Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Coaster Crew, a paid club affiliated with KICentral, managed to get KICentral members access to their second annual Big Bang event. Held at Kings Island, I had to go. This event was set to include all sorts of VIP perks and ERT, and sounded like a great way to spend a day off of work.
Parking gates opened at 8:15 so I had planned to be up at 6 and leave at 6:20 to accommodate for the **** stupid drivers Ohio is known for. Unfortunately, having worked a third shift the previous night, my sleep rhythms were out of whack and I only slept from 10 pm to 3 am. But I didn't think three hours would have too much of an effect on things. After inventing the breakfast hamburger with some leftover things we had in the fridge, I was off!
Got there a smidge early so I parked in Kings Island Resort's parking lot and just kind of hung out. I went inside to go to the restroom and I have to admit, it's nice.
I then noticed that some CC members had parked their cars in the parking lot driveway and were out milling around waiting for the gates to open, so I did the same. After being let in, I parked and got my pass! I talked to some other people waiting for ERT to start and was able to meet some KIC members in person for the first time.
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#StationSelfie
They were originally going to just load all three trains and keep cycling them, but there were a few too many of us so they couldn't and had us keep going around. But still, it was a walk-on!
Four spins on Banshee=good morning!
Flat ride ERT was next. We had access to Scrambler, Dodgems, and the Carousel (which ended up not operating). I first rode Scrambler as it was the one ride at my home park I had yet to ride. Second was Dodgems...with a twist! Just as they were about to start the ride, the park started playing the national anthem! I badly overdramatically lip-synched in my car and as soon as it ended we all applauded, I yelled "'MURICA!!!!" and we were free to repeatedly hit each other! I don't know why but it was amazing!
\
Diamondback was next as it had no line and then I decided to hit up Banshee and ride it one more time before the tour. The line was long so it was risky to do it that close to the tour, but I managed to hop off in the nick of time to catch the tour! It was epic!
They had let us into this backstage area to mill around and photograph the ride.
This photo really shows how intense this pullout is.
LOOP THE LOOOOOP!!!!! OHWAITIT'SSOMETHINGDIFFERENT!!!!!!
NOW WE'RE DOING THE LOOP THE LOOP!!!!!!
I then felt obligated to thank Don for having put all this together...and got a selfie with him! I can now say I got a selfie with Don Helbig!
This is such a cool gravestone, I wish they had put it (and the others back here) on the lower portions of the ride.
Sadly we didn't go down this path but it would have likely been awesome!
I was able to get really close to the dive loop, though.
Some footer and lost glasses action.
Such a beautiful coaster!
Short Beast line? Perfect for before the tour!
It's a commonly known fact that I'd like to see them try to clean The Beast's queue up a bit. This is what I mean. This is just an overgrown blob doing nothing. Put a pond or something here. At least landscape it well.
Since this trip it has been confirmed this is a haunt building, but here's the making of a haunt building!
With even more time to kill, I went for Diamondback. They were loading really efficiently, I think they've got the seatbelts down to a science now.
Goooooooooooonnnnn...
Why is Diamondback's gift shop so awesome?
Our first stop on The Beast's tour was the haunt building construction.
They were doing plumbing work when we were there.
Me with the haunt building!
So disappointed, I took all these construction pictures and it turns out that it was not only revealed but not even interesting.
Onto the real star of the show!
Got to pass under The Beast to get to the tour.
Up the lift!
I just took a selfie under The Beast!
It's a beautiful structure.
The Beast's first drop isn't something many get to see off the ride itself.
And a tunnel!
And The Beast's second drop!
Me with the first drop!
Some old anti rollback mechanisms
The first turn!
Airtime-less hill
Restricted area selfie!
Entry into lift #2
Don staged a little Q&A session for us here.
I was told there used to be some King Kobra track here.
Into a tunnel!
Even in the ride's area you can't see much of it.
It's the Ohio Rebar plant...that looks safe sticking up like that!
The tour just ended here as apparently this just leads to a drop off.
There she goes!
Because Don is awesome like that he took us into Diamondback's clearing as well!
Slithering into the brakes!
Seeing it from this angle was so unusual.
The grass was full of bugs but seeing it up close was so worth it!
Here comes the choo-choo!
Out of the MCBR, seatbelts and all!
Wood for said haunt building!
Story time!
I was at a Coaster Crew-KICentral event two days ago and part of the event included a picnic lunch in the picnic grove. I walk in to see a TON of tat laid out on the table, ranging from Kings Island hats, a Coaster Crew t-shirt, some Geauga Lake stuff, and a couple of Dollywood things. But it was a Dollywood thing that caught my eye. In the middle of it all is this nice orange FireChaser Express tumbler. And for some odd reason, I was drawn to it. I never drink out of plastic tumblers, but I have a few from various events at my high school and they just sit around the cabinet gathering dust and eventually become toothbrush or pencil holders. But I HAD to have this object and I have no idea why!
So then we get to the raffle. Tim has everybody write their name on their event pass and throw it in a hat. Then I figured out that this was no ordinary raffle. Instead of being "Here's a Flight Deck hat and the winner is...", it was first come first served. Tim just reached in and pulled names out and those people were to come up to the table and snag whatever they wanted. I sat there depressed, knowing that I have the worst luck ever, but then I hear my name! I turned around and...THE FIRECHASER CUP WAS STILL!!!! THERE!!!!!!! Absolutely ELATED, I sprang from the bench, and all 200-something pounds of me dashed through the picnic pavilion the grace and agility of a pot-bellied pig trying to get up the stairs. I'm not sure, but I vaguely recall hearing the Chariots of Fire theme playing softly in the background. Finally, after the mad dash to the front, I leaped into the air and dive bombed the table. Finally, in the moment of truth, I extended my arm and felt the most wonderful feeling in the world, the feeling of soft molded plastic against my fingertips as they curled around my new prized possession. I felt a huge, goony smile grow across my face as I strode back to my group, holding on to my treasure as if it were a live human baby.
It got passed around backpacks for the rest of the day as we rode stuff and then came Banshee ERT at the end of the day. Knowing Banshee doesn't have lockers (though I think it would have made sense to just let Coaster Crew set our stuff in the station, I'm not going to complain or judge one bit because of how awesome it was that they did this for us) I was forced to leave my beloved plastic tumbler in my friend Cody's bag, which he had to resort to throwing over the fence in front of the Banshee sign. The thought of this leaving this treasure, which I had already attached to like a child, out in the open like that for anybody to just whisk away from us at any second. But Banshee was Banshee and I would totally leave a child behind a fence to avoid paying to put them in a locker to ride it, so I sucked it up and went for my night ride on Banshee.
As soon as the sweet nighttime Banshee nerd rave party complete with glow sticks hit the brake run, I was shaking and jarring the restraint, waiting for the "push down and pull up" so I could get said restraint off and run down there to put my precious cup back into daddy's arms. And then I got there and met Cody. And our bag was nowhere to be found. My heart started beating out of my chest. My child had been taken from me! My entire body filled with rage. Somebody had stolen my FireChaser cup!
Turns out that wasn't the case. Don had just figured out that we were all going to chuck our bags over the fence so he retrieved them and lined them up all nice and neat along the concrete ledge surrounding the sign for our convenience because he's just awesome like that. Cody reached into his backpack and pulled out my major award. I hugged it instantly and told it daddy would never abandon it gain like that and pulled my keys out and proceeded to make the long walk back out to my car (not really, we had gotten really awesome parking spots) and I set it down on the passenger seat before I even plugged my unresponsive phone back into the car charger or turned on the A/C. I made sure that it was the very top thing in the stack of items from the day on my passenger's seat and glanced back over at it multiple times on the way home. Upon getting home, I stuffed it in my bag and hung it on the coat rack and it was the one thing I put away from that day the night I got back. It is currently sitting in a place of high honor on my hutch and I'm looking at it right now, remembering how I walked into the picnic grove to see a bunch of tat laid out on the picnic table and picked it out among the tat that was there and I just had to have it and, well, you get the idea.
And then my phone died.
And with my camera having technical problems (that I fixed when I got back, grr :x ) I missed the opportunity to photograph the fireworks or nighttime Banshee ERT. But I hung out with this guy named Connor I found out I got along well with and some other KIC-ers...and it escalated quickly. But in a nutshell...
*The Racer
*I greyed out on Vortex's loops
*Diamondback
*Banshee
*The ride op for Invertigo was infuriated we came up there with nine people
*Adventure Express
*We sat up front on the train and the ride hostess had to avoid cracking up on the microphone
Cody on the trip was nice enough to let me use his camera to grab a few photos such as this one. Diamondback during this gorgeous sunset was next followed by The Beast. I still have yet to catch a night ride on Diamondback but I hope to someday. The sunset ride was great, I'm sure the night ride is great.
Awful picture, but after the fireworks from International Restaurant (I have a picture of me in there but the KIC-er who has it hasn't gotten it to me yet) it was off to Banshee for the last rides of the day. I got the green train in the second row on the left side.
Such a great ride! Tim had given us glow sticks so that combined with the textured lighting turned what would already be an awesome ride into a big nerdy Banshee rave party! And to top it all off, it was a warm July summer night, so it was running really well! Definitely the best Banshee ride I've had to date! Walking back to my car, I hatched a plan with Connor to maybe meet him at Kentucky Kingdom in a few weeks, assuming I could all 200-something pounds of me into Lightning Run's tiny restraints. But I had such a great day! Hopefully the footage I grabbed of Banshee, Diamondback, and Beast from the backstage areas will be up soon.
Parking gates opened at 8:15 so I had planned to be up at 6 and leave at 6:20 to accommodate for the **** stupid drivers Ohio is known for. Unfortunately, having worked a third shift the previous night, my sleep rhythms were out of whack and I only slept from 10 pm to 3 am. But I didn't think three hours would have too much of an effect on things. After inventing the breakfast hamburger with some leftover things we had in the fridge, I was off!
Got there a smidge early so I parked in Kings Island Resort's parking lot and just kind of hung out. I went inside to go to the restroom and I have to admit, it's nice.
I then noticed that some CC members had parked their cars in the parking lot driveway and were out milling around waiting for the gates to open, so I did the same. After being let in, I parked and got my pass! I talked to some other people waiting for ERT to start and was able to meet some KIC members in person for the first time.
#StationSelfie
They were originally going to just load all three trains and keep cycling them, but there were a few too many of us so they couldn't and had us keep going around. But still, it was a walk-on!
Four spins on Banshee=good morning!
Flat ride ERT was next. We had access to Scrambler, Dodgems, and the Carousel (which ended up not operating). I first rode Scrambler as it was the one ride at my home park I had yet to ride. Second was Dodgems...with a twist! Just as they were about to start the ride, the park started playing the national anthem! I badly overdramatically lip-synched in my car and as soon as it ended we all applauded, I yelled "'MURICA!!!!" and we were free to repeatedly hit each other! I don't know why but it was amazing!
Diamondback was next as it had no line and then I decided to hit up Banshee and ride it one more time before the tour. The line was long so it was risky to do it that close to the tour, but I managed to hop off in the nick of time to catch the tour! It was epic!
They had let us into this backstage area to mill around and photograph the ride.
This photo really shows how intense this pullout is.
LOOP THE LOOOOOP!!!!! OHWAITIT'SSOMETHINGDIFFERENT!!!!!!
NOW WE'RE DOING THE LOOP THE LOOP!!!!!!
I then felt obligated to thank Don for having put all this together...and got a selfie with him! I can now say I got a selfie with Don Helbig!
This is such a cool gravestone, I wish they had put it (and the others back here) on the lower portions of the ride.
Sadly we didn't go down this path but it would have likely been awesome!
I was able to get really close to the dive loop, though.
Some footer and lost glasses action.
Such a beautiful coaster!
Short Beast line? Perfect for before the tour!
It's a commonly known fact that I'd like to see them try to clean The Beast's queue up a bit. This is what I mean. This is just an overgrown blob doing nothing. Put a pond or something here. At least landscape it well.
Since this trip it has been confirmed this is a haunt building, but here's the making of a haunt building!
With even more time to kill, I went for Diamondback. They were loading really efficiently, I think they've got the seatbelts down to a science now.
Goooooooooooonnnnn...
Why is Diamondback's gift shop so awesome?
Our first stop on The Beast's tour was the haunt building construction.
They were doing plumbing work when we were there.
Me with the haunt building!
So disappointed, I took all these construction pictures and it turns out that it was not only revealed but not even interesting.
Onto the real star of the show!
Got to pass under The Beast to get to the tour.
Up the lift!
I just took a selfie under The Beast!
It's a beautiful structure.
The Beast's first drop isn't something many get to see off the ride itself.
And a tunnel!
And The Beast's second drop!
Me with the first drop!
Some old anti rollback mechanisms
The first turn!
Airtime-less hill
Restricted area selfie!
Entry into lift #2
Don staged a little Q&A session for us here.
I was told there used to be some King Kobra track here.
Into a tunnel!
Even in the ride's area you can't see much of it.
It's the Ohio Rebar plant...that looks safe sticking up like that!
The tour just ended here as apparently this just leads to a drop off.
There she goes!
Because Don is awesome like that he took us into Diamondback's clearing as well!
Slithering into the brakes!
Seeing it from this angle was so unusual.
The grass was full of bugs but seeing it up close was so worth it!
Here comes the choo-choo!
Out of the MCBR, seatbelts and all!
Wood for said haunt building!
Story time!
I was at a Coaster Crew-KICentral event two days ago and part of the event included a picnic lunch in the picnic grove. I walk in to see a TON of tat laid out on the table, ranging from Kings Island hats, a Coaster Crew t-shirt, some Geauga Lake stuff, and a couple of Dollywood things. But it was a Dollywood thing that caught my eye. In the middle of it all is this nice orange FireChaser Express tumbler. And for some odd reason, I was drawn to it. I never drink out of plastic tumblers, but I have a few from various events at my high school and they just sit around the cabinet gathering dust and eventually become toothbrush or pencil holders. But I HAD to have this object and I have no idea why!
So then we get to the raffle. Tim has everybody write their name on their event pass and throw it in a hat. Then I figured out that this was no ordinary raffle. Instead of being "Here's a Flight Deck hat and the winner is...", it was first come first served. Tim just reached in and pulled names out and those people were to come up to the table and snag whatever they wanted. I sat there depressed, knowing that I have the worst luck ever, but then I hear my name! I turned around and...THE FIRECHASER CUP WAS STILL!!!! THERE!!!!!!! Absolutely ELATED, I sprang from the bench, and all 200-something pounds of me dashed through the picnic pavilion the grace and agility of a pot-bellied pig trying to get up the stairs. I'm not sure, but I vaguely recall hearing the Chariots of Fire theme playing softly in the background. Finally, after the mad dash to the front, I leaped into the air and dive bombed the table. Finally, in the moment of truth, I extended my arm and felt the most wonderful feeling in the world, the feeling of soft molded plastic against my fingertips as they curled around my new prized possession. I felt a huge, goony smile grow across my face as I strode back to my group, holding on to my treasure as if it were a live human baby.
It got passed around backpacks for the rest of the day as we rode stuff and then came Banshee ERT at the end of the day. Knowing Banshee doesn't have lockers (though I think it would have made sense to just let Coaster Crew set our stuff in the station, I'm not going to complain or judge one bit because of how awesome it was that they did this for us) I was forced to leave my beloved plastic tumbler in my friend Cody's bag, which he had to resort to throwing over the fence in front of the Banshee sign. The thought of this leaving this treasure, which I had already attached to like a child, out in the open like that for anybody to just whisk away from us at any second. But Banshee was Banshee and I would totally leave a child behind a fence to avoid paying to put them in a locker to ride it, so I sucked it up and went for my night ride on Banshee.
As soon as the sweet nighttime Banshee nerd rave party complete with glow sticks hit the brake run, I was shaking and jarring the restraint, waiting for the "push down and pull up" so I could get said restraint off and run down there to put my precious cup back into daddy's arms. And then I got there and met Cody. And our bag was nowhere to be found. My heart started beating out of my chest. My child had been taken from me! My entire body filled with rage. Somebody had stolen my FireChaser cup!
Turns out that wasn't the case. Don had just figured out that we were all going to chuck our bags over the fence so he retrieved them and lined them up all nice and neat along the concrete ledge surrounding the sign for our convenience because he's just awesome like that. Cody reached into his backpack and pulled out my major award. I hugged it instantly and told it daddy would never abandon it gain like that and pulled my keys out and proceeded to make the long walk back out to my car (not really, we had gotten really awesome parking spots) and I set it down on the passenger seat before I even plugged my unresponsive phone back into the car charger or turned on the A/C. I made sure that it was the very top thing in the stack of items from the day on my passenger's seat and glanced back over at it multiple times on the way home. Upon getting home, I stuffed it in my bag and hung it on the coat rack and it was the one thing I put away from that day the night I got back. It is currently sitting in a place of high honor on my hutch and I'm looking at it right now, remembering how I walked into the picnic grove to see a bunch of tat laid out on the picnic table and picked it out among the tat that was there and I just had to have it and, well, you get the idea.
And then my phone died.
And with my camera having technical problems (that I fixed when I got back, grr :x ) I missed the opportunity to photograph the fireworks or nighttime Banshee ERT. But I hung out with this guy named Connor I found out I got along well with and some other KIC-ers...and it escalated quickly. But in a nutshell...*The Racer
*I greyed out on Vortex's loops
*Diamondback
*Banshee
*The ride op for Invertigo was infuriated we came up there with nine people
*Adventure Express
*We sat up front on the train and the ride hostess had to avoid cracking up on the microphone
Cody on the trip was nice enough to let me use his camera to grab a few photos such as this one. Diamondback during this gorgeous sunset was next followed by The Beast. I still have yet to catch a night ride on Diamondback but I hope to someday. The sunset ride was great, I'm sure the night ride is great.
Awful picture, but after the fireworks from International Restaurant (I have a picture of me in there but the KIC-er who has it hasn't gotten it to me yet) it was off to Banshee for the last rides of the day. I got the green train in the second row on the left side.
Such a great ride! Tim had given us glow sticks so that combined with the textured lighting turned what would already be an awesome ride into a big nerdy Banshee rave party! And to top it all off, it was a warm July summer night, so it was running really well! Definitely the best Banshee ride I've had to date! Walking back to my car, I hatched a plan with Connor to maybe meet him at Kentucky Kingdom in a few weeks, assuming I could all 200-something pounds of me into Lightning Run's tiny restraints. But I had such a great day! Hopefully the footage I grabbed of Banshee, Diamondback, and Beast from the backstage areas will be up soon.
