Creed Bratton

Working on Part 2 now, but figured I'd answer your question real quick. The trains on Skyrush are odd....I'd say...they're very industrial, there really isn't a zero car...as the front end is extended from the 1st car. The seats are pretty nice, but sit back further than Diamondback/Behemoth/Intimidator. In the station, there isn't a separate row for the winged seats leaving the option for 4 people to choose between them which seat they go to in their row. The winged seats are just a few inches back from the two middle seats. I still prefer the seats on Diamondback and the others though.

Congrats Gary! Such a great guy, I rode with him on my 300th Diamondback ride!

Thanks for the feedback so far guys! GYK-- Yeah, Chocolate World is still open...it was pretty packed when we were in there! TheCrypt-- Honestly, I loved the way that Skyrush and Comet flowed together. I felt that Skyrush gave some great views of the coaster and vice versa. As for the color scheme, I wish the blue supports were a bit darker blue like in the logo, but the yellow is a nice touch....now I had never been to Hershey before this trip....to me, without the Skyrush yellow the area would look pretty bland in my opinion. Skyrush is great!!

After a long hiatus from KIC, I decided to return because I missed the friendships from you all. What better way to return than a big PTR! This PTR will have to be in multiple parts but here we go with Part 1: Over the past weekend, I got to head out of Ohio and over to Pennsylvania. I spent the day, Friday, on the road with some friends heading toward Hershey! We got to Hershey about 6:30ish that evening....before we got into the park we had to face a parking nightmare. Dave Matthew’s Band was playing that night and the parking lot was a mess....many people taking up 3 spots to tailgate, play cornhole, drink, etc. That was very frustrating. As soon as we parked we headed to Chocolate World...it was just a quick trip in as we had just about an hour to kill....so we did “Hershey’s Great American Chocolate Tour Ride.” It was a nice little ride, too bad there wasn’t something to gain points with! After the ride we headed into the shops to basically drool over all the candy! 7:30 fast approached and we headed into the park for preview night. We headed straight toward Roller Soaker as it was to close at 8pm. It was a neat little ride..but wasn’t happy that I was the one who got soaked out of the 4 of us that rode it. We then headed over to Lightning Racer...we rode Lightning first, then Thunder, both rides landed us a winning train. Lightning Racer definitely has become a favorite wooden coaster of mine! Especially since our one ride was a “night ride” and the chaser lights were on! We then did the Wild Mouse which was the typical mouse coaster. Directly across from it, we headed to Wildcat. When we got up to the station, they stopped operations because of a protein spill. The people in the station were rediculous. Drove me nuts actually....they kept complaining about the spill not being cleaned up as quick as they thought it should have taken....but they kept talking to the ops cleaning it up. Plus the vo-ban had to sit for a while to soak it all up....and there was a ton! The station pretty much cleared out, so I went to the front row and waited for my ride. It was a great one at that, I really fell in love with the chaser lights on coasters after this experience! After that experience we decided to make our way over to Skyrush. On the way we stopped at Fahrenheit, as the line was rather short! I absolutely loved the layout...not real wild compared to Maverick. I am a big fan of the style of trains on those two coasters. We then made way to Skyrush. We queued for some time, but once we got to the station, it was a breeze. Our turn was coming up, I grabbed a left wing seat and took off! I am absolutely amazed at the speed of the lift! The lift in itself is an amazing thing. Like many reviews I’ve read and heard, it was an awesome coaster, with some pain....I didn’t have too much pain. I absolutely loved my first ride on it, I knew the next day I’d have to get a front row seat! We then headed to our hotel for the evening to pass out and prep for the next day. (Cell Phone Pic) On Saturday morning, we made our way to the park bright and early for registration with Central PA’s ACE Region for the event. Once in the park, we hit up ERT on Fahrenheit for a quick ride then headed over to Storm Runner. Storm Runner was a nice coaster, but a bit short. I really enjoyed the layout...it’s such a photogenic coaster too! After a few rounds on it, we headed over to Skyrush to get it before the opening crowd. We found out that the Hershey Resort Guests get in an hour early over at Skyrush and Comet. So ACE members weren’t the true first riders of the day. However, the queue was a bit short and we decided to get the front seat. While our group was waiting in the station behind the gate, train #2, loaded up and was dispatched. The cable came down to bring the train out, moved just a few inches and stopped. Maintenance was called and they came to fix it. The train started moving, but crawled up the lift hill...stopped about a ¼ of the way up as the other train came into the station. Once that train came in, the one on the lift went up and followed the course. Then our group was next to go, 2 members of our group, went first on one train and the other 4 of us got on the train that didn’t get fast lift. When all of our trains restraints were checked, we were dispatched...we moved 2 inches and stopped. Maintenance was called, we were told by ride ops: “Since this train has started moving, we are not allowed to get you off unless told to by maintenance, however maintenance is on their way.” Once maintenance got there, they did a couple quick things and we inched up the hill. We also got stopped about ¼ of the way up. Honestly it was an amazing experience....felt great to just sit there, feel the breeze and take in the views. We then heard the motors start going, we ended up rolling back about an inch, but the safeties caught us and then were pulled up the lift slowly. Once we dropped from the lift, it was such an amazing experience! There were so many great views, the track looked amazing and just overall I was happy. We found that if you pull up on the blue bars of the restraints on your sides, it hurts a little bit less. After we got off the ride, they sent it empty and took it off for maintenance to work on it. We then headed over to Great Bear and Super Dooper Looper. Both were good coasters, although I felt that Great Bear was just a rather good bear. We then headed over to Trailblazer. There was a hilarious older gentlman working on the crew. He would tell you if you didn’t raise your hands, you’d pay the price....he then would squirt anyone without their hands up with a squirt gun! Surprisingly it was a good mine train. We then hit up Sidewinder and the flat Hurler before lunch. After a nice lunch and door prizes (in which I snagged a piece of the Legend roller coaster at Holiday World), we hit up a few rides including Falcon, the Reese's dark ride, the monorail and their Eagles. The pics below of Sidewinder are from testing in the morning. For those that know me, I don't like children...this showed there were too many children in the park: As the day headed on, we re-rode some coasters including Lightning Racer (both sides). Did their whip which we ended up hitting the wall on the inside, haha! We also did Wildcat and I got stuck on the break run with my friend’s daughter. We then got evacuated and had to walk through the break run and into the station. Afterwards we decided to head toward Comet. We stopped on our way to take some pictures of Fahrenheit. When we rode Comet, it was a great ride in the back seat. 2 members of our group were at a show and the rest of us rode the skyride. We then went back over to Comet and rode once, then headed to Skyrush. We waited in line for a front row again. After that ride, evening ERT on Skyrush and Comet started. We found out that they added Super Dooper Looper to the line up. We focused mainly on Skyrush and had many rides on it! It was so good! We noticed that on one train, the restraints are a little bit softer, but they didn’t help the pain. As ERT was ending I headed over to Comet with my one friend and rode it twice, once in the back row and once in the 2nd row. I really enjoyed Comet. This next photo was taken with permission from the ride operator while waiting for maintenance to arrive at the ride. Part 2 coming soon!

Forgive me for making educated guesses and using deductive reasoning, whether I'm right or I'm wrong, there's no reason you have to be a jerk about it. HTCO and I have worked at the park in the past couple of years. I know my department was in rides and my comments are going off of what I've been told by higher ups. Whether or not you work or have worked in the park as maintenance gives no cause for holier than thou replies.

Recently they have been doing it that way. They remove all the rides about the same time....but generally the coasters with the most parts on the trains get taken care of generally at the beginning that way there is no rush to rebuild with the possibility of doing something wrong. But you'll probably say that I'm wrong too.

You know what I mean....I'd pay some guests not to be there...lol

Congrat's to Kinzel. I don't drink the koolaid either way in response to some of the comments above....I just am thankful for what parks I have to enjoy and will continue to enjoy whether or not Kinzel is CEO.

Experiences would vary with the ride operator. Some ride operators (if I still worked there) would be paying some guests an additional ten dollars not to have lunch with them!

Diamondback trains are headed for maintenance via the park twitter!

My feet have low sensitivity to heat so that's never been a problem for me! I'm looking forward to seeing if the slides will get a paint job like Soak City at Cedar Point.

Another pic of The Vortex trains via Kings Island's twitter

Remember HTCO there is a pretty big garage door on the back side of the building.

Don't see a path going back beyond the Hammerhead of Diamondback....that area pretty much drops off very steep. I about fell off of it when collecting lost and found items last year. If this proves true, I'll be sad so many great memories of riding and even operating.

That's sad to hear! Hope she ends up fully recovering!

It is in such a sad sate, I could only imagine how much more sad it'll be next year.

As Bennett said, it was a dead day at the park! BLSC was the only non-kiddie coaster that I didn't do because of the wait!

You'd be surprised at how many haunts both across town and across the country follow the same rules and guidelines when it comes to interacting with guests. The only haunts that can bypass the "no touchie" rule are the ones that make their customers sign a waver...and Dead Acres. Also, I've heard more swearing and foul language from Club Blood alone than at other attractions like Dent Schoolhouse and Land of Illusion. I think it adds to the scare...if used right. Obviously would not work at KI or other Cedar Fair parks...but works at places you all have named. Another place that I got to this year that they were allowed to touch you was Lewisburg Cave...it seriously added to the scare and was amazing...I usually don't like the touching when trying to scare but it made it pretty sweet.

I know, I know! Slaughter House had a medium size line when we passed it but it started to rain so the group elected to go sit in the Festhaus and we had a bust ear drum in the group. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Sam this year .

^^ lol HTCO. I watched one match last year...and have only been to KI once during Haunt, didn't feel like watching the show. Hope it's a good one for those who go on Saturday.

Haha Edited for you! I just don't see pirates as scary Phantom , but I will tell you that the first weekend I liked Terror better than Blood. I did find it funny once I got that footage to slow down I saw the launch on the third yellow. The ride host/screamster we're talking about was pretty awesome! Also, Chick-in-a-box made my night that Sunday +1 for Terror Island!

Hey all, So I recently found my video camera and on my last few trips I took it and shot some videos. Instead of doing a separate topic for each, I thought I'd give a link for all the videos and share a little tidbit from each trip. Holiday World: <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hfx5s8S2fYk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I went with some KICers to Holiday World on their closing day for the 2011 season on Oct. 9th. It was such a great day weather wise and wait time wise. We had discovered after riding Voyage the first time (all of us in various rows) that the 1st row was the only one worth riding in. This was also the last day for Paul Revere's Midnight Ride (their Monster). We had gotten into the line which was surprisingly queued. As we got to the point where we'd be the next cycle, the ride went down, but was up shortly! The longest line we had to wait in line for was Rough Riders. Of course we got to see Pat Koch several times and she gave multiple great hugs! Kings Island Halloween Haunt: <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LIbu-BOPycQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This trip was my first back to Kings Island since I've moved back to Ohio. I was excited to see the park after a 5 month hiatus. The lines for the haunts were not really that bad. I got tired though of employees trying to sell me a fright pass. I got my first KI WindSeeker ride this night, although before I got to ride it, it went down twice. The first time was something with the restraints, however the crew FAILED to call maintenance, they told everyone to get off the ride and ran a test cycle. Then they let people on, including me. but then had us get off. So they finally called Maintenance after walking around the seats about 5 or 6 times. Maintenance showed up and restarted the ride, they did a test cycle and we got on to ride. Man it was cold! I was extremely disappointed with the WindSeeker crew. Seemed like all they did was walk around instead of calling maintenance when there was a problem. As a former ride op at KI, I know that should have been done first instead of walking around and pretending to know what was going on five or six times. Aside from that, the haunts that I went through were great. I disliked Massacre Manor, which used to be my favorite. Holiday Horror and Nightmare Alley became my favorite attractions!! Of course I got a night ride on Beast, at most we waited about 30-40 minutes. I rode Diamondback and let me tell you, it was good to be back on my baby! It was a great smooth ride! As the night was wearing on, we went to CarnEvil and Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. BBoBH was so much fun, if you haven't rode during Haunt, do it. With less than 45 minutes left in the park, I sprinted along to X-Base with Nemo. We went through Mysteria which was fun even though the fog was off. We than ran to Flight of Fear. As we got to FoF, we realized that we were the last two on the coaster that night. We rode the front row. It was cool to see the lasers in the launch tunnel! As we arrived in the Mid-Course, we slowed down so much to a stop because of the lack of weight in the train. We had to push forward to get out of the Mid-Course. It was hilarious and a ton of fun! Columbus Zoo <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PmQzG0oJ2nQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The Zoo was a spur of the moment trip. We had a lot of fun, the animals were fairly active and the zoo wasn't too packed! Cedar Point <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8MnCdiw-PAg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Cedar Point started out rainy! To our surprise, Maverick and Millennium Force were operating for ERT. A lot of rides were down early on in the day because of Wind, including get this....WindSeeker. We got a lot accomplished, got to see some friends from KI and I got to see a friend that works at the park. I ended up having the most rides on Corkscrew, which was a total of 3. This trip was the first time I ate at Midway Market. We decided to go through Camp Snoopy/CarnEvil to look at the Haunt props. We got to where Camp Bus is and the Ride Host looked so bored. She asked if we wanted to ride so we got on. I asked her if I could take video of the ride and she said sure! So I added a little bit of footage from that in the video above. As our ride came to end, she asked if we wanted to go again, so we rode it again. As the 2nd trip ended, she said "Ladies and Gentlemen please remain seated as your bus comes to a landing....wait... buses don't come to landings only planes and helicopters do. What the heck?" As she finished that statement she was laughing for a good few minutes. With it being a Sunday in October, we got to go enjoy some of the Halloweekends attractions. Blood on the Bayou still remains my favorite outdoor haunt. I had a screamster come up to me to try and scare me. As she said "hello" I nervously said hey back, she replied "You rode my ride earlier, you rode the bus, where's your camera now?" Haha.The last thing we did before heading home from the park was getting to ride Top Thrill Dragster, last train of the night (2nd in station) in the front row. I had never ridden in the front row and it was amazing! Hope you enjoyed reading and watching the videos! Edited 9:17 pm 10/24/11

As of right now now. The coaster is still going to be open in late March 2012. The park is open from late March to December every year. Once the track is completed they'll have to do themeing, landscaping, installation of the trains, testing, etc. so it won't be open any earlier than the media day before the park opens.

^^ From Dollywood2012.com Holy cow, next week they're hopefully going to have all of the track in place! What?!?! Lol. Hard to believe they are moving so fast!

To sort of echo and reiterate Browntggrr's point, trim breaks are there to decrease the speed of a train (on any coaster) to ensure that the riders have the safest ride with a decreased number of bumps (although in this case, that's not enough). Having a trim break that does this significantly cuts down cost on maintenance of a coaster from the wear and tear of a coaster traveling at fast speeds and bouncing. I do wonder though, if the trim breaks on Mean Streak were retrofitted or were a part of the ride when it opened. If they were retrofitted, it would cost less to remove.