McSalsa

In addition to the SOB Logo and stuff popping up around there, in the Mystic Timbers station, if you look above the ride's exit there is a sign that says "Outpost 5" and another that says "Shipping and Receiving". So, uhh, Mystic Timbers is Outpost 5 now? It is a neat easter egg, which is pretty much all I can assume it is at this point, and it does pay homage to Son of Beast and Adventure Express. I like it. Also, at the Son of Beast eternal flame near Banshee, I dunno if I just noticed this on my visit yesterday or if it is actually new, but there is some broken wood that looks like wood coaster supports with flowers placed at the base of the tombstone, like something people would put on their deceased families graves IRL.

Hi everyone! Well, after having to go to Holiday World instead last month due to bad weather, we were finally able to go back to Kings Island again last Sunday. Before we get into the meat of this Trip Report, as usual, the ride (and food/show) rating system: F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Epic. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however.  Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. We missed a exit on the way to KI (I noticed but didn't realize our driver didn't until it was too late), so we arrived around 9:45AM, thus we kinda missed ERT. We decided we would just line up and go to X-Base to begin the day. Firehawk was still doing morning testing and wasn't ready to open, so for our first ride, we did the other major coaster in X-Base. Ride #1: Flight of Fear Wait: 1 Train (>5 Minutes) As we did not get to ride this on in June, this was my first ride on FOF since April. We rode in the very back car, as that seat had no wait. It felt like your typical FOF ride: a little rough, very forceful, and fun. Being in the back kinda made it feel a bit slower though since you could see the elements coming by looking at the cars ahead of you on the train, so the 2nd half of the ride was a bit more predictable. Still a solid ride though, and a nice way to start the day. Rating: B After FOF, Firehawk had finished testing and had opened, so we headed to that next. Ride #2: Firehawk Wait: 1 Train (>5 Minutes) I love getting to X-Base early when there are no waits. It has been a while since I had last ridden Firehawk, as this was my first ride in 2018. I had forgotten how loose the restraints feel, it is actually a bit unnerving. The ride was still fun though, the loop may be the best loop in the park due to the flying coaster nature and I didn't realize how close you get to some of the trees near the ride. A fun ride. Rating: C While riding Firehawk, I saw Vortex running either empty or near-empty trains, and wanted to go ride that since I had to miss it due to a hurt shoulder last time. My friends/sister went off to smoke, and I rode Vortex. Ride #3: Vortex Wait: 1 Train (>5 Minutes) I decided I wanted maximum airtime, so 7-1 it was. And I got what I wanted- first drop had some nice air. The ride, for Vortex standards, was pretty smooth but there was a slight wobble on the drop into the 2 loops. I did not get headbanged at all, though I realize this is probably because my head goes well above the restraints, and my neck has a good 3-4 inches or so on each side to move before it bumps them. As usual the ride had nice forces and fun inversions. A fun ride overall. Rating: B While climbing Vortex's lift, I noticed Beast had a very short, if any, wait. I returned to my friends and we discussed it, and decided to head that way since waits were apparently short around the park. Before Beast, however, we decided to ride... Ride #4: Backlot Stunt Coaster Wait: 5-10 Minutes There was a short wait for BLSC, but nothing enough to deter us from riding it. We boarded, and got another fun ride on the small-but-spunky coaster. All the remaining effects seemed to be working too. It did feel like it was running a wee bit slow due to it being early morning still, though. Also, on exit, I noticed the audio for the exit has been edited- there is a gap when he says "Enjoy the rest of your day at...Kings Island!" Hmm, wonder what was cut out. Rating: C After BLSC, it was onto the park's 1979 wooden monster. Ride #5: The Beast Wait: 20-25 Minutes The wait should have been like 5-10 minutes tops, but there was a barf train, so we had to wait more. However soon after that train was cleaned up, we waited a few cyles and were on. We rode in the very back car since I had a good experience with it last time (it was a back wheel seat ride in the 2nd car that hurt my shoulder, not the rear car). The ride was good fun, but it wasn't quite running at the blazing speeds it was back in June, even though it was kinda hot already. Plus I had ridden Voyage a few weeks ago, and Beast is not very crazy at all compared to that, save for the helix. Still a very fun ride though. Rating: A After The Beast, we headed further into Rivertown. I had heard Mystic Timbers was down to 2 trains, but I did a quick visual check and found all 3 were running now, so whatever had been the problem was fixed. We found the wait didn't look too bad either, so Mystic was our next ride. Ride #6: Mystic Timbers Wait: 15-20 Minutes The line had a decent amount of people in it, but it moved pretty fast too since the dispatches were frequent. We arrived at the station, and I saw a sign above the ride exit: "Outpost 5". LOL, apparently Outpost 5 has been moved to Mystic Timbers. We were assigned row 11, near the very back of the train (this was becoming a theme for me). We could barely hear the security guard going up the lift from this seat, but it didn't matter much because this seat gave lots of airtime on every hill, more than I have become used to on Mystic Timbers. We went into the shed, and got the snakes ending. Oddly, no music played, though. WHO BROKE THE RADIO!?!? Rating: A The snakes ending on MT was fitting, as we were trying to get our friend who is overcoming his fear of big coasters to try Diamondback. Apparently Mystic Timbers agreed with us by giving us that ending. He survived Voyage, we figured he could handle DB if he could get over the height, and he did do Magnum XL-200 which isn't too much shorter. We got him to cave, and thus, we got in line for Diamondback. Ride #7: Diamondback Wait: 10-15 Minutes The ride crew was doing a good job dispatching trains, so the line moved fast. We rode around the middle of the train, got seated, and climbed 230 feet into the air. Solid floater air on a lot of the drops, and a very fun ride. But did our friend like it? Yes. He loved it actually, and wanted us to come back to this coaster later! We would try to do just that. We are proud of him. Rating: A After Diamondback, we headed onto I-Street, planning to go to our car to begin waterpark adventures. But we got distratced, as we saw the Stunt Show begin. We did not see the entire show but the Motorcycle part was very cool. We were a little hungry/thirsty, so we went into... Food: Starbucks Wait: 10 Minutes (for food- it was empty) My sister got herself some coffee and a banana bread for me and her to split. However they at first forgot our bread, but they gave her a free lemon bread to make up for it. That was nice of them! It was pretty good, too. Rating: B Ride #8: The Bat Wait: 5 Minutes The wait was not very bad at all, which I have come to expect from this ride. The Bat was running pretty well, a little rough but it also had some weak airtime at points, which surprised me. Alas, the ride was also as usual pretty short. Fun though. Rating: B After The Bat, we headed up the path, and decided to do Banshee since we were in the area. Ride #9: Banshee Wait: 10-15 Minutes Our friend may be overcoming his fear of coasters, but he cannot do inversions, they make him sick, so he saved us locker money here (and at Firehawk/FOF, so we only need lockers at Mystic Timbers). This was the typical fast, forceful ride I have come to expect from Banshee. My friends keep thinking it is faster every time for some reason though, I guess they forget how fast it truly is. Also, saw the former gift shop turned into claw machines. Ugh, that is kinda sad, even if that gift shop was not selling much merch. Rating: A After Banshee, we decided to stop in Chicken Shack to get some sodas, but we were also hungry so we caved and got some food. Food: Chicken Shack Wait: 5-10 Minutes (for food to arrive) My sister and I decided to split a Chicken Wrap, since it looked share-able. It was huge, so yeah, 100% share-able. And wow, it was delicious! Probably a challenger for one of the best tasting food items I have eaten at an amusement park (it's main rival would be the Pulled Pork BBQ Fries at Cedar Point near Steel Vengeance). The chicken was 100% white meat and cooked well, and the lettuce and veggies were fresh. It also had bacon bites in it, which is almost always a plus IMO. And it recharged me, I was feeling a bit drained before I ate it but after, I was energized! Rating: S After eating that delicious and amazing food, we headed out to our car and grabbed our waterpark stuff, and headed back into the park, since we wanted to take the train. On the way, I saw a rare sight: THE TRAIN Coke FREESTYLE WAS OPEN! I should have took a picture for proof. It was closed when we returned, though. Ride #10 (Part 1): Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: Walk-On (Train was right there as we showed up!) We boarded the Green Train, and set off for Soak City. Diamondback dropped as soon as we began to leave, so we got to see it run its entire course, which was cool. When we got near all the fake stores/houses and stuff, the train ride op pointed out one of the most amazing things I have ever seen at Kings Island: there was a freakin' deer! It was a young deer, looked almost full grown in size but had its young markings still, so I assume it was a teenager. It wasn't far from the train, either, so we all got a good look at it. Before this I have ever only seen a wild deer ONCE, and it was from far away. So for me, this was very cool. A few minutes later, we arrived at Soak City and departed. Rating: B We arrived at the waterpark and changed into our swimsuits, and then headed to the wave pools. Ironically, the older one had a big crowd in it, so we headed to the new one, which had less crowds because it was further away. Ride #11: Tidal Wave Bay Wait: None Because Wave Pool Ahh! Since it was pretty hot- over 90 degrees- this wave pool felt very good to relax and chill in for a while. In fact, I lost track of time- we ended up staying in or around it for a whole hour. It cooled me off well though, so it did its job. Rating: B After a whole hour of Wave Pool, we exited and got some drinks, my friends and sister smoked for a bit, and then we hit up the "Lazy" River. Also, I was looking at the park's scenery and flowers a lot this trip and will point it out here- they did a GREAT job on that this season, there was a lot of sections of the park that look very pretty. Ride #12: Splash River Wait: 2-3 Minutes Much like at Holiday World a few weeks ago, the waterpark was so crowded even the Lazy River had a wait! At least it was not a bad one at all, only a few minutes. Also my eyes were not sore this time, so I could enjoy this better. There are a LOT more water elements on this lazy river versus Holiday World's, even though I am pretty sure this river is much older. I went around twice- also, I would try to avoid the waterfall with the Soak City logo, it is pretty fierce. Another fun wet relaxing ride. Rating: B After Splash River, we toyed around with the river's interactive "soak people" features for a bit. I checked out some nearby flowers and found a big bee was having a field day with them, he was kinda fun to watch. Then my sister and friends did 2 sets of Water Slides (Pineapple Pipeline and the body slides of Tropical Plunge- I was already wet enough, I felt). In spite of only doing a few things, we ended up spending about 4 hours in the waterpark this time, and I had fun and was relaxed. However, it was time for some more roller coasters. We boarded the train again, since that would get us back to our car faster. Ride #10 (Part 2- Gotta go all the way around for it to count, LOL!): Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive) The ride op on this train gave us the "corny bad jokes" version of the train ride. Some of them were a bit funny, at least. Also we saw...MORE DEER! This time, it was a Momma and her baby. The ride op said these deer actually like the train tracks for some reason and come around quite a bit. Cool to see more deer, though. Rating: B After the RR got us back to the park, we headed out to the car, and dropped off our stuff. Then we headed back into the dry park, headed for Oktoberfest. We were gonna ride Adventure Express, but we saw no wait for... Ride #13: Viking Fury Wait: Walk-On Viking Fury was fun, but once you have ridden Skyhawk or Wicked Twister, this isn't nearly as scary as it once was. Also I should mention I could not start or do any chants, because I had caught a cold my sister had and did not realize it until a few hours before this ride, and my voice began to go out. (I took some medicine and it is coming back though now) Rating: C After Viking Fury, we hit up the ride we had come for... Ride #14: Adventure Express Wait: Walk-On I rode on a rear wheel seat, because the friend I was riding with picked it not paying attention and with my voice out I couldn't say anything. It was a bit rough, but nothing crazy, though when we connected to the first 1 lift there was a THUNK that even our friends on a non-wheel seat felt. The ride was still quite fun though, it was running at a good speed and the tunnels were very dark with the sun going down. Rating: B After AE, we headed for the last big coaster we usually ride, The Racer. Me and a friend went Red, and our sister and other friend went for Blue. We both rode in 4-2, the middle seat of the 4th car. Ride #15: Red Racer Wait: Walk-On Thank goodness we didn't sit on a wheel, because I feel this would have been a pretty rough ride from a wheel seat as it was quite bumpy. We did get a lot of airtime though. The trim brakes on the turnaround bit hard, we went around them pretty slow. We did win the race, though, and apparently Blue got no airtime and was just as bumpy if not more, so Red was the right choice. A bumpy (would have been rough if on wheel seat) but fun ride. I don't think the coaster needs a full RMC I-Box conversion based on this ride, it just needs smoothed out and the rumored re-tracking+new lighting package+restored paint job would fix a lot of its problems IMO. Rating: B After Red Racer, we headed towards Rivertown as our friend was still really wanting to ride Diamondback again, and we had time still so we figured sure, let's do it again. And that is what we did. Ride #16: Diamondback (Night) Wait: 25 Minutes We decided to ride from the very back car, since it had the best airtime. By the time we got on, it was dark out, so this was gonna be a night ride. And wow, this was probably the best ride I have ever had on Diamondback...heck, this was the best ride I have had on anything B&M! We got YANKED off the top of the lift hill, and the airtime was very strong and maintained all the way down- it was almost ejector air! And this level of strong airtime was found on seemingly every hill. Add the darkness of night and the smooth ride, and you have a truly epic ride experience. PS: Our friend is so glad we talked him into riding this, though getting yanked over the lift was a bit scary to him. Rating: S After Diamondback, we headed over and got in line for The Beast. It was around 9:30, so we knew it would probably shut down for Fireworks before we were on, and it did. We also saw a Skunk go under the bridge we were waiting on, and it had some Pizza, LOL. At 10:00 the Fireworks went off (I saw some of them but not much) and some time later, they got the all-clear to re-open. Ride #17: The Beast (Night) Wait: 1 Hour (Due to Fireworks) We rode in the last car again, but I was in the front this time, 6-1, so my sister would get a non-wheel seat. Our friend was a bit nervous on this, still, but we talked him into it. We headed out and climbed the 110 foot lift, and dropped into the tunnel that begins the epicness. Beast was hauling now, versus how it ran in the morning, and the darkness of night further added to the sense of speed. The tunnels were pitch black and really amped up the sensory experience with how LOUD they were. And then of course came the epic view of the park from the 2nd lift, and the insanity of the final helix at night. Diamondback was amazing at night, but Beast managed to beat it somehow. My sister loved the ride, but apparently she got tossed hard at some point because she got a bruise from her seat divider. Ouch, she got "The Beast Bite". She didn't even think it hurt bad until she went in a bathroom and saw it though. Rating: S After The Beast, we headed out of the park, with all other rides closed (we even saw the Mystic Timbers crew exit and leave the ride) and headed home after yet another epic day at Kings Island. This was my 4th time in 2018, a new personal record for most visits in a year. Now for the Pros/Cons of the trip: Pros +Amazing Rides. Almost everything we rode was fun. Though Beast and Diamondback at Night were the clear stars. +Great park staff. Employees were friendly and were working hard. +Beautiful scenery- there were lots of flower arrangements and the park was looking pretty good. +Clean park- did not see any trash or anything laying around in the park. +Short waits in the AM hours- granted they picked up a bit later on, but we had ridden almost everything by then! +Chicken Shack Chicken Wrap was AMAZING. +Wave Pool and Splash River were fun and helped us "Beat The Heat". Cons -Racer and Beast, while fun, could both use some re-tracking as both were kinda rough. -Big crowds especially in the Waterpark, but that is still to be expected this time of year. And that does it for another amazing Kings Island trip in 2018! This is really my best year ever at Amusement/Theme parks, and it is NOT over, as we are planning to return to Cedar Point later this month. Then you still have Haunt (looking forward to the night rides!) and Winterfest after that! Anyhow, questions and comments welcome. MCSALSA AWAY!!!

2018 UPDATE!!! NOW FEATURES Mystic Timbers!!! The Beast- 5/5 Mystic Timbers- 4.5/5 (Lots of pops of moderately strong airtime and good intensity!) Banshee- 4.5/5 Diamondback- 4.5/5 Flight of Fear- 4/5 Vortex- 3.5/5 The Bat- 3.5/5 The Racer- 3.5/5 Backlot Stunt Coaster- 3.5/5 Adventure Express- 3.5/5 Firehawk- 3/5 Woodstock Express- 3/5 (Re-rode this one in 2018, pretty good kids coaster) Surf Dog- 3/5 Invertigo- 2.5/5 Most rides drop about half a point, due to the fact I got out to Cedar Point in both late 2017 and this year and rode a TON of new rides, so I had to toughen up my ratings scale (only Beast kept a 5/5 and that's due to night rides), and Mystic Timbers has become my #2 coaster at KI after The Beast. Besides that, though, my ratings remain the same in terms of rankings. Still can't rate GPC or Flying Ace.

I cannot be 100% sure because I have only been there 1 day this year, but I was at Holiday World last Saturday and it got pretty darn packed. The waterpark (the biggest draw at HW) was wall-to-wall people in the afternoon with nearly all slides having 45 minute plus waits, and I even had to wait 5 minutes for the Lazy River. And this was with a 50% chance for rain, which may have driven some of the crowds away. And the biggest discount we could get was only $2 off gate price. Granted, after 6pm as the water park neared close the crowds dropped to much more manageable levels but at peak hours, it was packed. They seem to be doing fine, at least from what I can tell. Though this was just 1 day, and Holiday World has not released attendance numbers since Thunderbird opened. (Apparently it did not increase their attendance much or they even had a drop- I imagine KK re-opening may have had a effect on that though)

While we originally planned to go to Kings Island on July 21st, storms and the threat of heavy rain and lightning changed our plans. However, we were still hungry for a amusement park trip, and Holiday World was on our radar, and the weather there looked much better. So we changed the trip. I had not been to Holiday World since 2013, and apparently some changes had been made, mainly the addition of Thunderbird, the park's launched B&M Wing Coaster. But I have ridden many new rides since 2013: mainly Banshee, Mystic Timbers, and everything at Cedar Point. Would this affect my opinions on the coasters at Holiday World? How is the park itself doing? Is the fudge still amazing? But first, as usual- the ride rating system (which has also changed since 2013): F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Zen. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however.  Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. We arrived about 15 minutes before Holiday World was to open, and found the Raven lot pretty full. I was hoping the weather and threat for rain would make the park a ghost town, but I was wrong. We entered the park, scanned our tickets, and walked in. When the park opened at 10AM, we headed for my usual 1st ride of the day... RIDE #1: The Raven Wait: 20 Minutes Yeah, 20 minute wait for Raven at the very start of the day. Not a good sign for crowd levels. We rode in the very back car, with me and my sister on the very last seat, because no one wanted to ride there for some reason. I was confused, sure it may be rougher, but that last car I remembered having really good airtime back in 2013, so I thought someone would realize this and take it. But no one did, so we took it. Thankfully, the ride wasn't too rough- it was bumpy but nothing worse than Blue Streak or Racer. There was great airtime on the 1st drop and 5th drop, but not much anywhere else (though it was not Magnum XL200 or Steel Vengeance crazy levels). Rushing over the lake and the turns in the woods were still fun though, but the ride is short and ends rather quickly. A fun ride and a good start to the day. Rating: B As Raven pulled into the final brakes, I looked over at Legend and it was down. We went over and saw it do a test run, but the ride ops said it was down for the day. Agh! I wanted to ride Legend to see if GCI's 2016 refurb had made it better or worse! We went over to ride Liberty Launch, but it ALSO BROKE DOWN. We stopped in to the Fudge gift shop, and we saw Santa and had a nice chat with him. He said Legend had become the smoothest of the 3 woodies since GCI worked on it, and also we found out Mrs. Claus loves Diamondback. After that, we headed down to see the wait for Voyage, and...OVERFLOWING!?!? Nope, we'd come back to that later. So instead, we hit up a ride only Holiday World would make. RIDE #2: Turkey Whirl Wait: 10 Minutes Even the flat rides had waits, that's when you know the park is packed, LOL. This was a fun Tilt-A-Whril, but I think we screwed up our weight distribution because we did not spin that much. The ride cycle was long though. And the theme- a Turkey Tilt-A-Whirl. It's so Holiday World. Rating: C After Turkey Whirl, we decided to see if Thunderbird had a longer wait than Voyage, because we noticed it was sending trains out much faster. We headed over there and decided just to suck it up and wait...one of our friends, the one who cannot do loops, sat this one out. Also, Thunderbird is very far from the rest of the park, making it kinda like The Bat at Kings Island, just for anyone who might be wanting to go. RIDE #3: Thunderbird Wait: 1 Hour Yep, waited a hour. Thankfully the line for this coaster moves pretty good, and the station has Air Conditioning! Add the excellent theming around the station, which I would say rivals Mystic Timbers (my sister thought it was even better but I dunno if she paid attention to all of MT's small details) and it made the hour wait a little more bearable. But was the ride at the end of this worth the wait? Yes. Thunderbird is another fine creation by B&M, with a pretty good launch and some good forcefulness in the inversions. The storm sound effects and fog before the launch are pretty good and at first confused me when we approached the ride, I was worried a actual Thunderstorm had come into the area, LOL. The final slow roll is similar to Banshee's, but even slower. Thunderbird is a solid coaster, but to be 100% honest and I am probably in the minority here- I think I did like GateKeeper just a wee bit more, due to that ride's longer track and extra inversions. However Thunderbird is still a great ride, it WAS worth a 1+ hour wait after all. Rating: A After riding Thunderbird, as my friends went to smoke, I checked out the Thunderbird Plaza. This area is really nice, and the gift shop has some cool stuff in it. They have CoasterDynamix models of Thunderbird and Voyage, which kinda surprised me- I had thought those were Cedar Fair exclusive, guess not. They also had completed ones sitting out for display, which was cool. I was hoping they would be to scale, but nope. My friends finished smoking, and we decided to ride the other ride in this section as it now had no wait. RIDE #4: Crow's Nest Wait: Walk-On This ride is like a Mini-WindSeeker, but with chains. I had ridden this before, but as Sparkler, when it was in 4th of July. I forgot it came down and then went back up, instead of simply staying at the top the entire cycle. A fun flat ride. Rating: C After Crow's Nest, we headed to 4th of July, as one of our friends really wanted to do Liberty Launch since it was a "mini version" of Cedar Point's Power Tower. So, we headed that way. Along the way, I saw Legend...running...with RIDERS!?!? THE RIDE OPS LIED TO ME! I would have to ride it, but first, we still needed to ride Liberty Launch. RIDE #5: Liberty Launch Wait: 5-10 Minutes This ride really isn't too intense, and is nothing in terms of fear factor compared to say, Drop Tower. The first launch up is probably the only intense part, as the launches that follow are not super forceful or anything. You get a nice view from the top though. It is a fun ride, and would be good if you are scared of the bigger towers. Rating: C After Liberty Launch, we decided to go to our car, get our waterpark gear, and then we would go ride Legend, and then do the waterpark. So we did just that: after coming back in the park, to Legend we went. RIDE #6: The Legend Wait: 30 Minutes Yeah, it didn't feel like 30 minutes because the line moved pretty well, but it was. After the wait, I boarded Legend and got front row! They had to unlock all the restraints because the ride op didn't see my sister go over to put our bag in the bin, and he had locked the restraint down before I got a chance to even go "Wait!". After that goof-up, though, we rode Legend. The first drop on the coaster is still one of my favorites, I love how it curves and then goes into a tunnel. There didn't feel like there was as much airtime on the section under the waterslides, but that could have been because we were in the very front row. The spiral drop was fun, and then came the 2nd half. Oh wow, I had forgotten how strong these laterals are. In comparison, even Beast's laterals in the helix are weak. The final 4 turns have been banked a little more, so the laterals there are a little weaker than in 2013, but they are still more than strong enough to make the finale good (they still hurt a little). The ride was also running very smoothly, GCI did a great job in that regard. Legend is still awesome, I would say I like it just a bit more than Mystic Timbers. Rating: A After a great ride on Legend, we headed into the waterpark, and found it was PACKED. We decided we were gonna try to get wet anyway, so we got a locker, and headed for the lazy river. RIDE #7: Bahari River Wait: 5 Minutes We had to wait for the lazy river. What kind of madness is this!?!? The River is fun, though I found it does not have as many water elements to drench you as Kings Island's version, which could be either a minus or plus. I accidentally flipped myself over trying to fix one of my water shoes mid-ride, that was embarrassing. It was a nice lazy ride for the most part though. Rating: C After Bahari River, we got a snack at the Wildebeestro. FOOD: Wildebeestro Wait: None OK, here comes our 1st real issue of the day. The people working at Wildebeestro seemed to be oblivious to what came with their own combo meals, we got the kids burgers since we just wanted a snack and they forgot they came with fries and a juice box. They also charged us $3.79 for a $1.79 cookie, when the board clearly said $1.79. On the plus side, besides the Grilled Cheese one of our friends got (which looked very bad) our burgers and the fries were pretty good. But the service was pretty bad. Rating: D (B Taste, but D service) After our snack (during which it rained for the only time during the day which lasted like 5 minutes and nothing even went down- Mammoth and Voyage kept running) we decided to suck it up and since everything had waits in the water park, to ride... RIDE #8: Mammoth Wait: 1 Hour The capacity on this is great, but it is still stupid popular, so it had a 1-hour wait. At least the line moved pretty well though. We finally got on (the 2nd half hour felt like it went by much faster) and were paired with a dude from California. And wow, did riding this bring back memories. Mammoth drenches you quite a bit, with COLD water. It also has some epic drops and airtime, including a very steep drop about halfway through the ride, and it ends with a great splashdown finale. Mammoth is a epic, amazing waterslide and I would actually rank it higher than even some of the best roller coasters! Rating: S (Yep. First S for a non-roller coaster!) After Mammoth, we decided to do the OTHER water coaster... RIDE #9: Wildebeest Wait: 30 Minutes Crowds were easing up by this point (it was now 6:30PM), so Wildebeest had much less of a wait than Mammoth. Wildebeest is a great ride too, but since I was not solo here like I was in 2013, I actually think I liked Mammoth a bit more because when you ride as a group, Wildebeest does not have as much airtime (though it still has lots). This slide does, as stated, have lots of airtime and twists and turns, and while you get pretty wet it does not drench you like Mammoth does. Another great waterslide. Oh BTW, I would rank Wildebeest and Mammoth as follows: Solo Wildebeest>Mammoth>Group Wildebeest. Rating: A (for this ride, it is a S if you can ride solo) After Wildebeest, I was pretty soaked, so when my friends rode Zinga (Funnel Slide) I sat it out, but watched them do it from the observation platform. Afterwards, the waterpark was gonna close within the hour, and we still had a big roller coaster in the dry park to do, so we got ckour stuff and changed and headed out. Into the Thanksgiving section we went, where would found a much shorter wait than it was earlier for... RIDE #10: The Voyage Wait: 15 Minutes My history with this coaster has been a little mixed. I rode it in 2010 and loved it, but in 2011 it had not been re-tracked and was super rough. In 2013, on my last visit, the first half was amazing but the 2nd half was still very rough. Around 2015, 2 years after my visit, Holiday World began to slow the coaster much more on the MCBR and this season they re-tracked a lot of the 2nd half of the ride. So, how is Voyage running in 2018, with all these changes? In short: 2010 Voyage is back (sorta- the MCBR is used now)! The roughness, though there was some, is not at all bad this year, so you can actually enjoy the intensity of the ride much more now. Yes, the train does come to a near-stop on the MCBR, but that gives you a much-needed second to breathe, because the ride re-gains its speed, and I actually got airtime in the 2nd half for the 1st time since 2010 as well. The 1st half was as good as ever, too. I got off the coaster giddy, smiling, and very happy...that also hasn't happened on this ride since 2010. When it runs good like this, Voyage is a truly amazing coaster. If turning the MCBR on was what was needed to keep it running well, then keep it on (save maybe for enthusiast events). Also the ride ops were saying "Voyage sets sail" and "Voyage returns to dock" whenever a train would leave or come in, which I thought was kinda cool. Rating: S After the epic ride on Voyage, my friends went off to smoke, where we met a employee cleaning up. We mentioned Pilgrim's Plunge, the ride that used to be in that spot, and the employee told me what he had heard regarding its removal- apparently, the park was not planning on demolishing it, but a part had broken and they found it was gonna cost $2,000,000 just for that one part. That much money buys you 1 or 2 good, brand-new flat rides, BTW. They figured the ride was not nearly worth that to fix (on my visits to Holiday World it never had a line even when it was new so it was likely not popular) so they demolished it, then decided to build Thunderbird, leaving that section of the park a "mess" since now Hyena Falls was all by itself in a otherwise dry section of the park. Also apparently a new human resources building is their current "big project" and it is currently under construction. After the nice chat, we headed to Thanksgiving's dark ride... RIDE #11: Gobbler Getaway Wait: 5 Minutes This ride is like Boo Blasters in many ways, but TBH, I perfer this one. I like the theme a lot more- it is cheesy but feels more original and in-place. And some of the Jokes in the ride are pretty funny, especially the ending. The animatronic old grandma is very well done. This is a decent shooter dark ride. I would still prefer a non-shooter ride though. Rating: C After Gobbler, it was dark out, and Voyage still had a very short line. Realizing that night ride opportunities at Holiday World are rare, and knowing the ride was running good, I talked my friends (save the one who was not into huge coasters that much- he did do it during the day, it scared him a little but he was OK, but he would not ride at night) into grabbing a quick night ride... RIDE #12: The Voyage (Night) HOLY TOLEDO, this is a incredible coaster at night! Once you hit the twisty bowl section at the furthest point, it becomes super dark and you can't see the little dips or turns, making them feel like they come outta nowhere. The tunnels were pitch black, and the triple down was pretty wild with 3 airtime moments in a row in pure darkness, even if the train wasn't going super fast since the MCBR was right before. My friends thanked me for suggesting this, we felt this at night might have been even better than Beast at Night (though maybe not Beast at Night during Halloween Haunt). A red shirt manager was working the ride and saw my face when we returned, he asked how it was. I told him "It was amazing". Rating: S+!!! After the even MORE epic ride on Voyage, our friend who had passed on it for the night ride (he does NOT like not seeing where he is going thus he skipped in spite of riding earlier) wanted to ride Liberty Launch again before we left. So we headed that way. RIDE #13: Liberty Launch (Night) Pretty much the same as the 1st time, except now, I got pretty views of Raven and Legend at night. For a few seconds. Rating: C And that was last ride of the night for us. We headed into Christmas, and visited the main gift shop because we had $20 worth of Holicash (which we had used earlier- we got it when we entered the waterpark). I got a Thunderbird Fridge Magnet, and some of the delicious Holiday World fudge. Then we came home. Just ate said fudge, it was great. In spite of the big crowds, we had a blast at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari. Now, for the final Pros/Cons of the trip... PROS +Amazing roller coasters. Raven, Legend, and Voyage are a tough trio of awesome wooden coasters and Thunderbird is a rock-solid B&M. +Amazing waterpark. Wildebeest and Mammoth being highlights. +FREE SODA!!! +Friendly Employees (Mostly) +Very Clean Park, even more than Kings Island or Cedar Point +Bins on all coasters, even Thunderbird, so no need for ride lockers unlike KI or CP. +More reasonable prices than Cedar Fair on food CONS -Somewhat slow dispatches on the coasters (even Voyage would stack), though they mainly are trying to not be rude, and be safe. -The Legend ride ops LYING about the coaster not re-opening, when it was open again by noon. Also they forgot to let my sister sit down and had her restraint locked as if there was no rider and gave her a rude look when they had to unlock the coaster because of this. -Poor food service at Wildebeestro (though the food itself was decent) -Huge crowds, though it was a July Saturday so it was to be expected I guess That will do it for this trip to Holiday World. I cannot believe that in 1 year, I have been to all 3 parks I visited since 2009 (Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Holiday World) in a 1 year span. Speaking of that, Cedar Point will probably be my next trip, we are looking into going back there in August. Anyhow, questions and comments welcome...MCSALSA AWAY!!! (Gets on a Vintage 1700's Boat and begins to sail away but smashes head-on into a huge rock and destroys the boat) Uh-Oh... EDIT: Oops. Also, My Top 10 Coasters have changed, here is the new updated list... #1- Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point #2- Maverick, Cedar Point #3- The Voyage, Holiday World (rises massively due to epic rides!) #4- Millennium Force, Cedar Point #5- The Beast, Kings Island #6- Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point #7- Top Thrill Dragster, Cedar Point #8- The Legend, Holiday World #9- Mystic Timbers, Kings Island #10- Banshee, Kings Island Raptor, which was #10, falls out due to Voyage's huge rise.

TBH, me too- I would love it if Kings Island got a ride like that, in the former Dinosaurs Alive! area. Keep as many trees as possible, and do like The Beast and actually hide most of the ride from the views of the midways, save the lift hill (which would be around the same size, maybe just a bit larger than Maverick's hill). And of course, have a mid-course launch inside a tunnel just like Maverick has. Hidden by the trees and terrain, the twists and turns would seem to come from nowhere and be unpredictable, especially at night. If Intamin is off the table, maybe Mack could even create a coaster like this. The other coaster I would like KI to get even more than a Giga would be massive, 200'+ ground up RMC coaster. This would not be easy to hide like the Blitz, but it would give Kings Island a towering 200'+ wooden structure once again after the demise of Son of Beast, and this one would probably be a far superior ride. Not to mention if it was anything like Steel Vengeance in terms of ejector airtime, there would be TONS of it. None of the rides at Kings Island really have super strong airtime like that, so this would easily fill that hole. A Giga would be my #3 pick though, and from a marketing standpoint, seems like the obvious choice for the park to make- you go above 300 feet, and the GP come running. Due to their super-high capacity and reliability, B&M would be the obvious go-to for this. All 3 would easily be world-class, epic rides IMO though.

I did post about this here (there are already some comments): The ride looks fun, though I can see the Steelers theme possibly being a turn-off for various reasons. However, if Kings Island wants to respond by I dunno, building a huge Bengals-themed area with a massive B&M Giga or something, that would be interesting. (Even though I am a Colts fan- I don't hate the Bengals though so I would still ride if it was a good coaster. Now, if it was New England Patriots themed, which would happen at Six Flags New England I imagine...)

And it has been revealed at last. Bengals fans (due to where KI is I imagine there are a decent amount of you guys), prepare to be ENRAGED. https://www.kennywood.com/steelerscountry The main attraction in this section of the park will be a massive S&S roller coaster, known as Steel Curtain. It will be 220 feet tall and feature a top speed of 75mph, 9 inversions, and a 197 foot inversion- breaking GateKeeper @ Cedar Point's record for highest inversion. Here is the official POV: Well, looks like the "Curtain" is finally starting to come off the New-for-2019 roller coasters. I wonder what else is in store, besides the ones we already know are coming like Carowinds Mack or Canada's Wonderland's B&M...

I like Rougarou- I've had both very smooth rides on it, and one kinda headbangy one (It wasn't that bad, though I was also sitting in the very last row on that ride). I liked the strong G-Forces and thought it had a great layout. Then again, I have pretty high coaster durability apparently because I also like Vortex and Magnum XL-200 and rarely do I get off a coaster in pain or with a headache . But my sister, who is a foot smaller than me and dislikes Vortex, did like Rougarou (she HATED it as Mantis though). Also if Kings Island did get a B&M Floorless Coaster, it would likely be very different. Not only has B&M gone from the OTSRs to Vest Restraints (Rougarou could not get vests due to being a former stand-up) they also have more "graceful" designs these days that don't "snap" from element to element as much like their 90's coasters did. Of the 6 B&M coasters I have ridden, Rougarou and Raptor feel very different in that regard from Banshee, Diamondback, GateKeeper, and Valravn (Though Rougarou's 1st half feels much closer to the newer coasters it whips around plenty after the MCBR). I imagine if Kings Island did ask B&M to build them a floorless, it would be similar to a sit-down Banshee with lots of large high speed inversions and smooth transitions. TBH, thinking about it that way, B&M would need to be careful not to create "Banshee, but ABOVE the track!". I would probably go with a different drop style, include some inversions Banshee lacks (Cobra Roll, Corkscrews, etc.) and maybe even add some tunnels. Having some inversions seen on Banshee would be OK, but I would not use too many (Loop + Zero G Roll might be enough). If designed properly to compliment Banshee instead of compete with it (B&M could probably pull it off) a coaster like that could be a valuable addition to Kings Island's lineup, especially considering as a B&M it would have great capacity and reliability. Make it too much like Banshee though, and guests will wonder why Kings Island dropped $20M+ on a similar ride.

According to the Kings Island Blog, Mystic Timbers has surpassed 2 million riders, as of today. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2018/july/west-virginia-youth-is-2-millionth-rider-on-mystic-timbers-at-kings-island

^ If you look at what I would call a "GP" poll (from a regular news site, not a amusement park fan site like KIC, TPR, etc etc.) Beast almost always wins when the topic is "favorite Kings Island roller coaster). For example, here is a poll run before the park opened this year by Cincinnati.com... (Some people here may have voted in this and remember it- I did...) https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2018/04/09/less-than-week-until-kings-island-opens-lets-reminisce-lets-vote-our-favorite/489217002/ Beast won, with 100+ more votes than 2nd place Diamondback. Also Flight of Fear votes were being pushed by the Premier Rides Facebook Page (no other company was pushing their rides in this poll) allowing it to get 3rd. Another poll I remember was done in 2014, before Banshee opened, and I can't confirm this 100% because the page was deleted but Beast took over 40-50% of the total votes in that poll and won as well (Diamondback was the runner-up there too). It also gets pretty long lines on even mildly busy days, in spite of being able to handle over 1,000 riders per hour (and if the park closes at 10 or later and it gets dark, the line gets even longer as people want their night rides). Even enthusiast polls rank Beast fairly highly- it's 43rd on the Coasterbuzz 100, with a average rating of 4.28 out of 5, putting it ahead of rides like SheiKra, Raptor, The Raven, and Kingda Ka. It was also in the Top 50 usually on the Mitch Hawker poll, which was VERY enthusiast-centric. These are signs that the coaster is successful, and you don't RMC coasters that don't need it, unless you want to get the huge fan backlash. (Not to mention RMC has had some issues, which would make the Backlash 10x worse if repeated) As much as I love Steel Vengeance, and want to see Kings Island get its own RMC monster, I would rather see KI build something from the ground-up than convert Beast, or Racer for that matter. I would be happy to see either of the classic woodies get some re-tracking at least though, they are both running pretty rough this season, and I don't think too much major work has been done on Beast since it got a major re-track in 2014 (I remember it felt super smooth that year). Also I don't think there will be any new coaster in 2019, as usually there are teasers, and we know Canada's Wonderland and Carowinds are both getting big new coasters, along with maybe Dorney Park as well. My guess is, for 2019, Kings Island will probably get some flat rides or something.

^ TBH, those same 2 you listed. Steel Vengeance is just incredible with how much strong airtime it has, and it is a long ride that makes great use of its immense wooden structure to boot. It is probably pretty close to what I would create if you asked me to build a super-ultimate roller coaster, and thus is my favorite coaster in the state. Maverick gives it a run for its money though with its intense launch, twists and turns, and while it does not have as many airtime moments it does make good use of the ones it has. Millennium Force would round out my podium for its sheer size and speed, with a side of decent floater airtime. The Beast is my favorite wooden coaster in the state (it would be #4 on my list)- sure, it doesn't have any real airtime to speak of save for like 1 hill, and it is mostly straight sections but due to its secluded nature it really doesn't need any of that fancy stuff. It's a big out-of-control feeling wooden coaster in the forest, with a epic helix finale that remains my favorite ending to any roller coaster (though Magnum XL-200's final bunny hills and Steel Vengeance's final hops give it a run for its money). It also gets a huge boost for night rides due to the seclusion.

^ Technically, they were "back" last year. Sea World San Antonio got a family coaster built by them: https://rcdb.com/14302.htm Also it is heavily rumored that the ride that is replacing Dragon Challenge- the Harry Potter Themed Family Coaster- is also a Intamin. So it would seem that at least Sea World and Universal Studios are still working with them in the United States.

Update: Europa park plans to rebuild destroyed section of park. A few of the rides/attractions in the area have re-opened, though some of them have fences up around parts of them to block the fire-damaged section from view. According to their Twitter, Europa Park will replace the Pirate ride with another dark ride. Thankfully, Europa Park clearly is making lots of money, so this fire is just a setback for them and they will be able to make repairs and stay open. Some smaller parks with less money might have been forced out of business, like Idora Park was in 1984. In fact, I'd imagine Europa will be able to possibly profit eventually with guests coming to see whatever dark ride replaces the destroyed Pirate ride.

Thanks- a quick update on that, it now feels about 50-60% better 2 days later, so it is recovering. I still don't wanna have to lift anything even slightly heavy with it though, at least for another day or two. I can still pick up light stuff though without much, if any, issue. Should back to 100% by the end of the week, by my estimates.

I saw this show when I was at the park yesterday. Wow, it was awesome. I loved the stunts, I thought the Jokes were funny (a bit immature but still funny), but my favorite part of the show was probably the laser scene. I thought that looked incredible and it was epic. 10/10 would watch again.

Well, yesterday I went to Kings Island yet again, for the 3rd time this season (tying a personal record- if I go one more time this year which is highly likely, I will break it). Before we get into the meat of this trip report, here is my ride (and show/food as well I guess) rating system for 2018 (note: descriptions of ratings are for rides, for food/shows it just means how good I thought it was): F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Zen. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however.  Note: If you wanna take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. Anyhow, let's begin the trip report. A quick note- anyone coming from central Indiana to Kings Island and using I-74, close to the state line there is a HUGE construction zone, and on one side this prevents use of the rest stop on that side. It looked like they were rebuilding that entire side of the highway, and had just split the other side to take the traffic, so the speed limit is 45mph. I would leave for KI a few minutes earlier than normal to adjust for this slow spot, and be sure to use the bathroom before leaving since the rest stop will not be a option on the way there! (The one on the other side, on the way back, remains open) We did leave a bit early, thankfully, so we got to the park shortly after 9AM. Due to the Peanuts Celebration, the park was already open for passholders, and we went in and got some of the free donuts which were on offer. Food: Peanuts Celebration Donut Holes Hey, they were free, so why not have a few? There was about a 5-10 minute wait for donuts, but it was not too bad. I had the sugar coated ones, they were good. My sister tried the Maple Bacon ones, which I avoided since I don't usually like to mix stuff like Bacon with sweets directly. She said they were awesome. Rating: B After this, ERT had begun, and we headed to our first ride of the day. So we got a locker quickly, and rode... Ride #1: Mystic Timbers (ERT) Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Cycle) Since it was very early in the day and the ride wasn't fully broken in yet, Mystic Timbers was running just a tad slow and the airtime was not as strong as it usually is later in the day. However, even a tad slow Mystic Timbers is pretty fast, and there was still a decent amount of airtime (though I suspect Steel Vengeance has spoiled me rotten because it didn't feel like enough). Still a solid ride, overall. In the shed, we got The Bat ending, and the song was "Turn Around". Rating: A- After riding Mystic Timbers, there was about 5 minutes to park opening. Since it was right there, and no one else wanted to ride it with me, I decided to get in line for one of the park's most popular steel coasters, since I was expecting massive crowds to come in later... Ride #2: Diamondback Wait: 5 Minutes I rode in about the middle of the train. Diamondback felt a little more broken in than Mystic Timbers and seemed to be running normally already, and the trim brake kicked in near the middle of the ride which would not have happened if it was running slow. There was a lot of floater air as usual, and for the first time ever, I was able to put and keep my hands up for the entire ride- though on the return run I dropped them a few inches when a support beam came over the train. I thank Steel Vengeance and it's lack of anything to hold onto for getting me used to this (though I only do it on smooth coasters, which Diamondback qualifies for). Another great ride on Diamondback, which by now is usual. Rating: A After Diamondback, the group decided it was time for Soak City ERT, so we went to the train and...it didn't open until 11AM. So we headed back through Planet Snoopy- with a brief stop in the gift shop to get a $10 T-Shirt that was on sale- and went the long way into Soak City. We headed in, changed, and put on sunscreen. Then I made a big screw-up: I went into a water fountain thing with fresh sunscreen on my head. Ouch. For a good 15 minutes, my eyes hated me so much. My friends even went and rode a set of water slides while I recovered. Take notes people, do not run into fountains when you just put sunscreen on. I did recover eventually, enough to do a water slide. And that slide was... Ride #3: Zoom Flume Wait: 15 Minutes This slide is similar to Watube, a slide I did at Holiday World. It was good fun, there were some intense turns and a few surprise drops which even had a bit of airtime on occasion. And best of all, for my eyes, none of the splashes went above my neck. Rating: B After Zoom Flume, we decided to ride the park's lazy river attraction. Ride #4: Splash River Wait: 5 Minutes This lazy river was fun, but it had a LOT of special water effects and about halfway through the ride my eyes began to feel irritated a bit again (not as bad as the 1st time though), so I had to shut them whenever I saw something coming. I am not gonna dock the attraction for it, the eye pain was my own fault, and this did seem like a good lazy river otherwise. My sister and friends did a 2nd lap while I rested up. Rating: C After Splash River, my sister and friends went to do another water slide, but I wanted to rest a little more- was feeling better by this point but still not back to 100%. I saw the Splash River bridge had people trying to spray riders, so I headed over and decided to play with it for a bit, I got some people soaked, LOL. My friends got off their water slide after a 15-20 minute wait, and we were hungry at this point, so we decided since we were in the waterpark, there was only 1 real food option... Food: Island Smokehouse Wait: 5 Minutes Island Smokehouse continues to impress. I got Chicken Tenders and Fries, and both were amazing. The tenders were nice and crispy, and the white meat chicken on the inside was cooked about as well as I have ever seen it cooked. The fries were thick, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Perfect as well. And even though it was a bit expensive, our meal was also very filling- I was not hungry again until near park closing! Probably my favorite food experience I have had at KI in 2018 so far. (Overall, Sidewinder Fries at Cedar Point give this a challenge and it is hard to pick from the two, though) Rating: S After Island Smokehouse, we noticed the water park was becoming packed, so we decided to head back to the dry park and see how crowds were there. We went to our lockers, changed some clothes, and went back to the main park via the arriving... Ride #5: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive/depart) This sure beats walking back to the park- it may not have as many props as Cedar Point's train, but the music is nice, and you get some nice views of the woods. I also think it got colder all of a sudden when we passed the "Haunted Fort" with the old house inside. Spooky. Rating: C Inside the park, my friends decided to do White Water Canyon, which had a wait listed at 40 minutes via the app. I decided to check the wait for my favorite coaster in the entire park instead while they rode WWC, since I was not gonna test to see if WWC would annoy my eyes or not... I approached The Beast. I got in line, and saw the first 2 que houses empty. A great sign. No one on the ramp!?!? Could it be...yep. It was just a station wait! Which shocked me because even though the waterpark was sucking up crowds, the other 2 coasters in this section (Mystic Timbers and Diamondback) had 20 to 30-minute waits. But then I saw the train was stopped on the 1st lift, with the other 2 in the station and final brake run. Oh no, did I get in line for a broken-down roller coaster? Turns out...no I did not, some idiot had decided to try and film the ride and they caught them and E-Stopped the ride to take their phone. Good job catching that, Beast ride ops. Afterwards the all-clear was given and the ride started back up. Ride #6-8: The Beast Wait: >5 Minutes (1st 2 rides), 5 Minutes (3rd ride) Yep, I rode Beast 3 times in a row! The first 2 rides, I rode in the last car's middle seat. Due to the high temperatures (it was in the 90's) the ride was FLYING through the woods, the trim brakes were hitting pretty hard to try to slow the ride down but it would re-gain the speed easily. The Beast also felt pretty smooth, bouncy but not painful. These were probably the best daytime rides I have had on Beast in a while. I met my friends after riding back-to-back, and when they heard of the super short wait, they decided we had to go ride it again. Even our friend who does not normally do huge scary coasters and thus didn't like the helix so much sucked it up and rode. This time, due to this, I sat on a wheel seat in the 2nd car. Ow. I thought being so close to the front would negate any roughness increase, but it didn't- this back wheel seat ride was pretty darn rough, a stark contrast to the rides I had just taken minutes earlier. I thought I got through it without issue at first, as I was not in much pain immediately after this ride, but later I started to feel sore in my right shoulder of all places. In fact it still feels kinda sore a day later. The ride was still pretty fun though, it was still running very fast and it felt even more intense due to the roughness. But I am gonna make a mental note to try and avoid back wheel seats, I have done them twice this year on Beast and both times it hurt. Ratings: S (rear of train non-wheel seat rides), A (wheel seat ride) After doing "triple" Beast, we decided to go get the rest of our stuff and fully change back into our street clothes. So we had to get our stuff out of our waterpark locker, which meant another ride on... Ride #5B: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad Wait: 5 Minutes Why 5B? Because I did not do a whole lap earlier, this was the 2nd part of the train ride, LOL. Got some awesome views of Diamondback and Mystic Timbers though, as usual. Rating: C After returning to the waterpark, we got our stuff, changed, and headed out to our car which was a walk. At this point I decided to break off from the group, so my sister gave me her apple watch so she could find me with her phone. I headed into the dry park, used the bathroom, and headed into Action Zone. Ride #9: Banshee Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait) The ride ops here were both silly, but doing a good job at the same time. They were changing the name of the ride whenever the dispatched a train as a joke, I heard them call it Invertigo and White Water Canyon. However, they were also reminding people to drink lots of water, and not soda and stuff, which I thought was good advice so it evened out. This was where I first noticed a bit of an issue with my shoulder, Banshee's restraints felt like they dug in a bit more than usual. I brushed it off as the restraints being tight though. The ride itself was great, even by Banshee standards, as the ride felt very fast and forceful. I still thought this was a intense ride even post Steel Vengeance and TTD, which is saying something. Heck the ride was feeling so fast, the slow roll felt more like a medium-speed roll, LOL. There was a little roughness, the typical vibration Banshee sometimes does, but nothing crazy. Overall, an awesome ride. Rating: A+ After Banshee, I headed towards The Bat, and I saw dark clouds looming over. The forecast wasn't calling for rain, from what I could tell. But the coaster was still running, so I got in line. Ride #10: The Bat Wait: >5 Minutes (1 Train Wait) OK, something kinda iffy here, not with the ride but the no loose articles policy and the ride ops here. Someone had some huge stuffed animal prize in the storage bin, so the bin was full. So the ride ops were telling people "just put your stuff in the bottom of the car". I know Bat does not have any airtime or anything, but I still think stuff could fly out, as my friend nearly lost his hat on Iron Dragon at Cedar Point once but I managed to grab and save it, and the cars do swing pretty violently on these coasters, and based on the fact that hat flew backwards for me to catch, something like a drink cup could fly out and smack someone at 50mph. It did not happen on this ride, but I am worried it could. And this seems to be isolated to Bat- none of the other rides were allowing loose articles and people were being told to put their stuff in bins or lockers. I talked with my sister about this and she says she has seem this before on Bat as well on past trips. After what happened to the lady on Twisted Timbers, I fear this is just asking for the same thing or worse to happen on Bat. The coaster itself was running fine, though. Good speed, and some solid swinging action. The kids behind me thought it sucked though for some reason. Rating: B (the ride, allowing people to just ride with stuff in the bottom of the cars is iffy as heck and gets a F from me) After The Bat, I headed back up and looked at Banshee's line again. Hmm, no wait, it would be rude to ignore that...ride closed. I looked around, and all the rides were closed. I saw a Banshee line checker and asked her if it was mechanical or the storm coming, she told me it was the storm. So I walked around into Oktoberfest, hoping maybe Adventure Express would be...nope, closed. Racer, closed. However, I met back up with the group, and we went and saw it was 5:30, which meant the Dog Show would be starting. So we went and saw it. Show: JUMP! The Ultimate Dog Show Challenge We got to this one a bit late, it had started 7 minutes earlier, but we did see the last few acts. The dogs were cute and funny, and the tricks were cool. The final dog was a pure bundle of energy, and he was making some impressive jumps. This was a fun show. Rating: B After the Dog Show, my sister decided to get some of the special Charlie Brown Ice Cream in Planet Snoopy. Food: Charlie Brown Ice Cream (served at Blue Ice Cream Stand in Planet Snoopy) My sister ate most of it, but I had a few bites of this- it was delicious, tasted like Chocolate and Vanilla mixed together. We got it decently fast, too, even though there was a bit of a line. Rating: A After we got Ice Cream, we went and checked out the Peanuts Sketch School and the Charles M. Schultz tribute area in the former Enchanted Theater. Good to see this being used again. My sister made Franklin mad, and he drew her a picture out of spite, LOL. After this, we headed out and went back towards Action Zone because we knew there was a smoking area near there and we wanted to get good seats for Gravity, the show in the Kings Island Theater. While they smoked, I noticed they began to test Delirium... Ride #11: Delirium Wait: Walk-On I just barely got on the first cycle with riders are the re-opening, I was seat #47 of 50. Swinging and spinning up to 137 feet in the air was fun, but what really made this ride enjoyable was the 76mph breeze, because of the heat. Ah, relief, even if just for a moment. Rating: A After Delirium, the show doors opened and we went inside and got our seats. Show: Gravity Wow. This show was awesome! I won't spoil it for those who have not seen it, but there were tons of cool stunts, and some funny jokes, though some of the humor was a little crude. (You may not wanna take your young kids to this, there is toilet humor) I really loved this show, and am very glad I saw it. One of the highlights of the trip! Rating: S After Gravity, Action Zone was beginning to come fully back to life, though Banshee may have had a mechanical issue because it was down again. However, Drop Tower had a crowd of people around it and was testing... Ride #12: Drop Tower Wait: 5 Minutes (1 Cycle) Was not as lucky this time, but a 1 cycle wait isn't too bad. Drop Tower was not as scary after riding TTD, but it is still pretty intimidating. I got a great view of Invertigo (which was also back open) and the parking lot, which was PACKED. Good thing so much of the crowd was still in Soak City. Then came the 264 foot drop, which reminded me of the airtime I got on Steel Vengeance near the bottom. A great ride. Rating: A After Drop Tower, the group wanted to ride Banshee, as they had not ridden earlier. Ride #13: Banshee #2 Wait: 10 Minutes Looked like a 20 minute wait, but do not underestimate the capacity of Banshee. The ride was about the same as earlier, but this is when my shoulder really began hurting, as I noticed the vest restraints really annoyed it. Ride was about the same as earlier, so for review, read that. Rating: A+ After Banshee, we headed over to Adventure Express to ride that. Ride #14: Adventure Express Wait: Walk-On We sat in the back of the train, but I got a rear wheel seat. It was still OK for the first half of the ride, but the 2nd half got a bit rough and somehow even though it was just a lap bar it really annoyed my shoulder. A fun ride but the shoulder pain kinda hindered it towards the end. Rating: C- (was heading towards C+ but then the pain began) After Adventure Express, we headed to Racer, and decided to race each other. However... Ride #15: Red Racer Wait: Walk-On ...for some reason, our Red Racer train was sent out, but not their Blue! Then, when we got to the lift, we saw a Blue Racer train crest it. I don't know, but my best guess would be someone was trying to film Blue Racer, got caught, and they E-Stopped their train and took their phone. (Because if the ride had broken they would not have restarted it so quickly) So that would be the 2nd time on this 1 day, since I confirmed it happened on Beast earlier. So we did not get to race our friends. Thankfully, Red Racer was running well enough that it didn't matter too much. There was a good amount of airtime, and since we were not on a wheel seat, it was fairly smooth though you could tell it would have been rough for the seats behind us. (They got pummeled and were going OUCH! at the end) We also rode in 5-2, the middle seat of the last car. A solid Racer ride, even though there was no racing. Rating: B After Racer, I made a decision due to my shoulder- I would for the first time 2014, and only 2nd time since 2009, not be able to ride Vortex. Normally I adore the giant Arrow looper, but with its OTSR's and loops riding it with my shoulder hurting probably would not be a good experience. However, me and my sister went and did ride the huge thing NEXT to Vortex... Ride #16: WindSeeker Wait: 15 Minutes Well, I did not realize this, but my sister's watch can monitor your heart rate, and when in line for WindSeeker mine went over 120. It did not do this for any other ride, so now I know what ride at Kings Island makes me the most nervous! Going 300 feet in the air on a ride that swings like this is kinda scary, especially since I do not dangling loosely (for this reason I hate Ferris Wheels). However, once we were actually on the ride and up there, the music and views of the park made me forget all that and it was quite enjoyable. A good ride, but also something I kinda have to force myself on. Also, on the cycle before ours, the ride ops yelled at some one to put up their phone. They must have listened because the ride ops didn't E-Stop and bring the ride down, but still, 3 times in 1 day? That's a little out of hand. Rating: B As WindSeeker came down, I saw a horrible sight- Beast, which I was planning on riding again to get a epic night ride, was BROKEN. Mystic Timbers and Diamondback had huge waits, so those were also no-go. However, one of our friends wanted a snack before we did our last ride... Food: Rivertown LaRosa's Pizza Wait: None We just got some breadsticks and split them. I did not eat enough to rate this really, but the one half a breadstick I had was pretty good. Rating: N/A (didn't eat enough to rate- seemed like a B though) Ride #17: Backlot Stunt Coaster Wait: 15 Minutes Woah, BLSC packed much more of a punch than usual. Like most of the coasters, it was hauling due to how hot it was, and at night all the effects really pop as do the billboards. There was actually some nice airtime on the small hill, and the final tunnel was crazy dark. A very good ride on BLSC. The helix did annoy my shoulder a bit, but the rest of the ride was OK to it. Rating: B (for comparison BLSC is usually a C to C+ ride!) After BLSC, we headed to International Street which was full of people to watch the fireworks show. It was nice as usual. Then we got in our car and headed for home. It was a fun trip, as I have come to expect from Kings Island. Now, for the pros/cons of this trip: PROS +Short waits in the dry park for everything we rode, in spite of crowds, waterpark seemed to suck everyone up and I was good on timing for some rides +Rides were, due to temperatures, hauling and very fast +Food was very good all around, especially at Island Smokehouse +The shows were all very fun, especially Gravity +Drink lines for non-Freestyle drinks moved very fast CONS -HOT. VERY HOT. Not park's fault but it was smoldering. -Idiots trying to film rides, thankfully it seemed most were caught, good job to the ride ops for catching them (This is a + for those ride ops) -Odd and possibly dangerous loose article rules at The Bat -Beast wheel seat ride hurting shoulder somehow, making me unable to ride Vortex later on I hope you all enjoyed this trip report. As usual, comments and questions welcome. Now, I am gonna go relax, and rest up- this trip was a bit exhausting and my shoulder still kinda hurts.

At 28 years old, I still try to ride as much as possible. I can confer with Jcgoble on days with no waits being exhausting at times though- it can get tiresome to keep walking around all the time. But I did set a new personal record at Kings Island this year for myself for most rides ever ridden (includes re-rides) in 1 day, with 25. On a Saturday no less, shockingly (it was kinda cool and chilly though). Going back to the park tomorrow for my 3rd trip of 2018 (which will tie my record of 3 visits I made in 2014), since it is another Saturday this time in June and it will also be Father's Day, I am expecting big crowds so I do not expect to push for maximum # of rides in a day this time. My sister wants to do the waterpark, and it is forecast to be 90+ degrees, so I expect the waterpark to get packed. Part of me hopes that the crowds who do come go there, though, so that the waits on the dry side of the park will be more manageable since the dry side of the park is the one I like better. Plus even if there are crowds on both sides, I know Vortex, Racer, Adventure Express, etc. usually have much shorter waits than other big rides due to their age and high capacity, so I can always fall back on and ride those if it gets crowded since that works usually during Haunt. Plus just getting out of the house and going to Kings Island again will be a fun experience. (Though with the forecasted temps, I am gonna have to drinks lots of water and use lots of sunscreen.)

Wow- my sister sent me a message about this on Facebook, and it's a bit disturbing. A roller coaster at the Daytona Beach Boardwalk derailed earlier today, and while no deaths have been reported, it is claimed in the article a few people did fall 30 feet or so. Around 10 others had to be rescued by the local fire department. Hopefully, no one has died or been seriously injured as a result of this accident, though falling 30 feet probably guarantees at least injuries. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-roller-coaster-derailed-daytona-20180614-story.html I looked on RCDB, and I think this is the coaster which had the accident (looked up coasters in Daytona Beach). It is a Pinfari Zyklon, and while it opened at this Boardwalk in 2013, it was originally built in the 1970's and has been relocated a LOT. It's one of 2 coasters at the small boardwalk, and its the bigger of the two. https://rcdb.com/8931.htm

Hmm. Good ideas for The Crypt building, it would tie in to the rest of the stories I made for the park if it turns out that those pesky Government agents were doing something in there. During Haunt in 2016, I saw a crate near The Beast labeled "FOF", so I guess I'll use that as the start of my story. (WARNING: Massive story post incoming- also I just realized now this really doesn't make a ride but could be the backstory for one in the Crypt building...) After discovering the UFO and building Hangar 18, the X-Base agents were contacted by their brethren in Rivertown. The Rivertown agents were having major issues hunting down the infamous Beast which had terrorized the town for ages (in my story Beast has been there for years before the agents even showed up), and believed if they could reverse engineer technology from the UFO, they could use it to track the massive creature much better. So, the X-Base agents took some spare parts they found, and shipped them over to Rivertown. The Rivertown agents quickly studied them, and built a large building with high-tech gear and radar inside. Sure enough, the machine worked well enough that the Agents discovered The Beast's lair. However, when they arrived, the only found a small beast, Son of Beast. The agents kidnapped Son of Beast, and shipped him over to the Outpost 5 facility, where his story truly begins. However, this story continues. The agents returned to their building and resumed searching for the father Beast. However, next door to the facility in the small town, a man named Randy McDiamond lived in his house with his pet Diamondback Rattlesnake, Denise. The snake was already venomous, and keeping it was illegal, but Randy was careful not to let anyone know he had it, so none of the agents nor anyone in the nearby town even knew. However, one day, Randy got really drunk and left the snake's enclosure's roof open, and it escaped. Since the agents building was close by, the snake went inside, and was soon attracted to the machine they were using to hunt down Beast. Through a vent in the machine, the snake crawled inside and took a nap. The agents showed up for work again, prepared to hunt for Beast. They had gotten very close recently, and had good feelings they would find and capture/kill the creature soon. They turned on the machine, and then something horrible happened... ...the radioactive effects of the machine took effect on the snake inside of it! Denise was rudely awakened from her nap, and now she was growing at an alarming rate! Scared senseless, she busted through the machine, breaking it into pieces and scaring the agents to death. Denise, still confused, looked around and sensed her surroundings with her tongue. She sensed the agents, and while she was still scared, she was also...hungry. The now massive snake (and still growing even though the machine was destroyed as the effect had not worn off) began to chase and eat the agents who were still inside the building. However, eventually, she got stuck in a hallway due to her ever increasing size. There was only one way out. The citizens of Rivertown were stunned when they heard a large explosion, and a huge snake burst free from the government building. Most ran for their lives. Randy McDiamond, suffering from a hangover, was out looking for his pet snake. When he saw what had become of her, he was shocked. The growing had finally stopped, but now the once normal-sized snake had grown to immense size! Randy could swear she was over a mile long now, and when she arched up, she stood 230 feet tall! Randy looked up. "Denise!?!? Is that you...how did you get so big?" Denise looked him straight in the eyes, flicked her tongue out for a second...and then ate him up in one bite. However, when Denise stuck her tongue out, she sensed something in the woods...she slithered away, looking for it... It had been a mostly slow day for Beast. Usually, he was fighting or running from government agents, but today for whatever reason they were leaving him alone. While Beast enjoyed some downtime, as he could rest and hunt for food to his leisure, he did enjoy chasing and attacking stuff so he was hoping something would come up soon. He grabbed his deer, which he had caught and killed earlier, and gobbled it down. "URP." The belch rang out throughout the forest, shaking nearby trees. However, Beast had just barely finished his meal when he sensed something coming. The agents at last...no, wait, whatever was coming was huge. Much, much larger than humans. Beast turned the direction he sensed the creature coming from, and stood his ground. Out came the massive claws. Then, it rose above the trees. It was Denise, the now world's largest rattlesnake! Beast could not believe his eyes- this was the first creature he had ever seen that was actually bigger than he was! Denise hissed, and lunged forward. Beast roared loudly, and did the same. Thus began one of the most epic battles ever, only seen by 1 man. (Though some people in Rivertown also claim to at least have heard the battle and felt tremors like small earthquakes from it) Joseph J. Johnson was a wildlife photographer staying at the local inn in Rivertown. He was filming and following a herd of deer, and was deep in the woods. He had only just missed seeing Beast capture and eat that one deer, and he slowly followed where he thought the massive creature had gone to eat it. When he arrived, however, Beast was staring down Denise aka "Diamondback" in the face. Joe could not believe what he was seeing. As he reached for his camera, Diamondback lunged at Beast, but Beast grabbed her and threw her into the trees with tremendous force. A branch from one of the trees broke free and smacked into Joe, he was OK but his camera was destroyed by the impact. Joe was stunned and a bit angry he would have no proof he saw the fight, so his word would be all people would have to go on. This is his account of what happened next, according to his journal. "The snake recovered fairly quickly from being thrown into the trees, which seemed to have caught the large Beast off guard, as it struck with what appeared to be a NASTY bite. Rattlesnakes are venomous, but somehow The Beast seemed unaffected by the venom, perhaps it is part meerkat or something. But while the venom seemed to have zero effect, the bite still apparently hurt, as The Beast roared in pain. The Beast reached out with its massive claws, and dug into the huge snake aggressively. The scales provided some protection but the attack was so powerful, blood went everywhere as the 2 creatures rolled around attacking each other. In spite of the huge sizes of the creatures involved, I never got a good look at the face of The Beast due to the quick pace of the battle, though I did get a good look at the serpent. It was your typical Diamondback Rattlesnake, but on a massive scale. The creatures continued to fight, but then, just as the battle looked to be reaching its peak, something very unusual happened. A large tree near the battle site seemed to move, and it released its vines, ensnaring both creatures. A mysterious green glow then came from the vines, and it seemed to be healing both of them, and calming them down. A few moments later they looked as though nothing had happened. The Beast retracted its claws, the serpent's fangs went back into its mouth, and the 2 of them just left the area as soon as the vines let them go. I then heard a voice, telling me- LEAVE NOW, OR FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. I ran back to town as fast as I could. I could swear it was that tree that was talking, as I think it even had a face..." It is said, after this one encounter, The Beast and Diamondback have never battled again, and seem to have split territory in the woods. The Beast never seems to appear in Diamondback's area, and vice versa. The town returned to "normal" with a few days, though the government agents who survived the escape of Diamondback had to go back to searching for Beast in the Mine Carts, as they could not replace or repair their fancy machine they built from the Hangar 18 parts. The building they used still sits abandoned, and empty, though some say the broken down machine is still inside, though it is no longer of any use to anyone. It was said the tree that appeared during the epic battle was the "spirit of the local forest" which had been agitated by the government's meddling, and a few said if anything more happened in Rivertown, it could turn against the humans. A few months after this incident, a young man came into town. "Hi, I'm gonna open a lumber company here!" A new lumber company? Well, that shouldn't be bad, will at least create a lot of local jobs... END

This, though I would also give Cedar Point the Beach, which is a plus and minus. Plus because it is is cool and looks great, giving coasters like Millennium Force and Magnum XL-200 epic first drop views. Minus because it attracts bugs, and there is zero protection from wind gusts, so if it gets windy rides go down for sure. Cedar Point also has its excellent on-site and just off-site resort hotels, which are super convenient and enable multi-day stays. Which leads to my next thought: I'd prefer CP if I have multiple days to use, but if I only have 1 (and no Fast Lane), then I am probably gonna have a better time at Kings Island due to the easier-to-navigate and smaller layout and the fact that KI is usually less crowded, especially if the weather is iffy (likely due to the fact CP is more resort guests, and KI is season pass holders- one group HAS to stay, the latter can just come another day with better weather).

Interesting article, but I did notice some typos. Like how the listed Kings Island as having 12 roller coasters, but a quick check on RCDB says they have 15 (16 if you count Surf Dog like the park does). If you are only counting the family and adult coasters, there are 12, but then they list Holiday World as having 5 but for HW to get 5, you need to count Howler. So depending on if you are counting kids rides or not, its 15/16 vs. 5 or 12 vs. 4. I think the article was trying to boost Holiday World's numbers while trying to minimize KI's, because on pure numbers, a large park like KI can make a smaller one like Holiday World look weak. (However if you are only going on highly-rated coasters that usually make industry lists, it's a tie as both parks have 4- Kings Island has Beast, Mystic Timbers, Diamondback, and Banshee. Holiday World has Raven, Legend, Voyage, and Thunderbird. Though after that, Holiday World is out of coaster ammo and Kings Island still has its "undercard" coasters...) Also they did claim they felt Holiday World would be better for small kids, but just doing a quick comparison on both park's web sites, at least on the dry side, Kings Island has Holiday World beat. I count a maximum of 14 rides in their 2 kids areas (Christmas & Holidog's Funtown), plus thecanoe ride which is also kids only, combined. Planet Snoopy has 19 rides, the petting zoo, and a few of those rides are roller coasters designed for kids! Maybe they were also counting kid-friendly rides that are outside the kids areas, as well as waterpark stuff, but Kings Island has some of that outside its main kids area as well. The flat ride collections, ironically, are about the same size with KI having 1 or 2 more. Kings Island does have one edge- they have 3 huge flat rides with Drop Tower, Delirium, and WindSeeker while Holiday World has nothing on that scale. Holiday World's flats seem to run slightly better ride cycles, however, and their dark ride is vastly superior to Boo Blasters. With the removal of Giraffica, Kings Island has the slight edge on in-park water rides thanks to Congo Falls. But overall I'm just gonna call the flat ride category a tie, IMO. When it comes to the water park though, Holiday World blows Kings Island out of the water. (Pun intended, LOL.) Kings Island's waterpark just does not have anything that can stand up to Wildebeest, Mammoth, Hyena Falls, Bakuli, or ZOOMbabwe when it comes to big epic water slides, and Holiday World also has 2 water play areas and lots of kid-friendly attractions to boot. I've seen some parks with much worse looking water parks than KI, but compared to Holiday World, there is no contest. Holiday World is probably gonna have the better food experience, based on what I have seen as of now and what I recall from my trips to Holiday World. KI may have some decent options that taste good, but speed of service can be slow, and Holiday World is usually cheaper (a combo that is $15 at KI will often be like $10 there). As far as staff goes, at both parks I have had nothing but good encounters, though Kings Island does seem to get their rides out a bit faster but based on my recent trip to Cedar Point, that may be a PTC trains being slow to load/unload thing since that is all Holiday World uses on their woodies. I have not been to Holiday World since Thunderbird was added in 2015 (might go back to Holiday World this year at some point, though) but I have to see how fast that one is loaded/unloaded to truly tell. TBH, the article does "get the right idea" at the end, besides maybe the where to go with kids part. Kings Island is the better park if you are looking for dry thrills, as there are more large coasters and flat rides there so you can do more without needing to re-ride something over and over, but if it's waterslides you are after, Holiday World is your place. Though I will also note this: the whole reason Kings Island probably did this was likely not Holiday World, but Kentucky Kingdom's $39.99 deal they have had for a few years now and had success with, and they don't even get a MENTION?

Holy poo. It's great news no one was hurt, but from the pictures I am seeing, this is gonna be very, very expensive to fix/replace. Not to mention all the money they might lose due to needing to close for repairs, and the lost revenue from guests who may not visit now because they were interested in the section of the park that was destroyed. It also looks like Blue Fire and Wodan Timbur Coaster were not far from the fire, hopefully neither of those were damaged because if the park is gonna recover, it will need the drawing power to attract guests those rides provide (and hopefully you can still access those rides, as their entrances may have been in the affected area). They are also gonna need to rebuild/replace a lot of destroyed attractions, which is not gonna be cheap at all. As Terp once said: Fire is the great enemy of all amusement parks.

Well, according to a post on Reddit (which has a image that seems legit) the new coaster is indeed a Mack, as footers and boxes with the Mack rides logo have appeared on-site. The footers are also supposedly the type Mack rides does use. Here is a link to the reddit page I found it on, with the image, which claims the OG source was Carowinds Connection: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/8m5kds/its_official_carowinds_2019_coaster_is_a_mack/ Now, the main question becomes I guess: classic launch (Helix @ Liseberg), or spinning (Time Traveller @ Silver Dollar City)? I would guess the former. Edit: Found the OG post on Carowinds Connection with more pics. http://www.carowindsconnection.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4764&start=1635

^ I would recommend that. You can't hear the music or anything, but I viewed the fireworks from the Eiffel Tower on preview night and they were great IMO.