gigacoaster2k

I try to go when there is a slight chance of rain or thunderstorms. Less people = happy Angie. I went around the end of June when they were forecasting isolated thunderstorms and a 50 percent chance of rain. Around late morning, a storm broke and it poured for about 15 minutes. It was just letting up when we saw a big bolt of lightning, and people started running for shelter. I hid out with my friend in the Chuck Wagon pizza place, and got something to eat while the weather unleashed its fury on the park. It cleared up after a bit, and some of the park had cleared out, so I got more rides in than I expected. Later around 5, it downpoured for about half an hour, and my friend and I hid under a face painting tent and laughed as crowds of people ran for the exit. The rain gave way to brilliant sunshine, and about 2/3 of the park was gone by this time. I ended up getting 4 rides in a row on MF, including a ride in the front seat. I got a total of 19 rides in that day.

WHAT THE FREAKIN HECK??!!.. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is the funniest thing I've seen in a while! Thanks for the gut-busting laugh!

As long as there are shade tents and vending machines, I could care less. I personally like Top Thrill Dragster's theming the best. The drag race theming, the bright red and yellow, the checkered flags, and the "Ready To Go" song gets me so pumped. Not to mention the deafening roar of the train launching past me as I walk toward the entrance.

I have to make it back to KI. I haven't been there since August 9. I need a Drop Tower fix.. yes, I've been to Cedar Point twice in the last two weeks, but Power Tower's turbo drop just doesn't cut it.

My dad was kind of lost at CP and I'm still not sure of some of the layout. We were looking for a park map everywhere and I was getting irritated because I didn't have one for him. We went on Millennium Force and I heard something papery at my feet. There was a park map by my right foot. When my friend Ben and I were exiting MF, we were the first people off. We were about 3 feet away from the exit doors when 2 of them just blew open, and it wasn't even windy out. Even weirder: On my July 17-18 trip, I had left a pair of shades in one of the MF lockers. When they called ERT night, I was so mad I just straight left the park. When I got back to my hotel room, I found the locker key in my pocket. I went back the next morning, opened the locker, and my shades were gone. I was going up the hill on MF when I heard something plastic slide down at my feet, and there were a pair of shades similar to mine. Ben seems to think there is a Millennium ghost.. and apparently, it likes me

Just looking at it makes my stomach feel yucky. I am fine on coasters, but I can't do those crazy rides where the seats spin separately from the ride itself. I did one at our county fair a few weeks ago and wasn't able to look at food for the rest of the night.

Oh definitely. My dad recently lost his dad and one of his brothers, so he really needed this. I also needed to get away one last time before this week. I go back to my full time job tomorrow and I start fall semester on Tuesday. So I have a crazy few months in store for me. I'm going to try to make one more trip to Cedar Point for Halloweekends, and one more trip to Kings Island for Halloween Haunt. Gotta love the platinum pass.

*points finger at you and uses her mom's tone of voice* NO CANCELING ALLOWED! Seriously. You will regret it more if you don't go. It is worth every second of the long drive up there. Just take extra medicine with you.

It wasn't my first time on it, but it was his first time. He absolutely loved it. Maverick is one amazing ride experience.

My dad went with me. He bought a ticket and I got him the $8 coupon from the back of my brochure, so he got in for $34.95. My dad has not been to the park since 1975, and was in awe at how much the park had changed since his last visit there. He said it's a gorgeous park. It was about 9:50 am so I asked the park attendant if we could just go ahead and enter the park since I had a platinum pass, but my dad didn't and he was with me. The attendant politely apologized and said he didn't know if he was allowed to do that. I told him it was worth a shot, and thanked him. I was wearing the pink no line jumping ringer tee, and I got a few smiles from security guards. Once we got in, we wanted to ride Raptor, but the line was hideous because it was at the front of the park and everyone wanted to ride it. So I decided to make Wicked Twister my dad's first ride. We sat in the third seat from the back because the wait for the very back was just too long. As we shot off up the first spire I heard him yell "Holy smoke!" When the ride was over, I looked over and asked how he liked it, and he gave me a high five with a smile on his face. (Whew!) Then it was off to Magnum, and my dad was excited until we started going up the huge hill. His reaction was "Wow, this is really high." But he loved it. I used to not like Magnum that much, but it grows on you. It's still a great ride. He's a big fan of wooden coasters, so we hit Mean Streak. He liked it for the most part, but said his back hurt a little afterward. Since we were at the back of the park, we decided to go for Maverick. The wait was an hour and a half, but he had been watching the coaster in action and said he didn't mind waiting. After we rode that, he said it was amazing, and couldn't stop saying "Wow." Here's a photo of me in front of Maverick: We were getting a little hungry, and stopped for some nachos and a LOT of water. It was getting very hot outside by this time. He was pretty pumped by this point, so we decided to just go for it and hit Millennium Force. We were almost to the end of the queue by the wall when I noticed I hadn't seen a train go by for several minutes and the line wasn't moving. I looked at the hill and to my horror I saw that the cable lift was stuck in the middle of the hill. A few minutes later, it descended very slowly and disappeared out of sight into the station. About 10 minutes later, I saw the yellow train go up, and breathed a sigh of relief. On our way up the lift hill, my dad looks over the side and goes "Oh my God" about 5 times. About halfway through the ride, I saw him throw his hands in the air. I was so proud. He had been really nervous about riding it. His exact words were "That was INCREDIBLE. That was something I'd never thought I'd do in this lifetime. It was more than I'd imagined, and the best coaster I've ever been on." After that, we rode Iron Dragon because he wanted to, he likes Flight Deck at Kings Island so we went on this. He said it was fun, but nothing compared to the coasters I'd taken him on so far. We were getting really hungry so we stopped for pizza by Raptor. Except for the rock-hard crust, it was fairly good. Since we were right by Raptor and hadn't ridden yet, we went for it. The queue was mostly in the sun, and it was almost unbearable. But he loved Raptor too, and was laughing through most of the ride. Dragster had been down for a couple of hours, and I was excited to see that it was up and running again. So we went for it. My dad's eyes were so wide every time one of the trains roared past. He said he didn't think he was ready, but he also said he didn't want to come all this way just to chicken out. I love my dad. We were in the loading station ready to go, and the train had just started to move forward.. when the lights on the tree all shut off. Our train slowly moved back to where it had loaded, and I was wondering if it was going to shut down again when the ride op started yelling "420 FEET!" I breathed a sigh of relief for the second time that day. Once we launched, I thought to myself "My God, I probably just gave my dad a heart attack." I heard him say holy s-word on the way down. He gave me a high five after the ride, and said it was a very close second to Millennium as far as his favorite, because of the adrenaline rush. He said that it was amazing how far you could see from the top, and swears he could almost see the curvature at the edge of the water. He was completely blown away. We hit the red side of Power Tower because he's been on a drop ride, but never one that shoots you up. He liked it, but said it was nothing compared to what he just rode. I went into the restroom to check my contacts because they were bothering me, and I forgot that I had my sunglasses on my head. I tipped my head back to put eye drops in, and my Fossil sunglasses hit the floor and broke. So I went to a gift shop to get a new pair because the sun was still brutal, and also got this Millennium Force keychain. We hit Toft's Ice Cream Parlor. Wow, one scoop looks like two and their ice cream is really good. It was nice to chill out in the air conditioning. Afterward, we went for the Giant Wheel, which really needs a new coat of paint and some new lights. I took this opportunity to take some photos. Then my friend Ben met up with us, and we hit Wicked Twister again. This time, my dad and I rode in the very back seat. He now understands why the very back is the best. I always end up shouting a few expletives from the very top of the spire, but I love it. Ben went to meet up with a friend real quick, so my dad and I hopped on MaxAir. He said that one was a lot of fun. Ben met back up with us, and we hit Millennium Force for a night ride. Ben and I ran back to get the last train of the night, and my dad sat out because he was getting tired. It's too bad he missed the slow claps. I love that. We got lucky enough to get the very back seat on the last train. I'm telling you, I felt every single force, every single negative G, and every single positive G on that coaster, 20 times more than I had in any other seat. UNBELIEVABLE. I will now choose back seat over front any day. We headed out of the park around 10:15 pm, and as we did, my dad thanked me for the experience of a lifetime. Ride count: Millennium Force - 3 (Dad 2) Wicked Twister - 2 Dragster - 1 Maverick - 1 Magnum - 1 Raptor - 1 Mean Streak - 1 Power Tower - 1 MaxAir - 1 Iron Dragon - 1 Giant Wheel - 1

Kings Island: Son of Beast. My brain was bouncing around so much in my skull that I feared permanent damage. I walked off with 3 bruises, a backache, and a vicious headache. "Like father, like son" does not apply in this case. The apple fell a long way from the tree. Cedar Point: Blue Streak. I not only felt like I was literally going to fall out, but it threw my back against the seat so hard that I had to take 2 advil after I got off so I wouldn't be in pain later. I know I'm going to get crap for this one, but Gemini. On my first ride, the sudden helix at the end made me feel like my shoulder had been dislocated. On my second ride, again on the helix, my lower neck made a nasty snap noise followed by stinging pain that caused me to have a stiff neck for 2 days afterward. What would I do to make these rides better? Light a match.

Her is the other TR I found in my MySpace blogs. I didn't take any photos on this trip. A friend called me to say she saw my MySpace bulletin about going to Kings Island, and I was so excited about seeing her that I never thought to set a time and place to meet.. So I never found her.. yeah, I realize I'm brilliant. I still had a great time though. I rode: Delirium, Drop Tower, Vortex, Invertigo, Firehawk, Delirium again, Drop Tower again, Racer, Beast, Drop Tower again, Invertigo again, and Drop Tower 5 more times in a row at the end of the night. The Drop Tower ride op actually high fived me for my insane ride count. I have to give kudos to a girl that was cleaning the bathrooms, my contact was really bothering me and she noticed. She stopped cleaning to offer to go get me some contact solution from the first aid station. Nice to know that people out there still have a sense of exceptional customer service. I was chilling in the shade sipping my blue razz Icee, when some 10 (?) year old girl walked up to me with her little brother, and she asked me if American Eagle was a brand clothing company. I said yes, and she smacked him in the back of the head with her park map and said "I told you so!" and takes off chasing him, continuing to beat him with the park map. Lines were surprisingly short seeing as how it was clear and sunny all day (except for Firehawk, which always has at least a 45 min wait, it seems). It dawned on me later that a lot of people might have gone over to the water park. It was very, very hot. I saw a lot of people sitting on benches in the shade chugging bottles of water or fanning themselves with a park map. I can't tell you how many times I hit the water fountain or bought something to drink, I was wearing shorts and a tank and I was still frying. My last ride of the night was Drop Tower just as they started the fireworks. That was a real treat to see fireworks from the top, and I looked out at the park to see every ride lit up with flashing lights. That was a cool way to end the night.

I was looking through my MySpace blogs, and found two TRs. Here is one. My friend Sara and I went at the end of May to celebrate her graduation from RN school. May 27: We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. We rode Power Tower twice (once on red seats and once on green/teal/blue seats), Maxair, Millennium twice, Raptor, Dragster, Wicked Twister, Maverick, front seat on Mantis, and front seat on Magnum. Then we left the park to check into Breakers Express, got some dinner at TGI Fridays, and went to the Sandusky mall so she could go shopping for a hoodie. I'd bought the pink hoodie with the pink CP logo and she didn't want to spend as much as I had. I was goofing off a little at the mall. Then we went back to the park and rode Maxair, and decided it was way too cold (it was 46 degrees) so we went back to the hotel. May 28: We were going to eat breakfast at the hotel but it was a la carte, and expensive. Not to mention the selection was pathetic, so we hopped in her 2008 Vue and went to McDonald's. Then it was off to the park, where we got in early because we have platinum passes. Check out how dead the park was. We rode Power Tower (red seats), Maverick, Mantis, Skyhawk, front seat on Millennium (that was fun), and I rode front seat of Dragster (that was nuts). Sara sat out for that ride on TTD, her first ride was her last. It was too much for her. We then realized we had gotten a huge ride count in a little over 24 hours, and we were both sunburnt and freezing, so we called it quits and headed home. Sara's GPS telling us we are in the middle of nowhere: Here I am: and here is Sara: I am quite proud of this photo, I got the Mantis train and the Millennium train in the same shot. And here are the rest of my photos I took during our trip: Thanks for looking!

That's not being mean, it's being brutally honest and making me laugh at the same time. Your answer is the kind I like!

I read on the KI events calendar that the Columbus Blue Jackets will be at Kings Island this Saturday. http://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/eve...04&ec_id=15 So I'm assuming there will be crowds. Above that, it's a weekend (more crowds), and the weather is supposed to be nice (even more crowds). My dad wants to go with me, but I am concerned that the park is going to be packed. Should we go, or find something else to do?

3 hours for Millennium Force. 2 hours 45 minutes for The Beast. Totally worth every second waiting for both.

Nice TR, and I like your unique perspective on everything. Invertigo is great if you keep your head back against the headrest so that your head doesn't get beat by the OTSRs. This goes for any ride that has them, and it seems to work for me. It appears that I missed out on a great time. Oh well, maybe next year.

I do know that I've only been on 2 B&M coasters, neither one of them a hyper (I know, my coaster count is still pretty low). Either way, I can't wait until the park strikes back! I only live an hour from KI. I am really excited about this coaster.

It just dawned on me that Kings Island had a (now defunct) coaster named King Cobra.. now they are naming the new one Diamondback.. KI seems to want a snake theme somewhere in their park.. maybe I'm the only one who noticed?..

I heard something like that when I was in line for Delirium once. Someone in front of me looked up when it was in full swing, and said "Can you imagine if that thing snapped off?"

I'm not making fun of anyone.. it just shocked me at the time. I didn't mean to offend anyone.

I posted a comment before you were done posting photos.. oops. I put the photo of the DB sign on the Eiffel Tower as my desktop wallpaper. You took some great photos.

Nice photos! I haven't had a chance to see the DB model yet, thanks for posting it. Invertigo is one of my favorites too. I've noticed SOB always has a huge wait when I go. I don't even bother with it. I went into Club Blood when it was open last year. It was completely disgusting I have to say, it was worth the wait in line.

I'm so using that one. Random little kid next to me on Drop Tower, about halfway up: "Have you ridden this before?" Me: "Only about 80 times." Kid: "I'm afraid of heights." Me: "You're afraid of heights, and you're riding this??" Kid: "Yeah, it's fun." I was in line for Millennium Force and this guy points to Power Tower, looks at his son, and says "We should ride that white thing." (you mean the white thing with the big bright red letters that say POWER TOWER??)

My vote was yes. Every time I'm in line for TTD at Cedar Point, I hear people screaming like they're being tortured on Iron Dragon.