Hawaiian Coasters 325

Its hard to get national acts with there being tons of nicer venues near downtown Cincy. However, what Carowinds is doing is making the concerts free with park admission. If KI were to do another concert series, I predict it would be like Carowinds as I think just making the concerts free with park admission would be a solution. Now, Carowinds' venue is actually fairly similar to Riverbend just without the grass lawn so it is much nicer than Timberwolf and seats more people. So Idk if the same acts that are going to Carowinds would go to Timberwolf too, but I would love to see a Coke sponsored concert series come to KI too.

Timberwolf has played a major part of KI history and at one point was the main venue for big acts coming to the Cincinnati area. However, over the last 2 decades we have seen the venue be used for concerts less and less with more nicer concert venues being built in and around the area with another big venue set to be built where Coney Island used to be. The park tried a concert series for the 50th anniversary in 2022, but from what was observed the venue wasn't even half full for most of the concerts which likely was the reason the park didn't bring them back in 2023. For 2023, the park brought back the Spirit Song festival which was the main event Timberwolf was used for before Covid. However, for some reason Spirit Song isn't planned for this season and there has been no mention of it which is very odd. This brings me to this question, what does the future hold for Timberwolf? As of right now, the only thing likely planned for Timberwolf is using it for the awards ceremonies for Music in the Parks which takes place on weekends in April and May. However, long term I'm not sure keeping Timberwolf, a 10,000 seat venue for just a school music awards ceremony is really needed and would be a waste of space as Timberwolf sits on prime land at the front of the park. In 2021, I believe the park used International Showplace for the awards ceremonies. This leads me to this question. What do you think will happen to Timberwolf this season and beyond? Will the park surpsise us with another round of concerts this season similar to what Carowinds is doing? Will they just use it for Music in the parks then just let it sit there empty the rest of the season? Will it be demolished for new attraction/s in the coming years? Lets speculate below.

Snoopy's Soapbox Racers has started testing! Imo I think it is very likely we may see this thing open around the time of the ACE Spring Conference in May! Maybe the weekend before? Hoping that is the case!

Current wait time for Orion: 47 hours, and 55 minutes lol Also the red headline says 2023 not 2024

@IndyGuy4KI are you planning on making a ride wait times thread for this season like you usually do?

Official video from the park:

Of course it would lol. I do have a little "history" with him not that I would repeat any of that though. I learned my lesson from all that, but I do really enjoy his coverage of KI and I'm glad he's WCPO's go to guy for KI coverage lol.

John Matarese was there as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2_RK9Oizdg

Some more photos from the article: Also a link to the article that works: https://local12.com/news/local/gallery/kings-islands-camp-snoopy-snoopys-soap-box-racers-cincinnati-derby-club-kids-join-unveiling-cars-mason-latest-coaster-adrenaline-track-thrill-seekers-updates-reveal-late-spring-visit-shaded-play-space-beagle-scout-acres-season?photo=11

One is just a throwback photo for long time KI fans who remember the old Enchanted Voyage The second one if I were to take a guess is the train for Snoopy's Soapbox Racers which is Vekoma. Plus they said in a construction update awhile back they expect the train to arrive any day.

I believe he was at KD. Tim Fisher (the COO) was GM of KI under Paramount for awhile.

Another kids update:

I beat you by a minute lol. At least I know its not just me.

Idk if it is just me, but it looks like the Camp Snoopy Webcam is no longer up.

When I was little (like 2007 I think) there was a YouTube video of Kings Island and the song played in the video was "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. Ever since then, I have always associated that song with Kings Island and I loved that it was part of the park playlist last season. Also for those who don't know, ever since 2021 the park has picked a song for the season that plays for associates when they arrive in the morning to get them ready for the day. In 2021 it was "High Hopes", 2022 it was "Celebration" and 2023 it was some song that I don't know the name of that River City and a few other KI performers actually recorded a cover of. Mike Koontz talked about it at Coasterstock last season.

I just checked and it looks like you can still register.

A St Patrick's Day Update from Woodstock's Air Rail (formerly Flying Ace) https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=815044267329930&set=a.644361897731502

According to ACE as of 10 minutes ago, the available spots are half full!

I registered for the ACE Spring Conference!

The "new thing at the land formerly known as Coney Island" hasn't even broke ground yet and besides Carowinds also has to compete with nearby concert venues like the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte which is the same exact thing as Riverbend btw.

I believe that's what Busch Gardens does with their concerts. It makes me wonder if CF learned from KI's concert series back in 2022 which KI charged extra for the concerts and didn't include park admission and decided to make the concerts at Carowinds free with park admission.

Honestly I think Grand Carnivale makes most sense at KI, KD, and CGA as they mainly fit the theme of the parks well. CGA has Orleans Place which works with Carnivale at Orleans Place and Grand Carnivale at KI and KD work with International Street. In fact, I believe Mike Koontz said at Coasterstock last year that Carnivale started as an International Food Festival specfically for KI and it developed into Grand Carnivale.

Also worth mentioning it won't just be the Palladium stage being used for this concert series. According to the website there will be over 30 performances across multiple stages:

Hopefully KI follows suit with Timberwolf! This would be a perfect way to use Timberwolf! Maybe even try and book the same artists!

While I understand there was a certain budget for the 50th anniversary celebration knowing the world we live in, I will say I really wish the 50th anniversary parade was bigger like CP's 150 parade. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the floats' colors. I think just blue and gold with maybe some white in there would've been better. Also instead of stacks of presents, I would've probably done a big golden Eiffel Tower on one of the floats. I honestly would've liked the 50th celebration better if it was more like Grand Carnivale. Like the King and Queen of Carnivale could be the "Golden King and Queen of KI" or something along those lines. Also I think the bandstand show could've been better. While I liked the creativity of "Club KI", I think something more along the lines of the "Celebrate 150 Spectacular" show at CP would've been better. Also I wish they would've used the LED ribbon boards on the stage truss and maybe an LED lit up 50th anniversary logo (like CP 150 had on the celebration plaza stage). Finally while Fun, Fireworks, and 50 was nearly perfect and is the best fireworks show KI has ever done imo, I think what would've made it perfect is if they had a Nickelodeon segment during the part where they did the Brady Bunch, Hanna Barbera, and Peanuts references. Like with the drones they could've made the Nick logo and played "Kickin it all over town" from the old Nick parade back in the day during the segment. Now I understand that it would've been expensive to do given licensing and all that, but honestly I feel like when they jumped from Hanna Barbera straight to Peanuts it really felt like something was missing and I would've loved to have seen a Nickelodeon segment thrown in there. Other than that FF&50 was a perfect show. Lastly outside of the 50th anniversary year, I think it was a huge missed opportunity this past season to not do a Brady Bunch 50th anniversary reunion for the 50th anniversary of the Cincinnati Kids special being aired.