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I love the short wait of Banshee, I'm one of those people that stream straight from the gate to her. To start a visit with that fast line and great ride is fantastic- it sets up the mood for the rest of the day. The Banshee crew are tops.

I avoided Ohio park crowds by visiting a very uncrowded (and very dry, notwithstanding the forecast) Kennywood today. The only downside was that most coasters ran only one train. Definitely worth the trip. Phantom's Revenge and each of the classic wooden coasters were great, not to mention Noah's Ark and many of the flat rides. I did enjoy getting to ride an inverting Premier coaster and an indoor coaster after extended Flight of Fear downtime, albeit not at the same time. I closed out the day day riding Phantom's Revenge at night during fireworks. Some people that I talked to couldn't understand why I would drive so far (much further than "big" parks) to visit a "small" park. Overall, guests and employees seemed were very friendly here. I would compare the atmosphere to Dollywood or Holiday World, which I wasn't expecting in Pittsburgh. The only negatives were that the pizza isn't great (in my opinion at least) and that finding ride queue entrances can feel like a mini scavenger hunt. Interestingly, Phantom's queue is on the other side of the park from the station. Ride reviews and/or pictures (may be) coming later.

As most of you probably know, I'm lucky enough to write for an enthusiast website called Theme Park Tourist. Recently, I was able to collaborate with the incredible designer S.W. Wilson to bring a few "Ideal Build-Out" conceptual plans to life, basically tidying up and expanding famous parks to be their best selves. Of course, we started with Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, which (as we've discussed here, even) is feeling the weight of it's 90s studio theme. Big boxy showbuildings and mismatched rides don't scream "Disney," so I set out to redesign the park from scratch. I initially designed the park on paper: Then, S.W. took my concept and basically made sure it all fit. He created a scaled conceptual map that realistically organized the park in a way that could physically happen considering backstage facilities, access roads, and showbuilding size for different ride types. (To my credit, I wasn't far off!) Here is S.W.'s brilliant take: Renamed Disney Hollywoodland Park, the new version has 4 added E-tickets and 7 new, original themed lands. Is it realistic as a park expansion? Of course not. The notion of an "ideal build-out," in S.W.'s style, is to basically imagine where the park could be given unlimited time and resources, built-out to its fullest potential. Rumors have swirled for a while of Disney's Hollywood Studios getting a Cars Land or a Star Wars land. I took things in a little bit different of a direction. So, if you're into all things Disney or the above concepts pique your interest, head over to Theme Park Tourist and check out my land-by-land walkthrough of the "new" park! If you want to leave comments there, it would be great! And also here, of course.

My first ride in the first year of Beast operation was with Carl. During running of bulls he said 'stick with me' We got the front seat and it was a great experience!

Haha! You reminded me of one of the funniest moments I ever had at KI. The Zodiac was a double armed ferris wheel that was in the park in the 70's. We had to share the cage with a particularly smelly dad and two kids. My cousin lost his self-censorship due to the smell, and looked me, held his nose, and said loudly announced, "Pew!" The family just looked at him as if he were referring to someone else. The Zodiac had cages with iron bar sides, air constantly blew through the cage due to the motion, And this family still made us sick with their stank! To quote our friendly captain on Paddlewheel Excursions at CP when we passed the skunk: Let's hear a peuuu!!

It's not uncommon at all for the park to be crowded and Banshee to be a 10-20 minute wait. The crews do a great job getting the trains dispatched!

Quick list of all I did today: Diamondback (100th ride) Beast The Bat Banshee Ice Cream Won a basketball (forgive me) Won a giant hampster at bank a ball Put my hampster in the car Played the 3 point shootout (3 points meh) Friend won front of the line passes for all four of us Rode Banshee Headed home I left at about 4. Overall the trip was great and it wasn't too crowded. I've never done a trip report before so sorry if I'm doing it wrong.

Yeah, malem, anyone who questions your motives for attending Kennywood clearly hasn't been there.

I also saw them at Michigan's Adventure last week.

If you ask me, "dark ride" doesn't require a cart. I'd call a funhouse or dark walkthrough a sub-genre of dark ride. Just me justifying why my "dark ride" spreadsheet includes Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Noah's Ark, Poseidon's Fury, Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough, and Twister: Ride It Out. Kennywood is a fantastic little park. Thunderbolt is incredible. Only thing that irks me is that I (and others) think of the park as a dark-ride heavy park, but Noah's Ark is really the only classic classic one, you know? Ah if only Garfield's Nightmare was... I don't know, something else.

I remember having to purchase a "Cedar Fair MAXX Pass PLUS" at Geauga Lake to visit Knott's Berry Farm. Of course, the folks at Knott's had never heard of Geauga Lake or seen a pass from there, and it was a nightmare. At that time, I think it was standard fare to have to visit guest relations where a team member would need to call your home park and verify your identity, then print you off a gratis ticket with a manager's help if you used a MAXX Pass PLUS (and that's IF they believed your pass was valid at all... see the link provided above). It was a wildly ineffective system and was no doubt part of Kinzel's distaste for relying on technology and computer systems (something Cedar Fair is still paying for last I heard, if you can believe it). And the system they used was nothing short of laughable. A Pass was good at one park, MAXX Passes were good at certain parks, MAXX Pass PLUS at others, and a third tier or maybe add-on included water parks... It was just silly, and clearly based on the local-park model and centered around Cedar Point's pricing dynamic, and it made absolutely no sense to continue to use it when Cedar Fair's property count doubled and traveling between parks became much more logical. Plus, Paramount's system is intuitive. Regular (or at most parks, Silver), Gold, and Platinum passes. Easy. Aside from the parks themselves, Paramount's infrastructure there might be the biggest benefit Cedar Fair got from the purchase. Season('s) pass was good at Kings Island Maxx Pass was good at any dry park (not incl parking) Maxx Pass Plus was good at any of their properties including waterparks (not incl parking) This whole system only lasted a year. It was too complicated and dumb dumb dumb. When I went to Cedar Point with my Maxx Pass (as we called them at the time) they literally had me sign a box, then the associate had to hand write the 32-or-whatever number bar code number next to it. I literally could have used a 4 year old girl's pass and gotten away with it. This was before the chain-wide installation of Gate Central, the admissions software first seen at Paramount Parks.

Now that it is finally open again, Drop Tower is also often included.

People giving false information to scare people. Including when they try to shout it a bit, so that way they 'might scare people', and get them out of line.

While I understand why it is done it is the most annoying thing I have ever encountered on the Internet in nearly 20 years, lol. Not to mention this particular place is the ONLY one I have EVER encountered it on in all these years. Carry on.

@KingsIslandPR on Twitter: "On this date 33 years ago in 1981, Carl Eichelman took his 2000th ride on The Beast." (The tweet mentioned above can be found here.)

Haha! You reminded me of one of the funniest moments I ever had at KI. The Zodiac was a double armed ferris wheel that was in the park in the 70's. We had to share the cage with a particularly smelly dad and two kids. My cousin lost his self-censorship due to the smell, and looked me, held his nose, and said loudly announced, "Pew!" The family just looked at him as if he were referring to someone else. The Zodiac had cages with iron bar sides, air constantly blew through the cage due to the motion, And this family still made us sick with their stank!

I like the fact that loose articles are not permitted. That is the main reason it loads faster.

Can't wait!

First water rafting ride to have an inversion Too soon?

And that lengthens your wait exactly how?

Wait, whoa, wait. You're saying FoF is open?

Haunt and corrupted? Say it isn't so!

The discount is off the full price of $59.99, not the online discounted price.

There are no "cheap" bring-a-friend days scheduled in July. These tend to be during less busy times of the season to encourage attendance. Gold/platinum passholders can bring a friend at a reduced rate ($37.99, if I recall correctly) throughout the season. Call the park to confirm the current price and availability.

We're going there tomorrow before the Cincinnati Pops concert at Riverbend. Definitely ride Rock-O-Planes, it's one of our favorite rides there. I like Coney's Scrambler better than KI's. The Flying Bobs and Tilt-A-Whirl are also lots of fun. As many times as I've been there, I've never ridden the Dodgem's but I hear they're good. I plan on finally riding them tomorrow.

A thread EXACTLY two years old! Neato.

Yes....do not share the itinerary! Please also be patient, not all emails have been sent at the same exact time.

I watched that as well. I was more surprised that they had a show about the construction of an attraction that had not even opened yet. I was also surprised that they showed the spectacular fails of the boats flying off the slide. I had heard it had happened but figured they would gloss over that. It was pretty cool to watch. It reminded me of many of my early RCT 2 creations.

It finished and slows to a trough that dumps out into a knee high pool but a lifeguard stands at the end of a trough I believe that is what the pads are for. Also again, the whole bottom of the drop to the finish was ripped up and redone, all the angles, length, etc. are all different. Only the drop height remains Still..hold my beer, let me ride.

As long as I stayed in the trough, if there were say high walls, I'd ride it in the original state. Freaking awesome ride..It has a, hold my beer, pucker up, and go kind of mentality, and that's fantastic Reminds me of the stupid stunt and thrill stuff I did as a kid with MTB doing XCountry, etc.

At most coaster club events, nothing is mailed in advance. Usually everything is picked up at the check-in window when you arrive, including admission tickets. I assume that it will be the same here.

Maybe

No. That tale, as told by them, came later, after they selected the most qualified general manager and vice president in all the world, who only so happened to be The Most Honorable His Excellency Who Must Not Be Questioned and Lord And Ruler of All He Surveyed's son.

Tomorrow, tomorrow.... Big Droppy Thing, opens to the public at New Jersey's Finest Theme Park...

Thought this was funny... From the Holiblog: Captain Obvious here thinks that the ride may involve some sort of "drop."

Noah's Ark is the best dark ride at a season park that I've ever been on. KW is definitely worth the drive. In all honesty, it's about as far as Holiday World but offers much much more.

Oh how I wish they would bring back the trams, then I would have no problem ever with parking further away.

Kings Dominion also sells these. They must be rather popular now.

Trip Report 7/2 This has to have been one of the most spontaneous trips I've ever done. Not from going to the park at random, but just the random-ness of the day. After breakfast at Frisch's, I headed in for ERT right at 9:30. It was then I reached the next level of enlightenment, also known as my first ride on Banshee in the front seat. Holy cow, what an unobstructed view looks like on an inverted coaster. It was sheer gracefulness. Its probably the smoothest ride I've ever had on her. I will say that the forces are better in the back, especially the first drop, but the view alone makes up for the difference. The crowds through the morning were pretty typical for a weekday. I hit about 9 rides worth of action before lunch, which I ate early at 11:30, at Juke Box which was really good. I also invested in an all day drink band which I abused and got more than my money's worth, including the best thing ever to come out of a Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine- Strawberry Minute Maid Lemonade. The strawberry flavor smoothed over the sourness of the lemonade and it was just pure liquid gold. I'm sooooo glad of the existence of those bands now. I'll likely use them every trip as long as they're around. Well worth the $10. Suddenly between noon and 3, the crowds just exploded. Lines got long in a hurry. I had energy to make it the rest of the day, but the weekend-esque crowds came out of nowhere. I then gave in and purchased my first Fast Lane pass. I went with the standard as I didn't want to ride Firehawk and Banshee's crew was working its magic enough to where I could tolerate that line. A lot of rides near the back got waits close to an hour though. Beast had both queue houses open and Diamondback was on the verge of opening the lower switchbacks at one point. Diamondback's crew stunk on toast today, at least in the evening. They talked to guests boarding that the train would leave in 45 seconds each, which I understand they want to get better capacity numbers, but the way it was said and just the tone of voice made it seem they were angry at guests for no reason. I could just feel the tension in the station, they must have got the wrong end of a lecture from someone higher up. It was not a fun station to be in that evening. Fast Lane was nice to have, obviously. I have to admit, I did feel a little weird being the one with Fast Lane instead of normally trekking through the line and watching other people use it to their leisure. I did go on a wicked marathoning spree on Diamondback and Beast in the evening to close out the day, including one of the best Beast night rides I've ever had. I'll put it this way- first of all, I go the front seat, add that over cast skies, also some rain soaked track as it rained during the fireworks closure, and a little ongoing mist, and it just worked out beautifully. Beast also had a really fun crew to juxtapose the Diamondback crew's tension. The wait for the fireworks was quite enjoyable. I also rode Racer and Vortex aplenty. I also think I may have helped a girl be less afraid to ride Banshee the first time. She was happy coming off of it, so I must have done something right. Oh, and I rode with Gary Coleman on my final Diamondback ride. Didn't talk to him out of courtesy, but I did watch how he rode. He was very relaxed and nonchalant it seemed. I imagine after 10K+ rides, you tend to know how a ride goes enough to ride it without much need for bracing and whatnot.

At least the Banshee station is a cool place to be at, and not a heat/humidity bomb.

That's why it was only 10 minutes. What is usually maybe a 30 to 45 minute wait, is a 10 to 15 minute wait on Banshee, that's the beauty of the ride!

bring back the parking trams and a lot of people would be happy

I'm still recovering from the brain damage I received from Sidewinder at Hersheypark in 2011. Ugh. Never again. That giant piece of crap makes Invertigo feel like Banshee.

Please guys, this isn't a 8 ball thread, this isn't a future trip planning thread. Current wait times for rides at Kings Island only.

In my experience, teens today, on average, are actually better behaved and socially concious than the ones from my own childhood and teenage years (and the first decade of this century). I've been pleasantly surprised, often. The unfortunate thing with people in general is that the rude and ill behaved draw so much more attention than the far greater number who aren't like that.

I'd say the young girls wearing far too revealing clothes and spray on tans, but that's more of a general complaint. In my 7th grade so many girls looked like baked potatoes wearing Polly Pocket clothes...

I know this thread is about pet peeves but please pardon me from deviating to say something positive. I know a lot of of pet peeves have been about disrespectful youth. I have to say that while I have experienced this, I must say that I feel most young people are basically good. I would like to share an experience I had at the park a couple of months ago. Near the front entrance of the park I tripped and fell. ( I won't go into it but it was my fault folks.) There was a minute or so when I was in such pain that I could not move. Then, four young people whom I would say were about 17 checked on me to see if I was ok. One of them said that he would not leave unless they saw that I could get up ok. After I was feeling better, I started to get up and one of them helped me by pulling me by my hand. Luckily, I did not have to go to the doctor-just some bruising. I wish I could have found out those young people's names so I could get in touch with their parents to thank them for raising such decent, kind human beings. Another good example of the goodness of our youth is the awesome staff of KI-need I say more?

Alright here's my thesis with the past few "leads". First off, in regards to the storm, I personally believe that it is an allusion, and an analogy for Thunder Run and Lightning Run both now "rocking" the boat that was added this year, The MayFlower. Secondly, the children personally sound like the enthusiasts, but something about the posts makes since of this. With the older children being able to go top side, it was referring to those who got the word on the 66 Days at Sea and those who witnessed a few events by admin. Third, to the big bang of the whole op, the attraction. I personally think this will be an B&M family attraction for 2015. Invert or not, it will be fun for everyone, with possibly a few inversions and a few water effects scattered around. In any circumstance, the addition would be amazing for 2015 at Holiday World.

And gang signs. Hersheypark can does prosecute riders who do this. The evidence is darn near irrefutable.

Basketballs... stupid basketballs...