Leaderboard

Just put the smartwatch around your ankle and explain you're not legally allowed to remove it, lol.

Happy to report that ICEEs for the Drink Plan are 100% available at the stand next to The French Corner! The line moves really quickly too. They have 2 workers. The first window they scan your pass. The second window you give your order and pick up your ICEE. Nice to have more than 3 flavor options!!

Had a good first day of the season for me. Morning and afternoon crowds were light. Rode every coaster that I normally care to ride, most of them multiple times. -Saw Soap Boxer Racers testing. Obviously no one was on but it was so quiet and looked to be smooth. The cars look great too. -The camp snoopy theming in general is nothing amazing but pleasant enough. -Someone mentioned Backlot being down but it opened up in the evening. No fire effect though. -Ride ops were mostly good with some slowness from people being trained. -All statues in AE were working fully. -There were lights on in the FoF hangar. Probably for the best, safety-wise. Question: were the signs about what constitutes line jumping a new addition? I can't remember seeing them.

Ended up buying a Gold Pass this morning, and went up to the park for the first time since the 2019 season, staying until about 3PM. I figured I would try and see what I could ride given that lines could potentially be minimal - I'd rather wait 15 minutes and get "walk of shamed" than wait an hour to be told the same exact thing. I was able to ride The Bat, Banshee, Adventure Express, Racer, Orion, The Beast, Mystic Timbers, and Diamondback without being turned away. I rode everything except for Invertigo, Flight of Fear, and Backlot Stunt Coaster - the latter I didn't see running the entire time I was there. Finally got to ride Orion for the first time, which was nearly a walk-on - I should have stayed over there and marathoned. As my last visit was when Vortex was still operating, I will say that it was weird without seeing Vortex, especially standing in line for Diamondback, looking towards LaRosa's and walking past where the batwing used to be. Otherwise, I thought the park looked good! I do want to get up to Cedar Point during the season, however I did not add the All Park Passport when I purchased this morning - I am assuming I can go into Guest Services next time I'm at the park and pay the difference?

Thanks for clarifying. Can't say I have any info to share about it.

The Eiffel Tower was down today.

Looking forward to the 2024 season at Kings Island, I've already been hearing a lot of positive things! (I gotta get my blue ice cream soon! )

THe possibilities with this are endless!

No doubt they picked media day participants that never say a bad thing about them.

This is the best thing I've seen all year. Someone needs to mail that to their box office :p

In sure cp made their hand picked media day participants sign a NDA, lmao.

Oh boy, I'm going to get flag all over again... but yea I think my hopeful ride in K.I. inside the Crypt building is probably gonna happen next year. Not saying it's true or not. But with Mike Koontz saying that he will evanescently and for Vekoma to show that they're working on the next Madhouse in this video on that time frame. https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx4muIHXPpASWKjC7BRmwZbJy-2KRQD5u- I think Kings Island will finally get one of these, and I do have evidence to show if it happens. 1. Vekoma is starting to resurge to America after a long time. Started off with their Family Suspended coaster, with Circuit Breaker and Big Bear Mountain, I could see the possibility that Cedar Fair will hop on the Band Wagon and add one of these to the park, and for Kings Island to finally have a chance to ask for a Vekoma Madhouse for there park. 2. Madam Fatales been inside that building for a decade, Kings Island needed to replace that maze with something else. Mike Koontz wanted to see that building to house a new ride inside. The Madhouse can easily fit inside without even striping or tearing down the building, and can decorate the outside to make it fit in River Town. Which brings me to evidence 3. 3. That building was design to build a flat ride even if the walls are up. You can thank Paramount on this one, They manage to build a Huss Giant Top Spin inside to hide what they're building. You can do the same with a Madhouse. They might dig a few feet under to fit the Motors that spin the house upside down, and pour new concrete for the support of the Room and Gondola and electrical wirings, but they could manage it. 4. The last evidence is that it will be a people eater like a B&M coaster. With Pre-shows and even more theming, it can easily bring and move riders in this ride. Every Madhouse must have a Pre-show or shows to tell what is going on, and importantly to make sure that it doesn't delay the ride for it. And even more cool is that it has no minimum height for kids to ride, But they're will be a minimum height for guest to ride alone, somewhere around 48' inches. But it will not only bring all the family to ride, but also can give kid a chance to ride some of the rides that goes upside down. Being a illusion ride, it can give the kids a head start on going upside down before the real deal. 5. Need I said that Snoopy's Soap Box Racers has a package deal for Kings Island. That's all the evidence that I think a Vekoma Madhouse might come next year. If I'm wrong don't rant about it, after all it's just my prediction. But you can post your opinions or ideas in reply. Thanks for reading and remember my catchphrase. "Keep the Madhouse WILD!"

Workers at Brewhouse are saying that the grilled chicken sandwich so highly marketed is not going to be available now this year.... Anyone hear something similar?

Yes they are new.

Definitely a valid point about air conditioning! And to further make your point, that is probably why so many homebuilders put in a subdivision community pool as part of the HOA to pull on those generations that were used to having pools in their backyard, but may not necessarily want to have one of their own! But some still do. My friend lives in a subdivision with a HOA pool, and within a 2,000 foot radius of that pool, 8 homes in that subdivision also have built-in pools!

I am just curious if it would be possible to renovate Drop Tower to be like Falcons Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa?

I’d rather them take that money and add 13ft in height to Orion. Ending the “Giga” debate.

Could you? Of course, with enough money you could do just about anything. Would you? That is the correct question, and my guess is no.

That's got to hurt.

I also rode the Houdini Madhouse at Great Adventure in New Jersey. It was definitely worth a ride. I am skeptical though of the appeal for a lot of people after a ride or two once they know what's going on. I can see it appealing to young kids quite a bit since it would be the first and only "upside-down" ride they will do until they get older. Older folks would also enjoy riding with their grandkids. Where I agree is that the park seems to be losing the plot a little bit with the attractions they've put in. Kings Island used to try for a broader audience than it does today. In the Cedar Fair era, most new attractions are either intense roller coasters or kids' rides. Adding "medium" attractions/rides that appeal to a wider audience outside of the coaster enthusiast or small children has not been a priority. Several of the attractions of this nature they have added have been modest or weaker versions of KI rides from the past (new Flyers, new Antique Cars, Cargo Loco, Sol Spin). Kings Island used to invest more into elaborate family rides. In the 80s and 90s alone they added Amazon Falls, White Water Canyon (probably the best family ride in the park IMO), Action FX theater, Adventure Express, and Phantom Theater. Shows were more elaborate and happened more often, special events at the park happened more often as well. I think the problem is that when you are not adding attractions nearly every year as they did from 1972-2011ish, the medium/family rides simply get passed over. Major coasters come every 3-5 years and little to nothing is added on "off" years. Thoughts?

Security doesn’t seem to know their own policy with line jumping - holding a place in line is not allowed (the “or” in the policy rule makes it clear), but then again KI always seems to be inconsistent in applying their own rules depending upon who responds Line Breaking- includes leaving and re-entering a line for any reason or place holding in line

I could see them redoing the outside of the building to resemble a mill/factory and I would also finally put a Ferris Wheel alongside and theme it as a water wheel with the occasional sprinkle of water on the riders.

I know that tou can change the cars on the space shots style towers. Not sure on the intamin towers but i wouldn't see why not

I would love to see a Madhouse happen! KI really needs more indoor family attractions to get the whole family out of the elements for a bit. Boo Blasters just doesn't cut it and FOF has a 54" height requirement. I wouldn't be shocked if Soapbox Racers is part of some sort of package deal with Vekoma similar to what we saw with CP and Zamperla. I think a 3 ride deal with Vekoma featuring Soapbox, a Vekoma multi launch (Vortex replacement), and a madhouse would be a good deal tbh.

I was reviewing the CSO website today about the new music venue and it appears that they are in discussions about restoring and reopening moonlight gardens. They are suggesting it would be a $5.7million dollar project. I really hope they go through with it. $5.7m is pocket change compared to the $118m they are spending on the new venue.

I actually enjoyed hurler at Carowinds more than I expected I would. It was my #5 in the park surprisingly

The Cincinnati Cyclones have been around in one league or another since 1990. I'm a huge hockey fan. I worked for the Cyclones from 1990-1996. I know they exist but because they don't garner much media attention, they're not top of mind for me and others. It's the same situation for the people that live in Sandusky. They know Cedar Point exists, but they need to be reminded of the amusement park. People know Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's exist in their neighborhood, yet these restaurants spend a lot of money advertising on TV. They know they have to maintain top of mind awareness.

And I just had a thought. They could even implement the same wristbands that Great Wolf uses. Or used last time I was there some years back. They are RFID, waterproof and they store information that could be useful such as credit card credentials so one doesn't need to carry around their wallet. Granted that makes a lot of sense in a water park setting, I definitely could see this being useful in any amusement park setting. Just flash the user's credentials onto a wristband such as season pass, tickets, add-ons to a disposable RFID wristband and call it a day. Flash the wristband at the FL kiosks, vendors and other such things. Just a thought. Might not be nearly as advanced as say a Flash Pass or Magic Band, but it doesn't really need to be in this case. It still gets the point across and streamlines a lot of things along.

Just like with steel vengeance there are not enough lockers outside of the TT2 entrance to accommodate everyone’s loose articles, especially later in the day. Common sense would tell you no loose articles on a coaster of this magnitude so you design with the coaster with an in-queue lockers just like Universal does. What a stupid big miss my CP - can’t wait to see and hear all the complaints

Yeah, but in their defense, it’s an unavoidable storm on the horizon. On Friday they ran out of the double stack chicken sandwich, but in their defense, it was tens of thousands of season pass people, with a high percentage having the meal plan, all of which have tried every other item on the menu. I don’t know if there’s a great way to plan for that. I do agree that the Icee thing was a bit of poor planning and poor communication, but from the looks of it, a lot of the issues were corrected throughout the day on Friday or Saturday. Rides went down, lines were long, food portions were inconsistent… but name an opening day where this wasn’t the case. As somebody who was admittingly pessimistic over the past year or so, I was pleasantly surprised.

The best comparison is to Thunder Run at Kentucky Kingdom which has a similar layout to the Hurler twins (I've ridden both), but TR has tighter corners, higher and better shaped bunny hop and camelback hills thus having better lateral and negative Gs and better pacing. The Hurler twins are too drawn out and forceless.

Maybe we are spoiled by KI's wood coasters, but I agree that I found it to be a boring layout the first time I ever rode it.

Unfortunately, you can't do much for a bad layout. I found it not really all that rough, but just boring.

Hurler actually got RMCed this off season. Routine Maintenance by Carowinds. That was their pr person, dont blame me!

Hurler just got an in-house retracking.

I think there is still a possibility for Carowinds in 2025 but Canada’s Wonderland opened Snoopy’s Racing Railway in 2023 and their next major coaster addition looks to be 2025 so it would make sense for 2027 to be the year for Carowinds.

I also wouldn't rule out Carowinds for 2026 as that will be 7 years since Copperhead Strike. Even though they are rumored to get a clone of Snoopy's Racing Railway next year, but that would be a cheap cookie cutter addition and more a kids addition than the next big thrill coaster addition. Also according to Amusement Insiders (who has been fairly reliable in the past) the big rumor for Wonderland is surprisingly Intamin. Obviously I'll believe it when I see it, but if true and coupled with what Eltororyan said awhile back about CF executives being rumored to have checked out Velocicoaster and was impressed and are looking into potentially doing multiple Intamin LSM projects (again ill believe when I see it), maybe Vortex replacement could be Intamin after all, but obviously not getting my hopes up.

I think Vekoma and B&M are definitely on the table for our next coaster. However, I would keep a very close eye on what manufacturer Canada’s Wonderland decides to go with for their next coaster as it seems to not be B&M or Vekoma. With Valleyfair being the only park rumored for a new coaster in 2026 I think that will be our year and 2025 will be a Soak City expansion.

I don’t think it will ever happen. These depend on theming and story elements to sell the illusion, and 2 points to that 1) even though it’s way better than before, Kings Island has limited success in keeping theming functioning at 100% (see spotty MysticTimbers swinging lamps, flickering lights, Banshee flickering lights, Banshee lighting package, etc) and 2) these are so story driven that once you have experienced the story a few times, there is limited “re-ridability” which is critical at a regional park KI.