PTR: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

**Wes** · #1 05-08-2009, 08:17 AM

If you'd like to view all 129 Kings Island photos in all their glory visit: Kings Island 2009 pictures from ohio photos on webshots

Last weekend I took my first trip up to Kings Island since Backlot Italian Coaster Job, or something like that, debuted.

Here I am driving up on Friday morning. As you can see the roads were totally crowded!

Hmm...what's that? Never heard of the place.

They get their own street name? What?

You can't really tell from this picture, but this was one of the nicest Cracker Barrel's I've ever seen. The flowers out front were on par with Busch Gardens quality!

I don't like the look of those clouds. Go away clouds of doom!

I think I was in TN somewhere when I saw this fireworks place. They have 2 or 3 old shells of Ferris wheels just sitting there to catch your eye on the interstate. It's kind of sad though to think those Ferris wheels will never give another ride again.

For Kentucky to be such a pretty state, they have some of the ugliest rest stops! I've driven through on I-64 and they look just as bad!

Fill me up! No, not a can...the whole truck! zzzzzzz

OK, I guess KY has at least one nice rest stop. But this shouldn't count since its an "artists center". lol

After a very long drive up, getting in Cinci traffic, I finally arrived and checked in my hotel. Look off in the distance. Is that Swiss steel I see?

It is! It is!

I didn't have many expectations for Diamondback going in, because frankly its still really early (which could have backfired if it had had troubles) and I haven't read many reviews. Front row is what makes this coaster my new #1 (steel of course). The ejector air up front is fracking amazing!

Almost any place in the park you go, you can see Diamondback. It's somehow made Kings Island seem smaller to me, but in a good way.

OK I'll get more up soon... that's all for now.

CoasterchickRN · #2 05-08-2009, 01:41 PM

Those are great pics Wes. I must admit that my sisters and I ate at that exact same Cracker Barrel on our way in a couple of weeks ago. Can't start the day without some hashbrown casserole.

lance2680 · #3 05-08-2009, 04:57 PM

I know that fireworks place. Off of 75 a few miles before/past lafallette depending on which way you are going. I go wakeboarding down by there.

Anyway. I was there on that same Friday got there about 1030 and went straight to diamondback walked on front seat. And I must say that was more enjoyable then opening day getting at the park at 5 in the morning and waiting to ride it. Only thing that sucked about Friday was there was schools there that day and all the annoying little gossip queens seemed to be everywhere I went.

First time I road diamondback I rode back seat and I didn't think the ride was anything special but I have to agree after riding front seat I loved the ride.

**Wes** · #4 05-10-2009, 08:16 PM

I'm back...

Here is the midcourse, just in case you never saw one. Actually it stopped a train Saturday afternoon out there when Diamondback shut down for some reason.

I met up with a friend of mine from high school that lives up in Ohio now. Her and her husband have season passes I think and are up at KI pretty often.

It's bad when your head gets to be 100 ft tall.

Oh no! Diamondback ate the whole train!

The hammerhead is out on the far left, you can get some decent pictures when coming out of The Crypt's exit.

First drop.

OH NO! It's the scary demon in line for Crypt! He's going to move his wings a little and then close them again! It's about as scary as seeing Dick Kinzel in person!

Saturday morning I went exploring because I had some time before 9:00 ERT started at the park. I found a side street that runs behind Great Wolf Lodge and so you get some really nice shots of the back/side of the park.

Hey! That looks like a smooth coaster!

Diamondback through Son of Beast.

Kings Island even has their own green house...

Flight Deck

I also stumbled upon this old abandoned place down the street a bit farther.

Kind of reminded me of Charlie and Chocolate Factory, where it was all shut up at the start of the movie.

Here's the old company name...

More to come...

**Leo C** · #5 05-10-2009, 08:30 PM

Andrew showed me a link to abandoned or strange Ohio sites. I guess he knew I liked Weird NJ magazine. I looked up that Peters Company in Kings Mills on the Ohio site.

I suppose I have to go down that side street too to see the site.

**Wes** · #6 05-11-2009, 07:17 AM

If you drive past Kings Island Dr on Exit 25 and keep going into Kings Mills you'll come to this really steep hill and it twists and turns down to this creek or river and just across that is the old plant.

The bridge is cool too because you can look over and see another angle of Kings Island, but its not the best place to stop and get pics, so I didn't take any.

Its always sad to see places like that, where you know at one time they were thriving with people. I'm glad that Charlotte has saved a good many of our old factories from the turn of the century and transformed them into condos or businesses, restaurants, etc.

violakat03 · #7 05-11-2009, 06:29 PM

Is exit 25 Western Row Rd or 741/Kings Mills Rd?

I've been down Western Row maybe a mile or two, but never farther than that, and never been down 741 past Kings High School (sits back behind Great Wolf Lodge, basically).

SheikraTTD · #8 05-11-2009, 07:24 PM

Diamondback looks so amazing. Just what KI needed. 5 hours was a long drive for Beast. But now...maybe.

**Wes** · #9 05-12-2009, 09:39 AM

^ I drove 10 hours! lol

^^ Exit 25 is the one with Skyline Chili, The Beach, and the movie theaters are closer to that exit than 24.

If you were coming off the exit going north, you'd take a right like you were going to the back entrance to KI. Drive past Kings Island and just keep going. The road goes into Kings Mills and then continues on down that winding road to the old factory and such. I don't think I turned anywhere, but there might have been one right turn or something like that.

Columbia Dr I think is the name of the road that runs behind Great Wolf where I got those shots of sonny and flight deck.

**Wes** · #10 05-12-2009, 11:14 AM

Uh oh double post...

OK back to the pics...

I do not know what has become of Beast of 4 years ago, but I say GOOD RIDDANCE! I rode Beast 6 times over 2 days and loved every ride! Fast, furious, but not a bad jolt in the bunch that I recall.

The area Beast is in has changed a lot since my first ride 10 years ago, but actually I like the new look. Oh yeah and that big piece of steel nearby too.

Speaking of which, it's time for more Diamondback photos. Honestly when Behemoth was debuted, the specs anyway, I thought the trains were the dumbest I'd seen in years. But after riding one of these, it really doesn't make much difference to me either way. Something strange though (in a good way) is that Diamondback has ejector air in the front row! I'm assuming that's because of the placement of the seats now. I've been on 2 other B&M hypers, and front row never had ejector on it. As mentioned before, Diamondback is now my #1 steel. And yes, I've never been on Super, er, Bizzaro or whatever its called these days, but one of our pack at KI has been on both, and he says he prefers Diamondback to Bizzaro!

I like the snake faced trains, but the eyes somehow remind me of

. If you're too young to remember Turbo Teen, then click the link and be prepared to experience the awesomeness of 80s animation!

And to think that some of the KI fanboys said the coaster looked boring when they released the specs! Boring? You hadn't even ridden it yet!

I am Diamondback! I leap over tall buildings in a single bound!

Al Gore is probably gonna complain about KI wasting water or something.

Diamondback got stuck for some reason out on the midcourse and they had to evacuate that train. It was down for 3 hours or so, and I was lucky enough to get towards the front of the line when it finally did reopen about 9:00 PM. Needless to say the line was insane after that. In all I got 8 rides on Diamondback, 1 in front, 1 on 2nd row, maybe 2 on back row, and then the rest throughout the train wherever they sat me. The only "New B&M shuffle" I ever noticed was about 1/3 of the way back on one of the trains it did shuffle one time, but not nearly as much as say Goliath on its second drop.

More to come...

**Leo C** · #11 05-13-2009, 08:59 AM

WOW, I was too young to remember the name of the show. I guess I really wasn't on something to remember a guy turn into a car on a cartoon.

I'm curious about how strong the turnaround is before the water drop. I realize it's not a high speed helix, probably not gray out. I kindly place Bizarro and NITRO in a tie because both coasters are awesome and I would like to respect my home coaster. I wouldn't mind putting Diamondback to the test there.

**Wes** · #12 05-13-2009, 12:16 PM

The helix isn't nearly as intense as Apollo or Goliath's, but you have to consider that Diamondback has a hammerhead and a mini-helix. So that's a plus in my book.

A helix is a nice bonus to me, but most don't do much for me. With Raptor being the only exception. I love being plastered to me seat on that bad boy.

And yeah, Turbo Teen was able to turn back and forth into a car after one of those mysterious scientific accidents that seem to happen a lot in the 80s. You can watch a lot of the episodes on YouTube now. It was very cheesy, but I still like the premise of the show a lot. It was a rip off of sorts of Knight Rider if you think about it. It came out about a year after Knight Rider debuted. It only lasted one season, so it will probably never get dug up and put on DVD like a lot of the toons from my childhood/tween years.

***Katie*** · #13 05-15-2009, 07:25 PM

This is Wes giving my husband the death to you look. Matt just looks lost as normal. LOL

**Wes** · #14 05-16-2009, 09:59 AM

OK, where did the mullet hair come from? Photoshop? lol

**Leo C** · #15 05-16-2009, 10:39 AM

What a great avatar in the making Mullet man.

***Katie*** · #16 05-16-2009, 12:10 PM

LMAO Wes, I had no idea Debbie was right behind you!!!

But you do look awful pretty as a strawberry blonde with a mullet!

**Wes** · #17 05-17-2009, 02:45 AM

^ You will pay!!! LOL

Back to the updates...

I met up with Katie and Bill and their gang of thieves. Bill is so stoked to be in line for Flight of Fear. Which has strange new rough spots since they decided to retrack it.

Lame Rename: The ride was running quite well, but its still no Big Bad Wolf in my book.

Firechicken was a disappointment. I was hoping for Batwing quality, but sadly no.

Vortex actually wasn't awful on my one ride of the day. Must have been a full moon.

I've always liked how they wrapped the corks around the loops like that.

I'll take Carowinds entrance over KI's any day. OK, so your fountains are bigger. lol

The line was crazy Saturday for Invertigo, so I didn't get a ride on it this trip. And i actually do like this ride.
Look at the guy hurling before he even gets on a Vekoma!

We took a spin on the historic carousel. I don't think I've ever been on it before. Some of the horses could use some TLC.

Half the gang had to head back home, so we stopped and I got a group shot. Bella (stroller) is throwing up gang signs and what not.

I will say this, it was better. Not good, but better! I thought G trains would be the death of me on this thing, but no! What it did do though was violently vibrate the back rest in the back of the train so much that I had to hold myself off the back rest or suffer mucho pain. I didn't ride it again as it had over an hour wait Saturday. Yes, 1 hour!

It's still an impressive looking ride. If totally useless. Maybe with better trains, it could be a decent ride.

Hmmmm... so since I rode these on Hurricane, does this count as a new credit? Oh wait, I'm on the wrong site to ask that.

And you thought I was kidding about the 1 hour waits.

SOB does have a tunnel!

Biggest waste of a queue line ever.

Uh oh, Flight Deck heard me talking and came to ATTACK!

Where's the fire?

Nice signage.

Got my credit on this. Uh, well, it's a credit!

Time for Beast at night!

I always feel like cattle in this line.

Eiffel Tower makes a cameo.

Diamondback at night was great.

I had a great day and a half at Kings Island, sadly operations were lacking on Saturday as most coasters were stacking really bad. The park looks nice, customer service was better and strangely enough food prices were cheaper than Carowinds. Why? Who knows. My Platinum Pass from Carowinds worked at the gate both time, they scanned it and it took a few seconds but did pop up my picture ok.

It was good to see friends again that I haven't seen in a while and/or about 10 years!

Dollywood is up next!

**Leo C** · #18 05-17-2009, 09:42 AM

Avatar I think is just a flat. I never counted Survivor the Ride at CGA.

**Wes** · #19 05-17-2009, 02:52 PM

^ When KI came out with the specs for it in the press release, they said it was a new coaster. lol

**Wes** · #20 06-06-2009, 11:57 AM

OK sorry I forgot to finish this PTR off. Here's Dollywood!

I'll take the 407 please.

I stopped at this place on the way in to Pigeon Forge just to check it out. It's one of those water park resorts. Honestly the halls were the longest I can remember since staying at Opryland Hotel and feeling like I was never going to get to my room.

Also stopped by Zorb, but decided against it because I don't like getting wet and they said the dry version would probably make me sick to my stomach since I have issues with spinning rides.

My Beetle makes a cameo in the glass of the Zorb place.

Now on to Dollywood. Thunderhead got some new wood I see.

I didn't ride this on media day, so I finally got around to riding it this time. Kinda fun, but would have been more fun with a group I'm sure.

M&M is still a fun coaster, if it does bop me around in places.

The zip lines were in, but not operating yet. They will be an upcharge.

I would have liked to have tried it out, but some other day. It's in the back of the park over near Tornado, on the new path.

They even have a junior version.

Birdie tries to get an early ride.

Where you pay and stuff.

I don't get why Dollywood went to a no re-ride policy. This ride is just too much of a hike to ride more than once.

I'm almost home!

Beetle pops in again for another cameo. This place is a great little antiques place on Hwy 321 coming back from Asheville to Charlotte. I don't think they have a website, but if you like antiques and go that way, check them out. I'm not really advertising, just giving a tip ya know.

Anyway that's all for this trip report...and with that...

The signs says it. Move along, nothing to see here. Thanks for reading.

coasterell · #21 06-18-2009, 02:27 PM

Great TR! My family is considering taking a trip down to Dollywood in early July. (yeah I know kind of a crappy time to take a coaster trip, as the parks will probably be crowded), but it looks like it's a nice park.

**Wes** · #22 06-18-2009, 08:47 PM

Dollywood is certainly not for everyone, it is not (yet) a mega park with 100 rides and 10 coasters, but what they have are all great rides in their own right. Well, excluding the kiddie coaster.

Dollywood can also be very crowded, but still have everything is a walk on, because many older people go to the park for the shows and shopping. Weird, I know. But that's Dollywood!

I'm convinced some go just because it's Dolly's park and they want to be near her or something.

Most everyone that does TR's always loves Dollywood, but there will be that 1 out of 200 that doesn't, and I'm always shocked that they hated the place.

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