Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

People are waiting 2 hours with access passes but not Fastlane. Nobody has Fastlane at CP this year so the few that do are flying onto the rides unless the ride goes down.

Edited September 30, 2020 by coasterbill

[DavidB]

FL will always help with lines, especially at a park like KI where almost all the lines merge at the station.

 

I have to call some BS on your friends' account of "2 hour Fast Lane waits" at CP though, unless rides broke down. Even at its worst during a normal season, the Fast Lane line for SV barely broke an hour.

 

 

I'm with you here, I've been 2 different days with fast lane at CP this year, and it's the least I've ever had to wait at the park. Especially the ones where the merge is at the station. Literally walk up and get on the next train or 2 almost every time. Also agree, Fastlane is fantastic at KI.

[SharkTums]

How busy is Kings Island now that they are only open Saturdays and Sundays? Would a Fastlane Plus help with lines if it is crowded? I had friends recently go to Cedar Point with a Fastlane Plus and still waited over 2 hours in line for some rides. That is just plain wrong. They are selling too many Fastlane passes (at $95 each) which ruins the whole idea behind the Fastlane Plus. Anybody have this experience at Kings Island? Thanks.

 

 

Like others have said I wonder if your friends were confused or just very unlucky. Almost no one can get Fast Lane at CP this year so if you have it, it's amazing! You'll definitely want it at Kings Island.

[u4icmusic]

Here at KI today. Since 11 with FastLane I have done Mystic Timbers twice, Beast, Backlot, Diamondback, Adventure Express and had a break with a bloody syringe lemonade and a worms in dirt funnel cake. Off to Orion next. FastLane rules!!!

Are they loading all rows in the trains or are they social distancing by leaving every other row closed to riders

[dankeykang]

Are they loading all rows in the trains or are they social distancing by leaving every other row closed to riders

 

Most coasters are only filling every other row, with a few exceptions:

 

- Banshee is loading the whole train, but with only one party per row

- Orion is also using all rows, but they are only filling the 2 inner seats in rows 1, 3, 5, and 7, and the 2 outer seats in rows 2, 4, 6, and 8

[Honorarius]

Who wants a chunk of the Vortex? $198... https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/september/own-a-slice-of-history-from-the-vortex-roller-coaster

 

I think it's great that they're doing something like this... Not going to buy personally, but for those who this ride/park means a lot to, this is an interesting souvenir for them...

[prozach626]

Who wants a chunk of the Vortex? $198... https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/september/own-a-slice-of-history-from-the-vortex-roller-coaster

 

I would have rather purchased four commemorative bricks at CP than one chunk of steel from a junked coaster. Most people are awesome at wasting their money.

 

Would a Fastlane Plus help with lines if it is crowded?

 

Does water help with thirst?

[PKI Jizzman]

Hoping to hear some reports from the past 2 weekends, the midwest is going to have some colder weather this weekend and I'm interested to see how crowds react. 

[Ape]

5 hours ago, PKI Jizzman said:

Hoping to hear some reports from the past 2 weekends, the midwest is going to have some colder weather this weekend and I'm interested to see how crowds react. 

From my understanding it’s been crowded the last two weekends. I haven’t made it there recently with everything going on in my family but hope to this weekend for a bit.

 

hopefully one day the stars will align and both zachs, Coasterbill and brit, Joe and whoever else can all make it to KI at the same time. Tired of meeting y’all up there one by one lol 

[AmyUD06]

Not KI, but at CP on Saturday the 3rd of October it barely broke 60 degrees and the park was busier that it had been during my July or August visits.  Fast Lane highly recommended.

[grsupercity]

So glad to see this site back up and running! I am doing my first trip to Kings Island and I purchased a flash pass! Every time I have planned a trip to this park it always fell through. Fingers crossed! 

[VegasBaby]

2 hours ago, grsupercity said:

So glad to see this site back up and running! I am doing my first trip to Kings Island and I purchased a flash pass! Every time I have planned a trip to this park it always fell through. Fingers crossed! 

I will also be visiting KI for the first time next week and I am beyond excited.  I've already purchased my Fast Lane passes and the weather looks decent, so I'm looking forward to a great visit!

[prozach626]

7 hours ago, Ape said:

hopefully one day the stars will align and both zachs, Coasterbill and brit, Joe and whoever else can all make it to KI at the same time. 

This.

[ejot]

Saturday was pretty busy, I overheard one ride op say busiest day of the year.  Most coasters were consistently over an hour wait and Mystic Timbers was 100min mid-afternoon.  I only rode Orion right at opening and waited ~45min.  Got a Fastpass for Sunday and still totally worth it even though crowds were much lighter.  I’ll post some more thoughts and pics tonight, it was a great visit with amazing weather.

[cedarpointer]

Im going next weekend with a friend that has never been. We got Fastlane! Ive heard that Orion opens around 10:30-10:45. Are there any other coasters open at that time? 

I was thinking about starting with Diamondback, Mystic Timbers and the Beast then working our way over but I sounds like we might want to start at Orion and work our way around the park? 

[AmyUD06]

With Fast Lane it won't matter what order you tackle the coasters.  Pretty much every coaster there that accepts Fast Lane (which is all of the adult coasters except Bat and Woodstock Express) has the merge point at the station.  Do what you want and enjoy your day.

[cedarpointer]

Thanks! 

Cant wait to get back to the park. My friend loves Dollywood and his favorite coaster is Thunderhead. I think Mystic Timbers and The Beast will quickly become some of this favorites. 

[Dejavu1613]

Hey guys! I’ll be visiting KI this weekend with my GF. Just a couple of questions. 
 

We are visiting from Southern California. We both have KBF passes. However, mines a platinum pass paid in full already. And hers is a platinum pass being paid monthly. Due to KBF not being open, her pass payments have been temporarily on hold until our park re-opens. 
 

I’m assuming she’ll need to purchase daily tickets for both days this weekend? And will mine still work for entry and parking? Thanks! 
We also got FL for Saturday booked since I was reading it was highly recommended. But not for Sunday. 

[VegasBaby]

21 minutes ago, Dejavu1613 said:

Hey guys! I’ll be visiting KI this weekend with my GF. Just a couple of questions. 
 

We are visiting from Southern California. We both have KBF passes. However, mines a platinum pass paid in full already. And hers is a platinum pass being paid monthly. Due to KBF not being open, her pass payments have been temporarily on hold until our park re-opens. 
 

I’m assuming she’ll need to purchase daily tickets for both days this weekend? And will mine still work for entry and parking? Thanks! 
We also got FL for Saturday booked since I was reading it was highly recommended. But not for Sunday. 

As long as she was current on her payment plan, her KBF platinum pass should work at KI.  I am in the same situation and will be visiting KI using my KBF Platinum Pass.  I called Knotts and they told me that it was still valid for all other CF parks even though Knotts is not open.  I was able to use my Knotts pass to buy KI discount bring a friend tickets for next week and I was able to add it to the KI app, so your GF should be able use her pass for admission. 

[Dejavu1613]

^ Oh awesome! I tried contacting KI but didn’t think about KBF. That’s awesome then and will save us some money. Thanks for the reply! 

Hope you guys have safe travels from here too!

Stoked to get some coasters in. It’s been forever.

[Domm]

3 hours ago, Dejavu1613 said:

^ Oh awesome! I tried contacting KI but didn’t think about KBF. That’s awesome then and will save us some money. Thanks for the reply! 

Hope you guys have safe travels from here too!

Stoked to get some coasters in. It’s been forever.

My friend and I have platinums from CGA and went to KI this season as well. Prior to our visit we heard somewhere that we needed to turn back on auto payments (which were suspended by the park, not us) or pay the pass off before it working to get into KI. We both did just in case and had no issues. Not sure if it would have worked without doing that. Doesn't hurt giving it a shot and if any issues come up, just login to the Knotts site at the part entry and restart the payments or pay it off.

Excellent on getting FL. Given the Bat doesn't have it, we hit that first on the days we went this year. The water park next door at Great Wolf was a blast as well

[ejot]

My visit this past weekend was great, even with Saturday being very busy and me missing out on FL until Sunday.   

I went into Orion not having followed its construction or watched a POV or even really knowing the layout.  Also haven't been watching the reactions to it.  I thought it was great.  No surprise here that the huge new B&M is a smooth, fun, smile-inducing, infinitely-rerideable, gentle giant.  I think it packs a little lighter punch overall than Fury or Leviathan, and I actually love it just like that.  The setting is beautiful, especially this time of year and in particular just before and through the big overbank turnaround, just a breathtaking view out over a sea of vibrant foliage.   Back left was my seat.  Something about first drop in the back felt a little more special than Fury or Leviathan to me.  Oh and the light package on the ride at night.  Holy poopoo it's so freaking nice.  

Mask compliance was really quite good.  Operators were actually pretty on top of asking people to wear or correct how they were wearing, and I saw only one case where such an interaction went sour.  Distancing in the queues wasn't always great.   Two impressively motivated operators actually forced the line to space out on Banshee and Invertigo.  Their efforts were effective and appreciated.  

Got lucky to get a backseat night ride on Beast.  My only previous ride was a front seat night ride.   Woah that descent into the tunnel off the second lift, in the pitch dark, just one of the most sublimely out-of-control feelings on a ride I can imagine.  Think I actually enjoyed it more in the back.  Sunday morning I ended up on a third row ride and found that quite uncomfortable.  

Speaking of seat selection, operators were actually really friendly about, and generally accommodating, whenever groups asked about preferred seats.  FastPass greatly increases your opportunities for front or back seats. 

Mystic Timbers was a pleasant surprise, more fun than I'd imagined.  It makes some cool maneuvers with nice forces, while also retaining that overall terrain/journey feel.   It felt a bit like a big brother to Wooden Warrior with the tunneled turnaround.  

Banshee was absolutely rippin' thru the course and so much better than I recall my one previous ride.  Just kept wanting to go again.  

OK the beer.  So look.  I'm really not into pumpkin flavored stuff.  But I am into coffee, and I have grown to occasionally appreciate dark complex beers, so I gave the Elysian Punkuccino they had on tap a shot.  Wow!  It's great, really great.  Not in a "hmm that's certainly interesting and I'm going to pretend I like it to look refined" type of great, but a genuine "dang I want to chug this and then spend eleven more dollars on another one, immediately" kind of great.  

The bar between Mystic Timbers and Diamondback was a super relaxed stop off for a decent burger and brew early Sunday afternoon while it was not at all busy.  Also tried the Original Sin Black Widow cider.  Tart and blackberry infused, really liked it.  Great selection of boozin' absolutely all over the park.  Oh and the fried chicken and fries by Banshee are solid.  

Love this park!  Clean, pretty, great ride selection, food, drinks, and friendly people.  Two-day ride totals:  Adventure Express x1, Backlot Stunt x1, Banshee x4, Beast x3, Diamondback x5, FoF 1x, Invertigo 1x, Mystic Timbers x4, Orion x6, Racer x1, Delirium 1x, Boo Blasters 1x, Woodstock Gliders 1x

[VegasBaby]

15 hours ago, Domm said:

My friend and I have platinums from CGA and went to KI this season as well. Prior to our visit we heard somewhere that we needed to turn back on auto payments (which were suspended by the park, not us) or pay the pass off before it working to get into KI. We both did just in case and had no issues. Not sure if it would have worked without doing that. Doesn't hurt giving it a shot and if any issues come up, just login to the Knotts site at the part entry and restart the payments or pay it off.

Excellent on getting FL. Given the Bat doesn't have it, we hit that first on the days we went this year. The water park next door at Great Wolf was a blast as well

Thanks for the tip, I logged into my Knotts payment account and paid off my passes just in case.

[prozach626]

Seems like KI has really made a name for itself. I'm glad "I was a fan before it was cool." 

My first year visiting was when SOB was SBNO and I really like it. Maybe because it was the first park in which by happenstance of bad circumstances we had our first of many park beers.

[u4icmusic]

A friend and I spent last Saturday at Kings Island. We both purchased the FastLane Plus and I'm glad we did. Since they are only open on Saturdays and Sundays now with reduced operating hours, the park was crowded and the lines for all the major rides were 2-3 hours long. The FastLane Plus saved us so much time. We hit Orion first, which was running before the 11 am opening time, so we got two rides in before 11am, one in the front seat which was amazing. Orion is fast and smooth. I didn't think it was too short, like others have said. I guess when you are going that fast, the ride will end quicker. We rode all the major rides, multiple times and stayed to get in one last ride on the Beast at 8 pm, just before closing. The Beast was way more rough than it was three years ago when I went there, but still one of the best coasters ever built. The only time we had to wait for a ride was on the Bat, which didn't take FastLane Plus and once on the Diamondback that had some down time just as we approached the entrance. Other than that, the waits were minimal with just a few people waiting in the FastLane Plus line. $95 (plus online fees) was well-spent and I would never go to a Cedar Fair park without the Fastlane Plus. The lines for food and drinks were long. Very long. There was a live DJ playing mostly Halloween music with some dance music thrown in for good measure. My advice is don't go without the Fastlane Plus, ever. With 2 hour wait times and operating hours of 11 am to 8 pm on Saturday (shorter on Sundays) you will only get in about 5 rides without the FastLane Plus. We rode everything multiple times and never would have been able to do so without that FastLane.