Kings Island 10/8 & 10/9/2016

I went to Kings Island this past weekend for my second visit ever, but never experienced the park during Haunt season. On Saturday, we got there at opening. I don't remember the exact order in which I rode the rides, but we started with Banshee which was nearly a walk-on that early in the day. Then we went off and rode other coasters like FOF, Adventure Express, Firehawk, Diamondback, The Racer, and The Beast. And we also took a spin on the train and got to see Mystic Timbers construction up close. And we went up in the Eiffel Tower to get some good aerial views of the park. And most of my group ate at LaRosa's in The Festhaus while I just got a pretzel. The construction is coming along very good. Waits weren't all that bad. Longest was about an hour for The Beast.

But when the haunts open, that all changed. The park got crazy packed in the evening. But I first started with Wolf Pack. It was a great haunt. Then we got in line for Field of Screams, which was scheduled to open soon and at that point, the queue was already long, but we waited anyway. I really liked this haunt. I liked that it was in a corn maze and the monsters came out of nowhere and jumped out at you. They always seemed to target the same guy in our group who is easily startled. It was quite funny to see. Then we headed back to The Festhaus for some Panda Express. It took about an hour to get through the line. But a show was going on while we were there, and I thought it was a good performance. Next we hit up Board 2 Death. Pretty much walked right in. Nicely done haunt, I though it was very creative. Next we went to Urgent Scare. This was my least favorite, but I think it was still decent. Next we went to the haunt in the old Tomb Raider building (don't remember the name). I though this one was nicely done and good. Then we hit up Slaughterhouse. Decent, it was pretty similar to Cedar Point's version. After that we decided to call it a night. It was midnight at this point. We probably would've been better off staying in the park since it took us an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot. We were pinned in our parking space because cars were stopped and blocking us in our space.

Now onto the next day. We got in shortly after the park opened. We hit up Banshee first again. Then we went off and rode other rides like InVertigo, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Diamondback, The Beast, Vortex, FOF, The Racer and Adventure Express. We called it a day at 3:00 since we had a 4 hour drive back home.

Overall, this was a great trip, despite the crazy crowd Saturday night. I think Kings Island does a better job at Haunts than Cedar Point. I wish I got to do them all. Next time, maybe I'll get Fright Lane. I think I'll need to go down during the Haunt Season every year.

See I'm the exact opposite regarding Haunt at KI. I honestly think it sucks. Aside from the park theming everywhere not just zones and the music/atmosphere to go with it, I think the rest sucks. Board to Death, is quite literally boring. It's super creative, but not scary, even jump scares. Wolf Pack has been the same thing for literally years, nothing ever changes in there.

With CP I think having them all roam beforehand is neat, then I do think their attractions have a bit more scares to them. Eden Musee is one house that can still get me, it was pretty sweet. Then as much as it's kinda odd and misplaced, the crew for the Steampunk deal on the Frontier Trail is very well put together. They target people well in there.

Lastly, I think it's hard to appreciate the haunts for me at least. This time of year usually you can get into the actual Haunted Houses and those are stellar. The parks just seem a bit mediocre to me.