I believe the only thing the park can do is raise the price of season passes.  Giving away the gate may have something to do with what you experienced.  The amount of entitlement of people is just unbelieveable.  It's definitely a sign of the times that civility seems to have taken a break in our current climate.  In my humble opinion, just as it comes from parents, it comes from the top.

 

Just my 2 cents.

17 hours ago, disco2000 said:

Juke Box has silently returned the Patty Melt to the menu.

And they have been serving a clearly not a footlong hotdog in a footlong foil package...false advertising or bait and switch lol

 

I'ts now actually a quarter pound hot dog, back to the normal hot dog size, but bigger diameter.

The best footlongs in the park are at Brewhouse (the Big Dog) or a plan footlong can still be found at Soak City's Coconut Cove Cafe (although no relish at that location  ) 

On 6/9/2025 at 7:39 AM, robintodd said:

If this is true the Ryan the Ride Mechanic may have diagnosed it correctly.  Seems as though there was a cable on the spike used for safety for the person inspecting the spike every morning that was damaged/broken.  Something like that would just need to have a new cable secured before daily inspections could resume and would not require a new round of testing of the ride since the cable wasn't part of the ride experience itself.

Ryan's latest video did say it was indeed a crack in the structure that needed repaired.

7 hours ago, disco2000 said:

They plan to open it today (Monday)

https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/places/cedar-point/top-thrill-2-closed-cedar-point-weekend-update-tony-clark-sandusky-ohio/95-8ec3cfd5-3541-4dbe-8534-1f4ea2adeecf

 

If this is true the Ryan the Ride Mechanic may have diagnosed it correctly.  Seems as though there was a cable on the spike used for safety for the person inspecting the spike every morning that was damaged/broken.  Something like that would just need to have a new cable secured before daily inspections could resume and would not require a new round of testing of the ride since the cable wasn't part of the ride experience itself.

15 hours ago, Tr0y said:

The 2026 attraction will replace Xtreme Skyflyer.

Id pass on getting another Orion but would be all for another Mystic Timbers.

What will happen is the park will look at the feedback from surveys, and choose the ride type people most voted for without taking the time to ask:

1) Why people like those rides.

2) What makes those rides so fun. 

Do you think people honestly filled out Water Coaster in the survey box because they rode an identical version of River Racers elsewhere? No, they went to Holiday World, rode one of those water coasters then said “Kings Island needs one of those rides!”

I understand there is budgets and real life ain’t rollercoaster tycoon. It doesn't need to break records but if you cant build a quality ride experience in the ride type people are asking for, then maybe the best move is to build something else that will provide a better ride experience overall. Who cares what the survey says, build the best ride experience with the budget on hand. An example of this would be Maverick or Mystic Timbers.

I would argue a $15million Mystic Timbers does better at being a wooden coaster than $30million Orion does at being a giga.

 

 

 

Funny you should point that out.  I filled out a survey and selected the water coaster even though I had never been to Holiday World nor ever ridden a water coaster.  My reasoning was the wet side needed some attention since it had been a while since something new was added there and to give me the ability to ride one. 

I believe RR is a good choice given the space, and taking into consideration the number of riders it can accomodate.  Again, I would argue that Soak City has no issue with attracting people to the wet side of the park.  I've seen it absolutely packed and feel the needed the new shade/chairs than they did a larger water coaster.

18 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Moved the reviews of the event into its own thread.

If you haven't been told your work is appreciated.  I thought about looking for a thread for the review.  Thanks again for your work on keeping us inmates in line and the site organized. I know it's not easy.   

15 minutes ago, DonHelbig said:

What they accomplish most by peppering those with a pass with pass messaging is opt-outs for the text alerts and uninstalling the park mobile app. After extending the 20% off on a Silver Pass to June 2, they’ve now extended the offer to June 8. Multiple extensions across the company are not normal. 

I do agree as I was the president of a childrens sports league about too many emails/texts tend to have people turn them off or ignore them.  I was always very selective on how many I sent out.  Then again we only had about 1,000 kids in the league but your point does scale.  

I've always noticed extensions an there may be more this year but remember that it's not just CF running the show.  There is a massive debt and I think the extensions are mostly show for the stockholders so the company can say "look we've done alot to try and increase our stock price."

I've always wanted to see a world without the stock market.  As I've said before the biggest problem with the stock market is that people who run a company don't base their decisions on the customer, the employees or a combination of both.  They cater to the stock holders who may be neither a customer or employee and that is no way to run a business in my opinion because the only winners are the stock holders at the expense fo the customers and the employees.

 

23 hours ago, DonHelbig said:

If they’d gone longer with a true water coaster, where you didn’t have to carry your raft up a flight of stairs, the capacity would be higher. Go to Holiday World and ride each of its three water coasters to compare.,

Not sure how carrying your own raft makes the line faster.  Everytime I've seen the line I've never seen someone climbing all the way up at once without stopping for the line before getting to the top.  Also Tropical Plunge has tube slides that they have to carry up their own tube and I believe it's taller than River Racers.  

Again I don't believe that KI needs a "world class water coaster" to bring people to a water park that is so busy during peak season.  

I looked up some stats on chatgpt about how many people live withing a half our from a couple of parks and was actually surprised by the results:

Holiday World: appoximately 50,000 to 100,000 

Cedar Point: approximately 170,000

Kings Island: approximately 500,000 to 1 million.

This is the reason KI has such great attendance and why an increase of $20 on a gold pass happens there rather than CP.  In my opinion HW needs the big draws to get people to the park where KI doesn't have that problem. The more people, the more children which is why KI is more of a family park that the other two.   The more people that live near a park, the higher the attendance, the higher the attendance the more people have likes/dislikes about the park but at the same time the less need for large scale additions to "draw" people to it.  

Just my two cents.

 

5 hours ago, super7 said:

The company’s entire pricing strategy is a failure to drive I’m park spending.  
 

They give away food to season passholders with the meal plans.    A lot of people use these meal plans to the maximum and they cannot be that profitable.

Then  they overcharge for everything else which discourages all spending. 

I've found that with the quality of the food I'm spending more at the park now than I ever have.  I used to stop by outside the park before/after or leave in the middle of the day.  Now with the meal plan I eat at the park and will sometimes add a side for extra.  Also with knowing the quality of the food I'm more likely to pay for things like food & wine like my wife and I did last Saturday.  There is also the word of mouth when it comes to the food.  I imagine KI makes more profit off of their own offerings over Graders, LaRosas, Skyline, etc. 

I've also fallen victim to the "The dining plan is such a great value that I can afford to spend extra on Blue Ice Cream, fudge, extra sides, etc".  We've seen prices go up on gold passes yet not much on the drink/food plan.  If they were loosing money on the dining plan they would have upped the price on it as well.  "giving away the gate" is one thing but giving away food is another.  Trust me if there is one thing we have learned recently it's that the company at this time is driven more by profit than ever.  I'm sure the dining plan, no matter how used, is profitable.  

Finally there is the perception of the lines for the food.  People who don't visit the park often and don't have a season pass or dining plan look and go "wow, that place must be good with a line like that" not realizing how many people are in line with the plan.   From what I've noticed about 30-40% of the people are pulling out a credit card as opposed to a season pass during the busy days.

On 6/2/2025 at 12:42 PM, DonHelbig said:

I just received another message through the Kings Island app today (June 2) is the last chance to save on a 2025 Silver Pass. They must really want me to downgrade from Gold with the All Park Passport to the Silver Pass as many times as I have been pelted with Silver Pass messages the past 30 days via the app and text messages.

There’s no reason to be receiving these messages when I’ve already bought a higher level pass. Instead of the plethora of Silver Pass messages, I’d like to receive info on the Food & Wine Festival, RiverRacers, new menu items, the new nighttime fireworks and drone show. That’s the kind of email, app and text messages I’m receiving from other chains. 
 

The only think I could think of is by sending out the silver pass messages is that it spreads by word of mouth.  I may already have a gold pass but if I get this email it may remind me to tell someone I know who doesn't have a pass but is thinking about it that they could get one.  It may not be effecient, but considering they don't have phone/emails of those without passes I could see it as effective.  

I've been receiving emails like this ever since I've had a pass.  I only get like 1 or 2 every year so it's never bothered me much at all.  

Finally there may be more expense in changing the algorithm (someone would have to go in and change the programming/logic) than to just let it be (all be it a small expense).  So maybe it's just not in the budget or there are bigger problems that we don't know about to take care of.

My wife and I went last Saturday for the Food and Wine and had a FANTASTIC time.  We are both wine drinkers and found the selections held a wide variety.  We got the wine flight.  As far as food goes the "new" tasting cards are an interesting idea.  The way it works is if you purchase 5 food items you get a special dessert at the sweet spot for free.  It just about figures out the same as the old tasting cards, kind of a 6 for the price of 5 deal.  You can use the tasting card throughout the run of the event.  The one advantage of this over the old way is that if you only want 3 and you have a friend who wants 2 you could give them your card to use and score the dessert.

Anyway, the food was an improvement over last year especially in the variety of offerings.  We had 6 of them and they were all good.  I would suggest though that if the queso with the pork rinds would have been serverd with chips it would have made it a vegetarian offering of which they only had one, the fondue.  I'm not a vegetarian but think the simple switching of something other than pork rinds may have made a couple more sales.

The entertainment was good.  Hi-Fi and River City always bring the goods.  Having the horn section of River City play seperately in the new area was a treat.  My wife and I split our time between two music offerings.  While at the one in tower gardens she felt like she was in a wooded area in Paris.  She should know we have been.   I didn't find the other music to be distracting at all when sitting in each area.  I think I would have liked to see a violin player walking around the main part of tower gardens or if he was there we missed him.

The only thing I found odd was the games.  I know people have kids, etc. but this is an event geared toward adults.  I think maybe 2-3 craft vendors

All in all the event is fantastic and something my wife and I will go back to over the next couple of weeks.  

On 6/1/2025 at 8:03 PM, Orion-XL200 said:

Watching it in action today. 5 minute dispatches are rough for lines like it has. 

If they had went with a longer version the dispatch times would be even longer.  Soak City is one of the busiest areas of the park in the summer, it could be argued that this new addition won't affect attendance of an already crowded area at all.

6 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

They could have also done it like Holiday World and put in a continuous loading and lift belt.

Not sure how this would have sped up the line from what I was watching.  How fast the rafts make it up to the loading area is irrelivent.

Again.  Those on top can't go until those on the bottom have cleared the landing pool.  if it takes 60 seconds for 1 raft to do a longer 2 push slide and it takes 30 seconds to do a 1 push then 1 raft could go every 60 seconds off the longer one and 2 every 30 seconds off the shorter/dual one making 4 rafts every 60 seconds quadrupling the capacity.

Haven't ridden it yet but I would like to applaud the idea after thinking about it.  They could have put in a ride twice as long with 2 uphill pieces but that would have cut the ride wait time 75%.  On water slides you have to wait until the people ahead are out of the pool.  By haveing a shorter ride with two tubes at once they can put more people through per hour.   In my opinion KI doesn't need what other parks do to get people through the gates.  As has been said several times the waterpark is usually very crowded and that was without a water coaster.  By putting in a smaller ride and redoing a kids area and expanded shade/seating (and the upgrade of the boathouse drink stand) I think after seeing it this was a very well-thought out addition.

So happy we are getting the funnel cake shrimp!  Those are FANTASTIC at CP.

1 hour ago, DiamondbackFan said:

Yes, they said the new app comes out in July.  Also working on in park wifi for all parks so that it is easier to use the app.

When KI is even mildly busy I find the WiFi to be unbearable.  Hope this will address this.  

In comparison, CP has gotten better over the years.

13 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

 

Exactly!

I had said the same thing in a wall of text post in 2023 after a certain event happened and many thought I was crazy LOL.  Excerpts below:

 

Just like social media has changed the landscape of the traditional news outlet, where in the past the TV news and newspapers needed two separate sources to confirm news before they would publish it, I think it has changed the direction parks are going. Now it’s often as simple as re-tweeting somebody else. The immediacy of X, Facebook, TikTok, and Google searches in this new 24/7 world of news has created this rush to be first, albeit now with typos, inaccuracies, and whatever else.

Has this same immediacy phenomenon resulted in differing skillsets and has the need for the traditional top notch “marketing professionals” in amusement parks been diminished over the years as a result of social media, bloggers, influencers, etc.

Let's face it - all the free publicity and answers to questions KIC provided over the years, and all of the questions fielded on the Facebook season passholder page is basically doing the job of paid employees for free!

How many less positions are needed to be staffed in the call center now that many of these answers are provided by people on social media sites answering the questions for free?

It is clear people would rather go to Facebook and ask random strangers the hours of the park rather than opening a browser and finding the official park website and pulling up the hours LOL.  And you are very well aware many will respond with the wrong answers as well, yet that seems to be where people are going for their information.

Jim is putting out more frequent information and marketing on the FB season pass page than KI does.  As such his stuff has higher visibility.

Is it possible that things like the FB season passholder page and influencer channels are a better marketing tool than the official KI social media channels?  Way more traffic on the passholder page or even KIC than the official KI FB and twitter pages.

And then let’s not forget about the countless bloggers, influencers, channels, etc. that all have a larger audience than the official park social media sites.

And many of these influencer channels do a great job of “marketing” a park and their new attraction that reaches a far broader audience that the park isn’t paying for!

At what point do you let that type of marketing/Q&A be handled for “free” by overzealous employees and park fans on social media sites and eliminate a PR role and some staff in guest services and roll “marketing” up under the GM umbrella for those rare occasions something happens that a spokesperson needs to be provided to the media?  Or simply hire a PR firm for the couple times a year marketing blitz on new attractions and special events or when something goes south and an incident requires damage control?

Don’t get me wrong, I think there will always be a need for a guest services call center and park marketing staff as not everybody is on social media LOL, but has social media influenced the amount of money a park needs to spend on marketing and the type of professionals needed in those roles, or maybe a redirect on how that money is allocated?  Maybe the park should be paying you and your admin staff for your FB page!

Or put another way, should parks make an investment in being more active on their social media channels?  Is the old marketing way of not over-saturating the public with constant material to the point that it becomes background noise and no longer paid attention to relevant anymore in the social media age?

Just using CF as an example, it appears to me that the amount of posting and interacting by park staff is somewhat driven by CF policies.  The parks generally post about the same frequency and while some of the parks interact with guests on social media, it certainly isn’t constant, and far more posts are not responded to than responded to.

From a social media perspective, would a park be better off to adopt some of the social media methods that influencer sites have?  Look at Don as an example – he is way more active on social media now and providing content more frequently than when he was at KI – was that CF driven or did he have so many other duties that social media was a backburner?

For example, while it may hurt the FB season passholder page, would KI be better off posting to their social media channels and responding to comments at the frequency Jim and the admin crew does on the pass holder page?  And maybe that role isn’t a PR person but a guest services type person?

Or would KI posting at that high level of frequency cause people to tone out and not pay attention to the official social media sites?

Would daily posts by KI on park hours, if there are fireworks etc., be a good thing or should they stick to the infrequent posting and as such end up getting buried and lost amongst all the other influencer channels?

Just a bunch of random curiosity thoughts LOL.

 

Couldn't agree more.  I listen to Tower Topics regularly and have to say how ironic it is that they sit there and critique the KI Media department while, indirectly, doing the job of the KI Media department.  The one thing that I find unfortunate is they sit and say what the Media depertment SHOULD do in advance.  To me this puts the Media department at a disadvantage.  Either they do nothing and get critiqued for it, or they do something and then TT can take credit for "forcing their hand" and even leading them on how to do their job even if what they do was planned and coincidently or not was what was suggested.  In my opinion it would be more fair to wait until after the event has happened and then after the fact critique the Media department.  Obvisously whatever the Media department does or does not do is irrelivant to the numbers the investors are being presented.

 

18 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

And folks wonder why the chain hasn't put an emphasis on marketing KI....doesn't mean we can't squeeze some more attendance, but is the cost worth the incremental increase or are they better off to try to squeeze more money from the existing guests....which has been their approach in recent years....

Couldn't agree more.  Two types of people, one group that complain the park is "giving away the gate" and is too crowded and another that says they should be marketing more/better to "get the word out" and some people are in both camps.  From what was revealed at the investors meeting, "getting the word out" is a waste when word of mouth seems to be doing just fine.  Kind of explains the resent personel decisions during the past 12 months.  Also ironically things like podcasts, X accounts and facebook groups actually seem to be doing an equal or better job than employees in the past making their positions not as necessary.  You can even see that this website is contributing to spreading word of mouth.   I've been keeping an eye on pointbuzz.com (Cedar Point fansite) and they are not nearly and active as we are here.

Just my 2 cents.

Went in March had a good time, my KI gold pass with passport worked fine.  Got on all the major coasters except Judge Roy (closed) and Mr. Freeze (multiple downtime).  Favorite coaster was surprisingly the Mine Train (not the mini).  I found the theming and pace really nice and smooth, probably my favorite mine train ride i've been (AE is a little rough).  Rodeo and the Boots are both themed well and were fun.

6 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

If the Gold and Prestige pass prices each went up $50/$100, what kinds of additional benefits would you see as absolutely necessary for the new prices to be worth it? A Gold Pass would go from $145 to $195/$245, and a Prestige Pass would go from $350 to $400/$450. There has been plenty of discussion about the fact that Kings Island/Six Flags passes are cheaper than their competitors (especially for the price per park with the All Park Passport), so what would you like to gain if prices increased? I would assume the Silver Pass would stay the same at around $105 per pass and keep its current benefits.

Additional benefits (at Kings Island) could include:

• an indoor VIP lounge for Prestige passholders
• exclusive access to the Preferred Parking lot before noon each week day for Prestige passholders
  • no non-Prestige access before noon
• increased season pass discounts
• free/discounted access to exclusive After Hours events
• discounted access to an exclusive Winter Chillout-style event.
• admission to the seasonal Passholder Preview, now without Silver Passholders and only open to those with Kings Island as their home park
• one free single-use Fast Lane ticket per season per Gold Pass / two free single-use Fast Lane tickets per visit per Prestige Pass
• free/discounted access to an exclusive Halloween Haunt or Winterfest experience(s)

I have a feeling prices will eventually go up, so put your ideas out there! Unless Six Flags plans to release an all-new pass structure system that is.

As I have stated before I think Gold Passes are way to cheap.  I would gladly pay and additional $50 if it meant lowering the number of passes out there.  I think the park will keep increasing the price until they see a drop in revenue from them.  Our gold passes are $20 more expensive than a gold pass at Cedar Point when KI first offers the pass in October.  The price for a gold pass is is now $145  at KI and $150 at CP.

As far as Prestige goes I would get rid of it.  In it's place I would offer add-on's to the gold pass.  One for VIP ($80?), one for preffered parking ($80?), one for single use fast pass ($100?).  This would total $260 and if someone wanted them all it would be $200 to just get all of them in a package (therefore replacing the Prestigue Pass).  Of course the Passport would still be another add on (currently $85 at KI, $80 at CP).  

I would prefer this because I think it makes it simpler and the park would make more money.  For example I would like the preffered parking but have no wish to have the single use Fast Lane or the VIP so they would get another $80 from me.  However some may want the preffered parking and the VIP  or the single use fast pass.  At that point for an additional $20 they could get all three for $200.  

It just makes sense to have VIP, Parking and single use fastlane as addon's similar to the way the drink plan, dining plan and funpix are add-ons.

Either way I think for those of us who live within a 45 minute drive to the park the season passes are a fantastic value.  I consider myself fortunate to happen to live so close to not only and amusement park, but one of the best ones.  In my opinion there are several people who take it for granted and even more that feel "entitled".  

No doubt Six Flags will keep adjusting the price and supply and demand will rule the day.  Either way, as I said before the fact that Cedar Fair just gave us 2021 for free during the COVID Pandemic made me a season pass holder for life.  It was a fantastic value and decision, one that they are slowly pulling out of and, in my opinion, they are still adding value each year while recooping the cost of that decision.

Thanks KI, from a devoted fan.

 

For those that missed it the lights have been added to the towers along the i-street fountain (2 per tower).

13 hours ago, Diamondback_Is_King said:

I waited about the same as Passholder Preview Day:

Diamondback: 80 minutes-still at 2 trains

Beast: 70 minutes-how many trains does Beast normally run? I feel like they're one train short. Or, there's just so much Fast Lane and that's why it feels like the line doesn't move

They have been running 3 which is as many trains as they have.  With the new tracking it seems The Beast has exploded in popularity again.  I've seen full queue's 2 of the 3 times I've been to the park this year and the one time without a queue was after the rains on Friday.  It was a walk on around 6:45.  Word has gotten out and the public has spoken, seems like the retrack work on The Beast over the past 3 years is an absolute sucess!  Good call KI.

Park looked great today.  Food lines went quick and the only long line in the park was The Beast with a full queue.  Love that touches on Stunt Coaster, nice refresh to tie it to Cinci.  

The number of trees cut down by The Vortex plot's fence is very obvious.  Not sure why all the clearing but it seems to me like they are preparing for something.  My thoughts are that next year the Family Fun Attraction will be in the old Xtreme Flyer spot along with a refresh to the area in general and constuction will begin early-mid next year for a large coaster in The Vortex plot for 2027. 

2027 would be the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Screamin Demon, also the 40th anniversary of the opening of Vortex.  Just sayin  

So seeing this section today I also noticed how much the area just needs an upgrade.  A spinning coaster at that location for family's would be a nice complment to The Bat as a tween step.  Also it may bring more people to that area and renew The Bat's ridership.

 

In my mind this may have been something where they found out the only way to get the parts was to have them custom made and the cost was just too much.  Could be the reason the new park map hasn't been released yet.