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McSalsa's Coaster Adventures: Summer Island Heat (KI June 16th, 2018)


McSalsa
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Well, yesterday I went to Kings Island yet again, for the 3rd time this season (tying a personal record- if I go one more time this year which is highly likely, I will break it). Before we get into the meat of this trip report, here is my ride (and show/food as well I guess) rating system for 2018 (note: descriptions of ratings are for rides, for food/shows it just means how good I thought it was):

F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again!

D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something.

C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though.

B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy.

A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by...

S- Zen. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however. 

Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse.

Anyhow, let's begin the trip report.

A quick note- anyone coming from central Indiana to Kings Island and using I-74, close to the state line there is a HUGE construction zone, and on one side this prevents use of the rest stop on that side. It looked like they were rebuilding that entire side of the highway, and had just split the other side to take the traffic, so the speed limit is 45mph. I would leave for KI a few minutes earlier than normal to adjust for this slow spot, and be sure to use the bathroom before leaving since the rest stop will not be a option on the way there! (The one on the other side, on the way back, remains open)

We did leave a bit early, thankfully, so we got to the park shortly after 9AM. Due to the Peanuts Celebration, the park was already open for passholders, and we went in and got some of the free donuts which were on offer.

Food: Peanuts Celebration Donut Holes

Hey, they were free, so why not have a few? There was about a 5-10 minute wait for donuts, but it was not too bad. I had the sugar coated ones, they were good. My sister tried the Maple Bacon ones, which I avoided since I don't usually like to mix stuff like Bacon with sweets directly. She said they were awesome.

Rating: B

After this, ERT had begun, and we headed to our first ride of the day. So we got a locker quickly, and rode...

Ride #1: Mystic Timbers (ERT)
Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Cycle)

Since it was very early in the day and the ride wasn't fully broken in yet, Mystic Timbers was running just a tad slow and the airtime was not as strong as it usually is later in the day. However, even a tad slow Mystic Timbers is pretty fast, and there was still a decent amount of airtime (though I suspect Steel Vengeance has spoiled me rotten because it didn't feel like enough). Still a solid ride, overall. In the shed, we got The Bat ending, and the song was "Turn Around".

Rating: A-

After riding Mystic Timbers, there was about 5 minutes to park opening. Since it was right there, and no one else wanted to ride it with me, I decided to get in line for one of the park's most popular steel coasters, since I was expecting massive crowds to come in later...

Ride #2: Diamondback

Wait: 5 Minutes

I rode in about the middle of the train. Diamondback felt a little more broken in than Mystic Timbers and seemed to be running normally already, and the trim brake kicked in near the middle of the ride which would not have happened if it was running slow. There was a lot of floater air as usual, and for the first time ever, I was able to put and keep my hands up for the entire ride- though on the return run I dropped them a few inches when a support beam came over the train. I thank Steel Vengeance and it's lack of anything to hold onto for getting me used to this (though I only do it on smooth coasters, which Diamondback qualifies for). Another great ride on Diamondback, which by now is usual.

Rating: A

After Diamondback, the group decided it was time for Soak City ERT, so we went to the train and...it didn't open until 11AM. So we headed back through Planet Snoopy- with a brief stop in the gift shop to get a $10 T-Shirt that was on sale- and went the long way into Soak City. We headed in, changed, and put on sunscreen. Then I made a big screw-up: I went into a water fountain thing with fresh sunscreen on my head. Ouch. For a good 15 minutes, my eyes hated me so much. My friends even went and rode a set of water slides while I recovered. Take notes people, do not run into fountains when you just put sunscreen on.

I did recover eventually, enough to do a water slide. And that slide was...

Ride #3: Zoom Flume

Wait: 15 Minutes

This slide is similar to Watube, a slide I did at Holiday World. It was good fun, there were some intense turns and a few surprise drops which even had a bit of airtime on occasion. And best of all, for my eyes, none of the splashes went above my neck.

Rating: B

After Zoom Flume, we decided to ride the park's lazy river attraction.

Ride #4: Splash River

Wait: 5 Minutes

This lazy river was fun, but it had a LOT of special water effects and about halfway through the ride my eyes began to feel irritated a bit again (not as bad as the 1st time though), so I had to shut them whenever I saw something coming. I am not gonna dock the attraction for it, the eye pain was my own fault, and this did seem like a good lazy river otherwise. My sister and friends did a 2nd lap while I rested up.

Rating: C

After Splash River, my sister and friends went to do another water slide, but I wanted to rest a little more- was feeling better by this point but still not back to 100%. I saw the Splash River bridge had people trying to spray riders, so I headed over and decided to play with it for a bit, I got some people soaked, LOL. My friends got off their water slide after a 15-20 minute wait, and we were hungry at this point, so we decided since we were in the waterpark, there was only 1 real food option...

Food: Island Smokehouse

Wait: 5 Minutes

Island Smokehouse continues to impress. I got Chicken Tenders and Fries, and both were amazing. The tenders were nice and crispy, and the white meat chicken on the inside was cooked about as well as I have ever seen it cooked. The fries were thick, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Perfect as well. And even though it was a bit expensive, our meal was also very filling- I was not hungry again until near park closing! Probably my favorite food experience I have had at KI in 2018 so far. (Overall, Sidewinder Fries at Cedar Point give this a challenge and it is hard to pick from the two, though)

Rating: S

After Island Smokehouse, we noticed the water park was becoming packed, so we decided to head back to the dry park and see how crowds were there. We went to our lockers, changed some clothes, and went back to the main park via the arriving...

Ride #5: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad

Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive/depart)

This sure beats walking back to the park- it may not have as many props as Cedar Point's train, but the music is nice, and you get some nice views of the woods. I also think it got colder all of a sudden when we passed the "Haunted Fort" with the old house inside. Spooky.

Rating: C

Inside the park, my friends decided to do White Water Canyon, which had a wait listed at 40 minutes via the app. I decided to check the wait for my favorite coaster in the entire park instead while they rode WWC, since I was not gonna test to see if WWC would annoy my eyes or not...

I approached The Beast. I got in line, and saw the first 2 que houses empty. A great sign. No one on the ramp!?!? Could it be...yep. It was just a station wait! Which shocked me because even though the waterpark was sucking up crowds, the other 2 coasters in this section (Mystic Timbers and Diamondback) had 20 to 30-minute waits. But then I saw the train was stopped on the 1st lift, with the other 2 in the station and final brake run. Oh no, did I get in line for a broken-down roller coaster? Turns out...no I did not, some idiot had decided to try and film the ride and they caught them and E-Stopped the ride to take their phone. Good job catching that, Beast ride ops. Afterwards the all-clear was given and the ride started back up.

Ride #6-8: The Beast

Wait: >5 Minutes (1st 2 rides), 5 Minutes (3rd ride)

Yep, I rode Beast 3 times in a row! The first 2 rides, I rode in the last car's middle seat. Due to the high temperatures (it was in the 90's) the ride was FLYING through the woods, the trim brakes were hitting pretty hard to try to slow the ride down but it would re-gain the speed easily. The Beast also felt pretty smooth, bouncy but not painful. These were probably the best daytime rides I have had on Beast in a while.

I met my friends after riding back-to-back, and when they heard of the super short wait, they decided we had to go ride it again. Even our friend who does not normally do huge scary coasters and thus didn't like the helix so much sucked it up and rode. This time, due to this, I sat on a wheel seat in the 2nd car.

Ow. I thought being so close to the front would negate any roughness increase, but it didn't- this back wheel seat ride was pretty darn rough, a stark contrast to the rides I had just taken minutes earlier. I thought I got through it without issue at first, as I was not in much pain immediately after this ride, but later I started to feel sore in my right shoulder of all places. In fact it still feels kinda sore a day later. The ride was still pretty fun though, it was still running very fast and it felt even more intense due to the roughness. But I am gonna make a mental note to try and avoid back wheel seats, I have done them twice this year on Beast and both times it hurt.

Ratings: S (rear of train non-wheel seat rides), A (wheel seat ride)

After doing "triple" Beast, we decided to go get the rest of our stuff and fully change back into our street clothes. So we had to get our stuff out of our waterpark locker, which meant another ride on...

Ride #5B: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad

Wait: 5 Minutes

Why 5B? Because I did not do a whole lap earlier, this was the 2nd part of the train ride, LOL. Got some awesome views of Diamondback and Mystic Timbers though, as usual.

Rating: C

After returning to the waterpark, we got our stuff, changed, and headed out to our car which was a walk. At this point I decided to break off from the group, so my sister gave me her apple watch so she could find me with her phone. I headed into the dry park, used the bathroom, and headed into Action Zone.

Ride #9: Banshee

Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait)

The ride ops here were both silly, but doing a good job at the same time. They were changing the name of the ride whenever the dispatched a train as a joke, I heard them call it Invertigo and White Water Canyon. However, they were also reminding people to drink lots of water, and not soda and stuff, which I thought was good advice so it evened out. This was where I first noticed a bit of an issue with my shoulder, Banshee's restraints felt like they dug in a bit more than usual. I brushed it off as the restraints being tight though.

The ride itself was great, even by Banshee standards, as the ride felt very fast and forceful. I still thought this was a intense ride even post Steel Vengeance and TTD, which is saying something. Heck the ride was feeling so fast, the slow roll felt more like a medium-speed roll, LOL. There was a little roughness, the typical vibration Banshee sometimes does, but nothing crazy. Overall, an awesome ride.

Rating: A+

After Banshee, I headed towards The Bat, and I saw dark clouds looming over. The forecast wasn't calling for rain, from what I could tell. But the coaster was still running, so I got in line.

Ride #10: The Bat
Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait)

OK, something kinda iffy here, not with the ride but the no loose articles policy and the ride ops here. Someone had some huge stuffed animal prize in the storage bin, so the bin was full. So the ride ops were telling people "just put your stuff in the bottom of the car". I know Bat does not have any airtime or anything, but I still think stuff could fly out, as my friend nearly lost his hat on Iron Dragon at Cedar Point once but I managed to grab and save it, and the cars do swing pretty violently on these coasters, and based on the fact that hat flew backwards for me to catch, something like a drink cup could fly out and smack someone at 50mph. It did not happen on this ride, but I am worried it could. And this seems to be isolated to Bat- none of the other rides were allowing loose articles and people were being told to put their stuff in bins or lockers. I talked with my sister about this and she says she has seem this before on Bat as well on past trips. After what happened to the lady on Twisted Timbers, I fear this is just asking for the same thing or worse to happen on Bat.

The coaster itself was running fine, though. Good speed, and some solid swinging action. The kids behind me thought it sucked though for some reason.

Rating: B (the ride, allowing people to just ride with stuff in the bottom of the cars is iffy as heck and gets a F from me)

After The Bat, I headed back up and looked at Banshee's line again. Hmm, no wait, it would be rude to ignore that...ride closed. I looked around, and all the rides were closed. I saw a Banshee line checker and asked her if it was mechanical or the storm coming, she told me it was the storm. So I walked around into Oktoberfest, hoping maybe Adventure Express would be...nope, closed. Racer, closed. However, I met back up with the group, and we went and saw it was 5:30, which meant the Dog Show would be starting. So we went and saw it.

Show: JUMP! The Ultimate Dog Show Challenge

We got to this one a bit late, it had started 7 minutes earlier, but we did see the last few acts. The dogs were cute and funny, and the tricks were cool. The final dog was a pure bundle of energy, and he was making some impressive jumps. This was a fun show.

Rating: B

After the Dog Show, my sister decided to get some of the special Charlie Brown Ice Cream in Planet Snoopy.

Food: Charlie Brown Ice Cream (served at Blue Ice Cream Stand in Planet Snoopy)

My sister ate most of it, but I had a few bites of this- it was delicious, tasted like Chocolate and Vanilla mixed together. We got it decently fast, too, even though there was a bit of a line.

Rating: A

After we got Ice Cream, we went and checked out the Peanuts Sketch School and the Charles M. Schultz tribute area in the former Enchanted Theater. Good to see this being used again. My sister made Franklin mad, and he drew her a picture out of spite, LOL. After this, we headed out and went back towards Action Zone because we knew there was a smoking area near there and we wanted to get good seats for Gravity, the show in the Kings Island Theater. While they smoked, I noticed they began to test Delirium...

Ride #11: Delirium

Wait: Walk-On

I just barely got on the first cycle with riders are the re-opening, I was seat #47 of 50. Swinging and spinning up to 137 feet in the air was fun, but what really made this ride enjoyable was the 76mph breeze, because of the heat. Ah, relief, even if just for a moment.

Rating: A

After Delirium, the show doors opened and we went inside and got our seats.

Show: Gravity

Wow. This show was awesome! I won't spoil it for those who have not seen it, but there were tons of cool stunts, and some funny jokes, though some of the humor was a little crude. (You may not wanna take your young kids to this, there is toilet humor) I really loved this show, and am very glad I saw it. One of the highlights of the trip!

Rating: S

After Gravity, Action Zone was beginning to come fully back to life, though Banshee may have had a mechanical issue because it was down again. However, Drop Tower had a crowd of people around it and was testing...

Ride #12: Drop Tower

Wait: 5 Minutes (1 Cycle)

Was not as lucky this time, but a 1 cycle wait isn't too bad. Drop Tower was not as scary after riding TTD, but it is still pretty intimidating. I got a great view of Invertigo (which was also back open) and the parking lot, which was PACKED. Good thing so much of the crowd was still in Soak City. Then came the 264 foot drop, which reminded me of the airtime I got on Steel Vengeance near the bottom. A great ride.

Rating: A

After Drop Tower, the group wanted to ride Banshee, as they had not ridden earlier.

Ride #13: Banshee #2

Wait: 10 Minutes

Looked like a 20 minute wait, but do not underestimate the capacity of Banshee. The ride was about the same as earlier, but this is when my shoulder really began hurting, as I noticed the vest restraints really annoyed it. Ride was about the same as earlier, so for review, read that.

Rating: A+

After Banshee, we headed over to Adventure Express to ride that.

Ride #14: Adventure Express

Wait: Walk-On

We sat in the back of the train, but I got a rear wheel seat. It was still OK for the first half of the ride, but the 2nd half got a bit rough and somehow even though it was just a lap bar it really annoyed my shoulder. A fun ride but the shoulder pain kinda hindered it towards the end.

Rating: C- (was heading towards C+ but then the pain began)

After Adventure Express, we headed to Racer, and decided to race each other. However...

Ride #15: Red Racer

Wait: Walk-On

...for some reason, our Red Racer train was sent out, but not their Blue! Then, when we got to the lift, we saw a Blue Racer train crest it. I don't know, but my best guess would be someone was trying to film Blue Racer, got caught, and they E-Stopped their train and took their phone. (Because if the ride had broken they would not have restarted it so quickly) So that would be the 2nd time on this 1 day, since I confirmed it happened on Beast earlier. So we did not get to race our friends.

Thankfully, Red Racer was running well enough that it didn't matter too much. There was a good amount of airtime, and since we were not on a wheel seat, it was fairly smooth though you could tell it would have been rough for the seats behind us. (They got pummeled and were going OUCH! at the end) We also rode in 5-2, the middle seat of the last car. A solid Racer ride, even though there was no racing.

Rating: B

After Racer, I made a decision due to my shoulder- I would for the first time 2014, and only 2nd time since 2009, not be able to ride Vortex. Normally I adore the giant Arrow looper, but with its OTSR's and loops riding it with my shoulder hurting probably would not be a good experience. However, me and my sister went and did ride the huge thing NEXT to Vortex...

Ride #16: WindSeeker

Wait: 15 Minutes

Well, I did not realize this, but my sister's watch can monitor your heart rate, and when in line for WindSeeker mine went over 120. It did not do this for any other ride, so now I know what ride at Kings Island makes me the most nervous! Going 300 feet in the air on a ride that swings like this is kinda scary, especially since I do not dangling loosely (for this reason I hate Ferris Wheels). However, once we were actually on the ride and up there, the music and views of the park made me forget all that and it was quite enjoyable. A good ride, but also something I kinda have to force myself on. Also, on the cycle before ours, the ride ops yelled at some one to put up their phone. They must have listened because the ride ops didn't E-Stop and bring the ride down, but still, 3 times in 1 day? That's a little out of hand.
Rating: B

As WindSeeker came down, I saw a horrible sight- Beast, which I was planning on riding again to get a epic night ride, was BROKEN. Mystic Timbers and Diamondback had huge waits, so those were also no-go. However, one of our friends wanted a snack before we did our last ride...

Food: Rivertown LaRosa's Pizza
Wait: None

We just got some breadsticks and split them. I did not eat enough to rate this really, but the one half a breadstick I had was pretty good.

Rating: N/A (didn't eat enough to rate- seemed like a B though)

Ride #17: Backlot Stunt Coaster

Wait: 15 Minutes

Woah, BLSC packed much more of a punch than usual. Like most of the coasters, it was hauling due to how hot it was, and at night all the effects really pop as do the billboards. There was actually some nice airtime on the small hill, and the final tunnel was crazy dark. A very good ride on BLSC. The helix did annoy my shoulder a bit, but the rest of the ride was OK to it.

Rating: B (for comparison BLSC is usually a C to C+ ride!)

After BLSC, we headed to International Street which was full of people to watch the fireworks show. It was nice as usual. Then we got in our car and headed for home. It was a fun trip, as I have come to expect from Kings Island. Now, for the pros/cons of this trip:

PROS

+Short waits in the dry park for everything we rode, in spite of crowds, waterpark seemed to suck everyone up and I was good on timing for some rides

+Rides were, due to temperatures, hauling and very fast

+Food was very good all around, especially at Island Smokehouse

+The shows were all very fun, especially Gravity

+Drink lines for non-Freestyle drinks moved very fast

CONS

-HOT. VERY HOT. Not park's fault but it was smoldering.

-Idiots trying to film rides, thankfully it seemed most were caught, good job to the ride ops for catching them (This is a + for those ride ops)

-Odd and possibly dangerous loose article rules at The Bat

-Beast wheel seat ride hurting shoulder somehow, making me unable to ride Vortex later on

I hope you all enjoyed this trip report. As usual, comments and questions welcome. Now, I am gonna go relax, and rest up- this trip was a bit exhausting and my shoulder still kinda hurts. :wacko:

 

 

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Hope your shoulder feels better! I'm glad you enjoyed your flight on WindSeeker. :)

The Beast has been doing that pretty often as of late (stopping trains to retrieve a cell phone). I rode The Beast last Wednesday and my train got stopped, and I also saw a train stopped during my post-swing-shift ride on Vortex today, all for someone having their phone out. I like how they are doing that, though!

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12 hours ago, VortexBFForever said:

Hope your shoulder feels better! I'm glad you enjoyed your flight on WindSeeker. :)

The Beast has been doing that pretty often as of late (stopping trains to retrieve a cell phone). I rode The Beast last Wednesday and my train got stopped, and I also saw a train stopped during my post-swing-shift ride on Vortex today, all for someone having their phone out. I like how they are doing that, though!

Thanks- a quick update on that, it now feels about 50-60% better 2 days later, so it is recovering. I still don't wanna have to lift anything even slightly heavy with it though, at least for another day or two. I can still pick up light stuff though without much, if any, issue. Should back to 100% by the end of the week, by my estimates.

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