An Amusing Night

Last night I went to our local amusement park, Kings Island, with a friend.
Today I am taking out a second mortgage.

We had decided to go to our local "Disney-World-Wanna-Be" attraction since they had a $15.00 entry fee special if you arrived after 5 p.m.
Usually, the one day ticket price is $49.99 although no one actually pays that astronomical amount. There are discounts available from every grocery chain and if you check out their website, they have 7 different prices depending on how old you are, how tall (or short) you are, how much you weigh, when your birthday is and what your favorite color might be. One needs a masters degree in ticket-price-reading to
figure out the "best deal".

OK, so we get in line for parking and that is $10.00 unless you want to park within two miles, then it's $15.00. No shuttle service is provided from the parking lot to the entrance. I guess the management feels that visitors don't mind walking a warm-up mile or two before walking the 23 miles while inside the park.

We went to three free 30 minute shows. The first one was 16 kids (17-19 yrs old) singing and dancing to 1980's music. That must have been fun for them, since they were not even a gleam in the eyes of their parents. They tried their best but American Idol contestants don't need to be threatened by these performers.

While walking around we passed a tempting food shack that had no line so we decided to split one soft pretzel and one bottle of water. $8.65.

The second performance was an ice skating show with skaters between 20-30 and one 40 year old fella who smiled kinda funny at the girls. It was fairly good and nice to imagine ice not melting with the temperature outside hitting 93 degrees.

Now it was time to sample some Kings Island dinner fare while we waited for the next show, so we spent $25.28 for a sandwich and 2 adult beverages.

The final entertainment was called "Girls Night Out" and they weren't kidding. There were four 13-15 year olds "girls" who tried to shake it like they were at a country line dancing bordello while attempting to sing. It didn't work so very well and at times I felt embarrassed for them.

So, off we went to the arcade area to watch people spend $5.00 to throw a 15" basketball into a 15" hoop...time and time again. Guys actually walked away shaking their heads mumbling, "I make every one of those shots in my driveway!"
I kept wondering where people were printing out their $$ after the entrance fee, parking and food prices.

We went on one ride through a haunted house and while we were in line, there was a couple with two children and as we waited, we found out they were dating. They had driven from 3 hours away to spend TWO days from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. "in amusement park hell" as the girlfriend admitted. I could tell she was hot, tired, inpatient with the kids hanging on her after two days of "torture". Now her boyfriend thought that this was the best vacation-date he could provide for them and he was going to squeeze every minute of fun out of his alloted budget.

I'm guessing next week his girlfriend may not return his calls.

My friend, Susan looks quite a bit younger than her 57 years. So when I saw a hawker bragging how he could guess her age for $5.00 or she could have her pick of the 9,358 stuffed animals, I spent the money to "stake that bet". He guessed that she was 45.
The stuffed dog that Susan won is called "Priceless"

All in all, we spent $82.00 for a very entertaining 4 and 1/2 hours.

And I would do it again in a heartbeat.