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We got our first trip to King's Island as a part of our road trip about a week ago now and I think it might be my new favorite park. The operations were outstanding, the park itself is well maintained all around, and there is legitimately not a bad coaster built for adults in the park right now. Mystic Timbers is just below the top tier of woodies, awesome ride. Diamondback is probably my favorite B&M hyper now. Orion might be the weakest of the three B&M gigas, but that still makes it a top 25 coaster. We also made what turned out to be the right decision to wait for dark to ride the Beast for the first time. Not only did we get an amazing experience that was one of the most fun coaster rides of my life, but while in line we lucked into a great view for the fireworks/drone show which was great too. I left the park with zero complaints.

You're totally right about Holiday World over KK, and I live 15 mins from KK.

Pretty clear whoever came up with the plot/storyline is a HUGE fan of Dr. Doom's Fearfall at IOA!

Another interesting development here. Platinum addons (at least at MA) start immediately. Don't have to wait til 2023. If you go a lot and buy dining, don't renew. Buy a new pass, add dining, and you can feed your friends or guests for the rest of 2022 with you current pass since you'll have 2 dining plans at that point.

So I haven't seen a lot about either the history section that has been set up in the gardens, or the Phantom Theater Encore show, so I'll deviate from my big trip report to talk about them and show the pictures here. First up, the 50th Anneversary history section set up in the gardens. This area has stones for every year with the big addition on the ground, with blank stones set up for another 15+ years. Along the path are signs talking about the parks history, broken down by era, as well as model Eiffel Towers painted in the colors of major rides. And the Phantom Theater Encore show. It was entertaining enough...I definitely enjoyed the acrobats, and the talent and production values were there, but not knowing anything about the original ride, I found the show kinda meh. There was also a little too much union bashing for my liking. In the lobby of the theater there's a whole bunch of history about the ride, including reproductions of the lenticular posters, and the original model of the ride (which apparently the park had to buy back from a collector who had purchased it). I love park history, so honestly this part was better than the show for me, but I'm sure people who remember the original Phantom Theater ride will be very entertained by the show. Out front, one of the original ride vehicles. The poster on the outside of the theater. Inside the theater (no photo or video allowed once the show began). And the history section: And I'll close out this post with some pictures of the art contest winners and runners up, on display in one of the stores:

Holiday World, July 1st. I made the drive out to Holiday World in the morning, taking advantage of the time zone change to get an extra hour of sleep, and arrived before opening. I always love to see parks with their own water towers. Fast scanners again. Seriously, Cedar Fair...let's go. A nice classic entrance facility. With nothing operating for about another 30 minutes, ducked into the waterpark to stow my aquatic gear, and took pictures of the areas I could access: Even without his famous coat, Santa must get really warm in that velvet suit in these temperatures. I could tell already that this place wouldn't have the same shade issue as Kentucky Kingdom. A great theme for their drive'em cars. Amusingly, I did not spontaneously burst into flames while taking this picture. A nice little kiddie ride section, each ride with a nice Christmas theme. Though I don't quite understand how seahorses work into the Christmas mythos... I see you....I'll be back later! Once the park opened, I started making my way towards the back of the park as per recommendations I received here (Thanks everyone!), for my first top: Voyage. I love when parks put 3D logos on the fronts of coaster trains. Nerd shot. That is a tall lift... 14 minute wait for the front row. WOW! That was insane. Awesome, awesome ride. A little rattle-y, not gonna lie it gave me a little headache, but it has everything you could want in a wooden coaster: Speed, airtime, laterals, positive Gs...you name it, it has it. 11/10. On a brief side note, this is the first park I've ever encountered where the ride ops actually encourage guests to hand them their loose articles rather than have them cross the train and put them in the bins. I continued my way up towards Thunderbird, taking some more pictures as I went... A great theme for a Tilt-a-Whirl. I did not ride the turkey-shooting dark ride. All that remains of Pilgrim's Plunge. Uh...so about that shade? This part needs it the most! No, this doesn't cut it! What's with these Zamperla Starflyer-clones being so prolific in this part of the country? Finally, after the long long hike uphill in the direct sunlight, I made my way to Thunderbird. 15 minute wait for the front row, left wing. Great ride. This was my first ever launched B&M, and I don't know why they don't make more. The keyhole element was incredible and I greyed out a little bit at the top of the vertical loop. 9/10. And of course, gotta grab a picture of the first hill on Voyage through the trees. At this point, I made my way into the water park and stowed my phone, so obviously no pictures. The first stop here were of course the three water coasters. Reasonable waits for all of them, and all were very very good. I had never experience true airtime on a water coaster, and wow they blew my mind. I loved the dividers in the giant tubes on Mammoth. These should be standard on every ride that uses these large tubes. Otherwise, the water park is very expansive and has a ton of slides and splash-around areas, though I wish there were more single-person-tube slides as opposed to the big-family-tube type that proliferate at this park. I get it, adults without families are not the target demographic for this park, so it's definitely a me-only problem. The lazy river is quite long but doesn't really have a lot of elements in it, and is quite shallow (only like 2.5 feet deep), making it a little odd for riding it in the body-through-the-tube fashion that I prefer. That said, I did like the U-shaped "lounger tubes" that were offered that allowed one to be mostly submerged while in a sitting position...these should be standard on lazy rivers. I left the water park at around 2:15 and made my way into Halloween. I absolutely loved this theme on the Wave Swinger. Unfortunately, Legend was closed on my first pass, with a train stuck halfway into the station, but I would get on it later. Only the second non-lighted scrambler I've ever seen. I was surprised that they still had a diving show; these are long-gone history at most parks. Anyway, I made my way up to the next coaster, Raven. Awesome little thematic details on the walls in the station. And once again, a 3D logo on the front of the train. And some nice graphics on the sides. Why more parks don't do this, I'll never understand. Two-train wait for the front row. HOLY. SHIT. This ride was absolutely insane. I was out of my seat for the entire first turn after the drop, getting some nutty laterals+airtime. It held great speed through the woods, and provided great laterals and airtime throughout. It honestly reminded me a lot of Beast. 11/10. As Legend was still closed, I made my way back up through 4th of July to the kiddie area, grabbing a "few" more pictures along the way. Great theme on the bumper cars. Great theme on the Calypso. Not really sure if you want to advertise eating something "dog" named when your park's mascot is a dog LOL. Nice little song and dance show. Man it must be brutal in that costume (it was like 92 degrees ambient on this day). I was honestly surprised to see one of these kid's climbing things in such a major park, but I guess they are independently owned after all. Grabbed a ride on Howler, their kiddie coaster (no wait), and made my way back in to the main part of the park. Another show venue. This stupid little kiddie flume that has zero verticality...I love it. I stopped in to the merry marketplace for some food. The mac & cheese was pretty good, but the breadsticks were super dry and hard. Finally, I made my way to Legend, which was now operating! Three-train wait for the front row. Absolutely insane laterals here. There's a double helix, that's basically taken with no banking and at a pretty good speed. This ride is all about the lateral forces, and I love it for it. 10/10. Exhausted from the heat and with a mild headache from the not-perfectly-smooth wooden coasters, I decided to call it a day around 4:00. All in all, I really enjoyed Holiday World, and anyone who thinks Kentucky Kingdom is objectively the better park is out of their mind. Boo hoo, there's no alcohol...what are we, back in college? Oh, and the free drinks was awesome and every park should do this. Next up is an unplanned bonus visit to the Columbus Zoo!

Here is a trip report for Saturday. RailBlazer was closed for operation. Gold Striker was testing until 10:15. The park's newest ride Liberty Twirler wasn't open yet, even though it was supposed to open by the end of June. I thought the new ride additions to the water park were nice, along with the various signs and murals. There were eight new kids slides, which I did, and I thought they were fairly enjoyable, including a green one with colored translucent bands inside. Moreover, the two new tube ones (Barracuda and Feeding Frenzy) were solid, with my preference being for the latter. Lastly, I thought Shark Reef Plunge, the launch capsule drop ride, was definitely the best ride at the water park and provided an exhilarating rush.

Totally get it, but I just couldn't help myself.

Lots like it or they wouldn't keep doing it and adding more. Maybe your tastes are just different.