TR: Coasterville Con 2009 - Kings Island (8/9/09)
Trip Report: Kings Island
Mason, OH
August 9, 2009
******************
Welcome to the final day of Coasterville Con 2009. When we last left, we had just arrived home very late from St. Louis. As such, today we slept in a bit, then I printed Eric an e-Ticket for Kings Island ($30), then we had lunch at Skyline Chili. (If you're not from the Cincinnati area, you wouldn't understand the need to have Skyline Chili as soon as possible whenver you return to the area)
Then we headed up to Kings Island, now being a Kings Island TR, I'm going to be nowhere near as verbose as I have been with the other reports in this series. Suffice to say, we arrived at the park, used my parking pass, and headed inside.
Once inside, we headed to Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. I was a bit concerned when I saw a line stretching out onto the drawbridge, after all our luck with crowds this week has not been the best. I was surprised when we got inside and they had routed the queue the shortest way possible. Unfortunately, about a fourth of the way into our ride, the guns in our car totally failed, which meant my attention was focused on the fact that not many of the rides animated stunts were operable. Not a good sign.
We left Scooby and headed to Diamondback. This would be Eric's first time on Diamondback, and I think he took an instant liking to it. It's just that much better than any other ride Kings Island has installed in quite some time. We took a couple rides on Diamondback before continuing our tour.
We decided to skip Beast, and then got into a line that had just stretched back to the queue house for Backlot Stunt Coaster. The ride was running about as best it can these days, and Eric seemed to like it, so we are doing good at showing him the things that have changed with Kings Island since he has left the area. After Backlot Stunt Coaster we took a few minutes to take a ride on Shake, Rattle and Roll (HUSS Troika), I mean they were just loading it, so why not?
After Troika, we skipped Vortex and headed to X-Base, or as I like to refer to it, as Long Line Base. We deicded not to wait 45-60 minutes for Flight of Fear, particulalry after we just barely fit into Mr. Freeze two days prior, but decided to head to Firehawk instead. Eric had ridden Firehawk before, of course, during it's X-Flight days at Geuaga Lake. Of course, it never had a line there, here it was posting 45 minutes. We were surprised to even see it open since there had been a fatality on it the day prior, but that was rulled to be natural causes and not the ride's fault. The queue maze was almost full, it was hot, and we noticed the Firehawk crew was really promoting drinking ice water (not soft drinks, not powerade, drink water people). We decided we would take a refreshment run out to the car right after our ride. The queue was moving surprisingly swiftly and we had just reached the final switchback when the ride went down for about 15-20 minutes. Almost eveybody had bailed, leaving just about 1 trainload left in line. We had just started to bail when they started cycling test trains. So we stayed in line and took a Firehawk ride. Still a great coaster, and when we exited we noted we had waited 45 minutes. Boy, that crew is good, they even factor downtime into the wait sign.
From Firehawk, we go to the car for a refrehment run by way of a tour of the gift shops, then reenter the park and start on the other side. We go to Invertigo, take one look at the line, and head the other way. Drop Tower is a tight fit for me, so we didn't even try it, and the test seat on Delirum wasn't kind to Eric. Son of Beast was closed for the season, of course, and we just didn't feel like taking the long trek just for Flight Deck. We soon bailed on Action Zone and headed into Oktoberfest.
In Oktoberfest we took the usual no wait ride on Adventure Express, and while waiting to board, reached Rideman who would join us for the rest of the day. While waiting for Rideman, we wen tand got the Racer ride in, knowing Rideman does not like Racer. Actually, after having just ridden great wooden coasters in three parks, Racer was a real let down.
Having collected Rideman, we went to the back of the park and scored that ride on Vortex, nothing special here, move along, as well as another ride on Backlot Stunt Coaster. After that let down at Racer, we skipped Beast and headed straight to Diamondback. Once we arrived at Diamondback, we pretty much stayed there riding repeatedly util the park closed. We did take one restroom break in that time, and noticing a near walk on for Reptar, took a ride on that. I'm still kind of amazed I fit on Reptar. But after Reptar, it was back to Diamondback until park close.
After the park closed, we made the real run through the gift shops, then out to the parking lot. We decided to decline a dinner invitation with Rideman as we needed to do some shopping so that Eric was ready to head back home wiht all the grocery items you just can't get in the south. After that we picked up some Donato's pizza which we took home and ate.
Andso ends Coasterville Con 09.
Next up: Fall Affair at Holiday World
Watch for it!
Mason, OH
August 9, 2009
******************
Welcome to the final day of Coasterville Con 2009. When we last left, we had just arrived home very late from St. Louis. As such, today we slept in a bit, then I printed Eric an e-Ticket for Kings Island ($30), then we had lunch at Skyline Chili. (If you're not from the Cincinnati area, you wouldn't understand the need to have Skyline Chili as soon as possible whenver you return to the area)
Then we headed up to Kings Island, now being a Kings Island TR, I'm going to be nowhere near as verbose as I have been with the other reports in this series. Suffice to say, we arrived at the park, used my parking pass, and headed inside.
Once inside, we headed to Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. I was a bit concerned when I saw a line stretching out onto the drawbridge, after all our luck with crowds this week has not been the best. I was surprised when we got inside and they had routed the queue the shortest way possible. Unfortunately, about a fourth of the way into our ride, the guns in our car totally failed, which meant my attention was focused on the fact that not many of the rides animated stunts were operable. Not a good sign.
We left Scooby and headed to Diamondback. This would be Eric's first time on Diamondback, and I think he took an instant liking to it. It's just that much better than any other ride Kings Island has installed in quite some time. We took a couple rides on Diamondback before continuing our tour.
We decided to skip Beast, and then got into a line that had just stretched back to the queue house for Backlot Stunt Coaster. The ride was running about as best it can these days, and Eric seemed to like it, so we are doing good at showing him the things that have changed with Kings Island since he has left the area. After Backlot Stunt Coaster we took a few minutes to take a ride on Shake, Rattle and Roll (HUSS Troika), I mean they were just loading it, so why not?
After Troika, we skipped Vortex and headed to X-Base, or as I like to refer to it, as Long Line Base. We deicded not to wait 45-60 minutes for Flight of Fear, particulalry after we just barely fit into Mr. Freeze two days prior, but decided to head to Firehawk instead. Eric had ridden Firehawk before, of course, during it's X-Flight days at Geuaga Lake. Of course, it never had a line there, here it was posting 45 minutes. We were surprised to even see it open since there had been a fatality on it the day prior, but that was rulled to be natural causes and not the ride's fault. The queue maze was almost full, it was hot, and we noticed the Firehawk crew was really promoting drinking ice water (not soft drinks, not powerade, drink water people). We decided we would take a refreshment run out to the car right after our ride. The queue was moving surprisingly swiftly and we had just reached the final switchback when the ride went down for about 15-20 minutes. Almost eveybody had bailed, leaving just about 1 trainload left in line. We had just started to bail when they started cycling test trains. So we stayed in line and took a Firehawk ride. Still a great coaster, and when we exited we noted we had waited 45 minutes. Boy, that crew is good, they even factor downtime into the wait sign.
From Firehawk, we go to the car for a refrehment run by way of a tour of the gift shops, then reenter the park and start on the other side. We go to Invertigo, take one look at the line, and head the other way. Drop Tower is a tight fit for me, so we didn't even try it, and the test seat on Delirum wasn't kind to Eric. Son of Beast was closed for the season, of course, and we just didn't feel like taking the long trek just for Flight Deck. We soon bailed on Action Zone and headed into Oktoberfest.
In Oktoberfest we took the usual no wait ride on Adventure Express, and while waiting to board, reached Rideman who would join us for the rest of the day. While waiting for Rideman, we wen tand got the Racer ride in, knowing Rideman does not like Racer. Actually, after having just ridden great wooden coasters in three parks, Racer was a real let down.
Having collected Rideman, we went to the back of the park and scored that ride on Vortex, nothing special here, move along, as well as another ride on Backlot Stunt Coaster. After that let down at Racer, we skipped Beast and headed straight to Diamondback. Once we arrived at Diamondback, we pretty much stayed there riding repeatedly util the park closed. We did take one restroom break in that time, and noticing a near walk on for Reptar, took a ride on that. I'm still kind of amazed I fit on Reptar. But after Reptar, it was back to Diamondback until park close.
After the park closed, we made the real run through the gift shops, then out to the parking lot. We decided to decline a dinner invitation with Rideman as we needed to do some shopping so that Eric was ready to head back home wiht all the grocery items you just can't get in the south. After that we picked up some Donato's pizza which we took home and ate.
Andso ends Coasterville Con 09.
Next up: Fall Affair at Holiday World
Watch for it!
posted by Coasterville Dave | 9:15 PM
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