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Not technically a ride, but I'd like to mention what was removed in order for Diamondback to be built. IMO Diamondback removed more then it gave with that being the entire vibe of Rivertown. DBs construction is responsible for the removal of the TRTR plaza, old Beast plaza, the lake, Rivertown Mining buildings, and pretty much obliterated the aesthetics of Rivertown. I enjoy Diamondback, but I would gladly take back old Rivertown.

They have already announced Adventure Express will not be open.

2023 is shaping up to be another exciting year for the culinary offerings at Kings Island. This year we have a new executive chef named Joseph Perez. Click here for details. We have the new Grain and Grill on International street. Grain and Grill will offer Eastern European and Mediterranean flavors including grilled and rotisserie meats like Moroccan Chicken, Glazed Pork Shoulder, Shrimp Skewers, and fresh seasonal sides. Then, announced last year the old Hanks will become Enrique’s. Click here for details. Over the past 10 years Kings Island has put a lot of effort into increasing the quality and variety of food choices at the park. KICentral is excited to hear what its members experience and feel about the food offerings at Kings Island this year. We will use this thread to keep each other up to date on new offerings and reviews of your culinary experiences at Kings Island. Don't forget to include those sweet treat reviews as well.

What should be done with Tomb Raider Building? 1. Put in a launch dark coaster similar to Outer Limits 2. Put In a ride similar to disneys soarin and flight of the avatar 3. Tear it down 4. Other My vote would be number 2. It has the space to be something really cool like Soarin and Flight of the Avatar in disney. Love to hear your thoughts! Come on Kings Island that queue is too cool to waste!

Do you ever have a caricature done of yourself or someone in your family? - Yes, ex-wife so I can ... Have your name made out of wood at the wood shop? - I once made out near the wood shop. Do you ever play games in the arcade? - No, but my daughter always. Have an antique photo done? - In a former life. Ride the Zephyr? - Yes, the ride is hugely underrated.

Maybe they could even put in another Coke Free-style building in that area? Just a thought since the one by the train is so small and hardly open.

The casting was great, the film wasn’t. Matthew Lillard IS Shaggy.

Or give it a KCL Engineering light package like the one at Fun Spot in Orlando

Also, could we give Skyflyer its original lighting package back? Anyone who went to the park when it was new knows what I'm talking about.

I think we’re going to see some downsizing in Action Zone in the future. Regarding Congo Falls and Invertigo, I don’t think there will be enough ridership in the coming years to justify operating, maintaining, and staffing the two rides. Could they replace them with a new ride? Sure, in fact they could consolidate the staffing from the two current rides into one new attraction. The green area in the edit above obviously represents Congo Falls and Invertigo. They can put a new ride in the green space I provided but make the entry plaza right at the edge of the green space. This would also make the attractions in the area seem closer together. Even though Invertigo isn’t far from other Action Zone attractions, it sure feels off the beaten path, and not in a fun way like The Bat is. It’s hard to explain.

Hi everyone. I used to make Wire names on International Street (German shop) in 1988 to about 1992. Was wondering if anyone had any old photos from their experience with me or at our other shop named King Neptune's Pearls at the time.

I actually wouldn't mind a looping ship or a Larson Looper either.

Screamin' Swing: Mom will literally freak out with joy if Kings Island got it. And knowing that Sea World got the record from Cedar Point, I could see that Kings Island will take back it's record for Cedar Fair by making the structure 150 ft. Top Scan (or Ventura): Interesting choice. I think we might see a Ventura in Kings Island since it has more compacity. I was thinking that the theme of this ride is like what we saw in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Halloween theme. Don't you agree? Suspended Top spin: Yea no...

For Action Zone, I'll take one of these... ...or one of these... ...or another attempt at one of thsese.

That's honestly my thought and why I kept Invertigo. I have the Invertigo/parking lot woods/front gate plot as "part 2" of that expansion.

I think everyone always assumes that Action Zone is not going to be touched until a new coaster is added. I would love a complete retheme of the area with new flat rides in the style of Aeronautica Landing at Carowinds even if a new coaster is not added. Down the line, a new coaster could be added as a “part 2” of the new area.

Came up with an idea for an Action Zone retheme based around the Haunted themes of Banshee and Bat. New rides include: S&S scream n swing, Zamperla NebulaZ, WindstarZ, and Air Race. Chicken Shack becomes a new restaurant like KD's Outpost Cafe that serves similar food like prime rib, shrimp, along with hand breaded chicken tenders to make up for the loss of chicken shack. Coaster Connection becomes a bar and the gift shop moves under Banshee's station where the old gift shop was. Ice Scream Zone gets demolished and becomes a Coke freestyle stand. Not listed, but Drop Tower and Invertigo get rethemed to match the area. Ride removals for this are obviously Congo Falls and Xtreme Skyflyer. The area would also feature some interactive stuff and more seating with some sort of sculpture somewhere like Aeronautica Landing got. I didn't include where it would go though.

Yeah, I think Aeronautica Landing is gonna blow right past this mini “retheme” but hopefully that project is a sign of the type of things they have planned for all parks in the coming years.

After seeing pictures from Carowinds’ Aeronautica Landing Media Day, I am really impressed. The whole area honestly looks way better than the concept art. Adventure Port at Kings Island is a much smaller area, and I hope it at least lives up to the concept art. I fear that it’s theming is going to be minimal like Area 72, but I really want to be wrong.

Disney does it all the time. I agree stamped and colored concrete would be better than pavers.

Stained concrete might be much more thematically appropriate. Especially if it's textured ( I don't know the feasibility of textured hardscape in a high traffic area as it would be difficult to clean).

Feels like a huge missed opportunity by not doing pavers tbh. I think the area would've looked a lot better with pavers.

Yes, they are working very hard and it looks like we have some good weather days coming up. Here's to hoping the paths can be open!

Pouring lots of concrete on the webcams. Trying not to read too much into it, as there is a lot we can't see, but it looks like the pathways may be finished by opening day!

From my reading of the concert art and the clearing seen during Winterfest, AP will extend over to the other side of the pathway near Delirium. So the pathway in front of Festhaus would be closed probably close to the drink stand. The pathway between Action Zone and Coney Mall is actually adventure port and would be a major closure to traffic flow. As far as the path from tower garden to Coney Mall, the concept art showed it starting at the airbrush building and that's confirmed by the webcam view. It appears they have put in new, colored pavement close to the restroom so they might have a half path finished. Loosing these important days so close to opening has to be devastating to timelines. I'm hoping they have hardscape complete by opening day. Softscape is usually behind at opening. I guess we will find out in a few days!

I agree, even with a good ride in there the big box feels out of place. I think the queue structure is fine to stay but tear down the large box and put in a thrilling flat like a Screamin' Swing (preferred option) or a water ride. Retheme the queue structure to a mine and it will fit the area fine. I also agree about keeping buildings along a midway there solely for a haunt, but FX theatre I'm not that worried about. It is pretty well hidden away by The Racer and is only really visible while riding it. Ones like Killmart right along the Coney midway or Madame Fatale's building are the bigger issue to me since they are in clear view just walking around. I feel they are likely kept for budget reasons overall. Not just as far as being able to leave a maze set up for Haunt but it also costs money to tear it down, and they would need to spend more money on something to fill the spot (new attraction or landscaping). So they probably view it as a cost cutting measure to just leave the buildings standing until they are absolutely ready to do something with that spot.

If AP path is closed, Action Zone can still have both paths (in front of and behind Festhaus) and it’s no more of a dead end than it always is, and the restroom and coney entrance are far enough to the right that if need be, the path could be open with the area to the left that is actually AP closed. I hope that area is closed so people aren’t walking through a half finished construction zone.

Well back to topic at hand, did they pour concrete in the pathway or is that a base partly for bricks?

Personally based on that I have a hard time calling the ride in 1972 which was moved from Coney the same ride as what was installed in 1924. It sounds like the ride was on at a minimum the 3rd set of cars and the second building. It sounds different then what happened in 1986 at Kings Island, but likely by the time it moved in 1972 nothing of the original ride remained.

Here are all the times that the ride is mentioned in the Cincinnati's Coney Island book: Page 46, 1922: "Coney got a bumper car ride called the Dodgem. It was owned by A. H. Light of Cincinnati. John A. Miller of Miller and Baker designed and built a new dome-shaped building for the ride." Page 114, 1947: "Postwar model Dodgem cars were purchased." Page 130 and 143, section "1948 to 1961": Photos of ride cars on both pages that show one-person vehicles. The cars have the same bodies in the two photos, but detailing on the front is different - uncertain if they're different cars, or just updated. Page 165, 1962ish: "The wooden building that had housed the Whip, Cuddle Up, and Dodgem was torn down and replaced with a new steel one." (Note this implies the pre-1960s Dodgem building isn't the same as the dome-shaped 1922 one) Page 182, 1967: "New cars were purchased for the Dodgem."

I'd love to see a quality dark ride in there if they could also theme the outside of the building so it doesn't look like a giant box. Although, honestly, the worst thing is just walking past the sealed-up TR/Crypt entrance, which is just a constant reminder of the vacant real estate. And I think a previous poster is right -- I don't know that the building can host much more than what it had before without major renovations. I say just tear it down. Put up a nice little log flume/water ride there to harken back to the days of KCKC and reinvigorate the Rivertown feels. Also agree that something needs to be done with FX Theater. Just tear that one out. I know they're keeping a lot of these places for Haunts. Maybe it's just my perspective as a non-Haunts person, but it always looks a bit trashy just to keep a building standing so they can use it for one month in the fall.

It just kinda sucks that at this time there are at least three major spots that could use some love-the old TR:TR building, Vortex plot and the FX Theater. Hopefully some life will be breathed into them soon. A new dark ride experience would definitely be awesome, but I am also fine with them tearing it down if it makes way for something else instead of the empty box/sad entry way of what once was.

Enhancing Rivertown...

If the launch water coaster is a success at Six Flags, this would be the perfect plot.

I still think a water ride would go nicely in that patch of grass next to Diamondback’s second hill. That would still allow the park to put something new where the building is and fill in some of that open land without having to tear into the woods.

Also the park has moved on from it's show building aesthetics back when it was Paramount. Other than Diamondback, each new attraction has made it's corresponding area beautiful without many ugly sightlines. That building has DB right over the entrance to the cave, plus I think having it removed would allow WWC entrance to have some air to breathe and most importantly, open up the area for expansion.

Even though I love and miss with a passion TRTR, it's time to pull that bandaid and just remove it. But... At the same time KI is in DESPERATE need of a thrilling dark ride and the building is there. KI is lacking in the inversion department right now, only 3 coasters in the park have inversions so I'd love to see a thrill ride that includes inversions.

To future dark rides at KI

This in the bottom page. https://darkridedatabase.com/madhouses-iii-that-is-illusion/

What is dark ride data base? You have to site a source with these claims.

Dark Ride Data Base did talk to Vekoma about the future of the Madhouse. They confirmed that another one is being built in a theme park. It's either Kings Island or Legoland California will get there's.

TAER IT DOWN! ... and put an S&S Screamin' Swing in it's place.

If you're ever wanting to go somewhere like this, Arcade Legacy in Sharonville is incredible. $10 for unlimited play.

2, if not 3. Think a Soarin’ type simulator would be great fun for family’s and be another attraction to do when it’s raining and add to Winterfest. if they do tear it down, I hope they keep the queue. Have always thought it could work well rethemed as a mine leading up to either an indoor attraction or a major outdoor flat like a Screamin’ Swing.

Should we tell him? Dave 'n' Busters: "Wait."

I'm talking about a REAL arcade, perhaps even a bar/arcade. I'm thinking something straight out of the 90s on steroids.

You want to do that, just add jungle/forest theming to the Rivertown arcade and there you go.

Welcome to KIC! Being that you are new here, make sure you check and see if this is being discussed elsewhere. By all means, feel free to add to the discussion there. There are some great members here and the mods are top notch. As far as what to do with the old Crypt building, I would personally like to see a dark ride go in there, but I don't really think it's large enough for something like Flight of Fear. I do, however, wonder if something similar to Laff Track at Hersheypark could fit.

Already discussed. Also there is my Theory in that building.

The Bat is fine. Why is everyone trying to get rid of it?