LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
I'm bored at work so I decided to do a short write up of King's Island opening day, which was this past Saturday. My boyfriend asked me on Thursday what I wanted to do on Saturday and, knowing none of the parks around here are open, I jokingly said I wanted to go ride some coasters. I guess it got his wheels spinning because he checked all the calendars of parks nearby and we discovered King's Island was open 10-10 that day. I've never been to an opening day and I was anticipating heavy crowds so we ended up getting a Fast Lane Plus which, although convenient, turned out to be not incredibly necessary.
We got to the park at about 11:30 (it's a 4.5 hour drive from where I live but I couldn't leave any earlier than 7 due to time constraints with the offspring) and went to Diamondback first after taking an obligatory selfie at the front.
The ride is still as lovely as ever, but it's no Behemoth! The trim is still biting hard and my sleeve got soaked from the splashdown, which wasn't on purpose because it wasn't exactly warm out. Enjoyable and these clearly age very well.
Mystic Timbers was next and probably the coaster I was most looking forward to riding. I went on it 5 years ago but only once and I didn't have much memory of the experience to be honest. I'm not a massive GCI fan but I have to say, this thing is super fun. We did it twice near the front and once near the back, and both provide a super fun ride.
The biggest disappointment of the day was seeing the sign that Beast was closed until May. If I were more active on the forums these days I'd probably have known that it was being retracked, but I didn't, and my boyfriend was devastated. It's not like the park is crazy far though so we intend on going back at least to get a ride on that.
I was sad to see Firehawk gone but was excited to get on Orion since the border closures decided to deprive me of any new creds for the past few years, and from reclaiming my giga collection. We hopped right in the back row and even though I expected very little from this coaster, it still somehow underwhelmed me. It does next to nothing but be big, and although the first drop is great and the turnaround is fun, I don't see anything else good about it. This makes me sound like a pretentious enthusiast twat, but I don't care. It's rerideable but I sincerely wish they had kept Firehawk. Throughout the day I got on it twice in the back and once in the front and decided I had enough and that my opinion of it being mediocre would not change.
Sam didn't want to ride Flight of Fear because he hates inversions and not seeing where he's going, so both of those combined would have killed the day. I rode it anyway because I'm not even joking it's probably my second favourite coaster in the park. This coaster had the only bad operations of the day but I don't even think it was down to the crew, it was down to the insane amount of walk of shames done per train. In two trains, I saw 5 people have to leave due to size. I finally got on the back row and man, I love this thing as much as ever! I love how you can't tell if you're right side up or upside down during the first half. I also love the cheesy theming throughout the queue and station.
So my boyfriend is a brewer, and he has about 1600 or so beers to his name and one he has not stopped raving about being a nice, well done lager is Yuengling. Well, once he found out it was in the park we went on a bit of a goose chase for it. The Brewhouse didn't have it but we checked a few other places and we were finally directed to the outdoor Biergarten behind the mexican place. Off we went, and I have to say the beer did not disappoint even though I had high expectations after hearing about it for the last 1.5 years.
After we finished the overpriced but delicious beverage we mistakenly went on Banshee which made us both feel pretty crappy, one more than the other. It's wayyyyy too positive heavy and I maintain my stance that no coaster should have more than about 5 or 6 inversions. I also don't like having to focus on breathing when I'm on a coaster. I was ready to press forward still so I suggested the Drop Tower since it had just started running. I don't know why I do it to myself because I generally hate drop towers, but they're one of the only things that can get my adrenaline going to the point where my body gets shaky. We were let in and then the guy realized he let in too many people so we were directed back to the queue. Thank goodness because that cycle got stuck halfway up the tower and I would not have been happy. We got out of line and went to find something else to do.
Adventure Express was right there so we got in line, but this piece of crap is way more janky than I remembered it being. This exacerbated the illness issue for Sam, so we took a hiatus from riding for an hour or two (well, he did, but being the bad girlfriend that I am I got another ride on Banshee just to make sure I still hate it), had some food, got another beverage, and walked around the park.
We saw the Drop Tower had reopened so we headed back over there and got on after two cycles. Operations weren't great on this either, but I guess I'd rather them check restraints four times than zero. Additionally, we saw a few kids get scared and be let off on pretty much each cycle which didn't help things. I screamed like a pig being slaughtered, and I still believe it's one of the best drop towers around. Terrifying ****.
On the way to Racer we went back to the Biergarten for another Yuengling. Delicious, as it was earlier in the day! Racer looks gorgeous with the new paint job which I discovered is only on half of the track, and it is still riding pretty airtimeless, but very smooth.
I hopped back on Orion while Sam finished his beer (I'm a lush, I finished it quickly), then we made our way to Boo Blasters because I am always insistent that I get on whatever shooter the park has to offer. My score:
His score:
I'm a try hard.
We decided that, since it was already about 7 at that point that we would get another ride on Mystic Timbers and head out. I vowed to stay awake for the ride home but that lasted all but about three minutes. Overall it was a nice day, I was sad that Sam felt poorly during the majority of the afternoon but it opened my eyes to how we are going to have to organize the day at Knotts and Magic Mountain in order to make sure it runs smoothly. The operations were very good for being the first day that wasn't a passholder preview day, so kudos to them. It also wasn't stupidly packed, with most queues being in the 45 minute mark (none with Fast Lane Plus because I'm a line snob). We will probably go back this summer for Beast but split the day with a baseball game or something.
Orion x 3
Flight of Fear x 2
Racer x 1
Banshee x 2
Yuengling x 2
Mango Cart x 1
Drop Tower x 1
Diamondback x 1
Mystic Timbers x 3
Boo Blasters x 1
It felt really nice not to rush around and just do whatever we wanted at whatever pace we wanted to do it at!
We got to the park at about 11:30 (it's a 4.5 hour drive from where I live but I couldn't leave any earlier than 7 due to time constraints with the offspring) and went to Diamondback first after taking an obligatory selfie at the front.
The ride is still as lovely as ever, but it's no Behemoth! The trim is still biting hard and my sleeve got soaked from the splashdown, which wasn't on purpose because it wasn't exactly warm out. Enjoyable and these clearly age very well.
Mystic Timbers was next and probably the coaster I was most looking forward to riding. I went on it 5 years ago but only once and I didn't have much memory of the experience to be honest. I'm not a massive GCI fan but I have to say, this thing is super fun. We did it twice near the front and once near the back, and both provide a super fun ride.
The biggest disappointment of the day was seeing the sign that Beast was closed until May. If I were more active on the forums these days I'd probably have known that it was being retracked, but I didn't, and my boyfriend was devastated. It's not like the park is crazy far though so we intend on going back at least to get a ride on that.
I was sad to see Firehawk gone but was excited to get on Orion since the border closures decided to deprive me of any new creds for the past few years, and from reclaiming my giga collection. We hopped right in the back row and even though I expected very little from this coaster, it still somehow underwhelmed me. It does next to nothing but be big, and although the first drop is great and the turnaround is fun, I don't see anything else good about it. This makes me sound like a pretentious enthusiast twat, but I don't care. It's rerideable but I sincerely wish they had kept Firehawk. Throughout the day I got on it twice in the back and once in the front and decided I had enough and that my opinion of it being mediocre would not change.
Sam didn't want to ride Flight of Fear because he hates inversions and not seeing where he's going, so both of those combined would have killed the day. I rode it anyway because I'm not even joking it's probably my second favourite coaster in the park. This coaster had the only bad operations of the day but I don't even think it was down to the crew, it was down to the insane amount of walk of shames done per train. In two trains, I saw 5 people have to leave due to size. I finally got on the back row and man, I love this thing as much as ever! I love how you can't tell if you're right side up or upside down during the first half. I also love the cheesy theming throughout the queue and station.
So my boyfriend is a brewer, and he has about 1600 or so beers to his name and one he has not stopped raving about being a nice, well done lager is Yuengling. Well, once he found out it was in the park we went on a bit of a goose chase for it. The Brewhouse didn't have it but we checked a few other places and we were finally directed to the outdoor Biergarten behind the mexican place. Off we went, and I have to say the beer did not disappoint even though I had high expectations after hearing about it for the last 1.5 years.
After we finished the overpriced but delicious beverage we mistakenly went on Banshee which made us both feel pretty crappy, one more than the other. It's wayyyyy too positive heavy and I maintain my stance that no coaster should have more than about 5 or 6 inversions. I also don't like having to focus on breathing when I'm on a coaster. I was ready to press forward still so I suggested the Drop Tower since it had just started running. I don't know why I do it to myself because I generally hate drop towers, but they're one of the only things that can get my adrenaline going to the point where my body gets shaky. We were let in and then the guy realized he let in too many people so we were directed back to the queue. Thank goodness because that cycle got stuck halfway up the tower and I would not have been happy. We got out of line and went to find something else to do.
Adventure Express was right there so we got in line, but this piece of crap is way more janky than I remembered it being. This exacerbated the illness issue for Sam, so we took a hiatus from riding for an hour or two (well, he did, but being the bad girlfriend that I am I got another ride on Banshee just to make sure I still hate it), had some food, got another beverage, and walked around the park.
We saw the Drop Tower had reopened so we headed back over there and got on after two cycles. Operations weren't great on this either, but I guess I'd rather them check restraints four times than zero. Additionally, we saw a few kids get scared and be let off on pretty much each cycle which didn't help things. I screamed like a pig being slaughtered, and I still believe it's one of the best drop towers around. Terrifying ****.
On the way to Racer we went back to the Biergarten for another Yuengling. Delicious, as it was earlier in the day! Racer looks gorgeous with the new paint job which I discovered is only on half of the track, and it is still riding pretty airtimeless, but very smooth.
I hopped back on Orion while Sam finished his beer (I'm a lush, I finished it quickly), then we made our way to Boo Blasters because I am always insistent that I get on whatever shooter the park has to offer. My score:
His score:
I'm a try hard.
We decided that, since it was already about 7 at that point that we would get another ride on Mystic Timbers and head out. I vowed to stay awake for the ride home but that lasted all but about three minutes. Overall it was a nice day, I was sad that Sam felt poorly during the majority of the afternoon but it opened my eyes to how we are going to have to organize the day at Knotts and Magic Mountain in order to make sure it runs smoothly. The operations were very good for being the first day that wasn't a passholder preview day, so kudos to them. It also wasn't stupidly packed, with most queues being in the 45 minute mark (none with Fast Lane Plus because I'm a line snob). We will probably go back this summer for Beast but split the day with a baseball game or something.
Orion x 3
Flight of Fear x 2
Racer x 1
Banshee x 2
Yuengling x 2
Mango Cart x 1
Drop Tower x 1
Diamondback x 1
Mystic Timbers x 3
Boo Blasters x 1
It felt really nice not to rush around and just do whatever we wanted at whatever pace we wanted to do it at!
