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Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

p. 832: Camp Snoopy announced for 2024!

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Visiting from Orlando, my wife and I were in the park last night for her first ride on The Beast. We saved it for last. Unfortunately, it was down from 7pm until close. Pretty heartbreaking considering I convinced her to fly out here from Orlando for Cedar Point and Kings Island, while hyping up The Beast for the better part of the year.

 

Also, who's idea was it to have "Dollar Days" on one of the busiest weekends of the year? Shouldn't this be a promotion reserved for a slow Tuesday in June? The food staff could not keep up with the demand. I would have rather paid full price and had less people in line that were waiting to get their 4th round of $1 pizza. Awful.

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I was next in line to ride The Beast when it went down, it was stopped right at the first lift hill at the top. I waited with my brother, along with everyone else for 20 minutes, and after that people starting giving up and leaving. It was very busy, if I go again on Labor Day weekend I'm going to get Fast Lane Plus! The line at La Rosas on International Street was super long, but it was moving at a normal to fast pace when I was in line, and the pizza's was warm, and everyone was very nice. They need more tables on International Street with shade over them, like what Rivertown has. The tree's along the Royal Fountain had some their branches cut off and now that does not help the problem sitting in the sun with no shade...

Edited by KICoasterkev
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Visiting from Orlando, my wife and I were in the park last night for her first ride on The Beast. We saved it for last. Unfortunately, it was down from 7pm until close. Pretty heartbreaking considering I convinced her to fly out here from Orlando for Cedar Point and Kings Island, while hyping up The Beast for the better part of the year.

 

Also, who's idea was it to have "Dollar Days" on one of the busiest weekends of the year? Shouldn't this be a promotion reserved for a slow Tuesday in June? The food staff could not keep up with the demand. I would have rather paid full price and had less people in line that were waiting to get their 4th round of $1 pizza. Awful.

Uhg. I'm really sorry to hear The Beast was down. I hope you still had a good time. Also, $1 pizza doesn't seem like it would ever be a good idea.

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Visiting from Orlando, my wife and I were in the park last night for her first ride on The Beast. We saved it for last. Unfortunately, it was down from 7pm until close. Pretty heartbreaking considering I convinced her to fly out here from Orlando for Cedar Point and Kings Island, while hyping up The Beast for the better part of the year.

 

Also, who's idea was it to have "Dollar Days" on one of the busiest weekends of the year? Shouldn't this be a promotion reserved for a slow Tuesday in June? The food staff could not keep up with the demand. I would have rather paid full price and had less people in line that were waiting to get their 4th round of $1 pizza. Awful.

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

Not to be a Monday morning quarterback but honestly my philosophy for visiting parks has changed over time. I used to be all about knocking out the lowest capacity rides first and being strategic, but now my strategy is to just ride the rides you came to ride first if it's a park that you don't get to often. If a headline attraction goes down early in the day and doesn't come back up and you miss it because you're whoring a wild mouse or saving it for last it sucks big time and you'll be kicking yourself.

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I was at the park on Saturday, too, and while it was pretty busy, we were able to get on everything we wanted to many, many times with FP+ even with thunderstorms in the area closing nearly everything multiple times. If you were there on Saturday, Beast did close once or twice, but it was open around 9PM when we rode it.

 

The dollar days thing was completely a non issue. I think the reasoning behind it is actually very sound. Liquidate all food/beverage inventory as possible by selling it for $1 to maximize attendance on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Bring people in, avoid having to toss it all at the end of the season and making nothing on it.

 

The lines for $1 stuff were huge. However, when we walked past people with pizza and ice cream, the pizza looked like it was frozen pizza and the ice cream was all soft ice cream, so you kind of get what you pay for. We happily ate (and drank) at the sports bar place next to Diamondback and we got scooped ice cream at the place on the corner by the Eiffel Tower. Minimal to zero waits at either place for food/drink/ice cream.

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The pizza was the best it has been at any point in the year as it was fresh and it is LaRosas not frozen people. The Blue soft serve is excellent as well. The lines may have been huge but for us on Friday they moved very quickly.

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Visiting from Orlando, my wife and I were in the park last night for her first ride on The Beast. We saved it for last. Unfortunately, it was down from 7pm until close. Pretty heartbreaking considering I convinced her to fly out here from Orlando for Cedar Point and Kings Island, while hyping up The Beast for the better part of the year.

 

Also, who's idea was it to have "Dollar Days" on one of the busiest weekends of the year? Shouldn't this be a promotion reserved for a slow Tuesday in June? The food staff could not keep up with the demand. I would have rather paid full price and had less people in line that were waiting to get their 4th round of $1 pizza. Awful.

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

Not to be a Monday morning quarterback but honestly my philosophy for visiting parks has changed over time. I used to be all about knocking out the lowest capacity rides first and being strategic, but now my strategy is to just ride the rides you came to ride first if it's a park that you don't get to often. If a headline attraction goes down early in the day and doesn't come back up and you miss it because you're whoring a wild mouse or saving it for last it sucks big time and you'll be kicking yourself.

 

Yeah man. It was a unique situation. My wife has a bad back and doesn't do well on old wooden coasters. I knew that if she rode it, she would like it, but not want to do it again in the same day. I wanted her first/only time to be at night, front seat. It's relatively uncommon for a coaster to go down for a full 3 hours, and I hadn't heard or The Beast having issues recently.

 

I should have seen the writing on the wall after Firehawk went down for the day. I bet they were short staffed on maintenance, just like every other type of staff this day. Oh well.

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I was at the park on Saturday, too, and while it was pretty busy, we were able to get on everything we wanted to many, many times with FP+ even with thunderstorms in the area closing nearly everything multiple times. If you were there on Saturday, Beast did close once or twice, but it was open around 9PM when we rode it.

 

The dollar days thing was completely a non issue. I think the reasoning behind it is actually very sound. Liquidate all food/beverage inventory as possible by selling it for $1 to maximize attendance on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Bring people in, avoid having to toss it all at the end of the season and making nothing on it.

 

The lines for $1 stuff were huge. However, when we walked past people with pizza and ice cream, the pizza looked like it was frozen pizza and the ice cream was all soft ice cream, so you kind of get what you pay for. We happily ate (and drank) at the sports bar place next to Diamondback and we got scooped ice cream at the place on the corner by the Eiffel Tower. Minimal to zero waits at either place for food/drink/ice cream.

 

Sorry for replying twice in a row, but I feel the need to respond to this. We got the all-inclusive ticket which included the all-day dining plan. On Saturday, I was at Cedar Point, and had the same deal. It was *way* more crowded at Cedar Point on Saturday than the crowds I saw at Kings Island on Sunday. Even still, we were able to get 5 meals (had to really push myself to get that 5th one, mainly did it for fun) at Cedar Point as the lines moved quick.

 

Kings Island was an absolute joke by comparison. That sports bar across from Diamondback had a line to Mystic Timbers. I stood in line for 15 minutes and didn't move. I walked in to see one person on register. This was at 1PM. I checked back there a few times and saw the same line, and same one person on register. My only meal was at the chicken place across from Banshee. I waited one hour.

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Kings Island lives off season pass sales and most seem to buy the meal plan. We got it for a couple of years but lack of quality and wait times drove us away from that. Plus we eat healthier now. anyway point is Kings Island is always going to have long lines for food as long as the meal plan is there due to the amount of locals visiting the park.

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I feel like as a coaster enthusiast you should be savvy enough to realize that now that the park has been in weekend only operation for about two weeks they would be horribly understaffed for a holiday weekend and trying to eat at any location that accepts the dining plan would be an awful idea.

 

Cedar Point (by comparison) also has staffing issues but they did run daily operations through Labor Day weekend which helps keep staff around a bit longer and (more importantly) they had a huge food truck event to drastically lessen the demand for park food (because you'd have to either be insane or have the dining plan to eat greasy garbage park food when they have the best food trucks from Ohio and Michigan lining the main midway).

 

I know the response is going to be "Yeah, but that's not my problem. I paid good money for this and the park needs to make sure blah, blah, blah" and you're right but at the same time I mean... you had to see this coming.

 

Yeah man. It was a unique situation. My wife has a bad back and doesn't do well on old wooden coasters. I knew that if she rode it, she would like it, but not want to do it again in the same day. I wanted her first/only time to be at night, front seat. It's relatively uncommon for a coaster to go down for a full 3 hours, and I hadn't heard or The Beast having issues recently.

 

Ah, that makes sense. That's a bummer then but hey, all the more reason to go back... just don't buy the dining plan unless it's the middle of the summer

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FWIW, I ate at Coney BBQ on Friday night and Saturday lunch and walked right in with no line both times. The tri-tip and baked chicken were both really good, IMO, and on the meal plan. They also have sides other than fries and mac n cheese. Which I appreciate as a diabetic. I have eaten 14 meals on the meal plan with maybe two more coming before the end of the season, which would average out to $7.19 a meal.

 

With multiple trips to Carowinds, KD, and multi-day visits to CP and KI coming up again next year, I re-upped already on platinum park and meal passes for 2019.

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I'm confused about Fright Lane. Is it like a skip the line for the haunts?

I've never done it at KI but I believe it's like other CF parks where you can only skip the line for each maze once. That's why if you don't buy Fright Lane, you basically just have to wait until later in the night when everyone has used their skips to have no waits for anything. The mazes aren't as good by then, IMO, since the scareactors are usually over it at that point and you don't get to laugh at everyone else as much (or have others to buffer the number of scares directly posed at you, if you're a scaredy cat like me and don't particularly like it like that), but you can get basically any maze you didn't get done earlier. Or just marathon night Beast, Timbers, and Diamondback.

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^For an extra $50/person it seems worth it. We're already paying $50 regular admission, $90 FL+, fun pix, parking, etc. Not to mention taking the five and a half hour drive starting at 5am. At least our hotel stay is free.

 

The girls usually like to hit at least a few haunts early. Last time we spent about two hours waiting in a few haunts, before the torrential rainfall moved in around 930pm. I'd rather spend more time drinking beer and relaxing. We like to drink several easy paced beers on our normal park trips. On Haunts we like to go pretty hard... Outside of BGW trips, it's our 'cut loose' park visit.

 

The good thing about the haunts is that Emily clings to me like a 12 year old girl and screams, so they always go after us. I usually just laugh and enjoy the show. Outside of Knowbel's Haunted Mansion it takes a lot to startle me.

 

I think everything is in the works to visit KI mid-late October.

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(or have others to buffer the number of scares directly posed at you, if you're a scaredy cat like me and don't particularly like it like that)

 

She's not not lying about the whole "using others as a buffer thing, either! But when the scare actors DO get her, it's priceless!

 

Or just marathon night Beast, Timbers, and Diamondback.

 

THIS. This is why going to KI for Haunt is now an annual event for me personally! Oh, and Banshee too! It's a great night ride, regardless of what its haters say! (And whatever you do, don't skip Adventure Express at night!) Can't wait to take my oldest three kids to KI for Haunt and night rides for the first time two weeks from today!

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(or have others to buffer the number of scares directly posed at you, if you're a scaredy cat like me and don't particularly like it like that)

 

She's not not lying about the whole "using others as a buffer thing, either! But when the scare actors DO get her, it's priceless!

Called me out. You should have seen me at Horror Nights last night. It went just like you'd expect it to go. Lots of screaming and jumping and clinging to my friend's backpack except when there was a scary animatronic or puppet, then it was "GO GO GO GO GO!!" Also lots of beer. Plenty of beer.

 

^For an extra $50/person it seems worth it. We're already paying $50 regular admission, $90 FL+, fun pix, parking, etc. Not to mention taking the five and a half hour drive starting at 5am. At least our hotel stay is free.

 

The girls usually like to hit at least a few haunts early. Last time we spent about two hours waiting in a few haunts, before the torrential rainfall moved in around 930pm. I'd rather spend more time drinking beer and relaxing. We like to drink several easy paced beers on our normal park trips. On Haunts we like to go pretty hard... Outside of BGW trips, it's our 'cut loose' park visit.

 

The good thing about the haunts is that Emily clings to me like a 12 year old girl and screams, so they always go after us. I usually just laugh and enjoy the show. Outside of Knowbel's Haunted Mansion it takes a lot to startle me.

 

I think everything is in the works to visit KI mid-late October.

Sounds like you guys have a solid plan. Hmu when you guys think you might be going, I'd love to meet you all and share a few beers!

 

I'm probably going Saturday, September 22 and then Friday the 28 with DILinator, then probably most Fridays after that if I have them off. I know I'll be there Oct 19 with my friend who is visiting from CA. Anyone who is planning on going to Haunt and would like to meet up, lmk! That's how I met DILinator and we're good friends now.

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