Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 1: Kings Island and Cedar Point.

This post is dedicated to Thunder Road, which had its last ride this weekend.

Does that road trip layout look a bit intimidating to you?  If you love road trips and travel frequently, then the answer is probably no.  I remember when Mr. Meena emailed this map to me he put “CRAZY thought! Property of Coffee LLC” in the email subject line.  And I definitely agreed that it was crazy.  We had never done anything like this before!

We live close to Carowinds, the “Thrill Capital of the Southeast”, so of course we have season passes.  Mr. Meena actually works next door to the amusement park and has been known to go on his lunch break (he is the biggest roller coaster fanatic that I know).  So at the beginning of this year we decided that we would go on a roller coaster vacation and that we would do it on a budget.  That’s no small feat, my friends.  What really brought this dream to reality was the platinum season passes offered by Cedar Fair.  Carowinds is just one of many parks owned by the company, so with those passes we could regularly visit Carowinds and any other Cedar Fair park.  How cool is that?!  Season passes offer so many benefits that it’s hard to imagine a situation where we wouldn’t choose them over a ticket.  If you go to the park one day and it storms, no big deal, just go the next day because you have a season pass!!  You really only have to visit twice to make the purchase worth it.  Not to mention that you don’t have to pay for parking, you get discounts on food and merchandise, and often you get to go in early or stay late at the park with other pass holders.

Our trip took a lot of planning but eventually we had the perfect route.  I had only visited a handful of amusement parks before this trip, but now I have much so more experience with and knowledge about coasters (all thanks to Mr. Meena, of course).  Here we are about to embark on day one of our adventure.

We were thinking, “It’s 465 miles to Kings Island, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of energy drinks, it’s cloudy… and we’re wearing tank tops.”

I’m going to talk about each park we visited, the top rides and highlights, how we saved money, and funny stories that happened along the way.  Are you ready?!

Park 1/5: Kings Island, Mason, OH.
“Largest Amusement & Waterpark in the Midwest!”

My first thought when we arrived was, “Can this be my home park??”  Sorry, Carowinds.  We spent the evening of day one here and the morning of day two, and I wish that we had been able to stay longer!  I dearly loved this park.

My 3 favorite intense rides:

1) Banshee.  I would like to introduce you to my current all-time favorite coaster.  I should mention, however, that I am a complete sucker for inverted coasters.  I also have not found a B&M coaster that I do not like.  While you are waiting in line for this ride you can see the thematic graveyard and hear the piercing cry of the banshee.  The line moves very quickly, though, which is great when you intend to ride as many times as possible.

When I got up to the platform I immediately noticed how spacious the seats on the train were.  In my experience on inverted coasters it’s really hard to see anything if you aren’t in the front row, but these seats were spaced out enough that I still had a good line of vision when sitting farther back.  The first drop leads right into a beautiful dive loop that sets the pace for the ride.  There is just so much to experience on this coaster: a zero-g roll, pretzel knot, loop, in-line twist, quick changes in acceleration, and beautiful views.  This was a ride that I could not get enough of.

2) Diamondback.  I am glad that it was dark the first time I rode this coaster because it made every turn more unexpected.  My favorite part of the ride was definitely the splash effect; right at the end the coaster goes through a shallow pond and creates a booming wave of water behind it.  I’ve heard you can even feel the water if you’re in the back row.  I loved how the coaster went back into a wooded area and felt surrounded by greenery during parts of the ride.

3) The Beast.  How could this not be in my top three rides?  Mr. Meena is rarely adamant about anything, so when he said that this had to be the last ride of the night I knew better than to contradict him.  He also wouldn’t tell me a thing about this ride before we got on it.  It’s not possible to see much of the track so I was a bit nervous while waiting in line.  The “Beware of the Beast” and other warning signs posted in the station didn’t help.  I agree with Mr. Meena that this ride shouldn’t be spoiled, so I won’t say much here except that it is definitely worthy of your last ride of the night.

Favorite moderate thrill ride: Adventure Express.

This ride is accurately named; I certainly had an adventure!  Mr. Meena suggested it during a break from bigger rides and so we hopped on.  At first we are just riding along looking at the lovely trees of Kings Island and then all of a sudden we are in a tunnel that reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie.  Can you believe there are four tunnels and two lift hills on this ride?  I didn’t expect that much from such a kid-oriented ride.  The third tunnel is meant to be a volcano, but in my opinion the fourth one really takes the cake.  As you are ascending to the top of the tunnel you pass several large stone warriors that are chanting and beating drums.  That loud, and seemingly possessed, scene was so surprising and strange to me that I burst into laughter.  We just had to ride again.

Overall Impression: When we first parked, I thought that Kings Island looked a bit aged and needed a fresh coat of paint.  But as we spent time there I came to think of it as charming.  They have the best natural landscape of any park I’ve been to and I just love seeing all the trees and green scenery while enjoying rides.  I was sad to walk past some of their iconic rides like Demon and Son of Beast that are now closed… I would have liked to ride them.  Kings Island was an outstanding park and I hope we can make the eight hour trek again soon.

Park 2/5: Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio.
“The Roller Coaster Capital of the World”

This park is a monstrosity.  We were fortunate to get to experience it over days three, four, and five of our trip by staying with Mr. Meena’s generous relatives.  We even saved ourselves time by finding the secret-but-really-not-so-secret entrance that Mr. Meena wasn’t sure existed.  It rained a bit while we were there… but nothing could dampen our excitement!

My favorite three intense rides:

1) Millennium Force.  This baby is 15 years old and you wouldn’t know it.  Millennium Force is currently my second favorite coaster.  It’s really hard to beat a Giga coaster that sits right next to Lake Erie.  It has an outstanding sunset view, and I’m sure the sunrise view is just as good.

To give you some perspective, Fury 325 opened at our home park about two months before our trip, and I couldn’t get over how similar this much older coaster was to Fury.  It’s only 15 feet shorter, two mph slower, and it actually has a higher vertical angle (by one degree).  Plus, I loved the cable lift hill that hauled us to the top so fast, the tunnels, the hills and turns – especially the last one around the line queue area.  I also strongly prefer the two riders across seat style and the more secure restraints.  I know I’m probably in the minority when I say that I prefer this over Fury, but I feel like with 15 years between the two coasters there could have been more improvements.  Insert unpopular opinion puffin here.

2) GateKeeper.  I also have a strong affinity for wing coasters, and this one is by B&M (they are essentially my kryptonite).  Is there anything more freeing than being suspended without track above or below you?  I love that every seat gives you a different experience as you go through dive drops, an Immelmann, a corkscrew, zero-g roll, inclined dive loop, and in-line twist.  This coaster seems to have it all with a smooth ride, a beautiful view of the lake, and a nice trip over the park entrance.

3) Magnum XL 200.  I spotted this ride on our first day at the park as we were going into the back entrance and I loved the unusual structure.  I also enjoyed the themed cars, the great views, and the multiple drops that actually made my stomach flip – a rare occurrence for me.  It’s one of those older steel coasters that you just have to enjoy.

Favorite moderate thrill ride: Gemini.  What a darling ride!  This was one of the first coasters we rode upon arrival and it was certainly the friendliest.  The riders high-fived throughout almost the whole track of the twin coaster.  It’s an easy ride to enjoy with the comfy steel frame and aesthetic wooden structure.

Story time: Okay, coaster fans, I have to tell you about how we got a rollback on Top Thrill Dragster.  Yes, a rollback.  We arrived at the park on our first day there and I think we had ridden three coasters and had only been there an hour or two by the time we walked by this ride.  It wasn’t even operating at the time but there were still about 30 waiting people in line anyway.  We decided to join them on a hunch that the coaster would open soon, and it did open about 15 minutes later.  Mr. Meena told me that it was very unusual to have such a short wait time for this ride, so we were fortunate.  We got up to the line corral and the first train left the station.  Then we were in the seats and rolling out into the launch area for the second send-off of the day.  As we are waiting to be launched up 400 feet straight in the air at 120 mph in just four seconds Mr. Meena looks at me and says, “Just so you know, we might roll backwards.”

I looked at him in terror, “How are you just now telling me this?  What do you mean we might roll backwards??!  That’s not normal!  Roller coasters don’t do that!”  I had so much to learn.  I was not even remotely prepared for this ride.  Well… off we went thanks to our hydraulic launch.  We go up, up, and up, and then we slow down.  I bravely manage to look to my left at a smiling Mr. Meena, and then past him 400 feet to the ground… and then we rolled backwards.

Photo by Patrick licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

Have you ever been launched 400 feet into the air and then fallen back down backwards?  I was freaking out while Mr. Meena was pumping his arms in the air and shouting for joy about our rollback.  In the coaster world, a rollback on this ride is a rare and coveted event (or so I’m told).  Furthermore, the worst part of the rollback is the knowledge that you have to go through all of that again!  I came very close to having a panic attack.  Because you can’t just get launched right back up and get it over with, no – you have to wait for the train to slowly tick backwards into the starting position via gravity.  Inch by agonizing inch.  Then once we were in the right spot there was a touch of rain, and therefore a further delay of our ride and another increase in my anxiety.  Eventually we did go up and over, and then I had to have a Powerade and a time out to calm down.

Overall impression: I received the most bruises from this park.  Top Thrill Dragster bruised my elbows, Magnum bruised my thighs, Millennium Force bruised my knees, and Maverick bruised everything else (yes, even with the new restraints).  Because we went on a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we were fortunate to have a very empty park.  I really appreciated the smaller features of the park, such as MaXair , the Ferris wheel, and the old-timey car tracks.  It’s nice to be able to take a break from the big stuff for a while.

Be sure to check out part two of our trip, where I share about visiting Canada’s Wonderland, Niagara Falls, and Dorney Park.

This post is linked up with Wanderful Wednesday: