Mikewhy

That tunnel was for years a longer s-shaped tunnel that was a nice part of the park for about 25 years. Then during a remodel of the Hanna-Barbera land in 1998, it was shortened to only about 40% of its original length, and mainly used for a shaded place to eat. (The other half of what used to be the tunnel was blocked off and used for storage..). Then around the time that Cedar Fair took over the park, the tunnel was removed completely, perhaps around 2007... (When Nick Universe first appeared, I think the shorter version of the tunnel was still there, for at least a year or so...)

I would just be thrilled if maintenance would fix all the lights that were out at the park when I was there a few weeks ago. The Snoopy Startlight spectacular had about 30% of its lights not working, there were many lights out around the International Street buildings, and there have been some colored lights in the International Street fountain that have not worked for years... Kings Island is a great park and deserves better...

And it would be nice if there was actual information about how to get Platinum passes, either at the Kings Island web site, on its Facebook page, or on KICentral. But unlike previous years, the sale of Platinum Passes seems vague and purposely not widely shared, and I find that to be really odd. Of course I called KI via phone and got the info I needed, but I wonder why Platinum Passes are so hush hush this fall online as far as KI is concerned. You can find out how to get them online at Kings Dominion's web site, Carowinds web site, and Cedar Point's but not Kings Island... Just politely wondering why Kings Island is being treated differently...

Can anyone verify that they are selling Platinum Passes now as stated above? I have not heard or seen this anywhere else... I found it so odd that Platinum passes were readily available a few weeks ago at Kings Dominion, but they seem to be really delaying them at Kings Island...

Prior to 2006, I would say most Six Flags parks. But Six Flags has really cleaned things up at most of their properties. Sadly, it is the Cedar Fair parks (except for Cedar Point) where I have most of my negative experiences now, and that sometimes includes Kings Island. (And I usually go to 30-35 parks a year.) Whether it was the line cutters at Dorney, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland, and Kings Dominion, or the mediocre employess at most of their parks, or the Knott Berry Farm rule that says glasses can not be worn (even with straps) on Pony Express or Xcelerator, or the almost total lack of enforcement of their non-smoking and line-cutting policies, I really feel that most Cedar Fair properties are near the bottom of the list in terms of how they are managed these days.

Great trip report! I was actually told by maintenace at Holiday World that Legend was majorly retracked last winter, and from what I could tell, it was running better than ever, at least from the front seat...

And Monster Plantation at SFOG is better than ever since they remodeled the ride last year and now call it Monster Mansion. I went last year and rode it and was truly impressed with how they altered the ride, but kept the basic ride experience the same. (It helped that they hired the same person to revise the ride that originally created it.) RIding it does make me miss The Enchanted Voyage....

I just found my Kings Island Fun Guides from 1982, 1983 and 1984, whicb include the park map and list of attractions and so on. The 1982 one refers to The Enchanted Voyage. The 1983 calls it The Enchanted Voyage sponsored by Crush. There is no mention of Smurfs at all. If this park guide (and my personal memories) are correct, the original Enchanted Voyage was still going during at least part of 1983. The 1984 guide calls it Smurf's Enchanted Voyage.

1982. And some of us were far less than amused at the time... Several online timelines give 1982 as being the date that the Enchanted Voyage was converted to the Smurfs, but an analysis of several old Kings Island maps and brochures reveals that 1984 was the actual date of the conversion to the Smurfs. Hanna Barbera land was revised in 1982, but the Smurfs came in 1984. (The history timeline on KICentral gives BOTH 1982 and 1984 as the date.)

Looks to me like you had a ride op who did not know their park's own policy. If you look at the 09 Ride Guide PDF at the Carowinds web site: http://www.carowinds.com/images/attractions/09cc_rideguide.pdf it clearly states "Glasses must be secured on all rides. Carolina Cobra, Nighthawk, Afterburn. Vortex, Carolina Cyclone and Drop Tower require athletic straps to secure glasses or they cannot be worn." As someone who wears glasses, I hate when the ride ops try to make me remove mine, especially when the park's policy DOES allow it, but some ride ops take things to extremes and enforce rules that are not really valid. I have a very secure strap, and have never lost a single item on a coaster. If Cedar Point lets you wear glasses that are strapped on MF and TTD, then really I can not think of another ride that would be more prone to knock strapped glasses off your face. Also, if the ride ever stopped and I needed to be evacuated from the ride, it would be very hard to see properly without my glasses. As for Knott's Berry Farm, I was allowed to wear my glasses with Strap on ALL rides last fall (2009) except for Xcelerator and Pony Express. (Cedar Fair lets me wear my glasses with strap on Top Thrill Dragster but I have to remove them on Pony Express?) Several ride ops at other coasters tried to get me take my glasses off, but when I showed them my strap, they said it was okay. The very nice ride op for Montezuma's Revenge told me that there has been a memo for most coasters that say that wearing glasses is okay if they are tightly strapped to the face, but many ride ops are not aware of that and make people take them off anyway. *sigh*

You know, Ryan is right when he says it is important to focus on what you love about Kings Island and not let rule breakers ruin your day. I agree. However, I can say that I go to about 25 parks or so a year, and I always see more smoking at Kings Island than most anywhere else, and that includes this year. I will also say that during my last visit in July, we had to move THREE times during different parts of the day when we tried to eat outside because smokers were near us and refused to put them out when politely asked. It happened during the same day at the tables on International Street, the tables at La Rosas in Rivertown, and the French Fries place in Rivertown. This was at three different times of the day. I realize that does not happen each time we go, but it was very irritating. I can not enjoy my meal with smoke in my face. I usually just eat in the Festhaus now because of this... I never let these experiences bother my overall enjoyment of the place, and I still love Kings Island completely. But I wonder why these things NEVER happen to me at Holiday World, or most other parks (except for Six Flags America, which was the worse of all the parks I have attended!) If the people cleaning the tables in these eating areas would at least tell the people to not smoke there, that little gesture would really help. (Perhaps they do this but not when I was there...) If Ryan says things are better now than the last few years, he would be in a better position to know. I just hope I notice that during my future visits. In any case, I will have a goodtime even if I do not!

If I did not already have a Gold season pass for Dollywood, I would certainly take advantage of this offer. I love Dollywood!

How crowded did you find the park to be on July 5th? We were thinking about going, but we feared it would be way too crowded...

Simply pulse the line to keep the station from getting too crowded, and let people sit where they want. Assign someone else to look for empty seats and try to get people to sit there. I assure you, when you tell the crowd or the next person in line there is a seat with no waiting, it will not be hard to find someone to take it. I bet this would fill the train completely 98% of the time, and also allow those who really care where they sit to choose. Then the people working the line only have to work to fill empty seats and keep the station from getting too crowded. I think this is a good tradeoff between capacity and allowing people to sit where they want, and I will bet a ton of money it is almost just as good, if not equal to the assigning seats method.

Anytime I have reported line jumpers to the ride ops, they shrug and do nothing, or the line jumpers have already ridden before I get up there. That policy is not adequate for addressing the problem. The busy or most complained about rides need to be monitored by security. I am sorry to hear of another bad experience in the park. Several people I know are starting to avoid KI because of what they see happening there. It is very unforunate, and I hope things get better soon.

In many areas of the park, you can barely hear the intercom announcements. That has been my experience anyway.

^--- Waiting an extra 5 minutes to sit whereever I please on Diamondback is a very small price to pay IMHO!

The front row has an extra long que area before the gate... obviously they were expecting people to want to wait for the front. Therefore a request should be granted as long as that line is not too long and you are willing to wait longer. I very much care where I sit, and being told where to sit really does adversely affect the experience for me. At Canada's Wonderland, I waited in a 45 minute nearly completely full que line for Behemoth with no seat assigning, just a pulsing of the crowd into the station. The line was moving just as fast as Diamondback, and everyone got the seat they wanted. A win-win situation.

Another negative aspect of assigning seats is the fact that if you always accept an assigned seat, you will almost NEVER have a chance at being in the front row. Since so many people request it and some of are given their request, there is almost always a wait for the front, and therefore the only way you can usually get the front row at ALL is to request it... (I am sure there are times when people are assigned to the front, but from my many times riding it, I have seen the front only go to those who asked for it...)

Interesting.. During Winter SOAR this year, someone from KI actually told us that Canada's Wonderland stopped assigning seats on Behemoth because they found that capacity was either the same or improved by NOT assigning seats. Then of course, they told us that they still wanted to assign seats at KI, which seemed really odd to me. Therefore I dispute the belief that seat assignment always improves capacity.

As several people have already pointed out, you do NOT need to assign seats to keep the station from being too crowded. Simply assign someone to only let in a certain number of people in order to keep the station from getting too crowded, but still let people choose their own seat. That is way I saw it done on Behemoth last year and it worked great. I have also seen it work fine on Millenium Force.

I visit about 30-40 parks a year, and I always notice that Kings Island is one of the very worst when it comes to line jumping, smoking out of designated areas, and scary park patrons screaming obscenities and wearing offensive clothing. It is sad really, and I am certain it does affect attendance, and could hurt the park even more as the word gets out. I was at Ride Warriors Weekend, and the park went out of its way to tell us how they are stressing customer service and such, and yet I simply do not see it. When I politely report problems to Guest Services, they usually blow me off as well. The park is simply too frightened or hesitant to do what is really needed, which is to add more security patrolling the lines and midways, and when finding the worst rule-breakers, throwing them out of the park. If that happens enough, and word gets out, it will eventually have a positive affect. Sure they can not catch all line-jumpers, but making good examples out of those they do catch can have a really good effect. It seems the park is too worried about offending the rule breakers, rather than punishing them. A rule with no true enforcement is not a rule at all. It is so sad, because Kings Island could be such a wonderful park... I can not tell you how many times I see security talking amongst themselves and looking really disengaged from what their job should be, which is keeping order and keeping an eye out for disorder. I am simply not convinced all that could be done is being done to correct these problems. I wish at least they would put in Q-bots or something like that. If people are going to cut anyway, I would like a chance to pay and do it myself, but legally. I usually have a better time at Six Flags parks. Not because they have better crowds, but because I can use Q-bot to skip the lines, and then I do not have to witness the line-jumping and smoking (Although at some Six Flags parks, they have really done a good job at reducing these things...) Cedar Fair does not implement pay-to-cut options because they claim we should all be equal and wait our turn. Sadly, the fact there is so much line cutting pretty much makes a mockery out of that noble standard...

Are the requirements for Diamondback's restraints the same as those for Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland? I fit just fine on Behemoth with no problem at all. But I was wondering if Behemoth has the same supposed "3 clicks" rule as Diamondback will, or if for some reason Diamondback will have stricter requirments? (I would think they should be the same since they are the exact same restraints by parks belonging to Cedar Fair. But they are in different countries and I guess could have different safety standards...)

During the Q&A that was held during Coastermania 2007, Kinzel himself told the crowd in reference to a question that a wood coaster was NOT likely in the near future at Cedar Point Of course, it is certainly possible that they have changed their mind since then based on their experience at other parks with GCII. Also, another person asked Kinzel if he would consider adding a pre-fab woodie like El Toro at Cedar Point. Kinzel grabbed the mic and gave a surprisingly brief, quick and definite answer, which was "NO". I was rather surprised by this, but it did happen. For some reason, he really seemed to be against the pre-fab woodies for some reason, but he did not give us that reason. Again, they can always change their mind...

I personally think you should try Diamondback even though you do not want to wait. If you make it to the park 45 minutes before they open, position yourself as close to the ride as you can, and then go to Diamondback first, it is likely you will only wait 30-45 minutes, or even less if you are lucky. From my experience riding Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland last summer, Diamondback should load really quickly, the queue line will be moving all the time, and if you show up at the start of the day, you should make it on the coaster in much less time than you think, even if you are in the back of the first wave of people. Don't miss Diamondback, Racer or Beast. They are the truly unique coasters here!