Kings Island TR June 30, 2011

[sethdawg17]

Luckily the night of June 29, a friend of mine invited me to go to Kings Island the next day and I figured I would not be allowed to go on such short notice. Nonetheless I was able to go and was excited considering I had no for sure trips to my home park this season. Also knowing that WindSeeker had opened up at the park days ago I was ecstatic to finally be able to ride it.

Upon waking up early at 6AM I left Lexington at about 7:30AM. We made great timing by getting to the park at 9:20AM even with traffic crossing over into Cincinnati from KY. We got our tickets and went through security and waited for 10AM to strike. Upon 10AM we immediately went to Diamondback knowing the crowds were very lite that morning and that it would become busier as the day went on. We got quick rides on Diamondback, Beast, Vortex, and Flight of Fear within the first hour of being at the park because of the short lines.

We passed WindSeeker and saw mechanics working on it and it looked to be extensive work, so I became very worry some if it would open at all that day. We then made our way to the Action Zone part of the park to ride Flight Deck, Delerium and Drop Tower.

On our way we stopped for a quick leisure ride on Adventure Express. Drop Tower was a bit crazy because we got stuck on it about 10 feet up from the loading position. Why you ask? Because someone was stupid enough to unbuckle their seat belt...This truly is something I find stupid and ignorant, but apparently it was funny to them. We waited to be lowered and let off and for one test run to go and then we were back on to ride.

It was nearing lunch time now so we decided to check up on Firehawk and WindSeeker first before eating. Firehawk had a 90 minute wait or more all day because they were only running one train, so we skipped on it. And we found that WindSeeker was open for about 1 cycle and when I then looked at the crowd, it was PACKED. Luckily we skipped it and went to LaRosas in Rivertown where I watched to see if WindSeeker ever ran again and it never did (glad we skipped it).

After eating we hit up another ride on Beast and then walked over to Boomerang Bay for be at the wave pool and ride some slides. We only rode about 3 slides due to the lines being so long and were not about to ride Tasmanian Typhoon (Tornado/Funnel ride) because it was packed all day. We were at the water park til about 6PM and then decided we should go back to ride some rides.

We came back and me and my friend split away from the rest of the group to go get in line for WindSeeker which was now operating. The line was into the overflow queue, but surprisingly went extremely fast and we only waited about 25 minutes for a line that said 45 minutes. I was excited to finally ride this new ride, but overall was not extremely pleased. I knew heading into it that it wasn't going to be extremely thrilling, but I figured it would be a bit more than what it was. It gave a great view of the area and the swinging was enjoyable, but not extremely fast or anything. I would still ride WindSeeker again because it is a calming and relaxing ride with a great view so high up.

Then it became to be about 8PM and we wanted to go back to Action Zone to hit up Invertigo which we skipped earlier in the day. We walked in Coney Mall to once again check Firehawk which was still a 90 minute wait so we skipped it again. We passed Racer which was a complete walk-on so we had to catched a quick ride. I still love The Racer a lot its still a really nice woodie IMO. From there we went back to Action Zone where we planned to end the night on Drop Tower, but we didn't. We rode Inveritgo which had a very short wait and then made our way to Delerium. Delerium also was very short wait and we rode it twice to finish out the night. Me and my friends all really enjoyed Delerium so we rode it a lot that day. It was a nice way to finish the day ride wise. I will also say that Huss Frisbees are my favorite thrill ride.

We then walked to International Street as it was 9:45 and realized we had skipped dinner (had a big lunch) and stopped at Skyline Chili for some coneys and watched the fireworks to end our day.

Overall a really good day, great weather and I was just glad to be at a park again especially my home park Kings Island.

Ride Count:

Diamondback -1

Beast - 2

Flight of Fear - 1

Shake, Rattle & Roll - 1

Vortex - 1

WindSeeker - 1

Racer (Red) - 1

Adventure Express - 1

Delerium - 3

Drop Tower - 1

Flight Deck - 1

Invertigo - 1

[jcgoble3]

Sounds like you had a good day. Sometimes spontaneous trips like that are the best; I rarely plan a trip to KI more than two days in advance (Opening Day this year being a notable exception).

Tip on Firehawk: Go there first thing in the morning, and by that I mean run straight to it when the ropes drop. This is where it helps to have a Gold or Platinum Pass; I was there that day yesterday also and was able to line up at the rope in Coney Mall and make the very short run to Firehawk when the security guard took the rope down, and I ended up on the first train of the day. Without a Gold/Platinum Pass, you'll have a longer run from the front of the park, but I would think that you should still be able to get a reasonable wait time.

[sethdawg17]

I thought about it, but the rest of my group wanted to go to Diamondback. Last year when I went to Kings Island I went straight to Firehawk and it broke down like second train into the day.

[standbyme]

Glad you had a good time...and ending the day with Delirium does sound perfect!