Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[prozach626]

RMC Raptors aren't very good with capacity, do you think they'd add one at a park as popular as KI?

 

Yeah, you're completely right. I meant to say T-Rex. My bad.

 

You make a good point with the Bat, too. I have a habit of forgetting about that coaster.

[Vonni]

I don't know, I still feel like Vortex would be removed before The Bat. I guess we shall see though.

[prozach626]

^That's wishful thinking, Von, but I agree with you.

[DavidB]

I would hope Vortex would be removed before The Bat, as it could be replaced with a much better seated/floorless looping ride, while The Bat is a pretty unique ride. I know replacing rides with similar rides often isn't the MO though. Any idea which has better ridership?

[CP Maverick]

My money is on Vortex having better ridership due to it's location.

[DavidB]

That's kind of what I assumed from looking at the park on maps, but I've only been to King's Island a couple times so I thought I'd ask. I'm going on the 21st for the first time in almost 20 years and getting excited for my first rides on Banshee, Diamondback, and Mystic Timbers...and my first night ride on The Beast!

[coasterbill]

Honestly both coasters probably have great ridership numbers. If one is removed, that probably won't be the reason why. I don't know why we're talking about a Bat removal though, they just repainted the thing and gave it a brand new name and logo.

 

Personally I'd say it's easily one of the best coasters in the park. Other than the two B&Ms it's probably my favorite ride there.

[Diamondbacker27]

I like both of the coasters and I don't want them to be removed anytime soon. While Vortex gives me a headache every time I ride it, it was my first looper and steel coaster. The park has a lot of places that they could add a new coaster before they remove one. If Vortex or the Bat gets removed anytime soon, I'd say it would be more on the side of mechanic issues than ridership issues.

[coasterbill]

I don't know, personally if they removed Vortex I wouldn't care at all. it's an awesome spot for something huge and it's a terrible, terrible ride. That wild mouse turn taken at an absolutely ludicrous speed into the midcourse is the worst single element I've ever seen on an American coaster.

[Diamondbacker27]

I don't know, personally if they removed Vortex I wouldn't care at all. it's an awesome spot for something huge and it's a terrible, terrible ride. That wild mouse turn taken at an absolutely ludicrous speed into the midcourse is the worst single element I've ever seen on an American coaster.

I get that, I probably wouldn't care at all if it was replaced with something better.

[jonskinny12]

Call me crazy but for some reason I loved riding in the second to last row of Vortex in June. I rode it three times over my day and a half there, and probably would have more if my brother wasn't there. It felt like a battle every time and one time I smashed the sunglasses that I was stupid enough to put in my cargo pocket but I still kept wanting to go back to it. It's got some really bad transitions for sure but I still think it's fun.

[DILinator]

I don't know, personally if they removed Vortex I wouldn't care at all. it's an awesome spot for something huge and it's a terrible, terrible ride. That wild mouse turn taken at an absolutely ludicrous speed into the midcourse is the worst single element I've ever seen on an American coaster.

 

I second this! I refuse to ride it anymore... I took my kids for their first time earlier this year, and my two older kids listened to my words of wisdom, and passed on riding it, but the third born, who is 9 (the most daring of the bunch actually, he rode TTD at CP when I took him this year, and the older two have not been willing to yet!) wanted to still give it a go. At first, I was going to make him ride it alone, and was going to step through after waiting in line with him, but then decided I'd go ahead and ride... Big mistake! Ugh! Such a crappy ride!!! I asked Daniel (my son) what he thought after we got back, and he had seen the error of his ways, and said it was terrible. So there you go...

 

I definitely would hope they remove Vortex for something else long before removing The Bat, which is a much better coaster experience still! Having said that, if any park has space to expand with large coasters, without removing anything, it's KI.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I don't know if my boyfriend genuinely likes Vortex or just enjoys how much I hate it. He insisted we ride it last time we went as "punishment" for me dipping out of one of the Haunt mazes. I actually did the maze later anyway...

[I Like Theme Parks.]

I enjoyed Vortex actually. I love Arrow, and I'm used to bracing for the awkward transitions, and there's some great drops and inversions on Vortex. But it's not the best Arrow coaster out there and it's one of the rougher ones I've been on, so I wouldn't be too upset if it was replaced with something great.

[Jason Maier]

So IF Vortex ever gets replaced . . . what to replace it with?

 

Maybe a Floorless or Wing Coaster? (assuming there's a large enough footprint for either)

[Diamondbacker27]

So IF Vortex ever gets replaced . . . what to replace it with?

 

Maybe a Floorless or Wing Coaster? (assuming there's a large enough footprint for either)

Its plausible for a floorless. I don't think we'll see a wing coaster. All of the surrounding parks have one, except KK. Holiday World, Cedar Point, and SFGA have one. I'd bet on a giga, sit down looper, or some type of launched coaster. I don't think that Cedar Fair wants to add an RMC, dive coaster, or wing to this park because Cedar Point made those additions in recent years. I don't think they want a bunch of similar rides in their two Ohio parks, but I could be dead wrong.

[PKI Jizzman]

So IF Vortex ever gets replaced . . . what to replace it with?

 

Maybe a Floorless or Wing Coaster? (assuming there's a large enough footprint for either)

Its plausible for a floorless. I don't think we'll see a wing coaster. All of the surrounding parks have one, except KK. Holiday World, Cedar Point, and SFGA have one. I'd bet on a giga, sit down looper, or some type of launched coaster. I don't think that Cedar Fair wants to add an RMC, dive coaster, or wing to this park because Cedar Point made those additions in recent years. I don't think they want a bunch of similar rides in their two Ohio parks, but I could be dead wrong.

 

When was the last time a floorless was built? Nitro in India? Out of all the possibilities floorless has got to be on the less-likely spectrum.

 

Kings Island has a wide variety of coaster types, but the two that were the original/biggest when opening (Vortex, Flight of Fear) are a shadow of what the current coaster type looks like (you could argue Firehawk too). Hopefully a new looper (Mack seems to be the prime example today) and traditional launched coaster (again, maybe Mack or Intamin) make an appearance in the park soon.

 

The kids area is packed full of activites for that demo and with Racer, Timbers, Adventure Express, lil wooden coaster, and kiddie coaster all providing adequate thrills to help fans step up to bigger thrills I hope they can just tune up the extreme coaster spectrum.

 

The one thing people comment on about Kings Island's coaster selection is "they've got a ton of ...good-okay coasters with two or three great coasters". The park would be amazing if you could hit upgrade on a number of the coasters from the 80's and 90's.

[Ape]

Prozach626 I will miss you by a day. We are actually going tonight. Enjoy your trip tomorrow!

[prozach626]

^Damn, that sucks! I'm sure it will inevitable that we'll both be at the park, one of these days. Have a good time, tonight!

[Philrad71]

I don't know, personally if they removed Vortex I wouldn't care at all. it's an awesome spot for something huge and it's a terrible, terrible ride. That wild mouse turn taken at an absolutely ludicrous speed into the midcourse is the worst single element I've ever seen on an American coaster.

 

That is exactly the reason we hated it too...you definitely need to brace for that because I felt like my neck snapped when we rode it a few years ago. Luckily I was quite buzzed at the time so I didn't feel it until the next day!

[loop-de-loop]

I like both of the coasters and I don't want them to be removed anytime soon. While Vortex gives me a headache every time I ride it, it was my first looper and steel coaster. The park has a lot of places that they could add a new coaster before they remove one. If Vortex or the Bat gets removed anytime soon, I'd say it would be more on the side of mechanic issues than ridership issues.

 

If The Bat is going to stay, their next coaster should go right beside it with the entrance as close to The Bat's entrance as possible to increase its ridership. Even with Banshee close by, when I was there last weekend I rode it on two separate occasions and never saw a train more than half full. I think most of the public likes The Bat, but don't like the long hike back there to ride it.

[CP Maverick]

Riding The Bat, then going to the restroom, then riding The Bat again is the same walking distance as a full lap of Dinosaurs Alive.

 

Or, the queue for The Bat is the same as walking form the Eiffel Tower to Diamondback. It's really a terrible location for the ride station. The only ride further from the midway is White Water Canyon.

[Midgetman82]

The one thing people comment on about Kings Island's coaster selection is "they've got a ton of ...good-okay coasters with two or three great coasters". The park would be amazing if you could hit upgrade on a number of the coasters from the 80's and 90's.

Despite the quantity of coasters there, it seems only two or three of them were built with airtime in mind. Getting another ride that produces plenty of that would be wonderful at this park.

[Geauga Dog]

Riding The Bat, then going to the restroom, then riding The Bat again is the same walking distance as a full lap of Dinosaurs Alive.

 

Or, the queue for The Bat is the same as walking form the Eiffel Tower to Diamondback. It's really a terrible location for the ride station. The only ride further from the midway is White Water Canyon.

 

If they could just move the Bat's entrance/exit to the right of Invertigo and behind Congo Falls that would eliminate that long walk to and from the ride. It's not like Timberwolf is extremely popular or anything to prevent that.

 

I actually liked the long, serene walk back to White Water Canyon but I'm happy they shortened it by relocating the ride entrance to make way for Mystic Timbers. Great views of Diamondback in that general area too.

 

So IF Vortex ever gets replaced . . . what to replace it with?

 

Maybe a Floorless or Wing Coaster? (assuming there's a large enough footprint for either)

 

Other than Nitro at Adlabs Imagica, Hair Raiser at Ocean Park Hong Kong and the two stand up conversions it seems ground up floorless coasters seem to be a thing of the past, just like the stand-up models, which I find surprising that B&M still have them offered on their website. I would think a wing coaster is out of the question with Kings Island located between Holiday World and Cedar Point. Personally I would love to see MACK do something special for Kings Island.

[CP Maverick]

The Bat currently has the "best" path from the park to the ride, it's the location of the ride that is terrible. Going behind Timberwolf and Congo Falls is 200ft longer than the current path, and you lose the visibility of the ride entrance.