Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[Dom497]

I was talking to Lance and he has a pretty good theory (or at least one that I agree with)....Diamondback is the "test" coaster to see how the belts impact the roller coaster. Based on the results, in 2015, seatbelts may be added to the other B&M's. He also brought up a good point that when Cedar Fair bought the Paramount parks, the first thing they did was put seat belts on the mine trains and arrow loopers....

[PKI Jizzman]

I'm bummed to see this is true, but I will hold my tongue until I ride it myself and compare it to the thousands of other rides I've taken on it.

[Nitro1118]

I love how most people assume safety belts on coasters are actually there as a restraint, when 90%+ are actually there to determine if the rider's body proportions are adequate to be safely restrained by the restraint.

 

Then why doesn't any other B&M hyper owned by any other park have these belts?

 

FWIW, when Nitro opened it had this weird retractable seatbelt that connected the lap bar to the side of the seat. I don't think they even lasted the entire 2001 season, though, and they definitely weren't as restrictive as these seatbelts.

 

Seems like excessive precaution taken by CF.

[A.J.]

What I don't understand is why having a seatbelt on a coaster is such a big issue anyway. Intamin mega coasters and prefabricated wooden coasters have them, and the seat belts don't seem to affect the ride experience at all!

[thrillseeker4552]

^Capacity issues. It affects capacity quite a bit, however with very efficient ride operators it can be solved.

[coasterkyle]

Depends on the park and thier loading procedures. Some allow the ride host to check both restraints at the same time. Some parks check one restraint in on pass then go though checkin the second restraint. Then there are other parks that have the double check policy where there are two different ride hosts checking the same restraints. And right now it would be tough to to tell if it's the added seatbelts slowing down dispatches or the fact it's only the second weekend of guests for a new crew.

[Coaster19]

I am glad to hear that it does not change the experience. Do the belts tighten uncomfortably? Or are they comfortable??

[cal1br3tto]

^^Are there also parks that allow visual checks? Or have sensors proving they're buckled? I could swear on some rides, I never noticed the belt being physically checked at any time, but I know that could be easy to overlook.

[bonsaiisuperstar]

Everytime i check the Banshee cam they have trains stacked three deep.

[Koasterking48]

^ Crews are still getting used to their job. Give it a few weeks and stacking will hopefully not happen near as much.

 

Is Drop Tower still down? I hope nothing serious is wrong with the ride.

[rcjp]

^It might get faster but I get he feeling that with 3 trains and given the duration of the ride (and how fast the lift is) there will always be some stacking.

[coasterlover420]

I think a lot of enthusiasts would be surprised about the number of people who complain about rides that don't have seat belts. "Well this other ride has them! This ride must not be safe! Imma tell all my friends this ride has killed people before" Yes, this actually happens. Above anything else, parks have to consider the comfort of all their guests, and this simply adds to that. It is a fact that there are 8 separate locking pins that need to fail before the restraint opens, but people don't know because they can't see them. I honestly think it is more for aesthetic safety than actual safety, because the restraints themselves are way more safe than they need to be.

[cal1br3tto]

I'm curious (though not excessively worried) about a few things. I've read at least twice that the belts are retractable, is this true? If so, perfect. But I thought one of the benefits of that was unoccupied seats don't need to be buckled, and I've read conflicting reports over whether or not they were being buckled on Diamondback--any confirmation?

[coasterkyle]

I can only speak for CP but the two coasters that we have that have retractable seatbelts we do not have to buckle the empty seats. Only on the coasters where there is no retractable device, are the ones that have to be buckled loaded or not. And to answer your question yes there are some parks that just do a visual check on the seat belt for example Arrow corkscrew trains. The seat belts (if they have themade are really hard to reach and pull up on them not to mention very award for not just the employee but the guest as well. At CP when we check seats we physically check then we visually check on the way back to our positions.

[traincrossin]

Everytime i check the Banshee cam they have trains stacked three deep.

$10 says it's because some guests are getting confused about why they have to go to row 4 to ride.

[CoasterGuy06]

I think a lot of enthusiasts would be surprised about the number of people who complain about rides that don't have seat belts. "Well this other ride has them! This ride must not be safe! Imma tell all my friends this ride has killed people before" Yes, this actually happens. Above anything else, parks have to consider the comfort of all their guests, and this simply adds to that. It is a fact that there are 8 separate locking pins that need to fail before the restraint opens, but people don't know because they can't see them. I honestly think it is more for aesthetic safety than actual safety, because the restraints themselves are way more safe than they need to be.

If that was the reasoning for adding them then in a way the park confirmed their fears of "no seat belts=unsafe."

[traincrossin]

Did you know that during the time you're on Banshee, 580 babies are born in the world? Well you can learn more fun facts like that from the media day presentation! It has speeches by vice president and general manager of Kings Island Greg Scheid, Cedar Fair's corporate vice president of planning and design Rob Decker, and the Ohio director of tourism Mary Cusick.

 

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

[PrismTx]

Man, I can't wait to ride Banshee, looks so awesome. Been waiting 15 years for KI to finally get a Full Invert, was totally worth the wait though.

[Whodey]

Cal1br3tto,

 

I rode D-back last night as a single rider. The vacant seat next to me had the belt buckled by the employee. So that particular employee took the time to buckle the retracting belts. These belts do retract but I would say about 3 inches on each side hang out after fully retracted.

 

As I waited in line before knowing about the new seat belts I thought to myself this line seems to be moving slower than it usually moves. I noticed some of the issues is buckling the belt properly and making sure it is under that small arm rest on the seat. On my train alone 4 people had to redo the seat belt. Hopefully things get faster as the season goes on.

[cal1br3tto]

^Thanks to you and Kyle for your answers. I know we'll be getting in plenty of reports clarifying all the details in the coming days, and I'm sure some changes will occur over time as well.

[Kyle Coleman]

Going to kings island again in about six weeks and was wondering if anyone knew if I could use a refillable cup I bought at dorney at kings island?

[coasterkyle]

I can't say for a fact a yes or no but I've seen people at CP use KI cups.

[DaMarkSta]

I've used Kings Dominion cups at KI this year no issue, and last year I used a CP cup at Knott's with no issue. I noticed each year the cups are all the same color chain wide, last year it was red, this year it's purple.

[deathfearsnone]

Yes last year i used a dorney cup at Mi Adventures, Cedar point, kings island, and kings dominion.

[Midgetman82]

I'm amazed at hearing there's seat belts on D-back. I don't mind having to wear them (since people say they don't botch the airtime), but I am worried about the fact they'll slow down operations and sorta drop the possible capacity-per-hour.