7/29 Visit

[Jasper]

We got to the park at about 3:30 after we had visited the aquarium and ate at Hooters on the barge . W had to park in The Beast 29 which is was out there and quite a walk. Went back to The Beast and they had the gold pass speed lane line where the front of the train usually waits so that made for a much longer wait. It was my friends first time on The Beast so i figured i wouldnt break him in with the back seat just yet. I was kind of dissapointed that our own Gordan Bombay was not working there as he was on my last visit (7/25). None the less a good ride.

Then he was looking at Vortex and was saying, "No way am i doing that!" Eventually we talked him into it and he had his eyes closed the whole time. IMO the best drop in the park is on Vortex. Waited about 10-15 minutes for it and it turned out to be one of the best rides we had all day.

Now he thought that he had rode Vortex so he can get on anything. So we stopped by the baseball speed pitch and i won a Duke towel. Woot Woot!! So after our shinanaganns at the speed pitch we decided to hit up Flight of Fear. The line stretched out the hangar almost and had every turnstial open except the ones in the back. About a 45 minute wait but he absolutely loved it. Checked out the on ride video and then we headed over to Firehawk. DUN DUN DUN!!

Got in line to find out that it had filled up the whole first set of lines and was workin gon its way back to the second but we saw that it was moving fairly quick so got in line. The person up in the front told us about an hour wait but it turned out to be about 45 minutes as well. Got to ride in the yellow train and i have rode it 4 times and i have split with 2 rides in the front and 2 in the back counting this one. Man i love this ride. This is my second favorite ride at Kings Island now. My friend didnt seem to like it because of where you are hanging going down the first hill and he doesnt like heights that much.

Now we decided to go on around and make our way to The Racers which to my surprise had absolutely no one in the station. He didnt want no ride backwards so we got on the forwards one and rode in the second to back seat and got some good air time and stayed on due to the lack of people waiting in line. This ride is over 30 years old but is still a good ride for air time.

Then it was on to Delirium which had only one row of turnstials open and as soon as we got up there to get in line and came to find out that some one had threw up on it and it was all over a couple of seats. So we moved on to Drop Zone which my friend would not ride because of his fear of heights. So it ended up being me and his dad riding it. Got in line and got up 3 from the next ride and some idiot kid had brought pennies and dimes on the ride and was holding him in his hand and that somehow caused the magnets to malfunction so they had to reset them and test it. So we had to get out of line for that. Then we headed over to Delirium to find that it was back up and operating. Abouot a 15 minute wait for a ride that was well worth it. This is one of my favorite flat rides anywhere.

Then we saw that Drop Zone was back up and working and waited one cycle.I dont know what it is about this ride but once you ride it a lot it just doesnt seem as high up as it was the first time you rode it. But still being up in the air 264 feet is an adrenaline rush and the drop is simply amazing. My favorite flat anywhere.

After this we needed to ride a roller coaster. We headed to face/off and waited about 20 minutes which is really a short line compared to what it usually is. Now is when i decided to break my friend in. I got the second seat from the back where you face down going up the first drop at its highest point. I think there are points on this ride where i about half way blacked out. Especially going into that loop backwards. A very fun ride though. Very intense.

So our day is about winding down and we still ha dnot rode Italian Job. We head over there to it to find out that it is cycling with no one on it and has a pretty good sized line. So we contemplate riding and it and decide to wait til later so we went and hit up The Beast one ;ast time. I figured with it being the last time we were going to ride it we had beter get the back seat and get a good ride out of it. After almost 30 years this thing can still get up and go. I would just like to bew on it once without those awful trim brakes. The helix is still the msot amazing part of the ride and it just goes to show that no matter how old a coaster is it can still thrill riders with the best of them.

After we did The Beast we headed over to Italian Job to find a shorter line and everything was back up and running. Everytime i ride this i keep thinking that it is not all that powerful of a launch and it is not a very thrilling coaster but i am always taken by surprise. My friend really liked it especially the part where the helicopter shoots at you and the falmes shoot out. I still like the tunnel because you cannot see anything in there and everything is so unexpected. But i still do not think this ride is worth a 5 rating on the scale. Maybe a 3 or 4. Most likely a 4.

So we had time for one more ride before we leave and we all decided upon Fligh Of Fear. Waited maybe 10 minutes and rode probably the best ride of that day. We wanted to see our on ride video but did not get to because it had already been closed down. Si i stopped and got a Firehawk T-Shirt and a Coca-Cola and we headed home.

Overall a great trip and for only being there for about 5 or 6 hours we rode everything that was open. I was a little dissapointed that Son of Beast closed down at 3:30 so i did not get to ride it.

[PKIVortex]

I thought SOB closed early yesterday. I kept looking to see trains from the Firehawk Que when I rode it twice later in the afternoon/evening but never saw a SOB train go. However after the park closed I swore I heard a train go down the top part of the lift.