DoomPlague

My sister lost her phone on Banshee and didn't even know it until she went to pull out the phone later on. It definitely varies by the type of clothing and the restraints, etc etc. Like others have mentioned: zipper pockets are the way to go. Though I've always found that when I wear jeans (full length), the front pockets are too tight for anything to ever come out, when sitting.

I know people on this forum are prone to overreacting to every thing the park does but based on this thread you would think they were closing half the rides all day and running one-train on coasters like a Six Flags park. I'm already used to seeing Racer run with one train on weekdays and I was surprised to even see WWC running after 9 PM last season because its pretty common to close those rides in the evenings. If it gets worse, then you start to have a real concern argument but that's not guaranteed (see: slippery slope fallacy). Considering the big debt that CF currently has, the serious inflation of the past two years and the way many other parks are ran (ie. way worse than this), these changes seem pretty reasonable to me.

Imagine if SFMM built a 300 foot tall larson loop. I would die laughing.

Some have argued that there's just enough room, without a spike, for an LSM launch (at least with LSMs on part of the incline). Even if that's not true, the spike wouldn't have to be that tall to give the train some decent initial speed to be boosted enough to make it over. Pretty sure the spike is more about breaking a record and garnering attention.

..does anyone want a Larson Loop?

The park should be grateful that someone caught something that they didn't but the way the guy went to the media and added to the sensationalism would make me not want to deal with him. He acted like Guest Services should be running around in a panic and that the train was about to fly off the track and kill everyone. I doubt any parks plan for when a guest reports something like this. Side note: drone inspections is a good idea but I also wonder if its possible to put sensors the detect movement of the structure over a certain threshold.

It's been discussed on KICentral but apparently the seatbelts were added to make sure the restraints close to a certain distance. Before that it was much easier for a larger person to ride but the gap between the OTSR and the seat often left too much room for someone to slip out. Or at least, this is my understanding of things.

I, too, rode Sol Spin for the first time today. I will echo sentiments that the seats are uncomfortable. It helped to move my hips a bit forward though. My issue with the restraints is that they mostly move on their own and with the tiny hole for your head, I had to be careful not to let it knock my glasses off. I do agree that they are not as restrictive as Drop Towers restraints but remember those restraints are so restrictive because of the CGA accident in '99 and were never replaced with improved ones.

Good question. I'm wondering if its worth it to the company to just quickly get an identical replacement part installed to get the ride up and running while they wait for it to be reengineered.

I had it it today. Fries are included on dining plan. The girl who took my order said she's new and wasn't sure but it rang up fine. Not sure why I got it. I'm not a fan of blue cheese outside of salad dressing and I knew it would be overpowering. Also noticed Coney BBQ changed their fries again this year. Not sure if these are the old sidewinder fries or a new type? Still good.

Fury was ran during Winterfest in 2022, I know that much. Though manufacturers do give parks a minimum operating temperature for their rides. One thing I wonder (for anyone that might know) is how redundant are the supports on these coasters? There's a clip of a train successfully navigating that curve with the support broken, as the ride obviously had enough supports to keep it in place. Do manufacturers plan for the possibility of a certain number of pieces breaking?

Is the wildfire smoke worse up in the tower? Don't know about Mason but here in central ohio, the air quality is pretty bad and I wonder if that causes them to close the tower.

Man, I've heard a lot of things about SFA but that part about the restraints on Joker's Jinx is kind of disturbing.

I was really thinking of something more catastrophic or deadly. From my understanding, El Toro just had its last car come out of alignment with the track and partially derail. Pretty bad but nothing close to deadly. Obviously Stengal's firm has a lot of coasters on its resume but it is interesting how they were involved with this ride as well as Mindbender, Quimera, and El Toro (not to mention SOB).

Always sad to hear but I don't know that this is something impossible to happen in the US. Don't know much about this but it looks pretty good from the Youtube videos. Built by Zierer but designed by Schwarzkopf and Stengel?

and Meteor Canteen

With the premier trains, as long as I was in a middle seat SOB was fine. Smooth even. The wheel seats were atrocious but at least it had that middle seat option. I only ever rode Mean Streak in the 2000s (I think) but it was astonishingly bad. Anyone remember how it was in its early days? I rode Texas Giant in the early 90s before it got rough and loved it. Worst for me might be Flight Deck/Top Gun at Canada's Wonderland or most SLCs. But weirdly enough, FoF with its original restraints probably had just as much headbanging but I still liked it.

I bet Carowinds is behind the Western & Southern open moving to Charlotte

Does Coney BBQ not have ribs this year? It has been my go-to there.

I like Orion more and more as I ride. If anything its just smooth and consistent. I do prefer DB but Orion is obviously smoother, it has a better drop and the speed hill and that airtime hill at the turn before the brake are probably better than any singular element on DB. It's also a more consistent ride than Millennium Force which usually gives me no airtime (when you do get a good ride, its certainly great). I have no idea what ride is "most popular" with guests. Obviously old-timer KI fans (no offense) mostly love The Beast but I find myself having to defend it to everyone else myself. The ride that most consistently gets attention from younger enthusiasts seems to be Mystic Timbers, which many consider the best GCI or close to it (its also my favorite at the park). Some love Diamondback but others consider it a lower tier B&M hyper. I usually see it ranked in the middle of the gigas now that people are getting over the initial disappointment. But all of this is from thoosies and not the general public.

The single-use fastlane doesn't bother me, unless they start selling so many that it screws over the standby line as others have mentioned. While I would never use it myself at a park where I've ridden everything and can always come back, this could be a good option at other parks on those days where the full Fast Lane is mostly unnecessary. I imagine people visiting KI from another state with no plans to come back soon might find themselves wanting only to skip the Flight of Fear line or whatever other line is disproportionately long. I've always been of the mind that KI makes most of its money from people who are not like thrifty-ole-me and I benefit from that. All the people buying souvenirs, fast lanes, funpix, lockers, etc etc are contributing to CF staying afloat and investing back into the parks. The idea that everyone can have the same or similar experience is frankly unrealistic. As far as the high number of guests vs higher prices, that's obviously just a balancing act. CF probably has analytics that help them decide the optimal price point. On a side note, yesterday I saw a couple younger people use what looked like the single-use fast lanes (like the prestige pass ones) on Mystic Timbers but even from the entrance you could see that the standby line was only to the bottom of the steps. It saved them one or two dispatches.

Oddly enough, Craig is meme name given to a Halo character (the game series) that looks like this: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/halofanon/images/4/42/Craig-the-brute.png/revision/latest?cb=20200813192401

Rode Cargo Loco twice today. Couldn't get it to consistently spin either time. And honestly based on the lines I saw (or lack thereof) I think the GP weren't impressed. Also, the ride is really quiet and could use some music while its running. Also the seats get surprisingly hot sitting in the sun. With some tweaks it should be a nice addition but it needs those tweaks. Rode AE a few times. I'm pretty happy with the new theming elements in and around the station. The on-ride additions are nice, but not super noticeable. I do wish they would bring back the mist/fog in tunnel 3.

Tried Grain and Grill again tonight. But I got there late, around 7 PM, which may be why I didn't get to choose my bread? I just got the two small slices of baguette (artisan whatever). Got the beef and maybe its also because I was there late but I got a decent sized portion. 3 pieces (2 decent sized ones and 1 smaller one). Also got the perogies. I remembered that I'm not really a pierogi person. Just very heavy. The beef had decent flavor but it was overdone and I could tell it had been there a while. Honestly, unless they rethink that whole menu, I'm not sure I'll eat there again. Earlier in the day I decided to try the Clucks and Barrels at Brewhouse. Was hoping they were better than the other tenders I've had at KI and CP and they were but are still nothing great. I don't get why these parks struggle to serve up something as good as even the cheaper fast food places that have tenders.

I like it but many would call this an example of the marketing people overboard similar to the whole "What's in the shed" deal. Which is funny when you consider how similar people already feel about how AE and MT end.