8/17/09 - Cincinnati Reds Day

[CoastersNSich]

With summer beginning to wind down, that meant opportunities to visit my home park, I decided to make my way there on Monday, being Reds day. I was hoping to make the Gold Pass ERT, but was a bit sluggish getting up, and didn’t make it into the park until 9:55. Because I hadn’t ridden Firehawk at all this year, I decided I’d head there first, but wanted to get a jump start on the general public… the area in front of the Gold Pass checkpoint was clogged with peeps… why can’t they clear a path?! I decided to wait around the Eiffel Tower until the playing of the national anthem, where access to the whole park was finally granted. I make my way to X-Base at Fort Kinzel, but Firehawk isn’t quite ready, so I decide to hit Flight of Fear first. One train wait, but if you have any loose articles: you must either take them with you, or give them to a non-rider, or put them in a locker – the operators no longer will put your stuff in the bins for you.

After my ride on FOF, I decide to wait for Firehawk to open, and within minutes and some testing, it does, and I’m the first person to enter the queue, despite the greeters discouraging people from waiting out front. I get on the yellow train, front row, and just after the train is placed in the lay-down position – it won’t dispatch, so I wait for a bit to get released from the train, still in the station – and I try to wait for the breakdown to get resolved.

But after a little while, I give up and decide to head to Action Zone, in pursuit of my first ’09 ride on Invertigo, but the line seems a bit lengthy, so I pass, and do Congo Falls (first ’09) instead… nice way to cool of quickly. Then, it’s a 2-cycle wait for Drop Tower, and 2-3 cycle wait for Delirium (first time this year also). Then it’s off to Adventure Express, a walk-on in 3-2, and a couple walk-on rides on Red and Blue Racer. I head back to Firehawk to get my bag out of the locker, and notice that it has a 90 minute wait. No, thanks – I need to head to International Showplace to see the focus of the day – the Cincinnati Reds Q&A at 1 PM.

After a lttle wait, the Reds Rally Pack takes the stage getting the audience pumped up, tossing shirts their way. Then the Reds PA announcer Joe Zerhusen takes the stage and introduces the 4 participants – Nick Masset, Chris Dickerson, Paul Janish, and Jay Bruce. Bruce, albeit out for the season and in a cast, was the fan favorite. The premise of the session was for kids to line up and ask the players questions, such as their favorites – food, music, player growing up, ballpark, opponent, team growing up, KI ride, etc. A fun time to be had for a full hour, and got to run into KIC’s very own Dane Thomas.

I hadn’t been on Diamondback yet today, and midday I expected the line to be fairly short – no more than 20 minutes, but for my first ride I decide upon the single rider line, which wasn’t too bad. I am placed around row 10, but just before boarding, I notice some of the players being escorted through the back – including Jay Bruce and Paul Janish, who ride in the front seat. After their ride, I waited a bit, where the players go down the exit ramp, and Dickerson, gives me a quick hand slap on the way out. My next ride, I decide to get into the regular queue, and request the last row, which was granted – exceptional! My third and final ride of the day was through SRL, row 6 and this put me at 70 rides on DB so far.

The 3:00 Q&A session is soon getting started, so I head there. The players this time are Carlos Fisher, Adam Rosales, Lance Nix, and the star, Brandon Phillips. A very entertaining session, just like the first one, especially with some of the answers from Phillips – but unlike the first one, I decided to leave this one early, because of possible rain headed our way – as well as my serious hunger. I headed out of the park for a bite to eat from the “golden arches.”

I made my way back to the park, but to be specific, Boomerang Bay, and park at the passholder lot/entrance. I noticed some of the attractions had shut down briefly because of possible storms, but by the time I got changed and situated, stuff reopened – though not everything was open. Some of the slides, either in part, or whole, were closed for the day. Not too much to write about, but I am happy about the music selection to be heard at Boomerang Bay and the park in general – gone is the short loop of Australian/water park music, replaced with a much larger selection of classic rock and pop hits. After about 90 minutes in Boomerang Bay, I decided to call it a day – a wacky but good one.

[rotag]

Sounds like your day was interesting.

[Gordon Bombay]

Should've asked them why they got rid of David WEathers.