Cedar Point and Kings Island both have web cameras pointed at the WindSeeker sites that update on a very regular basis. I wrote a custom script to run on my computer that basically captures a number of these images throughout the day from each camera. Each day I take the collected images and use a piece of software that allows me to generate a video from the sequence of images. The daily videos are then stitched together to provide a weekly summary of WindSeeker progress that I upload to YouTube.

So, that’s it. Nothing special, just a bunch of image grabs stitched together for a video. I hope that you will continue to enjoy these construction updates as they are posted!

Cedar Fair currently owns 11 amusement parks and six water parks at a total of 15 different locations in the US and Canada. In the summer of 2007, a year after Cedar Fair acquired Paramount Parks, they introduced a new type of season pass that allowed access to all amusement and water parks owned by Cedar Fair. Having taken a yearly trip to Cedar Point for 24 consecutive years and living less than 30 minutes from Kings Island, I decided that this “Maxx Pass” was a solid investment. Three years later and a silly name change to “Platinum,” Abi and I both have these season passes that can still be used at all 15 properties. This summer we decided to exercise our season passholder privileges to the fullest…well, not quite to the fullest, but close enough.

We’re going to take a 16 day road trip to eight different parks. Due to time constraints we’re going to skip the five stops in California, water park in Aurora, OH, and one in Canada (after the Olympics I think you’ll agree skipping the latter is acceptable). Without further ado, I present to you the order of events for our Roller Coaster Adventure Tour 2010:

• Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
• Valleyfair (Shakopee, Minnesota)
• Michigan’s Adventure (Muskegon, Michigan)
• Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
• Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
• Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)
• Carowinds (Charlotte, North Carolina/Fort Mill, South Carolina)
• Kings Island (Kings Mills, Ohio)

Our schedule and the distance between the parks requires that we reserve a full day for travel the day before visiting a park. Basically we’re going to drive for a day, then ride coasters for a day, repeated a total of eight times.

Where available I *think* we will visit the adjoining water park (Abi really wants to do this, personally I’m not a huge fan). There’s also an outside chance that if everything stays on schedule that we might be able to make a stop in Santa Claus, Indiana at the one and only Holiday World. That may end up being a game day decision at the end of the trip.

So there you have it, our summer vacation plans. Probably not exactly your standard vacation, but I think it sounds like a heck of a lot of fun!

Flight of Fear (or “FoF,” as we have nicknamed it) is an enclosed roller coaster. 100% of the ride is indoors and in the dark, which adds to the experience and excitement of this ride. The majority of the ride takes place basically inside a huge cube, so track is twisting and turning and placed in the most ridiculous locations that you could possibly imagine. Since the ride is mostly dark, people generally don’t get a chance to fully enjoy the beauty of the design and implementation of this ride. That is of course unless you get stuck inside!!! (or you pay a few bucks for the ‘behind the scenes tour,’ I’ll post the link when I find what I’m looking for)

We started the ride like normal, accelerating from 0-60mph in about 4 seconds, and then flipping upside down a couple times, twisting and turning through the steel track. About halfway through the ride the track goes level and applies some brakes before the grande finale. Usually the brakes slow the train down enough to let riders catch their breath before a few more twists, turns, and inversions. However, this time the brakes stopped us completely.

We sat their for a moment of two, feeling the track shakng back and forth beneath us. Another moment or two go by, and I wonder if something could be wrong…will the brakes let go?

And this is the point when I start to get really excited. Seriously, right now I’m hoping that the ride has broken down and that we’ll have get off the train and walk down those metal stairs that you see on nearly every ride. We wait another minute or so until a KI employee shows up on the platform. “Um, we’re having some technical difficulties right now, and we’re doing our best to resolve the situation. The mechanics are on their way over here right now.”

That was when I took out my trusty iPhone to start documenting the whole thing. I took some pictures, I took some video, I even called Kevin because I knew that he would completely appreciate our current situation. I tried to update Twitter, but there was some stupid problem with the API at the time. Stupid Twitter.

About 12-15 minutes later the brakes on the track released and we got to finish our ride. At the unloading platform there were ten or so KI employees and 2-3 mechanics, waiting to make sure everyone was alright. We were…but some people were more “agitated” than others. I was thrilled. I wanted to do it again.

For years I have always wanted to get stuck on a roller coaster and have to climb down to safety. It has never happened, and I can always hope that someday it will…but I sure got to take home a great story today!

Diamondback promised to provided guests with a ride unlike any other at the park, and we wouldn’t be disappointed.

At about 9am the gates opened and those at the beginning of the line began to run toward the ride entrance in the back of the park. People were packed in like sardines, so by the time Abi and I made it through the gate, we already standing in line. For those familiar with KI, the line had already slithered back to the entrance of Nickelodeon Universe. I guessed that it would take about two hours to make it through the line, which turned out to be about 30 minutes over. Nothing eventful happened until we got closer to the actual queues for the ride where we could pay more attention to the amazing structure of the coaster, and the magnificent splashdown at the end of the ride. The queues were obviously completely filled, but the line moved pretty quickly which is always a good thing. We made it from the start of the line to the loading platform in a mere 45 minutes. I would have expected it to take at least 1-1.5 hours, and I’m wondering if KI really thought that one completely through for crowd control. However, I now know that even on a busy day it’s not as bad as it looks!

The loading platform didn’t offer up anything special, pretty standard stuff there. Abi and I chose to sit in the very last seat of the train, which meant with the new style car that we were on the outside of a four-seat car, and pushed back a little. It’s a pretty unique design, which I liked, but I’m not sure I actually was able to see much more than usual once the ride started. Diamondback used a standard chain-lift system, but was missing the click-click-click of your old school roller coaster rollback protection system. I haven’t done any investigation on the newer safety mechanisms, but it was a smooth, quiet ride up to the top. From that point forward the details of the ride are a bit sketchy; probably due to the mix of excitement, adrenaline, and just trying to enjoy the ride, but Diamondback has quickly become one of my favorite rides at Kings Island.

Diamondback is a reasonably long ride, running about three minutes from the time you leave the station until the time you return. Longer rides always make me feel like I get my money’s worth, so the ride gets a good mark in that category. There are plenty of big, smooth hills with lots of air time, which is always something I enjoy. The fantastic first drop carries riders right over the heads of guests walking down the sidewalk, and also just past riders on the Kings Island Railroad. The bright red and yellow track can be seen from almost anywhere in the park, attracting attention from coaster riders and non-riders alike. Diamondback features an incredible splashdown effect at the end of the ride which really is a neat touch for people watching the ride. The splash looks cool, and also helps to slow the train down as it nears the station. Trying to describe it won’t do it justice, so look for a video on YouTube if you’re interested. The ride moves about 1600 riders per hour, above average for most coasters, which really makes the time fly in that queue line.

Overall the ride gets a good rating from me, trying to eliminate as much of my Cedar Point bias as possible… Nice work, Kings Island and Cedar Fair, keep them coming.

(Photo credits obviously go to Cedar Point)

Magnum XL 2000

#2: Location
Cedar Point is located on the Cedar Point peninsula in beautiful Sandusky, OH. Oftentimes referred to as America’s Roller Coast ®, many rides have a scenic view of Lake Erie (ex. Maverick, Aerial view, Top Thrill Dragster). While Lake Erie alone isn’t anything to write home about, there’s something special about riding the Magnum at dusk. The ride features a pretzel-like twist about halfway through that offers a spectacular view of the sun setting down below the lake. Experiencing this while on the ride is simply and utterly amazing; something that no water feature at Kings Island could ever offer. The Magnum has certainly lost it’s place among the latest and greatest record-setting coasters at Cedar Point and elsewhere across the World, but this ride is surely a classic. A classic that I won’t soon forget.

The Showdown: Part 1

#1: The Rides
The rides are why I go to amusement parks. I go to ride rides. I always have, and I always will; this is just how I was raised. It doesn’t matter how much flair your park has, if the rides suck the park sucks. Period. Cedar Point provides me with 75 rides including 17 roller coasters. I understand that these numbers include children’s rides, but did I mention that 17 coasters is more than any other park in the world? Kings Island provides a weak 14 coasters, half of which I can’t stand wasting my time on. Cedar Point also offers an overflowing handful of additional thrill rides to keep my heart pounding with excitement.

This is part one of a multi-part blog post designed to spur interest and conversation between my loyal readers. Part two will be released next week…

20-some years later I still love Cedar Point. Unfortunately for me I don’t live as close as I used to, so I’ve had to substitute Kings Island for Cedar Point. Not a fair trade by any means, but KI is only about 30 minutes away from where I live, whereas CP is more like four hours. Last year Abi and I acquired two season passes to KI, so we became quite familiar with everything it had to offer. We still both agree that Cedar Point is hands up, the best park ever (get it, hands up?), but for temporary enjoyment between CP visits, Kings Island will suffice. We both have our favorite rides at KI, and some may be better than comparable others at CP. I like the Beast and Flight of Fear. Abi likes Scooby-Doo and the Racer, but only backwards (Racer backwards is Recar, for those that didn’t catch on).

Well, she used to like the Racer. Kevin informed me Saturday night that Cedar Fair would be flipping the backwards train forward when Kings Island opens this season. The press release can be found here.

Up until this point I have been the first to defend Cedar Fair in the changes that they made to the Paramount Parks. I defended Cedar Fair in how the currently run all of their parks, Cedar Point included. This announcement, however, I do not support. When the ride first opened in 1972 both trains moved in the same direction. In 1982 the decision was made to turn one of them around so that it would be moving backwards on the track. I have no idea how people enjoyed the change from 1982 to 2006, but in 2007 each time I rode this ride there was always a longer line for the backwards train.

The American Coaster Enthusiasts even branded the Racer as an “ACE Roller Coaster Landmark,” an award that only 13 other coasters share.

My question to Cedar Fair: Why mess with a classic? Cedar Fair says they want all of their rides “to be consistent with other Cedar Fair parks.” I say that if you have something fun and unique that people like, leave it alone. People can ride a forward facing coaster anywhere, the Racer used to have an appeal because it was different. Sure the lines were never that long to begin with, but it’s an older, classic coaster.

Please Cedar Fair, reconsider this decision and let the Racer maintain this distinctive quality.