Opening Day Photos
The winters of Ohio can be long and cold for those who enjoy theme parks, and when the spring thaw leads to the parks open, it is a nice feeling to go back to the parks for the first time in months. Waking up from my winter hiatus for 2025 was visits to Six Flags Over Georgia, which happened on 4/12, then my visit to Kings Island for its opening day on April 19th.
Waking up in my dorm at BGSU, I would gripe about how cold the morning was. I would be joined by Peyton and Tiago, and the three of us would make the trip to Kings Island. We would get to the park just shy after park open, and we would go right to Flight of Fear, KI’s version of the Premier clones. We would wind up waiting nearly an hour for Flight of Fear, which was nice because it was indoors, and we got to enjoy the new lighting the indoor queue had for guests to experience. Tiago remarked on how well themed it was, and he commented how smooth it was compared to rides where he lives, which is Brazil. Following, we went to Orion, KI’s Giga coaster. While we were in line, it began to rain. After a few moments, it began to become a torrential downpour. We would seek refuge inside the show building, and after the rain passed 30 minutes later, Orion would reopen and we would get back to moving.
Of course with our luck we would wind up next in line when it would have a fault, which would shut the ride down again. This delayed us another 15 minutes, but we would finally ride Orion by noon. Taking a lunch break, we would eat at Coney BBQ, and head over to The Bat, to try and get a ride on it. For Tiago, this would be a new coaster, as he missed it on his previous visit. We would wait about half an hour before Bat had its own issue, and would be delayed 1 hour. After it finally reopened, we would be the first riders after its delay, where we would be lift stopped.
Tiago and I joked that we might get evac’ed from the ride, and Peyton, sitting behind us, would make bets on if we would or wouldn’t get to ride. Sure enough, my first ever true evac would be on the Bat, from the lifthill. We weren’t very high off the ground, and the stairs had railings and the trains surrounding us, keeping me safe. We got exit passes, and decided to use them on Beast. The Beast was a pleasure to ride, and we got the back row. Following Beast, we would head over to Mystic Timbers. While in line for Mystic Timbers, Taylor would text, and ask to meet up with us. I said sure, I had no problem with it. After riding Mystic, Taylor would join our trio, and we would attempt to take a ride on Invertigo, another ride Tiago needed to ride. We would get over there, where Luke would be standing in front of the ride and had to break the news that it was down for weather.
After Luke’s cameo appearance, we went to ride Scrambler and Racer, on a quest to give Tyler his cameo in today's visit. Tyler would be at Racer, and after seeing him (and riding Racer), we would go back to Bat for a redemption ride. This time, we would successfully ride Bat, and this made all of us happy, even Peyton was excited. We would attempt to ride Drop Tower, but it was down. We did get another cameo appearance, this time from Abi, who was by Drop Tower. While we waited for Drop Tower to open, we spotted Invertigo cycling. After ditching Drop Tower, we would get our ride on Invertigo. This ride is unique to North America, and it was a fun ride. Following Invertigo, we would take a lap on Banshee, and while I don’t have much to say about Banshee, Tiago, Peyton, and I did see a fight occur outside the entrance for Banshee, which Taylor completely missed by looking at Drop Tower.
Our last ride would be Flight of Fear, as I wanted to get moving back to BGSU. We would say by to Taylor, and would make one last dinner stop at WaWa, fuel up, and head home. Our total ride list for the day was FoF x2, Orion, Bat (Evac), Beast, Mystic Timbers, Scrambler, Racer x2, Bat (for real), Invertigo and Banshee.
Our day overall was good. Our first 4 hours were slow, but we did get a nice bit of rides to finish the day. With this being my first visit to Kings Island for the 2025 season, it was a great way to kick off the beginning of my summer break, even if I would have 2 more weeks of classes beforehand.