silver2005's trip report thread

[malem]

Did you ride the new zip line?

I have never been to The Beach either; I should probably try to combine it with a visit to Kings Island at some point. I doubt that I'd want to ride what you consider "hard on the back", though.

[silver2005]

^Well, you'd be missing out on half the slides then. Honestly, its not that bad and the airtime is sooooo worth it. The only way it was bad on the back for me was when I rode one of them continuously, which I did on a few.

I didn't do the zip line just out of disinterest.

I think I may have 2-4 more trips lined up for the rest of the summer before band owns my soul again. I'm making sure to make one of them a Fast Lane Plus visit, regardless of if we still have the KIC meet up with that plan in mind. I want to go at least once in August to get used to the warmer weather for band camp. I have 2 weeks off of anything band related between my last community band performance and band camp and I want to relax as much as I can those two weeks before the grind.

[malem]

^ In that case, I'd probably do one and then decide on the rest. As long as it's not abrading my skin or banging my head around.

At this point, the Fast Lane meetup (if it happens) needs to be either 7/26 or 8/2. Next weekend is CP Coaster Campout, and 8/2 is the last midnight close. We really should do it, whether it's 4 people or 20 people.

[silver2005]

Cincinnati Zoo- 7/16/14

Today, the UC Community Band, which I play alto saxophone for, had a concert at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens today. One of our brass players (brass in general as he plays trumpet and baritone) works as an elephant handler a the zoo. As such, we got free admission, but it was also $1 day, which reared its ugly head; more on that later. In any case, it was a good situation for me to check out the zoo again. I haven't been there in nearly a decade, back when my family had a membership and we'd go all the time, and boy has it changed since.

Getting there was a pain though. As I said, it was $1 day, and I could tell most of the demographic was from around Clifton/the immediate area around the zoo. On top of that, there were also a lot of camp groups, both ones run outside the zoo and ones run by the zoo itself (which I have to commend the zoo for in their conservation efforts, they do a stellar job). I arrived at around 10:30, but holy cow, traffic was bad. When I got to Clifton, the cars were lined up all the way down Vine from the zoo parking lots and all the way up MLK Jr Drive to Reading Road. No one saw it fit to go down Burnett to go in that way, which I did and got in probably around 1/8th the time the rest of those cars were waiting. It started to show in the zoo as well around noon when all those cars finally got in. I got through most of the zoo's exhibits within 2 1/2 hours before the crowds really set in and just took a leisurely stroll around afterwards up until the concert.

I really liked the changes to the zoo since I last went. First off, there used to be their main parking lot off of Dury Ave. with their main entrance there. The 'main' entrance (in quotes as there are 3-4 entrances) has been moved to the corner of Vine and Erkenbecker while the old parking lot is now where they have all their big Africa exhibit (lions, giraffes, cheetahs, etc). The elephant exhibit changed quite a bit as well, with a more lushly covered trail than before with just the building. The entire zoo seemed more full of trees and foliage than I remember. I don't like what they did to Swan Lake though, with it merging with a crane exhibit and having a raised walkway. Its still one of my favorite areas in the zoo along side Jungle Trails and the area by the Reptile House. I also liked how they scheduled more shows and 'encounters' with zoo employees showing off animals, probably a way to let guests see certain animals active (I know we've all been to zoos and complained about the animals doing nothing, lying around). I also made sure to pay homage to one Lucy the Bearcat (yes, its a real animal). On top of the $1 day, they also had kind of a music festival going, probably why the band I'm in was invited to play. There was an African-esque drum group, a Dixieland band (also provided by the UC Band), and a guitarist. The only problem is they had those groups perform along the paths, which made for some wicked bottlenecks with the enlarged crowds.

All in all, I had a great day re-discovering the zoo. I might go more often, but definitely on days not $1 days. I'd rather pay the extra amount and not have to deal with that kind of crowd, plus the money is for a good cause in the zoo's conservation missions and such, so I wouldn't mind.

Pictures to come.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that the zoo is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the year the last passenger pigeon, Martha, died and the species went extinct.

[silver2005]

Zoo photos. These are mostly the highlights, but I'll shoehorn in a few in the random photo thread as well.

Accidentally used a flash on this. Whoops.

Kind of impressed they'd leave a bird like this around without a cage (this was outside the Reptile House). I'm guessing it either can't fly or can't fly well.

This guy was a pain to get a photo.

This required a bit of elaborate camera handling as well.

Of all the animals to be sleeping, I think Lucy deserves it with all the times she visits UC for football and basketball games (and a myriad of other things).

From a bird show. This guy along with a few hawks and bigger birds were flown about, some rather close to the audience.

The zoo train.

My favorite picture.

My 2nd favorite picture.

[thegajone]

Ahhh that reminds me I need to get my butt down there this year, haven't been yet. That Birds of Wonder show might be my all-time favorite live show anywhere. Super cool.

[silver2005]

I'm feeling a trip to Kings Island this week, maybe as early as tomorrow.

EDIT-Thursday looks to be a more appealing day concerning weather, so that'll be the day I go.

[MDMC01]

Great trip report and pictures, silver2005. I'd like to get down to the zoo sometime this year; haven't been in a while.

[silver2005]

There will be more to come as I will be taking my camera tomorrow to Kings Island. I plan on this being a more relaxed trip. Might check out more of the shows besides Cirque.

I'm hoping that Kings Island keeps the live band they have as I may try out for it next year.

[silver2005]

Trip Report- 7/24

This was a shorter trip to Kings Island, mainly meant for some relaxation. Been putting up with a lot of stresses this summer, so any trip I take to our beloved park in Mason is worth it to me. I got in a lot of rides in the morning since most of the shows didn't start until after lunch. I went to 2 new shows. I wanted to do the Flashhback 80's show, but alas, they didn't do Thursdays.

The first was Rock and Roll Never Forgets. To be honest, it felt a bit disjointed. A LOT of it is devoted to Elvis and Michael Jackson, but it feels off with the way the selections flow into one another. It starts out with Elvis and a little Chuck Barry, but then some 60's Woodstock music comes out of nowhere, and Whitney Houston's selections didn't fit at all. The cast rushed through almost every transition and didn't keep tone very well, it seemed like they were yelling into the mic rather than actual singing. I'd take The Boyz are Back over this any day.

Then the true gem I found. This is now my favorite show at Kings Island and I really, really hope they keep it. If you know about the musician side of me, you know which one I'm about to say; Playlist Live! Any show with a live band instruments wins over anything in my book. I know we all talk up Cirque Imagine, but Playlist's music style along with the location felt more engaging to the audience than Cirque. The singers were amazing and ooooh, that horn and bass section! THAT is how you pull off a show.

I also would like to tip my cap to the entire food department today. They had the park smelling so good today near almost every stall. Juke Box and the grill in Planet Snoopy really made the taste buds start to sizzle. Also, I had my first blue ice cream in a while today, and I always underestimate the feeling of nostalgia and pure joy walking up to purchase one.

Kind of random, but WindSeeker was down until about 5 pm (shocker I know), but also, Congo Falls went down as well in the mid-afternoon.

All in all, it was a great day including fantastic weather. I would have stayed longer, but a nasty migraine hit around 6:45 pm and I had to leave. I didn't get many good pictures as my battery died. Will be remedying that on the Fast Lane visit next weekend.

[silver2005]

Going to Kings Island, likely for the final time before October, this Saturday and I will be going with a Fast Lane Plus.

[silver2005]

Trip Report- 8/9/14

I got a bit of a later start for this visit. Wanted to sleep in an extra hour or so, but I did manage to get in 1 ride on Banshee and Bat right before ERT ended. For this visit, I went with a Fast Lane Plus. I was a bit worried if I was getting it with how the crowds would turn out as there were scattered t-storms in the forecast We got a small drizzle after lunch, but that was it. Crowds were typical for a Saturday, though most things were walk-ons until about noon when crowds just exploded. Did get on Flight of Fear early too as it wasn't on FL. I took it pretty easy today. I didn't ride a lot on a few particular rides, but I did manage to ride a good variety. The only 3 I didn't get to in the non-Planet Snoopy areas were WWC (wait nearly to the bridge over the train), Scrambler, Monster and Dodgems. I have to admit, I miss Shake, Rattle N' Roll. If its up next year, I'm making sure to make up for the rides I didn't have this year.

I learned today that the drink wrist bands are no more. Apparently there was mis-communication between the food department and management and they weren't supposed to exist. Being a fan of the Coke Freestyle Machines, this makes me sad.

I had a few interesting points of the day. Around lunch and dinner, I went around to do a bit of a photography session. I approached it somewhat differently. I know we have plenty of photographers that zero in on the rides, which is fine, so I paid attention to little details and park atmosphere. I hope it comes across in the photos I'll soon be posting. I particularly like the ones I got on I-Street as well as a nice overview of Rivertown and Coney Mall.

Near the end of the day, I pretty much rode Banshee, Racer, Vortex, DB and Beast for 2.5 hours since this was my last visit until mid-October by the looks of things as UC and band own my soul until then. In the evening, I got to ride both Beast and Diamondback with Gary Coleman, who is up to over 10,200 btw. Turns out he actually does ride stuff other than Diamondback. Then something kind of epic happened. I barely made it on Beast before they shut it down for the fireworks, and with 9 minutes to spare, I power walked from Beast to Banshee with about 2 minutes to spare for 1 last Banshee night ride. The fireworks started as soon as we hit the final brakes. The timing for that couldn't have been any better (along with a full moon illuminating the track on Beast, it was a GORGEOUS night ride).

Anyways, that'll do for my trip reports for a while. I'll post my pictures sometime before Wednesday. I might do a few TR's on interesting band events. I absolutely will do one for the OSU trip with pictures.

EDIT: I also caught the 80's show today. This suffers from the opposite problem the Boyz show did using key. They keys matched the songs, but the singers had to make octave jumps to compensate, usually going down octaves, which some couldn't hold up. There were a few songs taken way too fast as well. The singer for one of the Madonna numbers tried to growl her notes country music-esque which really ruined it.

[silver2005]

Pictures from 8/9/14

[jcgoble3]

For some reason, I really like the clouds in this one.

[silver2005]

Yeah, I didn't like the overcast. I thought some of these pictures wouldn't turn out as well as they looked really bright at the top of the picture. They turned out darker than I would have liked, even after I tried to get the settings to get brighter shots. I like how the sun peeked out in that one photo I posted of Racer from Oktoberfest.

[silver2005]

Trip Report 8/31- Riverfest, WEBN Fireworks

This was my 20th Riverfest I've been to. This is something I always look forward to to end the summer each year. Its simply a wonderful event, a true celebration of the riverfronts of Cincinnati, Newport and Covington. I got there at around 4 to try and avoid the rain. I saw in the morning coverage of Riverfest by many of the news stations that downtown Cincy was soaked. It starting clearing up by 3-ish by me (I live 30 minutes west of downtown), so I left at 3:30, got there about quarter after 4. As I got in, the UC band gig was going on, which I didn't take part of as I needed a break from band for the weekend. After that, I checked out the 80's car show going on, mainly DeLoreans, one of which was souped up Back to the Future style, and Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters was also present.

I then went out to find my group. We usually get a spot in the grass as we don't feel like getting up at 4 am to stake out a spot on the Serpentine Wall. I would love to go back on the wall sometime in the future, though that is, without question, the best place to see the fireworks. I also like watching the river as well being there. Back in the grass, the benefit is you don't have to look straight up and you don't have to deal with falling debris. But, we had a big group and needed the space. About 40 people showed up by 9:05 when the fireworks began. Usually the bulk of those attending show up after 6. Getting there between 2 and 5 is usually ideal, between 6 and 9 am to get a spot on the wall.

I have to say, they were really into the 80's theme today. Most of the music played towards the final hours were 80s stuff. I kind of didn't like it, as I'm a sucker for the type of rock WEBN plays like ACDC, Led Zeppelin, etc, which was mostly absent. I'll give them a pass with the theme though. They did do a tribute to the troops with a medley of the service songs, but I have to slap them on the wrist for skipping the Coast Guard's song.

Now the fireworks themselves. I consider this year not as good as previous years. One thing unique about this show compared to other Rozzi's shows is that they have half an hour to fill. They usually use a wide variety of music and really use it to dramatic affect, the fireworks following suit. They have a great style for their finale where they pretty much launch half the barges' load of fireworks in the span of 40 minutes. However, they usually build to that with a few slower songs in the soundtrack. They kind of ruined it this year. A majority from the show, even from the get-go, was all just balls to the wall fast music. They were firing the shells at a faster pace too, which you really couldn't appreciate or hear the music that well. Part of the aura is the soundtrack. The only real slow part was about 20 seconds of the ET theme. They really spoiled their show by the way they handled the pacing. It was all just underwhelming, especially knowing Rozzi's and WEBN have done much, much better.

Despite those pet peves, I had a good time. Good friends, good music, good food.

Will be posting photos later.

[silver2005]

Pictures from Riverfest

The UC Band had a gig at about 4:15, about the time I arrived. They played a few songs and left. I wish they did a little more to get a little excitement going, like have an announcer or something.

There were about a dozen DeLoreans on display as part of the 80s theme. The one seen here was the only one in the BTTF gear.

Who else would you call?

The spot my friends and I stayed. The way to orient yourself around Sawyer Point is with the flag poles. Each one has a different number of stripes, from 1 to 4. The one with 3 is the center most to help view the fireworks, and we were all the way back in the grass to not have to look straight up too much. Rozzi's did use practically the entire sky between the bridges.

The weather this year was significantly cooler than years past. The rain in the morning helped that a lot. Though there was some good cloud cover most of the day, it was crystal clear by 9:05 with a nice crescent moon towards the west.

The many sponsors of Riverfest and the fireworks. For those wondering, the beverages on hand were RC products. The food was pretty decent this year as well. I had a nice pulled pork sandwich for $6.

The Serpentine Wall. Much easier to negotiate than the huge steep, grass flood wall in Newport. During the last flood we had a few years ago, the water was up to the top. I know many a UC student initially from out of town that willingly went down to see the high waters here.

A view of the P&G twin towers HQ from Sawyer Point. It isn't the best place to get views of downtown. That might be one of the advantages of watching from Newport, with downtown as a nice huge backdrop.

One Lytle Place, a huge very expensive apartment building. Tenants will rent the rooms out for the fireworks. Another great place to view them if you have the money.

This is the room our group took up.

Barges arrive at T-minus 1 hour. Normally there are 6 barge containers filled with TNT. In recent years its been down to 4. They also put up a display with WEBN in green and red fireworks, sometimes right at the beginning, sometimes right at the end. As said before, both the barges and the 2 bridges all have stuff launching, and they have sequences that utilize all 3 launching areas. Its amazing to see them all launch everything at the end.

[flightoffear1996]

I was on a boat durining the fireworks. It was seriously the best time ever!

[silver2005]

Trip Report- 9/26 and 9/27- Cincinnati Bearcats vs Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus

This is a trip we've been preparing for all year, since we knew about this trip in February/March. For veteran band members, it was an exciting thing to see come closer and closer on the calender. For rookies, most of which come from out lying towns, it was a bit of a culture shock, much like I had during my first year when we made a trip to Columbus in similar fashion.

We left at 2:30 Friday. Most of that day was much easier than what would happen Saturday. All we had to do is drive up, play at our host's football game, and stay the night with them. We home-stayed with parents of the Olentangy Liberty High School Band's parents, which is about 30 minutes north of Columbus. It was a smaller band, couldn't have been more than 80 members. A couple of our members stayed with relatives in the area, but the rest stayed with the band parents, sometimes as much as 6 or 8 to a room. I got lucky and only had to share with 4 other people, but we also got a big house which helped. Had a GREAT breakfast Saturday morning.

Saturday morning started kind of rough. I think the pressure of playing at such a large, high profile venue got to a couple people and rehearsal that morning started in a rather unpleasant way. We settled down by the time we set out for Ohio State though. We also got pizza before we left as well, since we didn't have to be there until 3:15 to set up for the Skull Session.. For those who don't know what that is, the Ohio State Marching Band has a concert session before their games, which they invite their football team to come and help rile up fans for the game. And they pack St John's Arena as well for that, which is about as big as Cincinnati's Shoemaker Center. The pride and support for their band is just phenomenal, which I'll get into more in the marching band thread. Overall, it was just great hearing them live and sharing a stage with them. The Olentangy Orange High School band was also there, so we got to see 2 out of the 3 Olentangy High School bands (the Olentangy district has 3 high schools). They were much bigger than the one we stayed with, and they got a nice standing ovation from the crowd. They were having fun there, that's for sure. We were treated very well there and throughout the day as well. OSU, both the fans and the school in general, really get marching bands. I wish every school would take notes from them.

After Skull Session, we just went right to Ohio Stadium and set up for our pregame. Again, the fans along the route treated us very well, we got some cheers and lots of welcomes. This was one of those trips where the rest of the trip surpassed the reason we were actually there, much like the Spokane trip. OSU game days are an incredible experience. Walking into that stadium was neat. You can see it from anywhere on campus, and it just loomed over us as we steadily got closer to having to go in. Now, I have experience in other big stadiums, the closest one probably being the New Orleans' Superdome, but I felt OSU's stadium felt bigger with the entire stadium packed. In fact, OSU had an attendance record from our game, which really surprised me as I thought that honor would have gone to an OSU/Michigan game.

Pre-game was intense to say the least. Being on the field, the crowd noise is just this big wall of sound, especially in the student section at the open end of the horseshoe. We had to focus on the percussion and the drum majors for any semblance of pulse and tempo. From what I glanced at on the video board, we held together pretty well.

Then OSU's band took the field.

Unfortunately, we were placed in end zone seats so we didn't have the best view of the field. But even from the side, the band sounded great. I know they have a small repertoire, but the sound quality is just perfect. I do wish I could have seen Script Ohio from a better angle though. That just gave me goosebumps.

Oh right, there was a game...

I'll save this speech for the NCAA football thread, but to put it in a nutshell, I really thought we could have pulled this one out in the first half. Then I was aware of the overwhelming time of possession OSU had for various reasons, so our defense was gassed all game. I didn't feel all too bad though. Sitting through the Sugar Bowl loss was much tougher in retrospect. The Bearcats have a lot of work to do. We performed post-game as well, which was only for about 15-20 thousand or so. It was nice to be able to perform for a quieter stadium. We got a lot of cheers and compliments from OSU fans after that. It was a lot better than I thought it could have been. I will have to say I have a great deal more respect for OSU after that game. The arrogant fans are really a minority of the fan-base as most of them were very courteous and good spirited. Sure, they've had their problems, but a lot of other universities do as well.

I did take pictures which I'll post soon.

[coasterfanatic83]

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip, and I'm especially glad that the respectful majority of the fan-base was able to shine through for you and the band.

I was at the Skull Session, so I did get to see/hear some of the UC band. It was different to hear wind instruments and percussion other than the drumline stuff because I am used to the OSU band's style. Your twirlers are very good! And who doesn't love a Billy Joel tribute? I didn't stay after the game to watch the on-field performance though.

Also, the attendance record was probably broken because they added about 1500 seats to the stadium this year. I suspect that the record will be broken again on November 29th. Although it is not as big as the Superdome in New Orleans, it does seat about 30,000 more people.

(Also, if I botched some of the terminology regarding the band please forgive me- I don't know much about this stuff!)

[Diamondbacker]

Nice report, silver2005!

And coasterfanatic2012, I had imagined that the stadium would be larger than it really is. The stadium feels really intimate and ties in well together. The south stands were really cool to watch the game from, and to see the O-H-I-O revolution around the stadium was cool.

[silver2005]

Yeah, even from our seats across the field, the sound coming from the students in the south end zone felt like a wall of sound. I can't imagine what the players were hearing on the field when the fans started to get into it.

EDIT: I promise to have pictures from a few events posted soon. I'm kind of waiting until sometime in the next 2 weeks when I have some free time on my hands to upload the photos to Photobucket.

[silver2005]

Question to those privy about crowds in October- Is the Columbus Day weekend really that much more crowded than, say, the next weekend? I'm debating with myself on whether to go this Friday and/or next Friday, but if its that big a difference with Columbus Day weekend, I'll probably go next Friday (the 17th).

[malem]

^ That's hard to predict. Haunt Friday crowds are very dependent on weather. I'd recommend avoiding this Saturday and Sunday for sure. Are you buying Fright Lane and/or Fast Lane?

I'll probably visit one more Friday this season, but I'm also not sure which date. Rain chances have improved for this Friday night, and there's a "fulfilling" competition that might be worth witnessing. (I might visit Stricker's Grove this Sunday as well, so I would otherwise be inclined to go on a different Friday to spread things out and avoid Columbus Day weekend entirely.)

Haunt is much better when cold & rainy weather thins out the crowds.

[silver2005]

Just checked the forecast for Friday, and while rain would be fine, t-storms in there as well aren't in my best interests in going. I'll be going the 17th.

[malem]

For what it's worth, the National Weather Service doesn't currently have thunderstorms in Friday evening's forecast.

I don't trust the forecast this far out; I probably won't make a decision until Friday morning.

[silver2005]

Kings Island Trip Report- 10/10

Tonight was a bit of a gamble. It was raining most of the day here in the Queen City, and with another cell on the way, it seemed iffy to me. However, the rain was light enough for my liking, and I really enjoyed visiting tonight, along with the company of malem, ohiocolts, and others. I'd even go so far as to call the rain cleansing. The biggest downer was that Banshee wasn't open until 3 hours into our visit, but boy did the wait pay off!. Lots of short lines and walk on rides this evening, a much needed release valve to the stresses of 4 straight weeks of band performances and school at UC. Beast and Racer in particular ran superbly tonight. I do have to note the lack of scareactors tonight though. Even I-Street had few of them, and the ones there didn't really do all that much from what I saw. I guess they were anticipating the lackluster crowds. Going next week as well in hopes of slightly better weather, plus I gotta end my season with my last Beast night ride in the front seat.

[silver2005]

Trip Report- 10/17

This was certainly an interesting trip, but for kind of the wrong reason. I had a great time and every ride ran in top form tonight, but there was a little snafu in Diamondback's line that I witnessed, something which required that KI security be called up and escorting said people out of the park, possibly being dealt with by Mason PD. I won't elaborate any further on that. It did tack a good hour on to my intended stay, but hey, it was in the name of justice.

Other than that though things went well. It was certainly more crowded than last week's brisk rain visit as it was really nice weather, thus, there was a decent crowd there. Didn't wait more than an hour though despite what the Fun TV wait times said (Fun TV showed DB's and Beast's lines at double the wait time from what they actually were). I compromised and went with seat 1-2 on The Beast as there was a 10-12 train wait for the front seat. It did deliver on the night ride though- had a nice foreboding overcast night sky with a slightly crimson hue, and I also prevented myself from bracing for the turns and let the laterals do their thing.

As of right now, my odds of going the final operating day with KIC have improved slightly. Got a lot of work to do next week to make it happen.

[silver2005]

Here are some highlight photos of my travels in September. Will separate this into 3 posts.

First, I took my camera to Newport when I went to see Lucy.

[silver2005]

From the UC vs Miami (OH) game.

The Redhawk Band filing into PBS.

Some shots of the stadium decked out in red. This was the Ring of Red game.

Some shots as it got darker.