thrillrider Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 I had the chance to attend the Banshee media day at kings island this weekend, and was blown away by not only the new ride but the kings island staff as well. They really pulled out the red carpet for us coaster nerds.In all honesty, banshee was the best inverted coaster I have been on in a long time. I would rate Banshee higher than raptor and alpengeist. The weather was perfect for the weekend, and it really brought in the crowds on opening day. It was crazy buisy. At one point, the line for banshee was close to 5 hours long. I can tell you that the public AND coaster enthusiests all loved the ride. Lets get onto the pictures shall we? It's 4:30 am and time to check out banshee. We need to go this way. The park looks scary this morning. The news media was here in full force. The reason we are here today On our way to banshee, we were able to check out the new seating area. It was really hard to get a good shot of the sign due to all the mist. The entrance to the ride They had a great tribute to son of beast The sun was starting to rise on banshee Lots of media interviews The fun tv was not bad, except for some of the music choices. They had some fun trivia to help pass the time. It also had live weather reports as well. They had a podium set up A look up at the lift hill and loop The restraints were very comfy, and did not tighten up durring the ride. They were assigning rows, so if your able to get in the very front, consider yourself lucky I loved the theaming of the station. Banshee is sure to be a hit. It has to be the most intense B&M coaster I have been on in a while. After the ride, they dump you into the gift shop Inside the shop, you can get your on ride photo or banshee swag A few shots of the ride Remember the podium? Here it is in use. It was a beautiful day, and all the coaster clubs were out in full force including ACE. They even opend the bat for us. Here is the sexy new sign The new paint job looks great Here is the new train colors. They also had sky flyer for us to ride. Son of beasts station still stands and is used for a haunted house durring oct. Besides the station, this is all that's left of sob Here is the new chicken restaurant. This is also where we were treated to lunch. The chicken and fries were really good. Banshee themed car And the ice cream cones were awsome as well New fest house outdoor seating and sign. They have also added a new all you can drink souvinier cup stand outside the main gate I will have more from coming soon. I will leave you with this picture of the crazy lines on opening day waiting to get into the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Seeing this crazy crowds I am more than happy how Heide-Park did the pre-Opening of Flug... If I would see such a crowd before the entrance I think I would turn around, drive home and forget about the whole day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 20, 2014 Author Share Posted April 20, 2014 Onto opening day... Opening day has to be the busiest day I have ever seen at the park. It took nearly an hour just to get into the park from our hotel right across the street from the park. The lines were all long, and we were able to only get about 6 coasters in all day. Even some of the fast pass lanes were fairly long as well. Banshee really brought out the crowds, and mix that with good weather and a holiday weekend and that was the perfect storm for large crowds of people. Onto opening day...... It was opening day, and there was traffic around the park. We had an issue just getting out of our hotel parking lot. Thank you The view of the line to get in from the parking lot. Yea...it was buisy In case you forgot when and where we are The line for banshee wrapped past the tower Our first stop of the day Coaster season has officialy begun The beast was running better than it has in years. Testing out my new camera, I was able to get this shot from near the back of the park Our next stop This ride has some amazing airtime. $4 for a coke Splash down Anybody have a clue what those orange tubes are for on the bottom of the trains? I only brought my shoes. Does this mean I can't ride because I don't have sandals on as well? Next up was flight of fear The same tacky video was playing, but on brand new LED screens. It did not have any sound though. It was an ok ride, and it would be much better if you did not come to a complete stop at the midcourse. This is the fastpass entrance. the line was backed up the stairs about 5 min after I took this picture We skipped this We also skipped stunt track because of this line But it did have fire, and fire makes everything better. Back on the midways, they have this walking band. They sounded really good. The thrill seekers gift shop had this cool graveyard of rides past While walking the park, you run into the craziest people Ummmm....Not sure what's going on here I think that every radio station in ohio was there Noted.... They had some differant stuffed prizes this year, like donuts and cupcakes They even had zz top bananas Just like cedarpoints new ride Meanwhile at the racer, these guys were having the time of there life Banshee plinko Vortex doing it's thing This food truck was new, and blocking the entrance of the closed drop zone ride. Nothing differant being sold inside though. Inside the festhous. None of us could understand the choice of shows they went with in here this year. It was a boy band themed show. I tried to get up the tower to get some shots, but it was a no go. Anybody have an idea what they have in store for this area of the park? It just seems so out of place and dead. Sorry, no clock for you kings island. The gift shop had some really cool shirts like this "opening year" shirt with a list of all the attractions that opend with the park Anybody notice what coaster is being used in the background of this shirt? Epic!!! A must have! Love it! More opening day and banshee pictures coming soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 20, 2014 Author Share Posted April 20, 2014 The rest of the pictures will be posted later tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevinC049 Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 The picture with banshee's zero G with the fog below the hills is brilliant. Great shots. Was there on opening day and like you think Banshee is one of the best inverts out there. Loved it. Riding at night looks like a real experience. I'll be back for the ERT for gold/platinum pass holders in the coming months. I agree on Bats paint job- really nice. However looking at Bat and Banshee next to each other from Bats loading platform, I didnt like all the colors of both coasters so close together. Keep'em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFChris Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 This ride combined with Diamondback makes me think I need to work my way over to the Cincinnati area again. Bleh. Great report though! The park is looking fantastic! One thing I did notice in one of your first pictures was the huge, uninspired queue block. I don't understand why parks design these huge monotonous areas, and then put these lame triangular shades on top of them. They know how crazy hot it gets there in the summer, why not completely cover the queue????? Doesn't make sense to me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djcoastermark Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 ^ To sell more sodas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDarkMaxim Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 This ride combined with Diamondback makes me think I need to work my way over to the Cincinnati area again. Bleh. Great report though! The park is looking fantastic! One thing I did notice in one of your first pictures was the huge, uninspired queue block. I don't understand why parks design these huge monotonous areas, and then put these lame triangular shades on top of them. They know how crazy hot it gets there in the summer, why not completely cover the queue????? Doesn't make sense to me at all. The shades actually did a pretty good job covering most of the queue (I was cold most of the time because it was windy and I was shaded most of the time in line). There were also several of those mister fans around the queue. So the heat shouldn't be that much of a problem. There aren't even vending machines in the Banshee queue, though they did have workers with cups and a water cooler towards the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScreaminNewEngland Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Awesome photo's! But I hope that wasn;t a negative remark towards ACE. They're an awesome club too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 21, 2014 Author Share Posted April 21, 2014 More pics coming tomorrow. Just way too tired tonight after a long weekend at the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeslagy Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Was anyone Else able to get a ride in the front row of banshee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanthonyam Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Those crowds!!! WTF??? Everybody in Ohio showed up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMarkSta Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Apparently everyone decided to come Friday instead of Saturday and Sunday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeslagy Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Apparently everyone decided to come Friday instead of Saturday and Sunday I know, I was there Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I rode Banshee 4 times in like 2.5 hours saturday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandallDuell Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Great report, thanks. Though, I don't know if this was necessary.... I've seen plenty of trip reports, in my years reading this forum, where it's all TPR folks and folks of this body type/size certainly aren't limited to ACE (despite all of the jabs I see posted here). And no, I do not belong to ACE or any other coaster club - just an observation from an outsider that this photo/caption seemed a bit snarky. Pretty impressive crowds - guess they really did a good job getting the word out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrlandoGuy Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 ^agreed. That woman is simply minding her own business trying to have a fun day doing something we all love. There was no need to poke fun at her. Other than that, great pictures. Cant wait to see the rest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFChris Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 ^ & ^^ For the record, I LOVED the "Acer" pic. This is an original part of TPR's charm, and it's sad seeing it getting attacked in every P:TR that goes there. Gravy!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondbacker27 Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I thought it was funny. But, it is really rude. I mean what if it was someone you loved and you saw someone saying the things about them on a forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BintamiM Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I pretty much love everything about this ride. The color, the theme, the layout. I am glad the ride is riding well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScreaminNewEngland Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I'm not one to act offended by the dumbest things but that wasn't needed. The people at ACE are very nice and that was mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildStangAlex Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Was anyone Else able to get a ride in the front row of banshee? Two: One during media day, and one during Scream for a Kid Again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 22, 2014 Author Share Posted April 22, 2014 Due to a wireless router issue, the rest of the pictures are going to be a day or 2 away....just waiting on comcast to deliver the new one. I forgot to mention that this is one of the few coasters that I could not marathon on. Due to it's intensity, and inversions. We rode it 9 times on media day and was feeling it during the last few rides. This coaster is going to be a HUGE hit for the park. I heard nothing but great things about it from the general public "and" coaster enthusiasts as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeslagy Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Was anyone Else able to get a ride in the front row of banshee? Two: One during media day, and one during Scream for a Kid Again I think that was the best Front row ride I've ever experienced. I haven't been on as many as most people on this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 22, 2014 Author Share Posted April 22, 2014 There is no doubt that banshee has one of the better front row rides. The night rides especially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 I seem to have my router problem solved, so onto the rest of the pictures. The worlds greatest? I wonder what will come of this building? The park was looking great. Does anybody actually pay the $20? These are kinda neat. charge your phone in your locker. Vortex This gives you another idea how buisy they were on opening day. Look at the line for the subway. Noted Not sure what this couple did, but they were being escorted out of the park. I think this is new. I don't recall seeing this before. The beast train. The new banshee banners were hung all over the park. I love this logo. Diamondback climbing the lift. Anybody know what this is? It was in banshees station? I belive gatekeeper has one as well. They still had some flight deck merch for sale, so get it while it lasts. Diamondback makes one hell of a splash. And it's all because of these Ghost blasters on boo hill Airtime goodness Yes it is The new all you can eat deal, has lots of options in the fest house. They also offer an all you can eat all year deal as well. Windsleeper Anybody have an idea what this is all about? On my way back home, I passed the beach water park. Air at the gas station by me is a quarter. I have never seen a air machine that took credit cards. This was some kind of flea market with a bunch of weird fiberglass animals all over the place. Not sure whats going on here. Even the roof of the building had animals on it. And then there was this huge jesus statue I need to stop in here some day. Interesting street name. Well, that's it for this trip report. Next stop......home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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