6-26-04 PKI & Beastbuzz
Associated parks:
None
On our trip out to PKI we only stopped twice. We stopped once for a bathroom break, and once to eat dinner at TGI Fridays just outside of Wheeling WV.
We made it to our Hotel (Comfort Inn PKI) at 11:45. We were hoping to make better time, but it could have been worse too. Seeing PKI driving down I-71 really made the trip worth it. We knew that we were in for a great weekend.
We woke up the next morning at 6:45 ready to start our day. After showering, and eating breakfast we were on our way to PKI for our 1st visit. We got to the park a little before 9am, and went directly to get Coasterbuzz line to get our lanyards, itinerary, and meal tickets.
Everything was put together well by Jeff and Steph, and PKI(Jeff Seibert, and crew.) Everyone gathered just inside the front gate. Jeff Seibert made a short speech about the event, and what the prizes would be for the scavenger hunt. Then we were off for the 1st rides on the day on the Beast.
The Beast is everything that it is hyped to be. Great lateral G’s, beautiful surroundings, tunnels, and of course that helix is a great ending. I would have like a brakeless ride just to see how it would be. I got 7 laps total on the big guy, and as the day went on they got better. The front seat gave me the best ride of the day, and the last ride of the night in row 16 was just out of control. It doesn’t rank as my favorite but it is up there on the list(I don’t have a real top 10 list.) 8.5 out of 10.
After we got done on the Beast we went to hit the Vortex before heading over to the Tomb Raider behind the scenes gathering area. Vortex – I really enjoyed this Arrow. I rode it in the back seat, and I didn’t find it really rough at all. One of the things that I liked is that the 1st drop actually went almost all the way to the ground, and in the backseat I was out of my seat the whole drop. It’s just a little rough in the corkscrews, but nothing unbearable. It is very rerideable. 7 out of 10.
We went back to join up with the rest of the buzzers, and check out the behind the scenes of Tomb Raider the ride. We checked out the computer control room, sound room, and special effects room. It wasn’t too exciting, but it is something that you don’t normally get to see on a trip to an amusement park.
We then broke off, and went to ride other rides in the park. Being our 1st trip we made sure to hit the rides that weren’t on the ERT list later in the evening. We were going to do the scavenger hunt, but then we changed our mind, so that we could concentrate on riding as many rides as possible.
We got lucky, and since we have a gold pass from PKD we got free front of the line passes for The Wild Thornberrys, Scooby Doo, and the Haunted Castle, Delirium, and the Beast. We gave the Delirium passes away since we knew that we’d be riding that later.
We were heading to the Action Zone, but stopped in Octoberfest.
Adventure Express- We waited about 20 minutes due to someone throwing up on one of the trains, and they were only loading the one. A decent Arrow mine train with good themeing = a good ride. It was my 2nd favorite mine train just behind SF GrAdv. Good fun. 6 out of 10.
We were going to get on Son Of Beast, but the wait was up to 2 hours long. We didn’t want to wait that long, and figured that we’d ride it later in the day.
Top Gun – Arrow Suspended. Front seat ride. Having only ridden 3 of them it end up as 2nd of the 3. Its better than Iron Dragon, but not up to par with BBW at BGW. I really enjoyed the layout, but my only complaint is that it was a little too short. It was a good ride. 8 out of 10.
After riding Top Gun it was time to use our Gold pass tickets. We got on the Wild Thornberrys first. This a good ride for kids, and a decent little log flume, but a very quick ride. That elephant got us good at the end of the ride.
Then we rode Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. The ride is longer than PKD, but I enjoyed that one more. My trigger finger hurt by the end of the ride. I beat my wife, and son.
Then we went, and rode the Beast again. This was our front seat ride. It was out of control. My wife lost her cell phone(had her pocket buttoned and still lost it.) We had to wait for the trains to cycle through, and luckily she was able to get it back.
My son and I were waiting down the exit ramp while my wife got her cell phone, and people thought that we worked for PKI because we had our Beastbuzz lanyards on. It was pretty funny. A man came up to me, and asked if we were the ones to sign his paper(I am guessing for parent swap.) Then a group came down bouncing their basketballs, and they stopped when they seen us. Pretty amusing.
We headed to the Beastbuzz lunch. Smile group photo time. ;) What was cool was actually putting faces to the names of the people that we chat with about coasters on a daily basis. That sure was a nice and tasty Beast cake. The food almost reminded us of the food at our Knoebels wedding except we had Italian sausage instead of fried chicken and hotdogs.
The guest speaker was (I guess) the owner of PTC(can’t remember his name) and he shared his experiences when building the trains for the Beast. The story I found most amusing was the bag of concrete on the track. Pretty funny.
After the luncheon we headed back to the Comfort Inn to swim, relax, and regroup before heading back for the evening. After all the walking it was nice to take a break.
We got back to the park at 8:30, and went directly to the Son Of Beast. We had missed both behind the scenes of the Beast and Sonny, and when we got on Son of Beast my wife and I were looking for everyone along the track somewhere. ;)
Son of Beast – Row 2 seat 2. It wasn’t nearly as rough as I had heard. When talking to some buzzers afterward they told us that is the best spot to ride. It is a huge wooden coaster, and I was expecting a beating. I found it not that bad. I like the loop. Nice and smooth. I wouldn’t rank Sonny at the top, but I don’t think it’s horrible either. My wife loved it. I’d give it a 6.5 out of 10.
Next up was Face Off. I knew exactly what this ride was after my many visits to SFA, but I wanted the credit. They are enjoyable. 6 out of 10.
It was starting to get the close to the time for the award ceremony, but we had time for one last coaster ride.
Racer- backwards- 2nd to last row or 2nd row depending on how you look at it. I really enjoyed. Much better than Rebel Yell at PKD. I like riding backwards, and not knowing what is coming next. There were a few good pops of air. Fun ride. 7 out of 10.
Then we headed to the Paramount Theater for the awards ceremony. It would have been nice to win the 1st place prize for the scavenger hunt. That was nice collection of prizes that the park put together for the event. Just winning one of the Beast medals would have been nice. Congratulations to the winners! You guys deserve it.
I enjoyed the Beast 25 Years of Terror video. We wished that we had brought our camcorder along for that one. It was cool to see the old footage, and the original Beast commercial. Did it make you feel like a star Sean? ;) That would have been cool to be in on that.
Next comes the best part. The ERT. We watched the fireworks as we waited for the park to clear, and then we were off.
Delirium is a really good flat ride, and would be a good addition to any park. I got 2 rides on it. Great fun.
Drop Zone is a fun ride, but I enjoy S&S drop rides much more than the Intamin models. I like PKD’s version better even though it doesn’t rotate.
Flight of Fear – There seems to be some differences between PKI’s and PKD’s. PKI’s doesn’t seem as fast, and PKD’s tunnel is longer. Doesn’t matter much it is still a good ride. I like the spaghetti bowl rides. I think they are better enclosed. 7 out of 10.
The night ended getting 4 more rides on the Beast. We didn’t wait for the front or back. We just went wherever we could get on the fastest. It was a great way to end the night.
I want to thank Jeff and Steph for organizing the event, and also everyone at PKI for being so gracious. Jeff S, and the rest of the staff went out of their to make sure the day was great for us coasterbuzzers. It is definitely an event that I’ll never forget. Already looking forward to next year.
We changed our minds about going to SFKK, and just went back to PKI to ride Runaway Reptar, Tomb Raider, and of course Spongebob 3-D . ;) We had to get home to our daughter. It’s always nice to get back home after a coaster trip. Thanks for reading.
*** Edited 6/28/2004 8:02:37 PM UTC by Coasterfantom2***
TTD was built, TTD was broke, TTD is alive.
geez! those were the best parts!
We were going to get on Son Of Beast, but the wait was up to 2 hours long. We didn’t want to wait that long, and figured that we’d ride it later in the day.
I was at Kings Island on Saturday, but not for beast buzz. My wife and I's annual trip with friends just happened to coincide with the Coaster Buzz event for the second year in a row. It's kind of funny, I haven't attended Beast Buzz, but I have been at pki on the same day as it, the last 2 June's.
Anyhow at about 11:55, I got in line for SOB with a friend of mine. Our wives opted not to ride. I think I was in line right in front of you because I remember a family of three right behind us wearing coaster buzz lanyards and the husband and wife were both changing cell phone batteries (or adjusting the cellphone cover). Was that you? A minute or two later, I noticed you were gone.
Anyhow as we were walking through the que under the bridge, people were walking out saying it was a two hour wait. I turned to my friend and said, "says who?" If I hear "two hour wait" from people giving up and walking out of line, I usually dismiss it. Unless an employee tells me that, I am skeptical of word of mouth, etc. I often wonder how those rumours start. Several people were bailing out of line saying it was a 2 hour wait, but there was no sign posted saying that and no pki employee said that (to the best of my knowledge). I am not sure if you remember me or not, but I just thought I'd let you know the wait ended up only being 45-50 minutes. Sometimes, the rumours start and spread and take on a life of their own.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed your day. I just wanted to chime in on the SOB wait.
To answer your question. No. I started to cringe when I realized that video was going to be shown on a large screen. I feel bad for those Beast ride ops that have to watch the video every 40 minutes (sorry James and Brad!)
I had a fantastic time at Beastbuzz. This was my first Coasterbuzz event and hopefully it won't be my last. After spending a week at the ACE Coaster Con, it was nice change to do an event that was more laid back.
The scavenger hunt was a blast. Just as the one I have done before, I didn't realize the park was crowded because the hunt took my mind off of it.
The ERT at the end of the night was great fun and the perfect way to end a week of riding. I am glad I got to put some faces to some of the names I read on here. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to read the names on the lanyards, so I apologize if I got your name wrong.
Two funny moments that stuck out in my mind that day were
1. Doing the scavenger hunt and realizing Howard and I made a HUGE mistake on question #25 (long story)
2. Wondering why some were referring to the ACE website as the "gravy site" before ERT. Funny stuff. While I was in Boomerang Bay, someone asked me if I was offended? Why should I be? Enthusiasts are enthusiasts. The way I look at it, one club isn't better than the other. I just thought this was funny that someone would ask me that.
Anyway, I hope there will be another C-Buzz event in the future. I look forward to the ACE event to be held in October but I know its going to be tough to top after going to this past event.
Thanks to everyone that helped put it together!
-Sean
TTD was built, TTD was broke, TTD is alive.
Yes that was us! Seemed we were havig problems with our cell phones after the beast!! We had to make sure they were up and running with grandma watching the baby.
We thought long and hard about staying in line, but we had those passes for the front of the line and we thought we would have ended up waiting there and missing out on those rides.
I must say I enjoyed the "buzz" so much. It isn't often that when we go to a park we go to ride much other than rollercoasters. Seems that at the parks we spend time rushing from coaster to another just to make sure we get them all in and then we will take on some flat rides if there is time. I loved that we could take our time and ride and still have the advantage of hitting all the coasters as well as riding other rides. I must say it was one of the most enjoyable times we have had for a long time.
I absolutely loved the park. Reminded me a lot of Kings Dominion, but with a twist. I also loved the wide pathways. I am one of those people that gets very frustrated when you have to walk on top of people to get from ride to ride.
I was so impressed with Jeff S and the staff. They went above and beyond the call of duty. I can't immagine having that job! They deserve the day off after hosting such a party.
I regret not doing the scavenger hunt. I wish we would have, but there is always next time.
We didn't take our daughter because we didnt want to put her threw the stress everything, but I wish we would have. I have never had such a fun and relaxing time. It would have been easier on us to take her than for us to go on any regular day.
Jeff and Steph. Thanks so much for all you did to make the "buzz" so awesome. We will definately be attending as many event as we can.
One other thing Hank if you are out there we had a blast with you! Hopefully we will see you at another event in the future!
Heather
Yep, we should have read that one more carefully. The bad thing was, we actually did write down each location to each clue but somehow missed that one.
At least it provided a funny moment, although a bit scary as well.
-Sean
That dude from PTC was Tom Rebbie. :-) Glad you, Heather, and Jr. enjoyed the event as much as I did. Dont think I got to meet you though, or maybe I did...who knows. lol.
Sean,
I promise next time I will be more "into" the scavenger hunt. Blame it on hunger and lack of sleep. ;-)
I had a blast watching you guys though. :-D You, Scott and Howard had me laughing in tears at some points, especially the "Scooby Dance" or whatever that was.......:-D
Long live the A-Listers!
It was a blast hanging out and getting to play some long overdue DDR with ya! :-D
-Tina
*** Edited 6/29/2004 11:51:29 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***
Sean Flaharty said:
Cp Dude,Yep, we should have read that one more carefully. The bad thing was, we actually did write down each location to each clue but somehow missed that one.
At least it provided a funny moment, although a bit scary as well.
-Sean
You might now realize mason doesn't joke around. It sure was a dead moment.
Just joking LOL ( don't mean to offend anyone) *** Edited 6/30/2004 12:30:14 AM UTC by CP Dude***
TTD was built, TTD was broke, TTD is alive.
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