McSalsa's Coaster Adventures: Drenched (KI Passholder Preview Night 4-19-2019)

[McSalsa]

Hello! Welcome to the first McSalsa trip report of 2019! With KI finally back open, the offseason is now over, and the trip reports begin (for KI at least).

I have decided that rating old rides I have been on multiple times is kinda odd, so I won't be doing that on these anymore, but I will still talk about each ride we rode and how I felt it was running compared to past rides, etc. New rides I have never been on will still get rated though. Here is my 2019 ride rating system anyway, I have gone back to a 0-10 scale.

RIDE RATING SYSTEM (For New Un-ridden rides or major updates- not used here)
10=ZOMG THIS RIDE IS EPIC
9=I Adore This Ride
8=I Really Like This Ride
7=This Ride is Fun, I Like It
6=It's OK Enough, Will Ride Again
5=Meh, No Feelings Either Way for Various Reasons
4=Ehh, Kinda Bad
3=Yuck, Bad
2=POO, THIS RIDE SUX
1=SUPER POO, THIS RIDE SUX EVEN HARDER!
0=WHO MADE THIS MONSTROSITY!?!?

Anyhow, with that outta the way...on to the trip report itself. We actually went to Kings Island for 2 days, both passholder preview night and opening day. So let's begin with the 1st day, passholder preview night! (Note: Due to how huge the TR will be, Opening Day will get its own Trip Report a bit later)

PASSHOLDER PREVIEW NIGHT: April 19th, 2019

We (me+sister+the 2 usual friends from 2017+2018) left for the park around 1pm and arrived at our Hotel, the Baymont across from the Beach, around 3:30pm. It was a cheap (we paid $70 for our room) and nice hotel, and the window just outside our room had a nice view of the park. Around 4:30pm, we arrived at the park itself, and waited to get in. After the national anthem played we headed in and I got my first look at the "new" International Street. It's awesome! I do miss the fountain pedestals, but the new fountain nozzles seem to be more flexible, and the buildings truly have all seemed to get updates. I love that the old flags are all back up. I took all this in as we headed for The Beast, which celebrates 40 years of Terror.

RIDE #1- The Beast
10 years ago this ride was the one that got me over my fear of roller coasters, so it was a celebration for me as well. I love everything they have done with Beast this year- the repainted trains look awesome, the paw prints are BACK (though only in The Beast's actual area sadly) and I love the fun facts in the que now. We boarded The Beast, 1st ride of the year on Train #2, and...it began pouring rain as we climbed the 1st lift. I had never ridden a roller coaster in the rain, and now I finally know what "bullets to the face" means. Ouch. This meant I couldn't really enjoy the ride too much, which is sad because it had good speed and the helix was awesome as usual (the tunnels offered some relief from the rain bullets as well). By the end of the ride, we were all pretty wet.

We ran into the nearby arcade to dry off for a bit, and threw on our emergency $1 ponchos we had bought the day before. I also removed my glasses as I could actually see better WITHOUT them due to the rain on my lenses. Hoping we wouldn't get much wetter we headed over to another ride that wasn't nearly as big or fast as The Beast.

RIDE #2- Backlot Stunt Coaster
BLSC was a walk-on. Thankfully, this one wasn't as bad for rain bullets since it only goes 40mph versus 64.8mph for Beast, but it was still kinda rainy and the bullets were there, just much weaker and more tolerable. The ride itself was pretty normal for BLSC besides that.

After Backlot Stunt Coaster, we decided to go to the indoor roller coaster, Flight of Fear. We passed the Antique Autos but I didn't get a great look at them without my glasses on. When we got to X-Base, even without my glasses on, I could tell that there were no teasers yet on the big fence.

RIDE #3- Flight of Fear
The line for FOF was just outside the main station area, just after you enter the UFO, so we waited maybe 5-10 minutes tops. The ride was running pretty well, smooth for Flight of Fear and with some nice G-Forces. It was also nice to ride something dry.

After FOF, we went and headed for Racer, wanting to see how well Blue Racer was running since GCI did some re-tracking on it this past offseason. But we also stopped to ride a flat I somehow missed during all of 2018.

RIDE #4- Monster
Ahh Monster. A fun flat ride- I kinda do regret not riding it in 2018. Well, in 2019, that isn't a issue. Fun spinning and going up a down for the most part.

RIDE #5- Blue Racer
Blue Racer had no wait, and was actually great. It was decently smooth (I was even sitting on a wheel) though not glass smooth like the ride sometimes randomly gives out, except on the retracked turnaround which oddly no longer feels like it is trimmed anymore, though I am not 100% sure if it is or not. Nice airtime to boot. There was still some "rain bullets", but not as bad as earlier on Beast. A fun ride. Also, one of our friends spotted the huge clearing, though I couldn't see it without my glasses on and was focused on the ride.

After Blue Racer, we went into Action Zone, and made a HORRIBLE mistake...

RIDE #6- Banshee
As we got on Banshee after a brief station wait, the rain picked up again, and we hit the lift hill and got water DUMPED on us like it was a water ride. Welcome to the New World's Longest Water Coaster, Mammoth can shove off! And not to mention since Banshee goes 68mph...yay, more rain bullets. I actually shut my eyes for most of the ride, due to this. The ride itself felt like its usual self, with great speeds and g-forces, but all the rain bullets and soaking kinda ruined it because it was also cold.

We got off Banshee, pondering our life choices, and we went to check out the Miami River Brewhouse to find a line out the door. Nope! This was also where I was gonna meet up with other KIC Members but that would have to wait for the next day. We saw Mystic Timbers and Diamondback both had short waits, so we decided to ride them and then leave the park and dry off.

RIDE #7- Mystic Timbers
The rain had started to back off, so only minor rain bullets on Mystic Timbers. The ride also felt a bit more aggressive than usual, but it was fun and did have good airtime. We got Bats in the shed, which seems to be my usual ending.

RIDE #8- Diamondback
Thank goodness- when we got on DB, the rain stopped! So we just got a cold (made worse due to wetness) but airtime filled ride on Diamondback. We rode near the back, and got the usual "starts off weak and then gets stronger as you drop" airtime Diamondback has from back there. It was a fun ride, in spite of the bitter coldness.

After Diamondback, we got our stuff, headed to the car, went to the Hotel and changed/dryed off and then went to Perkins outside the park and got food. It was a fun day, but the cold and rain TBH made this probably my least favorite trip to Kings Island so far- even 2014 Opening Day was better- but it's not really the park's fault for that. However, we had ANOTHER day lined up after this, as we also planned to visit for public opening day 2019. Would that day fare better? Find out in the next Trip Report (coming soon'ish)! But for now, this day's Pros/Cons:

PROS
+International Street and the new fountains look awesome
+Beast's 40th Anniversary Paint Job and Extra Goodies in the Que are awesome
+Blue Racer's retrack has it running better
+Very Light Crowds, we got in a decent number of rides in just 3 hours

CONS
-Rain Rain, Go Away! (Rain Bullets suck)
-And the Cold can go away too!
-Banshee in the Rain is a nightmare and WILL soak you, in spite of being a great ride usually

And that does it for the first McSalsa trip report for 2019. The next one- for Opening Day- again, is coming soon (I am still a bit exhausted from the trip and wanna recover before I write it- minor spoiler again, it's a big one- and a few KIC members will know some of it...). I hope you all enjoyed this trip report, questions and comments welcome as usual.