McSalsa

^ Technically, they were "back" last year. Sea World San Antonio got a family coaster built by them: https://rcdb.com/14302.htm Also it is heavily rumored that the ride that is replacing Dragon Challenge- the Harry Potter Themed Family Coaster- is also a Intamin. So it would seem that at least Sea World and Universal Studios are still working with them in the United States.

Update: Europa park plans to rebuild destroyed section of park. A few of the rides/attractions in the area have re-opened, though some of them have fences up around parts of them to block the fire-damaged section from view. According to their Twitter, Europa Park will replace the Pirate ride with another dark ride. Thankfully, Europa Park clearly is making lots of money, so this fire is just a setback for them and they will be able to make repairs and stay open. Some smaller parks with less money might have been forced out of business, like Idora Park was in 1984. In fact, I'd imagine Europa will be able to possibly profit eventually with guests coming to see whatever dark ride replaces the destroyed Pirate ride.

Thanks- a quick update on that, it now feels about 50-60% better 2 days later, so it is recovering. I still don't wanna have to lift anything even slightly heavy with it though, at least for another day or two. I can still pick up light stuff though without much, if any, issue. Should back to 100% by the end of the week, by my estimates.

I saw this show when I was at the park yesterday. Wow, it was awesome. I loved the stunts, I thought the Jokes were funny (a bit immature but still funny), but my favorite part of the show was probably the laser scene. I thought that looked incredible and it was epic. 10/10 would watch again.

Well, yesterday I went to Kings Island yet again, for the 3rd time this season (tying a personal record- if I go one more time this year which is highly likely, I will break it). Before we get into the meat of this trip report, here is my ride (and show/food as well I guess) rating system for 2018 (note: descriptions of ratings are for rides, for food/shows it just means how good I thought it was): F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Zen. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however.  Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. Anyhow, let's begin the trip report. A quick note- anyone coming from central Indiana to Kings Island and using I-74, close to the state line there is a HUGE construction zone, and on one side this prevents use of the rest stop on that side. It looked like they were rebuilding that entire side of the highway, and had just split the other side to take the traffic, so the speed limit is 45mph. I would leave for KI a few minutes earlier than normal to adjust for this slow spot, and be sure to use the bathroom before leaving since the rest stop will not be a option on the way there! (The one on the other side, on the way back, remains open) We did leave a bit early, thankfully, so we got to the park shortly after 9AM. Due to the Peanuts Celebration, the park was already open for passholders, and we went in and got some of the free donuts which were on offer. Food: Peanuts Celebration Donut Holes Hey, they were free, so why not have a few? There was about a 5-10 minute wait for donuts, but it was not too bad. I had the sugar coated ones, they were good. My sister tried the Maple Bacon ones, which I avoided since I don't usually like to mix stuff like Bacon with sweets directly. She said they were awesome. Rating: B After this, ERT had begun, and we headed to our first ride of the day. So we got a locker quickly, and rode... Ride #1: Mystic Timbers (ERT) Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Cycle) Since it was very early in the day and the ride wasn't fully broken in yet, Mystic Timbers was running just a tad slow and the airtime was not as strong as it usually is later in the day. However, even a tad slow Mystic Timbers is pretty fast, and there was still a decent amount of airtime (though I suspect Steel Vengeance has spoiled me rotten because it didn't feel like enough). Still a solid ride, overall. In the shed, we got The Bat ending, and the song was "Turn Around". Rating: A- After riding Mystic Timbers, there was about 5 minutes to park opening. Since it was right there, and no one else wanted to ride it with me, I decided to get in line for one of the park's most popular steel coasters, since I was expecting massive crowds to come in later... Ride #2: Diamondback Wait: 5 Minutes I rode in about the middle of the train. Diamondback felt a little more broken in than Mystic Timbers and seemed to be running normally already, and the trim brake kicked in near the middle of the ride which would not have happened if it was running slow. There was a lot of floater air as usual, and for the first time ever, I was able to put and keep my hands up for the entire ride- though on the return run I dropped them a few inches when a support beam came over the train. I thank Steel Vengeance and it's lack of anything to hold onto for getting me used to this (though I only do it on smooth coasters, which Diamondback qualifies for). Another great ride on Diamondback, which by now is usual. Rating: A After Diamondback, the group decided it was time for Soak City ERT, so we went to the train and...it didn't open until 11AM. So we headed back through Planet Snoopy- with a brief stop in the gift shop to get a $10 T-Shirt that was on sale- and went the long way into Soak City. We headed in, changed, and put on sunscreen. Then I made a big screw-up: I went into a water fountain thing with fresh sunscreen on my head. Ouch. For a good 15 minutes, my eyes hated me so much. My friends even went and rode a set of water slides while I recovered. Take notes people, do not run into fountains when you just put sunscreen on. I did recover eventually, enough to do a water slide. And that slide was... Ride #3: Zoom Flume Wait: 15 Minutes This slide is similar to Watube, a slide I did at Holiday World. It was good fun, there were some intense turns and a few surprise drops which even had a bit of airtime on occasion. And best of all, for my eyes, none of the splashes went above my neck. Rating: B After Zoom Flume, we decided to ride the park's lazy river attraction. Ride #4: Splash River Wait: 5 Minutes This lazy river was fun, but it had a LOT of special water effects and about halfway through the ride my eyes began to feel irritated a bit again (not as bad as the 1st time though), so I had to shut them whenever I saw something coming. I am not gonna dock the attraction for it, the eye pain was my own fault, and this did seem like a good lazy river otherwise. My sister and friends did a 2nd lap while I rested up. Rating: C After Splash River, my sister and friends went to do another water slide, but I wanted to rest a little more- was feeling better by this point but still not back to 100%. I saw the Splash River bridge had people trying to spray riders, so I headed over and decided to play with it for a bit, I got some people soaked, LOL. My friends got off their water slide after a 15-20 minute wait, and we were hungry at this point, so we decided since we were in the waterpark, there was only 1 real food option... Food: Island Smokehouse Wait: 5 Minutes Island Smokehouse continues to impress. I got Chicken Tenders and Fries, and both were amazing. The tenders were nice and crispy, and the white meat chicken on the inside was cooked about as well as I have ever seen it cooked. The fries were thick, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Perfect as well. And even though it was a bit expensive, our meal was also very filling- I was not hungry again until near park closing! Probably my favorite food experience I have had at KI in 2018 so far. (Overall, Sidewinder Fries at Cedar Point give this a challenge and it is hard to pick from the two, though) Rating: S After Island Smokehouse, we noticed the water park was becoming packed, so we decided to head back to the dry park and see how crowds were there. We went to our lockers, changed some clothes, and went back to the main park via the arriving... Ride #5: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive/depart) This sure beats walking back to the park- it may not have as many props as Cedar Point's train, but the music is nice, and you get some nice views of the woods. I also think it got colder all of a sudden when we passed the "Haunted Fort" with the old house inside. Spooky. Rating: C Inside the park, my friends decided to do White Water Canyon, which had a wait listed at 40 minutes via the app. I decided to check the wait for my favorite coaster in the entire park instead while they rode WWC, since I was not gonna test to see if WWC would annoy my eyes or not... I approached The Beast. I got in line, and saw the first 2 que houses empty. A great sign. No one on the ramp!?!? Could it be...yep. It was just a station wait! Which shocked me because even though the waterpark was sucking up crowds, the other 2 coasters in this section (Mystic Timbers and Diamondback) had 20 to 30-minute waits. But then I saw the train was stopped on the 1st lift, with the other 2 in the station and final brake run. Oh no, did I get in line for a broken-down roller coaster? Turns out...no I did not, some idiot had decided to try and film the ride and they caught them and E-Stopped the ride to take their phone. Good job catching that, Beast ride ops. Afterwards the all-clear was given and the ride started back up. Ride #6-8: The Beast Wait: >5 Minutes (1st 2 rides), 5 Minutes (3rd ride) Yep, I rode Beast 3 times in a row! The first 2 rides, I rode in the last car's middle seat. Due to the high temperatures (it was in the 90's) the ride was FLYING through the woods, the trim brakes were hitting pretty hard to try to slow the ride down but it would re-gain the speed easily. The Beast also felt pretty smooth, bouncy but not painful. These were probably the best daytime rides I have had on Beast in a while. I met my friends after riding back-to-back, and when they heard of the super short wait, they decided we had to go ride it again. Even our friend who does not normally do huge scary coasters and thus didn't like the helix so much sucked it up and rode. This time, due to this, I sat on a wheel seat in the 2nd car. Ow. I thought being so close to the front would negate any roughness increase, but it didn't- this back wheel seat ride was pretty darn rough, a stark contrast to the rides I had just taken minutes earlier. I thought I got through it without issue at first, as I was not in much pain immediately after this ride, but later I started to feel sore in my right shoulder of all places. In fact it still feels kinda sore a day later. The ride was still pretty fun though, it was still running very fast and it felt even more intense due to the roughness. But I am gonna make a mental note to try and avoid back wheel seats, I have done them twice this year on Beast and both times it hurt. Ratings: S (rear of train non-wheel seat rides), A (wheel seat ride) After doing "triple" Beast, we decided to go get the rest of our stuff and fully change back into our street clothes. So we had to get our stuff out of our waterpark locker, which meant another ride on... Ride #5B: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: 5 Minutes Why 5B? Because I did not do a whole lap earlier, this was the 2nd part of the train ride, LOL. Got some awesome views of Diamondback and Mystic Timbers though, as usual. Rating: C After returning to the waterpark, we got our stuff, changed, and headed out to our car which was a walk. At this point I decided to break off from the group, so my sister gave me her apple watch so she could find me with her phone. I headed into the dry park, used the bathroom, and headed into Action Zone. Ride #9: Banshee Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait) The ride ops here were both silly, but doing a good job at the same time. They were changing the name of the ride whenever the dispatched a train as a joke, I heard them call it Invertigo and White Water Canyon. However, they were also reminding people to drink lots of water, and not soda and stuff, which I thought was good advice so it evened out. This was where I first noticed a bit of an issue with my shoulder, Banshee's restraints felt like they dug in a bit more than usual. I brushed it off as the restraints being tight though. The ride itself was great, even by Banshee standards, as the ride felt very fast and forceful. I still thought this was a intense ride even post Steel Vengeance and TTD, which is saying something. Heck the ride was feeling so fast, the slow roll felt more like a medium-speed roll, LOL. There was a little roughness, the typical vibration Banshee sometimes does, but nothing crazy. Overall, an awesome ride. Rating: A+ After Banshee, I headed towards The Bat, and I saw dark clouds looming over. The forecast wasn't calling for rain, from what I could tell. But the coaster was still running, so I got in line. Ride #10: The Bat Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait) OK, something kinda iffy here, not with the ride but the no loose articles policy and the ride ops here. Someone had some huge stuffed animal prize in the storage bin, so the bin was full. So the ride ops were telling people "just put your stuff in the bottom of the car". I know Bat does not have any airtime or anything, but I still think stuff could fly out, as my friend nearly lost his hat on Iron Dragon at Cedar Point once but I managed to grab and save it, and the cars do swing pretty violently on these coasters, and based on the fact that hat flew backwards for me to catch, something like a drink cup could fly out and smack someone at 50mph. It did not happen on this ride, but I am worried it could. And this seems to be isolated to Bat- none of the other rides were allowing loose articles and people were being told to put their stuff in bins or lockers. I talked with my sister about this and she says she has seem this before on Bat as well on past trips. After what happened to the lady on Twisted Timbers, I fear this is just asking for the same thing or worse to happen on Bat. The coaster itself was running fine, though. Good speed, and some solid swinging action. The kids behind me thought it sucked though for some reason. Rating: B (the ride, allowing people to just ride with stuff in the bottom of the cars is iffy as heck and gets a F from me) After The Bat, I headed back up and looked at Banshee's line again. Hmm, no wait, it would be rude to ignore that...ride closed. I looked around, and all the rides were closed. I saw a Banshee line checker and asked her if it was mechanical or the storm coming, she told me it was the storm. So I walked around into Oktoberfest, hoping maybe Adventure Express would be...nope, closed. Racer, closed. However, I met back up with the group, and we went and saw it was 5:30, which meant the Dog Show would be starting. So we went and saw it. Show: JUMP! The Ultimate Dog Show Challenge We got to this one a bit late, it had started 7 minutes earlier, but we did see the last few acts. The dogs were cute and funny, and the tricks were cool. The final dog was a pure bundle of energy, and he was making some impressive jumps. This was a fun show. Rating: B After the Dog Show, my sister decided to get some of the special Charlie Brown Ice Cream in Planet Snoopy. Food: Charlie Brown Ice Cream (served at Blue Ice Cream Stand in Planet Snoopy) My sister ate most of it, but I had a few bites of this- it was delicious, tasted like Chocolate and Vanilla mixed together. We got it decently fast, too, even though there was a bit of a line. Rating: A After we got Ice Cream, we went and checked out the Peanuts Sketch School and the Charles M. Schultz tribute area in the former Enchanted Theater. Good to see this being used again. My sister made Franklin mad, and he drew her a picture out of spite, LOL. After this, we headed out and went back towards Action Zone because we knew there was a smoking area near there and we wanted to get good seats for Gravity, the show in the Kings Island Theater. While they smoked, I noticed they began to test Delirium... Ride #11: Delirium Wait: Walk-On I just barely got on the first cycle with riders are the re-opening, I was seat #47 of 50. Swinging and spinning up to 137 feet in the air was fun, but what really made this ride enjoyable was the 76mph breeze, because of the heat. Ah, relief, even if just for a moment. Rating: A After Delirium, the show doors opened and we went inside and got our seats. Show: Gravity Wow. This show was awesome! I won't spoil it for those who have not seen it, but there were tons of cool stunts, and some funny jokes, though some of the humor was a little crude. (You may not wanna take your young kids to this, there is toilet humor) I really loved this show, and am very glad I saw it. One of the highlights of the trip! Rating: S After Gravity, Action Zone was beginning to come fully back to life, though Banshee may have had a mechanical issue because it was down again. However, Drop Tower had a crowd of people around it and was testing... Ride #12: Drop Tower Wait: 5 Minutes (1 Cycle) Was not as lucky this time, but a 1 cycle wait isn't too bad. Drop Tower was not as scary after riding TTD, but it is still pretty intimidating. I got a great view of Invertigo (which was also back open) and the parking lot, which was PACKED. Good thing so much of the crowd was still in Soak City. Then came the 264 foot drop, which reminded me of the airtime I got on Steel Vengeance near the bottom. A great ride. Rating: A After Drop Tower, the group wanted to ride Banshee, as they had not ridden earlier. Ride #13: Banshee #2 Wait: 10 Minutes Looked like a 20 minute wait, but do not underestimate the capacity of Banshee. The ride was about the same as earlier, but this is when my shoulder really began hurting, as I noticed the vest restraints really annoyed it. Ride was about the same as earlier, so for review, read that. Rating: A+ After Banshee, we headed over to Adventure Express to ride that. Ride #14: Adventure Express Wait: Walk-On We sat in the back of the train, but I got a rear wheel seat. It was still OK for the first half of the ride, but the 2nd half got a bit rough and somehow even though it was just a lap bar it really annoyed my shoulder. A fun ride but the shoulder pain kinda hindered it towards the end. Rating: C- (was heading towards C+ but then the pain began) After Adventure Express, we headed to Racer, and decided to race each other. However... Ride #15: Red Racer Wait: Walk-On ...for some reason, our Red Racer train was sent out, but not their Blue! Then, when we got to the lift, we saw a Blue Racer train crest it. I don't know, but my best guess would be someone was trying to film Blue Racer, got caught, and they E-Stopped their train and took their phone. (Because if the ride had broken they would not have restarted it so quickly) So that would be the 2nd time on this 1 day, since I confirmed it happened on Beast earlier. So we did not get to race our friends. Thankfully, Red Racer was running well enough that it didn't matter too much. There was a good amount of airtime, and since we were not on a wheel seat, it was fairly smooth though you could tell it would have been rough for the seats behind us. (They got pummeled and were going OUCH! at the end) We also rode in 5-2, the middle seat of the last car. A solid Racer ride, even though there was no racing. Rating: B After Racer, I made a decision due to my shoulder- I would for the first time 2014, and only 2nd time since 2009, not be able to ride Vortex. Normally I adore the giant Arrow looper, but with its OTSR's and loops riding it with my shoulder hurting probably would not be a good experience. However, me and my sister went and did ride the huge thing NEXT to Vortex... Ride #16: WindSeeker Wait: 15 Minutes Well, I did not realize this, but my sister's watch can monitor your heart rate, and when in line for WindSeeker mine went over 120. It did not do this for any other ride, so now I know what ride at Kings Island makes me the most nervous! Going 300 feet in the air on a ride that swings like this is kinda scary, especially since I do not dangling loosely (for this reason I hate Ferris Wheels). However, once we were actually on the ride and up there, the music and views of the park made me forget all that and it was quite enjoyable. A good ride, but also something I kinda have to force myself on. Also, on the cycle before ours, the ride ops yelled at some one to put up their phone. They must have listened because the ride ops didn't E-Stop and bring the ride down, but still, 3 times in 1 day? That's a little out of hand. Rating: B As WindSeeker came down, I saw a horrible sight- Beast, which I was planning on riding again to get a epic night ride, was BROKEN. Mystic Timbers and Diamondback had huge waits, so those were also no-go. However, one of our friends wanted a snack before we did our last ride... Food: Rivertown LaRosa's Pizza Wait: None We just got some breadsticks and split them. I did not eat enough to rate this really, but the one half a breadstick I had was pretty good. Rating: N/A (didn't eat enough to rate- seemed like a B though) Ride #17: Backlot Stunt Coaster Wait: 15 Minutes Woah, BLSC packed much more of a punch than usual. Like most of the coasters, it was hauling due to how hot it was, and at night all the effects really pop as do the billboards. There was actually some nice airtime on the small hill, and the final tunnel was crazy dark. A very good ride on BLSC. The helix did annoy my shoulder a bit, but the rest of the ride was OK to it. Rating: B (for comparison BLSC is usually a C to C+ ride!) After BLSC, we headed to International Street which was full of people to watch the fireworks show. It was nice as usual. Then we got in our car and headed for home. It was a fun trip, as I have come to expect from Kings Island. Now, for the pros/cons of this trip: PROS +Short waits in the dry park for everything we rode, in spite of crowds, waterpark seemed to suck everyone up and I was good on timing for some rides +Rides were, due to temperatures, hauling and very fast +Food was very good all around, especially at Island Smokehouse +The shows were all very fun, especially Gravity +Drink lines for non-Freestyle drinks moved very fast CONS -HOT. VERY HOT. Not park's fault but it was smoldering. -Idiots trying to film rides, thankfully it seemed most were caught, good job to the ride ops for catching them (This is a + for those ride ops) -Odd and possibly dangerous loose article rules at The Bat -Beast wheel seat ride hurting shoulder somehow, making me unable to ride Vortex later on I hope you all enjoyed this trip report. As usual, comments and questions welcome. Now, I am gonna go relax, and rest up- this trip was a bit exhausting and my shoulder still kinda hurts.

At 28 years old, I still try to ride as much as possible. I can confer with Jcgoble on days with no waits being exhausting at times though- it can get tiresome to keep walking around all the time. But I did set a new personal record at Kings Island this year for myself for most rides ever ridden (includes re-rides) in 1 day, with 25. On a Saturday no less, shockingly (it was kinda cool and chilly though). Going back to the park tomorrow for my 3rd trip of 2018 (which will tie my record of 3 visits I made in 2014), since it is another Saturday this time in June and it will also be Father's Day, I am expecting big crowds so I do not expect to push for maximum # of rides in a day this time. My sister wants to do the waterpark, and it is forecast to be 90+ degrees, so I expect the waterpark to get packed. Part of me hopes that the crowds who do come go there, though, so that the waits on the dry side of the park will be more manageable since the dry side of the park is the one I like better. Plus even if there are crowds on both sides, I know Vortex, Racer, Adventure Express, etc. usually have much shorter waits than other big rides due to their age and high capacity, so I can always fall back on and ride those if it gets crowded since that works usually during Haunt. Plus just getting out of the house and going to Kings Island again will be a fun experience. (Though with the forecasted temps, I am gonna have to drinks lots of water and use lots of sunscreen.)

Wow- my sister sent me a message about this on Facebook, and it's a bit disturbing. A roller coaster at the Daytona Beach Boardwalk derailed earlier today, and while no deaths have been reported, it is claimed in the article a few people did fall 30 feet or so. Around 10 others had to be rescued by the local fire department. Hopefully, no one has died or been seriously injured as a result of this accident, though falling 30 feet probably guarantees at least injuries. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-roller-coaster-derailed-daytona-20180614-story.html I looked on RCDB, and I think this is the coaster which had the accident (looked up coasters in Daytona Beach). It is a Pinfari Zyklon, and while it opened at this Boardwalk in 2013, it was originally built in the 1970's and has been relocated a LOT. It's one of 2 coasters at the small boardwalk, and its the bigger of the two. https://rcdb.com/8931.htm

Hmm. Good ideas for The Crypt building, it would tie in to the rest of the stories I made for the park if it turns out that those pesky Government agents were doing something in there. During Haunt in 2016, I saw a crate near The Beast labeled "FOF", so I guess I'll use that as the start of my story. (WARNING: Massive story post incoming- also I just realized now this really doesn't make a ride but could be the backstory for one in the Crypt building...) After discovering the UFO and building Hangar 18, the X-Base agents were contacted by their brethren in Rivertown. The Rivertown agents were having major issues hunting down the infamous Beast which had terrorized the town for ages (in my story Beast has been there for years before the agents even showed up), and believed if they could reverse engineer technology from the UFO, they could use it to track the massive creature much better. So, the X-Base agents took some spare parts they found, and shipped them over to Rivertown. The Rivertown agents quickly studied them, and built a large building with high-tech gear and radar inside. Sure enough, the machine worked well enough that the Agents discovered The Beast's lair. However, when they arrived, the only found a small beast, Son of Beast. The agents kidnapped Son of Beast, and shipped him over to the Outpost 5 facility, where his story truly begins. However, this story continues. The agents returned to their building and resumed searching for the father Beast. However, next door to the facility in the small town, a man named Randy McDiamond lived in his house with his pet Diamondback Rattlesnake, Denise. The snake was already venomous, and keeping it was illegal, but Randy was careful not to let anyone know he had it, so none of the agents nor anyone in the nearby town even knew. However, one day, Randy got really drunk and left the snake's enclosure's roof open, and it escaped. Since the agents building was close by, the snake went inside, and was soon attracted to the machine they were using to hunt down Beast. Through a vent in the machine, the snake crawled inside and took a nap. The agents showed up for work again, prepared to hunt for Beast. They had gotten very close recently, and had good feelings they would find and capture/kill the creature soon. They turned on the machine, and then something horrible happened... ...the radioactive effects of the machine took effect on the snake inside of it! Denise was rudely awakened from her nap, and now she was growing at an alarming rate! Scared senseless, she busted through the machine, breaking it into pieces and scaring the agents to death. Denise, still confused, looked around and sensed her surroundings with her tongue. She sensed the agents, and while she was still scared, she was also...hungry. The now massive snake (and still growing even though the machine was destroyed as the effect had not worn off) began to chase and eat the agents who were still inside the building. However, eventually, she got stuck in a hallway due to her ever increasing size. There was only one way out. The citizens of Rivertown were stunned when they heard a large explosion, and a huge snake burst free from the government building. Most ran for their lives. Randy McDiamond, suffering from a hangover, was out looking for his pet snake. When he saw what had become of her, he was shocked. The growing had finally stopped, but now the once normal-sized snake had grown to immense size! Randy could swear she was over a mile long now, and when she arched up, she stood 230 feet tall! Randy looked up. "Denise!?!? Is that you...how did you get so big?" Denise looked him straight in the eyes, flicked her tongue out for a second...and then ate him up in one bite. However, when Denise stuck her tongue out, she sensed something in the woods...she slithered away, looking for it... It had been a mostly slow day for Beast. Usually, he was fighting or running from government agents, but today for whatever reason they were leaving him alone. While Beast enjoyed some downtime, as he could rest and hunt for food to his leisure, he did enjoy chasing and attacking stuff so he was hoping something would come up soon. He grabbed his deer, which he had caught and killed earlier, and gobbled it down. "URP." The belch rang out throughout the forest, shaking nearby trees. However, Beast had just barely finished his meal when he sensed something coming. The agents at last...no, wait, whatever was coming was huge. Much, much larger than humans. Beast turned the direction he sensed the creature coming from, and stood his ground. Out came the massive claws. Then, it rose above the trees. It was Denise, the now world's largest rattlesnake! Beast could not believe his eyes- this was the first creature he had ever seen that was actually bigger than he was! Denise hissed, and lunged forward. Beast roared loudly, and did the same. Thus began one of the most epic battles ever, only seen by 1 man. (Though some people in Rivertown also claim to at least have heard the battle and felt tremors like small earthquakes from it) Joseph J. Johnson was a wildlife photographer staying at the local inn in Rivertown. He was filming and following a herd of deer, and was deep in the woods. He had only just missed seeing Beast capture and eat that one deer, and he slowly followed where he thought the massive creature had gone to eat it. When he arrived, however, Beast was staring down Denise aka "Diamondback" in the face. Joe could not believe what he was seeing. As he reached for his camera, Diamondback lunged at Beast, but Beast grabbed her and threw her into the trees with tremendous force. A branch from one of the trees broke free and smacked into Joe, he was OK but his camera was destroyed by the impact. Joe was stunned and a bit angry he would have no proof he saw the fight, so his word would be all people would have to go on. This is his account of what happened next, according to his journal. "The snake recovered fairly quickly from being thrown into the trees, which seemed to have caught the large Beast off guard, as it struck with what appeared to be a NASTY bite. Rattlesnakes are venomous, but somehow The Beast seemed unaffected by the venom, perhaps it is part meerkat or something. But while the venom seemed to have zero effect, the bite still apparently hurt, as The Beast roared in pain. The Beast reached out with its massive claws, and dug into the huge snake aggressively. The scales provided some protection but the attack was so powerful, blood went everywhere as the 2 creatures rolled around attacking each other. In spite of the huge sizes of the creatures involved, I never got a good look at the face of The Beast due to the quick pace of the battle, though I did get a good look at the serpent. It was your typical Diamondback Rattlesnake, but on a massive scale. The creatures continued to fight, but then, just as the battle looked to be reaching its peak, something very unusual happened. A large tree near the battle site seemed to move, and it released its vines, ensnaring both creatures. A mysterious green glow then came from the vines, and it seemed to be healing both of them, and calming them down. A few moments later they looked as though nothing had happened. The Beast retracted its claws, the serpent's fangs went back into its mouth, and the 2 of them just left the area as soon as the vines let them go. I then heard a voice, telling me- LEAVE NOW, OR FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. I ran back to town as fast as I could. I could swear it was that tree that was talking, as I think it even had a face..." It is said, after this one encounter, The Beast and Diamondback have never battled again, and seem to have split territory in the woods. The Beast never seems to appear in Diamondback's area, and vice versa. The town returned to "normal" with a few days, though the government agents who survived the escape of Diamondback had to go back to searching for Beast in the Mine Carts, as they could not replace or repair their fancy machine they built from the Hangar 18 parts. The building they used still sits abandoned, and empty, though some say the broken down machine is still inside, though it is no longer of any use to anyone. It was said the tree that appeared during the epic battle was the "spirit of the local forest" which had been agitated by the government's meddling, and a few said if anything more happened in Rivertown, it could turn against the humans. A few months after this incident, a young man came into town. "Hi, I'm gonna open a lumber company here!" A new lumber company? Well, that shouldn't be bad, will at least create a lot of local jobs... END

This, though I would also give Cedar Point the Beach, which is a plus and minus. Plus because it is is cool and looks great, giving coasters like Millennium Force and Magnum XL-200 epic first drop views. Minus because it attracts bugs, and there is zero protection from wind gusts, so if it gets windy rides go down for sure. Cedar Point also has its excellent on-site and just off-site resort hotels, which are super convenient and enable multi-day stays. Which leads to my next thought: I'd prefer CP if I have multiple days to use, but if I only have 1 (and no Fast Lane), then I am probably gonna have a better time at Kings Island due to the easier-to-navigate and smaller layout and the fact that KI is usually less crowded, especially if the weather is iffy (likely due to the fact CP is more resort guests, and KI is season pass holders- one group HAS to stay, the latter can just come another day with better weather).

Interesting article, but I did notice some typos. Like how the listed Kings Island as having 12 roller coasters, but a quick check on RCDB says they have 15 (16 if you count Surf Dog like the park does). If you are only counting the family and adult coasters, there are 12, but then they list Holiday World as having 5 but for HW to get 5, you need to count Howler. So depending on if you are counting kids rides or not, its 15/16 vs. 5 or 12 vs. 4. I think the article was trying to boost Holiday World's numbers while trying to minimize KI's, because on pure numbers, a large park like KI can make a smaller one like Holiday World look weak. (However if you are only going on highly-rated coasters that usually make industry lists, it's a tie as both parks have 4- Kings Island has Beast, Mystic Timbers, Diamondback, and Banshee. Holiday World has Raven, Legend, Voyage, and Thunderbird. Though after that, Holiday World is out of coaster ammo and Kings Island still has its "undercard" coasters...) Also they did claim they felt Holiday World would be better for small kids, but just doing a quick comparison on both park's web sites, at least on the dry side, Kings Island has Holiday World beat. I count a maximum of 14 rides in their 2 kids areas (Christmas & Holidog's Funtown), plus thecanoe ride which is also kids only, combined. Planet Snoopy has 19 rides, the petting zoo, and a few of those rides are roller coasters designed for kids! Maybe they were also counting kid-friendly rides that are outside the kids areas, as well as waterpark stuff, but Kings Island has some of that outside its main kids area as well. The flat ride collections, ironically, are about the same size with KI having 1 or 2 more. Kings Island does have one edge- they have 3 huge flat rides with Drop Tower, Delirium, and WindSeeker while Holiday World has nothing on that scale. Holiday World's flats seem to run slightly better ride cycles, however, and their dark ride is vastly superior to Boo Blasters. With the removal of Giraffica, Kings Island has the slight edge on in-park water rides thanks to Congo Falls. But overall I'm just gonna call the flat ride category a tie, IMO. When it comes to the water park though, Holiday World blows Kings Island out of the water. (Pun intended, LOL.) Kings Island's waterpark just does not have anything that can stand up to Wildebeest, Mammoth, Hyena Falls, Bakuli, or ZOOMbabwe when it comes to big epic water slides, and Holiday World also has 2 water play areas and lots of kid-friendly attractions to boot. I've seen some parks with much worse looking water parks than KI, but compared to Holiday World, there is no contest. Holiday World is probably gonna have the better food experience, based on what I have seen as of now and what I recall from my trips to Holiday World. KI may have some decent options that taste good, but speed of service can be slow, and Holiday World is usually cheaper (a combo that is $15 at KI will often be like $10 there). As far as staff goes, at both parks I have had nothing but good encounters, though Kings Island does seem to get their rides out a bit faster but based on my recent trip to Cedar Point, that may be a PTC trains being slow to load/unload thing since that is all Holiday World uses on their woodies. I have not been to Holiday World since Thunderbird was added in 2015 (might go back to Holiday World this year at some point, though) but I have to see how fast that one is loaded/unloaded to truly tell. TBH, the article does "get the right idea" at the end, besides maybe the where to go with kids part. Kings Island is the better park if you are looking for dry thrills, as there are more large coasters and flat rides there so you can do more without needing to re-ride something over and over, but if it's waterslides you are after, Holiday World is your place. Though I will also note this: the whole reason Kings Island probably did this was likely not Holiday World, but Kentucky Kingdom's $39.99 deal they have had for a few years now and had success with, and they don't even get a MENTION?

Holy poo. It's great news no one was hurt, but from the pictures I am seeing, this is gonna be very, very expensive to fix/replace. Not to mention all the money they might lose due to needing to close for repairs, and the lost revenue from guests who may not visit now because they were interested in the section of the park that was destroyed. It also looks like Blue Fire and Wodan Timbur Coaster were not far from the fire, hopefully neither of those were damaged because if the park is gonna recover, it will need the drawing power to attract guests those rides provide (and hopefully you can still access those rides, as their entrances may have been in the affected area). They are also gonna need to rebuild/replace a lot of destroyed attractions, which is not gonna be cheap at all. As Terp once said: Fire is the great enemy of all amusement parks.

Well, according to a post on Reddit (which has a image that seems legit) the new coaster is indeed a Mack, as footers and boxes with the Mack rides logo have appeared on-site. The footers are also supposedly the type Mack rides does use. Here is a link to the reddit page I found it on, with the image, which claims the OG source was Carowinds Connection: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/8m5kds/its_official_carowinds_2019_coaster_is_a_mack/ Now, the main question becomes I guess: classic launch (Helix @ Liseberg), or spinning (Time Traveller @ Silver Dollar City)? I would guess the former. Edit: Found the OG post on Carowinds Connection with more pics. http://www.carowindsconnection.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4764&start=1635

^ I would recommend that. You can't hear the music or anything, but I viewed the fireworks from the Eiffel Tower on preview night and they were great IMO.

^ Near the beach exit of Hotel Breakers, facing GateKeeper and WindSeeker, towards the park's entrance. It's along the beach boardwalk, which will be on the right hand side of the park from the main parking lot.

I got to ride this monster coaster last weekend, as you may have read in my recent trip report. If you don't (I can't blame you, it is friggin' huge and will demand your time) and just want my thoughts on Steel Vengeance, I'm gonna share them again here. HOLY COW, this thing is insane, in a good way. When they say it has more airtime than any other coaster, I believe them. And 99% of it is ejector air to boot, even on the tiny bunny hops before the lift! In addition to the incredible airtime, you also get 4 great inversions, good laterals, a huge first drop that goes straight down, and thanks to the immense wooden structure, tons of head chopper moments. The coaster also has a very loud chain lift, and it has the "tugging" effect on its lift hill similar to what Adventure Express does, adding to the intimidation factor. I also enjoyed how they have all the backstory of the town's characters on the poster things in the que, leading up to the 3 Outlaws and detailing the backstory behind the Maverick vs. Steel Vengeance feud. And the fact they have characters walking around as the characters from this backstory is awesome (you can usually find them in Frontier Town near the ride), though I do think they should get a guy to play Maverick, and when that character encounters the SV ones, they should confront each other. The ride's sign is also amazing, then again Cedar Fair has been doing an amazing job at that for all their recent rides so that's not unexpected. The only downside is, at the moment, it's just 1 train operation so I would suggest either getting ERT and doing the coaster in the morning (be prepared to at least jog) or wait until the sun goes down and ride it as your last coaster of the night. Night rides on Steel Vengeance are also epic, as the ride appears to glow, and there are fake lanterns that glow and look like real ones on the lift hill. When SV gets back to 3 train operation, hopefully the lines will be better, and you could get Fast Lane Plus for it again. I loved the ride. It's my first RMC, and it's already my new favorite coaster. Not a bad first impression at all, besides the 1 train operation.

OK, now for the final part- ENJOY SOME PICTURES. Some of these were taken by me, most by my sister, and even a few by our friends. The last one includes a beautiful double rainbow that appeared on Saturday, after one of the rain showers. It looked like it ended in Canada, LOL.

And now, the finale: Part 3. Before I start this part, I will add I forgot we rode a ride, Tiki Twirl, on Friday. I have since added that into Part 1, so if you wanna know what I thought of that ride, go back. It's between Wicked Twister and Perkins. Now, same rating system as before, we shall begin Part 3... We woke up a bit later on Sunday, around 7AM. We had to get our Hotel cleared out, so we cleaned our room up and threw away a bunch of garbage, and took some light stuff we didn't need back to the van. Then, while our friends were still asleep, me and my sister went to... Food: Perkins (Breakfast) I had the same meal I got on my first ever trip to Cedar Point, Chicken Biscuits (no gravy) with eggs, bacon, and hash browns. It was delicious, but also very filling, I could not eat all of the 2nd chicken biscuit, but I did finish the meat off of it. Rating: A We then went back, met up with our now awake friends, and headed to the front gate. Our legs were a bit sore by now, so doing the Steel Vengeance dash was kinda not a option, we'd get beaten by the "healthy" fresh crowds. Instead, we grabbed a shuttle and headed to the Marina entrance, as we decided to do 2 other rides for ERT. Ride #1: Valravn Wait: Walk-On With everyone else at Steel Vengeance, Valravn's ERT line was super short, so we got a walk-on. This was my first ride on this coaster with the sun up, ironically. Other than that, it felt like it was riding the same as it did in Part 2, save now it was colder out. Rating: A After Valravn, me and my sister hit up the other big GP favorite in the park... Ride #2: Millennium Force Wait: 10 Minutes Millie was testing as I headed to Dragster the night before, so apparently whatever broke was fixed for ERT the next day. It was a very chilly ride, as the temps were only in the upper 50's, but without the heavy winds it felt like the ride was getting over the hills a bit better than it was 2 days earlier as the airtime was back to 2017 levels. The speed was fast and furious, with is par for the course with this amazing coaster. My sister actually does love this ride, but she hates the first drop (she has a fear of heights), so I told her she could close her eyes and I would tell her when the drop was over. I wasn't mean, I did just that. Rating: S After Millennium Force, ERT was coming to a close, so I suggested I could ride TTD again, but this time my sister and friends (all of whom won't do TTD, they are all scared of it) would sit in the stands and watch. Ride #3: Top Thrill Dragster Wait: 30 Minutes This SHOULD have been like a 10-15 minute wait, but why did I wait 30? It was not a breakdown this time. Instead, it was a rollback! The first train they attempted to launch of the day did not make it over, so they stopped the ride, began loading only the front 3 cars, and then launched again. This time the trains made it over, the launches began to get consistent (and trains started to make it over more easily) and the line began to move, a bit slow though because of the reduced # of seats in use. However, I got to skip a chunk of line because I was a single rider, and a empty seat needed filled! The ride was about the same as the night before, save less fear due to the fact I had now ridden a few times. I also got to see my off-ride video my sister filmed, the ride looks so much tamer in video than it does on-ride and in person. Rating: S After TTD, our friend who loves Gemini wanted to go ride it, as we saw it begin to do its morning test runs. We went over and waited a few minutes, then the gates opened and we got first train of the day. We also rode twice in a row. Ride #4+5: Gemini Wait: Walk-On, 5 Minutes Gemini was performing about as well as the day before on Ride #1. On #2, we decided to try the middle seat of the very back car. Like on Racer at Kings Island earlier this year, that turned out to be a great choice, as the airtime back there was stronger and more abundant. More fun 70's Arrow goodness. Rating: B After back-to-back Gemini rides, we headed into Frontier Town to get some food. I was saving some money I had, and decided to spend it on... Food: Sidewinder Fries For anyone who does not know, this stand is near Steel Vengeance, and it's apparently new for 2018. It is NOT on the meal plan, for better or for worse. I got the loaded fries, they cost $12, but with a platinum pass I paid $10.50. The fries themselves seemed to be the same as the spiral-cut fries from Island Smokehouse, which was already good, but these were LOADED with toppings and BBQ brisket. And they were epic, truly worthy of the amazing coasters next to them! And they were served pretty fast, too. Also right before I ate, they had a Cedar Point Trivia challenge. I got 2 of 5 right, but I was close on like 4 of the 5. However, for my time, I got 2...single use Fast Lane passes! Rating: S After the awesome meal, we did some shopping (I got a cool Steel Vengeance vs. Maverick T-Shirt), then we checked out Maverick which was down for mechanical issues and had been since the day before. The Steel Vengeance actors walked past, I was tempted but didn't pull the trigger to say "LOL, Maverick thinks he is so great, but his coaster is so broken." Then we saw Skyhawk, and I stated I wanted to try it. (I rode twice) Ride #6+7: Skyhawk Wait: 5 Minutes (1 Cycle) both times Well, here is another bucket list ride I can say I've knocked off. And, turns out, Skyhawk is very fun with some nice zero-g moments. I do still perfer the HUSS Giant Frisbees like Delirium and MaXair, since they add the spinning element, but MaXair was down all trip and has not operated once this season. I wonder what's wrong with it. After I rode, and said it was fun, my sister and one of our friends also wanted to ride so I rode again on the opposite side. Since it is just a lapbar, it scared them a bit, but they were laughing after the ride. Rating: A After Skyhawk, we went into the Town Hall Museum, because I find stuff like amusement park history awesome. Attraction: Town Hall Museum Inside was a epic Steel Vengeance model that is under construction. Apparently when it is done, it'll actually work and will have a ride-op style panel guess can use to simulate running a coaster! That's awesome, and something I would like to try. The Mean Streak model also remains, so you can do a comparison, though the SV one is MUCH bigger. The actors then also came in here. We got a group photo, and I also watched a bit of a mid-2000's documentary about the park (it had TTD as the newest coaster so it was from that era) they had on a TV. This place is awesome, I wish KI had something like this for its history and stuff. Rating: A After the Town Hall Museum, we headed down Frontier Trail, since we had not been down there yet. We ended up stopping when we reached... Attraction: The Barnyard So many cute, funny farm animals and camels for some reason! I had $2, and I spent it to get some feed so we could feed the animals. As someone who loves animals, this attraction was right up my alley. Also, yes, I did meet a Yak as hinted at in Part 2. LOL. Rating: A After we did the Barnyard, we headed down the Millennium Midway, as I wanted to ride Rougarou since I figured it would be a walk-on. But my sister and our friend who was doing big coasters actually said, because he had yet to ride (again, fear of the height) he wanted to try Millennium Force. Heck, I am always down for Millennium Force! Ride #8: Millennium Force #2 Wait: 20 Minutes Fast Lane would not have been much use here, so I saved my tickets. The ride rode similar to earlier, so see that for the review. Our friend did look on the way up but shut his eyes when he saw the actual drop until we were halfway down. Rating: S My friends went off to smoke for a bit, so I went and did that ride on Rougarou while I waited for them. Ride #9: Rougarou Wait: Walk-On I rode in the very back car, which had no wait ironically. I can kinda see why though- the headbanging is worse back here, and you don't really get too much in the way of extra G-Forces or snappiness. Rougarou is probably a coaster ridden better from the front, or at least the middle. Due to the extra head-banging (still not terrible but it was more noticeable) this ride was not as good as the first on Rougarou. Rating: B I met back up with my friends after Rougarou, and we rode Iron Dragon again for our friend who isn't too into huge coasters. Ride #10: Iron Dragon Wait: 5 Minutes Similar to last time, so for my review, see previous ride. Yeah, sorry I am doing this so much this TR, we got a LOT of re-rides. Rating: C After Iron Dragon, we headed down to the main midway, because I wanted to ride Raptor in the daytime (I kinda rode it in quasi-night before and night but never daytime). It was seemingly having a issue of some kind, as they would send this one train empty but then the others would be full. Nonetheless, we decided to ride since it was still open. Ride #11: Raptor Wait: 5 Minutes (was 30, used my Fast Lane Passes!) Raptor was great fun once again, this time with the sun out. We were the first riders put back on the train that was having issues, so apparently it was cleared. I got so much hang time on the first loop, however, that I thought my restraint was having issues (my butt came out of the seat!) and only the seat belt was holding it in place (in reality I have realized if that was the case it would have actually come up noticeably.). A little scary, it even did make me tug on it on the MCBR to make sure it "went back down". Nothing like that on the 2nd half of the ride though. Otherwise, a fun ride. Also on the lift, I looked to the right and saw HUNDREDS of Seagull nests. HOLY COW! Rating: A After Raptor, we saw GateKeeper, which had gone down before we rode Raptor, was back up. We headed towards it. Ride #12: GateKeeper Wait: 10 Minutes 2 of the seats on the train we were on were blocked off, apparently restraint issues were a bit common on this trip. (We also saw Gemini with the same issue) However, on this ride they felt fine for us. This 3rd GateKeeper ride was the same as before, in fact I even kept choosing the same side (left) because I like going up on the first drop, and you nearly hit the ground on the helix, which IMO makes it the better side. So see previous review in this post for more info. Rating: A After GateKeeper, my friends wanted to smoke again, so I went off to do the fun and intense Wicked Twister. Ride #13: Wicked Twister Wait: Walk-On Does ANYTHING in this section of Cedar Point get a huge wait these days, since GateKeeper's wait times have plummeted? Seems like this area would be good to go for on crowded days. I had trouble getting the seat belt to attach, because it was only a few inches long, and the restraint would not lock without it until we (me+ride op) really pushed hard. But it did lock, and I got a fun ride on Wicked Twister. I sat close to the back, and while this made the forwards launch kinda meh (didn't go very high) the backwards one was kinda scary because we went very high. I guess for a "balanced" ride, go for the middle, but for more thrilling individual spikes, choose a front or rear seat. Rating: A After Wicked Twister, we took the Sky Ride back, as our friend wanted to do one more ride on Gemini before we left, and I still wanted that one last credit... Ride #14: Sky Ride Wait: Walk-On I rode backwards again, since I feel a little more comfortable that way, ironically. On our ride, we looked over on top of the arcade building and saw yet hundreds more seagull nests! Man, those things LOVE Cedar Point even more than me! Rating: C After Sky Ride, me and one of our friends (who was doing big coasters, the one who does not cannot do loops as they make him sick) went and got the final adult CP credit. Ride #15: Corkscrew Wait: Walk-On The park was so dead, Corkscrew was only using the first 3 cars of each train, so I could not ride in 5-1 like I planned. So instead, I picked 3-1. The ride feels taller when you ride it than it looks, and the airtime hill has some nice borderline ejector air. The loop and corkscrews have some nice forces in them as well. However, sad part is, that is the entire ride basically. So while Corkscrew has good parts, it does not have very many parts. Still, this is a historic coaster, and would be a great introduction for younger riders to both airtime and inversions. And now, until they add more, I have all the adult credits Cedar Point has to offer! Rating: C After Corkscrew, we walked down the midway some more, and reached our final ride. Ride #16: Gemini #3 I ended up riding Gemini 5 times total, most of any coaster on this trip. I tried to ride in the 5th car again, but due to trying to race with my friends, we ended up riding in the 3rd car. It was still fun but the 5th car gives better airtime. Rating: B After Gemini, it was after 5PM, and it was time for us to start the long drive home. We found a Five Guys on the way, so we stopped and grabbed dinner there, it was amazing as Five Guys usually is. We got back home around 11PM, and I came inside and fell asleep soon after. Well, since I got new credits, that means I have to give my updated Top 10 coasters list because with this and the previous KI trips in 2018, there has been some shufflin'. MCSALSA'S UPDATED TOP 10 COASTERS 1. Steel Vengeance @ Cedar Point (RMC) Epic ejector air and forceful inversions combined with huge heights and speeds, and a immense wooden structure, creates a truly epic coaster. 2. Maverick @ Cedar Point (Intamin) Forceful twists and turns, plus some nice airtime hills with both ejector and floater air, and a great mid-course launch. 3. Millennium Force @ Cedar Point (Intamin) Towering heights and incredible speeds, all done pretty smoothly. Comes with a side of nice floater air, and maybe some mild ejector on the tiny hill depending on your seat. 4. The Beast @ Kings Island (In-House) Racing through the woods at 65mph on a wooden coaster is a blast, even if it is just straight track mostly. Final helix is epic, best ending on any coaster. Gives one of the best night rides ever. 5. Magnum XL-200 @ Cedar Point (Arrow) A bit rough, but this ride's forceful pretzel knot and epic ejector air (sometimes in TUNNELS!) will make you forgive that. After almost 30 years, it still holds up. 6. Top Thrill Dragster @ Cedar Point (Intamin) 17 seconds of pure adrenaline, with one of the most forceful launches and largest drops on any coaster out there. 7. Mystic Timbers @ Kings Island (GCI) A modern woodie, Mystic Timbers sends riders into the woods with its twisted drop and tons of airtime. While not the strongest airtime, it is pretty rapid fire, and the ride does not go straight until the final brakes. Shed ending is so bad and cheesy, it's good. 8. The Legend @ Holiday World (CCI) A twisted first drop leads into multiple tunnels, nice airtime hills under waterslides, and then the 2nd half gives some very forceful laterals. An awesome woodie. (Note: My last ride on this was in 2013, before the GCI overhaul in 2016) 9. Banshee @ Kings Island (B&M) A large 1st drop leads into some excellent loops and zero-g rolls, being both graceful and intense at the same time and it maintains its pace until near the end, when the sudden slow roll mixes things up. 10. Raptor @ Cedar Point (B&M) Another forceful B&M invert, this one also packs a punch. Banshee may have better inversions, but this one is more aggressive and snappy. And that's my updated Top 10 coasters. GateKeeper and Valravn are still great rides IMO, but they fell out of the Top 10. Mystic Timbers barges back in thanks to some great rides I got earlier this year. Legend drops a bit due to not riding it in a while, I may need to get back to Holiday World and re-ride it to see if it can claw its way back up. And of course, Steel Vengeance debuts at #1. And now, here are the Pros/Cons of this entire trip... PROS +Amazing roller coasters. It truly does feel like the roller coaster capital of the world. Besides a flying coaster and modern woodie, there is something for everyone here, from mild to wild, classic to modern. +Also great flat rides, and a large selection of them. +Beautiful park. Cedar Point is not themed much, but it is very pretty with vibrant colors and clean walkways. +Great ride ops. They work fast, and get the trains out fast. I guess that's needed when a park is this popular. +Great food. Service was fast, and the taste was also great. Kings Island needs to up their game in this area, but Cedar Point apparently has this down. +Hotel Breakers, as usual, was amazing and had great staff. The convenience of being close to the park is obvious. CONS -Steel Vengeance, for obvious reasons, was only 1 train. I am not mad and understand why, but hopefully this gets fixed soon because this ride needs to get more ridership! -MaXair not open. Not a huge issue, I can always ride Delirium, but I wonder what is wrong with its "bro" at Cedar Point. -High Winds on Friday closing most rides. Not the park's fault, but it led to longer than they should have been waits that day. I hope you all have enjoyed this HUGE 3-part trip report. Staying at a park for multiple days, especially one as big and epic as this one, was amazing and I hope to some day repeat the experience either at CP again, or some other huge park. Questions and comments welcome. It is getting a bit late now, so I am gonna rest up, but when I wake up I'm gonna add some pictures we took during this trip here. Anyhow, until then...MCSALSA AWAY!!!

OK, time for Part 2! See Part 1 for Ride Rating System as I am not gonna re-post it for all 3 parts. I woke up around 6:15AM on Saturday, surprisingly refreshed for 6 hours of sleep, though my legs hurt a bit. We ate some food we brought for breakfast, as well as some leftover Pizza from the day before. Then we hit the beach for a few minutes, and headed for the resort gate near Magnum XL-200. There were a few people there as we arrived at 8:15 AM, but it did not seem too crazy. But by 8:50, there was a big crowd waiting for the rope drop. The national anthem played, but I dunno if I was looking in the right direction because we were behind Top Thrill Dragster and could not see any flags. I just assumed the front gate & flag were in the direction everyone was facing. During the wait for the park to open, I saw Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster do test runs, TTD in particular was a great sight because it was closed the day before. Then came the rope drop, and we bolted for Steel Vengeance. I will make a note that on Friday, only me and my sister rode, but this time a 3rd friend rode with us. We reached Steel Vengeance (we stopped jogging in Frontier Town because it was getting tiresome) and had beaten a OK sized chunk of the crowd, so we started Saturday the way Friday ended! Ride #1: Steel Vengeance Wait: 20 Minutes Even in the morning, barely broken in, this coaster still had nearly all of the intensity and ejector air of the night before. We rode in Digger this time (I went "solo" a train ahead of my sister and friend), but unlike Chess, Digger had nothing to hold on to. So, even though I don't normally do it, it was hands up on Steel Vengeance, at least when I got airtime...until we entered the structure, the head choppers were close enough I pulled them down and even ducked a few times! Still a super epic ride. Also, of note to anyone going to Cedar Point, the lift on this sucker is LOUD. Reminds me of Son of Beast when that first opened in 2000 with the super heavy Premier trains. And it has a Adventure Express-style "tugging" effect on the lift, where it acts like it is struggling to pull the train up. I like that effect, and it is yet another reason I adore Steel Vengeance. BTW it had a 2-hour wait already by the time we got off, so even though we did not run the entire way or very fast at all, the fact we got there at the 20 minute point was good. Rating: S+ (Still) After SV, we saw Maverick had opened up (it was still doing some testing as we were heading for Steel Vengeance), so we decided to get that in before ERT ended as well. Ride #2: Maverick Wait: 10 Minutes Steel Vengeance may have taken my #1 spot, but Maverick remains a excellent ride. The big airtime hill after the first few turns gives excellent ejector air, and the twists, turns, and inversions are still epic. The mid-course launch is awesome, plus they have fixed the effects on the inside, which were pretty neat. I'd imagine if you prefer twists and turns, you may still like Maverick over Steel Vengeance, but if you prefer airtime, Steel Vengeance will be your go-to. Both rides are amazing, and CP has a great 1-2 punch in this section of the park alone! Rating: S After riding Maverick, I split from the group to go ride Top Thrill Dragster. I got in line. I waited 10-15 minutes, but the line did not move. Dragster then closed down due to a mechanical issue. I ended up leaving the line, which seems like it was the right call because I did not see it run again for hours. I thought there was a major breakdown because I saw water being dumped from the ride on the ground, like it had busted a valve or something, but when it re-opened that was still there so that water is probably coolant or something for the flywheel. If someone is a expert on TTD, and knows what that was I saw, I'd like to know. It was not far from the main entrance to the ride. With Dragster down, I decided to hit up the other major coaster in this area that was down yesterday. Ride #3: Magnum XL-200 Wait: Walk-On I rode from 1-3, the famous "Ejector Seat" I have heard good things about. Even after riding Millennium Force a day before, Magnum still feels very tall, and well I guess it is since it's a 200+ footer. The first drop doesn't have much going for it in terms of airtime, but the view is awesome. The second hill also doesn't have much airtime, but does have a THUNK that you should brace for, and the turn after this hill is a bit slow, giving a nice "hunting" effect, like the train is looking for something to attack. The train "spots" the tunnel below, and here is where Magnum XL-200 really gets going. The airtime hill after the tunnel gives strong floater, and then you enter the Pretzel Knot, which boasts some nice lateral forces. Then comes the ejector air buffet. This section feels like a mini Steel Vengeance, as while it does not last as long (since on SV this is basically the entire ride) you get amazing ejector air on every hill here, and in the tunnels it is incredible. However, because it has a solid bar, it will also hurt your thighs. I have decently thick thighs (I'm not super fat or anything, but they are one of my bigger parts) so it is not really a problem for me, but I can maybe see how this would hurt someone who is very skinny or has thin legs. The ride can also be a bit jerky and rough. But I don't care- the ejector air buffet this ride offers, in tunnels at times, alone is more than worth it. Maggie still rocks, almost 30 years after her debut as the word's tallest and fastest roller coaster. Rating: S After Magnum, I decided to go see how long the line for Raptor was, since I had not ridden that yet. I got there and...A HOUR AND A HALF? When Magnum XL-200 is a walk on? I went into the line just to check for sure, maybe the sign was...nope. Hour and a half. Getting out! I headed over and decided to check GateKeeper...30 minutes was the posted wait. Well, that beats 90. Ride #4: GateKeeper Wait: 10 Minutes The sign was off by 20 minutes, in a good way. I can't believe there was a gap this big in wait times between Raptor and GateKeeper, because both are near the park's main entrance and their capacities should be similar (Both are B&M's with 3 32-passenger trains), but there was. Anyhow, I saw my friends in line for GateKeeper (they had the same idea to ride it as me) on the other side of the coaster. I went for the wing that lifts up on the first drop, as I like that side better. I got onto the coaster and rode from near the back. Same fun GateKeeper experience I had from 2017, but now in the daytime! I actually got some airtime on the big hill- nothing compared to Steel Vengeance or Magnum XL-200, but for a Wing Coaster with vests, it was still a decent amount. The near-miss elements on the ride are nice, and it has some fun inversions. Decent G-forces as well, not anything too crazy but you can still feel the G's. A very good ride with a short wait time. Rating: A After GateKeeper, the group wanted to ride Blue Streak, so I re-joined them. Oh BTW I beat them onto GateKeeper in spite of the fact I got there later. We looked at the que, it was decently full, but our friend did really wanna ride, so we waited... Ride #5: Blue Streak Wait: 45 Minutes Ouch. I dunno if it was the ride-ops being slow, or if PTC trains suck at loading times, but this line felt slower than Steel Vengeance's! At least the ride at the end was pretty good, though it didn't seem to have quite as much airtime as last year. It was more like a pretty good ride on Racer with only 1 side running. A bit rough, but nothing too over the top considering it is a 1964 PTC woodie. Fun ride, but nothing mind-blowing, and not as good as it felt last year. Rating: C After Blue Streak, a storm was brewing on the horizon, so we headed back for our Hotel. We rested up, snacked, and watched as the storm came in and shut everything in the park down. When the rain ended, we were all fairly exhausted, so 3 of us (we left one friend, the one who was doing big coasters, so he could take a nap) and headed for the outdoor pool to see if it had re-opened, since we brought swimwear. The friend who came with us wanted to do the kiddie pool slide for some reason, and I am kinda glad he had that urge, because I saw something I found odd. We got into the pool, and we saw a Seagull. I went up to check out the view from the slides, and found a nest with a egg in it, and a unopened full bag of Frito's chips! I guess when that baby hatches, it'll have some grub. LOL. Some crew members came up, and the slide was shut down due to Seagull nest. I wonder how often Cedar Point has to deal with this. We reached the outdoor pool, and it was open but the water was COLD, so instead we hit the hot tub. Ahh, man did that feel good on my sore legs. After soaking for a while I felt refreshed and saw rides start doing test runs, so we went back up to our room and began dressing for the park again. I saw Gemini, which had been down until this point, do a few test runs so we went to that because it was our non-huge coaster loving friends favorite ride in the park. Ride #6: Gemini Wait: 30 Minutes It rained again while we were in the station for Gemini, so it went down. The rain stopped after 5-10 minutes, but they had to re-test the entire ride afterwards, so we had to wait longer. At least we were in the station, which kept us dry the whole time. When the ride re-opened, we rode. Last time I rode Gemini, I was on a rear wheel seat, and some dumb woman tried to film the ride so our train was e-stopped outside the station so a ride-op could grab it, killing the racing factor. As a result, I got a rough and not-so-thrilling ride and did NOT like the coaster, but I did say I'd give it another chance. I am glad I did. No wheel seat this time, Blue Train, and we were racing. Gemini, turns out, is actually quite a good coaster when these conditions are met! I also now understand why the turns are so slow, it is so you can interact with the other train. I caught on and played along. "STROKE! STROKE! COME ON WE GOTTA WIN!" LOL. There was also pretty good airtime, and the final helix is actually pretty darn forceful and good. (Mine Ride's helix was the best part about it, and I love Vortex's helix, so I guess Arrow knew how to do a good helix!) Gemini improves massively, and is now roughly mid-pack in my coaster rankings instead of at the bottom. (I love most coasters so mid-pack isn't too shabby BTW) Also I saw sections of track that looked NEW (and they felt ultra smooth). You can re-track steel coasters!?!? Also, since Arrow is out of business, who is making this new track!?!? Rating: B We then re-rode Gemini, because it had no wait once it re-opened. I love how high capacity racing coasters are. Ride #7: Gemini 2 Wait: Walk-On I rode the Blue Train again. Ride was about the same as before. Good fun again. Rating: B After we rode Gemini the 2nd time, one of our friends got some food at a nearby food stand (fries)- the lines for food were not bad at all, in spite of good sized crowds. The fries were pretty good too, I had a few. However, a 3rd rain wave was gonna come through, so we quickly headed over to do something you can't do at Kings Island anymore. Attraction: Dinosaurs Alive! It was nice to see the animatronic dinos again, even if these were not 100% the same ones Kings Island had. You get some awesome views of Millennium Force as well, but sadly it was not running. I learned later it got stuck in the rain we waited out on Gemini, and they had to evac. Ouch. Good thing I rode it yesterday, I thought. This was a fun time-waster. The gift shop was also cool. Rating: C After Dinosaurs, we headed down and into Camp Snoopy, hoping to grab a quick ride on a fun flat ride before the rains forced us back to the hotel again... Ride #8: Tilt-A-Whirl Wait: Walk-On A fun classic ride, I would not blame most if they didn't even think Cedar Point had one. Camp Snoopy is kinda hidden away, in its own little area, and you can't even really see it from the main Gemini Midway. This was your typical Tilt-A-Whirl, though the cycle was just a bit short and ended soon after we really began to spin. It also began to rain on us as we rode it. Rating: C After Tilt-A-Whirl, we checked out Woodstock Express, which shut down due to the rain, and headed to the car since we were all hungry and wanted food. My sister craved Arby's, and thus that is where we went, and I got the Classic Beef N' Cheddar with Curly Fries. It was good. Then we stopped at a gas station, and they had this big moose dude statue inside I had to check out. They also had Cedar Point ice cream, but I did not get it because all they had was a big box and we could not store it safely without it melting. Then we did a Wal-Mart run, got some quick stuff (including some zipper clothes for our friends) and headed back to the park, as the rain had stopped. What we saw as we drove down the road back to the Peninsula was glorious: buses, lots of buses...LEAVING! That meant when we returned to the park, wait times would be down. I hoped for way down. We entered the park again after we got all our stuff in the hotel room, and my sister wanted to ride GateKeeper again. I was down, since that would surely have a short wait if it was short earlier. Ride #9: GateKeeper Wait: 15 Minutes It was less of a wait by # of people in line, but for some reason, dispatches felt a bit slower and we thus waited longer. Still, 15 minutes is far from bad. I rode the same side, so it felt about the same as before. So for a review, see above. Rating: A After GateKeeper, I wanted to check Raptor, to see if the line had gone down much. One of our friends who was doing big looping rides joined me. Well... Ride #10: Raptor Wait: 5 Minutes I love it when amusement parks suddenly become empty. Raptor is the same type of ride as Banshee (B&M Invert) but it gives a very different ride in many ways, since there was a 20-year gap between the two. Both have good G-Forces, but where Banshee is graceful from element to element, Raptor tends to be snappy and aggressive. Raptor also boasts a superior helix, but I'd say I like the set of inversions on Banshee a bit better (slow roll beats out corkscrews, heart loop beats out cobra roll), as well as Banshee's first drop. I think Banshee just barely takes the cake, but only by a hair. Raptor is still an amazing coaster. Also, I made up a song about Raptor while riding it. It is mostly just naming off the elements as you go along though. Rating: A Our friend who was not doing loops/big coasters rode Blue Streak with my sister while we rode Raptor. Afterwards, we met up, and checked the line for Valravn. It was short. Also, I forgot to do this in the Day 1 section, but it was dark by this point so these are all night rides from here out! Ride #11: Valravn (Night) Wait: 10 Minutes (Yup. Park is dead when Valravn is this low.) Valravn was fantastic once again, but I think the "OMG" factor from the first ride on it has faded away just a little. The vertical drops are still great, and you actually get some airtime on them. The inversions also have some nice forcefulness to them, and the airtime hill does have some actual airtime. I still love Valravn, but with the newness of it being my first dive coaster a bit faded, a few other B&M's (The Inverts, Diamondback, and GateKeeper) have passed it up since the competition between them is so tight and close. Rating: A After Valravn, I split off from the group again, as they wanted to ride Gemini at night but I wanted to ride Top Thrill Dragster, since it had re-opened following the 3rd rain, so I assumed it was fixed. I headed over. I waited in the short line, less than 5 minutes. I got on. It remembered it was a Intamin and broke down. I figured I had a bit of time left, so I ran over and rode... Ride #12: Magnum XL-200 (Night) Wait: Walk-On Magnum XL-200 is epic by day, and it is even better at night. The lake becomes a black abyss, and the tunnels become dark terror, the final ones filled with ejector air. I rode from 1-2 instead of 1-3 this time, and got what felt like the same amount of ejector air as before, but the ride was smoother. Maggie is crazy, and she shakes you up and might give you a bruise, but I still adore her. Rating: S When Magnum XL-200 hit the brakes, I saw Top Thrill Dragster run again with riders. I ran over. I got back in line, as the line checkers were about to close the line as they were saying "Come get last ride of the night on the best ride in the park!" Checker #2: "No, Steel Vengeance is the best ride in the park." Me: "Steel Vengeance is epic, but this is still great." Ride #13: Top Thrill Dragster (Night) Wait: 5 Minutes This time, there would be no breakdown. The train pulled up, and the cable attached. And then came the launch. I was expecting it this time, as this was my 2nd ride ever, but it still packs a WALLOP. We race into the sky. I scream out "420 FEET!" in excitement and then we come down. 17 seconds after launch, we are on the brake run. A epic ride to end a epic day. Rating: S After TTD, I headed back to the Hotel. My friends were in their swimsuits, wanting to hit the indoor pool, so I quickly changed and joined them. We got in the 2nd Hot Tub, and relaxed some more- this one was even warmer than the 1st. We returned to our room as the pool closed, but my sister noticed TGI Fridays was open until Midnight, and she was craving chips. We got re-dressed and headed down there. Food: TGI Friday's I had heard bad things about this TGI Friday's, like it was supposed to suck and to avoid it. Well, apparently, they were wrong. We did just order the Loaded Nachos, but they were pretty good, and our server was nice and the food came pretty fast. I jokingly nicknamed the Nachos "Top Thrill Nachos" since I had done TTD before this. A nice snack, and afterwards, I hit the bed and was OUT. And that ends Day #2. Next up, the final part...day 3...with most of the major coasters already ridden, would McSalsa get the last adult credit he still lacks at Cedar Point, Corkscrew? What will he ride again? What will he choose for his ERT rides? Will he meet a Yak? Find out next time on...DRAGON BALL Z! (LOL)

Welcome to this huge trip report! I just got back yesterday from a huge CP trip that lasted 3 days. Before we start, I will point out due to the nature of this trip, I may have forgotten some stuff because it began 3 days ago, so my brain has probably deleted a lot of the minor stuff from my short term memory by now, and this might be a little out of order. Nonetheless, I'll try to remember as much as I can. First off, my ride rating system I began using this year: F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Zen. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however. Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. Now, we have a lot to discuss, so let's get started on this trip report! We left central Indiana for Cedar Point around 6AM on Friday the 18th and arrived around 11AM. We checked into our hotel, and our room was not 100% ready yet, so we headed into the park. Only a handful of rides were running due to the wind being very strong, I only saw Steel Vengeance, Millennium Force, Maverick, Rougarou, Valravn (went down as we headed into the park), and Corkscrew running as we drove to the Hotel Breakers lot. Our friend who isn't too much into huge coasters was one of the people with us, and he enjoyed Surf Dog at Kings Island, so we ended up starting the day with Pipe Scream. Ride #1: Pipe Scream Wait: 5 Minutes If you have ridden Surf Dog, you have ridden Pipe Scream basically. Other than some different themes, they are the exact same ride, and feel about the same. Still this is a fun ride type, as it drops and spins, and was a decent way to begin our day. Rating: C After Pipe Scream, we headed down the Gemini Midway, which was pretty dead since none of its coasters except Corkscrew were working (though because of this Corkscrew actually had a decent wait) into Frontier Town. Steel Vengeance loomed above, and I watched it run as we headed into its section of the park. Then, I noticed Cedar Creek Mine Ride was doing test runs with employees on it, so we headed there since that coaster was our friend's pace, and I did still need the credit. Ride #2: Cedar Creek Mine Ride Wait: 30 Minutes (took a while to unload the sand bags and get the ride clear for opening) Cedar Creek Mine Ride is a OK Mine Train, but it really does not have much thrill factor and is kinda jerky. Adventure Express, this is not. There were a few turns or small drops that felt a tiny bit intense, but not much here. The scenery around the coaster is pretty nice, and the helix is OK. This would probably be a good coaster for kids, or people like our friend who don't do super tall or intense, but it was kinda meh to me. I would much rather ride Adventure Express, as it seems Arrow got much better at Mine Trains by then. Rating: D After CCMR, we headed for another ride my sister and our friend wanted to do, the Antique Cars, since there was a set back here. Ride #3: Antique Cars Wait: 5 Minutes Ehh, I did not really like the Antique Cars at Holiday World too much, and while I was a rider and not a driver this time, this set did not seem much better. It's a nice ride for older people or people who can't do anything super intense, but these things seem hard to steer (my sister was having some issues) and ours felt like we had a flat tire. The scenery was pretty nice though. Rating: D After Antique Cars, we checked out some gift shops, and met the Steel Vengeance characters for a cool photo-op. Then we boarded the train to head to the Millennium Midway, because our friend wanted to do Iron Dragon and saw it was open on the app. (Note: It was right this time, but the app was horribly wrong at points during this trip) Ride #4: Cedar Point & Lake Erie RR Wait: 5 Minutes (for Train) Yep, still better than Kings Island's train, mainly because they actually still have all the Boneville props and stuff where KI has very little to look at. You can also get nice views of a bunch of the rides in this area of the park, too. Rating: C After this, we hit up Iron Dragon as expected. It was open, in spite of the wind. Ride #5: Iron Dragon Wait: 15 Minutes Iron Dragon is probably the best of Cedar Point's more family-focused coasters, as it is a bit more thrilling and much smoother than Mine Ride. It's not super fast or forceful, but swinging around the tree tops and over the lagoon is still a fun experience. Rating: C After Iron Dragon, we headed down to the front of the park, to check the wait for Blue Streak, since it was open. It was a hour, so we skipped riding it. I almost broke away from our group, but then I saw... Ride #6: Wicked Twister Wait: 5 Minutes Finally, something with intensity! And it had a very short wait! Scenic and family-focused rides are OK, but this is what I really crave. And Wicked Twister delivered on those cravings with its intense launches and huge drops. I am actually a bit shocked it was even running, with the wind and all. I thought Wicked Twister would be one of CP's more finicky coasters when it came to not-so-great weather, but it seems it is actually one of the tougher rides in the park in that regard. Rating: A After Wicked Twister, we were heading back to the hotel to get food, but we saw a interesting flat ride and decided to ride it. (Note: This was edited in, I forgot about it. Oops!) Ride #7: Tiki Twirl Wait: 5 Minutes This ride spins like a scrambler, but also goes up and down on a circular raised platform, which makes it feel a bit different. It is fun, and I was mimicking the Voodoo character from Cedar Point's Halloweekends while riding, since I remembered he rode this in a promo video. Rating: C After Tiki Twirl, we were very hungry, but most food stands for whatever reason had monster lines. We instead went back to the Hotel, and ate lunch at Perkins. Food: Perkins Perkins was NOT crowded at all, in spite of what the in-park food options were looking like. The food was a bit slow to reach us, and our room became ready mid-wait so my sister and one friend left to go pack up our stuff. They returned, and then the food came. And it was delicious- I ordered a Chicken Tenders Melt Sandwich and Tortilla Soup, and both were amazing. Hot, fresh, and they tasted great. I also had a bit of my sister's salad, she got full, it was also amazing. Worth the wait. (Which was probably due to our food being freshly made, which is a plus) Rating: A After Perkins, we checked out our room, and got settled in. Then we headed back into the park, and went to the Millennium Midway for some more big coasters. Ride #8: Rougarou Wait: 10 Minutes I feel this coaster is over-hated. Sure, it does have a little bit of head-banging, but I didn't think it was too much (Invertigo is worse) and Rougarou has a great layout with some nice, intense elements. The first half focuses on large inversions, and feels somewhat similar to Banshee to be honest. After the MCBR though, it turns into a snappy, twisty mess (in a good way). I love me some Rougarou. My sister rode this with me, and she liked it as well, though she got head banged a little more than I did because she is small. Nothing too bad, she would re-ride it she said and felt it was a million times better as Rougarou than it was as Mantis. Also, the ride crew here was doing a epic job- hence part of the reason the wait was super short. Rating: A After this (because this was a few days ago now), my memory gets a bit fuzzy. I broke off from the group, because they wanted to go do something, but I don't remember if it was because they went to the Hotel, to get food, or to do Iron Dragon, etc. Also around this point, before we split up, we saw Valravn was doing test runs, checked it out, but it didn't open fast enough so we left. At some point after the split, Valravn re-opened. I did not go to it just yet, however. Instead, I solo rode... Ride #9: Millennium Force Wait: 45 Minutes Millie dropped from a 90 minute wait down to 45 seemingly as soon as Valravn opened. These 2 rides seem to be the GP's favorites, so I guess when Valravn opened up, it really helped Millie out with the crowds. The ride crew here was also doing a epic job of getting trains out, so the line moved fast. The sheer size of the first drop on this coaster is immense and still thrills me with its size alone, even after a few rides on the coaster. I got very nice borderline ejector air on the drop, as I was riding in the back of the car. However, the airtime on the 2 big hills, while decently strong, was not as good as I remembered it being from my 2017 rides. I think the high winds may be to blame, they were coming from that direction and may have slowed the train down just a bit. In spite of this, still a very darn good ride though. Rating: A After Millennium Force, I eventually met up with my sister and our friends again, and we went out to get dinner. We found a Little Caesar's nearby, so we got some cheap and decent pizza and took it back to Cedar Point and our hotel. We also went to Kroger, and they got some wine,I as they do drink (they did not too much though and we didn't use the wine until a few days in). Then we returned to the park, and it was dark out. We headed for Frontier Town, wanting a night ride on Maverick. It was down for mechanical issues. D'oh! So, we sucked it up, and decided to wait for... Ride #10: Steel Vengeance (DA DA DUM!!!) Wait: 90 Minutes Ehh, 90 minutes? Not too bad for a stupid popular coaster at night only running 1 train. However, after the wait was up, we boarded Chess, and got to ride 2018's hottest new coaster, one of the most hyped up rides in years, at least since Millennium Force was new in 2000. Did Steel Vengeance live up to said hype? It obliterated the hype! Steel Vengeance is crazy, in all the right ways. There was ejector air on the baby hills before the lift! And on every single hill afterwards- all of it was Magnum XL-200 level to boot! The inversions were awesome, it had some nice laterals in spots, and it felt freakishly fast but the airtime is the clear star of Steel Vengeance. From start to finish, this was a super intense, super thrilling, and super fun coaster. The final sections of the ride, where it goes under the structure and you feel like your head is gonna be chopped off while you get still more ejector air, and then the 4 bunny hops were insane. My favorite element? Probably the outward banked ejector hill. But the whole ride is incredible. Very smooth too, even though you still get tossed around a bit due to the very aggressive nature of the ride. The trains are pretty comfortable even though the restraints are a bit tight, but they are tight for obvious reasons of course. Steel Vengeance is my new favorite roller coaster, knocking Maverick off its perch. The Outlaws have succeeded. Now, I hope they can get all 3 trains running, because more people should be able to ride this monster without these huge wait times! Rating: S+!!! After that, it was around 11PM and the park was closed, so we headed back to Hotel to sleep and get ready for Day 2. That will come in the next post so this is not super insanely long. Comments and questions about Day 1 are already welcome though. I hope you enjoyed this part of the trip report, because there is a LOT more to come!

^ Today did look like it was super dead (via webcams, Diamondback was a walk-on all day). I agree 100% in feeling bad for anyone who wasted money buying Fast Lane, unless they bought the $500 all-season Fast Lane, in which case they will have more chances to get their money's worth out of it, especially if they plan to visit on days like Saturdays in Late June-Early August and on Haunt Saturdays (in which case, if you were planning to visit multiple times on those kind of days, the $500 FLP is easily worth it).

I also would think this would be a direct response to Kentucky Kingdom's $39.99 deal for Indiana residents. Apparently, KK has been having success with that, so now Kings Island is doing this to counter it, or at least attract more guests from the Indianapolis region. If this theory is true, then this pretty much is confirmation that Cedar Fair is taking Kentucky Kingdom at least somewhat seriously (minimum). I also wonder what Holiday World, the 3rd park in this general region, will do now since both their competitors have special deals like this in place, since they technically are actually in Indiana. Offer discount tickets to people from Louisville or Cincinnati? Their drinks are already free, In any case: IMO, this is great news for us, the consumers. Competition is good because it breeds stuff like this, and makes the parks competing add new rides and attractions more often, and forces them to listen more to guest feedback. If we only had 1 major park in the region, it would probably go stale fast, because there would be no real reason to improve.

(Looks at list) Wait...most of these make sense, but HOW THE HECK IS Vortex A HOUR? With all switchbacks filled and the line stretched all the way out to Juke Box Diner, which is the longest I have ever seen the line for that ride and that was on a day when most of the "big" rides were 2+ hours (Haunt Saturday), I waited 25-30 minutes. A 1 hour wait for Vortex would mean the line is likely stretching all the way down to Racer's entrance, or something was screwed up and they for some reason went down to 1 train operation (2 trains would still easily handle most crowds). Then again this is the KI app, and I have seen it be horribly wrong before. It once said a 15-minute wait for Banshee, and when we went to the ride, it was a hour.

Add me to the list of "Valravn Lubbers". I was actually not expecting much from it, but I rode it in the front row, and was shocked at how good it actually was. The first drop was pretty epic, and I actually got airtime on it which surprised me since I didn't think you'd get any going straight down. Then came the big immelman loop, which had a nice amount of g-forces. The 2nd 90-degree drop was similar to the first but smaller, and the airtime hill at the end of the ride actually gave a decent amount of airtime, which surprised me given the model of coaster I was riding was not exactly meant for airtime. Valravn is actually my current favorite B&M right now, though I have only been on 6 coasters the company has made (Valravn, Banshee, GateKeeper, Raptor, Diamondback, and Rougarou). Granted, that could change if the appeal of the dives and stuff wears off with re-rides (which, if all goes according to plan, will probably happen here in about a week or so as I plan to get back to CP for a weekend visit). Also if this is one of the weaker B&M Dive Coasters, then I have to ride SheiKra and Griffon, because they are probably amazing then.

^^ Ahh, good old Greensburg. On my first trip to Kings Island as older teen/young adult in 2009, we actually took a moment to drive through and saw the crazy tree busting out of the side of one of the buildings. Also I fully understand why you'd skip the highways depending when you are coming to the park: when we came to the park on passholder preview night (It was the trip I did not even know I was gonna be making), I-275 was pretty backed up, so our friend who was driving took the back roads instead. We ended up driving through the housing complexes by the park, which was pretty cool. We also drove through Mason once, for Banshee opening day, because we took the wrong exit (I think we got off on I-75 instead of I-71) which was very pretty, but then we ran into the huge line and we got into a minor auto accident when someone tried to line jump us in their blue Ford SUV, and smacked into our rental GMC SUV (it was very similar to a Cadillac Escalade) and then ran off. They got caught though, and the rental insurance covered it because it was their fault.

Well, I was browsing the site, and saw some people talking about this, Sixodieselrage asked for something like it...figured I would make it. Seems like a interesting poll: how far do you live from Kings Island, and how do you usually get to the park from your "home base"? I live about 130 miles (2 hour car ride) away, in central Indiana, very close to Indianapolis. (For personal privacy and such I won't go too much into detail past that) We go to I-74 using some back roads (or, go to I-465 and then go to I-74) and follow that all the way down to I-275 in Ohio. Then we go to I-71 and take that north, until we reach Kings Island drive. Really not too complicated a trip, easy to remember. Due to this being our route, I am used to approaching KI from the South. I still get excited whenever I see the park come into view from behind that big warehouse building- according to Google Maps it is called Festo Corp or something. Enjoy the poll/discussion.