Kings Island opening day

By chance, did anyone get to KI yesterday? What did you think? I was there with a friend who had gotten out of coasters for a bit. After I took her to BG in Florida, she wanted to ride more. So we went to KI and encountered huge crowds. OK, opening day, nice weather so we'll deal with it; but KI seemed woefully unprepared. From opening until about 4 when we left, the following rides were down: Beast, Diamondback, Drop Zone, Red Racer (all day) Blue Racer, Vortex (until about 3), Top Gun (or whatever it's called now), the old swings, Tomb Raider, and Flight of Fear (or whatever). We got thirsty and went to a kiosk for a drink as neither of us had singles for a machine. The CASH REGISTER broke! I understand glitches and bugs having to be worked out, but WOW. On the positive side, the Beast had major track work done and was running smoothly. There are still trims all over it, but at least it doesn't feel like you're riding on square wheels.

I've been complaining (or bit**ing) about opening day at many parks for ages now. People pay full price, and expect the park to be in full swing, but more an more, the parks seem to be having a "soft opening" on opening day. I don't run to a park on opening day anymore, because I've got bit in the butt too many times.

There is a lot of recent talk about opening Saturday on CoasterBuzz somewhere, but I can't find it. When I run across the topic, I'll link it here.

Edit - found it.

Word on the streets in my neck of the woods is that opening day was a mess.

Highlight of the yesterday for me was hearing a local radio station broadcasting from the park repeatedly telling people to come down and check out the new Windseeker ride and launching into a full-blown spiel selling the ride to listeners.

Somehow I think I'll manage without CF passes this year.

^Come on Gonch! You know you can't do with out CF passes. ;) How old are your kids? My son is almost done with his freshman year of college and doesn't want anything to do with amusement Parks in our area anymore. Went to Hershey last week and knoebels yesterday. He wants no parts of those parks, but if I said lets go to CP or KI he'd be there. Ahh kids! That's what happens when they think they're adults. ;)

I was there for opening day, and it was probably one of the busiest days I've ever experienced at that park. At one time firehawk had a two hour line (when it was actually running). A lot of rides breaking down, vortex not opened till mid afternoon, pretty much every ride with a full que including flat rides. Pair lots of rides down with opening day and a choir competition, and you got yourself a hellish day at KI. The morning ERT was running about a 30 minute wait for Diamondback and Beast. As soon as the park opened that jumped to easily a hour. A complete shocker honestly, last year for opening day we only waited 15 minutes at most for any ride.

I wonder if it had something to do with a later opening day then last season? I mean doesn't Kings Island normally open earlier than the end of April?

It used to. It seems Cedar Fair has firmly established a new 'normal'.

^April 1st 1989, 10th anniversary for the Beast party. The only time I ever rode a coaster in the snow.

SF Great America is also opening more than a month later than it used to - times are tough I gueses.

They usually open around mid-April. But at the same time, I've never seen them open for Easter weekend. Not saying that's the reason for the later opening, but Easter was really late this year.

I once rode Twister at Knoebels in a hail storm. Man, that was painful.

KI was totally unprepared for opening day, at least operationally. I can't remember any time at any park where I've seen that much downtime, and I've been through some pretty rough CP opening days. Even the ice cream machine at the buffet restaurant was broken. The Beast crew was one of the most lethargic I've seen anywhere. I know it was opening day and all, but there's not much of an excuse for constantly stacking all 3 trains on such a long ride.

On the plus side, most of the employees we encountered were pretty friendly and outgoing.

Stacking three trains on Beast is bordering on criminal. That's just ridiculous.

Coasterfantom2 said:
^Come on Gonch! You know you can't do with out CF passes. ;) How old are your kids? My son is almost done with his freshman year of college and doesn't want anything to do with amusement Parks in our area anymore. Went to Hershey last week and knoebels yesterday. He wants no parts of those parks, but if I said lets go to CP or KI he'd be there.

Mine are 13 and 9. Even with CF passes, we still only hit KI 2 or 3 times a year. Just not a park we're into. We usually use our passes more at CP each year than KI.

I was kinda excited when we moved to the area five years ago, but I quickly realized it was the BeastBuzz events I enjoyed, not necessarily Kings Island. Been my home park for 5 seasons now and I still don't have all the credits.

To each his own, Gonch. Kings Island has always been my favorite park, but it's where I caught this coaster sickness a few decades ago, so maybe I am biased a little.

Yeah, but your opinion is wrong. ;)

Lord Gonchar said:
Been my home park for 5 seasons now and I still don't have all the credits.

Really?!

So is it Runaway Reptar you've missed, or Little Bill's whatch-a-ma-call-it coaster?

Never been on Invertigo, Firehawk (since KI got it, rode it in Aurora) or the Little Bill coaster (depsite having kids small enough to get me on) - no one in my family has ridden every coaster currently there. I've only been on Diamondback one time since Jeff and I went to the media day...two years ago. I rode SOB once in 2004, the first time I visited the park and never rode it again.

If you guys knew how I really visited parks, you'd take away my enthusiast credentials. Then again, I've said it countless times - I'm not a coaster enthusiast. But no one seems to believe me. :)

But you do the podcast. Surely that counts for something. :) Wait, Carrie isn't an enthusiast either... Any word on Mike's cred??

Of course you're not an enthusiast...you're a curmudgeon. ;)