Reality Takes On King's Island

[Reality15]

After spending a day driving to Cincinnati, a night in a decent hotel, and almost 1/3 of my trip's budget, I headed on my way to King's Island. One of my favorite parts about going to any park is the skyline as you're driving into the parking lot. Unfortunately King's Island's big rides are all in the Action Zone, proving to be a very boring skyline.

ACE card in hand, I walked into the park (nice metal detectors...) and over to the ACE block. 9:15 rolled around, and nobody was there (Guest Relations people I mean). 9:30 and still no one, so I went to Guest Relations and they said 9:45.

Finally, Beth from Guest Relations took us eight ACE members back to The Beast, which wasn't awake yet. We waited for a while, and finally it was ready to open. I decided for a middle seat for my first ride, and Beth hopped in next to me for a ride.

The Beast is an awesome ride, it jumped to #1 on my wooden list instantly. The terrain really does a great job in making this ride awesome, not to mention that wicked helix! Overall, I had to ride again in the back seat to give it a good judgement, ending up at 9.5/10

Vortex was next, my first Arrow multilooper. It was a lot smoother than people say it is, and offers a great ride all-around. Not to mention the boomerang is awesome. 8/10

A quick trip over to Flight of Fear for some awesome space age theming and storyline (Cedar Point, take notice). This would be my first Premier coaster, so I didn't know what to expect. The launch is great, but after Top Thrill Dragster no launch is much of a thrill. The rest of the ride is amazing, and the block brakes mid-ride provide a good look at the ride. 8.5/10

Opting for a ride on The Racer, I took the shorter line and went forwards. It's a great classic woodie that I think should run with three-bench PTC's. 6/10

Adventure Express was a cool little ride, and it is a lot more thrilling than some good-sized woodies out there. A bit more theming would be nice though. 7/10

I took a quick break for lunch, then headed back into the park for a ride on Face/Off, my first Vekoma coaster. It sure is a different ride than I thought it would be, but the roughness brings its rating down. 7/10

I thought about riding Son of Beast next, but unfortunately he was having a temper tantrum, so I opted for the 30-minute wait of Top Gun. I didn't think the ride would be all-to thrilling, and oh-boy was I wrong. The second drop itself is one of the best drops on any coaster I've ever ridden. It swings into my book with an 8/10

With Son of Beast still closed, and the time already going on 2:00, I headed to The Beastie for my junior credit for the day. I won't even rank it since it's not only a clone of a coaster I've ridden around 100 times, but also because it's a junior coaster.

Scooby Doo and Ghoster Coaster were busy, so I headed over to the flume (Reptar's line was huge). Pretty good, but I hear and now think that the Keelboat Canal was better, as it was rougher than any coaster I've ever ridden. 3/10

The people in my group were ready to go, but there was no way I was leaving without a ride on Son of Beast. Sure enough, it was running, so I got inline (which ended up being in the station) and opted for a front-seat ride. I had heard things all day about it being rough (lets not forget the "I want to ride Sonofa*****"), but I didn't care. Overall, it's a great ride, but not the kind I enjoy. 7.5/10

My group was restless, so we got in the car and left, only to get pumped for Day 2, Geauga Lake.

PART TWO is coming next Sunday, as I'm leaving in a few hours for the week.

[BoddaH1994]

I'm glad to hear that you had a good time at the park. Did they check your ACE ID for the walkback? From what I understand, they never do, and it's more or less public domain.

I agree that The Vortex isn't as rough as they make it out to be. It's also too bad that SOB was down. Although it is far from my favorite, it's still a must-do.

[RCTfreak]

Being a ACE member myself since '99 it use to be they would check it and you could bring 1 non-ACE guest. Since then this year atleast they havent checked it at all. Also as you figured out the hard whay i think is that on the ACE website it does infact say 9:15 yet it isnt as you now know

[DragonLord]

I wouldn't mind ACE walkbacks but we are never told when they are, so we have a big group of people walking behind our ropes in the morning and were like "What the heck?". Of course, with the GR or rides person with you it's all good, but we would really like a little warning. GR has a lot to do in the mornings, so it's hard to get them to you guys before 9:30. Besides, it's actually better that you don't get back there till about quarter till only because we don't actually clear the vehicals from the park till about 10 till 10.