Kings Island - 4/28/07

I'll keep this brief since KI trip reports are all the rage lately.

Catherine had been to the park opening day, so she already had a pass, and I got mine in the mail from Cedar Point. We headed down with Cosmo and got there probably around 10 something.

I was pretty amazed at just how many people were in line for passes. It always struck me as strange just how many passes they appear to sell compared to Cedar Point. Perhaps it has something to do with the proximity to the city.

We dropped off Cosmo in Doggy Daycare with a wonderful older gentleman who was easily the nicest person you'd ever meet. Cosmo got a stall next door to another Boston, Zak, and I think there was a love connection.

To satisfy my own curiosity, I noticed that the season pass systems are in fact integrated. While my pass is the same style that CP has used for years, with the photo and name on it, my picture (now five years old) appears on-screen when they scan it. This makes me curious to know if CP and GL will have these screens as well, because someone with a KI pass could just pass it off to anyone for use at those parks if they can't see a photo of you. My pass, by the way, scanned just fine at the parking tolls as well.

The park is beautiful and clean, as it generally has been the last few years. I noticed that supervisors now have Cedar Fair ties as part of their uniforms, which makes me giggle for some reason. I've also noticed lots of signage (like the legalese warning signs) that has the typography I've seen at the northern parks.

Expecting longer lines, we first headed to Flight of Fear, and probably waited five or six trains at most. I noticed while waiting to launch a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, and sure enough, the work lights were on. That was a bummer. The launch was really cranked, and as we navigated to the mid-course, I was crossing my fingers that we'd continue on at speed. Sadly, we came to a near stop. Normally I'd consider this to be something only a crybaby enthusiast like myself would complain about, but honestly the entire train was booing. In the final corkscrew, you actually fell into the restraint. Oh well, even in this state it's easily my favorite ride at the park.

Next up was the Italian Job stunt track. Such a fun little ride! We ended up having to wait about ten minutes for some kind of ride shut down (judging by the way they were moving trains around manually, it was a phantom blocking issue). The they had what was assume was an AUR on one train because they hosed it down and sent it empty a couple of times. The water splashes under the bridge were not firing, and the helicopter was totally impotent, without movement, propellers, or "gun fire." Made the explosions a little silly looking. I really hope they keep up with this ride. The theme stuff is fun.

We met up with Eric and his wife for lunch, where we encountered the only major snag of the day. We hit Bubba Gump's right around noon. Cath got a grilled chicken salad. Can you believe that at noon they had no grilled chicken ready? The line got longer and longer with people waiting. What made it worse was that there were so many people standing around, including supervisors. While I realize that food only cooks so fast, you'd think that there would be some incentive to do something at least. Hand out some free sodas or something. I was annoyed.

We went to Adventure Express after lunch, which is still goofy fun. It was the first place I noticed the Cedar Fair safety touches, with "stay seated" notices and seat belts. At least they like the retractable belts here. They did not interfere with the capacity of the ride.

Next was Top Gun. One of the best Arrow suspended coasters is also the most poorly run. I've never seen a crew hustle on this ride. It's made worse by the fact that it's programmed not to dispatch a train until the other one is fully stopped in the brakes. That strikes me as a total waste of time. I think there are seconds to be saved there. The new seat belts have two flaws. One: They put pressure on your testicles and, Two: They put tension on the restraints, which were never designed to pull down on you continuously. It's very uncomfortable. After decades of safe operation on these and the Arrow loopers, I'm still trying to figure out what problem they were trying to solve.

We took a little break to walk Cosmo around. People love that damn dog.

Next up was The Beast. Aside from some inconsiderate trashy faux-blonde smoking in the queue, I really enjoyed the ride. It seems to be running pretty well and it has a good crew. They removed that obnoxious Coke thing near the entrance too, so now that area is a bit more wide open. Good call.

We started to pretty much have our fill of the place, and wanted to get home to watch the Cavs game too, so we wrapped things up with fries at the place next to The Beast. I know I'm generally the guy who says I'll pay whatever stuff costs, but the food prices are a bit out of line, even by Orlando standards. The soda prices are very much a kick in the nuts. $3.35 for a 20 oz. fountain soda is ridiculous. It's almost offensive to me. I guess part of the problem is that I'm willing to pay it. Something has to give though, because it's way too much.

Overall, the park seemed to be running pretty well, despite my minor complaints. I don't really think about it much in terms of being in transition, because the park was in pretty good shape to begin with. My hope though is that they continue to hang on to the film licenses where they make sense. Other than that, I hope they make adjustments on the food (or at least soda) pricing.