Restraints Trip Report - Kings Island and Cedar Point

[Ilovthevu']

During this trip report, I want to report on some of the restraints, and why some are great, and some in my opinion aren't so good. I will also talk about what I went on, and so on.

Gemini (Cedar Point)- This ride is just an awesome ride. I wish I could keep on going on this, but there are other rides to conquer. I would put this in the type of mega, or hyper coaster that doesn't go as high as they do. The restraints are awesome on this ride!! The restraints leave it open for airtime! The restraint for this ride is a black square bar (without the bottom part obviously) that goes over you just like Magnum. I rode this 3 or 4 times.

Magnum (Cedar Point) - I rode it again after sometime of not riding it. At first, the ride isn't that bad, but the end just isn't so forgiving. Especially at that one part, I get a pain in knee, and that just shouldn't happen. Again, the first part of the ride, I'm thinking is going to be as great as Gemini, but than the rest is pretty bad. I have heard that Desperado stinks, the Kennywood one had was retrofitted, and helped out by Morgan. Doesn't this tell you something about this type of ride made by Arrow? And why does this deserve top rankings? Oh, yeah because it was the first. Blah, blah. I actually think these restraints are the same as Gemini, but I think the rows are smaller on this ride to accomodate longer trains, and thus that part can be painful. So, the restraints are a good design, but the rows are too small for them in my opinion. I rode it once.

Racer (Kings Island)- The restraints are bad for this ride. Are these trains from the stone age, and they can't get new trains with new restraints? I wouldn't be surprised if the Acers probably won't let them get new trains. I have no problem with PTC trains. I like rides like Screamin' Eagle, Great American Scream Machine, Georgia Cyclone (I believe these run PTC trains.), and so on. Why are the restraints bad on this ride? You have the restraint down far enough (I'm not riding unsafe or anything.), and than once you get to like the 3rd hill, it just slams down on my body. I understand why there is no line for this ride. With better restraints, it would such a better ride. The restraints just look like American Eagle, but act much different. I rode this 4 times.

Blue Streak (Cedar Point) - This ride has much better restraints than Racer. Why? It's because it's like all the other PTC trains out there. They don't just slam down on you in the middle of the ride. With better trains, I think the Racer would be a better ride than Blue Streak. Right now though, I think for both of these parks, Blue Streak is the better wooden ride. I rode this once. Just not enough time.

Diamondback (Kings Island) - I thought this ride was a good ride. I think it could have been much better if it had the restraints like Gemini, or the restraints like Superman: Ride of Steel. I does have air, but it just doesn't feel as great of a ride like those other two I just mentioned. I rode this twice. The clamshell is so restrictive where as the "square bar", or t bar lets more of your body move up and down. I rode this two times.

Invertigo (Kings Island) - Of course, I'm going to compare this to Deja Vu. For restraints, the headrests are much too close to your head. If this was Iron Wolf, you would feel so much pain, it's not even funny but because of the movement on this ride, it doesn't really matter. It just has a seatbelt attached to the restraint. I should have checked the loading times, but it was quite fast. The line was mostly 20 minutes. Yes, the towers aren't as angled, and the loop is smaller, but this is a great ride! I rode this a lot of times. I couldn't tell how many. Did it break down once? NOPE! So, the 4 times I went to the park (2 times this year, and 2 times last year), it didn't break down once.

---I probably said this before, but anyway I believe the reason it doesn't break down is because it uses something like fins on the towers. You can see them close when the train catches onto the catchcar. When the train releases, you see them release. It's like they are pushing the train into stopping. Deja Vu doesn't have that. I think that solution can't work on Deja Vu because of the 90 degree angle. It would just slip too much. That's why I thought LIMs on Deja Vu would be the solution like they are on V2 (stopping in the air, but now V2 doesn't work.) The catchcar for this ride is on a lifthill chain by the way.

So, before I give my solution for Silverwood's Deja Vu, I would like to tell you about Top Thrill Dragster. It didn't take long to check the seats on that ride. For that ride, they tell you to do the seatbelt, and than when they get to you, they put down your harness for you. Again, loading times weren't that slow.

So, again my solution for Deja Vu is LIM fins on the train, plus LIMs on the towers (like Mr. Freeze - LIM fins on the side of train), heaters on the second tower that you can turn on - where the catchcar stays mostly (Now, open during windy days, colder days, and early season - Ding ding), retractable seatbelts, a high powered fan plus a canopy over motors like La Vibora, check everything at once, and look at the sensors more if the ride is broken. Invertigo station isn't a mess. There wasn't a need for a grouper either.

Top Thrill Dragster (Cedar Point) - I only went on this once. The previous night I was going on it, but it broke down. I just think this ride has way too many sensors. I would say in maybe 5 or 6 feet. it had 26 sensors. I was hoping to get in maybe 3 times. One the previous night, and than the next day, but oh well. It's an awesome ride, what can I say. However, I say part of the design flaw in this ride is that the train comes back really slow after it finishes it's run. It takes some 17 seconds to go through the course, and than I was just watching the train hardly moving to get back to the station where you get off the ride. They are using those drive tires like they have on Iron Wolf, but they don't have a lot of them, because they have a lot of those brake fins all over the place. Maybe, they would have to waste the time for the next train to launch anyway because there is so much power, they could overheat the thing. There is some special out there that they show the room where they store the big motors. I believe these are the T-Bars seats. The wait for the second day was shorter because it just opened. It say it was 30 minutes.

Chaos (Cedar Point) - This ride is great in my opinion. It's like a weaker Zipper. I'm not saying that in a bad way, but it has it's only charm. You can have single riders on this, or have two people also. I rode this tons of times as there are aren't many out there which is disheartening. There were some seats broken on this ride. I won't say that Cedar Point doesn't care about the flats, but it just doesn't seem like they are worried about them as much as the roller coasters. Tons of the lights were out on Chaos, the Scramber hardly has any lights (flourescents), and they have a whole bunch of them out, and various other rides light bulbs were out. For the ride that is in the order of Demon (Corkscrew), they have lights around the walkway, and you can see quite a bit out. Considering lights though, they are very cool looking lights that are the whitesh color on Blue Streak. These are LEDs. They are along the ride.

Flight Deck (Kings Island) - This is the last ride I will talk about. I really, really wish Great America had this ride. It just is so much fun. The main thing though I want to talk about though is that I was wondering why the brakes are the way they are. They make funky noises, and they take a long time to move the train. Well, than I looked at the track, and it's a smaller track than your typical Demon, or definitely Raging Bull. So, how they would they fit the brakes that open, and close? I would have a feeling that if they could, they would replace them already. So, that's why I think they have these funky type of brakes that take for ever to move the train. Oh, well now I know. It's a great ride though.

[onyxhotel08]

Wow was this for like a report?

[monsterfan99]

I'm confused by the report but dead on with Racer. Not only did I not enjoy the ride, but the restraints were awful.

I do disagree with Magnum though. I normally leave the bar one click up for my belly to move around it. Bad on this ride. Other then Firehawk, I never felt that much like I was going to fly out as on this ride(I also hit my knees as well.) One extra click and the knee banging was gone for me.

[Ilovthevu']

^^Nope. It was just I found the restraints, and seating arrangements to make a difference between the rides. It was just amazing how Racer is a better layout coaster in my opinion, but yet Blue Streak was the better ride because it doesn't have poor restraints. Also, why in my opinion was Magnum so bad, but yet Gemini was awesome? Also, Invertigo is much different than Deja Vu seats as in the headrests are closer to you.

I've made my opinions on these parks before, and I put a different spin into it. To me though, restraints are important. That makes Iron Wolf feel so bad now compared to what it was before.

We know Iron Wolf is so bad because of the restraints (It was much better with the other ones in my opinion.), and the people at SFMM probably think that Revolution is so bad because of those.

________________
A song I heard that I can't get enough of, but this is an old song is called Cartoon Heroes by Aqua. You have to listen to this. This song talks about comic and cartoon people. It's like how we would like fall down from high skies, and go the speed of light. At first, I'm like oh no not this song, but now I'm addicted to it. It was playing on the Chaos at Cedar Point (not on the ride - the speakers near the ride).