As I begin writing this trip report I know I might miss a few things here and there, but I have never had a better time then with the best bunch of people in the whole wide world.

Players this past weekend:
Me
Tina
Jeff
Chuck
Rob
John Allen
Pat-O
RobLec
April
Pete
Dave
and so on and so on

Tina and I took off from Pittsburgh shortly before 6 am driving south to Dale, IN. We stayed at Motel 6 aka Coaster Geek central.
We waited for Jeff to arrive and headed to Camp Funk at Lake Rudolph. We chatted for awhile and got into the park just about 4pm central time.

We got Jeff (Holiday World newbie) on Raven for his first backseat ride. He loved it as well as I, who thought Raven was completely over rated last year. Not that I didn't like the ride, I found it short, abrupt and didn't pack that punch I heard so much about.

We headed down to Legend and I found it running even better this year then previous. Which was the case on just about everything! We then headed down toVoyage and got Jeff his first back seat ride. He LOVED IT! I missed Voyage so much. It just gave me the rush I needed to keep me calm!

We got on Turkey Whirl aka The Spinning Chickens. And I thought it would be tame, oh how I was wrong. I think this ran about as good as Strickers Grove on July 4th 2 years ago. It was about time for our sit down with the Koch's and Paula so we headed to the picnic pavilions. We were then released for ERT around 6:30 and we headed to Voyage. After a short while we got super hungry for Kringles Pizza and headed to the top of the park for some darn good pizza.

We rode Raven and Legend and Voyage til we couldn't take it anymore. We headed back to Camp Funk to grab the car and off to the hotel we went.

We finally met up with Pat-O aka Lonestar aka Tex aka dipstick and he came over to the room and chatted with us for a bit. We got a little sleep and was back over at Camp Funk at 9am on Saturday morning. We hung out watched some CNA footage and off we went to get Pat-O his HWN registration.

We did a ton more today including eating at Plymouth Cafe. OMG it was the best food I have had in a very long time. For the price it was delicious!! We did Gobbler Getaway and I so lost this time. I think my turkey caller was on the fritz. Oh well, Pat-O expect a funnel cake package in the mail sometime soon.

We rode these rides on Saturday:
Flyers (WHICH I SNAPPED! Thank you! Hold all applause!)
The Antique Cars
Turkey Whirl
Gobbler Getaway

Our group split up for a bit to take rests and relax. So they did a lot more then I did. We got together for dinner and had a group shot taken. Then ERT commenced like no one elses business!

We got on Raven first and I will tell you I finally got that Raven ride everyone says they have during events. I couldn't believe it. Raven had finally gotten higher up on my list because of that one moment. The rest of the coaster was still short and sweet to my liking. Still a little over rated, but got better in my eyes.

Legend was running so impressive from last year. I was so surprised. I got so many good rides on Legend this weekend. It is getting very high up on my wooden coaster list.

Voyage.....OMG my Voyage. Never in my life had I had such amazing rides on Voyage. I did have a few bad rides on the one train. Anyone that sat in 4.1 or 4.2 of the one train got a seriously bad ride because of a wheel. I don't know but I got TORE up. I did however get the most perfect ride on Voyage. The perfect airtime, lat's, positive g's all rolled into one backseat ride. OMG was that the best way to end a visit to Holiday World.

After we left the park and got back to our car and the hotel. We were all so exhausted we crashed. We had to get up at 6:15am to pack up and head out to Kings Island a new to me park this year. We got there a little after 11 am. The park wasn't nearly as crowded as my veteran friends said. So off we went to ride!

Here is what we rode:

Face Off- Great ride! I was shocked to like this coaster. Only a 30 minute wait and wow that baby packs a punch!!!

Drop Zone- I have ridden Intamin drop towers before, but this one was WOWOWOW!!! Great ride, I wouldn't ride it again though. Drop would be too predictable.

Top Gun: The Jet Coaster: What a cute suspended. We got a ride in the front seat with a minimal wait. 90* on a brake run, WHO KNEW!? I thought BBW was better though. Didn't think the seat belts were necessary....kinda stupid if you ask me.

Delerium- I had been on MaXaiR so I knew what to expect, but it was ok. I think the spinning was off like as in it just wasn't spinning as hard as I remember MaXaiR. We waited about 25 minutes after a short break down of the ride. The ride was MEH....

Flght of Fear: First ride was a 40 minute wait. We waited for the back seat. The ride was great, except no one told me that I would get so bruised from the first inversion. I didn't enjoy the ride as much as I thought. I did get on it later in the day, after learning my lesson and had a fantastic ride. The hang time was incredible after the mid-course. The last inversion was the best in my opinion.

Adventure Express: I heard good things about this coaster also. Very different. I thought it was very bumpy and it was meh at best. It just wasn't my thing.

Racer and Recar: Recar aka backwards racer was decent. A few potholes I felt on the bottoms of the drops. The forward side was absolutely running like crap. I got the credit and thats all that counts. Had to take one for the team. Clint and Rose were just ahead of us on the forward side. Did I mention I didn't really like Racer?

Vortex: This ride was amazing! I love arrow loopers, ok maybe I am a masochist. This ride made me think of my old baby Steel Phantom. I really loved the back seat on Vortex and ended up riding twice that day! Can I have my steel phantom back? PLEASSSSSSSSE?

Italian Job: Stunt Track: This was one cute coaster! I didn't really expect a lot from it, but it does pack a pleasant punch! Was a very nice family coaster. I think my son would like this a lot.
Viking Fury: What a kick ass Pirate ship on crack! Who knew I could defy the laws of gravity on a pirate ship? LOL

The Eiffel Tower: Ok, great views! We got video of FireHawk testing. It should be up and running shortly! I am totally afraid of heights. Roller coasters don't bother me because I am enclosed and restrained. But, damn this tower was shaking and it scared the be-jesus outta me. We hurried off quickly.

The Beast!: Ok! After hearing good and bad things about this ride, I decided I had to decide for myself. We got into the front seat and off we went. I had a fantastic ride!!!

The front floor board was shaking the crap out of my foot and the fact that I got stapled didn't matter. But that ending helix was fantastic!!! I should ride it in the back seat one of these days when I get more time.

I must say that I was very surprised that I liked Kings Island as much as I did. The ride ops weren't very talkative and the prices were VERY high in my opinion but well worth the visit to get some credits. I do have to come back as I missed 3 credits. We just didn't have the time. The Happy Days diner was decent. My fries were kinda dried out and yucky but the hot dog was semi-decent. The milkshake was awesome, but not for 7 dollars. I wouldn't have paid that much had I had my glasses on.

All in all it was the best damn vacation that I have had in a very long time. I can't thank all of you for being there with me either in spirit or physically. I saw so many people and thought about the rest that couldn't make it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the best time a diva could have! All the bruises will heal, but the memories will last a lifetime. We must do this again soon.

Please feel free to comment!

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
-Katie

Nice report, Katie!

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