Trip report 6/29/08

[Justin_M17]

Trip Report - 6/29/08

WARNING: Detailed report, long read.

I was roused at roughly 7 AM. My alarm clock had gone off, but I didn't hear it (VERY heavy sleeper) so my loving puppy decides to launch herself onto my face and wake me up. I'm guessing she wanted the noise to stop, lol. But I got out of bed and got dressed. About an hour later my cousin and friend (Sabrina and Nikki respectively) showed up looking as tired, if not more tired, than I was. After double checking our backpacks for food, extra clothes, etc. and explaining to a very concerned mother why breakfast wasn't a good idea, we hopped into my car, with my annoying kid brother in tow, and left.

After roughly an hour and a half of driving we pulled into the parking lot. No sooner than I hit the brakes to slow us down, my brother was shooting out of the back seat and running to the entrance gate. It took the rest of us a couple minutes to get our junk out of the car and on our backs, but we managed to catch up with him. At this time the security guards were letting people into the front of the park, but they still had the majority of the park roped off. So we all sat at one of the tables near the shop where you can make your own custom teddy bear, I forget the name, and talked for a bit. I felt extremely sorry for the guard that took the rope down when it was time for the park to open. As soon as there was room to get past him people started running as though the gates of hell had been flung open behind them (Ourselves included). We all ran straight back to the Flight of Fear.

Most people say that's a stupid idea and that we'd be better off riding trademark rides like Beast or Son of Beast first, but I prefer loops and such over steep drops and being beaten up in the back car. But we were first in line for FoF. We took up the entire front car, me with Sabrina (Who had never been on the ride before. This was going to be good, especially considering we were the first ride of the day) And my brother with Nikki. Before the launch, while waiting for other people to come fill up a few more of the cars, Sabrina kept asking me why the sticker on the car said to keep your head against the headrest. With a big grin on my face I tell her to just do as it says, which scared her quite a bit and made the whole thing funnier to me. As the ride operators put their thumbs up I heard her give a little involuntary squeal, but decided to pretend I didn't hear it.

Then the ride shot forward and she screamed SO loudly, haha. The whole time through I was being slapped on the shoulder and told that she hated me, which I found hilarious. Once the ride was over we got out onto the platform, Sabrina was doing some weird kind of wobbling rather than walking: The price you pay for riding the fun coasters first, I guess . My bother announced that he'd be riding this a couple more times, after telling him to wait for us on one of the benches when he was done we went off to Firehawk. None of us had ever rode that before, mainly due to a long line every time we tried to get on. But thankfully there was no line at all this time. So we ran through and around the rails and onto the platform. The train that was in the station was already full so we had to wait for a minute or two before ours came around. We got into the front car. Both of my friends squealed as the ride laid us down, I made a weird kind of jump not because I didn't know it was coming as much as I didn't know WHEN it was coming. Going up the lift hill, I heard Nikki say "This ain't so bad."

And then we reached the top and turned so that we were facing the ground and evidently she changed her mind because I heard a very loud scream coming from her direction. During the ride I did my best to extend my arms out in front of me, but the restraints made it kind of difficult. After the ride we left and looked at our picture and I burst out laughing at the look on my cousin's face. She hit me. We walked out of the exit, our last walk-on ride for the day was over. We couldn't see my brother anywhere, so we sat down on one of the benches and anxiously watched the exit to FoF looking for him to come out. 10 minutes later and nothing. I figured we'd be fine to just go ahead and leave him to his own devices for the day. He knew when we were supposed to meet to leave the park, and the general location. AND he knows the park well enough so that he may as well just move in. It may have been an irresponsible decision on my part, but it was nice to get a day at KI without him tagging along keeping me from riding anything other than Adventure Express and Flight of Fear. Both of my guests were looking a little queasy at this point, so I decided to have a little fun. I told them that we were going to a more relaxing ride. I told them that we were going to a theater. This was both of their first trips to KI for the record. As we walked into the line for The Crypt (Laughing yet?) they seemed slightly scared.

But once the wall opened up to let us onto the ride they believed that it was just a theater and that they were going to sit and watch something. I told them to put their phones and purses in the pouches in front of them. I did the same with my Ipod and wallet, doing my very best to hide the smile on my face. As the ride attendant came by to make sure our restraints were shut, Sabrina asked her what we were watching. "Oh no, BUSTED!" I thought. I did my best to convey the message that I was tricking my friends to the attendant with a look on my face and she evidently understood me, because she said "Just a documentary on Kings Island like in the Imax Theater." "Excellent" I thought, why hadn't I thought of telling them it was like Imax? As the attendants exited the ride area Sabrina asked me when the movie started. A few people around us laughed and she looked at me with a worried look on her face. I said "We're not exactly watching a movie."

"Well what are we doing then?"

"You'll find out. I have a feeling I'm going to get my butt kicked when we get off of here"

At that point, the ride started. We turned around to hang upside down in our seats and they both squealed and then screamed my name in a tone that didn't make me feel very comfortable about what was going to happen once they were able to get to me. But we hung there for a couple more seconds before the ride put us in full motion. They both yelled at me numerous times during the course of the ride, which, naturally, had a huge smile etched across my face. We walked out of the building the ride was inside.

At that point, as I had expected, they both attacked me. I held up my arms to keep them away from my face and laughed out loud at the same time and they had looks on their face that were somewhere in between "I can't believe I fell for that" and "I'm going to kill this kid." But in a minute or so they calmed down and we all laughed about it, then I walked them over to Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion and promised them that this was going to be relaxing and fun. After about 10 minutes waiting we got onto te rotating floor to get into our car and Nikki fell over. I was roaring with laughter and she slapped me. Then we got into our car and grabbed our flashlight/gun things.

I told them that if either one of them beat me I'd piggyback her to the next ride we were riding. After a lot of pulling the trigger and hearing that extremely annoying noise the ride was over. I had a score of 1260 which I thought would be more than enough to beat them. I looked over and Nikki had 30 (Looking extremely POed) and Sabrina had 1320. And that, my friends, is what you would call "The ultimate slap in the face." She took great pleasure in hopping on my back and telling me that she wanted to ride Invertigo. At that point in time, I had never hated my cousin more. I carried her all the way up to the Action Zone (Both of them laughing and making jokes the entire way) and we got into the line for one of the front/back cars. Three trains later we got on. On the first trip through, we were going backwards, but on the return trip Sabrina caught a couple cicadas in the face.

Which, in my eyes, more than made up for the annoyance of carrying her to the ride. Walking down the path leading away from Invertigo, watching my dear cousin wipe bug guts off of her face, I was laughing maniacally. We walked toward Son of Beast and to my surprise, the line was relatively short compared to what it usually was. All in all, we waited about 30 minutes before we were in our car and ready to go. Going up the lift hill, we all marveled at the awesome view it was. After the chain released us and we went down the first small hill, Nikki was hyperventilating (She has a SLIGHT problem with heights...hehe). I told her not to worry, that it'd only take us a second or two to get back to ground level on the drop. She replied with "Justin, you're a dick." At that point I reminded her that my parents had taught me to find something I was good at and to run with it.

Then we started down the hill. The wind coming into my face was making my eyes water horribly (We were in the front car) and it was MY turn to get a cicada in the face. And my guess is that we were traveling 60-70 MPH when it happened, so naturally it hurt very badly. I made a mental note to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the ride. As we got off, all of our hair was in an enormous mess from being blown around so much. We took a minute or two to at least get it to lie flat and then we were off to Drop Zone. This is the only ride outside of the nickelodeon section that I actually hate. I'll ride it, but I can't stand the feeling you get when you fall straight down and it's like your stomach just shot up into your chest. When we hit the top of the tower I remembered seeing Robbie Knievel begin his jump before plummeting back to earth. This time it was Sabrina and Nikki's turn to laugh as I screamed my head off (Had me thinking "Man...Paybacks a (Female Dog)").

Walking away from Drop Tower I was glad to have it behind me, then we headed to Delirium. I found the ride to be pretty boring except for when it was swinging to the highest point and as it dropped I was facing the ground. Other than that I was extremely bored. Exiting Delirium I told my friends that they were in for a treat. I wanted to do the Slingshot but unfortunately you can only fit two people. So I ponied up the cash to ride the X-treme Skyflier which was a real thrill. By the time we got un-harnessed it was nearing 1 'o' clock. So we decided to walk back up to Rivertown and get on the train to Boomerang Bay partly to get a break from thrill rides, and partly to get out of the flesh-frying sun for a few minutes. We got there and changed into our swimsuits, went to the wave pool and stored our stuff under one of the chairs, and then went in to splash around for a bit. We got out and rode every ride in the water park, including Tasmanian Twister or whatever it is, we all loved that one, but then we returned to our chairs to lay out for a little bit.

It was nice to get off my feet and rest. I put my Ipod in one ear and listened to one of my favorite calming songs (Hotel California - The Eagles) And talked a bit. We talked about what we thought my brother was doing right about now and had some laughs fantasizing about him being stuck at the top of the lift hill for SoB due to a problem with the chain. Then I borrowed Nikki's phone and called him and told him that he needed to come to Boomerang Bay so we could eat. He found us at our poolside paradise and we munched on some sandwiches containing lunch meat from Krogers and made him angry by telling him that he needs to wait for 10 minutes before he can run off again. He has a bad habit of stealing candy and small merchandise from the stores in the park.

We found him with two stolen wristbands, a ring, and a "Mood necklace." He'd even managed to get a FoF T-Shirt from the vendor near the entrance to K-base (I think that's what the area with FoF and Firehawk is called). After we all ate our food we decided it was time to go back to the regular park and ride the rides we hadn't been on yet. The four of us sat together on the train ride back and back at the rivertown station my brother ran off again. And we went on The Beast. After that we did Backlot Stunt Coaster, Adventure Express, and Vortex in that order. At that point, I heard a familiar noise coming from my backpack. I quickly took it off and searched through the pockets and found my cell phone playing Jukebox Hero. I was amazed, I thought I had lost it. I had been looking for it since the end of the school year back on the 5th. But I answered it and found out that a few more of my friends were pulling into the park as we spoke, I told them to wait at the entrance for us and then we ran up to meet them. After introducing the new arrivals to the friends that I already had with me we all walked to The Vortex.

After a very quick wait in a seemingly huge line (One of the reasons I love Vortex) We boarded the ride. There were so many of us that we filled up the first two cars and the front seat on the third. We had a good time laughing and joking as the ride went up the lift hill and then some of us had even more fun laughing at the others on the rest of the ride. The rest of the day was pretty much the same as the rest of this report. Riding random rides, cracking jokes, laughing, and generally having a good time. Before we knew it, the park was closing and we were all forced to leave. We swung by the McDonalds on the way home to Trenton and got some food and then headed back to my house. We were still pretty hyper, so we blew some energy by playing a few songs on Rock Band.

About an hour later (Roughly 12:30 AM) we were exhausted. My brother went off to his room and the other three of us pulled some comforters out of the closet and laid them out on the floor of my room. We decided to leave showers for tomorrow morning and turned the lights off and crashed

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm buying a camera when I get paid in a couple weeks so next trip report or the one after I should have some pictures to put up here! All in all we had a good day even though I spent a fortune, lol. Looking forward to going back next weekend!

[Kawana]

Well, that was long. Sounds like a fun day. Thanks for sharing.

I hope your brother breaks his "habit" for his sake.

[The Interpreter]

Great trip report, but a little paragraphing would have made it a LOT easier to read than large blocks of space.

[Justin_M17]

Great trip report, but a little paragraphing would have made it a LOT easier to read than large blocks of space.

Sorry, I had it paragraphed in word but I guess it didn't carry over when I pasted it in here

[The Interpreter]

It's easy for you to go back and edit it now....That's far too good to have people pass up due to the discomfort of reading such large blocks of text...especially for those of us who are chronologically advanced...If you had pasted it from word as plain text (not formatted) the line spacing wouldn't all be on top of each other either.

I'm not trying to harp or be a nag, I am trying to help you make your text more readable so more of us can and will enjoy it.

[Mighty Mouse]

You ever think about mentioning your brother's "problem" to your parents before he gets caught and arrested?

[The Interpreter]

I'd advise the same thing. Do know that Cedar Fair is prone to prosecute shoplifters the first time, regardless of age. It was at Dorney Park years ago I first saw what I still consider a hideous sign, in orange:

Want a free ride in a police car? Steal something from this store.

I guess management thought it was cute. I thought it was (and is) tacky, and almost issues a dare to thrill seeking thieves.

[Justin_M17]

I told my parents about it, he got a pretty rough couple of weeks for it too. I don't think he'll be doing it again XD

[Mighty Mouse]

It's better that he learn early and with parental punishment than with a juvie record.

[Justin_M17]

It's better that he learn early and with parental punishment than with a juvie record.

Good point. I learned that the hard way, only it was with hitting kids who made me mad and not stealing things.

[sgshredder33]

Good attention to detail. It really helps with the off-season blues.

[DropZone99]

^ You need help with the off season blue do you? Well go to trip reports and look at ones from like 2007 (My favorite Season at KI for some reason.) It was cool, Firehawk was new, SOB was testing, Drop Tower was closed cause of the SFKK accident, and Racer was still backwards!

[sgshredder33]

^Will do and thanks for the advice.