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At Festhaus:

Is it time to declare the 1st season of TT2 was a bigger disaster than the 1st season of TTD? Somewhere Kinzel is relieved a new ride took the title of biggest regret/disappointment

Why not string up the Winterfest tower lights early and change them to Halloween colors?

It sucks yes. I think a lot of enthusiasts are being incredibly unrealistic/unfair with the criticism on the handling of the situation. No one but the park officials and Zamperla know what conversations have happened behind "closed doors." I don't know what the conversations all included, but I can imagine that more issues had continued to be discovered/fixes not working and Zamperla was hopeful until it became evidently clear that they couldn't get it up and running for the remainder of this season. While there hadn't been a ton of testing throughout the season since the closure, it's not like there hasn't been any type of work happening. Work and conversations have happened. I'm sure there was a NDA for both parties until some sort of final decision could be made about the status of the ride. Either party wasn't required to give daily or even semi-often updates, but they gave updates when it made the best sense in regards to business, because at the end of the day, both parties are businesses. I could be 100% completely wrong and I'd own up to it if I am. I just don't think the whole thoosie attitude about the situation has been fair. It's definitely disappointing but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it really matters at the end of the day if TT2 was operational more this season than it wasn't.

Despite the cutbacks and some could argue slightly watered down new rides . . the KI season pass is still one of best values for you entertainment dollars. Sometimes I go just to walk around the park - my Happy Place. But they kind of let the impression grow that anytime you see an overflowing garbage can or dirty table, that is it due to cutbacks . . real or not. Not sure of the best way to show KI my displeasure of cutbacks. Being honest, I don't want to give up my season pass. So I thought not spending extra on meals and merchandise would be my protest. Sadly I failed, I still spent extra money during my visits. I am part of the problem.

This is just a friendly reminder for KI to order the fog juice now.

Ever since I've gotten a debit card and checking account, I have only used cash a handful of times. I actually prefer using a card as I don't have to go digging around and counting my money. I just slip the card in the machine and pay and I'm good to go. It's actually easier for businesses to go cashless as they can keep track of how much money they earned using the technology available instead of spending hours counting cash. I don't buy any of the conspiracy theories out there about how this is a plot by the government to track people and such that I always read about anytime a business decides to go cashless. The last I checked the government is not mandating that businesses go cashless and in fact I say if you're really that worried about being tracked, just throw away your cell phone!

KD does so many things right...but so many things wrong!

Ive only been a couple of times this year but what I heard was a part got fried in a lightning strike and they had to wait on a part from intamin. I don't know how much labor they would save...if only one deck is open, they'd have a greeter, elevator operator and up top host. Usually when the ride is down, they have two operators and the greeting station to tell people it's closed.

Chef's Plate This Sunday, August 25th at 5pm! https://x.com/KingsIslandPR/status/1826349077816135932 "Grilled Butcher Steak" Roasted Garlic Potato Cakes Cracked Pepper Aioli Sweet and Spiced Carrots Way to go culinary team! Looking forward to it!

Last year the Eiffel Tower didn't close early like in years past. They just started the winterfest lights like immediatley after Haunt ended.

That is not a bad idea. It could gradually get to red at the top to match the beaming eyes.

Noticed today in the app that the passes for 2025 are for sale, prices so far look pretty consistent with 2024's prices. Slight increases over all on everything as expected, no benefit changes on any of the tiers as of this moment. Gold Pass : 2024 - $110 2025 - $120 Prestige Pass : 2024 - $325 2025 - $340 Silver Pass: 2024 - N/A 2025 - $105 This got me curious though, about what price increases were over the last few years. I attempted to get a price around mid-August for each year using (https://web.archive.org/web/20120601000000*/https://www.visitkingsisland.com/season-passes), not all have a crawler copy available however. Gold Pass : 2012 - $98 (32.99 x 3 rec) 2013 - 115 2014 - 115 (38 x 3) 2016 - 105 (10.50 x 10) 2019 - 2020 : 2020 - 2021 : 120 (Snapshot is from May) 2021 - 2022 : 105 2022 - 2023 : 135 2023 - 2024 : 110 2024 - 2025 : 120 I realize in typing this I didn't verify that I actually got prices for the next year, and maybe just max price for the "current" year. I will adjust some of the numbers later.

I personally understand why places go cashless but I think it is inconvenient for some older people and some younger people. Gone are the days your parents can give you a $20 bill and say here's your lunch money for KI. Now you'd have to transfer it onto a cash to card thing which is just something else you have to do. I'd rather just hand an employee a $20 bill. I think places view not having any cash as more secure and less of a liability because nobody can physically rob a place with no cash. However, there are still people who prefer to use cash and I think they should still have the option. My grandparents still carry a ton of cash. They pay for groceries with cash and always pay cash at restaurants. They write checks to pay all of their bills. The only thing they use a credit card for is gas and online purchases. Then when the credit card bill comes they mail them a check...no online payments. They would definitely be in the group complaining about the heritage bank center not taking cash anymore. As for the conspiracy theories about the government tracking you, I agree that the government already knows everywhere you go and everything you say if you have a cell phone. I'm sure they can access your banking information if they wanted to. They can freeze your bank account if you are a criminal they wish to apprehend. The main reason I think some people don't want to go to a cashless society is that the government would be privy to all the money someone receives. There would be no more "payments under the table" that the government doesn't get to tax unless someone is kind enough to report the income when they file their taxes. If you did away with cash, you can't pay anyone without the government knowing about it. Not to get political but regardless of which party is in control of the government, my requests are still the same - please make gas affordable so I can go on more coaster trips and please don't raise my taxes.

Hear me out: You're now a target for scare actors.

This is the fastest I have seen it load in a while. Whatever Matthew did seemed to really help. Not sure what is going on for you?

My problem is that the team that focuses on Haunt has done away with so many good pieces for haunts and just dumped them. We had some amazing scare zones only years ago that outperformed what we have today, same for haunted houses. I'd even go as far to say that everything after Slaughterhouse 2.0 has been a miss in my eyes.

I think it’s useful to look at all of these and apply it to where we can assume the park will be for the rest of the decade. Tower coaster (shuttle Mack Xtreme spinner)- this seems too experimental for a park like KI- who never fared well in the experimental rides category to begin with. I feel like incorporating the spinning aspect on a large scale ride would limit it’s appeal- compare this to Wild Mouse at CP that’s on a smaller scale.) Giga dive coaster- this would be a move they’d make if they’re trying to get into the National/global spotlight by having a record breaking coaster. It seems like every larger coaster since Diamondback has broken some type of significant record. Would certainly put the park on a global stage, but would a 300ft drop affect the rest of the ride?: (If you have two dive coasters, both at 3,500ft in length, you might get more out of a 200ft tall coaster than you would a 300ft tall one) Family Thrill Coaster- it seems like we already have this with Adventure Express, Backlot, and Bat. While family thrill coasters are easy to market given their broad appeal, I feel like it’s easier to ask corporate for a family ride down the road after a large investment like an invert/dive/ hyper/giga/ etc. Indoor/Outdoor Coaster- this seems like a Dollywood/BGW type of attraction that would need decent theming. Would have to be on par with Verbolten or Mystery Mine but the indoor aspect might devalue existing rides like Flight of Fear and Backlot. Beast 2.0-this seems like an extreme ask. I’m not sure what the benefit of this would be over just building a new coaster. It seems like it would take a toll on maintenance staff and carpenters. I think it would be more trouble than it’s worth and people might feel cheated out of a new coaster. Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster- the capacity of these rides aren’t really on par with what Kings Island has been churning out since 2009. Currently the highest capacity Infinity train is Gold Rush at 20 people per train which is less than that of Mystic Timbers. Might be too small of a ride for KI- unless they made it a similar capacity to Vortex. Peanuts Dark Ride: This an interesting concept be based off the sheer fact that the new Six Flags chain has access to both Warner Brothers/DC IP as well as Peanuts IP. One would assume that if this concept was implemented, we would be continuing with the Peanuts brand. People might feel cheated out of a more thrilling addition considering we haven’t gotten a large coaster since 2020

Yeah, Intamin is a serial offender and their costs are obviously higher. Zamperla hasn't reached that status as bad as the TT2 situation turned out to be. Sure, it does seem that Intamin is more reliable than they were when all those rides were built (and don't forget P/I305) but its hard to look past at all the problems of the past.

If you look at inflation it is in fact cheaper now to buy a pass then it was in 2012.

So for comparisons sake in terms of size this is similar to Rocket’s Canopy Coaster at Castaway bay. Rocket’s Canopy Coaster is 35 feet high, and 520 feet long. It’s a two seater tube that too uses water jets to propeller riders. Difference being that Rocket’s Canopy Coaster also features a tube lift.

Another domino falls. Have you thought the change to cashless has been good or bad for Kings Island and other parks?