Awesome day at PKI

So my father and I decided to spend the day together, and I figured what better place than an amusement park, because we love them so much. I payed for the tickets and parking pass a AAA, and planned this out for a few weeks. We had never been to PKI, and decided it would be a good start for the coaster season.

I wanted to make the opening ceremonies, but it wasn't going to happen because we left close to 8 am. We arrived at the park a little before 11. Went through metal detctors, and into the park. My first thought when I walked through the gate..."WOW!" The park was amazingly clean, and the guest service was exceptional.

My dad and I wandered around for a bit before we headed to our first ride...

Tomb Raider:The Ride- Walking into this ride, I wasn't real sure what this ride was exactly. It was pretty cool themeing, and the little movie at the beginning was awesome. As soon as we got into the ride area, my dad was like "We're going upside down." and I looked at the ride design, and I agreed seeing as it was like a Texas Twister type ride. This ride was amazing, that's all I can say. Flipping upside down in PITCH Black, and staring down into a bubbling pit of water.

This ride gets a 10/10!

The Beast-By far the best woodie I've ever been on. My dad and I rode both the front and the back, and the total wait time didn't even reach 45 minutes. Not exactly a walk-on, but it was still pretty close. Going through the woods and everything this ride was amazing as well. My only complaint was when I was sitting in the front a bug hit my arm when it was up going down the second hill.

10/10

Top Gun-Great themed ride, and relatively fun. I call this a "hang and bang" coaster though because a)its suspended, and b)you get banged around a little. Nice speed, great turns, this was a good ride.

9/10

Flight of Fear-My dad was questioning this ride, he didn't know what it was, and when someone said it was a launched coaster, he didn't believe it. He though the building was too small for a coaster. I knew exactly what it was though, and it was an AWESOME launched coaster.

10/10

Runaway Reptar-Great suspended coaster for the littler ones. It features some nice speed, and some fun turns. It's a little bit of a Hang and Bang.

10/10

Fairly Odd Coaster-A great little woodie, that is pretty cool for a kid's coaster. Nice pops of air, nice speed, and a smooth ride all make this coaster a great ride.

10/10

Racer(Backwards)-A really fun ride, especially since you don't have any clue of where you are going or what to expect. A little rough in some places, but otherwise a great ride.

9/10

Viking Fury-A nice swinging ship ride, but it's not fun if no one screams. It was an okay ride, but I've been on better swinging ships.

7/10

Congo Falls-A great water ride, with an unexepected twist, you have to watch out for the sprayers. Even if you think you are safe because the wave didn't get you, the three sprayers at the end will make sure you are wet before leaving. A very fun ride, and really cool to stand on the bridge and get soaked.

9/10

Vortex-Everything I expected an arrow looper to be and do, was confirmed by this coaster. Although my ears didn't take nearly as bad of a beating as on Corkscrew, they still ended up pretty red at the end of the ride. This was a pretty good coaster with some nice airtime, and some pretty wicked points of G's.

8/10

I also rode on the speedway by SOB, and Top Gun.

The Good Points of the trip: Relatively short waits for rides, great themeing for rides, Pretty decent level of guest service, clean park, and very fun overall. Oh yeah and they have a Subway and Starbucks INSIDE the park!

The Bad Points: Son of Beast, Delirium, The Italian Job, and Face/Off Were all closed, I was kind of looking forward to hear people spieling, but little or no spiels were given, I think the ops could have checked the restraints on the rides a little better, and One of the workers in the park didn't help me at all, I asked where the Subway was, and she was like "I don't know" and blew me off. But then a supervisor came up and helped my dad and I.

They also had a pretty decent selection of food, although the food was a little pricy, but hey it's an amusement park, so that's expected.

Overall, for my first time there, I loved it, and I would return in a heartbeat, as long as the four rides I missed were running.

I give the trip and the park a 94/100.

WOW Awesome report. I love Kings Island, its my favorite park. I'm glad to hear that you and your dad had such a wonderful time.

PKI is amazingly fun, even on crowded days. It's one of the few parks that has everthing: amazing thrill rides, top ranked coasters, awesome water rides, joyful atmosphere, entertaining shows, awesome customer service, elegant themeing, a giant top ranked upscale water park, and of course I can't forget the amazing one of a kind selection of family and kiddie attractions. Don't forget The Great Wolf Lodge coming in the fall, and a possible world class coaster coming in spring of 2007.

Again Im glad to hear you had a great time.

Top Ranked Coasters? Im still scratching my head, maybe some enthusiasts, im not saying that the beast doesnt make it, but the best thing they have had in that park as top ranked is a great kids area. Im not so thrilled by customer service, the only person i met that was good was jeff siebert, he was a class act, and ride ops forget about em, they arent all that great.

Food is a plus there, with lighter prices than CF, but average on the tilt. Its a good park, just not the greatest thing since sliced bread, although neither is cedar point. The best place to me with great times is a bit east near pittsburg, not the best in alot of things but it does the right things.

It depends on who you ask, but there are a sizable amount of us that consider the Beast our favorite wooden coaster. Irregardless, its a coaster that pretty much any enthusiast has on their "must ride once before I die list."

Pretty generous there. I mean decent park, but top ranked coasters???? Believe me that I love The Beast, I've grown up on it. But besides speed (sometimes,if your lucky), scenery, and a rather enjoyable ass kicking, it can't compare to its counterparts around the world.

The Beast is running really wild and out of control this year though. Probably the best its ran since the magnetic brakes.

Glad you could enjoy the park though. Delirium is the best ride there IMO. Lacking a good steel coaster.

I would agree about the Beast this year - the off-season work they've done is really showing in the faster and smoother rides it's giving.

I am curious how bad a ride would have to be to get, say, a 4/10. A 1/10 must be getting run over with a steamroller or something.

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Den said:
I am curious how bad a ride would have to be to get, say, a 4/10. A 1/10 must be getting run over with a steamroller or something.

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How bout getting your spine jackhammered? We would have found out had he ridden SOB.

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Den said:
I am curious how bad a ride would have to be to get, say, a 4/10. A 1/10 must be getting run over with a steamroller or something.

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Haha. I guess she rates roller coasters on a curve.

^lol. SOB sucks. HAHAHA!

PKI is my favorite park too. Beast is One of, if not my favorite wood coaster. It's sad to hear that a lot of rides were closed. I have had a lot of hope that SF was not going to make other parks think it's all right to charge full price but not run full capacity. I hope this is not my fears starting to mannifest.

L. Kris Allen, PKI has good steel. AE is a lot of fun. Vortex, although old, is a lot of fun. TG is my favorite suspended coaster just behind BBW. FoF is intense and exciting. Those are good steel, imho, and they just got a new steel coaster last year that looks like a good time.

I had a good day there as well on Friday. The park wasn't too crowded and I got on everything that was open a majority of the day. TR:TR managed to go down while I was in line, and Face Off had a miscatch and other problems, leading my brother's seatbelt to be cut off with a pocket knife by maintenance (no joke!). I noticed that there were many lights on when I rode Flight of Fear. That kind of took away from the ride some. I had a good time at the park, however I don't think I could ever rate Reptar at a 10/10... I too am wondering what it takes to get a 1/10. A problem I noticed on my trip was how inefficient the park was with getting all the guests into the park. Security was really hustling to let people in, then they were all trapped in limbo before the turnstyles. All in all it was a great day for me though! Glad you had a nice trip. What were your thoughts on Avatar?

dexter,

Accepting FoF, Vortex, AE, and IJ:STa as "good" steel coasters is just accepting mediocrity to me.

If you will note my raitings (on another site, I don't think you can see my individual ratings here) the sob gets a 1 in my book. At 6'4", this ride kills my knees every time, and I avoid it like the plague. Face Off is also a little painful, but is the only coaster at PKI that still scares me. I give Flight of Fear a 10 for its fast launch and disorienting ride, along with no head banging! I realize this launch is not fast in todays standards, but I have yet to ride ttd or kk. TTD was down my last 3 visits to CP. Yes, I did not get to CP last year, my visits were in 04' and 03'. Other favorites for PKI are Vortex and Beast.

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I was kind of looking forward to hear people spieling, but little or no spiels were given

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Wow, people actually like that stuff? Having grown up at Cedar Point I got pretty used to the mindless chatter, but when I started going to Kings Island in the late seventies the first thing I noticed was the lack of ride spiels. (I had also never seen a queue gate before). It was one of the things I liked most (and still do) about PKI--the lack of ride attendant gibberish.

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coasterzak said:
A problem I noticed on my trip was how inefficient the park was with getting all the guests into the park.

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Was a plausible reason ever given for no longer letting people into the front of the park before 10:00 a.m.? That method seemed to work just fine for the previous 34 seasons.

*** Edited 4/19/2006 1:51:17 PM UTC by Jeffrey Seifert***

You know what? I fully admit that Cedar Point has better steel coasters than PKI, and that PKI has a number of mediocre rides (Vortex, Top Gun, Racer) along with two terrible ones (AE, SoB).

But for some reason, I always have a BETTER TIME when I go to PKI. Maybe it's the nostalgia of having grown up nearby, but at the end of the day, I think I'd rather be at PKI than just about anywhere.

I also think FoF is an amazing ride and one of my top steel coasters (out of 75 or so).