PKI Fear Fest - Oct 19.

A group of friends and I went to Paramount's Kings Island for Fear Fest on October 19. We arrived at 8 o'clock, just as the park opened. It had rained for most of the day, but the weather that night was perfect. No rain, and it wasn't really that cold.

When we first entered that park, I noticed how much fog was being used. Every place in the park ( minus Action Zone ) had a layer of fog on the walkways. It was a really nice touch. The Skyline Chili Vision televisions also had a Halloween theme. It would be a black screen, and lightning would flash every so often. Every one in a while, a screen would come up that said "Please stand by." After some more lightning, flicks from scary Paramount movies would be shown, and at the climax of the flick, the television would go to a screen that said something like, "Rent this fright-fully fun video tonight from Blockbuster." After that, the black screen would come up, and start over with different flicks and music videos.

The music around the park was pretty good too. It seemed to be playing louder than usual, but it may have just seemed like that because it wasn't a busy August day. The "gardens" around the park were also themed very well. There was a scene with demons and corpses, and even a scene themed to Blair Witch. Yet again, the fog really added to the overall appearance. Most of the lights around the park had blue, purple, or green bulbs in them, which kept the overall light low, but added an eerie glow to the park.

Despite all the themeing, I noticed that there weren't many ghosts or corpses walking around trying to scare people. I saw 4 different characters in Coney Maul, and that was it. I saw none in Action Zone, none in Rivertown, and none in Oktoberfest. They didn't seem very lively either. Most of the time, they would just stand behind a group of girls and wait for them to turn around and scream. Extremely amusing, but I wish they would have done more yelling and acting. Now onto rides and hanuted houses.

Our first ride of the night was Racer. Backward wasn't open, so we waited about 5 minutes for Forward. The ride was extremely smooth, but seemed to be running a little slow. Not as much airtime as usual, but the night-time ride made up for it. Rating = 8-10

After Racer, we headed for Maze of Madness. We waited about 15 minutes for this, and finally entered the maze. It was almost exactly the same as the maze that was under the Eiffel Tower a couple years back. There were quite a few "insane patients" walking around, and every-so-often there would be some animatronic figure going through convulsions or something like that. Throughout the entire maze strobe lights were going off and screams were being played over the speakers. The strobe lights got annyoing after a while, and made me a little dizzy. After about 10 minutes in the maze, we found our way out. Rating = 6-10

Fligh of Fear followed Maze of Madness. Another 15 minute wait, but something was wrong with the ride. We decided to wait it out, and luckily, half of the people in front of us decided not to, so our wait was cut down a few minutes. The ride itself was very good, and the mid-course brake wasn't on at all. After the ride, I remembered how bad it was with OTSR. The on-ride photo is still not working, if anyone was wondering. Rating = 8-10

Next was Elvira's Superstition in the Action FX Theater. The line for this was another 15 minutes, but without the usual summer sun and heat, it wasn't bad at all. Inside the building, the turntable in the middle had some of the old Phantom Theater themeing. There was the Egyptian coffin, but the mummy was not visible, the Roman soldier who while on Phantom Theater had his face projected onto him so it looked like he was talking. There was the actor, who had the same special effects as the Roman soldier, the coffin from one of the scenes during Phantom Theater, and there was even the maestro himself, exept with a different face and costume. The pre-ride show was a little annoying, but Elvira herself made up for that. Unlike the usual shows playing at the Action FX theater, the pre-ride show was actually timed so that it ended when you got on the ride. Once we got in the theater, they were playing old Phantom Theater music, but stopped it for the ride-ops to give directions. The ride itself was boring and didn't have nearly as much movement as the normal movies do. Rating = 7-10

Vortex was next. Even though they were only running two trains, the line moved fast enough that we only had a 10 minute wait. I had the best ride on Vortex that I have ever had. It was fast, intense, and extremely smooth. I rode in the first row of the last car, and it was airtime heaven. Airtime on the first drop and hangtime on the corkscrews. Best ride ever. Rating = 10-10

After Vortex, I was pumped up for a ride on the Beast. I had never ridden it in the dark, and it lived up to all of the hype. The pitch black tunnels were the best part of the ride, and despite the trim brakes, which were easliy noticed, it seemed like it was flying. In my book, Beast has once again became my number one wooden coaster. Rating = 9-10

Tomb Raider: The Ride at night is better than in the day. Inside the queue, all the lights are very bright, and are not overshadowed by the sun. The flames outside the building weren't on and some of the paper flames in the first and second chambers weren't working either. Even so, it's a nice effect, and I still hear people say that the "fire" is going to burn down the building some day. The paint on the handrails is already littered with "I waz here" and "X loves X," but that is to be expected when stupid people run rampant around the world. My group and I got the middle row, which I have never done before. I've found that as you go from front to middle to back, it gets more and more intense. I have also noticed that the second chamber doesn't get completely dark before the movie anymore. I really liked that when I first rode it, and I hope they decided to make it pitch black again. The ride itself is still the same ride, but the sparks at the beginning and glowing paint on the statue just aren't what they used to be. It's a great ride, but the themeing is everything. Rating = 8-10

Next came Adventure Express. Front row ride, and it was very smooth as usual. While almost all of the themeing was invisible, the pitch black tunnels made up for it. I also noticed for the first time that the lanterns on the first lift hill and the large beams you go under during the ride are lit up. Not only that, but ALL of the figures on the second lift hill were working. They were all pouding away on their drums and the guy at the top moved his mouth and lowered that container that he has in his hands. The recording of the drums and the guy's voice was even playing. A really great ride in the dark with the themeing working. Rating = 9-10

The second to last ride of the night was Son of Beast. There was a five minute wait and for good reason. The ride was rough and extremely painful. Some new, larger trains with a different restraint system would do wonders for this ride. If those side bars on the restrains weren't there, then your legs wouldn't get such a beating. Rating = 5-10

Last ride of the night was Drop Zone. The line was about 30 minutes long, and was the longest we waited all night. While waiting in line, the Skyline Chili Vision televisions all of a sudden flashed the blue and white message "Paramount's Kings Island is now closed. Please come back again soon." I had never seen that before, and for some reason put me in an even greater mood. Rating = 9-10

Overall, the night was perfect. Great weather, great people, and we got to ride all of the rides. While we only did two of the haunted specials, we decided that the rides were better. I think it would be almost impossible to do EVERYTHING in one night.

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Intelligence is a God given gift: Know how to use it.

Hey, I went to PKI's Fearfest too on Saturday night. We got to the park around 2:00. The park was completely empty! But probably because it was raining. Luckily, all of the rides were running even though it was raining. We got our wristbands inside the park so they didn't kick us out when the park was "transforming" into Fearfest.

We did all of the haunted and Elvira's Superstition first. They had 4 haunted houses, and a haunted trail. The haunted houses were really good, I thought, but they let way too many people in at a time. You loose the effect of being scared if you have 15 other people with you. At least the lines moved. After that we rode some coasters, SOB, Beast, and Adventure Express. I had a great time.

Very nice TR. Glad you had a good time!! Did you see that one ghoul walking around in the Coney Maul area? He had a hannibal mask on and knee pads. He was so funny. He would run down the midway, jump onto his knees, and slide down the midway on his knee pads.

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I did happen to see him, but just as I was leaving the park. He, like all the other ghosts and goblins at 1:30 AM were out of character and getting ready to change back into normal clothes. I can't say that I blame them. I was on an adrenaline rush after Drop Zone, and I still wanted to go to sleep.

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Intelligence is a God given gift: Know how to use it.

Saturday & Saturday night were our first PKI visits ever. We had problems with the tickets/wristbands they sold us going back into the park at 8. We had to use the kennel so we had to go out, but then they didn't want to let us in.

After getting back to Beast around a few after 8, we ended up riding nonstop with very few people until we had our share by around 9. Then it was about 40 minutes for Son of Beast, full quees it looked like for all the other coasters except AE & Racer(which had a line at this time), all the haunts had at least 30 minutes to wait. After doing one house that we waited at least 40 minutes for, one more 30 minute wait for Beast around 11-ish, we didn't get to do much for Fearfest. It was quite crowded, LOL, a crowd seemed to move in around 9 when we walked back towards the front. But we can't complain after such a great day all long Saturday, we just wish we could've gotten in on some more Halloween action & Vortex in the dark.

I went this day two. I might have saw you p_c_r because I was outside waiting for someone to meet me and saw two people with a dag and it wasnt a seeing eye dog. I thought the fog was nice for the first 15 minutes. From outside you couldnt see drop zone or SOB but its almost like they turned it off at about 8 30. O well. I liked how the people that were scaring on the paths used knee pads and slid around but your right, there wasnt enough of them. I thought most of the haunted houses were good enough. I disliked how they ran minimum trains. On SOB they had 1 until about 9 when the line was over an hour and this was right after we waited 30 minutes so i waited with the just one train running so it moved slow. Then vortex had just 2 trains and the same with the beast. Last year they ran all trains on everything and there was no lines at all. This year the lines for the houses were shorter but rides longer. Maybe since the park was emtpy all day, thats why. We got there at 3 and the parking lot was empty. I actually thought they might have been closed till fear fest there was so little amount of cars there. But overall it was fun and ill be paying the 18.99 again next year.