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| Coasters in Paris, err I mean Kings Island |
It is now time to blog about my second day at the Kings Island Coasterstock event. The second day of the event offered an hour of ERT in the morning on Flight of Fear, Firehawk, and Racer
starting at 9:00 am. I made the trip to the park solo since Ashley wanted to sleep in. I can’t say that I blame her
although, for me, nothing wakes me up better than riding
coasters early in the morning. I arrived a little before 9:00
am.
I met up with Derk inside the park and we rode Flight of Fear
twice. This ride always seems to have a long line due to its low
capacity but it really is a fun coaster. It has a forceful
launch into darkness as it sends you through three inversions
and many twists and turns. We then rode Firehawk a flying
coaster that is very intense. The coolest element on the ride
for me is going up the lift hill on your back and then being
flipped into a flying motion 100 feet off the ground. This is
quite the thrill. I gotta say I am normally not afraid of any coaster but Firehawk is downright extreme and puts a little lump in my throat every time I ride it. I will go as far and say it is probably the most intense coaster I have ever ridden.
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| Flight of Fear (left) & Firehawk (right) credit Rik Engelen rcdb.com |
Then we decided to take a ride on the legendary Racer roller
coaster. They stopped us on the lift hill for what seemed like
forever. I am still not sure what happened. Racer really is a
great wooden coaster with nice pops of airtime and minimal
roughness. I hope they keep this coaster for many years to come.
I am pretty confident they will since it has been a staple in
the park for so long. Fun fact: The Racer roller coaster was showcased on The Brady Bunch Show in 1973.
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| The KI Iconic Racer credit Rik Engelen rcdb.com |
It was now right at 10:00 am so the park was officially open. We
made our way over to Vortex and grabbed the first ride of the
day. In fact, we rode in the front and were the only people on the entire train. Sadly being the only ones on the ride was the most exciting part of the ride. While Vortex may look like a great roller coaster it really is not, unfortunately. It is very rickety and rough and is only good enough to ride once. It was once the only coaster in the world with six inversions.
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| Cool looking entrance |
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| Looks are deceiving on this one |
We decided to walk over and ride the Beast a few times. This
ride is such a classic even in the daylight. We then made our
way over to Diamondback and there was basically no line. It was
at this point I knew that the park wasn’t going to be busy
today. We rode Diamondback 5 times within the hour. It really
amazed me how the park went from INSANELY busy the previous day
(Saturday) to extremely low crowds on Sunday. This put a smile
on my face however, knowing that I would get a lot of rides in
today.
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| My face when there are no lines |
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| Diamondback in all its glory |
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| Now this is what I am talking about! |
I went to pick up Ashley shortly after 11:00 am from the hotel.
We went back to the park to have lunch which was provided by
Kings Island for the event. Lunch included hot dogs and
hamburgers as well as blue ice cream for dessert! I was so
excited that I ate two of them. Blue Ice Cream is a phenomenon
that must be experienced sometime in your life. It is delicious.
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| We love Kings Island |
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| I am happy |
It was now time to get to riding again so we started off with
Surf Dog a fun ride that goes back and forth while spinning
slightly over a small hill in the middle. Diamondback was up
next with a wait of 10-15 minutes! It sure beats the hour plus
lines it was yesterday. We then rode Beast, Stunt Track, Racer,
Adventure Express, Viking Fury, and Banshee. That was 8 rides in
a period of a few hours.
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| This is not a dog nor does it surf |
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| Skloooooosh! |
back to the hotel. I was all jacked up on Mountain Dew (not
really) so I went and rode more rides. I mean I had to take full advantage of minimal lines! I got back to back rides in on the Bat mostly because it takes what feels like an hour to walk back to. This is a fun coaster with nice speed. I just wish it were longer.
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| To the batmobile, err coaster bat car |
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| Bat with Banshee doing its thing in background |
inverted coaster that goes forwards and backwards through a
series of three loops forwards and three backwards. It is quite
an intense ride. The seats also face each other so you get to
see the people’s reactions in front of you as you ride. We
managed to sit in front of this older guy and his facial
expressions during the ride were quite amusing. It looked like
he was about to hurl with his eyes closed the entire time. Thank-you older guy for not puking on Derk and me.
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| Invertigo credit Rik Engelen rcdb.com |
Next up we got in back to back rides on Banshee. Again, the
lines were minimal so we took full advantage. We then made our
way down the Coney Island Mall area of the park and rode some
rides I had never ridden at the park before. We rode the
Scrambler and Shake Rattle and Roll both of which are fun flat
rides. We took another ride on Stunt Track followed by
Windseeker. Windseeker may not be very fast and thrilling but if
you are scared of heights this ride is not for you. I am semi-
scared of heights and I still ride it though. It is nice being
300 feet in the area soaring above the park.
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| A little Shake, a little Rattle, a little Roll |
It was now after 7:00 pm and I was getting hungry. I didn’t
really want to grab a full dinner so I settled for my park
staple when I need food: the Pretzel. For the price (around $5)
this is a good item to eat. I also paid $4 for a 32oz drink
because I was thirsty and I wanted a soda. The sad thing is, is
that I actually had a $.99 refill mug but who wants to carry the
thing around all day? I know I don’t. I would rather just have a
bracelet or something but for some reason parks have not latched onto this idea. This may actually be grounds for a future blog post so be on the lookout.
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| Loop de Loop |
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| Awesome first Drop |
better way to end the day then a ride on the Beast. It was now
after 8:00 pm and the park was officially closed but not for us!
ERT was going to start at 8:30 pm. Derk and I decided to ride
Diamondback first. We got in 4 straight rides with one being in
the front row. We would have gotten more rides in if it weren’t
for Kings Island’s policy of no re-rides. They make you exit the
ride and walk all the way back around. I won’t complain though
because, well, we still got a ton of rides in. I will say this;
my opinion of Diamondback actually got better with this visit. I
had some of the best rides I have ever gotten on it. The floaty
(I know not a word) airtime on the hills is quite fun and makes
this ride a top tier coaster in my opinion.
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| Over the building and thru the trees... |
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| ...to floaty airtime we go. |
Since we knew we needed to get some night rides in on Beast we headed over there for 4 straight rides. As always the Beast did not disappoint at night. It threw us around in the woods like it was designed to do. I love the screeching noises the train makes as it blasts through the tunnels and massive helix. The Beast still reigns supreme as probably the best night ride on a coaster that I have ever ridden.
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At this point it was about 9:45 pm fifteen minutes away from the
end of ERT. We decided to head all the way across the park for
one last ride on Banshee. We also needed to use our free on-ride
photo coupons as well. We made it with a few minutes to spare
and scored a great night ride. Banshee is a great ride at night
and great ride overall. It was an awesome way to cap off the
Coasterstock event. I was officially worn out.
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| Banshee is Scary |
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| Me and my hair are done. |
What more can I say? Kings Island has come a long way since my
first visit back in the early 90’s and even after adding
Diamondback in 2009 and Banshee in 2014. They have really
improved in many areas and I rank this park really high on my
list of amusement parks. Coasterstock was awesome. It cost me
only $25 (with season pass) and $62 for Ashley for this: Two-day
admission, tons of ERT, dinner Saturday, lunch Sunday, free
souvenir refill cups, free t-shirts, two free on-ride photos per
person, Coasterstock pin, and event lanyard. Kings Island went
above and beyond and they deserve a lot of thanks. Next to
Holiwood Nights this was one of the best coaster enthusiast
events I have ever attended.
Here are a few extra statistics:
Total Rides on Saturday 10:00 am – 10:00 pm: 9
Total Rides on Sunday 10:00 am – 8:00 pm: 25
Total ERT Rides on Saturday: 16
Total ERT Rides on Sunday: 13
Total Rides During 2-day Event: 63
Top Rides Ridden: 12x Diamondback, 11x Beast, 10x Banshee, 5x
Racer, 4x Stunt Track, 3x Bat, 3x Adventure Express, 3x Flight
of Fear
