PKI 10/11: Height Restrictions suck!
Associated parks:
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Date: October 11, 2003
Weather: Not a cloud in the sky. It was even a little hot.
Ever since I decided to go to the University of Kentucky, I have wanted to take a trip up to PKI. I finally found a Saturday when a couple of my buddies from school and I were free to take a trip to Cinci.
We planned on getting out of here by 8:00 so that we could get PKI by 10, although the girls were late so we were a half hour late. I had never been to PKI so I didn’t know my way around the park very well although one of the girls I was with was fairly familiar with the park, although she is not an enthusiast and had never been on The Beast.
My first order of business once inside the park was to get to The Beast as I saw that it was not in the front of the park and I thought that the crowd would probably not be there early. I was right as we got 2 walk on rides. I loved it, and it was way better than I expected. The helix at the end is amazing and it is one of the best rides I have ridden. My only other goal was to get a night ride later in the night.
Next we went to tomb raider which I thought was pretty neat, although it took a lot of our early time up. Even as a walk-on, it took 15 minutes because they made us wait for a fairly full load. Also the video takes up a few minutes. I actually enjoyed Tomb Raider. I really enjoyed seeing this in person. It was better than I expected also.
Next we headed to vortex and scored a front car walk-on as it was still early. Some of my friends really enjoyed it although they had never been to CP and weren’t spoiled. I enjoyed it although I chose not to re-ride.
Next on the list was FoF. I once again sat in the front car after about a 5 minute wait. I usually sit in the front car or at least the front seat of an individual car because at 6’7”, I have to be careful where I sit. I loved FoF also. Similar to RnRC, although in my opinion, it’s not as good because there is no music in your ear.
When we were done with FoF, we headed to Delirium. On the walk there, I remembered that it was Fear Fest for the first time because I saw a sign for a haunted house. The decorations throughout the park are very minimal. We waited in line for delirium for about 45 minutes and the lines were never much shorter than that for any ride after that. When I got to the front of the line in Delirium I was told that there is a height maximum. This is the first I have heard of this because I don’t usually have to check a ride to see if I am tall enough, or in this case, short enough to go on it. Apparently Delirium is not safe for anyone over 6’4”. I was pretty mad about this and I probably owe the attendant an apology for being an ass. I asked her why there was a height restriction and she really couldn’t give me a legitimate answer, though it was not her who made the rule so I shouldn’t have been so rude. I still would like to know why there is a restriction on height. I could clearly fit into the seats as I found out when I tried in the test seat in the ride entrance, and surely there is no chance of me hitting my foot on something as the ride appears to clear everything by at least a few feet. Either way, I was disappointed about not getting to ride Delirium.
To add to my disappointment, the next ride we rode was SoB. I have never completely disliked a coaster before this one. The seats were nearly impossible for me to fit into, although somehow I managed to cram myself in. I would have enjoyed the ride if the trains weren’t so poorly designed. The majority of the ride was spent pushing my knees away from the metal handle bar that stuck out in front of me. I hated SoB and I will probably never ride it again.
After I ate some food and had a great ride on Drop Zone, I stopped feeling sorry for myself for not getting to ride Delirium and hating SoB and headed over to Face Off. The line was too long, but I waited for it anyways because my friends wanted to ride it. We had a front/back seat and I thought it was pretty fun, although not at all worth the 50 minutes we waited for it.
Next was The Racer. I rode in the back although it would be the front on a normal train because we were riding backwards. I thought it was great. Probably the third best coaster after FoF and Beast.
After we were done with racer we decided to hit up one of the haunted houses. It was about 3 o’clock and we remembered seeing a sign for the mirror maze opening at 3. We waited in line for about 45 minutes before our group of 6 went in. I thought it was fun and we did get lost a couple of times. One of the girls we were with got really scared by the actors so it was fun to mess with her.
We then walked through the Nickelodeon area, and we decided to ride the suspended single rail thing because we saw that they were testing the empty trains and we would probably be able to walk ride on. I think we all looked pretty stupid on this because we were all too big for it.
After this we were getting kind of tired so we decided to go to the area of the Christian Rock Concert that was going on. After we sat down we noticed that many of the people who were there had tickets, so I think we actually unintentionally snuck in. We just thought it was free. Anyways, it was a nice break just sitting there for about an hour and eating some food.
After that we set off to find another haunted house. None of us knew anything about any of the haunted houses, so we decided to follow a sign to rout 666. The line for this was, as my friend said, “longer than any line I have ever seen for anything”, so we decided to take a night ride on The Beast instead. Its way better at night and by for the best coaster at PKI.
After that we headed over to FoF. That area was a mad house. There were lines for 3 haunted houses plus the people going to and from FoF. I had to basically push through the crowd to be able to move. It was like people exiting a stadium after a game. They should probably do something to fix this area for next year, or if they are good, next weekend. We waited for about an hour for FoF this time.
After that I convinced my friends to ride the Rip Cord (or whatever PKI calls it) with me. We bought our ticket, and then saw that there was an hour and a half wait for it. I have never had to wait for a skycoaster so this was completely unexpected, but we did wait and it was fun. The downside of this was that we gave up 2 extra rides on beast and 10 dollars a piece to sit next to a group of about 30 extremely loud jr. high kids who, in my opinion, didn’t deserve to go in front of us. ;)
When we were done with the skycoaster, it was 12:15 and it was time for us to make the 2 hour trip back to UK and back to my uncomfortable dorm mattress.
PKI was a very good park and I hope to go there sometime again when it is not Fearfest and not a Saturday.
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As Mitch always said, "2-in-1 is a BS term, because 1 is not big enough to hold 2. That's why 2 was created.."
-Tomas
*** This post was edited by Word 10/12/2003 7:51:31 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Word 10/12/2003 8:06:36 PM ***
I'm still surprised that you fit @ 6'7". My advice to you is to stay away from the GIBs. I stand around 6'3" and have never been so scared on a coaster, than I was on Vu @ SFGAm.
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Tyler's Pictures = Yum
-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- The Other Ride Meat
Proud Purchaser of S&D Greetings 100th 2004 Calendar
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Coney Island (Cincinnati) ride operator
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As Mitch always said, "2-in-1 is a BS term, because 1 is not big enough to hold 2. That's why 2 was created.."
-Tomas
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Dollywood: Exploding onto the coaster scene since 2004!
I am not sure about the Delirium. I believe the reason for the max height is the OTSR may cause the seatbelt to not lock. At least, this was what someone told me earlier this year. Apparently, PKI designed their rides for people between 4' to 6' in mind. Somewhat narrow window.
BUT I also never said that I hated The Beast. Do you know how much I love Adventure Express and how intense Face/Off is?? Big Bad Wolf is my least favorite adult coaster at BGW, but it still rocks!
edit: I'm pretty sure Huss designed Delirium, Premier designed the SOB trains, and Intamin designed Drop Zone, not PKI. People 6'7" tall would probably be taller than I might plan to design rides for. :-\
-Danny
*** This post was edited by Koaster King 10/13/2003 1:01:19 AM ***
When we were done with the skycoaster, it was 12:15 and it was time for us to make the 2 hour trip back to UK and back to my uncomfortable dorm mattress.
I wish it was a two hour trip from PKI to the UK.
-R
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http://www.bannister.org/coasters/
*** This post was edited by PKIDUDE 10/15/2003 12:06:49 PM ***
Neuski said:
I'm still surprised that you fit @ 6'7". My advice to you is to stay away from the GIBs. I stand around 6'3" and have never been so scared on a coaster, than I was on Vu @ SFGAm.------------------
Tyler's Pictures = Yum
I'm 6'5 and had a ball on SFMM Deja Vu. Why were you scared (in relation to being 6'3, that is...)
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"You think you know me..."
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Good day....I said Good day!
Dave
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com
thepinkdoomofmonkeys said:
I agree with Danny soooooo Much. I love long....Long... rides , and SOB did just that. A LOT of the beast's ride time is taken up from the station to the top of the lift , then add the fact that there's no airtime(one of the only things that I care about) and tons of laterals(something I hate dearly) make da beast crud in my eyes. The fact that it made my elbow bleed didn't help. SOB just has So much more.------------------
Dollywood: Exploding onto the coaster scene since 2004!
Danny, notice that I never said you hated it, either.
Wait, quoting myself? That's gotta' be against the TOS. :)
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I'd like to thank the academy , and my mom , and my fans,and.....oh forget it , I hate you all.
PKIDUDE said:
I'm surprised they let you ride Drop Zone. Drop Zone has the same requirements as Delirium. I guess you snuck by on Drop Zone.
*** This post was edited by PKIDUDE 10/15/2003 12:06:49 PM ***
Actually, Drop Zone has a maximum of 80", which is 6' 8".
I believe Delirium's maximum height is so nobody's feet hit the platforms. Something you can thank Huss for.
I also think that the foot chooper idea is also viable. I bet its a combination of those two factors.
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