Kings Island 8.15.09 Trip Report

I visited Kings Island on Saturday, August 15 2009 with my girlfriend, brother, and twin sister. Here are some of my observations and random thoughts about the day at the park: I love that Jeff Foxworthy quote from the time he was on the Ellen show at Universal Studios: "If you're ever feeling bad about yerself or your family take a trip to an amusement park. Within the first fifteen minutes you'll be saying 'You know what, we're not so bad!'" That definitely applied at Kings Island on Saturday. I especially love the girl who had the tattoo of a razor with a swastika inside of it. Classy. I think the seats on Firehawk need to be tilted like 15 degrees or so, that way you are not completely on your back or stomach and you would be able to see what is coming in front of you instead of being forced to look straight down. As we were standing in line for the Beast I heard a teenager behind me say "we're riding the Beast in 3-D!"  One of his friends smartly corrected him "That says thirty you idiot!" (It's the beast's thirty year anniversary). There is a difference between intense and rough. The Voyage = intense. The Beast = rough. Boy was it painful. The first of many one-and-done rides of the day. I can't imagine how much worse Son of Beast was. I overheard quite a few folks in the park talking about the deaths on SOB/Firehawk earlier in the season. I miss the knock off Indiana Jones music while waiting to ride Adventure Express. One highlight of the day was when my brother stuck a huge balloon under his shirt and acted like he was pregnant. We got quite a few strange looks from people as we were walking around. Flight Deck is in serious need of some paint. Like bad. We saw a woman push a stroller with a baby in it all the way through the Diamondback queue. She carried it all the way up the stairs too. I'm not sure what her plan was- leave the stroller with her kid in it in the station while she rode? Even more baffling to me was how she got past the employee at the queue entrance. The second hill on Diamondback is to die for! You float all the way over it. What an incredible feeling. Diamondback makes all of the other coasters in the park look and feel like crap because it's so smooth and comfortable. My non-enthusiast girlfriend made the comment while on Diamondback that she thought it was the quietest ride she has ever been on. Nik Wallenda is insane. I didn't realize how high 262 feet is until I saw the high wire at the park. I figured he would be walking from the lower section of the Eiffel tower but it was attached to the bottom of the highest observation platform. The cable was as thick as a nickel, 800 feet long and he did it with no harnesses. That just blows my mind. It only took about twenty minutes too. We didn't plan on going to the park on the date of his walk, it was just one of those "oh this is going on at the park today, cool" kind of things, a very nice surprise. We were leaving the park between 9 and 9:30pm. As we were walking past the guest services office at the front gate we saw a large male being escorted into the office. Once inside he proceeded to take some swings at some of the officers and make an escape. They subdued him, handcuffed, and took him out of sight. A woman (presumably his girlfriend) tried to follow him into the office and was screaming "he ain't done nothing" but the officers pushed her back and out of the office. Never did find out the cause of the fight but made for an interesting end of the day, like watching a trashy TV show or redneck theater. Overall, other than Nik Wallenda and Diamondback everything else was just "ehh." It was a very hot and humid day, most of the rides were more headache than fun, expensive food, and large crowds. I don't see myself going back unless they build another quality ride or offer some other incentive such as free unlimited soft drinks. Photos and video to follow. http://www.firstgiving.com/nickweisenberger