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

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bgwfreak777
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Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by bgwfreak777 »

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.

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

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

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They get their own street name? What?

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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!

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

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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.

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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!

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

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

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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?

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It is! It is!

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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!

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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.
coasterdave
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Re: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by coasterdave »

Week later and I am still waiting on this trip report to get going. Come on Wes!
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Re: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by bgwfreak777 »

coasterdave wrote:Week later and I am still waiting on this trip report to get going. Come on Wes!
A week later? Don't you mean a day later? Or do you have time travel powers like in Star Trek? :lol:
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Re: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by bgwfreak777 »

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.

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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.
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It's bad when your head gets to be 100 ft tall.
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Oh no! Diamondback ate the whole train!
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The hammerhead is out on the far left, you can get some decent pictures when coming out of The Crypt's exit.
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First drop.
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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 chicken Kinzel in person!
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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.
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Hey! That looks like a smooth coaster!
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Diamondback through Son of Beast.
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Kings Island even has their own green house...
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Flight Deck
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I also stumbled upon this old abandoned place down the street a bit farther.
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Kind of reminded me of Charlie and Chocolate Factory, where it was all shut up at the start of the movie.
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Here's the old company name...
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More to come...
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bgwfreak777
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Re: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by bgwfreak777 »

OK back to the pics...

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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.

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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. ;)

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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!

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I like the snake faced trains, but the eyes somehow remind me of Turbo Teen. If you're too young to remember Turbo Teen, then click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM34jklk18o and be prepared to experience the awesomeness of 80s animation! ;)

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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!

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

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

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

Post by AMartin777 »

great coverage Wes! Keep it coming!
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Re: Kings Island (5/1-2) & Dollywood (5/3)

Post by bgwfreak777 »

Back to the updates...

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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 for fear of major back pain oh and the 1 hour wait!

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

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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.

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

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SOB does have a tunnel!

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Biggest waste of a queue line ever.

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

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Where's the fire?

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Nice signage.

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

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Time for Beast at night!

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I always feel like cattle in this line.

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Eiffel Tower makes a cameo.

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Diamondback at night was great.

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

Post by bgwfreak777 »

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

I'll take the 407 please.
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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.
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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.
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My Beetle makes a cameo in the glass of the Zorb place.
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Now on to Dollywood. Thunderhead got some new wood I see.
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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.
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M&M is still a fun coaster, if it does bop me around in places.
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The zip lines were in, but not operating yet. They will be an upcharge.
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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.
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They even have a junior version.
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Birdie tries to get an early ride.
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Where you pay and stuff.
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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.
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I'm almost home!
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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.

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

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