Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[pianojohn]

Some pics from July 2005, almost 15 years ago.

 

Paramount still owned the park so there are remnants of that.

 

Enjoy!

[KIEnthusiast]

Great photos! Cedar Fair has certainly done wonders at Kings Island.

[thrillseeker4552]

^I think that can be said for all 5 Paramount parks that they purchased. And really just all of their parks. Knott's has improved drastically in the last 10 years too.

[prozach626]

I wonder if KI will finally post a POV of Orion after an opening date is announced.

[Hilltopper39]

Great photos! Cedar Fair has certainly done wonders at Kings Island.

 

I can't really argue with that but I sure did enjoy the 'Paramount" era at Kings Island, and Carowinds too I guess since it was the only other park I made it to while it was still Paramount. Sure it had some cheesy themeing but even just slapping "Paramount" and some movie references up here and there made the park feel bigger on national scale than the place i grew up going to as a kid, even if in reality it didn't.

 

And Paramount gave us Top Gun The ride which is still the best movie/coaster crossover ever, Cedar Fair may have removed the themeing but they can never take my memories .

[AmyUD06]

Not Kings Island, but I can say that the Paramount era at Kings Dominion resulted in some of the best innovation the park has seen in terms of coasters. Starting with Flight of Fear, followed by Volcano and Hypersonic XLC, they were kinda in the front-running of new technologies. I don't think it was as bad as many now make it seem.

[Philrad71]

Thanks for sharing, John!

 

Although those photos of SOB sure do bring up a lot of old, painful memories.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Came across an interesting article today... Thought it was worth sharing here.

 

Expert: Kings Island may open on July 1

With face masks, ride appointments, 6-foot distancing

 

This is a big week for theme park fans, with the reopening of Disney Shanghai in China, the first major theme park in the world to reopen after the COVID-19 shutdown.

 

Other parks -- including Kings Island and Cedar Point in Ohio -- are watching to see if they can reopen as well.

 

This was supposed to be a record-breaking year for Kings Island with the opening of its new, 300-foot giga coaster, Orion. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic has the park empty and the opening day uncertain.

 

Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, travels the world consulting for amusement parks. Speigel, a former assistant general manager of Kings Island, is considered one of the top theme park experts in the country.

 

"Well this has certainly been a roller coaster ride for the theme park industry this year," Speigel said.

 

But he is optimistic with this week's reopening of Disney in China, and he expects other parks to follow that timeline closely.

 

"Disney Shanghai, use that as a window," Speigel said. "They closed in January, and they are opening today."

 

Using that time frame, he expects a number of major theme parks in the US, including Kings Island, will reopen on or around July 1.

 

He said that is based on 3 1/2 months the Chinese park was closed. The same time frame for Kings Island and other Cedar Fair-owned parks, shuttered since mid-March, would be July 1.

 

Another hint of a July 1 opening: Disney World in Orlando is now taking hotel reservations starting that date (though it has not yet announced a park opening date).

 

Disney CEO Ed Chapek says they are now planning for the parks to reopen later this year, and may require guests to wear face masks, even in the summer heat.

 

Speigel says every theme park in the country is watching to see how Disney's China reopening goes.

 

"There's going to be distancing in lines, restaurants and merchandise, and on the rides," he said.

 

The big changes you will see

 

Based on park owner Cedar Fair's conference call to Wall Street last week, Speigel says to expect:

 

Face masks on park employees (and possibly guests)

- 6-foot social distancing on ride lines

- Appointments for ride times, which means you will need to have the park's app on your phone.

- Constant wiping down of rides, including restraints, making loading time longer.

- Seating in every other row on many rides, which means ride capacity will be cut in half.

- Cashless transactions in stores and restaurants.

- Fewer guests in park

 

To make that work, parks may need to open at one third capacity, which Speigel says for Kings Island would bring peak admission down from 40,000 a day to just 15,000 guests.

 

"We're going to see a reduction," he said, "and that's going to be the norm for a while."

 

And that sharp reduction in park capacity would almost certainly mean reserved tickets, Speigel said.

 

"The last thing Kings Island or Cedar Point wants to do is have you drive from a distance, get to the park and they say, 'Hey, you can't come in here,'" Speigel said.

 

Kings Island spokesman Chad Showalter said the park has no opening date or announcement yet.

 

But parent company Cedar Fair said it is hoping to open all of its parks this summer, assuming states allow it, and is automatically extending all season passes through next year as well.

 

Of course there is no "official" opening date yet... However, at least it seems more hopeful that they will be opening this year!

 

Source.

[PKI Jizzman]

Orion was testing on Monday.

[prozach626]

I wonder what these potential guidelines will mean for fastlane passes. Selfishly, I hope Cedar Fair is counting on keeping that cash-grab.

[CenturyFlyer]

Just a random thought - this kind of goes without saying, but I'm sure that the number of people who were "upset" by Orion not being a "true giga" has decreased substantially.

[prozach626]

Damn. I miss the idiotic "Diamondback 2.0" comments on Facebook.

[thepoint4life23]

I was wondering with attendance down to 1/3 would you need fast pass, but I see no reason to remove it. They will need any money they can make they might as well keep it since the overhead is so little.

[teacherkim]

Agreed there would be no reason not to offer fastlane. As far as needing it with lower capacity I would say that depends on what sort of sanitizing they intend to do to rides and how badly that slows ops down. However, can't imagine you would risk a fastlane sell out so I think you would be safe to get to the park and check out lines and then buy if necessary.

 

We should have been leaving tomorrow for Coasterstock. Instead of riding Orion on his 17th birthday my son is getting cupcakes at Grandma's........not quite the same. Although he is being very gracious about it so I guess he is growing up.

[cparkes92]

1/3 of maximum capacity is likely close to a normal summer weekday crowd

[thepoint4life23]

I would say it will be less than that, and a chunk of that weekday crowed is in the water park. I would not see the water park opening at this point in time.

[prozach626]

I was wondering with attendance down to 1/3 would you need fast pass.

 

They could be down to 1/3 capacity, depending on how they fill the trains and sanitizing.

[WolfBobs]

Maybe fastlane would just give you the right to not make any reservation for a ride. Could be another way to promote it...

[cparkes92]

I would say it will be less than that, and a chunk of that weekday crowed is in the water park. I would not see the water park opening at this point in time.

 

Not KI, but a couple of weeks ago Oakland County announced that their county-run water parks won't be opening at all this summer. They mentioned COVID as the main cause, but I wouldn't be surprised if budget cuts were a small part of their decision

[thepoint4life23]

As of Yesterday most of Ohio will be open by the end of the month. The next thing to talk about would be the bigger gatherings of people. I feel within the next week or so we might have a timeline for Amusement Parks and waterparks to open. They did give the okay to open pools even with many cities saying they will be closed all summer. I thought we would not see parks open at all but everything seems to be moving along much quicker now.

[prozach626]

Meanwhile in Illinois, we'll finally be able to get haircuts.

[DILinator]

^You're better off than here in MI!

[thepoint4life23]

Does anyone know if anything has been testing at Kings island besides Orion?

[pǝʇɹǝʌuı]

Imagine being an entitled enthusiast and getting called out like this...by Don Helbig himself

 

For context, Kings Island posted an article entitled Roller Coaster Terminology 101 written by Don Helbig on their website. It’s kinda cringy but this callout made me laugh.

[AmyUD06]

Ouch....they list ACE, Coaster Crew, and GOCC, but not TPR. Shafted.