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Caution: Prolonged staring at web cam images during long periods of anticipation-filled off-season months might cause certain side-effects... Parody: Original web cam image at www.visitkingsisland.com

Kings Island on Instagram : "A dive loop is one of the elements on the new record-breaking Banshee roller coaster." Photo : Don Helbig / Kings Island via Instagram

It's the week that will never end. It will go on and on my friends. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And as for driving an hour to get there, big whoop. There are people coming from 3/4 the states, the District of Columbia, US protectorates and from foreign countries. This is Kings Island's celebration, press event and party. Be a gracious guest...or stay home.

Kings Island on Instagram : "The Bat will fly again at Kings Island!" Photo : Don Helbig / Kings Island via Instagram

I have a black pullover windbreaker that says I'm a Cedar Fair VIP.

I can now confirm that The Bat is indeed testing! The Bat webcam can be found here: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/online-fun/webcams

Allowing us in period is more than the had to do. GP, who is deeply grateful for the opportunity to be among the first riders on this beautiful work of art. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On this date in 1993, The Bat opened at Kings Island under the name, Top Gun.

HELLO EVERYONE! Over spring break, my family made a trip to St. Louis. ------ After braving the long car ride from Cincinnati to St. Louis, we arrived at our beautiful Hyatt Hotel at 2am in the morning on Saturday. My family quickly went to bed as we were soo tired. The next morning, when I opened the curtains, I found myself gazing at the arch and the Missouri River! Our room had a beautiful view. My mom and I got ready and headed to Six Flags, which was about 45 minutes from downtown. We entered the gates five minutes before opening. There were security guards holding off the crowds a little ways from the main entrance. Once it was 10:30, everyone started to run to their favorite ride. My mom and I rushed to the Boss, as it was at the back of the park. Sadly it was closed due to low temperatures. We then made a beeline towards the Screamin Eagle. There was no wait! We just walked on the ride. The Screamin Eagle was a fast, and fun airtime filled machine. It had a few rough spots, but overall it was a really good coaster. 4/5 My mom and I then headed to the Pandemonium, a spinning coaster. We started to chat with a few rollercoaster enthusiasts who were planning a trip to Kings Island this summer. I made sure to give them a bunch of helpful tips, such as riding The Beast at night. After about 15 minutes we boarded Pandemonium Pandemonium was extremely smooth. There were a few crazy spots were we spun around alot! Overall, a good family coaster. 4/5 Then we went to Mr. Freeze, but it was down, so we went to American Thunder, but it was down, so we waited about 5 minutes until it was working, but then it shut down again. So then we went to Mr. Freeze, which was thankfully open. After about a half hour wait, my mom and I were launching backwards at 70 mph. Mr Freeze was fast paced, and very intense. It really knocked the wind outta me. 4.5/5 After Mr. Freeze we headed over to American Thunder, which was open! After a 5 minute wait it was our turn to board the ride, when it broke down again! I really wanted to ride this coaster so I waited inside the station for about 20 minutes until it opened back up. American Thunder was a really fun GCI coaster. There were little pops of ejector air around every turn. American Thunder is a very solid coaster. 4.25/5 We then headed over to the east side of the park. I have always wanted to ride Excalibur. It didn't exactly live up to expectations... numerous times throughout the ride cycle, the whole cabin jolted and by the end I just wanted to hurl. I can see why not many parks have this ride. We then had lunch at Panda Express. Pretty decent food. The next ride was the Ninja. After a 5 minute wait I boarded the train. In the backseat, there was an amazing burst of ejector airtime going over the first hill and the loops were full of G's. I was expecting this to be a really bad headbanger, but there were only 2 spots were I hurt my head. Pretty decent coaster overall. Made a quick stop to the mine train (cant remember the name) Not really anything exciting, but it was a good kid's coaster. 3/5 Boomerang and Batman were down for the day, but they are clones so it doesn't really matter. After Six Flags we headed back to the hotel to pick up my dad, and then we went to the City Museum. Tickets were only ten bucks, which was a really good deal. There is so much stuff do to here and to explore. All I'm going to tell you is that it was an amazing experience for my family and I. We headed back to the hotel and then walked to Gio's for dinner. The food was really delicious and not too pricy. If your in St. Louis and you like Italian food, then I'd recommend you go there.(This is a pic from the restaurant. My fav picture from the trip.) We had a very interesting night walk back to our hotel. mhm. At that moment I was super tired. We had a really long day. I woke up yo. The Hyatt Hotel had a very good breakfast buffet. After stuffing ourselves with oatmeal, muffins, and bacon we walked towards the arch. After buying our tickets for the tram ride up to the arch, we decided to check out the free museum.The museum was cool, it had some good information about St. Louis's role in westward expansion and how the arch was built to recognize this significance. ----- It was time! We handed in our tickets and waited infront of our designated "pod" that would transport us up into the top of the arch. It was a very tight squeeze getting into the pod, but after a claustrophobic 3 minutes, we reached the top, and the view was amazing! After the tour of the arch, we drove back home... so yeah. ----------- Overall, I thought Six Flags St. Louis was a really nice park. It is built up on a hill so if you go, prepare to walk alot. The park has a lot of potential, but I think Six Flags is overlooking it and only giving the larger parks (SFGA, SFGAdv, SFMM, etc.) big ride additions. With some tlc this park could rise up there and become one of the better amusement parks. THE END oh also i have more photos on my camera. i'll upload em later

Remember, Media Day is the park's day to promote their ride. I mean, if your best friend were hosting a Star Wars costume party, they have a right to be upset and not let you join in if you show up dressed like Mr. Spock. The park has a vision of how they want their product to be presented and if you aren't going to help them present it in that way, they do not want or need your "help". They could have said that you absolutely MUST wear a Banshee shirt, but they didn't. As it stands, the park has granted us some degree of freedom in how we choose to dress, which is more than they HAD to do.

Honestly, the dress code isn't a big deal. Hobby Lobby sells plain single color T-shirts (in pretty much every color under the sun) for less than $5. If you're worried that it might be a bit colder, you can get plain colored hoodies on Amazon for less than $20. Or heck, just make like an ogre and wear layers. And as I've said before in this thread, check Goodwill. You will almost certainly find SOMETHING suitable, and it will be inexpensive. In the Cincinnati area, you'd probably even find a Kings Island shirt or two. I know I've seen lots of Diamondback and Firehawk shirts there as of late. And all this assumes that someone who posts on a Kings Island fan site has never once bought a shirt at the park, and I can almost guarantee that nearly everyone here has... (So much for not commenting further on the subject...)

You may want to visit the Banshee media day thread in the club TPR forum. Someone asked if coaster club shirts were okay and Don said yes at that time. However, Robb said he would rather not have people wearing the club shirts and to instead follow the e-mail as that is how we were asked to dress.

::In soup Nazi voice from Seinfeld:: No logos for you!

For Pete's sake, could we all just take a chill pill on this logo-on-shirt business? Those attending Media Day (IMO a bit of a misnomer seeing as it's more likely going to end up like some overcrowded enthusiast event) have been given very clear directions on what not to wear, and if anyone wants to see if they can sneak into the event with a shirt that does not follow the guidelines, more power to them. Besides, if someone is denied entry to Media Day because of a shirt not fitting the very clear guidelines, that's one less person in front of me in line.

Good morning KICers Happy 8 days til media day and 9 days til opening day!!! We are now into single digits for both! Super exciting stuff right there. Both Banshee and Drop Tower are testing, though not sure what they're doing with DT since it hasn't moved from the position it is shown in since I have refreshed twice now... I guess they are testing something with it. Image captured from Kings Island's live Banshee webcam

I'm not going to media day, but if they refused me entry for having a small logo on a shirt that was for the brand of shirt(ie the champion logo), I would insist that they throw everyone out who has the much larger Nike logo exposed on their shoes. Not that I think they are going to care about tiny clothing brand logos. But hey, after seeing how they respond to some of the stuff that goes on on this board, nothing would surprise me.

I will add a quick note for those who have a small logo somewhere unintrusive, like the bottom of a sleeve (Pardon the blur on these). Before: After: A simple safety pin can do so much. Before the hoodie was certainly a no-go. Now it is free of any logos, and nobody would ever notice that anything has been done if it isn't pointed out to them. I assume that doing this is fine, since there are no longer any visible logos on this hoodie. I could be wrong, but there is no longer a logo on this hoodie. Alternatively, it's just stitched on. I may just remove it outright. I hope it doesn't come off that I'm trying to skate around rules. It's actually quite the contrary, I'm trying to make sure that I am fully compliant with them. And with that, I am not posting any more on the subject since I kinda feel like this falls into the category of things we weren't supposed to be discussing here.

What a great video. Anyone know what coaster this is? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/grandmas-first-roller-coaster-ride_n_5113216.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

That's a smiler.

I actually have no shirts from KI. Dont think I ever did as well. Im the odd ball here, I know and you would probably never be invited back. There are some hills worth dieing on. Is the logo of your shirt really worth fighting?

I doubt Fastlane will have much impact on your t-shirt Friday, many folks such as myself wont be purchasing Fastlane Plus until Saturday, when I'm off work and have an entire day at the park. I plan on taking the wife and leaving the kids with g-ma ( Kings Island doesn't open for our kiddies until the following weekend ). I must remember to distract the wife when purchasing Fastlane Plus so she doesn't hear how much it's gonna cost me! " Just run my card, don't say the price...cough cough cough".

I have been asked to advise that Son of Beast apparel is indeed NOT appropriate for Media Day. "It's Banshee's Day." Also NO logo means NO logo. No matter how small.

New picture up on Kings Island's Instagram gallery. Picture can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/visitkingsisland/app_168188869963563 "Is í ding di féin a scoileann an dair" - Beware of the enemy within "Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile" - It takes one to know one ???

The Smiler's inversions are extremely compact, while Banshee's inversions are more drawn out, which i like better.

The POV of The Smiler makes me have nasuea. Not certain why. Another coaster I watched with excited enthusiasm last year. They were quite viral with it. It looks hard to ride however...not the biggest fan of multiple, multiple inversions. But then again, Banshee is just an inversion machine as well. Oh lordy my aging body. It made fun of my parents so long ago...and now it makes fun of me.

From earlier today. Banshee screaming through the second of seven inversions! Image can be found on Kings Island's Twitter page P.S. At the bottom left hand corner of the image, you can see the on-ride photo camera.

That's where the MCBR is.

Just think, brand new roller-coaster with Banshee, and a repainted Top Gun renamed The Bat on media day.. People will think Kings Island is getting 2 new coasters instead of just one.

I forsee one of those "Make you jump videos" coming from a timelapse of Banshee. Watch it for a few seconds and then she pops up on the screen and screams. Now who want to do it?

Ha. Nipply.

I heard that it's totally batty.

Walmart has solid colored hoodies for 10 bux right now.

Media Day is only open to members of approved PAID coaster clubs who filled out the RSVP form before last month's deadline. KIC is not a PAID coaster club.

Is riding the biggest investment in Kings Island history not enough for you?

I wouldn't bet the farm on that.

Or, on the right track.

I have a low voice. I scream like a fog horn.

I will be bringing a Diamondback hoodie just in case is it nipply outside that morning.

An article about The Beast and its 35th birthday was published today by the Herald Dispatch of WV. The article can be found below: Kings Island's wooden coaster, The Beast turns 35 this season

California ban on orca shows effectively dies in committee, cannot be brought back up for at least a year: http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/04/08/seaworld-bill-dies-in-committee/ In response, SeaWorld stock rises over 5%: http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2014/04/08/seaworld-stock-busts-out-as-orca-ban-stalled/

That it does...part of me kinda wishes instead of "Coming to Kolmarden in 2016!" it was "Coming to Kings Island in 2016!"...though with Banshee making its debut in just 9 days, perhaps a RMC woodie like this would be a bit soon in 2016. Then again, SFGam got X-Flight in 2012 and Goliath this year... Of course, this being a "woodie" (due to RMC's building methods and such that is debateable) it would instantly draw comparisons to a ride Kings Island wants us to forget, plus it's also a very large "woodie" so it would get compared even more and even have some guests confused even if it were in a completely different location...the reason this would be an issue: In McSalsa's Imaginary World where this ride was coming to Kings Island in 2016: GP Guest 1: Hey! Let's go ride that big wooden coaster over there behind Racer. (In my imagination, 2014 is last year for Dinosaurs Alive! and this opens on that spot so it can use the woods and stuff) GP Guest 2: No, let's not. I heard it crashed and killed 27 people. GP Guest 1: Wasn't that Son of Beast? GP Guest 2: Yeah, they just changed the name. McSalsa (who has been standing nearby for last few mins): Uhh, this is a brand-new ride that has nothing to do with Son of Beast...and Son of Beast was over in Action Zone where Banshee is now. This ride's in Coney Mall, on the OPPOSITE end of the park. GP Guest 2: So they moved Son of Beast and re-named it? McSalsa: No, they DESTROYED Son of Beast and then built Banshee, then they built this over here. It's 100% new and from a far better company than what SOB was from. GP Guest 2: You're just making this up. McSalsa: (Facepalm) Fine, not dealing with you...I'm going to go ride the new wood coaster. I hear the line's only 40 minutes today. GP Guest 1: If you die, can I have your PS3? McSalsa: I doubt I'll die...wait...HOW DO YOU KNOW I HAVE A PS3!?!? I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU!!! GP Guests: Uhh... (GP dudes run away) McSalsa: Ugh...

I believe that Don said in an interview that it may. But as CoastersRZ said, Banshee is the biggest investment in park history, and media day is designed to showcase it. You will have lots of time to ride The Bat on Friday the 18th.

It makes perfect sense to me. It is media day..anything from that day could make it in widespread media so it should all advertise the park it at least not distract from it. It is awesome to be able to go to such an event, but it serves the park a purpose and that is not to appease a few KI fanatics (solely at least). New guests and maximum exposure is the goal. Obviously I am not involved in the decision making process, but is it not common sense?

Now she's testing such a beautiful sight on this beautiful day. I will be so happy when at last we can ride and not keep staring at the webcam counting down the days... Image captured from Kings Island's live Banshee webcam

I would be shocked if it wasn't. Mainly b/c they spent the time to make the prop last season, it would be wasteful not to include it amongst the tombstones for the ride (unless they just shipped it to Terpy and gifted it to him, which would be pretty cool as well)That would make one heck of a lawn ornament.

I would be shocked if it wasn't. Mainly b/c they spent the time to make the prop last season, it would be wasteful not to include it amongst the tombstones for the ride (unless they just shipped it to Terpy and gifted it to him, which would be pretty cool as well)

From Kings Island Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/visitkingsisland The first 5,000 guests to experience our new record-breaking roller coaster, "Banshee," on Opening Day Friday, April 18 will receive a free first rider t-shirt! The turnstiles open at 11:30 a.m. on Opening Day with rides and attractions opening at noon. Banshee will be open beginning at 11:30 a.m. for Gold and Platinum season passholders.

Well, lets just remember how Diamondback's line was when it opened in 2009. With how big of an announcement Banshee has been, the line will be the same/ worse this year. But, everyone at the park will be riding Banshee, free ride-ons for all the other rides. (maybe)

Well, back in 1976 I begged my father to take me to Magic Mountain for the opening of the Revolution roller coaster that was making huge worldwide news as being the first modern day vertical loop coaster....and of course the park was the busiest I have ever seen ......even to this day and I go to lots of parks....anyways.....my father despised crowds like that and waiting in line......so we got there and he knew how much I wanted to go on this its all I talked about the whole year....so, we walked up to as far to the front of the line as we could get...and he just shouted out......"Ive got $200 bucks here for any 2 people willing to give up their spot for my son and I". In 1976, $200 was quite a bit more then it is today.....and a LOT of hands went up for the offer and we of course took the closest to the front......It was awesome......probably the most memorable thing my Dad did for me....out of everything....To bad he isn't still around to go on Banshee with me...but he will be with me spirtitually I guess. So, its up to you....if you want to shell out a FEW hundred dollars....im sure it will work...no guarantees though.... Good luck. "