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As many have noticed, I've not been posting as much on KIC in the last year or so. I've been focusing on combining my passion for amusement parks and photography. I'm excited and honored to announce I've joined Shaggy on the Kings Island website as a guest blogger. I've had a love of for the park that stretches back to my first visits in the late 70's. I hope to share stories reminiscing about the past, sharing the now, and also looking towards the future of the park. My first blog was posted yesterday. Here's is the direct link: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2017/july/what-kings-island-meant-growing-up-for-me Make sure to bookmark the official KI blog page.

Doesn't the DMV always suck?

My record is getting a gun that actually works.

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I feel like I have had a pretty even distribution of songs throughout all my rides this season. However, it also seems like I will hit the same one more than the others over my rides within a day or week, before changing to a different one. Riding at the end of the night a couple times, when the train I was on was held in the shed while the ride ops locked all the belts on the previous (now empty) train, I discovered what happens when you're in there long enough for an entire song to play. There is a "winding down" sound, a pause, and then it starts back up again!

^1000 is 125 over 875 I find it interesting that the guy on the left wanted poster appears to be wearing a (probably steam-punky) mech suit. I'm looking forward to seeing these characters in non-silhouette form.

To say the least, it was an Interesting trip to Kings Island on Friday, My day started out with me going on Diamondback, for some reason the B&M Rattle on it was more noticeable than it has ever been to me, Usually in my experience its glossy smooth but I guess it was just having a bad day. I also think this very Noticeable Rattle lead to lots of people puking on it, I remember seeing puke on the break run 4 times and also I think they momentarily shut down the green train because someone puked on the seat. I understand people will puke on coasters but I have never seen it at a mass rate like this! After that, I head to Mystic Timbers which probably the best ride of the day for me, the ejector airtime and aggressive banked turns is always fun, It feels like the more I ride it the more I like it. After that ride, I headed to The Beast and I KNOW people are going to say I'm crazy for even making this statement but on Friday it and The Racer (Blue side) really did feel smoother than Diamondback, (I'm not trying to hate on Diamondback as it is my favorite ride in the park I'm just being honest), After this, I headed to Vortex (which is the main highlight of this trip) where I met @VortexBFForever (sorry if I appeared weird I'm just not the most talkative person when I first meet someone) for the first time! She and her crew are super nice people and from my experience the best ones I have Interacted with! But then Vortex had some Issues so operations on the ride suspended for like 15-20 mins, From what I saw the back of a seat headrest came undone. After some mechanic came and checked it out, I think they blocked off the seats that weren't safe and continued operations on the ride, So there were about 14 other people who waited it out and we got the ride.(I decide to go 5-1) We made it up the chain lift and we went down the wonderful Drop, The first Half wasn't bad I did experience some head banging but it was very tolerable. Then we hit the MCBR and we stop immediately, For like 7 seconds everyone on the train stayed quite there was Literally NO sound. Then someone on the train finally said " Is everything ok" and then people started having their own personal conversations, I was riding by myself and I assumed since the ride just started back up there might be a slight delay and the ride will continue in a minute or so, but to say the least it didn't happen that way. After maybe 3-5 minutes 2 crew member came up and Told us there was a small error and the ride should be continuing in a few minutes, So we stayed up there for maybe another 5 Mins and then they came back up and still said the problem hasn't been fixed yet. They started asking if everyone was ok and they did a Great Job at keeping people calm, and they had simple conversations with people and kept us updated After this more person came up and maybe 30 minutes have passed (and I think the heat was starting to get to people). And then from the back, I could hear one of the Supervisors say to another Supervisor they will likely have to let them down the stairs. So then they made the announcement that they were going to be taken off so they helped us all of the train 1 by 1 and in maybe 5 mins we were all down safely. Once we made it back to the station they gave us all Water, there were a few parents waiting for their kids. They took information from us and asked if we need first-aid, from my knowledge everyone was ok and then they let us go. So I guess My Vortex Count for this season is 1.5, and I also have a cool story to tell people. Although the ride experience wasn't the greatest the overall experience of Being stuck on Vortex was the most fun thing that happened to me that day. The crew really did contribute to that a lot so I have to say thank you to them for making the experience good. After this, I checked in with My parents and once I told them the story they were a little shocked but not the much, They just expected me to be done with riding coaster but I guess they got shocked when I told them I was gonna ride Banshee and The Bat real quick. Anyways the Banshee was the same as usual, But this was going to be my first time riding The Bat this season and It was Great, But Like Many people have stated I wished it was longer. But it was overall a good ride. After this, I met up with my Family again and we left. But to Say the Least, I will NEVER forget that experience on Vortex, and I do consider it a good one. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to the park again before school so I can get the full experience on 5-1, and my count on Vortex will Always be .5 of something unless I get stuck on the MCBR again but I think the chances of that happening again to me are pretty low...

I believe it was so that Drop Tower (then Drop Zone) would be (and could be marketed as) the tallest Kings Island attraction at 315 ft, because the Eiffel Tower was taller than that when it had the antenna but its removal shortened the Eiffel Tower's height to 314 ft making Drop Tower one foot taller.

I tend to believe that the Tree is coming up more. Last time at the park, we rode 5 times and Tree come up the first 4.

Who from Cedar Point or Cedar Fair has said that Cedar Point is getting a large attraction in 2020? It is nothing more than wishful thinking from fans who do not seem to understand the business. Cedar Point will get a bigger ROI by building a huge attraction in 2021 because fans will flock to the park in 2020 for the 150th even without a new attraction. Then the park opens a large coaster the following year to cause people to return. Purely from a business perspective the most likely year Kings Island will be getting a new roller coaster is 2020. Why? 2019 is too soon, 2021 is most likely the next big coaster at CP, 2022 is the anniversary, which leaves 2023 which is likely too far.

My high score this season (probably my all-time high) is 5160. Had a ride stoppage to contribute to that, though! On other occasions this season I've gotten 1800 and 1860, I'm pretty sure those were without the ride stopping at all.

Once on a ride with a KIC group, I got a 2920. That was without the ride stopping. I have no idea how I managed a score that high, but I would never be able to duplicate it if I tried. I suspect there was a bug in the system that day that was resulting in extra points.

I honestly haven't had a problem with food service but if they just focused on food section in terms of quality (Like the quality at the smokehouse) they would make a lot of people happy. Then maybe focus on the service as people mention.

Maybe the teaser video was done by a different creative company than the shed was? Tree-gor (pronounced like Igor, my name for the creature) does send vines into the doors of the shed to rip them open though.

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?

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

For me I'd say it's the snakes although I have rode Mystic Timbers about 12 times and have only gotten the tree twice I believe.

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.

Interesting. I've had the snake almost every time (which is about half a dozen times). I've only seen The Bat once, and never the tree.

I first rode MT on Saturday May 20th. It was a great ride. We went right for MT for the first ride of the day. I am a sucker for really tall and really faster coaster but this was pretty sweet. TBH i'm more excited for what Mean Streak is turning into.

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!

Holovis posted a little video about the Shed today https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Kw5hQAiLE0 I noticed there seems to be a little KIC party going on behind Don Helbig when he's speaking in the video

Sure! Why not? Ever heard of Krampus?

Yes! Evil Santas and Evil Reindeers for Winterfest! Jk.