Photo TR: Louisville, Holiday World, and Kings Island

[NegativeGLover]

So last weekend (July 25-27th) my fiance and I decided to head to Louisville for what would be one of our only road trips of the season. With an upcoming marriage looming on the horizon, we decided it best to save some money this summer. As I grow older I also suffer from where-did-the-time-go syndrome - I blinked once and it was the end of July. Henceforth I knew this would be about the only trip this summer, so we headed of course headed to Holiday World - one of our faves, as well as Kings Island to hit Diamondback and doubled up on parks. My sister used to live in Cincinnati, so we had season passes to KI, and seeing as she just moved to Virginia Beach, we wouldn't really have a reason to visit KI again - so we mainly stopped for a few laps on Diamondback before we traded multiple visits to KI, for a much preferred (by me) Busch Gardens. So we hit basically 1.5 parks in a period of 3 days. Not too intense by most of the enthusiast standards, but is plenty enough for a road trip for me. Kentucky Kingdom will have to wait until next year...

 

As for the pros/cons/everything else about these two parks:

 

Holiday World was pretty packed for a Monday. We always spend some time in Splashin Safari when we go, and this trip was no exception. Within 30 minutes of opening the lines for the major slides became huge. They approached 1 hr 15 min by lunch time. Every time I've been here it has been packed (nice weather and all), but this time was the worst of the 5 trips. For the first time Holiday World didn't feel "special", it simply felt like a run of the mill park. Next time I'm going to have to hope for a rainy day or something. I would like to think a large capacity water attraction would help, but there were people spread over the entire water park. Good for Holiday World - bad for getting lots of slide time. And as usual, upon venturing back to ride the coasters, there were minimal lines (except Voyage right before close - wait time ~45 min). We still had a blast, but I just get selfish and want Splashin Safari to myself.

 

Pilgrims Plunge was "solid" for being a "fun" ride. I think it was a great addition myself, and I got plenty wet. Has it been discussed on here or anywhere else if "rooster tail" fins would work on this ride, but instead of being angled at, lets say 45 degrees, coming around about 270 degrees? Thus potentially throwing the "rooster tails" forward and onto the riders? Would take some engineering, and being one myself, I would love to volunteer to help them with this problem!

 

Diamondback: I was disappointed. Lots of air, and a solid B&M hyper, but it was somewhat rougher than expected. "Rough" isn't such an appropriate word, but you could watch the wheels shudder as they rolled along the track. It seems this fella decided to do the B&M shuffle in its first year. Still a good ride, but I was wanting more.

 

My best friend lives in Louisville, so we used his pad as our trip headquarters. This also allowed up a quick trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum, as well as taking in some fine cuisine. I'll explain more of those in the pics, but do yourself a favor - if you like breakfast and are within an hour of Louisville, go to Lynn's Paradise Cafe (as seen on Throwdown, with Bobby Flay) and get the Bourbon Ball French Toast. Your body will thank you...

 

That will be it as far as info, so here are the goods. A few Wimer "exclusive" shots are thrown in, so make sure to look for those. I've already called the patent office, so the claim to fame should be mine. But I did use a few TPR "exclusive" shots, so I guess that evens things out. But, I also realize by posting my "exclusive" shots, they have went from being Wimer "exclusives", to TPR "exclusives"... Eh, so much for being rich and famous for my photo abilities... Now playing:

"I do as well Monica, let me have a try!" As you can see, the stupidity of people rubbed off, and my face is still stuck like this. And yes, I will end this trip report with this picture of my contorted face to hopefully remind you lovely TPR readers of this: Don't be stupid. The End.

"Bryan, before we leave I want to solve a puzzle to feel smarter to take away the "dumbness" that rubbed off on me waiting for Firehawk"

Flyin high. She broke down for a bit, so we waited as they cycled test runs. I bet in that 20 minutes at least 50 people showed their ignorance to using their eyes and proceded to bombard the attendant with idiotic questions. Hope in hummanity has been lost...

1...2...3... Awwwwww...

Pathetic lift... Maybe someday you'll grow taller than that tree...

Duskage envelops the Voyage's lift

I wonder if the sea men ever washed their balls when they got dirty?

Oh no, the Voyage lost a bolt - we're gonna die!

Ghost train!

Creepy Kid O' Death

Lego predecessor? I really want this if Holiday World ever wants to give it away

Old Abe's back and arm hair is getting out of control!

Another exclusive! I think... Voyage lift hill from the Bahari River!

Ugly mug

The colors got all weird on us that afternoon

Looks like fall out... out wait! It's Thanksgiving! It is fall!

You know you wanna say it

Third hill love

A "Wimer" exclusive! This is Pilgrim's Plunge THROUGH SUNSCREEN! (I have a waterproof camera, which just so happened to get smudged with some free sunscreen)

We went to Splashin Safari and some bird decided to pee on us while I was taking a picture

Legend was running great. I bet you've never seen this picture before...

Love

"Yay!"

"Here's to you Pepsi Oasis!"

And then we blinked and saw this!

KNEE BREAKER... This playground by the riverfront had 2 death machines at minimum. Unfortunately I didn't survive to get pics of them after my knees got broke.

Monica got tired of my picture taking and decided to dig my grave.

We finished the Slugger factory, and then decided to get all blurry at the Science Center

Some men notch the bed post, ol Babe notched his bat

Babe Ruth's bat from his 60 homerun season. He hit 21 dingers with this one, and then the roids took hold and he broke it. And for each homer his did this:

I really want to try the middle bat out in my softball league. A SQUARE? CURVED? handle - yes please...

For you baseball buffs

I could swing it

So Lynn's hosts an annual ugly lamp contest... Not only does this place have the best breakfast I have ever had, they had a Fraggle lamp! (or at least I think)

Battle Hymn of the Republic started playing when they brought me this "half portion"... GLORIOUS!

French fries on a chair. Potentially the best poster of all time.

The next morning we ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe! If her french toast could beat ol Bobby in a Throwdown it has to be good enough for me! Seriously - GO HERE!

Fountain going up in to the riverfront. It can provide for some moistness if not carefully approached and passed

The Riverfront at night

Getting paid to swing - I bet her legs are buff!

Sunshine all the way from WV to Louisville

And we're off!

[CoasterTrek]

Great Trip report, and what camera do you use, the pictures are acually really good.

[Emiroo]

Well done and you certainly do have more than a few HW exclusives in there. Very impressive.

 

And I'll second that Lynn's Paradise Cafe is just insane...in a good way!

[DiSab]

Awesome stuff. And don't worry - that giant Rubik's cube confused the hell out of me too.

[NegativeGLover]

Camera is a Canon D10. I'm pretty happy with it so far, with only a few minor complaints. My only complaints are some pretty extreme lens glare, and that the lens itself has a cover (which looks easily replaceable if scratched), but it gets smudged pretty easy (with suncreen in this case)... Everything else is pretty decent considering what it is. And taking it under the water had to be one of the most un-natural feelings I've had in a while - You get some weird looks when people see you taking your digital camera in a pool!