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Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

p. 832: Camp Snoopy announced for 2024!

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56 minutes ago, coasterbill said:

Great news from Cedar Fair!

 

... kidding, obviously

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You just scared the sh*t out of me lol. 

This is a better alternative than the one their neighbors to the north settled on.

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So much for the famous Beast night rides I was planning on. Not a shocker. I am glad they are doing it for the "best possible experience". Nice spin, Cedar Fair 🙄

Edited by anonymouscactus
Whenever I type BEAST it comes up as BREAST
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Nah, as was stated, this Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday and every Saturday through the end of June were 10PM closures.

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44 minutes ago, JJLehto said:

Oof guess no Beast night rides for me. Glad I got one before at least. 

You're really not having much luck with this trip. Sorry man :( I love the night rides at this park so the shortened hours would be a big blow if I was planning to visit these days. But as mentioned above, at least they're not removing days from the calendar!

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17 minutes ago, jonskinny12 said:

You're really not having much luck with this trip. Sorry man :( I love the night rides at this park so the shortened hours would be a big blow if I was planning to visit these days. But as mentioned above, at least they're not removing days from the calendar!

Hm? How so? This trip hasn’t started yet and well that is a little unfortunate but It’s ok! I had one before. I’d be a little more bummed if I haven’t! It’s like I said in some other thread I’m trying to be pretty understanding things are not completely back to normal yet so we have to be open minded that things won’t be totally ideal. I’m still looking forward to it personally, I really enjoyed Kings Island and I have been wanting to get back! And yeah exactly I will gladly take two hours shorter than the whole day being pulled, esp since it’s a weekday and we saw what CP did. Deff counting my blessings on that one. 

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18 minutes ago, JJLehto said:

Hm? How so? This trip hasn’t started yet and well that is a little unfortunate but It’s ok! I had one before. I’d be a little more bummed if I haven’t! It’s like I said in some other thread I’m trying to be pretty understanding things are not completely back to normal yet so we have to be open minded that things won’t be totally ideal. I’m still looking forward to it personally, I really enjoyed Kings Island and I have been wanting to get back! And yeah exactly I will gladly take two hours shorter than the whole day being pulled, esp since it’s a weekday and we saw what CP did. Deff counting my blessings on that one. 

My mistake. I lurk a lot of threads lol and I thought you already had some unfortunate timing with Kings Dominion, Kennywood, and Cedar Point. I guess I assumed they were all part of the same trip. I like your positive attitude though!

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19 minutes ago, jonskinny12 said:

My mistake. I lurk a lot of threads lol and I thought you already had some unfortunate timing with Kings Dominion, Kennywood, and Cedar Point. I guess I assumed they were all part of the same trip. I like your positive attitude though!

Ah nah all good I don’t come here too regularly so I machine gun post lol Yeah Phantoms is possibly down (but word is it will be up soon) and I305 was down but those are indeed a different trip. I needed a break between the coastering LOL And yeah I definitely am looking forward to the Kings Island I really wasn’t sure what to expect but I found it a wonderful place and it had some of the best ops I’ve ever seen. I’m banking that the park will again not be too crowded when I go on a weekday. 

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So, I had intended to write up a full report of my public-opening Saturday trip to Kings Island, but life kinda got in the way and put a stop to that.  So, instead, here's a brief report with some pictures.

I had arrived to the park for a 11:00 opening at around 9:30 and found literally over a hundred cars in front of me behind the locked gates.  Lovely.  Made my way to the front gate; it was good to be back!IMG_20210515_102339728.thumb.jpg.0fe0aed89d8402016c29471ae290e468.jpg

As has been discussed, no temperature tent, just a security guard asking the COVID questions.  Got inside and grabbed my FL+ wristband, and then made my way over to Flight of Fear, knowing that it was the only coaster with limited capacity still and that the line would get insane later in the day.  Passing by, all of the seats have been returned to Wave Swinger.

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Flight of Fear still wasn't letting anyone into the queue, so I took some pictures of Orion's line 6 minutes prior to opening.  Yeesh.

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So they once again re-routed FoF's FL line - you still enter from the exit side, but instead of heading straight up to the inside of the UFO, you now enter into the warehouse with the general queue and then head up into the space ship where they merge.  As you can see, social distancing is a thing of the past.

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After FOF, I went to Racer (red side, retracked parts were awesome, as I mentioned earlier), then Adventure Express (all effects in tunnel, even the lava-tip, were working).  Most ride attendants were super-enthusiastic, interacting with the crowd to a level I haven't seen in...ever, probably.  Grabbed some pretzel bites from the bar near Adventure Express, which were delicious.

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...and then made my way over to Bat, which was good as always.  Does anyone know what these footers to the left of the station were for?

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After Bat, hopped on Banshee...getting a little bit of that B&M rattle in the back row but still awesome.  Rounded back around the front of the park for Diamondback, then Mystic Timbers (snake and "Cars" ending).  Definitely flying once again with a full train, I forgot how fast this was despite getting on it a dozen times last year.  Here was the queue at 2:00 PM:

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After that, hopped on Beast, then had my longest wait of the day:  43 minutes for a Classic and Grilled Cheese Donut at Tom+Chee.  After that, I left the park to go back to the hotel for a bit, and took a drive around the lot to see how packed it was at 4:30  I've kinda drew it on this map, pretty much everything within the red box was full.

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Got back to the park and jumped on Orion.  Pretty much same as last year, a lot of groups self-imposed distancing on the train so I didn't get to experience it with a truly full train.  Then I hopped on Windseeker, and made a lap around the park, hitting Woodstock Express and made my way back to Banshee to find it down.  Two maintenance guys on the bottom of the lift, both on cell phones, is never a good sign:

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Then it was back to Racer, to try for the blue side, but it was closed due to "fireworks setup," so I got another ride on the red side.  Back to Mystic Timbers (bat and "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You" ending), and made my way to back to my #1 coaster here, Beast, to round out the night.  Once they stopped running for the fireworks, like half of the FL line in front of me exited, telling everyone "the rides closed until 10:30" and the rest of us were like "yeah, no shit."  Was able to capture some good video of the fireworks, which have to look awesome from Windseeker.

After the awesome Beast night ride (front row of course), I made my way out of the park and back to my hotel.  Got a good night's sleep, went back to the park in the morning for a Grilled Mac & Cheese from Tom+Chee for breakfast, then started my drive home.  All in all, a great trip....but FL+ really saved me.  Without it, I would've had a lot less fun.  Most major rides were posting 1-2+ hour waits throughout the day, and the food lines were all around insane.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Cedar Fair needs to offer a Fast Lane pass for food service.  I'd easily drop $100-200 for that.

Ride waits, with FL+ (times are from when I enter the queue to getting off the ride):
-Flight of Fear, 26 minutes from opening at 11:00, row 6.
-Racer, red, 25 minutes, front row
-Adventure Express, 16 minutes, front row
-Bat, 36 minutes, back row
-Banshee, 17 minutes, back row left
-Diamondback, 7 minutes, row 2 (outer wing of the front car)
-Mystic Timbers, 12 minutes, back row
-Cup of water from a Refill Station, 11 minutes
-Beast, 27 minutes, front row
-Food from Tom+Chee, 43 minutes
-Orion, 13 minutes, front row
-Windseeker, 15 minutes
-Woodstock Express, 32 minutes, back row
-Racer, red, 13 minutes, row 5
-Mystic, 17 minutes, front row
-Beast, 1 hour 16 minutes (including fireworks shutdown), front row

But wait, there's more!

On my trip home from KI, I always pass by Adventure Park USA, a small FEC with some rides in Monrovia, MD.  They're always closed whenever I happen to pass by.  But not this time!  I saw the Wildcat running, and made a quick detour in.  Notably, there was only one car on the track, and no others were to be seen.  Here's some photos of this survivor.

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Their other adult coaster, a Zamperla Windstorm, wasn't ready for the season yet,

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...so I still need to come back here and grab that credit, but the Wildcat was a very nice bonus.  Fun Fact:  This Wildcat started its life at Busch Gardens Williamsburg way back in 1976, and made its way around including a brief stint at Steel Pier in Atlantic City in the late 90s, before I got into coasters.

Anyway, that's all for this report...tomorrow I leave for a rain-filled Memorial Day Weekend at Cedar Point, with another stop back at KI, mostly for their water park, on Tuesday.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

Bat, 36 minutes, back row

I know you have a non-traditional "wait time" algorithm, but I wonder where the queue starts for you with this one, lol. The walk to the ride is 30 min in itself, I figure a 2 minute ride, so you really only waited 4 minutes lol

The ride isn't even on FL+ right?

Edited by anonymouscactus
I can't spell
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4 hours ago, prozach626 said:

Great report! Those FL+ waits seemed pretty long for KI. I hope that's not a new trend.

Thanks!  I think a lot of the waiting had to do with new employees, but don't get me wrong, the place was packed.

4 hours ago, anonymouscactus said:

I know you have a non-traditional "wait time" algorithm, but I wonder where the queue starts for you with this one, lol. The walk to the ride is 30 min in itself, I figure a 2 minute ride, so you really only waited 4 minutes lol

The ride isn't even on FL+ right?

I know we all like to joke about the hike to nowhere for the ride, but in all seriousness, I started the clock when I entered the start of the queue from the midway, then walked for about 2-3 minutes before hitting people, which was before the second (from the station) cut-out where the exit path meets up.  The lift is also exceedingly slow and possibly 2+ minutes on its own LOL.

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Has anyone been able to get an idea what weekdays have been like? Also school is gunna be out in early June right? Some here were pretty confident FL+ wont be needed for Mon June 7 but these talks of crowds have me on edge ha Mostly with school being out. 

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19 hours ago, JJLehto said:

Has anyone been able to get an idea what weekdays have been like? Also school is gunna be out in early June right? Some here were pretty confident FL+ wont be needed for Mon June 7 but these talks of crowds have me on edge ha Mostly with school 

Park isn't open for daily/weekday operations yet. I'm curious to see how crowded it is as well, I'll probably visit on Tuesday or Wednesday and report back.

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3 hours ago, prozach626 said:

It will probably be a shit show of less staff and more guests, like most everywhere else.

Eh experiences haven't been so bad so far tbh and I was surprised how not awful the crowds were and how not garbage the staff were at CW and KD. Considering that was a weekend and its Cedar Fair which is getting flak for shitting the bed, so won't be quite so bleak. And if it is well gotta roll w it. 

Thanks all for the upcoming updates! Really it's just so I can determine if FL+ is worth it or not. Last time I went around this time park was dead. But that was earlier (June 2?) it wasn't the pandemic and I think by the 7th school will be out so deff will look forward to the updates. 

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During a week day FL won't sell out so you could just buy it if lines are 30+. I'm hoping we'll only have 15 minute wait times but who knows with this year! There are just sooo many locals and tri-staters with passes coming in full force to see Orion. 

Today will be interesting to watch as it's only a high of 57* it's like a fall day. Let's see if it still hits capacity!

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