Giga's Opening Day PTR/VTR

[gigacoaster2k]

Since Kat and I were both first riders and had to be at Kings Island very early, she came up with the brilliant idea to get a hotel room close to the park.

Before we checked into the hotel, we met up for dinner at Skyline by the Dayton mall. Kat was taking a tad longer than I'd expected, so I grabbed a tasty snack of sweet tea and oyster crackers while I waited.

I was going to order the coneys, but I decided to get the Skyline Fries instead.

Kat says, YUMMY CHEESE!!

After we ate, it was time to check in to the hotel. Here is a rather dark photo of our precious babies parked next to each other.

We saw that from certain parts of the hotel, you could see not only the Eiffel Tower, but (my)Drop Tower and (my)Diamondback. We walked up a hill by an interstate sign and tried to shoot video, but alas, it was no use, too dark.

Kat shot some video, I packed my cargo pockets accordingly for the next day, and we promptly attempted to go to sleep. I probably got about 4 hours of sleep, if that. I woke up about 45 minutes before the alarm went off, and was way too excited to go back to sleep.

We left for the park sometime around 6:30 am, and got there to see lines, lines, and more lines.

I was directed to group sales, where I waited close to 45 minutes to get my lanyard and my free admission ticket.

I was then directed to the main gate to the right. This is where I screwed up. In all my excitement, I handed the attendant my free admission ticket to get into the park instead of getting my platinum pass out of my pocket. I am so mad at myself for doing that. I was planning on saving that ticket to take my dad with me this year.

I walked toward Rivertown, and could feel excitement building like I've never felt before. I think I may have been dancing a little. I was so pumped.

On to the good stuff. Here is the Diamondback entrance sign, which I think looks great. I like how they put all the quotes from the teaser signs on it.

Here is the combination gift shop and ride photo, that you enter as you exit Diamondback. This has some great Diamondback merchandise, and is very well laid out. There are two exits from the gift shop.

I ended up in a completely still, very long line to get into Wings Diner. G-Force was in front of me, and I took some photos of Diamondback testing. By this time, I was so excited that I was literally jumping up and down.

It then decided it was going to momentarily stop on the lift. I laughed to myself and thought, what a great coincidence. This provided for a great photo opportunity, and I saw many people grabbing for their cameras and camera phones.

The larger part of the queue. I appreciate the tents over the queues, as later in the day we were expecting nonstop sunshine and temperatures in the 70s.

The new banners on the light posts in Rivertown. I love the ghosting of the snakeskin on the banners. It really added a nice touch of Cedar Fair to the park. Rivertown looks stunning. They really worked hard to restore the park to the way it should look.

We entered Wings Diner (which by the way looks very nice) to get our first rider tshirts with our rider numbers on the back. I decided to be different and made my sticker crooked on the back of my shirt.

Here it is, the moment I've been waiting for, for so long. I'm one of the first riders, rider number 165, in line for Diamondback! By this time, I was so happy that I was literally wiping tears of joy off of my face. Jesse thought I was scared, but I had to explain that I was far from it! I appreciate the concern though, Jesse is a really nice guy!

Here is a video I took of the very first riders going up the hill!

Here I am in the station! Jackson's in front here with his hands up, and that's Kat and Rex from rexandthebeast.com riding with her! Way to go Kat on winning the ride with Rex, have fun you guys!

As the gate opened, and I sat down in that surprisingly comfortable orange chair I'd been waiting to sit in for so long, my hands started to shake at the realization. My heart was pounding. I was actually going to ride Diamondback. I turned to Jesse and said, "It seems like yesterday we were looking at the first pieces of red track on the webcam." I sat second seat from the back, as the rear of the train is my favorite on most coasters. Of course I left a little space between myself and the restraint. I was beyond ecstatic that I was riding rear seat and not getting stapled on my first ride on this.

I screamed with joy as it plunged down the first drop and threw me out of my seat even as we dropped from the first hill. I have never in my life been on a B&M hyper, or a coaster with as much air as this one. It ejects you a couple of inches from your seat on every hill, you float there for a couple of seconds, and then you speed down the drops with amazing velocity toward the next massive burst of airtime. I am madly in love with Diamondback, and I am sorry to say it, but: Millie and Maggie, you just got knocked down a few pegs. One hill on Diamondback has more air than Magnum does during its entire ride cycle. I realize that some of you may disagree, but that's just my opinion.

I went with what some other first riders were doing (after asking Dane and Ryan if it was ok because I wasn't sure, I ran into them at the exit), and hurried back for a second ride before the passholder onslaught. This time I rode toward the front. Same airtime experience as I got from riding in the back. Diamondback completely blows me away. I could ride it all day long and never get tired of it. The air on that thing is out of this world.

I exited from my second ride, and was horrified at the ROTB. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I made a stupid decision, and decided I was going to try to make my way around the line. I ran into this.. they were corralling the passholders coming from the front of the park. Everyone started running straight from the corral, and there were several security guards with bullhorns telling people to walk and slow down, but half of the crowd wasn't listening. I saw several people trip and fall, but they did a great job of crowd control and I'm pretty sure no one got hurt.

I met back up with Kat, and we headed to Wings so we could get food, our Diamondback gift bags, and so I could pay my bid. We ended up not getting any food because it was all gone. However, my Diamondback tote bag had another first rider shirt in it, a Diamondback puzzle, Diamondback mints, and Diamondback playing cards.

Here is a photo of the $102,000 check going to A Kid Again. My eyes got a little misty when I saw it and realized how much money is going to sick children and their families. At that point, Diamondback was the furthest thing from my mind. There is no better feeling in the world than knowing you have helped to make a difference, especially to such a great cause.

Kat and I left Wings with Jackson, Jesse, Dvo, indianapolisman, IBEW Sparky, and Rex. We separated from the group a little so we could take some photos and video.

Here is a video I took of the line wrapped completely around Diamondback. We were told at this point that the wait to ride was 4 hours.

Here's where the KICentral group fun begins.

Kat, Jackson, Jesse, Dvo, indianapolisman, IBEW Sparky, Brian, and I headed for Beast. Trooper Mom held our bags for us and took photos of us. Thanks Trooper Mom, we really appreciated that! I love how you could smell the fresh chain grease going up the hill.

After that, Kat convinced me to ride Racer with her. In all honesty, I've always found it to be quite boring.. not only that, but the blue side is a little painful. This experience was different.. we got a trimless ride on the red Racer! Now that was fun! Thanks Kat for changing my mind!

Kat and I headed for her first ride on Slingshot.

Here is a video of Slingshot that I took while waiting in line. It launches you a good 275 feet in the air.

She loved it. It was my second life ride on it. I love Slingshot.. my only concern was that bugs would bullet me in the face as we launched. We were told somewhere around this point that Diamondback's line had grown to 6 hours.

Then it was off to our first rides (for both of us) on Xtreme Skyflyer. I offered to pull the cord because "I want the real adrenaline rush." The more I looked at that huge arch, the more nervous I got. I was fine until we were being hoisted up. I kept looking up, trying to figure out how close we were to the top. When it finally did stop, I think I was cutting off Kat's circulation with how tightly I was grabbing her arm. My heart was fluttering like a pinwheel in a hurricane as I realized how stupid I was for offering to pull the cord. There were a few seconds of dead silence. My shaky, sweaty hand reached for the cord, and a moment later I heard 3-2-1-FLY! I yanked that cord and WOW. I have to do that again. Kat screamed like a baby on the first swing.. it was hilarious.

After we purchased our video, Kat, Rex and I decided to leave the park for lunch at the LaRosa's a few miles from the park. I stopped to take a crummy video of the Diamondback metro buses in the parking lot.

Here is Kat's awesome napkin swan:

and her tasty salad:

and our large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. I like that she likes the same basic pizza as I do. I'm not fond of supreme or deluxe, so it worked. I destroyed 4 slices of this pizza, and 2 full glasses of Sprite before I declared that I was finally full. Rex left, so it was just Kat and I heading back to the park.

We took the rest of the pizza in a box, as we couldn't eat it all. We arrived back at the park to see Kawana and his woman in the parking lot. I yelled "KAWANA!!!" and he looks at me and says "I'm not Boddah!" That wasn't even close to what I said! Anyway, we stopped to chat with them for a little bit, and we gave them the pizza leftovers because they were hungry. He informed us that Diamondback's line was only at an hour. Like Kat said, there was an unspoken agreement between her and I when he said that.

Back to the park we go (after chugging 5 hour energy shots), and Diamondback is our plan. I took some photos on the way back to the B&M greatness.

Here is the food stand right next to Diamondback's entrance.

And me proudly showing off my #165 and my stunna shades.

I also took some photos of what is in the queue. We have mist fans,

brand new flat screen TVs,

and signs that people don't pay attention to.

I got a video of the splashdown. I've said it a hundred times, and I'll say it again. The animation doesn't do it justice.

More photos of Diamondback, from a different perspective.

Standing right under the lift chain.

I took a video of the excitement in the Diamondback station.

We decided to hit Vortex with our new friend Elissa that we met in line for Diamondback. I am not sure if anyone else has noticed, but Kat and I, along with several others that we mentioned it to, noticed that Vortex has a slight roar and there seems to be less headbanging. They had to have given it some love besides just giving it a new coat of paint, because it feels like it did when I first rode it 13 years ago. It kept breaking down over and over, but we did finally get to ride it.

The freshly repainted Vortex. It looks great.

The nasty bandana is still stuck in the tree from last year.

After Vortex; Kat, Elissa, and I met up with Derek, Chase, and Kawana for a ride on Beast. For some reason, this line was taking forever.

There were several more people coming to meet with us, and every single one of them was texting me to figure out exactly when and where to meet up, so I had some serious organizing to do.. and I did it ALL through text messaging.

After Beast; Kat, Derek, Elissa, Chase and I met up with Dustin and Danielle, for a ride on Diamondback. Everyone was behind me and they were all yelling at me on the lift hill and cheering. I love you guys.

After that, Dustin, Kat and I headed for Drop Tower. For some reason, as the tower hit the brakes, Kat got an excruciatingly painful muscle spasm in her leg and had to sit down. I took this opportunity sitting with my crippled friend to take a video of Drop Tower.

After that, the three of us headed to Adventure Express. I've always thought this ride was boring, but that was before I rode it at night. It was actually a pretty sweet ride at night, the track is black and it's down in the trees, so you have NO idea where you are going!

The three of us headed for a night ride on Diamondback, which was completely and totally amazing. I lost Kat, Danielle, and Dustin, and discovered that Dustin had went home. I tried my hardest to find Kat, but I decided to get in the Diamondback queue before the line closed. I ended up getting on the last train of the night with Dvo and some of his friends.

After the park closed, Kat and I headed to Waffle house and cleaned them out, then went our separate ways.

I have to say, the park really does have definite Cedar Point magic now, and everyone that rode with me was awesome. A HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who made this the best day I have ever had at Kings Island so far. I don't know what kind of day I would have had if I hadn't joined KICentral and made so many amazing new friends.. you guys really did make my day.

Ride count:

Diamondback - 6

Beast - 2

Skyflyer - 1

Slingshot - 1

Drop Tower - 1

Vortex - 1

Racer - 1

Adventure Express - 1

Edited April 21, 2009 by gigacoaster2k

[TheCryptRaider]

Niiiice. You're lucky, I got to ride Diamondback once. I think I saw you and Kat at one point.. I just didn't recognize you at the moment.. Looks like you had fun!

[PhantomTheater]

Hate to criticize you but my name is spelled Derrick! It is a pet peeve of mine when my name is spelled the other way. Anyways it was great riding with you on The Beast!

[TopThrill]

Nice trip report, I was apart of that.

(A lot of people there)

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

Wow, that's a real bummer you gave away your ticket. Looks like you had some good rides. I have still only rode once and I'm dying to get back and do it some more.

[violakat03]

I totally forgot about my napkin swan. That was good fun.

I learned that I don't have enough energy to keep up with the giga. She is non-stop energy, I need breaks every now and then!

[Gabe]

I totally forgot about my napkin swan. That was good fun.

I learned that I don't have enough energy to keep up with the giga. She is non-stop energy, I need breaks every now and then!

I'm like Angie too when I'm at the park.. if I eat lunch, i scarf it down in like 20 mins so I can ride some more..lol..a friend of mine once dreamed up a park in RCT called 'Ride World' where there would be nothing but 500 ft tall coasters, no benches and limited food..just rides..oh and only 1 set of restrooms..lol..he was on the Disney CP with me, so we got many good laughs out of his plans. Needless to say it was for enthusiasts only!

[violakat03]

I'm just fat and out of shape, lol. I spent all day Sunday sleeping and lazing around, recovering. But the good thing is, days like Saturday will help me lose weight!

[gigacoaster2k]

LOL. I'm all about the free ice water (which I never enter a long line without) and only eating once. I'll get hungry, then I'll ride Slingshot or Drop Tower and my stomach says "never mind." I rely on the adrenaline bursts from my favorite rides to keep my energy going and my need to eat at a minimum.

My only problem was the adrenaline crash on the drive home, which I usually only had last year after driving home from Cedar Point. I had a bad one on the way back this weekend, even though it was only an hour drive back up here. About 10 miles south of Dayton, I felt the crash and my eyes literally started crossing and kept wanting to shut. Very, very bad since I was doing about 80 next to a concrete wall. I immediately grabbed a 6 hour power shot out of my center console and chugged it.. a couple of minutes later, I was fine.

[TheCryptRaider]

I'm all about the free ice water.

Amen sista. Amen.

Waaaay better then slapping down $4 to get a soft drink.

(It's waaay better then fast food, its Wendy's!)

(^sorry, just had to^)

[tigellinus]

^^So does the 5 Hour (or 6 Hour) Energy really work??

I had one driving back from CP in 07 and thought it did nothing. I bought one on Friday for Saturday (the Max kind), but found a Red Bull in the morning and then on the drive back were both enough...so I'm curious about trying this?

[gigacoaster2k]

It works for me. It may or may not work for you, it affects people differently. Some people chug the whole bottle at once. I actually drink half the bottle and then sip the rest at intervals to keep the buzz going.

I really like the fruit punch 6 hour, it tastes kind of like KoolAid. The 5 hour energy tastes horrid to me, but they work.

[violakat03]

I use 5 hour energy. It always works. Plus there's not much caffeine or sugar in it so you don't crash.

[gigacoaster2k]

By the way, if you sit in the very very back, don't do what I did and put your arm all the way back directly over the water scoop as the train enters the splashdown.

I got blasted.. my right arm and right leg were dripping wet, and I was wringing water out of my shirt sleeve.. Kat did the same thing because she was sitting with me, and her left side got the same.. it was hysterical.

[DropZone99]

Cool riding Beast with you guys! Wish we could of hung out more!

[Avatar]

Nice report Giga and thanks for the ride, nothing like the first time. sorry for the misdiagnosis of your emotion as I usually only see tears for those who are scared while waiting in line for coasters. Until know I have never seen tears from excitement for a coaster, that is proof positive your a true coaster lover and why they make shirts that say that.

[kjkjkj]

Sounds like you guys had a fun time. I too loved how Rivertown looked this year. It really felt like a themed area this year! The park looked fantastic.

I wish we could have gotten on DB more than once. Oh well.

My group is actually in one of your pictures. It was me, my sister (Ashers), and my cousin. You can see my cousin and Ashers in this picture. I am sitting on the brick wall behind them so you can't really see me. But they are the ones in the bright yellow and pink "Paramore" jackets.

[gigacoaster2k]

My group is actually in one of your pictures. It was me, my sister (Ashers), and my cousin. You can see my cousin and Ashers in this picture. I am sitting on the brick wall behind them so you can't really see me. But they are the ones in the bright yellow and pink "Paramore" jackets.

Ash actually found me while I was in the group sales line. I told her I'd find her later, but I never did.. I feel bad. Same with kittenpooh.

[beastrider97]

Before we checked into the hotel, we met up for dinner at Skyline by the Dayton mall. Kat was taking a tad longer than I'd expected, so I grabbed a tasty snack of sweet tea and oyster crackers while I waited.

I was going to order the coneys, but I decided to get the Skyline Fries instead.

MMMM Skyline Chili! Love the Coneys!

Great Trip Report!

Going this weekend! I can't wait!

[gigacoaster2k]

Videos are now embedded.

[kiruler102]

i thought they where before?

[gigacoaster2k]

i thought they were before?

The videos weren't embedded before. I only had them linked because the YouTube embed code didn't work, it only showed up as text. There is a special BB code process to embed YouTube videos, Kat called and helped me out.

[kiruler102]

lol they still worked for me.

[Tom76257]

Hey, that's part of me in my white shirt in that picture of the Snake Pit! I didn't even know you took it. Great trip report by the way. It was nice to meet you and Kat while you were in line for Diamondback. I'd love to see you guys during Ride Warriors Weekend!

[BoddaH1994]

The shot you took of the splashdown with the rainbow is amazing. Glad to see you enjoyed it!!!

[tigellinus]

Hey Tom, when are you going to update your avatar now?? And btw, you definitely look different in person than in that ghastly SOB pic!

[74Gibson]

Thanks for the excellent TR! It's helping hold me over till I get to go.

[Kawana]

Sorry I misunderstood what you said out in the lot. By that point I was literally running on fumes. Aside from getting to ride Diamondback, that had to be one of my worst visits to the park. It was cool seeing you all and seeing how excited you were. Perhaps one day we'll meet up and I can rival your coaster stamina.

[bzahlong]

Great PTR, giga! We made it over to KI Saturday night from about 6-10, but with the 7 year old in tow there was no Diamondback for us. We did get her on the Red Racer for the first time, which was awesome.

I'm going to try to sneak over to KI Friday night after work for my first ride on coaster #172. (I'm crossing my fingers that I don't qualify as too hippy...lol)

[gigacoaster2k]

Sorry I misunderstood what you said out in the lot. By that point I was literally running on fumes. Aside from getting to ride Diamondback, that had to be one of my worst visits to the park. It was cool seeing you all and seeing how excited you were. Perhaps one day we'll meet up and I can rival your coaster stamina.

It's all right, I have a lot of people ask me to repeat myself. Much of my heritage is Hungarian/Romanian, so I can be a bit hard to understand sometimes.

As far as coaster stamina.. bring it!