Short TR - Kings Island and Holiday World

Just a quick rundown from both parks this past weekend.

Kings Island

Went to KI on Friday, Sat night, and Monday morning. At the right times, lines were short (especially Friday and Monday morning) and was able to ride with short waits.

Diamondback is still very impressive, getting about 10 rides throughout the few days we were there. Line moves fast, and night rides are incredible! One of the best night rides out there easily. Everything is just pitch black out in the woods and just was magical. I suggest if you can to go get a night ride on this!

This trip was the first time I rode SOB since the removal of the loop and retracking... First ride was in the very front and was very smooth and somewhat "fun", maybe. Rode it another time second from back and was hell. Changed my mind of it being somewhat good right to "tear it down". Ugh.

We caught Beast during the morning platinum walk-back and ugh, what a horrible ride. I don't understand. It's slow, boring and uneventful. This is the third trip I have tried to ride with an open mind and nothing works. A ride full of long drawn out brake filled straightaways. Fun? eh. I will never understand the attraction to this ride.

On monday, the slingshot and skycoaster were only $5 per person, a steal! We took advantage of the slightshot and what a crazy ride it is. First time on one and won't be our last! Too much fun!

All in all, we rode most everything else at the park and had a great time. I still find Italian Job to be one of the best rides at the park besides Diamondback. Racer was impressive this time around and Beast and SOB are still just horrible rides. Also, I want to applaud CF for the great work and upkeep of Kings Island. All the operations were rock solid and the park was looking wonderful. The nightly firework shows finished off the nights wonderfully. I really wish more parks did this to close out the night!

Holiday World

We went Sunday and stayed from 9:30 until 5 I believe. I must say, I really think HW lost some of the "charm" it once had with me on pervious visits (actually, the group of three I was with all agreed). Ride operations were decent, but the ride quality seem to have gone downhill. Raven was running a bit bumpy as was Legend, and although Voyage is still a great ride, it is just getting harder and harder to put up with the increasing aggressiveness of the ride. They really need to get ride of those PTC's... Maybe the new gravity group trains will eventually make its way onto the tracks...

Pilgrims Plunge was quite a ride. The ride feels "silly" and just out in the middle of nowhere, but it is not a bad addition. The lift is the most scary and nerve-wracking thing I had ever been in, shaking and pumping up the entire lift. Not to mention, this IS Intamin, so I wasn't feeling all *that* safe! haha. Anyway, the lift and drop were very fun and the splash was just right. Very enjoyable and will be a big hit come the busy parts of summer. Full queue most of the day and people exiting happy!

I do have a complaint about this park though, they *really* need to fix is the bathroom issue. Why are there only what seemed to be 4-5 urinals in every bathroom? Multiple times throughout the day there were lines out the bathrooms (mostly female) due to toilet "shortages". I have never seen it this bad at any other park. You think with all the expansions they would at least add a bathroom of proper size!

Overall the park was clean and staff friendly. I just don't feel "attached" to the park like I used to. Sad to say I had much more fun at Kings Island, which is something I thought I could never say. Needless to say, it will probably be a while until I decide to return to HW unless some changes or new rides come alone worth driving for.

Have you ever ridden the Beast at night? If you havent you really should at least once, if you think Diamondback is an amazing night experience (and it no doubt is) the Beast is 10X better. Also, like most wood coasters, the thing needs to warm up before giving its best rides morning is really not the time to do it.

^^I completely agree with you about The Beast...in the daytime. For the past decade, I had never understood how anyone in their right mind could actually enjoy that boring, rough, uneventful waste of space. That is, until I rode it on April 25th at 9:45pm.

When we reached the final brake-run after my night ride on the Beast, I was trembling. I was seriously shocked at how different (and amazing) that coaster could be when the sun goes down. It really is hard to explain, but sitting in the 2nd to last row, I experienced 2 moments of airtime, no roughness whatsoever, and almost 5 full minutes of pure bliss. Diamondback was a great coaster to end my day with last visit, but The Beast will certainly end all of them in the future.

Sadly, Sunday night when we had tried to get a night ride we found out that they closed the Beast queue down at 9:30 for the firework show, so there went that idea, sadly. I really do want to try it again at night, but man, during the day it is just horrible.

SteveWoA said:
We caught Beast during the morning platinum walk-back and ugh, what a horrible ride. I don't understand. It's slow, boring and uneventful. This is the third trip I have tried to ride with an open mind and nothing works. A ride full of long drawn out brake filled straightaways. Fun? eh. I will never understand the attraction to this ride.

I have similar questions/problems with the coaster, but it kinda hit me as I was riding that this ride was a transition, a link, from one era of coasters to another. Plus it's damn fun at night!

Not meant to be a knock, but all the coasters that you knocked were woodies. Is it possible that as your getting older your tolerance for the roughness of them has diminished.

I still rank the Beast as my #1 coaster.

Dave, not at all. You have to remember, the parks I went to had many wood coasters. My "knocking" has nothing to do with the fact they are woodies. In fact, I am a big fan of woodies and aggressive ones at that.

To "explain" myself a bit better:

Voyage is still a fine ride and I don't consider it rough just yet, the track is just showing its age now. As you go through the curvy sections of the ride the trains just jam side to side and create a horrible vibration effect. Those trains destroy that track and they need a solution to preserve the money they drop into that ride on upkeep. Solution? New trains. (Can't stand PTC's!).

Raven and Legend are fine as well. They are not rough, no, but they were not riding as good as I remembered the last few times I had visited, therefore, I was a little dissapointed. Not saying they were bad. Raven still very much is an awesome ride (Legend I never did care for much).

Son of Beast was the only rough ride in the bunch. The Beast is just a bland ride all around. The layout is a waste of space and have always felt that way. The layout is uninspiring and just plain boring. But like I said, maybe a night ride will make it "better" but I don't think it will make me appreciate it that much more.

I must admit that while the Beast is still my #1, KI is running more brakes on it then I remember in the past. As to the layout, I think it is perfect considering that it is 30 years old.

In a recent poll on a KI fan site Beast was still ranked about Diamondback by a wide majority.

That is what is so great about having so many to choose from. We can all have our favorites.