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Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

p. 832: Camp Snoopy announced for 2024!

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Park wasn't as crowded Saturday as it sounded like Friday was. Of course that was because of the downpour throughout most of the day and threat of storms scaring everyone away, but most of the evening was pretty dry. Morning had of (near-to) in station waits, and the afternoon/evening had me waiting about 15 or less minutes per ride. I was pretty surprised to see every ride, even the tower rides, running in the rain.

 

Also, the new BBQ place is great! The decoration inside that nods to past attractions is a really nice touch. The pulled pork and collared greens I had were very good, and the mac n cheese was alright.

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Small Trip report.

 

Preview night.

 

Perfect weather, sunny and a high of 78. Anyone that says it was crowded this year for preview night did not go last year lol. Last year took me an hour just to park and there is no one working the parking entrance. This year we drove right in and parked up front minutes before open. There was a decent line for pass processing but I feel like that only took about 10 minutes. Lines were a bit lengthy but a lot of rides were down is most likely why. It definitely filled in more towards the end of the night but I still had an awesome time.

 

We took our time getting around the park. We rode Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, Banshee, and a Beast front seat night ride for the coaster and rode several of the flats.

 

Okay for those who have seen the weight thread I have been working pretty hard. as of this morning i am down 30 pounds since the end of Jan. I was getting extra clicks this time where I used to be on the limit of not riding and even got to leave room for once between the restraints. I am so happy.

 

Now for the Beast we got in line at 8:40 knowing we were going for front seat and that we may have a delay for fireworks. Thanks to people coming up the exit we were one train away from riding before the fireworks. We understood this chance happening, unfortunately despite the plethora of announcements starting at 9 people still didn't understand this. I really was hating people during all of this because of two people. The first was an overweight blonde lady with a for sure let me speak to your manager attitude. I heard her tell her son to stay and look upset then went and complained until they put her on the train before the fireworks. this wasn't enough she wanted Fast Lane passes as well, which I heard her tell her son before all of this that she was going to try to get while laughing. Why are people such shit? I couldn't help but shake my head and was glad I didn't have to deal with her for the 40 minute firework delay. The second lady threw a bitch fir not to anyone in particular just loudly because they were sending empty trains when they could have got to ride...... let that sink in for a moment, maybe use common sense and figure out why this was so dumb I have faith in all of you. I have so much faith I am not even going to say why this is dumb. She was acting like a toddler, actually scratch that my 4 year old was 100x better behaved.

 

I must say this ride on Beast felt faster and smoother than I have ever felt. That chaotic legendary night ride is worth a two hour wait every god damn time and I will gladly do it. Robb please do another event I can attend where I can ride it 13 times in a row in the middle of the night, Thanks!

 

 

Opening Day.

 

This was the day I was taking my son and I was glad the rain was coming we were ready for it. It made for an absolutely perfect day. Everything was running and everything was walk on. My son is maybe a quarter of an inch shy of being at the 44 mark. He did grow quite a bit since last summer and we got on several new things.

 

Last year my son had some fears of rides and didn't really venture out of many of the small kid rides. He did get on Woodstock Express a couple of times last year but he didn't enjoy it. This year he not only rode it but we rode 4 times and he was pumped to ride again each time. He also got to do Shake Rattle and Roll which is a favorite flat of mine. He loved it. Viking Fury, Scrambler, Monster everything we hit he loved. He even got mad at me when I told him he wasn't tall enough for Diamondback and Banshee. I was so happy.

 

We dealt with the rain and had a blast staying from open until 4 pm. We don't get many Saturdays like that especially opening day. I am going to go every day it rains this summer.

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^Sounds like you had a good time.

 

I saw your comment on the Facebook coaster post about being construction near the Dinosaurs Alive area. I was as skeptical as you were, since a lot of it seemed like typical dinosaur removal. The only thing I could think of is that they're prepping this area for some permanent haunt features and structures.

 

I can't even remember what coaster group it was from. I think it was one of the smaller less credible groups.

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We went on Friday and I can attest that it was much less busy than last year! It didn't take long at all to get in the park and find a decent spot.

 

We got in the park shortly before opening. We rode Diamondback, Beast, Vortex, and Firehawk in the first hour with only station waits. Flight of Fear, Adventure Express, and even Racer looked to have longer lines than we wanted to wait for, so went to Banshee next. It was about a half hour wait, but went pretty fast. Mystic Timbers and Stunt Coaster were down for a while, so we went to get blue ice cream, which ended up being our longest wait of the day at about an hour.

 

For some reason, we had never gotten around to trying the blue ice cream. We either didn't feel like having ice cream or didn't think we'd really like it since we're pretty much plain vanilla people. Ended up loving it! Definitely will get more next time we're at the park.

 

Peeked in the new BBQ place which had a line extending out of the entrance. Didn't want to wait in it to not eat anything because I'm vegetarian, but it looked nice!

 

Next, we waited for Mystic Timbers. Last year on preview night it was a 4-hour wait. Friday, it was "only" an hour, and we got my favorite shed ending.

 

After that, we headed home. Everything was longer than we wanted to wait and we were too tired to hang out for the fireworks. Overall was a fun day with great weather. Less than a week later we're getting snow again.

 

Here are a few pictures I took:

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Diamondback refurb'd trains look and feel great!

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Urgent Scare truck spotting!

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Definitely missed this place during the off-season!

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Diamondback is still my top B&M hyper.

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Blue ice cream, blue tongue, and equally blue shirt!

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"Hey! HEY! I see you up there!"

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Excited for many more visits to come!

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Were Diamondback's entire trains refurbished both mechanically and aesthetically, or just the seats and padding?

 

The trains are completely dismantled, inspected, and rebuilt during the off-season, so I would assume everything has been refurbished to some extent.

 

I can’t get over how much better the trains look now. Even before they got all worn, I never liked the red/pink anyway and always thought black would look better.

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^Sounds like you had a good time.

 

I saw your comment on the Facebook coaster post about being construction near the Dinosaurs Alive area. I was as skeptical as you were, since a lot of it seemed like typical dinosaur removal. The only thing I could think of is that they're prepping this area for some permanent haunt features and structures.

 

I can't even remember what coaster group it was from. I think it was one of the smaller less credible groups.

 

FYE Coasters. I am not sure why I follow them to be honest. Also they were the reason I ended up waiting the extra 40 minutes for Beast. they came up the exit to get on. I am not sure though what the deal was or if someone was Handicapped or not as I didn't pay that much attention.

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High potential for a forest themed haunt attraction with the Dinosaurs Alive area.

 

Of course, there's also still the potential for that 300+ft Intamin/RMC/B&M we've all been waiting for.

 

Bring back Trail of Terror! I believe the same path was used for Dino's Alive? Or maybe part of it? I'm struggling to find an old Fear Fest map, but you're a local-ish guy so I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about it. It was the only theme park-haunt that actually used a real chunk of woods as far as I know.

 

There was even an optional part where you could crawl through this tunnel. It was really creepy and they did a great job of using the hilly woodsy terrain. You've got Lebanon and Morrow not too far from Kings Island so that was an added fear factor as well!

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Trail of Terror went something like this.

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Were Diamondback's entire trains refurbished both mechanically and aesthetically, or just the seats and padding?

 

The trains are completely dismantled, inspected, and rebuilt during the off-season, so I would assume everything has been refurbished to some extent.

I figured that would be the case every off season, I just didn't know if there was any additional rehab this year, such as a complete set of new bearings, etc.

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Of course, there's also still the potential for that 300+ft Intamin/RMC/B&M we've all been waiting for.

*enters dream land*

With the massive success of Fury, to include ride popularity, aesthetic value, and reliability, and capacity, I can't imagine why CF wouldn't go with another B&M for any added giga in the chain. If KI ever does get a giga, I just hope they don't plop it in a completely ugly empty field like they did with I305. It's almost like they treated it like a step child.

*back to reality*

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Anyone have any idea how many riders rode Mystic Timbers last year? (and the ridership numbers for all the KI coasters)
Here we are! Very good numbers!

 

thumb_a77fc2bd-bc9a-47c8-a331-32c737a9def6.jpeg

 

Great numbers! When taking about throughput it should obviously be noted that the coasters aren't all on a level playing field though. Mystic Timbers had a massive advantage. If I remember correctly, Diamondback and Mystic Timbers had a daily 30 minute Early Entry for half the year and then Banshee and Mystic Timbers got it the other half so just during the regular season Mystic Timbers had a lot more operating time than everything else as it got a full season of Early Entry.

 

Then (possibly more importantly), Mystic Timbers was the only coaster operating for about 25-30 nights during Winterfest.

 

The numbers are great for a wood coaster and I don't want to take anything away from that, but they did have way more operating time than anything else. I'm sort of more impressed with the Beast numbers. Great job by that crew. It's also a testament to the popularity of the ride. Racer only beat it by 200,000 riders despite having a theoretical capacity of 24 additional riders per cycle and the exact same style of train.

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Since my second trip of summer falls toward the middle/end of August , looks like KI will have to be a Friday/Saturday thing. If we arrive Thursday August 16th in the afternoon/evening and get 3-4 hours in the park, do ERT on Friday and spend all day, then do ERT and FL+ on Saturday, I'm assuming we'll be able to get multiples on all the good stuff?

 

My daughter and I have little interest in flats and will be riding mostly coasters, skipping Wild Mouse, kiddie coasters, boomerangs and other clones unless they are really good coasters. Mainly looking at getting multiple rides on Diamondback, The Beast, Banshee, and Mystic Timbers. We will probably skip Flight of Fear and Backlot Stunt Coaster unless they offer a different experience than the ones at KD, as we will make multiple trips there this year.

 

We are flexible and can bail early if we've ridden our favorites enough and can head to CP a day or half-day sooner than expected. So if the FL makes more sense on Friday, we can do that.

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Since my second trip of summer falls toward the middle/end of August , looks like KI will have to be a Friday/Saturday thing. If we arrive Thursday August 16th in the afternoon/evening and get 3-4 hours in the park, do ERT on Friday and spend all day, then do ERT and FL+ on Saturday, I'm assuming we'll be able to get multiples on all the good stuff?

 

My daughter and I have little interest in flats and will be riding mostly coasters, skipping Wild Mouse, kiddie coasters, boomerangs and other clones unless they are really good coasters. Mainly looking at getting multiple rides on Diamondback, The Beast, Banshee, and Mystic Timbers. We will probably skip Flight of Fear and Backlot Stunt Coaster unless they offer a different experience than the ones at KD, as we will make multiple trips there this year.

 

We are flexible and can bail early if we've ridden our favorites enough and can head to CP a day or half-day sooner than expected. So if the FL makes more sense on Friday, we can do that.

 

Thursday evening + all day Friday while skipping the clones is more than enough time to get as many rides on the big 4 as you want. Unless weather slows you down, you could plan on leaving to CP Saturday morning. I bet FL is cheaper on Friday too, but you might not need it since the 4 coaster you mentioned have great capacity and ops. It's very possible that they only have a 15 minute wait all day. Plan on FL on Friday if you see those lines inflate to 20 minutes and give yourself some extra time at CP.

 

Best case: Tons of rides Thursday night/you don't need FL on Friday and you can get use it at CP on Saturday!

Worst case: You can't get in on Thursday and you do Friday/Sat FL at Kings Island.

 

It's almost worth debating whether or not you'd want to be at CP on a Saturday, but mid-late August could make it tolerable...

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^Thanks for the feedback. I thought about adding The Henry Ford Museum or Rock n Roll Hall of Fame to the itinerary if we didn't want to do CP on a Saturday. Both involve a little extra driving and backtracking to CP but are pretty cool stops that my daughter has never visited.

 

I just looked up Firehawk and we will be visiting its clone at SFA earlier in the summer so we can skip that one as well, assuming SFA will not be nearly as crowded as KI. I see mixed reviews of Flying Dutchmen here but i rather enjoyed Nighthawk at Carowinds. That leaves the Beast being the only ride on FL+ that would really matter as we can do two days of ERT with Mystic Timbers and Diamondback. So we may just FL on Friday and leave Saturday open to whatever.

 

And looks like there is an exclusive ride night on Steel Vengeance on Tuesday August 21. I'm sure Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will be enough time at CP if we FL or FL+ at least one day.

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