4/28/07 King's Island

For the first time in five years, and to christen my Maxx Pass and break my off season I made the trip from Toledo down to Kings Island today. I arrived early, so I could do the walk back which unlike last week went to:

The Beast: Wait time 0 min, 10 min, 30 min. For the first ride, the Beast was apparently not fully awake yet because the trims were very tight, thankfully however that improved as the day went on. Also kudos on the retracting seat belts, much easier and they make so much sense you have to question why it took them this long to figure it out. After the walkback it was off to a locker to stash my stuff and then on to:

Tomb Raider: Wait time 0 min. Second ride in a row I got on the very first ride, in fact I was the first person in line for it. As others have reported before the audio during the first part of the ride is no longer on (you still have the foreboding music though.) From my memory the ride only had minor effects missing, we had no dripping ice and no “spouts of lava” but that may have something to do with the fact that it was an April morning. The other thing I was dispointed about is that I thought I remembered the ride being a little more wild, I don’t think we ever spun fast on the two axis at once the entire ride, kind of a bummer. Anyways, on to the new for me:

Italian Job Stunt Track: Wait time 10 min. I enjoyed this ride, its not a five star ride by any means but it has its moments and is a great family ride. However they really should get the effects working, the helicopter just stood there, there were no stair effects nor any wake from our splashdown at the end. Time to check out a seatbelt “shackled” Arrow:

Vortex: Wait time 15 min. The ride is just a slightly better then average Arrow looper for me, but I wanted to see how the new seatbelts felt before I walked back to Top Gun. Thankfully they were not painful (ie did not threaten my future children) and I didn’t really notice them the entire ride. So while they are redundant, they don’t negatively affect the ride, ok time to visit my favorite steel coaster in the park:

Flight of Fear: Wait time 15 min, 1 hour. Before I start, I do have to report on Firehawk, which was a flurry of activity every time I was back here. The ride looks to be about half painted, and the concrete has already been laid for the queues. It also looks quite nice with the FOF queue building and ride framing it. Since my last trip I believe they made the switch from clasp to seatbelt safety check on the lap bar (or maybe that was on Poltergeist @ SFFT I can’t remember) but irregardless I prefer the seatbelts. On my first ride the safety lights were on so I can confirm to those of you asking about it that King Cobra’s trains are still back there, also all day today the trim break was on full power, virtually stopping the train. I wish KI would do something about that, with the lap bars there is no need for that mid ride stop that totally kills the pacing. For my second ride the show lights (multi colored) were on but no fluorescents (thank goodness.) Also, this ride may no longer be Outer Limits but the Outer Limits voice (which I do not remember the last time I was here) is back doing the safety spiels, although the cheesy queue video isn’t. One last complaint, we had temps in the 70s today with sunshine but KI did not have the AC on in the queue area (the station yes but queue area no) and you can imagine what the place smelt and felt like at 4:00 in the afternoon when I waited there, if its hot enough to need AC in the station then whoever turned on that switch should have turned on the queue area as well. Ok time to hit a coaster celebrating its 35 year birthday:

The Racer: Wait time 10 min, 15 min. First time I rode the forward side in the back car, second time (in the afternoon) backwards side in the front car. This ride is really running great this year, my afternoon ride provided me with the most air I have ever gotten on that thing. It was also racing all day. But why did they abolish the red and blue side (each track now has one red and one blue train?) Time to ride Indiana Jones, ooops I mean:

Adventure Express: Wait time 10 min. While International Street may no longer have movie music its still alive (thankfully) here and at Top Gun. Also all the drummers on the sides of the lift were working. Also SOB defiantly looks ready to test, but from both this ride and Top Gun there are no trains on the tracks yet. This is defiantly one of the top mine trains out there. Ok time to Ride into the Danger Zone:

Top Gun: Wait time 5 min, 15 min. Running quite well, really wish this ride was not located in Timbuktu, I would ride it more often.

After Top Gun I headed towards Face/Off to ride, but found it closed. So I had lunch and made it over to the Nick Zone area. First up on my list to do there was the Scooby Doo ride, and unlike Gonch my gun worked on the targets, although it is very weird to be firing from a doombuggy. After that I tried out Avatar and thought it was a fun ride, not one I would wait for more then 10 min but quality ride. From there I made return trip #1 to the Beast and then took a Spin on Shake Rattle and Roll. Boo to two seatbelts per seat, I don’t like not being able to sit in the middle when alone. After that I went back to Flight of Fear, but finding the indoor queue completely full and discovering the lack of AC I decided not to wait and instead take a ride on the Monster. The crew running that ride today was very good, they had 3 op operation which allowed 8 cars to load at one time and were very quick and efficient something desperately needed in that slow loader. Then I had my fantastic ride on the Backwards Racer after which I decided to also ride a new for me:

Delirium: 35 min wait. After having experiencing some dizziness after normal Frisbees I was a little bit nervous about this ride, however I loved it. The motion is very relaxing to me (as are S&S’s Super Swings) and my only complaint was the super hard shoulder underside area of the restraints. My clavicles are still complaining about it

After Delirium, I re rode Top Gun, tried to ride Face/Off again (it closed again as I was about to enter the line, guess it just wasn’t my day to ride this one) and then ate dinner while I watched a little bit of the 3 point challenge. After seeing it, I completely agree with Jeff’s assessment of it, it most certainly is a license to print money. Then it was time for my last rides on the day on Flight of Fear and the Beast, and while I thought my thrill rides were over for the day, Mother Nature had a surprise for me:

The Ride Home: 2 hrs 45 min. As I was getting off the Beast it started to sprinkle, as I closed my car door though the deluge hit. The whole way back to Toledo, it was pour (and flash flood) and stop with the worst incidents occurring south of Lima (where I saw not one but two funnel clouds) and from Bowling Green to I-475 (lighting and more lighting.) Really wish we could get a better weather forecast, none of this was predicted and if it had been probably would have kept me home. Thankfully though I made it back safe and sound. Im also extremely glad I decided to leave at 6:30 instead of closing, having to deal with those storms in the dark would have been terrible.

Final Thoughts: King’s Island is a really wonderful park, even more then I remember. Cedar Fair had loads of managers about today and all the employees I saw were good. Look forward to coming back there later in the year to ride Firehawk, SOB and hit Boomerang Bay.

I can't wait to see Firehawk in action. This has to be one of the smartest moves in Cedar Fair history. I hate that Geauga Lake had to loose one of their signature coasters, but I'm more than sure it will be replaced by something even more spectactular.

IJST is a great ride, I wish you could have experienced it with all the effects going. I think we can give up on the stair bump effect though. It most likely won't ever be installed.

I'm glad you make made it home safely, and had such a wonderful time at America's Greatest Seasonal Theme Park!

Make The 2007 Season The Best Ever - Airromeo!