5/22/10 TR: And compliments to the park...

[pcc]

My daughter had a field trip to Louisville Zoo on Friday, so we decided to make a weekend of it and head to Cincinnati after we had our fill of animals. We arrived to our hotel around 6:30pm and settled in. An hour later, I decided to check out the park webcams to see how crowds were (keep in mind, where we stayed, it did not rain or storm). I looked at DB's cam and noticed it wasn't running, I figured it had something to do with the weather, so I then check out the main entrance cam. I see many people gathered there and got a bad feeling about the park. Afterall, on DB's cam, NO one was in the area walking around. Before driving 15 minutes, I decided to call Guest Relations to see if any rides were operating. In less than a minute, someone answered and was very nice in explaining the weather had caused the park to close early. She was very professional and courteous about the ordeal, I thanked her for the information and hung up. That may not seem like much to some, but I have dealt with bad customer service elsewhere, so it's always a pleasant surprise to have someone who is friendly on the other end. I also want to thank the park for having the cams up and running....otherwise, we would have gone on to the park thinking nothing was amiss.

We spent the rest of the evening resting in our room and went to bed early.

On Saturday,

we arrived at the park for the final 30 minutes of ERT. I got in 1 ride on DB alone, ran into a friend of ours and his wife...had them watch the kids so my husband and I could ride 2 more times. During our last ride, the guy in front of us did something I've never seen before. He danced all the way through the ride. He was having a blast, which made the ride even better. I love riding with people who make it fun. Early that morning, the park was virtually empty, so we went over to PS to let the kids ride. First ride for them (and us, we made it a family affair) was the Great Pumpkin Coaster (aka, Little Bill's Giggle Coaster). We got in 2 rides there and walked over to Fairly Oddpar.....er um, Woodstock Express. By that time, the wait for it was around 20 minutes. We get on and have a great ride. I adore that coaster . The girls wanted to ride Surf Dog, but it wasn't running...so we go to Kite Eating Tree. And yes, I love this little ride too. We all got on and afterwards, I talked my youngest daughter (6 yrs old) into going on Flying Ace (Reptar). She wasn't tall enough last season to get on, and when we were there opening day, it was stuck...so, she decided to try it out. While in line, the ride operator was asking her if this was her first visit to the park...she proudly said "We have passes, we come here a lot. This is my first time on this ride" The operator really hyped her up about it and she was so very excited. We boarded the ride as a family ( I LOVE having this ability now ) and took off as the ride operator gave her a big smile and thumbs up. She LOVED it! SO much so, she wanted to go again, but we had waited 45 minutes and wanted to move on through the park. We make our way over to Linus' Launcher and take flight. After that, we decided to hit up a family favorite of our, Shake Rattle & Roll. While waiting, I asked my middle daughter if she wanted to brave Vortex. She said yes. Well, we get off of SR&R and see that the line for Vortex is out past the Diner. No thanks. She was relieved lol. We walked down to Spongebob 3D, but it wasn't open and we decided to have lunch. Since we hadn't ate at the Diner in a while, we decided to go there for some burgers and fries. The place was PACKED with people. We waited close to 45 minutes to place our order. I have to give props to the workers in there. Faced with all of those people, and they still smile. We place our order and wait.....finally, the food is ready, but due to the massive amounts of orders going out, someone bumped into our tray before it could get to us, and some of our orders hit the ground. I felt horrible for all of them, as they were slightly upset and embarrassed that they had an accident. Our order was replaced very quickly and we took a seat outside. The food was delicious! I have to say, it's probably the best burger I've had in a while (fast food wise). And I'm going to go ahead and say a special thank you to the crew that cleans outside of the Diner. My middle daughter had a large Oreo milkshake and accidentally knocked it over on herself. The people working out there ran over quickly with napkins and cloths to help us get her cleaned off. They were all so very kind and sympathetic to her. She was so embarrassed. While we cleaned her off, my husband ran out to the car for more clothes. We were even offered a replacement shake, but my daughter didn't want to attempt that again lol. SO thank you Diner crew, you made a sticky (literally lol) situation bearable.

My husband returned with clothes, so I took her to the bathroom to change. On the way out, I noticed a view I hadn't noticed before:

After that, we walked over to The Racer, but the line was out to Subway. No thanks! We decide to go to Adventure Express to get in a ride, but the line was out past the sign. Again, no thanks. My middle daughter wanted to get on Top Gun...uh, Flight Deck, so we walked out there. The line for it was in the tunnel. I have to say, that is the first time since the late 90's that I've witnessed a line that long for the ride. She was disappointed, but she also didn't want to wait...so we got some blue ice cream instead.

We people watched for a while, it was so very crowded. Everything had lines. Even Subway had lines out to the shop with the skeletons in the window. It was getting pretty hot at that point, so we wanted to cool off on a water ride. Congo Falls it is. We walk over and see the line is out into the flowered area and decide to just go up on the bridge instead. None of us wanted to get soaked, so we stood back for a minute to see where the least of the water would hit. We go to that spot for the next 3 splashdowns. Well, that fourth boat must've had some heftiness to it lol....it came down the dip and we got SOAKED. It was funny because quite a few of us had gathered in that spot to get a slight mist.....bwhahahhahaha..yeah, we walked off of there dripping, but it did feel nice.

My oldest daughter wanted to ride Viking Fury, so we walked over to it. It wasn't running. At that point, we decided our day was pretty much over, due to the crowds. We walked around the park checking out the Starlight Experience props and walked over to PS again. My oldest and youngest daughters got in another ride on the Great Pumpkin Coaster, while my middle and I got on the Carousel. The girls got to meet Snoopy, Linus and Charlie Brown, again From there, we went over to WWC's exit. We wanted to shoot people with the cannons The line for that ride was ridiculous....I'm glad we hadn't planned on riding. We had a lot of fun soaking people and then walked out. On the way out, I took a pic of DB:

We left from that area and decided to ride the train. That always seems to be a good option when the park is crowded. Here's a few pics I got as we went around:

We walked around the park a little more and I took this of DB from the Crypt waiting area:

I didn't take my Nikon with me this trip, I didn't want to lug it around, so my pic quality isn't as crisp as usual...but there's always next time..

Anyways, we went up on Eiffel Tower and looked around. The elevator operator was hilarious. I liked how he pointed out to look down as you got off the elevator. There is a crack between the elevator and the floor, and you can see straight down. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out too good....so here's a pic of E.T. up close...I can't wait to see the lights on at night!

And for those of you who haven't seen the flags, here they are...I do like them there

And for those wondering why those of us who visited on this day complained about crowds...here's your answer in the parking lot to the right:

All in all, I really can't complain. Despite the crowds, all of the workers were extremely nice and friendly. I can't say enough good things about the park, and this is why we have season passes, even though we live close to 5 hours away. Kings Island is one of the best My new class schedule is fairly wonky, so I am not sure when we will get to visit again (class on M, T, TH and Saturday, ugh)....But we are going to try to work something out either next month or July. Hopefully we pick a less crowded time to visit

[frisbeefan]

Thanks for sharing your trip and pictures with us. I have to agree with you that the employees are very nice and friendly. I went yesterday with my cousins and everyone was very nice and the park was very clean.

[The Interpreter]

I loved reading your trip report. Faced with crowds, you still managed to make the day a great adventure! I love your enthusiasm, and your love for your family shows through. Blessed are your spouse and kids!

[KI FANATIC 37]

I was there Saturday too! Nice TR

[EssentiallyCoaster]

I was there as well. I hated those lines. One of those buses is mine and I think we were near sign 34. It took us a good 15 minutes to find our bus among all the others.