One of the few rides Nora could ride on, but she was a big girl and rode all by herself on some of them!
If you do not know, Kings Island is an amusement park in Cincinnati and has been around for 40 years. It has now changed hands several times, but is pretty much remained the same, a roller coaster park! 15 in all! The first one being a side by side dual coaster named the Racer. Its history is that two of the guys who started Kings Island were at a convention in Chicago and they found out that John Allen, roller coaster designer extraordinaire was there. They asked him to design the Racer for their new park, and he declined saying that he was retired, so they kept buying him drinks until he finally caved in. And so it started.
The next big coaster to go in was the legendary Beast. It is a ride that must be ridden by anyone who loves coasters. It is a wooden roller coaster that speeds through the forest area behind the park and is best ridden in the front at night. Nothing else like it. Although over the years they have slowed it down in an attempt to tame its “bite.” Some other coasters have come and gone including the Son of Beast. Another wooden roller coaster that was much higher and faster than the Beast, even including the only wooden roller coaster loop in the world! Unfortunately it has been closed down as it was perhaps a little too fierce and too many people were suffering whiplash and back pain. I remember us riding it in the back seat when it first opened, before they installed more brakes to slow it down a bit and were knocked around pretty good. I think I called out obscenities the entire ride, but with a smile. The latest coasters that have been built the last few years were ones we had not ridden yet and were on the must do list for the day.
But first we hit the kiddie land, know called Planet Snoopy. This the area I was assigned to work at, the 2 years I was employed at Kings Island before being “terminated” :) That was fine as I could no longer handle orange pants, with rainbow suspenders over a poofy white shirt any longer.
Nora surprised us and rode several of the rides all by herself, even the one that whipped her around pretty good. She really enjoyed herself. I just wish they had a little more for kids under 36 inches, as the over 36 inch kids had a lot of cool things for them. Perhaps a nice large playground?
Eventually Nora fell asleep for her nap. We headed straight for the Diamond Back. A new metal coaster with huge first hill and high speeds that twist and turn through a long maze of twisting metal. I got on quickly going through the single rider lane while Sharon stayed with Nora. It was an AWESOME ride! So fast and smooth. But to Sharon’s dismay the single rider line was closed when I finished. SO she did not want to wait the hour to get on and I could not blame her. So we went to Firehawk, the other one on our list.
This time we reluctantly left Nora with my mom who had come to the park with us and got into line together. It was a nervous 30 minutes until we got on as we not sure what Nora would do if she woke up and did not see us around as she barley knows her grandma Marge.
It went off without a hitch and we got to, I guess enjoy, the ride on Firehawk. It was what we called weird. Because it was not your usual roller coaster as you hung from the ride like superman as you “fly” through the ride. Complete with barrel rolls and loops. It was quite a sensation and a little nauseating. But overall pretty fun.
However for pure fun, we love the indoor Flight of Fear coaster which shoots you out into “space”. You twist and turn, up and down, all through an indoor maze of track in darkness. We laughed the entire ride when we got to ride it last time we visited. We wanted to do it again but our time had run out and Nora was awake. Plus we needed to get back to pack for departure to West Virginia late that night.
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