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During The Winter Walk-theough today it was mentioned that the RMC Raptor destined for the park this season actually went to Silverwood (branded by Silverwood as Stunt Pilot). Last March Ed Hart was ready to cut the check for the Raptor, but COVID hit and he backed out of the deal at the last minute allowing Silverwood to pick up the coaster plans. This coaster could have fit nicely in KK since the maximum height would have been somewhere between 105-115 feet which would have fit several places in the park given the various air vector height restrictions of the airport across the street. (Rumor location was next to Eye of the Storm.) Most of the changes coming to KK this year are increasing the quality of food - many stands are being renamed and menus being retooled to represent a lot of the Dollywood favorites (yes a bakery is coming with Dollywood’s cinnamon bread, a stand with Nashville hot chicken, and sweet tea will be coming in the park). Alcohol will also be staying in the park with expanded Kentucky bourbon flight tastings and food menu in the renamed beer garden. A incredible promotion will be running this year, Summer Fun Partners, offering two days with free drinks for $29.95 - seems like Herschend wants to really drive up attendance getting many first time visitors, especially those from out of state, to visit the park. (Last season the exact same deal for out of state visitors was $39.95). Another talking point was there definitely was not going to be a pumpkin lights/Halloween event this season, but did strongly hint at a Christmas event could actually occur this Christmas (noted a few buildings and restrooms had heat on the walk through for colder temperatures, and since Christmas decoration orders with China are typically placed in early spring, maybe a Christmas time event could actually happen in the park, just will have to wait and see).

On busy days at CP they'll need to close the Maverick and SV lines 90-120 minutes early to get all guests on by 8pm or 10pm (the two closing times this season). Imagine the park brings back daily fastlane ($150 on many Friday/Saturdays, $850 for all season) and then you find the lines to the top 2 attractions in the park closed for the final 2 hours of park operation. It's a noticeable drop in the value of the fastlane pass. Likely 30-60 minutes early for other major coasters. For standby line guests, you'll need to correctly time your last ride of the night so that you enter the desired line early enough and dont get caught walking up to the line a few minutes after they close it, then scrambling to walk to another attraction that's not closed. This was us last season on 3 or our 4 CP visits, as the app was not really set up to be this specific on early line closure. I'm sure many guests did not see this new procedure in action last season or read until the end of one specific blog post, so it will come as an unpleasant surprise to those unaware. I understand that it saves money and allows( on 10pm closure nights) to get the employees more rest before the 8am/9am open the next day, but it's also unquestionably a reduction in value... and a significant one on busy days.

From the park's opening in 1972 into the 1990's, the ride crews would cut the line on every attraction so the last rides would occur within a few minutes of the park closing time. There were many days where if you wanted to get a night ride on The Beast you had to be in the queue 45-90 minutes before the park closed, depending on what day of the week and time of year it was. At The Racer during the years I was riding it almost daily from 1981-1990, the line would get cut 20-30 minutes before the park closed, sometimes up to 45 minutes on a Saturday. I never felt like I was getting cheated. If the park operating calendar said the park closed at 10 p.m., it was understood by guests that meant rides stopped running at 10 p.m. That's the way it was.

Someone just shared this wonderful home video of Kings Island from 1973 in the KIHistory Facebook group and on YouTube. It's excellent footage of the park its second year, including Marathon Turnpike, actors and special effects on the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad, views from the Eiffel Tower, and some of the storefronts on International Street. It's about six-and-a-half minutes and definitely worth watching.

Keys to the Kingdom 2 will be Sunday June 6 - $5 off advance tickets were offered to people who attended the winter walk through today. Many new surprises will be in the event this year (but no hints were given except six locked padlocks in the presentation). It’s going to be a busy June weekend this year with CP Coastermania on Friday June 4 and Keys to the Kingdom 2 on Sunday June 6. Now just have to wait to see if KI will have Coasterstock this year.

So looking forward to this. And especially at this time in history.

The way it is now is that people expect to be able to jump in line a minute before park close.

Thank you for your response. I hope you do not feel like this is the way it should be. I drove to Holiday World at the end of August for Holiwood Nights. The Saturday was a 10-6pm for the general public. If I set aside the fact I drove there for an event and for the sake of this point pretend I did not. I would be driving almost 5 hours to get there. Lines for 3 of the 4 coasters were almost 2 hours long. The park shut the line down to the Voyage shortly after 4pm and the rest of the popular rides shortly after that one by one in order to clear the line by park close. I feel like if a park is closing a line down almost 2 hours before close then that 4pm should be stated as close and maybe not 6. Also if I had not drove for the event and only drove down for the posted 10-6pm day and only got 3-4 rides in due to extreme lines and shutting them down early,I would not have been very happy at all. Probably would not give them a second chance and go back. I'm glad up until now this has not been Cedar Fair's policy and I hope it does not change at King's Island. I love my night rides. I work 3rd shift and like the fact that I can get some sleep, drive 2 hours and get there by 4pm and still have a few hours of fun and not have to consider and factor in ride closures at park close.

I work retail and if you close at 10pm you do not shut everything down and lock the doors right at 10pm. You pay some staff to stay 30-60 minutes past. I've been to mom and pop chinese restaurants that attempt to do this very thing and push people eating out the door right at the time posted on the door. Its why all restaurants need to post 2 close times on the door. One for kitchen close and one for dining room close. Besides some people like different shifts for different reasons. I'm sure some staff would not mind being paid an extra hour or 2. In the past Cedar Point used to have lots of 9am starts and stayed open till midnight on many weekends. There has been nights where the Steel Vengeance queue did not clear out until 1:30am and still at least in 2018 the ride was still running for early entry.

The reprofiling Gravity Group did should hopefully bring more airtime to The Racer. Can't wait to ride it this season!

Between this, Iron gwazi, pantheon, jersey devil, Icebreaker I don't know why people would buy ASFLP to ride yesterdays rides when they could fund these trips instead.