jcgoble3

As pointed out by KIfan1980 in this post, a search of the Warren County Auditor's website produces this note hidden in the "Memos" page of Kings Island's file: "SEE ALSO RTG 16C-2-3 FOR 'WAVE POOL'." The rest of the memos page mentions recent changes to the park, but I know of no changes that were made to the wave pool, so one can only wonder if this is a sign of Boomerang Bay improvements for 2012.

This past Thursday, in five minutes I counted at least seven women who changed into their swimsuits in the dry park (I hope in a restroom), locked their stuff, including their street clothes, in one of the $2 single-use lockers next to White Water Canyon, and headed for the train with the stated intent of heading to the waterpark. Now, I understand that $10 is a bit overpriced for a locker, but that's still not allowed. I looked around for an employee, but didn't see one, so I just ignored it. I never saw whether they were allowed on the train or not, as I headed back into the woods to ride WWC. I would have complained to GR out my way out for dinner, but I forgot about it until I saw this thread.

See this thread: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23856 Essentially, the Ruyang Yellow River dinosaur, which was supposed to be the world's largest animatronic dinosaur, caught fire a couple of days before the exhibit opened and had to be removed. I believe I was told that they expect to get the replacement in August.

http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/fun/webcams/index.cfm Looking at the WindSeeker weather cam, Coney Mall looks like a ghost town. Interesting, because I would have thought that they would be packed to the gills today with it being a holiday weekend.

I never went to Raptor during ERT, so I have no clue there, but Maverick and MF were roughly 20 minutes when I was there. You're visiting at the peak of vacation season, though, so you may get longer lines. At KI, ERT is on WindSeeker and Vortex, unless WindSeeker is down, in which case it's replaced with something else nearby ( which is at least sometimes Backlot Stunt Coaster).

^OK, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the clarification.

I can't help you with Kings Dominion or Carowinds, as I've never been to either of them. I've also never been to KI or CP on a Sunday, but I've heard that Sundays are typically not too busy (don't quote me on that, though). With that in mind, a few tips regarding lines (and other things): Kings Island: —On Saturday night, stick to smaller rides; the big rides will have long lines on Saturdays. KI is open until midnight that night, so the crowds may thin out a bit later in the night as families with kids head home for a reasonable bedtime, but I could be wrong on that. —Sunday morning, I recommend hitting Firehawk right at 10 am, as it typically has close to or over a one-hour wait most of the day. While in X-Base, hit Flight of Fear also, followed by Backlot Stunt Coaster, as both of them can also have relatively long lines at times. —Vortex's line is usually shorter than it appears to be, so don't be deceived by it; a line that is all the way out to the end of the black fence is only 15–30 minutes, if that, depending on whether the switchbacks in the station are open. —Diamondback and The Beast are two of the highest capacity rides in the park, so while they may have long lines, those lines will move relatively fast. If the Diamondback line is really long, take advantage of the single rider line if it's open, as you can sometimes cut your wait by more than half by doing so. —Don't trust the wait time signs; sometimes guests will mess with the signs, so always walk into the queue and look at the line for yourself before rejecting the wait as too long. In particular, I've lost count of how many times I've seen The Beast's sign say 90 minutes when it was really only 15 or so. Even if there is an employee at the entrance (e.g. Firehawk, Diamondback), the sign may still be wrong if it hasn't been updated in a while. Cedar Point: —First, let me say that on my only trip to CP (five days last week), the weather forecasts were so crappy that I had plenty of ridiculously short waits. You probably won't be so lucky, especially since you're hitting CP at the peak of vacation season, so I have very little advice I can offer from my own experience. I can, however, repeat some things that others here have said. That said, here goes: —Again, lines will be long on Saturday night, so stick to smaller rides and plan on hitting the big rides on Sunday. CP is open until 11pm that night. —For Sunday morning ERT, make sure you're at the gate by about 8:45. They will begin scanning passes and tickets at about that time so you can line up just inside the gate. When the national anthem ends, race for the ride of your choice. Several people on here have said to hit Maverick and Millennium Force during ERT, then line up for TTD. Enter through the resort gate if you want to hit Maverick first or the marina gate to hit MF first. After hitting those two, go line up for TTD. TTD may start running early if they finish up morning test runs early, so you might not have to wait until 10:00 to be let in. Take advantage of this relatively short wait to get a front row ride; even if this costs you an extra 20 minutes now, it would cost you an extra 30–45 minutes later in the day in addition to a full-length wait that may be over an hour to begin with. —Because Raptor is close to the main gate, it will have long lines right after opening, but should have a much shorter line later in the evening. —Be aware that not all rides are open 10 to 10; several of the smaller rides don't open until 11:00; Iron Dragon, WildCat, Dodgem, and the train will close early for the American Portrait show, and Snake River Falls and Thunder Canyon (I believe) are only open noon to 9:00. —If you choose to hit the water rides, be aware that Cedar Point does not require shirts or shoes on the water rides. The section of the midway running from Skyhawk down to Shoot the Rapids is informally designated as the "water zone"; within that area, shirts/shoes are not required, so you can store them in an overpriced locker and walk from one to the next, hitting all three. I strongly recommend at least taking your shirt off, especially on Thunder Canyon, as that ride, unlike KI's White Water Canyon, (spoiler; highlight to read) has multiple waterfalls that are practically guaranteed to thoroughly and totally drench you from head to toe. —This topic and this topic have plenty of tips for Cedar Point. —Again, don't trust the wait time signs for the same reason as at KI. In five days at CP last week, I personally witnessed somebody messing with the signs three times. Everything in this post is true to the best of my knowledge, but I'm only human. If I got anything wrong, I'm sure others can and will correct it. Have fun!

Nice report. And I thought I had some short waits the week of the 20th! Wow! My shortest wait for TTD (excluding the nighttime ERT session on the 23rd) was 20 minutes. (Which reminds me: I need to make time to finish composing my own CP trip report.)

Sounds like you had a good day. Sometimes spontaneous trips like that are the best; I rarely plan a trip to KI more than two days in advance (Opening Day this year being a notable exception). Tip on Firehawk: Go there first thing in the morning, and by that I mean run straight to it when the ropes drop. This is where it helps to have a Gold or Platinum Pass; I was there that day yesterday also and was able to line up at the rope in Coney Mall and make the very short run to Firehawk when the security guard took the rope down, and I ended up on the first train of the day. Without a Gold/Platinum Pass, you'll have a longer run from the front of the park, but I would think that you should still be able to get a reasonable wait time.

Nice photos! I love the look on her face here. Glad to see you captured it for posterity; hopefully she'll be able to laugh at that when she gets older.

Once at Cedar Point and twice at KI. At KI, I had one daytime ride where I learned just how much space The Beast takes up (did you know that if you look down behind the Blue Racer turnaround, you can see The Beast's brake shed?) and one nighttime ride where I was one cycle too late to watch the fireworks from the top of the ride.

Stubborn? I agree wholeheartedly that Diamondback and The Beast are a good choice for ERT, and I think most of us were taken aback when WindSeeker and Vortex were announced. But logically, there are so many reasons for it that have nothing to do with the park wanting to ruin your experience. WindSeeker, as has been said, is the new ride. It has a huge capacity, and is the park's new draw. Based on advertising alone, wouldn't you expect that the "big new ride" for any given year be the one that's attached to Gold Pass marketing as an early-availability ride? Or would you have them say, "New for 2011, WindSeeker! But you'll have to wait until everyone else can ride it before you get the chance." From a marketing point of view it's smart. Given that, WindSeeker will be the ERT ride this year. From a payroll / staffing point of view, it's obvious. Even if my understanding of the zones is flawed, it still remains that the park would need twice as much staffing to open two pathways to two rides in two corners of the park. If you've used the ERT as you say, you know that there are security guards at each bend in the path where curious guests may "accidentally" wander off. If that was needed in two separate directions, and two areas of the park had to be cleared by maintenance, and two separate zones had to be staffed, then you've created a logistical, payroll nightmare. The logical decision is to open another ride that is in the same vicinity. And given WindSeeker's location, the only options are Backlot, Shake Rattle and Roll, or Vortex. From a capacity standpoint alone, Vortex is obvious. From an "impressive size" standpoint, Vortex is the only real candidate as well. Believe it or not, Kings Island is not trying to take away your precious time on Diamondback and The Beast. Rather, they're trying to offer their newest, most marketed thrill ride to their most marketed pass clientele. With WindSeeker chosen, Vortex is the only sensical companion. The thing I don't get is... Diamondback and The Beast top out at a 15 minute wait on weekdays anyway... So why is this even an issue? It's pretty much ERT all day, every day considering the tremendous capacities of each ride. Those of us used to Cedar Point would kill for a 45 minute wait on Millennium or Maverick, so perhaps you don't know how good you have it? Secondly, you note that you've been to ERT eight times this year. Given that your pass paid for itself after two trips and that you've had at least six gratis, I don't know that complaints about an additional hour are justified. Especially since you seem unexcited by the notion of ERT on Vortex and WindSeeker so... Why wake up so early to go? Where's the like button for this post? Nicely said. I, for one, am not complaining about ERT; sure, given the choice, I'd rather have DB and The Beast, but I understand the park has a reason for doing what it did, and far be it from me to try to take them to the village stocks over it. That said, in reference to the part of your post I put in bold red, apparently I still don't know how good I have it even after five days at CP last week; not including ERT, breakdowns, or weather stoppages, my longest waits of the week were slightly under an hour for front seat on Millennium Force, 15–25 minutes for any other seat on MF, 15 minutes for front seat on Raptor, 30 minutes for front seat on Maverick, 70 minutes for front seat on TTD, and 20–30 minutes for any other seat on TTD. Crappy weather forecasts can do that. (Side note to self: I need to get to work on my trip report.) Hey! Watch your language! 24-year-old jcgoble3, who loves BLSC

My guess is so that people walking by know that she is authorized to 1) be standing in the (not-so-)lazy river without a tube (which is prohibited for guests) and 2) have a camera out taking pictures on a ride (also prohibited for guests).

The link no longer works. It had an extra "http://" in front of it. Here's the corrected link: http://www.wfpl.org/2011/06/21/workman-says-deal-close-to-reopen-kentucky-kingdom/

CP's photographers are from Kaman's also. While in CP's Soak City Wednesday afternoon, I was floating around Renegade River, and near the end of the river, a woman in a bright yellow shirt that said "WATERPARK PHOTOGRAPHER" was wading through the river with what I assume was a waterproof camera. I had nothing better to do since the current was moving me along rather slowly, so I smiled and let her take my photo. She then gave me a waterproof wristband with a number that also said I could view my photo at www.kamansart.com (which I intend to do, but haven't yet). She wasn't aggressive at all, but rather very friendly and polite. I think this type of thing is what the KI paparazzi needs to do. Put a photographer in the lazy river or in the wavepool or at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Then see how many people let them take their photo and how many people buy photos. I'd be willing to bet that their photo count and sales figures would go up significantly.

Nice report, but I can't help but wonder why in the world Josie wanted a photo with a trash can... Maybe she's turning into an environmentalist and is subtly telling people to use trash cans instead of littering?

For WindSeeker, weather=wind, I think. ha arent we supposed to "seek" wind? Correct: WindSeeker cannot operate in high winds. I found that out at CP this past week; WS was down most of the week due to the winds (though I did get to ride it Monday). One guy I was talking to commented that if it couldn't operate in high winds, then it should be called "BreezeSeeker" instead of WindSeeker.

Reviving the discussion about playlists, Cedar Point posted on Facebook yesterday that "WindSeeker has a playlist of 18 different songs including theme songs from E.T., Harry Potter and Star Trek". That's nice in that you won't hear the same songs over and over every time you ride it. I hope we get just as much variety at KI.

I can second that. I wore cargo shorts to the park one day in May and ran through all of the water rides about 2:00. The shorts were still wet the next day. I prefer athletic shorts if I plan on riding water rides.

If you plan on wearing sandals to the park, make sure they are really broken in. By "really broken in", I mean that the sole should have essentially formed to your feet. On a good broken-in pair of sandals, you should be able to, after they have been sitting overnight, run your hand across the sole and feel depressions in it where it has formed to your feet. These depressions should be especially noticeable at your heels, the balls of your feet, and possibly your big toes as well. Once sandals have formed to to your feet, they can actually be quite comfortable even for walking around for a whole day, but until then, they can be a royal pain in the ass foot.

That looks awesome. I'd love to ride it too. I have never puked on any ride, but seeing as how that ride is seven (!) minutes long, that just might do it to me.

I can confirm that the preferred lot is staffed until at least 6:30 (or at least it was on Tuesday). Each time I re-entered the parking lot (once after lunch at about 1:00, once after dinner at about 6:30), there was a security guard at the entrance to check my receipt. And yes, the preferred lot is staffed by security, not admissions.

I'll take page 32. jcgoble3, who still occasionally enjoys a Choose Your Own Adventure book (and whose New Year's resolution was to never eat inside KI again)

Seconded. I ate lunch at Plymouth Rock on Saturday just after noon and was so stuffed that by 8:00 when I headed for the buffet, I still wasn't very hungry and was only able to eat about half a plate of veggies. The food there is also the best food I've ever gotten in an amusement park. My only complaint about it was the size of the "adult portion" of the main dish (a single piece of ham, really?), though the size of the portions of the side dishes I got almost made up for it.

Were they broken, or were you just trying to operate them too fast? You can only operate one "system" at a time. Once you press a button, you have to wait until a couple of seconds after the light on that button goes out before any of the other buttons will work.