Oldiesmann

It wasn't packed when I was there on Sunday, but it did seem busier than it had been in years past, even outside of the water park.

I visited Kentucky Kingdom today on my way home from HoliWood Nights. It was my first visit in nearly 2 years so this was my first glance at seeing the changes Herschend had made. The new coaster is a lot of fun and a great addition to the park. I got two rides on it - front row and back row (and those were just the rows I happened to get assigned - I didn't ask for any specific row either time). It's at the front of the park right next to Lightning Run, but you can't get to it directly as part of the path is blocked off. Instead you have to cut through King Louie's Kingdom. The new Discovery Meadow section, which debuted last year, is quite nice. There are now quite a few kids' and family rides in the back half of the park (near Mile High Falls) where there used to be a bunch of empty space, plus a play area and more. It's going to be interesting to see what else Herschend does with the park in the coming years. I'm already seeing reports on Facebook of another major investment planned for next year.

Whatever it is, it's going to be quite large. It takes up a huge space along the right side of the path between 4th of July and Thanksgiving. There was a poster up this weekend as well, hinting at a possible August 22nd announcement (though someone on Facebook said the park president had mentioned that it would be announced in July, so it's hard to say).

Somehow I missed that earlier.

If you plan to visit more than once the gold pass is a good deal. Tickets for specific days range from $40 to $47 depending on the day. The gold pass is $100 and includes free parking, free drinks, 15% discount on food, merchandise and photos and more. The Silver Pass doesn't include parking.

According to a Kentucky Kingdom fan page on Facebook, there was a fire at the former Casa Mia restaurant at Kentucky Kingdom (the pizza place on the left as you entered the park), which was in the process of being converted into Bluegrass Grill. No injuries reported and the fire was contained just to that part of the building, but the extent of the damage and cause aren't known at this point. The park opens for the season next Saturday. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EA7Wb8FvF/

I might have to wander out there this year. I haven't been in 7 years, despite visiting Virginia and West Virginia last year (mainly because Google routed me over US 35 instead of the AA highway, so I didn't go through Huntington at all).

I never rode the original but I thought this one was a lot of fun and a vast improvement over what Boo Blasters had become by the time it closed last year. I waited about 2½ hours, getting to the park just after opening and getting in line about 10:15.

KI operated the campground themselves. According to Wikipedia, Jellystone is operated on a franchise system and is a division of Sun Communities (the same Sun that operates Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana, though I think Sun Outdoors might be a separate division)

I'm not surprised they're doing this, but I am surprised they announced it now, since they just made a big deal out of the regional pass thing and we're less than 2 months from most of these parks opening for the season. It'll be interesting to see how this affects my planned visit to Six Flags St Louis in a few months as well (I'm still planning to visit, but the question is whether I'll have to pay for parking/admission/food/drinks). It also makes you wonder how this will affect ride names - will they retain rights to the WB or Peanuts (depending on the park) IP or will they be forced to rename everything and drop references to those characters?

From Silver Dollar City's Facebook page. The Thunderation mine train coaster will be retired at the end of this season.

It's mainly geared towards families with kids, so if you don't have kids or aren't part of a group that includes kids, you may not get much enjoyment out of it. I've been to the one in Sandusky once (with my sister, brother-in-law and nieces back in 2020 - the girls were 2 and 4 at the time so they got a lot out of it) and the one in Mason several times (once or twice with family again, and a few times with other KIC members as we used to do holiday get togethers there)

Fortunately no employees or animals were injured...

Interesting series of developments regarding Lakemont Park and specifically the Leap the Dips coaster. The organization that runs the park under a lease agreement with the county has apparently decided they can no longer afford to maintain the coaster, which would give the county 60 days to decide to take it back, after which time the park could sell it. However, the county is claiming that the organization running the park hasn't been keeping up with maintenance as required, and therefore cannot back out of the agreement or sell the coaster. https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2025/12/lakemont-blair-lawsuit-partnership-officials-responds/

Interesting that they set the story in Huron rather than Sandusky. Huron isn't far from Sandusky but it's not where the park is located.