Kings Island - Sat - April 25 -

Not too long of a TR...

After a 4 hour drive, my 14-year old cousin Chase and I got to the park around 8:30 AM. I opted to spend an extra $5 for a better parking spot so I could leave my camera in the car instead of renting a locker. We went straight to Guest Relations to pick up our complementary tickets.

We then waited about an hour at the rope next to the Eiffel Tower for the "running of the bulls" to Diamondback. During our wait at the rope, we spoke to a very friendly security guard by the last name of Crysel.

After the National Anthem, the rope was dropped and the running began. There were a few people with Season passes in front of us in Diamondback's line, but we only waited about 15 minutes.

Diamondback is everything that I expected and more. You've read it all before, the airtime on every drop and crest, the positive G's at the bottoms of the drops, and I'd have to agree that the park has built a winner. It's incredible, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it in the top spot in the various coaster polls.

After our first ride ride, we noticed that the line was getting pretty long, and decided to go all the way to the other side of the park. A few rides on Top Gun, and it was time for me to test SOB once again. It was just as rough as I remembered, and I will never ride it again. Chase loved it and re-rode it throughout the day.

The we made our way around the park. I still love Adventure Express, as stupid as it is. It's fun!

Can anyone explain why the "Racers" were not racing? Maybe next year they will change the name to Double Coaster.

Flight Of Fear still rocks. I will go as far as saying that it is my favorite coaster in the park. I do have a minor complaint. The UFO room was very brightly lit, totally taking from the pre-ride atmosphere that the ride once had.

Spongebob was still fantastic. That movie ride cracks me up every time, and supplied me with one-liners for the rest of the day. "Don't pop my bubble bike!" "I'm allergic to pickles." HAHAHA! One problem though. The preshow TV's are in a terrible location. I couldn't see any of the video playing on them, due to a reflection of the racers in the sunlight. Wasn't there two large screens in the middle of the two staging area before?

Vortex was still bangy. Fun but not THAT fun.

Stunt Track is a decent ride. What's wrong with the splashdown? There was no water there. Why can't the park keep up the effects? The helicoptor was stationary, and the guns didn't look like they were shooting. The explosions worked though.

Beast! take out the "a" and what do you got? I see now what everyone means about "neutered". The new magnetic brakes suck some of the speed off, but it's still fun and still one of the greatest rides of all time, imho.

The Scooby dark ride was fun, but we did it only once. I found it funny that outside of the ride, we heard the "gang" talk about breaking into the old house becasue they saw a light on inside.

We ate at LaRosa's Pizza. It's expensive, of course, but delicious. We snacked all day. I wish I didn't eat the soft pretzel.

Rides we stayed away from for various reasons...Invertigo, Drop Ride Zone, Avatar, the water rides...

The weather was awesome, and the crowds reflected that. The park became pretty busy throughout the day, but they seemed longest about 5PM. This became the perfect time for me to go get my camera and take some pictures for the story I am writing for the newspaper that I work for. I even got to speak briefly with Don Helbig. He gave me his card and told me to call or e-mail him with any questions whan I write my story.

I got some fantastic photos of Diamondback. I'll share them online soon!

Going in and out of the park, I noticed an enormous line for season passes. It went all the way past the parking lot.

After returning the camera to the car, we started to notice that we were feeling worn out. Re-rides were taken on the favorites, before we called it a night soemtime after park closing.

I took cousin Chase to BGW last year, and we went at it all day like we did this day too. It's pretty funny how tired we start to get near closing time, but we keep pushing. We make it a point to get as sick and as worn out as we possibley can by closing time. The worse we feel at the end of the night, the more fun we have had.

I have to conclude with how great the park staff was. The ride ops hustled and got the trains out of the stations as quickly as possible. Most everyone was friendly and willing to help. Line jumpers were seldomly seen. The fountain is still as delicious as it was when Paramont ran the place!

Great weather, great operations, and great rides, made for a great park visit to Kings Island.

Thanks for reading.

Two TR's??

Edit to add: As for "Stunt Track" (BLSC), that fake splashdown has been permanently removed for good.

Also, why was Invertigo an obvious no ride?

I was at the park on Saturday as well, and agree with pretty much everything you said. Glad to see you had a great time, as well!

^All of the lines in Action Zone were ridiculous. The only one we even bothered with was Son of Beast, because I hadn't ridden it since 2005. (And I actually somewhat enjoyed it, though my body was jackhammered and thrown around like a rag doll).

Racer was actually racing on opening day.

Really? It kinda dueled on my lap...

"Various", not "obvious". Chase decided that Invertigo might make him sick when we passed through Action Zone. We didn't get around to including it later. I would have loved to ride some of the rides that we skipped, but they were missed.

It's a shame that the fake splashdown is never going to return to Stunt Track. Maybe they should take out the cement and plant some grass. It's very noticable that it is missing, and I heard many people in line mention it.

I did see Racer race a few times throughout the day, but maybe they did that by accident...lol

I forgot to mention that we noticed Drop Zone getting stuck at the top of the tower twice throughout the day, and since we didn't want to get stuck up there in the 80 degree heat, we didn't ride. Chase was scared of it a little because he heard about the SFKK incident as well.

I probably posted twice by accident. It looks like someone fixed it for me...Thanks!

Lord Gonchar said:
Racer was actually racing on opening day.

Not when I rode it.

Interesting. I never saw it not racing on opening day.

When I rode the blue train departed about a minute after the red train...but I did see them racing earlier in the day.

It may have been the exception when I rode. I rode it once and did not spend a whole lot of time in that section of the park. I was not paying one bit of attention whether it was racing or not when I was not riding. All I know is that just before we hit the brakes, I saw the blue train coming down the first drop. I was enjoying my ride too much to care.

tigellinus said:

Edit to add: As for "Stunt Track" (BLSC), that fake splashdown has been permanently removed for good.

By the department of redundancy department, no less. ;)

Racer was racing all day when I was there on opening day. The crews on each side even checked with eachother before they hit the button to make sure they were in sync...kind of like Gemini

Racer did not race for me opening day. It did race this past Saturday though.

Kyle Fobe said:
Racer was racing all day when I was there on opening day.

Did you stand and watch it all day?

It was not racing all day. There was at least one dispatch, the time I rode, where they did not.

Agreed. While in line I would estimate there were 6-12 dispatches. None of them raced.

So all we've established is that sometimes the Racer races. :)

Indeed, but I am still kind of waiting to hear if anyone stood and watched the Racers all day. ;)

Edited for a spelling whoops.

Still raced more than Gwazi... for a couple of reasons. ;)

Carrie M. said:
Indeed, but I am still kind of waiting to hear if anyone stood and watched the Racers all day. ;)

I'd volunteer, but I still have questions.

Is just one lap of non-racing enough to call it "not racing" or do we need a majority count? Or just the opposite? Is one racing lap enough to say the Racer races?

Being an enthusiast is hard. :)