8/12/07 Trip

[erhswimming]

This was my first time back to Kings Island in over five years. Growing up, I had always had season passes, so I was very familiar with the park, and I had ridden ever ride except for the newer ones that they have installed since my last visit, so not much was new for me and rather it was a trip down nostalgia lane.

Me and my sis got there at 9:45 AM and waited with a herd of people on International Street, waiting for the national anthem to play so we could get to Firehawk. We got there, and after about a 45 minute wait, we were on the 6th train, as they had only one train running at that point. It was much more fun than I thought it was going to be! Then we headed over to the Action Zone and hit up Face-off (20-30 minutes for front row), Drop Zone (5 minutes), SOB (30 minutes), Top Gun (5 minutes), and Delirium (15 minutes). All reasonable wait times, which made us very happy as we got in 6 major rides before lunch time. All were fun, except for the fact that I think my 6'1" body didn't handle SOB as well as it used to, and Delirium brought me close to throwing up (very weird since I have NEVER gotten sick off a spinning ride).

So after a relaxing lunch in the A/C at Festhaus (boy do I love LaRosa's), we headed over to Scooby Doo after a quick ride on Viking Fury, just because we hadn't ridden it, and my stomach was still churning from Delirium. It was actually the second longest wait of the day after Firehawk (30 minutes), but it was worth seeing. We then cooled off some more on Wild Thornberry's and White Water Canyon. By this time, I was feeling much better, and ready to tackle The Beast. Three times this time around, with a front row ride thrown in there too. We walked right on each time, except for when we rode in the front row. Then after some Dippin' Dots, we rode The Vortex, which beat us up pretty bad. We then took another break on Spongebob, which IMO goes down as the worst 3-D movie ever. Days of Thunder was much better, and if they want to keep the Nick theming, they need to take some notes on how Universal and Disney handle theirs.

By this time, my sister's shorts still hadn't dried out and my head was still hurting, so we went and bought some Aleve and a skirt for her to change into. Headache aside, we went and rode FoF, which was my sis's first time and we both agree it is much more fun and intense than Rock'n'Roller Coaster at MGM. There were no lights on for those of you who care, and you could barely see any track in front of you. Then we went and rode The Racer backwards, hoping to get back on and ride it forwards, but it gave us a pounding headache (I really don't remember these, it was annoying me). We also rode Adventure Express twice in a row in the front since they let us stay on while no one was in line, and I was able to take some good pictures of myself looking stupid (one had SOB in the background, making it look like I was on that instead, great for Facebook lol).

We were hungry again by this time and wanted to sit and eat, so we went to Bubba Gump's, only to find out it was counter service. So instead, we decided it would be best to just get a pretzel and eat out of the park somewhere MUCH cheaper (I don't want to see my credit card bill from all this lol). We took a quick tour up in the Eiffel Tower, then went over to Drop Zone to ride that twice more. Then we also rode the Slingshot since they had this special where it was only $15 per person instead of $25. Definitely worth the price. After all this, we went and rode Firehawk one last time, this time snagging the front row. By this time it was dark and the park was closing in 40 minutes, so we ran over to The Beast, and were able to ride it twice more before the park closed, and were able to get back in line once more before they closed the line. We were on the last public ride of the day (some coaster convention got to ride it after us) and it was extra dark by this time (about 10:20). It makes such a difference to ride it at night with all the tunnels, especially at the end where the light peeking through the holes of the helix tunnel makes it seem like The Beast is clawing at you.

It was a very fun, albeit tiring and hot day. Me and my sis were walking quickly from ride to ride all day, totaling 28 rides, including 6 rides on our favorite, The Beast. We had a great trip, coming up from Orlando to stay with our family for a week. Even after visiting all the Disney, Universal, and Busch parks in Florida, I still say Kings Island is my favorite park. And I also have to say Ohio's food owns. I hit so many local hotspots in such a short amount of time including Marion's, Graeter's, Rooster's, LaRosa's, Max & Erma's, Skyline, and I also am bringing home some Mike-Sell's and Esther Price. It wasn't until I moved until I realized how great SW Ohio is for food and roller coasters.

[BoddaH1994]

The Greater Cincinnati area is certainly full of a lot of personality. A lot of which is things that 'outsiders' wouldn't understand.

Glad you had a good time!

[CoastersRZ]

I also made a visit to the park on Sunday, August 12th. Lines were on the short side all day, which for a weekend, was rather surprising. I too rode Slingshot when I visited the park Sunday. It was my first time ever riding it (and I only paid $10 for it, not $15 because we rode it early in the day). If you had to choose between the two major pay attractions of Skyflyer and Slingshot, I`d say that Slingshot has a lot more thrill factor to it.

And isn`t Max & Erma`s regional or national?

[Keysersoze]

I was there this Sunday as well. Coolest thing that happen on this trip was while I was standing in line for The Beast it had some issues and shut down. Well I was second to next for the ride so I decided to wait, being it seems usual for it to only be a few miniutes most the time. Well it was a little longer, longer then most wanted to wait so there was I with one train load of people. I was waitng for front seat and after the first train loaded, I was alone, seemed they didn't get the line open soon enough for I was loaded and out of the station before anyone else showed up. To make a long story short, I got my first completey solo ride on my favorite woodie.

The ride operator made it even better when I came back and she said "Welcome Back Beast Rider!"

[tigellinus]

Yeah, in addition to Max & Erma's being national, I know for a fact they have Skyline's in Florida and tons continue to open there!! (now if only they could get a Gold Star in Indianapolis!!) Yes....count me as one who likes Gold Star better than Skyline!