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I regret not going to any of the KIC meetups. I met a few people here a few years back at the opening day color 5K, but that's been it so far. The folks I did meet were pretty nice. Will try to look out for you guys this year.

I definitely regret deciding to not renew my gold pass after the 2012 season and falling away from the roller coaster scene for a while. Nothing surprised me more than when I got on YouTube a few months ago and found out that Colossus had been given the RMC treatment (yes I was extremely out of the loop haha). I also regret not getting more park maps during my visits to the park because I now have some large gaps throughout my collection.

Thunder Road at Carowinds had the chips stacked against it for decades. As the park developed, it's odd placement became a barrier to growth of the water park. (It was actually the 2nd coaster scrapped for the water park expansion through the years.) Ironically, Ocean Island (the original Carowinds water park name) was the first water park I ever discovered INSIDE an amusement park. (I found out about it when I picked up a Carowinds brochure at a tourist center in 1982 as my parents and I traveled through NC/SC on our way to Disney World.) When the rumors persisted about Thunder Road being removed - I consistently thought "Nah." But then the boom was lowered. I have to say that scared me quite a bit for Racer. However, I pray that Racer's historical significance, coupled with the fact that the real-estate it occupies isn't restricting growth of the park's attractions, will keep it there for a long long time. If I could wave a magic wand at KI, it would be a complete Coney Mall overhaul including a multi-million dollar Racer restoration (Rebuild of final bunny hills, complete re-tracking, re-paint with the original Red, White and blue paint scheme, new trains etc.) That section of the park is perfect, and desperate, for a facelift harking back to old school days. Add in lots of new (old) flat rides, scrap the un-used buildings and take it back to it's glory days.

^If you see a 40-year-old woman with black pigtails, men's cargo pants or shorts, and rainbow colored shoes, please feel free to say hi to me! Once they open for weekdays, that's when I'll be going. And welcome to KIC!

I am really looking forward to this season! I caved in and bought a gold pass this year for the first time since 2012. I am definitely going to be visiting the park a lot on the weekdays and hope to meet some fellow enthusiasts!

That would be a strata coaster.

Dining FAQs https://www.visitkingsisland.com/dining-plans/dining-plan-faqs

Saying hours (which I take as 2 or more) is stretching the truth for anything outside Reds on occasion. Even then they will text you when your table is ready so it is not like you are sitting there waiting, you can do other things. I have been frustrated at Panda myself, but that wait was like 40 minutes not 2 hrs. I was in a CF park for 30 days last season and never waited 2 hrs for food. No one will take you serious by exaggerating the truth to that extent. Since this thread is about 2017, lets talk about this coming season. What other park improvements can we guess that have have not been mentioned by the park?

Welcome to KIC! We are all hear to learn about KI and the industry, even the most veteran enthusiast can learn new thinks from others. The knowledge here is quite vast. The lingo is the first leaning curve!

See it? The loops are the eyes, the track between them is the mouth. And you could say that the corkscrew between them is the nose.

I always associated hypers as airtime machines 200+ feet. Though dives can reach over 200ft, they offer different elements and have little to no airtime

Well, Intamin, B&M and Morgan have coasters they refer to as 'hyper coasters' by model name that are under 200 ft (Steel Eel @ Sea World San Antonio, Hollywood Dream: The Ride at Universal Studios Japan, Goliath at La Ronde, Goliath at Walibi Holland, Expedition Ge-Force at Holiday Park). What about those?

Also, the themed queue with headstones, headstones placed throughout the field under the ride including at the exit of an inversion or drop.

It would be nice if they put the MM Light or Powerade Zero in all of the fountains in place of something else that's carbonated and loaded with sugar.

If they do it like Scream For A Kid Again it will go something like this. Presentation and top 5 riders acknowledged and called to the ride to pick their seats. very shortly after they will call people in order to fill the first train. ( i was in the top 5 so I am unsure of if they continued that for the other trains) get off and ride again as many times as you want in whatever seats you want during the two hours. They had food available then too for free.

I've officially raised over the minimum!! Cannot wait! I'm interested to see how the event will work with rides. I know I'm not going to be the true first rider and I'm okay with that. I just want to ride with my friends at some point that night, preferably our first ride.

However Mystic Timbers is a Fast Lane Plus, Which makes since as it's the newest coaster. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Still hoping they get rid of those two islands outside of Reds Hall of Fame Grille to help alleviate that bottleneck now that an additional major coaster is gonna be right there.

Don't go full Carowinds, we like our racing coaster! RIP Thunder Road

Yeah, I agree, a little overhyped for leading up to the announcement. They should've started the hype for the announcement a little closer to the announcement date.. or went with a less implying slogan like "Things are getting brighter" or "Coney has it, but IT is getting better" The splash thing made it sound like a new slide or some new attraction incorporating water.

Kentucky Kingdom has posted their 2017 operating schedule, and the most interesting thing is that KK will only be open for the State Fair on the weekends and closed on the weekdays. The last weekday they are open is August 15, with the State Fair beginning on the 17th. I guess that tells us what the Fair Board thought about last year. https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/experience/hours/

The old script logo has been in use since the late 70s, so it is definitely time for an upgrade. I am not sure how I feel about the logo. I liked the new logo that was somewhat rolled out last year (see my avatar). I do not like the fact that the C and I are not capitalized, but I realize that is the in thing with logos. I get where they are coming from naming the pool area as Sunlite Water Adventures. The pool is called Sunlite Pool, but they really didn`t have a name for the water area, which includes Typhoon Tower, Pipeline Plung and the Twister water slides. Kind of marketing it as a water park. I like the theme they are going with too. I have known for a while that the bath house was going to be renovated. They could certainly use some freshening up. They last had a major renovation way back in 1991, 26 years ago. So they are definitely due for an upgrade. The tiki head on Typhoon Tower was actually removed before the end of the season last year. I like how the new look on the tower will tie into the theme in the rest of the mark. I think they may have overhyped this a bit. Hopefully the rides side will see some additions in future years. (They are repainting the Airplane and Helicopters kiddy rides, which look absolutely stunning, both of which are/were painted in house by one of Coney`s ride mechanics, who also painted the turtle parade, and Frog Hopper rides the last couple of seasons). I am still hoping they get a new wooden coaster one day, but not sure when or if that will happen. I am excited for this season at Coney. This will be my 16th season working at Coney. Hopefully I will see some of you out there.

I feel like there is plenty of room in that spot for it still though. Understand taking it down for construction, but wish they would have put it back up when they were done.

This is from a friend Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^Banshee does rank high on my overall list purely out of convenience of being near home, though I'd trade it without second thought for any other B&M invert that I've ridden except for Patriot and the Hungarian Horntail side of Dragon Challenge. As for Diamondback, the only word I would use to describe it is "tedious". It's a textbook example of the "Boring and Mediocre" side of B&M that was so prevalent in the mid to late 00s. I truly don't understand why anyone who has ridden any hypercoasters from Morgan, Arrow, Intamin, or late 90s/early 00s B&M could rank it highly. But I am glad it's popular. It keeps lines short for the better rides. Beast is a ride that I have a huge appreciation for due to its historical significance, but compared to modern, twisty, airtime-filled wooden coasters like Thunder Run, it really isn't very thrilling to me. All this isn't to say that I dislike KI's lineup besides Vortex (I don't at all, I actually think it's very well-rounded), just that I'd rather spend a day at a park with three coasters that LOVE than with a dozen that I think are just pretty good.

I wish we got some string lights overhead on the midway to give it a more fair feel.

No sense in coming off argumentative matt112986. Everyone has their opinion no mater what another posters opinion is on a coaster or park. That is why we have a forum, to discuss different perspectives and opinions. Differences are a good thing, not bad. Back on topic, it seems from the poll results Vortex is much more liked than I originally thought. That is some cool data to see.

Kings Island has no coasters in my top 5 wooden coasters (though perhaps that will change this year) and 1 coaster in my top 5 steel (Vortex). KK has two of my top 5 steel and one of my top 5 wood. So, take Vortex out of Kings Island, and there's a clear winner... Heck, removal of Vortex might make me agree with the general consensus that Cedar Point has a better coaster lineup than KI... But let's not get carried away.

@Zexeos: As for a begginer maze, I'd reccommend either Carnevil or Urgent Scare (it wasn't very scary when I went thru last year at least). Blackout may not have many Scareactors, but what it lacks in people, it makes up for in audio/visual effects! Blackout is the scariest maze I've done at KI; I was shaking when I come out. This is coming from a guy who was scared to death to work Haunt (as a Sweep) 3-4 seasons ago (and I still don't really like getting scared), but just last season, I did all the mazes within 2 visits. I think it's all about exposure to the environment; Slaughter House used to scare me, but now it's like walking through a friend's house (who has a bunch of weird relatives...). Next season, give a maze a try and see what you think; you might even grow to like it -MDMC, a semi-Haunt enthusiast

So the new Eye of the Storm sucked you in at KK? J/K I have heard great things about their coasters besides T3. I hope to visit there this coming season. Hey whatever floats your boat, I have never seen such dedication to Vortex, besides maybe by VortexBFFforever.

You bring up a very good point--if the maximum number of Fast Lanes the park will sell in a day doesn't change, then the number of people in the FL queues won't be any worse than what we've seen before on the busiest days of the year. Hopefully, they won't change those maximum daily FLs numbers. If they leave that alone, then I'm okay with the idea of season-long Fast Lane.

If Vortex goes, so does my season pass. I'm honestly not joking. I would never swear off KI for good, but I'd be a once every few years sort of guest rather than a 15-20 times a year guest (who typically spends at least some money each visit) Get rid of Vortex, and Kentucky Kingdom will overnight have a better coaster lineup than KI in my humble opinion, and will become my new home park.

Keep in mind the number of Fast Lane Passes available per day won't change. So the way I understand it if Fast Lane is sold out for the day you won't get your Fast Lane even if your an All season Fast Lane Holder. Also if Plus is sold out but Fast Lane is available they will give you the instead. I do not see this coming to KI or CP as these parks sell a ton of Fast Lanes. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I agree. I think that they are leaving some money on the table by not charging more for this. I wonder how much they actually place a limit on these, and what that limit actually is. I am sure we will never actually know.

Wow. Wow. Okay, first impressions: That is stunningly cheap. Like, mind-blowingly cheap, or "ditch the pricing integrity; get people to spend money"-kind of cheap. Here are the prices: Kings Dominion: $115 Carowinds: $125 Dorney Park: $99 California's Great America: $89 Valleyfair: $89 Let's talk comparisons: At the Six Flags parks in New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, and Georgia, all-season The Flash Pass will run you from $349.99 to $399.99. And that's on sale. Later in the year, it will jump up to $799.99. And that's for the Gold version, not the Platinum that gets you near-instant access to rides and is the only one that gets you on the newest or most popular rides. You still have to wait some amount of time with Gold. And that amount of time is changeable by management as the park gets busier. This is Fast Lane Plus, which gets you into a shortened queue whenever you want, regardless of how many Fast Lane-wearing friends you bring with you. And hey, for just $115, why WOULDN'T they have all-season Fast Lane, too? This add-on is almost half the price of the pass that gets you into all Cedar Fair parks. Did I mention that there is literally no metering of the Fast Lane queue, by the way? If there's room for you to stand, you're in. You can't even pay for that kind of service at Disney, regardless of whether you're a one-day ticket holder or an annual passholder. Universal handles their system similarly to Fast Lane, including season-long Express Passes--but the only annual pass that has it costs $489.99, doesn't let you use it till after 4:00pm, and limits you on which attractions you can use it on (i.e., not the super-popular ones.) The single-day Express passes, like single-day Fast Lane, seem to be priced at a price that will sell them but not detract from the standby guests' experience. By comparison, Fast Lane Plus at Cedar Point on July 4th will run you $108. This is only $7 to $17 cheaper than all-season Fast Lane Plus at Kings Dominion and Carowinds, the latter of which is poised to become the Cedar Point of the South and needs to have a solidly positive reputation as it reinvents itself. The pricing is more understandable at the smaller parks, but it still seems dangerously cheap. If these things are going to be sold this cheap, they NEED to be very, VERY limited. If this is an attempt to bring the same perceived value that FastPass brings at Disney parks, I think this is a dangerous line they're tiptoeing. Too many of these things sold is going to bring the sorts of wait that food service has had at KI recently to Fast Lane queues. That's not a best day experience. I'm trying not to overreact or be melodramatic about this. I'm not opposed to front-of-the-line options at all--in fact, they've improved several of my visits to multiple seasonal AND destination parks. I am just very concerned that these season-long ones will be more available than they probably should be, especially with how many I expect they'll sell at these price points. At least introduce some blackout dates or something. Wowee.

^ You'll owe the 6.75% in sales tax whether you buy online or at the park. For people who haven't yet registered for Coasterstock, doing both in one transaction would be a way to avoid paying online processing fees on multiple orders. Coasterstock tickets are only sold online.

Personally, I don't see this coming to the Ohio parks. Fast Lane is a cash cow here; season passes could diminish the value that guests get for the $90+/day they already pay. That said, if it comes to KI, I'd definitely buy it. Wouldn't be hard to visit on enough Saturdays to make it worth my $1xx.

Here is a post regarding from PointBuzz regarding the price difference. This poster contacted the park: https://pointbuzz.com/Forums/PostLink/572948

please no...

I'm part of the camp that would not like to see this at KI. I think it would negatively affect the normal lines for those of us who don't want to pay extra.

Ah well, if the price goes up before I can buy it at the park, so be it. I'll either pay the new price, or not buy it at all, depending. But if I do buy at least I will know /all/ the money goes to KI rather than some price gouger that charges more than 50 times the processing fee of a decent online sales manager/credit card processor. Every time I've complained about that in the past on the boards, Terpy (still miss him!) would post something implying he thought maybe KI got part of the Accesso fee as well, but if I buy it at the park, I can be sure they do.

I think this would be an extraordinarily bad idea for KI. Remember what it was like when all renewing passholders got a single free one to use on something like one of six days? Remember how the regular line and Fast Lane ended up being about the same? Even though there is supposed to be a daily limit on the number of Fast Lanes? That was only 1/6 of people who had renewed early, not including new pass sales, etc. I suspect it was as though maybe 1/10 of passholders had a Fast Lane on each of those days. But most of us didn't care because it was free. However there were also some people who paid full price for their Fast Lanes (and probably tickets) on those days, because they didn't know about the copious free ones handed out. I bet that is money they will /never/ be willing to pay to Kings Island again, if they even come back. Now imagine this is pretty much every day, all season. Passholders have paid extra money to stand in line with mostly the same season passholders they would have likely otherwise. But, people paying full fare are going to be upset, and likely not come back again to spend nearly the same amount in one day at the park as some season passholders do all season. Right now, it is good for the park to have season passes relatively cheap, because when we fill the park, it makes regular guests (and a handful of passholders) much more likely to pay quite a bit extra to shorten their lines. However, if we start filling the Fast Lane lines too, it doesn't make anyone happier (including the season-long Fast Lane purchasers), and loses that extra potential big money from daily Fast Lane sales. So, unless the sale of these is limited to maybe 500, and/or priced a lot higher than a single day's Fast Lane (like, at least 5X), it would be a very poor financial move for a park like KI that is already so heavily passholder populated. I absolutely love KI and I want them to do well financially, even if it means losing something that might make things a little better for me. But I don't think it even would be a pleasant experience for the people who buy in. I think it is throwing away big potential money in return for trying (and likely failing) to make enthusiasts happy. I know personally as an enthusiast (with season-long dining added) I probably end up costing the park money over the course of the season. I don't want the park to fail because they've added more perks for jerks like me!

Huh, that's interesting... KI: CP:

I'm pretty sure Kings Island has around 300 acres of undeveloped land to work with. I'm not sure how much the park wants to expand the undeveloped land. I think it's around 350 acres right now . So there is plenty of room to develop a more land for future attractions without removing something. I also realize it will become more difficult to expand the park towards the Little Miami River due to the change in terrain levels.

Railrider, yes and no. When I lived in Chandler, it was, on average, about 5 degrees warmer than Casa Grande, due to the heat island effect. I urged people to visit in the winter, but summer visitors raved about the dry heat--"This feels so much better than (KY, TN, etc). As a resident, I wouldn't touch the park in August, but would revel in it in the winter months. I think if it were marketed correctly, and had a mixture of atrractions and amenities for residents and tourists alike, it could work. I'm just concerned about the HUGE water requirements.

At 6' 2" Vortex is no picnic. Having to ride a certain way or in a certain row/seat to enjoy a coaster is just not right.

Woah woah woah hold on... Why would they refurbish Vortex's sign for its 30th anniversary if it was just going to be dismantled a year later like you predicted? Last time I checked Cedar Fair hasn't gotten rid of any of their Arrow loopers and there's no rumors circulating that they will. Even though Vortex is older and rougher than some KI coasters, it can still hold it's own against the newer coasters that are being built today. The area that houses the petting zoo won't go. It's too useful as a stage, a possible haunt location, or as a current home for some petting zoo animals. Demolishing Dinosaurs Alive would bring excitement to most but that doesn't mean its going to happen over the next two years. Why do people even want it replaced by a giga? There's plenty of land to add a mega-sized coaster without taking out another attraction. This isn't Cedar Point. Out of the 700+ acres the park currently owns, if you combine the main park with the water park, only 397 acres have been developed. Also it seems like they've made Field of Screams a permanent haunt location as they're trying to establish more long lasting haunt attractions that don't require much setting up or tearing down so that's a no-go on removing the dinos. Even if Dinosaurs Alive was demolished in favor of a giga it would be a poor choice of location. The land that Dinosaurs Alive currently sits on is extremely rugged which would make it extremely difficult to lay footers down as opposed to just picking a different site for the coaster all together. Cedar Fair hasn't removed any of their water rides, with the exception of Shoot the Rapids, so why would they scrap Congo Falls?

This is what i think Kings Island will do for the next five years AFTER Mystic Timbers: 2018: Snoopy Expansion, take out the petting zoo and level it and replace it with some great thrilling family/kiddie rides for the area. Construction starts back in Dino's area (check out 2019) and Vortex closes in August of this year, and begins to be dismantled. 2019: A Giga goes in place of Dino's breaking Fury 325's height, speed and length while using the back area behind Firehawk and FOF. If the coaster does not travel completely behind FOF and Firehawk i think that it will turn around near the two rides, make it's way back and use some of Vortex's old location. Also, Congo Falls is scrapped during the offseason for future expansion. 2020: Waterpark expansion with new slides back along the pathway that the lazy river goes where guests cannot walk on now, only associates can. Possibilities could be something like dorsal fin at Carowinds, or some speed slides that are TALLER than Tropical Plunge, just like the old ones where Rendezvous Run is now. 2021: Overall park improvements, Action Zone is rethemed and a couple refurbished flat rides go in Congo Fall's place. 2022: Lets start fresh over again and go back into Rivertown. I think a small expansion near Diamondback where the Tropical Smoothies stand is or along the grass near Backlot Stunt Coaster, we will see some more new flats installed and a TrioTech dark ride in Crypt's Building. OR on the other hand if they are looking to add a new coaster AGAIN, remove the Crypt building and place a Maverick 2.0 in its spot, running near Diamondback and have it built by B&M, Mack or Chance (personally I would like to see a bigger size model of Lightning Run come to the park. I do think that we will see a Giga in Dino's spot and it breaks Fury's existing records, flat rides come to the park since Cedar Fair looks to be doing this now, I would like to see the Flight Commander pad used possibly for a Gerstlauer Sky Roller.

I hope 3 words are in Kings Islands future. Taller Faster and Longer

Was it really the parks intent to make the GP forget about SOB with the big memorial to the ride at the entrance of Banshee.