Kings Island

Visited: July 29, 2022

Attending: Brian and Doug

We made it down to Kings Island in the early evening. I’d never been here before, but I did have some sense of the park from looking at the maps, and from Kings Dominion. We were regarding this evening time as kind of a bonus, with the real work taking place the next day. Didn’t go quite the way we planned, though.

Orion

Fortunately, the Orion area wasn’t all that crowded, and while we had to wait a bit, it wasn’t so bad. The sun started to go down as we got to the platform, so this was more of a twilight ride than anything else. As gigas go…Orion makes a good hyper. The first drop down below ground level is fun, but it’s not like Fury’s (or i305, or Millennium Force). I do like the second hill rising out of the ditch. It reminded me of Candymonium in that regard, as you just climb up and up and up getting you set for all that floater over the top…and then it tilts sideways, which is odd. And then the next hill is a turnaround. I realize that even a park like this has finite space, but a straight camelback with floater really would have been great. The speed hill on the way back is a lot of fun, a proper camelback with its floater, a helix that serves no purpose, and then something that’s supposed to be a wave turn but really isn’t. The rise into the brake run is probably the single best airtime pop on the ride, which is unfortunate. I’m sure B&M has a reason why the brake run has to be so high and so long, but darned if I know what it is.

The Beast

Having accomplished Orion, which was the biggest priority, we knew that we needed to get a night ride on the Beast, as we weren’t likely to be around after dark on Saturday. The line, unfortunately, was formidable, but we figured it would move reasonably fast. We were wrong. As we were on our final approach to the station, they shut down the ride for the nightly fireworks show. (While seeing fireworks from Beast would be awesome, they’re launched from inside the infield, so that’s a no-go.) So we were stuck in one spot, spitting distance from the platform, for about an hour. Worse, that area is covered, so we couldn’t see the fireworks or the drone show, which I’m told is quite good. Regardless, we did eventually get to ride, and had no trouble obtaining the back row. Then…things happened. I mean, I know they did because I was there, but darned if I have any idea what those things were, because it was pitch black. It’s a little rough, it’s rumbly, and it’s absurdly long. I don’t recall any particularly sharp drops, but if there were, I wouldn’t have seen them coming. The double helix seemed to go on forever. So yes, the Beast night ride experience is everything they say it is. And after that, the park was closed, so we had to leave.