Rivertown Rider

I am kind of fuzzy on the exact years I went as a little kid, but I believe this will be my 24th year. I haven't missed a year since 2007.

^ Thanks Liz.

Quick question. When I did the second step of the registration it let me submit the registration but it didn't send me an e-mail confirmation. Is that normal and if so do I just need my tickets/pass and coaster club membership when I show up at the park?

I regret not going to the park from 2004 until 2007. I didn't really have anybody to go to the park with and if I had it to do over again I would have went by myself. I missed chances to go on SOB and TRTR more. While I did get the chance to ride SOB several times in its various incarnation, I only got to do TR once. I didn't truly appreciate how special TRTR was until later on. Since 2007, I haven't missed a year and last year I went more times than I had ever been because I finally went by myself. My wife goes with me most of the time but she is not really a rider so I went several times last year by myself and found it to be better than I had anticipated. I also regret never riding Screechin' Eagle at Americana. I almost did in the late 90s but the park was closed the day me and a friend were going to go and then we all know what ended up happening with the park.

I would like to see it start over by where SOB's station was and go behind Racer and Xbase.

I just bought my tickets to Coasterstock. This will be my first year attending so I'm looking forward to it.

^ Good idea. Welcome to KIC.

Looks like a lot of fun. That would fit in nicely at Coney or Strickers. Maybe there will be a much bigger version come to KI someday.

With CP moving Ripcord to a different location it got me to thinking. What Kings Island ride/attraction would you re-locate to another area within the park? Mine would be moving Congo Falls over to the Rivertown area that way all of the water rides were close together.

I think they are still good rides but as mentioned most parks already have flumes and rapids rides. I would be pleased if KI added a Mack ride like "River Battle" at Dollywood. One advantage that KI has is that 2/3rds of their water rides are relatively close to the water park so you can go to the wet park, ride the train, ride WWC and RFYLCB and not have to worry about wearing soggy pants all day. Now if they would just move Congo Falls to that side of the park...

^ I agree it looks like the entrance closest to the train station is the Fast Lane line and the other closest to the log flume would be for regular guests. It looks like a pretty long queue but you can see plenty of ways for them to shorten the line if need be. I zoomed in on the station area and you can where the rows line up so I think that you are exiting down the steps by the handicap ramp.

I get more excited the more pics I see. Thanks Don for posting more. One thing I do think from the diagrams from earlier showing the entrance/exit is if the "speckled" area after the station is in back a handicapped ramp to and from the train station platform. The small square at the train station must where the photo pickup is. I am surprised that they are not having a Mystic Timbers store.

Memories of spending time riding with my dad, my wife, and friends from when I was younger. Of course, also riding coasters and rides as they give you a brief escape from the "real world."

I hope that Kings Island decorates everything that will be accessible during Winterfest. I too hope they take a page from Dollywood and the Zoo. If they don't go all out, I think it will really hurt their chances of continuing the event.

When you are driving home and it is so dark you think of how great it would be for a Beast night ride.

Thanks for sharing. It is great to see some updated pics of the construction.

I should be down to Dollywood at least a couple times. I'm also hoping to go to Canada's Wonderland and stop by Waldameer. I also hope to get to either Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom.

As long as Kings Island keeps maintaining them well, they'll last a long time.

When I was there in November, the first night they were running two trains and later that week on a much busier day they were only at one train operation so I would say that is accurate about the faults. Hopefully they get it figured out.

Great trip report and pix. It was nice seeing pictures of the parade as it wasn't yet open when I was there in November. Sorry you didn't get a chance to ride Lightning Rod. It really is a great ride but so unreliable. Hopefully they figure out before next season what is causing all of the issues (my thoughts are it has to do with the train itself and the launch) so that it will be open reliably. The way it is going it is pretty much what KI dealt with in Son of Beast. Obviously different situations but still black eyes for their respective parks. When people have been there multiple times and it is not open is pretty ridiculous. You said that you had been down there four different and I have been down three different trips and only found it open when I was there in November.

I would agree with starting with POVs so that your first friend can get an idea of what to expect. Once at the park, I would say start with Racer or Adventure Express and then if he enjoys it then keep building up from there. All of us started somewhere. When I first got into coasters I didn't ride the upside down rides but then fell in love with the then Outer Limits now Flight of Fear and have enjoyed going upside down ever since. If your first friend hasn't ever ridden anything they are probably not going to try everything the first time but there is plenty that they can do in the park even if they don't enjoy the coasters. For the second friend it really depends upon how big they are. I think that Banshee is the most restrictive of the coasters and I would certainly recommend they try the test seats for Banshee and Diamondback before lining up in the queue. Some of the rides like Vortex and The Bat and Adventure Express are not as restrictive whereas Racer is sometimes a tighter fit because of the way the seats are. Even if they can't ride the coasters there are a lot of other things they can do though.

When you get excited going past KI on the way to family Christmas.

I agree AE is fine as it is. A brand new RMC elsewhere in the park would be great though.

Thanks MantisMan for the stats. To rcwizard13, I think Banshee was a great addition to the park. I think that Banshee has the best ops in the park which is part of the reason for low wait times as well. I think it certainly is a popular ride. As for Wild Eagle for a park that only has 7 coasters, I would expect longer wait times than they have. Their ops do a good job with dispatches so perhaps it is a much more popular ride than it appears. I would certainly be fine with having a wing rider in the park as they are nice rides and I think the Xbase area would be a good place for one.

The thing I have noticed at Dollywood is that Wild Eagle never has a line. Part of that is ops but it is strange that the ride never even on busy days has more than a 15-20 minute wait. I think many people ride it once and don't have to ride it again. I don't know how popular Gatekeeper and Thunderbird are at their respective parks but I don't think a wing coaster would really move the needle at KI. If you are going to spend that much on a coaster you need it to move the turnstiles.