Leaderboard

The fog is rolling tonight!!

Sadly, you are experiencing what even some of the most die hard CP fans have been feeling for the last several years. People I know that would/could never say a bad thing about CP now complain. It is no longer the flagship park it used to be. Lots of factors come into play, but the overall experience isn't what it used to be. It will be interesting to see how they respond moving forward....sadly I think as long as people keep showing up in the record numbers, they have no incentive to improve the product. Why worry about if all the rides aren't going if the main parking lot fills up by 1pm on every Halloweekend ? Until the attendance drops noticeably, they have no incentive.

That only works for the rides that do not re-open like Racer, WindSeeker, Shake Rattle Roll, Eiffel Tower, etc. The majority of people don't leave The Beast line once is shuts down for fireworks. It could be some nights almost an hour it sits between shutting down early, the show, waiting to get the signal to re-open, all the while the line remains open until 10pm and continues to grow. This results in that ride getting out later than had it not closed. It may not be a direct correlation to the amount of time it was shut down, but on many nights, the line could have been cleared out by the time the ride is re-opened had it not had to close.

Imo while closing a few headlining rides early for fireworks sucks for those who love night rides, at the same time I feel like it helps encourage people to watch the show on I-street as well as get people out of the park faster so associates don't have to stay as long to do closing procedures (ie putting the ride to bed, cleaning, walking lockout areas).

There is a grass area behind the Crypt building where Coasterstock participants were taking to get behind-the-scenes photos of Diamondback that would be a possible spot to relocate where the drones launch from, if they continue to use drones in 2025 and beyond. It's only a couple hundred feet from the current location.

Sometimes when something has been done a certain way for a few years it's more inconvenient to change it rather than just doing the same thing you've always done. I'm excited for winterfest despite it being one weekend shorter this year. I hope they add a few new rides to the lineup if possible. I know people don't always go for the rides but I love riding them in the festive atmosphere

What’s also interesting is the Carowinds doesn’t even close for a weekend before Winterfest. And they also have a much better light display than Kings Island. They managed to get all the lights up without closing the park for a weekend. KI gets a higher attendance than Carowinds. One would think it would have more operating days for this event.

I'm sure Holiday World (Koch) is concerned about a 530ft water coaster going into Soak City next season. Especially after Good Gravy outperformed KI's SSBR in the golden ticket awards. Dollywood (Herschend) is still sitting at the top of best kids' area; KI however went down in the Golden Ticket Awards even after investing over 7millon into its kids' area. To Mike's Credit, the coasters people want are being installed at the park. However, there is a disconnect with what people want and the expectation with it versus what the park is putting out.

Was the AI generated song added to that video or from the park?

And Great Adventure is on the horizon as well. (Side note...in the best of all possible worlds, the Six Flags parks could be brought up to (former) Cedar Fair standards, hopefully before all the budget cuts) Orion-family friendly...I believe this was in @KIghostguy's book..Kings Island: A Ride Through Time.

I imagine Cedar Point will still be the favorite child of the Ohio parks. It's also worth noting Six Flags Great America is only about 5 hours away from Kings Island (6 if you want to factor in Chicago traffic) and that's now a park in our chain too. It's too early to say which of the two will get the most investments between Kings Island and Great America. Apparently it was brought up in a recent Tower Topics that Mike Koontz wanted Orion to appeal to families, hence the reason for the smaller stats. I can't confirm it personally but if it is true, I really have no idea what he was thinking with that. Giga coasters are supposed to be some of the most thrilling coasters out there and to try and turn one into a family coaster just seems like the wrong way to go about it. They can minimize the height or length as much as they want, at the end of the day it still has a 54 inch height requirement. Again, this is not confirmed to be the reasoning and I still think Orion is a great ride, but it is a baffling thought.

Cracking up at the fact that the park “thinks” the massive steel coaster with a 300ft drop is family friendly. Family attractions may be a focus, but I’m sure thrilling coasters are on the horizon!

The park is currently going three years in a row of adding new family attractions to Adventure Port, Camp Snoopy and next year with Soak City. When the park stated they are going to make the park family friendly, I don't think that means they're going to completely alienate the thrill market entirely. After all, the reason I'm even talking about a 10-inversion coaster for Kings Island is because the park itself did include it as an option on one of their surveys.

See the full daytime SOB Interactive in this KIC video.

The way I look at it is that the Mack Stryker was developed to be Mack's take on a Gerstlauer Infinity. If they can do 14 inversions on a Gerstlauer Infinity, then it shouldn't be difficult to do 10 on a Mack Stryker.

Also I wanted to point out, it wouldn’t be as hard as you think to make a 10 inversion Mack Stryker coaster. Let’s take a look at Voltron, it already has 7 inversions. It has a non inverted Immelmann. If you change that to a regular Immelmann that’s inversion number 8. It also has a top hat. If you change that into an inverted top hat that’s inversion number 9. There is also an over bank turn. If that is rotated a bit more it can turn into a cutback making 10 inversions. I believe Mack’s temperature requirement for their launch coasters just like Intamin’s is rather low. In the single digits. The biggest concern is not about temperatures it’s about if the trains will valley throughout the course. Keeping it low to the ground just like Voltron would make low temperature operations possible. That’s also the reason Mystic Timbers runs during WinterFest. Another concern would be off-season maintenance. If they can take about half the amount of trains off for WinterFest I think it would still be able to run successfully.

The structural issues with both the original Bat and SOB doomed both coasters. If I remember correctly, part the lift hill structure for SOB fell over in high winds during construction. The design flaw in The Bat was what made it so much fun unfortunately. That wild swinging back and forth was what made the ride memorable for me. I'm sure it was slower and rougher than I remember...seems forever ago. But it was a new concept at the time that I was in awe of. I am really happy they brought back The Bat name at least. I agree. I think it would amazing if they could rebrand a new ride around the story of a doomed Son of Beast. I'd still be wary though since it does have such a negative light. I would love to see a ground up RMC there with some Beast theme.

Sure. But TT2 and the decision to try and revamp the ride and that’s so far proven unsuccessful. I wonder if they’d go for something like that now. Ideally, maybe they could do another Beast “sequel” devoid of any direct connection to SoB. That could be a good happy medium. It would also be a fun marketing/theming/story opportunity.

I believe Carowinds runs Copperhead Strike during Winterfest from what I've seen online. However, it is in a different climate so not sure if that would apply here if we were to get a Mack.

I agree. Personally I’d rather see a Mack Xtreme spinner but that’s unlikely considering the guests might not enjoy the spinning aspect. And Mike Koontz may not be a fan of it as well. A Mack Stryker is my #2 choice and I think makes more sense for KI overall than an Xtreme spinner. I think they could easily make it very different experience from Maverick 3 hours north. Time will tell. I’m very intrigued to see what this off-season has in store for us. Also I know being able to run a new coaster during WinterFest would be huge for the park. Mack coasters and the Stryker coaster can run in lower temperatures and especially if they keep it low to the ground.

I would also still love to see a Mack Extreme Spinner come to The Vortex plot as well, though I am concerned if a portion of the general public is put off by a spinning coaster, especially one that has launches and inversions. If the park is looking at Mack for their next coaster, then I think it would be safer to build a Mack Stryker and market it as a first-of-its-kind coaster in North America and the most inversions of any coaster in North America (10). If Cedar Point really wants to, they could build a Mack Extreme Spinner for themselves, that way it's a win-win for both Ohio parks. Though I do admit a lot of this is just wishful thinking. For all we know, it might not even be a Mack and it could be a Gerstlauer or B&M. Heck, we might not even get a new coaster in 2026, we'll just have to wait and see how things play out over the next several months. I imagine we'll know pretty early in the 2025 season if there's a coaster coming in 2026 by means of land clearing, blueprints or anything else of the sort. Also, I'm probably going to make a coaster concept for The Vortex plot over the next several days, and it will likely be my last concept for that plot. (which I've done several of over the past five years, so I'll be sure to give my best effort for this final concept)

Thanks for doing this! While I enjoy the close perspective photos with description, I really like seeing it overhead where you've found these. As @disco2000 said, maybe new bars? Could the markers be where site lines are surveyed? Are there any near/around I-Street at all? Coney is one of my favorite areas of the 2 big Ohio parks. The only thing I really don't like is where Killmart is, leading to the back of Windeseeker/Action Theater. It just feels dull once you pass Zephyr. Yeah KMAA opened the area a bit more, I don't feel like there's a spectacle in terms of what we see. The Killmart building IMO needs refreshed/brightened or razed, a new record breaking coaster (that provides midway excitement) plopped in Vortex's former home, the WindSeeker Plaza (in front of and behind) needs refreshed to be more welcoming and open.

I do kinda miss hearing the lift hill from the parking lot (especially as close to the highway as possible lol).

A 10 inversion Mack Stryker coaster would be insane. I also believe it would be a perfect fit for KI and The Vortex plot of land. It would give us another coaster with inversions that we really need and a modern launch coaster. Personally I believe we need a signature standout top 10 worthy coaster (our Fury 325 or our Steel Vengeance for example). I think a Mack Stryker coaster would be that elite coaster we need. The way Orion preformed costing $30 million I don’t think the park should be afraid to spend if that means getting an elite coaster. Also I can’t confirm this because it is a rumor but I’ve heard CF spent $50 million on TT2 so maybe they’re not concerned about the price If it means they’ll see a return on investment.

Something even similar to Voltron but themed to something retro with a Batwing near the path sounds like a dream come true

Haunt still has a couple more weekends left and Winterfest hasn't even started yet and I'm already looking forward to opening day next year and (fingers crossed) the kickoff of Decoding 2026!

Going back on-topic to what kind of ride I could see going in The Vortex plot, I find it interesting that out of all the Six Flags parks that have put out surveys over the past several months, Kings Island was the only park that I'm aware of that put out two different surveys as opposed to just one. Interestingly, the second survey had an option for a 10-inversion Infinity coaster that I believe did not appear on any surveys from the other parks. I think a Gerstlauer Infinity on The Vortex plot would fit pretty nicely there, though if Kings Island wanted to get something more unique while also delivering a similar ride experience to that of an Infinity coaster, I feel a Mack Stryker would be an absolutely incredible fit for that plot of land. It would be the first-of-its-kind in North America and the park could still go for 10 inversions if they wanted to. However, it would likely be more expensive compared to a Gerstlauer Infinity so I could see the park continue to go in that direction if they don't want to spend $25+ million on a Mack Stryker. Whatever the case, I hope we'll get our answer soon if the park indeed is planning to put something in that plot for 2026 so we can put these kinds of discussions behind us. Though I'm aware speculation like this won't end with The Vortex replacement and there will continue to be speculation for future additions even beyond that, like Action Zone for example.

Can’t confirm, but I remember reading here that it was a result of parade floats not being able to pass under. Lame.

Does anyone know when that sign disappeared was it due to construction and just never put back or one season was it just gone?

Totally get where you’re coming from, but I think there are some key differences there being: 1. While a failure, the ride experience was significantly better than SoB (from what I’ve heard), and the closure was more due to engineering issues. 2. The Bat didn’t send a train full of park guests to the hospital. With that said, let’s have some fun and say that there’s potential for a ground-up RMC project on the table for the park. As an example let’s use Zadra at Poland’s Energylandia: https://rcdb.com/16184.htm Per the power of Google, the ride was estimated to have cost around $13 million USD. Which by comparison isn’t remarkably expensive, but for the sake of conversation let’s roll with it. Would the park/chain want to make that type of investment just to have it associated with a ride that had such an overwhelmingly negative history? Doesn’t seem like a solid strategy.

Coney Mall is one of my personal favorite sections of the park and I of course want a very special coaster to take plot formerly occupied by Vortex. While I know the park would never do it, I'd totally go for a rebranding of the area back to "Old Coney". Put a skyride down the middle of the mall and add another classic flat (Trabaunt please!) and maybe a Ferris Wheel (I still say someone needs to revive those double and triple wheels) Then have a Mack or Vekoma in The Vortex plot with retro vibes and elements. That boomerang element near the walkway is an absolute must to pay tribute to The Vortex.

Although it isn't technically a Coney Mall addition, I would argue Orion's prescence behind The Racer has impacted Coney Mall quite a lot, especially towards the back of the midway where if you're walking in by BLSC and Jukebox Diner, the lift hill is right there in your face. But if we're counting just Coney Mall attractions, I would say the biggest changes to that area in recent years were mainly Vortex getting removed, KMAA and the repaint of Racer.

For me the 1st hill/drop was good and loop was good. But the ride itself was really painful on the thighs . . I just cringed through the whole ride and had to be in the mood for some pain to ride it. But what I really loved about the ride was this huge structure overlooking the park. Not quite as iconic as The Vortex but it's location, sounds and views were great. But I always liked woodie coaster structures.

I wonder if they could move the drone pad to one of the grassy areas behind ET next to either BLC or Diamonback. The obvious problem with that is they would have to put up a large fence around them to look at.

Of all the coasters I have ridden, Son of Beast was just repetitive and had a somewhat boring layout. The first drop and loop were awesome. The rest of the ride was rough as hell at times. I rode it many times with and without the loop cause my oldest kid loved it. He liked jarring pain I suppose...ha! And the more I rode it, I just wished it was something so much more. I agree, times are indeed different and who knows what it could have been. Although with the negative PR the ride garnered, I doubt they would want to revisit the name again for another version. But as stated, look at Top Thrill 2. So, I could be wrong. Maybe because it was so big and such an intense and jarring ride is why so many liked it and it continues to be talked about. I was a young teenager when the original Bat was opened. And through the lense of a young kid, that coaster holds a special place in my heart. So, I do get the fascination with Son of Beast...as rough as it was.

I can't help but laugh when people say "why would they want to bring back a failed attraction?" or "it was awful and rough". Look. The facts are, yes, it was a failed attraction. Very much so. That's no family secret. But it is also an attraction that still garners a lot of buzz amongst the GP and enthusiasts. Never is a big word that gets thrown around a lot until there is a dollar to be made. I wouldn't put it past the park to use the IP again if they knew it would really make them some money. Just food for thought there. Also a side note, the original Bat could also be said to be a failed attraction. It might not have gotten near the bad press that SoB did, but they still brought back the IP. And also, I am one who rode SoB many times. I was younger then and could handle the abuse from the ride. Would I ride it now if it were in the form that it was in from my last memory? Probably not. I can say for a fact that my last ride on it before it shut down forever was a week or two prior to the permanent closure and was honestly the best ride experience I ever had on it. But it did not always run that well and I know that as it stood back then, it was not a good ride. BUT, guys and gals, if they did for whatever reason decide to bring it back to life, do you really think they would build a coaster that wouldn't be fun and enjoyable? The industry as a whole has grown up a lot since the late 90's/early 2000's. If they were to build a reboot it wouldn't be the ride we remembered. It would be an entirely new ride all together and one they would ensure would have far more success and reliability than the former. That's not to say that there still aren't hiccups with reboots (IE: TT2 ) but I would wager to say that if they took a gamble on reusing an infamous IP such as SoB they would want to go with something tried and true to regain footing. I will, repeat, again, I am in no way saying they will ever resurrect this guy. But these are different times we are living in and technology has advanced, lessons have been learned. IF an infamous IP were to make its way back into the ether, I would imagine it would be a Son The Beast himself would be proud of.

We really like the daytime music on Coney Mall during Tricks & Treats. Having that music during the regular season would be amazing!

I think whatever goes in The Vortex plot should have an early 20th century theme to fit in with the rest of the Coney Mall area, hence why I suggested naming it "Shooting Star" or something else relating to Coney Island. I also thought a 50's hot rod theme could also work, but I think the park could go with something more unique than a car theme, especially with BLSC and KMAA right next door.

That's a good idea. A little off topic, but still Coney Mall related. I actually like the patriotic music they play in Coney Mall during Tricks and Treats and I would like to see them play it in Coney Mall during the regular season as Coney Mall is supposed to represent an old timey/Americana style park.

Possibly. This is just a thought I've had and I don't really think it's entirely feasible budget-wise for a coaster year, but could it be possible to retheme Coney Mall into Coney Island? Mainly with remodeling some buildings to look like this picture below or retheming some of the shops and restaurants to fit in with a Coney Island theme. Have the cherry on top be a new coaster in The Vortex plot themed to Shooting Star. I think it would be a really nice way to pay homage to Kings Island's predecessor. With the actual Coney Island being shut down, I don't think the park would need to contact them in order to use their name but I could be wrong.

My main question is why are they putting these all throughout Coney Mall especially the one by the entrance to Adventure Port? Maybe with a Vortex replacement, Coney Mall gets more of a refresh so they're mapping out all of Coney Mall to plan that?

There aren't liquor stands within 50 feet of those dots, new alcohol stands confirmed

Markers found so far in Coney Mall or adjacent area (marked by red dot):

Yeah, outside of KI’s weak steel coaster lineup. KI in my opinion, has been the better park this season. The customer service was sub par at CP. Heck, my room at the Express hotel was dirty and the furniture looked as if a dog got ahold of it. Totally not worth the premium they charge.