[The Situation]

^Gotta love that crazy site huh? hahaha fun times. Anyway, about this coaster, since I know nothing about y'all's Intimidator, I do like it. I mean sure the trims hurt what, in my opinion, was the best part of the ride, that part being the first drop, however I feel like the trims helped the second half of the ride considerably. The new restraints are very good, however one thing I noticed was that taller guests may have shoulder pain because the straps are heavier and more compressed down on you. That's only if you have big shoulders though, and are taller than 6'4".

[mark40511]

I was thinking..........Usually a theme park will get a hyper coaster first, then a giga later. Since Kings Dominion now has a giga, I wonder if there will ever even be a need for a hyper there. I can see getting a giga in the future at Carowinds, but to have a giga, then go to a hyper seems odd.

[Edwardo]

Only one park has gotten a hyper and then a Giga. I don't see KD getting a Hyper, and I don't see Carowinds getting a Giga. CP did so because they were marketing record breaking rides as that was what they're known for, but they're a destination park.

[Cosmo_TAD]

So

The new restraints are very good, however one thing I noticed was that taller guests may have shoulder pain because the straps are heavier and more compressed down on you. That's only if you have big shoulders though, and are taller than 6'4".

I finally got my first rides on it today. I'm 6'3" and i fit in them with out much problem. But as Situation says the straps are tight to the shoulders for taller people, it felt like it took all my air time as I had no wear for my body to move. It was awesome and I loved not having to worry about my head being chopped off but I really wish the straps moved a bit similar to Cobras so that I could have experienced my negative g's. One word of advice if you want to ride the front row, wait at the ropes to the back of the park at open and do it at open. By noon today the wait for front row was 20+ trains, it went even slower as they only had 1 train. The rest of the rows were 6 train waits which didn't take too long.

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

Ok so I was reading over on the Kdfansite today about I305 and now I have to say I'm a little terrified to ride it with the wheels being the way they are. One guy said that the other day he was waiting in line and as one of the trains were turning the last curve before the break run that they heard a loud noise and something hit the fence. Then they shut the ride down. Apparently one of the wheels popped or something. Ok have to say with the wheels wearing the way they are I'm a little worried about one flying off mid ride or something.

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

Wow, that sux. Oh well I will be riding it next week no matter what! I will let you know of any weird noises or anything going wrong. Hopefully what they heard was just something from someones pocket or somethin..... I will have to go read it. My name on KDfansite is intimidator232. Sounds kinda sketchy to me....I hope the ride will be open next week for our ERT...

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

OK, I read the post and I see that it was a transport wheel that blew out.... Thats nothin to major thats just the wheels that move the train into the station, so at least it wasnt one on the train...

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

^^Ahh I gotcha. Yea if it was a wheel off the ride that would seriously scare the crap out of me. I really want to ride it when I come home next summer, but the talk of all the greyouts people are still have kind of worry me. But I want to at least once to say that I have lol. I've never ridden anything taller than Intimidator and Apollos Chariot. I'm hoping next summer I'm gonna buy the Platinum Pass for my sister and I so we can go to any Cedar Fair park I want. I have been dying to go to Cedar Point, and I really want to go to KI. Anyways I'm getting off topic.

[flyer1965]

^^Ahh I gotcha. Yea if it was a wheel off the ride that would seriously scare the crap out of me. I really want to ride it when I come home next summer, but the talk of all the greyouts people are still have kind of worry me. But I want to at least once to say that I have lol. I've never ridden anything taller than Intimidator and Apollos Chariot. I'm hoping next summer I'm gonna buy the Platinum Pass for my sister and I so we can go to any Cedar Fair park I want. I have been dying to go to Cedar Point, and I really want to go to KI. Anyways I'm getting off topic.

To RollerCoasterMommy07:
We Did plat passes last year so we could do cedar point. while we were in ohio we hit kings island for a day since our passes could get us in free. In my opinion if you do Kings Dominion and Carowinds, you have no reason to do Kings Island. Diamondback is fun but not oh-my-gosh-this-is-so=different than Intimidator. Honestly with a platinum pass you'll probably have more fun with an extra day at Cedar Point than the Kings Island and the drive betweent the two.

The CP water park is fun (KI water park is nice, has a few things like a surfing simulator that are fun and we dont have here). My kids LOVED the CP water park and we camped at the CP campground about 100 yds from the water park and back entrance to CP. we spent 4 days there, which was just right. my kids want to go back but I won't hit KI again. Walking around KI I felt like I was at Kings Dominion but I like KD better. Many of the rides are the same, right down to the eiffel tower. It's WAY smaller than KD.

That's my 2 cents

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

^^Ahh I gotcha. Yea if it was a wheel off the ride that would seriously scare the crap out of me. I really want to ride it when I come home next summer, but the talk of all the greyouts people are still have kind of worry me. But I want to at least once to say that I have lol. I've never ridden anything taller than Intimidator and Apollos Chariot. I'm hoping next summer I'm gonna buy the Platinum Pass for my sister and I so we can go to any Cedar Fair park I want. I have been dying to go to Cedar Point, and I really want to go to KI. Anyways I'm getting off topic.

To RollerCoasterMommy07:
We Did plat passes last year so we could do cedar point. while we were in ohio we hit kings island for a day since our passes could get us in free. In my opinion if you do Kings Dominion and Carowinds, you have no reason to do Kings Island. Diamondback is fun but not oh-my-gosh-this-is-so=different than Intimidator. Honestly with a platinum pass you'll probably have more fun with an extra day at Cedar Point than the Kings Island and the drive betweent the two.

The CP water park is fun (KI water park is nice, has a few things like a surfing simulator that are fun and we dont have here). My kids LOVED the CP water park and we camped at the CP campground about 100 yds from the water park and back entrance to CP. we spent 4 days there, which was just right. my kids want to go back but I won't hit KI again. Walking around KI I felt like as at Kings Dominion but I like KD better. Many of the rides are the same, right down to the eiffel tower. It's WAY smaller than KD.

That's my 2 cents

Well thanks that is great advice. I would love to spend a couple days at Cedar Point so I don't feel like I'm rushing through everything. Then I don't mind the lines as much because what I don't get to do as much the first day there is always a second day. Oh yea what is the cheese on a stick and elephant ears? I was looking on their site and seeing what resturants they have and what food and I was just wondering what they were.

[Jay]

In my opinion if you do Kings Dominion and Carowinds, you have no reason to do Kings Island.
...
Honestly with a platinum pass you'll probably have more fun with an extra day at Cedar Point than the Kings Island and the drive betweent the two.

I don't have kids or anything, but I disagree with this. I think the parks are different enough to warrant at least one visit.

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

I wouldn't know but I have my own reasons for wanting to go to KI. I want to ride all the rides on the Golden Ticket Awards top 10s and not to mention I also want to ride all B&M Hypers out there.

[Jay]

That is an admirable thing to aspire to, but in "enthusiast circles" the Golden Tickets are kind of a joke. The entire purpose of the awards is to sell advertising in it's own magazine.

The Beast finished at #7 last year, when in reality it probably hasn't been that good in 10 years. The rest of the steel and wood top 10 I can't argue with too much (I don't think Millennium Force or Top Thrill Dragster should be in the top 10, but they are at Cedar Point AND CEDAR POINT CAN DO NO WRONG )

Another poll, which most people consider better would be at http://www.ushsho.com/bestrollercoasterpoll.htm. Instead of just using "most points" or whatever silly method the Golden Tickets use, this one takes a coaster and puts it against every other coaster. The coasters with the highest percentage of wins rise to the top, even if it hasn't been ridden by a lot of people.

But largely you will see that both polls have the same group of coasters near the top, so perhaps this post was completely pointless?

[RollerCoasterMommy07]

Yea I haven't really looked up much of different websites to find the best coasters. I usually go by word of mouth with other people's experiences on coasters. I only mentioned the Golden Ticket Awards because I did a report and powerpoint on their top 10 for a school requirement, and seeing as I have only ridden Apollo's Chariot up there I figured it would be good to ride the rest of what was up there considering they looked like alot of fun. And also I have never been to CP so therefore never rode Millennium Force and TTD and I would love to do them even though TTD scares me just looking at it and watching videos. But alot of the other ones looked good like Bizzaro and Phantom's Revenge.

[Skycoastin Steve]

JamminJ, I think the Golden Tickets at least get the top of the coaster top 10s fairly right. The problem is the exclusion of most international coasters (I think T-Express was in the 30s last year in the wooden rankings just because a small number of people had ridden it). Mitch Hawker's poll is definitely the best out there, but the Golden Tickets are good for what they are. And they provide great marketing for parks that are included in the rankings.