VortexBFForever

I haven't been to Dollywood since '13. It hasn't been as long as it was for you, but I'm really itching to go back. Even 2 years is long overdue! I'm glad you and Katie had a lot of fun. I would love to go with you on one of these trips sometime. It would be fun going to my favorite theme park together! What?! That's one of my favorite rides! But hey, each one of us is different. I forgive you.

If the park is crowded, I recommend grabbing a Q2Q "Q-Bot" to rent for the day. It's only about $21. It electronically "reserves" your spot in line for the ride you choose and it "waits" in line for you while you do other things. At a certain time it lets you know when it can go to the ride by beeping and vibrating. All the rides have special entrances for Q2Q users (kind of like Fast Lane) that integrate with the regular line at a certain point. Once you check in (one of the attendants has a Q-Bot to check you in with) you can "reserve" another ride while you wait to ride the ride you just arrived at. It's very convenient. I used one during my visit back in '13 since it was super crowded. I loved it! I would've gotten less than half of the rides I did that day if it weren't for it. (I live over 5 hours away from Dollywood, so it was a big help.) (P.S. Another ride that is in the back is Tennessee Tornado. I highly recommend that ride as it is one of my favorites! Don't skip it! ) (Edit: ImageShack wouldn't let me post the picture in a bigger size unless I upgraded to "Premium" membership which costs money. Ugh...)

Is a pass renewed with that EasyPay thing (the payment-per-month plan) eligible? My mom and I are renewing our passes that way and we started before November 6...

Last night I had a dream that I was riding some undefined roller coaster (similar to Python at Coney Island) while the New Year's Eve ball was dropping in Times Square in NYC which happened to be RIGHT NEXT to where the "coaster" was! 2015 is right around the corner...even in my dreams.

Sorry I wasn't able to come! Let's hope NEXT YEAR's party ISN'T on a weekend where I have another commitment! In the meantime, I'm glad you had lots of fun.

Nice report! I always enjoy reading your reports, since I only go to Cedar Point once or twice a year at most. The 2015 season's started already? I thought it was still 2014! (hint hint...)

I'm assuming this is also true for 2015 Platinum Pass holders?

I'm just going to go ahead and post the written portion now, since waiting an hour or more for 100+ photos to upload always puts it off for too long and I end up not writing it at all. For that matter, I'll also get to work writing about August 17 and 29, which were amazing trips as well. But first, let me tell you about Labor Day! We arrived at the park just after 6:00, which gave us 2 hours to make the most out of this Labor Day. Unlike the last few trips where I've started out in Action Zone, I chose to skip it entirely this time since I spent nearly all of my August 29 trip there. The first ride we rode was the Grand Carousel. I have no idea when the organ will be playing its merry tunes again, but I didn't mind hearing the recorded music, especially after not hearing any carousel music for over a month! After that nice ride we went up in the Eiffel Tower. I spent a good 5-10 minutes up there enjoying the view (and the wind!). To put things into perspective, it was windy enough for WindSeeker and Drop Tower to be closed at the time of our visit. That being said, I had a slightly different hairdo by the time I entered the elevator to go down. Next, I thought long and hard about riding Diamondback. The line looked to be a 20-30 minute wait. As much as I wanted to ride, I chose to use the remaining hour and 15 minutes for other things. So I got in the 10-minute line for Race For Your Life Charlie Brown instead. It was a good choice, since it was a bit humid out and I was starting to feel hot. I rode in Boat 15 with a nice lady and a young boy who was riding for the very first time. We had a nice conversation during the ride. The young boy was a little scared at first, but at the end of the ride after the big drop he was all smiles! It was fun! I love times like this; it illustrates "Thrills Connect" pretty well, because a lot of times thrills really do connect. By this time it was about 7:20. We headed to the Rivertown LaRosa's which had a line but it only went just outside the door. Good thing too, because I was hungry. We each got a slice of pizza, a cup of water, and a cup of Sprite. I especially loved enjoying my pizza with a Vortex train flying by overhead every few minutes! Speaking of Vortex, that is where we headed next (no surprise here ). I played some $1 games first. I tried High Striker and I got 49. Not bad for a girl my age! I had also played it last year. My best High Striker score so far is 56. I also played some Goblet Toss. I came super close to rolling onto a colored goblet but fell short. Oh well. It was still fun though! Finally, I got to Vortex at 7:40 only to find it had just closed because of inclement weather nearby, according to what they told me. It wasn't raining too much here, though, and I knew they were doing this for safety especially since the weather had been pretty iffy today. Even though it was starting to get close to closing time, I was so determined that I would get my 250th ride tonight (I was at 249 - 1 ride short!) that I stayed put at the entrance and did not leave the side of my favorite ride. Even though it rained for a minute or two, I still didn't move. Now it was 7:50. It was at about this time that I heard the start-up siren on Vortex's lift hill! I was so excited. Even though it was close to closing time, it appeared I was going to get my 250th ride tonight after all!! After cycling trains for about 10 minutes, Vortex reopened at 7:59 - ONE MINUTE to spare!! I was the first one in line. I got some nice twilight shots before heading into the station, where Train #2 was waiting with the gates open. I stepped into the front row for my 250th ride on Vortex! The cycle I rode was the first of the two cycles that went before the ride closed again, this time for the night. There was this absolutely beautiful sunset on the western horizon as my train climbed the lift hill. If picture-taking was allowed, I would have LOVED to get a picture of it! The ride was awesome. Everyone on board was happy and having fun, as I could tell by their happy cheers that they were enjoying the ride a lot! And of course, the inversions were amazing, especially since Vortex was the only inverting ride I rode this evening. This was definitely a 250th ride to remember! But this trip didn't end there. As we were making our way to the Front Gate, we noticed Tower Drinks was still open and they had extra hot dogs. So we each got a hot dog to enjoy with the traditional ketchup and mustard. They were tasty! Last but not least was more LaRosa's! We found a line that was out the door, but not by far. After waiting about 5 minutes, we got 3 slices of pizza to share, along with more water and Sprite. We ate right by the Royal Fountains, close to where we ate when we had LaRosa's on our very first trip to Kings Island. We left the park at about 8:45. Needless to say it was probably the best 2.5 hours of my life I've had in a while! +Grand Carousel: 1 Total: 24 +Eiffel Tower: 1 Total: 6 +Race for Your Life Charlie Brown: 1 YTD: 4 Total: 5 +Vortex: 1 YTD: 23 Total: 250

I visited COSI with my friend back in 2011. I'm pretty sure I should visit again soon, because it's my favorite science museum. My favorite parts were/are the spinning tunnel entrance into the Space exhibit, the glass elevator (I'm an elevator person ) and riding the unicycle with the counterweight that went right over the front lobby! Speaking of the unicycle, is it still there now? I didn't see a mention of it in the trip report.

This reminds me of when ohiocolts and I rode Sling Shot on Closing Day in 2012. I would've loved to see the video of our ride, but the camera wasn't working. Glad you enjoyed your ride! It looked really fun.

I had my very first legitimate night ride on Banshee last night. It was really fun! I rode in Row 7 on the blue train. Also, I noticed that there is a good amount of shaking/vibrations during the ride, especially when riding in/near the back. Compared to how much Vortex vibrates/shakes, Banshee does it even more, at least according to what I've experienced..

I love Corkscrew too! It's actually one of my favorite coasters at Cedar Point. The "keep head forward" part is actually a habit of mine that I learned while riding Vortex. I kind of wish most people didn't think that keeping the head back is the best way to ride, since the absolute best way to enjoy the ride is to put your head forward! On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip report.

I was there yesterday and I heard the recorded music instead of the organ. I was, and still am, hoping to hear the organ again ever since I heard it for the very first time on July 30.

When I was at Cedar Point on the 5th there was an op on the Mine Ride (I think his name was Ben) who said some interesting things: "Welcome back riders, how was your ride?" *only 1 or 2 riders cheer* "Wow...I feel sorry that you're here at Cedar Point right now..." "As you guys take your see sure you buckle your seat belts, 'cause I love seat belts....love, love, love...." "Just as a reminder, the use of cell phones, cameras, cell phones and cell phones is not allowed on the ride...So put away your cell phones; if your cell phone is out on the ride and you get caught, you will get in trouble and you will not get dessert." "Please face forward during the entire ride keeping all arms, hands, claws and paws inside the ride at all times." "Are you guys pumped to ride the Mine Ride?" *a few riders cheer* "Okay, then, let's just pretend you're on Top Thrill Dragster. You're going to take off really fast on the Top Thrill Mine Ride - 0 to 60 in 0 seconds...3, 2, 1.." *train dispatches* "Welcome back riders, how was your ride? *lots of cheering* "Yay! People actually like this ride! Yaaay!! Unfortunately your ride has come to an end; I'm sorry..." "The gates are going to close!" *op says something from Harry Potter commanding the gates to close, but the gates don't move* "Aw, it didn't work!"

I would've loved to come, but I was too busy enjoying the last day of the Greene County Fair. I'll make a note to myself to get to one of these midnight closings as early as next year. Riding Vortex at/just before midnight sounds really cool!

The way you learned how to "ride" Vortex is actually very similar to how I always ride it! When I ride it I put my head a little forward. I do agree that it makes a little bit of a difference in how you experience the ride. Glad you had lots of fun on my favorite ride! And the rest of Kings Island, of course. I enjoyed reading your report!

^Thanks for the comments, both of you! July 14: We got some more painting done at St. Gabriel School, with the nice early afternoon surprise of a passing thunderstorm outside! After we were done there we got some sno balls. The one I got was a stuffed (vanilla ice cream inside) strawberry cheesecake sno ball! It was amazing; I loved my very first sno ball! July 15: We spent some of the morning cleaning around Camp Hope. I was one of the people who helped clean the showers. Next we went to the St. Roch neighborhood and handed out flyers to any residents we saw and told them about an outreach event we're having at St. Roch Park tomorrow evening. Once we had handed out all the flyers we also got to explore the St. Roch Cemetery. To be honest it was one of the nicest cemeteries I have ever seen. Finally, from about 1:30 to sundown we were at the French Quarter. We shopped at a handful of stores including the French Market, walked through Jackson Square, explored the St. Louis Cathedral, ate at Cafe du Monde and relaxed on the bank of the Mississippi River. I bought a Mardi Gras mask at the French Market. A lot of places sell these masks but the Market was where I found the lowest price ($5.99). There was a live jazz band playing in Jackson Square. After exploring the Cathedral we listened to them for about 5-10 minutes. This was probably my favorite part of our French Quarter excursion. I even got a picture with them! The beignets at Cafe du Monde are AMAZING! They're even better than the ones at Morning Call Cafe at City Park! They are really tasty but also very filling. It was nice relaxing on the bank of the Mississippi. We saw a couple of barges pass by and we also skipped rocks. One of the few cons of this otherwise great time was that we didn't get to ride one of the streetcars. Phooey. But I still had an awesome time!! My new mask! Edit: We also ate at Johnny's Po-Boys. I had a dressed (meaning it had lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise) shrimp Po-boy with remoulade sauce and it was very good! It was also my very first po-boy. Sent from my iPod touch using an app that starts with "T"

July 14, 2014 This day was our first day of work. We split into groups and headed off to different worksites. I was in the group who went to St. Gabriel School in Gentilly to help paint doors and walls. After eating lunch (during a thunderstorm!) we headed downtown to help at a homeless shelter. We passed the Superdome on the way. That thing is ginormous! I'm always blown away by its massive size each time we pass by! Anyway, at the shelter (called New Orleans Mission) we packed bags of food and gave them to people we saw when walking around the neighborhood, a lot of whom were poor/homeless. In the evening, we went uptown to City Park. We played games and had fun there. We would've done Storyland and the Botanical Gardens if they weren't closed on Mondays... The last thing we did was go to the Morning Call Cafe which is open 24/7. I enjoyed some hot chocolate and beignets while also enjoying their free wifi! All in all it was a great day! Sent from my iPod touch using an app that starts with "T"

Raising Cane's and Chicken Shack are pretty similar, but I'm going to have to say Raising Cane's wins by just a little bit. Sent from my iPod touch using an app that starts with "T"

Here's the first picture. It was taken at the pool in Alabama last night. It wasn't as dark as it looks in the picture. And yes, that is a person in the picture. I don't remember who, though. Sent from my iPod touch using an app that starts with "T"

Greetings from New Orleans, Louisiana! I'm down here with my youth group on a mission trip. I'm typing all this on my iPod since my laptop is safe at home. I'll be updating this thread daily so those who want to know will find out what's happening each day! I will also occasionally post pictures that I take on my iPod. Of course, I also have my camera, but without my laptop I cannot upload and share them until I get back. Yesterday was the first day of the trip. We left and went as far as Huntsville, Alabama. We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings at Madison Square Mall, swam in a neighborhood pool (for fun) and spent the night at a church there. Today, we finished the trip. The entire trip from Dayton, OH to NOLA lasted about 13 hours total. Part of the route included crossing Lake Ponchartrain (that lake is HUGE) and going right past the former Six Flags New Orleans! We are staying at a place called Camp Hope, which is actually a former school that was made into a dormitory. Although it's technically in New Orleans, it is located in Arabi/St. Bernard Parish. We just had dinner at an area Raising Cane's restaurant. It was my first time eating at a Raising Cane's. The sandwich I got was really good. I love the sauce!! Tonight will be the first of six nights spent down here in NOLA. Tomorrow is our first day of "work." I hope you enjoy the updates, including the photos!

LoraX, had I known about trips like these beforehand there could be a chance I would come along as well. By reading your trip reports it looks to me like you guys have a blast. But I would love to come along someday! (and my Platinum Pass would get me in for free at Dorney Park and Kings Dominion!) Even if I don't come on these trips, we still have plenty of fun at Kings Island together. Can't go wrong with that! (Who knows, maybe we can meet up if we're at the park together when I take my 250th ride on Vortex! I just hit 245 on Wednesday.)

I saw Cirque for the first time yesterday! It was the 3:00 show. My favorite parts were the girl on the rope and the part with the trampolines. I thought it was amazing and I will definitely plan on seeing this again!