Kings Island Opening Day 4-17-10

This being Ohio naturally it would be 80 for 3 days and today for KIs OD it would be in the mid-high 50s. Oh well, not going to ruin our OD plans we just grabbed extra clothes and headed south.
Got into parking lot with 2010 CP Platinum pass but not so much into the park. Seems their machines were saying they were still 2009 passes. Hubby and I joined like 60 other people in guest relations who apparently were having the same issues. The wrote down our names and our pass#s and sent us into the park. They said they updated the passes but I guess that will be seen on our next trip to KI. It wasn't really a biggie for us, they were very nice and the crowd was NOTHING compared to the crowd from OD last season!

We hooked up with Millennium Tony and headed to Diamondback for ERT and also so I could drop off the 2010 Diamondback Crew buttons I had made. DB totally got my tummy and I had forgotten how intense the airtime is on this coaster. Nice to see it hasnt changed and it looks like will be another stella year for this awesome B&M :)
Guests were completely enjoying this coaster again this season! :)
I just still can not believe Tony still thinks MF is better than DB :(

After noon we made the dire mistake of eating in the Festhaus. Why dire mistake? Holy crap thanks to the pizza and beer hubby got and the Panda Express I got there went almost $30.00 for lunch. Yikes. Now I remember why we usually pack food! :(
btw-my wait for Panda Express was the 2nd longest line of the day for me

Park appearance was its usual sparkling clean self. I was actually thrilled to see a few green recycle trash cans around the park.
SOB-was still errie quiet, gathering dust instead of more lawsuits.
All the Minis for Backlot Italian Stunt Coaster Job all painted. No more headlights on any of the cars and Kings Island logo on the front. Look kinda stupid if you ask me. CF has added seat belts to this ride this season (anyone shocked?) So now instead of just pulling down on the lap bar look for seat belt on the side simular to FOFs. No huge fireball either during the end of the helicopter thingy, not sure if maybe CF decided it was too dangerous or if just wasnt working today. The heat from it would have been welcome due to the chill in the air :)

FOF running great. I never ever get sick of that ride. I was sad to see 3/4th of the lights on the ship still dont work and the dust that has gathered under the ship is still there. The inside of the ship is disgusting (thank you GP) and I so wish someone would do something about the alien "prisoners" on the station platform. Maybe it's just me but I would hate to see CF kill the whole themeing on FOF. That makes the ride even more fun if you know what the idea is. I just cant stop thinking about poor Disaster Transport.

In the morning it appears X-Firehawk Flight was down and I honestly do not know if it ever came back up during the day. I know when I glanced over at it now and then I never did see it running. No loss for me, it makes me want to hurl but I will wait in line for hubby to ride.

Tony and hubby rode Drop Zone Tower-their maiden ride. I watched. Sign said the weight was 15 minutes but it was more like 45. They both did enjoy the ride very much. I enjoyed not riding it ;)

Invertigo valleyed (sp?) so went over to it to see the valleyed train. Why doesnt anything cool like that ever happen when Im on the train? The guests had to be taken off obviousely and it was unclear if the train didnt catch the 2nd lift or if it just didnt have enough umph to get over the loop.

The Beast is still kicking butt at 31 years old. Our morning ride was way better then our later ride. For some reason they waited until after 5pm and a 45 minute wait to add the 3rd train. That caused a longer line, then they ran that 3rd train empty 5 cycles before finally taking it back off again. So the 45 minute wait turned into 2 hours. Lucky for us it really was a great ride, even though Tony actually hit his hand on the final helix tunnel. It never ceases to amaze me how little wood has been replaced on that ride. Why do some woodies hold up better than others?

Note to self: do not ride Vortex in the back again EVER! It almost ripped my neck off and destroyed my hubby's knees. It is amazing to me how it can be this great ride from the front car but as you move back it gets more and more painful. Yet it is one of those KI staples you have to jump on just cause.

We skipped the Boo Blasters on Boo Hill but sure looked like it was quite popular with kids and their parents. We did walk around Planet Snoopy and although it was sad to see all the familiar Nick stuff all gone the new Peanuts signs/ride renames were all very nice. I must agree also that I dont think that theming matters to a child at all. I mean when I was kid none of our rides ever had themes yet it never stopped me from riding and enjoying them. The area that had the Snoopy statue looked alot like the same spot at CP :)

Racer was only running one side so we skipped it. Adventure Express was its usual fun self, nice to see all the "now you shall pay" dudes working even the main guy (chief?) was pouring the hot lava.

I saw several CP employees (past and present) in the park today, I thought that was just great. Can't help but get excited about CP opening soon! I also bumped into quite a few CP and CB buds through out the day.

After riding everything we wanted to (some more than 1x) taking in the whole park, taking tons of pictures, we all finally left the park after 7pm. It was a really great OD for all of us we had a blast. Looks like KI had a pretty good crowd today so hopefully it is a great season for them. I know we plan on returning several times this season. Just cant get enough of DB! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

BTW Jo, the fireball was working later in the evening. I saw it many times from the stairs on Diamondback.

Also the fake doors were taken off and the trains rearranged so that there is a blue, red and white train on BLSC .

Touchdown said:
Also the fake doors were taken off and the trains rearranged so that there is a blue, red and white train on BLSC .

You know I didnt even notice that-I noticed the obvious paint job but didn't notice all the trains were the same colors.
I heard from a CP employee that CF had to do that since they no longer had a contract with BMW for the Mini. He said they had to make the cars look less like Minis. No front or back headlights, no rearview mirrors and no doors. Guess they succeeded.
As long as they don't mess with the ride itself, Im good with it :)
Maybe explains why no more Mini sitting in the park anywhere!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

Sounds like a good time Jo. I gotta get out there to ride Diamond Back.