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My 2018 season at Kings Island was amazing. I already wrote about this earlier in the year in another topic, but heck, it's worth repeating. I'll try to make this a bit different though. I got Platinum Passes for the first time (also wanted to go to Cedar Point- and did twice- in 2018 for Steel Vengeance), and thus I went to the park 6 times total, which may not be a lot to some on here, but it DOUBLES my next best year (which was 2014). I got a "surprise" visit for the first time- my sister didn't tell me we were going for Media Preview Day, tricked me into going for a car ride, and then she spilled the beans as we were almost into Ohio. I also- finally- saw my first shows. The Dog Show was fun, but Gravity blew me away. The Peanuts Celebration was awesome, I liked the special food offerings and free donuts, and it was nice to finally see the Enchanted Theater be used. The park looked better than ever, at least as long as I have been visiting (2000, and then 2009-2018). The landscaping was very nice in the summer, and when Haunt hit, the fog created a incredible atmosphere. Then came Winterfest, which I missed in 2017, but was able to do a few days for the first time: WOW. Never have I seen that many Christmas Lights in one place! I also liked the new lights on Racer. The food service at KI may be inconsistent at times, but I may have gotten lucky. We didn't eat in the park a ton, but we usually got good results when we did. Everything was at least decent tasting, though a few items of note did rise above the rest and stand out, like the Chicken Shack Chicken Wrap I had half of (which also gave a much-needed energy boost). I also really liked the Chicken Tenders from Island Smokehouse. The only "bad" food experience I had was on preview night when everything had monster lines, but I was kind of expecting that because preview night=employees doing this for the very first time. This was also the year I got my first ride on a now-defunct coaster: Firehawk. I waited until August to ride it, and only rode it once because it kept breaking down in September. To be honest, I only ever rode the coaster 4 times since I started coming back to KI in 2009. It was a decent coaster, but I was not a fan of the huge lines and constant breakdowns. I was usually going to X-Base for Flight of Fear anyway, to be honest. There is a very good chance whatever replaces it, be it Giga, Wing, Dive, or Floorless will be something I ride a lot more often. Overall, I'd say Kings Island was better in 2018 than any previous year I had visited the park (again since 2009 mostly, plus a visit I only sorta remember way back in 2000 when Son of Beast was new). I would imagine the Kings Mills Antique Autos are gonna make the back of Coney Mall near WindSeeker and Vortex look much nicer, making the park even prettier. And I can't wait to see what special events the park does next year, to follow up the Peanuts Celebration of 2018. Heck, April 2019 can't come soon enough. I even renewed that Plantium Pass anyway, so of course I am gonna be back next year...

This is just a mash up of the clips I took last night of New Years at KI. This was KI’s first New Years celebration. Did you get to attend? What were your thoughts? Was it a blast or was it a bust?

I still think this would fit just fine in X-Base. something similar would be fantastic.

My family had an amazing 2018 season at Kings Island!! It was our 3rd year with Gold Passes, and also our first year with the meal plan. We made 26 visits (coming from 90 minutes away) and had 144 meals, so the cost was well worth it. Our experience with the meal plan was very good. We had a few misses, but most of our meals were hits. We loved the addition of Coney BBQ. Our biggest excitement of the year was that our 9 year old son hit 54 inches over the winter, so Gold Pass night was really exciting, getting to ride the big 4 as a family, rather than having to split up. We also did an overnight trip that weekend and went for our first opening day. The weather wasn't the best, but it sure helped thin out the crowds that day We truly enjoyed "The Greatest Show" fireworks this year, and had a blast walking out each night singing the music from The Greatest Showman. We also experienced our first Tower and WindSeeker fireworks shows. If you have never watched the fireworks from WindSeeker, I highly recommend it!! Overall, the 2018 season was our best season yet, and for 2019 we have Platinum Passes, so we are planning on hitting up Cedar Point, Kings Dominion, and Carowinds....in addition to KI of course Happy new year everyone!!!

See why woudl the park invest money into creating this when they can get an enthusiast to do it for free.

I like that idea. Something like that would fit in perfectly.

I experienced four (technically five) parks this past year: Kings Island (of course), Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, Darien Lake, and Cedar Point. I also went to Soak City once! One of these years I will actually get around to going to Soak City more than once. I love water slides but I love roller coasters even more! I also visited Splashtown Waterpark for the first time during my Darien Lake trip. I wrote my longest post yet on Facebook which still covered only a good portion of my many experiences in 2018, the majority of which came from Kings Island since I worked/visited almost every day for the whole summer. In fact, after doing a little math, I found that I made 103 trips to Kings Island (including the pre-season work-specific trips such as Orientation) which adds up to 154.5 hours of driving between home and the park, and almost 7,000 miles! I'm hoping I can live in the new dorm this coming season so I can spare my dad's car some mileage (and gas usage!), especially since I live far enough away to be given priority. I loved the 2018 season and all its jam-packed adventures! Even though I already miss Vortex and WindSeeker, I know I need this three-month break so I can be recharged and ready to work my third season when April rolls around!

The Bansheelover family had a great 2018 season at Kings Island. We visited the park 43 times this year. 25 dry park trips,12 Waterpark trips, 3 Haunt trips, and 3 Winterfest trips. Living only 5 minutes away has many benefits. Many of our dry park trips were on errands that were being run down to Fields Ertl seeing the parking lot was not very full. We would run in, and ride a ride the kids wanted to ride, usually Diamondback, and then go home. Most of the trips were 3-4 hours max on very slow days. We rode every coaster 40 plus times with the exception of Firehawk. I only rode it 5 times, and my kids were scared of it. This year my oldest topped 54 from day one, and rode every ride except Firehawk. My middle topped 54 in August, and began riding everything except Firehawk, and the littlest finally hit 48 in October, and took on The Bat, Adventure Express, BLSC, and Mystic Timbers. She expressed fear of The Racer and The Beast. With having a daughter who did not cross into the big rides we also spent a lot of time in Planet Snoopy allowing her to ride multiple rides. We also spent a lot of time in the waterpark, the kids rode everything they were tall enough for more times than I can count. This was also the first year they all wanted to Haunt. It was a great time watching them experience it, and we were able to experience all of Haunt in our three trips. We made three trips to Winterfest experiencing everything it had to offer, and drank way too much hot chocolate. Overall 2018 Kings Island was our greatest year yet! I also took my two oldest to Cedar Point for a day, and they cannot wait to go back. Unknown to my family I have upgraded our passes to platinum, and with food passes. 2019 looks to be the greatest amusement park year of our lives!

It looks like someone already made a mock up of the ride. Looking at Gould’s website, ride will have theoretical capacity of 400 pph.

Today is the last day of operations for the 2018 season. Yes, yes, we will end this evening in 2019. For me I spent 30 days in a Cedar Fair park in 2018. I made a lot of memories with my family and our KIC family as well. My daughter hit the 52" mark and got to ride Banshee for the first time ever. She loved it. My 4 year old hit his own milestone of 40" for his first ride on Woodstock Express. He can't wait to ride Mystic Timbers when he gets tall enough. We loved the peanuts celebration and hope it returns in 2019. The special events at the park really add a lot of value to families. Coasterstock was again a great event that we are looking forward to its return in 2019. The addition of Coney BBQ was a great addition to the food lineup. The foods department has made big improvements in the last several seasons, but they still have room to grow especially with consistency at all locations. I am very excited for the addition of Kings Mills Antique Autos. I think this is the addition the park needs for it's next ride. I can not wait to see what that area looks like next year. Haunt seemed to go for quality over quantity. The new areas were excellent, but hope in 2019 they can expand that in the other existing areas and houses. Winterfest did not disappoint, I did not think they could improve over last year, but KI proved that it was possible. Moving the skating prep area to the East side of the fountain was a great decision, and opening up the path between Coney and Rivertown was also a great move. I appreciate the Reds Grill Buffett. The change I would make in there would be to get ride of the Frozen cookies and hand out a fresh made normal size cookies. @DonHelbig wrote a great blog post about 18 notible KI moments in 2018. This might help you with writing about your 2018 season. Tell us about your 2018 season and what you would like to see in 2019! https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2018/december/the-year-that-was-–-a-look-back-at-the-moments-that-shaped-2018-at-kings-island

I've often wondered what could've been myself. I never rode Son of Beast, but my father found it to be a very rough and uncomfortable ride. He's an engineer and he said, while Sonny was still SBNO, that the park should've invested money in rebuilding the coaster with stronger, more durable wood. One of his favorite roller coasters was Mean Streak at Cedar Point, the giant Dinn Corporation woodie built in 1991 (He had gone up with my mother that season to ride it; we still have photos of the new southern yellow pine structure in a photo album). Shortly before the coaster closed in 2016 to make way for what would become Steel Vengeance, we went up and rode it one last time (first and last times for me). Despite its roughness and bumpy ride experience, I actually enjoyed Mean Streak and could see why he liked it. The major downside to Son of Beast was that Paramount cut costs while building the coaster, explaining why they didn't use the best wood. Mean Streak, on the other hand, had a great structure with track that quickly got rougher over time. When the rumors of Son of Beast returning began stirring, which I knew there was no water to those theories, I began wondering to myself if had Son of Beast been similar to Mean Streak, with a much more sound structure, would it still be around to this day. Still, to this day, my father and I both look back at the possibilities and the potential the ride had.

A Innovator using Coaster stuff? https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/vintage-roller-coaster-fans-see-familiar-tech-elon-musk-s-n951311

We are very lucky, and I am lucky to have kids who love roller coasters. There have been times they say I know you have to cut the grass or do something, but can we please go ride The Beast one time? I cave we go ride The Beast 2-3 times, and come home.

@Bansheelover I can’t fathom living so close to the park that it becomes a pit stop while you’re running errands...it must be nice!

I saw on videos uploaded that a lot of Firework shells were exploding at lower than usual heights compared to shows with no wind. Did they seem low?

The park did a great job tonight for their first New Year's Eve celebration. Lots of energy and music and shows were great. There is no doubt the weather did the park no favors tonight but it's always a risk this time of year at an outdoor venue. We made the drive down from Toledo and we will be making this an annual event assuming it comes.back.

I had a really great season. Here is a review of this year! http://kingsislandghosts.blogspot.com/2018/12/2018-kings-island-year-in-review.html

Resurrecting this thread...I still have both reels and am preparing to get them digitized. Unfortunately more than half of the Coney reel is filled with St. Patrick's Day Parade and family picnic stuff. Whoever the camera operator in question was sure had a thing for mini skirts. Kind of creepy actually. Unfortunately, due to a belt-related incident involving my projector, I still haven't been able to see the rest of it. Who knows how much actual Coney footage is on there. The KI reel, however, is well worth checking out. Stay tuned...

I had another good year at the park. My family & I made 4 three day trips this year. I once again want to compliment the landscaping department...the park looked great this year. My nephew also turned 4 this year and hit the 40” mark...so lots of cool new adventures with him! Even though the new Coney Barbecue is not my food style, I love the new building and the nice back access to the carousel. We all attended the Peanuts Celebration...that was a nice special event! I have attended every Fearfest & Halloween Haunt...and either i’m getting bored or the park is. I thought that this year’s version may have been my least favorite. The whole thing seems on lackluster autopilot...and I hate that Winterfest invades it...it ruins the atmosphere. I will give props to the Pumpkin Eater walk through...the hanging pumpkins were excellent. Haunt was always my favorite time of year at the park...not so much now. I’m beginning to wonder if fighting the huge crowds for a “been there done that” event is worth it anymore. Winterfest...what can I say, I am not a big Christmas fan...but the park is amazing!!! It looks awesome, and there is just SO much to do. I would have a real tough time picking my favorite...the roaming characters, the lights, the photo ops...it is all great. ( I would ditch the haunted house entrance though...that ain’t fooling anyone.) Thanks Kings Island for another great year!

Congrats to Sam Hill on her retirement after 48 years! #ThankYouSam

@Rallyomalley The fact that you have been to the park 110 times and yet you still continue to eat the park’s food tells them that they have no reason to improve it.

Hi everyone! Get ready for a McSalsa Trip Report...IN DECEMBER!?!? Yep: I went to Winterfest at Kings Island for the first time yesterday! But first, here is ride rating system as usual: F- Garbage. I regret ever riding this and will not make the same mistake of ever riding it again! D- Mediocre. A disappointing, or painful ride, though there might be a little fun here. I might give a D-Tier ride a second chance but it is gonna need to be a walk-on or something. C- Average. A fun ride, but either there is enough roughness/pain to dilute it, or it just does not blow me away. Will still ride this if the wait is not too bad, though. B- Good. A ride I enjoy, but it may have some flaws, but I will happily re-ride this unless the wait is pretty crazy. A- Awesome. These rides leave me with a huge grin usually, and I will ride them over and over if there is a short wait. If there are long waits around the entire park, I may aim for these anyway, as if you are gonna wait, best to be for something worth it. Surpassed only by... S- Epic. The best of the best. I am usually giddy and my happiness meter is maxed out after riding one of these. Tragically, these are not the most common rides out there, however. Note: If you wan na take this as a 1-10 system, S=10, A=9, B=8, C=7, D=6, and F=5 or worse. I was with the same group of people I have done most of my 2018 trips: it was me, my sister, and the 2 usual friends: A (Who Doesn't Really Do Looping Coasters) and B (Who Does). On a small side note, both sides of I-74 heading from Central Indiana to Cincinatti have finally been fixed, and the road construction that has been there all year is finally gone. In spite of this, we arrived a bit late- the park opened at 4, but we showed up around 4:30PM. We still arrived in time for the lighting ceremony though. But first, we headed for... Ride #1: Mystic Timbers Wait: 15 Minutes We headed for Mystic Timbers first, as we figured its line would grow after the tree lighting and stuff. When we arrived though it was still only at 15 minutes, even with only 2 trains. The ride ran pretty fast for such cold temperatures (BRR BTW) but the airtime was a bit weak, but I figure that was because the ride had just opened not too long before this and hadn't broken in for the day yet.It was still a very fun ride though, nice way to start the day. BTW, we got Snakes in the shed. Rating: A- After Mystic Timbers, we headed over and saw the "Tree" Lighting. It was fun, the singers were good, and I LOL'ed at the fake snow which was soap. There was this one strand of lights on the Eiffel "Tree" that was constantly green, so I assume that strand was busted. Then we headed through Candy Cane Lane, aka the Tower Gardens. It was BEAUTIFUL as the lights had turned on by now. Then we headed to Coney Mall, as my sister wanted to do a Horse Carriage ride. They were $40 but for 4 people, so $10 per person (which is not a bad price for carriage rides), so we went ahead and did it. Ride #2: Coney Mall Carriage Rides (Note: Upcharge) Wait: None This was a nice, relaxing way to go up and down Coney Mall and see all the pretty lights. Monster is taken apart for the year, it was kinda shocking to see it in pieces like that. I do like Racer's new "Millennium Force" style lighting package, it looks cool. We then turned around and went down the other way. A fun Winterfest-exclusive attraction. Rating: C After the Carriage Rides, we headed over to Flight of...Cheer (LOL Winterfest). My friends wanted to smoke so I took advantage of the single rider line. Rides #3-6: Flight of Cheer (x4!!!) Wait: 2 Cycles or so each time (Less than 5 Minutes Each) And the Single Rider Line, ironically, had no line! I just walked up to the station, waited for a empty seat (which happened almost every train) and boarded in whatever row I was put in. For the first ride, I got put in the back of the 1st car. I'll "review" my rides at the end of this section. After I got off and headed out, I found out that my sister and Friend B had finished smoking and were in line now, via Friend A who couldn't do loops (much- hence he didn't ride). So I went around again, and rode the ride 2 more times via Single Rider Line- from the middle car, and then the front of the very back car. After that (and a few minute breather) my friends got off the ride and said they waited 15-20 minutes. So via Single Rider Line, I rode 3 times to their one. And they decided to smoke AGAIN when we got off from their ride, so...one more ride, rode in the middle again. 4 rides in a row is enough to really get a good sense of what I like and don't like about this coaster. I love the launch and first few inversions, it feels like you are going super fast. The midcourse brake run kinda kills the speed, and hanging over the edge while turning is a bit awkward in the front car, but after a few drops and turns you are going again. Then you start going into more and more aggressively banked turns, and finish the ride with the final corkscrew- which is a great ending, IMO, as the banked turns tease you will flip and then the corkscrew does just that. Flight of Fear is a rock solid ride, probably my #5 in the park behind the "Big 4". It was also running pretty smooth from all seats for all my rides, which was a nice plus as it can sometimes be a bit rough. Also: STUPID ALIEN AT THE END, CHRISTMAS IS OVER!!! Rating: B+ Leaving Flight of Cheer and the "dead" Firehawk behind (I only rode it 4 times from 2009-2018: FOF matched that total in 20 minutes tonight!), we headed out of X-Base, but my sister wanted to ride Zephyr, so we did. Ride #7: Zephyr Wait: 1 Cycle (About 5 Minutes) Brr, these really are the "coolest" swings in Coney Mall, with WindSeeker closed at least (that would be stupid cold and possibly dangerous to ride in these temperatures). It was fun to swing around even in the cold, and the ride op had us play a fun game during the ride: sing the Spongebob theme song! Rating: C+ After a fun ride on Zephyr, we checked the line for Scrambler, and it was crazy. Looked like a 20 minute wait, which was worse than some of the roller coasters! I wonder why Scrambler was suddenly super popular. Instead, we decided to ride the Grand Carousel. Ride #8: Grand Carousel Wait: 1 Cycle (Again About 5 Minutes) The Organ was working, which was a plus. This ride looked GORGEOUS all decorated for Winterfest, props to the Winterfest guys/gals who did this ride. I ended up having to ride a horse that didn't move, but I did enjoy going around in the cold on this old classic from 1926. Rating: C After the Carousel, we headed to International Street to locate The Beast Hot Chocolate, but when we did we found it sold out (Beast be popular yo). So we settled for some regular hot cocoa at Blitzen's Hot Drinks, and I got a season long drink refill soda. We then used the bathrooms, warmed up near a heater thing the park had kindly put out (THANK YOU KI!!!) and then headed for Action Ice Zone. We saw a little of the Ice Sculptors, took some pics in the big globe, and then rode... Ride #9: Action Zone Sleds Wait: 15 Minutes Since they were next to Drop Tower (and even using some of its que) these sleds were not intimidating at all. It was a bit of fun to slide down (I struggled to get going for a second) but I have slid down a much bigger hill on sleds before (a few years ago) and this was nothing in comparison. Still, it was a Winterfest exclusive attraction, and we had time to kill. Rating: D+ After the sleds, we left Action Ice Zone, and cut through Festhaus where I got another glimpse at a show. It looked well made from the brief glimpse of it I saw. Then we headed to Rivertown, as we wanted to ride the Train. Ride #10: Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad (12 Days of Christmas) Wait: 15-20 Minutes We boarded the Green Train, only for them to decide to put it up. So that is why there was a 20 minute wait- we had to wait for the Green Train to go in its shed, and then wait on Blue Train to pull up. The Train itself was pretty fun, you got some nice views of Diamondback at night and Mystic Timbers you don't often see. And the lights for the 12 Days of Christmas were nice. But, there was ONE thing we all hated- the song gets old, and playing 4 versions of it doesn't help much (and I didn't even notice sometimes when the changed versions). I much, MUCH perfer Ghost Riders in the Sky! Rating: D+ (would have been a C but hated song by the end!) After the KI & MV RR, we ended the night with the nearby roller coaster... Rides #11-13: Mystic Timbers (x3) Wait: Under 5 Minutes, 15 Minutes, Walk-On My friends decided to smoke again first, so for the first ride, I used Single Rider Line again and waited less than 5 minutes. As with Flight of "Cheer", I will do the review part at the bottom here. When we rode as a group, we waited 15 minutes, and then we got back in line for last train of the night with next to no wait (and rode in the very back)! Earlier, Mystic Timbers had decent speed, but kinda weak airtime. Well, after it has been running for a while, that changes and it has MUCH better airtime like it did on all 3 of these rides. The ride also felt even faster, too, as it had broken in. My solo ride was in the middle, I got some great Diamondback-style sustained floater air from there. We then rode from the front, and those seats gave semi-strong ejector air instead! The very back was also very fun, but I was expecting even more airtime there and it was actually a bit worse than the middle (though still a good amount). As for the shed endings, I got Snakes, Snakes AGAIN, and then finally Bats. I was actually glad to see Bats because I was getting tired of snakes! Anyhow, Mystic Timbers gave me some awesome rides to end my coaster riding in 2018. Rating: S After Mystic Timbers, Kings Island began to close. We headed out, took in the International Street Ambiance one more time, and headed out. And thus ends not only this Trip Report, but my 2018 Coaster Season. Before I get into Overall Season Stuff, here are the Pros/Cons of this trip: PROS +The Park is GORGEOUS for Winterfest! There are a insane amount of lights, and little touches like changing most of the signs for the shops goes a long way too! +Flight of Cheer and Mystic Timbers were running great +I didn't do a whole show from start to finish, but what little I saw was neat, and I liked the roaming actors too +The fact THE PARK IS EVEN OPEN IN DECEMBER! CONS -Many rides closed, it is to be expected (they have to do upkeep and maintenance and some rides can't run in cold) but it does suck a bit to see so many favorites closed -BRRR!!! COLD!!! Not park's fault but still a con. This was a AMAZING trip, and a great way to end the season. Now, as this was my for-sure final visit to KI in 2018, here are my ride totals for the year: Visits in 2018- 6 Passholder Preview Night: April 13th April 21st June 16th August 5th Haunt: September 29th Winterfest: December 29th There are Trip Reports for all of these BTW, search "McSalsa's Coaster Adventures" in Trip Reports to find them! KI RIDES RIDDEN IN 2018 (In Order of 1st Ride) Adventure Express- 6 Red Racer- 6 Vortex- 4 The Beast- 10 Diamondback- 9 Banshee- 6 Zephyr- 2 Eiffel Tower- 3 Mystic Timbers- 11 Backlot Stunt Coaster- 5 Flight of Fear- 7 Boo Blasters on Boo Hill- 1 Delirium- 2 The Bat- 4 Blue Racer- 2 Woodstock Express- 1 Dodgem- 1 Grand Carousel- 2 KI & MV RR- 6 Shake Rattle and Roll- 1 Drop Tower- 2 WindSeeker- 1 Firehawk- 1 (R.I.P) Viking Fury- 1 Invertigo- 1 Soak City Zoom Flume- 1 Splash River- 2 Tidal Wave Bay- 1 Note: Did not do too much in Soak City! (Looks at List of Rides Ridden) Woah that is a lot of rides taken in 2018! Wait a sec...OOPS! I forgot to ride Monster in 2018. I actually like that flat a lot, granted I did ride a semi-similar ride twice at fairs. I also didn't ride Surf Dog, or Woodstock Gliders, but I did get the same models at Cedar Point. I still need the credit for Flying Ace Aerial Chase too. Oh well, I did renew my pass, so those rides are ones I can aim for in 2019. Mystic Timbers, thanks to me getting 4 rides during Winterfest, was my most ridden ride at KI (or any park) in 2018 with 11 rides taken. Beast was #2 (Beast: "Grumble Grumble Stoopid Winterfest Why Do I Have 2 Close 4 It I am Wooden Too!") with 10, and Diamondback claims the Bronze with 9. And that does it for 2018. Kings Island really did a GREAT job this year. The park was nicer looking than I have ever seen it during my visits from 2009-2018, with the great landscaping in summer followed by Haunt's awesome atmosphere and of course Winterfest was incredible. Most of the food I ate was good too, and outside of preview night I didn't have any issues with food service at KI. I would say the Chicken Wrap from Chicken Shack and the Chicken Tenders at Island Smokehouse were my favorite KI foods in 2018 though. And of course, Kings Island has a solid ride selection as well. KI is one of the few parks I would say has both great steel AND wooden coasters while lacking a truly terrible adult coaster (Invertigo is my least favorite and it can still be fun sometimes), and there are some fun flat rides. And the ride crews were great most of the time too. Waterpark is OK, nowhere near as good as Splashin' Safari at Holiday World but it does its job. Now I look to next year. The Antique Autos will be a nice family addition in 2019, and I look foward to whatever special events they do as well, like the Peanuts Celebration they did in 2018. Not to mention we might start seeing construction for the nearly confirmed mystery B&M. Speculation is usually pretty fun. Well, that is all! This is the end of my 2018 Trip Reports. See U all in 2019! MCSALSA AWAY!!!

I like the idea of bringing a Mack water coaster to the park. If it worked like Journey to Atlantis does at Sea World Orlando, I think it could be a big hit.

This.

Well, the 1911 Model T had one, so chances are it will.

I LOVE THIS! It could probably even be expanded to include the Banshee and The Bat! I think that Adventure Express could even be tied into this, as like a prototype mine cart to search for The Beast and Diamondback! I could be a whole park story! I like the idea of a coaster, but I feel like Rivertown could use an indoor ride. We lack those at KI!!! There is the Scooby-Doo Haunted Castle (Boo Blasters now?) and Flight of Fear! (Sorry, I use the old names and new ones interchangeably...)

And, as you can see in the above picture, the train has been lifted up on jacks. The trains are fired by liquid propane, which is denser than air. Because of that, having a traditional maintenance pit could be lethal for those working on the trains. So instead, they will jack the train up off its wheels to do the necessary maintenance.

The KIC community has changed a lot over the six years I have been a member here. Lately I have really missed seeing my original KIC friends (namely @Beastie1980, @ohiocolts, @Fire-Beast-OF FEAR, @Princess Sparkles, @LoraX, @Original and a few others whom I'm probably forgetting at the moment) post on here. They used to post here a lot and now I hardly see them anymore. I miss them. Thankfully there ARE friends who DO continue to post here, and I definitely appreciate that! @IndyGuy4KI, thank you for posting about the feedback. I would agree about the negative stuff seen on here. KIC isn't perfect nor will it ever be, but I would hate for it to come across as unwelcoming to any new members. I greatly enjoy seeing all the different (and sometimes controversial) opinions expressed here and I hope we as a community continue to help facilitate an environment where all of us can express our honest opinions without the fear of being shot down. Also: I know all of us feel like complaining every now and then; I pity the members who have had negative experiences, whether on here or at the park, but it also tends to kill the mood. I have been guilty of complaining too and I am doing my best to avoid complaining on here as much as I can. I still enjoy KIC after six years, even with its ups and downs!

We want to thank everyone who participated in the survey. We had over 90 submissions. We got some great feedback and are already starting to look into implementing some of them. The biggest item seems to be a better mobile experience. We do agree with that wholeheartedly, the forum software we use now just has not done a great job in updating the mobile side. We are looking at our options. We also want to share some of the survey results with the members of the site. Most of the data was very positive. We feel that sharing some of the "reality" results that we as admin really cant not control to much is the best course of action to improve these survey comments. Feedback on why people are not visiting and rarely posting: Too much complaining. Members not being welcoming, and sometimes combative. We used to have much deeper posts and discussions, and on a much more frequent level. Too many “forceful” opinions. It seems that some people are fanatics and tend to correct and over correct people on the site. Some members are not pleasant to others for no apparent reason. Opinions are shot down and small mistakes are turned into huge things. I personally feel KIC is more welcoming than most other forum sites. Overall this was really not a big amount of negative feedback, but we feel all members needed to see this data. Please keep this in mind when posting and remember that emotions are not transferred on the forums. We hope sharing this feedback will help make KIC better for all of its members. Feel free to contact us if you have questions!

You are correct that Night Hunter/Cat Canyon is separate; my apologies. I always kinda thought it was one thing myself but I guess I didn't pay close enough attention lol. Looking at that map, I realized that was a smart decision on the zoo's part as the old Cat House and Cat Canyon were close in proximity to each other; guess it was natural that they made it into one giant exhibit (imo). EDIT: Just want to say that the White Lions are in fact out today. The path to Wildlife Canyon, however, is closed.

^^Not every space at the park needs to be filled in with a roller coaster. If they do that then we just have another Cedar Point on our hands. Let’s look at what the park really does need instead of what we want. To me they need more flat rides in the adult sections of the park. They’ve taken more flat rides out of there than they did adding. The only ones added in this century was Delirium and WindSeeker. I’m not counting the Crypt/TR:TR since that’s gone now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had heard somewhere that there was another company that was originally supposed to build SOB. That's when PKI took over. Isn't it possible that they (PKI) were really not prepared or skilled enough to build this one? Maybe the other company could have done a better job. I've also heard rumors that they had to replace quite a bit of the wood initially because it was inferior. Anyone know? All I know is that if you use inferior materials, you will have an inferior ride with many problems. Just my .02.