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I don't agree with the statements on the park not needing more attendance at all. While the park may get busy more often than not, we live in a world where consistent additions and upgrades are almost required to keep a place like Kings Island popular. Without that year-after-year constant investment I'd start to think we were becoming more like Dorney Park or Kings Dominion than Cedar Point and Carowinds. We'll see more on how that might turn out after this year if Cedar Point does indeed finally take a year off from additions. As for bringing back Grad Nite, I think it'd be a good thing to try out again. Kings Island has gone through so much change since its last Grad Nite event and the habits of high school seniors has also changed. The park also has a stronger security presence, so if anything starts up there is a better chance of catching it before it's too late. This would also only take up 1-2 nights each year, therefore not adding to the number of people in the park during the day. Any additional guests would likely be those who would already come with their school during a standard park field trip. I personally went on the trip during my senior year of high school and had to contend with all of the other seniors in addition to all of the families who were already at the park for the day. If anything, adding a Grad Nite would take guests out of the park and make it less busy during the day in exchange for it being closed early for a special event one night per year. It would be amazing if we could also get one or two other one-night special events each year to help bring in more money for the park. 

I realize some of these photos are posting much larger than intended and I don't know how to shrink them so please bear with me! Kings Dominion still has theirs, although it's been sized down to that little spot between the trees on each side and uses the current logo. It's still big enough for a family photo, though. That park has a much better entrance plaza as well because of how centered it is compared to Kings Island's entrance plaza with how it feels like the entire left side of KI's entrance plaza is cut off from the rest of it. If there is ever a big front gate renovation then I hope that can be resolved with a little bridge that goes across the creek and through the trees (losing those trees is also my biggest issue with the idea of a front gate coaster). The area circled in yellow might not work as well because of the shaping of the hill right there and the visibility as Orion-XL200 pointed out, but could be good if they mirrored it on the other side like Kings Dominion did with theirs. I'd be more open to a sign going in that center circle if they could do it better than Cedar Point and Carowinds did theirs. The one at Worlds of Fun looks much better, although theirs also has the hot air balloon tying back into their park theme — something that Kings Island might not be able to do as well without putting a mini Eiffel Tower up.    As for International Street proper, I think an easy way to help it (besides a new front entrance sign and/or more vintage fixtures like it originally had) would be to add two relatively small planters on either side of the giant plaza once you get into the gate. There would still be enough space for guests, parades, and emergency/maintenance vehicles; there would just also be something that breaks up that vast expanse of pavers. It could also serve as a little bench for a few people during the fireworks shows.

You hit the nail right on the head before I could finish my post tonight. Orion with more airtime is just a faster Diamondback with different trains. A lot of folks online already compare the two heavily, so making them more alike would've only made it more underwhelming for guests IMO. Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland are in a very similar boat to Orion and Diamondback, and yet aren't as similar. The biggest difference between Leviathan and Orion seems to be the layout with the former's L-shape and the latter's straight out-and-back shape. They both have a near-90 degree wave turn, some airtime hills, a similar turnaround, and a tall brake run. Leviathan doesn't have a helix and Orion has one less airtime hill. I wonder if Orion could've done better if it was more L-shaped and 100' longer?

I see now where I was getting confused. I keep reading about ROI and take it to mean official numbers like attendance and ticket sales while others are talking about how Orion doesn't "live up to what it should have" in guest sentiment. The argument of enthusiasts vs. general public is well-beat, but I'd like to propose another question. If the upper management had the data on how well their 4 other giga coasters had done overall and what made guests enjoy them, why did they approve a design that a) barely reached the "correct" height to qualify as a giga, and b) did not include enough airtime/speed/forces? Guests enjoy the speed and forces of Millennium Force and Fury 325. The general public doesn't enjoy the forces of Pantherian as much, but the height and speed are still there. Also, would a few more feet on the drop really have made it any more intimidating for families? If Millennium Force can do so much with its 300' drop, why was Orion designed with the same 300' drop and yet apparently does so little? I'd love to read some thoughts as to how Orion could've had more airtime while only having 100' less track length than Leviathan.  I'd argue that Carowinds was in the same "family park" boat as Kings Island before they added Fury 325. Kings Island had an answer for most of their large coasters before Fury 325 was added as well with Afterburn/Banshee, Intimidator (Thunder Striker)/Diamondback, Thunder Road/The Racer, Nighthawk/Firehawk, Carolina Cyclone/KI's Vortex, and even Carolina Cobra (Flying Cobras)/Invertigo. Carowinds didn't have an answer for The Beast and Kings Island didn't have an answer for Carowinds' stand-up Vortex. What factors made one family park so different from the other? Is Kings Island going to continue to receive middle-of-the-road thrill coasters because it's a "family park", despite largely having the same lineup as Carowinds? If the guest sentiment is that Diamondback is better than Orion, why do we keep saying that the next KI coaster should be a family coaster with examples that pale in comparison to Diamondback?  Y'all can tell me that the overall cost was prohibitive (it was) and that the company didn't want to upstage Millennium Force and Fury 325 (that probably wasn't a factor but go off I guess), but I feel like there were more factors that led to Orion being stunted than have been put together in one post. I really want to understand all of the factors while unpacking these arguments and questions. I'll also maintain my thought that adding a nice inversion to Orion's layout would've made it more interesting for families and enthusiasts alike while differentiating itself from other gigas. 

This is part of what I found interesting with my earlier posts to this topic thread (and what I was attempting to point out). I thought the light strands came down much sooner while the Winterfest sign stayed up later. Last year I feel like it didn't come down until the beginning of March, though I could be misremembering that. There are also more lights turned off across the park tonight than usual. The big signs on the Coney Arcade are off as well as some of the lights in Planet Snoopy that are normally on. I also find it curious that there are still some Christmas lights on in the trees — those seem like they would be easy to unplug and cut their relatively minimal power usage out from the electric bills. I wish I'd gotten on sooner to see that potential ride arm on the pad! It's been a busy few days for me so I've really only been looking at the webcams at night. It looks like the crews didn't get all of the Snowflake Lake structure removed, which makes me wonder if they're coming back tomorrow morning or if they just wanted to get most of it down sooner.