An Awful Day at Kings Island - 4/27/13

ApolloAndy said:

Is it home park fatigue? Or possibly just enthusiast fatigue ("I've been to so many parks overall, another trip to the same old park just isn't interesting to me.")?

Looking back at my post, I think I may have hit on it with this line:

"It just doesn't seem to be worth the 45 minute drive for a meh-tastic day at the park."

I think that's it. If I were closer the tradeoff for some ok rides would probably be worth it. If KI had a better lineup the time involved would probably be worth it.

As it stands the ROI just isn't there.

Ive been <45 min to Six Flags Great America for 4 years and still havent been back. Ive missed BTDK, X-Flight, and yet still have no desire to go just because of the "meh-tasticness" of the days I spend there. In the same time Ive been to parks in Orlando, California, Tenn, Ohio, Minn, Virginia, New Hampshire and Missouri. I really just have never had a great day SFGAm when I was a kid, the only SF parks I really enjoyed and want to go back to are the two remaining parks in Texas.

Well, for all my bitching, here's where I went today:

Voted up partly for the little kid. He's (she's? Can't tell.) like an amusement park version of Where's Waldo?

Looks mobbed.

Gonch, give a trip report! (Unless it was so bad that profanity might be used.)

When did they repaint Face/Offitgo?

Tyler Boes said:

Gonch, give a trip report! (Unless it was so bad that profanity might be used.)

I can do it right here...TR within a TR!

We left the house a little after four. Took less than a hour to get there. More cars in the lot than I expected. Walked up to the pass processing door pictured above. There were three employees inside and one other group filling out paperwork (they had apparently just purchased passes outside at the booth).

We had our vouchers from purchasing online. I went first. They took my photo and had me write my name on the back of pass. Took about 60 seconds. My son went second. My daughter and wife had their photos taken simultaneously at two spearate stations.

While we were having our photos done, the kid doing them asked if we planned on using them at Cedar Point. I said, "Yeah, Probably more than here."

My wife mentioned we knew a lot of people that were there today for media day. The kid said he wouldn't have driven that far just for that and I agreed. Turns out he lived south of Cincy in Kentucky. I mentioned we lived in Dayton. Standard pleasantries were exchanged.

We were out the other side with passes in hand in a little under 5 minutes.

We looked at the closed park and said, "Cool. We'll come back later in the month."

On the drive home we hit a bit more traffic than on the way down (rush hour). Decided we didn't want to cook for dinner, discussed options on the drive home and settled on The Pub. I had the Bangers & Mash. It was stupid-good. I likes me some Bangers & Mash. The teeny plaid skirts the waitresses wear were good too. I likes me some teeny plaid skirts.

All in all, one of my better trips to Kings Island.

It's been at least a year. It was wearing those colors last year. It was looking mighty fresh, I might add, so I'd imagine it was fairly recent.

The only thing that stops a guy with a bad TR about Kings Island is a guy with a good TR about Kings Island.

Or a bad internet connection.

It is weird how different people perceive different parks, I personally love going to KI. The Beast is enough of a reason in and of itself, but add in Diamondback, the other coasters, and some of their other attractions (Ghost Blasters, Delirium, the water park) and its one of my favorites to visit. When I lived in Toledo I made it down there at least 3-4 times a season (once before CP opened, 1-2 times during the summer, and once for the Haunt which would always be a Friday night into Saturday trip.) Yet I would blow past that park's virtual twin in VA on my way to BGW and instead of occasionally visiting KD 1 hour away, choose instead to get a season pass at HP (2 hours north) when I lived in DC.

In the end the most important thing to do is to go to places you enjoy.

Touchdown said:

Yet I would blow past that park's virtual twin in VA on my way to BGW and instead of occasionally visiting KD 1 hour away, choose instead to get a season pass at HP (2 hours north) when I lived in DC.

For a while toward the end of the Paramount era, I'd burnt myself out on Kings Dominion. It's gotten better with the additions Cedar Fair added.

Im going back this summer. That park also suffers from being so close to BGW, why stop there at a (very good) regional park, when you can go to the only theme park that competes with the big boys in Orlando?

Variety, cheaper admission, shorter drive, to name a few.

^The season passes were about the same actually if you wanted parking, of course I got the Gold pass that included WCUSA which was more but still not terrible. As for variety, that is why I choose HP, HP had the wooden coasters BGW lacked, KD did not have a really nice wooden coaster. As for the drive, sure, but it never really bothered me as both were still a day trip away.

Lord Gonchar said:

We looked at the closed park and said, "Cool. We'll come back later in the month."

...

All in all, one of my better trips to Kings Island.

Absolutely hilarious! Why don't you write for Cracked.com or something?

Touchdown: you asked, I answered.

I'm not saying I don't prefer Busch (or Hershey, since you brought it up); I do, overall. I am saying I like to change it up. I went to Busch last year, I'll probably go to KD this year for the reasons I mentioned. Closer to home, cheaper (I usually don't do season passes) and I have kids...which reminds me, KD has a killer selection of stuff to do for the kids.

So...that's why.

Lord Gonchar said:

I'm not sure the place is ever really dead. It's one of the few parks I can't seem to catch a break on with crowds

I assure you that there are some really dead days at KI. I'm glad you're giving it another shot with a May weekday this year. I went 3 years ago on the first Tuesday they were open, and the park had very light crowds, with only the majors having up to a 20 minute wait.

Then, I went 2 years ago on the second Tuesday or Thursday that they were open in May. It was sunny, 65 degrees, and so dead that I was concerned for the park. Diamondback and Beast had no one in the station nearly the whole day...walk on the front seat at times. The only time we waited for anything was the painfully-slow operation of Firehawk. The odd thing was that we had ridden every coaster in the park multiple times by 1PM, and we started trying new things like shows for a break.

I tried the second or third Sunday of May last year, and it was packed. I bought Fast Lane by noon. I later found out it was Cincinnati's after-prom day, so maybe that was the reason.

Anyway, they have a new sit-down restaurant / bar this year (Red's Hall of Fame Grille) that is supposedly very nice with decent prices. I know I'll be stopping in there to take a break if my May weekday this year is the relaxing pace that I've experienced in previous years.

I went to KI during Spiritsong last (a Christian Rock festival that you pay one price for three days with concerts and in the park. It is always the weekend before fourth of July.) Christian Rock has a VERY devoted fan base, so the park was packed. I didn't think the lines were that bad because there weren't barely any "coaster enthusiasts" there (except me). I had 20 minutes for beast consistantly and 30 minutes for Dback and Fof. Not awful even though the workers told me it was the busiest week of the year.