Kings Island - Sat - April 25 -
Not too long of a TR...
After a 4 hour drive, my 14-year old cousin Chase and I got to the park around 8:30 AM. I opted to spend an extra $5 for a better parking spot so I could leave my camera in the car instead of renting a locker. We went straight to Guest Relations to pick up our complementary tickets.
We then waited about an hour at the rope next to the Eiffel Tower for the "running of the bulls" to Diamondback. During our wait at the rope, we spoke to a very friendly security guard by the last name of Crysel.
After the National Anthem, the rope was dropped and the running began. There were a few people with Season passes in front of us in Diamondback's line, but we only waited about 15 minutes.
Diamondback is everything that I expected and more. You've read it all before, the airtime on every drop and crest, the positive G's at the bottoms of the drops, and I'd have to agree that the park has built a winner. It's incredible, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it in the top spot in the various coaster polls.
After our first ride ride, we noticed that the line was getting pretty long, and decided to go all the way to the other side of the park. A few rides on Top Gun, and it was time for me to test SOB once again. It was just as rough as I remembered, and I will never ride it again. Chase loved it and re-rode it throughout the day.
The we made our way around the park. I still love Adventure Express, as stupid as it is. It's fun!
Can anyone explain why the "Racers" were not racing? Maybe next year they will change the name to Double Coaster.
Flight Of Fear still rocks. I will go as far as saying that it is my favorite coaster in the park. I do have a minor complaint. The UFO room was very brightly lit, totally taking from the pre-ride atmosphere that the ride once had.
Spongebob was still fantastic. That movie ride cracks me up every time, and supplied me with one-liners for the rest of the day. "Don't pop my bubble bike!" "I'm allergic to pickles." HAHAHA! One problem though. The preshow TV's are in a terrible location. I couldn't see any of the video playing on them, due to a reflection of the racers in the sunlight. Wasn't there two large screens in the middle of the two staging area before?
Vortex was still bangy. Fun but not THAT fun.
Stunt Track is a decent ride. What's wrong with the splashdown? There was no water there. Why can't the park keep up the effects? The helicoptor was stationary, and the guns didn't look like they were shooting. The explosions worked though.
Beast! take out the "a" and what do you got? I see now what everyone means about "neutered". The new magnetic brakes suck some of the speed off, but it's still fun and still one of the greatest rides of all time, imho.
The Scooby dark ride was fun, but we did it only once. I found it funny that outside of the ride, we heard the "gang" talk about breaking into the old house becasue they saw a light on inside.
We ate at LaRosa's Pizza. It's expensive, of course, but delicious. We snacked all day. I wish I didn't eat the soft pretzel.
Rides we stayed away from for various reasons...Invertigo, Drop Ride Zone, Avatar, the water rides...
The weather was awesome, and the crowds reflected that. The park became pretty busy throughout the day, but they seemed longest about 5PM. This became the perfect time for me to go get my camera and take some pictures for the story I am writing for the newspaper that I work for. I even got to speak briefly with Don Helbig. He gave me his card and told me to call or e-mail him with any questions whan I write my story.
I got some fantastic photos of Diamondback. I'll share them online soon!
Going in and out of the park, I noticed an enormous line for season passes. It went all the way past the parking lot.
After returning the camera to the car, we started to notice that we were feeling worn out. Re-rides were taken on the favorites, before we called it a night soemtime after park closing.
I took cousin Chase to BGW last year, and we went at it all day like we did this day too. It's pretty funny how tired we start to get near closing time, but we keep pushing. We make it a point to get as sick and as worn out as we possibley can by closing time. The worse we feel at the end of the night, the more fun we have had.
I have to conclude with how great the park staff was. The ride ops hustled and got the trains out of the stations as quickly as possible. Most everyone was friendly and willing to help. Line jumpers were seldomly seen. The fountain is still as delicious as it was when Paramont ran the place!
Great weather, great operations, and great rides, made for a great park visit to Kings Island.
Thanks for reading.
- Travis
My new music project! NEW SONGS NOW!
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