Random Opening Day Thoughts

[RD Reynolds]

This was my first ever opening day at Kings Island, and also my first as a season ticket holder. I've been going since the 70's, and last year we (family of three, with me, wife, and four year old son) had so much fun we decided to get a season pass. Thought I would share some random observations of opening day.

- Crowds were heavier than I was expecting. Last few times I've been, there've been a lot of walk-ons for rides such as The Beast. Not so yesterday!

- Had a Gold pass, but didn't get to park in the Gold parking. I waved it at the guy directing parking, and he waved me down to the Invertigo lot. Hmmm...

- We were sitting at the Starbucks next to the Eiffel Tower and I mentioned to my wife that "listening to Pink Floyd on International Street is just wrong." A woman next to me overheard, and said, "I just texted my friend that exact same thing!" If I could wave my magic wand and have KI change one thing, as silly and trivial as it may seem, it would be this. It makes a big difference. You want to escape the real world at KI, and theme music on IS is a very simple way to do this.

- The revisions to Planet Snoopy look REALLY nice. I was among those who thought losing the Nick license and getting Snoopy was a huge step down, but the modifications really gave the area more than just a fresh coat of paint. The redesigns all made sense, and some, like the Kite Eating Tree and Snoopy vs. Red Baron were way, WAY better than what was there before. The new paint job on the Enchanted Voyage building (told you, I've been going since the 70's!) of the pumpkin patch looked better than anything that's been on there that I can ever recall. Cannot give this area high enough marks; I really had to eat my words on this one.

- Adventure Express is my wife's favorite ride, and we were both really happy to see so much working in the final tunnel! The drummers, the lava, everything looked really good. If we could just get some fog effects in there (I think it had it way back in the day?), I'd gush even more.

- Had lunch at Fest Haus, and was really good. See notes in the "Increased Prices for 2010" section for more. Also got an ear of corn that was really good, but about the size of a corn cobette at KFC! I hope those get larger as the year goes on and they can get bigger ears! Also got blueberry ice cream, and was happy to see sprinkles were there. Made the Mrs. very happy.

- Noticed lots of down rides. Adventure Express was down for a while, and Firehawk was as well. Wound up riding them both, but never got on Flying Aces, which my son was looking forward to, because we were told by an employee it was too cold to run.

- Was glad to see Spongebob was still in the Action Theater. My son is a huge SB fan, and he was happy because this year he was tall enough to ride in the motion seats.

- Speaking of that, kudos to KI for giving out wrist bands to the kids for their heights. Makes it sooooo much easier for parents than taking kids to a ride and hoping they will be tall enough. This is a major issue at, say, Disney World where they have measurement areas for each ride and the 44" at one ride is NOT the same as 44" at another. So you go up HOPING that your child will be able to ride it. I love Disney, but when they took a sheet of paper and slid it under my son's head to show he wasn't QUITE 44" and thus could not ride Everest, even though he rode OTHER rides that were 44"...man, you've never seen a child cry like that. We even had people in line behind us chastising the poor Disney employees for not letting him on the ride! All of that could have been avoided with the wrist bands. So thank you, KI.

- Went on the Eiffel Tower, and saw big bubbles on a blue circle in Coney Mall. Asked two different employees what they were, and got two different stories, neither of which was correct (they were the Eurobubbles as we later found out). Absolutely NOT knocking the employees for not knowing this, just thought it was funny that no one knew what they were and they weren't on the map!

- Finally, and I think most importantly...every employee we talked to was INCREDIBLY FRIENDLY! No matter what they were doing (changing trash bags, trying to help us find a lost hat (my son lost his favorite hat, a rainbow Disneyland ballcap - if anyone knows where I can get one, please let me know!), selling us pizza, running a ride, etc.), everyone was super nice. Some in my party speculated that was due to it being the first day of the season and they weren't run down yet, but I hope that's not the case - it was a very pleasant experience, and we can't wait to go back.

All in all, a very fun time. I didn't think I could want to go more than I did last week, but I think the great time we had makes me all the more eager to be there.

RD

[HTCO]

To cold to run my butt.

It vallyed...

[kjkjkj]

Great TR! I agree, the employees were VERY friendly this year! I didn't run into one rude employee that seemed angry about their job. All the employees this year were nice, all the ones we talked to told us to have a nice day, and they were all doing a great job.

[Oldiesmann]

Unfortunately, just because there's Gold Pass parking doesn't mean you'll be able to park there if you have a Gold Pass. It often fills up quickly on busy days, and there were times last year when they didn't even have an employee standing there checking passes.

[TylerRider]

Wait, does anyone know why it wasen't working. I was told they wern't allowed to tell us.

[RD Reynolds]

Unfortunately, just because there's Gold Pass parking doesn't mean you'll be able to park there if you have a Gold Pass. It often fills up quickly on busy days, and there were times last year when they didn't even have an employee standing there checking passes.

Understood, but it was definitely not full when we got there (around 9:40 or so). Not sure what the deal was.

RD

[kjkjkj]

^ It valleyed. Basically it didn't get enough momentum to make it up the next hill and stopped in between two hills.

[Fear the Four]

Wait, does anyone know why it wasen't working. I was told they wern't allowed to tell us.

^ It valleyed. Basically it didn't get enough momentum to make it up the next hill and stopped in between two hills.

Rides are effected by temperatures. Shocker!  Steel expands and contracts. When it's cold coasters tend to run slower. Tracks really do warm up. I rode The Beast during ERT yesterday and It felt very sluggish. Then I rode it again later in the day and it felt much faster. It's been mentioned here before on here many times.

From the 5@5.

Q: Jackson Thurnquist - Back in the 2009 season, for a majority of the year Diamondback ran fairly quiet for a B&M rollercoaster. Then, halfway through the season it got a B&M Roar like most do, really loud and proud sounding when it ran it's course. Then it got quiet again after a few months. My question is, what caused the sudden change in sound, was it the wheels, the track, the train? And also, will it be Roaring come April 17? Thanks. 

A: Good observation, Jackson! Because it's made of steel, the ride will sound different in July and August when the temps are consistently in the upper 80s and 90s than it will in the spring and fall when temps can be in the 40s and 50s.

[DropZone99]

It was cold, and I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt...

It was pretty busy for an opening day with no big new attraction.

The park didn't seem ready to open.

Invertigo & Reptar both vallyed.

Eurobobbles were tons of fun!

I saw a girl dislocate her shoulder on Eurobobbles

Around 9PM. a different girl's (little one) bubble's zipper opened and tons of water leaked in. It was probably only 40º and she was soaked. The employees just said "sorry..." and made her leave the ride area. The didn't call an ambulance so she wouldn't catch hypothermia, they didn't offer to buy her new clothes, or even give her a towel or blanket.

I barley rode anything.

Diamondback sucked and is probably going to be taken off my top 10 steel.

Everything was running extremely slow.

Boo Blasters was okay, not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.

I heard TONS of people in Nickel, I mean Planet 50 year old dog that no kid knows and isn't even funny, say "My kids don't even know who Snoopy is...", (mom says)- "_____, go huge Linus!" (Kid says)- "Whos Linus?"

Overall I had a good time because I was with friends, but the actual Kings Island experience wasn't too good, I most likely won't be coming back until late May or June, I think I'd rather go to other parks for a while.

Backlot's new paint on the trains looks terrible. I saw this at KD, and I literally said "Kings Island better not do this", and they did, It looks awful.

[kjkjkj]

That sucks you're experience wasn't that good Nick.

It's weird, I actually heard quiet a few kids calling the characters by their names, and running up and giving the characters hugs. From what I saw, the kids loved Planet Snoopy. I was there for quiet a long time, checking out the new area. I saw tons of smiling happy children running around riding rides, talking to and hugging characters, getting their pictures taken. Saying they wanted to hug Snoopy...etc

[RD Reynolds]

That sucks you're experience wasn't that good Nick.

It's weird, I actually heard quiet a few kids calling the characters by their names, and running up and giving the characters hugs. From what I saw, the kids loved Planet Snoopy. I was there for quiet a long time, checking out the new area. I saw tons of smiling happy children running around riding rides, talking to and hugging characters, getting their pictures taken. Saying they wanted to hug Snoopy...etc

My son is a HUGE Nick fan, and loves Spongebob. He thought Snoopy was fine - didn't care about the change at all. Probably due to his age (four). One thing to keep in mind is that quite a few of the characters in the Nick area were kinda outdated; for instance, the Lazy Town folks, whose time had seemingly come and gone (at least in our house). May sound strange, but when you go with something that is inherently older, like Snoopy, you don't run into issues like that. Disney has the same thing - when was the last new Mickey Mouse release? I mean, yeah, there's Clubhouse, but other than that...when has Mickey Mouse been a MAINSTREAM character, other than in the parks?

Sometimes I think us parents are more concerned about it than the kids - they're too busy riding the rides and having fun.

RD

[RD Reynolds]

Oh, and apologies - I didn't notice there was a Trip Report section here. I probably should have posted this there.

RD

[BoddaH1994]

Oh, and apologies - I didn't notice there was a Trip Report section here. I probably should have posted this there.

RD

No worries...

Moving to trip reports.

[RD Reynolds]

Oh, and apologies - I didn't notice there was a Trip Report section here. I probably should have posted this there.

RD

No worries...

Moving to trip reports.

Thank you.

RD

[Ki Man]

Listening to Pink Floyd is a great idea in ANY situation!

[Ki Man]

It was cold, and I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt...

It was pretty busy for an opening day with no big new attraction.

The park didn't seem ready to open.

Invertigo & Reptar both vallyed.

Eurobobbles were tons of fun!

I saw a girl dislocate her shoulder on Eurobobbles

Around 9PM. a different girl's (little one) bubble's zipper opened and tons of water leaked in. It was probably only 40º and she was soaked. The employees just said "sorry..." and made her leave the ride area. The didn't call an ambulance so she wouldn't catch hypothermia, they didn't offer to buy her new clothes, or even give her a towel or blanket.

I barley rode anything.

Diamondback sucked and is probably going to be taken off my top 10 steel.

Everything was running extremely slow.

Boo Blasters was okay, not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.

I heard TONS of people in Nickel, I mean Planet 50 year old dog that no kid knows and isn't even funny, say "My kids don't even know who Snoopy is...", (mom says)- "_____, go huge Linus!" (Kid says)- "Whos Linus?"

Overall I had a good time because I was with friends, but the actual Kings Island experience wasn't too good, I most likely won't be coming back until late May or June, I think I'd rather go to other parks for a while.

Backlot's new paint on the trains looks terrible. I saw this at KD, and I literally said "Kings Island better not do this", and they did, It looks awful.

Why so pessimistic? If it sucks so much don't go!!! The b*tchiest post I've seen!

[Fear the Four]

It was cold, and I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt...

It was pretty busy for an opening day with no big new attraction.

The park didn't seem ready to open.

Invertigo & Reptar both vallyed.

Eurobobbles were tons of fun!

I saw a girl dislocate her shoulder on Eurobobbles

Around 9PM. a different girl's (little one) bubble's zipper opened and tons of water leaked in. It was probably only 40º and she was soaked. The employees just said "sorry..." and made her leave the ride area. The didn't call an ambulance so she wouldn't catch hypothermia, they didn't offer to buy her new clothes, or even give her a towel or blanket.

I barley rode anything.

Diamondback sucked and is probably going to be taken off my top 10 steel.

Everything was running extremely slow.

Boo Blasters was okay, not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.

I heard TONS of people in Nickel, I mean Planet 50 year old dog that no kid knows and isn't even funny, say "My kids don't even know who Snoopy is...", (mom says)- "_____, go huge Linus!" (Kid says)- "Whos Linus?"

Overall I had a good time because I was with friends, but the actual Kings Island experience wasn't too good, I most likely won't be coming back until late May or June, I think I'd rather go to other parks for a while.

Backlot's new paint on the trains looks terrible. I saw this at KD, and I literally said "Kings Island better not do this", and they did, It looks awful.

Why so pessimistic? If it sucks so much don't go!!! The b*tchiest post I've seen!

I agree.

You should of prepared your self more knowing the high was barely going to reach 60.

Kings Island can not control rides valleying.

Yes Kings Island should approached the leak in the ball totally different.

Why you didn't ride much I don't know. Some days you have to suck it up and wait to ride.

It was the first day not everything is going to be fast.

Your complaining about Diamondback? What really sucked about it?

[coaster_junky]

not to cross fire here, but i didn't read it as a rant about how terrible the park was, rather him pointing out some of the things that he noticed while there and whether he liked them or not, other people on this site have been saying nearly the same things, just having them more spread out and not all at once like nick did.

as for the Diamondback thing, usually when a new roller coaster comes out almost everyone seems to place it high on their coaster charts, and then after a season or two it starts to slip, i know this was the case when it came to Firehawk with me.

[Ki Man]

^Eh, each of his posts are pretty much the same.

[DropZone99]

It was cold, and I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt...

It was pretty busy for an opening day with no big new attraction.

The park didn't seem ready to open.

Invertigo & Reptar both vallyed.

Eurobobbles were tons of fun!

I saw a girl dislocate her shoulder on Eurobobbles

Around 9PM. a different girl's (little one) bubble's zipper opened and tons of water leaked in. It was probably only 40º and she was soaked. The employees just said "sorry..." and made her leave the ride area. The didn't call an ambulance so she wouldn't catch hypothermia, they didn't offer to buy her new clothes, or even give her a towel or blanket.

I barley rode anything.

Diamondback sucked and is probably going to be taken off my top 10 steel.

Everything was running extremely slow.

Boo Blasters was okay, not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.

I heard TONS of people in Nickel, I mean Planet 50 year old dog that no kid knows and isn't even funny, say "My kids don't even know who Snoopy is...", (mom says)- "_____, go huge Linus!" (Kid says)- "Whos Linus?"

Overall I had a good time because I was with friends, but the actual Kings Island experience wasn't too good, I most likely won't be coming back until late May or June, I think I'd rather go to other parks for a while.

Backlot's new paint on the trains looks terrible. I saw this at KD, and I literally said "Kings Island better not do this", and they did, It looks awful.

Why so pessimistic? If it sucks so much don't go!!! The b*tchiest post I've seen!

I agree.

You should of prepared your self more knowing the high was barely going to reach 60.

Kings Island can not control rides valleying. 

Yes Kings Island should approached the leak in the ball totally different.

Why you didn't ride much I don't know. Some days you have to suck it up and wait to ride.

It was the first day not everything is going to be fast.

Your complaining about Diamondback? What really sucked about it? 

I didn't mean to make it a Kings Island is the worst place ever post, I was just posting random thoughts of opening day and those were the first to come to mind. I'm not saying it's Kings Island's fault that the park was cold making rides run slower and some vallying, but all of those things DID happen and it was something that doesn't happen too often making it a more unique thing to think about. I didn't ride much because I was having enough fun just hanging out with KICers, I never said it was bad I didn't ride anything. And the reason Diamondback sucked was because of the cold. It was my #2 steel in 2009. A few weeks ago I rode coasters like I305, Intimidator, Volcano, Mystery Mine, Afterburn, and rerode rides like Goliath and Mindbender. I love all of those coasters, and since I hadn't ridden Diamondback since November 1st., it shot down to #6 on my top. Now that I just rode Diamondback again, I can officially say Diamondback doesn't have the airtime that Goliath & Intimidator has, it has no where near as good of laterals as Goliath, Raging Bull, or Intimidator. So what makes Diamondback so special? It has okay airtime on a few of the hills, the first helix has a tiny bit of laterals, the splashdown looks cool, and it first drop is fun. Thats pretty much it. I just think it's extremely over rated and the only reason I liked it so much was because it was at my home park.

[Braves0511]

Was Firehawk repainted? Or did this happen ages ago and I just missed it? It was nice it wasn't red grey and green. Although if this is the case it's kinda depressing that a ride that's only been there 2 seasons needed/got painted before the one that's been rusting for 10 years.

[Fear the Four]

Was Firehawk repainted? Or did this happen ages ago and I just missed it? It was nice it wasn't red grey and green. Although if this is the case it's kinda depressing that a ride that's only been there 2 seasons needed/got painted before the one that's been rusting for 10 years.

I believe it was sandblasted and painted last year.

[Braves0511]

Ah, thanks, I was gone all summer working at Cedar Point, and didn't keep up with any of it like normal. Either way...it's still kinda silly.

[Beast Man]

Listening to Pink Floyd is a great idea in ANY situation!

I wore my Pink Floyd hoodie yesterday,so I would have to agree.

[RD Reynolds]

Listening to Pink Floyd is a great idea in ANY situation!

I wore my Pink Floyd hoodie yesterday,so I would have to agree.

Guys, I like Pink Floyd. Really I do. Just wish they'd play it anywhere in the park except IS.

RD

[BavarianBeatle]

not to cross fire here, but i didn't read it as a rant about how terrible the park was, rather him pointing out some of the things that he noticed while there and whether he liked them or not, other people on this site have been saying nearly the same things, just having them more spread out and not all at once like nick did.

I agree. I noticed many of the same things that Dropzone99 did. If a day like this had occurred in June or July, we would all be up in arms. It was wonderful to get back to the park yesterday, but (let's be honest here), there were problems. It was Opening Day, however, and the crowd was much larger than I have seen on an opening day in recent years. And all of these issues are fixable. I attribute it to nothing more than crews who hadn't worked together combined with larger than expected crowds. I'm sure the park will be in "midseason form" long before midseason.

[TH13TEEN]

I have to agree with Nick. Worst opening day I have ever experienced. I agree with Nicks "thoughts" and I'll add onto it. I bought a Float from the Ice cream stand, in Action Zone. The guy tried setting the float on the counter over the Soda machine, and dropped it on my foot. I do think its funny that both Vekoma inverts valleyed. I seemed to also have bad luck with getting in lines for rides that would break down, right when I got to the station. I hope I win The b*tchiest post award" It would be my honer.

[DropZone99]

I also heard that Flight of Fear and Backlot both got a few roll backs yesterday. Just so I don't get yelled at, I said HEARD, I'm not saying it did happen but I just heard it did and have no proof it did.

[catzdrummer09]

I saw that girl that was injured from Eurobobbles too. Which, by the way, I don't really understand why it wasn't called Eurobubbles instead...but I digress. One major thing that I had trouble with was the amount of line jumping occuring. While I did see it enforced more so than ever, it was just insane.

And one other thing. Did anybody else hear that SOB was being removed for (insert reason here) 18,000,000 times yesterday? I sure did. It was all I could do not to absolutely freak out on them by the time 10:00 pm rolled around.

[markr]

All and all, enjoyed opening day yesterday. My only complaint was the food at Festhaus-the pizza portions were just pitiful.