2018 Adventures Photo TR

Oh nice, they weren't doing samples when I was there. Would have loved to have had that option. Sooo many great choices.

I don't get where you're coming from on Steel Vengeance though. I thought the final section low to the ground was very much like Storm Chaser. Everybody's different.

Yeah, the sample sizes were a great way to try out a variety of what they had to offer. The empanadas (and especially the maduros) were a little on the greasy side, so the sample size was just right. There was also a Korean BBQ truck but it was very Americanized. Either way, I loved that the park did this, as it added a ton of options.

Great report!

Just curious, was August 29 the day you visited the park with the short lines? I was there that day and there was a big threat of heavy rain in the afternoon. There was a bad rainstorm, but it only lasted for an hour as opposed to the 8 hours the weathermen predicted.

And I thought Steel Vengeance was plenty intense. Some of the snaps out of the zero-G rolls were crazy and then you have plenty of airtime hills ranging from sustained, powerful air to quick, abrupt pops.

Yeah, that was the day! We were there that Thurs/Fri as well, but those days were significantly busier.

Regarding SV, maybe I just got some slower rides on it or something. We never really did it during the day due to about a 20-minute line even with Fast Lane, so the 8-10 rides on it were all first thing in the morning or at the very end of the night. We rode in back car all but 1 or 2 rides and did the front once. I'm not saying it wasn't intense, it just felt slightly less crazy than some of the more hardcore RMCs.

I was there those same three days. I must have missed you!

The next part of this trip we decided to change pretty close to our trip date. The original plan was to follow up Cedar Point with Kennywood and Waldameer, since they're all within a pretty reasonable distance of one another and it's been 8-10 years since I last visited this pair of parks. But after a busy summer of flying/driving from park to park and carefully planning half days and everybody wanting to wait to go to Kennywood until next year to have a look at their new drapes or whatever, we decided on a change of pace. We decided to just drive down towards Cincinatti in our "nearly" self-driving rental, which was nice, and spend the last few days of our trip at,

Kings Island

I like this park. There's nothing here that's too crazy or mustn't-miss, so we just took it easy and went about it at a casual pace, riding what we felt like and skipping what we didn't. The past decade has been pretty good to Kings Island, too. Nearly 10 years ago saw the addition of Diamondback, their B&M hyper that's still completely smooth and which they meticulously cut the grass under, even out in the "outside the park" bits. Banshee, their B&M inverted, is sort of a modern take on what it means to be an inverted coaster. It's smooth and soaring, plus some sustained positive Gs and the slightly freaky slow roll to end the course. Mystic Timbers was new last year and has broken in nicely.

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But first, as we were driving down some random Ohio highway, I happened to notice a cool-looking building, pointed at it, and said, "oh, that's cool", to which my friend (who grew up in Ohio), replied "that's where they filmed The Shawshank Redemption"

I immediately said, "WHAT?!", and proceeded to get off at the next exit and drive in it's direction.

The Ohio State Reformatory, to my knowledge no longer in service other than to give tours, was pretty imposing. And, well...The Shawshank Redemption.

Lol, it was literally like 4:15 PM when we got here. Oh well.

We got to Kings Island pretty late, just as the sun was going down, and they were only open another hour or so. We chose Diamondback as our first ride

We then got a quick lap on Mystic Timbers, which was running outstandingly. We went on it last year within the first two weekends or two of it opening, and it's very well broken-in now.

It felt extremely out of control that night. It's really dark back in those woods, too. It's kind of as if you don't need night rides on a woodie that does nothing but go straight for like 6,000 feet of track anymore...hmm...

Speak of the devil...

We actually got denied night rides. Just as we were walking up, they announced that a major storm was about to pass through the area and that rides would be closing. We took it as a sign to get the f*ck out of there. It was a good idea, too, because as soon as we hit the highway, it started pouring.

Good morning!

Come on, Banshee. That's Kumba's thing.

We walked back and gave The Bat some love. One of only 5 of these left and it's probably the best, although I can admit I haven't been on the one at Canada's Wonderland.

Oh my. The storm clouds were really starting to roll in, so we rode Banshee again and I got this photo

This thing seemed to be running really badly/requiring maintenance and apparently now we know why. F*ck this ride. See ya never!

F*ck this ride, too.

It's hilarious that Kings Dominion seems to think that anyone goes 40mph on the highway in LA, ever.

Yayyy Mini Coopers. In all realness though, this is a fun little ride

The part the train is on in this photo is a pretty good actual depiction of the ride. You just go straight on mostly flat track for a really, really long time. I think theres a ramp or two somewhere back there, too

More ice cream because I'm 5. This place was actually really good from what I remember

Well, f*ck, I think our luck is about to run out

It did. So this is what we did

But then we ended up with a cool bartender who asked if we wanted to get f*cked up. So, we drank some liquor instead. And f*cked up we did get.

Whilst being moderately f*cked up and eating some of the most eventually a$$hole-burning wings we've ever had, we noticed out the side exit that Diamondback was splashing water around, so we paid our tabs, said our goodbyes to new bartender friend, and headed in the Diamondback direction

I literally remember being moderately drunk and thinking "geez, Diamondback, you're so tall"

At this point, we settled into a rhythm of a few rides on 'Timbers, a few rides on Diamondback. We grabbed a front seat ride on 'Timbers, which was fun, but the back is definitely better

This area is growing in nicely. The speakers on the lift seem to be less loud than they were last year, and in several seats you couldn't hear what they were saying at all

Diamondback was really hauling a$$ on this visit, too

"I can see Dorney Park from up here!"

Banshee was running well. But I noticed when we were riding it after riding Raptor the days prior, that even though Banshee has some good positive forces, I much, much prefer the snappy crazy feeling of old B&M Inverts. That's not to knock Banshee at all, though. It's almost in a different class.

Oh come the f*ck on, clouds!

Luckily, these ended up passing over and only caused a brief delay in operations

Apparently we were sufficiently drink that we rode this giant pile of sh!t

And the sun sets on Kings Island. It was a nice, relaxed visit that we did at our own pace, which was fun. Thanks for reading, more to come!

I would love to get f**ked up with you guys!
Great TR, from what you can remember, and the photos, too.
Kings Island is a great park to get f**ked up in!

Glad to see in not the only one around here who thinks the beast is boring. Most overrated coaster in existence.

I've never been to Kings Island when it didn't threaten rain. Gotta love Midwest weather. And theme park bars.

I've never been to Kings Island when it didn't threaten rain. Gotta love Midwest weather. And theme park bars.

I've been to KI three times and it only rained briefly on one of them. The first time I wish it would have rained because it was nearly 100 degrees

We did something that really lays out contrast in a striking way between the two regional theme park giants in the US, Cedar Fair and Six Flags. We immediately followed our trip to Cedar Point and Kings Island with a visit to,

Six Flags Magic Mountain

A flagship park to Cedar Fair and a "flagship" to Six Flags are two very, very different things. Maybe it's the fact that Cedar Fair has greatly improved chain-wide the past few seasons and it's highlighting the differences. I don't mean to non-stop rip on them, but I'm perfectly comfortable with calling 2018 the worst season I've seen at Six Flags parks as a whole. Sadly, this visit to the Mountain continued this trend instead of bucking it.

Maybe it was because our days there were both weekdays (Thursday and Friday) in September. For the entirety of our visit, the park with 19 coasters had Apocalypse, Green Lantern, and Viper down. Not "broken and working on them", just closed. When we arrived at the park well past noon on Friday, X2 and YOLOcoaster were...not ready yet, despite the park opening at 10:30 AM. Jesus f*cking christ. Maybe instead of symbolically opening a "20th coaster", they should just focus on running what they have consistently. Arriving at the park on a Friday afternoon well past opening and having 5 major coasters down is really just unacceptable.

Luckily, it was completely dead, so we didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes with the one-train operations they had everywhere. When we were hungry, we kept finding places to eat on the app that we thought sounded pretty good, and it was almost funny when we'd arrive to find them "closed for the day" and move on to another.

This was my first visit to this park since 2011 and I honestly have about zero desire to go back for at least as long. And it really is too bad, because the park is in a really scenic area of California that looks a million times better than the power lines and smog sprawl south of LA. They have a mobius-loop RMC for f*ck's sake, a B&M flyer with a terrifyingly large pretzel loop, the best B&M stand-up, a GCI, Batman clone, and the list goes on.

Maybe someday Six Flags will give a sh*t, but for now I see the chances of that happening at just about null.

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First, let's hop a ride on the super intense i405

See what i did there?

As you arrive at the Mountain, you first get a look at X2.

One time I saw something on TV about a guy who survived going over Niagara Falls in a trash can. And I was like...yeah, but have you ever been on X2 tho?

Hmm, looks pretty busy

Ok I'm going to say something nice now. Twisted Colossus is really, really awesome.

It's kind of an erratic RMC, similar but totally different from all the others. Sometimes you duel, usually you don't, because, well, f*cking Six Flags. It has great airtime. It has cool hanging and quick, awkward outward-banking moments. It's pacing is completely interrupted by the second lift, but it's okay, because it's kind of like the park has two RMCs and you only have to wait in line for one.

Cedar Point has a shiny boring B&M that looks majestic, flanked by huge screens and gleaming modern architecture, welcoming you to their flagship park.

Six Flags has these rusty steel bars over decades-old ticket booths with peeling paint and sun-faded windows.


But you still have a membership because Six Flags owns you. Same.

This spot looks pretty damn cool, though. As you can see, it was a zoo that day.

Live it. Be it. Ride it.

Ugh, shut up Katy Perry

Ignore the piece of paper "theming" and the cheap station, these newer Premier coasters really pack a punch.

Oh, but I also mean literally. At the end, YOLOcoaster slams on the brakes HARD while you're still at a vertical angle. It packs a punch right to your stomach. Hope you didn't eat beforehand!

There's something very Six Flags about this game

Riddler's Revenge is a slightly different color than it was back in 2011, but still a great ride. It's kind of the "Kumba of Stand Up Coasters"

They were running one train. On a B&M stand-up that no one in the universe knows how to climb into. There was a station wait here, and at one point I just wanted to see how long it took from gates open until the time the same train was loaded, went out, and came back. 9 minutes went by. Our 1/4-full station wait took about 35 minutes. But hey...it got us out of the harsh California sun?

We rode the Ninja. I was looking forward to riding Apocalypse again since I enjoyed it in 2011. No such luck. It's just closed. I guess it, Green Lantern, and Viper all had to be closed for the new coaster construction they weren't working on that day.

We flew at the speed of fear.

Tatsu is really fun and at times, really terrifying. Being in the flying position that high in the air is very intimidating. That enormous pretzel loop really is great, too.

"Welcome to Six Flags, have a look at the other train we aren't using!"

So like we probably (or definitely) wouldn't have ridden this thing even if it was open...but still

At Six Flags, some random racks of overstock superhero capes they bulk bought in 2003, strewn about a random stretch of blacktop, counts as a store.

At least...it was organized by style?

Six Flags cares about you. They don't want you to force yourself to throw up your food when you see how in shape everyone is in LA, so they set the rides so they do it for you. See, that's nice of them!

Goliath has these big, cool letters. This Goliath was the gateway Goliath that set Six Flags up to call everything from a B&M hyper in Georgia to a non-functioning GIB in Massachusetts the same thing.

And that's why you don't do drugs.

They were actually running two trains at Goliath. Wow!

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be back to burn your necks to a crisp tomorrow, b*tches!" --The Sun

At our hotel nearby, somebody had illegally parked their prop plane, and there was a note duct taped to the window, probably saying "you have 24 hours before we tow your sh*t!"

It's kind of like you knew I was going to bring up the "parking lot coaster", and no trip report to SFMM is complete without it.

...at least they saved money because eventually the sun makes the parking spot lines fade away?

Next to the prison yard chainlink fence that guides you to/from scream is a remaining concrete footer of what was probably either the ride's camera (the photo booth looked long shuttered) or an old parking lot light pole. Either way, it's left on full display because f*cking Six Flags, man.

But are you really surprised about that?

Sorry kids, Batman has more important things to do than go to the f*cking car wash.

Totaled 90s taxis we bought for $20 from the junkyard count as "spooky fright fest theming"...right?

Okay, or does a totaled Saturn Vue count? Don't worry, we put a tarp over the shattered-out window so you can't see the real blood stains.

The nicest part of this park by a longshot.

Oh, you know, they just have an Intamin 4D ride that's about 1,000x better than the S&S 4D Free Fly coasters that they keep installing everywhere as brand new coasters.

So naturally, it sits closed for a long, long time.

"We didn't just throw trash here...it's theming!"

Uh huh

The local Honda dealership-sponsored incline railway is a great way to get up-down the mountain at the Mountain.

I'm actually going to say something nice again. The park operates a full-service restaurant and the food there was actually awesome. We also had a really cool server who was pretty entertaining, although I can admit that we mutually entertained one another with jokes about how sad and pathetic the park operations are.

One last loop for the road. Thanks for making sure that for my next visit, I'll have absolutely zero expectations, Six Flags!

Nice! With properly low expectations, you really can have a Six Flags day!

^ ....that and finding a place to have a cocktail or three.

Good TR on The Mountain. I like it uncrowded there, but not if several coasters are down.

Great report!

^ Yeah that seems to be the tradeoff. Either you have hour plus queues or you miss out on a quarter of the coasters.