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If Surf Dog can be listed as a roller coaster, RiverRacers can be listed as a water coaster.

Arguing over a water coaster... we have reached an all new low that I would never have imagined. This will be a homerun with the GP and I'd venture a guess that they know less about brand/types of water attractions than they do rollercoasters.

I'm just happy to see a new water ride put in. Soak City has needed it for quite some time and this is a nice addition. Especially now that this is the only major water park in the area, an update was desperately needed.

I can't comment on the internal, but the park was annoyingly crowded. That didn't bother me so much, but the inefficient procedures did. Lazy Bear Lodge...slow to serve the food. Think Coney BBQ with both sides open and lines to Coney Treats. One cashier. One drink stand. Backlot Cafe...no drink stations, you had to get your drink before entering, so wait in that line, then wait in a long food line, your drink was gone, hot or watered down (if the park had ice) Blue Ice Cream...4 people in front of me. 3 workers. Still took 20 minutes to get a cone. And they said they were not allowed to put it into a cup. Ride ops were great on most coasters, almost rivaling KI. Friendly too. Park wasn't very clean. Finally, the park can't control this, but the crowds....no sense of personal space. Children literally pawing at me. Teens cutting right in front of you on International Street...worse than KI teens. And the spitting...oh the spitting... Despite the dirty state of the park, it was beautiful. Still has some hints of Taft.

What i think is, Kings Island should be getting Gold Medal levels of cap-ex funding as opposed to bronze, considering my observations and interactions have proven to me this park is the best in the chain from an operations standpoint by leaps and bounds. Im just calling it like I see it, and while I absolutely agree a new attraction in the water park was needed and it will serve its purpose, I feel the park and the people who will be enjoying the park next year deserved the funding for a ProSlide.

I haven't seen any mention that this is Ohio's largest and most powerful enema attraction.

^First, the water coasters you see in water parks (not the ones made by Mack and Intamin that are actually roller coasters) are more akin to slides that just happen to have uphill sections. They're called coasters for advertising purposes. 2nd, if you're really getting pedantic about it being a coaster based on having to carry the vehicle up, most early coasters before chain lifts were common had to have the cars pushed up by hand or used pulleys.

Those beating the dead horse of capacity worries should also know that the ride lasts only 80 seconds. Launch coasters can get away with smaller capacity trains as it balances it out with short ride durations.

Me too. My mom worked in the employee cafeteria for years, and there would be many a days that I spent in the waterpark and the park alone, while she was working. It was great, and I also knew that I better not screw it up. That seems to be missing with some today.

Some signage from the waterpark, ironically slapped smack dab in the middle of the main causeway to the other side of the waterpark.

Happy closing to the casts and crews of Country Crossroads and RetroSpect! It's hard to believe that the summer show season has already come to an end. Onward to Tricks and Treats Fall Fest and Haunt!

Water coasters in their simplest forms are slides, in which a tube or some form of vehicle like a mat, is propelled up a hill with some form of propulsion in contrast to traditional water slides that rely strictly on gravity and do not have propulsion up hill. To nit pick what constitute a water coaster as bringing tubes to the station is simply put is flawed. I've been to several waterparks, I have been on several water coasters, I'm probably one of the few people who actually counts their water side credits. You can have Infinity Master Blasters, Master Blasters that end and you have to pick up your tube and you could also go the ProSlide route which has a station and lift like what you get at Holiday World's attractions. I didn't hear anyone pipe up about the fact that MASSIV, which was touted as the world's TALLEST water coaster, you had to carry your tubes up to the station, thus disqualifying it from being a water coaster. Extreme Water Slide | MASSIV Monster Blaster | Schlitterbahn Galveston . But wait, there's more! Even White Water West, the producer of this new water coaster and MASSIV, has MASSIV on their website as a water coaster, the Master Blaster Model. Master Blaster Water Slide - The World's First Uphill Water Coaster (whitewaterwest.com) . The langua franca of the water park scape is different than what you have in the parks. Just like how you have B&M's and Intamin, you have White Water West and ProSlide Technologies. If you're looking at this as "hey this is a new coaster credit" don't, it's not a roller coaster, which necessitates different parameters to be considered as an actual roller coaster. It's a slide, called a water coaster, it doesn't mean Aqua Trax, which is entirely different.

^Not exactly as I still call all the versions water coasters. Like, I wouldn't add River Racers to my coaster count, but it's still the water park version of a water coaster plus the manufacturer, WhiteWater West, calls their Master Blaster product a water coaster. Link

I didn't know not carrying your tube was a prerequisite to one being a water coaster?

The Antichamber horizontal door, preshow vertical door were controlled by their respective ride associate. The controls for anti chamber were located against the wall to the right of the moving door. Within the controls to open and close the door was a “start show” scene to begin the triangle unlocking lights and sound. We had cue light in the control area that let us know when it was time to open the door to the next room. so basically, the anti chamber position consisted of Separating 77 people into 3 rows wait at the controls. A cue light let you know when the Preshow was ready to load. hit “start show” and at the right moment hit “door open” just as you hear the moving rock sound effect. The fog came from the ceiling in the preshow room. once all the guests were lead into preshow the antechamber ride op closes the door and the process begins again

Just throwing this out, KI’s model is modified layout to allow the rafts to cross the finish line besides each other. The second launch was replaced with a high speed turn and airtime drop. It’s cool to note that from all the published information, this water coaster appears to be the steepest, fastest, and have the largest drop.

I have two recent thoughts regarding our next major coaster. 1) Is Kings Island going to care that much about capacity for our next coaster? I know capacity has been prioritized with past major additions and I definitely would prefer it if the park continued to do that. However, we just saw that Canada's Wonderland is only putting two 18-person trains on their new-for-2025 coaster, and that park gets even more crowded than Kings Island from what I've seen. If Canada's Wonderland is willing to "skimp-out" on capacity for their new coaster, who's to say Kings Island won't do the same for whatever comes next? 2) Also paying attention to the other parks in the chain, it seems that the chain no longer does in-person announcements for any of their major new coasters. Top Thrill 2, Iron Menace, Rapterra and AlpenFury all had online announcements that were posted early in the morning, and I expect this will be a thing going forward for the foreseeable future. I know it's not the biggest deal in the world, but seeing this type of atmosphere whenever Kings Island announced a new coaster is something I looked forward to with each "decoding season" I've been involved with, and I feel a lot of charm and personality is really lost when they just post whatever it is online.

Small detail with large implications. What are your thoughts? Full article: https://bit.ly/3SLesgv

Another piece of signage infront of the actual location for River Racers. They also added checkered flags on the main sign as well! Should anyone wish to use these photos please feel free to! Just credit me in one way or another!

It is unfortunately a sign of these times I suppose that this has to be implemented. I cherish the days as a preteen and teenager enjoying the park so many summer days by myself or with some friends. So many fantastic memories! Like I have said before, as a young kid, I never thought once of causing any problems at the park. It is my Zen place and always has been, so I treat it with the respect it is due. Line jumping and stupid behavior has always been a thing by few, but it seems more prevalent now at times. My parents and grandparents would have made my life miserable if I behaved badly at the park. But they never had to worry about that because KI is so special to me.

I would have to assume that is per side. There is no way each side is only 265 feet. Based on the statistics they gave of height and angle, the first drop would take up 45 ft. of that so half of the ride would just be that first drop and uphill section, there is too much tube after for that. But with other parks advertising the combined length I agree that I'm surprised they didn't go with that number to make it seem longer, but prefer this as it is more honest of the actual experience. Overall with the river theming for these new additions I hope this might be the start of an overall retheme of the waterpark. Would love to see it get it's own unique theme like some of the others. Maybe rename it Miami River Works or something along those lines. Give it a fresh look and add some more trees as well.

Some minor prep for NyteWalkers:

In fairness, Intamin was the original manufacturer that pitched the TT2 idea. CF took that idea and out of spite gave the job to Zamperla. We see how well that’s working out. I agree tho, I think it would be best if both worked together on a smaller project. A Darkoaster would be an amazing addition to KI.

For someone who came to the park often as a kid, without a chaperone because I respected the park rules, I’m sad to see that kids who are responsible are being punished for what other unruly kids do. With that being said, now being an adult I’m glad the park is cracking down on this. I’ve seen several unattended groups of youth just this year. I’ve had a few run ins in the past with kids bumping into my group or just kids running in the midway with no respect to the people around them. This is a minor change but it has some pretty big implications now.

The chaperone must accompany the minor(s) at all times now.

If I was blunt about the issue, I’d probably get banned, go look up the CanadasWonderland Reddit and you’ll see what has happened. A friend of mine from university who worked there told me that by the end of last season, they had brought in people from corporate because of the problems in the park.

It's a real shame though however the actual park has went downhill this season.