Oldiesmann

Average, minor pain and with the loop

There's one ride op at Beast who just loves interacting with park guests. Today she was singing "If you wanna ride The Beast, clap your hands!" again, telling people to scream so loud that Diamondback could hear them, etc. The best part though was when she learned that there was a girl on the ride celebrating her 8th birthday today, and proceeded to sing happy birthday as the train was leaving the station. It was a lot of fun.

Phenomenal, minor pain (partly depends on where you sit - front seat is fairly smooth compared to the middle or back) and no

Phenomenal, no pain and only

Either my New Balance sneakers or my Sonoma sandals depending on the weather.

Ah. Nice meeting both of you I did have a great time today. Couldn't have asked for better weather, and it was great to have my favorite flat rides in Coney being a walk-on at the end of the night.

Here are some photos from today... Oktoberfest Ducks: FoF Graffiti: Fireworks over Diamondback: Bright orange fountain: Fountain and Eiffel Tower:

Like several others, I took advantage of the great weather today (combined with another Sunday off of work) and spent the afternoon at KI. Before KI, my family and I went to my grandparents' house in Blue Ash to celebrate my grandmother's 84th birthday (which is actually tomorrow, but it was easier to do it today). Left Blue Ash at around 3:00, and was surprised to learn that my grandparents only live 15 minutes from KI. Unfortunately, I thought I had left the sunscreen at home, so I went straight past KI all the way up to Kroger. It was a nice trip (haven't really been up that way since early 2007 when I worked at Holidayfest at The Beach). Got to Kroger, then discovered that the sunscreen had rolled up under the driver's seat... Wasted a good 7 minutes getting up there and another 7 getting back. To make matters worse, the north tolls weren't open at the time. After getting there, I showed my pass to the GP Parking guy, and was hit with "I think the lot may be full, but I think you can probably find a spot". After driving around for about 10 minutes, about ready to give up on finding a spot, I found one near the end of GP 60. By this time it was about 3:40pm... From there it was a short walk to the front gate. I was surprised to see how short the lines were at the gates. Went in and headed straight for Action Zone. Noticing that lines were short, I hit Delirium first. Waited 15-20 minutes for it. Great ride like usual. Next up was Drop Tower. Despite a sign predicting a wait of 30 minutes, I got in line, and was on the ride within 20 minutes. After hitting Drop Tower, I headed over to Oktoberfest. Noticing that Viking Fury was practically a walk-on, I went to wait for Row 14, but a nice Hispanic family in Row 13 made room for me so I got on almost immediately. The ride was a lot of fun because the ride ops were playing the classic "which side of the ship can make the most noise" game, which seemed to be a big hit with the kids in Row 14. Unfortunately, the other side won, but it was still a great ride. As I was leaving, I noticed a nice family of ducks sitting under a tree near the lake, so I stopped to take a picture of them... From there, I headed over to kiddy land to see how long Reptar's line was. Fortunately it was nice and short like most of the other rides, so I got in line and was in the front seat within 15 minutes. I'd forgotten how much fun this ride was, even though I never cared much for Rugrats and have never seen (nor had any desire to see) the movie that the ride is based on. While waiting in line for Reptar, I saw DB calling me, so I headed there next. SRL wasn't open, so I waited in the main line because it was fairly short - 20 minutes later I had my first DB ride of the day. I headed back to the line for another DB ride and again was on the ride within 20 minutes. From there, I headed towards The Beast. Seeing that Crypt didn't have much of a line, I decided to go see just how bad the new program was. Waited about 20 minutes for it, and definitely agree with what everyone else here has said about it - it stinks. A few funny things happened though - someone threw a small basketball at the demon bat thingy, and there was the hilarious "Mommy!" comment from a guest before the ride started... After that I headed over to Beast. Last week I didn't get a night ride due to Beast being closed at 9:30, and I wanted to marathon DB tonight, so I got my Beast ride in early. After Beast, I headed over to BLSC. Another near walk-on - the line was halfway past the bridge. Apparently the "single riders will be paired" policy wasn't in effect today. Was off of BLSC within 15 minutes. Still a fun ride, but I miss the in-car sound effects and the splashdown at the end of the ride (at least they have water in the main part of that pit now). From there, it was off to Coney Mall to tackle my favorite flat rides. After a quick pit stop, I decided to hit Jukebox Diner for an Oreo shake. I find it funny that the sign mentions "thick" shakes, yet you can drink it with a straw. It was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the nearly $5 I paid for it. Next up was Shake, Rattle & Roll. Like all the flat rides in Coney Mall today, this was a nice short ride. I noticed numerous burned-out lights though - maintenance really needs to fix that (every bulb on the arm with the orange cars is burned out, as is a headlight on one of the orange cars...). Lots of fun as usual. The next ride on my list was Zephyr - a literal walk-on. Having had my fill of flat rides for the time being, I headed back to X-base to see what the lines for FOF and Firehawk were like. Seeing that FOF had an estimated 30 minute wait, and Firehawk had an estimated 45 minute wait, I opted for FOF since I rode Firehawk last week. On the way into the building, I noticed that a few kiddies had been there recently. I don't know why anyone thinks this is acceptable, but it's really sad that some folks have nothing better to do than to leave a "calling card" of sorts... FOF was fun, especially since it was in the dark. However, I made the mistake of sticking my feet under the restraint, rather than over it. My left foot was a tad cramped, but my right foot was pinned, with a plastic zip tie digging into it the entire time. As much as I like FOF, I was never so glad to get off that ride, and certainly won't make that mistake again. Seeing that Firehawk still had an estimated 45-minute wait, I headed back to Coney Mall to finish up what I'd started. I hit Scrambler first, followed by Monster, which was a walk-on. I managed to keep the car spinning fairly well, though I probably should have opted for a spin from Josh the ride op. Lots of fun as always. I wasn't really in the mood to get beaten up by Vortex again, so I headed for The Racer. By this time, Blue was the only side open. Walk-on to 1-3. Really fun ride, but it was a little strange without anything to race. At this point it was almost 9:00. I headed back to Firehawk one last time, but much to my dismay, the estimated wait was still 45 minutes, so I gave up and headed over to Diamondback to finish off the night. Surprisingly, the wait was still only 20 minutes. By the time I got off, the SRL was open, so I made a bee-line for it. The greeter turned out to be a KIC member and said he liked my shirt Waited 5-10 minutes in the SRL, and still had 20 minutes til the park closed, so I climbed over the chain and went back. This time there was a 2nd greeter there who was also apparently a KIC member. He introduced himself to me, but I forgot what his username was... Went back down the SRL for another 5-10 minute wait. At this point there were some managers and a park police officer in the main exit talking to the ride ops about something, so they opened the left exit instead. Walked straight down the ramp and did an immediate U-turn into the SRL, and was quite happy to find that there was no line - I went straight up the stairs to the station and was on the ride by 9:58. This was the final ride of the night, and the fireworks started as we were rounding the final curve into the brakes after the splashdown. I stood over on the patio right outside the gift shop (next to the food stand) to watch the fireworks, and decided to take some night-time shots. On the way out, I decided to snap some more photos. I was hoping to get a good shot from the front by setting my camera on the Kings Island sign and hitting the button, but that never happened due to everyone wanting to take pictures there. I did find a nice trash can to set the camera on though and got some great shots of the fountain and parts of the tower. Overall it was a great day at KI. Cool weather, not too crowded and relatively short lines. I was amazed at how many rides I was able to get in despite only being at the park for 6 1/2 hours.

In line for Crypt: "This ride's like 10 minutes long!" On Crypt, before the ride started: Guest: "Mommy!" Guest's friend: "Shut up, Dave!" In line for Drop Tower: Guest, pointing to Diamondback: "What's that ride?" Guest's friend: "That's Diamondback!" Guest (surprised): "It is???" I also heard Monster referred to as The Spider again...

I also rode it again today to see how bad it was, and while it was fun, it was nowhere near as fun as when I rode it during RWCW three weeks ago. I definitely won't be riding it again this season.

I chose to skip Firehawk today due to a constant 45-minute wait - even at 9:00. I did however have fun marathoning the SRL at Diamondback the last 30-45 minutes of the night, ending my last ride just as the fireworks were going off.

What's the funniest and/or strangest "don't sit on the handrails" spiel you've heard at the park? Here are a couple of funny ones I've heard: "The handrails are our friends. We don't sit on your friends, so please don't sit on ours!" "Please do not sit, stand and/or break-dance on the handrails!"

It seems a bit odd to me that they would have a tornado shelter in a walk-in freezer.

It amazes me how many of these "someone got killed" rumors there are. On a related note, does anyone know why KI got rid of Screamin' Demon?

I think Beast is best when they have all the effects in the station turned on. The funniest part for me was a female ride op singing "If you want to ride The Beast, clap your hands ... If you wanna ride The Beast, because it's really neat ...". Unfortunately most of the guests in the station seemed to be rather un-enthusiastic that day.

I for one absolutely love Chipotle... Nothing like a 1000 calorie fajita with a Pibb Xtra to drink...

I stand corrected. I've never heard of F6 before and thought I remembered hearing on The Weather Channel that no such category existed. However, From http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/sate...nal/fujita.html

There is no 6 on the Fujita scale or the Enhanced Fujita scale, which is now used in the US.

I didn't even know that place had a basement...

The video has to be from between 1987 and 1990: In both The Racer and King Cobra videos, you can see the Ferris wheel. According to the KICentral History Timeline, this ride was removed at the end of the 1990 season. However, Vortex didn't open until 1987, so it can't be any earlier than that. One other thing though. The KICentral History Timeline says that the giant slide was moved to HB Land in 1986. However, if you look off to the right at about the 1:34 mark in The Racer POV, you'll see the giant slide. This means that either the timeline is wrong or the video of The Racer was shot prior to the video of The Vortex...

You can also enter Festhaus on the road from International Street to Action Zone - it's the big building there with the giant food sign outside of it.

There's also one at the HVAC building behind FOC and other rides in that area (though I'm not sure exactly which of the many buildings back there is the HVAC building).

I rode AE this past Sunday and the guys at the end were working for once. Doesn't make the ride any less lame (especially when riding it right after SOB), but it was nice to see them working.

That video illustrates my point that there was no "lack of interest" from park guests. It was a big hit. Restoring that clock, kicking the country show out of Festhaus and replacing the food places with a German eatery would go a long way into restoring interest in that section of the park.

I agree. The times I've seen kids that young on the ride, they're usually riding with an older sibling, friend or relative.