Delirium13

^It's not. That's what I'm wondering. Now that we know Halloween Haunt is free with admission (for the last time), are the haunts going to be any different from last year other than the names?

One flat ride I can tell you for sure that will be closed, is the Scrambler. At least in years past they have dismantled it for the queue for House of Darkness, R.L. Stine's Fear Street, Massacre Manor, or whatever they're calling that haunt. As for the rest of the rides, I am not positive.

That sums up my thoughts on the issue exactly. I would like to thank Cedar Fair for making the right decision and not upcharging after they advertised it to be free for so long. That being said I can't wait for the upcharged Halloween Haunt in 2008!

I agree, if Halloween Haunt was an upcharge it would be a good thing. But when the park promises free FearFest with a 2007 Season Pass, advertises it all year, and then (possibly) changes it to an upcharge a month before the event, that will cause nothing but anger and confusion among park guests and season pass holders. I would love Halloween Haunt to become an upcharge if that meant better quality haunts and scares and shorter lines, but not this year. It will only cause problems that will get bad write ups about the park. I can just picture all the local news troubleshooters having their special on a "season pass scam", granted it's really nowhere near as bad as that but they like to exaggerate. Maybe a nice compromise for this year would be free admission for season pass holders and an upcharge for general admission, and then change both to an upcharge next year. So would I rather the upcharge come next year, rather than this year? Yes. Would I still go if they decided to go against everything they advertised and change it to an upcharge? Yes, but it better be pretty darn scary. My two cents.

You're probably right because up until not too long ago (I'm not completely sure when they changed it) they still had the 2006 park map on their website.

I hope that isn't the map they plan on handing out.

Why not a new ride? GL just lost 2 roller coasters this year, haven't they lost enough? I think so, but of course that is up to Cedar Fair. But if Son of Beast was to be torn down, I'd want a new ride not another used one.

I'm not following you, isn't that what the pricing always was?

In a little pamphlet they sent me in the mail before I renewed my pass (early in the offseason before they dropped the Paramount's off the front of their name.) It read "What has Paramount's Kings Island Season Pass Holders So Excited?..." and it opened up and listed things like "World-Class Thrill Rides", "The world's best kid's area"..., and "Free Admission to FearFest", etc.

I wouldn't mind seeing an upcharge... so long as it doesn't come until next year. I for one would be very angry if they make it an upcharge this year seeing as FearFest (Halloween Haunt) was one of the perks included when I bought my pass and it was the main reason one of my friends bought theirs. I understand what you mean, and yes if they upcharge next year and it is that much better I'll be fine and I'll pay. But I think it would make for some unhappy pass holders if they go to the park thinking they are going to get in free and then they are told it is extra.

It looks a little more original than this. And also are you sure the full name is going to be Halloween Haunt's Scare Fairs? Because Scare Fair is the name they use for a FearFest Job Fair (at least they did on the letter they sent me in the mail). I think the name will be Halloween Haunt at Kings Island, just like the other parks.

Yeah it was up until 2002. I think it became free in 2003. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I voted for more mazes, but then I realized what they really need is more scareactors. They have seemed to be spread very thin the past few years. So maybe if they had a few less mazes, but made the mazes they did have really scary, packed with scareactors, and a little bit longer. Headless Hollow and Pyscho Path were jokes last year, in my opinion, and the actors from those haunts could be put to better use. I want to see higher quality haunts more than a higher quantity of haunts. Now if they could do both that would be great.

Thanks to both of you and everyone else who read. And sorry I unfortunately didn't ride mini mine train - although I suggested it to my group, I was the only one interested - I didn't have a Pink Thing (I didn't see it offered at any of the food stands that we stopped at, plus I was too busy getting refills in my $10.00 souvenier cup which ended up saving money in the long run but seemed overly expensive). I also didn't see any sign of a parade except for on the map & guide, and we were dropped off. Sorry, I wish I could be of more help. That is true. From looking at Texas Giant and reading descriptions of it, it would seem that it would be a great ride if it got a little TLC and a lot of retracking. And I want to thank The Interpreter for giving his advice on what he recommended at the park, although I didn't have time to do all of what he recommended. I probably would've passed up Shockwave had he not told me not to miss it. And luckily I didn't because it turned out to be one of my favorites from the trip. Thanks Again!

Well I was in Texas visiting family this past week and we all went to Six Flags Over Texas for a long, hot (it hit 104 degrees), but fun day. The good thing about the heat was the fact that it kept the park from being too crowded, the longest wait of the day was 45 minutes for Aquaman Splashdown (a Congo Falls type ride), the second longest was about 20 minutes for Casa Magnetica. I'll rate each ride on a scale of 1-10 Anyways the first ride of the day was Batman the Ride, my first ever B & M coaster, while it was fun, it was pretty jerky and I didn't experience the B & M smoothness everyone talks about. But it was still a pretty fun ride and it didn't have a wait. We rode twice without having to get off. 7/10- Good, but not Great. We followed up Batman with Mr. Freeze, a very fun but short rollercoaster. My biggest complaint with this ride, as well as Batman, is how long you walk in line when there is no one there. There isn't any short, direct route to the station and the layout of the queues can be confusing when you're the only people walking in them (we had to open a closed door to get from the indoor part of Batman's queue to the outside which was also very confusing because it was an unmarked door.) But anyways the ride was really fun and would be cool to have at Kings Island if we didn't already have Flight of Fear. 8/10- Fun ride, but very short. Next, we took a short break from the big rides for my cousins and rode the Texas Chute Out, their parachute ride which gives a good view of the park but seemed no longer than 45 seconds long. 5/10- Nice view. Then back to the rollercoasters with Judge Roy Scream which is a nice little classic wooden coaster that gave me a smooth ride and some good air time. Plus, it gives a nice view of the lake it runs parallel to. No wait once again. 7/10- Fun, classic ride. Gunslinger, their not as good looking, not as fun swings (in relation to Zephyr)were next. Not much to say, they aren't as good-looking as Zephyr, they have less swings, and don't go as high (but for some reason they have one more strap than Zephyr to hold you in). 4/10- Gave a nice breeze. Next up was Superman: Tower of Power, a very fun S&S Power Tower. Definately not as scary as Drop Zone but it's just as, if not more fun than it. 9/10- One of my favorites for the day. Then I waited while my cousins did some of the spinny rides and then we ate at Papa John's. It didn't really taste like Papa John's and the cashier was playing music on his cell phone - with explicit lyrics, which doesn't seem to fit in with Six Flag's new family friendly direction - I know Kings Island doesn't let its employees keep their cell phones on them when they are working and I believe that's a good thing. After our meal we walked around a few minutes and then rode Runaway Mountain which was fun and in complete darkness, Like so many people would like Flight of Fear to be. 6/10- Fun ride, but probably wouldn't be anything special if it wasn't indoors in complete darkness. After Runaway Mountain, we were walking when we stumbled upon Casa Magnetica, which turned out to be a waste of time in my opinion. We waited about 20 minutes for a tour guide to take us through a slanted room and show us a few tricks. Some of the things were cool but I didn't really like the whole thing overall. 3/10- Not even the 2 or 3 cool tricks could make it worth the time, but once again a nice break from the heat. Next up was Shockwave, a very fun classic looping coaster. It was smooth and full of air time which makes for a great ride. 9/10- Just plain fun, nothing flashy about it. Then onto the Texas Giant "America's #1 Wooden Rollercoaster". If I had to sum up this ride in one word it would have to be... "Ouch". This ride could give Son of Beast (before this season) a run for its money in terms of roughness. 4/10- Almost unbearable to ride, but made for a very funny on-ride photo. To recover we rode the Antique Cars or "Horseless Carriages". This just made me miss KI's Antique Cars which were much better than these in terms of scenery and the cars. But they were still fun. 6/10- Bring back Kings Island's Antique Cars! Luckily right next to Texas Giant and ready to save us was Titan. This is what Kings Island needs! A Tall, fast, smooth, long, non-looping, steel, hyper coaster with lots of airtime! 10/10- My Favorite ride of the day. The first drop is amazing. We were extremely hot by then so we rode El Aserradero, a nice log flume, the world's first as a matter of fact. 5/10- Fun, but didn't get us very wet. Then for a bobsled coaster, La Vibora. Very fun and unique experience. I enjoyed it. 8/10- Fun and unique, but has poor capacity. And then onto Aquaman Splashdown, the longest wait of the day and for good reason. It's a Congo Falls type ride and it was 104 degrees. It was better overall than Congo Falls only because it was taller and went straight down. 6/10- Better ride than Congo Falls, but Congo Falls is themed (if you consider it themed) better. We were very hot and it was getting close to dinner so we rode Superman: Tower of Power and Runaway Mountain again, for one of my cousins who didn't get to go the first time. And then we left. Overall I enjoyed my day and the park. I noticed that it was very clean and they have several places you can eat indoors in the air conditioning. They also have good shade in most of the park and plenty of misters to keep you cool. It also seemed to have a good entertainment line-up. A few gripes though, the biggest one being the layout and the distance between rides. KI has International Street that has a path leading to each area of the park. SFoT had no area like this and the walks were usually longer than they had to be. It was also too easy to get to places they didn't want you or you didn't want to be, not restricted areas, but closed queues or going from one queue to another one. Ride operations were also much slower than they are at KI and that made the waits longer than they had to be. The employees on the PA's were also hard to understand because they were either mumbling, talking too fast, or both. Their entrance area isn't as nice either and Kings Island has better landscaping and is better looking overall. And also ticket prices are $47.00 and their waterpark is not included, which seemed odd considering the climate of the area. Other than that the employees were mostly friendly and the park had a lot of fun rides and some areas had nice landscaping. And even though it may seem obvious that I was going to say what I'm about to because we're on a Kings Island site and Kings Island is my home park, but if I was to give my honest opinion then: Kings Island > Six Flags Over Texas. There everyone knew that was coming but I think it's true Kings Island is better overall than SFoT. Overall it was a fun day at a fun park. Overall I give the park a 7/10. If you're ever in the areas of Dallas, Fort Worth, or Arlington I recommend you give the park a try it's a lot of and is a good park. Well I'm done thanks for reading! I know it was long but I hope you thought it was worth it. Delirium13-- I recommend Six Flags Over Texas if you get the chance.

Whatever it is we'll find out a week from Sunday. CW's Website

As long as Cedar Fair doesn't find a way to mess up FearFest or Halloween Haunt or whatever by going cheap I'll be fine with whatever it's called. (Personally I think FearFest would be a better name though)

I took a look at your pictures on the other Kings Island site (it took me a second to realize what you meant) and it's hard to tell what's going on but can anyone else confirm what fan of beast said about sections of scenery (I'm guessing they meant theming) laying out behind the ride?

Hey, glad to hear you had a great first time at Kings Island! Yeah The Beast at night is great.

I would like to see Kings Island sold to Busch Entertainment.

I don't see how being owned by Disney could be seen as a bad thing by anybody. First off, they have a proven track record of putting money into their parks, whether it be rides, entertainment, restaurants, or just general atmosphere, and maintaining those additions. They have proven that they can do thrill rides in several instances such as: Test Track, Rock'n'Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest, Mission Space, Tower of Terror, and California Adventure shows more of a less-themed thrill side of Disney just overall. dude that would suck! Disney Land or world would like tear down Firehawk and make a mickey mouse coaster. I mean every thing in disneyland is for like 5 year olds If they paid for the parks they definately wouldn't tear down all the rides and put in Kiddy rides, they would upkeep the rides better than Paramount/CBS did and better than Cedar Fair does. They would end all the problems that Kings Island has with their food, entertainment, and bad upkeeping of theming. Like many have said I can picture the rides staying there in better condition then they are now and when you'd look around you would be a ble to tell Disney owned the place by how clean it was and how high quality and well upkept everything was. Disney owning the park would be a dream come true but unfortunately it is highly unlikely. (Just my 2 cents)

I think it may have reopened for a short time and then stood SBNO for a year or so and then it was dismantled.

No. And I'm loving reading your guesses. Some people are close, but most are just way off. Ok good because it was a nice update but I was expecting something bigger.

So this recent history section update wasn't the announcement?

It'll be interesting (to say the least) to see how this turns out.