VortexJD

I thought it was odd seeing WindSeeker at the top and not spinning around noon, but we weren't in the park yet so I didn't get to see if people were on it. We rode it a few hours later and don't remember anything else odd about it then.

Took the opportunity to visit CP last weekend with just the wife (left the kids at home this time). Weather turned out nearly perfect, mid 70s with sun during the day. Was a little breezy which may or may not have been the reason Sky Ride and WindSeeker never opened. Fast Lane feels like cheating at CP this year, since they aren't selling them to the GP. Also, lets us bypass the whole access pass thing. I get why they do access passes, but it's so much added stress to the day, I really dislike them. Sat 9/12 - Crowds were about average Sat. Food stalls seemed busier than normal. Employees were talking about how busy they were all day Saturday. Thankfully the rain held off until after midnight. 12:00pm - Entered. Picked up Fast Lane and got lunch at Hugo's Italian Kitchen. They had a ton of food out and ready at noon and wasn't all hot. We shared a pizza. Was OK. Garlic Knots were already cold and stiff. 12:30pm - WindSeeker. Rode big boy seat in a middle-ish row. Didn't benefit much from Fast Lane here, the line was pretty short. Ended up on the right side. Left side best side. Still enjoyed it. Walked through the kid section in the front and soaked in all the decorations. Love the look of the park this time of year. 1:00 pm - Magnum. Rode very front seat. Quite rough as usual. Hadn't ridden this yet this year, so wanted to get it checked off my list. Got my fill for a while. 1:15 pm - Gemini. Forgot just how smooth this ride is, especially compared to other Arrow coasters from the same era. They were running both trains together which is just so much fun! Rode blue and won. 1:30 pm - Maverick. I've ridden this plenty of times, but still kind of surprised me on this ride. Rode in the very back seat. Convinced the back is more intense. Love this ride. 2:00 pm - Ate at Chik-fil-a. Thankfully, the line wasn't bad when we checked. The line is the worst thing about this place. Well, that and not being open on Sunday! Standard Chicken Sandwich and fries were delicious. 2:30 pm - Threw our stuff in a locker so we could ride Steel Vengeance x2. I put on a few pounds since last year (working from home is hard on my diet!) and I was no longer "comfortable" in the restraints. Love the ride, but Steve is rough on my shins. 3:00 pm - Left the park to go swim a bit. Came back mostly just for dinner. 6:30 pm - Ate at BackBeatQue. Watched them slicing some brisket and wife decided it looked good. Was very tasty. Mac n Chz there was really creamy and good too. They had a show on the patio, You're too old to trick or treat, I think. Was a Price is Right style game show. Was fun to watch while eating. 7:15 pm - Hopped on the CP Railroad for a circuit around the park. Didn't realize they have 2 variants of passenger cars. These were the plastic/wood seats without padding, but were a little more roomy than the other train. Was very comfortable. 8:00 pm - Called it a night and headed to the Boardwalk for some evening beach visits. After watching fireworks at KI this year, really miss having night rides at CP. Hopefully next year! Sun 9/13 - Crowds were below avg today. Rain stopped by 8am and the clouds were gone by 11am. Turned out to be another beautiful day. 11:30pm - Entered. Picked up Fast Lane again and bought a Tasting Card. Some of the food on the Tricks or Treats menu sounded good and we wanted to make a thing of walking around trying some different foods. 12:00pm - Ate lunch at Coasters Drive-In. Wife got a cheeseburger basket and I used my Tasting card for a Zombie Burger. Both burgers were hot and juicy. The additional toppings on the zombie burger were good. Feel like it was light on toppings and light on flavor though. Still a thumbs up for being unique. 12:30pm - Valravn. Rode in front right. Love hanging in the front seat on the first hill. This ride may not be crazy intense, and it's incredibly short, but it's still just a fun ride. Smooth, floaty fun. I love it! 12:45pm - Cedar Downs Racing Derby. I'm not a big carousel person but man this ride delivers. This is a MUST RIDE for my family on ANY CP visit. 1:00 pm - Used Tasting card to pickup a Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake at French Quarter Confections. This was one of the items I was most interested in and it surely delivered. Wasn't a huge portion, but was perfect for wife and myself. I think this was a standard funnel cake with some pumpkin/cream cheese drizzle. Yum! 1:30 pm - Giant Wheel. Not many Ferris wheels around anymore. I do try to ride this whenever I come to CP. Unfortunately, they've only been loading 2 cars on 2 sides for most of this year so lines have been abysmal. Today they were running 4 and 4 most of the day so it was a little better. 2:00 pm - Sat and watched the Witch shows back in Fort Sandusky in the Frontierland area. They were entertaining. Fun watching them interact with the kids. They had a main show starting on the hour followed by some games with the kids and a mad-libs type storytelling show. 3:00 pm - Skyhawk. By far my most favorite flat ride at Cedar Point. Wish we had something like this at Kings Island! 3:15 pm - Used Tasting card at Wagon Wheel Pizza for a Fire Toasted Dessert Pizza. OH MY this turned out to be the treat of our day (why is this a TRICK?). The service here wasn't great, but the employees seemed to be trying and the dessert pizza was AMAZING. 3:45 pm - Maverick. Got a front row seat this time and Maverick treated us a little better. This was definitely a MUCH more enjoyable ride for me and my wife. One of my favorite coasters for sure. 4:15 pm - Gemini again. Had so much fun the first time we did it again. Did not disappoint. Blue side again, but lost this time. 4:45 pm - Used Tasting Card at the Corral for some Fall Mac & Cheese. Was tasty, but nothing too unique (very similar to the Mac & Cheese at BackBeatQue). 5:15 pm - Used Tasting Card at the Hot Potato for some Frankenstein's Fries. Got a terribly small portion of fries, probably for the best though. The pork they added must not have been drained at all as the fries were wet and soggy. I still liked it, but the pork juices made this a no-go for my wife. 5:45 pm - Tried to ride the CP Railroad in the back of the park, but the line was too long and there weren't enough open seats for everyone. 6:00 pm - Used Tasting Card for the 6th treat, getting another Fire Roasted Dessert Pizza from Wagon Wheel Pizza. They just had a large group of people order these and there was a bit of a wait. The employee gave us a free drink because of our wait and apologized, but the pizza was fresh and AMAZING again. We will be getting this again at KI in the coming weeks! 6:30 pm - Caught the train at the CP Railroad by Millennium Force. Road the train with the padded seats which had no real room for my long legs. Liked the other train better! Was going to ride a full circuit but when we got to the rear station, they announced there would be a 15 minute delay while they pulled off the other train at the front station. We opted to exit. 7:00 pm - Having used up our Tasting Card and feeling our trip fulfilled (and after walking about 24 miles over 2.5 days, our feet hurt!) we headed out for one last walk up and down the Boardwalk. The resorts close at noon on Sunday so we were nearly alone. Was beautiful outside at this time. The Tasting Card was a fun thing to mess with, although depending on your tastes, there may not be enough to warrant it. I also wanted to take home the lanyard/card combo so worth it for me. All of the items on the Trick or Treat menu can be purchased a la carte for around $7 each. If you intend to get more than 3 definitely get the card! Looking forward to checking out some of the unique foods at KI too. Unfortunately, I gained enough weight to not fit on MF and TTD this trip. Will be focusing on losing the weight I gained this year so that next year I can get back on those rides again! Thanks for reading. Hopefully someone found the insight on the Tasting Card useful as I've not seen a lot of people post about their experiences.

Just wanted to share that I have been extremely happy with KI food this year. Been to KI 6 days and CP 4 days so far. CP may have a better portfolio of rides and coasters, but KI is leagues better than CP in the food dept. Panda Express at KI really knocks things out of the park, while at CP they were probably the worst meal I had during my visits. I miss Skyline and the old burrito place at CP. I need to find out what's at the Brewhouse on the Dining plan as I couldn't find that info ANYWHERE. Also, need to give the new Chicken Shack sandwich a whirl.

Last year, I went to redeem my free Fast Lane plus for my family. Gave them all 6 passes from my family at once and told them I wanted to redeem the voucher. They scanned them all and then asked us to hold our hands out. They didn't check each person one by one and we managed to get my Fast Lane pass onto a guest we brought (I was overweight at the time and didn't fit on half the coasters, so I was sitting out most rides to hold gear we brought). So it's definitely possible. However, I wouldn't count on being able to get away with this. They do insist on putting them on someones wrists at time of redemption. Used our vouchers this year at CP and noticed we could have done the same. They didn't check each person to make sure it matched each pass I gave them.

My kids pointed out this year while riding WindSeeker, if you look down from above, next to the queue there's an area with stones that spell out 'Windy 2011', I think was what it said. Very similar to the stones under The Vortex queue. Also, maybe not an 'easter egg' but I love the "SHOOT a staple wherever you'd drive a nail!" poster in the Mystic Timbers loading station. Something about a being stapled, at a coaster loading station... yeah. Clever.

I wonder how this actually works. Bought my Platinum Pass at KI last year. Purchased my renewal through CP. Hoping to get the FP at CP in a few weeks. We will see I guess!

Well they want to give the impression it's going to end VERY SOON to pressure you into purchasing your passes NOW to get the freebies before they expire. However, the last few years they've done this deal it's been available until at least haunt begins. It might disappear Labor Day, but I wouldn't be surprised if it continues through September at least. There's really no way for us to know for sure when it will go away.

#1 - If you go to KI website right now and click to buy/renew passes, it lists right there you still get the BaF and FP, so sounds like it's still valid. If it's like last year they'll continue that through the regular season this year. #2 - Both are only usable on Sundays other than 9/1.

Been a dozen or so times this year to CP/KI and almost every day have seen one more people walking around with lit cigarettes. Wife and kids are highly sensitive to it so I actively watch and steer clear when I can. The worst was seeing 1 person this year in the water park walking around with a lit cig. THAT should be immediately bannable. You know people are walking around barefoot. Anyone who can't figure that out for themselves or care enough doesn't deserve to be in the water park, IMO.

Or even walking around the park. I had someone's phone fall out of Max Air at CP while I was walking below. Phone hit the ground 6 inches from my shoe and exploded into many pieces. Glad it didn't hit me!

My apologies, you're right. Considering the CP option from last year and what you get with this it's almost a no brainer to step it up. I'm just stewing because I'd love to get the FLs for myself, but can't NOT get them for the rest of the fam. =D

$200 platinum pass $850 FL $130 dining x6 people in my family almost $8,000 after tax. OOOF. Even broken down to 12 monthly payments, that's a mortgage payment. Maybe if they operated more than just seasonally.

We bought the drink passes 2 years ago for our platinums. Went to CP before going to KI (think it was the first year they did the disposable cups on the passes). It was early enough in the season that the workers had no idea what they were doing. By the end of our weeklong CP visit, one of our passes had something like 5 drink passes activated on it. We could go get 5 drinks at a time with the one pass. Was an interesting dilemma.

Food/Drink passes for 2019 season did not work in 2018 when we bought ours platinum passes. I would expect it to work the same this year. You'll get free admission, but will be on your own for food/drink this year. I do hope I'm wrong though.

Thanks! I'll have to remember that. I swore I had encountered them before, but not sure I've had the pleasure of using these this year. Unfortunately, when you have to go, you have to go, and can't always get to the other side of the park for this!

I've been to KI about 10 times this year so far and I've always seen the restrooms in great shape. KI does an admirable job keeping them clean, IMO. CP wasn't too bad either this year. HOWEVER, after visiting Disney World, Universal Orlando, Seaworld Orlando, and BGT over the last 2 summers, I was reminded about one specific detail that absolutely ANNOYS me about KI bathrooms. As a male, having urinals without dividers of some sorts is a real issue for me. I simply cannot use "open" urinals and must enter the stalls to relieve myself. I don't think a single restroom in KI has dividers. However, every (and I do mean EVERY SINGLE ONE) restroom I visited in Florida (8 days in DW, 4 in UO, 3 in SW and 1 in BGT) had dividers, which seems so simple. However, it was such a pleasant thing to depend upon. Ugh I wish someone at CF would spent just a few extra bucks and give us some urinal dividers! /rant

Wife got a 15% off one food/drink purchase. Seemed like a waste, but ended up going this weekend and splurged for some Auntie Anne's pretzels. They wouldn't accept the 15% off there. What a shame. Probably only valid at KI owned vendors.

I had the pleasure of going here the year this opened and was really looking forward to this thing. Now mind you, the internet wasn't anything 20 years ago like it is today, but I don't remember ANYONE complaining about this thing being JUST shy of 200ft. This was also on vacation so this was my only time visiting this park. I remember only thinking this was Raptor on some SERIOUS steroids and I remember really enjoying it. I expect I'll feel the same about this KI giga when it finally opens. It will be awesome!

Glad I'm not the only one who instantly thought of this.

Well played. /slowclap

Great question, I wish I had better info to share. All I know is what the ride ops told us when we rolled back. Blamed it on the cool, windy day we were having. They said the ride determined we failed to reach optimal speed and aborted the launch, slowing us down so we safely rollback into the launch corridor for another attempt. Was a great experience when I was younger.

I experienced one shortly after it opened. It was a cold and very windy day, which causes havoc on the LIMs. I remember the launch was aborted and we were "trimmed" (not sure the proper term for what LIMs do) and we rolled back. Maintenance had to come push us back into the station where we held for a few minutes before successfully launching. Haven't seen/heard/experienced one since.

Managed to visit KI today, opening weekend with 3 of my kids. Today was check-in day for me on my weight loss journey. A little over 6 months ago, I decided to make changes to lose weight for good. You see I haven't been able to fit on Diamondback, Flight of Fear, and Drop Tower in almost 10 years. Last October I weighed 295 lbs. Today, before heading to the park I weighed in at 254 lbs. I know I still have a ways to go but today was about celebrating what I've already accomplished, and enjoying the time with my kids on some great rides. For that goal alone, today was a great win for me. The weather wasn't ideal, but we dressed warm and had fun for a short while. A good intro to what should be an enjoyable season. Lines were short and the rides were fast. First up was the big test for me, Diamondback. The test seat was a quick victory as I was able to get the green light with minimal effort. I was a bit worried, having worn so many extra layers of clothes to stay warm, but all worked out in the end. The line was fairly short, about 10 minutes. The ride itself, cold, fast, and furious. Unfortunely, the rain forced us to cover our faces for most of the ride. However, we all exited the ride with big grins. Next up, Mystic Timbers. This was the shortest line I had ever seen for MT. Still waited about 15 minutes. This ride too was fast and fun, but the misting and cold air were relentless again. Especially in the front car! In the shed, the riders clapped in unison to the music playing on the possessed radio. What a great experience! The Beast line was oddly long, so we left The Beast for another day. Next was the Stunt Coaster. A quick 5 minute wait and off we went, zooming through the course. The warmth from the fires and explosions were wonderful! Sadly, the Arrows were closed today so no Vortex. My kids were surprised and elated to see the autos in action, but we weren't willing to wait in the incredibly long lines for them. Next were walk-ons for WindSeeker and Bumper cars. Always a pleasure on these rides. We checked Flight of Fear, the app reporting a 0 minute wait. No way the lines were empty on such a cold and miserable day. Sure enough, a 45 minute wait. We passed again on the long line. Next was another walk-on at Delerium. Again, we had to cover our faces due to the rain and wind. This caused a few of us to become a little nausious. But we pressed on. Next was a really short wait on Banshee, always a great ride with a reasonably fast line. I was pleased to find I could now ride in any row I want, not just the big boy rows 4-5. Another win for me. This ride also has a habit of getting you extra wet in the rain. As the trains tip up the hill, pools of water drop directly on you from above. Yuck! Last up, another test for me. A ride on Drop Tower with one of my daughters (the other 2 kids were done by this point). Again, no line for this one. Cold and windy at the top, but always a great drop, I really love this ride. At this point, everyone was content with what they got to ride, and after 3.5 hours we were done with the weather. A great first visit and a rewarding day for myself personally.

Thanks. Really appreciate the kind words! I'm trying to keep from being disappointed (MF and TTD are really high bars to reach, but last year I got 2 of the 3 clicks on DB, so I'm hopeful!). I'll be sure to post back once I get my first KI and CP visits in.

Really wish more rides would have accommodating seats for larger people. I don't think it's too much to ask for just 1 row of seats that allow this. I was very pleased at the number of rides at CP that do this and disappointed KI doesn't quite have the same number of options. I realize most of these rides were built before CF bought KI, but still disappointing. For reference, 6'3" guy here. 6 months ago I was 295 lbs. Been eating more appropriately over the last 6 months SPECIFICALLY to lose wait for the upcoming KI/CP season. I want to be able to return to riding Diamondback/FoF/Drop Tower/Milennium Force/TTD with my kids. Even some of the woodies were super uncomfortable last year. I'm down to 255 lbs now and looking forward to opening weekend to see how much progress I've truly made.