#KIBestDay

 

On Saturday, June 6, 2015, my family and I departed from Roseville, Michigan, to Cincinnati, Ohio, to spend the weekend at Kings Island. Kings Island is owned by Cedar Fair and is one of Cedar Point’s sister parks. My mom, brother, and I hit the road about 3 p.m. on Saturday and arrived at our hotel room in northern Cincinnati at around 8 p.m. When we visit Kings Island, we stay at the Red Roof Inn & Suites Cincinnati North-Mason. I highly recommend this hotel as your place to stay when visiting Kings Island if a hotel is needed. The employees are very friendly, the entire hotel is clean, and there is free Wi-Fi, parking, and a continental breakfast, as well as an outdoor pool, and an indoor fitness room with exercise equipment. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are available. This Red Roof location is also pet-friendly.

 

Once we checked into our room, we decided to head over to Kings Island for the last hour and a half that they were open on Saturday night, as the park closed at 10 p.m. During that time, we were able to enjoy our very first dark rides on The Beast and Diamondback. After that, we made a quick trip into a few of the gift shops before heading back to the hotel for the night. Upon our arrival back to the hotel, we relaxed for a bit then went to bed to rest up for the full day at the park the next morning.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning. Time to get up and get ready to head back to Kings Island. For the whole day Sunday, we purchased Fast Lane Plus, which was a great decision. Our first ride of the day was Banshee and then we headed over to Diamondback (Oh yeah, if you go to Kings Island this year and ride Diamondback, be sure and say hi to one of their best ride hosts, Alex). After Diamondback, we enjoyed rides like Vortex, Flight of Fear, and some of the flat rides as well, like Zephyr and Shake, Rattle & Roll.

At around 11 a.m., we decided to have our first meal break—this is a great time to eat, since many other guests are not hungry yet, therefore lines to get food are very minimal. We ate at Rivertown LaRosa’s Pizza located near Diamondback and Vortex. They offer combos such as a slices of either of pepperoni or cheese pizza with two breadsticks and a beverage. After our first meal break, my brother and I took a few repeat rides on Diamondback. With Fast Lane Plus, it was great to walk right on the rides. Then my family and I went over to Planet Snoopy to check out the new petting farm. It was very fun. We then enjoyed a nice round-trip ride on the K.I. & Miami Valley Railroad.

 

Later on, we rode rides such as Invertigo, Firehawk, and many other flat rides. It was really hot on Sunday, close to 90 degrees, so we rode Kongo Falls and also took a few rides on Race for Your Life Charlie Brown to cool down a little bit. A little while later, we decided we needed to cool down a bit more and decided to take another meal break inside the air-conditioned Reds Hall of Fame Grille. The food was great and portion size was very generous for the price. The employees were really friendly. It was a great dining experience and a nice break inside air-conditioning away from the hot weather.

Throughout the rest of the evening, as we had ridden pretty much all of the roller coasters (except the coasters in Planet Snoopy as we did not get on them this trip), and we also got on most of the flat rides as well (except we did not get on Delirium or Grand Carousel), we started to re-ride some of the coasters.

 

To sum it up, with the help of Fast Lane Plus, we were able to get 5 rides on Diamondback, 4 rides on Banshee, 2 rides on Flight of Fear, 2 to 3 rides on The Beast, 2 rides on The Racer (one on red and one on blue), 3 rides on Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, and then pretty much once on almost all the flat rides except Planet Snoopy. We didn't get on White Water Canyon though...as we did not feel like getting THAT soaked this time.

We’d like to thank Kings Island for making our weekend visit to the park an AMAZING trip. It really was a #KIBestDay and we can’t wait for our next visit to their park. For anyone that has not yet had the opportunity to visit Kings Island or if you are thinking of doing so soon, I highly recommend you make the trip and experience Kings Island for yourself. You will have an amazing trip!

-Jordan Smith