PKI 7/7/05

This trip to PKI would be my first since I was a little kid, and my mom, dad, and I were going. My sister had to take a rain check because she is on a mission trip to Mexico. We left our house around 6:45 and settled down for the two hour drive. When we got there, it appeared to be pretty crowded. We paid the parking fee and found a place. We actually arrived a little over ten minutes after the park opened.

We headed over to action zone where we approached Son of Beast. The line was stretching into the midway, and we realized the ride was not open yet. We waited about ten minutes and the opened the ride. We waited another ten minutes before we got on the ride.

Ok, I’m 6’1 and weigh 155 lbs. I’m pretty tall and skinny. When I sat in the SOB trains, I knew I was in trouble. First, there is not freaking leg room. My knees were resting against the thing you are supposed to hold on to. Second, it was not padded. Why the hell not? I don’t know how anybody taller than 6’1 can ride this thing. I was a little skeptical of all the criticism SOB has been receiving due to its roughness. So as the ride started, I held on to my knees to keep them from hitting the hand bar. The first drop was pretty fun, but after that the ride sucked. It had great speed and heights, but it just beats the living s*** out of you! In the rosebowl turn after the first drop, the train was shuffling and my right knee bashed the hand bar. I yelled out in pain, and the ride was not even halfway over. I’m sure I will have a huge bruise on my knee tomorrow. The rest of the ride, I was just holding on for dear life and hoping for the ride to end. I noticed the train was shuffling a lot, I don’t know why. I guess woodies are just not meant to be built this big. I’ll give it a 6/10.

Next we rode Top Gun. We waited around 10 minutes, and I really like this ride. It was a little short, but my favorite suspended coaster to date. The speed is really surprising. I’ll give it a 7/10.

After Top Gun, we saw Adventure Express and decided to get that over with. My mom agreed to ride because I guess she likes mine trains. Adventure Express is pretty fun for a mine train, and not very rough. I’ll give it a 7/10.

Action Zone was pretty dead this morning. Delirium was closed for who knows what, and Face/Off was not operating either. So we continued in a circle and went to FoF. When we got there, we only saw a few people standing in line outside the building. We thought to ourselves it wouldn’t be a long wait, but there was a very long wait inside the building. We decided to wait it out, and ended up waiting an hour. We were really starting to get tired of the stupid preshow, but at least they made an effort to theme it a little. The actual ride is good, I have ridden RnR, which is pretty similar. For some reason my dad didn’t like it, he said it went in a circle too much. I’ll give it an 8/10. After our ride, my dad wasn’t feeling too well. My mom, dad, and I sat at a table near the Racer and let me dad lay his head down. My mom and I thought it was pretty funny because my dad likes to act rough and tough like he can ride anything. (Of course my mom will only ride kiddie rides). We decided to eat at Subway. We had 3 six-inch turkeys and 3 chips, and 3 drinks for $35! Back in Indiana it would easily cost half that. Oh well, I guess how they make their money. After letting my dad rest a little bit, we went over to Vortex, which had a 20 minute wait. We rode in the second to last row, and it was pretty rough. But this ride had Raptor-like smoothness compared to SoB. I like the first drop, and the first two loops are pretty intense. But after that, it gets rough. The brakes are way too heavy before the corkscrews, and the batwing is incredibly rough. Pretty fun ride though and impressive to watch. I’ll give it 8/10.

My dad was still not feeling well so we decided to tame it down a bit and go on the Racer. We rode backwards, and this ride is an airtime machine! A little rough, but hey it was built in the 70s. They weren’t racing them though, and that was a little disappointing. I’ll give it an 8/10.

My dad was about to puke and said he couldn’t ride anything else. I called him a baby and got in line for the Beast. I had never ridden this coaster, and I was eager to ride it after hearing stories and positive reviews. I waited 30 minutes to ride, and I was blown away. The first drop into the tunnel was great, and I love the out of control feeling you get. The second hill is even better though. It is so shallow, but it is very long, and you pick up speed quickly. I also love the intense helix! I’ll definitely give this a 10/10, best ride in the park.

After the Beast, my mom and dad wanted to go ride Scooby Doo. We waited a whopping hour. This is a ripoff of Buzz Lightyear at Disneyworld, but it is still fun. I beat both my mom and dad, I think I had 1000 points, which was labeled as “Groovy” on the ride.

My dad said he felt a little better so we got in line for Tomb Raider. We waited about 45 minutes. This line is weird though, because it is at a standstill for about 10 minutes, and then you move a lot. I guess it’s the ride system. My dad was starting to get worried when he saw the ride building because he thought it looked like FoF. I assured him it wasn’t, but I had no idea what to expect. When we got in the building, it was very strange. It just looks like a huge room with three long rows of seats in the middle. This ride is very disorienting. I didn’t know which way was up, and I felt like I was going to fall out. But anyways, still fun and my dad held up surprisingly well. I’ll give it a 7/10.

Next we decided to brave the long line for The Italian Job, including my mom. We waited 1.5 hours. This ride is really fun! I was just expecting a little family ride, but it actually packed a punch! The launch is surprisingly strong and the helices are fun. The splashdown ending is fun too. My mom actually liked it, amazing. Great addition to the park. I’ll give it a 9/10.

After that we went up to the Eifel Tower and snapped a few pictures of the park. After coming back down we went to Chick-Fil-A to eat dinner. After eating, my mom and dad wanted to rest. I wandered over to Action Zone and was surprised to see that Face/Off was running. There wasn’t a long line and I ended up waiting 10 minutes. This ride is a little on the rough side, but fun. It is strange to look at another person while you are riding, but I guess that’s that novelty in this ride. I wouldn’t wait any longer for such a short ride; I’ll give it an 8/10.

It was getting dark and I decided I better make an attempt at finding my parents. They were right where I left them. I begged my dad to take a night ride on the Beast with me and he agreed. We waited 45 minutes. This ride rivals Millennium Force for my best night ride ever. It is just so amazing to ride this thing in the dark! You just don’t know where you’re going and the helix is so intense. It also brought back my dad’s memories of coming to ride this when he was in high school. He says he remembers waiting 4 hours to ride. Anyways, the picture was funny and we decided to buy it. I have my hands up and he has his eyes closed like a little girl.

My mom and dad decided to get ice cream, and I chose to wait 10 minutes to ride Vortex again. I sat in the front row, and it was a lot smoother.

After Vortex, it was nearing park close. My dad agreed to ride the Racer with me until they closed of the line. We rode forwards, and I think we ended up getting to ride 3 consecutive times. Very fun and airtime filled.

After that we watched the fireworks as we made our way out of the park. We made it home to Indy, in less than 2 hours, my dad was booking it! Now I’m sitting in this chair and I still feel like I’m on a roller coaster. Very weird feeling. I guess I need to get some sleep.

So the day in review:We got everything done that we wanted, except for Delirium. (We can ride one at CP). The park was clean, the ride ops were nice, people generally weren’t rude, so overall a very good day to say the least. Last thing, I have to get this out of my system. SoB is just a big pile of s***. Woodies aren’t meant to be made that big. If you’re going to make a rough coaster, for god’s sake make some good trains with comfortable seats with a little bit of padding. I think they should tear this down (which they never will do), and build a Beemer. They could use a hyper or even a floorless. I think this park lacks a ride that is silky smooth. Most of the rides here you come of saying, “Damn, that was rough.” So, I hope you enjoyed my TR, please comment or add suggestions.

Look for my CP TR after my July 27-28 trip.

Thanks for reading.

bbll24 *** Edited 7/8/2005 6:17:12 AM UTC by baller24***

I have the same complaints as you when getting of SoB. I am 6'7" and about 210, so my problems fitting were much more extreme. It would be fine if they would just redo the trains, but appearently the loop forces the restraints to be a little less comfortable. I don't think I have ever ridden a ride with less leg room in my life, and to not have padding on the back of the seat in front of you is ridiculous. SoB is the only roller coaster I have ever ridden that left me with a horrible opinion. My knees just got beaten to death, and I think my hip popped out of socket when the restraint locked.

Perhaps they should remove the ridiculous height restriction they placed on Delerium (6'4" I think) and put it into place on SoB.

A little generious to give SOB a 6/10 aren't you?

Pretty good trip report. My favorite part was when you said: "My dad said he felt a little better so we got in line for Tomb Raider"

I laughed at that one and thought "Oh-No!"

The secret with SoB is not to ride over an axle. If you ride in a middle row the car absorbs some of the roughness. It's still very rough though.

BTW, Delirium has been down for quite awhile. They're waiting for a part from Huss.

Nice trip report. Beast is indeed best at night.

yeah the comment of "My dad said he felt a little better so we got in line for Tomb Raider" will bring oh no's from most since top spins can be very disorienting. Nice TR I am looking forward to my stop at PKI later this summer and definitely will use your TR for info.

Making notes like don't eat Subway it's too expensive for what you get.

Yeah, we weren't really sure exactly what Tomb Raider was.