RAWKIN_coaster38

I'm interested in what you have to say about Kumba. I still love it but when I visited a few weeks ago I could only ride it a few times in the back due to the jack-hammering coming off of the MCBR. Like the first half of the ride was great but the second half hurt so bad I couldn't do it too many times.

I didn't notice Christmas lights on it last year, but the holiday-themed train experience goes around and under Mystic Timbers. There were also a few Christmas decorations in the shed. One of these years maybe they'll change the shed to be more Christmas themed. Have a Christmas song play and maybe an abominable snowman or something for the shed video. Wonder if Flight of Fear will be any different this year as well? I also would love to see Banshee or Diamondback open one of these years but I wonder if it gets too cold for KI to want to run them? Although Nitro would beg to differ...

Yes! I don't think they should, though, for the same reason I don't think KI should offer blue ice cream to local grocery stores. Half the magic is only being able to get those foods in the parks. Do you already miss Halloween?

Great pictures, guys! I'm sad I didn't get to go to KI and ride Firehawk on its last weekend. I wanted to go but work and a disastrous group project got in the way. I can at least rest easy that my last ride on it the weekend before was one of the best experiences I have had on it.

All Season FunPix is valid at all participating CF Parks. Michigan's Adventure, Dorney & Valleyfair are the only 3 that currently don't have it. Also worth mentioning that if you have a Platinum you can purchase it at any participating CF park online and it still works. I purchased FunPix on CGA website (cheaper than Ohio parks) and visited Ohio parks before CGA this year and it worked fine as long as I scanned with the employees before I tried the self-serve kiosk. Also, Fury definitely overshadows Intimidator but Diamondback is way better than Intimidator and I feel like Diamondback would still be a great coaster worth your time even if there is a taller and faster coaster at the park. Plus, enthusiasts tend to forget there are always the "h*ll to the f&%k no" people whose bravery might get them on Diamondback but probably not a giga. I have a few friends like that. So I'm still in the "please please please yes" category for a giga. And "calling it now" to my friends so that I can blow their minds if/when it happens. (Anyone else get off on doing this to people?) Speaking of, there was girl about 9-years-old wearing a "Farewell Firehawk" shirt on Friday who rode Firehawk with us. I asked her if it was her favorite ride and she said, "Yes, at least until they get the giga." Someone is raising this girl well.

Fix'd I see everyone saying it's going to be a hyper... did I miss something, or is that just the going theory? "Tallest fastest longest sweetest" compared to what, exactly? Whether it's a giga or a hyper I don't care, this new development looks awesome! Hershey is already one of my favorite parks and it's getting even better! I can't wait to see this unfold and I'm definitely going to add it to my list of "must visit" parks for 2020.

Jesus FFFking Christ. via Imgflip Meme Generator Ridership on all three of the wooden roller coasters is good. The Beast is popular. Mystic Timbers is Popular. Racer is fairly popular. There's no need to change them, as there has been with less popular roller coasters in the past. Mean Streak was rough and no longer popular among guests. Hurler was rough and no longer popular among guests. Cyclone was rough and no longer popular among guests. Add rough and unpopular to the equation and you might have a chance, but that's not the case. There's no sense in taking a ride that still contributes in bringing people into your gates and changing it. RMC typically deals in making bad rides good, not good rides better, because there are better investments to be made. Whether you agree that the Beast could be made better, or on the flip side, that a conversion would destroy and iconic ride, is completely irrelevant. The general public votes with the queue and the polls are in strong favor of keeping the Beast how it is. Your best chance would be Racer, but that's not going to happen. Your other best chance was Son of Beast and that didn't happen. CF/KI has immediately shot down any RMC suggestions. It's not going to happen anytime soon. With all three wooden roller coasters redeable and well received, you're much better off hoping for a RMC original. Otherwise, give it ten years and see what happens. Agreed, except that Racer is rough and uncomfortable and I'm not sure it's all that popular. I never see a wait for it, but could also be because of the increased capacity. I'm a huge RMC fan and I would still rather see a B&M replace Firehawk than see an RMC Racer conversion any time soon. I'm pretty sure the park agrees.

That was my first thought in terms of location. Looks to be the right general shape, plus I seem to remember them mentioning something about that plot of land when we climbed the waterslide tower at the King Louie event this year.

I made sure to send that Firehawk gift to you when I got it, I'm glad you got an egg. Hoping for Kangaskhan for you but it'll be funny if it's something dumb. Yes, we've started a little tradition. Hopefully we can continue it next year as well! And I'm glad you got a kick out of the Keto DILinator picture. Was hoping you would. DILinator should be able to speak more for this, because he rode all the rides and I didn't. Nothing I rode was more than 20-30 minutes and the smaller coasters were walk-ons. The app said Timbers and Diamondback got 45+ but I never went and confirmed.

This should be great for them! They already have some solid adult coasters, this should be a great "in-between" coaster. And for the record, I never actually thought Firehawk was going to KK, but it was pretty funny to see everyone's reactions

Anyone know what time it is at?

Thank you for the support, everyone! The one that scared me was a creepy-looking rat or mouse thing in the Mousetrap room (I later learned when I went back, had no idea what it was supposed to be the first time). The first time we went in the maze we were also some of the first ones in after they had evacuated the maze for an unknown reason. I thought it was really dark inside and I couldn't see, which added to my fear. At the time, I thought maybe some of the lights had gone out during the technical difficulties. Later, I realized the "darkness" was probably just my eyes not being adjusted to the dark of the maze after standing outside in the daylight.

I just posted a Haunt TR from last night. I'll probably try to add to that thread as I visit Haunt more this year, to leave room for Firehawk arguments in this thread.

I'll try to keep this thread updated as I visit Haunt this year. Kings Island Haunt is one of the best Haunt events I've been to, and you can never get enough pictures of Kings Island at night during Haunt! September 29th My boyfriend and I were to meet up with DILinator and his kids. We took our time leaving the house and Walmart Subway REALLY took their time making our horrible sandwiches (I'm a Subway snob and I will NEVER eat at Walmart Subway again!), so although the park opened for Haunt at 6, we didn't make it until around 7:30. Nothing like the atmosphere of KI during Haunt Just a couple weirdos at Haunt In case you already forgot where you were We made our way to Flight of Fear to meet up with the crew, and I snapped some pics of the scarezones along the way. The scarezones don't officially open until dark, but there is still plenty to see! Wasteland was a returning scare zone in the area that leads to Banshee Foggy Banshee and Delirium Coney Maul: a new scare zone this year OOOooo Wolf man, or something Psychic tells me that Firehawk's future is grim "We all float [up] here... and you'll float too!" "Hey! HEY! Eye see you up there! Just what in the name do you kids think you're doing?" I made sure to take this picture after Jack had already popped and went back down. Pumpkin Eater was a new scare zone this year. This new scarezone looked amazing during day and night! I love this so so much. It's so grotesque and twisted. The midnight hour is close at hand! We found DILinator by Flight of Fear. I think he was hungry because of his Keto diet. We met up with the crew and went to Flight of Fear. It's been a while since I had been on it, because riding KD's Flight of Fear last year kind of soured my opinion of KI FoF, but it's still a great ride and I forgot how much I loved it. It'll be great to get some more rides on it during WInterfest, but I probably won't prioritize it during Haunt. After that, we of course wanted to ride the giga next door... oops, too soon? Read: say goodbye to Firehawk. It definitely seemed more popular than it was before the announcement. It also pulled a, "That's SO Firehawk," and decided to break down while we were waiting. DILinator and his kids took off to go ride Banshee and Bat while my boyfriend and I decided to check out the new Haunt, C.H.A.O.S. C.H.A.O.S. is a replacement for Board 2 Death, an infamous RAWKIN_coaster Haunt maze, because I panicked and dipped out of it when I saw a scary animatronic the first time we went in it (Read: RAWKIN_coaster does not like scary animatronics). C.H.A.O.S. did not have any scary animatronics, so it was a "safe" maze. The premise is there is a corporation testing a chemical to help humans travel to space but it actually makes people go insane, or something like that. CarnEvil is gone this year (RIP), and C.H.A.O.S. reused the spinning room and funhouse mirrors from CarnEvil. It was a disorienting maze, but I wouldn't say it was all that scary. However, being amid the infamous Haunt "Conga-line" definitely detracted from this maze, and the scareactors didn't seem to be at their best either. To get the most out of this maze, I would suggest going to the maze early or letting some people go ahead of you so you can go through the maze without just mindlessly following the people ahead of you. We saw that Firehawk was back open, so I texted DILinator before we put our phones in the ...you know what... and we got in line. I really do love Firehawk, and our 2nd-row night ride did not disappoint! Would you brave a giant bony spider to get a drink? After a little Coke Freestyle break, DILinator and the kids met up with us and we rode Firehawk again, this time in the 2nd-to-back. Again, the ride did not disappoint. We shed a quiet tear for Firehawk, took some pictures, and moved on. Aww, how cute. Your days are numbered Goodbye, Firehawk. :'( At this point, I wanted a beer from the KI "bar," (Read: most awesome bartender at KI/possibly only bartender at KI) and DILinator wanted a "Keto-diet friendly" drink. After procuring these, we hit up a couple of the food trucks before the Haunted Homecoming show, when DILinator and kids said, "Nah, Diamondback," and left us again. New this year, Haunted Homecoming replaced Hot Blooded, my all-time-favorite Haunt show [that isn't at Knott's Berry Farm]. I had pretty low expectations for it, but I still wanted to see it. Haunted Homecoming kind of made no sense, but it was still entertaining and had plenty of sexy women and awesome costumes. 9 out of 10 I would do the TIme Warp with them again, but I still liked Hot Blooded better. Haunted Homecoming had some really weird dance numbers, but it was really catchy! "I'm Hot Blooded! Hot Blooded!" Oh wait... By then, we had one more hour of Haunt and we realized how few things we had actually done. There was no way we were going to miss a night ride on Beast, so we decided to hit up the closest two mazes to Beast, Cavern of Terror and Slaughterhouse. #ItsBigitsGone Pumpkin Eater did have a scary, well-hidden animatronic. Thankfully, DILinator warned me about it. I keep telling her to go see the eye doctor, but she never listens! Slaughterhouse was the same as before. Bloody, but not all that scary. Cavern of Terror is in the former Tomb Raider building. We were shocked and pleased to find out that this year, "the madam decided to turn the lights out." Every third person gets a flashlight and must keep it aimed at the floor. I honestly am so impressed that KI chose to do this to add a new exciting slant to an otherwise dated maze. It definitely made the maze a lot more haunting! For those who don't know, this maze is based around a deranged wax museum. In the dark, you really couldn't tell which figures were real and which were wax. Very eerie. Also, there is a scary animatronic and yes, I ran. Hmmm... I wonder what this means? A Mystic Timbers Easter Egg. The boxes also had "1979" and "7359" as Beast references. Might there be other clues around this mysterious box? If there were, I didn't find them. We met back up with DILinator and the kids at Beast, only to part ways again because we were waiting for the front. Managed to make it on the last train of the night, front row. Man, it never gets old! Best time to take pictures with this sign: 1 am + when you don't have to wait for others to move. Can't get enough of this sign Best time to take pictures with this sign: 1 am + when you don't have to wait for others to move. How did you get out of the shed? front-row night rides never get old

That's really cool! I didn't know they did that. The food looks good, too! Website says they're sold out for 2018, guess you really do have to book far in advance?

No, but I just realized I'm surprisingly close! I'm at 18 now and will probably will hit 19 by the end of the year but doubtfully over 20. I'd be over 20 if you count water parks. Did you visit more than 5 different water parks this year?

I'm pretty sure it's open every weekend (if all goes well) starting this weekend until the end of October. Then it's closed for good. Not sure what you mean. It will be open for you guys, just won't be the last weekend. From Twitter Reading comprehension, people.

Is there a leak of the actual drawings? I clicked the link but there are so many ads it's hard to tell if I missed anything or not.

Firehawk >>>>> Nighthawk. Like others, I had no problem with Firehawk and it was actually one of my favorites in the park. I'm not surprised it is the one to go, but I'll still miss it. RIP Firehawk. I hope they don't just scrap it, but I wouldn't be surprised either if that's what happens. All in the name of progress! I'm sure the excitement for whatever is going to happen in 2020 will far outweigh whatever lingering disappointment I feel about Firehawk.

Yes! Already got most of my Halloween decorations up. Do you like visiting stores the day after Halloween to get discounted candy?

We're referring to how close anchor attractions are placed in proximity to each other given the park's space. Six Flags New England there is actually a decent example in that, even for such a tightly packed park, they have placed the top four attractions at three corners of the park (Superman, Wicked Cyclone, and Batman) with the fourth (Goliath) in the center (yes it is comical that it is near another boomerang, Flashback)(for such a small, narrow park, Six Flags New England is laid out pretty well). Trust me, Six Flags may suck at a lot of things, but even they (as well as most all parks) think about park flow/traffic with each addition that they make (unless there is no space at all). I really doubt that Kings Island would throw a brand spanking new mega coaster/giga right over the Beast and Diamondback (unless they needed too and Kings Island has no lack of space). This. But also the fact that a huge part of the novelty of Beast is going out in the woods in the dark with no lights or interruptions from other rides. Once you get out past the lift, it's basically just you, Beast, and forest until you come back. I recognize I am by no means a park/ride designer and they still could find a way to replace Vortex with a Giga and not interrupt the flow of Beast, but it just seems like it would be easier if Firehawk was the one to go. Also, on Screamscape it was mentioned that there are 11 chairs at the funeral and Firehawk is 11 years old (at KI). Anyone know what the #ItsBigitsGone might be referring to? And anyone know if the Friday announcement will happen during Haunt time (i.e. anyone can attend, like they did with Antique Cars) or is it earlier in the day just for press?

I could be wayyy off the mark here, but I might as well throw this in. Do you think proximity to Beast might play into this? To me it would somewhat ruin the famous nighttime "Beast experience" if there was a huge giga towering overhead. Firehawk is definitely a lot more on its own. With all the pros mentioned of Firehawk being the one to go, it definitely sounds the most plausible. I'll still miss it, but whatever new replacing it is bound to be 1000x better, so I won't cry too much. Also, I remember reading somewhere that someone thought an amphitheater or warehouse that currently houses a Haunt maze was getting demolished too. Not sure if they meant the one near Racer that has Urgent Scare or the one near Beast that has Slaughterhouse. Anyone else hear anything about this?

What's funny is I posted about that on Facebook and asked people to use their imagination as if the Beast was being removed/RMC'd and they won't even think about it, haha. I genuinely want to know what would happen. It's just a lot of "Firehawk is getting kicked over to the Kentucky side" replies I just saw Kentucky Kingdom's post. If KI is really selling Firehawk to KK that's going to be one of the most bizarre transactions. EDIT:

Nope, I'm one of the few white girls that don't really care for it. Have you eaten pizza this week?

I'll bet you guys anything it's this.