King's Island 7/19/14

Couldn’t resist the cry of the Banshee and took a coaster detour on a road trip back to Chicago from Nashville. Last time at King’s Island was Diamondback’s first year. A KI trip was long overdue.

Planned for one full day only (Saturday) at KI, so sprang for Fast Lane Plus. I have mixed feeling about the program, but it is worth it to me and it really did pay off.

In the park at 9:30 with our CP Platinum passes but didn’t make sense to line up for Banshee since we could use the passes at 10. Walked on the Drop and Delirium. Since The Bat has no Fast Lane, rode that. I like the new paint job and the re-theme here the most. Nice ride. It was 10 by then, so finally got my first ride on Banshee. What a great new addition. There is NOTHING I didn’t love about this ride. The restraints are so much better than the older generation. LOVED IT!

Rode Adventure Express, Racer, Scrambler then headed over to FoF. 90 min wait already. I didn’t realize there was no Fast Pass on FoF-I would have gone there first thing to wait for it to open had I known. Rode Firehawk, which I like better each time I ride this thing! Going up the lift hill flat on your back and backwards just messes with me. Love it.

Rode the Back Lot Stunt Coaster. Like it a lot but wish it were longer. Next up was Beast. What can I say about it? It’s a legend and deserves that status. Don’t remember the trim brakes slowing quite as much as they do now, but still a wild ride!

Made a run to the car for snacks, phone call, etc. and headed back in and did Boo Blasters (always low score here) but nice to be in the dark for a bit. Great family ride, just miss the Scooby theme. We waited a cycle for Surf Dog and waited about 15 minutes for Diamondback, which I also seem to like better each time I ride it. Took the train round-trip to relax a bit before taking on the Beast again. About a 15 minute Fast Lane wait at the Beast for another crazy ride.

Wanted to ride Windseeker, but it seemed down all morning and after the second Beast ride, we decided to hit up the water park. Totally overcast day and not too hot but was humid enough, and-though not the longest-the lazy river at KI is one of my favorites. Changed in the car to avoid having to deal with a locker and moved the car over by the Water Park entrance. We were in at 3pm, little chilly at first, but a few body-slides and the lazy river were awesome. The lazy river entrance being moved confused me a bit. Really wanted to do the wave pool, but it was closed so decided to head out and THEN saw the NEW wave pool. Awesome! Love that you can have a float.

Left the park around 4:30 for a hotel and dinner break and were back by 7pm to ride Invertigo and get re-rides on Drop Tower, Delirium, Banshee, and Adventure Express. Couldn’t skip Vortex. If only the restraints could be changed somehow, I think this would be a much better ride. I like it though. My friends do not. Windseeker had finally opened, so waited a cycle for that. Seems smaller than the CP version but I really couldn’t tell. I really like this ride and am always surprised that at CP, even on a busy day (and this was a busy day that KI) that there is never a huge line for it.

An unfortunate pretzel cheese accident led us back to the car for a quick change and we were back in the front gate exactly at 10 and watched the fireworks (perfect view) from the very end of the main fountain. I had wanted to be up on the Eiffel Tower for it but too bad. Pretty nice and long display.

Rode Delirium again, then had the most amazing night ride on Banshee that we went twice in a row. Took a night spin on Firehawk…crazy! FoF still had a long line so just gave up on it for this trip, rode Windseeker again and headed back to the Beast for quite possibly the best coaster night ride I have ever had! Amazing! We made a bee-line for Diamondback and got one last great night lap on that before the line closed.

All-in-all, an amazing day at KI. Yes it required a significant financial investment in Flash Pass but we all agreed we got our money’s worth. We rode, and re-rode everything we wanted (except FoF), spent a bit of time at the water park and even had time to leave the park to shower and change at the hotel, have a sit-down dinner outside the park and still be back by seven for night rides.

The park was beautiful. Landscaping is awesome. The staff and other guests in general that we interacted with were all very nice and pleasant. Every vendor asks if you have a season pass for the discount. CP does not do this and I always forget. It is a small amount, but HEY, it’s something. Loved that.

Thanks for an amazing day King’s Island!

I cannot think of a single bad thing to say about Banshee. It could very well be the perfect (inverted) coaster. I've been a huge fan of Talon for a long time, but it's been years now since I've ridden it. I'd have to ride Talon again to be sure, but it's a close race. Part of what does it for me with Talon is the pass over the walkways, , the airtime drop and the ground hugging helix. But the pure smoothness and speed of Banshee may win out.

I'd been to KI a bunch, but never really notice until last months visit just how much open space is at that park. Really helps keep you relaxed I think to look over and see some grass and landscaping. You don't get the feeling of being boxed in like you do at some other parks, especially on crowded days.

Nice TR. Glad to see you had a great time.

About the FoF Fast Lane issue: I went on 7/3 with FL Plus. FoF was down that day, but FoF was included with the plus pass along with Firehawk and Banshee. Did that change over the course of a couple of weeks? The lady in the sales booth was nice enough to explain that FoF was down before we bought the passes.

I had a great trip as well. CF has really done a lot to improve this park in just about every way possible.

I will be heading to Kings Island in a couple of weeks and have no intentions of buying Fast Lane, but I looked on the website a month ago to see what rides were on FL+ and found that Banshee, Firehawk, and Flight of Fear were all on it. About a week ago, I checked again and discovered that it was gone from the whole list. I assumed this was just a mistake, but I guess it was intentional.