Coasting for Kids 2013 at Kings Island PTR (6-9-13)

[ohiocolts]

Ok, this is a bit delayed, but I finally got around to my Coasting for Kids 2013 trip report.

Last year was different, because it was my first time meeting anybody from this site. I had a blast last year, so I signed up again this year as soon as registration was live.

If you don’t know what Coasting for Kids is, it’s an event at all of the Cedar Fair parks, that offer Coaster Marathons to a certain number of people who donate money to Give Kids The World, a charity that provides kids with Life-Threatening illnesses cost free, weeklong vacations with their families.

Today, we were going to marathon Diamondback and The Beast.

I got up pretty early (around 5 AM to be exact) due to the excitement of the day. I left home around 6:40AM with my mom and sister, and got to the park around 7. We’ll start off with my favorite photo of the day.

We all walked up to the gate and registered. It was nice to hear that Don remembered my name. I received a certificate, a 2nd year sticker, maybe a couple other stuff, and a shirt. The shirts were more of the thin under armourish shirts, which felt very nice. Also, thank goodness they gave us our certificates now this year, as last year we were told to pick them up in Guest Services, and I never remembered to get it.

We all talked with Jennifer/jlopez, and also known as J-Lo, for a minute and then my mom and sister headed for Cracker Barrel (which I soon found out Brad/IndyGuy4KI wanted right now). I believe the next recognizable person to show up was Brad/IndyGuy4KI. I said hi to him and took some pictures while waiting for more people to show up.

Soon, some other recognizable faces showed up, like Gary/XGatorHead8904 and the rest of the Gators showed up. Jonathan/jcgoble3 showed up soon as well. I also met Christopher/CHugh43? Soon, Melissa/Beastie1980 showed up and was thrilled to see herself on the sign up sign. She even modeled next to it.
And, a bunch of other people showed up as well. Sorry for those I forgot. At about 7:55, we headed into the empty Kings Island.

The group then made their way to Diamondback. When we got to Diamondback, Don told us our plan for the day, and stressed Hands Down during specific times. We then got in for a group photo at the Diamondback entrance (which I never did find), and then we were off to riding!

It was a walk on for Diamondback, as I got on the first Coasting for Kids 2013 at Kings Island train! So, then, I rode Diamondback, and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, do to Diamondbacks seating style; I couldn’t mark a ride down on my clicker until I reached the station again. I switched seats a lot, and soon was with this one guy, who I’m not sure who he was, from row 4, to 3 on the next ride, to 2, and finally to row #1 on ride #10. Once you get to row #2, it’s a lot different because there is a lot more wind flowing in your face, due to no seats in front of you. Same for row #1.

A short time after that, some people were getting in line for Diamondback, and I soon found out they were people from the Great Britain Coaster Club (Which I assume would be like the ACE of British people). They joined us for some rides, until after ride #18, are Diamondback marathon was over. I rode with a few different people, including one guy, another guy, Jonathan/jcgoble3, and myself.

Our next stop was one ride on The Beast. When we got to the entrance of the queue line, Don was disappointed about how some people were raising their hands on Diamondback when they were not supposed to. So, we had to have our hands down from 10-noon on The Racer. (I only raised my hands when the Diamondback ops said it was okay around 8:50, so it wasn’t me).

The ride op seemed pumped today, which was nice. So, I rode The Beast in the back row with another “guy”, and it was a fun and thrilling ride… until I realized the stop was longer than usual on the brake run. So, we were stuck.

Luckily, we only waited for about 10 minutes until we were brought back to the station. Unfortunately, a lot of people were not able to ride.

I took some pictures of Diamondback while waiting to head to The Racer.

At around 9:55, we headed towards The Racer.

Coney Mall getting ready for the day.

We stopped for the National Anthem, And then went on The Racer! There was some confusion when we got to the station as to what side we were on, as the crew thought it was Blue side, but Don said it was Red side, and we ended up on The Red Racer. I started off on the first train in row 5. Again, I switched around seats a lot, and had lots of fun. I counted 29 rides before lunch, and I rode with a guy named Matt, myself, Jonathan/jcgoble3, Mrs.Gator, and maybe a few others.
After that, my sore legs took me to the International Restraunt.

Like last year, there were wraps, chips, pasta thing, and cookies. I sat at a table with Brad/IndyGuy4KI, Melissa/Beastie1980, Jonathan/jcgoble3, and Jennifer/jlopez.

Soon, Don came up to the podium and congratulated us for our fundraising efforts. We also had “wish families” that went to Give Kids The World Village come up to the stage. They explained how they really enjoyed there stays at GKTWV and what a great cause we were donating to.

After lunch, we quickly got in front of the fountains, and shouted to the camera “We love Give Kids the World”, at least I think that’s what it was. We then headed back to ride The Racer for four more hours.

Again, I did lots of seat changing and stuff. I rode in the front row around, I don’t know, lap 60 or so. I had rides in the front with Jonathan/jcgoble3, Melissa/Beastie1980, and myself. We’d get up every so often and ask who wanted the front row, but nobody did, so I just stayed on. At one point, some people wanted to get on into the front row, so I changed my row then. The crew was moving very quickly, so we got much more rides in than I expected, but we didn’t get to race much. I was shocked with my total number of rides, as I thought we would get to 80 if we were lucky, but we ended up with a grand total of exactly 100!

Thanks to Jonathan/jcgoble3, Melissa/Beastie1980, a guy named Matt, a guy name Sean, a couple other guys, and maybe somebody else for riding with me! (Along with whoever rode with me before lunch) Unfortunately, due to a couple sprinkles, our Beast tour got cancelled, but Don said he would make it up to us if we came again this year, we could go on a tour. We also discussed what to do for the event next year, and somebody suggested marathoning whatever they were building, but Don said he didn’t know how you would marathon a campground. So guys, its official, we are getting a new campground, so stop talking about what new “coaster” we are getting. (This was meant as a joke. I think Don was joking as well.}

We then all split up and I was with Jonathan/jcgoble3. He was ready to eat, so we went to Hanks. I got my taco salad, and he got a burrito and cake, I believe. We moved over to the Festhaus for cover from storms (which never hit us) and ate. We both couldn’t finish our stuff. We then headed over to Ed Alonzo, where we would see the 7 o’clock show with the Coasting for Kids group.

We noticed that the sign said that the last show of the day was at 6 o’clock, and it was already 6:40…
Soon, Don came over and we directed him to the sign. Epic PR fail. No 7’oclock show existed. So, we discussed what to do, and Don gave us 1 ride on The Beast thru the Fast Lane line. The regular line had the 2nd queue house all filled. We just had a station wait. I rode with Christopher/CHuhg43? And had a fun ride! And we didn’t get stuck! After that we followed Don, to nowhere in particular.

Backlot had a queue tent missing. So, I then split up with Jonathan again and we headed up the Eiffel Tower, which was a walk on. Here are some now outdated construction pictures.

After the Eiffel Tower, we tried to meet up with my mom and sister, who were in the park. It took a while, with bad cell phone signal, but we soon found them. So, I said goodbye to Jonathan and headed out with my mom and sister.

Unfortunately, my sister was in her normal, dampen the spirit kind of mood, which is never appreciated. We rode Dodgems, which had about a 5 minute wait, and was a fun ride. Our next stop was Zephyr, where we ran into Mrs.Gator again, and had a fun ride on just a cycle wait. We then headed over to WindSeeker, which now had its lighting system on.

It was a cycle wait and a nice fun ride. My sister wanted to ride The Racer (Which, I was done with for today), and she was still really cranky, so I was allowed to split up and meet at the entrance at close.

I decided to head to Adventure Express. I literally walked right on, and had a fun, semi-night ride on Adventure Express. I then rode Drop Tower, which was a 15 minute wait. It was a fun free fall! I then took a quick peak thru the construction fence, but it was getting dark.

I then headed to Flight Deck. It was just a one cycle wait for the front row, a walk on for everything else.

Only person in line. Oh Yes. Met a ride op. He was somewhat happy because work was over in only 30 minutes. And, he gave me a challenge. The Flight Deck Challenge. Ride Flight Deck for a whole 30 minutes straight. And I took the challenge. And I moved rows a couple times, but other than that I didn’t get off. When I got to the break run on ride 7, the fireworks started. When I got to the break run on ride 8, the fireworks ended. A great way to end a great day.
I headed off to the entrance to find my mom and sister.

And then, the memorable day ended.

A couple notes:

*Big thanks to Give Kids The World, and the KI staff, including Don, Paul, Cody, Raymond, Duncan, and so many others (Much of which are KIC members)

*Didn’t see anything down long term

*I recommend this event to everybody. It’s a ton of fun for a great cause.

Thanks for Reading!

EDIT: Sorry it's not spaced out, it won't space out.

[Creed Bratton]

You got my names right! Great report Lucas! Very detailed and loved the pictures!

[PKIVortex]

That was me who said the comment about doing it on the new ride next year!

[jcgoble3]

Another one of your excellent reports! Riding Flight Deck for half an hour straight without getting off sounds cool. Thanks for sharing!

[m2raptor]

I believe I am the guy named Matt. It was nice meeting you and this was a great event again this year.

[Fire-Beast-OF FEAR]

Again another awesome PTR Lucas! It's always fun to see recognition from a crew I'm no longer on. In hindsight I should have done coasting for kids again.

[DiamondAceExpress]

Glad you enjoyed your day! Too bad you have a cranky sister!

[jcgoble3]

Glad you enjoyed your day! Too bad you have a cranky sister!

I was going to say something about "wait until your mom sees that comment", but decided to keep my mouth shut.

[VortexBFForever]

Loved it! Hope I can do Coasting For Kids next year.

And a 30-minute marathon on Flight Deck with a fireworks ride included! How cool is that! (I've only had fireworks rides on Vortex and Adventure Express as of this post) Once again, nice PTR!

[IndyGuy4KI]

Great report Lucas! Can't wait for next year's event!

[LoraX]

Great report - thanks for posting links in the other thread.

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