Klabergian Empire

@TombRaiderFTW You're forgetting one last one: "Orion isn't a real giga coaster. Its only 287ft tall with a 300ft drop, which is bare minimum"

My friends and I got some massive spins on the Kerosene barrel yesterday.

I was at the park today and it backed into the engine house after 8. When did it close last season?

Ate my dinner at Enrique's tonight. I had a steak burrito with cheese and it was very good. The steak was absolutely AMAZING!

Rode Cargo Loco and Adventure Express today: Cargo Loco is a fine addition to Kings Island and a very fun ride for pretty much anyone. Adventure Express is running better than before. The theming is very good and the operation is smooth. Overall, big thumbs up!

Im pretty sure the stairs go up to the motors that are above the elevators for ease of access for maintanace. But if for some reason they needed to get to the antenna on the very top, to my knowledge, they have to climb out from the cage around the 275 level and climb up.

When looking at the elevators from the que entrance, left elevator goes to the 265 and right goes to the 275. Both elevators can only go to their respective levels.

Sweet. Thanks!

Is it true the 275ft platform on the Eiffel Tower is open again? Last year it was barely open from what I was told was mechanical issue with that elevator. If its now open, that's great!

Barrels are now being installed on Cargo Loco. https://www.instagram.com/p/CsJRZUYubfa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I rode the red side of Racer today. In my genuine opinion, Red racer is now BUTTER SMOOTH for a wooden coaster. I would even go as far as to argue that this will be the best Racer has ridden ever since it was built in 1972. Period.

Love to see all the hard work going on to gear up for the 2023 season! Can't wait for Opening Day!

Looking at the cam rn, the trains are out

I like how the focus is now on a roof. Because, ya know, everybody's pulling up for the Adventure Port roof

This is similar to what Kings Dominion does during the colder months of the year. I personally don't think its a good idea (for Kings Island) because Kings Island (I would argue) gets hit more by winter weather than Kings Dominion and would thus be closed more assuming the "Winter Weekends" took place during an active winter season. Furthermore, because of climate, Kings Dominion's market for such an event is better. In other words, I don't think that it would be worth Kings Islands money and energy to do "Winter Weekends".

I can see it now... The Coke Coaster. Featuring the regular Coke train, Diet Coke train, and the Caffeine Free Diet Coke train.

All Season Dining?! For a bathroom?! What kind of an upgrade is this??!!

Didn't notice until now, but it looks like the area behind Racer's que as also been scratched up a bit. Probably just for cosmetics...unless... This can only mean Adventure Port Strata Coaster for 2024...

Man, seeing the pics of the Cedar Fair scrolling sign with the closed rides.....takes me back to simpler days. Thank you @TOPGUN1993 for the pics! Also, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure its not there anymore. Right?

They were literally closing for a winter storm that became a blizzard! This isn't like closing because of a few rain showers...Like I said earlier, winter weather impact is a whole different animal than summer weather impact. And yeah sure, sometimes Kings Island has closed when there is foul weather and then shortly after it closes the weather fine again. But in this particular circumstance, closing early was the right call because it would be unsafe for guests AND KI personnel to working and/or traveling home in winter storm conditions.

Dude's got the whole collection...

I can't wait to see Adventure Port and the 2 new rides! Not to mention the refurbished theming for Adventure Express...

Kings Island specifically said they were closing early on the 22nd because of the winter storm. I live really close to Kings Island and the storm started around 8:30~9:00pm. Granted it started out as rain but the temperature dropped pretty fast and rain became snow. Kings Island closing early was done from a safety standpoint and not from a business standpoint. Assuming Kings Island stayed open 'till 10pm would mean that people would be having to exit the park and the parking lot in poor and potentially slick conditions. Winter weather impact is a whole different animal from summer weather impact. Heck, there's even been times during the regular season in the middle of the summer where KI closed early because of an approaching severe storm. The park staying open 'till 10pm would have just plainly been unsafe for both visitors AND KI personnel. Keep in mind, lots of KI personnel don't actually leave the park right when it closes. A good chunk of employees leave around 11pm after shutting things down and security sweeps are done. They would be driving home in very hazardous road conditions if KI closed at 10pm. Kings Island made the right call by closing early. Period. Lastly, to argue that Kings Island closed early because of business reasons, such as cutting costs, is wrong. Sure, you could make the argument that they could save money by closing earlier or say that they weren't going to make much money staying open at the beginning of the winter storm or whatever. Kings Island pulls millions of guests every year and with that millions of dollars in revenue. And considering this on top of how much Cedar Fair has invested into the park, to argue that they wanted to "cut costs" is crazy.

Makes sense. Nobody's gonna wanna be out in that kind of weather. To give you an idea how bad its gonna get, wind chill for 7am Friday morning is supposed to feel like -27 degrees.

Another point to consider. Amusement parks have to make so much money per square acre (essentially) in order to not just be profitable, but also stay in business. A big factor that contributes to rides coming/leaving is ridership. High ridership means that, more or less, the park is selling more in tickets and/or passes and it can afford to maintain and operate the ride, which also means more money for the park. Therefore, it doesn't make a whole 'lotta sense to keep a ride around with pretty low ridership, because then that would mean that the park would be paying more to run/maintain and operate the ride than the ride is pulling in riders and revenue. With this in mind, park expansions, for the most part, only make sense if it benefits the park business-wise. With Kings Island creating Adventure Port and adding two new flat rides, the park is essentially taking a gamble. Betting that the money spent on the cost of the rides, construction and other work needed to be done for Adventure Port, and the cost of maintaining and operating the rides will be balanced if not outweighed by their profits for the 2023 season. Granted, I think we all agree that this is a pretty small gamble and that this isn't gonna cause Kings Island any issues. But I think the golden rule for park expansions is the larger the expansion, the larger the business gamble you take.