KI 8-8-13 Announcent Day!

[ohiocolts]

So, my mom took me to Kings Island for the big 2014 announcement.
Since my sister didn’t want to go, (YES) we were able to get there at about 8:40. The reason things are more enjoyable without my sister is that she will be very cranky if:
A. The line for a ride contains more than 2 people, or
B. It is over 65 degrees.
My stomach was still hurting when I woke up, and I was not sure why. I thought it was just a stomach ache, but I had it over a day…
So, yeah, we got to the park around 8:40 and headed to the entrance.

Jordan Lucas greeted us around the entrance plaza. We waited at the entrance and the next people to show up were Oldiesman, Kat, and somebody else who is not a forum member. We said hello and waited for more people to show up. The next person was BeastForever. Then Silver2005 showed up. Next was Malem, who handed out guessing nametags. Here was my guess.

And my moms guess…

Yup, a Premier Winged Giga Coaster. Next was jcgoble3, and finally Fire-Beast-of-Fear.
So we chatted for a little, and soon the park opened for ERT. Our first stop was Diamondback, which was a walk on. As usual, it was a nice, fun ride. We finally decided to head to The Beast, which was a walk on. And a great ride on the World’s Longest wooden roller coaster!
It was now a few minutes till the park opened, and we went to the great Backlot Stunt Coaster. Backlot was a walk on, and a nice, fun, ride! The park was now open and we headed to Flight of Fear. Luckily there was still no line, so it was a walk on. It was a bit darker than normal, and a fun ride! We decided to go next door to Firehawk. It was a fun ride on the only Vekoma Flyer in Ohio!
Jonathan/jcgoble3 had 2 Buy 1 Get one Skyflyer tickets. So, he got 2 tickets, and me and Matthew/malem got 1 for only $2.50 each. We passed this on the way.



And a peek through the fence showed us…


And the lights by the gravestones.

So, we bought our Skyflyer tickets and went on the ride. The rest of the group went onto Flight Deck.
After about 15 minutes, Matthew and Jonathan got on. It was Matthews first time. Jonathan pulled the rip cord and they flew down. After their ride, Matthew said the first drop was “interesting”, but he enjoyed the ride. Jonathan stayed on, because he bought 2 tickets, and next up was me. We went up, I heard “3, 2, 1, fly.” And then we were falling towards the ground. Still the best ride in the park.
Our group was waiting for us, so we rejoined them and headed for Delirium.

Delirium’s wait was 10 minutes, and a fun ride. It was a different way to check out construction. My mom then left because she isn’t very good with a whole day at Kings Island. Next we went to Flight Deck. It had a 10 minute line. Fun coaster as usual. We headed out next to Skyflyer and took a little break. Soon we decided to head to Adventure Express next. Adventure Expresses line was about 10 minutes. Another fun ride!
Now, it was time for lunch. Everyone got different stuff but we all met in the Festhaus. I still was not very hungry, so I just got some watermelon at the Coca-Cola Marketplace. And unlike everything else, I didn’t have to wait in line. So I soon met some others in the Festhaus and had some watermelon. We met up with the rest of the group at another table, which now included NoChickens and Mrs.NoChickens. After lunch, we went onto the Blue Racer, which was a walk on, and a fun ride.
We now headed to the other side of Coney to ride Vortex. Vortex had a 10 minute wait. I was forced to ride in 5-2, and my ears hurt a bit after the ride. But it wasn’t that bad. We were walking down Coney Mall, heading for the 2 o’clock Ed Alonzo show, and we heard a severe weather message come over the intercom.

We all safely got to Ed Alonzo’s Physco Circus of Magic and Mayhem 2. Unfortunately, my favorite trick was still left out. But it was still a nice show. It was still raining, so we headed over to Boo Blasters.
Boo Blasters had a full queue. I chatted with Duncan/FireBeastofFear in the 20 minute line. I racked up 960 points, Jonathan got 1380 points to become a Master Blaster, and Duncan got 0000 points, because his gun didn’t work. (Or maybe he’s just that bad! ) Then BeastForever had to leave, but would return later.
Everyone now wanted to ride White Water Canyon, so I out my stuff in a plastic bag and prepared. After the long walk, the wait was about 10 minutes. I got wet, but it could have been a lot worse.
Then, somebody in our group (Kat maybe?) saw a tweet by Don saying there would be a Tweetup in the 4 o’clock hour for your chance to win VIP Seating! It was about 3:30 now. A few people wasted quarters to get people wet, but it was fun to watch.
We decided to take a ride on Woodstock Express, because it’s line was short. It was a fun ride. Love it. For the next 20minutes, we updated our phones every 10 seconds, while walking towards Action Zone, because that would probably be the most likely place he would be. We stood around Action Zone, updating phones. Soon, Kat read with excitement that Don tweeted “I am in Action Zone. The first 8 followers to show me this tweet on the device win VIP seating for tonight’s announcement.”
Thank goodness my mom let me borrow her phone. I was behind, but I followed the dashing group to Don. I showed him a tweet, and was presented with a Media Pass!


Woo hoo! A $150 value! That solved what dinner was. In addition, Jonathan, Matthew, Duncan, and Kat also received the passes.

This was a site I do not see very often. A few minutes later, Don tweeted “That took less than one minute to have our winners”. We then took a spin on Zephyr, which was a walk on. Nice, relaxing ride. But it wasn’t tall enough. So we went to WindSeeker! WindSeeker’s wait was about 5 minutes, and a nice ride, and a great view. When we got down, we met thedevariouseffect at the bottom of the tower.
We then all headed to Hanks to meet up with I believe No. Chickens and Mrs. No Chickens. 1lilybug also stopped by real quick. After this some of us headed for Drop Tower.

After waiting about 15 minutes, and being close to getting on, the ride closed for another storm. “YES” said Duncan, happily. We were kind of hungry, so we stopped by Stunt Crew Grill for some free food. They had a fancy buffet set up. I probably only knew what about half the stuff that was up there was. Prime rib was good. There was also very little people there. There was I, Jonathan, Duncan, and Matthew. Ryan/Boddah1994 was also inside. He wondered how we got the VIP passes…
So, after eating the fanciest Amusement Park food ever, we headed back outside, and Drop Tower looked really intimidating with its background.




We then went to the Festhaus to chat with a few people. Soon, it was time for our construction tour. So, we met with Don and then headed behind the fence.


So, now I will make you all jealous and show you construction photos up close.




My foot on a footer.



And I am touching the footer.




The valley is HUGE. At this point, Don told us the new attraction will take up 13 acres.

I've posted too many images so part 2 should be up shortly

[ohiocolts]

Part 2

Adventure Expresses tunnel.

The footers were very close to AE.











And ladies and gentleman, that concludes the tour. It only lasted about 10 minutes, but it was so cool to just be right next to the footers and everything. That valley in person is just so big.
When we got back to normal Action Zone, fog was starting, giving everything a Haunt like atmosphere.




We then met up with a few other people at the Hank’s Bier garden, including Diamondbacker and Homestar92? I believe it may have been Homestar who kept complaing he had a thing called “work”, and couldn’t win a tweetup. So, we sat and chatted for a while, and eventually, the garbage can was moved and Adventure Express was open, so we went to AE.
It was a station wait, and a fun ride! After this we talked, and it started raining again. We soon decided to head to Flight Deck. The ride went down for weather and/or maintenance, not sure which, while we were in line. But we decided to stay out of the rain in Flight Decks station. After around 30 minutes or so, the coaster reopened. So we had a KIC train. When we arrived back to the station, there was nobody in line, so EVERYBODY on the train rerode. 2 fun rides on Flight Deck!
When we got off, I my mom rejoined. And this was the site of Action Zone.







It felt just like Haunt. The group decided on one last ride before the announcement, and it was The Beast.


There was one switchback open and the wait was about half an hour. It was a fun Semi-Night ride on The legendary Beast!
I, Duncan and Matthew got some more food and then headed to the VIP seats.

I ended up sitting with important KIC people like I believe Ryan and Dane. There was a scream about every 5 minutes that burned your ears off, and then Don would tell us how much more time was left.

Soon, it was officially time. Don came up to the stage and soon, Mr. Greg Schied came up to the stage.
He talked about the past. 2007:Firehawk. 2009:Diamondback 2010:Planet Snoopy. 2011:WindSeeker, Dinos, and Pavers. 2012:Soak City. And now… the largest investment in Kings Islands history, at $24 Million.
A teaser video played on the screen. It was good ole’ Son of Beast. And then.. He collapsed to the ground. Blue supports than raised from the ground. There was purple track. It was the longest, at 4,124 feet, invert in the world! At a speed of 68 M.P.H! Including 7 inversions! It was… It was…
Banshee
Yep. It indeed was Banshee. After this Greg talked some more about the ride, showed us a POV, a night POV, and a Birdseye view. It was a huge build up, and it looks like a great coaster. My only disappointment is was just what we expected. It’s called Banshee, and the blueprints were right.
Banshee t-shirts immediately went on sale at On-Location. I soon found Matthew, Jonathan, and Duncan once again having some more food. I got a prime rib sandwich. Mmmm. With the dinner money I saved, I got a Banshee T-Shirt, as well as Jonathan and Duncan. The rain then started once again, and it stormed on our way home. What an incredible day.
A couple notes:

*Banshee looks awesome. Can’t wait.

*Oddly enough, the $150 price tag on those V.I.P. passes was reasonable.

*Many rides closed and opened throughout the day due to rain. Drop Tower was closed for a while in the morning.

Thanks for reading!

[malem]

Your enthusiasm really shows in your trip reports. Excellent, with amazing pictures, as usual! Thanks a lot for writing this!

After this some of us headed for Drop Tower.

After waiting about 15 minutes, and being close to getting on, the ride closed for another storm. “YES” said Duncan, happily.

I've never seen someone so happy about a ride going down.

[IndyGuy4KI]

Awesome PTR Lucas! Thanks for sharing!

[KI FANATIC 37]

I always love reading your trip reports! Glad you had a good time!

[SonofBaconator]

Sorry I couldn't meet up with you guys. You do very good trip reports!

[BeastForever]

I am SO buying a VIP pass next time there's an announcement like this. I'm so jealous of you guys.

[Fire-Beast-OF FEAR]

Your enthusiasm really shows in your trip reports. Excellent, with amazing pictures, as usual! Thanks a lot for writing this!

After this some of us headed for Drop Tower.

After waiting about 15 minutes, and being close to getting on, the ride closed for another storm. “YES” said Duncan, happily.

I've never seen someone so happy about a ride going down.

And I was VERY happy!

[stashua123]

Didn't mention seeing me getting off The Beast? That's fine. Nice PTR!

[homestar92]

Yes, it was I who was complaining about work, and it was also I who enjoyed some light reading during our night ride on Beast.

[Hoeter]

Thank you for sharing your experience of last night...I was there as well but did not get in a ride on The Beast.

Our group got on Diamondback right after it came back up.

[PKIVortex]

Awesome report, it was almost like being there with you guys!

[TheCrypt]

You always make great reports, Lucas. Thanks!

[ohiocolts]

Thanks for the comments everybody! They mean a lot!

[geebs11]

awesome post ohiocolts!

I didn't realize that valley had such a dip....gonna feel a nice breeze...and some speed...headed down into it....

PS: edited my original post...didnt realize when I quoted your post that I was reposting all the pictures, lol...ooops!!

[jcgoble3]

Another great report! Thanks!

You were the smart one by waiting for the crowd in On Location to disperse before trying to go in and buy a shirt. I fought the crowd sardine can immediately after the end of the announcement like the fool that I probably am.

[Mrs. No Chickens]

That was a perfect trip report! Go Colts!