TheCrypt

The MONSTER! was manufactured by Everly Aircraft Co. Embarrassing... Hath since been fixed!

^It's probably just the natural aging of Arrow coasters. I'd prefer to keep Adventure Express' track the way it is now. It's perfect (to me).

The closed Backlot Stunt Coaster because...the fire wasn't working? If that is indeed the true reason why it was shut down, A . Did it really need to be closed just because an effect was not working? B . I hope it's fixed soon. Does anyone think it could be fixed in house? C . I like where management is going if they shut down a ride so effects will not be missed... Sounds very Disney-ish.

Today, I went to Cedar Point. Nah, I went to Kings Dominion. Wait, that's not right. I think I went to Carowinds? Nah, musta been Geauga Lake! Wait.... Kings Island! I arrived at the park just moments before rope drop. We were walking at the base of the Eiffel Tower to get near the rope near Coney Mall, and that's when we heard "God Bless America", sung by one of the fantastic singers in one of the park's multiple fantastic shows. Here comes rope drop... "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Kings Island is now open!" With that, we briskly walk towards X-Base. On the way past Zephyr, I spotted a familiar employee. En route to X-Base, I stop at the merchandise shop by Zephyr to exchange my $10 for a $5 and 5 $1's. We continue our journey where I make the wise move to start at Firehawk, since the wait will be minimal. Lucky us, we walked right on to the 3 train of the day! As always Firehawk is a fantastic ride, no matter where you sit. I sat in the back, and it offered us an amazing ride. The hang time in the loop was insane! I then suggested we do Flight of Fear because it, too, will build up a sluggish line throughout the day, plus it is located adjacent to Firehawk. We walk past empty turnstiles, into the hangar, where we become encompassed in the immersive setting of Hangar 18. The moniters were not playing the preshow video, but that was OK because we walked straight up into the first room of the UFO, and stopped in the 2 room. We had an approximated 2 train wait until we got on. I did not hear the "Please secure all loose articles, loose articles are not permitted..." spiel, nor the "We thank you for welcoming us into your world, now it's time for you to see ours..." spiel. The "charging up" sounds of our train preparing to launch were turned on, so I knew once our ghostly train returned to the UFO station, we would hear both spiels. Sure enough, we did. I was riding alone and in the back, and I must say, the back of the train of Flight of Fear is wonderful. You get pulled through the cobra roll, sidewinder, and other elements so fast, you get incredible positive G's that you can't get anywhere else on the train. Definately ride in the back some point. We also glided through the MCBR, therefore it did not affect us, and I sure hope that's a permenant change, because the second half feels crazy without stopping! After Flight of Fear, my 2 friends started walking towards the main Coney Mall midway, that is, until I said "Guys! Our stuff is all in lockers!" They came back to retrieve them. My friend went to the drinks location by the helicopter MCBR to get a refill of his souvenier cup he brought. He ended up buying a drink wristband (which he really only used twice--would have been cheaper to pay the money for individual refills). After that, we walked over to Zephyr, which was just starting its cycle. At the end of the cycle, the employee aforementioned stated "Have a wonderful day here at Kings Island. It's not just an amusement park, it's an amazement park!" After no response or laughter or anything (I did laugh!), he just kind of said "Yeah.", somewhat dissappointed. Oh well, I thought it was funny! We talked a few minutes after that. After such events, we meandered through Coney Mall, and I decided to do a flat that I have avoided like the plague the past couple seasons, due to slow loading procedures (but they aren't really too slow at all!). But, I have recently re-discovered an amazing flat ride, built by Everly Aircraft Company, transported to Kings Island from Coney Island. It's black, it's fierce, it's... THE MONSTER! I seriously think that the Monster is very under-rated. It offers some pretty good laterals, nice pops of airtime, and it's triple-spinning power is something that cannot be replicated! Just like a snowflake, no 2 rides are the same. After the Monster, we trekked over to the oldest, only dueling, and most iconic ride in the park: The Racer! Since it was only about 10:30 at this point, they didn't have blue running, so we were all shuffeled over to the red side. I took my usual seat, 5-1, and had an airtime-filled voyage on a legendary wooden coaster, and I'm pretty sure everyone was raven about this ride when we finished. It was a relatively smooth ride, what with being over a wheel in the last car and all, but I did notice some jackhammering on the small bunnyhop before the turnaround. I also noticed the '70's music in the station. That is a great touch, and I feel like it added a much needed atmosphere to the station. Why can't they loop this throughout the entirety of Coney Mall? I'd sure love that! With The Racer, we ended our stay at Coney Mall for the day. After the 40 year old legend, we made our way to the best mine train on Earth, Adventure Express. I love this ride a lot. I ran into another employee here, and we briefly chatted before taking my seat in the second car, third row. The trim brake was not engaged before the first tunnel. The first tunnel was dark as always, but at least we still had the flickering lantern and the howling wind. Here comes the second tunnel! Wait, the lights are off? Oh well, at least we still have the howling of whatever it is. Up comes the first lift! Oh yay, we still have half a creaking lift hill... Oh well. Still strong laterals and sudden pops of airtime in the ruins. The third tunnel was dark, but they had the creaking soundtrack on. Here comes the 4 tunnel, and I must say, I love when you hear the music before the "You have disturbed the forbidden temple. Now YOU. WILL. PAY!", then you see every single tiki-man arming the sides of the chamber lift up his left/right arm, perfectly synchronized. Great ride, great theming (when working). We continued our voyage across the park in a counter-clockwise fashion, heading to Action Zone. Since Delirium hasn't been operating for months, we decided to give it a go. It was something like a 6-7 cycle wait. That's not a big deal for me. Anyways, I got assigned seat 9, and had a great ride that only a Giant Frisbee can offer. No matter what your stance on HUSS rides is, you can't deny that the machinery in itself is very impressive. I have often found my self in awe looking at The Crypt's arms used to raise the gondola, looking at how mighty, tall, and proud Drop Tower stands above the Action Zone midways, and others. Especially when year ago, people thought these kinds of achievements would be impossible. To me, this is mindblowing. (Wow! I digressed immensly!) After Delirium, I headed to Drop Tower, but my friends didn't want to do that, so I compensated with Flight Deck. It had a line forming at the base of the steps underneath the exit walkway. I waited 3 cycles for my front row, and it was a great ride as always. Now that I look back, I want to put a brick in my hand and facepalm myself with it, because I was not looking for tree removals! Stupid stupid stupid! But it was a great ride with some strong forces and swinging action. Something I Noticed: At the base of the steps that lead you up to the station, there seems to always be a puddle. I think a drain of some sorts needs to be placed there during the offseason, because rainwater always accumulates ther and cannot drain. Maybe redirect a possible drain to the creek below the ride via gutter-system-like? After Flight Deck, I said I really wanted to do Drop Tower, but my 2 friends didn't. They wanted to do Invertigo, so I suggested we split up. So they went to Invertigo, and I went to Drop Tower. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes, and I got on a cycle early because the ride ops needed a single rider. I won't pass up that offer! I got a huge adrenaline rush this time, and I guess I know what it feels like to ride Top Thrill Dragster! To pass time, I stood at the center of Congo Falls' bridge to stay dry and view the splashes. There were a lot of riders for a cool morning. I spotted my friends exiting Invertigo, so I met back up with them, and one friend wanted ice cream, so we headed over to Ice Scream Zone, where he got a vanilla cone. I asked something helpful, like "Why would you want a vanilla cone? Don't you want ice cream?" At this point, it was about 1:30, and my friends were getting bored (how do you get bored..at Kings Island?!). They only wanted to do a couple more rides before calling it quits. Being the Adventure Express lover that I am, we headed to the Arrow mine train masterpiece. We waited about 10 minutes, before I got situated in the back row. My experiences were the same as before. At this point, we sat outside the exit for about 15 minutes, before I got peer-pressured into doing the ladder game adjacent from the Coca-Cola Marketplace. I was really close, too! But of course, I had to fail right at the red bar. So no giant Jamaican penguin for me, today. After this, we just meandered throughout the park until deciding to get a final ride on The Beast, so we headed to Rivertown. We never ended up riding The Beast, but we did something better! We talked to our merchandise friend. We talked to her for about 30-40 minutes, and she is probably my favorite employee at Kings Island, hands down. We had sword fights with bracelets and stuff. It was great! Upon leaving around 3:30, I noticed the far left vent on the former ride chamber from The Crypt was open. I snapped a shot of it, I just need to upload it. I also should note that Backlot Stunt Coaster and PEANUTS 500 were down today. I realize that was long and probably captivated nobody, and doubt people actually read through it, but if you did, thanks for reading!

As always, PHENOMINAL pictures, faeriewench! I've always wanted to go out west to Knott's, but I'm afraid my family would look at the park and say "Waa? Dat park only few coasters good!", so that will be going out the window... Glad you had the opportunity and took advantage of it!

A teaser states "What is taller than Mantis, and screams like a Banshee?"

^That does not necessarily make it a 2-story ride. Also, the elevator takes you down something like 6 ft., not enough for a 2-story attraction.

Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but isn't the Haunted Mansion (at Disney World at least) only one level?

Sorry for the double post, but I was told on 2 seperate accounts today that Ouimet was at the park today. Who here, if anyone, saw him?

Mantis is a dead ride?

Therefore, you can not blame it on auto-correct this time!

Considering that only the 'c' at the beginning of 'Cincinnati' is only capitolized and not the double-n, I'd say you are correct.

Can't believe I missed you! I headed right to Firehawk at rope drop, then straight over to Flight of Fear! I was hoping to see you and say hi at some point in the day! PEANUTS 500 was down in Planet Snoopy, and I can confirm that Backlot was down the entire day as well. I did not see any testing of sorts the whole day. It looks like they didn't even bother to take the trains off the transfer track (or they put them on after they found a problem). After seeing Son of Beast from basically every point in the park today, I'll be glad to see it gone in the coming years, so as to make each area of the park void of a towering wooden FAIL! err, structure. As always, glad you had a great time!

I'm sure iPods/iPads/iPhones/iProducts' auto-correct knows how to spell "Cincinnati". Sounds like a user error, to me.

Phantom Theater wasn't a roller coaster.

Having a reincarnation of Phantom Theater at Kings Island sounds pretty far-fetched.

Delirium has always made 2 full swings before coming to a stop. maXair has something like 7. It's nothing different.

^^^^ and ^^^ They might want a loan shark.

I understand the Terpy thing, but Terp doesn't do it at the end of EVERY post, and his are almost always understandable. That is, unless they're Cryptic.

Crypt, who doesn't understand BB1's whole third-person deal at the end of every one of his posts.

*Leviathan. How does a water monster fit with the Gatekeeper of Hell?

Cedar Fair comes up with some pretty awful names, but Gatekeeper is the worst yet.

Not only a spelling error, but a grammatical, too. Crypt, who loathes both errors.

They have Vertigo AND Cyanide?! Why didn't anybody tell me about this before?!

Actually, Flight Deck and Adventure Express will be closed during the demolition of the lift hill and drop. Demo is in the off season, as well, no?