Saturday August 1 TR

[Hoeter]

Working in retail, weekends are usually very very busy and it's hard to get a Saturday or Sunday off. Well, last week they gave me Saturday off for some reason. Initially, I had planned to go out with my buddy on his boat but my sister called me on Thursday literally begging me to take her to Kings Island for her second visit of the season. I finally caved in and said okay, knowing what I was getting myself into. There's a reason that I usually visit Kings Island on a Friday or Sunday, or mostly during the week: the crowds. And let me tell you....it was jam packed! If I'm lying, I'm crying and I ain't shed a tear!

I initially planned to be at the park at the beginning of ERT but since I was out very late the night before at the Clermont County Fair watching the truck-tractor-semi pulls, that simply was not going to happen. I ended up getting out of bed around 10AM and immediately I checked out the webcam to see how crowded it was. Diamondback was absolutely swarmed with people. All switchbacks were full and the line extended past the restrooms in Nick Universe. At this time, I was dead set on not going, because it's a Saturday- most people are off work and supposedly there were special events going on at the park. I called my sister and explained to her that it's probably not a good idea to head out to the park because it's very crowded. After talking to her on the phone for awhile, I decided to head out to the park because I had nothing going on now plus I was having Diamondback withdrawals.

On the way to the park, we had to go "Krogering" for a single-day ticket. $32.99 at Kroger isn't a bad deal for a ticket since it's $15 off gate price. At least we don't have absurdly high ticket prices like a certain mouse! After this, we stopped and got some Wendy's and continued on our way. On the road again....

I don't know if we have any Chicago fans on these forums...but as soon as I saw the parking lot and how crowded it was, the song "Saturday In The Park" started playing in my head. We got through the parking tolls and headed for the Gold Pass parking lot. I drove up and down every single row in that lot, not a parking space to be found. Turned left out of the Gold Pass lot and continued down some more rows, again not a parking space to be found. All of the rows, even down to the last one near Great Wolf Lodge, was completely filled with cars. I drove back to the Gold Pass lot and guess what, a car was pulling out! There was another car opposite where I was and it challenged me to that parking spot. Needless to say, that little Hyundai didn't decide to play chicken with a Dodge Ram and I ended up parking close up in Gold Pass 58.

Walked up through the turnstiles and found a mass of people gathered in front of the fountain. I could tell that there were going to be long waits for many of the rides. First off, we went over towards Diamondback and saw all switchbacks being used and the line extending past Rivertown Junction. We decided not to wait right now for Diamondback and headed over towards The Beast to see how the line was there. Went past The Crypt and the line was all the way back into the midway. Got to The Beast and it was closed down due to technical problems. We headed up past the midway and saw that Backlot Stunt Coaster had all of their switchbacks completely filled as well. We went further up the midway and saw that the line for Vortex was moving fairly quickly. The line extended out into the midway, right by the Goblet Toss game in Coney Mall. We decided to wait for this one and waited about a half hour for 5-1. Definitely worth the wait and a good ride as always. We hit up Spongebob 3D also and waited about a half hour before getting in.

After this, we continued up Coney Mall and saw that Zephyr didn't have much of a wait. We waited 5 minutes before we got to ride and I was amazed at how short the ride cycle is. After this, we headed back to X-Base and checked out the lines for Flight of Fear and Firehawk. The line for Flight of Fear was out into the midway as well and they actually had signs out saying that Firehawk's estimated wait time was almost three hours. No doubt that we passed on those two. Headed further up Coney Mall and saw that the lines for both sides of Racer were out to the midway as well with all switchbacks completely filled. Passed on this one as well. Went past Delirium and Adventure Express, lines out to the midway here as well.

By this time, we were getting hungry and we decided to head out of the park instead of spending money on overpriced park food. We headed up to McDonalds up on Kings Mills Rd. Sat in there for a little while and took advantage of the free wi-fi and then we headed back to the park. It was fairly easy to find a parking spot this time around, so we parked in Gold Pass 56 out near the Kings Island sign. Headed back in and wasn't any better than it was before.

We decided to take our first ride of the day on Diamondback. The line was still past Rivertown Junction but the line moved very fast. Kudos to the Diamondback crew for dispatching trains quickly and efficiently and keeping the line moving. Good job! We waited about a half hour and was assigned to row 7 on gold train. The Diamondback crew was trying to set an hourly capacity record and they were telling people to get seated quickly and that they would take our belongings and place them in the bin for us to get the train out. Gabe (Captain Nemo) was behind the controls and he did an awesome job of getting the trains loaded up and out of the station at a rapid fire pace.

After this, Danielle (keiko_coaster) texted my sister to see where we were in the park. Her and her friend were up at the front of the park watching "Don't Stop the Music". At the conclusion of the show, all of us headed over towards Delirium and jumped in line. We waited about 45 minutes for Delirium and all of the switchbacks were full. I did not count how many ride cycles we waited through, but I'm pretty positive it was a lot! Right before we got on, Delirium had to close due to technical issues but was up and running quickly and we were on in no time at all.

After Delirium, all of us headed toward Congo Falls. It was a walk on and I've never been on this ride before. It was okay, nothing spectacular, just okay. I'm not a big fan of water rides anyways. After this, Danielle and her friend headed over towards Skyflyer and we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I still was craving one more Diamondback ride so we headed over to Rivertown and got in line during the fireworks. The line at this time was still out into the midway but not all the way back past Rivertown Junction like it was before. We were on in about a half hour and were assigned row 8 on green train. After this, we were past tired and decided to head out. After a quick stop at Speedway to fill up and to Taco Bell to grab a bite to eat, we were on our way home. I had a fun day with my sister although Kings Island was crowded as all getout! I can't wait to take her back up there again this season.

Thanks for reading, and until next time....RIDE ON!

[The Interpreter]

And yet on a busy, busy, busy day, it sounds like you had fun! Thanks for writing!

[tigellinus]

I'm definitely glad Jaime and I avoided Saturday!

[DropZone99]

I was there that day. I don't think I saw you, but I saw HTCO alot of times.