Day 20 – July 8, 2019

We were staying in a campground about 30 minutes from King’s Island. Not wanting to have to drive back to the campground this night, we decided to get a motel just a couple minutes away. That way we could hit the park in the morning, check in around 4 and relax, and return to the park for the evening.

Of course, that didn’t happen. We stayed at the park all day and ran out of steam around 7. I was going to return to King’s Island by myself, but the air conditioning and the bed were far too comfortable.

It was a great day at King’s Island. The park’s entry features a one-third scale Eiffel Tower. The main street is a European village with a huge pool and fountains in front.

Little did we know it, but this was the day Ashley truly started enjoying roller coasters.

We started the day at a wooden coaster called Mystic Timbers.

It is a fun wooden roller coaster built in 2017. The gimmic here is the train enters a shed at the end of the ride. All around are signs asking, “what’s in the shed?” Thus the mystery.

Turns out it is an 80s boom box playing a song followed by a video showing either a bat attack or a snake attack. The shed was pretty fun but not worthy of the hype. But the coaster was great.

Kathy and I finally got to ride the Beast. It was awesome. Most of the ride winds quickly through the forest that surrounds the park. This coaster is epic because of its speed and length. Ashley sat this one out. But she almost did it.

At the end of the day, Ashley rode 9 different coasters (she did Mystic Timbers twice, so ten total coaster rides). Most were major coasters.

The most surprising was Flight of Fear. It is an indoor coaster like Space Mountain. It is themed around an alien invasion and the queue involves entering a flying saucer.

The coaster flys out of the station and goes into a series of loops and cork screws. But because it is mostly dark, it was hard to tell when we were upside down or right side up! I was shocked that Ashley loved this ride.

We watched an 80s music show. It was fun. The kids in the show worked really hard to make it entertaining.

We rode a wooden coaster called the Racers. It looked fun as there are two tracks with two trains that race and meet back at the station. While the concept was fun and beating Kathy’s train was fun, the ride was, to put it kindly, bumpy. So much so that Kathy decided she wanted to sit on the sideline for a while. That allowed Ashley and I the chance to ride Mystic Timbers again.

We ended the day with a gentle train ride and finally a trip to the top of the tower. The views were resplentent.

So many coasters so little time.

We checked in at the Super 8 which was 5 minutes from the park. I talked to my dad and got caught up on the doings back home. I’m sorry we are missing all the earthquakes. NOT!

One of the negative feedbacks on this hotel was the power goes out. I thought nothing of it until it happened. Three times no less. But the air conditioning never went off which was the important part.