Photo TR: Kings Island WinterFest, Dec 3, 2017

I visited WinterFest on Sunday and wanted to post some pictures and give my report.

I must say, as a cynical non-married childless adult, the event was sort of "a few hours and I'm done." See a show or two, ooh and ahh at the lights, ride the train and get a few rides on Mystic Timbers, done.

However, for families (especially those with little kids) or people with way too much holiday spirit, this was a really stellar event.

I was most impressed with the number and quality of lights around the park. I couldn't take enough pictures of the eiffel tower with the lights coming off of it. The colors changed frequently and there were even images (Santa in his sleigh and snowflakes) every so often. There were lights all over the park. The unused portions of the park were left dark and blocked off with Christmas trees. That made it feel weirdly like there was nothing else to the park but what we were doing.

The train ride was another nice plus. It had lighted versions of the 12 days of Christmas.

I didn't go ice skating because the rink looked crowded and I didn't want to pay the money at this time, but it looked like a lot of fun. They even had special seal carts for new skaters who needed the extra help getting around.

Also, I passed by Cool Yule as it was going and went and saw Tinker's Toy Factory in its whole. The former was a song and dance show and the singers appeared very talented. The latter was a musical-ish (SPOILER?) about elves who are having trouble on the night before Christmas. The "spirit meter" is getting too low and Santa won't be able to get his sleigh in the air because one elf doesn't have enough Christmas spirit, the reason being the head elf chastised him for wanting to give teddy bears to the kids instead of iPads. Andd....Santa saves the day.

It was a seriously gag-worthy way-too-cute-for-its-own-good show for an adult who came alone questioning, "Why the heck am I here and why did I decide to come to this show?" Seriously, I think I lost some Christmas spirit after seeing this show. However, the show was perfect for little kids. They were all mystified. I even overheard one little girl ask if the elves were real

Mystic Timbers was a walk-on for single riders and not too long for standby. I got 6 great night rides on it, including back row last train of the night (with a dude who said it was his 1200th ride... what the heck??)

Overall, I would visit again as a passholder, but I would not pay for a separate ticket at this stage in my life. I hope they bring this back next year and open even more adult rides, but it was still nice to get some wintery rides on Timbers. The park was actually fairly busy, and I can see this event becoming a tradition for families and pulling in a ton of money (seriously, they must be making bank on ice skating and hot cocoa sales alone).

Onto some of my pictures!

Walking up to the park, I just felt blown away by the beautiful lights

I'm a sucker for shiny things

OMG! Santa has landed at Kings Island!

I like this better during Haunt, but hey, they dressed it up nice.

Stunning area for photos

Here you can pay to fall on your a$$ and collide with little children!

Couldn't get over this

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a Charley Brown tree!

Hope they're ready to pull Santa's sleigh! Or something like that...

There's something missing in this photo...

So many lights!

You can entertain an ADD kid for hours in this spot alone.

I clearly cannot get enough of the lights

This is a very pretty ride I still have not been on.

In case you haven't heard enough Christmas music yet

Brightly colored high-pitched adult-children reporting for duty!

A Christmas show isn't complete without some sassy elves

Thank goodness Santa came and saved the day!

I hope you guys saved some dignity for the next show

Pond reflection game on point!

Such wow

Don't know if the plane was from a former ride, but thought it was cool

Swirling vortex of....snowflakes?

I swear there is a coaster in this picture

In case you wondered what 10 lords-a-leaping looks like

Actual picture of me caring about adult responsibilities

And lastly... 12 drummers drumming! (And yes, I counted)

Mystic Timbers shed had some new Christmas-y props laying around.

Still love this coaster, but apparently not as much as the guy sitting next to me, who claimed to have ridden it 1200x!

Glad to hear MT is still running like it's summer! I'm getting more excited with each report to check it out in a few weeks.

Great report. Using my limited judgement going by the pictures, lights and Christmas aspect seems far superior to SF. However, I still think I would appreciate SF more, since they have more rides open, but the park looks fantastic. Hopefully next year they'll add Diamondback, since it's right there.

Great TR, as always.

Using my limited judgement going by the pictures, lights and Christmas aspect seems far superior to SF. However, I still think I would appreciate SF more, since they have more rides open, but the park looks fantastic.

My sentiments exactly (though Six Flags does do a great job with lights also). I hate to be lazy and just quote a post to comment on a trip report, but I planned to post exactly the same thing.

Great photos though! Did they do anything holiday related in the Mystic Timbers shed? You would think it would be pretty easy to pop something else on the screen.

Great report!

PS: Yeah, the fact that Diamondback isn't open is sort of nuts.

Thanks, guys!

Great report. Using my limited judgement going by the pictures, lights and Christmas aspect seems far superior to SF. However, I still think I would appreciate SF more, since they have more rides open, but the park looks fantastic. Hopefully next year they'll add Diamondback, since it's right there.

 

Great TR, as always.

Lights and entertainment are far superior to the Holiday in the Park I've been to. If you just want to freeze your a$$ off on coasters in December and don't remotely care about Christmas decorations and entertainment, then pick your poison with Holiday in the Park (I've heard SFGAdv is especially cold this time of year, go there!) If you're one of the elves with super Christmas spirit or you have little kids (and aren't going to Disney), then this would be better.

Or better yet, choose option C: go to Dollywood. I'll be there next week!

(Clearly, I'm more of a Haunt person)

Great photos though! Did they do anything holiday related in the Mystic Timbers shed? You would think it would be pretty easy to pop something else on the screen.

 

Great report!

 

PS: Yeah, the fact that Diamondback isn't open is sort of nuts.

There were some random cutouts from The Santa Claus...2?? Also some bows and presents (one pictured). You can see a Tim Allen Santa Claus cutout gesturing to the "opening" of the shed as you exit the shed, but the music and scenes themselves were the same.

Side note: I got to see the rare tree monster twice!

So Tim Allen lures you into a shed with presents and then once you're inside the lights go out and a demonic tree tries to kill you? Sounds good. Merry Christmas

Great photos though! Did they do anything holiday related in the Mystic Timbers shed? You would think it would be pretty easy to pop something else on the screen.

 

Great report!

 

PS: Yeah, the fact that Diamondback isn't open is sort of nuts.

There were some random cutouts from The Santa Claus...2?? Also some bows and presents (one pictured). You can see a Tim Allen Santa Claus cutout gesturing to the "opening" of the shed as you exit the shed, but the music and scenes themselves were the same.

 

Side note: I got to see the rare tree monster twice!

Interesting to hear about the Tim Allen props. One would think that since THE SANTA CLAUSE is a Disney property, that would be a total "Don't even think about using it" idea...

Initially I was unclear what the big deal was when looking at your pics with the amazing lights on the tower... until I figured out that those long strings of lights were coming off the Eiffel tower! (I'm sick, cut me some slack!) I can't even imagine how insanely impressive that must have been in person. I love all things Christmas lights and am really impressed with their skating rink you mentioned as well. Really looking forward to next fall when Kings Dominion's Winterfest opens! I bet it'll be just as neat.

I would pay a lot of money to play a pickup hockey game on the ice rink.

Great report!

That dude with 1200 Mystic Timber rides is probably loving Winterfest since there's no other coasters to distract him.

I'm calling BS on anyone having ridden it 1200 times, because a guy lying about how many times he's ridden a coaster is actually far better than a guy visiting Kings Island every single day they've been open and riding one coaster 10 times each day. Though I don't want to know either guy. At all.

Great photos. The park looks beautiful. The show looks cute for the kids, but yeah...hope those actors are paid well.

Riding 1200 times or lying about riding 1200 times, I'd still off myself if I were trapped in an elevator with him. Props for surviving your ride with him.

People like to lie for imaginary bonus points that aren't redeemable for anything more than looking stupid. When I did Coasting for Kids at KI in 2015, I missed all of maybe 6 or 7 laps during the whole event, yet the people claiming to be "in the lead" had somehow taken 30 more rides than me.

I love roller coasters as much as anyone but there is not a single ride on the planet I'd want to ride 1200 times in my entire lifetime, let alone a B+ GCI in one season.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the trip report, and have to say -- driving past the park at night, the lighting on the Eiffel Tower is almost indescribably spectacular!

I wish I had that much to brag about in the park. Can you imagine everyone just bowing to you as you climb aboard your chariot. It would be incredible.

Great pics! Hope to go next year!

To put it delicately, he did seem to have some sort of mental handicap. Either he miscounted (by far) or he really has a fixation with riding that coaster. He says he lives an hour away and commuted to KI every day after work... it did sound implausible, to say the least.

I'm too nice for my own benefit sometimes, but I definitely would have preferred to take that ride alone.

I'm going to flat out say this but it's kind of impossible for him to just drive an hour and ride Mystic Timbers after work, especially with the lines it's had this season. I will say it is possible to get about 50+ rides in if it's a walk on per day. But For me i've ridden 2 rides and i'm only in the mid 100's and one of them is in the early 100's. Heck even for me Riding Rollin Thunder so much, it's just impossible to get to 1k unless you go everyday.

I can't remember but I feel like they did, did Kings Island offer the all season Fast Lane Plus this year for like $500?

^ Kings Island did not offer an unlimited fast lane pass for 2017. When season pass sales started this year for 2018 was the first time it was offered.

It's good to see the return of Winterfest. I attended this event at KI many years ago. My friends and I were freezing, and we rode the (now defunct) Smurf boat ride to warm up. I hit the Carowinds version when it made a brief comeback years ago, too.