Paramount's Kings Island
DAY1
April 16, 1999 - our day started at 5:00 am and on the road at 5:30am for an eight
hour drive south from Newmarket, Ontario to Mason, Ohio home of Paramount Kings Island.
The first sign of things to come arrived at about 7:30 AM - Rain and more rain. Rained
most of the way down I-75. Got to the hotel about 1:30 only about 2 minutes from PKI.
The new Drop Zone was noticed before the Tower from the highway. I was glad it was not complete because I didn’t have dig into my excuse list of "Reason not to ride Drop Zone". Paged my buddy Shaggy to let him know the PCW Junkies have arrived from Canada. No response from Shaggy. Page him again. No response. (He later told me it wasn’t working) Maybe he was ignoring me and hoped that I wouldn’t show up. Well, without or without Shaggy we were going. At 4:00PM we get into our several layers of clothing , gloves, hats, and snowshoes (just seeing if you are still with me) on and head over to the park. The kind folks at the parking gate accept our PCW parking pass. We see this large line-up and I thought it was for guest relations. But, thankfully it was a concert ticket sale. We were about to get our entrance ticket at Guest Relations and I hear this voice saying, "Kevin Reid". It was the one and only SHAGGY who picked us out of the crowd.
We were in the park by 4:30 and we rushed (not run) over to Face/Off and quickly got in the queue and within 3 minute the queue was full. Then Rocket Roger shows up and was able to recognize my wife and son waiting underneath the cobra roll. I tell Shaggy that I hate going backwards so we opted for the front of the train sitting backwards first. The mechanisms on Face/Off are really different from the sit-down Boomerangs. People will definitely not miss that loud noise on the second lift hill. I enjoyed my first ride of the season and probably a good way to start. Face/Off is a very slow loader and probably even slower than the sit-down boomerangs. We waited about 30 minutes and we were pretty quick into the queue. King Cobra was not running but, looked pretty good with its fresh paint job. The New Action Zone and stunt show area looks really good as well. The summer time patrons will especially appreciate the removal of black top and replacement with concrete. It is obvious that the PKI2000 project is under way. Obvious signs of land clearing behind/beside Topgun and Adventure Express.
We head over to the Beast, we must have just been ahead of the crowd because we walked onto the loading platform and only had to wait for a couple of minutes for front seat. This was only my second ride ever on the Beast and my first in the front seat. This alone was worth the 16 hours of driving. The first time in Sept 98 we really didn’t see much because we were holding on. The wind and rain was not able to steal the enjoyment we got from that ride. Shaggy, Roger and I headed over to Vortex and they reminisced about the BAT and pointed out an old Bat footing. Good thing that we got a ride on Vortex Friday because it was not running Saturday. Vortex is desperately in need of a paint job. We catch a few rides on the Racer but, I still can’t be convinced to ride it backwards.
I was disappointed that the OL:FOF was not working on Friday or Saturday because my wife really wanted to try it. I don’t care about all the bad things that are said about OL:FOF because, I really like this ride. Not many of the rides in Kidsville were operating. Shaggy was disappointed because my son was going to let him ride with him on Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster which would have been Shaggy’s first ride on a very neat kids coaster. The Beastie was not even running either day. We went into Phantom Cavern to get warmed up.
Got something to eat and then decided to try the Beast one more time, but the line-up was to long. It was cooling off and getting pretty nippy out so we called it a night and went back to the hotel.
DAY2
Weather not looking much more promising than the previous night when we first gaze out the
window of the hotel. We head over to PKI around 10:30 with our PCW umbrellas in tow. Not
many cars in the parking lot. But, the always cheerful PKI employees at the gates greeted
us. Fewer rides are operating on Saturday then Friday. Oh dear, The Beast is not even
running, Bummer. We keep ourselves busy but, it is cold even for Canadians eeh! We ride
the Racer a few times do James Bond to get out of the elements. Check back at the Beast
still not running, Bummer. We decide to leave the park around 1:00 to get something to eat
and to get dry. Besides the park was going to be open to 9:00PM right.
We return to park around 5:30 and find out that they are closing early at 7:00PM, bummer. We rush over to the Beast to see if it is open and it is. We were hoping to see our buddy Shaggy working the Beast but, they sent him home. (Maybe he put his hands up on the ride or something) Waited about 20 minute and of course it was worth the wait. Nothing else was really running except for the Racer so we did that until it closed.
SUMMARY
Was it worth it? you ask. Of course it was. To ride the front seat of Beast, Yes! But,
most of all I got to meet two guys that I had only know through URC and e-mail. Thanks
Shaggy and Rocket Roger for a great evening Friday.
Regards,
Kevin, Donna, & Adam Reid
PCW JUNKIES
To contact the 
please send your comments to: TheReids@PCWjunkies.com