Kings Island 9/3 to 9/5

This being my first trip report, I don't really know what I am doing, but I'll try it anyways. I have been to KI twice before, once in 1979 and once in 2000 to ride SoB twice. So, this park is basically completely new to me. The wife and left Muskegon, MI at 4:30a.m. to drive to Mason, OH. We traveled in the rain for much of our drive and didn't really know what the weather would be like for the rest of day, but it turned out great. We arrived at our hotel about 10:00 a.m. and were allowed to check in early. It was still raining lightly and we decided to hit Wal-Mart for luch materials and head to the park. By the time we got to the park the rain had stopped and the sun was peaking out from time to time. Our well paid for platinum passes paid for our parking, and then we had to process through geust relations to get our tickets to eneter the park. Our passes were purchased at MiA so we have to do this at every CF park we go to.

The park was not very busy at all at 12:30 and we went straight to to Sling Shot and paid $10 a piece to ride. Then we headed to Diamondback, which we rode 3 times. We then rode the Beast and Vortex once. We then headed to Firehawk and Flight of Fear and rode both of them once. We then rode both sides of Racer and then Backlot Stunt Coaster once. Then, we met up with my wife's family Planet Snoopy. We rode Boo Blasters, Surf Dog, Woodstock Express, Woodstock's Whirlybirds, The Great Pumpkin Coaster, Race for your Life Charlie Brown and Flying Ace. We spent basically the rest of the day in this area riding ride's with my wife's niece and nephews. I can't express how much I actually enjoyed this area of the park. We then went as a family in the Eiffel Tower for pic's everyone has of the park. We then walked through Starlight Spectacular, which was kinda neat since I have never sen CP's version I don't have nothing to compare it to. I am never at CP when theirs is running, I am always their either early in the year or late. In between all of that we all had lunch/early dinner in a nice sahded area in front of the main gate. We didn't go back to the park untill Sunday. The wife and I spent all day Sat. going to Flea Markets and and getting drunk at the wineries.

Sunday we arrived at the park at 11:00 and knew it would be busy. By the time we got processed it was noon. We then headed to Invertigo for an hour wait, Drop Tower for an hour wait, Flight Deck for a 30 minute wait. We then headed to Adventure Express for another 45 minute wait. We then decide to to wait an hour to ride Flight of Fear again. Delirum we skipped having ridden MaxAir multiple time everytime we go to CP. We rode Blue and Red Racer again, then Surf Dog again. Checked the line for DiamondBack but the quee line was full and spilling out into the midway. The rest of our day was spent watching a cople of shows and chilling out people watching. We left the park to met up with my wife's family at RiverFest to watch the fireworks that night. All in all a great trip with 13 more credits to add to my count.

The suprises at the park

Sling Shot: An awesome albiet short ride, but for $20 not bad. Wouldn't pay $50 to do it though.

Surf Dog: I thoroughly enjoyed this ride the multiple time I rode it. MiA could use this if they ever re-did their kids area.

Planet Snoopy: The best kid's section of a park I have ever been to. Besides Disney.

Flight of Fear: The wife and I agree this was the best coaster we rode while there. I don't know if it is the restraining devices or not, but we both loved it.

Flight Deck: The best suspended coater that I have been on eventhough it is short. What was KI's thinking when they put this ride where they did? It seems to be a long ways from anything.

The Racer: I think the ride crews make this ride waht it is. They were funny and made the wait to ride more enjoyable.

Invertigo: No headbaging for me so I enjoyed it.

The take it or leave its:

DiamondBack: This almost made my disappointment list. It was a decent ride with good airtime, but not anywhere near my top-ten stell list.

The Beast: Can't remember when I rode it with my dad back in '79 so I can't compare the nuetered Beast to the un-nuetered Beast. I will say I am glad it is severly braked or it would be as rough as Mean Streak.

The Crypt: A no-show all weekend. Is this a hauted attraction? Or does it not run very often?

BackLot Stunt Coaster: Not bad, but we walked on it.

Adventure Express: Not a bad Mine train coater.

Disappointments at the park

Vortex: Needed Tylenol after riding, enough said. My only question with this multiple loop Arrow is how much time does this one have left?

FireHawk: My wife loves flyers and she hated this one. What is up with the dual loading platform? It is not used the way they are supposed to be, they load both at the same time and then the ride cycles.

Drop Tower: An hours worth of time I'll never get back.

Lack of transport rides: The train I just don't get. It takes you from Rivertown to the Waterpark. Something that took you from Action Zone to the Beast area would be kind of neat, don't know how they would do it though.

The loading platforms at some of the older rides seem to have alot of dead space with all the queeing areas that are not used. If they have them on the platforms why don't they use them? Also witnessed alot of the rides had long lines spilling out into midways, when none of the quees were being used. The Beast and Flight of Fear to name examples. Also I wish when you purchased a Platinum Pass at MiA you could just scan them at all the parks, waiting in a line for 45 minutes at guest relations just to get a ticket doesn't start your day off good. Next year I will purchase mine at CP that way I only have to do that at MiA.

Nice TR. I was at the park on Saturday. It got packed by early afternoon.

The Crypt... You didn't miss much. It's a giant Top Spin in the dark, which could be fun, but runs a really crappy program. When it was first built, it was called Tomb Raider: The Ride. The old version was much better, but really not all that. Now many of the effects have been removed.

My Tour Guide on Saturday told me that Crypt has been having some problems. I wouldn't mind seeing this ride disappear. The short cycle flips around twice and then it's over. It would have definitely been in your list of disappointments. It does have a really interesting queue though, with some leftovers from when it was TR:TR.

I'm planning to write my TR tonight.