Winterfestguy

The old footers on KI & MVRR are not going to be used for Winterfest. If you look closely as your ride the train now, you will see wooden survey sticks along the way with writing on them representing the components of the 12 days of Christmas. (there are a few miscellaneous animals thrown in as well) These wire frames representing the 12 days (just as seen in other city displays) are free standing with post and guide wire supports. From what I heard, most of the pieces have arrived and are in the new storage building. Dollywood this past weekend started to hang their lights (but their season starts Nov 4) so would expect as soon as the regular daily schedule ends Aug 20 at KI, they too will start hanging lights.

These LED bed lights are just part of the lighting package being installed for Winterfest (but these LED controlled lights can also be used for other events such as Haunt -making all red or orange, 4th July - red/white/blue, or even Pride night -all multicolor - if you look carefully, there are several new control boxes in addition to those left behind from Starlight a few years back). The park is already undergoing the transformation for Winterfest, although the changes may not seem noticeable to most. The median from the parking lot has had both electrical and speaker boxes installed, so look for ground displays as well as pole decorations leading up to the entrance. As announced during Coasterstock in May, the crabapple trees just outside the gates were removed, and replaced with a circular stone bed (now containing flowers). This will serve as the base for the 70 foot welcome LED tree (note light pole in the middle to support this 70 foot tree -very carefully designed and engineered specifically for Winterfest). Once in the gates, note the concrete pads around the royal fountain. These will server for the expanding ice rink, doubling the size of the rink from previous Winterfests. Note the old lighting on the I-street buildings is being taking off and replaced by all LED lighting for Winterfest, which will also be tied into the controllers of the other LEDs through out the park, making one impressive light show. Rumor is for summer of 2018 there will be a new pre-firework show with all these new LED controlled ground/building lights with the royal fountain lights (similar to IllumiNations at EPCOT). Around the Eiffel Tower notice big concrete anchors which will hold the new LED light strings coming down from the top of the tower to form the 314 foot tree (and these strings are scheduled to go completely around the tower forming a full tree, which will then hold the record for the largest LED color changing tree in the world). The tree tree topper for the tower tree is being a well kept secret. Also note in preparation for the tree, all shrubs and trees have now been removed from around the tower, and several new large control panel boxes installed near the base of the tower to control the LED tree lights. Just to the left of the Showcase outdoor theater, note another circular stone bed installed (where the big red/white/blue stars used to be for Snoopy Starlight). This will likely be the location of another 70 foot LED tree light show similar to what Dollywood has or what was on Swan Lake with Holiday Illuminations for the 2005 Winterfest (Swan Lake was drained for Diamondback construction). Notice concrete anchors along the path to Stunt Coaster to support various light display such as Candy Cane Lane. And if you look closely in Tower gardens there are more concrete anchors for additional decorations. It was also announced at Coasterstock that Coney Mall would be open with reindeer games, so look for additional Winterfest preparations in this area to occur over the summer - hopefully, they may be able to think of a way to bring back the Coney Mall lighted sign for Winterfest. The same show line up that was featured at California Great America Winterfest this past season are expected to come to Kings Island, Home for the Holidays, It's Christmas Snoopy Ice Show, etc., and remains to be seen if the crowd popular King's Island Santa's Toy Factory from the former Winterfests will return, hopefully so. Will there be coasters running for Winterfest? It is rumored that the winter maintenance schedule is carefully being studied to see if at least Mystic Timbers might be able to operate depending upon the unpredictable Midwest winter weather, or at least run the indoor Flight of Fear. Keep watching carefully around the park for more Winterfest preparations or upgrades (such as heat) that don't seem that obvious now, but are happening right before your eyes now in preparation for the grand return of Winterfest.

Just like Dollywood does for Blazing Fury at Christmas, it should be rather simple to add a few Santa hats and a few lighted Christmas trees here and there to make the attraction festive for Christmas. Although not currently listed on the site as one of the attractions open during Winterfest, let's hope management takes note of this thread to add it to the open list.

I too got freaked out when the e-mail came saying that I had not done the second part of the registration for me and my friends (when I actually was very careful after buying the season pass tickets and then separately registering each of us). Must have been a pretty big glitch or someone not paying attention to how they were running the comparison report (e.g. tickets purchased vs actually registered). As most have said before, it would be nice if the system sent an e-mail confirmation that registration was complete, rather than relying on the "on-screen" message.

I would like to see a 30 min show of the highlights of Rocky Horror Picture Show in the King's Island Theater for Haunt (just like Universal Orlando used to have during Halloween Horror nights in the Beetlejuice theater before the construction on the new rides did away with both the theater and show, such a shame!) The rights to produce were pretty cheap from what I understood since this was not the entire production, just musical bit and pieces.

Same Winterfest hours that CA Great America had this past season, but kind of sad that they are not opening up early afternoon on Saturday and Sunday at 2PM as did the 2005 or the Original Winterfest. It was nice to ice skate, have a snack, eat the Turkey Dinner in the Festhaus, and then see the lights come on, and leave before the huge crowds arrived (well, no crowd in 2005!). If Santa's Toy Factory returns to the Kings Island Theater, I wonder if Snoopy on Ice will return to the Festhaus (The Festhaus has had ice shows years ago)

Banner ad and purchase selection for all season drink cup has disappeared from KI site - did they listen to the poll this time about cups? The souvenir bottle with free refills for a day with $1 return visit still listed for purchase.

Looks like the wire frame displays are starting to arrive - wire frames typically have to be ordered a year in advance from the factory. Let's hope they fix all the building lights on international street so that they can be used during summer nights this year - the last time they were repaired and all working on the international street buildings was for the 2005 Winterfest.

Does anyone know which engineering/decorating firm KI will be using to decorate the park? Hopefully, these guys will take some lessons from Dollywood of how to properly light up an amusement park for the holidays with not only lights, but festive trees, garlands, and displays (and let's hope the I street buildings get their roof-top/outline lights repaired and all back in working order, the last time the building outline lights were all repaired was for the last Winterfest 12 years ago).

Was the sudden "Christmas in July" event at several parks this summer a hint for the 2nd 2017 attraction announcement? Kings Island is sometimes very cleaver at rolling out clues for coming attractions.

Agree that Kings Island, Kings Dominion, and Carowinds are the three likely candidates for a return of Winterfest 2017. With the 2017 Season passes going on sale soon and the 2017 operating calendar being released towards the end of the year, I would not be surprised if some type of announcement was made within the next month about Winterfest's return. It will be interesting to see if Winterfest is part of the 2017 Season Pass or if there will be an upcharge (or a combo of free during the week and upcharge on the weekends). A cirque Christmas show in the Festhaus and Santa's Toy Factory in the KI Theater would make a perfect holiday line up for the park.

Some have said there is not enough time between the end of Haunt and Thanksgiving to get the park ready for a Winterfest event. With the new technology in lighting, image all the buildings outlined with the new LED technology of 4 colors in a single bulb, then outline all the buildings with those bulbs - the bulbs could be red (to match the fountains) at Haunt, the colors could be red/white/blue for the 4th July, or a color show at fireworks time, and clear (or multi-color) for Winterfest. (The building outline lights need updated and fixed anyway). Lights and floodlights in the trees become multi-purposed lessening some of the time it would take to prep the park. Indianapolis has the record for the World's Tallest Christmas tree, except when Kings Island put up the tree on the Eiffel Tower, which then took the record away from Indianapolis - so imagine the World's Tallest Color Changing Christmas tree set to music around the Eiffel Tower - that would be a show in itself.

Since the Cirque shows are so popular at KI, image the return of KI Winterfest with the Christmas version Cirque Dreams Unwrapped (which also plays at the Gayloard Palms in Florida) in the Festhaus and Santa's Toy Factory in the KI Theater, and then seeing Santa the North Pole (via train ride) over in a huge indoor tent set up in Soak City. Just sad that KI will now be the only park in the area (with the announcement of the Coney Island drive through display this year) without some sort of public holiday event.

Wish they would also bring back the Turkey dinner to the Festhaus at KI for Christmas in July just like they are doing at Dorney - such good KI Winterfest memories

Several years of strategic planning and careful marketing potentially could bring a very successful Winterfest revival. If the park would have only spent the millions of dollars on lights/decorations for Winterfest instead of Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular (which lasted only for several seasons before /the lights became just pathetic and the show discontinued when the contract ran out for the company that put it on.) The strobes used for Snoopy's Starlight could still be seen this past season strung on the Eiffel Tower deck as the elevator goes up and some trees in the area still had the strands of lights grown into them as a distant memory of the millions of dollars spent for something that only existed for several years. The weather is always a factor in any event whether is be the regular season, Haunt, or a potential Winterfest - good weather brings crowds, bad weather people stay home. There are many good ideas from many of us out there of how to utilize spaces with the park for Winterfest, how to get the park ready in a very short period of time without interfering with Haunt activities, and how to market to the event to the various areas outside of Cincinnati. Maybe someday Santa's Toy Factory will once again return in the King's Island Theater and the Home for the Holidays show will return to the Festhaus (since it was sadly missed in the 2005 Winterfest revival) along with the traditional holiday turkey dinner.

Winterfest just needed a bit more careful planning and it would have taken off again like it did in the 80s. For KI It would be nice to replace the "cat eyes" from Haunt on top of the tower with the giant Christmas tree coming from the tower for all to enjoy as they drove by over the holidays.

This show had such high potential - after seeing it Saturday, I will "Forget" about it until April 2015 when it gets replaced after it's two season cycle (and if reallly lucky, will only last this season). Definitely on my bottom list of shows to ever play at KI . I guess the park put all their dollars into the other new show, PlayList Live this season.

As one of the most photographed back drops of the park as one enters, I am sure management has consulted with one of the new Kodak business units for use of the proper background colors in order to achieve that perfect picture on a sunny, blue sky day. I don't think I would purchase my picture in front of something with water that has a black, less cheerful effect to it (unless it was Haunt).

I wonder when they will post the times for Graveyard Shift (likely during the day Sat/Sun in the Festhaus)? - Graveyard Shift is not on the main page under attractions/ shows like Hot Blooded is nor is it on the Haunt website like Hot Blooded and Half Pint Brawlers are. Too bad they can't cover up the ice and put the show back into the King's Island Theater where it played years ago. Graveyard shift is still one of the best shows that played in the park - Maybe someday KI will bring back a few of the other great shows that have played in the past in the theater (wishful thinking now that the ice show with Snoopy has taken over the theater)

This show can be good and can be awful. RBL is an all summer show at Cedar Point and the audiance band members are the key to a good show. Two shows were awful (almost walked out) but the last show of the night had some terrific auidance band members that had everyone on thier feet for almost the entire 35 min show. But better yet, why not ditch the fake guitars and bring back real guitar rockers like were in school of rock? I miss the live musicians at King's Island. It would be nice to bring back "live" musicians rather than all these "props" the singers carry around.

Great job on Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular - For winter time, change the sound tracks, add the ice rink with a few decorations, return Santa's Toy Factory and Home for the Holidays shows and you have an instant Winterfest. Just wishful thinking .....

Well, Snoopy Rocks on Ice made its debut this last season at another Cedar Fair Park (Dorney Park in PA) in an their new building (which was delayed in construction). The show itself is okay if you are a small child, and hoping someday that the ice show finds a different venue at Kings Island in order to restore the true entertainment (with a live band) to the once great Kings Island theater. Signed, Sealed, and Delivierd has played the last two seasons at Cedar Point - not the best show to play at Cedar Point, but now brought to Kings Island and hopefully greatly re-tooled (the show itself needed lots of work). At least Kings Island is getting one new show, Way too much TV, so will wait and see how that comes together in the Spring.

Does anyone know if the Eiffel Tower Christmas tree is still in storage? It still would be nice to see the tree lit up over the Holidays as you drive by on the Interstate. Marketing and price are keys to a successful event. A successful scaled back Winterfest event could be profitable if well thought out, just as the original Winterfest once was. With Haunt running longer in the season, it may be a bit of a challenge to transform the select venues of the park, but with careful planning and some public input, think it still might be possible, although probably very unlikely in my lifetime. Santa's Toy Factory will always remain one of the top shows in the history of the park - gotta love those dancing reindeer and singing penguins, not to mention the elves.

Some wish that Endless Summer on Ice would finally End and restore the great variety shows like Graveyard Shift or School of Rock back to KI - that will probably never happen. But since Scobby-Doo had to hang up his skates forever on Sunday, my bet is to watch for "Snoopy Rocks on Ice" to come to KI next season (which opened new this year at Dorney Park, and Cedar Fair typically likes to cycle some shows between parks).

It would be nice for KI to install the Effile Tower tree for all to see while driving by over the Holiday Season instead of keeping it stored in all the drums for eternity with no future use in sight.