Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[Haymaker]

55 minutes ago, teacherkim said:

We're going to be there Friday and Saturday. Despite all the visits we have to KI, we've never been there for haunt so looking forward to it. Just decided to have an enjoyable trip so got Frightlanes for Fri night and FL+ for Saturday and therefore no need for complicated ride strategy. Although I did see a report that lines to get into the parking lot can be atrocious. Anyone know if that has been the case for Fri nights? Just trying to decide how early we need to be lined up at the tollbooth or since we have the Frightlanes if we are just as well off to let the initial wave get in and then show up a half hour later.

We went on a Friday in 2019 and the traffic was pretty bad to get in. But a lot of it is self inflicted by people playing follow the leader instead of using all available lanes. 

[teacherkim]

On 10/2/2022 at 3:03 PM, prozach626 said:

The lines are bad after about 5. We've never had any problems during the day. I think the cutoff for entry is 6pm, so if you leave the park, get your ass back by at least 5 to be safe. We cut it close one year, after we left for dinner and beer. Finding a parking spot was also difficult. 

Good to know, we are mainly planning on doing haunt stuff on Fri night and rides on Sat and will most likely just do a marathon all day on Saturday but will keep this in mind if we decide to take a break.

On 10/2/2022 at 3:47 PM, Haymaker said:

We went on a Friday in 2019 and the traffic was pretty bad to get in. But a lot of it is self inflicted by people playing follow the leader instead of using all available lanes. 

Got it. We're too theme park savvy for that at this point and I went ahead and bought Frightlanes for Fri night so it's probably a moot point other than getting a parking spot. 

 

I'll report back next week.

[prozach626]

On 10/2/2022 at 2:47 PM, Haymaker said:

We went on a Friday in 2019 and the traffic was pretty bad to get in. But a lot of it is self inflicted by people playing follow the leader instead of using all available lanes. 

I can see that. That, and people not really paying attention to the traffic directors feverishly waving people through who leave a ten car gap in between their car and the one in front of them. 

"This guy in the florescent traffic vest and cone is waving at me to go through a single lane. I don't know what to do!"

For anyone who has never directed traffic, consider yourself lucky. A quarter of the driver's don't listen to you when you wave them through to go faster. A quarter of the driver's don't listen to you when you tell them to stop or change directions. The ones who don't change directions hold the line up by stopping, rolling down their windows, and saying, "Can I go through here?"

It's not difficult by any means, but you just have to try to your best to turn your 'give a fucks' off and realize people are just going to do whatever they want to do, no matter what, until they cause an accident. It's frustrating.

[Haymaker]

^

You said it man... at my job ive had people drive up to a sign that says "Use Two Lanes" and move into the lane everyone else is in, while the other one sits empty. Or ill be waving them over to the empty lane like a madman, theyll start to move over, then cut back. Thats better than the idiots that fly through at 30 mph, ignoring the flashing lights and 5-10 people standing there.

Although my wife is one of "those" people too.. when I moved to a wide open lane at the parking booth at KI she's like "are you sure you can go there, no one else is there?"

[Haymaker]

Found this from when we went to Sports Force Park at Cedar Point in May. Ohio people love waiting in line... taken at the Sandusky Sam's club. 

[CP_RULES]

On 10/5/2022 at 3:28 PM, prozach626 said:

I can see that. That, and people not really paying attention to the traffic directors feverishly waving people through who leave a ten car gap in between their car and the one in front of them. 

"This guy in the florescent traffic vest and cone is waving at me to go through a single lane. I don't know what to do!"

For anyone who has never directed traffic, consider yourself lucky. A quarter of the driver's don't listen to you when you wave them through to go faster. A quarter of the driver's don't listen to you when you tell them to stop or change directions. The ones who don't change directions hold the line up by stopping, rolling down their windows, and saying, "Can I go through here?"

It's not difficult by any means, but you just have to try to your best to turn your 'give a fucks' off and realize people are just going to do whatever they want to do, no matter what, until they cause an accident. It's frustrating.

 I feel this as a traffic engineer too, drivers cause their own traffic, there's only so much you can do herding sheep. See that huge acceleration lane buddy? Why are you stopped at the end of the ramp? Whatever. Get rear-ended.

[Haymaker]

https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/mason/iphone-14-calls-911-when-users-ride-kings-island-roller-coasters

iPhone 14 calls 911 when users ride Kings Island roller coaster

MASON, Ohio — Roller coaster rides are setting off a new Apple crash detection feature launched in September that automatically alerts emergency services.

The Warren County Communications Center has received six calls generated by iPhones while their users were riding a Kings Island coaster, said Melissa Bour, director of Warren County emergency services.

Additional calls were made over the weekend, but Bour said the total number of calls would not be available until Tuesday.

The new feature works on the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watches and is intended to detect severe car crashes.

Sara White, a 39-year-old dentist, told the Wall Street Journal that her iPhone 14 Pro automatically called 911 when she went on Mystic Timbers at Kings Island. The wooden roller coaster is 109 feet tall with top speeds of 53 mph.

“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone,” an automated voice says in the call to 911, before also providing longitude and latitude coordinates. Screams from others on the ride can be heard in the background of the call, the Journal reported.

Kings Island has not immediately returned a request for comment.

[teacherkim]

On 10/10/2022 at 9:20 PM, Haymaker said:

https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/mason/iphone-14-calls-911-when-users-ride-kings-island-roller-coasters

iPhone 14 calls 911 when users ride Kings Island roller coaster

MASON, Ohio — Roller coaster rides are setting off a new Apple crash detection feature launched in September that automatically alerts emergency services.

The Warren County Communications Center has received six calls generated by iPhones while their users were riding a Kings Island coaster, said Melissa Bour, director of Warren County emergency services.

Additional calls were made over the weekend, but Bour said the total number of calls would not be available until Tuesday.

The new feature works on the new iPhone 14 and Apple Watches and is intended to detect severe car crashes.

Sara White, a 39-year-old dentist, told the Wall Street Journal that her iPhone 14 Pro automatically called 911 when she went on Mystic Timbers at Kings Island. The wooden roller coaster is 109 feet tall with top speeds of 53 mph.

“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone,” an automated voice says in the call to 911, before also providing longitude and latitude coordinates. Screams from others on the ride can be heard in the background of the call, the Journal reported.

Kings Island has not immediately returned a request for comment.

Saw a few articles on this, apparently has happened at some other parks as well. I mean what happens if you drop the phone, lol? 

[teacherkim]

We had a fabulous time at haunt last weekend. No massive line to get in on Friday night but we showed up about 5:40 and they had clearly been letting people in for a while which I think diminished the backup. In my opinion the best themed maze was Killmart but the best scareactors were at Cornered. They were hilarious. Also, the scare zone in that area was done really really well. Rides had a bit of a rough night on Fri. At various points Beast, DB, and Orion were all down and lines were pretty terrible, 1-2 hours. Most of the mazes had at least hour long lines on both Fri and Sat nights as well. We got Frightlanes for Fri night to do mazes and FL+ for Sat to focus on rides and that was perfect as far as maximizing our time. 

Don't miss the pumpkin beignets and apple cider doughnuts.....they were amazing!

[AmyUD06]

2 minutes ago, teacherkim said:

We had a fabulous time at haunt last weekend. No massive line to get in on Friday night but we showed up about 5:40 and they had clearly been letting people in for a while which I think diminished the backup. In my opinion the best themed maze was Killmart but the best scareactors were at Cornered. They were hilarious. Also, the scare zone in that area was done really really well. Rides had a bit of a rough night on Fri. At various points Beast, DB, and Orion were all down and lines were pretty terrible, 1-2 hours. Most of the mazes had at least hour long lines on both Fri and Sat nights as well. We got Frightlanes for Fri night to do mazes and FL+ for Sat to focus on rides and that was perfect as far as maximizing our time. 

Don't miss the pumpkin beignets and apple cider doughnuts.....they were amazing!

Nice Mini-Report!

CF is really particular about temperatures.  If it was too cold they won't run the coasters, especially the B&Ms.

The weather is looking good (no lower than 50*) for my trip there this weekend, so hopefully I won't run into the same.

[teacherkim]

1 hour ago, AmyUD06 said:

Nice Mini-Report!

CF is really particular about temperatures.  If it was too cold they won't run the coasters, especially the B&Ms.

The weather is looking good (no lower than 50*) for my trip there this weekend, so hopefully I won't run into the same.

Thnaks! I don't think it was temps though. Beast was down then up then down on Fri night and it was just as cold on Sat night (down to about 40 by midnight) and everything was up until close.

[prozach626]

Killmart has always been great, because of the old school department store vibe.

Pumped for our trip.

[CaptainUnknown]

^Sure, the set decoration was fun in Kill Mart, but I waited maybe 5 minutes for it on opening night and feel like I wasted my time. Maybe it was just an opening night thing, but I've also worked better haunts.

[teacherkim]

On 10/13/2022 at 9:31 PM, prozach626 said:

Killmart has always been great, because of the old school department store vibe.

Pumped for our trip.

Make sure you hit Cornered over by the drop tower. It had the best cast and the best scare zone leading up to it.

On 10/13/2022 at 10:29 PM, CaptainUnknown said:

^Sure, the set decoration was fun in Kill Mart, but I waited maybe 5 minutes for it on opening night and feel like I wasted my time. Maybe it was just an opening night thing, but I've also worked better haunts.

The only maze I felt like was a complete waste of time and totally skippable was Chaos in area 72. More mirrors than actors. Meh.

[prozach626]

If it's the one I remember, I remember the corn field one being pretty cool. It's usually pretty tough to get startled after I have as many beers as I do during our annual KI shit show Haunt trip, but we'll definitely check out all the mazes, as per usual. But... the kid has RSV, so we're not out of the woods as far as her being too sick for us to leave her, or us getting sick. I also don't want to leave her with our remaining aging parents, since we already lost two this summer due to not being able to breathe....

[AmyUD06]

1 hour ago, prozach626 said:

If it's the one I remember, I remember the corn field one being pretty cool. It's usually pretty tough to get startled after I have as many beers as I do during our annual KI shit show Haunt trip, but we'll definitely check out all the mazes, as per usual. But... the kid has RSV, so we're not out of the woods as far as her being too sick for us to leave her, or us getting sick. I also don't want to leave her with our remaining aging parents, since we already lost two this summer due to not being able to breathe....

They've moved the Corn maze this year; it's now back behind Drop Tower in the underside of the splash boats ride. Better than years past, since it's more than just a narrow hallway of corn that is doused in way too much flame retardant, but still kinda meh.

My full report from this past weekend is coming soon, but KD on the whole blew KI out of the water this year when it comes to Haunts. 

I hope you're able to swing a trip, though. A bad CF Haunt is still worlds better than any SF Fright Fest. 

[teacherkim]

It wasn't so much about the jump scares, although they had a couple good ones and one in particular,(and my son is VERY hard to jump scare) but just that the scareactors did a great job staying in character and interacting with the guests. When we got to the front of the frightlane line they were checking passes a second time (totally understandable as with the long line it would have been very easy for someone to duck under the rope from the regular line) and my son had already tucked his away under his jacket and took him a minute to dig it out and the scareactor was giving him all sorts of crap as befitting the character she was playing about wasting her time and there's people waiting and etc, etc.  We were both laughing about it and it was sort of like that through the whole maze

[prozach626]

I would commit to a TR, but I probably won't remember a lot of the details...

[tndank]

You're too Old to Trick or Treat is a great little show if you make it to Haunt.  Check it out.  It's a funny, stupid game show with a good cast.

 

[AmyUD06]

1 hour ago, tndank said:

You're too Old to Trick or Treat is a great little show if you make it to Haunt.  Check it out.  It's a funny, stupid game show with a good cast.

 

Yeah it is.  And it's a different game each showing, too, I think.

The NyteWalkers show this year was pleasantly entertaining too.

[tndank]

We saw two versions. Wonder how many different games they have. 

[jedimaster1227]

Kings Island has sent us a press release announcing the addition of a new themed area, Adventure Port, with two new family rides and updated theming for Adventure Express.

Adventure will take center stage at Kings Island in 2023 when the amusement park debuts its newest themed area, Adventure Port. Located between Coney Mall and Action Zone, the area will feature two new family rides and enhanced theming for Adventure Express, the park’s mine train family roller coaster.

Additional improvements include a refresh of Hank’s Mexican Grill which will be renamed to Enrique’s. The current Bier Garten will be transformed into a portside Mercado, a favorite watering hole for tourists and explorers. “What I love about Adventure Port is that we’ve taken parts of the Adventure Express story and built upon it to create this new themed area,” said Mike Koontz, vice president and general manager of Kings Island. “When guests who have been coming to the park for years visit this area for the first time, the story will feel familiar, but it will be told in a whole new way.”

Adventure Port Backstory
The myths of an ancient civilization, and its mighty city carved out of stone, have lured travelers from around the globe to this bustling port community for more than a century. Resting in the foothills of overgrown mountains and dense tropical terrain, Adventure Port is a hub for explorers searching for an ancient civilization’s forbidden temple and mysterious wonders. If asked, the locals will tell tales of those who came before and vanished. Did they unwittingly disturb ancient spirits and fall victim to an age-old curse?
 

Adventure Port Rides

• Sol Spin: This recently discovered mechanism appears to be an immense sun disk created by an ancient civilization. Riders will board open air, suspended passenger vehicles and experience the sensation of flying 60 feet through the air at 25 m.p.h.
• Cargo Loco: Their methods might be a little dizzying, but the Arrow Cargo Company will get your goods from Point A to Point B...eventually. Riders will board these shipping barrels where they will be able to manually control the speed of their spin with a wheel in the middle of the barrel.
• Adventure Express: Embark on a treasure hunting mine train expedition in search of a forbidden temple. This family coaster opened in 1991 and features a 63 ft. first drop with speeds up to 35 m.p.h. Enhancements for 2023 include a relocated queue line and additional theming. The ride was repainted in advance of the 2022 season.

The project’s design is being led by JRA, part of the RWS Entertainment Group with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Other contractors on the project include RSL Commercial Architects, Schaefer Engineers, Abercrombie and Associates and SHP Architects.

The best way to experience Adventure Port is with a with a 2023 Gold Season Pass available now at the lowest price of the year until October 30. The Gold Pass includes unlimited Kings Island visits this year to Tricks and Treats Fall Fest, Halloween Haunt and WinterFest plus every public operating day in 2023.

[grsupercity]

Looks good. Parks could always use solid supporting flats

[KICoasterkev]

This looks great, this area is going to be really nice next year. 

[BitterOldHag]

I think this is awesome.  Updated theming on Adventure Express alone is great news, but also bringing in two rides similar to ones that were once at the park (Skylab and Der Spinnen Keggers) is icing on the cake.  Looking forward to seeing this in person next year!