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Bonjour mes amis! The next stop on my journey through this perception of existence that my brain creates took me to,

 

Fierté Montréal et La Ronde

 

A friend and I made plans to go to Fierté Montréal, or Montreal Pride to you non-French speakers. We planned to make a fun weekend out of it between the pride events, the club/bar scene there, some sightseeing, eating good food, and the parade on Sunday. My friend, who has a Six Flags pass, asked if we should consider going to LaRonde, and at the time, my response was, "hell no", but then we didn't have a lot planned post-parade on Sunday and the little roller coaster fangirl in me was nagging on about how I haven't been there in nearly 10 years.

 

Montreal is one of my favorite cities and it's awesome, in addition to the fact that Canada is an incredible country. Full disclosure on the fact that I'm French-Canadian may have a tiny bit to do with it. However, the fact that their leader is not an insecure, developmentally-disabled preschooler with the temperament of having just sh*t his lunch into his adult diaper after being woken up from his nap too early, automatically gives them a +1 over us.

 

LaRonde was ok.

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Crossing into Canada at the Saint Bernard De Lacolle border crossing. Bit of a long line. Guess everybody is headed to Canada for the weekend!

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After you drive about 40km through a whole lot of nothing, you start seeing signs of a city, and pretty soon you're crossing over one of the bridges onto the Île de Montréal

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Checked into the hotel and immediately made sure the hair was done and ready for a night out

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$$$$$

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Having gotten thoroughly intoxicated that night, I didn't really take any other pictures, so the next morning, here was our view from Starbucks on the side of the Centre Eaton

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In the afternoon, we found a good spot on Boulevard René Lévesque, which was the street closed for the parade route.

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The parade got off to a late start, but finally it started heading our way. Then, soon after...

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Daddy Justin Trudeau, the gorgeous-as-f*ck Prime Minister of Canada, who can totally get it and do all sorts of things to me that I can't write on this forum, comes along with a ton of people behind him! We did not expect this at all and it was so awesome, definitely a never-in-America sort of thing

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Foreskin for the win!

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Aww, thanks Airbnb

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Cool, modded old Mercury Cougar

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Then Walmart came and handed out these cans of cola that turned us all gay

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After the parade, we walked down the street and enjoyed the beauty and architecture that is Montreal. We had very nice 80-degree weather all weekend as well

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Bon fierté!

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Now, for the stuff you basic b*tches will all cum over, you take this beautiful old bridge over the St. Lawrence river, onto the Île Sainte-Hélène, where you'll find,

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La Ronde!

 

It had been almost 10 years since my last visit, and not much has changed since then in the way of new attractions, so we only planned to stay for a few hours. But peut-être they've spent the past decade focusing on improvements instead. Perhaps they spent it re-painting, repairing, and really polishing the park into it's full potential, considering it's located in a major city on a gorgeous island next to a big, beautiful bridge?

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Still a pretty, clean entrance with the cool sculpture and grand carousel.

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The park's central lagoon is very picaresque, with the not-all-the-way-up S&S tower out in the center

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They have a Batman clone, which is a very good thing! Being one of the newer ones (this example opened in 2002), it seems a bit smoother than the older ones, but still retains the intensity and amazing ride. It also doesn't have the super loud, clacky and clanky lift. If I had to pick a "favorite BTR", it's likely this one

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"Batman the Ride" in French, is "Le Vampire" ;)

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Oh girl.

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Le Batman du Canada features a similar outdoor queue path, sans theming, to it's south-of-the-border counterparts, but then it has two queue houses that are absolutely plus grande.

 

I've only been to LaRonde one other time. Do these ever get filled up? And if they do, I would not wait in them.

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It's not every day you get to walk onto the front row of a BTR clone. In fact, I don't think I've ever had this privilege. The ending with the corkscrews seemed really insane in the front!

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C'est un oiseau! Non, c'est un avion! Non non! C'est le vampire!!!

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LaRonde caught the "fake JB's" disease that's spreading like a deadly disease throughout the Six Flags chain. You might know how I feel about them.

 

Cooking burgers and hot dogs does not a "barbecue" make.

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La eyesore

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Le closed.

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"Maison Rouge", Fright Fest maze. Some of the park's FF attractions looked ready to open that day.

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La duexième eyesore.

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We went on the big*ss ferris wheel to get some views of the city and of the park

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Goliath, now amazing to think it's been here for 12 years, is still the star of the park. We wouldn't get to it until dusk, so I didn't get much in the way of photos.

 

As it was a walk-on, we also did this in the front row and there was actually more airtime to be had there than in the back. Still a really fun B&M almost-hyper!

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A nice view of Titan's lighting package, Le Vampire, and the Jacques Cartier bridge as dusk approached

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We actually skipped all the coasters you see in this photo, as I value my ears not being beaten in Vekoma corner and by Le Hopefully Future RMC. Hahaha remember when it won "best coaster in Six Flags chain" or whatever? What the f*ck! :lol:

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Ednor: Le Nope.

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As you can see, Six Flags, like Disney, very carefully regards what guests can and can't see, ensuring only the best sight lines and top-notch theming for guests!

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Things that make me scream like a little b*tch: Justin Trudeau and spiders. We took a spin on Dragon, the park's family coaster, and the wooden queue into the building was home to hundreds of spiders like these in the top of the woodwork, which would occasionally descend down one of their kill-you lines toward unsuspecting guests' heads.

 

Seriously, what would it take for them to get pest control or occasionally just wipe the webs out?! While we were dealing with this, my friend told me she never wants to come back to LaRonde ever again.

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So then, to calm our nerves, we made our way over to Goliath to finish out the night

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Some drive tire porn for you

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A nice blurry view of the lights on Jacques Cartier bridge at night

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A nice blurry view of LaRonde's skyline from the parking area

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And, to finish it out, one last look at the stunningly-built architecture of the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

 

Some day, I hope Six Flags will get their act together and realize what a stunning park they have. The bones are there, they even have great rides and some decent coasters. If they just cut the grass, fixed broken signs, paint fences and buildings, and train their employees, they really could make this a great park.

 

Nah, who am I kidding. This is Six Flags we're talking about.

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I know La Ronde gets crapped on all the time but my one trip there 5 or 6 years ago was pretty decent.It's not the greatest park in the world and could certainly use some TLC but I enjoyed my day there just fine and would gladly go back again.

 

That bridge is pretty awesome, that same trip I was in town for business and had a free day and since I was up with a few hours to kill before the park opened I decided to just walk from downtown to La Ronde. I remember being alone inside that bridge trying to find my way out of the damn thing, it had a weird abandoned building feel inside of it that was pretty creepy even in the daylight. Pretty nice walk though, I'd do it again.

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^Hilariously, when I was looking on the app to see where some of the food offerings were, one of them said, "located next to the Cobra roller coaster"...so does that mean it's been scrapped too?

 

 

Alrighty, so the next and final stop of the weeklong northern trip I took was to a park that never really lets you down. It's never really been perfect, but it's come close a couple of times. It has a ton of potential and it would probably be really great if Cedar Fair owned it, but it's still pretty dang good. I'm talking, of course, about

 

Six Flags Great Adventure

 

I try to go here at least once a year, I really like this park. El Toro is my personal favorite coaster. The park has some really great areas from when Six Flags made their best attempt to get their sh*t together over 10 years ago, between the Golden Kingdom and Plaza Del Carnival areas. Some of the buildings and theming were approaching SeaWorld/Universal quality at the time, which is pretty good for Six Flags.

 

El Toro is still totally awesome after all these years. In the back car, you get thrown into the first drop unlike any other coaster out there. You're treated to a warm buffet of airtime, some great laterals, and a few bumps here and there. If it's completely dead to the point of in-station re-rides, I'd recommend taking one advil prior because there's a few "potholes" here and there in the turnaround and coming out of the "Rolling Thunder hill", which can give me a slight headache after 3-4 rides in a row. We took a ride in the front row, which I think is my first time ever doing so, and it was glass smooth up there.

 

Kingda Ka ran consistently and reliably all day without breaking down. The park does strictly enforce fluffy bunny policies at Toro and Ka, but nowhere else. Operations at these two coasters were outstanding, with El Toro consistently dispatching one train as the other landed in the first set of end brakes. Ride ops were "walk of shame"ing anyone they found to have their phones or wallets with them when checking restraints. Operations elsewhere were mixed but mostly good. At one point Nitro stacked all three trains for over a minute. Bizarro a few times dispatched one train as the third was hitting the last block behind the second, but other times they had it going pretty well. Food was good, the park and restrooms were clean.

 

I think this is the most I've ever said about a park before the photos. Photo time.

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Driving down from upstate NY, you get some nice city views driving through northern New Jersey on I-95

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The obligatory entrance photo, chromed-out Six Flags sign included

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And upon entering the lot, you're treated to this familiar view. I always tend to park down this far to avoid the bottlenecking and New Jersey aggression when leaving the lot later on.

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The nice, clean entry plaza at Great Adventure, complete with large fountain. The plaza is extremely large and wide, but it's necessary because sometimes this park gets totally slammed. But other times it's a ghost town, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why.

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There was a threat of rain all afternoon and Great Adventure rain policy really sucks. Taking no chances, I headed straight for The Bull. Waiting for my friend to arrive from New York City, I waited twice, then on the second go-around, was able to ride 4 times in a row without exiting the station.

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El Toro begins with a super fast elevator lift, followed by a short-radius 180-degree turn, which you get pulled through pretty quick in the back row before getting absolutely thrown into that huge drop.

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The airtime is perfect. It's strong, sustained ejector but it's never painful or too much.

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Another view of the same hill

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To my amazement, this path that had been closed for a very long time that connects The Golden Kingdom to Plaza del Carnival has been opened up once again. This is a quick shortcut between Toro and Ka, you previously had to go all the way out to the boardwalk area and around to get from one to the other.

 

Can we now get Busch Gardens Tampa to do the same between the Sky Ride and Kumba?

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Some of the nicely-themed buildings they put up when Six Flags realized their potential temporarily around 2005-2006.

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Can you ever have too many photos of El Toro?

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I apologize for the lack of waiting for trains, but this is an Intamin accelerator coaster and waiting for a train could mean that you just missed your chance to ride for the day.

 

Thankfully, this wasn't the case and I got on after a 15-minute wait.

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Six Flags Great Adventure is good about hanging onto older rides longer than other parks in the chain, including the parachute tower.

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They have lanterns here and sh*t

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When I was walking over to this, I remember thinking to myself how coaster enthusiasts nowadays are total p*ssies and think these are rough. Like, did you 15 year olds ever ride what was in it's place before? That sh*t hurt!

 

Then, I ate my words when I was on the ride. Still fun, but in one of the turns, the restraint pinched the cartilage of my ear between my sunglasses ear rest and my head, which hurt like a motherf*cker.

 

Still not as head-bashing as GASM tho

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I skipped Superman because I don't really care about those kinds of flyers, and headed straight over to Nitro.

 

Nitro is fun, but if you ride El Toro first it's hard to feel anything. I have some enthusiast friends who sh*t on Nitro and say how Mako and Diamondback are better. Honestly they're all exactly the same, they just seem weak if you ride an Intamin or RMC first.

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The trees here are really starting to obstruct the view of Batman.

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The cream-colored ferris wheel here looks really classic, adding to the atmosphere

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Can't go wrong with a pub! I skipped drinking this day, as I'd be driving back to upstate NY late at night and didn't want to make myself tired

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My friend finally arrived from NYC, so we started the loop of the park again. Fantasy Forest is one of the park's original areas dating back to it's opening.

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It's fitting for Six Flags to be selling Kias. Six Flags is like the "Kia" of theme park chains. They offer a ton of models in everything from a tiny subcompact to a full-sized SUV. They have performance and luxury models. They'll work and give you what you're looking for, for the most part.. But you'll rarely, if ever, forget the cheap feel.

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Nicely, Great Adventure was utilizing every single game stall, the employees were really selling the games to guests, and the feel of the area is exactly what it's supposed to be, "The Boardwalk".

 

I really love this area when it comes with killer clowns to scare the sh*t out of you.

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The Golden Kingdom

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If you go to the park and don't take this photo, you're banned from Six Flags for life

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I tried to get my friend to go on the log flume, but she refused. This one is really pretty and nostalgic

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We went to the Western House or whatever it's called next to the log flume. The food was pretty good, I got a pulled pork sandwich and fries. They advertised beer for sale and I actually considered getting one with my meal, but then I didn't see any.

 

I'm actually pretty easy to please with theme park food, as I know I'm getting theme park food. Just don't c*ck tease me with a hot dog stand disguised as JB's or serve chemical burgers that taste like the byproduct of a water treatment plant like SFoG does.

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As the sun was setting and we were starting to get bit by mosquitoes sitting next to the flume, it was time to head to Bizarro

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We got a few rides on Bizarro as the sun was going down. It was nice to see that they still kept the theme elements like flamethrowers going after all these years, where SFNE had shuttered theirs years before the un-Bizarroing of Superman.

 

Bizarro is kind of whatever to me, a weak B&M floorless with a ramp-turn for a drop and not a lot of forces. That said, it's still a fun front-row ride that wouldn't upset our stomachs after just eating. The zero-g roll is an actual zero-g roll, compared with some of the faster ones that are more of a "positive g roll". It'd be a great "first big looping coaster" for when younger enthusiasts reach the height minimum.

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We had just enough time before closing remaining to get one ride each on Batman and Nitro

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We walked through the queue and were greeted to this completely empty station. I've never seen an empty Batman station before at this park!

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My friend ended up asking me if we could do Batman again, so I agreed, and we ended up finishing out the night with 5 rides in a row without ever leaving the front middle seats of the train. An unusual way to end the day at Great Adventure, but it was a ton of fun. It started raining pretty hard on our third ride, and there's few things more disorienting than having to close your eyes on a BTR.

 

I also want to shout out to a really awesome Batman crew. They were friendly and engaged with us every time we returned to the station, with the operator over the mic making it a fun experience and the restraint-checkers saying we were welcome to the Batman family.

 

This really was a Six Flags Day, and I mean that with zero sarcasm. Thanks Great Adventure, you're still good in my book!

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Awesome! Great Adventure really is a good park if you can get past the Six Flagsiness of it. They have great rides, sure, but they also manage atmosphere too, and not all Six Flags accomplish that.

 

My favorite of their attempts at theming is Los Baños near El Toro. Los Baños are the best baños.

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Normally I keep my trips in chronological order, but I guess in the scheme of things it really doesn't matter. I had a few in-between the last one and this one that I'll report on later, but I'm actually really excited to add,

 

West Coast Bash 2018 at Knott's Berry Farm

 

This was my first TPR event since 2012! It doesn't seem that long, but 6 years had gone by. It was also my first time visiting Knott's in as long. Before I even begin, I can't find enough words to describe how awesome this event was and how perfectly executed it was. HUGE thanks to Robb and the Knott's Berry Farm management team for really giving us an incredible day! West Coast Bash was truly a special event, and as is often stated, the major difference between doing a TPR event and other "coaster club" or enthusiast-oriented park event is that you really have the place to yourself during the ERT sessions. At lunch time, it seemed like there was a ton of us, but by ERT time, everybody being spread out among the rides meant you could walk on to any row of whichever coaster you were at.

 

Knott's as a whole has changed quite a lot since my last visit, in a good way, in the same way that Cedar Fair as a whole has changed. On paper, all they've done since 2012 is add a wild mouse and HangTime, plus remove an old boomerang. But the changes they've made add up to more than that. The entire Boardwalk area looks amazing now, they've added some flats here and there, and restored some theming elements and added some color to the place, as well as added new restaurants. The Knott's we saw this weekend was a much more complete park and the entire place looked great!

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Hi, Knott's, it's been a while!

 

My friend and I were talking about how Knott's kind of reminds us of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in that the park is smack-dab in the middle of a really busy, urban area. But, like BGTB, when you're in the park they do a great job of insulating you and disguising the fact that you're in a city.

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One thing I didn't realize was that Ghostrider had gone down for some maintenance just a couple of days prior to our visit. I was kind of bummed, but I actually appreciate more that the park is committed to taking care of this great coaster. While I haven't been on the new and improved, smoother version, this is a great reason to return

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My friend and I were late arrivers to the event, getting there around lunch time, as we'd gone out and had quite a bit to drink the night before.

 

We went to Guest Services to pick up our event materials and thought it was amusing that they had a "penalty box" in the guest services office.

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Official TPR wristband represent!

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Arriving at lunch, there was a buffet of the winnable goodies that greeted us right before the buffet of food

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I won a Boomerang wheel for being "furthest traveled"!

 

These were the only photos I got to take during lunch, as we were eating then entertained by Robb and Jeff Tucker from the Knott's staff.

 

Lunch time was great and highly entertaining! Everybody got a kick out of it and the dynamic between Robb and Jeff was great, you can tell they go way back!

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HangTime hanging for some time.

 

I didn't realize that HangTime had a "fake you out" drop before it actually dropped, which is scary as sh*t!

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We got so many rides on Xcelerator that day that I lost count! We must have done it at least 25+ times

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Xcelerator doesn't let up from start to finish, you haul a$$ through the layout

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Making a stop back at the car, we saw something I'd never seen before. Due to California's close proximity and drivability from Mexico, sometimes you see cars there that aren't sold in the US market. I saw the Ford grille and face, but then the sides didn't match anything we'd seen before. Upon closer look, this is a Ford Figo

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Calico Saloon is a great place to stop by, and of course one of the beer options has Knott's signature "Boysenberry" in it

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We'd save Silver Bullet for later, but here's a photo of it going up the lift. Maybe not the best B&M, but it makes for great visuals all over Knott's

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We rode the classic family-oriented Calico Mine Ride. A great dark ride for the entire family, Knott's takes great care of this one

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I can confess that I didn't know about Knott's famous log flume until after I'd visited last time around, so this time it was on the to-do list. Unfortunately, it saw a few hours' downtime...

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Back at Xcelerator, trying to be artsy and stuff with the photos

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Xcelerator doesn't have an operator's booth. It has an "office"

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I haven't been on some of the ultra-intense launch coasters like Do-dodonpa, but of Xcelerator probably has the most intense-feeling initial pull of the Intamin Accelerator coaster variety. We'd been on TTD just a week before, but the first rush of acceleration on Xcel just felt totally crazy.

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Supreme Scream is a yuuuuge S&S tower complex

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We took a spin on Jaguar! exclamation point included.

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Zierer has a few of these "take a tour of the park" coasters, like this one and Orange Streak at Nick Universe. They don't do much in terms of excitement, but they do make for a good tour of the park

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While we were waiting 25 eons in the Jaguar! brake run due to a lacksadasical staff, we saw that Montezuma's Revenge had finally opened with passengers after we hadn't seen it run all day. We rushed over as soon as we got off, then a yuuuge line formed behind us.

 

These shuttle loops are still incredible rides despite being built in the 70s. The launch is fun, the loop is super intense, and the nostalgic feeling is just second to none.

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With the sun set, HangTime was showing off a cool lighting package.

 

We got a ton of rides on this later on during ERT. Gerstlauer Infinity coasters are incredible rides that seem to fly below the radar a little bit. The restraints are similar to a B&M clamshell and when you're getting *ahem* hang-time, it's seriously terrifying. HangTime is such a great addition to Knott's and I wish more parks would buy them!

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We got super lucky and Timber Mountain Log Ride finally opened up! It was every bit as amazing as people said it would be.

 

I remember talking to Robb later about it and saying how it gave me Splash Mountain vibes in the way that it is filled to the brim with theming, where some parks just leave parts of their log flumes un-themed. He told me it actually pre-dated Splash Mountain, which is awesome! I'm not the type of enthusiast that gets down into all the little details of the rides as I'd rather ride and enjoy them, but the fact that Knott's did this great-themed flume before Disney is awesome! Every theme element worked and seemed very well taken care of, so it's clear that Knott's knows they have a gem on their hands here.

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We had ERT from 10pm until midnight and by around 11/11:15, we were two of maybe 30 left in the park. We got countless rides on Xcelerator and HangTime, then squeezed two rides in on Silver Bullet.

 

The fact that the park kept it going right up until the last minute with fully-staffed rides is a testament to their commitment to our group and ensuring we all had a great time. The Xcelerator and HangTime crews were AMAZING! They engaged with us, telling us little facts and joking around with us, they clapped and cheered when we got back into the station, and really just kept the energy up in a great way.

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Headed out of the park after a seriously amazing day. If you haven't done a TPR event, you have no idea what you're missing.

 

Thanks again to Knott's, Robb, and TPR for putting such a great event together for everybody. I'm definitely making a point to do an event again as soon as I can. I won't let 6 years go by again to have this much fun at a park!

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Great report! I really need to make it to West Coast Bash one of these years.

 

I have to disagree about Silver Bullet though. It's certainly an imposing coaster to see as you enter the park, but I think it ruins some of the views in the front of the park. But to each their own.

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So my reports are now slightly out of order, but couple of weeks after the Great Adventure trip, we made a visit to the coaster enthusiasts' Mecca. America's Rockin' Roller Coast. A park with more coasters over 200' than many entire countries in the world.

 

Cedarf*ckingPoint

 

 

I'm fashionably late to the party. I know they got a shiny new ride this year, but I know how insane the park is in the spring, between random days being freezing cold, extreme rain showers, high winds closing all but Disaster Transport (wait what?), and of course we wanted to avoid having to stand in line for 17 hours pretending to care about how some enthusiast is credit-better than you and ranks some random coaster in a far-off country 2347346 places above all the RMCs and how "hear me out, when they lube the wheels on Texas Giant just right and put a layer of lambskin around the outer edge JUST after switching to the nylon wheels from the polyurethane ones, AFTER it's been running for at least 5.6 hours without a breakdown and the temperature has averaged 84.8 degrees with all sun in the forecast for the past 3 days, it'll totally blow your mind and rank #1 above all else".

 

To avoid the aforementioned, we planned a trip for late August, when the crowds (typically) thin out. We got really lucky the first day, with rain forecasted all day keeping the masses from going. The second and third days we coughed up the cash for fast lane, because time is money b*tch.

 

Here are some photos:

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We arrived on a Wednesday in late August, and upon arrival, we were greeted with heavy rain showers and thunderstorms all the way from Cleveland Airport to Sandusky, which the weather channel they'd continue all afternoon. This made us very concerned, because, well, Cedar Point.

 

We arrived on the causeway to find not a single car, to the point where we actually stopped in the middle of the road for about 3-4 minutes to take in the view, with nobody ever driving up behind us.

 

When I took this picture, it didn't look blurry on my phone. It is.

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We arrived to see Gatekeeper going, which was a good sign.

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We walked past Top Thrill Dragster and I got this photo without a train.

 

Oh, not because I didn't wait for a train. Because it's Top Thrill Dragster

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Mean Streak is a little different this year than I remember it being before

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It's a little smoother. I think they resurrected the Dinn Corp and forced them to re-track it or something like that

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This was the line for Mav

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Maverick does some crazy things to you. I know you all love RMC and everything, as do I, but Intamin is still king in my book.

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Insaaaaane airtime to be found on this end of the Cedar Point peninsula

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Crazy laterals, the fastest-feeling LSM launch (in my opinion), airtime, and ridiculously whippy inversions make this seriously one of the best coasters on earth.

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We walked over to Millie to find that she was having some trouble getting it up today.

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People seem to hate Rougarou but I don't. I think the haters are mostly just spoiled little b*tches saying it's rough etc. It instantly became one of the best B&M Floorless when they converted it.

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Do people still say "ninety degrees"?

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Raptor is amazing and so much better than you.

 

I wish parks would go to B&M and be like "hey, we want to build a coaster from you but only under the condition that you pretend it's still the mid 90s when you design it"

 

Intense, snappy, quick changes of direction, Raptor has it. Probably my favorite B&M Inverted if I had to pick

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We saw that Dragster successfully sent one train over with riders, so we got in line.

 

As we were next to board, it did the whole "rollback" thing and proceeded to go down again. Because, you know, Dragster.

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This was actually taken on the second day. This is a cool af element to take photos/videos of.

 

Alright, so here's my opinion on SteVen. Yeah, that's right, SteVen.

 

So, SteVen is *probably* the best RMC steel as a whole, because it's a super long ride, comfortable as hell, and is like a "sampler plate" of everything RMC does in their coasters.

 

That said, it's not the "craziest" RMC out there. Not that any RMC isn't re-rideable, but SteVen is sort of the least offensive if that makes sense. It has strong airtime, but not the bull horn up your a$$ before you get ejected 20 feet into the air kind that you'll find on Storm Chaser or Twisted Timbers. It has quick directional changes, but it's not going to jerk you around like you're in an S&M dungeon the way Wicked Cyclone or Twisted Collosus would.

 

It's like...if you could take 90% of RMC's DNA, but then inject 10% B&M into it. Every inversion and directional change, sans maybe the turn into the mid-course, are heartlined as though B&M spent 2 years in AutoDesk taking exact measurements to make sure they flowed smoothly.

 

The thing that makes this ride truly amazing is that you're going quickly and comfortably through a super long ride that still has a ton of forces and fun. And I think that's the most words I've ever used to describe a coaster before.

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Well, look who showed up today

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Thanks to FastLane Plus, we were boarding the back of the beautiful Intamin train on our way to 300 foot giga orgasm

 

My name is Paul and I'm an addict. I admit that I have a problem. See, when Cedar Point built this beautiful coaster, they put this magic crack dust all around it that coaster enthusiasts sniff and become highly addicted to.

 

I know, I know. It's "Millennium Forceless". It's just a super fast, fun ride where you can throw your hands up while you're going 93mph. But it's just so...awesome. It gives me feelings I can't describe and I don't know why. It's not my favorite coaster. It's not even my favorite coaster at Cedar Point. But when I think about going to Cedar Point, I want to ride me some Millennium Force. I'm getting withdrawl symptoms just thinking about it. Hey...do you think you have a connect that might be able to get me some? Or know a guy who knows a guy?

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Broken Dragster still makes for some cool night pics

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As does Magnum with the setting sun. The first hypercoaster is still one of the best. It defined what "hypercoaster" means. Everything after is just copying, going with the mold. It's wheels have evil spikes on them that electrocute the lapbar and make the airtime hurt. But I'm a sick f*ck and I love it.

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The next morning, we went to Starbucks. We actually did every morning, but this was the only morning I took a photo.

 

I love Cedar Fair for putting full-service Starbucks in their bigger parks.

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Raptor is such a great coaster for midway action

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This morning during early entry, we walked straight on to Millennium Force's front row because weirdos were flocking to Mean Streak.

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Also weird, Dragster opened up and stayed operating for something like 2-3 hours, holy crap! With Fast Lane, we managed about 8 rides, just in case these were the only rides we'd get the whole trip. They were.

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Being a Friday, Cedar Point was having this cool food truck thing to celebrate Labor Day weekend

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They were trying to get people to vote whether Michigan or Ohio had better food, and to encourage turnout, they were doing cheap "sample sizes" of their food offerings. This was the Firehouse's pulled pork slider (and chips!)

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There was also an "empanada food truck", and there are quite a few things I'll do for a good empanada. They even had maduros!

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I'm 5, so I also got a double-scoop ice cream cone.

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Cedar Point has a sign by the exit gate that says if you don't take a photo of Corkscrew Corkscrewing, you'll be BANNED FOR LIFE. Bye!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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  • 1 month later...

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.

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

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

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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

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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...

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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.

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Good morning!

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

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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.

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

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

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F*ck this ride, too.

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

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

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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

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

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

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It did. So this is what we did

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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.

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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"I can see Dorney Park from up here!"

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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.

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Oh come the f*ck on, clouds!

 

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

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

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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!

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