VortexBFF's Interesting Labor Day Dollar Day - September 1, 2014

[VortexBFForever]

I'm just going to go ahead and post the written portion now, since waiting an hour or more for 100+ photos to upload always puts it off for too long and I end up not writing it at all. For that matter, I'll also get to work writing about August 17 and 29, which were amazing trips as well. But first, let me tell you about Labor Day!

We arrived at the park just after 6:00, which gave us 2 hours to make the most out of this Labor Day. Unlike the last few trips where I've started out in Action Zone, I chose to skip it entirely this time since I spent nearly all of my August 29 trip there. The first ride we rode was the Grand Carousel.

I have no idea when the organ will be playing its merry tunes again, but I didn't mind hearing the recorded music, especially after not hearing any carousel music for over a month!

After that nice ride we went up in the Eiffel Tower. I spent a good 5-10 minutes up there enjoying the view (and the wind!). To put things into perspective, it was windy enough for WindSeeker and Drop Tower to be closed at the time of our visit. That being said, I had a slightly different hairdo by the time I entered the elevator to go down.

Next, I thought long and hard about riding Diamondback. The line looked to be a 20-30 minute wait. As much as I wanted to ride, I chose to use the remaining hour and 15 minutes for other things. So I got in the 10-minute line for Race For Your Life Charlie Brown instead. It was a good choice, since it was a bit humid out and I was starting to feel hot.

I rode in Boat 15 with a nice lady and a young boy who was riding for the very first time. We had a nice conversation during the ride. The young boy was a little scared at first, but at the end of the ride after the big drop he was all smiles! It was fun!

I love times like this; it illustrates "Thrills Connect" pretty well, because a lot of times thrills really do connect.

By this time it was about 7:20. We headed to the Rivertown LaRosa's which had a line but it only went just outside the door. Good thing too, because I was hungry. We each got a slice of pizza, a cup of water, and a cup of Sprite. I especially loved enjoying my pizza with a Vortex train flying by overhead every few minutes!

Speaking of Vortex, that is where we headed next (no surprise here ). I played some $1 games first. I tried High Striker and I got 49. Not bad for a girl my age! I had also played it last year. My best High Striker score so far is 56. I also played some Goblet Toss. I came super close to rolling onto a colored goblet but fell short. Oh well. It was still fun though!

Finally, I got to Vortex at 7:40 only to find it had just closed because of inclement weather nearby, according to what they told me. It wasn't raining too much here, though, and I knew they were doing this for safety especially since the weather had been pretty iffy today. Even though it was starting to get close to closing time, I was so determined that I would get my 250th ride tonight (I was at 249 - 1 ride short!) that I stayed put at the entrance and did not leave the side of my favorite ride. Even though it rained for a minute or two, I still didn't move.

Now it was 7:50. It was at about this time that I heard the start-up siren on Vortex's lift hill! I was so excited. Even though it was close to closing time, it appeared I was going to get my 250th ride tonight after all!!

After cycling trains for about 10 minutes, Vortex reopened at 7:59 - ONE MINUTE to spare!! I was the first one in line. I got some nice twilight shots before heading into the station, where Train #2 was waiting with the gates open. I stepped into the front row for my 250th ride on Vortex! The cycle I rode was the first of the two cycles that went before the ride closed again, this time for the night.

There was this absolutely beautiful sunset on the western horizon as my train climbed the lift hill. If picture-taking was allowed, I would have LOVED to get a picture of it! The ride was awesome. Everyone on board was happy and having fun, as I could tell by their happy cheers that they were enjoying the ride a lot! And of course, the inversions were amazing, especially since Vortex was the only inverting ride I rode this evening. This was definitely a 250th ride to remember!

But this trip didn't end there. As we were making our way to the Front Gate, we noticed Tower Drinks was still open and they had extra hot dogs. So we each got a hot dog to enjoy with the traditional ketchup and mustard. They were tasty!

Last but not least was more LaRosa's! We found a line that was out the door, but not by far. After waiting about 5 minutes, we got 3 slices of pizza to share, along with more water and Sprite. We ate right by the Royal Fountains, close to where we ate when we had LaRosa's on our very first trip to Kings Island.

We left the park at about 8:45. Needless to say it was probably the best 2.5 hours of my life I've had in a while!

+Grand Carousel: 1

Total: 24

+Eiffel Tower: 1

Total: 6

+Race for Your Life Charlie Brown: 1

YTD: 4

Total: 5

+Vortex: 1

YTD: 23

Total: 250