Voicetek

^ My wife and I waited a little over 4 hours for Banshee too and we were starved and dying of thirst by the time we got off. Does anyone know why KI didn't put in drink or candy machines like they have on other rides? This queue is like 3 times the size of Diamondback's and it has machines. I'm not normally one to spend $4 on a bag of M&M's or $4 for a 20oz drink, but today I might have made an exception.

Exactly 4 hours and 5 minutes.

Completely agree. I understand that KI wants to make the money from Fast Lane and Fast Lane Plus, but the crowds were so bad today that I think it should have just been a free for all - especially on Banshee. It's even more unfair that Fast Lane people were allowed (who in the world was in charge of handing the shirts out?) to grab more than one shirt. Shame on everyone involved! On a side note, I told my wife that they need to install a sensor at the Fast Lane entrance so that when people walked in, it would trigger a "cha ching, cha ching" sound. It's kind of amazing to watch and estimate how much free money KI rakes in with the whole Fast Lane thing.

Banshee was amazing, just what I was hoping for! My wife and I were a little disappointed with the stacking. We saw all three trains waiting in the station pretty frequently and mostly just one train cycling at a given time. Pretty bad in my opinion. Also, did anyone else have any problems with all the line jumping and line holding? No lie, in the 3 and a half hours we were in an "actual" queue (the temporary queue and the main ride queue) we had about 20 people or more come walking past us. It was like people were texting their friends and telling them if they wanted to ride Banshee that they could come meet them in line. It was getting completely out of hand. We saw some people try to block the people line jumping, but they would just duck and crawl under the railing. I had half a mind to go tell the people at the entrance to do their job and quit letting all these people in. Oh well. What can you do?

So my wife and I just got back from KI and I thought I'd post a few things about opening day. I'll start with the good things: Banshee is amazing! It was a fabulous ride and definitely worth the wait. Also, all the upgrades they've made throughout the park really look nice. All the new paint and things really add to the look of the park. Now some of the bad things: The crowds. Just one word: DANG! I've never seen a busier opening day in my life. This was worse than Diamondback's opening day by a mile. Total wait time for my wife and I for Banshee was 4 hours and 5 minutes. One thing that was really bad was the excessive line jumping and line "holding" we witness while we were in line. I kid you not, it happened through the entire 4 hours we were in line, even once we got into the actual queue areas. People were just coming right on in like nothing was wrong. One instance that ticked me off was this one girl came into the queue line and found a friend of hers and asked if it was ok to join her in the line (note that this was 2 and a half hours into our wait) her friend said yes, so the girl turned and motioned for her other friends. About 4 other girls come pushing through the queue to join the group. This happened again about an hour later with 4-5 young teen boys further up in the line. Besides that we saw, no lie, about 20 people or more walk past us from kids to adults, all meeting up with people holding spots and such. Whoever was working the main entrance should be fired. Next, what was with all the stacking of the Banshee trains? My wife and I never saw more than one train running at a given time. More than 5 times (once we got close enough to see) we saw all three trains stopped at the loading station. For a high capacity coaster, they sure weren't loading quick at all. Who knows how much shorter the wait would have been if not for all the stacking. Also, apparently they're letting you take loose articles on now? We heard them tell several people that they could take their loose articles on, such as the Banshee drink bottles, as long as they held on to them. Hmmm....I thought that what the lockers were for. I saw one lady carrying a book with her. Not sure where she put the book, but she was standing on the stairs just minutes from loading on the ride. It'll be interesting to see what comes of that. We also got a chance to go through Dinosaurs Alive. Just as I was afraid of, it was rather packed. We saw a bunch of teenagers roaming through the area, some of which were walking up to the dinos and touching them, or messing with their teeth and such. I wonder how long it will be before they return that area to a "pay" attraction if vandalism starts to become a problem. All in all though it was a great day. There is always something exciting about opening day and waiting in line with the anticipation of riding a new ride. Even though the crowds were large and we had some not so great experiences (ie. the line jumping) it was still a fun day at Kings Island and we both look forward to our next trip!

^ That is the greatest thing I have ever heard!

I never call off work unless I have a really good reason. Worst case scenario, if something comes up, I go in late. This winter with all the snow and stuff, one day my car got stuck in the snow. I was ticked. I had to essentially dig my car out which took over an hour. I considered just taking the day off because I was all sweaty and my clothes were soaked from the snow, but I grabbed a quick shower, got changed, and headed on to work anyway. I do, however, get a handful of vacation days which I use sparingly. Since my wife gets Good Friday off at her work, I usually take that day off too and we go spend the day together. This year I was lucky enough that opening day fell on Good Friday since I was taking it off anyway. If I had no vacation days though, I probably would not skip work to go. I would just go on Saturday instead. You really have to keep your priorities straight and in today's economy, if you have a job, you better hold on to it. Which also means, don't do anything stupid that could jeopardize your position. As excited as I am to ride Banshee, I think I could wait just one more day since I've already waited this long anyway. Yes, the t-shirt would be nice to have, but being a good employee and a good student is worth a lot more than a free t-shirt.

Same here. I'm not claiming credit for the images, but I did highly tweak and combine them in Photoshop. As you can see, my version differs quite a bit from the original image: I do, however, claim credit for the composition.

Have any of you created any wallpapers based on one of your favorite Kings Island attractions? Or maybe just a wallpaper of Kings Island in general? This is a thread where you can post all of your favorite fan-created Kings Island wallpapers and share them with other Kings Island enthusiasts. If it's a wallpaper you've created, please specify terms of usage. For example: You can download this image and use it as your personal wallpaper, but don't post or share on another site, etc. It's pretty simple. Ok, so I'll get things started. Here is a wallpaper I made today of the Phantom Theater. Feel free to download it and use it as a wallpaper on your personal devices. If you'd like to post or share it on other websites, etc, please PM me for permission. Thanks! Download High Quality (1366x768)

Since I get very few vacations days allotted to me per year at work, I'm going to make good use of my day off and sleep in a little bit. Then my wife and I will get up, get ready, and head out to KI. I plan on arriving sometime around 12. Maybe sometime between 12-1, I'm not sure yet. My main goal is to at least ride Banshee, so I figure as long as I get there at a reasonable time, I should be able to get at least one ride.

I had a rather interesting dream last night. I dreamed that one of the new shows at KI this year was "Phantom Theater: The Musical." The show took place in what looked to be a mix between the Festhaus and the old Phantom Theater building somewhere (things get all mixed up in dreams). In my dream though, the performers were dressed up as characters from the Phantom Theater, blue make up and all. I don't remember what all happened in the show, but I remember thinking it was pretty cool.

As I've mentioned in other posts, I waited about 3 hours to ride Diamondback on it's opening day and that was one of the WORST lines I've ever seen at any park I've visited. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Banshee's line won't be as bad as that next Friday (or at least just as bad). If I could get me a ride in 3 hours or so, I think I'd be ok. My wife and I both have the day off, so we can get there whenever we feel like it. Unless something unexpected comes up, I'll definitely be getting my first ride on opening day!

Here are the current weather predictions for next week. As you all know, these could change. This was taken from Weather.com

Plus you have to take into account the businesses that aren't closed on Fridays. The place where I work doesn't close for Good Friday (they hardly close for anything, but that's beside the point), and I'm sure there are other places around the area that don't either. I'm lucky enough that I have some vacation days saved up so I will be taking that day off. However, others might not be as lucky. So again, I'm hoping that this will lighten the crowds slightly even for just the first part of the day.

To be honest, I don't think it could be any worse than opening day for Diamondback. Usually opening days happen on a Saturday, this year it's on a Friday and one that is also a religious holiday. Some people are saying "most schools are off Good Friday" which is true, but most schools is not "all" schools. Whereas on a Saturday all schools are off (unless you're in Saturday school or something). So I feel like worst case scenario would be crowds equal to 2009 opening day, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for slightly lower crowds considering the Friday opening.

I had a dream last night that they put the Hanna-Barbera carousel back in the park. I was there in line waiting happily to ride on Scooby Doo again.

I was at opening day in 2009 for Diamondback and from the looks of the line, I didn't think we were ever going to get on. We were at the very end of the line all the way back by the LaRosa's back between The Beast and Backlot Stunt Coaster. However, it only took around 3 hours to get on. The line seemed to move pretty quick and we were intrigued by watching Diamondback make it's many runs around the newly installed, brightly painted track. We stuck around for a little while after riding Diamondback, and it didn't seem to be too bad around the rest of the park. So even with crowds similar to opening day 2009, I don't think it would be unbearable.

The article stated that the ride was "next to" Kingda Ka, but judging from the pictures, it looks like it's right underneath to me.

I don't care what the people in the "fashion" industry say, I love my shorts! Especially my cargo shorts. I've got a couple of nice pair that I got from American Eagle several years ago, but they are starting to show some wear. It's nice to hear that Kohls has some nice ones this year. I kind of hate how stores change styles and cuts from season to season. What you could wear one year, you might not be able to wear the next. This is the fact with American Eagle now. I'll have to give Kohls a try. God knows I have to have me some cargo shorts for my KI visits!

I must say that I love Diamondback, but it's one coaster that, for me, is a little unnerving because of the safety system. I do trust that the lap bar is sufficient, but I think it's just something in your head that knows that if the bar was to fail, there's nothing else to keep you on (even if you are able to stay in the seats without anything). Even though seat belts might be unnecessary, I think they add comfort because it gives you a secondary safety system. It's like a backup. You know that if, by chance, the lap bar fails, you've got a seat belt there to hold everything in place. This puts your mind at ease and for that reason I wouldn't mind a seat belt really.

Oh my gosh, I had completely forgotten about this! I was there that winter and remember seeing the Smurfs all around this area. This must have been the first year Phantom Theater was there and the Smurfs had been newly removed. I miss all of this!

It's a great event if you don't mind not being in the water. The line to actually get in the water to watch the movie is sometimes longer than the lines to some of the coasters in the dry park. Perhaps they should add Dive-in movies to the list of Fastlane attractions. Since watching the movie in the water isn't likely to happen, then I recommend getting there early enough to get a beach chair. My wife and I went once and ended up leaving after about 20 minutes. Once we realized that there was a line just to get into the water, we gave up on that idea and started looking for a beach chair. They were pretty much all taken by then. We were pretty much only there to watch the movie from the wave pool anyways, so we just decided to leave. I'm sure this event can be fun for many people, we just weren't thrilled with the set up and decided it wasn't something we'd particularly care to attend after that.

My wife and I are planning on getting one after riding. It will be a nice way of celebrating our first ride on Banshee

I'll be there rain or shine most likely. I'm taking a vacation day at work, so I have the whole day. I definitely want to be there and hopefully get a ride on Banshee as well. Getting excited!

I'm predicting either cold and rainy or hot and sunny. Maybe somewhere in between, like warm and mild with a slight breeze. Could even be some snow. For April in Ohio it could be any one of these scenarios, so pick your favorite one and keep your fingers crossed!