Kings Island 5-31-13 PTR

[ohiocolts]

To celebrate the last day of school, I headed to Kings Island with my mom and sister last
Friday. We decided to head to Diamondback first. But, when we got there, a message about severe weather played over the loudspeakers, and Diamondback was closed. So, I decided to head for Flight of Fear, while apparently one of my sisters friends got to the park, so they headed to the front gate.

A 90 minute wait time was posted, and the whole outdoor queue was filled. It was pouring outside now, and there was some lightning and thunder.

About 30 minutes later, when I was about to enter the hangar section, lots of people were walking backwards in the line saying that the ride was shut down. When I entered, I saw the whole queue filled, and lots of people exiting. An employee in line told us that the ride was down due to the severity of the storm.

After 35 minutes, I put my raincoat on and got ready to leave the line, as I agreed to meet at the Eiffel Tower about 30 minutes from now. So, as soon as I was about to go, cheers erupted, the TV’s in line turned on, and Flight of Fear was back open! So, I decided to stay in line, and waited about 20 minutes from there, and had a great ride on Flight of Fear, after about an overall 90 minute wait.

I walked to the Eiffel Tower, and got there only a few minutes late. My sister and her friend were out doing whatever, so I was with my mom. We headed to Diamondback for our 2nd attempt at riding.

10 minutes through the line, when we were on the stairs, a message played, and Diamondback closed, again. We decided to see if Woodstock Express was still open, and it was, so we headed for Woodstock Express.

Woodstock was walk on, and a fun ride on the best coaster in Planet Snoopy. When we got off, it started pouring, and we heard the ride ops announce the closure of Woodstock behind us, as another storm moved in. We dashed through the pouring rain to the Snoopy Boutique.

We discussed what to do, and we decided we were hungry, so we headed to the Reds Hall of Fame Grille for my 2nd time.

On opening day, we took the wrong receipt, and wasn’t able to give our waitress our tip. Somehow, we had her again, and gave her, her tip from last time. She was very happy about that. Something I noticed was that some of the prices went up, like a full rack of ribs from $19.99 to I believe $22.99. We decided to split the shortstop ribs, and 12 pieces of boneless wings.

The food didn’t take too long to get here. I decided to try the ribs, and they were MUCH better than last time on opening day when they were dry and overcooked. The wings were also really good, and besides the price raises, everything was great.

When we left the restraint, I saw Diamondback open, which we have tried to ride already twice, so we headed there. The wait was only about 5 minutes, and it was raining, and I was now able to know what it feels like to have baby rocks fly 80 miles per hour at your face. Luckily, I had my raincoat on, so I put my hood over my face, and I was better. And this is when the fun started.

And in the gift shop, I found this.

That’s a mini Son of Beast! C’mon T-Shirt designers, that’s not The Beast!

And I guess this park has “The Crypt” and “Boomerang Bay” still. Anyways, we headed to The Beast now, which was a station wait. And it was a lot of fun, on the world’s longest wooden roller coaster!

Our next stop on the Great Kings Island coaster tour was the next nearest coaster, Backlot Stunt Coaster. It was a station wait for the front row. Unfortunately, there were no fire effects on, but it was still a lot of fun!

Then was the first coaster with 6 inversions, Vortex. There was also just a station wait for Vortex. I rode in my favorite seat, 7-1, and had a great ride. WindSeeker had a small line of people ready for it to open for the first time since 4, so we joined those people.

WindSeeker reached the bottom from a test cycle, then a couple minutes later the ride opened, and it was obviously a walk on. It was a nice, windy ride on WindSeeker!

From the top of WindSeeker, I saw Firehawks line wasn’t outrageous, so I headed there, also considering I wasn’t able to ride it yet this year. The line ended up being only about 10 minutes. It was a fun flight on Firehawk!

We were going to ride Flight of Fear, but we saw the line extend out of the building, and I didn’t want to wait in all the indoor switchbacks if they were still filled, and I already rode it today, so we decided not to ride Flight of Fear.

Our next stop on the Great Kings Island coaster tour was The Racer, which was racing an hour ago, but was not now, probably because it was not necessary. It was a cycle wait for the Red Racer, and a fun one as well.

Next was the Puddle, I uhh mean Adventure Express. There was a really deep, unavoidable puddle in the queue. Once we made it passed that, we arrived in the 100% empty Adventure Express station. So, we rode in the front row. It was a great ride on the parks only hybrid coaster!
We took a quick peak through the construction fence.

We then headed for Flight Deck, which had the gates open so we literally walked right on into a row. It was a fun quick ride on Flight Deck! Our next stop was Drop Tower, which my mom chickened out on, as always. It was a cycle wait, and a fun ride! A great ride for looking at construction, but please don’t take pictures.

And now, what coaster outside of Planet Snoopy have we not rode today? If you guessed Vortex, your wrong! If you guessed Invertigo, your right. Invertigo was just a cycle wait, and another great ride! It was starting to get dark, so we headed to The Beast for a “night” ride.

The Beast only had a station wait, so it wasn’t completely a night ride. There was also my new favorite ride op entertaining the riders and station.

Ride Op: “Is there anything out there that can beat The Beast?”

Crowd: Various answers

Ride Op: “Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, who’s the trouble maker who said Diamondback”?!

A few hands rise.

Ride Op: “Diamondback may be taller than The Beast, but The Beast, will always be at the TOP, of the food chain!”

Crowd Cheers.

So, it was a fun semi-night ride on The Beast! It was about 9:30 now, so we decided to do something we’ve never done, fireworks on the Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel Tower’s line was longer than any in the past couple of hours, but it was just a cycle wait.

We looked around the lighted up park, and got a spot for a great view of the fireworks. The fireworks went off, behind and to the left of The Racer, and went on for about 5 minutes. It was a great way to tap off a great day, as we then left the park!

A couple of notes:

*Except for storms, I didn’t see anything go down for the whole day.

*If there’s a chance of storms for a few hours, and the park’s not closing for a bit, wait it out. Get something to eat, watch a show, or shop, and you won’t regret staying.

*No better way to kick off summer!

Thanks for reading!

[KIfan73]

Thanks for sharing! These TRs are killing me! Got to get back to KI SOON!

[jcgoble3]

Nothing like a good storm to clear out the park. Thanks for the great report as always!

[The Interpreter]

Jolly good encouragement for what may be a wet CoasterMania. I loved "The Puddle!"

Thanks!

[TheCrypt]

I really like the picture of Coney Mall at night. Thanks for sharing!

[stashua123]

I was in line for WindSeeker when it reopened! Wow. I was there that same day. Nice PTR as always.

[VortexBFForever]

My parents and I were driving past Kings Island on 71 when one of the storms had come through. All the rides were still down (probably because it had been less than 30 minutes since the last lightning strike by the time I was going by the park). I've always wondered how interesting a Kings Island trip gets when a storm passes through...

[TheBEASTunchained]

Sounds like you had some fun , and great picture of Coney Mall at night as TheCrypt also said. It doesn't seem that the park was very crowded but that was probably due to the weather.....
I'm heading to the park on Friday, and I'm guessing the park will be packed, What do you guys think the crowds will be like?

[DiamondAceExpress]

I had a great time with you, ohiocolts! You were in a good place, waiting for Flight of Fear during those storms - I was huddled with the sister and her friend during that time at the entrance gate. That wind, rain and lightning was fierce!

Kelly was the waitress at the Reds Grille - great service! We will ask to sit in her section again.

Only thing I didn't really enjoy that night was my wet feet. I was very tempted to utilize the family dryer, but it kept drizzling for a long time so I figured I'd get wet again right away so I didn't bother.

[The Interpreter]

Sounds like you had some fun , and great picture of Coney Mall at night as TheCrypt also said. It doesn't seem that the park was very crowded but that was probably due to the weather.....

I'm heading to the park on Friday, and I'm guessing the park will be packed, What do you guys think the crowds will be like?

The current NWS forecast for Mason for Friday has a 50 percent chance of precipitation, and showers at that, so just about anything is possible.

[Jr for Birdy]

The wife and I showed up right after 8pm to ride a few rides and to our surprise everything was either a walk on or close to it! I remember that puddle, my wife tip-toed through it while I was cracking up laughing at her, She wouldn't ride it twice because of that stupid puddle! I think I seen you and your Mom walking through Coney Mall in blue rain jackets, just from seeing photos. That was a great night for some serious coaster riding! We got several rides in and even had 2 BLSC trains front row to ourselves! We watched the fireworks from below the Tower (She wont go up there, chicken!). Great trip report, I had to comment after you mentioned THE PUDDLE!

[Jr for Birdy]

I should add the fact that we watched the fireworks from below the Tower because she has a fear of elevators not heights, yet I'm the one who has been stuck in an elevator for hours while fearing for my life at the same time, yet she has the phobia! Its pretty funny and she doesn't like it when I mention it, I just kid with her, we all have a weakness. (mine is Mosquitos!)