LongLiveTheSmurfRide

Park entrance looks so much more inviting without the detectors. I really like them being gone. I don't care if I get shanked while in the park.

^ "In front of the fountains," is what I heard them say over the speakers (we were near the Grand Carousel at the time), so I'm assuming that means near the entrance side in front of the fountains, unless they meant on the Tower side.

Both of those sound very interesting. Not sure if anyone stayed until the fireworks last night, but that's exactly what happened. Except that they had 5 young people up there to push the button. They interviewed them and it was broadcast over the loud speakers around the park before they counted down. Was kinda cool.

And do they taste like blue ice cream?

Yeah, I noticed it, but they didn't notice me. Seems harmless enough over there.

I saw a kid (probably around 15 years old) soaked head to toe wearing a T-shirt and shorts and shivering like crazy walking near Coney Mall around 7:30 last night. Assuming he had just been on Congo Falls or something. Couldn't believe it, while I was all bundled up.

I'll probably go over a lot of what was reported before, though I was there in the evening. Got to the park around 6:00 PM (had to work earlier) with my wife, Laura. It was wet and chilly, but not too bad and the rain seemed to be holding off for a while. Love that the metal detectors are gone. The front of the entrance is opened up. So much more inviting. We got in and met a couple friends and their 4 year old over in the kids area. They had just gotten out of Boo Blasters, which their son had been wanting to ride, but he got really scared this time. His dad said that all of the effects seemed to be going (which was new to them) and that there were a lot more skeletons inside than before and that scared the kid. We hung out with them for a bit and watched the son ride a couple things. Then Laura and I split off for about half an hour to ride some things before we'd meet back at the Festhaus for dinner. First we rode The Racer. One of the sides was blocked off at the entrance, so I figured that they closed a side down because it was slow or because of the rain. Then when we got to the station (which we walked right up to) and noticed, as it has been reported already, that the chain link fence separating the two sides was gone (for about the first two-thirds to half of the station.) I like that change, since it always bottlenecks at the front with the 1st seat waiters. Reminds me more of Gemini's station at CP now. Wonder if they'll always have the one side of the entrance blocked though. The Racer ride was a nice opening coaster for the season. Love that one. Happy 40th Anniversary. Also, it was nice to see the waiting tunnel at the end nice and clean with no bubblegum yet; which I'm sure will change in a couple weeks. Then we went to Adventure Express because it was just about a walk on. Rode nicely, as usual. As I've reported on a couple other posts, this is the first time in years that I've seen all of the guys in the finale hill with working arms. Usually there is one stubborn guy that doesn't move one of them, but they were all going this time. Good show. Met our friends at Festhaus and I had a couple slices of pizza. This year they have XL slices of pizza instead of the old double slices. If this isn't new, it's new to me. Still, at $5.99 a slice, seemed like a raw deal. Got my thimble full of water to go with it for no charge. Then the guys split off to go ride Delirium while the ladies took the kid back over to Snoopy. Delirium was a 2 cycle wait and is still the best flat in the park, IMO. It started to rain when we were waiting for (and riding) Delirium, so we headed over to Snoopy to meet the gals. Once there we watched the kid ride some more. The area was really emptying out (this was around 8:30.) While he was hitting the lady bugs the rain slacked and I noticed that Surf Dog had nobody waiting. I walked over to it, excited that I might get a Zen ride on Surf Dog, but the ride op said that it was down because the track was wet. Bummer. The friends made for home, so Laura and I made for Diamondback around 9:00. We had about a 10 minute wait and then rode. We got somewhere in the middle back area (can't remember the exact number). The ride was great, and there was still some vibration at the bottom of the hills, but not as badly as I felt last year. Then we went to The Beast, but it was a 45 minute wait. We passed this time, though I regret it now after reading that it was giving great rides. We went over to Stunt Track, which was a walk on. Fun little ride, but only worth it if there's no wait. Walked through the Starlight Spectacular, which was okay, though a big section of the Charlie Brown squiggle on the Tower was out already. Not sure if that was a technical difficulty, or if it's a left over from last year. Then we hit the Grand Carousel. Sadly, they still seem to be pumping the music in, though it sounded good. My horse had a little kick to her, but I got her settled down pretty quickly. We finished the night watching the fireworks and then browsing the shops on International Street. Like some of the new merch. Especially liked the 80's store which was packed with Star Wars merchandise and Fraggles! Lots of cool shirts from Back to the Future and Goonies to Gremlins and Ghostbusters. In the end, it was a nice short trip. I'm trying to talk Laura into going Friday evening so that I can try out The Beast. We'll see how that works out. Also, on a 'personal accomplishment' side note; I've lost over 30 pounds since last season. I was having trouble getting comfortable in a lot of the seats last year (though I could ride, but usually had the minimum amount of 'clicks' on the lap bars). Last night I felt like a new person, had no issues and had clicks to spare. Going to be a great season.

I have to disagree with the Adventure Express sentiments. I rode it at night and it seemed like everything was working. In fact, this is the first time in years that I can recall all of the guys in the "epic finale" having working arms. There was one dude on the left whose arm hadn't moved since I can't remember when. I thought he had lost all feeling in it, but now it's going strong.

I went with some friends and they wanted to eat at the Festhaus, so no really new food for me. The LaRosa's pizza there is no longer sold in double slices, it's one XL slice. Not sure if it amounts to 2 normal slices from previous seasons, but they were a good size. Still $5.99 a slice, so not much of a deal.

All of the guys have moving arms in Adventure Express. Seems like forever since they've all worked.

Good report. I'm heading out to the park in about an hour, so hopefully it'll be pretty empty and I'll have a little bit of dry time.

Will you be putting lanterns in the window to warn if Ringo is coming by land or by sea?

Great pictures.

Good looking out for this article. Missed the question about how many trucks Robbie jumped over. Wasn't sure about the SOB question since it hasn't been the fastest anything in a while.

When I was a kid I had to always get a Scooby Doo or Fred Flintstone sipper.

I kind of love that post.

When they had "bring a friend free" days, they were the worst days ever. Almost wasn't even worth going to the park if you actually wanted to ride something. Not so sure about the discounted days. I'd imagine they're pretty bad though.

Racer is still my 3rd (sometimes 2nd) favorite coaster in the park. Here's to 40 more years.

My dad told me that people who hold their arms up going into the final helix on The Beast get them chopped off in the tunnels. Since he said it; it's totally true. It's even happened to me a couple of times. (Could only happen a couple times since I only have 2 arms.....had 2 arms....)

Tomb Raider. Even before it was the Crypt it was a bad ride, IMO. Went on media preview night when it opened and was sorely disappointed.

^ Was totally going to bring that up when I read this. I don't think KI is a test park. I think they test things at multiple parks, not necessarily just Kings Island.

So I guess Dippin' Dots, the ice cream of the future, was a little ahead of its time?

^Or a trashcan will be dribbling a basketball all over the park.

I bet that everything but the Kings Island 40th logo is generic and will be on all Cedar Fair cups this season. They'll just put the Cedar Point logo on there, and so on and so forth. Blue coasters and fireworks everywhere!

Ha! Maybe that's just a name we made for it when we were kids since there was a giant rocking Bamm Bamm around there.