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Arguably one of the more unique signs for the park's history IMO. I loved the motif on it and the overall design stood out for guests who were coming to the lazy river.

Definitely to be taken with a huge grain of salt. But I came across this on Reddit. No real way to validate these claims, but the concept sounds really incredible. If true, I’m happy to see the “shooting” aspect of the current ride system not necessarily carried over. Wish this would’ve happened. Hopeful for something new in that space in the semi-near future, but with the merger, I’d bet we’re a few years off still. Would be curious to see if anyone has heard anything about this.

I haven't heard of anything like this but I really do love that concept! I wonder if that building is big enough to house two smaller flying theater attractions?

Saw the video and totally cringed. Mostly because a company such as Kings Island/Cedar Six Flags is going to rely on guests to be charitable to an organization instead of just donating to the organization. It's the whole "we're going to charge you $26.99 for a t-shirt, $7.99 for a vinyl sticker, so would you like to round your total up for charity?" mindset. Sure donating to ___ and ____ charities are great, but why doesn't the park (or any other parks) just donate a portion of proceeds on a given day and/or month instead of trying to pressure guests to donate? To be fair, this isn't just Kings Island, Cedar Point, etc.....it's a lot of big corporations, but it's still gross. Almost as bad as the tipping culture of America.

I was able to coordinate a long weekend trip with my new friends I made at the ACE spring conference. The one girl lives in Chicago and seeing as that is pretty centrally located i suggested that we all meet up there and she could show us around her home park. The plan of course grew to include the Wisconsin parks and Indiana Beach. So it begins - July 4: six flags great America - We were able to ride quite a bit during the holiday. Mainly stuck to coasters but it was a great day full of beautiful weather and fireworks at night. Consensus was that Goliath was the star rollercoaster in the park but our group actually ended up having an obsession with Demon too. Such an underrated arrow looper! Whizzer was fun and of course there were lots of bad jokes about how our significant others would feel about us sitting in each other's laps. American Eagle is such a great woodie and I really hope one day they can get it racing again. Gravity group maybe? Batman, Superman, & Viper were all good. I personally think X-Flight has too much of a rattle to be enjoyable but I was in the minority on that. I always end up getting a headache after that ride so to me it's not that great. GateKeeper is a superior winged coaster. I finally got my back row ride on raging bull which was ruined by the worst op I've ever experienced at an amusement park. This guy shoved the lapbars down hard and stapled my friend and I to the train. I was irritated so I said to my friend loud enough for the people around us to hear, "that was just unnecessary" my friend then made a comment to the op about how he was a little bit rough checking the restraints. My friend is the kindest guy ever so it wasn't said in an angry fashion at all. The op then replied, "do you want me to come push it down harder?". I was really ticked off so I told him to try but that he wasn't going to get it down any further. He then proceeded to come back over and saw that my friend was wearing a KI T-shirt and snarled, "oh so you're from Kings Island! Because of that I'm going to push it down extra hard" he then gave two hard thrusts against the bar which didn't go down any further. Of course one of the guys in the group who used to be a racer op yelled at him and called him a bunch of 4-letter words. Funny enough the guy working the teacups was super nice and was talking to everyone waiting in line and we mentioned how much we appreciated his effort and attitude after having a bad op on raging bull. The teacups guy then asked us, "did his name happen to be Rudy?" And we said yep that was him! He just rolled his eyes and shared our opinion that he's awful. Funny enough Rudy was working a flat ride at the end of the night so we got to experience his lovely attitude again! Needless to say I made a complaint to the park because responding in an antagonistic way to a guest is unprofessional regardless of what comment was made. He could have ignored the criticism or just apologized. Instead he made a huge scene about it and then proceeded to pick on someone based on them wearing a KI shirt. July 5: Six Flags Great America - second day at the park it was packed so we focused more on getting the remainder of the coasters (maxxforce, joker, flash, dark knight, and the two children's credits) I think that rue la dodge is the second best dogem I've ridden after the one at Knoebels. Cars are fast and hit hard! I also loved the lobster and realized how much more it spins than our Everly monster. Fiddler's Fling was a classic, got to do sky Trek tower. The only one we missed was condor as it was unfortunately closed both days of our visit. At the end of the night, we were looking in the gift shop and came across a maxxforce tshirt that had all incorrect stats. Speed was wrong, length of the track was wrong, number of inversions was wrong, etc. So hilarious I actually bought it! July 6: Little Amerricka and Mount Olympus - little Amerricka is such a strickers Grove type park. Loved the classic meteor and the chance tobbagan was super unique. I also found that I love an Allan Herschel Wild Mouse. Best flat in the park was their rollo-plane. I'd never ridden one so that was a wild experience. Of course the 30 min train ride is legendary! After a few hours there we hit mount Olympus and got all 4 major coasters and 2 go-kart tracks. I personally loved Zeus and Cyclops was also good. Pegasus had a weird rough layout that I wasn't a huge fan of. Hades 360 is a beast but it's so rough! I was near the back of the train which I've heard is worse than the front but this ride and El Toro are the only two coasters I've ever had intense back pain on and just had to ride it out and hope it would be over. Only two coasters that I've ever thought, "I hope this doesn't continue hurting me after the ride" thankfully the pain went away but it's such a tragedy that an amazing layout like that is so painful! July 7: Indiana Beach - totally walked out of my teenager years of stacking rides on top of another in a RCT park. Unfortunately Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain was down the entire time we were there so we didn't get that credit. However, we did survive the All American Triple Loop. We had heard very bad things about how rough it was and painful and I must say that both my rides were free of headbanging and pretty smooth. I liked it a lot. I did think the loops were less forceful because of the short trains. Tig'rr is another classic Schwarzkopf and did not disappoint. Hoosier Hurricane had a few bumps but was a good out n back. Cornball Express was the best ride in the park! Wonderful CCI laterals and airtime. Of course the cyclone was fun too. Got to ride some of the flats including my first time on a yo-yo swinger and a falling star. It was great to see the Coney Island flying Bobs from when I was a kid in its new home delighting kids and adults. Overall I loved IB and love everything they are doing up there to improve the park. Sorry that was so lengthy but a lot can happen over 4 days or coaster riding and park hopping!

I don't think that you should feel obligated to donate; however, for those who would want to, I think that KIC is doing the right thing by informing the members of that option. KIC also posts information about things like GC tasting cards and Fastlane, but the intention isn't to make you feel obligated to buy it. By the way, they're going to have to be very clear with their messaging with this to make it successful. It's easy to get people to say, "Yeah, whatever, I'll round up the $.02." It's not as easy to convince people to bring school supplies to the front gate. For the sake of the receiving parties, I hope it is successful. No matter how anyone feels about what lies between Point A and Point B, Point B is a worth cause.

Would love if they went retro and did a Peanuts/Snoopy enchanted voyage ride.

Ik I sound like a broken record here, but I think KI would be a great new home for the July 4th balloon glow that used to take place at Coney. Either block off a section of the parking lot or clean up the giant field behind Banshee/Bat and do it there. I've said before that while KI does an amazing fireworks show for the 4th, they are missing big opportunities to not do some special activities during the day for the 4th. I've always said the 4th would be a perfect day to use Timberwolf. A giant 4th of July festival at KI would be a dream to me lol.

The things like Coasting For Kids or First Rider Auctions, are great....not only do you get to ride in a marathon or new ride before the public, but you're helping raise money. But when someone goes to buy merch, food, drinks, etc. at multiple locations and they get asked each time "would you like to round up for Cedar Fair Charities?" it becomes annoying/obnoxious...when the company could just donate from the proceeds of the sale. As far as Push For Pencils, while that's good and fine, having worked in education, what incentive do I have donating to likely KI area schools vs my school or my surrounding school? And if they don't have the information out there, why try to promo it before hand? If there are incentives, you really need to push for people to do that sooner vs closer to the event as those who would donate are purchasing items out of their income instead of the supplies just magically appearing. The incentives may add more of a push for someone to add a pack of pencils/post its/etc. when they go to the grocery store vs saying "we need your donations." If there is not an incentive, why should guests bring supplies to the park vs just donating to their local school. Not just because this is KI/PR pushing it, but let's say your local Walmart does a "push for pencils," what reason would they give you to donate instead of just donating as a corporation? Yes, while donating to charity, isn't supposed to be about "me" it's supposed to be about the charity/the greater good....but in today's world where everyone is struggling in one way or another, the "what's in it for me is pretty standard. Also, where's the charity drive for a true homeless family with 3 kids in Mason? Just thinking out loud. In no way, do I think Push To Pencils is bad...but I don't think the initial implementation/explanation is worthy of me going out to the store to buy supplies and bring them to the park.

I miss those two coasters....need to get back.

Id have to respectfully disagree, Chris. Getting people involved with causes can cause them to get connected. Cedar Fair charities, for example, is/was a great contributor to worthy causes. But if they just donated the $100000.00 from a roller coaster opening without having the auction, the reach would or happen. When. I did two of those, I spoke to lots of non enthusiasts and shared on my meager genx social media. Those people were exposed. ( And if I recall, the company matched all donations plus the cost of putting on the event). It's the same for 3k they host for type one diabetes, the cancer program they used to do with the pink soccer balls, etc. If this push for pencils is helping students get supplies, and taking a burden from teachers to buy supplies. There's just very little Information about it. Maybe the company is going to do a match or adopt a school via whatever Cedar Fair Charities is called now.

Like I said man, I’m not going to argue with anyone about the validity of my claims. It is your right to not believe me, and if that’s what you choose to do, that’s fine. There’s no need to keep trying to discredit me. What’s done is done and those who choose to believe me will. There’s no point in continuing any sort of banter with you.

Double post, Im also Chad Showalter:

Oh I haven’t made the X account in its entirety? That’s why yours didn’t include the birthday right? Oh and now that you're photos have been disproven, you want to go “Wait! Wait! I wanted to show you a log in for my email.” Well guess what? I can, and anyone else can recreate that photo. Just go to outlook.com and for email use the person’s first name ( . ) followed by the last name with @visitkingsisland.com and you get the exact same photo. I have a pretty good idea who is behind this whistleblower account, and I’m not the only person here who thinks the same. It isn't the first time this individual tried to get Chad fired. The fact that this person has been allowed to continue to post is appalling in itself. Look at me, I’m Mike Koontz!

Out of curiosity, does anyone know whatever happened to the King Cobra sign? I know the park has auctioned off a few ride signs through the years but I have always been curious about the King Cobra one. During the ACE Spring Conference we did get to do a tour of the sign shop but I must say that the areas we saw did not include many ride signs at all. The slingshot one was in there but I really don't remember seeing any other significant ones.

I don’t know who Troy is, nor do I know why he’s trying to discredit me, but like I said in the original post, you don’t have to believe me, but I’ve given you the tools to make a decision on your own. Just as much as I could be some lunatic making stuff up for no reason, Troy could be Chad or a loyalist to him and/or park leadership in an attempt to downplay their poor PR performance. I’d also like to point out that no one else, especially in an official capacity, has come out and said my story is false. Everyone who has witnessed not only this incident in particular, but his attitude and behavior overall knows that it’s true. In addition, I don’t know who in their right mind would go to such lengths to fabricate a story, much less photos, to somehow slander someone. Troy himself was unable to replicate the signed in X account in its entirety. I initially was thinking of sharing a screenshot of my @visitkingsisland email logged in, but it just looks like a normal Outlook account and no matter how you crop it it’s full of identifying information. However, the sign in page does show the organization my account is a part of, so I’ve attached a screenshot of that. Do with that what you will. I refuse to blame or slander the rest of the PR department, because it is made up of some truly outstanding individuals who are extremely passionate about what they do. I fear that I will not be awarded the privilege of working with people of a similar caliber in the future. This inaction and mismanagement of a multitude of situations has to do with one person and one person only. One poor leader can make a lot more people look bad than you think. I have everything to lose and nothing to gain by coming out with this information, but this isn’t about me, it’s about the workers in the leadership building that don’t have a parking spot up front complete with their name painted on it. It is not my intent to hurt the park overall, as I do think it is a special place, and I’ve spent a lot of time there in my free time growing up. That’s why I posted this, because I want it to be better. As far as my absence, it’s been a bit stressful lately with everything going on and I’m trying to distance myself from the situation after all of the messages and replies I’ve gotten. I’m in the process of landing a new position so that has been my focus. To be clear, I unequivocally deny fabricating any of my story and evidence. Lastly, I appreciate all the messages of support I’ve been given over the past few weeks!

I think it also speaks volumes to whatever ends that- 1. the OP poster has disappeared 2. this thread hasn't been closed/deleted

For me it's either SoB or King Cobra.