Well yesterday was my last visit to the park for 2011 unless some miracle happens and I get to come back to Ohio for a Haunt night.
The day started wonderfully! Got to the park just about quarter after 9. We noticed the LED scrolling signs said the park was open until 10pm. We were in the park for ERT. My friends and I headed to Diamondback. What a wonderful and smooth ride that was! We headed over to Beast to get a morning ride on it. I was impressed on the smoothness again! Of course I didn't ride in a wheel seat! At this point we ended up meeting with even more people! We headed over to Firehawk as soon as the park opened to the General Public. It was a walk on! Operations seemed really smooth, quick dispatch and all! Since we were in the area we decided to ride Flight of Fear since we were there and it was a near walk on. It must have been the earliness in the season but the coaster was really smooth! During the mid-course break being in the goofy mood I was I decided to yell I don't like roller coasters and had the girl behind me say she didn't either! Oops!
After we rode that Dave's wife and I went to buy tickets for Sky Flyer. Tickets were $5, hard to believe parks that have these attractions don't charge $5 too and get more ridership on them! We then went to Racer to meet up with the group again. Blue side was the only operational side at this point, however it went down for a protein spill. We got a great ride and view of WindSeeker/DA entrance area! We all decided to go ride Adventure Express (which was a walk on), Delirium (short wait), Drop Tower (short wait) then Flight Deck (walk on in the back row!) At this point it was just about noon...can you believe we did all of this before noon?!? Our group respectively split into different areas to eat lunch. We all got back together at the park entrance at quarter after one.
Dave's wife, myself and Dustin went to ride Sky Flyer. Others followed suit! It was a great ride and well worth the $5! At this point, tickets were still $5! There were more people buying tickets at this time. I doubt they had any downtime at that all day! Our group ended up going to Flight Deck one more time before a small portion of the group left for a Bridal show. While waiting for dispatch I asked the ride op what time the park closed and he said 8. I forgot how intense Flight Deck actually is in the front! It was such a great ride! I enjoy the paint job on it! We decided it was a bit of time when we should relax. So we headed to the Festhaus to see American Country. They were doing rehearsals on Way Too Much TV before the show started. I still stand by my decision that American Country is one of the best shows I have seen at the park! A couple of my friends came in and say our hellos and goodbyes before they headed home. I had realized that my draw string Diamondback back had been tearing so I decided to go into the Emporium to get a new bag. As I went up to purchase the bag I asked if there were any platinum pass or season pass discounts. The associate told me no, they don't have them at this store. So I said okay and paid the full price, it wasn't too big a deal to pay full price. Our group then headed over to Boo Blaster's on Boo Hill because we heard a storm was coming in.
The inside queue was totally packed but moving quickly. As RaptorGuy mentioned on another topic, there were some minor adjustments to the ride like ghosts added to the queue area and better painting on some things. Some targets were working and the fog screen wasn't working. I was a bit disappointed but what can you do! We all decided to ride Diamondback again. I ended up doing Single Rider a couple of times. We noticed some storm clouds were coming in and it was starting to sprinkle. We set out for Crypt but ended up deciding to ride the train. The train was an experience in a half! We got on the green train, my favorite. As we were riding it started to rain. We got to Boomerang Bay and it was not raining too hard. After a long wait there, we loaded up and got about 100 feet from that station and stopped. The ride op came over the speaker and said that we were going to be going backwards and to please remain seated. So yes, I got a roll back on the train!! We sat for a few minutes after stopping going backwards. Then headed forward again, then a loud crack of thunder and a down pour! We pulled into the main station and stayed on the train while many got out. It was lightning, thundering, pouring rain and hailing! After it started to lighten up and eventually stopped raining we headed to Beast.
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| Down Pour |
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Well, Beast was still down and we ended up going up to the station for a dry place just in case it started to rain again. We made that smart decision to wait up there. There were about maybe 20 some people in the station. After about an hour and some odd minutes of down pour and storms, the sun came out! The ride ops got a call that they had to cycle the trains and have a track walk before they could open it. Seemed like one minute later they got another phone call saying all they needed to do was continue to cycle and have a test ride. So we were on in no time! I got to ride the front of the train with maybe 12 other people on the train, because a lot of people left the station during the storm. I tell you what, that was the best ride on Beast that wasn’t at night! The train was flying through due to weight and the recent rain! Even though I was on a wheel seat, it was very smooth!
After we finished that ride we headed over to Diamondback. There was NO WAIT really. At most the wait would have been a station wait. I got several rides on it and it was running really smooth too! It was great to see so many of my friends that worked on Diamondback! After the park closed at 8, I said my final goodbyes to those at Diamondback. I headed up to the front gate area with a couple of friends. I wanted to get a couple of shirts from Emporium. I ended up picking up the “You must be this tall to ride this ride” shirt and a green old Kings Island logo shirt! As I went to the register I asked that attendant if there were any pass discounts. I was told no there wasn’t any. Now this is where my only rant and upset moment comes with the park on this trip.
Before entering the park I was asked to do a survey and Dave asked the employee about pass discounts. They said there were several discounts in the park including food and merchandise. We asked where because there wasn’t any information on the website about these discounts on merchandise except that there were discounts. So there was one employee telling me that I could get a discount on merchandise. But, when I went to Emporium I was told I couldn’t get a discount when I asked, twice.
So I looked on Kings Island’s website at the discounts for a platinum pass. The website on both Gold Pass and Platinum Pass (which I have) discounts says, “Merchandise Discount
Show your Gold or Platinum Pass at select merchandise locations and receive discounts throughout the 2011 season.” When I looked for a list of these locations...but there is no menu or anything that you can click to my knowledge that shows you the locations. When you search for platinum pass merchandise discount locations search, nothing is retrieved. Grant it, I bought 3 items that were fairly cheap for the park, it would have been nice to be able to use my pass for what I bought it for, such as discounts, free parking, ERT, admission to the park, etc. Not to mention platinum passes aren't a cheap up-front cost.
However, I said goodbye to my best friend in the park and headed to Wendy's with the rest of the group. The day was amazing and I had a lot of fun for my last trip. It was a very bitter-sweet visit but totally worth it! I'm hoping for great things with this park in the future and it will continue to be my home park even though I'm states away!
Thanks to everyone who came to visit yesterday with me and for all of your support!
Don't forget you can leave comments!
-Chris
Source: Tonia Ellen
