TR: April 23-25

[Plankton]

April 23

My sister (sis), my boyfriend (bf), and I initially were making the four hour drive to KI with our friend until he bailed Thurs. because of the weather forecast. Sis no longer wanted to go for various reasons, but her and I compromised to stay only Fri. night and leave Sat. when weather was to get worse. As for my bf who was also debating, I packed his suitcase and made him breakfast, and he magically agreed to come. We left around 1:30, later then I wanted to, but it allowed the high chance of showers to pass. After our routine stop at a mall and pizza shop in Columbus, as well as heavy traffic in the area, we made it to KI shortly after 7. We wanted to check in at our hotel to drop our stuff off, but we didn't want to waste time, especially since it was dry and not raining!

Bf got his KI issued platinum pass (sis and I had renewed our CP platinum passes last Oct).

Diamondback. Only a station wait, so I had a feeling the park was empty.

Beast. Again, a small station wait. After waiting a minute or two, The Beast was temporarily down, so we all agreed to leave.

BLSC. I pointed out the new cars to sis, and she said she would have not noticed on her own, but concluded the old design was much better (she kept going on how ugly the new cars are). I agree because the back is still festive while the front is bare, but at least the effects were working, and I would rather have those instead.

Vortex.

Eurrobobbles. I lost my fascination; it looked cooler in pictures. Also looked as if kids were spending most of their time trying to stand up.

Firehawk. While waiting for the train before us to depart, two preteen boys behind us were keeping me entertained. Example: as FH crew sang Happy B-day to a rider, a boy commented to the other how 'she is going to get some tonight.' It also started to drizzle briefly. After our train was given the all clear and we were on our backs, the ride went down. Unfortunately, we were stuck for 10-15 minutes or so in that position. At first it was funny, but after awhile it started to hurt my back and make me feel claustrophobic. The ride ops did a great job reassuring everyone. After we were free, the ride was still down, so half the train including us exited.

Flight of Fear. Does anyone else notice a mob of people wait for the middle (since the line dumps out here) when the front is practically empty? Oh well, my wait for front seat was two trains vs. several for the middle.

FH. Working again, so we got in line. Unfortunately, the ride op in the queues assigned us to a loaded station, which meant riders way behind us were getting on before us on the other side.

Racer (blue). We each got our own row because the train was departing half full, and we were not causing others to wait. The gum-less tunnel looked better.

Adventure Express. There were only three other people besides my group that were on the train; felt more adventurous. I never rode AE at night, and I liked going through the dark tunnels, and the final lift was looking good. We were able to stay on the ride but chose to get off.

Slingshot. $5/person, and sis and bf wanted to try it out but decided to wait until Sat.

BBoBH. Complete walk on, and I enjoyed the scenes while sis and bf competed for high score. I thought the loading/unloading area is a bit dark. The special effect towards the end was cool. While checking out our picture, I saw one of a young girl burying her face in her parent’s shoulder (to hide) while another kid her age walk off the ride smiling. Weird how that works.

Beast part II. A group of girls decided to each have her own row which left only one row open. Sis, bf, and I thought of taking the empty row while one of us sits with a girl because that is inconsiderate when others are behind you in line. However, we left them alone. We should have invaded because they got the last train until fireworks would be over. As a result of their actions, my group and others behind us had to chose to wait for Beast to reopen or watch fireworks. We wanted to see the fireworks, so we left the line… again.

[Plankton]

April 24

After I saw the weather changed in our favor, I asked sis if she wanted to stay another night (as initially planned). She said no and explained why (btw there were simple solutions to her reasons, and I suggested them to her). She started to freak out. I couldn’t stand her irrationality, so I talked to the hotel manager about canceling tonight’s reservation. He told me I can do so at a 50% refund! I refused to hand $30 of pure profit to the hotel, especially in a policy that sis never heard of in her hotel experience. Needless to say we all agreed to stay.

Invertigo. Got to the park shortly after 10, so went this direction to avoid crowds. Rode in row 7 (facing Drop Tower). This is my favorite row because I always feel like I’m going to slide out on the first lift.

Flight Deck. Rode first seat with no wait; only one train working. While pulling into the station, noticed a huge line of people were coming up the exit ramp! They looked confused, so sis and bf helped them out. We had to exit since every row now had people waiting. Obviously the group of people walked back to the exit and entered through the main entrance instead of using the shortcut because we got back to the station before they did. We were able to ride 3 more times without having to get up!

Slingshot. Went back to the car to get money and phones (for video). At this point it was sunny and muggy. Saw Slingshot was now $10/person, so we skipped it because sis and bf only wanted to try it out because it was so cheap the night before. (Walked past a few hours later and price jumped to $15/person.)

Woodstock Express. The “cage” for kids had me laughing. Also the new paint job made me hungry for blue ice cream. Well, it worked because I bought a cone.

Flying Ace Aerial Chase. Never rode this before, but it is a cute ride, and I liked the bright colors.

Boo Blasters. I brought 3-D glasses into the park for each of us to wear. FYI: the glasses worked because some objects in most scenes popped out. However, nothing was in your face as the saw or paddleball in Spongebob 3-D. Also if you are competing for high score, it might not be a good idea to wear these as the lights from the targets cause a glare. (It can be a nightmare in the room with the red eyed skeletons!)

Beast. A pack of boys were dribbling their basketballs up the entrance and down the exit ramps. Even though they were way behind us, it still was annoying to hear and feel! A new pet peeve. We rode twice but stopped since the back was beating us up.

Vortex. Warning…rant ahead: a girl got sick on one of two trains, so the line went slow. Plus her friends were crowding over her at the exit making a scene as if something tragic happened; she probably just ate one too many chili cheese coneys. While waiting in line for the front half of the train, a mother chaperoning a group of girls would not move out of the queue to a row. I understand not doing so if it is crowded, but the first several rows had two groups in each waiting. I was getting paranoid people behind us would hop over the empty queues to these rows because the line was not moving. (Actually people were technically line jumping because they were hopping over to the front row queue.) When the mother finally leaves the queues, she walks straight ahead to claim two middle rows. Not a smart move because 1. there are four groups before you 2. the front has way less than four groups waiting 3. you caused yet another traffic jam with your group of 8 forming a blob with no way around. The two preteen girls in front of us were too sweet to ask them to move, and after standing in the same spot forever, I just yelled excuse me and made way through. The two girls followed, and of course I let them ahead of me. I noticed a girl rubbed her stomach and said “I feel the baby kicking.” Either that was belly fat or she was a good five or more months pregnant! We thought she was mocking her other friend who was really pregnant. Both (?) pregnant girls boarded the train. Did I mention preggers gave the entire station a full view of her thong as her tight shirt rode up and stretch pants rode down while bending over the storage containers? Ew.

Arcade. Cheated on skee-ball, and bf did great on some kid game, so we used tickets to buy useless but cool junk.

Firehawk.

Skyline Chili. Left the park to visit the one up the road by the Beach Waterpark. Never again!

Burger King. Stopped to get a Spongebob watch--only 75 cents! Sis wanted the floral one, so she was on a mission the rest of the weekend.

When walking to KI’s entrance, bf pointed out the increased wind and dark clouds to the south, so we brought in our ponchos. As soon as we walked under the old restaurant, the rain just dumped without warning. Guests were taking cover and freaking out as if the weather forecast did not call for rain. We put our ponchos on to do the indoor attractions we saved.

Boo Blasters. The ride was a walk on; I thought people would come here for shelter.

The Crypt. Another walk on despite the heavy rain. I enjoy the theme and how the ride is dark, but definitely not worth waiting for. Every time I ride someone makes a comment about how the ride sucks; it never fails. Plus the ride ate my park map I was saving.

Too Much TV. A corny but fun show.

Spongebob 3-D. Finally got to see it in 3-D!

Did some shopping (and buying) in the stores.

Left the park around 7:30 since we got a lot done in two days and things were really getting wet. I tried LaRosa’s for the first time, and I liked it. I wanted to visit Lazer Kraze (any good?) but sis wasn’t feeling good, and I was tired. Also there was a tornado watch until 3 a.m. With my luck ( I been in a tornado before), that would have been a warning if I went anywhere!

[Plankton]

April 25

I woke up to sis calling my name and asking why a light was blinking; it never blinked until now. It was still dark out, so I thought it was early morning, and the tornado watch turned into a warning (she didn’t know there was a watch.) Turns out it was some random light on a sprinkler that later stopped, and it was 6 a.m. I got up to get a donut from the breakfast buffet, but it randomly fell on the floor of our room! I went to bed planning on getting another when I woke up but was too late; I still crave that donut.

Got to KI around 11.

Surf Dog. Fun in row 6, and I was craving blue ice cream because of the track (darn you KI) and my missing donut.

Diamondback. Rode front seat.

Beast. Rode once back row.

BLSC. Rode once back row.

Vortex. Waited for front row. We were hoping to beat the rain that was quickly approaching.

Racer (blue). It was obvious the rain was near, so we did not want to risk waiting 45 minutes for FH, so we walked on Racer as it started to drizzle.

Adventure Express. Someone left the door open on the final lift, lol.

The drizzle started to turn to rain, so we called it a day because we were not looking to ride home wet. We went to another Skyline Chili, and it was amazing.

Overall, we missed ERT, got to the park late, and left early, but still got a lot done considering how many hours we were really there.

Diamondback -2

BLSC - 2

Vortex - 3

Firehawk - 2

Flight of Fear - 1

Racer - 2

Adventure Express - 2

Boo Blasters - 3

Beast - 3

Invertigo - 1

Flight Deck - 4

Woodstock Express - 1

FAAC - 1

Crypt - 1

Surf Dog - 1

Action Theater - 1

Too Much TV - 1

Fireworks

[Coney Islander]

It seems like you had a great time! I won't be going to Kings Island for at least a month, but every time I think (or read) about KI my heartbeat picks up.