Voyager

Likewise, I had a great time meeting you and talking in line - it was an amazing coincidence that we got paired up. (I wanted a front-seat ride, so that time I waited in the full line instead of using the single rider line.) I've been enjoying all of your great DB photos in this thread. You're motivating me to get off my butt and bring a REAL camera to the park, not just my point-and-shoot pocket camera. I'll be updating my TR thread with some photos, including the one of you that I'm including here. Hope to see you for Ride Warrior weekend. PKI ManJZ waits for our front-seat DB ride, which was awesome, as usual. On warm days (like this one) the ride really flies!

I can't wait to get back there May 9-10. DB is at the top of the list of rides I want to go on again as soon as possible. That list also includes MF, so I can compare them with both fresh in my mind. Yes, it's that good. I've been going to KI for 20 years and I'm so happy DB is now a reality. The retracked Beast helix is a nice bonus, too. Fast, smooth rides make me happy. Here's another photo to inspire you to get there soon. It seems steeper than this - in any seat. Go ride it!

Not surprisingly, Diamondback is exactly like that. I couldn't believe the air in the front! I ended up liking the outside seats in car 1, row 2. Shorter line and outside seats, same feeling as the very front row (which I did try once, and is great). I think I rode three times in row 2, once in row 1, and 4 times near the back, which is also great.

I think I know what's up with the "HEY! YOU! HANDCHECK!" guy. If your hands are up and your shirt isn't tucked in you'll soon find it around your upper chest! I had to pull my shirt down several times before the on-ride photo! My TR is here: Diamondback Opening Day TR

Thanks, had a great time, will be back soon. I actually preferred the front over the back, but not by a huge amount. It felt like there was stronger air in the front (but that might just be how it felt to me). In the dark in the front it felt like you were being launched into the dark sky as you peaked the hills! Add the wind in your face, and it was excellent. Thanks. No, they didn't close it. Trains were running during the fireworks, and one of my (lucky) friends rode during them.

Well, I like to write, so sorry this TR is so long. If you read all of it, then thanks for taking the time, and I hope you enjoyed it! Photos are at the end. I have been going to Kings Island since 1989, but April 18 was really special. Somehow I managed to fall asleep on Friday night, April 17, at about 11pm. I had won one of the Diamondback auction seats, #105 as it would turn out, and I was wired. When I woke up around 4:30am (alarm had not gone off yet) I knew there was no going back to sleep. Out the door by 5:20am, I reached the parking lot gate just after 6am, and it took about 5 minutes to get in. I parked in a decent spot and made a beeline for the season pass processing center to get my platinum pass taken care of. The line was short so early, and I was in and out in less than 10 minutes, despite someone in charge having to show them what to do with the voucher I got at Cedar Point. The park had every station running in the pass processing center, but the line nearly reached the parking lot down the drive when I went to put stuff in my car later in the day. I waited in line to register for my auction seat, and then waited in another line in the cold until they let all 256 of us in, passing through metal detectors first. We walked back to the ride, and we waited in the next door restaurant until it was time to ride. Outside and I tried the test seat as a friend took a photo for me, and I discovered that the lap bar actually locked - I had to find the release pedal, which I couldn't really see because my legs were in the way, in order to get out of it! We lined up again, this time in numerical order. There was a short speech and a check presentation to the charity (A Kid Again). KI added two trains to the auction, and that put the total bid total over $100,000. Way to go KI for helping out a great cause. I ended up on the third train, outside right seat, row 14, two rows from the back. As we rolled out of the station I looked at my watch - 8:36am. The ride was cold (maybe 50F air temp), but fantastic. I'm far from an expert (DB is my 55th coaster), but as a long-time fan of KI, it was clearly everything I had hoped, and more, and I knew it after only one ride. The ride - near the back seat The lift is moderate speed - not MF fast, but not a slow crawl. If the timing is right, you can watch the splashdown as you climb the lift - very cool! The view from the top is amazing, especially if you look back over your shoulder at the Eiffel Tower. With the fantastically comfortable open seating, you can look all around you quite easily, including over the side of the lift if you are in an outside seat. In the back, the airtime over the top is great, and the 74-degree drop seems steeper. You can see people on the midway below you as you scream down the drop. It is high enough that I run out of breath yelling on the way down, a sign of a good ride in my book. Before you know it, you're seemingly climbing straight up, and then the airtime begins as you go over the top and are pulled down every single drop by the front of the train, and you are not using your seat on any of them. Mr. Thighs, meet Mr. B&M lap bar - you'll be seeing a lot of each other. After three drops the turnaround turn comes, and it, like the whole ride, is a lot of fun and super smooth. The trims on the way up next hill were inactive or barely active in the morning, and after once again leaving our seats we reached the block brake and slowed a bit. There was still lots of air on the two smaller hills before the helix (where the on-ride photos are taken) and there was air on the drop into the splashdown. Down at water level, the waves in the pond really fly by. I looked back and watched the water shooting up one car behind me. We hit the brakes and everyone yelled and applauded. It clearly exceeded my expectations, and was simply pure fun. Still pumped, we stopped to get our complimentary on-ride photos. Stampeding Hordes! We were waiting for the photos to print when the stampeding hordes arrived, in the form of the passholders who had sprinted from the rope drop. The line quickly filled the queue area and overflowed in to the midway. Meanwhile the auction winners were having breakfast and picking up gift bags, which was a DB bag containing an extra first-rider T-shirt, a DB jigsaw puzzle, and some DB cards and mints. The mints say "bite one" (goes with the snake theming). After breakfast I headed to the Beast for a ride in the back car. It was fantastic, smoother than any ride in recent memory. They have re-tracked the helix, and possibly removed one of the sets of brakes on the descent to the helix because to the smoother ride through that last curve. Awesome. When I exited the ride, the line had grown from a few train wait to near the entrance, but not filling the switchbacks. The Diamondback line now stretched from the ride entrance, around past Chick-fil-a, past the back side of the Eiffel tower, around the slashdown lake, all the way to the exit for the Crypt. It was 10am, the non-passholding public would be coming in soon, I wasn't meeting anyone until 1pm, and other rides had good-sized lines, so I decided to get in line again and see how it was moving. The line wasn't THAT long.... KI had managed the line quite well - they routed it clockwise around the lake, and there was an employee at the end with a height-measurement stick so people with kids wouldn't wait a long time to get to the height-check at the ride entrance. I asked the employee how long the wait was. He said 4-5 hrs. I didn't believe him. I got in line. Turns out, it was moving quite well. In an hour I was at Chick-fil-a, and in another half hour I was at the queue entrance. It takes about an hour from there to get to your train. People were batting balloons around like beach balls under the shaded part of the queue. It was fun seeing all of the coaster T-shirts, ACE shirts, etc., and talking to people in line. The atmosphere was just electric, and everyone was happy. I still had the "Diamondback rider #105" sticker on the back of my first-rider T-shirt, and people were commenting on it and asking about the ride. All I had to do was smile and say was "I'm back in line, aren't I?", and they got the idea. In the last bit of the queue switchbacks, you are right by the lift, and you can watch people freak out as they tilt back quite steeply and start going up the lift. The most popular reaction is for people to grab the handles on the lap bar. Simultaneously their head goes from looking around to against the headreast of the seat, and they get a really serious look on their face. Some start screaming, and others just swear or start yelling at their "friends" for talking them into riding it. It's so much fun to people watch on new rides. Anyway, despite the crazy wait time guess, 2 hrs and 40 minutes later I was in the FRONT SEAT, right side. That was the longest I ever saw the line, and it shrank rapidly. By late afternoon it was 75 mins, by evening 45-60 mins. Reports of the wait times have been greatly exaggerated by the local media! The ride ops did a fantastic job on a day that that simply had do. Again, well done KI for keeping the line moving and having the ride ready to go and thoroughly tested on opening day. The ride - front seat Back to the ride - I wanted to see what the front seat was like and to feel the 80 mph breeze in my face, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as the back of the train ride that I had earlier. Exiting the station into bright sunshine and I had a huge smile on my face because I had scored a another ride, in the front of all places. From the lift, we could see that the line had gotten much shorter. As we went over the top I surveyed the excellent view of the rest of the ride in front of us. Starting down, you slide forward in your seat and are dangled there for a few seconds while the rest of the train clears the lift. There is no part of the car in front of you, just the restraint. Very cool! Then it's off the the races at a 74-degree angle. The wind felt great, as the day had warmed considerably. My hands were up (as they were at every instant of all the DB rides I got that day) and I was having a great time yelling into the wind. Then I got a surprise. As we climbed the steep second hill and started to level off, my legs hit the lap bar with what felt like more force than in the back of the train! Holy #$@%, this is amazing! Since the track is curving away from the train, not much of it is visible, and you are very high up, the illusion is that you are simply flying off into space. When you combine that illusion with the airtime, it's just plain outstanding. The woman seated next to me was hanging on, but having a great time. We were launched on the next hill, too. I was so surprised that I think I yelled "this is better than the back!" I didn't mind that I didn't leave my seat coming out of the block brake - the view from the front made up for it. The two smaller hills launched us again, and it was fun to watch the track fly by through the helix and even cooler to see the track and water racing under the front of the train. We hit the brakes and I was giddy. Other rides and wetness At this point I met up with some friends, and then we split up into two groups, hoping to meet up later. I dropped the gift bag and my jacket off in my car, and had a snack. We rode Flight Deck and SOB. I had the privilege of watching maintenance change out TWO proximity sensors in order to make SOB work again. The ride in the back was powerful and fun, but the nearly two-hour wait was not cool. Had we not been at the very front of the line (after a lot of people left), we would have bailed sooner. Still, it was good to ride it... once. I figured I needed at least two DB rides to wipe out the bad experience, so we headed there, and I ended up in the very back seat this time, right side. Time to test out the water shooting thingies! As we ended another airtime-filled journey I looked back to see the water spraying up at amazing speed about two feet from my head! Hearing the roar/whoosh of the water was an unexpected treat. My right shoulder got quite wet, and so did my right foot and lower pant leg. So, in the back seat, DB is actually a water ride! Remember that when it's 45 degrees and you're only wearing a T-shirt. Thankfully for me it was about 75F at the time of my splashing. Filling empty seats - sometimes I left my friends and got back in line for my fourth DB ride and some people walked by in the single rider line. They were using it! One guy had an extra single rider pass, and was trying to find someone to give it to. I volunteered. We weren't too far from the station, so it ended up taking about the same amount of time to get a seat as it would if I had stayed in line. We both got back in line, but as he explained to me they don't always have the passes (they have to collect them all at the station and bring them back to the gate). If there are no passes at the gate, you have to wait in the full line. So if you are an unlucky single rider, you wait as long as everyone else, but you have a chance at picking your seat. If you're lucky, you get on quickly, but you can't pick you seat. I got my 5th ride in only 20 minutes, luckily somewhere near the back. Then the passes seemed to disappear for the rest of the evening. Photography tips The sun rises on the side of DB opposite the queue line. So, morning photos are best taken from the side of the lake opposite the station. This will get you the best shots of the splashdown from the side, though you can also take them from behind the train nearer where the track crosses the midway. The evening light is best for shots taken from the queue. Morning also should be better for shots of the train coming down the first hill. I didn't get any shots of a train coming down the first drop because I was too busy waiting in line! I'm sure someone will post some, and I'll try to get some with my better camera in the future. Darkness falls By the time I got in line for my 6th ride, the sun was setting and I was eager for it to get dark. If you couldn't tell, I was unable to stop myself from getting back in line for DB. For me, Diamondback = Coaster crack (hey, that rhymes). I met up with a guy from Chicago wearing a B&M shirt and he liked the idea of trying out the front. The seat assigner was taking some requests, and we were able to get row 2, the outside seats on the front car. It was fairly dark as we climbed the lift hill, and it was cooling off. Row 2 did not disappoint. Amazing air as before, except there is a seat in front of you and to one side. However, the outside seats have the beneficial effect of feeling like they are out on the edge of nothingness. Did I mention that there are no lights between the lift and the helix, except for some on the block brakes? For the most part, all of the airtime hills are traversed in darkness, and so is the turnaround. Nothing like flying out of your seat in the pitch black to make a ride even better. For me, it might have been better than the nearby Beast in the dark. (They both have lighted parts in the middle.) Then you fly back into the lights of the midway and the splashdown. I got back in line and again sat in row 2, this time on the right side. I spotted the lights from downtown Cincinnati ahead of me and to my right as we crested the hill, something I have only seen from Drop Tower before. The lift of the Vortex is lit up as usual, but it is WAY below the peak of DB. The Beast is mostly hidden by the darkness. It was 9:59pm when I ran back to the line and found it still open. This is still new to me at KI because I visited the park for years and they always cut the lines early. Cedar Fair cuts the line at closing time and then empties the queue. My 8th ride was about 10:35pm. Three rows from the back, being pulled down the first hill (and all of the rest of the hills) in the dark was excellent. We roared into the brakes and saw an empty station and queue to our left. I had been on the third train in the morning, and the second to last at night. As we got off I thanked the ride ops for a job well done, and tried to figure out how I was going to wait for May 9th to return to KI. Wrapping it up So, 8 rides on opening day and I was so wired up I had trouble going to sleep, even after getting up at 4:30am. The only hiccup in DB operation I saw all day was when a train stopped on the lift for about 30s, but then it headed on up as normal. The line was never much more than 2.5 hrs. I know, I waited in it starting at 10am, and rode at ~12:40 in the front. Those claiming 4-5 hrs were either park employees who were guessing, or those who listened to them. The trims (on the climb up the 3rd hill, right after the turnaround) were definitely doing more braking as the day wore on. In the morning I couldn't feel them, but for the last night rides they were braking fairly strongly. I assume that's from the ride warming up and running a bit faster. HOWEVER, I was always off my seat over that trimmed hill, and the hills ones following the block brake, so I can't complain. It was a very consistent ride, and it's right up there with MF as one of my favorites. On the way home I experienced "phantom lap bar syndrome", which I define as feeling like you're still locked into the train, or noting the strange absence of something larger holding you in, even though you're in the car wearing a seat belt. When that happens, it was a fantastic day. It's early - the waning moon shines near the Eiffel Tower. Fireworks, seen from the queue for Diamondback. I got one of the last night rides (which are awesome). It was fun to watch the reactions of first-time riders as they tilted back and headed up the lift. Everyone seems to smile as they get on board. The snake-head front of the train looks great. I took this photo while waiting in line. The line went back under the track, but was 2.5 hrs long, not 4-5 as reported. The number on the storage bin was correct - this is me on my first DB ride. Thanks for the photo Kevin! The snake-scale paint job continues on the sides of the train, all the way to the back. The open seating is fantastic. This is finally my train! Lift hill shot - the lift is quiet and moderate speed. Get me on the ride! We lined up in numerical order for our rides. I was #105. Getting excited.... Our first good look at the lift and station as we walked back early in the morning. Wow. Now I'm awake! The International Street fountains are lit up by the rising sun. It's way too early in the morning.

Only in the very back seat. When I rode there, my outside shoulder and foot/leg got wet. They dried in 10 minutes, so it wasn't that much water.

I was on the 3rd train - I'm the guy in the orange jacket that the arrow is pointing to! I'm also at far right in your photo of the line-up-by-numbers. Thanks for posting the photo, and nice job with the TR. I'm working on my TR. I managed 8 DB rides, 3 in the dark, with the last one coming about 10:35pm. Fantastic ride, fantastic day. The guy in the orange jacket is me!

I won an auction seat for DB, and the weather looks great for Saturday. I have to be there REALLY early, but it will be a fun experience, and I fully expect it to deliver. I grew up going to KI and I still consider it my home park, so I'm glad they finally got a big B&M. I think the splashdown is mainly to entertain people walking by or watching it, and it's also a first for B&M's Hypers. Either way, it's a selling point, and a great photo-op. It'll keep the scum off the pond, too. I'll post photos from the opening when I have time.

My first coaster was Dragon Fire at CW. I think I was 15. Rode it twice. Gotta head back to CW one of these days and try it out again. I'm 34 now, so if I go there next year (and I hope to) it'll be 20 years. Can't believe it's been that long, and I hope they don't tear it down before I get to ride it again!

Well, my first post was going to be a big trip report from a couple of trips to Cedar Point, a trip to Kings Island, Holiday World, SF St. Louis and Silver Dollar City (all last fall - I've been to busy to write that report). But, I just checked to see if I'd won a couple of tickets to Holiday World and I hadn't. Instead, the winner is Natalie from Apex, NC, and after reading a bunch of the East Coast/Behemoth trip report pages, that name rang a bell. So, congratulations to Natalie. Maybe we can get some other TPR members to meet at HW this summer? It's about a 4 hr drive for me. Hope to get to know some other people on the west coast trip in August.