Hoeter

Went out to Kings Island on Monday 8-17 for visit #9 of the season with some friends. We arrived around 10:40am to find a so-so parking lot, not too crowded and not too dead either. We parked in Son of Beast 63 and made our way to the front gate. Our first ride of the day was Diamondback. At this time, maybe 3 or 4 switchbacks in the covered queue were being used as well as the four switchbacks past that. Not too bad of a wait and the line was moving fairly quickly. Waited about 20 minutes and were assigned rows 5 and 6 on green train. The friends that I took today had never had the chance to ride Diamondback and they heard great things about it from some other friends. Two friends took row 6 while me and my other friend took row 5. We get to the top of the lift hill, and my friend looks straight down at the ground and starts shouting out expletives. I won't go into any further detail about it because we have youngsters frequenting these boards, plus it's probably against the Terms of Service- so we'll just leave it at that. After this, we decided to head over towards The Crypt. My friends went to Kings Island last season but they haven't had the fine pleasure of experiencing this amazing attraction since it was Tomb Raider: The Ride. They insisted on riding it, but I told them how it's changed under the expert tutelage of Cedar Fair. They didn't care- they wanted to ride it anyways, and I agreed to tag along. We waited three cycles before we boarded. Two out of three said it was lame and way better when it was TR:TR, and one friend said it was even better now than it was before. This is the second time I have ridden it with the new program and it wasn't any better than it was the first time. Next up was The Beast. We waited 25 minutes before we boarded and the ride seemed way rougher than before. After this, we headed up the midway and decided to check out the line for BLSC. It was all the way back almost using two switchbacks. All of us decided that the line wasn't worth the wait for the ride so we passed on this one. Further up the midway, my friends decided to ride Shake, Rattle, and Roll while I headed to Jukebox Diner to get some ice water. They ended up walking on that ride and as soon as we met up again- we headed towards Vortex and waited 20 minutes for rows 5-1 and 5-2. Excellent as always. Following this we headed up Coney Mall and went back to X-Base to check the lines for Flight of Fear and Firehawk. Firehawk had a 90 minute wait according to the sign because they were only running one train, so we passed on this one and got in line for Flight of Fear. Waited 25 minutes for the last two rows and the ride seemed to be much faster in the back than in the front where I've experienced it on my past visits. After this, we decided to head up towards the front gate to have our hand stamped so we could leave the park to get some lunch. Going further up Coney Mall, we saw that Racer didn't have a line and we walked right on to Red Racer without waiting. At this time we left the park and headed up to Taco Bell to get some food. Two chili-cheese burritos, two chicken soft tacos sans lettuce, one order of cheezy potatoes, and three cups of Mtn. Dew Baja Blast later- I was officially stuffed. We returned to KI and parked in Gold Pass 57 and re-entered. First up was Delirium. We waited about 3 cycles before we were on the ride. I got so nauseous on Delirium and had to sit down for a few minutes so my stomach could get back to normal. After I was all good, we headed to Flight Deck to find out it was closed. No worries- we headed to Adventure Express and walked right on. To be honest with you- I almost fell asleep on that ride! Next we rode Viking Fury. Haven't ridden this in about 10 or 15 years. Awesome ride and we had a screaming contest with the other side. I think we won. We headed back up towards Coney Mall after this and decided to check out Dodgems. We walked right on. Classic ride as always but the fun wears off fast. After we got off, my friends decided they wanted to ride it again, and they walked right on again with no wait. After this, we headed over to Nick Universe and checked out SDATHC. I scored 1190, the highest out of our group. Plus being in an air conditioned building was a major relief to the stickiness outside. Next we headed back over towards Diamondback and got another ride in rows 5 and 6. I took row 6 this time around and we ended up waiting 20 minutes for red train. After this, my one friend decided to get a massive turkey leg and an adult beverage from the Snake Pit right near Diamondback. It was going to be a little while before he finished so I managed to get one more ride in on Diamondback using the SRL. Waited 15 minutes for row 7 on gold train, and this was #25 for me. Finally to close the day out, we headed towards White Water Canyon to cool off. Coming up the pathway, we saw Brandon Phillips getting off so we shouted his name and he was very friendly to talk to. Waited 5 minutes to get on and I was up to my "It's Her Birthday" antics again. See StalkerChick's TR from July 7 to find out more. We got drenched and left about 6:30pm. Look for another TR from me on Sunday. I will be up at Kings Island for the Mid-Summer Scream event on Saturday. I look forward to meeting some of you there. Until next time, RIDE ON!

I'll be there....even though Cincinnati isn't doing too well right now- I'll still make sure to support our boys.

Take a look at that page. Be sure to click on the "Crystal Rock Bottling Company" link, and it comes up with something very interesting. It takes you to a page describing their latest beverage, Whyte Lightning. It can also be found at www.whytelightning.com. Sound familiar? According to Screamscape, that's the rumored name of the coaster coming to Carowinds next season. Cedar Fair is at it again!

Very interesting. I'm glad I rode it for the first time this season and I actually enjoyed the three laps I took on it.

Congrats on Post #20,000 Terpy!

That is where Thunder Alley currently stands.

I guess my sarcasm detector isn't working too well tonight. I need to head down to Wal-Mart to get some batteries for it!

We used to have a ride that took you up into the tree tops and was near The Beast. It was called Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canals and sadly it was removed for The Crypt.

Something I noticed on Saturday: At the front of the park and throughout the park: the boards that advertise Skyline Chili, Marathon, and the brain teaser questions cycle up and down changing the ads. I've never seen this before. Has anyone else?

Compare it to Disney....they charge you $12 for parking when visiting any one of the four theme parks.

This thread should be placed in the "KICentral Meet Up" subforum so it can be found easily.

I was there Saturday and can verify that parking is still $10. Preferred parking is $15 as well.

If you're wondering what Aquatrax is....it's a ride from Intamin. http://www.intaminworldwide.com/iag/index....8&Itemid=33 According to Wikipedia (reliable source, I know)- the only operating Aquatrax is at Lotte World in Seoul, South Korea. The wiki page also says that the ride opened in 2003, is the only Aquatrax operating and currently none are planned to be installed in the future. The ride also features LIM propulsion!

Amazing trip report! I went Saturday and the lines for Diamondback, The Beast, and Vortex were amazingly long. That's amazing that those people gave you that pizza and Fanta, at least you didn't have to shell out an amazing amount of nickels for those! Thanks for amazing us! Andrew-amazed.

^ They should use a layout on KI's website that's similar to the one from 2001 IMO.

Here's my two cents..... Row 1- feels much smoother and much faster IMO. Seems to be massive airtime in this row as well. Row 8- a cornucopia* of airtime in this row. Row 16- ejector air, and I love how it whips you down the hills. I also love getting wet from the splashdown. *an abundant, overflowing supply. (Source: Dictionary.com)

Fabio knows how that is! Your goose is cooked! Andrew- who really can't believe it's not butter...

Working in retail, weekends are usually very very busy and it's hard to get a Saturday or Sunday off. Well, last week they gave me Saturday off for some reason. Initially, I had planned to go out with my buddy on his boat but my sister called me on Thursday literally begging me to take her to Kings Island for her second visit of the season. I finally caved in and said okay, knowing what I was getting myself into. There's a reason that I usually visit Kings Island on a Friday or Sunday, or mostly during the week: the crowds. And let me tell you....it was jam packed! If I'm lying, I'm crying and I ain't shed a tear! I initially planned to be at the park at the beginning of ERT but since I was out very late the night before at the Clermont County Fair watching the truck-tractor-semi pulls, that simply was not going to happen. I ended up getting out of bed around 10AM and immediately I checked out the webcam to see how crowded it was. Diamondback was absolutely swarmed with people. All switchbacks were full and the line extended past the restrooms in Nick Universe. At this time, I was dead set on not going, because it's a Saturday- most people are off work and supposedly there were special events going on at the park. I called my sister and explained to her that it's probably not a good idea to head out to the park because it's very crowded. After talking to her on the phone for awhile, I decided to head out to the park because I had nothing going on now plus I was having Diamondback withdrawals. On the way to the park, we had to go "Krogering" for a single-day ticket. $32.99 at Kroger isn't a bad deal for a ticket since it's $15 off gate price. At least we don't have absurdly high ticket prices like a certain mouse! After this, we stopped and got some Wendy's and continued on our way. On the road again.... I don't know if we have any Chicago fans on these forums...but as soon as I saw the parking lot and how crowded it was, the song "Saturday In The Park" started playing in my head. We got through the parking tolls and headed for the Gold Pass parking lot. I drove up and down every single row in that lot, not a parking space to be found. Turned left out of the Gold Pass lot and continued down some more rows, again not a parking space to be found. All of the rows, even down to the last one near Great Wolf Lodge, was completely filled with cars. I drove back to the Gold Pass lot and guess what, a car was pulling out! There was another car opposite where I was and it challenged me to that parking spot. Needless to say, that little Hyundai didn't decide to play chicken with a Dodge Ram and I ended up parking close up in Gold Pass 58. Walked up through the turnstiles and found a mass of people gathered in front of the fountain. I could tell that there were going to be long waits for many of the rides. First off, we went over towards Diamondback and saw all switchbacks being used and the line extending past Rivertown Junction. We decided not to wait right now for Diamondback and headed over towards The Beast to see how the line was there. Went past The Crypt and the line was all the way back into the midway. Got to The Beast and it was closed down due to technical problems. We headed up past the midway and saw that Backlot Stunt Coaster had all of their switchbacks completely filled as well. We went further up the midway and saw that the line for Vortex was moving fairly quickly. The line extended out into the midway, right by the Goblet Toss game in Coney Mall. We decided to wait for this one and waited about a half hour for 5-1. Definitely worth the wait and a good ride as always. We hit up Spongebob 3D also and waited about a half hour before getting in. After this, we continued up Coney Mall and saw that Zephyr didn't have much of a wait. We waited 5 minutes before we got to ride and I was amazed at how short the ride cycle is. After this, we headed back to X-Base and checked out the lines for Flight of Fear and Firehawk. The line for Flight of Fear was out into the midway as well and they actually had signs out saying that Firehawk's estimated wait time was almost three hours. No doubt that we passed on those two. Headed further up Coney Mall and saw that the lines for both sides of Racer were out to the midway as well with all switchbacks completely filled. Passed on this one as well. Went past Delirium and Adventure Express, lines out to the midway here as well. By this time, we were getting hungry and we decided to head out of the park instead of spending money on overpriced park food. We headed up to McDonalds up on Kings Mills Rd. Sat in there for a little while and took advantage of the free wi-fi and then we headed back to the park. It was fairly easy to find a parking spot this time around, so we parked in Gold Pass 56 out near the Kings Island sign. Headed back in and wasn't any better than it was before. We decided to take our first ride of the day on Diamondback. The line was still past Rivertown Junction but the line moved very fast. Kudos to the Diamondback crew for dispatching trains quickly and efficiently and keeping the line moving. Good job! We waited about a half hour and was assigned to row 7 on gold train. The Diamondback crew was trying to set an hourly capacity record and they were telling people to get seated quickly and that they would take our belongings and place them in the bin for us to get the train out. Gabe (Captain Nemo) was behind the controls and he did an awesome job of getting the trains loaded up and out of the station at a rapid fire pace. After this, Danielle (keiko_coaster) texted my sister to see where we were in the park. Her and her friend were up at the front of the park watching "Don't Stop the Music". At the conclusion of the show, all of us headed over towards Delirium and jumped in line. We waited about 45 minutes for Delirium and all of the switchbacks were full. I did not count how many ride cycles we waited through, but I'm pretty positive it was a lot! Right before we got on, Delirium had to close due to technical issues but was up and running quickly and we were on in no time at all. After Delirium, all of us headed toward Congo Falls. It was a walk on and I've never been on this ride before. It was okay, nothing spectacular, just okay. I'm not a big fan of water rides anyways. After this, Danielle and her friend headed over towards Skyflyer and we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I still was craving one more Diamondback ride so we headed over to Rivertown and got in line during the fireworks. The line at this time was still out into the midway but not all the way back past Rivertown Junction like it was before. We were on in about a half hour and were assigned row 8 on green train. After this, we were past tired and decided to head out. After a quick stop at Speedway to fill up and to Taco Bell to grab a bite to eat, we were on our way home. I had a fun day with my sister although Kings Island was crowded as all getout! I can't wait to take her back up there again this season. Thanks for reading, and until next time....RIDE ON!

1. kjkjkj/ Kyle- Maybe going 2. Ashers/ Ashley- Maybe going 3. HTCO (maybe) 4. dare-to-fly 5. Justin M17/ Justin 6. AgentSoB/ Tracy 7. Andrew- should be going but not definite

I might be there as well. I requested that weekend off months ago and got it approved.

Nice PTR.....thanks for sharing with us. I've only been to Chicago once and that was about 10 years ago. My Grandfather took me to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field shortly before he passed. I didn't get to experience anything else that the Chicagoland area has to offer. I'll have to get back up there and check it out. And I think they should have kept Sears Tower instead of renaming it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domesti...ravdynlprim0556 Kings Island made the list. So did Cedar Point and Knott's Berry Farm. Three Cedar Fair parks total.

At least it isn't about Son of Beast! And there are no questions for us to choose from..... EDIT: KIFan1980 beat me to it.

I wonder if Bill Cunningham is going to be there.....him and Sean Hannity are very good friends.

Thanks for sharing! It was very busy when we went on Tuesday. A Kid Again was having an event at the park. Looks like Spirit Song will continue tomorrow (Saturday) as well, so if anyone is planning to make a trip to KI, large crowds are possible.