Kentucky Kingdom Trip Report: July 18th, 2014

[MDMC01]

Hey all, I went to Kentucky Kingdom for a few hours yesterday and had a blast. Before I tell you how the trip went, I’m going to share a short back story. This trip was originally scheduled for this Monday, but it was raining, therefore I ended up going yesterday (Friday). Here’s what went on:

I got to the park a little after 11 and noticed the rides and the barbed wire fencing on the way in. Since I had bought a ticket online, I asked the lady at the ticket counter if it should be redeemed for a “proper” ticket, but she said that they could just scan that (she was really nice, by the way), which they did. Once inside the park, I grabbed two park maps and walked around a bit. I had pre-planned to get a locker near Tornado (a waterslide in the waterpark almost identical to Mondo Monsoon at KI), which was close to the center of the park (at least in my mind). Doing this meant I didn’t have to walk all the way to the front to get my stuff or change. Before I go on, it is important to note that the park’s layout is unusual as you have a highway dividing the park and you have to take a bridge to get from one side (where Lightning Run, thrill rides and the kids area are located) to the other (where the waterpark, a water ride, Thunder Run and other rides are located). Upon getting a locker, I found that the locker system is amazing. You pay to get a wristband that automatically assigns you a locker. Everytime you need to open the locker, you just scan your wristband at the correct station (as in, the one you bought the locker from- trust me, I tried) and your locker automatically opens. No password to remember or anything- it’s great! So, after this awesomeness, I decided to make Thunder Run my first ride of the day. I sat towards the front and had a great ride. It had some cool airtime and unexpected twists and turns and I reminded myself to ride in the back later. After this, I decided to ride the Flying Dutchman as I knew it used to belong to Kings Island back in the day. It was an ok ride and reminded me a bit of WindSeeker, except it was more like 30 feet up instead of 300. The only problem was that it had a super abrupt start and the lowering of the shoes looked abrupt as well, but surprisingly felt OK.

After this, I was going to ride Mile High Falls since I was in the area (it’s in the back of the park), but another guest told me that sitting in the back would get me the wettest (as I wanted to sit in the back, thinking I’d get the least wet) but I didn’t feel like getting wet. I instead went over to the other side of the park to ride Lightning Run. So, a little backstory with this: about a month before the trip, I noticed I had been gaining some weight and I heard that lots of people were getting Walks of Shame. So, I decided to start eating better and worked out (mind you, the working out only lasted for a week)and ended up losing 5.5 pounds! So, before I got in line, I tested the test seat and got a green light, which meant I passed with flying colors! J The line itself was the longest I had waited so far (as they were only running one train), but the line didn’t take a terribly long time. Once in the station, I noticed the trains reminded me a bit of Millennium Force as they sort-of have raised seats. I sat closer to the back and had a blast! The first half of the ride was good, but that last half was like a mini-Maverick! There was so much airtime and sharp turns in that section that it was insane! It wasn’t the best coaster I’ve been on, but it sure was a lot of fun!

After riding the lightning, I decided to try FearFall. The entrance was really hard to find, but once I found it, I got on the second cycle after entering. The first thing I noticed was that besides the restraint, there are no real places to hold on. Also, there is a roof above the carriage, so there is no way to know when you will drop and it really caught me off guard! One minute, I’m talking to the guy next to me, the next, we’re freefalling! So, after that, I decided to enjoy the 5-D Cinema. Today, it was playing a 3D movie using characters from the movie Rio. Before I get to the movie itself, I’d like to say that the entrance to this attraction was also difficult to find. I waited in line a bit before moving to an indoor pre-show area. The pre-show was interesting and had great music, but seemed to end abruptly. The attraction itself was just meh. Although the moving seats were awesome, it’s like they built the movie to showcase the seat’s abilities and deliberately put it into situations where it would be used. In this way, it was also sort-of random. Put another way, the Spongebob movie included you, and therefore made sense that the seats would react when you were riding the bubble bike or in the final scene with Spongebob and Patrick when Plankton’s robot is attempting to slice at your face. In this movie, it felt you were just watching the action with really cool moving seats. In other words, you felt disconnected from the action or movie.

After the underwhelming movie, I decided to take a spin on the nearby Himalaya. I quickly found that I should have chosen the outer seat as forces were pushing me down and to the left (towards the outer seat), but it was definitely an interesting ride. After this, I headed to the other side of the park to change and take in the water park. Although I really wanted to do Deep Water Dive, I also wanted to ease myself into the water by getting on some other slides before tackling the big one. After briefly walking into the wave pool, I decided to try Deluge, which is the park’s water coaster (as in, a water slide with launched hills). There was hardly any line, but unfortunately, I had to get off because it was suddenly down for mechanical problems with the lift. With Deluge down, I decided to wander over to Mega Wedgie, a bowl slide that turned out to be pretty fun. Before I go any further, I’d like to say that I admire the fact that most of the water park attractions allow single rider tubes (as well as double rider tubes), which I as a single rider really appreciate. After this, I decided to tackle Waikiki Wipeout, which is a crazy looking slide that has 3-mini versions of Mondo Monsoon’s giant funnel. It’s pretty crazy and was definitely something different. After this, I finally decided to conquer Deep Water Dive. Now, I’d never been on a water slide with a capsule drop before, so this was all new to me. Basically, you get in a capsule and the door shuts. After a countdown, the floor drops out from under you and you go down the slide. After climbing 6+ feet of stairs (I only know this because there was a sign that said it was 6 flights up from the lower slide on the 2-slide complex), I finally made it to the top. It seemed everyone up there was in panic mode (except for the lifeguard, he was actually pretty chill) as would-be riders were terrified by this ride. I volunteered to go ahead of everyone as the other riders were all nervous and scared. I got freaked out a bit too when I thought the capsule’s hole that I’d be going through was smaller than it really was and I didn’t know where to put my feet. Nevertheless, I was the only brave soul that marched on and took the plunge. It was great!!!! I ended up having a huge wedgie afterwards and my body was shaking from the awesomeness, but I did it!!! J Along with Lightning and Thunder Run, DWD was one of the three rides I really wanted to do on this trip, my “Big 3” if you will. After this awesomeness, I decided to try again on Deluge. I waited a bit longer than my last attempt, but I actually made it this time. It was pretty cool as I got a ton of airtime on the drops and the launched hills gave it even more airtime.

After that awesomeness, I decided to change and head out of the waterpark as I was starting to get cold. By this time, the temperature had dropped a bit and it had started sprinkling a bit. After changing, I decided to try again on Mile High Falls, simply because I was already wet. For those unfamiliar, this is essentially a taller version of Congo Falls with a straighter drop (Congo has a double drop). I ended up getting the second row (which I thought was the front row until some people had the row next to me, which was really the front row) and got soaked. I thought that the way I got wet was interesting, because it felt like the wave came down in sheets rather than just one big wave (it was like splash-pause-splash-pause-splash). After this, I decided to hit up Thunder Run again, this time in the back. It was a longer wait than this morning, but it was worth it. It was pretty insane back there with all the airtime and being thrown around and whatnot, but it was still good. After this, I had a pulled pork sandwich, some fries and a Sprite at Junior’s BBQ. The food was OK, the man serving up my sandwich and fries was very polite, and I admire that he referred to me as “sir” multiple times. Kudos to you, man who served my food! So, after that, I started to get in line for Tin Lizzies, but didn’t really want to wait and called my ride to let him know I was ready to be picked up.

Overall, I had a great day, but might have gotten a few more rides in (Breakdance, Tin Lizzies, another on Himalaya and another on Lightning Run) if I would have stayed longer. To close, I’d like to make a few (mostly good) overall comments about the park in general. First, I enjoyed how friendly most employees were and saw employees stationed at many points along the midway (as well as safety officers) to assist guests as needed. I also enjoyed the park’s music; apparently they have their own radio station, which played country and rock music. When I got to Mile High and Thunder Run (the 2^nd time), I also heard familiar songs like “Rude” by Magic and “Latch” by Disclosure, though I think those were from a different radio station. Also, for the most part, the people were somewhat friendly and a guest helped me find Mile High Fall’s entrance as I must have appeared to be lost. This also leads me into my main negative point against the park: ride entrances/confusing layouts. As noted previously, FearFall, Mile High Falls, and the 5-D cinema had entrances that were hard to find. FearFall was especially interesting as I saw people queued what appeared to be behind a gate, but I couldn’t see anything except for a food patio which looked like it had dead-ended at a point (it turns out their pirate ship, Bluebeard’s Bounty was back there too…). The water park was a little difficult to navigate as well as I had trouble finding Deluge’s entrance on my first attempt and couldn’t figure out how to get to the Hurricane Bay Beach Club (the 2^nd part of the water park, where Deep Water Dive and Waikiki Wipeout were). I think it might benefit the park to put more signage near places where guests might get lost or confused. A good example of this was that there was a Thunder Run sign above where the ride’s entrance and exit were (but then again, Thunder Run was a little hard to find too…). Although that path used to also take patrons to Twisted Twins, it is now a dead end and people might see it as such (as in, there’s nothing over there). Along the same lines of confusing layouts, it was only in the process of writing this trip report last night that I realized I had missed the Bumper Cars (and apparently, a lot of the midway games) completely because I didn’t venture to the right of the 5-D theatre and Himalaya. That being said, I do feel good about the future of Kentucky Kingdom and really want it to succeed. If I lived closer I’d probably go more often, but because I live a few hours away, this might be my one and only trip this summer. So, as a closing statement, I give you a picture of Lightning Run with a tree in the way (this was taken from the bridge that separates the park).

Highlights: Thunder Run, Deep Water Dive, Lightning Run, Waikiki Wipeout, the locker system

Ride Count:

5-D Cinema (Rio): 1

Deep Water Dive: 1

Deluge Water Coaster: 1

FearFall: 1

Flying Dutchman: 1

Himalaya: 1

Lightning Run: 1

Mega Wedgie: 1

Mile High Falls: 1

Thunder Run: 2

Waikiki Wipeout: 1

-MDMC01

Edit: I apologize that the picture is really small; I couldn't make it much bigger without it becoming blurry.

[stashua123]

Nice detailed and very long(I always like long trip reports better) Trip Report MDMC01!

[sccard01]

Did you catch the sea lion show? That show is a MUST!!!!!!!

You should comment this review on the parks facebook page (or the cons). Every time I go to the park there is always something new or something that has been tweaked. Like today I went and they added this gigantic permanent signed outside of the Auqa Theater showing patrons will know the times of shows which is very noticeable compared to the other signs. I am sure that that park will take your thoughts into consideration and will appreciate it. The park maybe open but the rebuilding of the park is far from over.

[MDMC01]

I did not catch the sea lion show, though I did hear it as I walked by. I thought about seeing the 5 o'clock show, but I sort-of forgot and left shortly after 5.

EDIT: BTW, sscard01, I thought of you on the trip as I got a Cardinals shirt at a gas station on the way home and it reminded me of your KIC avatar.