Kings IslandNeil wanted to come with us. He jumped at the chance, so I went to pick him up, and met Matt down at the park. I might have had to leave earlier than they wanted to, so we drove separately, even though we ended up not needing both vehicles.
July 2, 2021
Temperatures have been in the high 80s with heat index into the 90s here in west central Ohio, but Friday it was forecast to be in the high 70s with low humidity. We seized the chance to go down to KI - I took the day off and we asked if Ben's cousin
After entering the park and successfully dodging the photographers, we headed toward The Bat. But Banshee had almost no line, so we decided to do that one first. And Matt was denied entry by the young teenage worker, due to his height. According toregulations, no one over 78" can ride, and he's 80". He can fit into the restraints, they are just uncomfortable for him. But we couldn't convince the worker, so he decided that from now on, he's 78" and Ben will also shrink from 77" down to 75" to go
Banshee was running well, no issues with anything. We were in row 5, which is one of the rows designed to accommodate larger customers. Neil was outside right, I was outside left, and Ben sat next to Neil with an empty seat between us. Still a verysmooth ride. The cameras are still taking pictures, but they are not being shown for purchase. In fact, the entire gift shop was dark and no employees. Lack of workers, probably.
We met up with Matt and headed to the Bat. Along the way, Ben and I explained to Neil the history of the ride. Matt and I chose to wait for first seat but we only had to wait 1 train. As we were standing there, the ride op gave his spiel of "Welcome toTop Gun/Flight Deck/The Bat, whatever you choose to call it. We call it Identity Crisis: The Ride." That was cute. His next greeting was to welcome people to Big Swinging Orange. Again, a good ride, lots of swinging, especially on the brake run. I just
Next Neil wanted to ride Delirium, so we waited in the shade of the outdoor tables next to the Festhaus entrance. The worker cleaning tables said that even though they have signs up about requiring masks indoors, you don't need them. Neil got his ride,and loved it. We then walked down through Coney Island. We skipped Adventure Express because the line was out to the entrance and not moving. By this time the park was starting to get crowded. Then we got in a fairly long line for Racer. They were using
while we were in line were not raced. But once we got up onto the platform they held one train back so they could race. Then they did the same for us and we cheered when we got started and were racing. We arranged our seating in the 2 trains so thatMatt and Ben could slap hands on the lift hill.
The track rehab on Racer is fantastic. It was great to see so much new wood. It was so sssmmmmooooottttthhhh as a result. Best Racer ride I've had in years. Still lots of pops of air time. Most of the new wood is on the straight section, not in theturnarounds. The new wood on some of the hills is all the way to the ground - the only stuff we could guarantee is old are the railings.
After Racer, the 3 of them did Dodgems while I watched. First time I've seen all cars in use for a long time. Then we went to see if Ben can fit into a seat on Orion. Still no green light - he has chunky thighs, mostly from cycling over the years, andit was the front of his thighs that were preventing the restraint from getting down far enough. That's where he said he felt it the most. So we left and headed down to Windseeker. The 3 of them rode while I sat and watched. I'm not a big fan of the ride -
Next we did the Beast and there appears to have been a lot of new trackwork done in the helix, because it was also much smoother. Still the same ride, although we picked up a lot more speed this time, for whatever reason. We had to wait a long time fora ride, because they weren't using the queues up in the station, they were only using the line for "front of train", and the ride op was holding people back until the previous train was dispatched.
After the Beast we did lunch in the Miami River Brewhouse, which ended up being lunch and dinner, since it was 2:00pm before we got our food. I like the new setup, where you order in a line and get a buzzer, then you choose your table and they bringout the food to you, but I miss the decor from when it was the Reds Hall of Fame Grill.
Mystic Timbers went down just before we entered the restaurant but was running again by the time we left. But the line was insane, so we skipped it. Instead we headed into White Water Canyon, even though it wasn't hot that day. I was armed with $5 fortokens. Unlike other times, when I was the only one who was shooting, there were lots of people shooting different boats. One woman handed tokens to a bunch of us and asked us to shoot a boat, so we did. I had gone back up the exit line to see which
We thought about Diamondback, but if Ben won't fit on Orion he's also not likely to fit on Dback, so we skipped it. Matt was sad, and we said he could go ride it, but he didn't want to ride it by himself. Instead, we went to Boo Blasters, and had towait through all the queues, but it went fairly fast. Ben and Neil took one buggy and we took the next one. Matt was racking up a pretty good score and then our buggy crapped out. All the displays went dark. We told the ride ops when exiting and they
We were pretty much done with lines, and Neil and Ben wanted to get home to get online for their online game, so we headed out. Ben and Neil rode home with Matt. I stopped at the Jenntown farmers' market and paid way too much for tomatoes, then stoppedat one of the farms on the Northern Mecca Daylilly tour. I scored 3 beautiful new varieties and found out that the daughter of the farmer lives in my neighborhood and they walk with their kids on my street. So hopefully I'll see them again. Matt and the
Sharon "I love hemerocallis" Bond
I have a 2 day trip to the park from out of state next week. Was last there in summer 2019. Do they allow you to choose your seat on the coasters again (especially the Beast)?
On Monday, July 5, 2021 at 12:29:38 AM UTC-4, surfd...@aol.com wrote:The Beast. We didn't see how the other coasters were operating.
I have a 2 day trip to the park from out of state next week. Was last there in summer 2019. Do they allow you to choose your seat on the coasters again (especially the Beast)?Yes, if the ride op directed you to a particular seat but you wanted another one, they were honoring the requests (that we saw, plus our request for front seat on The Bat.) No forcing of people into seats. But we only rode Banshee, The Bat, Racer, and
Sharon
On Tuesday, July 6, 2021 at 10:16:44 AM UTC-4, sharo...@hotmail.com wrote:and The Beast. We didn't see how the other coasters were operating.
On Monday, July 5, 2021 at 12:29:38 AM UTC-4, surfd...@aol.com wrote:
I have a 2 day trip to the park from out of state next week. Was last there in summer 2019. Do they allow you to choose your seat on the coasters again (especially the Beast)?Yes, if the ride op directed you to a particular seat but you wanted another one, they were honoring the requests (that we saw, plus our request for front seat on The Bat.) No forcing of people into seats. But we only rode Banshee, The Bat, Racer,
SharonAre there groupers at all the coasters now? When I last went in 2019, Beast and Bat definitely didn’t. I prefer no groupers so I can choose my seat without bothering the ride ops.
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