AmyUD06

Orion grows on you the more you ride it. It's still my #4 at Kings Island though. Might as well start up a chain of ranking lists, so here's mine: 1. Beast 2. Mystic Timbers 3. Banshee 4. Orion 5. Bat 6. Diamondback 7. Adventure Express 8. Racer 9. Woodstock Express 10. Flight of Fear 11. Backlot Stunt Coaster 12. Flying Ace Aerial Chase 13. Invertigo

@thepoint4life23Honestly your best bet for an answer on this is to call them. The website says: "Guests with casts and braces will be restricted from riding rides where the cast or brace will not fit inside the ride unit or where it will present a hazard to the guest or others. Guests with full arm (elbow restricted) and full leg (knee restricted) casts or braces are restricted from MOST rides at Cedar Point. Casts and braces of any kind are not permitted on Valravn, GateKeeper, Rougarou or Raptor. Lower leg and foot casts are not permitted on Cedar Downs, Highground, maXair, Steel Vengeance, Wave Swinger, Red Baron and Snoopy's Space Race." That was from their Accessibility page. In my opinion, your boot would certainly count as a "brace".

C'mon Bill, it's a good park to stop in and kill 2 hours if you're taking the smart route from CP to SFGAm.

Good to know. I was planning on buying a Palace Platinum at Idlewild later this year to use at Kennywood, Story Land, and Lake Compounce later this year.

I actually said the same thing, about KI being the better park, to a lot of people I met and engaged in conversation with in lines at both CP and KI. I'd mention how many parks I've been to (nerd alert, I know), and every time, they'd ask "What's your favorite?" Without hesitation, each time I'd say "Kings Island...while Cedar Point may have some insane coasters, and a fifth of my Top 25, their operations, employee attitude, and food service (both in quality and to my preferences) are generally horrible. Kings Island delivers *everything* I look for in a park." Oh, I guess CP's better on smoking zones too (there are four, since you can exit any gate and re-enter) haha. Honestly, if they sent Maverick down to Mason, Kings Island would have the one thing I think it's sorely missing (a nutty Intamin), and Cedar Point would become a once-every-few-years trip for me. Kings Island will, for the foreseeable future, be a multiple-trips-a-year park.

Don't forget about Anaconda! LOL. I jest. Awesome report. One day when California isn't so Californian, I might make it out there.

That said, when I was there on Sunday, the grouper wouldn't let anyone else in the Millennium queue at 7:55, so your mileage may vary.

After they scan your pass for entry, there's a redemption center to the left where you can pick up FL/meal plan/drink plan wristbands.

Nope.

First of, thanks to @PKI Jizzman, aka Zach, for meeting up today and raising my "TPR Members Met" credit count to two. Shame we didn't get to ride anything together, but I'm sure you can understand my non-desire to wait in non-FL lines haha. I also meant to ask you about your username, but you can feel free to PM me if you feel like explaining it. Alright, checked in to my hotel after an exhausting day at Kings Island. Woke up at 4:00 AM in my Sandusky hotel to be on the road by 5:30 to make it to Kings Island for opening...after a little detour to Skip's Bagel Cafe in the northern Cincinnati suburbs for the best bagels I've had outside of the northeast. For some reason, there are zero solid breakfast places around KI except for Perkins. When I pulled into the Kings Island entrance at 9:45, there were maybe a dozen cars ahead of me (see picture posted here), which as I mentioned was a massive improvement from my experience on public-opening-day Saturday, where there were over 100 ahead of me at 9:30. Note that this trip will seem abbreviated to most of you, but that's because of my goal for the day: Two rides on Mystic Timbers, Beast, and Banshee each, and one on Orion, and to spend some time working on my tan in the waterpark. Made my way in to the park, grabbed my all-season Platinum FL+ wristband (2nd redemption of the day), and noted the "Fast Lane is sold out" signs, lending credence to thoughts that it theoretically can be bought at the park when it's not sold out in advance (which hasn't happened yet). Headed straight over to Mystic Timbers, and got two rides, one front row one back row, with one-train waits a piece, for Early Entry. It's not well publicized, but the park is offering early entry for all season pass holders (right now it's Mystic, Banshee, Orion, and Great Pumpkin Coaster), which starts 30 minutes prior to opening. The kicker? The parking gates don't let you through until 45 minutes prior to opening, giving you 15 minutes to get parked and through security, and then the main entrance doesn't open until exactly 30 minutes prior to posted opening time, really making the "early entry" period like 25 minutes by the time you get to any of the rides. After two awesome rides on Mystic, it was off to my number one KI coaster, Beast....26 minutes (counting ride time) for the front row; would have been like 5 minutes if I didn't want to wait for the front. After Beast, I met up with @PKI Jizzman at the still-closed bar near Adventure Express and shot the shit on our way over to Banshee. Upon arrival, the standby queue was about 45 minutes, so he sat it out and I went down the FL line for a two-train wait for back row, left side (I forgot to start my clock upon entering the queue). We then went over to Orion, which was broken down at the time, so I said my parting words to Zach and made my way over to the water park, after a brief stop in the Eiffel Tower to snap this picture of the parking lot at 12:10 for @Zand, who had been asking about crowds. Note that NO ONE was in line for this and my only wait was for the elevator to arrive at each end. So, I made the trek out to my car to grab my swim gear, and then the long, long trek across the lot to the Soak City entrance. Upon arrival, it was with a relative ghost town. And reservations were even sold out! This was a good thing, since there was a LOT that was not open. Here's the list of what I noticed was closed: -Zoom Floom (family raft slide) -Tropical Twister (intertwined body slides) -Aruba Tuba (kiddie slides) -Lookout Lagoon (one of the kiddie play areas; there were two others open) -Mondo Monsoon (tornado slide) -Pipeline Paradise (flow rider, surf simulator) -Breakers Bay (one of the wave pools, the other one was open) -One of the two slides on Thunder Falls -ALL food/beverage establishments, including drink refill stations, except for: Coconut Cove Bar, Coconut Cove Cafe, and Island Smokehouse In between slides (never had more than a one-stairwell wait), laps on the lazy river, and chillin' in the wave pool, I spent a lot of time at the bar and made chatter with the bartender, who confirmed that staffing is a major problem (it's why what was closed, was closed), and that they are offering $15-18 an hour for most almost all positions. I trekked up the stairs for every tube slide (so four total stair climbs, ugh), and went outside for frequent smoke breaks, thus the overall "exhaustion" from today. For some reason walking in bare feet just takes that much more out of you than when you have shoes on. Anyway, I left the water park at around 5:30 and made my way back in to Kings Island proper. Here, I grabbed another ride on Banshee (8 minutes from entry of the queue to off the ride) for back row, right side. and then made my way to Orion, which was back open. First off, the FL wait was 8 minutes including the time on the ride, for the back row. I was able to leave myself some gap between my body and the restraint this time, and yeah, this ride is growing on me. Still not quite Top-10 material, and still soundly in 4th in terms of Kings Island coasters, but it is growing on me. After that, it was back to Beast, for a 29 minute total time for front row, at 7:00 PM - more or less as close to a night ride as you can get with an 8 PM closing in June. Notably, the grouper this time was filling one train full of FL people, and then one train full of non-FL, and alternating. I think she was new. Made my way to Tom+Chee for an awesome classic grilled cheese (11 minute wait from entering the line to getting my food), and then headed out to my hotel. I accomplished all that I wanted to here today (including some sunburn LOL), so I was satisfied. Next planned trip is my big coaster tour (see details here) at the end of June, but I may make some smaller day trips between then and now. For now, it's off to a good night's sleep before my 9 hour drive back to Delaware ("the state," as I have to keep explaining to Ohioans). Might swing by Adventure Park USA for the Zamperla if I see it running from the highway. Here's a photo of Banshee's queue at 5:50 PM... ...and two of Orion's queue at 6:15 PM... ... and finally one of the lighting/DJ stage for the "Area 72 Party" that now won't happen until 10 PM closing resume on June 26th. Farewell!

They couldn't answer because you spoke to someone in India reading off a prepared Q&A sheet LOL.

I think you can theoretically buy it at the park (you could at CP yesterday), but AFAIK it's been sold out every operating day this season.

It's Tuesday haha. And yeah the FL booth had the sold out signs as soon as I walked in, and I was the second redemption of the day. I've got it and I'm chilling in the water park, probably going back to the dry park between 5 and 6. If you're here and wanna meet up and grab a drink, shoot me a PM. I can up my "TPR members met" count to 3 LOL. That goes for you too, @Zand.

Soak City water park update: not too busy at all. Most everything is open, except one of the two wave pools, the tornado slide, the big family raft slide, and the flow rider surf simulator. Some smaller food stands are closed, but the most important thing (the bar) is open.

@Zand, here is the parking lot at 12:10. I'm going to the water park now. May the odds be forever in your favor.

I'll be happy to provide a report around then, or when I head over to the water park, whichever comes first. Though I'll spare you the FL dilemma - daily FL is sold out. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

So I've got no problem with ads, and I want to continue supporting the site, but over the past couple of days I've been getting full-screen ads for Cayman Jack hard seltzer while on mobile, which require backing completely out of the page I was on to clear. I'm on Android using Chrome, if it matters. Just wondering if there was maybe some way to tell the ad company to not use those full-screen type of ads? If not, no biggie, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks again for running such an awesome site!

This is more like it! Unlike my last trip here, where I was way down the block.

@bert425, you're definitely in for a treat with the FL pass. Pretty much every ride except for Flight of Fear drops you right in the station, and it's easier to list what adult rides *aren't* on the Fast Lane plan than the ones that are. The rides that arent? -Bat -Congo Falls -Carousel -Railroad -Slingshot (upcharge) -Viking Fury -Whitewater Canyon -Woodstock Express -Xtreme Skyflyer (upcharge) Yes, every other thrill ride or coaster is included in FL. It's insane. Have fun!

@DoinItForTheFame, to be honest, most of the water (slides, wave pool) was of adequate temperature...the lazy river was just extra cold. Anyway, this about brings my CP trip to a close. Despite loosing both Friday and Saturday at the park, between Sunday and Monday I was able to get: three rides on Dragster, two each on Millie, Raptor, and Maverick, and one ride each on Magnum, CCMR, Iron Dragon, Rougarou, Gatekeeper, Valravn, Blue Streak, Gemini, Wicked Twister, and SV (skipped Corkscrew voluntarily because it's Corkscrew and can go die in a fire). Plus, got about 3 hours at the water park. A full report is coming, including a detailed report on Snake River Expeditions (I am fully in favor of just calling this "boat" moving forward) with a ton of pictures, and the new SV locker procedure, but maybe not until this coming weekend or Monday or Tuesday. Tomorrow, it's off to Kings Island for some rides on Mystic, the Beast, Banshee, and some time in their water park, before it's time for the long drive back home on Wednesday.

Cedar Point Shores water park update: a lot is closed (2 out of 4 tube slide towers, both lazy rivers, and the swim up bar), mostly due to Friday's storm. Alcohol prices up $3 from my trip in 2017. Not very packed. Edit: One of the lazy rivers opened up, but WOW is that water cold.

@wildcattb5, scroll up 6 posts above this one for my report from May 1st.

But since the FL merge point and the person who allocates who proceeds is before the stairs, there would be the same extra number of FL people in the station too. Yes, there would be more standby, but there would be more FL people too, and assuming the person doing the allocation doesn't change the ratio of FL to standby, the waits should be nearly identical to the current system of operation.

Hey @KIEnthusiast, I'm in line for the boat now, so on about an hour I'll have all of the answers to the most important questions of your life LOL. Watch this post. Edit: The boat was entertaining.if the queue is at the start of the building, it'll be about 45 minutes. The boat ride itself takes 18. Great for families, but thrill enthusiasts would better spend that hour elsewhere. So basically, exactly what we expected. Tools ton of photos and will post them sometime later.

That sucks that rides kept going down as you were arriving at them. Aside from a little 5 minute breakdown at Dragster while I was in the station, I didn't encounter any maintenance issues all day. I would be absolutely blown away if SV was open for early entry today. They were holding strong to their "lines close early" policy on Maverick and Millie yesterday, so I see no reason why they will differ from what they've said regarding SV. My plan for the day is getting my second ride of the trip on Raptor, then hitting Valravn, Iron Dragon (both of which I missed yesterday), a second ride on Millennium Force, and then the Boat, then going over to the waterpark for the rest of the day. Hope you have a better day today. Yeah I saw this on the website too. I guess this means they need less people policing where people are allowed to go in the park. Glad they dedicated these extra bodies to the stupid locker program at SV and having dedicated spielers at many coasters LOL. Note that for Early Entry rides, the greeter at the entrance to the queue is checking your pass/hotel key, so that the plebs wouldn't be allowed in line, since everyone is allowed into the park at 9.