Announcements

Well I realize it has been exactly three weeks since I last wrote in this blog. I'm sure you have been devastated by the lack of new material. I have been thinking over these last few weeks what my next blog post would be. I always like to try and make things as interesting as possible when posting to this blog. I know that a lot of people probably find roller coaster topics to be boring so I do my best to try and give a fun read. It brings me joy when the friends that I know mention my coaster blog and talk about it with me. I take a little bit of pride in this blog and I am always thinking of ways that I can improve my writing and my material so thank-you for reading. 

Today I decided that I would like to discuss some recent announcements in the amusement industry, namely new roller coasters that are to be built for the 2015 season. I know, this is awesome news isn't it? I mean how can you NOT get excited about a new multi-million dollar park investment coming to a park near you (possibly near you) in the next year?! (dual punctuation!!). If you are friends with me on Facebook you have probably noticed all of the shares I have done with some of these announcements. I just can't help it! I love seeing new roller coasters being built. 

These types of announcements happen every year around the same time usually in August. Six Flags corporation announced all their new attractions (including roller coasters) just yesterday. 

Announcements have really evolved in the last few years. It used to be strictly media driven but now parks like to include the general public into their announcements. They also like to mess with coaster enthusiasts online with clues and online websites of speculation. Holiday World was the best and created a new website dedicated to their new 2015 ride with a 66 day campaign before the ride was announced. It was quite fun to read enthusiasts interpretations of what the new ride could be and I'm sure the people in the know at Holiday World were enjoying themselves. Here is the website if you want to see what I'm talking about (http://www.holidayworld.com/66days/). Holiday World announced their new 2015 attraction back on July 24th at the end of the parks operating day followed by a nice fireworks show. I know this because they were also streaming the announcement event and Ashley, Bri and I watched it online. That was fun. 

Without further adieu I am going to "announce" to you some of the new roller coasters to be built next year throughout the USA. 

Carowinds - Fury 325 - This is probably the coaster I am most excited for next year. It will be the tallest roller coaster in the world with a traditional lift hill at 325 feet and 81 degree drop! It will reach speeds of 95 mph and speed along 6,602 feet of track. That makes it the longest steel roller coaster in the USA and 5th longest in the world. It is going to have a horseshoe turn banked 91 degree sideways 157 foot weightless drop element (pictured left hand side of image below) that looks amazing. The ride will then drop you under a new entrance walkway as well as a closing helix and two air time hills. The price tag for this attraction is over 30 million dollars. I really really really hope to visit this park next year. I will do my best to get there if possible to ride this.  

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Carowinds

  

Holiday World - Thunderbird - This is going to be a launched wing-rider coaster (first of its type) with four loops. It will be Holiday World's first steel coaster in the parks history (est. 1946) so it's a pretty big deal for the park. It will also be their first upside down ride in the park. I am almost 100% sure I will attend their enthusiast event next year to ride this. It looks like a great ride and being that it is at Holiday World you can't go wrong. I know they will pull out all of the stops on themeing and presentation.

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Holiday World

  

Six Flags Magic Mountain - Twisted Colossus - Now this new coaster looks freaking insane! It will be a newly revamped steel hybrid coaster made by RMC (Rocky Mountain Construction). What is a steel hybrid coaster you ask? They are constructed to essentially resurrect old rough wooden coasters. RMC comes in and puts a steel track on top of the wooden structure as well as changes the layout a bit to make things more thrilling, smooth, and fun. They are also able to throw in some crazy inversions while you only have a lapbar restraint (WIN). This coaster will be a dual racing coaster and it really does look phenomenal. Stats: 18 air time hills (WIN), 5000 feet of track, and two inversions. If only I could get out to California to ride it!

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Six Flags Magic Mountain

 

Six Flags New England - Wicked Cyclone - This will be another RMC hybrid coaster. It really looks incredible. It will feature three inversions, 3300 feet of track, and many airtime hills. It will be the first coaster of its kind to have 200 degree stall and two zero G rolls (weightlessness and WIN). If only I could head up to Massachusetts to ride this thing! I have yet to ride an RMC coaster and that makes me sad all day. From all of the enthusiast circles they are balls to the wall insane rides. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to ride one.

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Six Flags New England

 

Six Flags Over Georgia - The Joker: Chaos Coaster - Ok, so I have just given you four incredible announcements and now it is time for the let down. I am a little shocked and mildly offended by this next announcement. This "coaster" is literally going to be a single loop power driven ride. You probably know what I am talking about. It is just like the looper you see at your local county fair. This ride only costs $700K which is a great price for a "roller coaster" in today's market. Six Flags will probably see a profit from this addition but I find it very lame and honestly don't really consider it a roller coaster even though Six Flags is marketing it as such. I would classify it as more of a thrilling flat ride. It is honestly not even a "coaster" I care to ride.

Photo Credit: Six Flags Over Georgia website

  

Six Flags Fiesta Texas - Batman: The Ride - This is going to be a 4th dimension coaster which means the seats are off of the side of the track and rotate as the ride moves. Yeah pretty nuts if you ask me as well as very disorienting. Unfortunately I have yet to ride one of these types of coasters. I don't suspect I would care that much for them honestly but they do appear to be very thrilling.

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Hersheypark - Laff Trakk - This is going to be an indoor spinning mouse coaster on a steel track. It is going to be neat in the fact that it's themed to a glowing fun house of sorts while you are riding the coaster. Everything will be glow in the dark and at the end of the ride there will be a mirror element as you spin so you can look at yourself as you ride. It looks like a fun addition to an already incredible park. 

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Hersheypark

Knoebels - Impulse - This coaster will have a 90 degree lift hill and straight down drop with four inversions. It looks like a quick little ride which will close with a 540 degree helix. This looks like it will be an awesome addition to an already fun and unique park. 

Photo Credit: wfmz.com

 

Cedar Point - Their announcement will be 9/2 (not sure if coaster yet). There are rumors in online forums that Mantis their stand-up steel coaster will get floorless trains which would make the ride much better/comfortable. There are also rumors about Mean Streak the parks huge wooden coaster getting the RMC (see above description) makeover. I will have to see it to believe it though. 

I know I have probably left out a few parks here and there but I feel I have given you some of the best new coasters to be built for the 2015 season here. I will say that the announcement of getting new roller coasters is great and all but I always feel the want to ride every one of them and know I won't be able to (haha). I can't help it. It is the enthusiast in me. Honestly I will be happy if I can ride just two of them next year in Thunderbird and Fury 325 since they are fairly close to me. Only time will tell. In the meantime enjoy these final pictures of these new roller coasters to debut next year and get ready for 2015 because it's going to be a great coaster year!

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Carowinds

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Carowinds 

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Six Flags Magic Mountain

 

      

Photo Credit: rcdb.com and Holiday World 

The New Kentucky Kingdom

Well, like I promised, here is my trip report to the brand newly remodeled Kentucky Kingdom. It's time to get excited people! In my last blog post I set up a lot of the back story about the park itself. To recap; I explained how a man by the name of Ed Hart (whom I admire and respect a lot for bringing this park back to life) bought the park in 1989 and helped grow the park into a huge success through the 1990's to the tune of over one million visitors per season. It was then that he sold the park at the height of the success to Premier Parks and then Six Flags took over. Unfortunately Six Flags did the park no favors and attendance dwindled. A serious accident to a teenage girl in 2007, followed by Six Flags closing an entire section of the park, forced the park to close for good in 2009. Ed Hart was determined to make the park a success again and in the summer of 2013 he came in and spent over 40 million dollars to renovate and revitalize the park. And let me tell you he did just that.

Kentucky Kingdom is back!

I was able to visit Kentucky Kingdom on Saturday, May 16th of this year. Since I was on limited time, due to the enthusiast event I attended, I was only in the park from noon to around four in the afternoon. I didn't care though because I was about to be back at the Kingdom! As I was getting close to the park a phrase came to mind from the movie Shawshank Redemption; "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head." That was a true statement for me at that moment right before I pulled into the parking lot. I was indeed very excited to see the park I grew up going to as a kid open again. The park was alive again. There were cars everywhere and people with smiles on their faces. It was an awesome sight.

I see you Lightning Run.

I parked the car and made my way to the front entrance. All of the new paint on the buildings looked great. They really gave the entrance a fresh and lively look with the paint job. In fact I was impressed with the paint colors all over the park. You will see some of this with the pictures I will share in this blog post. As I entered the park I was greeted with friendly smiling employees that said hello. It was a big change from the last time I entered the park in 2008. So here I was back in my home park again and joy rushed over me. I took my time soaking in the atmosphere as I walked around the front of the park. Everything looked new again and there were people everywhere. 

Front Entrance looks Great

Love the new colors

Today's itinerary in the park was as follows:
Noon to 1pm - lunch
1pm to 3pm - Extra ride time on Lightning Run and Thunder Run

By this point it was around 12:30 pm so I decided to head to the picnic pavilions where they were serving food. They served prime rib, kettle corn, roasted potatoes, and roasted brussel sprouts. It was delicious. After I downed my food quickly I headed towards Thunder Run the parks wooden coaster for the ERT session. Ed Hart spent one million dollars to fully re-track this ride since it had been sitting for four years. It was in bad shape but the re-track work was fabulous. This wooden coaster once known to be rough became smooth and re-rideable. In fact it was probably the best rides I have ever had on it during this visit. It was like a brand new ride again. I was able to ride it four times in a row in the space of about 45 minutes. Thunder Run was back to bringing the thunder again!

Thunder Run is back!

Next up was Lightning Run. This is the parks brand new seven million dollar roller coaster. I waited about an hour for this ride and let me tell you it was worth it. I am so glad I got to ride as they had just cleared state inspection the day before. All I can say is that this ride was remarkable. After riding it just once I could tell it was something special. The first drop is only 100 feet high but taken at 80 degrees gives the ride some incredible intensity. Then you take into account they packed the ride into a small area and you get some incredible forces throughout the ride. There is ejector air time and surprise moments everywhere on this coaster. It has twists, turns, and hills all over the place. The ride also has one of the best endings of any coaster I've ever ridden. I knew instantly after hitting the brake run it was a top ten coaster for me. I finally decided it ranked #4 on my list. Lightning Run in my opinion is a destination coaster which means it is a coaster you do not want to pass up if you are in the area and have some time for amusement park fun. Trust me! 

Simply Awesome!

Yup, still awesome!

At this point it was after 3:00 pm and I figured I would just walk around the park taking a few more pictures before leaving. I was just so happy that the park was open again. I got to see so many familiar sights. I walked around the water park area and was blown away at all of the new additions there. Ed Hart put a lot of money into this area of the park and doubled the water parks size. The 121 foot body slide looked unreal and the speed slide next to it looked like fun too. They added a new family lagoon area with cabanas and it looked fantastic. They also have a really neat poolside bar/patio area that overlooks the lagoon pool and new adventure river. The water park had gone from a once just ok water park to now a great looking park with nice water attractions.

121 Feet High = WOW

New enclosed slide

Bar and patio area

New slide complex with family lagoon pool

  
I was able to see the once shut down ("thanks" Six Flags) Mile High Falls and let me tell you it is a great looking ride. It was even greater to see it up and running again. For some reason Six Flags decided to just close it for no apparent reason before the start of the 2008 season. They also closed the dual wooden coaster Twisted Sisters (now Twisted Twins) as well at the same time (grrrr Six Flags). Don't worry Ed Hard is going to revamp the Twisted Twins ride and re-open it in 2016. I cannot wait for that to happen. I have seen a lot of rides similar to Mile High Falls, where you ride a boat up a giant lift, the boat makes a turn, and then plummets down the big hill into the big splash element. This is by far and away the best water boat ride splash I have ever seen on any of them! I have the picture below to prove it! I kinda wish I had sucked it up and rode this on my visit but I knew I would have gotten completely soaked so I passed. Please note in the final picture the boy on the bridge running for his life from the giant wave of water about to hit him (haha). I used to love standing on that platform and letting that big wall of water rush over me. Fun times. 

Calm...

...before the...

BIGGEST SPLASH EVER!

Also in this area of the park you have a ride that was restored in The Flying Dutchman (pictured below). It is a great kids ride and looked so nice with all of the new colors. On the other side of that ride they have the kids roller coaster the Roller Skater. It looks like a great ride for kids. This area of the park has really grown up landscaping wise. The trees and plants all looked very nice. Kudos to the park for adding all of the new landscaping everywhere especially towards the front of the park. Oh, I should also mention that the park has an incredible ferris wheel (pictured below).

More nice colors

Awww pretty

I made my way back to the front of the park and before I left stopped at the main parks gift shop to look around. I was excited to see what type of new merchandise they had since the last park merchandise there was Six Flags branded stuff back in 2009. They had a great selection of items from shirts, toys, cups, and candy. I ended up buying the best shirt ever for me (pictured below). When I saw the shirt I knew right then and there I would buy it. The best part was that is was reasonably priced too. They also had some University of Kentucky and Louisville shirts which I found interesting. 

Pretty much says it all here.

Go Big Blue!

I have to say that I really enjoyed my visit to the park. I was only at the park for around three hours but I had lunch, walked around taking pictures, rode five times between the two roller coasters, and got the brand new Lightning Run coaster credit. It was so great to be back in the park again! They now have over 50 attractions with rides restored from the original park and others new. The food prices looked to be very reasonable at under $10 per person for a meal. In the next few years Kentucky Kingdom will add more rides and restore some of their other rides including two roller coasters and the river rapids ride. I am very excited to see what the future holds for Kentucky Kingdom. What Ed Hart has done for the part is nothing short of remarkable. It sat vacant for many years and left to rot but Ed Hart came in and totally restored everything. He has managed to bring the charm back to the park that was there in nineties. I hope you have enjoyed a trip to the new Kentucky Kingdom. I would encourage anyone to visit if they are in the area. Whether it is Thunder Run or Lightning Run I ask you this one question; can you conquer the storm?

Credit: Kentucky Kingdoms Facebook page

Awesome Roller Coaster

The locals are so glad the park is back open!

I am glad the park is back open!

King Louis says thanks for reading this blog, you are #1!

      

  

Kentucky Kingdom

This blog post has been a long time coming. Also, I have roller coasters on my mind and felt the need to write about something coaster related. I know hard to believe right? Kentucky Kingdom located in Louisville Kentucky is a park I could spend a lot of time talking about and most likely will in future blog posts. It was the amusement park that I grew up going to as a kid/teenager. In fact when I went to visit my dad on my summer vacation we would usually spend almost everyday at the park during the week I was in town. We had a blast and it was some of the most fun moments I have had growing up. It has given me memories with my dad that I will never forget. It has also allowed me to earn a great appreciation and admiration for roller coasters and amusement parks. I can attribute this crazy coaster enthusiasm mostly to my dad and this park because it is where I rode my first coaster rides. 

There is a little back-story I want to explain before I get into the trip I took to the Kingdom this past May. The park initially opened in the spring of 1987 but after one season it had to close due to lack of interest. However in the spring of 1989 a man by the name of Ed Hart came in to put some money into the park and try to draw more visitors. He put in two new roller coasters Thunder Run and Vampire in 1990. He added the water park section in 1993. He continued to add new rides to the park. He then added two more roller coasters in 1995 and 1997. It was at this point attendance at the park topped over one million visitors! Kentucky Kingdom was a big success.

Before the start of the 1998 season Ed Hart decided to sell the park to Premier Parks and in the middle of the operating season Premier Parks changed over to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. My Dad and I were actually at the park the day the changeover took place. It was quite the experience. I remember them unveiling the new Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom sign with cheers and applause from those in attendance that day. I was so excited that a Six Flags park was now in Kentucky. We also had the privilege to ride their brand new dual wooden coaster Twisted Sisters before it officially opened to the public. I will never forget one of the parks representatives at the time giving a speech about how we (my Dad and I along with a select group of park visitors that day) would be the guinea pigs to test out the ride. It was great.

 

Unfortunately the excitement faded as the years went on. The park started to go downhill because Six Flags decided they weren't going to put that much money into new attractions for the park. Then in the year 2007 a girl got seriously injured on the drop tower ride. It was such a tragic and terrible event. It was determined that the maintenance of the ride was to blame for the accident. This was the beginning of the end of the park. Two years later after the 2009 operating season Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom closed its doors. I was extremely sad because this was my park. I know I didn't visit anymore but it was a piece of my childhood taken away. I still to this day harbor ill feelings towards Six Flags for how they managed, operated, and drove Kentucky Kingdom to close. Unfortunately it has given me a sour opinion of how Six Flags parks are run. I will be the first to tell you that they are not my favorite amusement park chain. I have my reasons for this but to stay positive I will say that I have enjoyed my time in some Six Flags parks for what it is worth.  

So, my home park was now closed. I was sad and figured it would never open again. That all changed in the summer of 2013 when Ed Hart yet again came to rescue the neglected park. He said that Kentucky Kingdom would open again in May of 2014 bigger and better than ever. He put over 40 million dollars into the restoration. It was truly a remarkable feat seeing as how everything was left to rot for four years. He built the park back up and added a bunch of new rides including a seven million dollar steel roller coaster. He also doubled the size of the water park and added the worlds tallest body slide at 121 feet high. He brought back one of the best drop water rides out there in Mile High Falls, as well as The Flying Dutchman, and King Louis the mascot!

The park today is thriving and attendance is higher than they expected for this year according to reports. This is a quote from a coaster website Screamscape: "Kentucky Kingdom says their attendance so far this season has been through the roof. According to their press release: After its first month of operations, Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay’s total attendance is exceeding that of the former Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom by 24%, and revenues by 65%.  These strong results are despite the new park operating 13 fewer days than the previous operator." When I first read this report I was amazed as well as extremely happy. I mean talk about a phenomenal turnaround! I want to see Kentucky Kingdom succeed. It is always a shame to see any amusement park close but for me this park hits a little closer to home due to the below facts: 

The first roller coaster I ever rode was at this park - Starchaser

The first wooden coaster I rode was here - Thunder Run

The first upside down looping roller coaster I ever rode was at the park - Vampire

The first wave pool I ever surfed on was here in Hurricane Bay

The first on-ride photo I ever bought was at this park - T2

The first inverted coaster I rode was here - T2

The first stand-up roller coaster I ever rode was at the Kingdom - Chang 

The first dual coaster I rode was here - Twisted Sisters 

As you can see my foundation for loving amusement parks and riding rides started here. While some of the rides are long gone the memories of them remain.

I was able to visit the park for the first time back on May 16th, 2014. As I walked into the park for the first time in over five years a feeling of gratitude came over me because the park was open once again. I seriously never thought Kentucky Kingdom would re-open. I just looked around in amazement at all of the changes and similarities that I enjoyed as a child. The feelings I had were of happiness and familiarity for I felt as though I was back home. I've said it once and I will say it again; it all goes back to Kentucky Kingdom. My enthusiasm originates at the Kingdom and nothing will ever change that. As for my visit to the park I think I will keep you in suspense since this report has gotten quite lengthy. I will post to my blog the detailed report in the coming days. I know shame on me but hopefully it will keep you interested and reading my blog. Ride on, and read on!