from the elevators that were on the tower back in johnny's day. They're rusting there even now. I've confirmed this with several Beast crewmembers, and I've seen them myself. -James

They didn't fail, there was a divorce and the company had to be liquidated to divide the assets. I only know because my father's bank did all of CCI's loans and finance work. They were based very near Cincinnati, and I spent many days going around their offices.