johnjniehaus

Charlie Brown Fairgrounds dark ride shooter new in 2026! The park has to know at this point people want phantom theater back and that if they did it correctly it would be a big hit. However, they have to be willing to shell out the money for an animatronic based dark ride because while I'm sure screens are cheaper, they would not be the same nor satisfy the fans of the old attraction. I think it's great that KI has brought back some classics like the antique cars and flying scooter but the phantom theater would be the biggest return of a former attraction we've seen yet

Drove past Coney on labor day...very sad to see how barren and empty the place looks. I remember driving past lesourdsville as a kid and a few old flat rides and the rollercoaster were still standing. The place looked abandoned but not empty like Coney does now. In my mind I know that Cincinnati is probably not big enough to justify having Coney Island and Kings Island but I do miss Coney sometimes. It's a pity that many of the historical buildings will probably meet the same fate as sunlight Pool. Driving past reminded me of childhood memories of going in the early/mid 2000s but it's also a hard pill to swallow that a once charming amusement park is going to be flattened for a music venue

I think there's a lot of projects the park plans to address such as Vortex replacement, boo blaster replacement, and maybe a new attraction in the tomb raider building before they retheme Action Zone. At the end of the day, Action Zone is ugly but it's functioning just fine as it is while The Vortex left a section of the park with no major rollercoaster and boo blaster is literally falling apart!

My personal opinion is that landscaping does help but there's many other factors in the appeal of a rollercoaster. Terrain, landscape, tunnels/hardscape, and water features all make a ride more unique and aesthetically pleasing. For example I much prefer the trees, tunnels, and scenery around Adventure Express rather than the concrete and gravel around Backlot Stunt Coaster

I miss that it was a unique ride but Orion is definitely better, has higher capacity, and not as much downtime. I actually miss it more when I ride nighthawk or batwing because both of those ones are super janky and rough that it makes me miss how Firehawk was decently smooth for an old Vekoma and it's unfortunate that the best of the Vekoma flying Dutchman coasters reached the end of its service life somehow before then others which are much worse in my opinion. I think reach the end of its service life is relative to the park because if Firehawk had been relocated to let's say, valleyfair or Michigan's Adventure, it would have to have had pieces of the track falling off of it to be removed because those park never remove anything because of their smaller budgets and the fact they NEVER get new coasters. Maybe it did have some huge issue at KI that I don't know about but I assume that KI knew it was down alot and problematic, expensive to maintain, and when an opportunity came along to replace it with "the Orion project" inherited from CGA they jumped on it... I will say at least they replaced it unlike a much more beloved coaster they claimed had "reached the end of its service life" and was removed in favor of a grassy field and a drone launch pad...

If only someone was able to convince the parks not to sue togo and arrow over their flunks... imagine them still being in business after all these years! What would they even be building now? How many defunct coasters would still be around?

I'm just looking at how some of these comments have aged. It's really sad that arrow never did resurface and that most parks don't maintain them or restore them like BGW did with lochness monster. I also think it's a crime that S&S discontinued all the models including the suspended coaster which was one of the best models arrow produced and nobody else has ever come close to touching.

Just gonna say that I've seen kids of all races, sizes, ages, and genders act like idiots unsupervised at KI so I don't think you can just say "oh (fill in the blank) kids" are who anyone is referencing when they make a comment suggesting that the intoxicated woman was getting drunk and not watching kids she was responsible for. Did it ever occur to anyone that hypothetically if she actually was supposed to be watching 10 children that not all of them would be the same race, gender, or ages? I'm white and when I was in school, my sister and I were friends with twin sisters who were biracial and my dad would be the driver and supervising adult for all of us...now if we acted like hooligans (which we never did) could you blame that on any one race, gender, or age kids? No because we were diverse...If you saw us in the park, would you assume my dad was only supervising the white kids? No he was supervising a group of kids which included kids of different races, genders, and ages.

For the most part people are probably just exaggerating or making crap up but boxwoods when they bloom seriously do smell like cat pee... I'm sure KI has some boxwoods but I'm not sure if they are "all over the park" Guess I'll have to look for them next time I'm there

BGW: I hadn't been to this park in over 2 years so it was time to get back there! Unfortunately Verboten was closed and is not scheduled to reopen until Sept 6 so that was a disappointment. However, I did get to experience DarKoaster for the first time. It was enjoyable but honestly seemed kind of similar to verboten in many ways. I did appreciate that you go through the circuit twice and that they special effects are slightly different both times. The other big ride of the trip was of course Loch Ness Monster having been refurbished since I was there two years ago. I honestly didn't notice much difference in the way it ran because it has always been really smooth. The back rides ridiculously smooth. The front has a few jolts but still is a fun ride. I previously did not enjoy alpengeist as it really banged my head around but I decided to try the front row and I enjoyed it much better than I had previously. Of course Griffon, Pantheon, and Apollo's chariot are all pretty good. I rode tempesto and was reminded why I'm not crazy about that model. I managed to ride all 3 water rides including Roman rapids which had been closed during my 2022 visit. While it's not a water ride necessarily, I did take a trip down stream on the Rhine River Cruise. Grovers Alpine Express was a last minute credit snag for me and was surprisingly good! I made sure to ride the skyride all the way around and the railroad. In terms of flats I rode finagans flyer, Turkish Delight, and the flying machine. Ate lunch at the festhaus and that German sausage and the different types of cabbage was amazing! One final thing, I hope BGW wins most beautiful park this year because it was immaculate! KD: It's been a year since I last rode I-305 (my #1 fav coaster) and I managed to get 3 laps on it this visit. I also got to ride tumbili for the first time as I had skipped it my previous visit. Rode all the coasters with the exception of Great Pumpkin and Anaconda (which was closed for some unknown reason). Their Flight of Fear is definitely smoother than ours but despite not stopping on the midcourse, seemingly runs slower than the KI version. The backlot stunt cars also felt slightly slower than the KI clone. I managed to get front row on Racer 75, Grizzly, I-305, and Apple Zapple and back row on I-305, Flight of Fear, and Reptilian. During my visit, I also got to take a spin on most of the flats including Arachinidia, Bad Apple, Wave Swinger, Delirium, Flying Eagles, Drop Tower, Berserker, Wind Seeker, and Flying Aces. I also loved their iteration of boo Blaster much better than ours at KI. While I did not get to ride the water rides, I had ridden both of them during my visit last year. It was just too late in the day by the time I made it around to that side of the park. Kings Dominion has always impressed me with being a beautiful park and with their massive trees. It was also cool to see Rapterra nearly complete! Camden Park: Just stopped in for about 2 hours on the return trip. I had been to this park once as a kid maybe around 2012/2013ish? I was young enough to have chickened out of riding the Hawnted House which I made sure to ride during this short stop. Such a fun classic attraction and definitely debatable if it counts as a coaster credit. Even if it doesn't count as a rollercoaster it's a very rare dark ride credit as there are only two gravity driven haunted houses in the USA and devil's den at Conneaut Lake Park I believe is currently SBNO....In addition to the Hawnted House, I rode the three other coasters in the park (Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Slingshot). Big Dipper was still running pretty smooth and had some new lumber on the lift so I'm glad to see they are replacing some of the wood. I also rode the Tilt-a-Whirl, the paratrooper, flying scooter, and the classic whip (which is one of only 4 in the USA I believe). I didn't ride the world's slowest log Flume but I have memories of it from being a kid at the park. Overall an enjoyable couple hours. I do wish that someone would show the park more love as many of the rides and coasters need repainted and the food stands could definitely be updated. However, it's still a classic park and has some unique attractions that are hard to come by these days. Would definitely recommend going to it if you have never made the trip down there.

Well said!

You're cracking me up! Y'all know what I'm referencing. BBW in rollercoaster lingo is Big Bad Wolf just like "riding a woodie" is not what comes to mind for some people. Haha

I was just there yesterday and saw the new footers in the drachen fire area. There's definitely some kind of rollercoaster going in back there. It would pain me to see a cheap rip off of big bad wolf as an arrow suspended coaster that utilized the terrain is worlds better than some family b&m invert that runs across a grassy field. I wish someone would bring back the arrow suspended model with the swinging gondola cars but alas we will probably never see anything like that again. I'm just curious if this new coaster is going to be marketed as BBW 2.0 and while the GP and younger guests who never rode the original might not care, I don't think anyone is replacing BBW in the hearts and minds of it's huge fanbase including many middle age and older guests.

Yes that one is my personal favorite and I will definitely try to make a trip to ride it if they ever announce it's closure. If it lasts till 2028 I'm going to make a motion for it to become an ACE Landmark for holding the record of highest G-force in the USA for 50 years.

Enthusiasts are a very rough crowd but I had GP friends threatening to back out of going to CP when they knew it was down. I was told why would we go when the best ride isn't open? I had to convince them that the park was still good enough to justify a 4hr one way drive. My GP Kings Island crowd friends basically weren't going to give the park their business over the entire thing. I convinced them to give the park a chance and I (the enthusiast) happened to make CP $120 in tickets sales that day. I have many family members and friends saying things to me about what a disappointment it is or how it looks really bad on Cedar Point to have additional issues with a ride that already had an major accident. I've got GP people telling me "TT2 is like Son of Beast". It hasn't gone unnoticed by the general public it's just that enthusiasts are the loudest critics and have the platform to voice their opinions. The GP is probably just as upset and in the case of my family and friends who aren't enthusiasts none of them went to CP this year except the couple of guys I work with that I convinced to give the park a shot despite the fact TT2 was closed.

Sad this is going but it was running pretty janky for a Schwarzkopf when I rode it two years ago. The only way a park is going to keep a Schwarzkopf these days is if it's a beloved classic/historically significant or if the park doesn't have a lot of investment put into it. For example, revolution at magic mountain isn't going anywhere anytime soon because it's a classic. I'd guess frontier city is also going to hang silver bullet as long as possible. A park like BGT doesn't have one that is an ACE coaster landmark or as iconic as something like super-duper-looper but they do invest in BGT quite often so it makes sense it's being retired for a modern replacement

Can't lie I'm not surprised. I'm hoping for next spring but at this point I think I'm done getting my hopes up. I'm viewing this project as a disaster until I see at least 3 months of steady, reliable operations out of TT2

I'm not an economist but I'd say based on my limited knowledge this is a true statement. I think there's a limit to what people can/will pay for an amusement park during a time of inflation. If they raised the rates to $200 for a gold pass would they still have the same amount of people buying them? Maybe if they had done it over the course of the past 10 years people wouldn't have noticed as much? However you never know because people were standing in soup lines during the great depression but somehow found enough money to go to the movie theater and to keep the amusement parks afloat... people have money for what they want to have money for

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.

Looks like a fun event! Unfortunately our Octoberfest section is nothing more than the festhaus and Viking Fury. I love adventure port but it came at the cost of reducing Octoberfest to merely a spur off of International Street. I'd get behind an Octoberfest event at KI but I'm not sure how to gauge how many people it would actually draw to the park...

This is very unfortunate and I do agree that this guy is totally in the wrong here. An 8 year old is not going to be able to properly look after two younger siblings and if there was some sort of child predator in the park an 8 year old is not equipped to handle that sort of situation. The proper thing to do is either bring another adult to watch younger kids or if push comes to shove you all wait in the line together and when you get up to the gate you let the 9y.o. ride alone and you and the other children either cross over or go back through the que and meet her at the exit. I think CP does check height at the entrance to certain rides but I've seen my grandma take my younger cousins in line for plenty of rides at Kings Island and explain to the operator they were just going to walk across to the exit. Ops never seemed to have an issue with it and when me and my older cousins would get off the ride she'd be right by the exit waiting.

After digging around, I can't seem to find out what type of malfunction the swings had or what type of injuries were sustained but hopefully the injured parties make a speedy recovery as it did not sound as if anyone was in a critical or life threatening condition. On a side note: maybe they should squash the swings instead of the spider to make space for their new flat ride!

Man milli being down all day sucks!!! That's happened to me before too... Glad you got to get back up there though. Maverick and steel Vengeance are both elite coasters. Definitely top 10 worthy!

Wow! I had no idea that wonderland had fallen behind CP and KI... hopefully that means they will increase our budget even more and give us that Vortex replacement! Just kidding of course we already have a pretty good budget and I hope they continue investing in wonderland as well. I really loved that park the one time I was fortunate enough to visit in 2023. Definitely want to try to get up there next year!

I saw the same video. I have a friend who's home park is great America and she was really hoping it wasn't a dive but after the announcement she has definitely got more enthusiastic because of the fact there's no mid course and that it's an original layout. She was really afraid they were going to get yet another cloned layout. Also, you should seriously visit SFGA. I really love that park. They have some good coasters and whole nothing there is elite to me, that doesn't mean they don't have a diverse lineup that is really fun. They also have some really good flat rides that you shouldn't miss! Fiddler's Fling is one of the wildest spinning flats I've ever been on and their "monster" is a Schwarzkopf model called the lobster and it spins like crazy! It's been closed most of this season but they also have a very rare HUSS Condor!