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This will never happen, but let's bring back buzz bar restraints on The Beast and racer.

I've had this idea in my head for a while so hear me out. Also this does not apply to the Covid-19, just whenever things get back to normal. Imagine a November fall festival that takes place between Haunt and Winterfest. This event would be located in Soak City so the park could make the transition from Haunt to Winterfest and would be open on Saturdays and Sundays. There would be food stands/trucks, music, Peanuts meet & greets, beer, games, and even college and pro football on various TV screens. The train ride could also be open and would just make a loop from the Soak City station without stopping in Rivertown. Admission for non pass holders would be say $10 dollars for adults and $5 for kids with parking being around $10. Those numbers might be way to low but this is all just for fun. Basically KI would be hosting a festival. It wouldn't be meant to draw in huge crowds but it could help boost yearly attendance and bring in more guests. People camping at the new campground or staying at Great Wolf Lodge might check it out. It might also encourage more people to buy gold passes since they can do something between Halloween and Christmas events. Like I said this is just an idea I had.

One of the reasons was due to the braking system used at the time. They were still using friction brakes and the brake run was shorter with the last dip. When it would rain there were times that the train had the potential to slide into the other train in the station. Imagine Orion’s leap into the brake run but on Racer and with only a buzz bar. Those were fun times. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I say when the next coaster gets built, they should do an offseason construction tour of it or maybe an off season winter tour like Winter Chill Out at Cedar Point.

It was Winterfest from 1982-1992, WinterFest in 2005, and WinterFest from 2017-present.

The experiences seem to be making them money. Look how popular Grand Carnivale went in 2019. I see CF investing money into these experiences and special events more and more. I think utilizing Soak City for something like this is a good idea. A smaller footprint to maintain for this event and you have several food stands to sell food like Island Smokehouse.

I personally disagree with this. First off, the park needs a bit of downtime to transition the park from Haunt to WinterFest. Yes, they do put up quite a bit of WinterFest stuff during Haunt (i.e. the candy canes in Tower Gardens, the tree out front, etc.), but remember the park also has to winterize the rides that won't be open during WinterFest AND they have to clean up all the Haunt stuff and put up the rest of the WinterFest stuff as well. Secondly, you suggest the event would be in Soak City. The problem with this is there isn't much room in S.C. to really do anything really worth bringing people in. In the summer yeah because of the water rides and when the kids halloween fest is over there it works because it draws families for halloween and such. I seriously doubt that S.C. could host an event between Haunt and WinterFest that would actually draw in crowds. Especially in November. In all honesty, I would like to keep it the way it is. Have the park close for the season and then re-open for WinterFest.

With the success of Winterfest, fleshing out the park with more flats that can run during Winterfest would be a smart idea. Adding a new Der Spinning Keggers (Teacups) and a Musik Express to Action Zone or Oktoberfest would really add a lot to those respective areas. After they do that adding some additional family flats to a revamped Camp Snoopy overlay of Planet Snoopy would be great as well.

Wow. Will be sad to see it go. Back in the day there were tons of park specific fan sites like Carowinds Connection. Hopefully someone will build a new site dedicated to Carowinds. We are very fortunate to have KIC. I remember the days when there was PKIUnlimited. Hard to believe that I have been a staff member here on KIC going on 15 years next month. I joined in October of 2005, shortly before Winterfest 2.0 opened.

Maybe that's the official reason cited somewhere or by someone, but I have hesitations on believing that. You can see that the opening under The Racer remained unchanged before/after conversion (match-up the structure between photos to see it's at the same height). The fact that the conversion wasn't in a single off-season, but spanned between two, is also interesting. (Photo one source, photo two from Google Maps)

Took the opportunity to visit CP last weekend with just the wife (left the kids at home this time). Weather turned out nearly perfect, mid 70s with sun during the day. Was a little breezy which may or may not have been the reason Sky Ride and WindSeeker never opened. Fast Lane feels like cheating at CP this year, since they aren't selling them to the GP. Also, lets us bypass the whole access pass thing. I get why they do access passes, but it's so much added stress to the day, I really dislike them. Sat 9/12 - Crowds were about average Sat. Food stalls seemed busier than normal. Employees were talking about how busy they were all day Saturday. Thankfully the rain held off until after midnight. 12:00pm - Entered. Picked up Fast Lane and got lunch at Hugo's Italian Kitchen. They had a ton of food out and ready at noon and wasn't all hot. We shared a pizza. Was OK. Garlic Knots were already cold and stiff. 12:30pm - WindSeeker. Rode big boy seat in a middle-ish row. Didn't benefit much from Fast Lane here, the line was pretty short. Ended up on the right side. Left side best side. Still enjoyed it. Walked through the kid section in the front and soaked in all the decorations. Love the look of the park this time of year. 1:00 pm - Magnum. Rode very front seat. Quite rough as usual. Hadn't ridden this yet this year, so wanted to get it checked off my list. Got my fill for a while. 1:15 pm - Gemini. Forgot just how smooth this ride is, especially compared to other Arrow coasters from the same era. They were running both trains together which is just so much fun! Rode blue and won. 1:30 pm - Maverick. I've ridden this plenty of times, but still kind of surprised me on this ride. Rode in the very back seat. Convinced the back is more intense. Love this ride. 2:00 pm - Ate at Chik-fil-a. Thankfully, the line wasn't bad when we checked. The line is the worst thing about this place. Well, that and not being open on Sunday! Standard Chicken Sandwich and fries were delicious. 2:30 pm - Threw our stuff in a locker so we could ride Steel Vengeance x2. I put on a few pounds since last year (working from home is hard on my diet!) and I was no longer "comfortable" in the restraints. Love the ride, but Steve is rough on my shins. 3:00 pm - Left the park to go swim a bit. Came back mostly just for dinner. 6:30 pm - Ate at BackBeatQue. Watched them slicing some brisket and wife decided it looked good. Was very tasty. Mac n Chz there was really creamy and good too. They had a show on the patio, You're too old to trick or treat, I think. Was a Price is Right style game show. Was fun to watch while eating. 7:15 pm - Hopped on the CP Railroad for a circuit around the park. Didn't realize they have 2 variants of passenger cars. These were the plastic/wood seats without padding, but were a little more roomy than the other train. Was very comfortable. 8:00 pm - Called it a night and headed to the Boardwalk for some evening beach visits. After watching fireworks at KI this year, really miss having night rides at CP. Hopefully next year! Sun 9/13 - Crowds were below avg today. Rain stopped by 8am and the clouds were gone by 11am. Turned out to be another beautiful day. 11:30pm - Entered. Picked up Fast Lane again and bought a Tasting Card. Some of the food on the Tricks or Treats menu sounded good and we wanted to make a thing of walking around trying some different foods. 12:00pm - Ate lunch at Coasters Drive-In. Wife got a cheeseburger basket and I used my Tasting card for a Zombie Burger. Both burgers were hot and juicy. The additional toppings on the zombie burger were good. Feel like it was light on toppings and light on flavor though. Still a thumbs up for being unique. 12:30pm - Valravn. Rode in front right. Love hanging in the front seat on the first hill. This ride may not be crazy intense, and it's incredibly short, but it's still just a fun ride. Smooth, floaty fun. I love it! 12:45pm - Cedar Downs Racing Derby. I'm not a big carousel person but man this ride delivers. This is a MUST RIDE for my family on ANY CP visit. 1:00 pm - Used Tasting card to pickup a Pumpkin Spice Funnel Cake at French Quarter Confections. This was one of the items I was most interested in and it surely delivered. Wasn't a huge portion, but was perfect for wife and myself. I think this was a standard funnel cake with some pumpkin/cream cheese drizzle. Yum! 1:30 pm - Giant Wheel. Not many Ferris wheels around anymore. I do try to ride this whenever I come to CP. Unfortunately, they've only been loading 2 cars on 2 sides for most of this year so lines have been abysmal. Today they were running 4 and 4 most of the day so it was a little better. 2:00 pm - Sat and watched the Witch shows back in Fort Sandusky in the Frontierland area. They were entertaining. Fun watching them interact with the kids. They had a main show starting on the hour followed by some games with the kids and a mad-libs type storytelling show. 3:00 pm - Skyhawk. By far my most favorite flat ride at Cedar Point. Wish we had something like this at Kings Island! 3:15 pm - Used Tasting card at Wagon Wheel Pizza for a Fire Toasted Dessert Pizza. OH MY this turned out to be the treat of our day (why is this a TRICK?). The service here wasn't great, but the employees seemed to be trying and the dessert pizza was AMAZING. 3:45 pm - Maverick. Got a front row seat this time and Maverick treated us a little better. This was definitely a MUCH more enjoyable ride for me and my wife. One of my favorite coasters for sure. 4:15 pm - Gemini again. Had so much fun the first time we did it again. Did not disappoint. Blue side again, but lost this time. 4:45 pm - Used Tasting Card at the Corral for some Fall Mac & Cheese. Was tasty, but nothing too unique (very similar to the Mac & Cheese at BackBeatQue). 5:15 pm - Used Tasting Card at the Hot Potato for some Frankenstein's Fries. Got a terribly small portion of fries, probably for the best though. The pork they added must not have been drained at all as the fries were wet and soggy. I still liked it, but the pork juices made this a no-go for my wife. 5:45 pm - Tried to ride the CP Railroad in the back of the park, but the line was too long and there weren't enough open seats for everyone. 6:00 pm - Used Tasting Card for the 6th treat, getting another Fire Roasted Dessert Pizza from Wagon Wheel Pizza. They just had a large group of people order these and there was a bit of a wait. The employee gave us a free drink because of our wait and apologized, but the pizza was fresh and AMAZING again. We will be getting this again at KI in the coming weeks! 6:30 pm - Caught the train at the CP Railroad by Millennium Force. Road the train with the padded seats which had no real room for my long legs. Liked the other train better! Was going to ride a full circuit but when we got to the rear station, they announced there would be a 15 minute delay while they pulled off the other train at the front station. We opted to exit. 7:00 pm - Having used up our Tasting Card and feeling our trip fulfilled (and after walking about 24 miles over 2.5 days, our feet hurt!) we headed out for one last walk up and down the Boardwalk. The resorts close at noon on Sunday so we were nearly alone. Was beautiful outside at this time. The Tasting Card was a fun thing to mess with, although depending on your tastes, there may not be enough to warrant it. I also wanted to take home the lanyard/card combo so worth it for me. All of the items on the Trick or Treat menu can be purchased a la carte for around $7 each. If you intend to get more than 3 definitely get the card! Looking forward to checking out some of the unique foods at KI too. Unfortunately, I gained enough weight to not fit on MF and TTD this trip. Will be focusing on losing the weight I gained this year so that next year I can get back on those rides again! Thanks for reading. Hopefully someone found the insight on the Tasting Card useful as I've not seen a lot of people post about their experiences.

So you’re saying it’s a giper or higa?

How about wInTeRfEsT?

I think Soak City is underutilized during its respective off season. The park could host different events during the months that its not open. They could do the November idea like I mentioned earlier but they could also open themselves up to stuff in early spring before the park opens. The fact that its more detached from the park allows for them to be more independent and flexible when it comes to potentially hosting events.

The stats are what they. Names don’t matter. If the coaster is great, then awesome. If it’s not, then it’s not. I never understood this whole back and forth argument. Who cares.

If Kings Island were to get something between Haunt and Winterfest, I think it'll be what Carowinds did last season with their Peanuts Festival, though it wasn't very busy when we went last year on either day, Fury had an hour wait in the morning on that Sunday, but that was because they were only running one train due to a mechanical issue, and the third train was already off the track for the season, meanwhile Copperhead Strike, and Afterburn were walk on waits.

I enjoy my time off from the park from Haunt to Winterfest to recharge myself instead of getting burn out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The park capitalizes the F on their WF page here: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/play/winterfest

As someone who actually worked at the waterpark, there is space there to operate both a daytime halloween event, a night time halloween attraction, and even a winter event if the park wanted to. You could make it into a crafts/food village or even make the trick or treating trail around the lazy river pathway. You could even make that into a haunt area to make it loop and go around the whole deal while still having a daytime area for the kids. For Winterfest, make a Hawaiian Christmas area, put up some faux palm trees, maybe even put up a faux sled hill on one of the straight ways of the WP. I think people just don't really think of the area much because of the distance, but honestly if the park did it right and made the trail or train as exciting as possible, I think the park could do it. As for the whole park, I honestly would love to see the park expand hours into November and March. November could have a few rides and attractions and take a week off before WF just to do last minute work, but I think people would go. However, with March, it would be the same idea, except less rides and more of a food festival. Maybe have a form of a celtic fest and focus more on the food and drinks line up with a few coasters and attractions that could operate. As, in my opinion, if people come in winter for Winterfest, people would be bound to come in March for an early opening. (Although, tbh if the park would let passholders do it, I would love to just walk the park during the off season if they could let us on certain days in a concentrated path.)

If there is an opportunity to make money, it should be explored. Obviously, it worked for Carowinds in spite of Haunt teardown and Winterfest prep. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of these off season festivals pop up to extend revenue--maybe not at KI but at Cwinds, Schillerbahn etc. How cool would it be to have a December food tasting event at Breakers resort? Nothing but food, maybe movie night etc. I'd go from 6 hours away if I could get the time off! I'm kind of surprised they havent done this at KD, Cwinds, CWland, ValleyFair and Great America given the success at Knotts. (meaning, just a food festival in times of Covid).

We are not the judge and jury. We would like to see justice served, but unless charges are filed and the guilty parties (there are others who have been alleged to commit acts) face justice, we can only remain safe by being united. That's why this thread was a good idea and the information is key to protecting children from harm.

The former Universe of Energy/Ellen's Energy Adventure building at Epcot is in the middle of a multi year refurb to the Guardians of the Galaxy indoor coaster. The Tower of Terror in DL was changed over to the Guardians a couple years ago and the orig FL one was almost given the same treatment until wider minds prevailed. There has been talk of turning the former Wonders of Life building into Wakanda and inserting a Black Panther attraction where Body Wars used to be.

Hmm, well to each their own decisions.

Maybe it’s a work in progress.

The event at Carowinds last year was the Peanuts Celebration, similar to the June 2018 event at Kings Island. Weather and attendance are major issues for seasonal parks in November, so it can be a gamble with events. Maybe we'll see some Cedar Fair parks try a food tasting event at that time of the year, which they're getting quite good at this year out of necessity at Knott's.

Facebook tends to be a much more hostile place for comments. I'm in a couple event groups because I need to be but I wish there was an alternative for most parks.

I like this idea! Throw in some live music and maybe a DJ and there we go!

My attempt to give the locomotives a more "accurate" look with my limited editing skills

I would love to get a 50th anniversary logo with some 50th anniversary merchandise. I think Planet Snoopy could use some love in the form of a couple of new attractions. I mean, the last two new attractions added were in 2015. And prior to that the 2006 renovation removed several rides (hand cars anyone? Those were my favorite). There are just some areas that have a lot of open space that could use a new ride for the kids. Having a kid that is 40.5" (and just rode Viking Fury over the weekend), there definitely could be a few more things for him to do in Planet Snoopy. Carowinds has done a good job with their Camp Snoopy theme and adding in some newer rides. I would love to see KI do the same. I also wouldn`t mind seeing a ride like Music Express come to KI.

A dinosaurs ride I believe. Voyage to the Iron Reef had since been replaced by Bear-y Tales which is an old Knott's IP. I figure they have to keep things fresh and update them when people get bored since they have to compete with higher budget parks like Disney and Universal.

oohh You mean this:

I certainly hope so. Kings Island may have to try to differentiate it from SteVe. I honestly had more fun on Twisted Timbers than SteVe so I would not be upset if Kings Island builds a "budget" RMC for cheap and installs a TT size ride. One thing I want from an RMC hybrid at KI is for them to install their first vertical loop (with good hang time preferably).

My latest YouTube video compares the stats of the 4 American giga’s, Orion included. It’s stats are comparable to the other gigas in every way. Orion is definitely a giga in my opinion.

Lockers should just be a flat $10 like Holiday World and Dollywood and be traveling lockers like Dollywood. So much more convenient that way. Or offer King's Islands 1 dollar an hour lockers in the water park. There has been so many times I have passed up water park at Cedar Fair parks due to not wanting to pay 16+ dollars for a few hours of water park fun.

The Woodstock Gliders will never be the same as the Flying Eagles unfortunately. They were designed to be more tame, and long time Kings Island fans will know the difference between these gliders and the original Flying Eagles. Also, the water maze is Planet Snoopy was rather ugly and disgusting in my opinion, and I do not want to see it return. I do think Planet Snoopy needs a complete overhaul, though, but I don’t see this coming in 2022.

Ik this sounds like a stretch since they did put them in fairly recently, but I would love to see them try and move the Woodstock Gliders back to the former location of Flying Eagles where the basketball 3 point challenge is across from where Vortex's batwing used to be and rename it to Flying Eagles. They could maybe relocate the 3 point challenge to Action Zone or something. Then maybe in the future bring back the water maze where the gliders are now or put in a new snoopy ride there.

I would like to see the Red, White, and Blue repaint of Racer. I would also like to see Woodstock Express renamed back to The Beastie.

This argument is SOOOOO 2019....

Intamin is the only manufacturer that offers a Giga Coaster in their catalog.

This doesn't ultimately matter that much, but did Cedar Fair coin the term "giga?" I definitely thought that was Intamin's term, and Cedar Fair took it and ran with it when coaster enthusiasts started applying it to non-Intamin coasters that are 300-399 feet tall. There are small plaques on Millennium Force's trains that say something along the lines of "Intamin Giga Coaster."

With that explanation then Fury 325 and Leviathan are hypers as well since B&M doesn’t use the term giga. A giga coaster is whatever Cedar Fair defines it. The coaster could be absolutely flat, and then drop 305ft from the station to be a giga. Who really cares what is. It’s an amazing ride that dominants the skyline. When you’re on it you’re eye level with WindSeeker. 13 ft doesn’t make a difference.

Orion is a hyper coaster per its manufacturer B&M. That is it’s model, you can find this on B&M’s website: https://www.bolliger-mabillard.com/product/hyper-coaster. Which is what Diamondback is. If you compare Orion to the other Giga coasters in the world. Every other Giga coaster reaches a height of 300ft or more and drop of 300ft or more. Orion does not, being only 287ft tall. So personally I don’t consider Orion a Giga, but it’s 2020 and even steel coasters can now be considered wood. *cough* RMC *cough*

KIC post of the day!

I don't see any reason that the correct measure shouldn't be height of the drop, or otherwise the difference between the highest point and the lowest point on the roller coaster. If we're just going by height above the ground, then the Big Apple Coaster in Vegas was a strata coaster 6 years before Dragster, and in fact it is a double-strata coaster.

I am still sad that the rides were removed. I personally think it was the wrong decision. But Coney survived the rides being removed once before. The saving grace is the pool (and next door Riverbend, where Coney actually operates the concessions and receives parking revenue, although with all the canceled shows this year, that will be substantially less than in past years). I would like to think that Coney will be able to expand the water park aspect and add in some unique water slides to the market. Stuff that Kings Island does not have at Soak City. Time will tell though.

Just for posterity. Enchanted Voyage - 1972 until 1983. Operated 12 seasons. Smurfs Enchanted Voyage - 1984 until 1991. Operated 8 seasons. Phantom Theater - 1992 until 2002. Operated 11 seasons. Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle - 2003 until 2009. Operated 7 seasons. Boo Blasters - 2010 and counting. (This will be it's 11th season of operation.) It woudn't surprise me to see the ride "refreshed" in the next few seasons. The conveyance unit seems to still be very dependable - but it's heading into it's 29th season of use. The guns seem very temperamental to me... but they always have, even when it was "Scooby new." What Boo Blasters has going for it, that most of the others didnt... is that the theme doesnt "wear out." What I mean is, its generic enough that it hasn't stagnated with kids. More about that in a minute... Just to take folks back - by the time Enchanted Voyage was converted to Smurfs, the Hanna-Barbera characters featured in the ride were (for the most part) irrelevant. Young children of the 80's weren't that familiar with the predominance of them because most of the cartoons the attraction was based on were long cancelled by then. The ride was in DESPERATE need of a re-do in its latter years. The Smurfs rolled in and breathed a new (albeit annoying) life into the ride. However, in a handful of years the Smurf craze died and the cartoon wore itself out. Kids that watched the cartoon grew up and lost interest by the late 1980's. (You have to remember that back then, there was no Cartoon Network, or DVD collections etc. Once a cartoon was removed from Saturday morning TV... it was virtually removed from the minds and interest of new generations of children.) "Smurfs Enchanted Voyage" was very popular for about the first 4-5 years that it operated. It kept a steady crowd in it's later years... but frankly the ride sort of became a joke and people made fun of its "trite" and "uncool" theme once the Smurf fad died out. Lets also not forget that its conveyance device was, a water trough... which at that point was 20 years old. I think the parks (the other KECO Managed parks all had Smurfs too) as a whole learned from this after realizing the novelty of a popular cartoon character had a shelf life (on average) around 4 years. SEV lasted roughly 2 or 3 seasons longer than it probably should have. Then along came Phantom Theater. Phantom Theater was kind of an anomaly. It was, IMO, one of the boldest and most unique things Kings Island ever installed. This may shock some... but I actually rank it second only to "The Beast" as far as originality and uniqueness to Kings Island. It really was a superb attraction - especially when it first opened - a real gem. Frankly, its my personal belief that the decision to add something so unique was probably due, in large part, by what they learned with the Smurfs. The KI executives probably didn't want to install another specific, pop culture character-driven ride that would become old hat in a handful of years. I first rode Phantom Theater in June of 1992. I remember waiting well over an hour to ride it. (The line stretched through HB Land.) I was amazed by it when I first rode - it definitely had a VERY similar vibe akin to Disney's Haunted Mansion (on a lesser scale - complete with its own take on the "Doom Buggies.") Actually, it was terrifying to many kids when it opened, and there were LOTS of crying and screaming children. The problem with Phantom Theater was, with time, the ride's figures wore themselves out. Many don't know this, but year after year the rubber masks and hands had to be replaced. They would break down, melt and deteriorate because of the constant movement and heat from the hydraulics. There was a whole shop inside the building (actually located just behind the cars as they faced the "Hilda Bovine" mirror-breaking scene) that housed spare parts for the ride/characters. When they needed replacements, they called up AVG Inc (who did the animations and theming) and ordered the parts by a catalog number. AVG had molds in storage and they'd re-pour the necessary rubber mask or hand. Once the rubber was spread in the mold, they filled it with spray foam insulation - this created a sort of "form" inside the mask or hand. They then had their coloring/facial accents hand painted by artists according to the original detailed design specs. They were shipped to KI on the foam heads and hand forms. When I toured the ride after it's closure and before it was converted to Scooby, I personally saw a whole bin of those heads & hand forms obtained from ordering replacement masks over the years. I asked if I could have one - but no dice. They felt like the equivalent of a nerf football. Frankly, the park HATED to lose Phantom Theater. But the ride's animatronics and effects had virtually worn themselves out. Being Paramount at the time, they already had worked with Sally rides at two other parks - and Sally came on board having already secured the Scooby licensing. And as we all know, Scooby is arguably the most time-enduring and most famous Hanna-Barbera character. Had CF not opted to drop the (no doubt) hefty licensing fee required to continue with the Scooby theming, I have no doubt the ride would still exist and be as popular today. When the licensing was dropped, that forced a generic overlay. Although very basic... and quite frankly, flat... the "Boo Blasters" theme is not one that's necessarily going to wear itself out theme-wise. Its not based on specific characters or being driven by a specific cartoon entity. In other words, kids dont know any of the "characters," so they aren't emotionally invested enough to get tired of them. Should it change to a Peanuts themed dark ride - which it could - it might breathe new life into the ride. But again, it would likely stagnate since it would be a very specific theme that is, IMO, already lost on kids...and adults... today. It will eventually change. It'll have to. The effects, animatronics and technology will wear/age out. When it does, the park will make the determination of where to take it. I cant imagine KI without a dark ride... but we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I pray for something unique and bold again.... so future generations will have something to discuss as passionately as we do "Phantom Theater."

Interesting. If it would have came and went in the KC location, We wouldn't have Banshee. Or at least not in it's current form. And as a somewhat confirmation of the story: It's almost like Firehawk was designed for that spot... because it was. The one time Google having the old SOB imagery up being beneficial. lol

Not gonna miss this memorabilia sale. It’s a shame they don’t want to hold on to some of this stuff. Makes me wonder about the future.