Pagoda Gift Shop

We are 1 week out from Coasterstock and so far the weather forecast is looking great. Highs in the mid-70's all weekend with a low chance of rain. Hopefully that forecast holds up over the next week.

What's wrong with Racer? I had some of the best rides I've ever had on it last summer.

I think the bad thing about posting a picture of food is also that many locations serve more than one food item. I know this is a bit nitpicky (and probably few are using this webpage to really determine where to eat). This mostly applies to locations such as Planet Snoopy Grill and Snake Pit, which both serve a lot of different items.

Go the distance.

I'd just like to say that the 'all dining locations' page is pretty darn awful. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/things-to-do/dining-locations Just to list a few things... There are no pictures of the actual food locations. Just pictures of the food. Several of the LaRosa's have a picture of a pizza. Great! Now I know what a pizza looks like, but where do I get it? (Cedar Point's similar page has pictures of the locations, not sure why KI's doesn't.) There are entries for "Ice Cream" and "Planet Snoopy Ice Cream" which reference the same location, I think. The entry for Festhaus talks about LaRosa's, but says nothing about Panda Express. Panda Express is listed as a separate entry. The last entry is for Yogurt Plus, but gives no location. Good luck finding it!

Just bought my tickets and registered for Coasterstock. The non-passholder tickets don't say anything about parking on them, so I assume that will all be handled/reimbursed as part of the event check-in. Also, I didn't get any kind of confirmation email after registering, but I'm pretty sure that is normal.

For those of you who are supportive of the current ERT setup, what if they shortened the early entry from 30 minutes to 15 minutes? (Let's assume they never advertised or set 30 minutes as a precedent.) Would that impact your opinion of whether this perk was a good value? In my opinion, 30 minutes has already crossed the line of being too little time to do much "riding", which is kinda the point of "early ride time". This is especially true when only one major adult attraction is open (in this case Diamondback). It also doesn't leave much room for delays in opening a ride, which is a frequent problem at Cedar Point with their ERT. A lot has to be done in the morning before a ride opens, and sometimes small delays aren't easily avoidable. On my part, this is not crybaby complaining. I don't feel the need to visit guest services and file a complaint. I just think it is a big miss by the park not to have the most popular rides open early every day with enough time to give passholders a chance to do some actual riding.

The Kings Mill Log Flume opened with the park in 1972. It later became the Wild Thornberries Safariventure before becoming Race For Your Life Much-Too-Long-Of-A-Log-Flume-Name. I cannot imagine that a nearly 45 year old log flume is very "cost effective" to maintain at this point. Personally, I feel like Wing and Giga are the top 2 candidates. But if they build anything other than a Giga, I think the reaction will be, "Why didn't they build a Giga? That would have been a great fit for Kings Island."

7 years have gone by and Kings Island still hasn't figured out that Diamondback should be part of ERT every day. ERT should also definitely be an hour long. Half an hour is much too little considering that it takes a good 5 minutes just to walk to the entrance of Diamondback, Firehawk, Vortex, etc. (And when coaster X opens next year nearby, it should STILL be part of ERT every day.) Give the people what they want! It will make them feel better about the much-too-long wait for Firehawk, Flight of Fear, and Invertigo later in the afternoon. Diamondback is a fantastic ride, and for most coaster-riding guests, the most re-rideable coaster at the park.

So, Cedar Point has released the details on their camp out. it is June 5th and 6th (Sunday and Monday right after Coastermania). The timing is a bit weird, but the benefits seem to trump Kings Island's event. https://www.cedarpoint.com/events/things-to-do/events/Coaster-Campout-7-28-15-00 The Cedar Point event includes admission for both days (vs just 1 day at KI), and an evening meal. It also has ERT on Maverick, Millennium Force, and Valravn. I guess KI's event is more catered towards families with season passes?

"New this year! Campsites will be located behind the Eiffel Tower, near Diamondback." Well, this is an improvement. I think having the flat rides open for ERT is a good family move, but the lack of a marquee attraction for ERT is a negative. Diamondback and Banshee aren't open for the late night or early morning ERT.

For being a promotional photo, those OSTRs look terrible.

Trolls should never hold hands.

I feel like I just found $45 dollars that I lost.

I'm planning on attending, but I will probably not go all 3 days. Since it starts with a Friday night in May, there is a good chance that the entire Friday evening could be unofficial ERT. Better too much ERT than too little though. I have no idea what the story is with the ribs, but I find it hilarious that so many posts have alluded to them. Were both meals last year in the picnic grove? Did said ribs appear at both meals?

World's Greatest Tacos?

I agree the diversity will be a good thing. The only comment I would make is that unless Diamondback can perform better this year, I'd rather have it be on the ERT all the time.

I can't believe they tore down the world's greatest funnel cake shop.

Adding Friday night is a really nice perk. Many people get into town on Friday due to the early ERT on Saturday morning, so doing registration and some stuff on Friday is an awesome idea. I wonder how much it will affect the price. Last year it was $62 for non-passholders. You have to figure it would go up some anyway, but with an extra evening added, I wonder how much.

Yep, it is Rob Decker...and he is the man. Note that if they are looking at blueprints, it seems unlikely that it would deal with the 2016 season unless it is for Haunt. The planning process really never stops from one project to the next.

I recommend riding it at least once to experience it for yourself. However, for me flying coasters are an uncomfortable experience in general. It really doesn't have much to do with the restraints, but more to do with feeling the blood rushing to your head and g-forces on your upper body. The vertical loop on Firehawk feels like it has heavy g-forces, but I think that is because you are feeling it against your chest.

It also makes getting used wheels as souvenirs much harder. I remember being at an event at Holiday World about 10 years ago where they auctioned some for charity. I wish I had bought one. Anyone here have any wheels from KI?

True. It gets really confusing if you consider that they recycle all of the used wheels on the coasters. So Diamondback technically will have new, old wheels.

I'm pretty sure Diamondback gets new wheels every year. The tweet doesn't really specify that the wheels are different than in the past. https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR/status/676506446352265217

Ha! The video said the "world's most comfortable wooden coaster trains"...and yet the model has seat dividers and the orange lapbars. I don't think so, PTC.