McSalsa Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Well, it's been awhile since my last KI visit (5/16/2009) so as you could expect, I was quite hungry for some rollercoasters. This would be only my 3rd KI visit ever and only 4th amusement park visit (as I said in the past, these are rare trips for me), and thus there was still PLENTY of stuff left unridden by me at Kings Island. I hoped to get a few new rides in. And... I got more than I expected! Let's start the trip report...once I explain my "ride rating system". It's pretty self-explanitory... 10=Amazing 9=Excellent 8=Very Good 7=Good 6=OK 5=Meh 4=Bad 3=Poor 2=Terrible 1=Garbage 0=Fake Dog Poop Got all that? OK. Let's go! PARK ARRIVAL Our group contained me (McSalsa), my sister, and her boyfriend. We left for Kings Island at 7:30 AM from Indianapolis, Indiana, and arrived at the park around 9:50. After the National Anthem played, the park opened, and we entered and headed for the ride Kna Kna wanted to do first- Delirium. RIDE #1: Delirium Ahh, Delirium. An intense thrill ride that swings from side to side and spins at the same time! I honestly didn't think Delirium would be as fast as it was, and there were points were the ride got incredibly intense (reason for below intensity rating). What a fun ride (it gets a 10!), and a great way to start my first 2010 KI trip. It is as my sister's boyfriend said- "it's like jumping from a plane!". He may or may not have done that, as he is in the National Guard... RATING: 10/10 After Delirium, my sister wanted to leave Action Zone as everything else appeared broken down/closed, but I noticed Flight Deck in the distance. And away we went. RIDE #2: FLIGHT DECK After a very short wait, almost a walk-on, we boarded Flight Deck. Last time I rode this coaster, I had to struggle to keep on my glasses, but this time I had them secured beforehand. Thus, I got to enjoy the ride and...what a rush! Flight Deck feels MUCH faster than it really is, and the near misses and swinging pump up the intensity. Only the ride's shortness keep it from being a 10 out of 10 fun factor. A very, very Fun ride. And to leave this section a fun spiel quote: "Enjoy your ride on Flight Deck, Kings Island's coldest roller coaster!" (It was cold out, only in the low 50s). RATING: 9/10 After Flight Deck, we went to Oktoberfest, where my sister wanted to ride Viking Fury. However, I pointed out "We just got off Delirium less than an hour ago" and since the two rides are somewhat similar (Delirium is just bigger, a disc, and spins) we skipped it in favor of a KI favorite... RIDE #3: Adventure Express I was afraid of the line at first, but it went fast and we were on in 15 minutes. And we had Indiana Jones music playing to keep us entertained. That made me think of Paramount a bit, but for only a moment. We boarded the ride, which I dubbed "Indiana Jones: The Ride" and were off. The ride was a bit rough at points (though to be honest I didn't know what rough was yet!), and wasn't ultra intense, but it did hit where it counts- the fun factor. Going through dark tunnels with sound effects, and numerous head chopper moments means Adventure Express deserves its good reputation. And now, you will pay...by reading the rest of this TR. RATING: 8/10 After the fun Adventure Express, we headed for Coney Mall. My sister saw Monster and demanded we ride it. RIDE #4: MONSTER A KI classic, Monster has been there since 1972. A fun, smooth ride that wasn't too intense at all. A good break from the more thrilling rides. RATING: 7/10 After Monster, we checked out Racer, which only had the Blue side running and thus had a long line. We looked around and realized Vortex, Beast, and Diamondback all had long lines. Of the three, Vortex appeared to have the shortest, and so we got in line. RIDE #5: Vortex Last time I rode Vortex, I sat in the back seat and was cramped up, almost ruining the ride. This time, I boarded in the front of a car, and had more room. The wait times weren't bad at all in spite of the long line, Vortex was munching them up today, just like Adventure Express was. I guess Arrows are good at that. The ride-ops were doing fun spiels, pumping everyone up for the ride: "We're gonna send you 145 feet in the air, upside down SIX TIMES, and all at 55 Miles Per Hour!!!" I had forgotten how intense Vortex is, travelling through its loops at crazy speeds. The ride calms down for the corkscrews a little bit but not much. I was much more comfortable this time, and the roughness didn't bother me much at all this time. This time, I enjoyed Vortex. I thought I had seen this ride at its best at this point, but I was wrong. More on that later... RATING: 9/10 After Vortex, we wanted to ride a similar ride, so it was off to Flight of Fear and Firehawk. Firehawk had a 2 HOUR WAIT and I thought "Won't be riding that today!". I would eat my words on that, but for this time, we went to Flight of Fear. RIDE #6: Flight of Fear After a near-agonizing 90 minute wait (the fun pre-ride saved us from going insane!), we were on. Spiel Quote time: "We have had fun exploring your little world. Now, would you like to explore ours?". Flight of Fear launched into the tunnel, and we entered the "Spaghetti Bowl". And the lights were on! But not the Emergency lights, the cool dim colored ones! YES! I was memerizing the ride when my sister yelled: "ROUGH!!! ROUGH!!!" And then, I noticed the roughness. When we got off, and I had a headache and some back pain. However, I enjoyed the ride A LOT (still a 10/10!), but I hope FOF never does this to me again! RATING: 10/10 (in spite of roughness) After FOF, we were hungry, so it was time to chow. Rather than pay KI's incredibly high food prices, we went to our car, and ate food we brought instead. We then re-entered the park, and headed for the Eiffel Tower. I failed to notice it was windy... RIDE #7: Eiffel Tower The wind was crazy up here, and boy was it cold! The view was awesome, as usual, but the winds forced us down early. And someone farted in the elevator...TWICE. NO, IT WAS NOT ME!!! Ride Op Quote: "No, It was not me. If it was, we would all be dead." RATING: 6/10 (Winds hurt) After the Eiffel Tower, my sister decided to check out Planet Snoopy. It is even more beautiful in person! As we were looking around, I was showing her the rides. I showed her Boo Blasters on Boo Hill and she demanded we ride it! RIDE #8: BOO BLASTERS ON BOO HILL I suck! My score was only 190! This was a fun little ride, and while not terribly thrilling, it has a lot of charm and I wouldn't mind riding it again. It is also a line muncher to boot! But how to improve score...? RATING: 7/10 After Boo Blasters, my sister wanted to ride Surf Dog. Guess where we went next? RIDE #9: SURF DOG A fun family ride, it was fun but not too intense. My lapbar was a bit tight, but I was OK. During the ride I sang a fun song: "Surfin' Dog." "It's a dog, it's a dog, it's a...Surfin' Dog! (Repeat over and over and speed up as ride gets more intense!)". It's a terrible song, I know! But I still cannot decide...is this a roller coaster or a flat? RATING: 8/10 After Surf Dog, I wanted to ride Diamondback, believing our day was starting to run down (I was horribly wrong!). My sister demanded we ride...WHITE WATER CANYON. In 50 degree weather!?!? I said no (had it been warmer I would have hit WWC). So she and her boyfriend rode it while I watched Diamondback and got all upset. She returned shortly afterwords, and we went to ride another KI Classic...and I learned it was only 4:00!!! 6 Hours left!!! RIDE #10: KI & MIAMI VALLEY RAILROAD I had never been on a train prior to this, so this was a new experience. The KI & MV Railroad shows you places you cannot normally see from within the park. A fun ride that didn't use much time at all. And...are trains supposed to wobble this much? A scary sight during the ride was a possible broken down Diamondback! But, in true B&M fashion, it was back up in 5 minutes. RATING: 7/10 After the KI & Miami Valley Railroad, we decided to hit up Beast at daytime to get some perspective for our planned night ride later that night. I was a bit worried, my back was still sore after Flight of Fear... RIDE #11: The Beast After a brutal wait (it was nearly an hour) we finally got on Beast. My back was sore, and aching from standing for so long. The coaster climbed the lift hill, and I begged Beast "to go easy on my back!". But...Beast decided it wanted to be crazy. The trims...didn't even work that much, if at all. Beast was flying around the track, even giving airtime in some parts! And my back? It was fine somehow! The ride was far from smooth...BANG! BANG! BOOM! I was getting thrown around like a ragdoll, but my back wasn't even complaining! I loved it! And all of this was before the AMAZING tunnel helix finale. I can easily say without question, this was The Beast at 100%. A scary sight afterwords, however: a small ambulance-truck thing was taking someone away from the ride. Anyone got info what this was? Beast didn't close, however... RATING: 10/10 After Beast, my sister wanted to ride Racer. Blue Racer. The rough racer. My back was fine for Beast, would it be the same with Blue Racer? But on the way, we saw a short line for... RIDE #12: Backlot Stunt Coaster "...what a cute little ride. This shouldn't be too intense...OH FUDGE!!!". I didn't expect it, but BLSC is quite intense for its small size! All the effects were working, and the cars looked somewhat better in person than the photos I had seen (of the 2010 versions anyway). A fun, crazy little ride. I also realized during this ride that my back was more comfortable on the roller coasters than it was standing! Weird...I also liked the liscence plates on the "Fake Doorless Headlightless Minis". RATING: 8/10 After BLSC, we countinued as planned towards Blue Racer... RIDE #13: BLUE RACER This ride was just as rough as Beast, but not rougher, and it helps that the coaster uses most of its time going straight or up and down and there are only a few corners. Back was fine. There was a good amount of airtime, and a fun ride to boot. I still perfer Red Racer, but the Blue side is fun too. RATING: 8/10 After Racer, we noticed we were still making excellent time and could wait for Firehawk. So we went to do so. After 10 minutes in line, something happened... It started to drizzle.Firehawk closed.The line cleared out, thinking the rain would come and close the ride.5 minutes later, the drizzle stopped.Firehawk re-opened. Guess who was still in line? RIDE #14: Firehawk After a short wait (WHOOHOO!!!) I was on my first flying coaster. Firehawk ended up being a fun ride, and a new experience. It felt a bit more like "hanging" but it was still fun, intense, and smooth. I really liked Firehawk. I just don't like the lines for it...usually. RATING: 9/10 After Firehawk, I finally talked my sister into getting our group on Diamondback, since we had hit every other major coaster that was open. Off we went to find the Diamondback line at only 30 minutes (it was 60 when I wanted to ride earlier). The school kids and college kids had left!!! YES!!! After a short wait, we were on Diamondback. RIDE #15: Diamondback Diamondback...the airtime king...gave me less airtime this time! WTF? It still had a lot, but this time, it wasn't "OH FUDGE I'M GONNA FLY OUT!!!" airtime. Perhaps some of this was because I had ridden DB before and was expecting it, or perhaps I really did get less airtime. Anyway, Diamondback delievered a very fun and awesome ride nonetheless, and there was still more than enough airtime. It's not, however, the "meanest" coaster in the park. Intensity? Vortex and Flight of Fear easily beat it, and in roughness, well...Son of Beast rules the Island. But Diamondback sure is a lot of fun. RATING: 10/10 Afterwords, we noticed it was still too bright out for a Beast Night Ride. So we decided to ride something else for now. A re-ride was about the only option at this point, and we picked Vortex, which had a short line. RIDE #16: Vortex NIGHT RIDE And when I sat down, I realized something: I was in car 5, row 1! Vortex began to climb the hill. It was dark out, and the lift hill lights were on. The coaster hit the top of the hill and we dropped down...AIRTIME!!! Vortex gave a slightly smoother and more airtime filled ride from this seat! It was an AMAZING ride. Vortex is now one of my favorite coasters at Kings Island thanks to this very ride and joins the "10/10 club". RATING: 10/10 It was an awesome day thus far, and it was time to put an ! on it. We headed for Beast, which also had a very short line... RIDE #17: The Beast NIGHT RIDE The Beast's trims grabbed a wee bit more this time, but they weren't too bad. The tunnels were amazingly dark and scared my sister, I heard her screaming! The ride was amazingly awesome. When we hit the second hill, I noticed the helix was lit-up a little bit. "No problem, it will be dark inside". We viewed the amazingly beautiful Kings Island and headed into the...lit-up Abyss? DARN YOU, EMERGENCY LIGHTS!!! The helix wasn't ruined, it was still a lot of fun, but those lights made this segment of the night ride somewhat pointless. It was a new experience and this was still a heck of a ride, but I hated those lights. Well, it was a fun ride. RATING: 10/10 (Would have been 11/10 if not for the E-Lights!) We had some time after The Beast, so my sister suggested Racer again. As we were going that way, her boyfriend wanted to ride Shake, Rattle, & Roll. It was a walk-on and the ride-ops didn't even notice us at first! RIDE #18: SHAKE, RATTLE, & ROLL This ride was more fun at night than when I rode it previously in the daytime. It was a great final ride to end the night. Gentle and smooth, with beautiful lights to boot. RATING: 7/10 We admired KI's classic flats and how beautiful they look at night as we headed for Racer. When we reached Racer, we found it closed. So we just sat down and viewed the fireworks. Then, we headed the the car. And disaster struck. We were out of gas! Thankfully, KI Maintenence showed up and gave us some, and we hit a local gas station. Then we headed home, albeit 1 hour delayed. Don't worry, we ended up OK. EPIOLUGE What a day! So many rides in so little time! I have now hit nearly everything I would "need" to at Kings Island, save Drop Tower,Invertigo and Son of Beast. Drop Tower was closed most of the day, and when it opened, we were all the way on the other side of the park. Invertigo was broken down all day and Son of Beast...well...you know why I didn't(and couldn't) ride that. A great day overall. FINAL SCORES FOR DAY 18 RIDES TOTAL Beast- 2 Vortex- 2 Diamondback- 1 Firehawk- 1 Flight of Fear- 1 BLSC- 1 AE- 1 Flight Deck- 1 Blue Racer- 1 Surf Dog- 1 Delirium- 1 Eiffel Tower- 1 KI&MV RR- 1 Monster- 1 SR&R- 1 Boo Blasters- 1 CAREER SCORES (3 Visits: 8-??-00, 5-16-09, & 5-8-10) Beast- 4 Vortex- 3 Diamondback- 2 Firehawk- 1 Flight of Fear- 2 BLSC- 1 AE- 1 Flight Deck- 2 Blue Racer- 2 Red Racer- 1 Surf Dog- 1 Great Pumpkin Coaster- 1 Woodstock Express- 1 Delirium- 1 The Crypt- 1 Eiffel Tower- 6 KI&MV RR- 1 Monster- 2 SR&R- 2 Scrambler- 1 Zephyr- 1 Action FX Theater- 1 Antique Cars (RIP)- 1 Boo Blasters- 1 Sally's Sea Plane- 1 (was first KI ride I ever rode!) Character Carousel- 1 Linus' Beetle Bugs- 1 Note: 2010 names used. I didn't ride them all in these forms, obviously, and I cannot remeber all of the rides I rode in 2000. And now, Pros & Cons about the 2010 Park. PRO (THE GOOD STUFF) ***** +Excellent Rides. Almost everything I have ever rode at Kings Island was fun and quality, except for Crypt. Note: I HAVE NEVER RIDDEN Son of Beast AND COULD NOT DO SO ON THIS DAY EITHER, SO I CANNOT TELL IF IT IS GOOD OR BAD. +Excellent Staff. Even when crowds were nearly unbearable, these guys kept the lines moving and had some great spiels. +Clean Park. I don't recall seeing any trash. +Landscaping. It was well done and there were some beautiful locations. +Working Rides. If a ride was open and had theming, it seemed that everything was working. FOF had its dim lights on. AE was working 100%. All remaining theming on BLSC was also working 100%. CON (THE BAD STUFF) ***** -Firehawk's Line. The ride-ops were doing a great job trying to move it and yet it just didn't want to move that fast. Thankfully I got lucky. -Theming. The LANDSCAPING was well done, but the theming has been damaged, especially in areas of Rivertown. Only The Beast's area still looks like it used to there. -Food Prices. Ouch. Thankfully we brought our own. On Cedar Fair's ownership, I am overall pleased with it. If they can improve the theming and lower their too-expensive prices, Kings Island will be hard to beat. Even though it pretty much already is. I hope you enjoyed this very long and detailed TR. Thanks for reading it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 What a wonderful trip report! I am so glad you had fun. And I am even gladder another convert to 5-1 on Vortex has been made! Huzzah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KI FANATIC 37 Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Wow that's probably the LONGEST TR I have ever seen! But great, glad you had a fun time. Just curious, how long did it take you to write that?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkiboy Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Well lets see I just got home this morning from Worlds Of Fun at 6:30 am it was a 12 hour drive my guess A 12 hour TR lol Glad you had fun. I would write about my Prowler goodness but I had to much fun riding it. and yet I herd old Gate music that played at KI at WOF whats up with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBru Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 Great trip report! I'm sad to hear that The Beast's tunnel lights are still on...I hope someone realizes this, soon (and shuts them off). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIfan1980 Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 Had to read a McSalsa trip report (after reading so many times how few times you've actually got to visit the park). Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you had a good time. I know it had to be cold and very windy on the Eiffel Tower and I assume they had the elevators running at the reduced speed also which makes the journey very slow. Also, speaking of the elevator, was your elevator ride op an older gentleman named Mike? He often makes the fake farting sound just for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McSalsa Posted May 11, 2010 Author Share Posted May 11, 2010 Wow that's probably the LONGEST TR I have ever seen! But great, glad you had a fun time. Just curious, how long did it take you to write that?!?! It took 14 hours to make the actual trip, and then 1 to write the report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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