Darth Gilbert
04-23-2007, 10:37 PM
I planned to kick off the amusement park season with a first-ever trip to King’s Island next weekend, but due to some scheduling issues at work, I decided very much at the last minute, to go for opening weekend. My 12-year-old son, Elijah, and I arrived at the King’s Island Resort Friday night at 9pm and anxiously awaited 2 days of riding.
We managed to enter the park and be ready for the running of the bulls by 10AM. Our plan was to head straight for The Beast. Now I remind you, I had to move up the trip by one week, and had very little of the preparation time I like to take to plan our park visits. That was evident early, as we found ourselves standing at the entrance to Vortex, with The Beast nowhere in sight. Well, on to Vortex we went, front seat. Twisting, looping coasters are not my favorites, but I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It wasn’t as rough as I expected, and had some nice g-forces. We bought our on-ride photo to document our first ride at KI. Next, we passed The Italian Job, which we were informed was closed but would open later. Then finally to the Beast, but, no. It was also closed. No problem. Right next door was Tomb Raider: The Ride. I had no clue what this ride was, but eagerly walked through the entrance. The line was very dark, but there was some kewl Tomb Raiderish theming. We kept walking and walking and next thing we knew, we were walking right out the exit. A friendly employee at the exit informed us that the ride was closed, and proceeded to move a trash can across the entrance. Three closed rides in a row. Hmmm.
Next we tried our luck with Nickelodeon Universe. Finally, we found some functioning rides. We rode an assortment of rides there, most notably, the Fairly Odd Coaster, on which we somehow managed to both fit into one seat, and Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle, which brought out the kid in me as I fired away at all those targets. Elijah pretended to be playing Grand Theft Auto as he dual-wielded the guns, but I still outscored him. ;)
After a bit of a walk, we ended up skipping Face/Off and waiting in line for Top Gun. At 30 minutes, this clocked in at our longest wait of the weekend. This ride was a pleasant, yet brief, surprise. When I think suspended coaster, I think Iron Dragon, but Top Gun was fairly souped up and provided some thrills. Adventure Express was fun, and fast, but I just can’t get over how weird it is for a coaster to have a chain lift leading up to the exit platform. I like how Top Gun and Adventure Express take advantage of the hilly terrain in this area of the park.
Next we moved on to the inexplicably titled The Racer, which has no racing element since the two stations operate independently. Facing forward, this ride was enjoyable, if not spectacular. I vowed to return the next day to try the gimmicky backwards side. Flight of Fear had a very long line, and since we didn’t have a clue what it was, we moved on. Oh, yeah, there’s X-Flight getting a paint job. King’s Island is advertising the heck out of this ride… I sat through the uncomfortable SpongeBob 3-D, which I found to be torture, but Elijah thought it was awesome.
We thought it was funny to see a Subway at an amusement park, so we had to eat lunch there. Opening day jitters caused the sandwich expert to forget to put cheese on our sandwiches until I reminded her, and she also had to consult a manager to find out what goes on a club sub. :noob:
A trip up the Eiffel Tower revealed an operational Italian Job, and Beast. We hit Italian Job first. This ride is kinda lame, and the fire effects weren’t working when we went past the helicopter part. But then, the Beast, front seat. This turned out to be my favorite ride at King‘s Island, and possibly my favorite wooden coaster so far(going to Holiday World next month). I just loved the tunnels, all the trees, and the huge double helix at the end. This is what a wooden coaster should be. We ended up leaving the first night about 6pm, feeling out of shape after a 5 month stretch without any amusement parks.
Day 2, we mainly wanted to hit Tomb Raider and Flight of Fear, which we did. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that Tomb Raider was a top spin, and not a very good one at that. Flight of Fear was kinda cool, at least the launch part. Like I said earlier, I’m not a big fan of looping , twisting coasters, so the rest of this ride, disorienting in the dark, wasn’t too spectacular. Before this day was over, we rode The Beast and Vortex again, and did the backwards thingy on Racer, which I found to be uncomfortable, but Elijah thought was very fun. Hmm, we rode Delerium, and I remember thinking “Maxair has much better scenery than this ride.” The only coaster we didn’t make an effort to ride was Face/Off, which is one of those Boomerang thingys that I’m not too fond of.
We departed at 5pm and made the 300 mile drive home.
So here are some impressions of King’s Island.
1. Opening day had excessive downtime for most of the major rides.
2. Toyotas parked everywhere was a nice touch since I just bought a new Yaris a few months back.
3. The souvenir selection is very weak, probably due in part to the transition from Paramount to Cedar Fair. I couldn’t find a single magnet to add to my collection on the fridge
4. The theming on many of the rides is a welcome sight in comparison to the lack thereof at my primary park, Cedar Point.
5. The park was very clean, something I’ve come to expect from Cedar Fair.
6. I’m totally spoiled by Cedar Point. The only coaster that leaves a lasting impression on me is The Beast. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the others, but nothing can compare to CP’s coaster collection.
Overall I am pleased to add King’s Island to my resume and thank Cedar Fair for buying the place and including it in the Max Pass. :)
Will we return? Certainly. When? Hopefully in October during FearFest. A summer trip would be nice to check out the waterpark, but it probably won’t be in the budget…
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading…
We managed to enter the park and be ready for the running of the bulls by 10AM. Our plan was to head straight for The Beast. Now I remind you, I had to move up the trip by one week, and had very little of the preparation time I like to take to plan our park visits. That was evident early, as we found ourselves standing at the entrance to Vortex, with The Beast nowhere in sight. Well, on to Vortex we went, front seat. Twisting, looping coasters are not my favorites, but I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It wasn’t as rough as I expected, and had some nice g-forces. We bought our on-ride photo to document our first ride at KI. Next, we passed The Italian Job, which we were informed was closed but would open later. Then finally to the Beast, but, no. It was also closed. No problem. Right next door was Tomb Raider: The Ride. I had no clue what this ride was, but eagerly walked through the entrance. The line was very dark, but there was some kewl Tomb Raiderish theming. We kept walking and walking and next thing we knew, we were walking right out the exit. A friendly employee at the exit informed us that the ride was closed, and proceeded to move a trash can across the entrance. Three closed rides in a row. Hmmm.
Next we tried our luck with Nickelodeon Universe. Finally, we found some functioning rides. We rode an assortment of rides there, most notably, the Fairly Odd Coaster, on which we somehow managed to both fit into one seat, and Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle, which brought out the kid in me as I fired away at all those targets. Elijah pretended to be playing Grand Theft Auto as he dual-wielded the guns, but I still outscored him. ;)
After a bit of a walk, we ended up skipping Face/Off and waiting in line for Top Gun. At 30 minutes, this clocked in at our longest wait of the weekend. This ride was a pleasant, yet brief, surprise. When I think suspended coaster, I think Iron Dragon, but Top Gun was fairly souped up and provided some thrills. Adventure Express was fun, and fast, but I just can’t get over how weird it is for a coaster to have a chain lift leading up to the exit platform. I like how Top Gun and Adventure Express take advantage of the hilly terrain in this area of the park.
Next we moved on to the inexplicably titled The Racer, which has no racing element since the two stations operate independently. Facing forward, this ride was enjoyable, if not spectacular. I vowed to return the next day to try the gimmicky backwards side. Flight of Fear had a very long line, and since we didn’t have a clue what it was, we moved on. Oh, yeah, there’s X-Flight getting a paint job. King’s Island is advertising the heck out of this ride… I sat through the uncomfortable SpongeBob 3-D, which I found to be torture, but Elijah thought it was awesome.
We thought it was funny to see a Subway at an amusement park, so we had to eat lunch there. Opening day jitters caused the sandwich expert to forget to put cheese on our sandwiches until I reminded her, and she also had to consult a manager to find out what goes on a club sub. :noob:
A trip up the Eiffel Tower revealed an operational Italian Job, and Beast. We hit Italian Job first. This ride is kinda lame, and the fire effects weren’t working when we went past the helicopter part. But then, the Beast, front seat. This turned out to be my favorite ride at King‘s Island, and possibly my favorite wooden coaster so far(going to Holiday World next month). I just loved the tunnels, all the trees, and the huge double helix at the end. This is what a wooden coaster should be. We ended up leaving the first night about 6pm, feeling out of shape after a 5 month stretch without any amusement parks.
Day 2, we mainly wanted to hit Tomb Raider and Flight of Fear, which we did. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that Tomb Raider was a top spin, and not a very good one at that. Flight of Fear was kinda cool, at least the launch part. Like I said earlier, I’m not a big fan of looping , twisting coasters, so the rest of this ride, disorienting in the dark, wasn’t too spectacular. Before this day was over, we rode The Beast and Vortex again, and did the backwards thingy on Racer, which I found to be uncomfortable, but Elijah thought was very fun. Hmm, we rode Delerium, and I remember thinking “Maxair has much better scenery than this ride.” The only coaster we didn’t make an effort to ride was Face/Off, which is one of those Boomerang thingys that I’m not too fond of.
We departed at 5pm and made the 300 mile drive home.
So here are some impressions of King’s Island.
1. Opening day had excessive downtime for most of the major rides.
2. Toyotas parked everywhere was a nice touch since I just bought a new Yaris a few months back.
3. The souvenir selection is very weak, probably due in part to the transition from Paramount to Cedar Fair. I couldn’t find a single magnet to add to my collection on the fridge
4. The theming on many of the rides is a welcome sight in comparison to the lack thereof at my primary park, Cedar Point.
5. The park was very clean, something I’ve come to expect from Cedar Fair.
6. I’m totally spoiled by Cedar Point. The only coaster that leaves a lasting impression on me is The Beast. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the others, but nothing can compare to CP’s coaster collection.
Overall I am pleased to add King’s Island to my resume and thank Cedar Fair for buying the place and including it in the Max Pass. :)
Will we return? Certainly. When? Hopefully in October during FearFest. A summer trip would be nice to check out the waterpark, but it probably won’t be in the budget…
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading…