Kings Island GOCC Fall Freak Out 10-16-10

Hubby had a cold and decided not to go when he woke up, he felt pretty miserable. Sporting my FFO shirt, off I went. I no sooner was 1/2 way on 71S, my daughter text me that if she had known hubby wasnt going to go she would have went with me! Doh! I would have loved for her to join me!! :(
It was shortly there after I realized I left my camera at home! Doh again!! :(

Solo trips to any park dont phase me. I went to several Cali parks solo this year and more CP & KI trips then I can count also.
I knew I'd find someone to hang out with at this event and of course there were TONS! Could not have asked for a nicer day for an event! The morning was crispy so I was thankful I wore a jacket. Got rid of that in the afternoon but did need it again once the sun went down.

We shared Diamondback and The Beast ERT with pass holders. Even with that we all managed several rerides on both. Even with well over 150 rides, Diamondback still takes my breath away! There is so much substance and airtime on that ride it is incredible. I LOVE that coaster!
Rode it 2x and headed for the Beast.

Nothing like early morning Beast rides to make you freeze! I stayed in the last car to insure rerides which worked like a charm. I got to enjoy Beast 5x before the GP invaded the park. The Beast was running awesome (I had on my industrail strength bra in anticipation of the 2nd turn and killer trim) and I am still amazed how a 30 yr old coaster can kick some newer coasters (SOB and MS to name 2) butts to the curb. You couldnt PAY me to sit in the back of either one of those!!

From there some GOCC friends and I headed to Backlot Italian Stunt Job Coaster, Vortex (OUCH) FOF, Racer (still running AWESOME) and then it was time for the drink and food service.

We got to eat in the International Restaurant with that view that is impossible to beat. It was the typical enthusiast menu, salad, chicken, pulled pork, roast beef and mac and cheese, rolls, ice cream and a huge birthday cake for a GOCC'er was for dessert. The chicken was very good and the mac and cheese was to DIE for!! OMG it was sooo good! :)

When I went back on line the guy in front of me had a 5" x 8" mountain of mac and cheese on his plate. Naturally (because of the aforementioned guy) it was all gone when I got there. I suppose that was my fault for not getting more on my 1st trip but I try to follow the take only what I will eat rule----a rule obviousely not everyone believes in :(

I spent the rest of the day hanging with Jason and "our" son Devon. The park was pretty crowded (nothing like CPs crowd but crowded none the less) The coaster lines were way long, even Boo Hill had over an hour wait.

The Halloween displays were great and most of them were hilarious! Someone mentioned he thought some of the skelton set ups were from movies, he was right! Jason and I were trying to figure out some of them.

I still can not believe how quickly the day seemed to fly by! I can easily say that KI totally changes after 7pm. The fog starts rolling in and the dead and monsters start walking the park. Suddenly there were MILE long lines for the haunts!!

We walked back to Top Flight Deck Gun and there was an actual wait!! It was then I decided I would just head home. I had early morning business at Quarter Horse Congress and wanted to get SOME sleep!

With the event we had front of the line passes for a couple of the haunts as well as VIP seating for the live show "Hot Blooded"...I gave mine to someone else since I knew I would NOT be using them. The GOCCers also were supposed to get the last night ride on the Beast. That I was sorry I would miss cause everyone knows the Beast runs so much better at night!

I could NOT believe the crowds of people just coming into the park at that time! Literally there were more cars coming in then leaving! I also found it interesting that the metal detectors were working and they were searching purses and bags at that time. They didnt do any of that in the morning or afternoon.

Seriously, with as crowded as the park already was, the season pass line and the people still coming in it is hard to believe we are in a recession! Good for CF! :)

Although I didnt get to stay to close or participate in the late night events I had a GREAT time! Hanging with my coaster buds at my home park is always fun but add in food, walk back and tours makes it all the more fun! Debating attending the ACE event this weekend now since hubby didnt get to go to ths one.

Thanks to Matt and crew for the walk back and tours, thanks to Don (get well soon!!) and KI for putting together such a fun event! :)
And thanks to Mother Nature for being so kind to us too! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

We were there as well on the 16th. The crowds were HUGE. SOB looks horrible, the wood on the lift hill looks warped. Since we were "the gerneral public" we had to wait until noon to get into the park. We got 2 rides on Diamondback, a ride on the Beast, a ride on backlot stunt coaster, and then a ride on FOF, that was all in the first hour, then the lines were unbearable. We did end up getting a night ride on the beast, besides the trim brakes, it was great!!! I do have to ask what is up with the all the trim braking and mid course breaking KI was doing. On FOF and the vortex the mid course break nearly brought us to screaching halt. FOF was soo bad people were asking if we were stuck that is how slow we crawled into the last part of the course.

With as busy as the place was, they were understaffed. Most food places only had one window open, and at 6pm during what I would consider a dinner rush, they ran out of turkey legs at two locations in the park and the coney maul area ran out of hot dogs at skyline chili for 45 minutes???Also the racer is callled the racer for a reason, there is no reason that there should be a 1 huor 45 minute wait for that ride, especially when you have one side CLOSED. Really close one side of the racrer for probally one of the biggest crowds of the season?

We only got to do two haunts, death row and Tombstone Scaretiory. Death Row was horrible, it was just a poorly designed maze with a couple of mirrors, smoke, a few strobe lights, 2 inmates, loud music. Tombstone was not so good either but the fastest moving line. You boarded the train to go back to where white water cayons ques was, then walked back to predictible scares. They had crates set up and that is where the scaracter hide, so it was no surprise that when you came up to one that is where the people were hiding.

Major Flaw with the event. Beer used to only consumed in designated areas. Not this year, on top of that, there were a lot of MINORS drinking. We saw a kid that look no older than 13 walk up to the stand outside the festhause buy a beer and never get carded.It was like the attendents were like, there is a long line I am not going to card anyone just to save a few seconds. There were several teens that were hanging out by vortex talking about high school and drinking. WAY TO GO KINGS ISLAND!!!

Over all great day becuase of the weather, the crowds did dampen the mood a bit but not much, but honestly Kings Island is flirting with disaster with the beer situation and probally recondsider their policy and practices when it comes to that.

Talonstruck said:
..... I do have to ask what is up with the all the trim braking and mid course breaking KI was doing. On FOF and the vortex the mid course break nearly brought us to screaching halt. FOF was soo bad people were asking if we were stuck that is how slow we crawled into the last part of the course.

Beer used to only consumed in designated areas. Not this year, on top of that, there were a lot of MINORS drinking......
but honestly Kings Island is flirting with disaster with the beer situation and probally recondsider their policy and practices when it comes to that.

The trim brake before you turn right to head into the 1st tunnel on Beast has always been there. You can tell that because it is covered. It does hit rather hard but when you feel the speed the train picks up once coming out of the tunnel (you're heading downhill) that explains why. The one on the helix is just to slow down the train some what before hitting the helix. If the trims extend the life of this classic coaster then Im ok with them!The trims on Beast are not as bad as some other coasters Ive been on. MS's 1st hill trims are pathetic.

FOF always had a MCB-in recent years it has slowed train down to almost a halt but once you start moving again you're really booking so that brake doesnt bother me too much either. I love that ride!! :)

I noticed more smokers out of designated areas then I noticed any drinkers who looked under age. I didnt know that KI had a policy you couldnt walk around the park with a beer? I know at CP you can walk around the park with a beer you just couldnt go on any ride lines with it. If thats changed IDK about it.
I hate to think some of the employees werent checking IDs. But if you posted it here, its a pretty safe bet it wont happen again!!
I remember when KI sold beer at stands along the midway!! Of course I also rode The Bat around that same time :)

Awesome trip report!! Still sounds like you had a great day! I was sure glad we all decided to do all the good stuff in the morning!!!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

I was lucky enough to ride the bat back in the day as well. It was much better than flight deck. Yea the smokers were in lines, all over the midway, roaming planet snoopy, ect. The Shrimp shack , larosoa pizza by the beast, the certain areas in the waterpark, and the Feasthaus for a while is only where you could drink beer. It wasnt allowed to leave the patio areas of where it was served.When they uses to have the beer barrel ride, you use to actually be able to buy buckets of beer. When I noticed the underage drinking was when the person didnt get carded, then it was like wow, look at all the kids with beer.

It was a good day despite the crowds, it looked like Friday night was really crowded as well.

P.S. If your going to stay in a hotel in the area, don't stay at the Kings Island Resort and Confrence center. It's not ADA friendly, very rundown, stained floors and curtains, looks like it hasn't been updated since the brady bunch stayed there when filming at Kings Island. They also had a dog show there and dogs were doing there business all over the patios ect. and it was kind of gross having the dog bathing area next to the pool.

So what were the lines for the coaster like after 6 PM or so? Some of my friends in Cincinnati want me to come down from Cleveland to spend an evening at the park this coming Saturday, and I'd like to be able to hit all the major rides, with a few Beast night rides, of course. Any help is appreciated.

Also as to the brake run in the Beast, I think it's the same amount of braking as before. It feels more abrupt now because the brake section itself is very short compared to the prior skid brakes that took up a majority of the covered area. I've heard that under the prior brake system, they would bleed the brakes starting in the evening in anticipation of shutting it down for the night, and that the last rides of the night were virtually trimless. If true, that would definitely explain why night rides always seemed so fast. Too bad you can't bleed magnetic brakes...

Talonstruck said:
I was lucky enough to ride the bat back in the day as well. It was much better than flight deck.

Really? I remember waiting in line for over 2 hours (and buying beer from the stands while waiting) and after finally riding it I was like what a waste! :(

I came to the conclusion the only reason everyone was screaming was because they wasted 2 hours of their life waiting to ride it.

I remember the beer barrel ride - I remember we were spinning so fast I thought I was going to hurl! That must have been in the real early 80's.

I really do like Flight Deck (way better then Dragging Iron) I just wish it was longer!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

Diamond back was 120 minutes from the que entrace, but the line was past the buffet resturant.

Beast was 90 minutes from the que entrance but the line was out to the crypts entrance.

Flight of Fear was 90 minutes.

Firehawk was 120 minutes.

vortex was 120 minutes from que entrance but the line was much past the que entrance.

Backlot stunt coaster 120 minutes

adventure express 30 minutes

Flight deck didnt make it back there becuase of the confusion of the lines with WolfPack haunt and Club blood, that was a poor design all three line converged in one place.

Delirum and drop tower 90 minutes.

Racer 90 mintues only one side running.

woodstock express....closed

After midnight, the lines stayed the same except adventures express which was walk on, and the racer went down to 15 minutes.

The haunts varied from 90 minutes for tombstone scaritory to 120 for some of the others. Best bets on the haunts were the indoor ones that opened at 5pm. they had 15 minute waits until 6 then they just kept buildiung from that point on.

Talonstruck said:
Lines were stupid. (paraphrasing by Gonch :) )

Which is why as much as I enjoy Halloween events at parks, I'm finding less and less reason to visit them.

When you're waiting two hours for rides and attractions, it just isn't worth it.

They should raise the admission price or start selling FOL passes or something.

Then again, year after year, people keep going back in spite of those lines, so what do I know?

It does speak to the wild popularity of the theme park Halloween events. Seems like they just keep growing. I wonder how many little local operations have been or will be put out of business in the next few years.

^ I guess that depends on how many times people go to different events. Over the course of 4 or 5 weekends, there's a lot of time for people to take in both theme parks and the smaller local attractions.

^ There is this haunted attraction less than 2 miles from me called Haunted Hoochie and Dead Acres. It is CRAZY popular...it gets voted as one of the best haunts pretty much every year. I dont do haunted ANYTHING so no, I havent been there.

I just dont see people around here anyway (CP 2.75 hrs - KI 1.25 hrs) deciding to go to CP or KI for their scary stuff instead of doing the local stuff. But who knows? Muhahahaha

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

Hmmmm...thanks for providing those wait times. I can't say it sounds too promising. I might try to convince my friends to hit Sunday instead.

RatherGoodBear said:
^ I guess that depends on how many times people go to different events. Over the course of 4 or 5 weekends, there's a lot of time for people to take in both theme parks and the smaller local attractions.

LuvRaptor said:
I just dont see people around here anyway (CP 2.75 hrs - KI 1.25 hrs) deciding to go to CP or KI for their scary stuff instead of doing the local stuff. But who knows?

So you guys think these massive crowds at theme parks (parks reaching capacity all over the place) come in addition to all the standard Halloween stuff crowds?

Interesting.

I suppose it may be people doing something (the park events) in addition to what they used to or didn't do before (the more local things), I guess I just assumed those big crowds don't just come from nowhere.

And as far as visiting 4 or 5 times, that makes sense even if it goes against all ideas of customer satisfaction that we talk about so much. I mean I don't want to wait in three two-hour lines once, let alone 4 or 5 weekends in a row.

I dunno. Seems interesting that something that barely existed a decade ago is so insanely popular now.

I don't see it as an either/or. In general, Halloween events of all kinds have exploded in the past 10 years. Not everybody wants the coaster or park experience with their haunts or hayrides. I'm not a haunt follower, but the people involved are definitely web savvy. You could argue they do a better job than the parks do since they have more time to plan and set up. They definitely aren't just a bunch of farmers putting sheets over their heads.

Another advantage some of the eastern PA attractions appear to have is that Butch Patrick, aka Eddie Munster is making appearances at a number of them. :)

RatherGoodBear said:
I don't see it as an either/or.

Yeah, I kind of did. Don't know why. Perhaps I underestimate the interest. Going to multiple haunt-type attractions in the fall isn't something I necessarily thought poeople did.

I imagined it very much as an either/or scenario.

I guess the truth may be closer to the idea that it was an untapped market with tons of room for growth and the parks are filling that demand.

You could argue they do a better job than the parks do since they have more time to plan and set up. They definitely aren't just a bunch of farmers putting sheets over their heads.

You could argue that and some definitely are. I'm not arguing that. Although my personal experience is that the simplest of in-park attractions is usually more elaborate, detailed and of higher quality than the local stuff. I have no doubt there are larger regional haunts that are quite amazing. But the local community Jaycees have nothing on what the parks are doing.

Still it's hard to beat a dozen haunted attractions, some live shows and a bunch of thrill rides for the price of one admission. I don't think most of the local places can touch that kind of value.

I got the the halloween events not only for the rides, but also to see how they decorate. What I have come to notice, its not the lines that make things miserable, unlike the regular season, there tends to be more unsupervised teens in the park.

As for haunts become popular in the last 10 years, I agree with that, we have one near us Niles Scream park that will give any amusement park Halloween attractions a run for their money........... Check um out at WWW.haunted.org.

Lord Gonchar said:
I imagined it very much as an either/or scenario.

I think so, too. Within two years of Phantom Fright Nights opening, the two premier haunts in Pittsburgh (Station Scare and whatever the hell the Gateway Clipper called their haunted boat) were closed and trying to sell their props to us. It's a limited market for sure.

There used to be a walk through at the local mall. $15 for the maze built in an empty storefront... then you exit and you're in the mall. We offered a whole night's experience with better haunts and good rides for about 5 bucks more. Guess who's still in business.

As far as the lines, I was actually talking to a friend tonight that was at the park last weekend talking about the long lines. He was there with a friend and his kids. He mentioned that the line for the haunt that's in our arcade was huge. I told him he should've seen me to get a FOL pass, and he said "well, we had to do something with the kids all night, I'd rather wait in line an hour and people watch than be walking around all night." So I guess maximum attractions per hour is not everybody's goal, either.

It seems rather interesting to me that these Halloween festivities and haunts have grown so much over the years yet it seems to me trick or treating is about over with.

Year after year there are less and less kids that come to our door. Seems rather sad to me since getting dressed up and going trick or treating was such a great childhood memory for myself and then as a Mom taking my kids.

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

My experiences with Halloween events has been that you either go during September/EARLY October, go midweek (obviously not an option for most of you), or you prepare for the most interminable lines on Earth.

Personally, I've been sticking with option 'A' for almost a decade now, and have done quite well with it. Longest wait for any attraction at HHN on October 1st (there from 5p-11p)....about 25 minutes.

Another reason parks seem to be so packed during the "Haunt" things is alot of people dont go near the parks during the peak season or when its hot.

I have always assumed (working on Raptor) the last 2 weekends are always CRAZY packed at CP (and now Ive witnessed the same at KI) because people have held on to their tiks all season and it is use em or lose em time.

At least the weather this October has thus far been nicer than seasons past. Of course we will see how closing weekend is...will prob need hat and gloves as always

Jo....
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2288 :)

Jo, I did the Haunted Hoochie on Oct 2nd. It was $20 per person and the line was over 2 hours long. It blew away anything I have every seen at a park haunt. The fact that they can touch you might have something to do with it. The haunt itself took over 20 minutes to go through at a pretty good pace.

http://www.deadacres.com/

Check out some of the videos. They are pretty insane.