gabelogan99

(This is an extremely long and wordy report. You have been warned. There are also no pictures. There were far more talented photographers there for RWW than myself, with far better equipment than my 2 megapixel camera phone.) Now that I have finally caught up on my sleep and have a pretty clear head, I'm ready to report on my adventures. I'm remembering all of this to the best of my ability but the advantage is that everything that I did on Saturday and Sunday was centered around the Ride Warriors activities, so I have the schedule handy as a little bit of a cheat sheet. My adventure actually started on Friday night. Friday, May 8 I live two hours away from Kings Island. As I've said a couple times here before, I have what I call a "halfway" point where I usually stay on nights before and after Kings Island--my grandparents own a house on Lake Shawnee in Jamestown and so does my aunt. This is roughly fifteen miles from Prime Outlets in Jeffersonville if any of you know where that is. However, I did not want to stay there this time because it takes nearly an hour to get to Kings Island from there and I just wanted to take driving out of the entire equation to make my trip as relaxing as possible. Although I originally made my reservation for the Kings Island Resort, I switched my plans and stayed at the Super 8 instead and saved $140 doing that. My brother had stayed there the week before and said that it was very decent for the price, so I made the switch a few days before the big day. (A review of my hotel stay will be posted later, but I will say that I have stayed at the KI Resort before and the Super 8 really wasn't all that different.) I left Jamestown a little after 5 on Friday evening and got to the hotel a little after 6. It was raining very hard when I first arrived at the hotel so I just turned on the TV for about an hour and it didn't exactly clear up, but it at least stopped raining and so I headed to the park. As you can imagine, and as some of you know because you were there, the rained cleared a great number of people out of the park. I headed for Diamondback and held my breath. On Opening Day I had every intention of riding Diamondback. I got there with my family for the ERT that Saturday and had my concerns over whether or not I'd be able to fit on the ride. I tried the test seat and I failed. So, for the next three weeks I did a little exercise and employed some dieting techniques, including some crash dieting, and I lost about ten pounds. I figured that would be enough because it was so close to clicking three times on opening day but it just wouldn't do it. The other thing that was different on Friday was that I was wearing lighter clothes--short and a t-shirt. So, on this night, Friday May 8 2009, I sat in the test seat and passed and I used the Single Riders Line and waited roughly ten minutes for my first ever ride on Diamondback. Needless to say, it was worth all of the work I did to lose those few pounds. I required some extra assistance by one of the ride ops, but at least I got to ride. After Diamondback I went to The Beast for a second row ride. (This is my favorite row to ride in.) Then I went to Vortex and while on Vortex it started to sprinkle. I figured I had better head back to the hotel before it started to rain any harder so I did but it never started pouring again that night. Friday was over. I got maybe two hours of sleep that night. Saturday, May After a virtually sleepless night, I got up and showered and went to the park and got there at about 6:15 for check-in. I got three or four rides in on The Beast during the ERT that morning. One of the front seat cars went down in train 3 so they took that train off, and that took about ten extra minutes. At the time, I was waiting for the front seat so that took some extra time too. 8:00 rolled around and I went over to Backlot and got two rides in, one in the very front row. I had never rode the front row of Backlot before so that was nice. Then after that I went over to Vortex and rode that 3-4 times. What almost everyone did at a certain point was gather around near The Crypt and wait to be taken over to Diamondback--which as I understand did actually end up happening. I didn't know that it was an option to get in Diamondback's normal ERT, and I didn't really care anyways. After my rides on Vortex I waited at the point where security was cutting everyone off near Juke Box Diner and then I headed through Coney Mall into X-Base for one of the first rides on Firehawk. By this time, of course, it's 10:00. So I rode Firehawk and rode it early which ended up being a smart thing to do, and then I walked on to Flight of Fear after that. I don't believe I rode anything after Flight of Fear, I headed back over to The Beast eventually for behind the scenes tour. Since so much of The Beast and its supports are hidden, this was really a great time to get some unique views that I had never seen before. Now, I have to admit, I'm having a little trouble remember what I did after that. What the heck did I do between around 11:30 and the next Ride Warriors event at 6? Well, here's what I most certainly did do: right after The Beast tour, I went out to the car for lunch. I had three six-inch turkey subs from Subway to have at various points of the weekend and I ate one of them at this point and then I headed back into the park into Action Zone. I went to Flight Deck, which had a bit more of a line than I was expecting. But, I waited for the front seat which is the only seat I ever sit on when riding Flight Deck. I knew Son of Beast's line was at least 45 minutes so I opted out of that. Drop Tower and Delerium were both down at the time due to high winds, so that is why everyone was flocking to the coasters in AZ. I decided to save everything else in AZ for either later in the day or Sunday morning. I believe that I actually went to The Racer after leaving AZ. I wanted to ride it because I had not ridden it in a really long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I had not ridden it since they turned the Red Racer forwards, so I rode Red Racer. I was also curious to see if I could still fit in it and I did and got two clicks out of it, so that was good. After that I believe I went into the arcade for a while, but I didn't really win a lot of tickets. At 3:00 I headed to the picnic grove the Backyard BBQ. No complaints about the Backyard BBQ--it was good as usual and for $9.99 it was a great deal. The only thing about it was that it was a little windy and cups and plates were blowing all over the place. I got a drum stick (ice cream) and that made me thirsty so I got some water and while I was doing that I was motioned over by a fellow KIC member, who turned out to be none other than Avatar and he was with ZosoBeast. (There was also another guy there whose name I don't remember. Then another KIC member, who is actually more of a lurker joined us.) We sat there until 4:30 and then we all as a group headed to Adventure Express to check out the line, which was long, so we instead went to Red Racer and rode that. After that we went to AE again, which had a shorter line, and rode that. None of the guys in the last tunnel were working. After AE, we went to the KI Theater for the guest speakers at 6. I got some pretty good insights and obviously my favorite speaker was the guy who supervised the building of The Beast. (Not good with names.) The entire session lasted longer than I expected, and it there wasn't too much time to do much of anything before The Beast's party in the picnic grove. I separated from the others for a bit and walked into Coney Mall and sat down and just took in the environment for a bit, and then I headed to the party. I have to say that they really put on a nice little party for The Beast. The cake was delicious and the special cake that had The Beast on it looked great. I also got some pretzels and some Coke in my nice little complimentary free cup that they were giving out, so that was a nice little souvenir. It was around this time, about the time that they started calling names for the raffle drawings that I encountered my first problem, and my first challenge, for the weekend. It was starting to get cold. I knew there was no way I was going to ride Diamondback in the shorts and the KIC t-shirt I was wearing at the time and it was ten after 9. So the challenge was to get from the picnic grove to the hotel and back near The Crypt's entrance for the Diamondback ERT in less than an hour. I did it--and I did it with even a little time to spare without ever once actually running. In retrospect, I obviously should have just brought my jeans and pullover with me that morning, but I didn't think about it. The thing that saved me a lot of time is that I paid for prefered parking that morning, so I didn't have a lot of walking to do in order to get to my car and didn't have hardly any walking to do when I got back either. Shortly after I arrived where I needed to be, the fireworks started. It was really neat seeing them from this location, as I never have seen them from there before. (Facing Beast's entrance plaza) Soon after the fireworks, we were walked over to Diamondback where I got in two "regular" rides and then it hit me that I had better get in a ride on the front since I might never get the chance to do that again. So I did--and the front of Diamondback at night was amazing. I knew I couldn't top that. I had my on-ride-photo for that ride e-mailed to me. That was another very nice service that they provided to us Ride Warriors--I liked that a lot. So, after a total of three rides on Diamondback I was ready to go back to the hotel. I slept fairly well that night. Sunday, May 10 Festivities didn't start until 8 this morning, and so I liked getting up at 7 a lot better than getting up at 6. I knew there wasn't really any rush to get over there today because check-in wouldn't take as long as Saturday and I figured there wouldn't be as many people there and I was right. Once we were let in I headed over to Firehawk, as did most everyone else. I mentioned that it was a good thing I rode Firehaw on Saturday because Firehawk wasn't just down for the Ride Warriors' ERT, it was apparently down all day. I went to Flight of Fear instead and rode in the very back seat for my first ever lights on ride on that. Then I went to The Racer and that's where it got interesting for me. At first I rode Red Racer and I rode it in the very front. After that I got off and rode Blue Racer close to the middle/back. I marathoned Red Racer and I knew that if I kept riding it I would eventually lose count, and I did. However, I know it was either 14 or 15 times. The thing I loved about it was that The Racers were actually racing. I saw some of the other people on the blue train ride after ride as well. I chose to bow out after that marathon--my body wasn't really feeling it but my head was starting to swim a little bit. After that I walked over to Vortex. Vortex was dead also--by that time most of the Ride Warriors there were opting to take part in the normal 9:30 ERT on Diamondback, which was officially announced that we could do today if we wanted. Anyways, I walked onto Vortex and got in the front seat. I was the only one on the train that time. When I pulled back into the station there was still nobody there and they asked me if I wanted to go again. I said "sure." So I did it again. By this time my head was starting to swim even more. When I got back into the station the second time, the guy asked me how the ride was and I said "great." My next words were "I'm done." So I took it easy for a while and sat down near Outer Hanks where security was once again blocking us all off so we couldn't go into Action Zone until 10. Since I missed out on most of the Action Zone rides yesterday, I rode Delerium first and then went on Son of Beast and Invertigo. After that I headed to The Racer tour. This was the shortest of the tours but I still liked it--I had never been in that area before. I noticed some haunt props which included the ambulence, as already mentioned, and two caskets. I wondered if the caskets in particular were confusing to anyone who didn't know why they were there. After The Racer tour, I needed a break. I was operating under very little sleep and had just got in about 20 total rides on everything combined. Plus, I was starving at that point. So I walked down International Street and walked out to my car. Something funny happened--I was in prefered parking and on that day I was in the very first spot of the very first row. When I left, there were two guys who couldn't believe I was leaving that spot. So I went back to Burger King first and then went to my hotel room and ate my lunch and then took a short nap. I headed back over to the park a little after 2 and got to the CornStalkers area in time for the Son of Beast tour at 3 and I stopped at the ice cream place in AZ to get a complimentary Fanta before heading over there. This was a great tour also. You never realize just how much wood it takes to support that ride until you see it from that angle. This was the longest of the tours, but that was in part due to the fact that it was a pretty long walk back. Soon after that tour was over, I went to Flight Deck which had a pretty long line as it did yesterday. After that I got a soft pretzel and a Coke from the ice cream place in AZ. Then I walked to Diamondback and briefly spoke with my brother who was there with his girlfriend. Then I once again headed back to the hotel for a little rest. I left the hotel at a little after 7, giving myself time for one ride on something else before going to the Diamondback ERT. I chose Adventure Express. Then I headed into Rivertown. I was looking for a place that was still serving drinks because I wanted another Coke in order to wake up a little bit. The only place still serving was Potato Works. So I got my last Coke of the trip and headed over to Diamondback for one final ride before leaving and going back to my hotel one final time. Needless to say, I slept great Sunday night and I left the hotel Monday morning. This was one of the most incredible experiences that I have ever been a part of. The weather was absolutely amazing, which made it that much better. Don and the folks at Kings Island deserve major props for putting this thing together and it was well worth the wait. Everyone I met from KIC was great also. I know I didn't call out a lot of names except for the two guys I actually did spend some time with, but it was really great to meet those of you who I did meet and I plan on wearing one of my "777" KIC shirts every day that I go to the park this year. I didn't get to talk or spend time with as many of you as I would have liked, but I know there will be more opprotunities for that sort of thing later on. I also feel a little bad that I didn't make it much of a point to come and introduce myself to some of you who I already knew who you were but you might not have necessarily known who I was, I focused more on the people who I wasn't sure who they were. It was great seeing everyone though, and I look forward to more events with you all. This was my first ever event of this type anywhere, and it was an absolute blast--it certainly won't be my last. Thank you to everyone who made this event so remarkable and I will see you all next year.

This is one of the most horrible excuses for a commercial that I've ever seen. I first saw it a couple of nights ago while watching late night TV and so I had hoped that the commercial was more of a reject commercial that they were only going to show at like 1:00 in the morning. Then last night I saw it during prime time. The reason why it is so horrible is because it just doesn't make any sense. Nevermind that there are a couple of rides in there that aren't even at the park, it only spends about two whole seconds advertising Diamondback--the ride that really matters in a commercial right now. In fact, the first time I saw the commercial, I completely missed the part about Diamondback and thought that it may have been left out altogether. The second time I saw it, it was pretty clear why I missed it the first time--it just didn't last very long. However, the fact that Diamondback only makes a two second appearance is only a secondary problem. The thing that got me was the phrase "Come and smell the funnel cakes" and the reason why I hated it so much is because it was said in a way that seemed like this was going to be a new catch phrase for the park. Maybe someone can enlighten me to another reason why this could have been said. Maybe it's a Cedar Fair thing. Could it really have just been thrown in there at random for the first time in this commercial? I mean, I won't list the reasons quite yet of why I think it is stupid, at least not until someone can offer up a reasonable and rational explaination of why funnel cakes are an important part of Kings Island or Cedar Fair or anything for that matter. It has to be a reason other than the fact that Kings Island does indeed serve funnel cakes.

Actually, not true. You DO have to be a member, but you DON"T have to be a Gold/Platinum Pass holder. You would, however, then have to buy an admission ticket for one easy payment of $47.99 + tax not included. Also, someone will buy one of the addmission tickets thinking that is enough to attend the RWW events, then find out they have to be a member of an approved organization. Right, sorry if that was confusing. I was talking about how to get in without paying any admission price and my point was that there will be people there with Gold Passes expecting to get in for free without being a member of an approved organization. Fixed.

The normal Diamondback/Beast ERT that takes place every Saturday has nothing to do with Ride Warriors Weekend and won't interfere with it. If you paid for your guest's ticket to RWW, then they can stay with you the whole time and never have to leave the park just because they don't have a Gold Pass. You will not be able to get in on the normal ERT for Diamondback Saturday morning if you are participating in the ERTs going on for RWW.

The only thing I've ever counted on from the park is consistent inconsistency. It doesn't do any good to tell people to call the park if different people are being told different things. (Typically, the left hand is clueless as to what the right hand is doing.) But, again, this should be expected by now. And I do agree that the park has not been crystal clear on whether or not you must be a member of a club or enthusiast group, even though it's clear to me becuase I can decipher the message, as can most of you. It's guranteed that there will be some Gold Pass people there thinking they can get in without being a member of some club or organization, the question is how many. (For instance, another way that some people will read the page is that you either have to have a Gold Pass to get in for free or you have to be a member of a club or organization. Just so I'm not adding to the confusion, for those of you who don't know, you have to be a member and have a Gold/Platinum Pass in order to get in for free. This has been repeated again and again. And again.) And I will say this about the e-mails: if they're not going to send them out as planned, then that means they have no easy way of doing that. In other words, they didn't set it up to easily be able to do it. Again, if that is truly the case, add that to the list of design flaws with the registration page. I'm hoping that is not the case, though. As far as whether to be worried about it or not, I'm not. I figure if there's a problem with my registration, there's going to be a problem with many others. Hopefully they get all of the bugs worked out before the day of. In spite of a lot of what I just said, I actually think they will. The most important thing for KICers will be to print of their profile page.

Last season I was able to purchase Backyard BBQ tickets the same day at the park at the return visitor booth near the Kings Island Theatre. That may have changed. Yeah, and as far as I know you can still do that. The only reason I'd say to get them online is because it saves time and by the time you want to go to the park and buy tickets, they may be sold out for that day.

So there are going to a total of six rides that open early, spread across Saturday and Sunday. Five out of those six are open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The only one not open from 8 to 10 is The Beast on Saturday, which closes an hour early at 9 a.m. for the normal Gold Pass ERT that will take place every Saturday. They're making up for this by opening it an hour earlier than all the others, at 7 a.m. on Saturday. I'm simply re-stating what is already stated in the official schdule. Basically, the only reason The Beast's ERT is different is because of the Gold Pass ERT that happens every Saturday...in case you were wondering.

It's all season long and runs from 3:00-4:30 every day. You have to get your tickets online beforehand if you want to go.

You know what the weird thing is? I started writing something very similar--not for the t-shirt design contest but just for the fun of it. It's basically a parody of the song "We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel, only I changed all of the things to Kings Island related things. Perhaps I gave you the idea subliminally when we met on opening day...several days before either one of us even knew about the t-shirt contest. By the way I do plan on posting the song when it's completed. I've hit a bit of a snag becuase I'm just plain running out of references. (I think I'll study your design for some ideas.) From the original song, I haven't written anything past "Belgians in the Congo."

I'm happy with the change as well. Typically anything with bones in it I usually don't eat. That being said, I did try a piece of fried chicken last year at the Backyard BBQ and I thought it was actually very good--I think I just picked out the right piece. Still, not quite as good as chicken tenders in my book. I used to eat chicken tenders at Oscars all the time and I loved them.

I suppose those details will be released in the alleged e-mail we're all supposed to be getting in the next few days.

Ok, will do. It's not a problem. And I guess I kind of take back what I said about not being able to find a member if all they give is their number. You can do it by using this link: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showuser= (member number) And I did find the post where Dane said to put your member number in the box as opposed to your user name. He then went on to say that you don't need to put in either one as long as you put KICentral somewhere, whatever that means. (Although one would have to imagine that they would prefer at least something in that little box.)

See, to me I actually think it would make more sense to put the user name in the box because if someone's searching on here to make sure you're a member they can't do it by your member number I don't believe--they have to search by your user name.

Wow this is ridiculous. Do you know how many people are going to have to re-register if you have to put in your user name instead of your member number? Afterall...it asks for a number!!!

I used standard shipping. And to think--I coul've probably got it yesterday if I would have paid five extra bucks.

I kind of like the idea of putting the names on the back of the shirts, but the more I think about it the more I think I would rather put my member number on the back, since I have a pretty cool member number or at least I've always thought that I do. Plus it would save time and money as I would only need to iron three things on each. Clerk: What can I do for you? Me: Six sevens, please.

Ah, yes I forgot about the strawberries. I've never seen the watermelon.. but I probably don't pay attention to it when I do because I'm not a big watermelon person.

I have to agree with the fruit thing. I'd love to see fresh fruit at KI. Fruit is full of vitamins, which are very good for you, and it's delicious. I love apples, grapes, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, pears, and pineapple. Although I can't say I love vegetables. In fact, I don't eat vegetables. Doesn't KI have a fruit smoothie place? I'm not a huge fan of fruit smoothies, so I don't really know. Seems like there's a place between Rivertown and the Eiffel Tower that sells that type of thing although the name escapes me at the moment. It's sad that that's the only thing remotely close to being fruit-related. Unless of course you count cherry icees or blueberry ice cream.

Guess the shirts are starting to roll in. I got my two today.

Well, anything having to do with food I'm going to be on top of pretty quick It looks like chicken teners are being served this year instead of fried chicken. I'm guessing this is either because of multiple parents' requests or to save money, or both. Personally I like chicken fingers better than fried chicken, even though I'm an adult Also, there is an exclusive price for Gold Pass Members of $9.99. Was this just added? I checked the price a couple of days ago and don't remember seeing that. I think it's a pretty good value considering that I spent $16 for just myself in Festhaus on opening day for two slices, cheese sticks, and a Coke! May be the single best food deal I've ever seen! Oh, and by the way it's totally worth it. I've done it a couple times before and as long as you don't do it on a day that's really crowded you'll most likely have a positive experience.

I was also really curious about this deal. I didn't think about it when I got my pizza and Coke and the Festhaus on opening day, but then I remembered shortly after and then started wondering wondering again and meant to post something about it. From what I can gather, this is in fact going to be a different pizza package than in the past which I never took advantage of because it wasn't really individualized. This one looks like it is. It sounds like a pretty good deal too if you are just buying two slices and a Coke. Of course I guess if you have a wristband you won't have to buy the drink. Once again, confusing language looks to be to blame for all of the..well..confusion. It says "Take advantage of this great offer the entire season" and then it says "Offer valid June - August". Although it does say the latter twice so I guess that's the one we have to go with. Maybe they're getting the f 'n b people comfortable in their shoes before they start having them do discounts.

I didn't like the registration page. It's a little confusing. There are a couple of design flaws that I noted. The biggest one was where it says "I am a Kings Island/Platinum Passholder" Now, I checked yes for that one, but I don't have a Platinum Pass. Why you ask? Well, the way it reads, it's not really asking you if you are a Platinum Passholder. It says "Kings Island/Platimum Passholder. The slash was the thing that got me. If it wanted to ask if you were a Platinum Passholder then why didn't it just say "I am a Platinum Passholder."? The Kings Island part is why I checked Yes because I hold a Gold Pass to Kings Island and as I understood it you needed a Gold or Platinum Pass to register and so I figured they were just checking to make sure you had one of the two. There has been no indication anywhere that Platinum Passholders are going to have a different experience at RWW. Anyways, whatever the intention was it was confusing. Right after the offending question, it asks you for your member number. How many people do you think might put their season pass bar code number in there? That's not the intention, but the box to put that information comes right after the season pass question. It should have came after the group question. One other little thing is that they should have had a drop-down menu to select which organization/group you are with. It's these little design flaws that really irritate me. It's pretty much web page design 101. Oh well. I hope it doesn't cause any serious problems, which I actually, in spite of the things I mentioned, don't think it will.

I think the best idea would have been to put the winning design on the front and put iChase's design on the back and make that the official shirt. While I do like iChase's design, I think it would look better on the back of the shirt. (What comes to mind is the graduation shirts with the year and everyone's name on the back.) Now, I know that this can't be done now, and it's too late for me anyways because I already ordered two of the winning design t-shirts yesterday. I'm just saying...

I was going to say what standbyme said. Remember, festivites start early and end late for RWW so I'm going to guess that using the shuttle will probably not be a good option if you want to take part in the early festivities. As far as the late festivities are concerned, you might miss the last bus if you're in the park doing the ERTs. Unless, of course, the hotel is going to accomodate for the Ride Warriors, which I highly doubt. I just booked my room for Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll be staying at the KI Resort but I won't be taking the shuttle on Saturday or Sunday. (Won't be walking either.) Besides, if my car isn't there where in the heck am I going to keep my lunch?

I guess you'd have to assume that Diamondback will open early on Saturday and Sunday--just like it's supposed to every Saturday and Sunday of the season. So I guess technically, if you have a Gold/Platinum Pass, you will get an ERT for Diamondback Saturday and Sunday morning whether you are a part of RWW or not. Incorrect. If you choose to participate in the morning ERTs for Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend you can NOT also do the Diamondback Gold Pass Early Access. You must choose one or the other. Ok, great. Good to know! So, there will be an ERT for Diamondback--just not for those participating in RWW. I suppose that does make sense, at least there will be an ERT (or rather LRT*) for Diamondback both nights! *Yes, I know the E technically stands for Exclusive, not early.