Will PKI ever fix their park back to the way it was? I have never been there, and was very excited to go this year with Son of Beast. But with all of these trip reports, I am beginning to get very suspicious to going. I am certain I will go, but will I have a miserable time? Will any of the rides be running? And also, will the SOB problems EVER end?
PKI is a great park. The SOB thing is a pain, no doubt about it. I am, however, always happy after a day spent riding The Beast, The Racers, Vortex, and all of the other great rides. Some people don't enjoy it like I do, and that's their opinion.
I hope you do get a chance to ride SOB when you go because it is an incredible ride. My advice would be to not expect Disney-type employees because they don't have them. That's unfortunate. Don't expect to wait in line 10 min. per ride, because the lines are quite long this year. It's not perfect, and every park could use some improvement, but just go and expect to have a good time and you will. If you like the other paramount parks, then you will like PKI.
After going to pki 3 weeks ago. I can sum up the experiance in 1 word AWSOME!!!!!
If you go ride 2 or 3 rides eat lunch and stand in line for sob. Dont even worry about standing in line for vortex beast are the racers for more than 1/2 hour. We rode each of them 4 times along with sob once and we rode top gun 7 times with lunch and dinner. all of this in 10 hours. we also went to watterworks for 1 hour but it was a waste of time. not many people at all is this good or bad?
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WOOD RULES!
*** This post was edited by son of beast on 6/25/2000. ***
I guess not everybody is pessimistic.
Craig-
I just returned from a blitz of PKD, BGW, KW, CP, and PKI - my 1st visit to each park. We hit PKI Thur evening, all day Fri, and 3 hrs Sat. If possible, plan to go on a weekday. First Beast ride should be at closing time... in the dark! (if you return for a 2nd day).
I got lucky with SOB... it didn't open Fri morning... I kept checking back and about 1pm, the employee at the queue entrance whispered that it may open soon... 35 minutes later, I was riding in the back seat! (I passed on Thur's 2.5 and Sat's 4 hour waits).
My 2 complaints would be the rides' downtime for maintenance during operating hours and the smell (wash the trash cans occasionally and relocate the dumpster which is UNDER the Top Gun queue).
Best PKI thrills: Beast in the dark, SOB drop, DZ drop
Best PKI memory: Beast lift hill with my 6 year old at 10pm, with the fireworks to our left and her smile to my right!
Obviously, we had a great time!
-Dan
I went in early June and had a great time, as I have everytime I've been to PKI. Sure, there's been some problems with SOB, but it's in its first season. PKI is a great park even without SOB, so if it's running and the line isn't too long, that's just an added bonus. For the two days I was there, I rode all the other coasters several times and then rode SOB once each afternoon, then went back to the other coasters. I probably won't make it back there again this season, and I figure SOB will be up and running with three trains when I go next year.
Strangely enough, of the half dozen amusement parks I've been to (multiple times each), PKI is the only one that has never had any rides down when I've been there. This is not to say that PKI is better in that regard, it's just that it's a random factor whenever you visit any park. The second time I visited Six Flags Great America, they had Shockwave and Viper down. I would never encourage anyone not to visit there simply because I had the bad luck to go on a day when two rides were down.
Don't be put off by negative comments by some people. Remember, ones that have a negative experience are more vocal than the majority who have a great time.
DangerousDan - sheewhooooo! Is that what that smell was in the Top Gun line? That thing must stay ripe most of the time. :)
