When we got in, we headed to gold pass member’s ERT (which we waited longer for than you would think when I say “ERT”). None the less, Diamondback was a great coaster! It is my number three behind Magnum and Maverick. You get some really nice floater and ejector air including some intense moments around the helices. The splashdown is huge and I highly recommend going there to ride it. The ride alone was worth my eight hour drive.

After that we rode Runaway Reptar and Avatar: The last air bender. I must say, it was a neat little ride. If I remember correctly, we rode The Beast, where we actually waited for it. I have never waited for that ride once. I really like it, but I don’t consider it a top 10 coaster. Below, I completely forgot which order I rode these rides, but here’s what I thought of them.

Drop Tower – Amazing! Obviously much better than Power Tower – blue, if you want me to compare. The view and drop are both the greatest parts of the ride.

Firehawk – I’ve ridden it before, and this time I liked it a little better.

Vortex – I can not believe people actually call this monstrosity of a structure an actual coaster. I still have a pounding headache from it. Besides Son of Beast, it is the worst coaster at Kings Island

The Crypt – Cool concept, but the ride is much too short.

Racer – Red is smooth as glass. Blue is rough as badword.

Backlot Stunt Coaster – This was a great little ride. I’m surprised Cedar Fair actually maintained all the effects. The launch is fun but the helix after it is really quite intense. The rest of the ride had a very cool theme and the tunnel is especially fun, not knowing where you are going.

Delirium – I don’t know why, but I could’ve sworn this ride had a shorter cycle than maXair. Maybe I’m just riding maXair a little too much.

Adventure Express – Another Ron Toomer catastrophe!

I didn’t ride Son of Beast, Invertigo, or Flight Deck (I’ve already ridden all of them) but the last ride of the night was Diamondback. We waited a little longer than we did for morning ERT but it really wasn’t that bad. Diamondback is amazing at night going out into the woods and flying through the darkness.

Overall, the trip rocked! Go ride Diamondback! You’ll love it!

 

If you would like to read more about this trip, please head over to the original forum post

If you win the bid the VIP bundle includes:

Ticket to the park for the day
Commemorative T-shirt
The first two rides of the day
Commemorative Group Photo
Lunch at Breakers East Conference Room
And a Commemorative Medallion

For more information on Magnum XL200 visit its official webpage here. For more information on the event or to place a bid, please be sure to visit the webpage here.

Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari
452 East Christmas Blvd, Santa Claus, Ind. 47579
http://www.holidayworld.com/index.html
(1-877-463-2645) or (812) 937-4401

Pilgrims Plunge - New for 2009!
Pilgrim’s Plunge is going to be the world’s tallest water ride at a staggering 165 feet tall, this ride will take you up 135 feet and drop you 131 of those. Just to increase the thrill you won’t be using a standard chain lift, instead the folks at Intamin and Holiday World went with an open air elevator system to take boats to the top of the tower. The ride also features dual entry from both Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, so you’ll be able to get wet no matter which park you’re in! For more information on Pilgrims Plunge please visit Holiday World’s website here.

What else is goin’ on?
Not much from what we can see. Obviously Pilgrims Plunge will have a brand new portion of the park opened up near the Thanksgiving section, so be sure to check that area out for improvements and other additions. We got a chance to ask Paula Werne from Holiday World some fun questions, take a look at our interview:

Block Brake: Pilgrims Plunge is the new attraction for Holiday World this year, and it is going to be the world’s tallest water ride. How do you guys feel
about the rides integration with your current rides?

Paula Werne: We’re really excited about the addition of Pilgrims Plunge to our ride line-up. The opportunity to build the “world’s largest” was irresistible. And a shoot-the-chute ride is a family favorite.

BB: Do you expect Pilgrim’s Plunge to be a big attraction and pull in a large amount of guests?

PW: Do you really need to ask? Yes!

BB: Pilgrims Plunge is located in the Thanksgiving section of the park, its been stated that it will have dual entry from both Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari. Where will riders board in both parts of the park?

PW: Splashin’ Safari guests will walk over from the Kima Bay area (under The Voyage’s lift) and from Thanksgiving, it’s just past Voyage.

BB: Other parks have donated the first rides to charity, having all bidders get their first ride and all proceeds going to charities, will Holiday World do something similar with Pilgrims Plunge?

PW: Yes, it’s underway: http://tinyurl.com/131feet. Please bid!

BB: Onto some general park questions, with all these awesome wooden coasters around do you think we’ll see some steel track in the future for Holiday World?

PW: Anything’s possible. (Aw, come on – you think I’m that easy to crack?! )

BB: We saw that the HoliWatch program fell through this year, do you think we’ll see it happen at a future date?

PW: The economy sunk our supplier, so we don’t have what we need to launch the program in 2009. We hope to give it another try for next year, but a lot of the variables aren’t under our control.

BB: With the economy in its current state, how do you feel Holiday World will fare this year in terms of attendance?

PW: With the World’s Tallest Water Ride and the economy-minded programs such as our Feeding Families Food Drive, free unlimited soft drinks, free sunscreen and free parking, we believe we’ll have a good season.

BB: Holiday World has been contributing a lot to the community and charities recently with your food drive. Is this expected to continue during the season at some point or will we see more ways to donate through Holiday World in the future?

PW: We’ve help fundraisers and supported charities and non-profits for years and years. No reason to stop! The Feeding Families Food Drive is for May and June. We also have a season-long Heroes Discount for military, police, fire and EMS plus a huge JDRF fundraiser and a special day for children with disabilities.

BB: Holiday World recently received the SHARP award for safety and health - an accomplishment that only you guys have gotten so far. Do you feel that you are setting a new standard for safety and health regulations? Do you think other parks will step up to the plate and achieve this award for themselves?

PW: We’d certainly encourage other parks to apply for the program. It takes a lot of work and tons of training, but it’s a really good feeling to accomplish SHARP status.

BB: We’d like to ask one last question (we asked our staff this too), what is your favorite part about Holiday World? I’m personally a fan of the coasters - particularly The Voyage - is there any attraction in the park that holds a special place in your heart?

PW: I love the people. If it weren’t for Will, his mom, his dad (now deceased) and all of our wonderful staff members, we’d just be another park.

Holiday World is taking a step into the forefront of enthusiasts minds once more, first with their three world class wooden coasters, now with Pilgrims Plunge. Be sure to take a stroll down to Indiana this year, between the stellar attraction line up, great customer service, and fabulous atmosphere Holiday World is not a park to skip. You can be sure that I’ll be visiting!

We’d also like to take a moment to thank Holiday World and Paula for answering our questions and responding so quickly! Many thanks Paula, as I’ve said before we really appreciate it!

If you’re interested in discussing this article and the interview, please register and take a stroll on our forums here!

In other news, I’m hoping to get some Diamondback reviews and Trip Reports from Kings Island by tomorrow, so have an eye out for that. We’re looking forward to bringing you a constant stream of reviews and photos from the weekend, so stay tuned for more!

If you have a review of Diamondback or a Trip Report from a park feel free to post it in our Trip Report section! We’re always looking for interesting Trip Reports,  and if we take notice of yours, we could get in contact with you to put it on the front page!

You can expect several trip reports and reviews from Kings Island this weekend, along with full coverage from the First Rider event and ceremonies. Make sure to check back on Sunday for that content. If you’re visiting Kings Island or another park and want to let others know how your experience was please register on our forums and post in our Trip Report section! We’d love to hear from you!

The event will be held on May 5th 2009, if you’d like to listen in please follow the links on the page linked above. If you are unsure of what they will be discussing be sure to read the page linked.

Be sure to check back on May 5th where we will have a full write up on the discussions during the call.

Also make sure to come discuss the call in real time on our news forum.

A quick l0ok through the pdf shows Disney and Universal on top (as expected). Further down the list the seasonal parks take root however out of the top 25 in the world none are seasonal in North America. Its interesting to see how all the different regions performed, and even more insightful to look at how parks that are close to one another performed. A great example is Cedar Point and Kings Island where Cedar Point only had 72,000 more guests than its sister park down in Cincinnati.

Another column to pay attention to is the %change, you can see that most regional parks attendance went up, while the year round parks seemed to have been the same or gone down. Comparing these numbers to the 2009 numbers is going to be an interesting read.

Come and discuss these numbers with us in our news forum - just register and you’ll be free to start posting!

James

“Flying Turns,” the newest roller coaster at Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort in Elysburg Pennsylvania, will be the first wooden bobsled coaster, known as a ‘flying turns’ coaster, to operate in 35 years. Even though you can construct a flying turns coaster in the popular Roller Coaster Tycoon game series, according to the Roller Coaster Database (rcdb.com) the last wooden bobsled coaster, “Bobsled” at Coney Island New York, was demolished in 1974.

A flying turns coaster is a version of a bobsled roller coaster, built with a wooden half-chute instead of a track. This design allows the cars or train to glide freely through the course rather than being constrained to a track and gives a different ride every time because of this freedom. They are called bobsled coasters because they are based off the design of a bobsled track. Traditional flying turns coasters did not have any restraint mechanisms in the cars and riders were seated two to a car, with the front rider sitting in the lap of the rear passenger. They usually used trains of five or six cars in tandem, designed to look similar to open-air airplane cockpits.

Modern steel bobsled coasters usually run single cars or two tandem cars instead of full trains and seat anywhere from two to six passengers per car. There are only a handful of steel bobsled coasters remaining, including well-known “Disaster Transport” at Cedar Point. Steel bobsled coasters were somewhat popular in the 70’s and 80’s, but were often removed to make way for more thrilling steel tracked coasters, which allow for higher speeds and G-forces than the untracked bobsled design can handle.

The first flying turns coaster was the brainchild of John Norman Bartlett, a pilot with the British military during World War I. He teamed up with famed wooden coaster designer John Miller to make his vision a reality. The first flying turns model was built at Lakeside Park in Dayton, Ohio in 1929. It is unclear exactly when this coaster was closed, but it was probably torn down when the park was closed in 1962. Bartlett was credited as the designer for all eight of the flying turns coasters built. The largest and most well-known Flying Turns coaster was built at Euclid Beach in Cleveland Ohio and operated from 1930 to 1969.

Knoebels is a park that seems to specialize in reviving coaster history. They became well known when they relocated the Herbert Schmeck designed “Rocket” wooden coaster from defunct Playland Park in San Antonio Texas in 1985. The coaster, originally built in 1948, is now known as “Phoenix” and is rated as one of the top wooden coasters in the world. They are currently in the process of moving the rare John C. Allen steel coaster “Golden Nugget” from Morey’s Piers but have not decided where or when they will assemble it.

“Flying Turns” is their latest addition to coaster history. Though outside the enthusiast world, few realize what an important event the opening of this coaster means, it is sure to be a ride that will stir old memories, create new ones, and leave a lasting legacy in the coaster world.

Sources:

“Flying Turns (roller coaster).” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Turns_(roller_coaster)>.

“Lakeside Park.” Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical, Inc. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://www.soaphs.com/lakeside.htm>.

Roller Coaster DataBase. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://www.rcdb.com>.

• Trip reports are live!

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Coming up this week:

• We will have two Trip Reports from opening day at Kings Island with Diamondback.

• News articles from around the industry - including any announcements from the parks and companies.

• Another user submitted Trip Report

• And hopefully a fun surprise for everyone!

Its looking like a very busy and exciting week for us. So stay tuned for more content as we go through this week! Please make sure to register on our forums and discuss our articles and trip reports - we’re always looking for feedback and help! If you’re interested in writing for us be sure to check out the Help Us Out page with information on that. If you want to keep up to date on our latest articles and reports make sure to subscribe to our twitter or facebook page, we’ll be updating those whenever a new article comes in!

James