2017 Opening Day

[brendan71388]

Several weeks ago I won two tickets on Twitter for Opening Day. I never would have chosen opening day if I was buying tickets but was of course excited for the chance to go for free. We are not season passholders but we showed up plenty early to make sure we were in the best position to hop in line right behind all the early entry folks. This was only my second trip to KI and it's been two years since my first. 

We decided it was probably best to head straight to Mystic Timbers first because the the line would just keep growing throughout the day. That didn't turn out the be the case, but we're still glad we went here first. More on that later. The app said the wait was 3 hours, and that turned out to be pretty accurate. From the time they dropped the ropes for us non-early entry folks at 10 to the time we were exiting the ride was almost exactly 3 hours. The ride itself was fantastic. It reminded me of Maverick a little bit in that it's got a great, intense first drop followed by nonstop action. I loved all the airtime and the tunnel was fun. We sat somewhat towards the back but weren't picky with where we sat due to the waits. I won't spoil anything about The Shed here but let's just say we were quite underwhelmed. 

By the time we were leaving MT it was already 1 PM. We were hungry but saw that Diamondback's queue wasn't too bad so we jumped in (not literally as that's prohibited). The wait wasn't bad at all, maybe 30 minutes from queue to exit. I was pleasantly surprised because I figured the waits on every big ride would be awful. We rode DB very back row and it was fantastic as always. The first drop is unreal.

After DB we walked back to our car for lunch and some much needed time off our feet. Upon re-entry we headed to Banshee. We didn't mind having a longer wait because we wanted our food to settle a bit. The wait for Banshee was probably 45 minutes or so. It is a really fun ride. I don't remember the g-force being as intense as it was yesterday when I rode it two years ago. We rode back row there as well.

We wanted to ride Invertigo but it had been in and out of operation all day and the wait was usually around 45 minutes when we looked so we decided to pass. We saw The Racer only had a 15 minute wait so we headed there. Both trains were running so it was going quickly. We went on Blue towards the back. I really enjoyed this one as it's got some good drops. My wife wasn't a fan because it's pretty rough and she probably won't ever ride it again. 

Next it was back to Diamondback. We rode the back car but the inside seats this time, and it was an even better ride than our first. The wait took probably an hour because it shut down for 15 minutes or so while we were in line. Diamondback is still my favorite ride in the park.

We headed back out for a dinner break next and debated whether we wanted to go back to DB or given MT another try if the wait wasn't horrible. While I really enjoyed the ride itself my wife was having a hard time separating the ride from how underwhelmed she was by The Shed so she was intrigued to ride it again. We decided 90 minutes was the most we'd want to wait for MT. When we got back in MT showed a 2 hour wait time so we went toward DB. After a pit stop we saw MT was down to 90 minutes so we went for it. The line at that time only backed up to the Whitewater Canyon entrance. It ended up taking 2 hours because they shut down for a short time but it was so worth it. It allowed enough time for it to get completely dark by the time we got to ride. We had been planning all along to ride The Beast at the end of the night because we didn't time it right two years ago to get a true dark night ride last time, but we lucked out and ended up being able to ride MT and The Beast back to back in the dark. Both were fantastic! As far as a night ride The Beast probably wins just because there's more time spent out in the woods and more tunnel where it's pitch black, but MT was great as well. It felt so fast. 

Overall the day exceeded my expectations. When we were there two years ago it was a weekday and crowds were really light, so I was dreading the opening day crowd and long waits. I was really pleased though that we were able to ride DB and MT twice, and Banshee and Beast once. I didn't leave feeling like I'd missed something I wanted to do. MT is a great addition to the park and will only add to my excitement the next time I get to visit Kings Island. 

[Imperial79]

Awesome trip report!  It looks like the off-season is slowly becoming just a memory!  From the reviews, people have really loved Mystic Timber's! 

[brendan71388]

It truly is a great ride!