violakat03

You're hard to miss in the lime green.

I spot an ACEr!!

You were guilty of #2 when I spotted you in a Top Thrill Dragster shirt this weekend. I actually had someone say this to me: "So are you an overall enthusiast, or just Kings Island?" When I gave her a blank stare, she pointed out my Beast 30th anniversary shirt and said "well, you're wearing a Kings Island shirt at Kings Island." Apparently that makes me a non-enthusiast!

I think my favorite is my PKI "Coaster Freak" shirt. I've seen the same shirt in a non-Paramount version available in different colors, mine is grey. Mine is from 2004. I also have a matching hoodie. My other favorite is my Six Flags over Georgia shirt. It's black with red graphics. It's got the park name in a very gothic looking font, and coaster tracks arranged in such a way to make them look almost like a tribal design. The effect is something like you'd see on a motorcycle shirt, not a park shirt, and on the back in the same font as the front it says "How long can you ride?" I've got a lot of park shirts, mostly from KI, but I get one at every park I go to. I've got KI shirts back into the 90's (including one from Amazon Falls that I found the other day, and a Son of Beast logo with the loop from it's opening year), Cedar Point, WDW (I was wearing my GM Test Track shirt on Saturday), SFOG and Holiday World.

Out of 41 rides I've been denied preferred seating twice. I always ask for back or close to back when I wait in the normal line but sometimes they'll put you in 14 or 15 instead of 16 if 16 already has a long line. Only twice have they flat out said no and that was on the 25th. I think they're trying harder to put people where they ask now than they did at first. Posted from my BlackBerry mobile device.

I did 8 on Flight of Fear before the end of ERT on Sunday. I might have been able to do more, but I was getting a bit dizzy. Maybe on a day I was feeling 100% (I was still recovering from being very sick the day before) I'd be able to do 20 or 30 on FOF. Diamondback, on the other hand, I think I could ride 100 times without getting off very, very easily.

I make some pretty weird faces on Diamondback. That was during the night time ERT on Saturday. Zosobeast (poor guy) is my ride buddy.

I said Angie is like Rachel to the nth degree, for those who haven't met her. Rachel is pretty crazy, but Angie is crazy and somehow never runs out of energy. Ever. You guys are the greatest to hang out with. You have no idea how much fun I had yesterday. It was so absolutely awesome. I uploaded the DDR video and several others, go check out my trip report.

Alright, last post on this one, I promise! I need to get my memory card cleaned off and then pack up. I'm supposed to be driving to Washington D.C. this afternoon and need to get moving. Couple more pictures from the Son of Beast tour. You don't really realize just how high off the ground the station is until you're standing practically under it. Some leftovers from the old theming. Another shot of the old Flight of Fear cars. They let us sit on the Timberwolf stage for photos. Leftovers from Lion County Safari. Nice lamps! After the Son of Beast tour, we headed to Diamondback. Justin, Tom and I sat it out, deciding we'd rather sit and leisurely drink our sodas instead of waiting an hour in line. By this point in time, Justin had gotten badly sunburned and was ready for a break. From there, we jumped on the train to get photos and video of Diamondback. The train engineer and crew were really cool, they slowed down the train since we were timed perfectly to get great shots of Diamondback, so we could get our photos and videos. They also replayed a song that Rachel was having too much fun dancing to. Then we went to watch the SpongeBob 3D movie in Action Theater. That was my first time watching it, and I'll be perfectly fine with only 1 ride on that. We stopped in the Coney Mall arcade, first for some DDR and then for some Guitar Hero. I enjoyed being able to show off my DDR skills and was definitely happy to discover that Uncle Henry can play very well also! Tom shot a video of StalkerChick and myself playing. StalkerChick on left, myself on right: From there it was on to the Monster! Uncle Henry insisted on sitting by himself so that he could spin his car to his heart's content. And boy did he! After Monster, we went to Delirium. StalkerChick had been promising Justin that she would ride Delirium if he rode Drop Tower. He rode Drop Tower earlier today, so she kept her promise and rode Delirium. Tom shot a video of us on it. The blood curdling scream you hear on each swing was StalkerChick. She had a death grip on both my and Justin's hands. By then it was time for the final rides on Diamondback so we headed that way and met up with Gator and the rest of our group. Gator and I got a ride on the back seat of red train, which is now missing the safety grates on the scoops and doesn't get you nearly as wet, much to our disappointment. I had to really work for it to get my forearm wet, and red train used to get you the wettest. They let us stay on if we had an open seat, so we started scrambling around to empty seats. I ended up with three final rides for the night. On the way out of the park, we stopped at the Mystery Machine for some photo opportunities. I think one of these is going to end up as my RWW photo submission, rather than one of my more 'artistic' shots, because these pictures really embodied the ridiculous amounts of fun our group was having and the memories that I will take away from this weekend. Tom76257, StalkerChick, violakat03, Justin_M17 StalkerChick, violakat03 XGatorHead8904, Tom76257, Justin_M17, StalkerChick, violakat03 Uncle Henry, XGatorHead8904, Tom76257, Justin_M17, StalkerChick, violakat03 I think the fourth one was my favorite, but Uncle Henry got mostly cut out of it. As we left after an amazing and long day, somehow, StalkerChick and PhantomTheater still had energy and were dancing down International Street.

I'm thinking that they are at very slightly different angles on each train. I've noticed you don't get as wet on the green train, and you used to get soaked on red. When the grates were removed from the red train, I think they may have changed (whether purposely or accidentally) the angle of the scoops, pointing them back farther, which not only makes it less likely you'll get wet but also shortens the rooster tails as they'd be pointing back more than straight up.

They walked us into the gate that's used for CornStalkers to get back to Son of Beast, so that was pretty cool. The back of Timberwolf stage was open, which made for a nice photo op. We got to snag shots of Flight of Fear's old trains behind Timberwolf. A new angle on Flight Deck. As we walked down under the Son of Beast lift hill, everyone stopped to not just take picture, but really just look at the structure. One of the comments I made to Don while down there is that during The Beast and Racer tours, there was a lot of talking, laughter, etc. During the SOB tour, most everyone was very, very quiet. We were all just staring in awe at what an amazing structure it really is. Standing that close to it, touching the wood, looking up under the lift hill, you realize what an outstanding feat even just the first hill was to construct. This tour gave me a completely new perspective and appreciation for Son of Beast. Approaching the long, steep hill that leads to the ravine SOB sits in. Look up. No, way up. Standing directly under the lift hill, looking directly up at the top. This is one of my favorite pictures from the day. Internal structure of the lift hill. Former loop area. What amazes me is all the trees that are still right up next to the track. They're full grown trees, so you know they were there before the ride. I'm really glad they worked around those. Former loop footers: And finally, videos:

After a good but short night of sleep, I felt 110% better on Sunday. We got to the park at 7:50 for the 8 am ERT. Elissa, Al, Adam and I all headed for The Racer and jumped on blue side since it was actually running (and racing!), and raced some friends on red train. Sadly, blue lost. GatorHead was on red train, so he waited at the exit for us and we all headed to Flight of Fear. I was ecstatic to see that the lights were turned on in the spaghetti bowl. I've been wanting a lights on ride for years and finally got not just 1, but 5!! All of them in the rear car. At 9, they turned the lights back off, so we got in 3 more rides with the lights off. I think 8 rides in a row with the only break in between being the time it took to run from the exit, through the handicap gate and back onto a train, might have been my limit. I was feeling a little dizzy after the last ride. Before one of the lights on rides, I grabbed a video of the launch, borrowing a spot in line at the front of the train, though we rode in the back. Thank you to those who were line that let me lean in to grab the video. By this time, it was nearing 9:30 and we wanted some Diamondback action. Rushing over there before the Gold Pass ROTB was a good idea, we only waited 15 or 20 minutes. By the time we rode, the wait was up to an hour. Around 10, we decided that it was time to get out of the now-packed Rivertown area and headed for Action Zone with a group comprised of StalkerChick, Justin_M17 and a couple others (sorry guys, my mind is blanking on who was with us when). First we hit Flight Deck and then we went to Drop Tower. Gator said he won't fit on Drop Tower, but waited in line with us anyway. I told him to give it a try and after a few cycles, we were all assigned our seat numbers. With some help from myself and StalkerChick, he rode! Have I ever mentioned that I believe with some help, anyone can fit on any ride! After Drop Tower, it was time to take The Racer backstage tour, where I shot a ton of video. These are the ones that came out the best. I also took some pictures. Including StalkerChick's ambulance and other Haunt props. After Racer tour, the park had gotten outrageously packed again and it was time for lunch! We hit up the Arby's on 741 before coming back to the park in time for the Son of Beast tour. To be continued...

After The Beast tour, a group of us decided we were hungry and headed out of the park to get lunch. On the way out, I shot some video of Diamondback. So, the group of us (myself, Jackson, Adam (pkiboy), our friend Elissa, and Al (who works in the Emporium)) headed off to Frisch's. We also hit up Wal-Mart. Check out Jackson's PTR for a lot more information about that trip. Either way, the Frisch's breakfast made me sick and I spent the rest of the day fighting that off. When I felt up to getting on a ride, we decided Adventure Express rarely has a line. We were wrong. We didn't have time to wait for Adventure Express before the guest speakers, so we went straight to the KI Theater to listen in. It was fun (especially watching the Diamondback POV at the end, because the entire room provided a splashdown sound effect), though it was a lot of information we'd all heard before. The lines were still ridiculous after that. So we started wandering the park. Jackson got his hug in for Diamondback. And then we headed for The Beast's birthday party! They gave us free refillable cups: And birthday cake! The cake was great, the music was loud (though almost NO ONE danced, what gives?!) and overall the party was a ton of fun. I stayed there until I started feeling a little better, but never really fully recovered. Heading over to the Diamondback ERT, I had a feeling I wasn't going to get any rides in. I was almost right. I spent the evening sitting on a bench with Trooper Mom and finally decided at about midnight to find a quiet bench to lay down on. 20 minutes later, someone shuffling their feet nearby woke me up and I had been so deeply asleep that I had no idea where I was and why I was looking up at stars. After re-orienting myself, I realized .. hey, I'm feeling a lot better! In fact ... I'm feeling good enough for Diamondback! Four rides later, I left the park with a huge smile on my face. I'm a little sad I only got in 4 rides on the ERT, but at the same time, I'm just glad I was able to recover enough to ride at all. Ironically, I discovered at The Beast birthday party that my dive buddy from the last class I took (stress & rescue) is also a huge coaster enthusiast! So I got in a couple rides with him and a couple rides with random people. After that, I headed to Al's house, where myself, Adam and Elissa all spent the night so we could get up bright and early the next morning!

To start this out, I want to give a few shoutouts. First, a huge thanks to Kings Island for hosting this event. This was my first enthusiast event and it really set the stage for future events for me, getting me even more excited for Coastermania! and next year's RWW! Second, thanks to KIC and everyone on it. I saw probably 100 members this weekend and every last one of them was just an awesome person. I had a great time hanging out with everyone this weekend, including those of you who stayed behind with me on Saturday when I got sick. For future reference, do not eat a big breakfast/lunch at Frisch's before an excitement filled afternoon. Between heat exhaustion (from a lot of running in the parking lot) and what I think may have been food poisoning, I spend most of Saturday trying to not toss my cookies but still managed to have a ton of fun. When I arrived, I parked in the 3rd spot of row 51 in Gold Pass. Sitting in row 52 was a car that I'd love to know who owns, just because the plate rocks. When I got inside the park, I was texting a couple people to find out where they were. I headed for Beast, where I ended up with dare-to-fly and a few other folks (hard to remember now), and grabbed GatorHead after the ride. After that, we ran into the humongous group that included gigacoaster, kittenpooh, pkiruler102 and a bunch of other folks. pkiruler102, Gator and someone else, I think, hit up Backlot Stunt Coaster, where we said hi to Ronny (btw, you scared the heck out of me, just so you know). Then it was time for Diamondback ERT! We got in line back by Rivertown Junction, waiting for the queue to open. We were already part way into the queue when the ROTB arrived (I hate that they let them do this) and seemed highly upset to see a line already! Sorry guys, but we got to be the cool folks this weekend! After Diamondback, I had to leave the park and make a bank run. The nearest branch of my bank is down in Norwood. What what supposed to be a 45 min-1 hr trip turned into an hour and a half when I got off on Fields Ertel Rd to make a pitstop and got stuck in horrific traffic. I called Angie in a panic because it was 10:59 and I was still trying to get back on the highway and did NOT want to miss The Beast tour that I'd been looking forward to so much. She relayed the message to the marketing/GR team, who made sure I got to join the group. Huge shoutout to Katie and Matt from marketing for waiting for me and making sure I got to enjoy this tour, that really was the bright spot of the whole day. The Beast walkback/tour was a great photo video opportunity. First backstage view of The Beast. An interesting view of Vortex. Watching a train go up the chain hill was cool from this angle. Fair warning, I love structure photos. This is from directly underneath the chain hill. Catching up with the group. Katie told me to take my time and take all the pictures I wanted, that we were in no hurry. Bottom of the first drop. My first train fly-by. Train just cresting the first hill. Weeeee! The big group photo. People kept joining in as photos were being taken. Mine was one of the later ones and has everyone in it. HUGE THANKS to TrainedBeast for taking these! Help fill in the blanks if you know a missing username! Back row, L to R: IndyGuy4KI, Kittenpooh's husband, Kawana, (blank - can't see you very well), ToastNJelly, popwar, Tom76527 Middle row, L to R: Beast Man, violakat03, gigacoaster2k, kittenpooh, stalkerchick (crouching), CedarPointer, Justin_M17, Avatar, Oldiesmann, pkiruler102 Front row, L to R: IBEW_Sparky, Beast1979, HTCO, KI Man Oh yeah! Caught both trains in the same pic! And now for the videos I shot during The Beast tour. Breaking this up. Told you it was huge!

I'm uploading things as we speak.

A lot of people were posing for the camera. Looking bored and looking sick were both popular options. I was just making weird faces. Sadly, my favorite photo of the night is the one that didn't get emailed to me (I asked for 3, only got 2). I was doing the Home Alone scream face.

Saturday Beast 1 BLSC 1 Diamondback 5 I was sick on Saturday so barely got to take advantage of the ERT, unfortunately. Sunday Blue Racer 1 Flight of Fear 8 (5 lights on, 3 lights off) Diamondback 4 Drop Tower 1 Flight Deck 1 Delirium 1 Sponge Bob 3D 1 Monster 1 Zephyr 1 I keep track on the memo pad in my BlackBerry so that I can update my ride count on my about me page.

I heard Gwen Stefani - Rich Girl, when walking past the Eiffel Tower. When they're playing the classic rock, I've heard Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb a couple of times. I've noticed the music several times but just don't remember any of it now.

I haven't fit it into one picture, but here's it in 2.

Too funny. I played in the OSU Athletic Band last year. I still know a bunch of the members. So it'll be kinda fun to see some old friends (and I'm glad I'm not in the band right now - I'd rather be enjoying CP!) The skydiver bringing the American flag sounds really awesome. I definitely want to see that.

They just scan the barcode that's on the pass. I don't see how it would be an issue or dependent on the length of the line ... they scan it the same as a normal ticket.

If you buy the pass online, you can use it for entry into the park one time and go back and process later. This is also true if you buy it at a ticket window but I don't know how early they will have the ticket windows open. We did this with my husband's pass - bought it at the ticket window and then went back later to process it. You must process it the same day you use it for entry.

We should have bought it. It was pretty funny. CoastersRZ looked like he was about to cry, and me and Gator did indeed look like we were trying to hit with something smelly!

I was terrified of coasters as a child. I was afraid of the noise. Beastie scared me because it was loud. I refused to be the chicken when I was 10 and all my friends were going on it, so I got on it - and loved it. That ride started my love of coasters and you haven't been able to keep me away ever since.

I actually like the clicks. Just another one of those sounds of KI that I love. Like the sound of the train crashing into the chain on Beast's lift hill .. and the horrendously loud sound of SOB's train coming off the top of the lift hill .. I love both those noises.