Hoeter

Thanks for uploading those pictures keiko_coaster! Avatar, you said that you rode The Incredible Hulk, but did you head over and try Dueling Dragons?

I forgot to add....construction was ending on Hollywood, Rip, Ride, Rockit when we were there. I also have some pictures up on my Facebook if you want to check it and you can visit the official website at www.hollywoodripriderockit.com/. Maurer Sohne is the manufacturer and they're trying things that have never been done before on this ride.

Hey all...just returned from my trip to Florida. It sure was nice and relaxing to get away from the stresses of everyday life for little over a week. I did a lot of interesting things, went to some interesting places, and just had a good time with the people that I love the most. I will be describing my trip (only the amusement park portion- the rest you'll find rather boring!) and the things and places I experienced while down in Florida. I am having problems uploading the pictures to this post, so if you are my friend on Facebook- my name is Andrew Hoeter, you can check out my pictures. I appreciate any feedback. Thank you for reading this TR. I hope you enjoy it! BOOKING OUR ROOM: Our original plan was to book a 7 night stay with 2 day park tickets at Disney's All Star Music Resort. Disney had a promotion running where you book 4 nights, and get 3 nights free. In addition to said offer, we were also going to get a $250 Disney gift card for use anywhere in Walt Disney World resort. We stayed at the All Star Music Resort back in 2007, had tickets to all 4 Disney parks and just had the best time! We called right after Christmas to make our travel arrangements for this year, and we were treated rather rudely by a Disney cast member on the phone. I politely told the cast member that I refuse to do business with Disney again. The cast member didn't seem apologetic or willing to try to earn my business. He had a "don't care" attitude. That being said, we ended up booking 7 nights at Westgate Lakes Resort. We had a one bedroom villa with a sleeper sofa in the living room area and a spectacular 5th floor view of Lake Buena Vista and Cinderella Castle. This is mainly a timeshare resort, but they rent out villas as well. WHAT I DID: As I said earlier, I refuse to do business with Disney after the ordeal on the phone. That being said, we took advantage of a deal that Universal was running. Pay for a one day, two park ticket and get in for 7 days for only $99 per person online. We hadn't been to Universal in about 3 years, so we jumped at the offer. The kicker about this deal: parking wasn't included, about $12 per day and Universal Express, a pass that you can purchase for your ticket that gets you little to no wait for the major attractions, wasn't included either. Aside from those two drawbacks, we had an absolute blast! Our first visit to Universal Resort took us to Universal Studios Florida. We've been to this park before, but not for about 3 years. We went on a Tuesday, the crowds were light, so we didn't purchase the Express passes. First ride was E.T. Adventure...a ride based on the bike chase scene from the movie E.T. Wait time for this ride was about 15 minutes. Next up was The Simpsons Ride, a motion simulator. Last time we visited, Back to the Future was in this location, was also a motion simulator, and was far more enjoyable than its successor. We waited about 20 minutes for The Simpsons Ride. After that, we rode Men in Black: Alien Attack. This ride is similar to SDATHC in a sense that you shoot at targets to get the highest score. We waited about 10 minutes for this ride. We then rode Jaws, a ride based on the 1970's film of the same name. It took 15 minutes to get on Jaws. Finally, to close the day off...we rode Revenge of the Mummy, a Premiere Rides LIM coaster. We rode it twice: 15 minutes for the first ride, and a walk on the second time around. The next day took us back to Universal Resort, this time to Islands of Adventure. We've never been to this park and I have to tell you, I haven't had that much fun at an amusement park in a long time! We went here on a Thursday, and the crowds here were a lot heavier than the park next door, so we decided to get the Express passes. All of the major attractions in the park that we got on was no longer than a 5 minute wait. As soon as we entered the park, we were greeted to bright green track, that distinctive B&M roar, and riders screaming their heads off...yes, The Incredible Hulk. If you have ever been to Universal's Islands of Adventure, or are thinking about going---you must ride The Incredible Hulk. Right now, it is by far the best coaster I have ever ridden and it is so darn smooth and cool that I enjoyed this ride not once, but twice! This is the only launch B&M coaster, and the launch, approximately 0-40mph in 2 seconds is absolutely out of this world! After I got off The Incredible Hulk with the biggest smile on my face, we decided to check out The Adventures of Spider-Man. This ride was unique in a sense that you wear 3D glasses and travel through the world of Spider-Man, but you are in your own separate ride vehicle. Next up was Jurassic Park River Adventure. This is a water ride, the trains are very similar to those on Congo Falls. You take a tour through Jurassic Park, all is calm and serene until the ride vehicle takes a turn into an area where the raptor is loose. The finale of the ride...an 85 foot drop straight down. What a rush! After that, we decided to ride Dueling Dragons. In case you didn't know...this is a B&M inverted coaster and the first dueling inverted coasters in the world. We rode Fire Dragon first. This ride focuses more on lateral motion and speed, and there are two Immelman's on Fire Dragon. We then rode Ice Dragon. This ride is a bit slower than Fire Dragon but has more inversions. I have reached a verdict...Fire Dragon is a whole lot better than Ice Dragon. There are three near misses on both coaster where you are merely inches from the other train. It was so surprizing but so fun! Kings Island needs one of these desperately! And finally, we checked out Poseidon's Fury, a live action show involving all kinds of different special effects, including fire and water. We came back to Universal on Saturday to hit the rides that we missed. We didn't get the Express passes for this day. First we went back to Universal Studios and experienced Twister. This ride is based on the drive-in scene from the movie Twister. We waited about 15 minutes for this ride. And the last ride that we didn't get a chance to do on Tuesday was Disaster! If you have ever been to Universal Studios, this ride was formerly known as Earthquake: The Big One. This ride features Christopher Walken as Director Frank Kinkaid and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The person who conducted the ride picked people out of the audience to fulfill certain roles in a disaster movie that they were shooting. When we got to the next room, the people that were chosen before to fulfill certain roles filmed their parts in front of a live audience. Finally after this was done, everybody was cast as extras to film the finale to the movie, which takes place in a San Francisco subway. We were filmed and the parts filmed by those chosen earlier were dubbed into a movie trailer which was very cool. I have to tell you, this a cool ride and something that should definately be experienced should you visit. We waited about 30 minutes for this ride. We also got another ride in on Revenge of the Mummy, which was a 5 minute wait. After leaving Revenge of the Mummy, we were stopped by a Universal employee, which wanted to ask us some questions about the type of television shows that we watched. The employee invited me and my family to watch a pilot for a new TV show called Operating Instructions, set to air on the USA network. We got paid $30 each to watch this show and give some feedback on it, so we earned $120 between the four of us which wasn't bad. After this, I had to go to Islands of Adventure to get one last ride in on The Incredible Hulk. We waited for 15 minutes and that ride is such a rush. SOME FINAL NOTES: During my visit to Universal Resort, I found some things that Kings Island should take note of. Lockers are provided FREE of charge for 45 minutes or so for the major attractions that have inversions or attractions that run the risk of article loss. These lockers are controlled by a computer and there is a fingerprint reader for privacy. Also, food and drinks at both Universal parks cost way less than that at Kings Island. For example, a large soft drink was $2.99 and a small soft drink was $2.49. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this TR. I hope you enjoyed reading this. I appreciate any feedback and I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have. -

You got a lot of rides in last night. It's amazing to hear that Firehawk was the longest wait of the night. Thanks for sharing your experience!

"You won't die from the from the bite of Diamondback, but from the Craigslist killer that is coming to pick up your old desk." Wow....I also thought it was Charles Gibson from ABC News. I am in stitches from the above quote.

Great trip report, thanks for sharing. It sounds like a lot of people had no clue that Kings Island was even open last night. 15 rides in 5.5 hours is amazing, and the weather was perfect last night to get some rides in. I wish I could have went, but I had way too much to get done!

Great TR/VTR, whatever you want to call it! I enjoyed watching the videos you posted and glad I wasn't there until later on in the day!

Great PTR/VTR Angie! Glad you had fun and glad you enjoyed riding Diamondback. It's a shame I didn't get to meet any KIC people there. I won't be at Ride Warriors Weekend as I will be returning from Florida and working that entire weekend. I look forward to meeting you and more KIC people as the season progresses!

I probably passed several of you over the course of the day. I was going to say hi to the people that I saw in KIC shirts, but I didn't want to get blank stares. Hopefully I'll see more of you throughout the course of the season!

I saw a couple of people...didn't say anything because I didn't want to get weird stares. ToastNJelly and his friend, also a forum member, can't remember his name- waiting in line for the Eiffel Tower. Ogrmac while waiting in line for The Beast. I don't know if anybody saw me. I had a brown t-shirt on that said "I've got your tickets to the gun show!" and camoflauge cargo shorts.

I wonder how far off the camera shot the line extends. I've heard that the wait is about 5 or 6 hours at this point.

I'm not sure exactly what time I will be arriving Saturday morning, but I'm shooting before ERT starts. Most likely I will be going solo, so if anybody here wants to meet up, feel free to let me know.

Congratulations Kat! Hope to see everybody Saturday!

^^ I got a 90% on that quiz.

1) Avatar 2) TG93 3) VortexJunkie 4) Diamondback FOF 5) Goofywdw 6) Ki4life08 7) Beast1979 8) dare-to-fly 9) The Beast Rider 10) coasterguy15 11) Raptor 12)markhudson17 13)need_for_speed 14)wide_load 15) Bravo4460 16) AgentSoB (at about 5:00 have to freakin work mad.gif ) 17) Amber ( and family ) 18)angrybeaver 19)indianapolisman 20) SOBFOF 21) HTCO(with friends) 22)Phantom Theater! (With a friend) 23) CedarPointer 24)G-Force (In the morning and the evening) 25)Skywriter-Family 26)Justin M17 27) FFEKUdawg4life, i have all day 28)catzdrummer09 29) Andrew

The sign looks good, but I agree with another poster in a sense that it feels like something is missing.

The new paint is looking good!

Got this e-mail from Kings Island. Thought everyone who has renewed their Season Pass or is thinking about it would enjoy. Hello! Due to the popular demand of the “renewal” Season Pass price at Kings Island last fall, we have decided to extend this discount offer to our most loyal guest through May 24th, 2009. This LOYALTY DISCOUNT is aimed at making sure all of our most valued guests (like you) receive the best in thrills and entertainment at the absolute best price possible. Now through May 24th, renewing passholders that purchase a 2009 pass will SAVE $10 OFF each Adult pass and $5 off each Jr/Sr pass. Buy a FOUR PACK today and save your family $40 off the regular price! Because you had a Season Pass in 2008 and you purchased a Season Pass for 2009 between 11/3/08 and 3/11/09, you will receive a loyalty rebate from Kings Island. We are standing by to answer any questions you may have and to get your rebate to you. Please contact our Season Pass department to speak to a Kings Island Season Pass Representative. You may also CLICK HERE to fill out our contact form and someone will contact you. Contact us at: 513.754.5789 Monday – Friday 9AM – 5 PM Sincerely, Kings Island Season Pass Department

I would also like to give kudos to the Moderating Team as well. It's nice to be a member of a forum where the people enjoy Kings Island as much as I do, and cannot wait for the excessive snow and cold weather to go away for Diamondback to open!

During Halloween Haunt last season, I was in front of Larosas in Rivertown getting ready to get in line for The Beast when a scareactor who looked like a werewolf jumped out at me. He didn't scare me and I just said "Hey! How you doing? You ever heard of a razor?" Needless to say, the scareactor just shook his head, chuckled and walked away. That same night, me and my best friend and his girlfriend were in line for The Beast....the line was past the pop machines almost to where the trees were removed for Diamondback, and three scareactors came up out of nowhere with laundry detergent bottles filled with rocks while I was talking about Diamondback to my friend and his girlfriend. He noticed the scareactors, didn't say anything to me, and one of the scareactors gets that laundry detergent bottle right in my ear and starts shaking it like crazy. It scares the absolute bejeezus out of me, and then they take advantage of a group of teenage girls in the first queue house and they almost wet their pants. I died laughing.

King Cobra, Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal, and Phantom Theater.

Andrew Hoeter. Feel free to add me- I like meeting new people who enjoy Kings Island as much as I do.

The funniest rumor I've heard- Flight Deck is really The Bat with a newer paint job and new trains.

This was my first season coming back to KI since 2003. I bought my gold pass with the stimulus check I received. I did 10 laps on The Beast (which I never rode before this season), 5 laps on Red Racer, 1 lap on Blue Racer, 6 laps on Adventure Express, and 1 lap on Firehawk. I did not get to Invertigo, Son of Beast, Flight of Fear, or Vortex this season. Was going to try to if it I had the time. Also, cannot wait for Diamondback. Cannot wait to get my season pass for next year. I know this isn't the appropriate topic to ask this, does anybody know if they are still selling gold passes and for how long? (Mods, feel free to delete)

Avatar. We really enjoyed All-Star Music. Every night, around dark or so, a movie was played near the main pool area/main building. I don't remember it being loud, we were in the rock section towards the back of the property. All-Star Music is in the vicinity of Animal Kingdom, and the drawback is that all three resorts (All-Star Sports, All-Star Movies, and All-Star Music) use the same bus, and I believe that Pop Century has it's own. It took us a good 45 minutes to an hour just to get from EPCOT back to our room...but we never left the resort, save for a few times we went to eat in nearby Kissimmee, and we saved a ton on gas. I hear now that if it's your birthday, you get in for free.