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@King Ding Dong must be at the park again...

The crane was used to work on Delirium. Sorry to burst your speculative bubble.

So had a chance to talk with the park a few minutes ago on International Street. They saw this thread. I can confirm this is NOT new construction for 2022. They have been moving equipment in Action Zone during the week and said it is not being used for new construction.

BUMP** Was taking pics of Invertigo earlier, and a lady walks up and asks me if that was the new Orion roller coaster.

Coming into the park I saw this construction equipment 8n the parking lot. I wonder what this is for if anything for the future. What are your thoughts?

Definitely a telescoping crane from Piqua Steel Company. These cranes are typically used in construction and maintenance. Not usually demolition. At KI, I would say it was used for something like, lifting a derailed railroad car or a heavy component of an amusement ride. Using it to work on Delirium makes sense.

These very early line closures will be a guest service/guest experience catastrophe.

So they’re clearing equipment to make room for the 400ft Gerstlaur in Action Zone /s

This notice covered both the years 2020 & 2021.

It really could be for anything. Maybe it is for a project for Kings Island 50th anniversary. Maybe it is just for building a new warehouse though.

Cars were backed up in the street an hour before open. Fastlane sold out. I'm about toget my 3rd ride on Orion. I think its running faster and giving more airtime with full trains. Ops are pairing strangers together too. Going to be a good day. Flight of Fear is still skipping rows and it seems to be completely random as to which ones.

The long food lines is why we left. Couldn't even get a drink without a 30 minute wait. Got a great a picturE today

Just wait for a day where it rains in the morning and / or afternoon and enjoy a day of no crowds.

Another over crowded day at the park today. Was unable to use food pass again due to the long lines at the park.

If the early line closure was a CF chain wide policy for all parks, then maybe that is the way it is. However, KI has not been closing lines early, so must be a CP specific policy (probably to save on labor costs). People definitely need to stop by guest services to complain so that the new CP general manager can take notice of all the customer feedback. It is sad that the employees have to take all the criticism from upset paying customers when the lines close early.

Management makes decisions and poor hourly employees have to pay the price.

I really don’t think Xtreme Skyflyer would look good in The Vortex plot of land. I don’t think it looks good in Action Zone. I think it is a really ugly ride, but that is just my opinion.

Right no new construction with it. But that does not eliminate it from relocating something like Extreme sky flyer to The Vortex spot. I think that would be a smart move on the park. That would be cool to Swing over the valley that Vortex stood and fly towards The Beast. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make it short Trick and treat day/Haunt night

Here I am at the crane in the parking lot.

A couple things, Cedar Fair has mentioned that they had put a lot of their projects on hold so that could be the weird start of now for construction. In addition to working with Gerstlauer, Ride Entertainment also installs the Skycoaster (i.e. Xtreme Skyflyer). Cedar Point had relocated theirs within the park but it would seem strange to do that when there is seemingly no land clearing anywhere. If you look at the areas of the park that haven't really been improved since Mike Koontz has been GM you have Action Zone, Oktoberfest (ride wise), Planet Snoopy, and Soak City. Is it possible Cedar Fair did a 2 for 1 deal with Gerstlauer where CP gets the coaster and we are getting a flat of some kind? Clearly there is some reason for the crane but it will be interesting to see what happens.

Sitting at brew house drinking this blue ice cream beer.... it’s not horrible, neat novelty, but it’s not the worlds greatest fruited cream ale. That goes to sun king with their orange dreamsicle beer.

agreed 100% with that. If anything, it could be to demolish timberwolf if they are in fact doing that which I find unlikely.

It might be to just make a repair on an existing ride and have nothing to do with 2022. Let's let this play out a bit more before we jump to it being a 2022 project.

No one would use a construction crane to demolish KillMart.

I've said it for a couple years now. I would like to see a tip of the hat to the old closing. If memory serves me correctly there was a hot air balloon launch, a bi-plane (snoopy) vs tri-plane (red baron) and skydivers. May be a bit hard depending on the condition of the tri plane but I'm sure the last two came from warren county airport. And of course on the show side I would love to see Celebration back. Such a classic show.

I definitely think the entrance building needs some kind of overhaul. This website has been posted a ton but the concept art is awesome - http://matthunterross.com/kings-island. It's not a new building, just an addition of dormers and a large centerpiece. The idea of a legacy walk in Tower Gardens sounds great! I would hope to see lots of colorful banners around the park, maybe signs at the entrance of rides explaining their installation and any records they might have broken, & specialty food booths in different parts of the park. Definitely need to sell some kind of birthday cake lol

I would love to see Kings Island debut a new front entry plaza with a renovated front gate, new ticket booths, and new landscaping. Like @Hawaiian Coasters 325 said, they can just upgrade the facade of the front gate building. I would be okay if they completely redo everything else though. It would also be cool to see a legacy walk (maybe in Tower Gardens), a new ivy tunnel, some Oktoberfest love, and new live entertainment celebrating Kings Island.

Definitely would love to see a big time celebration like what Cedar Point is doing. A trivia with prizes you could win would be nice! Definitely should play a documentary on the FunTVs (I may be a minority, but I don't like the FunTVs lol). I also would love to see a new skywheel as well as Boo Blasters revamped into a modern Phantom Theater (similar to what Knott's is doing with their dark ride revamping it and basing it off an older attraction). I also would love to see an upgraded entry plaza (not year down the current entrance) but maybe give the building some TLC and new ticket booths and a new season pass processing center. This may be a big stretch, but I would also love them to try and reopen the 60 ft level of the Eiffel Tower and make it like a relaxing area with patio style seating and stuff. I do agree the ET needs a repaint, but not gold. I just would like to see fresh aqua/blue paint to make it more fresh. Obviously, they likely won't do all of these, but this is my wishlist for next year and maybe even the next few years (park improvements wise).

I’d love to see a flat ride be added to Oktoberfest for the 50th season. In terms of merchandise I’d really love to see the return of souvenir maps!

So 6pm closes on busy days? Makes me wonder what the line of thinking is there. If it is that busy pay employees to keep the park running till 10pm maybe even midnight. Make more money on merchandise, beer, food etc. But what do I know. Also I know some of us would be completely fine with backing up the opening if it meant some later hours and night rides.

I honestly don't understand this idea people have here that Kings Island is really concerned about making sure no coaster is taller than the Eiffel Tower. I honestly think that had absolutely 0 to do with how tall Orion is. If it had been in the budget, they probably would have gone ahead and made it a little taller. Don't get me wrong, I understand the logic I just think it's wrong. Yeah the Eiffel Tower is an important landmark there, but I HIGHLY doubt they feel it's important that they limit themselves on what kinds of attractions they should build based on this thing they built in 1972. If they came to the conclusion, for example, that building a TTD clone at KI would bring tons of people to the park for some reason, I don't think the height of the Eiffel Tower would come into play in that decision at all really. However I agree that they probably won't be building anything taller than Orion anytime soon. I'm having a hard time even thinking what the point would be. If you're looking for really tall coasters with big drops, they kind of have that covered already. Personally I think they'll be looking for a different kind of experience for the next few coaster additions.

Physically where do these extra people go? I get they might spend more money (except food, they are already at cap with hour waits), but then you run into a space issue. Can't just drop another 5 registers in most of their gift shops and have twice as many people shopping. Space isn't there. So, they are just mindless walking the midway doing nothing. Just not seeing how virtual queues really help except in one off/rare situations. Orion opening weekend or two, great idea. All rides in the park? No way.

Yeah I'm with you. I'm glad we are (mostly) in agreement here that the system could use some tweaking, but as I mentioned in another comment above, I don't think making FLP even less accessible to most people than they already are is the answer. I'm not sure if people on this forum are just mostly single, or if you all have extremely good jobs or what the situation is lol. I just know as a husband and father of two who already gets platinum passes with meal plans and drink plans for everyone, an additional $4 -6k (before we even start talking about travel expenses to other parks) is just not reasonable. I'm considering adding all season FLP for my wife and I next year and that's already $1700 at that point my season pass package will be more than it would cost me to get my family memberships at some of these fancy private swim clubs around here.

Yeah and nearly doubling that price makes it significantly harder for some people to justify getting it. All season platinum already likely makes up an extremely small % of total Fastlane users. Cedar Point last year clearly realized that season passholders wouldn’t even pay $850 for all season Fastlane which is why they lowered the price. I doubt many people would visit enough Cedar Fair parks to justify spending $1000-1500 on it. As per home park specific all season Fastlane ad mentioned $750 likely is the max people would be willing to spend for parks such as KI,CP,Knotts & CW.

One of the photos your are probably referring to was mine. I didn't post it as a social distancing observation. I posted it to discuss the 2021 season, as in the ride was officially running and we were in line. Now, it seems from your posts that you are not comfortable going to Kings Island at this point. Guess what? That is totally fine. No one is forcing anyone to go. Was the social distancing as good as it should have been? No. Did I feel uncomfortable at any point during the day? No. Here's why. I've gotten vaccinated. (I AM NOT STARTING A VACCINATION DEBATE. SIMPLY STATING A FACT). I did this to get back to normal. Saturday was one of the most "back to normal" experiences that I have had in the past year. Bottom line, if you feel comfortable in maskless crowds, enjoy the park. If not, then either wear a mask or don't go. As for me, I plan to enjoy the heck out of KI this summer.

This a bump, but it’s nice to see that Coney Confections just got a new sign. No more clashing purple!

Some people were saying that SteVe had a 3 hour+ wait. I feel bad for anyone who paid money for a day ticket to visit.