Kings Island/Holiday World Aug 23-26 2012 Now with Pictures

[Luxornv]

We rolled into Cincinnati around 3pm local time. We chose to go to the park this day under the Starlight admission, but would have to wait until 4. In the meantime, we checked into our hotel, the Best Western Mason Inn. After a break from the drive, we then headed back out to Kings Island. I’ve never been there before, so I wasn’t sure what to make of the parking lot. We decided to head straight for Diamondback. While on the way there, we couldn’t help but notice that there was hardly anyone in the park. When we got to the line for Diamondback, it was a one train wait. The ride itself was amazing. It seemed to be loaded with airtime and kept up the speed until the MCBR. After the first ride, we immediately got back in line for a re-ride. After that, we decided to go for the other coasters. We then headed for the other headliner, Beast. Another one train wait here. I enjoyed the ride and it had some intense moments, but didn’t seem worth the hype it had. After this, it was Vortex. We could have re-rode, but I don’t think my neck could have taken that.

To calm things down, we then took a ride on Windseeker. Maybe it was just windier at the top of this one today, but it seemed to be spinning faster than the one at Cedar Point. We then headed for the back with Flight of Fear and Firehawk. The short one train waits seemed to be the theme of the day. However we went on the front row and had a two train wait. I enjoyed; I like launched rides and it was rather disorienting. We then went to ride Firehawk. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much. It was mildly uncomfortable when the seats were laid back. It seemed to start out well with the lie to fly element at the beginning, but it became too rough after that. I’m not sure if it was just the way I felt today, but the ride actually nauseated me somewhat too. Sitting on the brake run made things worse while waiting for the train in the station to dispatch. I had to take a break after that, but we were back on our way through the park to Adventure Express. I know it’s not supposed to be a huge ride, but it was very forceless and the shake of the ride seemed to constantly jab the seatback into me. After this, it was the red side of Racer. Blue side was closed due to lack of a crowd at the park. With the deserted park to ourselves, we continued through and finished up the lineup of non kiddie coasters with Invertigo, Flight Deck, and Backlot Stunt Coaster. Now we had about an hour and a half left in the night and decided to ride out the night on Diamondback. I forgot my camera, so no pictures from today. I’ll get to those tomorrow.

[w00dland]

Please tell me that you rode Beast again at night.

[Ilovthevu']

Could you please put a break line in that one long paragraph to make 2 paragraphs? It's a lot in big block.

[Luxornv]

Please tell me that you rode Beast again at night.

Unfortunately I did not. We did ride it fairly late on Thursday, but the park closed at 8 and it was still light out by then. I didn't budget time correctly on Friday and spent too much time taking pictures of Windseeker from the Eiffel Tower.

[Luxornv]

We spent an extra day and a half in the park after the empty Thursday. The crowds were a little heavier on Friday, and Saturday was the moderate crowd I was expecting. I took close to 350 pictures, and I'll leave you with some of the best. We spent a half day there on Saturday in order to have enough time to drive out to Santa Claus, IN for Holiday World. We will be there tomorrow and I will have some more pictures after that.

Now some pictures

[Luxornv]

I visited Holiday World today to knock out Raven, Legend, and Voyage. I started out the day with getting the crap scared out of me when the fire alarm went off at my hotel at 3am. Apparently, the Holiday Inn in Jasper, IN has recurring issues with the fire alarm and it goes off at the best possible times. I will not be staying there again. Anyway, we took care of that and headed for Holiday World in the morning. We got a few rides in on each Raven, Legend, and Voyage. Each one I found to be surprisingly rough. I know they are wooden roller coasters, but with the reviews they have gotten, I expected better. Raven was surprisingly short, but a good ride with a little bit of airtime and some lateral G's. Legend seemed to be more about lateral G's, and I thought I was going to be thrown out of my seat. Voyage was loaded with airtime as advertised, but rough as I mentioned. I rode it three times, and each time I seemed to notice something just before the camera on the ride, like something that requires immediate track work. Every time the train went through this section, it felt like I got hit in the head with a baseball bat. Considering this, none of these rides will be in my top 10, but I was happy I was able to get out there and get the credits.

I'll have pictures soon.