Gordon Bombay Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Today marked the first day of daily operation at Paramount's Kings Island. As soon as my friend and I were off work I grabbed my cameras and elvis presley sunglasses and we headed for what we hoped would be desrted park. The news was good, the park was empty. We got in at about 4 and headed for Delirium. We waited only one cycle then had a good ride. It was my friends 2nd time riding it since 2003 and he loved it. Delirium seems to be back to its strength that it once was at and I t was an extremely enjoyable ride. One of the best types of flat rides out there. We then went for the newly re-furbished Son of Beast. I've heard good things and bad things about the rehab of the son. We sat 2nd seat from the back, off of a wheel. The ride was good, you could look at the track and see the work that was done and whiel you could feel the train shuffle it definently wasnt as bad as last year. The first dropp was great, fast, and smooth. Then what usually was the worst for me was the extremely banked turn into the first double helix. It was wonderfully smooth and as you hit the bottom of the double helix you got stapled a bit but it definently wasnt too bad. The rest of the helix was grfeat untill you hit the bottom again. The rest of the ride was wonderful. As coastersRZ told me, The Beast is rougher now. Son of Beast is back and although I need to still ride it a few more times I think it may be one of my favorites however I guess i need to sit on a wheel and see how that feels too. Overall I give it an 8 out 10. IT did seem a bit slow though and sluggish but not too bad, not too bad at all. After that we walked right on to Drop Zone and from the top you could see GWL construction with water park slide pieces lying about. Drop Zone was good as always, the only ride that still makes me feel somehwat nervous. After that was a 3 minute wait for Face/Off. Then straight to FOF with a confrontation with some line jumpers who left the line after trying to pick a fight. Some kids on their 8th grade trip who thought dropping hte F bomb would get us to let them cut. Ha, losers. FOF had the house lights on in the que and in the bowl, you could see the King Cobra trains. FOF is such a fantastic coaster. We then spent 6 dollars on game tokens while I played skeeball my friend played some other game and won about 300 tickets on one try. He got a bunch of sunglasses and other crap. We then took a ride on Italian Job. Front seat, perfect view. Fun launch and we could see al the theming. We came to the chopper scene. Almost everything was working. The cop car lights, all the fire effects, all the water, the helicopter moved and shot and yes, even the artifical fog was working. The tunnel was pitch black, except for the exit signs of course and the splash down was powerful with a bt of airtime. Overall a good coaster although short, it was fun as fof. We ended the day with heeading up to the eifele tower where I did some filming for an upcoming project and did some photography. We left, had dinner at Chipotle, then came home. All in all a fantastic day at Kings Island, no lines, great times. Now that I think about it PKI has some fantastic coasters and I enjoy all of them. SOB is pretty good now and I think its now a decent competitor for one of the top coasters, maybe not the best, but a very good one at that. Heres some pictures from today. Due to how bright it was and my lack of a trippod there somwhat less focused but theyre pretty cool" This photo I took last saturday while at the park with Boddah and zoso but I thought it was worth sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPKI Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Great trip report! I am getting really excited about visiting PKI next week, even though Holiwood Nights is coming up sooner. There's just something about visiting the park that makes me super excited no matter how many times I've been. I'm also really looking forward to trying the new SOB. I never thought it was as bad as most people thought originally. At least I would always ride it. Now I'm thinking I'll actually like it as a decent coaster. Your IJ report was sounds good as well. At least we know they still have the ability to keep it running with all the effects. Too bad they never got the stair effect working though. Again great report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 (edited) Cool pics of SOB. I can't get use to seeing the trains with only 5 cars. I can't wait till Sunday to give it a whirl. Edited May 25, 2006 by PKIVortex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasper Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Nice Trip Report i am hoping to get up there when there are no people in the park. The past times i have went up there hoping there are no people there, there always is a whole bunch. Bad timing by me i guess. Great pics of SOB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoddaH1994 Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Great trip report! I am getting really excited about visiting PKI next week, even though Holiwood Nights is coming up sooner. There's just something about visiting the park that makes me super excited no matter how many times I've been. Heh... I've got a ton of camping stuff sitting right next to me which I borrowed for Holiwood Nights. If you see us there, make sure you say hi. Ryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RingMaster Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 We then took a ride on Italian Job. Front seat, perfect view. Fun launch and we could see al the theming. We came to the chopper scene. Almost everything was working. The cop car lights, all the fire effects, all the water, the helicopter moved and shot and yes, even the artifical fog was working. The tunnel was pitch black, except for the exit signs of course and the splash down was powerful with a bt of airtime. Overall a good coaster although short, it was fun as fof. Now I have to ride IJ:ST again since all the effects are working. One question though, did the onboard audio work, or are they still making attempts to fix it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 ^Onboard audio wasnt working but the audio in the que and station was. In the cars you could see wires in front of you and stuff but there was no sound. I cant remember, did the police car sirens play through the car on board audio or through speakers by them? I seem to remeber a video on here where they hd the police cars playing outside of the cars and it kept looping and it was very annoying to the guests walking around. One other thing, the lights were not on the police cars when we rode but later when we we walked be they were on and when i filmed it from the tower they were on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPKI Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Heh... I've got a ton of camping stuff sitting right next to me which I borrowed for Holiwood Nights. If you see us there, make sure you say hi. Ryan Will do. We'll be camping as well, so it's not unlikely I'll see you at the campground before the event starts or something. Uggh! I am getting super excited about leaving tomorrow. Can't wait to kick off this season at a new-to-me park! About that on-board audio in IJ. It never seemed like they had it on loud enough whenever I rode it. Basically I noticed it at the top of the helix and at the end of the ride. Other than that, it was only clear enough that I thought someone sneezed when the guy said "action". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIBeast Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Great report, Combat. Glad to hear that SOB is better than ever. I can't wait to make my first visit, which will probably be in July or August. In June, I'll be going to CP since I haven't been since 2003, when Dragster opened. I want to see how maXair and Skyhawk are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOB_TOM Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 The employees fixing IJ are just as excited as everyone else to see it up and 100%. Its my shop, and they are doing a great job on the ride to get everything up and running. Props to the animation team! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 You guys do great work, all the theming working was awesome yesterday and sitting up front and getting to see it all was great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjkjkj Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 so.... are they working to get the fishtailing effect woking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCcatguy52 Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Cool pics of SOB. I can't get use to seeing the trains with only 5 cars. I can't wait till Sunday to give it a whirl. Yeah i work on Son of Beast and its a little weird having the extra three gates on the back of the station. We have had guests wait in those gates for their seats and we have had to tell them that there is no car there they took it off so they had to go and find different seats we all get a laugh at the end of the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 I see NOTHING funny about that. If the park hasn't even blocked off those seat lines, it says about all that needs to be said about customer service under CBS. Cedar Fair can't take over too soon. And laughing at guests for doing something totally reasonable? I sure hope your post isn't right... If it IS right, and I were the GM or the rides manager and I found you or your crew laughing over that situation, you would continue your laughs from outside the park...where you used to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 ^Woah there cowboy. The gates are blocked off. I rode it yesterday and the que to the 3 seats has had more metal que erected in front of where you once walked. It is IMPOSSIBLE to walk straight through to these 3 back gates, which I dont believe open either, the only way to get in the lines for these 3 gates is to climb over the handrails, which is against the rules. Its pretty easy to see that you cant get to those seats and when theres no straight way into them why would you climb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Good. I figured those seats WERE blocked off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Bombay Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 Also I believe Ucatguy meant having a good laugh as in the employees and the guests have a good laugh at how the guests clearly ignored the obvious obsticale and jumped over it. Its quite silly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastersNSich Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Of course, we have complete morons that feel the need to jump railings at every opportunity. I feel the urge to say "you can't walk a few darn feet or so?" to those people. Hopefully our new owners from Cedar Fair will correct some of these "opportunities." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCcatguy52 Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Also I believe Ucatguy meant having a good laugh as in the employees and the guests have a good laugh at how the guests clearly ignored the obvious obsticale and jumped over it. Its quite silly Exactly the guests laugh with us because they thought there was a car there and they were laughing at themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastersRZ Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 Those last three seats were blocked off from the day Son of Beast reopened. The gates were deactivated the first day as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrocoasterkid Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 So I must have missed out on something.... when and why did they take the last car off the SOB trains? What are they trying to acheive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 It was taken off during the rehab. What are they trying to achieve? A smoother ride and less maintenance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastersRZ Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 And by using one fewer car, the train will travel slower. And a slower train, theoretically, would mean a smoother ride. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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