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Fights, Riots, and Heat


Dane
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I arrived at the park at 6:00, for an afternoon of fun, fireworks and photos. Instead I got to see fights, lines and wet.

(Ok this will be a long one and detailed. But I assure you it will probably be the best one.)

Ok I got at the park at 6:00, I figured I'd get out quicker and parked in the last parking spot in the lot. So when I leave, there would be a kind guest and let me in, so I'll get out quicker.

First Part...(The Beginning)

After talking all my stuff out of my pocket, I got in a conversation with an employee about the metal detectors. I will not go into it for safety reasons. I made my way to Scooby Doo because its 96 degrees outside and I thought it was air conditioned. Boy, was I wrong. Either it didn't have any or it was broken down, or even turned off. it was hot, musty and it smelled. I did not enjoy the line that started by the fountain either. And might I add, while in line 2 First Aid cars left. My guess, heat stroke.

Second Part...(Photo's section)

After getting off the ride I made around the park taking photos wherever good photos could be taken. (At home before I left I was running rigorous test to make sure the lens was right.) I ended up taking 65 photos. But with my compact flash card, I could have taken over 665 photos more. (I love that thing.) After my photo extravaganza. I made my way back to my favorite ride.... Flying Eagles.

Third Part...(The Eagles)

After a 5 cycle wait and one eagle sick, I made my way on. Anybody who knows me knows I'm dangerous behind an Eagle. The ride starts up, as I start snapping those cables. I stalled out longer since I was the only one in the car. I also got a good laugh out of 4 things. One and the funnest, It was my best ride, I also made the contraption make a loud thump, probably since the wind got underneath me and I went freefalling to the ground. Second, a little girl telling me to stop, I'm gonna break it. Third. A little boy saying "Daddy I want to get in Eagle two!" (Eagle 2 was the one I was in.) And forth, my favorite, I looked out at the midway after the loud thump, and every eye was on me. And I had my PKIUnlimited.com T-shirt on too. I struck up a conversation with a ride op there too. I forget his name though...

Forth Part...(The water starts to boil.)

Over the public PA there is a guy that came on and said something like, "Attention ladies and gentlemen, Paramounts kinds island has received a severe weather warning from the national weather service. Nights of Fire will be starting at 9 o'clock instead." I was still talking to the ride op as we get stormed with questions. Many of them the Ride op didn't know but I did. I said good-bye and walked to through Coney mall. Security was going nuts. This guy was yelling his head off at people sitting to see the fireworks. Areas needed to be closed off because of the falling ashes from the fireworks. I made my way down to in-front of the Eiffel Tower. Crowds getting bigger and bigger. And my movement slower and slower. Had made my way to in-front of the tower. Thousands of people sitting down already. And thousands more standing And then it happened...

Part Five...(A volcano erupts)

As all the people were getting out of hands, a fight starts, than another, than another. Evidently people don't like to be rushed or bumped into. It was chaos, the fight pushed people back, into others and into others. Many more arguments started because of people getting pushed back into other peoples kids. "What about me?" you ask. I'm calm, cool, and collective. Taking in the anger from other people, and poking jokes at it. Oh, I kept the crowd around me entertained.

But something happens... a voice comes over the PA, (I'll add my notes in ())"Attention ladies and Gentlemen, (The crowd goes silent) the national weather service has issued a severe weather warning. Because of this Night of Fire will be canceled." The crowd just got a whole lot madder. Pushing come to shoving, argument come to pushing, and to top it ALL off, it starts to rain.

(So now in recap, we have around 52,000 people wanting out of the park, they are mad, angry, packed, rushed, and wet.)

A person in services pushed me into the line to the gold pass area "Dinner and a View." I went up and down. By this tome, it was a full downpour, and lightning every 10 seconds. So naturally people seeked shelter, but this caused a backup and people outside were getting more angry. I seeked shelter in the corner of the admissions building, under the restrooms sign. After I was slowly getting pushed out, I ran over to the old season pass entrance, there I struck up a conversation with security there. I waited under there for a half hour and realized its not gonna get better. So I packed all of my belongings into my net pockets of my pants protected by about three layers of pants material. And I hooved it to the car (Might I remind you its on the complete opponent area of the lot.)

My new Nike Shox are complete soaked so I just ran harder, not caring about very large puddles. When I made it to the car, I turned on the radio and sat back watching a mile of cars at a stand still.

And that ends my trip report for July 4th 2003.

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Yeah, that rain was a pain in the butt. After I punched out I made my way to Emporuim in almost full sprint. I end up waiting there for about a good 20 minutes until I finally said "Screw this! I'm going rain or no rain!" So I took a good sprint from Emporuim to the associate areas and parking lot, taking the back way home. Kings Island Drive was too packed for me.. rolleyes.gif

So there, that's what happened in Shadow's view of the crappiest 4th ever..

~Shadow~

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While this was happening, I was trying to tell people that had waited more than an hour to ride WWC that they could not ride, and then run up that massive line in the rain to close it off, but then I got to take shelter in a small building for WWC and watch TV and play Uno and tell ghost stories about the park!

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We (myself, and a group of 12 family and friends) got to the park early. When we got into the park, we ran over to buy those picnic buffet tickets. We then ran to AZ. I ALWAYS go to the back of the park, but my group wanted to try Delirium.

For the most part, the park didn't seem as busy as I thought it would. It could be the park is just doing a GREAT job of working crowds. We did everything in AZ, including Congo Falls. At 10:30, the temp was already HOT!

Racer was a walk on, so our entire group took a couple of rides on each side. still love the way this coaster delivers air time in the FRONT, instead of the back. I still love this ride!

We all stopped to play games. I won my 1 year old niece a unicorn on the Age & Weight game. I'm 32, and pass for 17. $5.00 is still high....but with me, it's a sure thing. I also won a large prize on the Goblet Toss, despite the fact they took out half the pink cups since last season!

Anyway, we managed to stay ahead of the crowds most the the early day. Water Works was busy....but great for people watching.

The only real problem of the day (only park-at-fault problem) was that picnic buffet. We arrived in the first hundred or so people. Even so, the buffet line was running out of food! The pop stands were running out of Coke. We didn't even get a cookie! We waited for a while for thing to improve....they didn't. As we were leaving the grove, my sister-in-law began to tell some of the people still waiting to enter the grove about the situation.....

Now, here is the part where I PRAISE PKI. We all went to GR, to complain about spending $120 dollars on dinner, and receiving next to NOTHING. GR gave us a card, and explained that the picnic would be extended. They apologized and were INCREDIBLE about the situation. They told us the problems were corrected, and to take the card back to the picnic....and we would be readmitted.

True to form, there was now plenty of food, fresh, hot, delicious....there were cookies, popsicles, and Coke! We got our money's worth!

About this time, all the events that Dane described began to unfold. Anger and bad weather washed over the teeming masses. Our group huddled under the Stunt Crew Grill. I had a beer and watched the people running from the weather. When the cancellation announcement finally sounded, the park EMPTIED. When the lightning stopped, the rides began to re-open. I then rode SDATHC, Shake Rattle & Roll, and then finished out my night with a bunch of rain soaked Eagle flights!

As we were leaving, some in our group stopped to talk to a game op. (the peach basket game in Coney Mall) He was telling them to go to GR and they would give those in our group w/o season passes a FREE ticket to return Saturday! Very cool PKI!

This park has growing pains every spring, but by the time the heat of Summer arrives, this park is on the ball! They are incredible about handling their mistakes (dinner) and go out of their way to accomodate people, even when God gets involved to show us his fireworks. Most of our group came back, and although the fireworks weren't quite as intense as last year, (IMHO) it was still a great show.....and a great weekend.

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  • 3 weeks later...
So now in recap, we have around 52,000 people wanting out of the park, they are mad, angry, packed, rushed, and wet.

37,000

That's not what I heard.

You heard wrong then.

I was told wrong.

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So now in recap, we have around 52,000 people wanting out of the park, they are mad, angry, packed, rushed, and wet.

37,000

That's not what I heard.

You heard wrong then.

I was told wrong.

okay cool. the quote box thing looks cool with our one line replies.

Yes, I agree

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So now in recap, we have around 52,000 people wanting out of the park, they are mad, angry, packed, rushed, and wet.

37,000

That's not what I heard.

You heard wrong then.

I was told wrong.

okay cool. the quote box thing looks cool with our one line replies.

Yes, I agree

laugh.gif Look deeper into the quote box......deeper..... haha laugh.gif

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Share on other sites

So now in recap, we have around 52,000 people wanting out of the park, they are mad, angry, packed, rushed, and wet.

37,000

That's not what I heard.

You heard wrong then.

I was told wrong.

okay cool. the quote box thing looks cool with our one line replies.

Yes, I agree

laugh.gif Look deeper into the quote box......deeper..... haha laugh.gif

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

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  • 2 weeks later...
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