Our vacation this year, 2009, had to be done on a much smaller scale than the past two years. Between the economy itself and my lack of a full time job we decided that some overnight camping and day trips would be the solution. The one most asked for destination was Coney Island Park in Cincinnati Ohio. We had gone there several years before and had a wonderful time. The wonderful time has not changed.
Coney Island Park is located along the Ohio river just off of the 275 loop from highway 75, and on the Kentucky border. It is about a one hour and fifteen minute drive from us in Kettering. Because of it’s location it is very easy to get to, detailed directions are not necessary and the exits are well marked.
Coney Island Park is not one of the bigger amusement parks and there are many plusses to that. The first one is that we went on a weekday and did not have to face any lines or crowds at all. I am sure that a weekend trip would have more crowds but even then you are not faced with hour long waits to get on a ride. Most of the time the ride operators seemed to be waiting for us and on rides with no lines my teenagers were able to stay on the rides when they ended so they could ride again. The only wait we had anywhere was for the roller coaster.
The park does not have a large number of “thrill” rides but enough to amuse my teenagers and enough to make their 49 year old mother happy without bodily damage. The park also has a very nice group of “kiddie” rides for the younger set.
Sunlite Pool is also located at the park. Sunlite Pool is actually a very large water park with two acres of water fun including a one acre shallow water area, six diving boards in the deep pool area and in-pool slides. The new attraction added this year is the Twister, at 45 feet high with four chutes and more than one quarter mile long, you will get your monies worth in fun.
Coney Island Park has several grill and snack areas and the prices are well within reason. We found the food to be fresh and tasty and portions sizes more than we needed. We did not have to wait forever to get food and found plenty of places to sit while we ate. Two of the better features I found here are that you are allowed to bring in your own picnic items, they even have a separate area for picnicking and the park has plenty of shade. Most parks I have been to do not seem to have trees but this one has plenty as well as other covered areas for relaxing.
There is also a miniature golf course available for mini-golf enthusiasts. The cost is $1.00 additional with park admission or $3.00 without. This is where Coney Island Park really outshines other amusement parks. You DO NOT need to pay to enjoy the park itself. You can just go to picnic, golf or relax in the environment. There is a charge for parking though.
Costs at the time of this writing are $11.95 for adult admission to the rides or the water park or $21.95 for admission to both. Discounts are given for age three and under or for admission after 4 p.m. There are also coupons available. I had a coupon for buy one $21.95 admission get one free. This was good for up to six people so we got admission to both parks for myself and three teenagers for $43.90. Not at all bad for a full day of fun and we never did get to the water park area. We were to busy with all of the rides and other activities. When you consider that we did not have to wait in any lines for rides or food you can see that we really were busy the entire time.
Another plus to the smaller size park is that it is very clean, including the restrooms. I did not find letter strewn everywhere and the park employees actually seemed to enjoy their jobs. The only drawback I found was the price of bottled water. It seemed a bit high. At the same time you can bring your own. I froze a couple of bottles the night before and had great cold water to drink when needed. They do have a drinking fountain but the water was not as cold as some might like.
All in all we were there from about 11.a.m. opening time until almost 7.p.m. when we were all finally exhausted. Two out of three teenagers feel asleep in the car on the way home and I was not in pain the next day so I consider this to be a very successful trip!
