This trip was spur of the moment decision. My brothers GF came up to my work and asked if I wanted to go to Kings Island with her and some of my other friends. I had always heard weekends were horrible so I try to avoid them at all costs, however I had nothing better to do so I went. So at 4 we began the 30-45 minute drive to my home park.
We arrived at PKI at 4:45. We went straight to Face/Off. I was amazed at how short the line was, it stopped on the path under the loop. Even with the waiting for front seat we were left with a mere 25 minute wait. I really don't care that these things are built everywhere, they are still fun to me.
Next we headed over to Drop Zone. If anyone read my post in the General Buzz section it IS now Gyroing (if that is even a word). Only 3 of the turnstiles were filled up so we were left with only a 20 minute wait. Drop Zone remains to be my favorite non-coaster ride (hopefully that will change next year when I finally make it to IOA).
After Drop Zone we had a three train wait for SOB. It was a little rough, but SOB still remains in my top ten.
Next we hit King Cobra, Congo Falls, Adventure Express, and the Racer (backwards).
After those we hit my 2nd favorite coaster at PKI. You could probably guess I am talking about the new and improved Flight of Fear. I love everything about the ride. We had about a 25 minute wait for this also. I was so surprised because we had waited well over an hour for it on Friday.
We then walked over to Zephyr (sp?). The Zephyr is one of my favorite non-thrill rides. For those who don't know what it is, the Zephyr is simply one of those swing rides. A ton of passengers each board a swing and you swing around in circles.
After the Zephyr two of my friends went to do the trampoline thing. While they were waiting for this the rest of us went to Vortex. No wait at all for this arrow mega-looper. While a little rough, Vortex remains a personal favorite.
We met back with the other two who were still on the trampoline thing. We waited about 15 minutes for them to finish. We then headed off to play laser tag. We had never done it here so gave it a try. It was fun. I ended up 2nd out of five.
It was getting close to closing time. On the way over to the Beast three of us went on the Flying Eagles. This is another really fun non-thrill ride. It was about 9:45 so we made our way to the Beast.
The line was all the way up in the station. When we got up in the station I must say I saw the best Ride-ops ever. They made the whole station pumped up to ride. Everyone was clapping/stomping the "We will Rock You" beat. It just made the atmosphere so much better. These two guys made Cedar Point ops seem more like Six Flags ops (I am joking no one could make anyone look that bad esp. CP). To end off a good evening we boarded the Beast as the fireworks were going off. The fireworks made the ride so much more enjoyable. The Beast has definitely secured a spot as my favorite coaster/ride at Kings Island, and number 2 overall. It is good but not Millennium Force good.
Overall the lines were much shorter than I expected 12 rides in 5 hours and 15 minutes is pretty good. Now that I know Sundays are a good day to go to parks I might try a Sunday trip to Cedar Point next year. I can only hope for less than half hour waits for Millennium Force (I have never seen a wait less than 1 hour 15 minutes, I know it does happen I was just never lucky enough to see it).
*** This post was edited by Shorty131 on 7/30/2001. ***
All this positive talk about FoF really has me itching to ride it.
Sunday nights are awesome at Hersheypark. After 6:00pm, everything is pretty much a walk-on, except for Great Bear. Last sunday, a few of my friends and I stayed on Canyon River Rapids five times in a row. During the day, the same ride had an hour wait!!
GandC-
Is this common at Hershey? When I was there in June (on a Friday night), I experienced the same thing. While lines were never over half an hour for any ride during the day, around 6 pm the crowds disappeared. Everything was pretty much walk-on, with one or two train waits for front or back seats.
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"There is another train directly behind this one..." Chicago Transit Authority's Famous Last Words
*** This post was edited by chris on 8/1/2001. ***
