Our intent was to arrive at 9:45am so we take advantage of our American Coaster Enthusiasts perk to walk back to The Beast roller coaster before the rest of the crowds. Alas, we were a few minutes late and the group had already departed.
We headed to the back of the park to ride The Beast anyway and were we surprised at the performance of this once-upon-a-time monster. Most roller coasters will have brakes to slow down the coaster half way thru the ride (this is a safety feature that allows them to put more than one train on the tracks at a time) and another set of brakes at the end to stop the coaster before it goes into the station. The Beast now has brakes coming down the first drop and many other places out on the ride. It was pitiful.
(Betty riding The (tamed) Beast)
We had been warning Betty for a full day that this is a really a beast of a coaster but it turned out to be just a pussycat.
We went on 2 other coasters before lunch, Backlot Stunt Coaster and Firehawk. Backlot only took 15 minutes to get through but Firehawk had a dozy of a line and was extremely slow in loading and launching out of the station. 80 minutes later we were all heading for lunch at the Jukebox Diner.
(Cool theme)
(You actually ride on your back AND facing down at the ground)
Two coasters after lunch and the huge Drop Tower were next followed by a trip down memory lane.
Back in 1973 the Brady Bunch TV show came to King’s Island and rode The Racer coaster and made an episode out of it. Three of those members were having a reunion for the guests in the big theatre. Greg, Bobby, and Cindy were there. We got in to see the show. Greg mostly sang a few songs. The three of them answered questions. They brought up about 30 members of the audience who wanted to learn some Brady choreography. When it was all over you could stay and talk with them and get something signed by them. They did the show three times that day.
(Doug never actually RODE a coaster but he did go through the line with us sometimes)
A lot of the amusement parks now have food vendors that are from outside the park. We ate at Panda Express inside Festhaus. Karen had the chicken teriyaki and I had the orange chicken ($13)
The kiddie area included rides themed to Scooby Doo, Wild Thornberry’s, and Rugrats. Interesting rides in here were a suspended coaster that children could ride and a Buzz Lightyear-like ride with a haunted mansion theme (you sit in ride vehicles and shoot at targets).
There was a simulator ride at the back of the park near The Beast that we wanted to ride but it was closed when we got back to it, so we rode the train in the dark instead – not exciting at all. On the way back there three of us got ice creams. Mine was so big that I actually had to throw the cone part away because the train was leaving. It was a sad moment.
On our way out of the park Karen and Betty walked into Graeter’s for an ice cream sundae. Doug and I waited outside and watched the close-of-the-park fireworks.
I think we left around 11pm on our last evening on vacation. It was a long day but we had a plan for what we wanted to see, we stayed in the shade as much as possible, and we paced ourselves well. Two full days back to back and we lived to write about it.
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