Ohio Trip 2009 July 15-27 + Multi day trip report

[dragsterfan420]

Well to start off, basically every summer I go up to the King's Island area of Ohio (Mason/West Chester) to visit family and basically just have a little vacation from Miami. On the 15th of July I headed to MIA(Miami International Airport) at about 10:00am. My plane was suppose to depart at 12:30. After going through all the security nonsense I got to my terminal and waited for a good 30 minutes then we started boarding.

From here on out I'll comment the pictures instead of writing alot.

SIDE NOTE: All pictures are very high res and big and can be given to if desired.

Here's the plane that would be taking me to the greater Cincinnati airport. A Delta CRJ-700. You wanna here a stupid flan plan?

First I was to take off at MIA. Then fly to Cincinnati. Stay there for basically an hour and then fly to Dayton's airport. How weird's that? It didn't bother me because that was the cheapest ticket and from either Dayton's or Cincinnati's airport it's the same distance to my cousin's house.

Here's what the sky looked like before I left Miami.

A shot while taking off.

I love taking shots while in the air; especially of storm clouds.

Finally, at around 6 o'clock I got into Dayton. I was exhausted but there was still an hour drive to my cousin's house. This is a new tower they're building at the airport. I saw a sign inside that said it would be finished in late fall I think. It looks very interesting.

On the way there, their was some very beautiful scenery...

...and something that let me know I was getting closer to my target area.

Here's where I was staying for the good week and a half while I was up there. The basement portion of my cousin's house. I love it. It's dark, cold, and an entertainment hub. (you'll know what I mean in my next pics)

Here's the first t.v. and the mega computer my cousin uses to play all his games(WoW, Counter-Strike:Source, etc).

And here's the better side. A huge 65" t.v. with an Xbox 360, PS3, and digital cable. Tons of games/movies. A couch that's very comfortable and a big bean bag type thing.

And if that wasn't enough there's a pool table too. Plus more movies in the back of the pic.

Finally here's a pic back towards the stairs.

Well after my trip up there I just "chilled" at the house for one day(only have pics of basement, sorry). So on the 16th I went to KI. I know not the best day but it actually wasn't too bad. Those pics will be up tomorrow. Thanks for checking this out. More to come!

[dragsterfan420]

Now it's time for the real PTR to start. As I left off in the last post I just "chilled" at the house for the whole night after my flight. The next day (07/16) I woke up around 10:00am and after a while to wake up decided I'd go to KI. I left the house at about 3:40pm and got to the park at 4:00pm. Again, I'll let the pics do the talking.

After about 10 minutes of driving I could just visualize the top of Diamondbacks first hill and instantly my adrenaline started pumping. Now their's something you need to know. I live in Miami. In Florida, not Ohio. The closest roller coaster to me is the Dania Beach Hurricane and the closest park is Disney World, Universal, etc. So I do not get to ride coasters alot. I basically have to wait until summer, when I venture up to Ohio, to experience riding a roller coaster again. So that's basically every other 6 months I get to ride a coaster.

Still getting closer and closer I could see just how massive DB was. Last time I was in Ohio it was December/January and the only thing standing of DB was the first two hills.

Even from the parking lot DB looked so beauteous I had to start taking some pictures.

The new sign on the entrance to the park.

After getting these few shots I headed over to the season pass building to get my season pass registered. Since the time was now around 4:10pm no other member of the public was in the building. Thanks to the quick work of the people in there I was in in and out of there in less than five minutes.

First off, I had to get the staple King's Island shot.

Next, instead of running straight to Diamondback I headed towards Action Zone.

Congo Falls; a fairly decent water flume. I remember riding this over and over when I was younger.

Sploosh.

Where's the boat?

Since I was already in close proximity with Invertigo(Face/Off) I decided to try and ride.

Even though the park was not crowded the line, in my opinion, was too long too be worth the wait.

I heard a few people say "What happened to Face/Off?"

Heading over to Top Gun, I mean Flight Deck, I decided to take a picture of this beauty.

Yeah, it was pretty empty.

I waited around 15 minutes for the back car and got right on.

Flight Deck was a great start for coaster riding this summer. In the back I got major airtime going down the first hill and it was extremely forceful through some of the turns. Still one of my favorites in the park.

90 degrees(in relation to the ground).

I just noticed that photobucket killed the quality of my photo's. Im very disappointed.

Drop Tower. My favorite flat ride at the park.

After Action Zone I decided to head towards Coney Mall. Of course I had to get on Adventure Express. While strolling through the empty q-line I took some shots of the strongly missed King Cobra.

AE is my favorite mine train coaster and believe it or not one of my favorites at KI.

As you can see AE was totally packed.

After riding I realized I needed a pic of the entrance sign.

I then headed to the Eiffel Tower to get some aerial shots. Who says KI needs an Intamin?

The Racer looking good; from a few hundred feet away.

The back part of Coney Mall.

The Vortex and The Beast. Two rides not to be toyed with.

And of course the main reason I'm here.

"Hey I can see my house from here!"

Hammerhead. Don't worry it's not the dangerous kind.

MCBR

Headin' toward the helix.

The splashdown is pretty impressive. Even from this far away.

Alot of people were unhappy with the different color supports, but seeing DB in person made me appreciate the reasoning behind the two colors.

Vortex/Beast

Going into the massive helix.

Ahhh FestHaus.

Poor S.O.B. I wanted to give it some lovin' this trip.

International Street

And with this final picture of Drop Tower I'm going to leave the rest of the pics from this day for later today.

Right now it's 5:51am, I'm pretty tired, and I'm going to sleep.

[The Interpreter]

Absolutely professional quality photos! Many would make great post cards!

With talent like this, you might well consider investing in a higher resolution camera!

Thanks!

[KIlover123]

Found my new desktop, (which I change every other day)

very nice photos and TR.

[DropZone99]

Me and you like alot of the same rides. Some of which are the ones most people don't. Nice photos, Sucks photobucket does that though... Can't wait for part two.

[Fear the Four]

Those are graet pictures! I really like the Diamondback ones there amazing

[dragsterfan420]

Absolutely professional quality photos! Many would make great post cards!

With talent like this, you might well consider investing in a higher resolution camera!

Thanks!

Thanks Terpy. My camera is pretty high res and on my end the pictures look great. The only problem is when I uploaded the pics to photobucket.com the quality died. It really stinks because I spent money on a 4GB SD HC memory stick so I could take the best pics possible. If you like any of the pics I can send you a much better quality one.

With that said, I'll continue with that days PTR.

So after I took a bunch of pics from the Eiffel Tower I headed down the walkway to the left of Backlot Stunt Coaster.

Got a quick shot of Vortex before making my way down the path.

Then I came up to Diamondback.

The splashdown was even more impressive up close. *Check out the guy getting his hand wet.

Beemer's are one of the best type of coasters to photograph.

Going down.

They look satisfied.

One of the better shots of the trip.

Going into the splashdown.

Man that first drop looks small.

One of my favorites.

Going towards the hammerhead.

MCBR.

Weee!

Lots of forces.

Better shot of the MCBR.

Going down.

Unique shot #1

The only pic I could get of DB while on the train. I went on the train a good 15 times during my whole trip and it was never in the right place at the right time.

I did get goods pics of the structure though.

Train house. The blue train wasn't getting any lovin' today.

All this while I was txting Zach(KI_Man). I told him I was just enjoyin' the park and was going to wait to ride Diamondback at night. He told me that I should get a ride in "now" (6:30 or so) and at night. After I got off the train I headed over there.

At this time the sun was going down and was shining straight on Diamondback; making the colors almost ultraviolet.

"Are we going to get wet?"

After taking this shot of the lift hill I headed into the single rider line. Only because the regular line was fairly long (about a 45 minute wait probably) and I couldn't even see the people in the SRL until I got up to the stairs.

Of course I had to take the obligatory shot of all the cameras, phones, etc.

While waiting I realized this was a nice opportunity to get some good shots. Like a lift shot.

And a nerd shot; a blurry nerd shot.

Look at that, their's even airtime going into the breakrun.

I'm a ride warrior. Are you?

Look how accented the colors are because of the sun.

The smooth stopping power of magnetic breaks.

Also got a nice shot of the Eiffel Tower.

I'm sorry, I just got a lot of these pics.

"Why's that guy taking a picture of me?"

The sun was pretty bright.

So what was my opinion of the ride? How did I like it? How was it? I don't know. "What do you mean?" one may ask. Blantanly, I couldn't fit. My thighs are too big and as hard as me and the ride op tried we couldn't get the last click. So in the end I didn't get to ride my most anticipated coaster of the year. I was really bummed and actually pretty sad, but I didn't let that ruin the rest of my day. Next year, whatever it takes I'm going to ride this coaster. Even if I have to chop part of my thighs off.

So I made the walk of shame out of the station and down the walkway. Being the first coaster I've ever been "kicked off" of, it wasn't a good experience.

Can you see the people holding hands in row 8?

Next I decided to take a scenic adventure over at the exit of White Water Canyon. This area of the park is simply beautiful.

Unique shot #2

[dragsterfan420]

Unique shot #3

One of my favorites.

A year ago I took this same picture, minus Diamondback.

Watch out for that tree!

Good for a wallpaper?

Hammerhead

Their's the pic of one of the good 'ol steam trains KI still runs.

Hammerhead: The Sequel

Had to get some shots of my favorite rapids ride.

The darker it gets=worse pictures I take.

They were screaming to the people at the cannons, "NO! Please no, don't!"

Everyone at the cannons said "Ok." But someone got them at the last minute with the red cannon. Lol.

Yet another DB shot.

Yup they'll be soaked.

Unique shot #4

See I told you.

They didn't listen.

Workin' hard or hardly workin'?

Lots of water.

Another of my favorites.

At around 9:00 I headed over to The Beast. What's with the big jump in time you ask? I went to eat at FestHaus. 'Twas a good meal composed of LaRosa's pizza and french fries. Only $10.99 too. On another note, I tried to find a shirt with this "logo" on it but the only one's they have are kid sized. What's up with that?

Votex: Best Arrow multi looper out there.

Going down. Looking for airtime? Get in the back car, front seat.

Loop-de-loop.

Yes, some more shots of Diamondback.

I like these silhouette style shots.

Not these blurry crappy ones.

I like the flag in the middle there.

I love ze Beast.

If someone were to stand up at that point, they deserve to die.

Comin' back from a semi-dark ride.

After a great ride on The Beast at night, I headed over to the Eiffel Tower for the fireworks show. I never saw it from up there so I thought I'd get it over with early in the trip.

Here's The Beast's second lift hill. Anyone riding it now surely is having a dark ride.

Beast's first lift and Vortex

With the ISO turned basically all the way up everything was a little more clear. It looks like it's not even dark now.

Coney Mall area.

Backlot Stunt Coaster blowing up.

DB Splashdown.

[dragsterfan420]

Overview of Backlot Stunt Coaster

With barely any ISO this is how the pictures look.

Only shot I have of the fireworks.

I took a video of the fire works and other videos at night but I accidentally deleted them after thinking I already saved them on my computer. Sorry.

International Street looks great at night.

\

So does Drop Tower.

And Delirium.

Looks like lava shooting out of the Earth's crust. Thank goodness it's just water.

This is my favorite shot taken from the tower this night.

One last overview of Action Zone...

...The Racer and X-Base...

...Coney Mall and, again, The Racer...

...the Diamondback area...

...and the Diamondback area again.

I end tonight's PTR with two pictures of the International Street fountains.

Blue...

...and red.

Thanks for reading/looking at the TR. Remember, if you see any picture(s) you like I have much better quality version of that picture(s) and will gladly send you a copy if you want it.

Keep informed, more to come.

[The Interpreter]

Oh, man. I am sooo sorry about the Diamondback fit.

Terpy, who has sort of been there...and knows that ain't fun

[Oldiesmann]

Great photos! So sorry you couldn't experience Diamondback though.

It's a shame that Photobucket killed the image quality. You may want to look into Flickr instead. I put all my photos there and they don't seem to kill the image quality at all. In addition, Flickr's interface is much nicer than Photobucket's (which seems old and outdated to me). The only downside is you can't show the original sized image with the free account, but that's not a problem for me. There are other restrictions for the free account as well, but nothing major... See http://www.flickr.com/help/limits#28 for full details.

[I_heart_pki]

Your pictures are AMAZING! I wish I could take pictures that looked somewhat decent!

[dragsterfan420]

Found my new desktop, (which I change every other day)

very nice photos and TR.

Thanks.

Me and you like alot of the same rides. Some of which are the ones most people don't. Nice photos, Sucks photobucket does that though... Can't wait for part two.

Thanks.

Those are graet pictures! I really like the Diamondback ones there amazing

Thanks. If you like the DB pics that means you like 75% of my pics! I took alot.

Oh, man. I am sooo sorry about the Diamondback fit.

Terpy, who has sort of been there...and knows that ain't fun

Yeah, it really wasn't I was moping around for a good hour. Then I didn't care after riding The Beast.

Great photos! So sorry you couldn't experience Diamondback though.

It's a shame that Photobucket killed the image quality. You may want to look into Flickr instead. I put all my photos there and they don't seem to kill the image quality at all. In addition, Flickr's interface is much nicer than Photobucket's (which seems old and outdated to me). The only downside is you can't show the original sized image with the free account, but that's not a problem for me. There are other restrictions for the free account as well, but nothing major... See http://www.flickr.com/help/limits#28 for full details.

Thanks for the comment and thanks for the info about Flickr. I'm now going to join Flickr.

Your pictures are AMAZING! I wish I could take pictures that looked somewhat decent!

Thank you. I'm sure you do take good pictures. It just takes practice like anything else you do.

[dragsterfan420]

Bump...

[Creed Bratton]

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j78/drag...09/IMG_1316.jpg[/img]

lol, row 4

[dragsterfan420]

^You talkin' about big momma?

[Fear the Four]

I'm sorry to hear you can't ride Diamondback but I love the pics!

[dragsterfan420]

^It's not I can't ride Diamondback. It's just that I couldn't ride it this trip. I'm gonna get my thighs thinned out for next year. If they won't thin out I'll just cut chunks off of 'em. Oh, and I'm glad you like the pics. Thanks.