King's Island Inn

[B Rich]

I was also curious about the fate of the King's Island Inn.  We stayed there many times in the 1970's and early 1980's.  Is it still around?

[Gordon Bombay]

It is gone. Closed at the end of the 2014 Kings Island season, was demolished in early 2015: https://ronnysalerno.com/queencitydiscovery/2015/02/last-guests-of-kings-island-resort.html

[CoastersRZ]

And I believe at one point in time there was a plan to build apartments on that site.  This was years ago, and I don`t think anything other than the demolition mentioned above occured.  One would think it is a prime piece of property, and a new hotel could do wonders there.  \

I wonder if Cedar Fair ever considers building a hotel that they control at KI.  I know there was Camp Cedar, but they didn`t own that, just managed it.

[terry wass]

i think that KI after closing and selling the campground to great wolf made it clear they are not interested in managing resorts. There are enough hotels around the area and KI IMO wants to be free to manage their park and not compete with the hotels in the area. Parks lot CP that aren't near an urban area are in a different situation.

[CoastersRZ]

Keep in mind a couple of things.  When the original campground was closed, the park was owned by Paramount Parks, which in turn was owned by CBS.  When CBS sold the land for the campground they maintained a small (I believe it was 24% ownership) in the new Great Wolf Lodge.  Upon the sale of Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair in 2006, I believe they did not purchase CBS`s stake in the resort.  CBS later sold their stake to Great Wolf Lodge.  I would say Cedar Fair is interested in running resorts.  A few years ago they purchased the Sawmill Creek Resort in Sandusky.  They just finished a major renovation to that property as well as the Castaway Bay property in Sandusky.  They built a hotel down at Carowinds.  I think the hotel that they had planned at Canada`s Wonderland is still on pause, however.  These resorts allow Cedar Fair to generate "out of park" revenue, and is a further way to use their parks to generate additional revenue outside of the core revenues the parks themselves generate.

[Gordon Bombay]

@CoastersRZ Was it CBS who sold the campground and purchased the GWL stake or was that Paramount Parks before the Viacom/CBS split (thus having CBS inherit the stake)?

[Imperial79]

Hopefully we can see Cedar Fair build KI a hotel like Carowinds in the area next to Soak City, that would be perfect, next to the water park, and you would have nice views of the park during the main season and WinterFest, it would make the park more money as well.  Kings Island is open 2 more months now, for WinterFest, so that would help the hotel getting stays. 

[MDMC01]

Though the sign is still there, I completely forgot about the KI conference center (I knew it under this name) itself until finding this thread. I went there once for a church retreat in (I think?) Middle School; I don't remember if we stayed there, but I do remember there being sessions in the different rooms and one was about helping parents bridge the gap between Christian and secular music. At the end, I got a "Listen Louder" mix cd (from 1998; the retreat was in the 2000's), which I still have. It's actually a pretty cool CD with a good mix of hit songs from the time period (including some remixes) as well as some worship songs. 

[PKIDelirium]

18 hours ago, Gordon Bombay said:

@CoastersRZ Was it CBS who sold the campground and purchased the GWL stake or was that Paramount Parks before the Viacom/CBS split (thus having CBS inherit the stake)?

They started building GWL in 2005, that would have been before the split that happened later that year. 2006 was the first and only season to start with the parks under CBS.

[MDMC01]

Just finished reading the article @Gordon Bombay linked to above; seemed like a really cool and unique place to stay!