USA 2024 - American Antics (Transit megatrip!) | Kentucky Kingdom (Day 2)

[uwurawrus]

This trip report is long overdue, but it's a trip that I really want to relive, so I'm going to relive it right here for your entertainment (and probably education. there's some shenanigans here)

For reference, I do not drive. All journeys on this trip were either taken by people offering lifts, rideshare, free shuttles, bus, long distance bus, rail, light rail, boat, plane, or walking.
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The Iteniary
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Day 0: London Heathrow - Cincinnati
Day 1: Kings Island
Day 2: ??????
Day 3: ??????
Day 4: ??????
Day 5: ??????
Day 6: ??????
Day 7: ??????
Day 8: ??????
Day 9: ??????
Day 10: ??????
Day 11: ??????
Day 12: ??????
Day 13: ??????
Day 14: ??????
Day 15: ??????
Day 16: ??????
Day 17: ??????
Day 18: ??????
Day 19: ??????
Day 20: ??????
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All these will be linked to their relevant posts in the thread.

DAY 0: Thorpe Park / London Heathrow Airport / Cincinnati
19/06/2024
Ok, so, I was meant to go to Thorpe Park, but halfway there I realized I left my power adapter at home. So I went back home. Also, Hyperia valleyed. Which means, this trip report starts at the ever lovely, London Heathrow Terminal 5, home of British Airways!


There it is!



I boarded BA121 London - Cincinnati which was on this 787 Dreamliner. I enjoy these planes; last time I went to the US to Pittsburgh it was on one of these birds. I noticed that BA rather quite enjoy flying these to the more niche US airports over their 777s. I really like them. I think they're really comfortable. They also have one of my favourite IFE features on the planet, the in flight chatroom!




11E must've been an absolute raging nerd. Bet they couldn't wait for their visit to Kings Island.



Bet 35J couldn't either.

I landed at Cincinnati Airport and remember immigration being quite a quick painless process. I tend to find this with the less major airports in the states; most people travelling are on a US passport so the other passports line shockingly usually ends up being much much shorter. However, the border guard was certainly very confused as to the iteniary I had come up with, but it didn't take much questioning for me to be admitted into the US.




I boarded my FIRST BUS OF THE TRIP which took me into central Cincinnati where I then walked through an area I was recommended not to walk through, however ended up actually being quite pleasant.




It was upon arriving at my hotel where I had heard some absolutely tragic news.




Day 0 19/06/2026
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[uwurawrus]

20/06/2024 - Kings Island (Day 1)

I had a very comfortable nights sleep and woke up to what would quickly become a staple of my daily routine; the American Budget Hotel Breakfast Buffet. These are by no stretch of the imagination good, however I found them oddly comforting. One of the staples of these is the waffle maker, which I had no idea how to operate until a lovely lady kindly instructed me on how to use them.


This particular budget hotel, the Quality Inn & Suites Cincinnati Downtown (£156 for 2 nights) had a variety of batters on offer, including a daily special which was advertised to swap out every day! What a fun and exciting concept. I sure hope this idea continues throughout the trip.

These things are absolutely brilliant. I am an american budget hotel breakfast enthusiast and I'm not afraid to admit it!


I walked across the street from the hotel to this incredibly poorly marked out bus stop where I waited for a bus to downtown Cincinnati, where things are actually really well marked out, where I waited for the 72X to take me to Kings Island!


Kings Island: Day 1



What an arrival experience. You simply don't get entrance plazas this grand back in Europe, that's for sure. Kings Island's entrance is kind of slated for being a bit, well, blocky, but I think it does an amazing job at hiding the fountains that lay beyond. I collected my Kings Island Gold Pass + All Park Passport and Season Drinks/Dining Plan and made my way in for passholder ERT and to my first coaster of the trip which was none other than...


#425 - Snoopy's Soap Box Racers
A layout I had, in fact, ridden before, one I get quite nervous about riding, as these usually make me feel quite sick. This one was fine. I had no reason to ride it ever again. It was cute at least.
Cheeky plus one obtained, it was time to ride something I was actually bothered about riding...


#426 - Diamondback
is a coaster I can't say I was particularly eager to get on, however it exceeded all of my expectations. It's well presented, features a really fun layout through the woods, really fun sustained floater airtime and a great splashdown element. This was my 4th B&M hyper at the time, after Mako, Shambhala and Silver Star and despite not being a fan of the other staggered hyper I had done, Shambhala, I thought Diamondback was a fantastic coaster. Opposite Diamondback I found my next coaster,


#427 - Mystic Timbers
which I thought was an absolutely cracking wooden coaster. It's ridiculously well paced, charging over bunny hill after bunny hill low to the ground. There aren't many out and back style GCIs, but it was fun to get on one. It's in a great wooded setting too, with trees all around. I imagine Mystic Timbers would be a cracking night ride. It's so, so, so good.


#428 - Orion
Up next was my first B&M giga, Orion. At this time I had only done Millennium Force and Red Force, so it was nice to get on my first of the B&M variety. In a way I'm glad this was my first B&M, but I thought it was way better than the online consensus seemed to sell it as. Each element had purpose. The first drop was fantastic. The weird wave turn hill thing felt grand in scale and the forces were kinda funky. The speed hill was fantastic, the large camelback after was too, and the finale offered some weird sideways airtime atypical of B&M. I thought Orion was really good, much so that I still can't determine if I prefer it or its smaller brother. It really is a fantastic ride, one that I think is often wrongly overlooked.

#429 - Flight of Fear
Was the longest wait in the park and didn't impress me nearly as much as I thought it would. I'm not usually a fan of these pitch black coasters , and Flight of Fear didn't do enough in the force department to make it really stick out to me. What I did appreciate was the nicely themed station and queue line, but I wasn't fussed to reride it given the low crowds elsewhere in the park.

#430 - Racer (Red) was also promptly swept up before eating at Skyline Chili's, which might be my favourite fast food chain, ever.



This rocks. I want to eat this again. It's been two years. I want this. It's all I ever think about sometimes. It's so good.

You know what *is* an underrated coaster?

#431 - Adventure Express

I LOVE this thing. It's a themed experience, a ridiculous amount of fun with just the right amount of arrow jank to make it exciting. Adventure Express to this day is probably my favourite arrow mine train. It's so good. Don't sleep on this thing!

#432 - Invertigo was much less exciting, but for what it was I didn't think it was bad. I can easily see this going soon, though.

It was at this point I started to fall in love with Kings Island.
Sure, it's not got the greatest coasters, but it's an incredibly beautifully presented park, one with clear themed areas, well landscaped ones at that, friendly staff, great operations and just a nice chilled out vibe. Having been to Ohio the year prior for Cedar Point, it's not hard to see why Ohio is one of the greatest places in the world to be an enthusiast. Sure, it's only really got two major parks, but they're both absolute bangers and I hope one day I'm able to return to Kings Island!







I always enjoy these massive Intamin gyro drops!



Interesting design you have there, Kings Island...

I picked up #433 - Backlot Stunt Coaster, #434 - Woodstock's Air Rail, #435 - Woodstock Express and #436 - Great Pumpkin Coaster before making my way up the Eiffel Tower to get some absolutely wonderful views of this gorgeous park.









It's a true shame what happened with Banshee. I'm not generally a fan of B&M inverts, but this one's pretty big and notable, and of course quite different from the rest of them, so I was actually quite keen to ride it.



From here, I could see what I was told was one of the best coasters on the planet.

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#437 - The Beast
is often compared to rides like The Ultimate. However, unlike The Ultimate, which I imagine is a ride with lots of exciting janky moments that feel like they're trying to kill you, The Beast is a ride that essentially boils down to a drop leading into a turn leading into a somewhat exciting drop leading into a trim brake leading into a set of nothing turns that lead into a lift hill that leads into an essentially nothing helix into a brake run. The Beast, as it were riding at that moment, is essentially an incredibly nothing experience that I really don't get the hype for.

In the day.

More on that later. I was able to head back down the back of the park, sweeping up #438 - Racer (Blue) which wasn't operating earlier in the day, and also trekked down the incredibly long queue to the far corner of the world to ride


#439 - Bat
These arrow suspended coasters are SO SO SO SO good. Bat is such a fantastic ride, with some fantastic interactions with the nearby foliage and some pretty gnarly swinging. This thing is stupid underrated. Arrow really knew how to cook back then!



Cedar Fair food is so, so, so good...





I grabbed a few laps on my three favourite coasters in the park, Diamondback, Orion and Mystic Timbers, before making my way to The Beast to obtain what is supposedly one of the most legendary night rides on the planet.

Kings Island, strangely, have an official process for Beast night rides. The park hosts fireworks, but Beast isn't able to operate while these are ongoing. Despite this, they keep the line open up until park close and then pause Beast's operations until a while after the fireworks and drones end. The Beast's queue is not only a great place to watch these fireworks from, but these fireworks also allow ample chance for the sky to dim and the forests The Beast charges through to become pitch black.




At night, The Beast transforms from what can be best described as a rather cute puppy, into a feral creature charging through the woods. It's an absolutely magical night ride. That is to say, I still don't think The Beast is a very good rollercoaster, but it's certainly an enjoyable experience in the hours of darkness. If there's one time of day to experience it, it's now.

I enjoyed not just one, but two night rides on Beast after one of the ride ops clocked I was british and invited me to jump in an empty seat for the last train of the night. I will never forget that ride on The Beast. One of the most memorable rollercoaster experiences I have ever had.



Kings Island is an absolutely brilliant park, one that I hope I get to visit again in the future. I waited around for the stupidly timed bus back to Cincinnati, I booked an uber back to my hotel from downtown and had a long sleep ready for the shenanigans that awaited the following day...


20/06/2026 - Day 1

Credits Gained: 15 (424 -> 439)
Favourite Coaster of the Day: Orion
Stupidity Rating : 1/5

Join me next time where I board my first greyhound of the trip!
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[WoodCoasterFan]

I recently stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Stoke-on-Trent prior to visiting Alton Towers, and was surprised to find one of those waffle makers at breakfast. Don't think I've ever seen one outside the US before.

 

[uwurawrus]

21/06/2024 - Kentucky Kingdom (Day 2)
After what can only be described as an incredibly action packed first day with some long park hours I would have to get used to, and after a sleep that wasn't nearly long enough, it was time for me to check out of my hotel and continue on my wild journey.


Good morning Cincinnati!

The waffle mix of the day was blueberry, which I remember actually being quite nice. I was really starting to get into the groove of this whole breakfast thing!​

Not like anything else really looked all that appealing...

My greyhound was scheduled to leave Cincinnati at 10am, and I had to leave the hotel just before 9am to make it. Admittedly it wasn't an awful journey to the greyhound station. I caught my bus to the Greyhound station from the same place the Kings Island buses run from. IIRC Cincinnati's bus network is actually quite cheap (as I found local buses inside the US to be in general)



Oooooooooooo first greyhound of the trip!

It was an extremely nice ride down to Louisville. It's quite a short drive in US terms; about two hours, and the scenery along the way was nothing like I'm used to travelling inside Europe. There's no towns, no walkable neighborhoods, nothing. Everything turns from city to... nothing.



I'm not really sure what I was expecting to be honest.

All in all it was a pleasant drive. I put my noise cancelling headphones on, one of my crucial items I will always pack no matter what and zoned out whilst whizzing through what was essentially nothingness. The US is weird...

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Eventually I made my way to Louisville where I caught a series of buses to Kentucky Exposition Center, and collected my season pass for...





I was told Kentucky Kingdom wasn't a very good park, so I was quite eager to form my own opinions. It was just recently taken over by Herschend, and that alone made me curious. Given their track record with properties like Silver Dollar City and Dollywood, I was optimistic that things might've been on the up.

The park didn't feel perfect walking in, but stuff genuinely felt cared for in a way. I didn't notice anything looking particularly run down. The first major thing I noticed was how little shade there was. There's a lot of concrete, and in the heat I can't exactly say it's a pleasant park to exist in. There's a lot of open walkways, not a lot of tree cover, and... exposed queue lines.


#440 - Lightning Run
was up first, and was genuinely, a bit of a bucket list coaster for me. This thing looked awesome. I boarded the TEMU RMC train and prepared myself for something aggressive and it absolutely delivered. The airtime was downright ridiculous, though admittedly it's kind of all this coaster does, but it does it so well that it barely matters at all. There's not really any interesting variation in forces. No positives, rarely any funky lateral moments, but the way this thing ejects you is perfect.

But the restraints.

I don't know what it is about these; they look identical to the RMC ones, but, save for the Infinity Flyers, I've never had restraints come down as hard on me as they have on Lightning Run. I think the quality of airtime on offer here is so good that it barely matters, but it's still a talking point against this thing; one I was willing to look past for some more laps. Too bad the operations were kinda slow.



I had another ride on Lightning Run, before locating what I had heard legendary things about; the Herschend Cinnamon Bread.




Despite being told this was the worst of the cinnamon breads, this is the stuff dreams are made out of. I hope I can go to Dollywood or Silver Dollar City at some point in my life to taste the real deal!



Kentucky Kingdom is, rather strangely, split into two halves by a road. Most of the attractions (and the water park) are in the back half of the park, with the front half only really being home to Lightning Run and a few flats.

The first thing you come across on the other side is a little vekoma roller skater, aptly named at the time, #441 - Roller Skater, but has apparently now received a bit of a retheme. It needed it.


#442 - Storm Chaser
I hadn't been on a small scale RMC yet. I didn't really know what I was in store for. At the time I had only ridden the Hypers, Wildfire and Jersey Devil, so I wasn't really sure what I was in store for. That barrel roll down drop is absolutely awesome and felt absolutely nothing like how I expected it to. You're then launched into what looks like it should be an awesome roller coaster, and don't get me wrong, it is delivering ejector airtime pop after ejector airtime pop. Alas it just felt a bit... slow?

Maybe I just needed some more rides on it later.


#443 - Thunder Run
did catch me off guard. I was told these Dinn woodies were absolutely terrible, and admittedly it's not a world class woodie by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely not a disaster. It's rough but not unbearably so. The first run of hills after the turnaround are actually quite good. It's a bit meandery afterwards, but it's almost endearing.

I had a few more laps on Storm Chaser expecting to love it as much as everyone else seems to, and it's a cracking ride, sure, but the ugly presentation and... lack of intensity kind of made it suffer a bit in my mind. It was fine, not a coaster I particularly fell in love with.




#444 - Kentucky Flyer
was a coaster I was sure I was going to hate, thanks to its timberliners, but it doesn't go fast enough to rattle itself apart, so it actually wasn't all that awful. These are really great family coasters; I think a small park in the UK could do with something like this and the enthusiast crowd would eat it up too! Really great family coaster.



Running out of things to do, I tried out Kentucky Kingdom's 4D theatre, and this is not really an attraction type I tend to do much in parks, but this one was pretty fun. There was a lot of movement. In a way it felt like a btec flying theatre. Actually pretty cool.



Kentucky Kingdom also have a Larson Drop Tower, a model which I was told was absolutely bonkers, and that would be correct. These are some of the most forceful drop towers in the world. I especially love how they drop without warning. These things are great.





I ended the day with a few more rides on what was definitively my favourite coaster in the park, and at the time, my favourite coaster of the trip so far, Lightning Run, and was genuinely quite happy with what I had spent my day doing.

I'm not quite done with the day yet, so there'll be a separate post capping off the 21st as I've ran my post photo limit dry, but let's just say, there's some shenanigans...


21/06/2026 - Day 2

Credits Gained: 5 (439 -> 444)
Favourite Coaster of the Day: Lightning Run
Stupidity Rating : 2/5​