ok, a little late, but here goes!

Trip Report - Paramount’s Kings Island April 9 2004


Opening Day!!! Got to the park at 10:40AM and immediately went through security and the gate. Then headed straight to the Action Zone, where the first coaster of the regular season (rode The Beast last Sunday at the Season Pass Preview Day) was Top Gun

Next, on the way out Top Gun’s exit, I cut over into Son Of Beast’s line by stepping over the low rail just before the tunnel where they run parallel briefly. I walked up the ramps and thought “Gee, these ramps are empty! Must be REALLY short line!” so I got to the station, and it’s DESERTED! The control booth was empty, and there was a train parked in the station with the testing dummies still in them. It was then I looked over at the front end of the station, and saw a train ROLLING BACKWARD into the loop!!! So I ran over and took two pictures of it. The train had some testing dummies in the forward half, but there were a few riders toward the back! They must have been employees because the ride had never opened today. The train finally settled into place between the loop and the starting hill of Helix 2. There was apparently some type of weight problem, wheel misalignment, or some kind of problem with the train, because the speed coming out of the loop is normally more than enough to get the train into the helix. So after taking pictures, I looked over and saw some employees in the onride photo trailer just down the exit, so I scooted out of there before security did J. I left the same way I had come, going back down the entrance and stepping back over into Top Gun’s exit. On the way out, I spoke to the employee who was blocking the entrance to SoB, and he said they hoped to open later in the day, so I continued on through Action Zone.

With no SoB to ride, I bought a ticket for Days of Thunder go-karts and got in line. The slow loading times for this ride drive me nuts! It could go SO much faster if they had separate lines for drivers and riders! I finally got in a two-person car by myself and went out. After a good race, I headed for Coney Mall at about 11:15 AM.

I got into Coney Mall and went straight to Zephyr and walked on. Zephyr is running great today, and the new paint looks even better today than Sneak Preview Day because the ride is actually running :P As soon as I got off of Zephyr, I made a beeline for Flight Of Fear because the crowds had not yet made it to Coney Mall.

I walked into Flight Of Fear’s hanger, and WOW! None of the queues are in use and the line does not even make it out of the saucer! YES! I hadn’t ridden FoF since last April the 19th because of the blasted lines! So I quickly made it to the station and boarded the train toward the back.

Sound effects increase volume, lights gear up, PA system starts 3, 2, 1 LAUNCH!

Yow! FoF is running great today! And there are more lights in the building now, greatly increasing the head, arm, and side-chopper effects!

After FoF, I headed on down Coney Mall, and when I saw Shake, Rattle, and Roll getting ready to load with only 3 PEOPLE in line, I jumped in for a quick ride, having not ridden it since May 2002. Next, I got in line for Vortex.

Vortex has walk-on conditions! I got right on toward the back in the second row of my car. OUCH! Vortex is SERIOUSLY rough today! After getting off, I started to walk back down Coney Mall to go over to Rivertown, when I felt my pocket for my cell phone.

AH CRAP! Phone’s not there! So despite the roughness, I got back in line for Vortex and rode again, then retrieved my phone from the control booth after the ride.

Now that I had my phone, I headed for The Beast.

At The Beast, I got in line and walked on up, through the unused queues and up the ramps, before finally reaching the end of the line just before the station.

5-10 minutes later, I was on! And off we went.

ZOOM!

Beast is running GREAT today! Completely opposite of the rough, cold, windy ride on last Sunday’s Preview Day. And all of the new effects are working today, including the sound effects and searchlight in the station, and the sound effects on both lift hills.

With The Beast having cured my Vortex syndrome, I met my mom and rode the train, where I got a couple cool shots of the Boomerang Bay work, including some MASSIVE flowerpots aitting on the train platform. While on the train, we met three girls who were riding in the seat in front of us. The older one said she hadn’t ridden the Beast yet, but did not want to ride alone. So of course I had to help J

After getting off the train and meeting their parents, the two older girls and I set off to the Beast with my mom and their parents following. We got in line while the chickens went to the benches at the exit pavilion :P

They were more than a bit nervous, so I made sure they knew about wood coaster’s safety records, the new seat belts, and that the ride went slightly slower than Vortex, which they had ridden earlier, in most places.

We got aligned in the sation so we would be in the same train, with me in the row in front of them. Seat Belts buckled, lap bars down, comments from their dad at the exit who told them it had two loops… and we were off.

Needless to say, this was a scream-filled ride :P

Once we hit the second lift, they were both liking it, but it’s not the first part that eats people :P

Before reaching the top of the second lift, I made sure they knew what was coming, and then we peaked over the top of lift 2. Off we go! Down the second drop, and right into the Beast’s Lair! I have never heard so much screaming in that helix before!

Up into the brakes, and rolling into the station. The older one swore to NEVER ride this ride again (hehe), but the younger one said “That was awesome!”, hey, as long as I eliminated ONE person’s Beast fear, fine with me! So we met up with the chickens, errr, parents at the exit, and they went off to the Nickelodeon Theater for some show.

However, for the BEASTMASTER myself, time for food! So hit the LaRosa’s Rivertown Pizza, and then headed, to the Paramount Theater to catch that new show, Paramount’s Magic Of The Movies Live. When we got there, it was still 20 minutes to showtime, and of course, they were not letting anyone into the theater until closer to showtime! So we headed back into Hanna-Barbera Land for me to try to ride Reptar before going back to the theater. Crap! Reptar is closed today, and so is Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster! SO we went back to the theater, and everyone had gone inside. I decided I didn’t want to spend 25 minutes watching a show, Soooooo I left my mom there to watch the show, while I headed over to see if Sonny was running yet.

AH CRAP!!! Still closed! I didn’t want to risk another trip to the station to see if it was valleyed, so I went and rode Top Gun again, and just came straight out and did Days Of Thunder again.

Whooo! I got in the first car in the row on DOT! So I was first out of the station and onto the track. I gained a decent lead right away because the other morons in the cars behind me were kind of slow getting out. I actually caught up with them and PASSED all of them, and ended up being first back into the pit! Awesome!
My mom had called when I was getting on, and I had told here where I was and that I had to go because I was on Days Of Thunder and was about to get dispatched. So she was waiting at the exit, and even though I tried to ditch her, she wouldn’t have any of that! So she said we needed to head out before long, as it was 4PM and I had to be home at six to change the tape, because I was recording Spike TV’s Deep Space Nine marathon, and the tape that the timer started at noon would run out at 6.

I wanted to get at least one more coaster ride, So I headed back into Coney Mall.

Racer Backwards was STILL RUNNING EMPTY! It had been running all day! And the line for Racer Forwards was still massively long, now stretching halfway across Coney Mall. There was no way in heck I was going to wait that long for Racer, So I continued down and got on Dodgems after only a one-cycle wait. Sheesh! They only ran for about 45 seconds, a minute at most! Hardly even worth the effort of going to ride! I would have ridden the adjacent Antique Cars, but the line was long, and they do not allow single riders.

Running out of time, I quickly went back to Vortex and got in line again (I know, I’m crazy :P), and rode in the second car of the train, in the first row. I was hoping for a smoother ride in the first row of a train, because on the previous two rides, I was in the second row of a car.

WRONG! STUPID ME!

I got beaten around on this ride too! My train got back to the station, and I got off and took off toward Rivertown, I was going to try to go through Hanna-Barbera Land again and try to ride Reptar quickly if it was open by now.

I got into Rivertown and saw a DIPPIN DOTS STAND that was open! All the others in the park were closed today. So I got a chocolate cup and headed toward International Street, skipping Hanna-Barbera due to the time.

I got to International Street and met my mom again, then headed out at about 4:40 PM.

Overall a fantastic day, and a GREAT start to the 2004 season! A photo tour of this trip is available at http://extremepki.houstonthrills.com...ptr-040904.php

Wow sounds like you had fun and that the PKI attendance still hasn't gotten that large from last summer. Time for PKI to get a new coaster, I hope.

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Someones obsessed a little to ^ much about a stupid ride.

Oh, there were plenty of times I was there in 2003 season where there were cars parked in the grass around the parking lot bacuese of hihg attendance. It's just that the schools here are not on spring break yet, and other people are it work, as it was a friday.