Sunday, December 27, 2015

Coasterstock Day Two

Wow, it has been over four months since I last wrote in this blog. I am not happy about that as I enjoy sharing with you my amusement park experiences. This post has actually been written for a while now I just haven't had the time to finalize the post. Please keep reading as I plan to post more topics to this blog in the future. 
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.
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.
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.
Cool looking entrance

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.
My face when there are no lines

Diamondback in all its glory

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.
We love Kings Island

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.
This is not a dog nor does it surf

Skloooooosh!

It was at this point Ashley was getting tired and decided to go 
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. 
To the batmobile, err coaster bat car

Bat with Banshee doing its thing in background

I met back up with Derk again and we went and rode Invertigo an 
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.
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.
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.
Loop de Loop

Awesome first Drop

It was almost time for the park to close so I decided what 
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.
Over the building and thru the trees...

...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.



 

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.
Banshee is Scary

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

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