violakat03

I don't have a pre-KI food ritual, but when I was younger, we always had a post-KI one. We always stopped at the McDonald's at the corner of KI Drive and 741 (which was usually packed) and got McD's pizza, then played on the mural wall they had outside in the parking lot.

I wonder what they're doing with that train. It looks like it's just sitting in the station.

I always wear cargo pants that button and velcro on the lower pockets - I got them at Sam's for pretty cheap and I have multiple pairs in multiple colors. I've never had anything fall out of the lower pockets, though I almost lost my phone out of the non-secured pocket on Firehawk and I did lose my season pass out of the same pocket on Mean Streak.

I went for the fourth of July(which is my birthday) and the park was dead. Typically the park's pretty busy that day. It was just kind of nasty weather this past 4th of July. Though if the 3rd of July falls on a weekday, that's usually a pretty good day to go. If it falls on a Saturday, it's not.

I doubt you'll find it on the internet, though I'd be very happy for someone to prove me wrong on that. They only play it on days the line is long. So if you really want to watch it, go on a hot, busy day when FOF's line is long, and you'll see it. It was running most Saturdays at Haunt from what I saw, but any time the park was cleared out, it was off.

I think the early shut down is only for Haunt, since the queue is used for part of Club Blood.

I'd say considering that they're doing work around the splashdown, it'd be for safety reasons. You don't want a worker accidentally getting hit by one of the trains.

I'm thinking they will probably be open an hour before the gates open. If the gates to I-street open at 9 (rides at 10) then I'm guessing the parking lot will open at 8. I'm also expecting lots of crowds.

I'd be interested in Holiday World, Beech Bend or Indiana Beach. Dollywood would be a stretch as it'd be an overnight stay, though I might have a connection there that would net me a free room for the night. I'm not getting my Six Flags season pass until the last week in May (at SFA since they also offer parking passes, SFKK does not) so I'd rather wait on SFKK until I've got my pass. Of the parks listed, I'm voting for Holiday World. Is it really going to be that busy on opening day, and how many people will be flocking to Pilgrim's Plunge (leaving the coasters with less lines) and it's shiny newness? I'm not big on water parks to start with, so the fact it's not open has no bearing on the decision for me, and might keep the crowds down a bit. This would also push my decision for which May ACE event to attend over to the one at BGE since I'll have already experienced HW.

I think night rides during Haunt/Halloweekends are completely awesome. I'll agree with the person who said the fog made MF better than normal, especially out on Millennium Island. I also thought it was cool seeing the pirate ship from the ride. I did a marathon on Racer in the last hour of operations on a Saturday night during Haunt. Those were definitely some of the coolest rides I've taken on that ride.

That sounds dangerous, and yet oddly like something I would do...

Not to mention if you aren't staying at one of the resorts, parking is $13. We miraculously got to park for free at Epcot when we did DiveQuest (the only thing we were going to the park for) because a friend of ours was staying at Shades of Green. We all carpooled over and used her resort pass.

The Beast makes the best noises. I watch POVs with the volume cranked. Between the noise it makes as the train catches the lift chain, and clacking of it going over the track in some areas, and the screeching wheels.... Sigh. April 18th can't come soon enough.

Might be construction equipment to finish the removal of the former queue area.

I think he meant next Sunday as in the Sunday of the next weekend. I have the same plan - if the park is too packed, I'll enjoy Diamondback on opening day and maybe a couple other rides. If the lines are ridiculous, I'll come back the next weekend. I'm already planning to anyway, but going on more than just the following Sunday will be more likely if opening day is too busy for me.

The Beast, definitely. The tunnels in pitch black are just awesome. Though they need to get rid of that REALLY BRIGHT LIGHT that's halfway through the ride and kills the mood. I really enjoy Millennium Force at night also. I found Raptor to be most enjoyable right at sunset. When they have the strobes under the cobra roll turned on but you can still see what's going on.

The first picture looks like it was taken at the beginning of the path that was closed for DB construction next year. I'm not sure though. Great pictures. I miss Skylab too.

All corporate and group bids, including KIC's, are going to be donated back to A Kid Again to allow one of the participants to take the first ride. That's going to be a lot of happy kids, judging by the current bid board.

Whoa, Gabe does exist!

Consider going to the Cincinnati Museum Center too. The Newport Aquarium is a great aquarium and definitely worth a stop. The US Air Force museum is up here in Dayton - it's around an hour's drive, but it's worth it, the AF Museum is nothing short of amazing.

The first suit set the precedent. If it's been proven once that the ride ops didn't know what they were doing, then more and more people will come forward with similar claims. While some may be bogus, this is a pretty common phenomena. The same thing happens any time faulty products are found. All it takes is one person to spark it off and the rest come like a waterfall. How many of them are legitimate, as you said, we may never know.

In reading the article, it said he yelled to the ride op to stop and she said they couldn't. Judging by the fact in the original lawsuit, the ride ops for that ride also did not know how to shut down the ride, it seems like the ride ops are completely untrained in how to do anything other than start the ride.

It sounds like they left themselves wide open to lawsuits by allowing poorly or untrained workers to operate the rides. I mean seriously, how does a ride op NOT know how to stop a ride? That should be one of the first things given in training. It might be a bogus claim if the only thing that happened was that the man fell off - that was his own fault - but it became the park's problem and a valid claim when the ride op failed to perform an emergency stop on the ride because they didn't know how. That is absolutely ridiculous. Now the drop ceiling falling claim, that one seems ridiculous too. That's just someone jumping on the gravy train. I'm sorry but I've had all sorts of mishaps through my childhood and we never once sued anybody. I remember tripping over something in an aisle and cutting my leg open on a shelf at Meijer when I was about 5 - they bandaged me up, gave me a token for the penny pony, and I was content. I got pushed down a set of stone steps in kindergarten and had to have stitches under my eye. Did my mom sue the family of the girl who pushed me? It never even crossed her mind.

Mine was Flight of Fear in 1996. I was 11. I also rode Vortex and King Cobra that day and it marked the beginning of the coaster obsession.

Of the times that I visited CP last year, the week in July and the Halloweekends Saturday were the busiest. The weekdays in July that I went were on par with normal Saturday crowds. I have seen CP busy and I have seen it deserted, and they were at the upper end of that spectrum. The only ride I caught as a walk-on was Blue Streak. Everything else I had to wait anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes (not counting the 1+ hour waits already mentioned). I was incredibly surprised because by everything I had been reading up until that point, the park should have been much emptier than it actually was. The Sunday during Halloweekends that I went, I waited 15-20 minutes for night rides on MF, skipped TTD and Maverick, and walked on every other ride in the park. It wasn't completely dead, but it was very close to it. I think I made it on 10 laps around Gemini in one day, plus managed to ride Magnum, Millie (twice), Raptor (twice), Disaster Transport, Wicked Twister and all the flat rides that I enjoy.