Coasterstock 2015 TR

[Joncars05]

My wife and I headed to the park at 5:30 am Saturday to get to Coasterstock. We arrived at the park at 7:50 to a line of cars. At first I was really worried about how many people were showing up but then I realized the line was being held up by security guards clearing the line for the color run that was going on that morning. We were lucky because we were able to pass because there was a gap long enough to let us through. I honestly feel bad for people who came maybe 5 to 10 minutes later as they might have had to wait even longer for the walkers of the race to pass. After we parked we headed to the ticket booth to get our packages. We waited in line for what I thought was a long time. But we received our packages and headed back to the car. I checked my bag and of course it didn’t have the event tag so I had to go back and get a tag so I could even enter the event. After getting my lanyard and taking everything back to the car we finally entered the park at 8:30.

                                                              

The lines for ERT were surprisingly short. We immediately took 5 rides on Banshee. Then we ended up riding Drop Tower and Delirium for a cycle. We then went back to The Bat which again had no wait we went for 2 cycles. Firehawk and Flight of Fear were next. After that we decided to take a little bit of a break. We found out that the souvenir cups were free refills for the event so we got a refill. We went on the behind the scenes tour for Banshee but were kind of disappointed that we didn’t get to go back on any of the service roads. But we did get some cool shots of the ride and we enjoyed the tour. Since we have been going since 530 am we decided to head out of the park and eat lunch. After lunch we headed to the hotel to take a nap. We ended up coming back into the park and rode Adventure Express once and headed back to ride WindSeeker and Vortex to eat dinner at the picnic grove. Sadly the food was barely edible. I mean we sort of knew this coming in because it was Cedar Fair providing the food but we were hoping something simple like chicken tenders or something super easy to make in mass. It ended up being some really tough ribs and the only thing that I ended up eating was half of the baked chicken and some of the cake which actually was decent. After dinner we went to ride Banshee again for a couple of laps. Then we went to Dinosaur’s Alive. We were actually surprised at how well the trail was. After hearing about the animatronics and how people have lost interest in it I was worried. But the trail was really fun and informative as well. There were plenty of photo ops and the wife and I would most definitely go back when we go to the park again.

 

Night ERT was a blast. We ended up riding Backlot Stunt Coaster for a couple of laps, Vortex for a couple of laps (One which was a zen ride for me!), then one The Beast in the dark. Lastly we finished up taking multiple laps on Diamondback.

 

The first nights ride count was as follows:

Banshee 10, The Bat 4, Vortex 3, Diamondback 3, Backlot Stunt Coaster 2, Drop Tower 1, Flight of Fear 1, Firehawk 1, WindSeeker 1, Delirium 1, The Beast 1, Adventure Express 1.

 

The second day began with us skipping the behind the scenes train tour but heading and heading back to ride Flight of Fear and Firehawk. After that we went to Diamondback to ride for a while because we didn’t ride it much during the first day. We ended up riding Backlot Stunt Coaster and WindSeeker before heading to lunch. Once again when we got to lunch we were disappointed by the food provided. The burger was cold and the buns for both the hot dogs and burgers were stale and hard. Our hot dog buns actually split in half when we tried to open them to put the hot dog in. Again the only thing remotely good was the blue ice cream they provided. After lunch we ended up riding The Bat for a lap and Banshee for a couple of laps. The behind the scenes tour was pretty cool. We headed to Diamondback for the first portion of the tour. This was a pretty cool view as it was a great place to take videos and pictures. Then our time was done and we were to switch with the group that headed towards The Beast. We waited…. And waited… and waited… we finished the Diamondback tour at 315 and we waited for over 25 minutes and still couldn’t start the tour. The original Beast tour group didn’t come back and we could not go on the tour until they came back so we decided to leave the park and grab a late lunch and nap before the rest of the day.  Once back in the park we rode Adventure Express and Delirium before the park closed for ERT.  After the park closed we went to ride The Beast and rode in the front row for a lap. Then we headed to Woodstock Gliders and rode that a couple of times. The ride is actually really fun. I cannot snap a glider but I got pretty high off the ground and turned myself almost all the way around. A couple of guys on the cycles actually got a snap. I thought that was pretty cool. We soon headed to Diamondback and got a good amount of laps in before heading to Banshee for the last 25 minutes of the event. We ended up with 4 rides and we wanted to use our last Banshee on ride photo coupon but the cameras shut off before the last ride. So the camera guy in the shop ended up turning the cameras back on, talked with the ride ops, and they let us back on for one more cycle. It was really nice of them to do that because they definitely didn’t have to do that for us. After we were done we ended up seeing Don at the front gate. I thanked him for the great event and we left tired but glad we were able to attend the event.

 

Second day ride count:

Diamondback 10, Banshee 7, Flight of Fear 3, Woodstock Gliders 3, Backlot Stunt Coaster 2, Delirium 2, WindSeeker 1, Firehawk 1, The Bat 1, Adventure Express 1, The Beast 1.

 

Positives of Coasterstock:

ERT! ERT! ERT!- The lines were extremely short most being complete walk-ons.

 

Price- $25 for passholders was a great deal. I hope they keep this price point!

 

“Swag”- The gifts we received were awesome. The T-shirt, souvenir cup, on ride photo coupons, and lanyard were all a nice touch. The free refills on the souvenir cup were a huge plus!

 

Customer Service- Although the food wasn’t what we were expecting the food crew that kept the lines supplied with food were fantastic! They were busting their tails to keep everything flowing. They were great! Also I was seriously surprised about how great all the employees were. Everyone was polite and either greeted us or wished us a great day (even the employees that didn’t know we were part of an event were polite). This change was a very pleasant surprise and we really hope that continues.

 

Sunday morning Diamondback crew- These guys were hitting a dispatch that I haven’t seen on Diamondback in years… I can’t remember the last time I could watch the train go through the splashdown while halfway up the lift hill. It was amazing. I don’t understand how it can’t be like this every day of operation. This all happened while the park was open to the general public.

 

Needs improvement on Coasterstock: (Most of these are small things but everything helps to improve the event)

 

Backstage tours: I know it might be a liability issue but the Banshee behind the scenes tour was disappointing. I figured we would be allowed on the service road and get some better shots. But I was happy they let us get a different angle no matter how short and limited it was. Also the timing of The Beast tour was not good. We were told 15-20 minutes per tour yet we did our DB tour in 15 minutes then waited for another 20-25 minutes before leaving because we didn’t want to wait any longer to start The Beast tour. I feel like the waiting part could’ve been straightened out by either staying on schedule or mentioning the length of the tour beforehand.

 

Event badges: The badges were a bit large compared to previous events (Coastermania) so it made it hard to tuck into your t-shirt collar. Also the badges not being laminated allowed a lot of the badges to rip off of the lanyard. Looking at a lot of the people of the event it looked like this was a common occurrence. Laminating the passes would definitely prevent the badge ripping from happening as often as it did.

 

The food: The food was about as bad as it could get. I know its Cedar Fair and most of the time food for large groups is subpar but man it was bad. The ribs were a wreck and outside of the desserts of each meal there wasn’t much to eat at all. I think the next time you guys have this event we may just skip the meals unless some adjustments are made.

 

Entrance Saturday morning: I know that KI wanted everyone to come in the employee entrance to not let anyone from the public sneak in. But to have us cross the course of and ACTIVE RACE was about the silliest thing I could think of. We had to wait for a big enough gap between runners to be waived through the line. I had to wait just about 5 minutes but I could only imagine how long of a wait for the people who showed up 20 minutes after me. Especially if they made it when there was a large group of walkers crossing the street.

 

Check in: The check in process was slow at best. There were only 3 windows opened for a group of over 500 people. From the time I turned off of the road to the time I actually entered the park for ERT 35-40 minutes had passed. I think that is way too long to check in.

 

Outside of those minor setbacks I think that the event was a blast! Both my wife and I would most definitely come back whenever KI has the event again. I consider this event a must do if you are close and like Kings Island. Enjoy some (a lot) of photos that I took at the park. (Sorry mobile users!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jcgoble3]

Great report! I'm going to make absolutely certain I have enough money in my budget next year to do Coasterstock.

As for the Color Me Rad 5K crossing your entrance route, I came out of Soak City around 8:30 and was held up at the road along with several dozen other people by KI security for a couple of minutes before they stopped traffic to let us across to the finish line. So it seems they figured things out and were making the race participants take turns with vehicular traffic. (Which is fine, because it was not a timed or competitive event.)

[Joncars05]

Ah that's good to know that isn't a timed event. I felt like we were in the way when we were crossing the path to get to the parking lot.

I feel like Coasterstock is a must do event for enthusiasts that enjoy Kings Island, ERT, behind the scenes talks, and good people. It was a really good event.

[Creed Bratton]

Spoke to Don about the lanyards. They apparently got ordered before final approval and needs. 

As far as the behind the scenes tours of Diamondback and Beast.....I was in the first group at Diamondback....people just started taking off on their own heading back toward Beast assuming that the Diamondback section of the tour was over, when we were supposed to wait for Sarah (the Event planner) to say it was time to switch. The hard thing with that is, The Beast photo areas are further back than would be for Diamondback, making it harder for them to see everything if they were rushed. On top of coming back, that takes time. 

I felt many were very impatient....but when when the people I ended up being around during The Beast portion, took their sweet time to get those "good shots." It's a double edged sword. 

Overall, the behind the scenes tours for me were good. 


I had a great time during the ERT sessions!