coasterbill

I feel like the more coasters I ride the more I appreciate coasters that are just flat-out-weird and the Beast is flat-out-weird. Also, all of the hype is real for the night rides.

I haven't been on it but I think it's operating normally.

^^Speaking of Flight of Fear, you just reminded me that I forgot to mention how much I love how they revitalized Flight of Fear when they added Orion. They added more theming to the outside of the building and some cool lighting, they added an outdoor overflow queue (was that Firehawk's queue?) they put up walls on the entrance area to make it look better and all of the effects and theming looked to be in great shape. I'm a big fan of those rides and it's nice to see that this one is so well-taken-care-of.

Old news, but Justice League opened for the holiday weekend. I guess they were waiting on approval from the state to open "Indoor Amusements" but as soon as they got it they opened the ride. (The two indoor coasters have been open since day one with large bay doors open and fans circulating air).

I contend that Twister isn't getting rougher, we're getting older. They re-track huge sections of it every year. I feel like it's running great.

Friday, no but Sunday... absolutely and it's going to keep getting worse for 2 months. This season is undoubtedly worse than any other but it's still a huge problem every year. While I'm not at all qualified to solve this problem it's hard not to think some of it is of their own making. Every ride that is open seems to have a needlessly massive crew and while I hate to praise this company ever I couldn't help but think "If this park were a Six Flags park everything would be open right now". They had tons of rides closed for staffing on Saturday and Lake Erie Eagles had a 2 person crew and Iron Dragon has a greeter (some rides had 2 greeters). Like... what???

I'd imagine the perfect weather and the fact that it was a holiday weekend played a role. Hopefully they continue to be busy though.

Anyone hoping that the influx of employees from now-closed Cedar Fair parks would help them staff this place can let that dream die. This weekend is worse than last... so much worse. Link Personally I would treat every ride that appears on this list as closed for the season and I would expect the list to grow every week until this season is finally put out of it's misery. Covid is making this worse, but honestly this park has a major staffing problem and it seems to get perpetually worse every year. I know they're trying their best and it's easy for someone to get on a forum and be like "They need to magically find more people!" but seriously... they have to do something. Instead though they'll be like "Hey, you know what would be a great idea? A boat ride where we have to have a live person spieling on every boat! I can't wait for that to go to Memorial Day to Labor Day only ops forever after season one.

Mystic was up and down constantly Sunday morning. It had a ton of issues so that explains that. We went over there twice and struck out before we finally got on. Thankfully once they got it running early in the afternoon it ran like a dream for the rest of the day. Best comment of the day.

While we definitely want everyone to their personal politics off of the forum, please leave the moderating to the moderators... we're *highly* trained professionals.

To clarify: The park was very busy, it just doesn't matter at all if you have Fastlane.

This

The beer garden is next level. Seriously... I could have spent hours there.

Thanks for the tips guys! We didn't even get to ride Raptor and the park was a sh*tshow but with the right expectations we had a great time since we didn't really rush around or try all that hard to ride much. We got on Vengeance, Maverick and we got 3 rides on Millennium Force, 2 in the front and any day where I can ride Millennium Force 3 times is a f*cking great day.

So I don't normally do full trip reports any more and have sort of settled on Instagram stories (PS: Feel free to follow me on Instagram) and here's the archived story from this weekend but I figured I'd give some thoughts on Kings Island 2020. First off, thanks to Ape for coming out. it was great to meet you. I hope your Bouffalant brings you joy for years to come (if anyone wants to meet up at a park and needs a Bouffalant dealer hit me up I charge crazy fees but I've got the good quality sh*t) Not really I'll just give it to you. lol Anyway, we've been to this park a decent amount over the years and we've always liked it but we usually skipped it in a time crunch to spend more time at Cedar Point and I've always kind of looked at it as a less-good Kings Dominion that needed more trees and one more top-tier coaster. I now have an entirely different opinion of Kings Island. They've made incremental (but really nice) improvements over the last few years, added more and more solid coasters to the lineup like Banshee and Mystic Timbers and this year they decided to go all out and blow the doors open with a wild, kick-ass giga. This ride is a monster. If you're one of those people complaining about it, shove your 13 feet 13 feet up your a**. Just ride the thing. Seriously guys, I get that people have different opinions and everyone's entitled to them but we thought that Orion was a FANTASTIC coaster. It's absolutely my new favorite in the park (during the day of course... let's not get stupid here). We got off that ride absolutely baffled at the reviews that it's been getting. Glass smooth, super fast, forceful airtime... what more do people want? I really don't know what people expect from coasters... this ride blew our minds every time. I wish people would stop ranking the coaster in their heads the second they hit the brake run and just enjoy the fact that they just raced through Kings Island at almost 100mph on a crazy insane ride with the most bad-ass lighting package ever that just seems to take the the entire park to a whole new level. I f*cking love Orion and my first ride on it was first thing in the morning after an amazing front seat sunset ride on my absolute favorite coaster the night before. It's really, really good. Everything I heard about this ride was bullsh*t. Brit was equally baffled. What an awesome ride! Thanks again for coming out, Ape! We got a few rides in the back and a few in the front and I can't pick a favorite. Both have airtime and both are glass smooth but the first drop is crazy nuts in the back and the sense of speed is awesome in the front. I also love the wave turn in the back for some reason. Which is better? Who cares! The park has the most awesome Fastlane system of any park I've ever been to where you get on everything IMMEDIATELY every time so try both rows (a lot). In addition to that... a few other things of note; 1) I'm in love with the Miami River Brewhouse. I love that there's a signature beer for Orion, I love the outdoor seating area and I love the food. The Giga coaster lager beer cheese and bacon jam pretzel is great. Shut up and take my money... The food was great! And seriously... this is my new favorite theme park drinking spot. [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew]Oh... and Adirondack Chairs too. WHERE HAS THIS PLACE BEEN ALL MY LIFE??? 2) The park's collection of rides is obviously insane. There's no longer a bad coaster in the bunch (though we didn't ride the boomerang thing... so maybe there's one). The drop tower, Frisbee and drenching little flume are great too. 3) We love the general improvements the park has made. I was iffy about removing the trees on International Street but the new fountains are awesome and I really do like that area. I also love the other enhancements they've made around the park like the car ride (which we actually rode since it was on Fastlane) and the new theming outside of Flight of Fear. I also love that all of the effects work on Backlot and Mystic. The park really seems to care about that stuff more than I would expect from Cedar Fair. 4) I've done nothing but gush so let's complain real quick so it doesn't seem like Kings Island paid me to write this... worst fireworks show of all time. Don't watch this sh*t from anywhere but the Beast line. It's not worth your time. Also, don't blink or you'll miss it. 5) The Beast at night is a wild experience. I forgot how amazing that was... Insane... I always liked this park but after this weekend I LOVE this park. I feel like we're going to start making this an annual thing. Kings Island is a great park and Orion is a great coaster. I already can't wait to go back. Ignore the haters and go and ride Orion.

I really hope we don't still have a face-covering mandate by then. I can barely stand wearing a mask for more than a few moments, which is why haven't been to any amusement parks since this whole mess started. It's also why I do all my grocery shopping online with curbside pick-up. You can’t cover your face when it’s like 35 degrees? Most people just do that voluntarily at Holiday in the Park. No pandemic necessary. It’s a lot less annoying than doing it outdoors in the summer or even inside a 70 degree building. I mean, usually people question me NOT covering my face on Nitro in the winter (but I’m here for a good time not a long time).

I'll go there in the dead of Winter when there are no other options without hopping on a plane (though we'll do a bit of that too) but Six Flags exists and there's no Fright Fest that I'd have to deal with so I see no appeal until they close.

"Guests will be required to proceed through a temperature check and then directly to Nitro where their mask will be permanently frozen to their face". ... I like it Maybe, I don't know. Not doing a Christmas event because of Covid in any park that's open through October is stunningly stupid. Nobody will have an issue covering their faces... they do it anyway voluntarily. Crowds are lighter in general. Crowds are better behaved in general because those events target families so they're more likely to follow the new rules. Christmas events are already perfect for this crazy new reality.

Cedar Fair can be boring all they want... Six Flags isn't playing their reindeer games (I'll show myself out). Holiday in the Park is officially on. Facebook

The park is opening on October 1st. Pricing is now more dynamic in a way because on days where low crowds are expected you get a 7 hour block for $59.99 and on days where high crowds are expected that only gets you a 4 hour block. There is no longer a separate tier for people who want to ride the good rides. Legends of the Hidden Temple Challenge and Paw Patrol Adventure Bay are listed as closed. Nothing else is listed as closed. Speculate all you want on what that means for Sandy’s Blasting Bronco. Elsewhere on the website it states that it's "opening soon" but it's all a cluster. This sounds like hell because every single coaster is already really low capacity. Unlike most parks they have stated that the maximum in-park capacity for Nickelodeon Universe will be limited to State imposed maximum capacities so they're packing it as much as they can where most parks are limiting capacity to less than what's allowed, though it's also indoors and probably limited to begin with. On a related note, Six Flags announced today that Holiday in the Park is a go and the Flash Sale should be coming up soon to put these prices to shame for a much better park where you're outside and probably less likely to get covid and more likely to have a good time.

I just got burned by that too. I had it in my cart yesterday but since it's non-refundable I figured last minute I'd give it one more day just to make sure the great forecast holds an nothing comes up with Brit's job. Oh well, it happens. Cedar Point Saturday it is and I bought it for Sunday.

Oh don't worry, that's the plan.

Okay, so from all the feedback we're seeing we changed the plan because this seriously sounds like it sucks. We're not going for a full day, we'll take a detour on Memorial Day and stop by for a few hours on the way home. Straight to Maverick, then Millennium and if we can get in the stand-by line too then awesome. I don't have the energy to bother with Steel Vengeance. Once we ride both rides we'll leave. Obviously while waiting for our return times if we can ride Raptor then awesome. Sound like a reasonable plan?

Big Snow has reopened. It's only a matter of time before the park follows.

That's fantastic