johnjniehaus

To be fair, top Thrill Dragster probably seldom if ever operated with a single train but when I went to Great Adventure in 2022, Ka was one train ops and opened late. When Kingda Ka most likely was one train ops on a regular basis and considering was down for half the season on multiple occasions, that can really hurt the annual ridership.

The gold standard in the amusement park industry to me personally is Knoebels. Fully staffed and everyone acts like they love their job. Rides are always open unless they have maintenance going on and the food/games/merch is very affordable. Also love that they are a family park and non riders don't have to pay. I know Kings Island is not that type of park but I hate to see one up on the Dogem and two in the monster when they had more ops at one time making the dispatches more timely. Knoebels has lots of ops and great efficiency. Heck they have so many employees some of them sit in a booth and sell tickets all day and others take tickets all day. There is a person at the entrance to each rollercoaster who's job is not to sell tickets or check restraints but they are there for one purpose which is to take tickets. That's all they do. Kings Island would never have a surplus of employees like that. All parks in the Cedar Fair chain whine about being "short staffed" but parks like Kings Island are near two major cities while Knoebels is in the middle of nowhere and never seems to be "short staffed"

It's sad when the former PR guy conveys more information than the current PR people do. Last winter I found out about the Kings Island show auditions from Theme Parks by Don and told my sister and her boyfriend who are music majors about it and my sister told me she couldn't find anything from Kings Island about having auditions. I told her to trust me that I had a source better than the Kings Island communications and about a week before the audition was scheduled was when the actual PR made an announcement. My sister said that a lot of people they go to college with said they would have auditioned but were unaware about the date and time or didn't feel they had enough time to prepare. All I'm saying is that I don't even bother reading the KI blog articles or reading their press releases anymore because I'm not going to get any information I'm interested in or want to know anyway. Tower Topics and KIC have been much better sources of information since the public relations changed at KI

I'm always the first person to say that Cedar Point is my favorite amusement park I've ever been to. Absolutely love that place but it is true that they are the golden child and anything the chain ever does is always going to revolve around making and keeping Cedar Point as THE BEST park in the USA even if it's to the detriment of other parks. It's not fair, it's not right, but there's nothing anymore can really do about it necessarily. Do I think they removed Kingda Ka purposely to make TT2 the king of American Coasters? No I think there's other factors as well but you better believe if Kingda Ka was at Cedar Point they'd dump millions and millions into keeping it around.

I understand why they did it but it's borderline dishonest in my book to have people renew their passes or buy passes as Christmas gifts and then silently close 2 major coasters and 3 rides and only make a small announcement AFTER you already have most people's money and nobody can get any last rides. The entire situation is ridiculous and unless the 2026 coaster is to die for, I don't see myself going to great adventure in the near future partly because they have closed so many of their unique rides that gave me incentive to travel 9 hours to the park and secondly out of principle because they did everyone so dirty when they failed to communicate their intentions to close rides They only thought of their own wallet and never took the guest into consideration period.

Hopefully just some routine maintenance

Unfortunately you are 100% right about that. I don't love it but I have to remind myself that Kings Island is much much better than most of the other parks in the chain despite the obvious holes, shortcomings, and disappointments of not getting a Vortex replacement year after year after year. I can't believe that I wasn't even driving when Vortex closed...it seems like yesterday that it was there but the time that field has been empty feels like an eternity

Yes I guess it is seeing as the current news is that Kingda Ka will be torn down and a totally new launch coaster will be coming in 2026

Even more disappointing that they made no announcement about it. I will be writing their president a letter and will be mailing it to their postal address. Not that it'll change anything but that management of that park the past few years and the fact they had an abomination of a 50th anniversary is absolutely unfathomable

Because it's Mike Koontz and every single ride they build is marketed as a family attraction

Totally agree here. We got sort of spoiled under Cedar Fair being one of the top 3 flagship parks but with magic mountain and great adventure joining the chain, you can definitely expect us to get less exciting additions in the future. I think that rapterra is going to be the last big thing at Kings Dominion for quite some time as well unfortunately. Yes he definitely did say that and in some ways Orion is more family friendly than other giga coasters (looking at you I-305 ). However, I think it's hard to say that only families benefited from that addition because many thrill seekers do enjoy Orion even if it wasn't a clone of Fury 325 In all reality isn't millennium Force actually the "family giga" because it's the only one with a 48" height requirement?

Update: The Skyway is being retired at Great Adventure along with Kingda Ka, Green Lantern, and Twister. The parachute ride which closed awhile back is also slated for demolition.

I think Orion is plenty thrilling enough but the park hasn't replaced Firehawk in terms of having a ride that unique. Losing Vortex was also a hard blow seeing as we are now short on inversion focused coasters and I'm sad to say I don't think Invertigo is going to survive the decade

Same here. I thought Intamin should have been involved in the TT2 project from the beginning. I do think it's probable that we will see a similar conversion of Kingda Ka seeing as there's not any demolition permit filed for it like there is for greenlantern, parachute ride, and twister. Also, it is official now that they are removing their skyride. Happy 50th anniversary Great Adventure! Your new coaster didn't open, your log Flume refurbishment got WAY behind schedule, and they just closed two of your major coasters, your top spin, and your skyride. As for six flags over Texas, la vibora and El Diablo getting removed was predictable but I'm still saddened by the fact that it was the last Intamin bobsled still in operation meaning that coaster model is now extinct. I do think the new dive coaster is a great addition for that park though and I hope to get back down there soon especially considering that I love shockwave and with the current trend of closures, I frankly don't trust the new six flags chain to keep maintaining classics like that. Also I'm very interested what we'll see going to magic mountain in 2026...

I'm sorry but park presidents/executives are full of crap when they talk about understanding that saying goodbye to beloved rides can be difficult. If they truly understood how it felt, they would not have been borderline deceptive about the pending closure/removal and would have made an announcement allowing people to get their last rides and have those final moments and memories. All I have to say to Mr Brian Bacica is that he's full of it!

I would agree that I think they have done a lot to improve our dining options. I would have never invested in a meal plan before coney BBQ and grain and grill were added. In terms of housekeeping, I still don't wanna know what is living in some of those bathrooms...

Regardless of what goes on the tomb raider building - top spin, mad house, rollercoaster, etc I'm looking at it as it'll be better than only using the building for a haunt maze that has seen better days

I personally think the antique autos was really solid but we all know Orion was a project we took from CGA and that adventure port was last minute and camp Snoopy while fun, just didn't deliver how most people had hoped it would.

Get those dang flying eagles back from Carowinds and nobody will care about not getting a new coaster. I'd describe a bisch-rocco flying scooter as "family thrill" My question to Mike Koontz is "At what point does Kings Island have enough 'family' orientated rides and attractions?" You could argue that since the addition of Banshee and with the possible exception of Orion, the park has invested in rides that are geared towards kids and families. Sure mystic was great, antique autos was great, and while I enjoyed adventure port and camp Snoopy when is enough enough?

All I can pray for is the family thrill ride is a vekoma madhouse in the Crypt building Not gonna rule out the possibility of a screaming swing or some other large flat addition

Some interesting news across the chain... Carowinds desperately needs a water ride and hopefully it is a replacement for the river rapids ride because that is a large area that needs a new attraction Apparently Canada's Wonderland is getting a water attraction but this could be a water park addition Kings Island gets a family thrill attraction...not gonna lie, it sounds like our new coaster in 2026 dreams got flushed down the toilet. Knott's getting water park upgrade Magic Mountain gets first of its kind coaster in North America?!? Now that is something of interest... There's not much that Magic Mountain doesn't already have so let the speculation begin! Great America desperately needs a new/better kids area and the 50th anniversary celebration will be alot of fun if it's anything like Kings Island (or they could totally blow it like great adventure did). Park enhancement is what interests me...do we dare hope for an American Eagle retrack? Great Adventure looking at a record breaking launch coaster.... possibly KK2? And yes if the new coaster at Cedar Point is TT2 I want KK2 at great adventure. No need to deviate from these stupid names Over Texas saw the addition of wrath of Rakshasa for great America and said, we'll do you better than that. New record breaking dive coaster coming presumably to the la vibora/El Diablo plot of land near the front of the park. Six Flags Mexico gets a family boomerang...at least Kings Island isn't the only park getting a family addition.

Yeah I'm not sure what "family thrill" means in this case... I see other parks getting "record breaking coasters" and so family thrill doesn't translate to Vortex replacement in my mind.

Don't get me wrong CP is my favorite amusement park ever and I'm happy to have it in Ohio but it's interesting that they get 3 new coasters back to back to back years and the newly acquired six flags parks instead of getting new coaster get coasters taken away from them.

Just as I suspected... Six Flags: "we aren't removing anything. It's all just rumors" ACE Regional Rep: "demolition has already begun" The lack of communication or pure dishonesty is more upsetting to me personally than the actual closures/ride removals.

Here's a response from the ACE regional rep I got this morning confirming the la vibora and El Diablo removals. I contacted the park as well but they've been pretty tight lipped about all the potential removals so far so I'll most likely get the typical check the website and attractions are subject to availability automatic response