These past two weeks are probably going to be the best part of my coaster year. The parks that I went to- King’s Island, Dollywood, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and King’s Dominion-were amazing. These parks will always have a special place in my heart not only because they are some of the best parks that I’ve been to, but because of the memories that I shared with my family and, in case of the latter two parks, friends. Night rides on the Beast, cracking jokes on Blazing Fury, meeting up at Busch Gardens with other COASTER-net members, and graying out on the first turn of Intimidator 305 are some of those memories that I will cherish until the day I die.

King’s Island is a park that I can never tire of. I had plenty of rides on all of the major coasters and maybe more than plenty on my favorites. We were there for 3 hours the first day and only rode three rides. As it was Sunday and Father’s Day, the lines were pretty long, which explains the 1 ride to 1 hour ratio. We started out on our favorite B&M mega coaster, Diamondback. I could ride this beast all day with its amazing airtime, speed, epic views of the park, and who could forget the splashdown finale? I wasn’t sure if my mom still liked it after it took her phone from her last year, but she still enjoyed the ride, as hyper coasters are her favorite type of coaster.

The next ride was Firehawk. This was basically our last resort ride as I wanted to ride Vortex next. But the line was too long, as was with Flight of Fear, and surprisingly, Firehawk gets the shortest wait time in that section. We waited around 45 minutes for it, which is no less than I expected with the normal Flying Dutchman capacity. I like the ride, but it can be a little rough when flipping over. I wish B&M had the same layout of the Flying Dutchman, as it would be a lot smoother and wouldn’t have terrible capacity. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, but it was enough for the two days we would be there.

And then it was time for the classic Beast night ride. The line was the longest I have ever seen it, with it stretching into the switchbacks that’s all overgrown and unused. It was well worth the wait, however. My brother and I got into the first row of the last car, and enjoyed every second of the ride. All of my previous night rides were either in the front row, or near the front. It’s a totally different story in the back. You get pulled over the top, and you don’t feel the effect of the trims at all. And that huge drop into the ravine is just crazy. When we got out of the last tunnel before the second lift, we were doing at least 70 MPH. Then the double helix finale; it was the best ever. It felt like we were only in the tunnel for a fraction of a second; it was so fast. I just wish the brake run wasn’t so long, they could have had another small dip before the brakes, but it is what it is, I guess.

We got up early the next day for early ride time, because of our platinum passes. The only thing that we really wanted to do that was opened for early ride was, of course, Diamondback. We rode it at least four times before the park even opened. We rode once in the front, once in the middle, and twice in the back. A back seat ride is definitely the best for Diamondback, because it pulls you over the top of the lift and never loses pacing. After Diamondback, it was time for a favorite of ours, Boo Blasters. I thought that my brother and my Call of Duty, Halo, and Battlefield skills would help us own. We were both master blasters, with scores well over 1200. My brother even went akimbo for a little while, so the imaginary person in between us got a round score of 30. We would have had more, but the target system wasn’t really working that well and made us use multiple shots on target before it even registered.

Then it was time to go to the other side of the park where we rode Invertigo, Flight Deck, and Adventure Express. Invertigo was much better this year, not only with the new paint job but also the smoothness. It might just be me, though, finding better control of my head. Flight Deck was okay, still not as good as the Wolf, but I’m basically stuck with it for the time being before California (I’ve heard great things about Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain). While in line, I looked at the Wooden Mount Everest behind me and noticed immediately the bent diagonal beams in the structure. I don’t see how Son of Beast even stayed up for more than a couple years. It’s terrible! There is no hope for saving it; they would have to completely rebuild the structure, so they might as well just get rid of the entire coaster. Then all they would have to do is call up Intamin, have them build an exact clone of the original Son of Beast in prefab form with a steel structure with the loop, and the GP would never notice the difference. All they would say would be, “I wonder why it was closed for so many years; there’s nothing wrong with it.” After Flight Deck, we went over to Adventure Express, one of my favorite mine trains. I love the theme, (who doesn’t love Indy?), and the scenery is just fantastic. The ride goes with the terrain very well, especially with the nice, lengthy prelift. It still doesn’t beat ThuNderaTion at Silver Dollar City, though. ThuNderaTion has cars three and five facing backwards, and has an even longer prelift.

Next we did Racer which only had the red train running, but I still liked it. Racer has amazing airtime and gives a great view of the surrounding area. Then we walked over to the X-Base area where we did Flight of Fear. I love the intensity and the awesome theming, and the TV’s were on this time. We skipped Firehawk and went straight to Vortex.

My parents, for some reason, think Vortex is too rough for them and sat it out while my brother and I rode the infamous sixth car on this awesome Arrow contraption. We experienced amazing floater airtime on the first drop, and everything until the turn into the block brake was glass smooth. The turn was taken a bit too fast, and we felt some lateral g’s on it. I love the second half. I love how it differentiates from the normal batwing before double corkscrew and goes the other way around. And that helix finale is just awesome.

After Vortex, all four us rode Windseeker which is a pretty cool ride. We already did the ones at Cedar Point and Canada’s Wonderland, so it was old hat for us, except for my dad as this would be his first time. After Windseeker, we went to Backlot, one of three family launch coasters I would ride this vacation. I like the theming on this ride, even though it isn’t up to the standard of that other family launcher in Williamsburg (coughFAHRTcough). The ride is pretty good, tight corners and small dips, stuff that’s good for a first launch coaster.

Then we went to Planet Snoopy where we would find a source of coolness to saturate ourselves in. This source is called Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, but it was more like Come Drench Yourself, Charlie Brown. I got soaked, as I was in the front of the boat, but it felt soooooooo good. It was more than 90 degrees that day so water was something our exterior body desperately needed.

Then we went to back to our hotel, where we swam at the pool for a little before we went to Olive Garden. I had the amazing Chicken Alfredo Pizza, and, of course, the usual salad and bread sticks. Then we went back to the park, where we did Adventure Express, Racer, Vortex, Diamondback, and then finally Beast. It was completely dark when it was time for our nightly adventure into the backwoods. Again, it was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to do it again.

The next day, we drove to the Creation Museum in Kentucky. It was a pretty cool place; it showed how our theory of creation is more possible than an atheist’s theory. It’s a great place for people that want to take a more in-depth look into the first seven days.

Stay tuned for part 2: Dollywood.