King For A Day

Today, our family made our second annual pilgrimage to King's Island. We were on the road by 8:30am and arrived at the park 90 minutes later. We went through the metal detectors (a sad symbol of our society) and then were waved over to a line with no waiting to enter the park. No waiting that is, until the tickets that I bought at Kroger a month ago didn't scan properly. They were nice about it. Said there was a problem with the tickets not being activated properly and told me to go talk to Customer Relations. The Customer Relations office was about a 40 yard walk and there was no line. Fortunately, I had my Kroger receipt with me, so they just took the Kroger tickets, gave me comps, and sent me on my way.

Once inside the park, our first stop was Nickelodeon Universe, the children's area. We started at the Scooby Doo Haunted House. I rode with our two year old and it was too much for him. He screamed for his mommy the whole time. Oops. He's so mature for his age, sometimes we forget he's still two.

After that, we decided on more traditional children's rides. Our six year old was very good about riding with our two year old, and that lasted about 30 minutes and then our two year old started getting overly cranky. I quickly recognized the signs of hunger and we decided to have an early lunch. We ordered a pizza and 2 waters, $30. We quickly devoured the pizza and then my six year old, knowing that he had grown to the required height of 48 inches, was itching to ride the big roller coasters. We decided to split up and my six year old and I were off to the coasters.

The first one we came to was the Adventure Express. I had no idea what this ride was but it was there, so we got in line. Turns out, it is an Indiana Jones themed ride so my kid loved it. He's been reading the Indiana Jones books for the last month or so. It turned out to be a pretty decent ride and he screamed and laughed the entire time. Then came the inevitable, "let's ride it again!" So we rode it again. He was totally psyched to learn that the ride went 35 mph.

Next up, The Racer. Decision time...Blue or Red? Blue baby!!! Time to pick a seat. Oh no he didn't! Oh yes he did! First row, baby! The kid has no fear. We plop down in the front row and were off. Around a bend, up the hill, to the crest....AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! He's screaming and yelling like you wouldn't believe and the hills are too steep for me to peek over at him so I don't know if he's scared or if he's having fun. Finally, we level off at the top of a hill and he is laughing and screaming his head off. A total blast. Of course we had to do that one again. Wait until I tell him that The Racer went 53.3 mph.

After the coasters, he spotted the Monster. It was this big swinging, turning, make yourself sick type ride. I really didn't want to ride it but how do you say no to your six year old on his first trip to an amusement park as a 48 incher? So I rode it with him, concentrating the entire time on not throwing up, then proceeded to battle nausea for the next hour. On top of the nausea, it was now 90 degrees in the park and we are all starting to feel the effects of the heat.

We decided to regroup in Nickelodeon Universe. We caught a little Dora the Explorer musical act and then headed for Boomerang Bay, the water park. My six year old and I rode a couple of wicked fast water slides and then my beautiful wife decided that we were all tired and should head home. We changed clothes and made the 30 minute walk back to the car. Cruised home in 90 minutes, including rush hour traffic, and had dinner on the table by 6pm.

I should also mention that my two year old got to meet his hero, Diego, from Go, Diego Go! He was laughing and pointing to Diego and saying, "that's me!" See, he plays Diego every day and we have to call him Diego. My wife is Dora. I'm Boots (the monkey). He also got to ride in a Diego car, 4 times. Big day for the little guy.

Super fun day. Maybe next year we'll spend the night so we can stay longer. And I'll stay away from the nausea inducing rides. May I recommend that the name of the Monster ride be changed to the Vomitor?