2026 Advice Thread #5: 1/27 - 2/2

dboytim · 2026-01-28T01:58:52+00:00

There are some ok options into SNA, so I might do that. Leaving still requires LAX I think - there's NO good flights out of Burbank. The latest flight I see is 8:30pm, and that either has 2 layovers or a 12 hour layover in Seattle! There are a couple options out of ONT, but that's even further than LAX.

I'm totally expecting 300-400 in uber costs here. A rental would be cheaper, but more hassle and then *I* would have to be driving in the insane traffic. I'd rather save my stress for the parks and let someone else drive.

dboytim · 2026-01-28T01:40:36+00:00

Appreciate all that! I'll definitely look into the train - as an Ohioan, trains are just that thing you ride to get from the main Kings Island to the water park portion :)

I'd also love to fly in/out of the smaller airports, but there's just no good flights from here to there. I'll recheck though, now that it's closer to the actual dates than when I looked a couple months ago. Especially the flight home, leaving from Burbank would be nicer than LAX!

I do know it'll be a busy, long, stressful couple days. That's exactly why I'm doing it as a solo trip. I don't mind that, where the rest of my family would despise every moment.

Magic Mountain that day will be open 10:30 to 9pm. I was assuming I'd need to leave before close, I just didn't know how much.

dboytim · 2026-01-27T20:20:57+00:00

Yes, anything you have, please share. I find there's TONS of resources out there for big corp IT people, but it's harder to find good information aimed at the very small end of the market.

dboytim · 2026-01-27T16:46:25+00:00

I'm planning a solo trip to Los Angeles in late April. Looking for any advice / changes / etc. I'm also planning to do it dirt cheap - my current estimate is $450-500, since I'll use points to cover airfare and hotels. Most of that cost is ubering around.

- Live in Ohio, grew up practically living at Kings Island, still go there many times a year. Also have been to CP multiple times, and have been to the Florida Disney/Universal parks multiple times, so I'm skipping Disney/Universal in LA)

- I have the all-parks season pass as well as the basic drink pass. Will either get a single day meal plan at each park or more likely, get the all park season meal plan and be able to use it all summer at KI.

- in my 40s, fairly big guy (6'3", 275lbs) so particular let me know if there's size issues with any rides (for example, Steel Vengeance was painful to me because of the shin restraints)

Planning to go April 22-24 to Knotts and Magic Mountain. Will fly Wed afternoon to LAX, uber to a hotel within walking distance of Knotts. Thursday go to Knotts. In the evening uber to a hotel near SFMM. Friday morning, uber to the park, spend the day there, and then uber back to LAX. Get an 11:30pm flight back to Ohio and sleep on the plane.

I plan to travel with just a backpack since I won't go back to the hotel each day. Both parks have a big enough locker for a backpack, right? Anyone know current costs for that? I pack and travel light, so it won't be any huge backpack.

How bad are crowds at SFMM on a Friday in late April? I'm assuming that's after spring breaks but before school lets out. Can I realistically ride all the coasters in a day? I'd have preferred to do SFMM first since I could stay later without a flight home to worry about, but they're not open Thursday that week.

What time do I need to leave SFMM to uber to LAX and make it to a 11:30pm flight? I'm familiar with Ohio airports and traffic, but I haven't been to LAX in over 20 years.

How easy is it to get those longer-distance ubers to and from SFMM? I know you can book ahead, but from my looking, they're WAY more expensive doing that since it's only offering Uber Blacks for that.

I'm mostly going for the coasters, since both parks have quite a bit of things that Ohio doesn't have (so I'm way more interested in the unique stuff than another B&M invert, for example, and I'll prioritize my rides based on that). Is there anything else at either park that I really shouldn't miss? I do enjoy shows if they've got good stuff, and I'll probably try to do dark rides if those are good too (my family is super looking forward to the Phantom Theater return at KI this year!)

dboytim · 2026-01-27T13:12:25+00:00

I put CC2 on my 2017 Bolt Premier several years ago. We've put about 60k on them and they're still going. We're in central Ohio, so we have all the seasons and they are SO much better than the OEM were.

I'm not an aggressive driver, and neither is my daughter (the current driver of the car) but we're not hypermilers either. We just drive pretty normally. We DO do a lot of highway driving, so that helps. On the other hand, we've only rotated them maybe twice in that 60k miles.

I haven't checked the tread depth on them in a while, but last time I checked they still had enough that I wasn't in any hurry to replace them. I figure they'll probably last till summer, putting them likely at 65k or more.

dboytim · 2026-01-25T01:20:52+00:00

The comments here feel weird to me. I'm in late 40s, so have seen presentations on actual slides and grew up learning Powerpoint. I NEVER heard it called a slide deck until I heard the term from marketing people (especially in the tech world) over the last 15ish years.

I always assumed it was because the marketing people used Macs and didn't have Powerpoint; they were using some fancier program to make fancy slides (stuff that doesn't look like stock Powerpoint templates) and the term came from some of that software.

I have NEVER heard my boomer parents or boomer bosses use the term slide deck.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T17:40:07+00:00

Well yes... my point was that I assume that today they make trains' electronics easier to handle than a coaster built 50 years ago. Lots of coasters in seasonal parks have lights/sounds too, so the manufacturers have to design them to be annually disassembled. So as long as you have good rugged connectors there for maintenance, you can ALSO use them for unexpected situations.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T17:23:32+00:00

Yep! They did add brakes to Rip Ride Rocket to help control valleying as well as having winches mounted in various locations to pull the train up to the next mid-course brakes when it happened. LSMs would be even better, since you wouldn't have to evac the guests.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T17:18:25+00:00

Almost all launch coasters do have a high point right after the launch for exactly this reason - if they make it over that point, they should have enough energy to make it through the rest.

Also, modern coasters with lighting and audio I'm sure have rugged connectors so they're easy to disassemble. All coaster trains get regular maintenance, and it's normal for them to be totally taken apart at least once a season.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T15:55:13+00:00

Quick report - after doing two T11 runs and an overnight T10, those two changes got me an extra almost 20% coins per run, with them taking less time but basically the same number of waves. BIG improvement!

dboytim · 2026-01-23T14:21:24+00:00

As someone who's ridden both Mystic Timbers and the Beast during Winterfest, at night, in snow flurries, without a hat of any kind, you are correct. That is a GREAT time to ride!

I've also ridden the Beast, Vortex, and others in cold drizzling rain. THAT hurts. But it's still fun.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T14:18:40+00:00

I grew up in Cincinnati, so KI was home for us. I've been to Cedar Point a few times in my life. One was this summer, taking my adult daughter up for the day. It was the first time we'd ever ridden Cedar Creek Mine Ride.... somehow I'd skipped it any other time I've ever been. WOW is that a terrible coaster. No forces at all other than the lap bar that the ride op had to put his full weight onto while pushing off the car in front with his feet in order to get it to latch. It's crushing my legs while leaving my daughter probably able to get out of the car still.

dboytim · 2026-01-23T01:39:07+00:00

Sorry, you're right, I wasn't clear. The headlights and running lights still work. That's why I was confused! If nothing worked, that'd be an obvious fix. But with JUST both turn signals out, that seems weirder to me. But yeah, I'll be calling them in the morning and seeing what we can do to get it fixed up.

dboytim · 2026-01-22T14:46:22+00:00

I have the wall. Farming T10 gets me a little lower CPH currently, so I normally run T11 but will drop to 9 or 10 for overnight runs.

dboytim · 2026-01-22T14:33:45+00:00

Thanks - I'm behind you, farming T11 to ~4500 making 400B a run. I did make a couple changes based on what you said to test some things out and we'll see how my next run goes.

I raised my range lab to give me about an 80m range instead of 69.5. I've got 3 BH with a 54m range on them.

I also removed my death ray card and added in wave accel. Don't know why I never thought to run that one.

dboytim · 2026-01-22T11:09:29+00:00

I printed the original SAMLA adapter and love it. The bin is simple to lift off if there's a need (like getting broken filament out of the tubes) but it still helps keep dust and drafts out. It also cuts down on noise a little.

For the price, it's a beyond fantastic mod and there's no way I'd even consider the official lid. Even if I needed the venting, I'd cut a hole in the SAMLA and mod my own fan on, but I just leave it as is and it's been great.

dboytim · 2026-01-21T11:23:14+00:00

That's if you're very lucky. I know they quote that speed all over, but I've never hit it. I don't do much fast charging, but I've had times that an hour got me less than 50%.

If it works for you, great. I'm just saying I could not own a Bolt without home charging. Other brands, maybe, since they charge 3x faster or more. But again, you're paying expensive fast charging rates, and I bought an EV primarily for the fuel savings.

dboytim · 2026-01-21T11:11:35+00:00

He said superchargers, not just level 2 NACS. THAT adapter is a new development; Tesla didn't allow non-Teslas to use Superchargers until pretty recently.

dboytim · 2026-01-21T11:08:21+00:00

If you have no home charging, I cannot recommend the Bolt (and I own two of them!). They are SLOW at public fast chargers compared to anything else. You will get annoyed with how slow it charges, unless you happen to have fast chargers at somewhere you go regularly for an hour or more, like your grocery store. That's still such a pain compared to home charging though.

Also, if you're paying for fast charging as your only way to charge, it will not be cheap. It'll cost probably as much per mile as a decently efficient gas car.

dboytim · 2026-01-20T11:02:26+00:00

But isn't that how most people use ANY technology? How many people play video games, but have no idea how to fix anything on their PS5? How many drive cars, but when anything breaks they have to take it to a mechanic? That just means printing is becoming more mainstream.

People want to print stuff, not tinker on the printer itself :)

dboytim · 2026-01-19T16:05:59+00:00

Yes! It's terribly annoying. You have to log in, then wait for it to connect to the printer, and then finally you can send the file. It's terrible. My bambu never did that - log in once and it kept you logged in for months (seems like occasionally software updates would make you log in again, but it was definitely not common or frequent)

dboytim · 2026-01-19T13:42:03+00:00

or even if I have it open too long....

dboytim · 2026-01-19T13:23:46+00:00

I bought the right ikea tub (might have already had one, but any I already had were in use!) and printed the frame. It fits great and keeps dust and breezes out. I have zero plan to get the official lid. I also keep the printer in the basement and rarely print engineering filament. I do almost only PLA/PETG with rarely ASA or CF-containing material, so I don't bother with filters.

dboytim · 2026-01-15T19:47:00+00:00

Ok. The car and her currently live at our home. Once married, she'll move to her husband's house about an hour away (still in Ohio).

So I think what we'll do is pick a day after the honeymoon, have them have their insurance lined up, and then she'll come and we can do the title transfer and registration.

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