I'm with you on the Firebird thing but if you can imagine FoF was actually worse than Firebird with OTSR. Firebird is really close though and I really would love to see B&M find a way to put vests on the conversions.
Flight of Fear
- Thread starter Ludwig II
- Start date
FoF with OTSRs was so bad. Just constant, literally constant ping-ponging back and forth between the shoulder bars. The only real moments of respite were the launch, MCBR, and brake run.
For anyone who never rode it during that era, first of all you are fortunate — but second, if you could go back in time and experience it, you would be utterly incredulous over the fact that a ride at not one but two major amusement parks was allowed to run for years in that condition.
Anyway.
For anyone who never rode it during that era, first of all you are fortunate — but second, if you could go back in time and experience it, you would be utterly incredulous over the fact that a ride at not one but two major amusement parks was allowed to run for years in that condition.
Anyway.
@halfabee, 100% agree with your statement here.
The OTSR on FoF in those early years was so bad, that literally just one ride/torture-session was enough... and that was back when I was young/dumb enough, and did not know that migraines were a thing
We went to opening day of FoF and after one ride left the park. My head was killing me from the restraints. They actually added extra padding before opening day and it still didn't help. So much better with the current restraints.
OTSRs should be removed on everything. They need to find a way. But the vest restraints on the newly renamed boomerang at Hershey I found uncomfortable. They are too tight on me. Not horrible, but not a great solution. Other rides seem to manage no OTSRs without vests. They need to do something like that.
I'm repeating myself from a prior post, but before the lap bars came in, the restraint padding on FoF just kept getting thicker over time. Eventually, when an adult or large-headed child pulled down the restraint, the thick padding descending on each side of their head often would try to fold down their ears a bit.
Lap bars saved the ride IMO.
Lap bars saved the ride IMO.
I don't want to say OTSRs but horse collars.... Things like the i305 restraints are comfortable and extremely important because of the sudden lateral changes. I personally like both the Vekoma and B&M vests but I can understand they aren't universally accepted and I think those are situations where they likely aren't required. Certainly all hard-molded OTSRs need to go.
I’ll be the renegade here and say I’ll take B&M’s hard molded OTSRs over their vests any day of the week. I can’t stand the vests’ constant tightening and digging into my collar bone.
Totally agree. I rode Valravn and much prefer Griffon because of the restraints. What I like about the restraints on Griffon is that I'll bunch up my shoulders so I get one or two clicks - plenty of room to move around. The only problem is after the drop I get stapled into the seat but I'll take that any day over the vests. Didn't care for them on Gatekeeper either.
Doesn’t seem that comparing vests to over the shoulder makes much sense on a dive coaster that has little to no head banging by the nature of the ride.
Vests are much more up for debate on boomerangs and other rapidly transitioning rides. Personally I’ll take the vests any day of the week over headbanging.
Vests are much more up for debate on boomerangs and other rapidly transitioning rides. Personally I’ll take the vests any day of the week over headbanging.
I'll agree that vests are much better for rapidly transitioning rides but I also agree with @Mushroom that I much prefer OTSR over vests on dive coasters and other smooth rides.
Why didn’t they do the same thing as KI and turn it into Flight Of Cheer for Winterfest? Maybe they didn’t want to open the area just for one ride.
Didn't someone say that KI's FoF building was heated?
The park tweeted that FOF is opening this weekend along with a link to FOF nostalgia.
Has anyone else noticed that you get sprayed with a little bit of water right after the corkscrew heading into the brakes?
It wouldn't have hurt them to do us. In my opinion, KD's WinterFest is not worth the drive anymore. I did it back in 2019 and then went again during the one time they opened during covid for Taste of Season when Twisted Timbers was closed. In my opinion there just isn't enough opened to justify the praise. As you said, KD did not do the Flight of Cheers. Now that BGW has DarKoaster which is said to join the WinterFest ride roster, I will definitely be attending.
As for regular season operations, Cedar Fair needs to consider so theme improvements for the ride. Not sure how they've gotten away with the alien theme and not even putting aliens anywhere in the ride course besides the station's cryo-stasis chambers. This ride could pack a punch if it featured portal effects. The ride needs to return to the 2009 pitch black experience. For those who don't know, there was a once and chance lifetime to experience this ride in COMPLETE DARKNESS. This would work well with a portal effect at the end of the tunnel. I'd even do away with the loud subwoofer inside the flying saucer queue. It gets in the way of spooky theme music that could be added.
Here's my idea for a FOF improvement.
Ride name: X-Base: Fear Coaster
Ride lore: The Bureau of Paranormal Activity has perfected portal travel in their latest top secret experiment. Recovered mission logs of Delta-5 transport vessel, hide a dark secret from mankind. Only those foolish enough to step foot across the ethereal threshold, may learn the true story of what exist on the other side.
Queue Theme: Abandoned military outpost, recently damaged science equipment.
Ride Theme: A dark-dimly lit outpost inhabited by reptile alien humanoids.
I love this music for the queue area: Queue music
No. However I have noticed it seems darker, several times you can't see where you're going even though you can see other stuff if you look around. Just about perfect.
It's likely possible that the park has done away with some of the neon floor lights. Either that, or they just don't want to replace them. I'd rather them just keep it dark because it enhances the experience. Not sure why KD doesn't want to give this ride some good treatment. It was one of the fan favorites before I305 got built. More than anything I use to have fun standing in line with my friends enjoying the indoor queue theme. That all changed after theme parks re-opened after covid and went to BGW to ride Verbolten. I had no idea, what I had been missing out on.
Flight of Fear could still retain this title if the park was willing to put a little work into it. Consider the idea I posted last night, where the experience puts more emphasis on portal experimentation. It could easily breath new life into the ride.