Cincinnati Area 7/4/09

My family went down to Cincinnati for a long July 4thweekend. I had a lot of places I wanted to go and I met my goals. We first went to Jungle Jims International Market in Farfield. It reallyis the biggest supermarket I have ever seen. All food and cookingequipment. Neat bathrooms, and good prices. From there we stoppedat Skyline Chili on the way to Sharonville for Coco Key. I work at theChicago location and I like going to the other parks just for comparisonpurposes.

The Cincinnati facility is newer than ours, and I really liked it. We gota couple day passes and enjoyed the park for a while. These are myobservations; There were 4 large waterslides (2 tube, 2 body), anindoor-outdoor hot tub, an activity pool with water basketball and lilly pads,a lazy river, an interactive water play structure with dumping bucket, and achildren pool. In addition to the water activities, there was a full bar,A&W express, Pizza Hut express and arcade with birthday party rooms. The slides were fast, the park was clean, the [Ellis & Associates]Lifeguards were friendly and attentive.

The next day (7/3/09) we went to Coney Island in the evening. Parkingbefore 4 p.m. was $7 and admission to the water park and rides after 4 p.m. was$11.95. We got there at 3:50 for cheap parking and paid for our admissionafter 4. Sunlite pool is the country's largest recirculating pool, whichhad 2 slides and 6 diving boards in it. Next to the pool was Twister,their new slide tower with 2 tube slides and 2 body slides. There wasalso the pipeline, 2 speed tube slides. They had a large selection of"Classic Rides" including a tilta-whirl, trabant, super roundup,tempest, scrambler, etc. At 8 p.m. they had a large hot air balloon demo,and at 10 p.m. they had a great Rozzi's fireworks display.

On July 4th, I went to Kings Island to ride 3 coasters that I have not yet beenon. Through Northern Cincinnati Visitor's Bureau (www.cincynorth.com) Iwas able to get an e-ticket to Kings Island for only $30.99 including Tax. Parking was $10 and $15 for premium.

When the park opened I went to Invertigo for a walk on. I enjoyed it andgive it a 8/10. (I miss Deja Vu) Then I walked on Delirium for aspin, and I give that ride a 10/10.

From there I went for two walk on rides of Flight of Fear. Now this usedto be my favorite coaster at Kings Island. I noticed they added lights tothe queue (boo). The launch no longer has an on-ride camera and themid-course brakes were on so hard the train completely stopped. Otherwiseit was just as fast and furious as always. Still 10/10.

Firehawk experienced some early morning downtime, but I was able to snatch aquick ride of a 10 minute wait. After riding Superman:UF so many times atSFGAm I somehow expected it to be something like that. It wasn't. The harness was awkward and not very comfortable, going up the lift backwarkswas pretty cool, but the ride was very rough and I constantly felt like my legswould fall out of the restraint. Not a favorite. 3.5/10.

Vortex was running very fast! The mid course brakes had a lot of work todo to slow the train down. For being my first upside down coaster, Istill love it. 8/10.

Diamondback was incredible. After riding Behemoth last year, which Ithough was pretty forceless and unoriginal, I didn't know if Diamondback wouldbe a gem or just another coaster. The first thing I loved about thecoaster was the video and audio in the line preparing you for your ride. Did I mention there was a single rider line? Great addition! I rodethree times in different rows, including the front row. The first dropwas insane and so were the two to follow, and the turns and bunny hills.10/10.

9/10.

The arcade was also very large at over 7,000square feet.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading!

Nice trip report Alex, I haven't been to Coney Island for years untill last year.
I think the place is ok, more to do for the little one's, and they do have a big swimming pool.

How was the crowds on the 4th at KI?

I like Invertigo, that is one of my favorites. But on most days there is always a line, so to me it isn't worth waiting for. I know what your talking about on Firehawk, Superman UF has much better restraints. Firehawks restraints feel lose to me, my legs have way to much movement, so when the train flips over they always cramp up. So I perfer Superman!!

And Dimondback is the best coaster there!!

Didn't it rain some in Cincy on the 4th??

Yes it did in some area's.

It was raining for a lot of the day. Most rides at KI have "Rain Cycles" where they pull one train off the tracks and continue to operate (at least thats how it went on Diamondback). It was fun rain, shine, wet and dry. The crowds were light due to the rain. The crowds at Coney on the 3rd however were EXTREME!