Just an FYI.

My son, who is still just under 48 inches, got his milestone 100th credit on Vortex today. I’m excited for the next 100 credits, especially once he finally hits 48 inches!

This is not my photo

Felt like I could touch the ground on that thing. I considered Twisted Timber’s final one and the mosasaurus roll but they seem higher up, so interested to know if there’s any other contenders

My b&w roll came back after the color roll last week. Shout out to the absolute king in row 2 of Magnum. Your aura is immaculate, and I hope you see this post.

1. Magnum
   
2. Lil Maverick duel
   
3. Steel Vengeance
   
4. Corkscrew corkscrewin’
   
5. Siren’s Curse
   
6. Millennium Force

Hello. I have been looking everywhere, trying to get a clear image of the Pretzel Knot at the end of Banshee from the "other side." As you probably know, at Kings Island, the far side of each coaster is out of the park, and not accessible to guests. I am wondering if there are any photographs of the Pretzel Knot that have been taken by professional photographers, Kings Island employees, legally-obtained high-zoom drone shots, etc.

My intent is to have a shot of the pretzel knot where the supports are clearly distinguishable from the supports of the elements leading into and out of it. Google isn't particularly helpful, but it is hard to ask this question of a computer. These two shots I posted above are the best shots I can find that feature the Pretzel Knot, but they are the wrong angle, and everything is a jumble in front of it. I need a clean image from the other side to get just the supports I want without the supports I don't want.

I am not asking, encouraging or endorsing anyone to trespass, break any park rules, or violate Kings Island airspace, especially not in this public reddit thread.

Thank you for your time.

Today (Oct. 17th) I visited Jaderpark along with my Brother for the first time and we were left very positive about our visit.

We arrived at the park at about 10:30~10:50 at the park we first walked through and did the park's Zierer Tivoli coaster [Holzwurm] and it was a standard Tivoli Medium model with 2 laps. After that we did the park'z VanEgdom Dingyboat: [Rocky Rafting] which is where I got a view of [Ziegel-Blitz] and the themed area is was located in. After that we finaly did Ziegel Blitz and here are my thoughts

It was very fun and unique Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster the ride featured a Swing Launch which surprised both of us, and became our favourite Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster, it was also very well themed which I didn't expect at all. The que was a 15-10 min. waiting. And everytime we rode it we got a front seat. Right next to the Bobsled coaster was an ART Wild Swing which absolutely love.

Near the Ziegel Blitz was a HAFEMA Log Flume it was similair to Mami Wata at Fantasiana and I think has a longer layout and also had great theming. After that we walked around the park and did everything again including a Halloween-Trail that was only there for the Halloween season.

And after about 3 hours of being in the park we left and visited Bremen city and Nettebad in Osnabrück.

Final thoughts: Jaderpark was a fun park (and Zoo) with amazing theming and would recomend for a half-day visit and is definitly worth it.

Edit: Yes I know I misspelled 'Surprise'

(Pictured in order: Superman: Ultimate Flight, Blue Hawk, Dare Devil Dive, Great American Scream Machine)

Despite the accident that occurred last Monday on Goliath, a few of my friends and I decided to get our coaster hesitancies out of our system, and I'm happy to say that this trip indeed worked in accomplishing that goal.

Upon arriving at park opening (6pm) tonight, all rides were slowly opening after maintenance teams went to every ride and did thorough, in-depth maintenance checks which also included at least 6 testing runs before even letting guests in line. Green shirt staff were posted at almost every ride tonight, rotating out to always keep an eye on things.

There were a handful of rides not open tonight, I assume from staffing and extra precautions taken during maintenance checks. There would be a few times when we'd see a ride testing with ride crews in the station, only for the ride to not open for the night at all. I can't speculate much on that front. However, everything that was open was running smoothly.

Operations were very good tonight. Everything except the mine train was running two trains (even Scorcher, which surprised me), and dispatches were fast and efficient. One slight downside, out of precaution ride operators were clearly instructed to staple everyone on every ride tonight, with one of the ops even apologizing for having to make the restraints so tight against us. With that being said, ride crews were checking every restraint thoroughly, and some crews would even check a second time just to be sure. It was some of the cleanest dispatches I have seen at the park since August, where trains were consistently being pumped out in a safe manner.

As one could imagine, crowds were non-existent tonight. Every single ride was an instant walk on, and in many cases we would be able to keep our seats if we wanted to ride again.

Overall, this was a good trip, even with the current loss of Goliath and a few other coasters closed, such as Twisted Cyclone and Mindbender. This trip reassured me well, as I had been in somewhat of a dejected mood ever since the accident earlier this week and needed something to snap me out of it.

It’s down until further notice. Not a great look this week

I’m currently enjoying night rides on Rampage. Earlier today, we had a tour of the coaster and the maintenance building which houses parts of the black train that is used for parts. The pictures show some of the old and new track and a view from the lift hill walk. I’m currently stuck on the ride in the station because the train came in too fast.

Ive heard they are but surprised half the coasters are down with them being only open 2 days a week! Is the Flash more down than up? An employee said it depends on the year, lol.

When a coaster that should’ve been gone years but is not

Brought my instant camera with me today and had a great time taking pictures especially of Phobia. Really beautiful coaster that I did not go on. Zoomerang and Wildcat were closed and one time on Boulder Dash (last picture) was enough so I just enjoyed the flat rides otherwise. Now I’m kind of in love with taking pictures of coasters haha

I went to Worlds of Fun and noticed a large number of the belts on Mamba do not lock. They basically extend all the way all the time. Not every seat belt did this though. The ride operators didn’t seem to understand the issue and thought this was normal operations. I have seen this on other coasters over the years too. I am pretty sure the Wild Thing also doesn’t use locking seat belts either.

Got a chance to spend a few days at this resort and overall I'm impressed with it, despite feeling it has a few flaws.

Theming and Design

This is the standout element of the park and if anything, this was undersold to me. This park is absolutely beautiful and has some truly spectacular sightlines. I'm impressed there are areas of this park so dense with theming and greenery that you can't see the nearby hyper or giga coasters. Outside of Disney/Universal and Europa Park, I don't think I can name a park this dense with detail, while also having huge scale. This park has enough space that the transitions between each area feel super natural.

Even Ferrari Land has a nice design and look to it, especially towards the front, although it does feel the least cohesive of all the lands.

Operations

This is the thing I was most worried about. I had heard nightmare stories about this park, from awful crowd control to dispatches so bad that people felt forced to buy express pass. Thankfully, I experienced nothing so bad although there is still major room for improvement.

Dispatches were reasonable, though perhaps slightly on the slow side for a park of this size and popularity. Some rides were better than others, with Shambhala dispatching relatively quickly and Dragon Khan being notably slow (with the trains stacking constantly). Overall though it was fine enough, which is good because the queues of this park are pretty much all horrible (but at least shaded) switchbacks. The park was moderately busy but nothing too crazy. I never waited longer than 1hr.

Rides and Attractions

I'll list out what I did and some thoughts, but may skip out on some of the smaller ones.

Uncharted (x2) - I was staying at the hotel so thankfully managed to use the back entrance to avoid huge waits for this. Overall, I'd say this is a good attraction with a queue that sets the bar too high. The ride itself isn't particularly immersive at all, and you can see most of the room, which makes most of the narrative aspects of this ride fall flat. Thankfully, the coaster hardware is awesome for a family coaster. Loved the sideways launch, spike and surprisingly steep backwards drop! If the Minecraft coaster at Chessington can just box it all in better, I think we could see an incredible family coaster using this model.

Stampida (x2) - Fun ride. Nice layout. Pretty rough at this point but nothing too painful. People got really into the racing which was fun.

Tomahawk (x1) - Totally fine family wooden coaster. Nothing much else to add.

Furius Baco (x1) - Fantastic launch and final inversion... Shame about the rest of it. I was on a wing seat and yeah, this thing shakes A LOT. Probably one of the roughest steel coasters I've been on tbh, which is a shame, because that launch is really nice.

Dragon Khan (x3) - I've always liked B&M loopers so this was enjoyable for me. Calling it red Kumba is probably an accurate description. Loved the Zero G roll and the first drop being straight gives a nice pop of airtime towards the back. Just a good ride. Didn't find it rough at all, but pretty intense.

El Diablo Minetrain (x1) - Weirdly paced mine train... Seat kept poking into by back too. I still like these things though and the setting is great.

Street Mission (x1) - Knew absolutely nothing about this and was impressed by the queue. Then when I saw it was a gameplay based ride I was a little let down, but once it started I ended up really enjoying it. The screens felt responsive and I really appreciated that they mixed it in with real sets that looked great. I wanted to spend less time on the game and more time looking at the sets.

Shambhala (x18) - If it wasn't apparent by the fact I rode this 18 times, I really loved this. The single rider queue acted as a free skip the line essentially, and I even somehow got a few front row rides with this. My only other B&M hyper I've ridden is Silver Star and this one blows that one away. Every hill hits and the turnaround is great. I don't think you could ask for a better version of this model.

Red Force (x3) - I was lucky enough to get the front row for my first ride, which made this experience that much crazier. The launch just keeps accelerating and the straight drop gives an amazing free fall sensation. I thought I would prefer Stealth but I absolutely enjoy this more (even if Stealth has more kick).

Final thoughts

Overall I've had a fantastic time. I could see how slow ops, busy days and bad luck could really hamper the experience here, but personally I've loved my time. A top 5 park in Europe for sure.

The B&M Hyper was closed during this week likely due to the accident at Six flags over Georgia.

Could that mean that B&M was able to confirm the cause and rule out any risks for the other existing Hypers?

Happier days: Viper. My gateway drug of rollercoasters as a young kid. A lot of trash being talked about SFOG park ops these days but man mid 90s at that park were fun. Viper, Ninja (the painful OG), mindbender, all American scream machine. Simpler times.

Anyway, Viper had a solid run at 3 parks.
1978–1991: Originally operated as Tidal Wave at Six Flags Great America in Illinois.

1995: Relocated to Six Flags Over Georgia and reopened as Viper.

2001: Closed on September 16, 2001, and was replaced by Superman: Ultimate Flight.

2003–2009: Moved to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and operated as Greezed Lightnin' until the park closed after the 2009 season.

☆☆☆ - Must ride every visit. FastLane may be used.

☆☆ - I'll wait for it.

☆ - Only if someone else wants to.

0 - One and done.

1. Maverick (9 rides) ☆☆☆ The launch gives this the edge over SteVe in my book. Also makes for an incredible night ride, even in the back you feel like you're being flung into the lake on the first drop.

2. Steel Vengeance (4 rides) ☆☆☆ Just an absolute beast of a coaster. Only problem is the restraints, my knees/shins were slamming on them more than usual on my last ride and it kind of took away from the ride a bit, but one bad ride won't ruin a coaster like this.

3. Siren's Curse (4 rides) ☆☆☆ The soundtrack and theming add to the already fun ride. The drop in the back row at night is truly on another level.

4. Millennium Force (1 ride) ☆☆ If SteVe, Sirens and Maverick weren't such great rides this would have a better shot at #1.

5. Top Thrill 2 (1 ride) ☆☆ Amazing ride, just everything else above it is a little better in my book. Was not expecting the backwards launch to be that intense even though I knew how fast it goes.

6. Valravn (3 rides) ☆☆ Siren's Curse kind of steals its thunder, but the view from the drop is amazing.

7. Gatekeeper (1 ride) ☆☆ The first keyhole moment had me trying to move my legs away from the wall even though I'd seen it do that manuver from the entrance a ton.

8. Magnum XL 200 (1 ride) ☆☆ Absolute jank-fest, but an oddly enjoyable jank-fest, unlike several rides below. Bonus points for the incredible lake view.

9. Gemini (3 rides) ☆☆ I love this ride, I just wish it was open when I go to the park. If it was open more it may have a higher spot on the list.

10. Iron Dragon (2 rides) ☆☆ Not really bad, not really great. Just kind of exists. Nice little time eater

11. Wild Mouse (1 ride) ☆ Not a big fan of being spun around. Never have been, and likely never will be.

12. Blue Streak (1 ride) ☆ Being a wooden coaster gives it re-rideability in my book, but still got a very rough ride when I went on.

13. Raptor (2 rides) ☆ I know people like this ride but I got a really rough ride both times I went on it. Guess I’ll have to give it another go next season.

14. Cedar Creek Mine Ride (1 ride) Being 6’ and riding this with a fellow 6’ tall friend isn't the greatest of ideas.

15. Rougarou (2 rides) If this thing isn't on the re-track list it needs to be. Actually, skip the re-track, just go straight to the dumpster.

16. Corkscrew (1 ride) How on Earth did this ride make it to 50? At the very least Rougarou builds up some decent speed and has a fun first drop.