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It's looked like this for a number of years. They typical store bike racks in this location for parking lot events. (Robbie Knievel, walking/running events, Haunt, etc)

Can't get a new coaster if they are not making money.

So, I've gone about traveling to different amusement parks as I would like to see what else is out there. That, and to up my coaster count Last Thursday and Friday, I took my wife and son to both Carowinds and Kings Dominion. Before I get into the rides, I must say I learned an important lesson... at nearly 51 years of age, I need to schedule a day of rest in between visits as my old butt can't handle it like I used to Having said that, I will give my overall review of each park and opinions on what we rode each day. Side note, we did buy Fast Lane at both parks to avoid long lines. However, even on a Friday at Kings Dominion, we really didn't need one and not much in the way of long lines at Carowinds outside of Fury 325. We arrived at Carowinds about 30 minutes after opening. This would prove to be the more tiring day as temperatures ended up being 95. As I grow older, I find myself less tolerant of the heat. Once inside, we stood on the NC/SC state line, trying to decide which way we should go. SC it is and we headed off. You'll have to forgive me as I cannot recall which rides are located on which side of the state line (I know of one that crosses over). Carolina Cyclone ... Classic Arrow with typical Arrow elements. A fun ride, but also reminds me of how technology has really improved over the years. Not sure what order we rode anything else, so I'll just review each ride. Afterburn is a great invert. Not my favorite, but some really cool elements and the trees in the area were placed really well. Carolina Goldrusher...a decent mine train, but in my mind nothing seems to top Adventure Express. Copperhead Strike...what can you say about this ride, but whew! The roll out of the station which makes you feel like you will fall out for certain, to the 2 launches, to the insane hang time in multiple inversions. This is something that I firmly believe should be taking the spot where Vortex was. Hurler...holy cow, this has to be the worst wooden coaster on the face of the earth. Between the jackhammering and shuffling, it was one painful moment after the other. It is literally the only coaster that when we hit the brake run, I shouted," tear it down". For reference, I rode Son of Beast several times and was never that uncomfortable. I would marathon SOB for 14 hours straight before ever stepping foot onto that abomination of a coaster again. It was closed for a good bit of the day, but we gambled on it when it finally opened late in the day. My back hurt so bad, it literally made me uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Intimidator (hyper) was our 1st ride of the day and I think it gives Diamondback a run for its money on the awesome ride it delivers. Unfortunately, Nighthawk was closed. I really wanted my son to experience a flying coaster for the first time. He was never tall enough for Firehawk before it was removed. We also rode Vortex, and I am personally glad most of the B&M standups are gone. Last (but certainly not least), is Fury 325. This coaster is insanely good from beginning to end. Lots of floater airtime, plus, just when you think this ride may be close to being over, there's plenty left to conquer. Easily the best coaster in the park, imo. Copperhead being a very close 2nd. Thankfully, we purchased a souvenir bottle and drank Powerade for a large majority of the day. My wife cannot have anything with sugar in it, so we bought her multiple bottles of water. Should've paid for a drink wrist band (something we did at KD) as it pays off quickly. We also paid for a 3 hour locker twice. We wound up doing a transferrable locker for only $1 more (well worth it) at KD. Overall, great park with mostly good rides. My only gripe is placement of entrances and exits were not well thought out. Also felt a little cramped. I suppose with KI and Cedar Point, other parks that I've been to give me this feeling. We also bought preferred parking (as I'm getting too old to walk long distances to a parking space). Day 2 was Kings Dominion. We also had preferred parking there as well. We went straight to Dominator as it is closest to the gate. I had not been on it since it was moved from Geauga Lake. A truly great coaster still. Our day was cooler overall, so more pleasant weather. I think what I love about this park is being there really felt like home. So very similar to the feel of KI. The biggest difference outside of some of the ride choices is at KI, you can go directly behind the Eiffel Tower for more to do whereas the path is located to the side at KD. So, outside of Dominator, let's review the others. Anaconda... I actually really enjoyed this one. Some great unique elements, like going through a tunnel under the water. Apple Zapple... a pretty fun wild mouse that did not punish me like the one at Hershey. Back Lot Stunt Coaster... same experience as the one at KI. Nothing different at all about it. Flight of Fear is the same, however, the ride op launching it was nothing short of hilarious with his banter. He was even taking requests from guests if they wanted him to say something. We had to take a spin on Bad Apple and Delirium. Shake, Rattle and Roll is one of my favorite flats at KI. Delirium was a nice changeup and the breeze I was getting from it was the highlight (old people thing ). Grizzly was an ok wooden coaster. I liked the seclusion, but it's not very long and it needs re-profiled. Racer 75 is pretty much like our own Racer. The only differences I noticed was they vary the chain lift speed on each side, each train overtaking the other for the lead and it had a nice drop into the final tunnel with brake run. The new coaster, Tumbili, is a fairly neat coaster. It was pretty fun, but a terrible wait as there are only 2 cars with 8 riders each. I'm glad we caught it early in the day as the line grew longer and I felt like the wait we experienced was nearly too long for such a short ride. There's no Fast Lane for it either. I did really like how they painted the supports to appear like giant bamboo. Later on in the day, we passed by and saw they had a cool show that tied the jungle theme in nicely. Twisted Timbers...wow, what a coaster. Not as fun as Steel Vengeance, but a quality ride none the less. I'm assuming the former Hurler was likely as bad as the one at Carowinds, which is why it received the RMC treatment. Lastly, by far my favorite of the entire trip, was Intimidator 305. Granted, Fury325 is a great experience, but the intensity of I-305 is absolutely insane. The turn out of the 1st drop had us all graying or blacking out until you started ascending the 2nd hill under the lift hill. For some, maybe that's not something they enjoy, but dang was it ever for us. Outside of that, it had some great floater airtime and the Intamin transitions from left to right or right to left are some of my favorite elements. If I had to pick a favorite of the 2, I would go with KD. Between the familiarity of the look/feel and I-305, it was enough to give it a slight edge. Apologies for such a long post.

It sounds like the weekdays are just walk ons this year! I agree! The park has never looked better! I think Fury 325 is better but I feel like if you put Fury at Kings Island it just doesn’t work I think Orion is perfect for Kings Island and is my second favorite Giga behind Fury.

Crowds were light today thanks to heat. Everything was a walk on. This was my second visit this year, and this year is my first time back in the park since 2015. The park looks amazing! I was very impressed. I thought Beast felt great, MT was a surprise for me! I really really enjoyed that ride, and I did not think I would. I also really enjoyed Orion. I still like Fury 325 more, but I think Orion is a great addition to the park and will bring me back. Great job Kings Island!

To be clear, this year bring a friend free is available Mon - Thur so that won't be a factor. I feel that doing the bring a friend is much better when it is spread out like it is. Helps the park attendance on slow weekdays. Looks like partly cloudy and 80. I would think it will be crowded but only after 1. I usually get to the park early on Sundays and can get about 3-4 major coasters in by 1. 10-Noon will be your best short line times. I would suggest Orion and Flight of Fear, then Backlot Stunt Coaster, Beast, Mystic and Diamondback in that order. Beast, Diamondback and Orion are definitely people movers so don't be deterred later in the day of what lines look like. Have a great day and happy fathers day in advance!

Looks like it has been there for some time!

Or Drop Tower and Skyflyer grew since 2011

Not all weekdays have been walk-one, but many have been recently due to storms and now excessive heat. While it can be fun to marathon rides on a dead day, I personally enjoy the atmosphere more when there is a more healthy crowd. Also, if Kings Island was dead on every weekday, Cedar Fair would likely consider slashing operating hours on weekdays. Good attendance is not a bad thing but rather a good thing for Kings Island.

It's been a couple years since I've done a trip report, but I used to love sharing them and figured I may as well take another stab at one. I visited Valleyfair and Nickelodeon Universe for the first time last weekend, spending three days between the two parks. Overall it was a great trip, and both parks have some great rides. I'm not sure I'll make the trip back up anytime soon, but I'm glad I did this visit and finally got to visit another one of Kings Island's sister parks. I'll split the three days (two at Valleyfair, one at Nickelodeon Universe) into a few parts each. Feel free to comment with any questions or thoughts on the parks or rides! Friday, June 3 (Part 1) After waking up 3:20am for an early flight, I took a Lyft from the airport directly to Valleyfair and arrived right at opening. I love how every park's skyline is different, and Valleyfair's had a really fun one visible directly from the parking area. The park oddly doesn't have a passenger pick-up or drop-off area, meaning my Lyft driver had to go through the tolls and explain that he was just dropping me off. The attendant waved us through, so it wasn't ultimately an issue, but it was still a strange set-up. The park had a standard Cedar Fair entrance. The wait wasn't too bad for security, and I was able to scan my Platinum Pass without issue. First time using it this year! The park had this sign placed outside the entrance. It was clear that the park was short-staffed throughout the day, and operations were a little slower than I'd expect at many of the rides. But it's early in the season and nothing was ever too painful. The first thing you see upon entry is this adorable fountain of Snoopy and Woodstock. I'd love to see a similar fountain somewhere at Kings Island. I grabbed a locker for my backpack and a coffee at Caribou Coffee, which I hadn't had since it left the Cincinnati area years ago. Then off to my first ride: Mad Mouse. Mad Mouse is one of only four Wild Mouse rides ever built by Arrow Dynamics. Two of the others are also at Cedar Fair parks (Michigan's Adventure and California's Great America), whereas the fourth was at the now-defunct Myrtle Beach Pavilion in South Carolina. I've wanted to ride one of these zany little rides for ages and was excited to finally get my chance. Perhaps I set my expectations a little too high though, as the experience itself was... meh? It was a very standard Wild Mouse, even though Arrow tried some quirky new things, like some zig-zagged track and a bit of banking on some of the curves. By no means was it bad, but it was just a run-of-the-mill Wild Mouse. I next moved toward Renegade, the park's newest roller coaster. It wasn't open for the day yet and there was a train parked on the lift, so I continued down the midway to Excalibur. Getting to Excalibur was weird - it was a very narrow pathway through the waterpark and into a tight underground tunnel. Given that it was still early morning, and how isolated this coaster was, I was able to do Excalibur back-to-back with minimal waiting. The ride was built by Arrow Dynamics in 1989 and feels like an XL version of Adventure Express. It has some really sharp (and jarring) transitions and definitely throws you around. It was a ton of fun though, and I had been wanting to ride this odd ride for years ever since I saw it in a roller coaster book as a kid. Definitely a highlight of the park. After Excalibur, I returned to Renegade and was pleasantly surprised to see it had opened. After a short wait, I rode the park's newest coaster (and my 250th... not that I keep track ) in the third row. My first ride on Renegade was honestly a little underwhelming, but as I rode it more over the next two days (especially in the back) it kept getting better. The curving drop (the only one of its kind on a GCI coaster) is stellar and some of the high-speed, low-to-the-ground transitions are extra thrilling. I don't think the station fly-by really added anything, but it was still a great ride and ultimately was my favorite one at the park. I next walked back toward the front of the park, passing through Planet Snoopy on the way. Similar to the Snoopy fountain at the front of the park, the Snoopy area was filled with a ton of fun fiberglass figures - I would love to see Kings Island add some of these. I swung by Guest Services with some questions and ended up investing in the meal and drink plan, which should be motivation to get up to Kings Island and some other Cedar Fair parks more this summer. I also left with a fun button, courtesy the Guest Service staff. Part 2 coming soon; any comments and questions appreciated!

Hello, all. Long-time coaster enthusiast, but a first-time visitor to KI. As much a we tried to get our visit to be a weekday, our schedule has only allowed it to be this coming Saturday (6/18). We're trying to avoid buying Fast Lane if at all possible. I've been looking over the wait time data available on thrill-data.com and using that to plan out at least the first few hours of our day. I figure if we can knock out the coasters with the longest historical wait times early in the day, it'll help us in our hopes to get at least one ride in on every coaster in the park. So with that being said, how does this sound to the KI regulars for a gameplan? Tickets are already purchased, we'll plan on arriving at the gate at least 30 minutes before opening. (Does it need to be earlier?) We'll then hit the following in as rapid-fire as possible: -Flight of Fear -Orion -Beast -Mystic Timbers -Diamondback -Stunt Coaster -Invertigo It's a toss-up as to whether we will plan to find a place to watch the fireworks, but if anyone can suggest good areas to grab a viewing spot, it'd be appreciated. Thanks all! -Rob

It has not. They’ve cleared up, and tagged a lot of the trees for removal.

No apologies needed, I really enjoyed reading your TR. I am one of those people that is not a fan of the grey out on i305. Got and other parks planned for this year?

Didn’t see the lightning outside, but the amount of lightning bolt icons on the weather map (on the news station I was watching) was insane!

Wasn't the lightning crazy? A lot of action in a short period.

The park's closed early three times this season? Didn't know that! I can hear the fireworks from where I live, and I figured they were doing them early due to all the storms that have been happening (I'm guessing there's not a ton of people in the park right now, though...).

There hasn’t. It was cleared in the past week.

Old soundtracks/ride spiels would be really cool, but I think the area is a nice tribute to the park as-is.

Seems lame that they are basically just cutting and pasting the Dollywood event. I wish they would let each park have more of a distinct flavor to their events. I guess its an easy way to get a proven crowd pleaser into that park with minimal development expense.