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On Sunday, June 1st I took my son Korbin to KI with me for his first trip of the year to KI! He had hit the 52" mark and he was ready to hit up Banshee! We stopped at McDonald's near the house and got some breakfast to eat on the way and started the 2 hour trek over to the park. We got there right at 9:15 and by the time we got up to the entrance to scan our passes the park was opening and allowing pass holders in for ERT. We first made our way over to the measure station to get his wrist band and he was right at 53" with his shoes on. I am hoping he will be at the 54" mark by the end of the season so he can ride everything in the park. We got in line for Banshee. His eyes were pretty big as we got in queue, for this was his first time seeing it complete. I got several good shots! After he got off his first ride he said "Banshee is the best ride in the park." He wanted to ride again! Oh, and that first ride he took was in row 8 second seat from end edge on the exit side! (I of course took the first seat getting the best seat on the train! We got off and of course got back in queue before the park would open for the day. As we were getting in line the park was opening to the GP. I of course took a few more pics while waiting in the quite short queue to get on. I think this is the best pic I got of Banshee! This time we rode in Row 2 of the train. I still think row 8 is best, but the front is great as well! After our 2 rides on Banshee we headed over to The Bat. I just love the new paint job on the track and trains! After riding The Bat we rode Delirium. This was Korbins first time on Delirium and was not sure if he would like it or not, but he ended up loving it. After that it was getting quite warm and we decided to cool off on Congo Falls. I rode it once, he rode it twice and then got soaked on the bridge as boats were coming down the hill. Here he is all drenched, but he was having a good time. We then went to hit up The Racer, but first let me take a #noselfie and have someone else take the photo for me! We ended up taking a few laps on Racer and then the Scrambler. We decided we were getting hungry so we got a Burrito from Hank's. I do think they need to revamp their system in there it took us 25 minutes to get through the line in there with only 6 people ahead of us. I felt like we stopped time while we where in there or at least were in slow motion. The food was very good though. Happy customer! Korbin wanted to ride Dodgems, but they were cleaning the floor so we hit up WindSeeker. I was not sure if he would like it or not, but he loved the view up there. He is fearless! We then hit up his now second favorite in the park, Vortex. After Vortex he wanted to walk through DA. I was up for a easy walk through DA so we did that next. It is hard to believe that DA has been there since 2011! Here is the video I made back in 2011... After DA we went and watched the new Cirque Imagine. I was not sure I could be as entertained as I could be by Ed and his show, but I was totally amazed by Cirque Imagine! This is one great show, do not pass up watching it! We then went and rode Shake, Rattle, & Roll. While in queue I got some great pics of Vortex. Still some of the best looking trains! On our way to BLSC I got one more. We then headed over to The Beast. We got through the line in about an hour, but we were 2 cycles to getting on and it went down. We ended up waiting about another 1/2 hr for it to start up again, but we already have an hour invested in the line and did not want to loose that. We ended up having a great ride on it. Beasting1980 texted me while it was down and said they were at the park along with Beasting1980Mom, LoraX, Katie, and UnrealNightmare. We told them that Beast had just opened back up with hardly no line so they met us back there and we rode it again. Korbin was getting quite tired at this point and was ready to go home, but we got his blood pumping again and we all hit up BBOBH. After that the rest of the group went to see Cirque Imagine. Korbin wanted to do Dodgems so we went to do that. It was still closed and they told me that someone had dumped Coke all over the floor and that is why it had been down for so long. That made sense while electric cars had been off most of the day with them cleaning floors to pick up wetness! We decided to hit up Racer again! After that fun ride I said lets go see if they got Dodgems ready for they looked like they were about done when we left the last time. Yep, they were up, so we rode them 2 times. After that he was wearing down quick and was about 7PM. He had school the next day anyway so I didn't want to stay much longer anyway. We had an awesome Daddy and Son day that we will remember for a long time!

1. Rode Banshee 9 times between last night and today. I love it. Way better than I expected. 2. Ohiocolts, were you at the park today? I know we've never met but I've seens pictures of you on here andI swear I saw you. Were you wearing a purple Coasting For Kids shirt? If that was you, then around 3 pm you walked right next to my parents and I eating under the shaded area in Action Zone. 3. Not only did I get my first night ride on The Beat, but it was also on the last train of the night! I was blown away.

Yes, that was me!

I figured that may have been an issue, and we planned to use our dining plans later on Sunday, so when we finally got our Purple Coasting for Kids shirts we walked out to the car to change and to store our other shirts, and we used our passes to reenter the gate.

Hi everyone, For those of you that don't know, I run a website dedicated to urban exploration, photography and history throughout the midwestern United States - particularly Cincinnati. Recently, I posted an article about an abandoned restaurant in Waynesville, Ohio that another photographer and I went to visit (The "Der Dutchman). After sharing a link to the story on our site's Facebook page, longtime friend and KIC "old timer," zosobeast, shared something he had seen in the nearby area awhile ago: Apparently while driving with some friends, he had seen a property that had an old roller coaster station and partial lift hill on its lawn. He wasn't sure which coaster it had once belonged to and they didn't double back to check it out, but he is positive he knew what it was. They came across it after eating at Der Dutchman (the abandoned restaurant featured in our latest article) and thinks it's nearby. The restaurant was in Waynesville, Ohio - northern Warren County. If anyone has any idea of what he's talking about, we'd love to find the owners and contact them to maybe do a story and uncover some amusement park history. If you have any tips or info, we'd greatly appreciate it! For some more details and some of our work on abandoned amusement parks, you can visit the site here: http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2014/06/in-search-of-partial-roller-coaster-in.html Thanks!

^I saw you while working. You never came up close to the Banshee ride photos, though...

Wow! I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this (and your article from the other day). Tomb Raider: The Ride has always fascinated me. When I started at the park back in 2005, that was still the "IT" ride - the one A LOT of people wanted to work on. It pulled a big line, was still the "new," "big" thing. I had the opportunity to work it many times and even see all the ins and outs. Eventually I even had the opportunity to supervise that ride's crew when it transitioned to "The Crypt's" two programs. It was tough knowing what all had been originally installed and intended and then see it become an attraction that had an empty queue by 9:30 most nights (made for very easy cleaning though). Thanks for sharing all this goodyellowkorn182.

This event will be open to ALL Current Coaster Crew members & Any KIC forum members that have/had created a username & have been active as of April 1st. We encourage all of you to support The Coaster Crew and all the content we provide including Events, Videos, and Podcasts. You can do this by purchasing a membership! at only $10.00 per year it is an amazing value. If you choose to attend the event to "take us for a test ride" we do ask that you include your forum name in the "member number" field on the registration page. Only 10 more days to register!!!!! Thank you for your support!!! See you on the midway! -Tim SIGN UP HERE!!!!!

Hey! Kind of a late post, but I had the opportunity to see this show 2 weekends ago. I have to be honest. I'm a child of the 80's and I have yet to see anything that reminds me of the talent that graced Kings Island's shows during that period and the early 90's......until now. Great job guys. For the 1st time in decades I clapped because I meant it. I didn't wanna look away. The guy on the bike, the girl on the rope, the clowns..all of it! Wow! Good job guys! Very God job. PS. There was this guy named Don standing right behind me at the show. Hopefully my Florida Gator Hat didn't get in his line of sight.

Can't agree more with what GB and others have stated! TRTR was my wife's favorite flat ride in the park! This thread contents and conversation is what sets KIC apart from other enthusiast sites. I wish more of our threads looked like this one. Thanks for sharing what you learned!

Thanks for sharing some insight about the Dutchman! I'm not sure how long ago Bill saw it, but I don't think it was the covered bridge. he's pretty certain that this was built on someone's property, much like a lawn ornament. If we ever find out, I'll be sure to let people here know!

Why am I a creeper? He posts pictures of him a lot on here, he was wearing an OSU shirt, and he just posted that he was at Kings Island. Sorry for being observant...

I honestly wish there was a video of the show. Not necessarily on Youtube, but maybe on DVD for purchase. Like marlfox_21 I've not always been impressed with shows at the park. This one blew every other show out of the park. I can honestly say, I teared up because it was so beautiful. So many things could have been interpreted for story line, the point of the show, etc. I am extremely happy the park has brought this act in.

It's easier to speculate about something behind a fence than something in a box. ~Coolio schoolio~ Just shake the box! Maybe you can tell what's inside! razmataz, who just had too.

The only thing the train at KI seems to have now is a Pikachu wearing a conductor's hat back at the old Western area.

Great report Lora! Sorry I missed both events. Would have loved to have been there with you guys!

Look at the topography. Adventure Express does not sit on a level plain. Avalanche, on the other hand... Were Avalanche moved, I'd fear it might not be reinstalled anywhere.

It's a shame about Der Dutchman burning. It used to be a really good restaurant, one my family would occasionally drive an hour to eat at when I was younger. Unfortunately the quality really suffered under the company that bought it prior to it burning. Since that time, there have been attempts to buy the property by locals interested in reopening, but the current owners want too much (and are disinclined to rebuild and reopen themselves). So it sits. I live not far at all from Waynesville now, and the area around it is one of the places my husband and I like to go for drives. Unfortunately, this is not something I've ever encountered. The most interesting thing I've seen near there is a covered bridge. Do you have any idea how long ago it was? I could probably go for a drive around there sometime soon and see if I see anything.

Nothing changed. The event was planned by the park for members of Coaster Crew. To allow non-members on this site to participate, there would need to be something in place where you had to be registered with an account on KIC by a certain date so it doesn't become a situation where people are joining the site just to do this event as was the case for Banshee media day. If the site and Coaster Crew want to establish a date such as you had to have an active account on KIC by April 1, 2014, then it keeps it for those the event was intended for.

We were very happy to get to ride Drop Tower on Monday.

I read this tip and thought of this thread... Take your items of value (wallet, keys, phone) and roll them up in a diaper so that it looks like a soiled diaper ready to be disposed of. I am pretty sure no one would want to swipe what looks like a dirty diaper from the back of a locker, if they were able to access the locker. I feel awful for the original poster. What a terrible violation and inconvenience for you.

^Yes, that was definitely the most fun I've had on BLSC! Another great tradition is singing while on The Racer. This year included the Coasting for Kids standards "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", as well as selections from Frozen such as "Let It Go", which was sung several times but I once changed the words to "The rain never bothered me anyway" after one of our rainy rides, and when I changed the first two lines of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" to "Do you wanna ride The Racer? C'mon let's go again!" Then there was our rendtion of Pitbull and Ke$ha's "Timber" where as we were cresting the top of the first hill, we started singing "We're going down, we're yelling TIMBEEEEEEERRRRRRR!" and holding that last word all the way down the hill. Good times...

Well Adventure Express would have fit the original theme of the areaish around it. King Cobra, AE, Lion Country.... Then it went Actiony and the theme got lost...

Got to the park at almost 8:45, rode Banshee 3 times in a row with little to no wait! 1 word: AMAZING. Rode the back (incredible airtime on the first drop) and the front twice. It's so cool at night and just in the front in general. Then rode Diamondback in the back Missed The Beast by 2 minutes so that will wait until tomorrow. This was an awesome, last minute park visit! Can't wait for tomorrow!

Conneault Lake Conneault is about 45 minutes from Waldameer. It has very few rides and one coaster. Blue Streak was built in 1938. It is rickety, it is slow, it was still fun. He would not give us his name, very nice guy. I told him we will call him Carl and he said that is fine. Again, I don't understand clowns. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Waldameer We were getting ready to go to Cedar Point for a few hours when we heard Cedar Point was closed. Well, we (Zach, Katie and I) decide to go to Wildwater Kingdom. As we start driving there, he realizes we are not going to be too far away from Waldameer and Conneault Lake. None if us had been to either park, so we figured why not go. Sometimes it really stinks when plans go awry, but I had a great day regardless. First stop, Waldameer. The park has a couple of options. You can pay per ride or get an all day band to ride all you want. If you are a member of GOCC, you can get discounts, but you have to get the code from Jason. With not planning for this trip and limited funds, we bought enough so we could ride the coasters we wanted, then went back and bought more points for another ride on Ravine Flyer II. I have to say I love this park. It's small, it's quaint. An amazing woodie, two decent coasters and a great selection of flats. It's similar to Indiana Beach as far as offerings. Ravine Flyer II far exceeds any wooden coaster I've rode. (Will be doing Shivering Timbers very soon, I hear it might be better than Ravine Flyer II.) I found me a man while at Waldameer. I really don't understand clowns being in amusement parks. Every child I know is terrified of them. Perhaps it's because of Pennyworth? Love the statues around the park. Comet was a decent coaster. Very smooth. I really enjoyed Steel Dragon. I cannot wait to go back to this park. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because there's nothing tacky about Backlot. Of course.

Also Adventure Express here at KI.

We left the house at 5:45 am Sunday morning, already having made peace with the fact that we would not be checking into Hotel Breakers that afternoon. Found a $50 room at Knights Inn, hoping that the day after Bike Week would find the place cleaned up and in working order. Made it into downtown Pittsburgh around 11am. Got smack dab in the middle of a charity walk across the Roberto Clemente bridge. When in Rome, they say...what a party atmosphere around PNC Park, even at 11 in the morning on a Sunday. Being a native Cincinnati guy, I must say that I was very, very impressed with the downtown Pittsburgh area, and what they have done with the ballpark area. Far better atmosphere than GABP, better sight lines in the stadium, especially from the concourse behind home plate. My daughter wore her AJ Green jersey, and a Reds hat, whilst I sported a Reds t-shirt. Expected the worst, but only got some good natured heckling. Met some great fans. Made it to our seats in right field, heckled Ryan Braun a bunch, watched a boring 1-0 game, made our way back to the car. Easy to get into, and easy to get out of downtown. On our way to Sandusky! Checked into the Knights Inn a little after 7pm. Talked to the nice lady behind the counter for a while, who confirmed that the hotel was dead, they were looking forward to catching their breath after Bike Week, as they were booked solid until that Sunday. This place is not the Ritz, but very clean, very good value for the money. Checked out Monday morning at 6:45, made it to the front gate of CP at 7:02am. Made it to the parking lot of Hotel Breakers at 7:20 am. Front doors opened at 8am, but we figured that beating the throng back to the lot would be a good idea, and boy, did that turn out to be right on the money. Never in my life have I seen a line so long to check into a hotel than what was in that lobby at 8:15 that morning. Felt bad for the people getting their tickets and ERT passes. Having our platinum passes, we figured we would come back at lunch time. Tailgated in the parking lot with coffee, Dr. Pepper, and donuts until 8:45. First ride of the day was Gatekeeper. Front row, right side. A fun ride, not too forceful. Found it to be a far, far better ride from the back, which, as we would find out, would be a running theme at CP. Next, off to Raptor. 20 years old, and, it shows. I would put it as if B&M and Arrow had a baby, and had an inverted coaster that would box your ears, it would be Raptor. Rode it once, will never ride it again. Just beat me up. Neat to see, though, the upgrades from that to Banshee, and what a night and day difference the rides really are. Next off to Millenium Force. Having read "millenium forceless" forever, wanted to find out for myself. Front row ride. Shirts up over the nose, up the hill we went. Up the hill we stopped...then, up and over, though at a far slower speed. Decent ride, though seemed "slow". That was right. Rode immediately again, as they let us thru without walking around, back row this time. One train wait, danced to the "house" music, and, off we went. All I can say it, anyone who calls that ride forceless has not ridden in the back row. I can see why it has been ranked #1 for so many years. Superb. Next, off to Maverick. First half of the ride, was very enjoyable. Second half, after the shot thru the tunnel, beat me to death. My neck STILL hurts...of course, we did ride it a few more times. and, the second half still beats you up pretty good. Better restraints would make that ride really, really fun. TTD was down at 10am, which would be a running theme for two full days. Talked to one of the workers in line Tues night for a good half hour, he was curious how I knew about the Rec Hall riot...lol. Very nice young man. After 4 times trying to ride TTD, and having it break down, sometimes 5 minutes into a wait, sometimes 20 minutes into a wait. Shame the thing is so darn unreliable, as it is a super fun ride. Did a turn on Magnum XL, Gemini, and the Lake Erie Eagles, then, made the walk to the front desk to check in. No wait, were able to get right into our room on the first floor of Bon Air at 11:15 am. Frankly, made the rest of that day easy to breathe. Clean room, perfect for our needs. People compain about the price, as you are paying triple retail. But, tell me. Where else can you stay where you can walk from your room, and in 5 minutes, be at the beach, at the pool, in the hot tub, in the park, on in Soak City? Nowhere. That is what you are paying for, the convenience. Not having to get into the car from 7am Monday until 11am Weds is the way to go. As far as the old favorites go, I enjoyed Gemini very, very much. If only Arrow could have made all their rides so smooth. Magnum XL-200 is not my cup of tea. Only good part is the 200 foot lifthill. Rough as can be. Rode it to say I rode it. Typical rough Arrow ride. Iron Dragon is a cool little ride, The Bat is far better, ID is just in a far better location. Corkscrew, what can I say. A classic. Short, sweet, typical Arrow ride, didn't beat me up as much as I thought it would, but not enough speed to really do that. Cedar Creek Mine is a neat, old ride. Blue Streak is perfect. Like half of our Racer, but better somehow. Wicked Twister was great. Not a fan usually of that type ride, but the pure speed is great, the twists up are incredible. Far better than what I thought it would be. Mean Streak was, truthfully, a far better ride than I thought. Rough, but just the right kind of rough. Walked on that ride for two days straight. Ride gets no love, but I enjoyed it very much. Did two of the three water rides, every time we were dressed and ready to ride, Shoot The Rapids was down. Both enjoyable, one better than Congo Falls, while Whitewater Canyon wins that battle. Last, Mantis. First stand up ride I've ridden since King Cobra. Enjoyable, restraint system is uncomfortable for a 6'6" guy. All in all, was a really neat experience to see all the different rides, some that were precursors to far better ride designs. I must say, though, that Banshee as a whole beats anything that Cedar Point has to offer, with the exception of Millenium Force. Quantity and atmosphere, CP wins the day. Great park to take a two day visit, where you can relax at the hotel/pool for an hour between riding sessions.

Someone's being a creeper haha

i havent been to the park and havent been on the site for a while, last i heard it was rumored to leave but that was months ago, kinda sad to see it go was the only ride at the park my mom liked.

My longest time ever waiting for a ride... too long. Sent from my iPh... oh you get it already.

1. It's Friday 2. Weather is iffy 3. Plans by some will be set in stone, others willy nilly depending on the weather.

Firehawk is always the worst for me. The line moves so slowly. And, even with the covering, it is so stinking hot under there. I usually only ride it a few times per year. McSalsa, we waited 4 hours and 10 minutes on opening day to ride Banshee. Whew! During the late 80s, I can remember waiting 2-3 hours for the major rides. The Beast even had "Beast" tracks when handled the overflow into the main park. I'm glad there are more high thrill rides so that people are spread out.

Yes it does! Thank you.

How many guests are we aloud to bring? I'm assuming 1, but I can't find this information.

It would help if they would add the soft straps to the Maverick restraints like I-305 at Kings Dominion.

The lockers at Universal are great, but the ones at Holiday World are excellent as well, possibly even better. The lockers use waterproof wristbands to open. You can get up to two wristbands from the self-serve kiosks and up to four wristbands if you purchase from the rental booth. That way there's no keys to lose or codes to chance being seen by others. We used these lockers last year and they were the best ones (along with Universal's) that I've ever used. Here's the Holiblog about them from last year that includes a video on how they work: http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2013/05/29/are-you-smarter-locker/

So my mom and I are heading over for the rest of the night at the park! Thanks to platinum passes and a hotel 15 minutes away!

I'm not going to focus on the negative of whatever allegedly happened (I honestly only saw two people wearing last year's shirt (PKIVortex and his partner) and they were given permission to attend at KI since CP's event got cancelled/rescheduled.) I had a great time at the event! Thankfully I got to registration early on, because the line for registration was moving a little bit slow. Diamondback ERT/Marathon was great! 8 rides to wake me up! Afterwards, Gator, Princess Sparkles, beastie1980, jlopez and a few others hit up The Beast right afterwards. It was a great front row ride! Gator and I then headed to Backlot before heading over to The Racer. That ride was probably my most favorite on Backlot. Then it was time for Racer marathoning! As often as we could, we avoided wheel seats! Just before noon, it started to rain slightly. Wasn't too bad of a ride with the rain. Lunch time was good. The food was great again. The macaroni salad was probably the best I've ever tasted. Soon after lunch, we went back to The Racer. Tons of marathoning. I finally felt like I had enough and ended my marathon with 33 total rides. Relaxed for a bit then ate Hanks for dinner. The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed with a stop to see Cirque Imagine. The event ended with Banshee night time ERT. I determined my first ride after dark had to be in the front row! HOLY COW! What a great experience! I had about 8 rides on it that evening. I was quite surprised of how each ride was different in all the different seats that I sat in. 1-4, 8-1 and 8-4 were probably my favorite. The day was extremely exhausting but quite fun! I was happy to meet some people finally from this site on Saturday and Sunday!

Feel it stop moving, click. Count to 7, kachunk- woosh. Get back In line.

Her daughter. Try to keep up.

Because no park anywhere ever engaged in misdirection during the tease stage. Of course.

Hopefully it's NOT a capacity of 102 per hour...

Pilgrim's Plunge isn't rumored to leave. It's already left. The fact that they did leave the splashdown does make me wonder if they'll use it in the future for a ride, though.

I'm a Legend person..Raven is close, they're almost tied for me If someone came up and said Voyage was their favorite it'd make sense and I'd understand why. I wouldn't agree but I do understand at least. Mean Streak Henry on the other hand...I just don't even know..

And that's what matters. Truly.

A diversion...

Eve's on it.