Kings Island 7-25

The spur of the moment coaster trips always seem to be the best! Hubby and I left Columbus around 7ish to head to KI. The sky to the west did NOT look good and I was dreading our day may be rained out. The rain hit us right before Mason, hard at times, by the time we got to exit 25 rain done, and humidity was nothing short of "phew" :(
We stopped in McDs for breakfast and off to KI we went.

I hate to start my TR with bitc**** but..
The 2 cars in front of us at the toll gate clearly paid for their parking, I saw the cash, and saw both of them throw their parking tiks on their dashboard.
They both drove into gold pass parking, right past the attendant who didnt even request to see their (non existant) passes. There were several cars, trucks and vans following us to gold pass parking and Im sorry there is NO way they all had passes. 2 of them parked by us and I overheard one of the families saying they hadnt been to KI since the 70s.
What is the deal with the cones in the lot that lead EVERYONE to the gold pass parking? Unless the people bother to read the signs they either didnt know or didnt care that they needed to keep driving to get to the main lot.
I know its not a big deal really but the gold pass parking is a nice little pass perk that KI offers. My main complaint is why pay someone to sit there and not even bother to enforce what she was there to do?

We headed straight for DB (B&M heaven LOVE this ride) and got 2 early rides before we headed to Beast where we got 4 rerides. From there we leisurely walked the park and hit the rides on the way. Italian Back Lot Stunt Job Coaster was a walk on (why do I gray out on the helix?) Vortex walk on, FOF 10 minute wait, Adventure Express, walk on and hubby and I were the only 2 on the train! Racers (running AWESOME) 5 minute wait, Top Flight Gun Deck, walk on. We pretty much had all the main coasters done by 10:30 :)
Hubby hadnt seen Booblasters yet so we did that 2x. I kicked his butt the 1st time, but the 2nd time my guns didnt work. Does anyone know why they dont show the image of the talking main ghost that you go thru anymore? I noticed it wasnt working this visit or my last.

I couldnt talk hubby into seeing Snoopy on Ice, his loss. He didnt want to watch Spongebob either (complete!!!)

We walked past one of the stands by DB that sell those animals on a leash and I noticed 4 of the leashes said "Dorney Park" instead of KI! I showed the girl and she said "whats Dorney Park?"
Apparently someone in quality control missed something. By the time we went by the stand again all the Dorney Parks were gone :(

The heat was relentless and luckelly we had brought a change of clothes so we could hit Boomerang Bay if we needed to. And we SOO needed to! We hung out at the wave pool for a good hour then took advantage of the Brats w/chips and drink for $6.00. Hubby took advantage of that twice :)

Once we changed we went back into the park, rode Beast and DB 1 more time. We happened to look at the on ride DB photo and some (grown up) idiot did a double flip for the picture. I said "look at that stupid idiot-how mature he ruined the picture if the people behind him wanted to buy it"..that idiot was standing right next to me...he proceeded to put his head down and walk out of the store. Jerk I HATE when people do that!!! :(

We spent 8 hours in the park, had a blast and decided to call it a day. We just love the drive too, we were home before we knew it..its cake for us compared to the drive from CP.

The park was its usual spotless self, despite the awful humidity, the employees were all smiles, the rides were all up and running (except for Invertigo in the a.m. but was up later on) and SOB still sits rotting away.

GREAT trip! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2231 :)

Did you happen to be at the park last Sunday as well? We saw a couple waiting for the second to last Beast seat just before 10 last Sunday and figured that they probably were enthusiasts based on the fact that there was nobody waiting for the last three cars except for that particular seat. It was obvious they knew the drill!

Glad to see you had a good day there. I think the weather definitely got better as the day went on, and by the time the evening rolled around it was very comfortable. I couldn't even have imagined being out there at all on Saturday!

I don't know if it's just me but the park doesn't seem to be as busy this year. I can remember DB consistently sporting 25-30 minute waits on Sunday evenings last year but it's been 15-20 minutes this year. Outside of special days (bring-a-friend-for-$9.99, Spring Song, etc.) and Saturdays it just doesn't feel like the crowds have been there this year. I'd be curious to find out what this years actual attendance is compared to last year and years past.

Gary Dowdell said:
Did you happen to be at the park last Sunday as well?

.....I don't know if it's just me but the park doesn't seem to be as busy this year.

No, the last time I was at KI was a couple weeks ago on a Monday I believe. Another excellent trip!

I didnt think the park was that crowded yesterday, but suspect many didnt go because of the morning rain and threat of occasional showers. I know alot of people dont like to go when its that hot either.
But for the people who did go, Boomerang Bay was the place to be!!

I think the "iffy" economy may be keeping people from doing fun things this season. Then again if you want to change your mind about that go to any amusement park on a Saturday!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2231 :)

We were at the park yesterday as well. Did you see Bert the Conqueror? He was at KI for a bit with his family. Nice guy.

DaveStroem said:
We were at the park yesterday as well. Did you see Bert the Conqueror? He was at KI for a bit with his family. Nice guy.

I didnt know that--I know Bert!
I did the taping at CP with him...he is a nice guy and hilarious!! :)
Wish I wouldve seen him!!!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2231 :)

LuvRaptor said:

Once we changed we went back into the park, rode Beast and DB 1 more time. We happened to look at the on ride DB photo and some (grown up) idiot did a double flip for the picture. I said "look at that stupid idiot-how mature he ruined the picture if the people behind him wanted to buy it"..that idiot was standing right next to me...he proceeded to put his head down and walk out of the store. Jerk I HATE when people do that!!! :(

That's awesome. I love seeing idiots like that get called out, especially when they think they're being ultra cool.

Nice TR too!

Flipping off the camera is sooo original, too. What a knob.

We walked past one of the stands by DB that sell those animals on a leash and I noticed 4 of the leashes said "Dorney Park" instead of KI! I showed the girl and she said "whats Dorney Park?"
Apparently someone in quality control missed something. By the time we went by the stand again all the Dorney Parks were gone :(

Last year, at SFGadv, my companion bought a red El Toro shirt with printed statistics..height, length, etc. When she got it home and read the stats, they did not match those of El Toro. A quick search of RCDB revealed they were the stats for Steel Force! Not only the wrong stats, and the wrong coaster, and the wrong park, but the wrong CHAIN!!!!