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Due to members requests, you may have noticed by now that we have added a new Kings Island History forum. I have went back through the Kings Island Forum to the start of 2014 and moved any thread that was about KI history. I hope this helps keep all of the awesome history of our favorite park a little more organized.

Cinema 180 (also referred to as Cinema 180 Theatre) opened in 1986 and had a different film every year. It appears to have last played a film in 1995, and was briefly re-purposed as an upcharge laser tag game in the early 2000s. It was then storage through its removal before the 2009 season. Here's a (I think) complete listing of its movies with brief descriptions, pulled or re-worded from old park guides, newspapers, etc. 1986 - Flight 747 - airline pilot landing a Boeing 747 when chaos ensues 1987 - Block-buster - clips from a helicopter ride around Seattle’s Space Needle, a motorcycle pursuit through downtown Atlanta, Georgia, a ride through the Kamakazi curve of the Orient Express roller coaster at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri, and a speeding bobsled at Lake Placid 1988 - Fantastic Flights - POV from a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird stunt plane and a roller coaster POV 1989 - Impact - galactic star field and other adventures 1990 - Flight 747 - I assume the same as 1986's. Additional description included "unforgettable flight featuring Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana Beach, and Iguacu Falls" 1991 - Horizons - Unknown 1992 - Colossus - cliff diving, careening through the narrow streets of Mexican village, and flying in a jet fighter 1993 - Galaxy of Thrills - careening up the street, down the surface at Waikiki Beach and through an entire Galaxy of Thrills... the building was also used for a traveling Star Trek exhibit through June 1994 - Wild Wild West - dynamic chase scenes at breakneck speeds. Included a high-speed chase with the California Highway Patrol, flights over dizzying vistas, a corkscrewing roller coaster, and snow skiing trhough western states 1995 - Crazy Wheels - high-speed action For what it's worth, Cinema 180 was an attraction at other parks too, like Hersheypark and Kennywood. There's a brief history of it over at The Amusement Parkives here - https://amusementparkives.com/2019/03/28/omnivision-inc/ Edit - Here's a picture of it its last year, 2008.

We’re finalizing the last couple details right now. Expect a formal announcement very soon! The book will be very narratively-driven. There are photos, concept art, and maps, but the focus is on the personal stories of the 41 executives I interviewed from throughout the park’s history.

Key words being: "to me."

But they don't have an Intamin!

You can see it behind the Floral Date in this 1977 picture (from an old eBay auction, unfortunately I don't have a name or anything attached for crediting) And here it is from Zodiac, screenshotted from the 1:30 mark of this YouTube video, from EFC 8MM Home Videos

Bump: Had a person ask me the other day if Vortex is sinking.

You're thinking of the Kings Island Theater (not to be confused with the current Kings Island Theater, which is the indoor theater near the park entrance that used to be The Paramount Theatre). The original Kings Island Theater opened with the park in 1972 and was a big red vinyl structure supported by air pressure. It collapsed due to a December 1974 snowfall and was replaced with a new version (now blue) for the 1975 season. Its last year was 1977, and it was replaced by Tower Gardens in 1978. Theater in August 1973 (courtesy gorillasdontblog.blogspot.com): Theater collapse in December 1974 (source unknown... I think it was Cincinnati Enquirer though): Pictures of the second version (with the blue vinyl) are hard to find. Reference a few posts down for a couple pictures of it.

The rainforest (trees) that surround the ride says hello... I know what you mean (a themed queue like Top Gun used to have), but the natural scenery (and my imagination) makes the ride themed enough for me! On the other hand, yeah, Diamondback is kinda just out there in a cleared field... more theming would be nice (maybe a themed queue). I do like @IndyGuy4KI's idea of lights giving the appearance of snake skin on the track - this effect could be used every time a train pulls out of the station (on that pre-lift straight track directly following the station) as the train could be "shedding its skin", enabling it to move forward, ready to climb the lift.

Herschend will be good for KK. They will likely keep focus on family entertainment and keep the sea lion and bird shows since they also own the Newport Aquarium. Like the news article says they also want to bring festivals and other seasonal events (Maybe hope for the return of their Halloween event?) which will bring more people to the park. A nice infusion of capital will help pay off the past due bills/lease payment as well as add some new little things to the park. I wonder what (if anything) will be said at the winter walk through in March about the sale.

But they have an RMC that has just as much downtime as an Intamin.

I chose Diamondback because it doesn't have much. They did add a couple of things in the station recently, but the queue needs some work.

I would love to see a muti colored LED light package added to Diamondback. I say multicolored, because I am hoping that would give it the effect of looking like snake skin on the tracks. I am not sure if that is possible, but I think that would be really cool.

So did Herschend back out at the last moment? Or the half right portion is that there is a deal in place and nobody backed out, they just haven`t announced it yet?

Right now AT is mostly storage. One side is storage for a few departments and the other side houses Urgent Scare. I don’t really see them doing anything with that area for the next 10 years, there’s other spots to build and the building is being used. The most I could see is a new haunt maze, Urgent Scare is quite old at this point, and with coronavirus, I could see it not making a return. I couldn’t see them turning it into a theater again unless it’s torn down and rebuilt with new, more modern technology. The equipment is quite old and probably not worth starting up again as a “new” attraction, and that doesn’t take into account that motion theaters are largely a thing of the past by now. If they do anything new with the area, I’d like to see them tear it down and use the land to build a new attraction, maybe some flats.

There is always something going on with the Webcam and always a "reason" it's offline. If you are not caught up on the craziness of the Webcam fiasco I recommend searching old topics and posts on its questionable history of being online and offline at all the right/wrong moments. I'm not even sure if the posts are still there so many were deleted. To be honest, it would make a great Netflix mystery Documentary.

I searched and could not find anything on the topic. But does anyone know if the old movies that used to play in the Omnimax style theater are available anywhere? I remember going in and sitting on the floor to watch it as a kid. There may have been multiple versions. This just popped into my mind today. Sorry if it’s been mentioned. But I searched and could not find anything.

So every other Cedar Fair park has their web cams up (even now ) and active. Will KI ever put theirs back on line? Why are they really off?

A week ago Cincinnati's Coney Island held a memorabilia sale and sold off a lot of the former amusement park's old pictures, artwork, ride vehicles, signage, etc. There wasn't too much posted about the sale ahead of time, but I recognized an old Kings Island map in one of the pictures shared on their Facebook about a week before the sale. After a little consideration, I booked a flight up to Cincinnati for a long weekend to visit family and hopefully score that map. And after an early Saturday morning (and a lot of stressing about getting to the sale early enough and finding the map before someone else got to it), I found myself the new owner of this cool vintage piece. It's a little faded and worn, but it's also nearly five decades old. I believe that it would've been displayed in the preview center for Kings Island at the old park (hence why it was being sold at the Coney Island memorabilia sale and didn't end up at the new park). The map was created by Ron Riegler, who would later serve as the chief art director for Kings Productions. It was one of several park maps created ahead of the new park's opening to show future visitors what Kings Island would look like. Whereas other maps had a lot of differences compared to what was ultimately built, this one seems to have been one of the final iterations and matches up with the as-built Kings Island really well. There's a few minor discrepancies between the artwork and what was actually built... I assume some were just artistic liberties, whereas others may have been actual adjustments. I think one of the most fun parts of Kings Island history is sharing it with others, so I took some pictures of the map's details to share here... with a sprinkling of commentary (especially with regards to what was painted and what was actually built). Description of the five themed areas and Ron's signature... note number five is the "Happy Kingdom of Hanna-Barbera", whereas the real section was known as the Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera. It also refers to the "Happy Kingdom Ride", which I assume would ultimately become Enchanted Voyage. The entrance plaza is one of the biggest changes between concept art and real life. The tram circle in the drawing is skewed to the side, whereas the real life variation was directly in front of the park entrance. There was also a line of flags here that I don't believe ever existed in real life, plus the International Restaurant appears to be included (in reality it didn't open until 1973). The concept of International Street here appears very similar to what was built, pardon a few small things. There is a floral clock and date in front of the tower, whereas the real life floral clock was behind it to the right (before being relocated to directly behind the tower in 1977) and the floral date wasn't added until 1973 to the left. Note that there's also flags on top of the carousel, which I don't believe were ever a thing. Oktoberfest and Coney Island. I'm not sure what's depicted between Sky Ride and Rotor (bottom left of the "2"), but I don't believe anything was ever built there. The Racer station and lift hill also show some flags that were never a real thing. Top of the map, with Racer, the antique car rides, and Rivertown. I think that Rivertown ended up being the most accurate to what was actually built. I can't pinpoint any changes. The railroad and picnic grove. It looks like a series of teepees at the railroad's turn-around... there were teepees in the real ride, but I think that specific location was home to the Fort McHale show scene. And finally, the Happy Kingdom of Hanna-Barbera... pretty close to the as-built, sans the big canvas tent structure over the center and the huge compass atop Enchanted Voyage's building (though the real one wasn't added till mid-1972). The map is a cool piece and I'm sure it made a lot of Coney Island visitors excited for the new park opening in 1972. It's cool to compare it to what was built, and I'm excited to (hopefully soon) get it hung up to properly display. If anyone has any additional comments on the history of the map or its contents (or if you think I erred anything), please feel free to share!

I just came across this thread. That is an amazing piece!! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you all for the replies on this. I wish we could find the footage from these. Even not in the “omnimax” format, they would be great to watch and re-live.

^ @TombraiderTy, as always, thank you! Would love to see that blue vinyl one, I never knew it even existed. I'm also mad at myself for never having gone to look into that old laser tag building/cinema building when I worked for the park.

It looks like there will be an official announcement tomorrow morning.

I wonder if this sale could be the reason why Keys to the Kingdom hasn't been announced yet for this year. I also wonder what that means for any fall operations in particular Haunt season. They brought it back for 2019. Then last season they decided to close the park at the end of Sept.

Hopefully they treat it like Dollywood and Silver Dollar City not like Wild Adventures

They operate SDC and Dollywood, both of which are fairly major parks. I would not call Dollywood a "smaller park".

Official. Looks like its Herschend. Kentucky Kingdom to change hands, state officials say https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/kentucky-kingdom-to-change-hands-state-officials-say/article_4b30482e-752e-11eb-9771-7bb3912ffbd0.html

The Cinema 180 theater was standing until sometime between 2009 and 2011, if I remember correctly. I could be wrong, but I want to say it disappeared when WindSeeker was built. I DO know for a fact it was there when I started my coaster enthusiasm in 2008.

It would be cool if Adventure Express got some love in the way of restoring all the effects. I know that over the years, more parts have been working (arrows in the second tunnel, "creaking" sound effects on the lift, etc.), but it would be cool to have all the old effects working.

Maybe "RMC" written in the snow? Lol jk

Right now, there's no dire need for us to see the webcams. Not trying to speak for all of us, but right now the only thing to see is the big snow mountains around the rides. Once we get closer to opening day, I bet they'll turn them back on.

It's entirely reasonable to not live stream initial ride testing because showing guests that things don't go perfectly (train makes it all the way back to the station) the first time, doesn't do anyone any favors. Even if enthusiasts wouldn't mind. What doesn't make sense is KI taking theirs down (intentionally or through system issues), but neither getting them back online by now or just openly stating that they do not have live webcams at this time, and they'll let us know in the future if that changes. As I see it, KI has no live webcams until they announce otherwise; they're not just down, they're gone.

It's really poorly designed, both aesthetically and functionally.. The aesthetics of the overall site are bad - vast white voids without even a dark mode. The calendar in particular is poorly designed and built. I'd rather use a static PDF than this "interactive" calendar. They need to revert to the old design, IMO, as I don't see any benefit from the new design. In month view, yes, you have to hover over/click each date to view hours. There's a clock icon that's supposed to tell you they're open if it's blue, otherwise closed if it's gray? But it doesn't show you all the hours? Why? And there are star icons for each event on the calendar, but you have to look below to find what that even means? It's neat they tried to integrate the event calendar with the hours calendar, but this is bad design.. You also can't drag/swipe to get to the next month, unlike.. In week view, it does give you daily hours. But week view doesn't show the full week. It shows no more than 6 days starting with the current day of week, and you have to figure out yourself to drag the days across. When you use the arrows to jump by week, it jumps to the current day in the next week. When you get to the end of the month, it doesn't continue seamlessly - e.g. it'll show Sunday, Feb 28, and then... nothing. Dragging/swiping doesn't pull up March 1 and on. You have to use the week arrows; if you drag/swipe past the end of the month, you get blank days. Am I confused or did CP's calendar list 11a opens when it first went live? Currently KI still lists 11a opens through the summer season.

Right now the park has the webcams off. We really don't know why at this point. If I hear anything official I will be sure to share.

You now have to hover on each date to see the hours and that is just dumb. I hope that gets fixed or doesn't roll over to other Cedar Fair sites.

Hopefully the webcams return online soon, but Kings Island said they would return soon almost a year ago at this point.

https://news.yahoo.com/kings-island-parent-company-strongly-024500684.html And for those who need to hear it: no one cares about your opinion on the vaccine.

Still updating software.....

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) only covers workers over the age of 40. But that only pertains to employment. This is not a requirement of employment so the ADEA does not apply to the dorms. As a private business they can choose who to rent to and who to not rent to, the same way a hotel or car rental company can require someone to be over 21/25/XX years old. Someone could sue if they wanted too, but the case would be moot as the law doesn't support their argument and I would imagine the judge would dismiss the case "with prejudice" meaning it couldn't be resubmitted later. https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination#:~:text=The Age Discrimination in Employment,younger workers from age discrimination.

It will be interesting to see what happens. The park does need a lot of work to come up to Dollywood/SDC standards.

I talked with him just now. I showed him this picture, and he said "yea, thats it". 1952 model. I wrote down the MXX231 number and told him to see if thats whats on it. He says he has the title for it, and it "starts and runs" but that was likely 20-30 years ago. He also said he once had a 3rd bus but sold it years ago. I asked him if he would be interested in selling it, as I've had a few inquiries over the years about it, and he said he would. I told him I could come over and photograph it for him. So, if anyone out there is SERIOUS about purchasing this bus, get with me. May or may not be the MXX231, but its definitely a 50's British double decker bus that may be in running condition.

Past Showplace performers having fun at the 2019 Live Entertainment Reunion

That is a sweet collectors piece !

I dont know what the deal is with the confused look, the player in the game has park season passes at $100+. so it should be me that shows confusion as to why you don't think they will do the same with this park..... and Im not speaking specifically of Herschend. Like Shaggy said, not yet, there are others at that price point as well.

Id suggest buying a 2021 pass now, before it goes up to $100+ after the buy.