CoasterRench

I doubt that, since T2:3D is nowhere near the rest of the Harry Potter area's.

Nice report, glad you had a good time. Stricker's Grove was always a good visit for me when I lived over on that side of town. Now that I have moved a little further away, it's hard to pack up the kids and make the trip, maybe sometime soon though. I am curious as to this as well, I have rode a number of these whenever I get the chance, never have experienced a bad ride on them. I did ride the one at Stricker's, although it was a couple of years ago, and I don't remember it being a bad ride. I am a little disappointed in myself that I didn't ride the Kiddie-Whip, guess I assumed that they wouldn't let me ride due to height requirements. Maybe, that will help convince me to make a trip again next year. Thanks for sharing.

Not too disappointed about T2:3D being removed. It was really cool when I went for my first time when I was a lot younger. Then each time, I became less and less interested in it, until my past visit a couple of years ago, my wife and I didn't have any desire to experience it.

I'm not a huge Disney fan, but I have always wanted to attend this event. We were planning a trip in a couple years once my youngest gets a little bit older, wonder how hard it would be to convince my wife to push the trip back from February to October for this event. Is the Happy HalloWishes firework display different than the normal fireworks display that they show on a nightly basis?

Depending on how much your looking to pay for a room, there is a Great Wolf Lodge right next to KI, however very expensive. If your looking for something reasonably priced, check out the Baymont Inn & Suites in Mason right down the road. Stay away from the Super 8 in Mason, I have never heard anything good about it. There are a couple hotels the next exit down on 71 such as a Holiday Inn Express and a Marriott. As for crowds, like said in the post above. I'm sure it will be crowded if the weather is nice. However, as of right now they are expecting the end of Hurricane Harvey to reach up here Friday evening, just in time for the weekend, which could help keep the crowds away. They do also have dollar days this weekend, which could help you save some money if you choose to shell out the money for Fast Lane Plus.

I held off from reading this until today to help push me through a slow workday right before an extended weekend. So far, it has not disappointed. Excited to read the rest. I haven't paid much attention towards SFNE, it was never really on my radar of parks to visit anytime soon. Reading through this has definitely changed my plans for the near future.

Enjoy your visit, weather looks to be nice both of those days. Start with MT first, should be ok with Banshee anytime throughout the day.

All depends on what you want to ride the most, which day you are going. This is the best plan if you don't want to wait in lines, if you want to limit your walking, then start at one side of the park and just go from ride to ride. As for places to eat, are you from Cincinnati? Being a local to people that aren't from around here, I always suggest Skyline Chili, or Larosa's, both are local chains. If neither of those interest you, I would suggest either the Red's Hall of Fame Grille in Rivertown or Chicken Shack in Action Zone. That being said, try to avoid eating during "peak" times if at all possible. Kings Island has issues with their food service and the crazy wait times to get anything to eat.

Yeah, that IS a great collection of parks to all have within 3 and a half hours of you! I think it's funny that even though you live in the same state as CP, you are a half-hour farther away from it than I am in Michigan! Ohio is a BIG state! Not sure about your drive, but beside Ohio being a long drive, it is also an extremely boring drive. Flat, cornfield's and tree's. There isn't much to see. Makes for an even longer drive.

I'm pretty lucky with the amount of parks that I have within a reasonable distance from my house. Kings Island (6 miles, 13 Minutes) Coney Island (29 miles, 40 Minutes) Stricker's Grove (34 miles, 46 Minutes) Close as well Kentucky Kingdom (130 miles, 2 hours 12 minutes) Holiday World (198 miles, 3 hours 13 minutes) Cedar Point (206 miles, 3 hours 28 minutes)

Glad you had a good visit, unfortunately this seems to be a common issue with KI's boo blasters. It's more of a game to see if your actually going to get a car where all the guns work versus the actual game itself, my son loves that ride and is almost in tears whenever we get a car where the guns don't work, good thing there is plenty else to do, he forgets about it rather quickly.

Sounds like another successful day for both of you at Cedar Point, except for the power outage. Wonder if that's their only experience with one this season? I know down here in Cincinnati, Kings Island had a couple issues with power outages in the beginning of the season, which they seem to have fixed the issue now. I had no idea that Cedar Point had a Tilt-a-Whirl!! That is some of the best news I have heard, makes me that much more excited for our trip coming up. I never miss riding one whenever I come across one, unfortunately they are few and far in-between it seems like. I love the detail and the pictures from your report, helps to keep remind me to slow down and enjoy everything the parks have to offer and not just focus on the coasters. Thank you again for taking the time to share this.

I am from Cincy, Jumbo Diaz used to pitch for us for a couple years, not a great pitcher. Massive is an understatement for this man, I had the opportunity to meet him, I don't know if I have ever seen a baseball player as big as him. However he is an extremely nice guy, signed a bunch of stuff for my son. Stadium looks really nice, I love going to other stadiums, Detroit is still on my list of stadiums to visit.

Great report, thanks for sharing. I enjoyed Six Flags St. Louis when I visited, although it has been 8 or 9 years since my last visit. A lot has changed, I may be due for another visit soon. When we went virtually every ride was a walk on as well, it's a great feeling being at any park and getting lucky with walk-ons all day long. The boss was the worst ride I have ever rode, I don't remember exactly where we sat but I do remember the pain I felt during and after the ride. To this day, it is the only ride that I have rode where I needed an extended break once I got off.

Glad you enjoyed the little bit of KI that you got to experience. Definitely come back for more, there is so much more. It's not often that you get as lucky as you did with walk-on's like that. To bad the day didn't last longer for you, sounds like it would have been a perfect day at the park. The heat can do a lot of crazy things to people and everybody reacts different to it, especially if you are not used to it. I think I am in the minority that actually loves the heat, bring on the 100 degree days, I have no issue with it. I wouldn't be surprised if Waffle House did in fact help out with that, mixed with the heat. We used to stop at Waffle House every time we would drive down to Kentucky Kingdom, it never failed us that someone in our group would end up getting sick at some point throughout the day.

yeah, there are several shuttle stops between Breakers and the front gate. . somewhere i have the Breakers pamphlet info that lists the shuttle stop. They don't run regularly tho.. you have to call to get it to come (or ask at the front desk). . .maybe that's just prior to full summer season tho, as I'd imagine they'd start running them regularly as they get really crowded. you used to work at Famous Dave's? is that 'initials in the sauce on the plate' a signature move? or did we just get a fun waitress? It's been a while, but yes I did. One of my all time favorite restaurants. As for the initials thing, that's the first I have heard of it, not sure if that is something she did on her own, or that restaurant decided to start up. We never did that at ours, nor have I ever seen it done at the other one's I have been to. Sounds like you got lucky with an awesome server that thought outside the box. Overall the job was very laid back, the only thing we were required to do was say that our name was "Famous (Insert first name)." Judging by your report, they are still required to do that.

Wonderful update. Whenever we take a trip we always try to plan a "rest" day, often those day's tend to be the most enjoyable of the entire trip. Famous Dave's is a must visit for me every time I visit CP. I used to bartend at one during my college days, unfortunately it closed down, so I don't get to visit it as often as I would like to. I had no idea the shuttle would take you there, that helps us out come this summer instead of having to decide who will be the DD to get back to the hotel. Guess, I should actually ask around more often.

Great report, truly have enjoyed reading and seeing the pictures so far. I had been debating on purchasing FL + when my wife and I go up in July, after what you had said, you have sold me on it.

I would like to see more stand-up coasters, I have only rode three different ones, but truly enjoyed them. I was a lot younger when King Cobra at Kings Island was open, but don't ever remember that one being painful at all. Mantis at Cedar Point and Chang at Kentucky Kingdom were the other two that I rode, pain was a little worse on these two, but I didn't consider them unbearable to ride and enjoyed the feeling of being able to stand up on a coaster. I have definitely rode other coasters that the pain was way worse, some that are still operating. As my son gets older, and is starting to hit the height requirement's to ride rides, his mind was completely blown when he seen a picture of a stand up coaster. Hopefully soon he will be able to experience a stand up coaster.

I rode Mystic Timbers for the first time Saturday, I was extremely impressed with the crew that was working that afternoon. I know they were calling out ride capacity when I was there, which the gentlemen said "last hour they finished with 900 riders, let's attempt for more this hour." Everyone seemed to be on top of there game, fantastic job, very impressed. Oh and the ride itself is fantastic. Wish I would have gone back for a second round, unfortunately trying to keep a 6 and 2 year old to wait that long is hard to do.

Nice pictures! LEGOLAND has been on my bucket list for a little bit now. Hoping to make it down there next summer, every time my oldest watches The Lego Movie, it shows a preview for LEGOLAND and he goes completely nuts. Not sure who will be more excited, him or me. I will definitely be showing him the pictures from your report this evening, thanks for sharing.

Enjoy. The wife and I got lucky, the grandparents offered to keep our little ones all evening. Going to be a little different being able to experience the park without 2 little ones and spending 90% of our time in Planet Snoopy.

Great pictures from everybody that got to experience media day and the first rider auction, thank you for sharing. Say what you want about Dalton, but he does a lot of great stuff for the community. Can't wait to experience Mystic Timbers and the rest of KI this evening for pass preview night, already put in my time to leave work early and get there right at 4.

I have been to opening day for Firehawk, Diamondback, and Banshee. Firehawk we waited roughly 2 hours, but the ride was down for a while to start the morning. Diamondback we waited 3 hours to ride, overall everything went pretty smooth from what I remember. Banshee we waited roughly 4-5 hours to ride, there were a couple times that the ride went down while we waited, the biggest thing I remember from Banshee opening day was the weather being perfect, which I'm sure helped out with the crowds along with the new coaster. Let's hope the weather is as good this year as well, I will be there both Friday night and Saturday morning.

I like the college OT method, the only thing I would change is move them back further, force them to get a first down or two to get into field goal range. Don't start them in field goal range right away. However, I would be shocked if the NFL changed their OT method, they had the chance a couple years ago when they redid it and still didn't improve it, I doubt they will touch it anytime soon. Hopefully I am proven wrong on this.