sharondbond
2020-08-04 20:33:31 UTC
Kings Island during a pandemic: Possible invention of a new coastering term called "mask lift".
We seized the day because temps have dropped in the area due to a cold front coming in on Monday. High today is supposed to be around 78, with much lower humidity. We got asked to go with my brother and his family on Friday, but the high that day is forecasted to be 85. The ideal day to go would be tomorrow, with highs about the same, but starting the day with a low of 57. But KI is closed tomorrow and Thursday.
First thing I had to do was download the KI app, and try to fill out their health questionnaire, plus load our season passes in to it. Loading season passes was easy, finding the dang health thing wasn't. It turns out you have to login to it. But can you use your regular KI login, that you created years ago? No, it wouldn't take the login credentials and I had to create a new account. Did they have you enter your password twice when creating the account, to catch typos the first time? No. So hopefully no one who typo'd their password will log out. Also, at no time did anyone ask to see our health questionnaire, so I don't know what they are doing with that.
Driving into the parking lot, there were only 2 cars coming in at the same time. The park was very very uncrowded. There are 2 very large white tents that you have to walk through - one for the south side of the parking lot and one for the north. They are located just as you are getting to the circle part of the entrance area. First you are stopped by an employee with a sign board. The board lists the symptoms of COVID and some other health questions, all of which you must answer "no" to. Then you move forward and you get your temp taken with the forehead guns. Then you are released. Since there were so few people there at the same time as us (about 10:55am), we breezed on through.
The info online said that you could not buy tickets at the gate, but it looked like maybe there was a window open. But we didn't investigate further. The next challenge was that I had to bring up the passes on the app at the turnstile. And I didn't have my old fart glasses. Eventually Matt figured it out and we got all 3 passes scanned. Missing at the front entrance were the hordes of young photographers hounding you for a photo.
We headed left for Orion, but after we got there, we saw a train on the lift, a train on the first brake run, and a train on the second brake run, all not moving. So we went back out of the alien invasion area and did Racer. Ben and I were in the blue train and Matt was in the red train, and yes, we raced! Ben and Matt also slapped hands as we climbed the lift hill. Racer was the same as always, a good classic ride. No issues that we could detect. For COVID restrictions they are only loading every other row.
Orion was not running when we started our Racer ride, but was when we got off. We headed over and ended up at the end of a fairly short line. The entrance is right next to the exit for Flight of Fear. There were about 30-ish people in line ahead of us. As we waited and watched them testing, more and more people were leaving. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, there were only 15 people ahead of us. Then we saw the Ops get out the measuring stick and hey, it's open.
Between the people in front of us, the Fast Lane people, and the fact that they were only loading 2 people per row, we ended up in train 3 (first riders that day in the train.) The ride is so very, very glass smooth, and I hope it stays that way for a long time. The lift hill is pretty speedy, but it still has some hang time where the front is over but the back has to catch up.
The first drop is amazing - it feels like you are going straight down. All the hills had negative G's at the top. Second drop is a little faster, and you are pitched to the left to enter it. The best part of the ride is the third drop. You race to the top where they pitch you over to the right, probably a little more than 45 degrees, and you swoop down. The rest of the ride is good, but not as spectacular as the first 3 hills. There is a large helix section near the end to slow you down, then one more small hill and then the first brake run. In our case, they did not have to stop us for long there, and we headed slightly downhill to the next brake run. It was a fabulous ride and KI has a real winner.
On Racer and then on Orion, we experienced a new phenomenon which we called "mask lift". As you ride, air gets under your mask and lifts it up. I had a fairly lose mask and felt it some on Racer, and a lot on Orion. Or we could call it "negative mask G's".
Then we started walking down toward Windseeker and the Antique Autos had no one waiting, so we rode. A new oil can has been added - Firehawk Oil. It's in the window on the side as you approach the little gas station. If you like the nostalgia in the Antique Autos, then when you ride Orion, ask to wait for the front seat. On the wall next to the line is a collection of a kind of commemorative plaques, done up as some sort of projects for the alien invasion/space area. They have a space themed logo, and this is what they say (some words are from top to bottom, some are circular around the logo - if I'm forced to carry my cell phone at the park, I can take pictures):
Top row:
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE I - 1947
SHOOTING STAR
RAPID DIRECTIONAL CHANGE
PTC
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE III - SCHWARZKOPF - 1973 - ACCELERATION (circular)
BAYERN KURVE
THE ROTOR - SEQUENCE I GRAVITY - CENTRIFUGAL FORCE - CHANCE - 1972
(yes, I know that's the wrong term, it's what is on the plaque)
Middle row:
INVERTIGO - PROJECT X SEQUENCE VIII - VEKOMA - MOTION PULL - 1999
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE IV
ZODIAC
INTAMIN - RADIAL FORCES
SKYLAB - PROJECT X - SEQUENCE V - HUSS - 1986 - GRAVITATIONAL PULL
Bottom row:
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE VI
VORTEX
1987
INVERSION EFFECTS
ARROW
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE VII - PREMIER - 1996 - SENSORY DEPRIVATION - GRAVITATIONAL - FOF
EVASIVE MANEUVERS
FIREHAWK
2017
VEKOMA
As Ben was riding Windseeker, Matt and I went over and looked over at the EMPTY area where Vortex was. It's *all* gone, except for 2 track sections they appear to be saving for later use. Maybe as props for a Haunt attraction. It's one big huge empty area, covered in grass seed and straw. You look right at the side of the Beast station and lift hill. Something that you never could before, because they also ripped out all the bushes and trees.
We rode Beast and encountered the first real line of the day, from just past the attendant area. For distancing, they have very unimaginative blue signs on the ground, just asking you to stay 6 ft/2m apart (yes, 2m is more than 6ft.) The signs are blue and they could have done so much better with sign theming. The forced distance, and the fact that they are not letting people fill the station, means that there are short but fairly quick lines for most rides.
Like Racer, every other row is roped off. We had a pretty good Beast ride. They have some new signage in the line for you to read while you wait, discussing the history and other facts about the ride. The first is about Carl Eichelman and his over 4400 rides. He was a coworker's uncle-in-law, so I'm going to text Paul a picture of the sign. I also broke a park rule when I took a picture while riding. I took a picture of the empty Vortex area while dead stopped on the brake run. It's just really, really strange to have that view now.
After Beast, we headed through Rivertown. Matt and I got in line for Mystic Timbers, while Ben went to see if he can fit in a Diamondback seat (unfortunately he did not fit on Orion - needed 3 clicks and he could only get 2.) It was no, so we got out of line instead of making him wait. MT had a sizable line, and it probably would have moved fairly fast, but I felt it was better to just get out of line and do something else. We walked up through the kid's section and wanted to go on Boo Blasters, but the line was out the door.
We went over and did the Dodgems, which has a snazzy new retro sign (or maybe it was there last year and I didn't notice, since we usually approach from the other direction.) Then we went over to The Bat. Which had a line. At that point we were hungry, the objective of our trip, Orion, had been accomplished, and it's not like the other stuff is new or we're not going to go again this year. So we left and went to Skyline for a late lunch, and Matt is currently riding home through the rain on his bike.
Sharon
We seized the day because temps have dropped in the area due to a cold front coming in on Monday. High today is supposed to be around 78, with much lower humidity. We got asked to go with my brother and his family on Friday, but the high that day is forecasted to be 85. The ideal day to go would be tomorrow, with highs about the same, but starting the day with a low of 57. But KI is closed tomorrow and Thursday.
First thing I had to do was download the KI app, and try to fill out their health questionnaire, plus load our season passes in to it. Loading season passes was easy, finding the dang health thing wasn't. It turns out you have to login to it. But can you use your regular KI login, that you created years ago? No, it wouldn't take the login credentials and I had to create a new account. Did they have you enter your password twice when creating the account, to catch typos the first time? No. So hopefully no one who typo'd their password will log out. Also, at no time did anyone ask to see our health questionnaire, so I don't know what they are doing with that.
Driving into the parking lot, there were only 2 cars coming in at the same time. The park was very very uncrowded. There are 2 very large white tents that you have to walk through - one for the south side of the parking lot and one for the north. They are located just as you are getting to the circle part of the entrance area. First you are stopped by an employee with a sign board. The board lists the symptoms of COVID and some other health questions, all of which you must answer "no" to. Then you move forward and you get your temp taken with the forehead guns. Then you are released. Since there were so few people there at the same time as us (about 10:55am), we breezed on through.
The info online said that you could not buy tickets at the gate, but it looked like maybe there was a window open. But we didn't investigate further. The next challenge was that I had to bring up the passes on the app at the turnstile. And I didn't have my old fart glasses. Eventually Matt figured it out and we got all 3 passes scanned. Missing at the front entrance were the hordes of young photographers hounding you for a photo.
We headed left for Orion, but after we got there, we saw a train on the lift, a train on the first brake run, and a train on the second brake run, all not moving. So we went back out of the alien invasion area and did Racer. Ben and I were in the blue train and Matt was in the red train, and yes, we raced! Ben and Matt also slapped hands as we climbed the lift hill. Racer was the same as always, a good classic ride. No issues that we could detect. For COVID restrictions they are only loading every other row.
Orion was not running when we started our Racer ride, but was when we got off. We headed over and ended up at the end of a fairly short line. The entrance is right next to the exit for Flight of Fear. There were about 30-ish people in line ahead of us. As we waited and watched them testing, more and more people were leaving. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, there were only 15 people ahead of us. Then we saw the Ops get out the measuring stick and hey, it's open.
Between the people in front of us, the Fast Lane people, and the fact that they were only loading 2 people per row, we ended up in train 3 (first riders that day in the train.) The ride is so very, very glass smooth, and I hope it stays that way for a long time. The lift hill is pretty speedy, but it still has some hang time where the front is over but the back has to catch up.
The first drop is amazing - it feels like you are going straight down. All the hills had negative G's at the top. Second drop is a little faster, and you are pitched to the left to enter it. The best part of the ride is the third drop. You race to the top where they pitch you over to the right, probably a little more than 45 degrees, and you swoop down. The rest of the ride is good, but not as spectacular as the first 3 hills. There is a large helix section near the end to slow you down, then one more small hill and then the first brake run. In our case, they did not have to stop us for long there, and we headed slightly downhill to the next brake run. It was a fabulous ride and KI has a real winner.
On Racer and then on Orion, we experienced a new phenomenon which we called "mask lift". As you ride, air gets under your mask and lifts it up. I had a fairly lose mask and felt it some on Racer, and a lot on Orion. Or we could call it "negative mask G's".
Then we started walking down toward Windseeker and the Antique Autos had no one waiting, so we rode. A new oil can has been added - Firehawk Oil. It's in the window on the side as you approach the little gas station. If you like the nostalgia in the Antique Autos, then when you ride Orion, ask to wait for the front seat. On the wall next to the line is a collection of a kind of commemorative plaques, done up as some sort of projects for the alien invasion/space area. They have a space themed logo, and this is what they say (some words are from top to bottom, some are circular around the logo - if I'm forced to carry my cell phone at the park, I can take pictures):
Top row:
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE I - 1947
SHOOTING STAR
RAPID DIRECTIONAL CHANGE
PTC
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE III - SCHWARZKOPF - 1973 - ACCELERATION (circular)
BAYERN KURVE
THE ROTOR - SEQUENCE I GRAVITY - CENTRIFUGAL FORCE - CHANCE - 1972
(yes, I know that's the wrong term, it's what is on the plaque)
Middle row:
INVERTIGO - PROJECT X SEQUENCE VIII - VEKOMA - MOTION PULL - 1999
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE IV
ZODIAC
INTAMIN - RADIAL FORCES
SKYLAB - PROJECT X - SEQUENCE V - HUSS - 1986 - GRAVITATIONAL PULL
Bottom row:
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE VI
VORTEX
1987
INVERSION EFFECTS
ARROW
PROJECT X - SEQUENCE VII - PREMIER - 1996 - SENSORY DEPRIVATION - GRAVITATIONAL - FOF
EVASIVE MANEUVERS
FIREHAWK
2017
VEKOMA
As Ben was riding Windseeker, Matt and I went over and looked over at the EMPTY area where Vortex was. It's *all* gone, except for 2 track sections they appear to be saving for later use. Maybe as props for a Haunt attraction. It's one big huge empty area, covered in grass seed and straw. You look right at the side of the Beast station and lift hill. Something that you never could before, because they also ripped out all the bushes and trees.
We rode Beast and encountered the first real line of the day, from just past the attendant area. For distancing, they have very unimaginative blue signs on the ground, just asking you to stay 6 ft/2m apart (yes, 2m is more than 6ft.) The signs are blue and they could have done so much better with sign theming. The forced distance, and the fact that they are not letting people fill the station, means that there are short but fairly quick lines for most rides.
Like Racer, every other row is roped off. We had a pretty good Beast ride. They have some new signage in the line for you to read while you wait, discussing the history and other facts about the ride. The first is about Carl Eichelman and his over 4400 rides. He was a coworker's uncle-in-law, so I'm going to text Paul a picture of the sign. I also broke a park rule when I took a picture while riding. I took a picture of the empty Vortex area while dead stopped on the brake run. It's just really, really strange to have that view now.
After Beast, we headed through Rivertown. Matt and I got in line for Mystic Timbers, while Ben went to see if he can fit in a Diamondback seat (unfortunately he did not fit on Orion - needed 3 clicks and he could only get 2.) It was no, so we got out of line instead of making him wait. MT had a sizable line, and it probably would have moved fairly fast, but I felt it was better to just get out of line and do something else. We walked up through the kid's section and wanted to go on Boo Blasters, but the line was out the door.
We went over and did the Dodgems, which has a snazzy new retro sign (or maybe it was there last year and I didn't notice, since we usually approach from the other direction.) Then we went over to The Bat. Which had a line. At that point we were hungry, the objective of our trip, Orion, had been accomplished, and it's not like the other stuff is new or we're not going to go again this year. So we left and went to Skyline for a late lunch, and Matt is currently riding home through the rain on his bike.
Sharon