My fiancé Aaron (arnieman) and I arrived just before 10. We were surprised to see how few people were there already, as last Sunday (10/20/13) there were a lot more people there by 10am. We figured probably because of the cold weather some people weren't coming right away. We got in a line at the front gate, were in line for 5-10 minutes and then I decided to check the forum to see where we KICers were meeting up and when, and saw that the plan was to meet to the right of the front gate near guest services whenever we got up there before 10:30. I looked over to the right, and saw lots of KICers I knew, so Aaron and I moved over there and got in line with the rest of the KICers. I don't know who all was there, but I know for sure it was jcgoble3, IndyGuy4KI, nochickens, mrsnochickens, thedevariouseffect, Beastie, MDMC01, malem, and I think maybe BeastForever? I'm still learning who people are lol
Anyways, once the gates opened and we all got our bobble heads, we met just past guest services to re-form our group and then got in line for ERT and headed off to Diamondback. I was asked what was next, I said I didn't know or really care, but at 11 I was going to FoF and Firehawk before the lines got long for those. As fun as those rides are, I don't like waiting 1+ hour for each of those rides. Group agreed that sounded like a good plan, and then suggested we go ride The Beast first since it was on the way and still ERT time. We all agreed and headed off to The Beast. By the time we got off of there it was around 11, so we headed off to Coney Mall to ride FoF and Firehawk. Both of those were walk-ons. FoF was eerily quiet with no TVs going or anything. Super fun ride, very fast and thrilling. Most of the group didn't want to ride Firehawk, but Fire-Beast-OF FEAR, jcgoble3 and I all rode it while the others waited and watched our belongings. I don't think I have ever walked on to Firehawk before, so that was really fun.
After Firehawk we decided to go take over Racer. Only Red Racer was open yesterday, so that's what we rode. After Racer it was off to Flight Deck. Two rides each on that, and we got a hint about next year's changes to Flight Deck. For privacy reasons I will not reveal the name or username of the ride op that gave us a hint. For those that haven't been to KI in awhile, all the jet props have been removed from Flight Deck, as well as the slotted floors they were resting on, and there are several dumpsters and a few construction vehicles on the ground. The following three pictures were taken Saturday night, 10/26/13
One KICer (I think Brad aka IndyGuy4KI) asked one of the ride ops if they had been informed of what's going on down on the ground. The ride op said yes, they have. When we came back from the ride, the same ride op was asked "so what changes can we expect to see to Flight Deck next year?" and the ride op said "I don't know, maybe orange?" hehe. Exciting stuff.
After our first ride on Flight Deck we all decided to go ride it again because it was getting close to group photo time. Around 12:45 KICers met by Tower Drinks for the group photo:
(photo courtesy of Brad via KIC Facebook page)
After that we divided and conquered lunch lol half went to Reds Grill, and it seems the other half ended up in Festhaus, some after stopping at Hank's for burritos, others to get pizza
After lunch we all split up, as several KICers who are members of GOCC had a behind the scenes construction tour of Banshee. Around lunch time, my brother Michael (Oldiesmann) arrived so he and I and my fiance headed off to AZ, and Mike and I rode Drop Tower, Invertigo, Delirium, Drop Tower again, then Flight Deck. After Flight Deck we headed off to the Kings Island Theater to meet up with KICers again to watch Ed Alonzo one last time. That was a VERY fun show. When we got out of the show, we met up with Terpy, who joined us on our fun adventure for awhile
We hadn't done Vortex yet, so we all headed over to Coney Mall and rode Vortex. That was pretty much a walk-on as well. After Vortex, we decided to head over to Beast, then Diamondback. Beast was fun.... our train got stuck right at the very top of the second lift hill! Not for long, maybe 30 seconds, but it added more excitement to our day! By this point we had done nearly every coaster in the park and still had around two hours left to do stuff. I'm not sure who suggested it, but someone suggested we go over to Planet Snoopy and have fun. OK! Off to Planet Snoopy we went for the most fun I have EVER had at KI. After some discussion we decided to go perform Operation KIC Takeover on Flying Ace. 22 riders, 20 seats on the train. That's how you confuse the greeter!!
Two KICers volunteered to ride early so we could have one full KIC train. We boarded, screamed like maniacs, and chanted KIC. As we pulled back to the station, we were all chanting KIC! KIC! The looks we got were priceless!!! Parents standing there with their kids, waiting to ride, looking at us like "why are there a bunch of grown-ups on this, chanting KIC??" hahaha.
After laughing about how Race For Your Life was still operating despite it being in the low 50s, some KICers had the bright idea to go take over that! I decided "why not?!" and joined them! This led to more strange looks from the ride op over there... he just smirked and shook his head, trying so hard not to bust out laughing about 11 hyper adults and 1 kid showing up to ride. That was so much fun!!
Once we were done having our fun in Planet Snoopy, we all went back to Action Zone and there was a lot of disagreement over what to ride next while a few KICers went on EXtreme Skyflyer Some wanted to do Drop Tower, some wanted to do Flight Deck. It sounded to me like they were going to go on Drop Tower, and having done that twice already, I didn't want to do it again, so I went to Delirium.... only to find out they went to Flight Deck! Oh well... when I got off of Delirium, my fiancé Aaron informed me that Banshee Twist ice cream was now blue and purple, a change from the previous blue and pink it was over the summer, and he was curious to get an ice cream cone to see it and taste it. We got an ice cream cone and shared it as we headed over towards Flight Deck to find the rest of the group. Perfect timing, they were coming up the exit as we got over there, and the KICers that had gone on Skyflyer were done. Having re-formed our group, it was decided to go on Drop Tower. I reluctantly went again... 3 times in one day is a record for me! I usually don't even ride it that many times in a season.
By the time we got off of Drop Tower, it was time to head back to The Beast to get our final ride in. I think we were on the last public train of the season, but I could be wrong It was a lot of fun. We all met up by the photo booth and discussed dinner plans. A lot of them went to Taco Bell, but my brother, fiance and I opted to go to Culvers. So we said our goodbyes to all our friends and sadly headed to the exit.
Yesterday was the most fun I have ever had at Kings Island, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to end the 2013 operating season!! Thanks for the memories