Friday July 12th, 2013 (long and late!)

[Great America Guy]

Hello all!

I am a very rare poster, longtime lurker... probably for more than 10 years already. I had the opportunity to spend a week visiting relatives in Cincy earlier this month, and what visit would be complete without a trip to Kings Island! I would have made an attempt to meet up with some of you at the park, but the particular day of our visit was decided at 9am the morning of, so I really didn't have much time to plan ahead.

A little background on me, as you can tell by my user name, my home park is SFGAm. However, my first visit to a theme park ever, was to PKI in 1998, so KI will always be very special to me. Beastie was my first coaster ever, then 1 hour later I became hooked for life when I rode The Beast for the first time. I generally only get to KI once every few years, but every time I walk through those gates, I feel like I'm home. It's actually kind of funny, I can still look around the park and remember exactly what it looked like that first time... KCKC, Hannah Barbera, red Top Gun, Adventure Village, Flying Eagles, King Cobra, antique cars... It's amazing how much has changed. But anyway...

We arrived at the park around 9:30am, with amazing weather... no humidity to speak of, bright sun, and a light breeze. Decided to wait at the chain into Action Zone. At 10, we jogged quickly to:

Invertigo: First train of the day! Made sure we rode this first, because I didn't wan't to wait in line later. It was fun! Much smoother than I remember from a few years ago, and I definitely love the new colors! After deciding to pass on Drop Zone, we dashed over to...

Delirium: Walk on. What can I say, I LOVE this ride. I wish we had one at SFGAm! We wanted to ride it again, but the line sure filled up quickly while we were on it. Decided to head over towards X-Base but got distracted along the way...

Adventure Express: Walk on. Still love this one after all these years, its just a fun ride. Now on to X-Base:

Firehawk: Third train of the day. Entering X-Base, I was floored to see Flight of Fear with a 60 minute wait alredy, and all outdoor queues filled. However, we were shocked to find Firehawk opening up as we stood there, so we jumped in line. While it is a fun ride, I guess I no longer enjoy these types of rides. As I've gotten older (almost 30 already!) I seem to have less of a tolerance riding on my stomach, and I am average build. I feel the same about Superman Ultimate Flight at SFGAm, I usually skip that one as well unless it has no line. These flyers just don't do it for me anymore.

Afterwards, FoF still had a 60 minute line, so we meandered on over to...

The Beast: 20 minute wait. I still love this ride!! It has been my favorite coaster ever since 1998. While there are a lot of awesome rides out there, I still keep this my #1. I love the ride( do miss the old brake system though;), there is nothing else like it, a fast insane ride though the woods. It was not rough, but just bumpy enough to add to the experience. This ride just does it for me, the whole experience, the history, the legend... The Beast!! Everyone in my family just loves this ride. Our late afternoon, and night rides were made more interesting by a very active and vocal ride op. Didn't catch his name, but I still don't know how he could still have a voice left by 9:30pm! Our night ride was nothing short of AWESOME, and we were able to get the last train out of the station before the "temporary shutdown for fireworks show". Next it was off to...

Diamondback: 20 minute wait. LOVE this RIDE!! After quite a few rides on this now, I still can't decide whether I like this ride more than Raging Bull. Diamondback, from the first drop to the midcourse has awesome airtime, but I like Bull's first drop better. Never the less, Diamondback was probably the best addition to Kings Island since Vortex, and is definitely what this park needed. All 3 rides we took were in the back row, as I will never ride a hyper coaster anywhere other than that. Love the whip effect over the top of the lift! We got off Diamondback just in time to see the "spin the wheel" game roll up in front of DB. Between the six of us, we probably spent $20 on this, lol. The result was 8 skip the line passes, and two Buy One Get One Free for cotton candy! Now it was time for...

Eiffel Tower: 5 min wait for elevator. This is the first time I have gone up there in years. Had to get a good look at the 2014 construction! Based on what I saw during my visit to the park that day, I am fairly certian this will be B&M based on the footer cutouts. The only type of coasters I can see this being is an invert, or a wingrider... and I'll most likely be wrong! I would love to see an Intamin Blitz coaster, or a multi launch like Cheetah Hunt, or Verbolten. Anything that launches is fine with me! Back on the ground it was off to the Festhaus for LaRosas pizza for lunch, and then a nice hike back to...

Top Gun: 10 minute wait. I REFUSE to call this ride Flight Deck!!! I'm not sure many people realize it, but this ride is a gem. Suspended coasters are so rare, it is truly a treasure to the park, and unless maintenance became an issue, I can't see why the park would remove it. It's sad to see people always pushing for it to be the next coaster on the chopping block. As always, this was a nice fast ride! It just isn't the same without the SOB near miss though. Next up..

Red Racer: 5 minute wait. Fast, fun, and smooth! I am always worried as I get on this ride, as it seems to be quite rough some years, but smooth other years. Rode Blue Racer later on, found that to be just as smooth and fun! Next it was time to use our skip the line passes;

Flight of Fear: Line was still 60 minutes with half of the inside ques filled, plus the outside ques. Used our passes, and were rewarded with a front row ride! Love the launch, dark tunnel, and the blinding camera! But WHY does this ride need to come to a full stop in the midcourse! It kills the pacing of the ride. Still a favorite though. After FOF, we took a few more rides on The Beast, Diamondback, Blue Racer, and Adventure Express. Mixed in a few flats that I haven't been on in years... Zephyr, Monster, and Viking Fury. After this, four of the six of us headed home, while me and my coaster buddy cousin decided to stay until closing. Took a lap on WindSeeker(god I hope SFGAm doesn't get one of these!), then it was time for a beating...

Vortex: 10 minute wait. Now, I'm not one to really ever complain about a ride, but this was one of the most painful rides I've taken in YEARS. I don't know what happened to this ride since 2011, but it isn't good. If the train came right into the brake run after the first drop, I'd be fine with that. Rode towards the back of the train the first time, then a few hours later tried out the front half of the train to no avail... actually this time I though I broke my jaw, lol. Maybe it has to do with that getting older thing again, because all of the little kids on the ride seemed to be enjoying it. Alas, as long as it is standing, I'll most likely still ride it.

Backlot Stunt Coaster: 30 minute wait. As I said before, I very much enjoy launching coasters. This is a fun little ride, with an unfortunately trashy theme job. I could cry looking at this area of the park, remembering how beautiful it was when the antique cars were here. Oh well. Afterwards, on a spur of the moment decision...

Wild Thornberries/Kings Mill Flume/Whatever Charlie Brown Name this has now: 10 minute wait. I had never ridden this before, so this was a new experience in the park for me. Now, I hate being wet in my clothes, so why I agreed to this I will never know. As we waited, I did an intense study of each boat coming down the drop. After being sure we were properly loaded(me= heavier weight than my 15 year old cousin so I sat in the back) we were off. Now I don't ride many log flumes, but this one seemed faster than most other ones I've been on. We were able to avoid getting wet on the drop, but I hadn't noticed the snoopy that sprays you before you get back to the station! All in all it was quite fun.

After this we took our last ride on Diamondback, then used our last two "skip the line" passes for another ride on FoF, hit Vortex, then a night Beast ride, then a very quick ride on Adventure Express as the fireworks were going off.

One thing that is obvious, is how spread out Kings Island is compared to SFGAm. At GAm, you can ride four coasters without ever leaving the same little area, but KI's are all spread out. Definitely felt it in my feet and legs the next day!

We had an excellent day at the park. The perfect weather, combined with short lines made for a perfect day. You guys have a beautiful park, filled with great rides. Whatever 2014 brings, will only compliment what is here already. Thank you for reading!

*Jason

[jcgoble3]

Excellent report!

I do have a question. Are the front-of-the-line passes now only valid for one person? You said you won 8 of them, then used them for one ride on FOF for the whole group and one FOF ride for just you and your cousin. The ones that I've won were valid for two people per pass, meaning that you would have had four passes left after those two rides. Did you miss that they were good for two people or did they change it?

[JTW]

You're not alone on Vortex beating the tar out of you nowadays.

Wonderful report.

[malem]

Vortex: 10 minute wait. Now, I'm not one to really ever complain about a ride, but this was one of the most painful rides I've taken in YEARS. I don't know what happened to this ride since 2011, but it isn't good. If the train came right into the brake run after the first drop, I'd be fine with that. Rode towards the back of the train the first time, then a few hours later tried out the front half of the train to no avail... actually this time I though I broke my jaw, lol. Maybe it has to do with that getting older thing again, because all of the little kids on the ride seemed to be enjoying it. Alas, as long as it is standing, I'll most likely still ride it.

Sit in the front seat of a car. The front of the 5th and 7th cars tend to be most popular around these forums.

Riding in the back of a car is not fun, especially if you're tall. I ended up hitting my knees, banging my head, and even graying out.

[Great America Guy]

I do have a question. Are the front-of-the-line passes now only valid for one person?

Oops, yes they were valid for 2 people. The six of us used the first 3 passes for the first ride on FOF, then the last pass used by me and my cousin. I was thinking about it the wrong way. Sorry for the confusion!

[jcgoble3]

OK, so you had four passes valid for a total of eight riders. That makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification.