I'd planned to get up early and go to Kings Island. Those were my intentions. You know what they say about good intentions. With the cool weather, knowing I didn't have to be anywhere, I slept in. i figure I'll be on a schedule for the next couple of weeks, with Stark Raven Mad and CoasterMania; why not take advantage of this 'open' weekend while I can. I got off to a leisurely start, cruising down IR-71 past a gauntlet of highway patrol officers who were all busy dealing with motorists who had decided that somehow the traffic laws didn't apply to them. Hey, they were warned...
Anyway, I arrived around 11:00am and made my way into the park. I hiked down International Street, and took a right at the fudge shop to see that the line for Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle was extending all the way out of H-B to International Street. I think this new dark ride/shooting gallery has probably exceeded the park's expectations. On around the corner, I noticed that Tomb Raider was a walk-on, and a line had apparently formed for The Beast. More to the point, a short line had formed for the Flying Eagles, which were my first several rides of the day. I'm a fairly skilled pilot in these things, but lately I have been taking a slightly more scientific approach, analyzing my approach to the ride and trying to figure out how it is that I am able to make it work. With any luck, I'll publish my findings on my website. I think I have it mostly figured out now.
I proceeded around the park, where all the rides are running pretty much as expected...my rides were on Vortex, then Flight of Fear, where I finally noticed something that is a little bothersome. At the beginning of the preshow, as everyone is recovering from whatever disaster just happened, Maj. Trenton tells the S.Sgt. to "Clear the area; nobody should be in this hangar," implying that they are, in fact, standing in the hangar. The same hangar that she later tells Dick Christopher is sealed, off-limits, and not even entered during testing. Thing is, that's where she was standing when Dick arrived! Hmmm...This requires further examination, I think. Either that, or the line for Flight of Fear is simply too long. 8-) In any case, the ride should provide ample opportunities for study. You know that old saying about those who forget history are condemned to repeat it? Apparently the people in the pre-show are pretty dense for they are not merely condemned to repeat history, but to repeat it every thirteen minutes!
The fun part about Flight of Fear was in trying to talk a young girl into riding it with her friends, unfortunately the effort failed. Funny how much the (nearly 1G) launch feels like a gentle shove out of the station once you've ridden Top Thrill Dragster (launches at almost 2G).
I rode Racer, which seemed a bit smoother than last time, then Adventure Express. Delerium and Drop Zone had full queues so I skipped them and rode Top Gun, then noticed the long wait for Son of Beast. I hiked up to the exit and examined the train as it came around the curve to the station. The rumored new lap bars have not yet been installed on either train, so I didn't bother waiting in line for this waste of lumber. The biggest problem with the ride is simple (the trains are lousy) but the solution is very complicated, and unlikely to happen until the park exhausts all other possible alternatives. Just as we saw on Flight of Fear, eventually the park will get the ride fixed. But with Flight of Fear they re-did the controls, the motors, the launch programming, parts of the structure, the track, and a dozen different variations on the shoulder bars before they hit on the real problem and fixed it. I have no reason not to believe they will go through a similar fishing expedition before they get Son of Beast into a rideable condition. In the mean time they will continue to beat up 2/3 of the people who ride it. They have made some progress, but they're not there yet.
This weekend was the opening weekend for WaterWorks, Kings Island's waterpark. Because of the cold weather, there weren't many people back there (and I certainly wasn't going in the water) but it did supply me with some entertainment. Back in the far corner of the waterpark, Kings Island has the only FlowRider in the region. The FlowRider is a Fiberglas ramp...actually three of them, two straight ramps that look kind of like mini-half-pipes and one that comes around in a graceful curve. A high-volume, high-speed flow of water is pumped over these ramps to provide a nice laminar flow, and riders attempt to kneel on short surfboards. It's a bit like surfing, only the wave never reaches the shore. I tried it once and actually did better than I expected I would (meaning I still stunk at it). When I got back there tody, though, there were a half-dozen people in wetsuits taking turns on the thing. Upon closer examination I noticed that several of these guys had actually brought their own boards. They were generally doing pretty well, actually, spending significant amounts of time riding the boards. It occurred to me that these guys were riding the FlowRider in much the same way that some of us tend to ride the Flying Scooter, though they were far more competitive about it, and they brought special equipment to the park. Me, I just make sure my landing gear is in decent shape. I can't really blame them; Wipeout Beach is really the only place in Southern Ohio to go surfing. Surf Ohio, guys!
I rode the train back to Rivertown where Sean Flaharty and his posse were finishing up their fried potatoes. I hung out with them for a while, until the weather started to deteriorate and they left the park. I stuck around, getting a ride on The Beast. I thought the brakes on the first drop were going away this year once they got the curve at the bottom rebuilt. That hasn't happened, and they have added more calipers to the top of the second hill again, so there is a real gut-check going over that second hill. I still don't understand what they are protecting with that brake. Perhaps they are simply trying to make absolutely certain that the ride has no airtime whatsoever; it should have some on that second hill, but it doesn't. Apart from the braking, which is to be expected on The Beast, the ride was running reasonably well. Oh, its trains stink, too, but I'm beginning to think that's a requirement for any wood coaster in Ohio taller than 50'.
I circled the park again, and you can probably guess where I ended up. I met up with a couple more long-time r.r-c people, and spent the evening honing my flying skills (even taught a lesson to a random student. Caution The PKI tubs really are not trainers! People my size should fly solo.). Finally it was time to take the last back-seat ride of the night on The Beast. It was just after 900 pm, and apparently somebody screwed up. For the first time in years, I got a ride on The Beast with all the lights in all the tunnels turned off! Now why doesn't THAT happen a little more often?
It was a good day, even though it rained in the early evening. It wasn't a hard or steady rain, just a bit of an annoyance more than anything else. It had been coming down for more than an hour, for instance, and the pavement under the overhanging trees in the Flying Eagles queue wasn't wet. So I just sort of ignored it and kept riding. Kings Island is pretty good about keeping their rides running in the rain.
I'm just a little disappointed that the park won't be open the next time I am in the neighborhood, next Sunday on the way home from Stark Raven Mad.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Next: Holiday World (Stark Raven Mad)
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