APE

Opening day was a miserable mess for me, and it was my fault. My wife had her gallbladder removed on Thursday, she was told that she needed to get up and walk around by the weekend. With the nice weather we decided to go to Kings Island and let our 2 1/2 year old ride some things and get some food. I knew it would be packed with the weather being as nice as it was but when I checked at 11:30 with some friends and looked at the webcams it didn't look terrible. When we got to the park I guess is when everyone arrived. I added the meal plan to our passes. My son didn't eat much of a lunch and we were there during which time he typically naps. Missing a nap usually isn't a huge deal for him but with the lack of food it made him irrational. He threw a tantrum the entire time. I tried to snap him out of it with rides but only managed to get him on one. We decided to get food and every place had at least a half our wait. We went to the Festhaus since it has the biggest area to deal with. Lines were stupid long and my son was getting annoyed with the show ( I don't blame him). We decided to pack it in and leave sometime between 2 and 3. During the battle with my son at the Festhaus I lost my pass (yay I get to pay a $15 replacement fee). I am sure our next visit will go much better and maybe this time I will be able to actually use the food plan. I will be taking them up first thing in the morning after breakfast next time to avoid these issues with my son. My wife and 5 month old daughter (her name is Millie, can you guess why?) had a good time walking around so that was good.

just go get on White Water Canyon for a few spins with some soap, you'll be alright!

I think the only way I would be interested is if they had the campout in the woods next to The Beast and the night rides were on it from 12-1. It is for a good cause but it just doesn't interest me.

Mr. Gene's is absolutely the best chili dog I have had.

I cannot, Millie is a bit too young for Courtney to want to leave behind and i'm not leaving her with the kids to go again she would be sad. We just had to cancel our stay at Dollywood because of needing to save money as well. I am really hoping to do Hershey and Knoebles next summer with Courtney.

Thank you. Avalanche surprised me with how fun it was, makes me want to head over to Knoebles and try Flying Turns.

I have been on a lot of forums, this one by far has the most rules. Sometimes it is funny...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh7PCapLG7w POV of Storm Chaser.

I am perfectly fine with no lines on I-305. Had we stayed the full time i would have probably rode it 15 times.

I am sad i am not allowed to attend because my passes are considered new and not renewal. yeah yeah, i get it and i get the rules. We had to take a season off because the wife was pregnant.

At the time it was a 2013 Ford Fusion. I traded it in for a van though. Yeah I was bored this morning. also the pictures were taken with a Galaxy s6.

I have been drooling at the chance to ride Intimidator 305 for the last 5 years. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched videos of it and annoyed the crap out of my wife with my obsession of wanting to ride this thing. This year would finally be the year. We had decided originally to do a trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion. After we had got everything planned i realized we would be at Kings Dominion the same day as Coasting for kids and decided to sign us up. This was my first time doing Coasting for Kids and it will not be my last (turns out is was my last at least until they decide to do it again.). About a week after i had booked and finalized everything with the trip we got the awesome news that my wife Courtney was pregnant again. We were (and still are) through the roof with excitement, but then realized she would not be able to ride anything. She decided not to go (and I don't blame her), but I would still go and do Coasting for Kids and cancel the other plans for that weekend. I enlisted my friend Sean to take her place and my brother decided to join us and make the drive to meet us from Charleston South Carolina. Sean Lives an hour west of Holiday world, since i live in Cincinnati we decided to meet up to make the trip in Louisville. This action prompted a stop to try out Lightning Run and Kentucky Kingdom. On Saturday 6/6/15 I headed out the door towards Kentucky Kingdom. We only had a few hours tops to check out the park if we wanted to get to Kings Dominion at a decent time. We arrived to a pretty light crowd at the front gate and a sign stating that T3 would be coming soon and not opening that day. We were fine with this as our concern was Lightning Run. As soon as the park opened we went straight for the little blue coaster. DO NOT let the size of this thing fool you it packs a major punch. Lightning Run was such an insane little ride that i could not stop laughing as it caught me by surprise so much. Videos do nothing for this ride and its ejector air, we have some bruises to prove it on the legs. After Lightning Run tried its hardest to launch us off the coaster we started to check out some of the other things in the park. Clyclos has a short line and being right next to Lightning run we decided to get on it. This little flat also packs a nice punch and I really enjoyed the hanging upside down parts. Next we headed towards Thunder Run with a stop at Enterprise. Thunder Run was fun, I enjoyed the front seat on this not so much the back. With two rides on the woodie we went back to the insane little blue coaster for one more ride before heading out. Overall in my short bit of experience there i enjoyed Kentucky Kingdom. I thought the park was very clean and the people were nice. I will make another trip back as we got season passes. I want to check out that water park and maybe get a ride on T3 if it is open. Ride count : Lighting Run 2x Thunder Run 2x Enterprise Cyclos Since we were in Louisville and our areas didn't have them built yet we stopped at Raising Cane's for lunch and what i figured would be the only meal of the day so i pigged out. We got to the Best Western Kings Quarters at about 10:30 that night. I would recommend staying here if you go to Kings Dominion as the room was clean, the people were nice, and there was a lot to do with everything staying open until at least midnight. Ooo and it's in the parking lot for Kings Dominion so you don't have to pay to park! Sunday 6/7/15 Coasting for Kids and Kings Dominion. We woke up bright and early to get registered and go into the park an hour early for the Dominator ride time. Before we made it into the park we met Chuck (cfc) and Jason (bubala) from TPR. They were both very nice and we had a good time with them for a bit at the park. Well it was finally time to enter a park i have dreamed of visiting for 5 years. I did my best to try and break everything i rode. Dominator was a very fun coaster, I think i have only been on one other floorless in Kracken and i enjoyed Dominator more thanks to the tight layout. I found the backseat to be the smoothest ride on it. We did manage to break it for about 20 minutes during that hour. Next we headed to Volcano to make sure we didn't have to deal with a line later in the day. We were the first to ride and got on the front seat. For those wondering I fit on everything I rode, If you have seen my other posts you know my size. This is where I experienced two things that I never have before, A ROLLBACK! AND AN EVAC! I was very satisfied with this. They gave us a voucher to come back later and skip the line since we had to head to the Lunch and Ceremony for Coasting for Kids. After we ate they were going to take us to Rebel Yell for our marathon on it. I just couldn't wait any longer though and had to leave lunch early to get a ride on I305 first. As we were walking up i couldn't contain my excitement, i have so many expectations for this thing i have dreamed about for years. We were going to do front seat but given we had to be across the park at Rebel Yell and front was the only spot with a line we went for the back. This ride was everything I had dreamed of and more. As we were going around that first turn I started seeing stars and was just in bliss going up the airtime hill. Then it was time for all of the awesome twisties and i was loving every second of it. My favorite ride was (keyword) Maverick I love intense tight turns and maneuvers so this was even better. When we hit the break run all I could thing was WOW! Thank you Intamin for this Millie and Maverick combination baby you have produced. There was no line for this all day. Now it was time for our second marathon session and this time it was at Rebel Yell. We have one of the sides to ourselves for Coasting for kids for 90 minutes. I did my first ride on the C4K side then jumped to the other side for the credit. When I got off that side my friend had received some unfortunate news and we thought we may be leaving early (which we ended up doing after going to a couple more rides). We got Chuck and Jason and headed to Volcano to use our front of the line passes. Volcano we sat in the front seat again and success! we actually made it through the course. I really enjoyed this ride as well with heartline rolls and launches. I can see why its so popular with the general public but I don't think i'd wait very long for it especially with I305 having no line. So growing up as a kid and going to Kings Island all of the time I loved King Cobra, I just had to get a ride on Shockwave. I should have let the happy memories be as this coaster was a nightmare of a ride for me especially being a larger fella. I cannot think of one redeeming quality of this coaster. one and done for sure and never again. We got some snacks and wondered around for a short time while my buddy was fixing his phone and worked on getting things straightened out. Snacks were good and i manged to win a giant pig on the quarter game where you land it on a plate. I had only had three quarters and really had no intention on winning just wanted to get the change out of my pocket. The girl was shocked that i managed to win with their extra difficult rules of the arm not being allowed past the rail (which she wasn't enforcing with others they still lost though) and the quarter couldn't touch any of the low hanging animals. I won on the last try. When my buddy returned we agreed to leave early after getting a few more rides in on I305. Before we got there though we rode Avalanche and I loved this little bobsled coaster. I am glad we got on it last minute. I305 just seemed to get better with every ride. It was making me go completely black until the airtime hill on the last few rides. I've got some nice bruises from hands up riding but i still think the restraints are comfortable. With my short visit to the park and only doing about half of the coasters it has definitely left me wanting more. the park is well landscaped and clean with a lot of trees. I very much look forward to getting another visit but it will be at least a couple of years. Ride count: I305- 6x Dominator 5x Volcano 1 1/3rd x Shockwave Avalanche Rebel Yell (each side) now the photos... Entrance are for Kentucky Kingdom Waiting to get in. No T3 for you! who cares though when Lightning Run is there. Welcome! This is why we are here, I love the colors of this thing. Cyclos is really fun as well. I can see why people have trouble finding the entrance. No lines Bye Bye Lightning Run I will come back to you! Yay! 40 Years We Dominated Dominator and broke it! All of the Coasting for Kids participants. Credit: https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva/photos/pb.32237381874.-2207520000.1459513971./10152810522376875/?type=3&theater I am in the middle. Is this real life or just fantasy? Holy wow! real life! Zoomed in Two thumbs up! Thank goodness it is gone! Walking back to this beauty Both were great fun! I am the champion! Headed home, I love the drive through the mountains. I left home at 8am on the 6th I returned home at 3:30am on the 8th. These are the totals for the journey.

I forgot to mention before, that picture i posted came from one of the little key chain viewers. I used my phone camera and lined it up with the viewer. I had to do some minor editing but I got a good picture out of it.

I miss them too. I am the smallest one in this picture.

It makes it tough for me to pull the trigger on the meal plan when there is no Rivertown Potato Works chili cheese fries included. That is my go to meal at the park.

It really wasn't frightening at all. We carried $500 when I worked there, count the money out before and after shift. I never had anything missing.

I consider it a new coaster or credit if it goes through a major change. The Bat was just painted and re named but it remained the same ride. Rougarou got new trains as well as the name and color changes. I would consider that a new credit as it changes the actual experience.

Good call on that. I read through most of those before posting i guess i just missed that one spot.

Since Courtney has been pregnant all summer we did not get passes to Kings Island this year. I am going to order us passes for next season. I am debating on the meal plan, I looked at the list of all the places involved (which seems to be almost everything at least that I care about). What I am curious of is the actual meal options at the individual places, what exactly do you get? Maybe those with the meal plan can give me a run down of what some of the meals actually are at some of the individual places.

It was less of a complaint and more of an observation. It doesn't matter what the park does the revolving door of hate continues here. And that would be me there Jonathan.

still better than the massive plots of concrete at Soak City.

I think Banzai Blast is my favorite water slide at any park. So much airtime!

We went but only for two hours on Sunday as my neck acted up. We will be going back end of August. The park is really nice, food prices are on point, and it wasn't overly crowded. I think i'll start going to the Beach over Kings Islands water park.

Hey no worries on my end. I used to have the Atlantic as my backyard as well. enjoy

I have enjoyed the signs they have been putting up as a teaser.