Kings Island (KI) Discussion Thread

[PKI Jizzman]

Adventure Express looked fantastic for its 30th birthday. So excited to see the queue and ride get more love. Yay for more flats in the spot of that old removed slingshot, a huge improvement. Now let's talk about Action Zone..

[Pedrinho]

I just love it. I'm amazed how it will look in reality.

[DBru]

What a fun surprise announcement! Kings Island could use a modern thrilling flat. Glad they went with the larger model!

[CoasterGuy06]

Looks like another great addition for a CF park!

[prozach626]

Why does Banshee look brown?

[A.J.]

It's concept art with a photo-replace background. The artist probably added some color grading on top to fit with the drawn artwork.

No typical guest or website-browser would even notice.

[AmyUD06]

Looks like a good addition; that part of the park is always kinda dead.

Though I'm not a fan of Endeavors (weird since I love Enterprises) or tea-cups-style rides, they will take crowds from other rides, which is always good.

I am very excited about the changes to Adventure Express.

[mikeykaise]

Maybe this is me being nitty picky, I love AE but to me the ending has always been kind of anti-climatic, wouldn't mind hering "Now you must die" on a much much taller hill elsewhere on the ride" instead of the very short drop after the crest of the hill.

[coasterbill]

I think basically everyone agrees with you on that. It's stupid, but it's so stupid that I've grown to love it for being so stupid.

[bert425]

the masturbating idols get blue balls. . .it's perfect

[prozach626]

If I found a genie in a bottle, my first wish would be to remove the tunnel and animatronics on Adventure Express, not because I dislike it, but only to hear everyone bitch about it being gone. The shed would be my next victim. Finally, I would make Top Thrill Dragster even shorter of a ride.

Sorry world peace.

[jarmor]

1 hour ago, prozach626 said:

If I found a genuine in a bottle. . .

Here's your Ginuwine. . .

you're on your own with the bottle. . .

[prozach626]

ooof. Typo fail.

[cfc]

This reminds me of what they did to Safari Village at Kings Dominion, when they transformed it into Jungle X-pedition and gave it a backstory (the whole area looks much better now).

[teacherkim]

On 10/21/2022 at 8:16 AM, cfc said:

This reminds me of what they did to Safari Village at Kings Dominion, when they transformed it into Jungle X-pedition and gave it a backstory (the whole area looks much better now).

I agree that area looks much better now and hope the same for KI. We got stuck on the brake run of I05 last April at the very end of the night and as we were walking out through a completely deserted park the drum/jungle music going through Jungle-X was seriously way creepier than any haunt or scare zone I've ever been through, lol.

[prozach626]

Went to the park Saturday night. I've never seen it that crowded. I knew when the forecast was good and it being this close to Halloween, it was going to be packed.

A lot of the FL+ queues seemed to be getting pretty close to the standby queues. Diamondback has always been the worst at this. The FL+ queue was out to the entrance. Orion was close.

Even on summer weekends, FL+ is not the golden ticket it used to be. Kings Island is just so much more popular now. It has a lot more appealing attractions where people don't want to chance missing out on, and/or just want to ride them without waiting. Our Beast FL+ line was almost all the way down the exit ramp that used to go over the old lake area. There was a while it didn't move. We waited almost an hour. Just eyeballing the standby queue, I think we actually waited longer.

Fright Lane is still worth it. We never waited. I'm not trying to talk shit, but I have no idea why someone would wait in those insane lines to walk through those houses. It looked miserable.

There were 6 of us, which muted the fun. We ended up playing, "who needs a beer?" and "who's turn is to take a piss"" more than we did riding. That's a little more streamlined when it's just the two of us. That, and in the adult world, there's that underlying feeling "who's going to be the first to imply they want to leave" after 10pm.

There were a lot of scare actors. Scenery was cool. Last year, Kill Mart seemed really bare on the scenery, but I think it had a lot more little props this year. It's still my favorite for the cheese factor.

We saw plenty of terrified toddlers and young kids there late at night. Some of them screaming and unable to be consoled. Their parents were selfishly having a great time. One even had an infant. Let's see how that turns out. Sorry kids. You're screwed. Sad.

All of the rides were running really well. Operations were great. The Banshee scream was back this trip. Sadly, all of the arms were working on Adventure Express. Did all of Racer get retracked? The return track was pretty jarring. The Beast is a lot more smooth. It flew through the helix to the point where it actually made me nervous in a good way... I never remember it feeling that fast.

We accomplished our important secondary objective of cold draft Yuengling and wings at BC Roosters, but my ride count was lower than ever. It was due to equal parts of the group and queue length.

Orion - 1 day / 1 night

Racer - 1 day

Adventure Express - 1 day

Banshee - 1 day

Mystic Timbers - 1 day / 1 night

Diamondback - 1 day

Beast - 1 night

Beer count - a lot

I'm not someone who cares about high ride counts, or marathoning coasters, but a few more rides would have been nice. We only hit single digits with FL+. We hit 5 out of 6 of the Haunts. We left a little after 11. Although... I just had a hazy memory of riding 3 adults deep, guys vs. girls, on the antique cars. Turns out... the tires squeal if you jam the brakes hard enough, while cutting the wheel... (was not driving)

 

Next year Emily wants to go somewhere else for The Haunt. I suggested Howl-O-Scream. We'll leave the group behind. We have more fun when it's just the two of us (when we can't make 3).

Personal side note: It was a pretty tame year for us. A couple hours at SFSTL with our Daughter in June. 2 days at CP/Breakers in June. 1 day at SDC with our Daughter in July. 1 day at KI in October. Pretty sparse compared to three years ago.

Our best trip was SDC with her, even despite a 3 hour nap break in the middle of the day. Aside from that, I noticed that not constantly going on coasters absolutely makes them more exciting. I got cold chills a few times, that I hadn't gotten in as long as I can remember. That, and flying toward the tunnel entrance on The Beast legitimately made me nervous. 

[BitterOldHag]

Went to Kings Island for opening night of Winterfest and all I can say is that Cedar Fair really needs to consider selling FastLane for the event.  Just about every ride that was open had a full queue (or longer, such as Boo Blasters and the Antique Cars).  The KI app listed a 0 minute wait for Mystic Timbers and Flight of Fear when we arrived at 5:30, but the line attendant at MT said the regular wait was 90 minutes (most of the queue was full) and the Single Rider line was about an hour.  Flight of Fear’s attendant (sorry, Flight of Cheer!) said the wait was 2 hours.  So considering Carowinds and Kings Dominion both sell FastLane for Winterfest, I don’t see why KI wouldn’t want to make a little extra cash… and I’d be more than willing to spend it!

That said, Winterfest is an incredible event.  The park looks absolutely amazing with all the lights and I still say the Eiffel Tower Christmas tree is one of the most impressive Christmas light displays I have ever seen.  I could just sit on International Street all night and watch the patterns change and watch the locals skate around on the International Fountain’s Snowflake Lake.  My wife thought the “snow” was a cute touch as well. 
 

I am hoping to get back on a Sunday before the event is over in hopes the lines might not be as bad.  So just an FYI to anyone going… be prepared to wait if you plan on riding.  Also, get there early.  We got a late start and as I mentioned earlier, we did not get to Mason until around 4:55.  The traffic getting in to the park from 71 was pretty much bumper to bumper the whole way.  The security checkpoints were also backed up, but to be fair, they were doing a good job of moving people through.  Also, make sure you know what you want to experience.  There are a ton of upcharge things to do (cookie decorating, Santa photos, ice skating/skate rental, etc), and there is plenty of Winterfest merch, so be ready to spend!  

[coasterjohnh]

Why are the web cams upside down?

[haydn12]

The top 2 are also reversed besides being upside down.  They did maintenance on them and since then they have been messed up.  I sent a message to the park about it but haven't heard anything back.  I like looking at the Winterfest lights since we live in Arizona and can't attend.

[AmyUD06]

I had no idea they kept the lights on when the park is closed during the week.  Seems wasteful.

[tndank]

2 hours ago, AmyUD06 said:

I had no idea they kept the lights on when the park is closed during the week.  Seems wasteful.

Part of it has to be advertising.  Can't imagine they are on after they close for the season.

 

[KICoasterkev]

The dates for Kings Island’s Coasterstock 2023 has just been announced, May 19 - 20.  Tickets go on sale Feb 24th, for more information here is the link. 

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/coasterstock

[RideThroughTime]

For anyone curious about the new Adventure Port area, here is some construction footage posted today to Kings Island's TikTok. Additionally, the park announced that it will not open with the park in April, but instead will open sometime "this summer." 

 

[coasternut]

Today their webcam is showing them pressure washing the track for Diamondback. They're going to need to hurry to paint it before opening day.

[DarienPoint]

Kings Island has announced the I-Street Skyline Chili replacement!