sheikofhyrule

Looks like Kings Island just recently posted their plans for National Roller Coaster Day. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/play/events/national-roller-coaster-day

Trip report (I have not done one of these before and I am new here so bear with me.) May 24-26, 2017. We stayed two nights at Hotel Breakers for only a little more than Express Hotel, but it was worth it knowing we could leave any time we wanted to and be back in our room shortly. We originally were going to leave early on the 24th and make it to the park by 4pm with evening tickets. But with our habit of leaving late and it raining there, we decided to use all day tickets on the 26th. There was rain and a lot of construction on I-80/90 so it took longer than we thought and we arrived at the hotel at 9pm. We walked around the grounds playing Pokemon Go. I finally read through the conditions on the Cyber Monday Ticket/Fast Pass that I bought and realized it was a Fast Pass Plus, instead of the Fast Pass, which altered my thinking and then we were not sure to use it on the longer, rainy all day, less crowded Thursday the 25th or the shorter, better weather, more crowded Friday the 26th. We tried to get some good sleep, but we were too nervous between thinking about the weather, which tickets to use and which clothes to wear to make everything secure. I had two pairs of shorts with zipper pockets, but no pants with zipper pockets, so I wore a rain jacket that had a front zipper pocket and my husband had on a hoodie with zipper side pockets. Thursday, May 25th: We used Ride and Refresh Tickets and just got the to resort entrance when the national anthem was playing at 9am. The security line was longer than the ticket line and it took five minutes to get in. The four coasters that were supposed to be running were Gatekeeper, Maverick, Millennium Force and Valvarn, but only the last two were running in the first hour. We first walked to Maverick, were told it was not running and then rode Millennium Force after a five minute wait. We then rode Valvarn after a five minute wait. We walked towards the front of the park to see if Gatekeeper was running, saw it was not and saw the large crowd waiting since it was now about 9:50am. We walked towards Top Thrill Dragster and they were not testing it and the weather did not give me high hopes. Around 9am we waited about five minutes to ride Rougarou. We decided to walk through an empty Frontiertown and by time got back to Maverick it was open and we waited ten minutes. I sometimes get bad motion sickness and I thought it had to do with my astigmatism and with new contacts, I would be fine. I do not know if it was too many rides in a short time frame or Maverick itself, but I felt bad afterwards, and got depressed thinking I was now too old to ride coasters, the money wasted on this trip and the money wasted on Kings Island ticket/fast pass plus I had bought. We decided to slow down, wait five minutes and ride the CP&LE Railroad in a circle. There was a gift shop with two employees to the right of the railroad station that was open Thursday, but not Friday. We then waited about ten minutes to ride Cedar Creek Mine Ride because only one train was running. We slowed down and looked in every gift shop. We saw them testing Top Thrill Dragster, but unless it was during our break, it and Gemini never ran on Thursday. I think Magnum XL-200 was running, but it was slightly sprinkling and we rode in that weather on our last trip and it hurt with the rain. We got suckered in by the caricature artist, who wanted to practice on us, and ended up buying the picture of my husband as a Pokemon trainer and me as my favorite Pokemon, Dragonair. I believe Corkscrew and Wicked Twister were running, but we rode the former the last time and the later a similar ride at Great America. We waited about ten minutes and rode Gatekeeper, but with a slight sprinkle it hurt. We finally got a drink at the Coca-Cola Freestyle and had we known it was disposable cups, we probably would have gotten drinks sooner. We walked around the Main Arcade and I was so excited to play the six-player X-Men game. We waited about 15 minutes for Blue Streak because they were only running one train. Raptor and Iron Dragon had an hour wait, so we skipped them. So we picked up our caricature around 2pm, ate at Perkins at the hotel and took a nap. Thursday, May 25th evening: Around 6pm we entered the resort entrance and waited ten minutes for Magnum XL-200 because they were only running one half-full train. We waited ten minutes to ride Iron Dragon. We walked on Windseeker and saw a hat fall to the ground. We walked on Dodgem. We walked on the right front row of Gatekeeper, but now it was misting and my left eye was closed at least half of the ride. We then left by the beach entrance. Friday, May 26th: Since we had the Fast Pass Plus, we slept in and got to the beach entrance around 10am. We were supposed to get our Fast Pass Plus band at the ticket office before getting our ticket scanned, but there was no one in there and the ticket taker said we could get the band anywhere they are sold. The closest to that entrance is the Gatekeeper gift shop. After ten minutes and two phone calls, the employee's supervisor said we had to go to Guest Relations. So we walked there and waited in a 15 minutes line to talk to an employee, who had to talk to her supervisor. They were not sure why we did not get the passes either place, why we were sent there instead of next door to the giant fast pass booth, but we finally got our bands and we were off. The bands were worth it because Raptor had a 60 minute wait and I think we waited 30 minutes. We walked right on to the front row of Valvarn using the Fast Pass Plus. We waited 20 minutes for Millennium Force using the Fast Pass Plus. Another walk through Frontiertown, but this time everything was open so we looked in every store. We got funnel cake fries in a couple of minutes. Maverick had an hour wait, but due to my experience, the day before we skipped it. We waited about five minutes on Gemini using the Fast Pass Plus because only the red side was running, but they were testing the blue side. We used the Fast Pass Plus for Top Thrill Dragster and waited 20 minutes, but the fast pass was not worth it there because we would have been in the same spot for the back trains waiting in the regular line. We waited five minutes for the Cedar Downs Racing Derby. We used the Fast Pass Plus for Gatekeeper and waited 20 minutes, but again the fast pass was not worth it because we passed maybe ten people using the regular line. Last ride was left side, last row and finally a ride without any sort of rain and got to see my second hat fall off of a ride. It was a lot busier on Friday and all of the food lines looked really long. We left the park about 2pm, walked down the beach, waded into Lake Erie and left for home. We took a different route home and went between two storm systems that had tornado warnings in Indiana.

I am a long time lurker of the boards since I never get out often enough, but I like reading everyone's stories and opinions. We will also be at Cedar Point on the 25th. We are traveling 6-7 hours and staying at the Breakers for a couple of nights. We will either use Starlight tickets on Wednesday night or full tickets on Fridays and leave early depending on travel and weather. We got the Black Friday deal, so we have Fast Passes for Thursdays. Even if they are not necessary, they were the motivation behind making the trip. We are exciting about going back for the first time in eight years. Later on in the summer, we hopefully will make it to King's Island.