Pagoda Gift Shop

They also did not extend their season passes to apply thru 2021. At least for now, they are planning on offering season pass holders additional benefits in terms of free tickets and cash to be used in the park. Source: https://www.holidayworld.com/update/

Question 1: No, I don't think so. Question 2: Maybe. What if they cut staff by 50%? Half of the rides would be closed. There would be no shows. No indoor food locations would be open. There would likely be a daily attendance "cap" number which is coordinated with the state before opening. Once this number is reached, no one else would be admitted. Queues for everything would need to be adjusted to leave distance between guests waiting in line. There would be no usage of the group picnic shelters. To ride Orion would likely take many hours of waiting since they would likely only be loading trains at half capacity. Even with all that, I'm not sure it would be profitable. There is also the negative PR aspect of many of these things to consider. Who wants to pay full price for a significantly downgraded experience?

I think Kings Island wins this category by a long shot. The Bat and Son of Beast alone are enough. My guess for a runner up would be Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Drachen Fire was a huge failure, and people loved Big Bad Wolf.

I wonder why they decided to paint the supports tan instead of brown.

Monster is (and probably always will be) an underrated ride. I never knew they painted the ground in all those colors. As for the time it was "missing", could the answer be similar to how Shake, Rattle, and Roll went missing for refurbishment? It is not uncommon that flat rides are stripped completely down to nothing every few off-seasons.

The Beast looks so weird on the new map. Because they have "squeezed" the former Vortex area which contains nothing, Beast looks like it is almost behind the Eiffel Tower.

I'm willing to bet that the track work on The Beast is all normal off-season maintenance. People don't realize how much work and replacement is done on a normal basis.

I choose to be patient and see how things play out in the current unprecedented situation. No current Kings Island pass holder has lost any "benefit" so far, and won't until after April 9th.

Don and Chad were stuck at the Charlotte airport tonight. Glad to see that spent some of that time entertaining the Twitter crowd.

Is it fair to say that the current Action Zone looks better than any previous version? It seems like it is better than those 90's and 00's years mentioned, but I'm curious how it compares to the original Adventure Village years.

With what the park appears to be doing to try to appease the neighbors, I'm surprised Diamondback is even part of the Coasterstock evening ERT. It would not surprise me if they set a policy where Diamondback closed at 10pm every day.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see an option for whether to opt in or out of having stuff sent to you. I kind of assume that this year they will just be mailing everything, which is part of why the price increased.

I always thought the snake name was appropriate for King Cobra because I thought it "rattled" its way around the track. I would not describe it as rough, but it had a lot of vibration and shakiness when I rode it, mostly in '98 and '99. The air time on the bunny hills was fantastic. It was not a great ride, but it was not a bad ride either.

It's just a guess, but I bet a lot of out of state people are a big part of the quick sell out. I can see a lot of coaster enthusiasts around the country (and world) wanting to ride Orion this year, and this event is a great venue for that.

I have shown up late to Coasterstock almost every year. It used to be that showing up late meant a faster check-in because there was no line at group sales to check in. Then a couple years ago they switched to allowing you to get things sent to you ahead of time, which I have done since then. Note that there is a extra charge to have it sent to you (I think it was like $10). Either way, it should not be a problem as long as you are not showing up during the evening ERT when guest services is likely closed.

I'll also add that I'm impressed with how detailed the itinerary is already. I seem to recall that in past years there was not many details available when tickets first went on sale.

The itinerary is more evidence that Kings Island is taking the noise complaints seriously and doing something about it. No Orion at night and Diamondback ERT is listed as ending at 11:30pm

Looking forward to it! Keep us posted.

Mike Koontz shared at Coasterstock 2018 that he had submitted a capital expenditure plan for a Gigacoaster. That lines up with the later 2018 decision to use the former Firehawk site, likely after board approval for a 2020 opening. I would suspect that all the GMs submit plans to the Cedar Fair board regarding spending plans, etc. The board would then ultimately decide how much will be spent, and "who gets what".

Banshee's media day was not like other media days though. The enthusiasts were given one lanyard type, while the real media were given another. It is more typical that everyone is pretty much treated the same when there is not so large of a crowd.

I have posted in the past in other threads asking why ACE has seemed to get preferential treatment at Kings Island. The answer is as others have said, Kings Island has had a more personal relationship with ACE than other clubs. I joined ACE this past year and have yet to be disappointed. Before ACE, I was a member of Coasterbuzz for around 15 years. I have nothing bad to say about Coasterbuzz (or Coaster Crew or GOCC), but ACE definitely feels bigger and more national in terms of events, news, etc. I did see on Twitter there was some discussion/rumor of whether Kings Island would need to "cap" the number of ACE members who could attend media day (potentially using some sort of first come, first serve registration). To me this seems a bit crazy considering how many were invited to Banshee's media day from multiple clubs, as well as the prerequisite of being an ACE member before the invite was announced.

Seems like Media Day/Charity Auction day for Orion will be on Thursday April 9th.

It does seem convenient that the article failed to mention things like this where the park has clearly made effort. I believe it was Adam House of GCI who said they reached out to local residents regarding Mystic Timbers design.

Do you consider vending machines interesting?