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I did not take a lot of pics, but here are a few I had taken. Python is an interesting Coaster. It rides a lot like a Galaxi coaster if you have ever been on one of those. Goble was not cooperating with pictures! Lunch was really good. The slide took a rip out of my pants.. You can drive these bumper cars backwards if you want. I know there are some pics of me doing so. A lot of fun! Robbie (CoastersRZ) finally off work at Coney and able to join the fun. electricsun and and I on our first every visit to Coney.

I had friends recently say they rode something like 11 times and never got to see the tree, on the same day I rode three times and got the tree twice. I had been under the impression they increased the tree frequency because I've gotten it so often lately! I would have to say over the entire season so far, I've gotten bats more often than the others.

Get there early, do the rides in Rivertown first before you do anything else as Rivertown this year has had way longer wait times for rides than other areas due to Mystic Timbers, might as well get them out of the way before the park gets really crowded. This weekend is GOING to be a scorcher. Make sure you keep yourself hydrated. I would reccommend either purchasing an all day or if you yourself have a gold pass an all season souvenir cup /(for gold pass) drink program. All day gets you free refills the entire day you are their and 1.00 refills for the rest of the season. 15 for 1, 13 each for 2 and 11 for 3 or more. All season gets you free refills for the entire rest of the season. After tax it is $32.01. Souvenir cup gets free refills every 5 minutes, the disposable cup drink program gets you free refills every 15 minutes from a disposable cup. If there is any hint of rain or thunderstorms in the forecast, that may scare people away, Kings Island patrons can be very weather fickle. Get there early enough to buy the BAF tickets at the gate instead of online before the line gets long, this is one of those rare cases where buying the tickets at the gate are actually overall cheaper than online when you add in the processing fee. Remember, up to 4 BAF tickets can be purchased per gold pass. Get there at 9:30 and you can bring your friends into Gold Pass ERT (Exclusive Ride Time) when they present their BAF tickets at the gold pass ERT entrances. Ride Mystic Timbers first, wait for Diamondback to open(if its not too long) and then ride The Beast, and then beat out the crowds and ride the rides in Coney Mall and Action Zone. Have fun, and make the most out of it, if the weather is good without much rain in the forecast, be prepared for a very crowded day. Numerous Fast Lane locations are located around the park just in case you may want to purchase them.

Hey Pals! I'm so super interested in signing up for the Run and Ride 5k on September 29, 2017. It's at night and YOU CAN GLOW! I recently did the Color Vibe and it was so fantastic and so much fun. Would anyone be interested in putting together a KI Central Team? I would be walking instead of running. There are a variety of prices leading up to the event. I'm not sure if being a Gold Pass holder gets you any sort of special deal. Just throwing this out there! Who's in? Here's the website: https://www.runandriderace.com/kingsislandglow

The origin of the letter assigned ride system dates back to the original Disneyland. The park was originally on a ticket based ride system. You essentially bought tickets for each ride as opposed to paying one ticket price upfront at the gate to gain access to all the attractions. Each letter (from A-E) cost different amounts with E ticket attractions being the most costly. These got you onto bigger rides like coasters, etc. Eventually the ticket system was scrapped but the letter system is still used in order to "label" rides in regards to their thrill, popularity, capacity, and experience. So for example, smaller flats throughout the Disney parks would be considered an A or B ticket attraction where as larger rides such as The Haunted Mansion or Tower of Terror would be considered D or E ticket attractions. The more you know!

Yeah the line length argument is always strange. Vortex has always chewed people. Something like Flight of Fear and Backlot (which I both love) have lines but they have horrible capacity for the most part. Even if Vortex is running half full trains it is still probably doing better numbers overall than those rides. I also think for people over 30 who grew up going to the park that Beast, Vortex, and Racer are generally rides that are must-do if they only go to the park once or twice a year. As long as Vortex is not a maintenance nightmare for the park it will still be there for a while hopefully with a paint job.

Some great RMC Mean Streak photos uploaded from a constitution tour. https://www.flickr.com/photos/srail/sets/72157683772997033 Edit: Found an article about the tour. http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2017/07/cedar_points_former_mean_strea.html

July 31 - Aug 20 The Ultimate Stunt Show is coming to Kings Island for the first time this summer. The Royal Fountain and International Street - just beyond the park entrance - will be transformed into the setting for the show. With edge-of-your-seat thrills including a Motorcycle High Wire over the fountain, the Globe of Fear, Wheel of Destiny and a Human Cannon Ball, the show will thrill and amaze guests of all ages. The show will perform three times daily from July 31 through August 20. Show times are 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. http://bit.ly/2vayJjp

I did not see anywhere to start talk about the 2018 season! Lets start! OR make a new thread for it!

I got the tree twice last week on the four rides I had. Something I have been chewing on: The teaser video tells the story about the truck running away from the mystery. But it had ALOT of the medusa-like vines. Like, vines everywhere. Engulfing just about everything at the park. Yet on the actual coaster, the vines are pretty scarce. Yes, there are some, but not very medusa-like. Anybody reading this post have any thoughts?

So I have a question- why does KI hold auditions for instrument players when the Off the Charts band is third party?

Youre welcome! Expect a crowded day, but because of the hot weather many people may go to Soak City instead of the main park, might make the main park not as crowded. Good you bought your ticket from Kroger. Good price. My advice above applies to anybody buying BAF tickets as well as people going into the park.

I would like to see a flats collection with maybe one bigger flat and 2-3 smaller flats.

I have rode 4 times and have snakes all 4 times.

I agree 2020/2021 will most likely be when we'll finally see our wanted giga, but even if it came in 2019 I wouldn't be surprised. Kings Island brings in more money than all other Cedar Fair parks except CP and Knotts if I'm not mistaken. That being said, this year seems different. Having been to Cedar Point and Carowinds 3 days each, the crowds at KI are much bigger than these two parks, at least this year. Going to CP from Monday to Wednesday I expected small crowds, but Millennium force and Maverick having 10 minute waits? Every weekday I've gone to KI, MT, Diamondback, and Beast all have anywhere from 15 minute to over an hour wait. Carowinds doesn't even compare, even on Thursday - Saturday. Just to give perspective, nothing was more than a station wait and I rode Fury 8 straight times without getting off the train (which is quite the experience if you ever have the chance to marathon it). It would make sense for KI to get a giga to bring in even more money. On the contrary, Carowinds, CP, KD, and Canada's wonderland NEED their gigas to bring in their crowds (though CP could definitely do fine without Mille). KI doesn't need a giga. It is much more of a family oriented park while also offering some thrills. It makes perfect sense why they added MT this year, as they were moving more towards high thrill park with DB and Banshee and MT brings it back to more "family oriented." Don't get me wrong I love MT! It's my favorite in the park and a top 5 coaster for me of the ones I've been on. For GP though, it's a family coaster to take the kids on and laugh and have fun together. This isn't as possible with a giga, especially with kids who don't like tall coasters. What I'm trying to say with this post is that KI gets a giga when they and Cedar Fair want it and think it's the right time. Would it be a good addition? Absolutely! Is it necessary? No. KI is already a phenomenal park and will continue to be whether or not it ever gets a giga Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Flats. The park needs some new mid-level flats like some of what Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point have. Give us at least 2 flats next year and I'll be happy

^ You can be 5' 6" and weight 105lbs like my 12 year old and still get beat to all hell by Vortex and ruin your whole day. Some people can handle it and some can't I guess. Science tells us repeated blows to the head are less than healthful for cognition so we will be avoiding that one for the foreseeable future.

I have absolutely loved working at KI this summer. It was very stressful at 1st. After preview night, I was certain I was going to hate it. But as the season rolled by, I made close friendship with my co workers. Yes, there are hours where I feel overwhelmed and stressed. But my supervisor always have my back. I have learned how to deal with rude guest and even handle myself when somone gets very upset and decides to take their rage on me for the policy, I have no control of.

That could easily be the case too. Went last month and first ride my son and I were in the front seat and second time we were in the second row, and we both thought it seemed a lot rougher the second time.

My wife and I decided to ride out to KI for a few hours Friday night. Great decision! Although it was rather humid, the lines were non-existent. Mystic Timbers had about a 10 minute wait all evening, so we took advantage of that and rode it a couple times while we were there. We FINALLY got to experience Mystic Timbers at night with our first true night ride. We got to ride it a month or two ago at dusk, but it wasn't quite dark yet. However, this time it was completely dark and it was amazing! I still think The Beast is my favorite night ride, but Mystic Timbers is right up there with it. The way the track twists and turns is so much more unexpected at night since you can't really see the track all that well - it makes it even more exciting! Let's talk about the shed - about 98% of the time we ride we get the "Bats" ending. Does it seem that they play that ending the most, or do we have just really sucky luck? The other 2% we've gotten the snakes. We've never ever seen the Tree ending. We even went one weekday afternoon and decided to ride it over and over to try to catch the different endings. However we had no luck. Just a bunch of bats over and over with the occasional snake. We're hoping to catch the tree ending at some point this season. I guess we'll keep trying! Mystic Timbers is a great coaster though. I love how fast and smooth it is, and the way it tosses you around is fantastic. I also love the interaction with White Water Canyon and the smell of the water as you get further back into the woods. All in all it's just a great experience!

It depends on if you know how to position your legs to get on The Beast or not... For someone who doesn't have a lot of experience and jsut sits down and tries to pull the bar down, they have a better chance at getting 1 click on MT than 2 on beast. But if they have some guidance/help they should be able to get on beast before MT.

Both Disney parks (Disneyland and MK) utilized the ticket system until the early 80's. In 1982 the ticket system was abandoned with the opening of EPCOT, they didn't want to have the sponsor companies and countries to complain or feel insulted by ranking the importance of their ride.

So this is a bit off-topic, but I have a dumb question. What does this mean? Specifically, what does it mean when someone talks about an "E-ticket" or "D-ticket" ride? Are other letters in use for this kind of thing, and what do they mean as well?

I thought the event was well organized. They understood the fact that you can ride just about everything in an hour or two and filled the schedule with a tour, games, etc. The park has a decent collection of flat rides and short lines. The ERT was interesting because they had a couple of employees who are trained to run everything in the park. So while ERT was listed as being three rides you really could have ridden almost anything. I really want the park to get another coaster. I think it would help bring new customers and increase overall attendance. I think it is the prefect park for a Raptor coaster from RMC. But a gravity group coaster feels more likely.

No doubt that the Mickey ride will be great (seriously, how is Mickey just now getting a ride??), but the decision to replace The Great Movie Ride is a real head scratcher. I'm not a fan of addition by subtraction in any park, but DHS in particular doesn't lend itself well to that concept at all. I know there's more to these parks than rides, but this will bring the total number of actual rides down to 4 in the whole park until next summer. Would've much rather seen this go in the Animation Courtyard area in place of Star Wars Launch Bay. Glad I got multiple rides in on my last visit to Disney World, the ride will really be missed. Still excited for the Mickey ride.

Just a day prior, on July 10, I got to test ride Shake, Rattle & Roll in a small thunderstorm. I got so wet but it was so much fun!!

Not to speak about which rides you may or may not fit into, but I really don't think you're going to run into any ride ops at Kings Island that will let you ride unsafely, just because they "want you to shut up and get on with the ride." The newer coasters have sensors that won't allow the train to go if the restraint isn't closed far enough, and the ones like Beast have a certain distance (number of clicks) where the restraint needs to be, which they do check if they have any suspicion it isn't far enough (I'm always getting measured by "the nail" because I tend to like my lap bar a little loose even tho I'm under 200 lbs). They do make good tries to help riders push restraints to the required level, but if they aren't able to they don't just let it go in the interest of speed. The worst that would happen is that you are told you aren't able to ride, and have to get off. No one is going to send you off with an unsafe restraint.

I wish B&M had specs on their website of different rides, this is why I like Intamin's new website, for example, if you Google Millennium Force's Capacity (which as of now it's 1,300 an hour according to Google) but in reality, according to Intamin themselves it's 1,650. (https://www.intaminworldwide.com/project/millennium-force/)

As I'm becoming more aware of how I and others act in parks....I have come to realize that the GP doesn't generally give two craps about spieling. It seems as if it's myself/other enthusiasts that ever make comments. I am getting to the point where I'm realizing things I care about too much are starting to hinder my actual visits to parks. As others have stated, spieling is a part of their job. They're going to do it whether we like it or not. There are bigger things to worry/complain about at parks....i.e. basketballs as prizes for the games.

I'd still say that KI has better guest relation capabilities than CP.

I don't care about anonymity or anything so I'll give my short take. Back in 2012, I worked at Racer and Zephyr. I was 17 at the time, fresh outta high school and just buying time during the Summer months before starting college. I did the sorts of spiels that are being complained about here, and 5 years later, I think it is the most obnoxious thing in the world. I even sorta kinda regret doing them because now, I have the experience of going to the park years later and seeing everyone do the same stuff, and seeing firsthand how unpleasant it is. Nobody is dissing you, the jokes and quips really don't represent the park (or hell, even you as an employee) very well. As an added bonus, they aren't clever or funny in any capacity. You can guest relate without making lame jokes about being at the wrong park or the wrong ride. Compliment someone's shirt, have a short discussion with someone on your crew before a train gets back from its cycle. If it's a flat ride, just let people enjoy their ride during the cycle. (I don't even like riding Zephyr anymore because there's a blaring speaker asking people to scream or recite years-old commercial jingles every 3 cycles.) Do anything, really. So long as it doesn't reflect the park in a bad light, annoy anyone, or even more importantly, interfere with your real job -- making sure nobody gets hurt on the ride you're working. Get through the day by doing your job correctly and making someone's experience at the park a pleasant and safe one, not by trying your best to be a comedian.

Yeah... you shouldn't expect Disney level stuff except for at Disney. That ship didn't even come close to docking when Paramount owned the park. But regardless of how some feel here it's a minority feeling. Sure certain individuals could use some training, but if someone calling a ride the wrong name at the end of a spiel is the biggest thing we have to complain about, that's just beyond nit picking.

To be fair, all the crap about ghosts and whatnot is all nonsense anyways. "Legends," pssh, the last thing the park needs is some kid up there going on about how they heard rumors of a ghost. Talk about the train, cool facts about the park, etc, make it entertaining. I think the point teenageninja is making is that oftentimes the joking around, having fun, etc. can improve morale. As someone who's spieled, managed people spieling, audited crews who spieled, etc, I can say that if you get the right person up there they can have a good time and get the proper information out. The truth of the matter is, most people aren't listening anyways. No matter how important or eloquent the message, people in line have their minds on other things. They're not a captive audience. So if you can say "here's where you store your loose articles, fasten your seat belt, and here's a fun quick fact," then who cares? They know safety is the main priority, they're acutely aware of that. Doesn't mean you can't have fun and be entertaining while striking the proper balance. When I was 16, it was always a blast on those final Beast trains to get the guests to play Simon says: "Make a funny face, fasten your seatbelt, quack like a duck, nod your head if you understand where loose articles go."

Is this really a subject worth getting upset and arguing with each other over? Not one of us here have any pull to change the ride ops job on a microphone because you may not like it. If you don't like it sure we can discuss it. In doing so, how about doing it respectfully. Another idea besides saying it must go is to make suggestions with an alternative solutions that the park might actually take into consideration. Arguing with each other does nothing but make you loose credibility. Please respect each others opinions and respect each other. I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to hear more about the interesting things you have heard ride ops do while at the park.

Was at CP a few weeks ago and ended up doing Slingshot with the kids. i got a kick out of the ride op there. Think combined we did 3 rides. Unfortunately, I don't remember what they said to me when I was launched, but the kids got: "So do you want me to countdown, or do you just want me to say..." -LAUNCHED "You guys are ready to go in 3... 2" -LAUNCHED I talked to the OP after I heard him and he said he had a whole heap of 'em for unsuspecting guests. He was definitely the right guy for the job!

I had not rode it in a few years, and I will admit it felt more jerky than I remembered. I am a few years older though, so I think my body aches a bit more easily than it used it. I still enjoyed it though. when I rode Vortex I did not feel the banging that so many complain about though. So I guess as with all rides it's different for every rider.

You should have tried it when they still had the over the shoulder restraints, now THAT was rough :-)

HAHA I'm losing it that you called me Dictator!