McSalsa

I am also excited for a Kings Island trip, as I am heading up to the park tomorrow- hoping for light crowds, which should be the case based on what I saw on the webcam today and the fact there is a chance for a storm later in the day. As for the 23rd...my sister may be there that day as well, but not me. It's time to face Banshee again. And The Beast. And all the big rides I didn't get in on opening day, save perhaps Drop Tower (assuming it's still broken) and WindSeeker (with storms in the forecast I forsee wind and...well...you know how this ride is when it's windy). And probably a lot of the smaller rides too.

Vortex, May of 2009. Though my first ride that went upside-down PERIOD was The Crypt, which I had ridden earlier that day.

^ Or the fans of Villain, Double Loop, or Raging Wolf Bobs. Yeah, those 3 may not be most beloved coasters ever built to most, but I'm pretty sure they did have at least a few people who did like them.

Hey, it's a cool photo anyway- and Red Train Voyage pics are kinda rare to find anyhow, given it was only for one season, after all. And my best rides on Voyage thus far did come in that Red Train...

Uhh, UnrealNightmare, I hate to bust your bubble but you claim that this was from 2009...the picture above shows a RED TRAIN on The Voyage. Voyage only had a Red Train- borrowed from Raven- in 2010. It also appears to only have 6 cars, further suggesting you may have accidently put up a 2010 Voyage photo or something. Other than that, great pictures and glad you had so much fun.

I have yet to visit the park since Opening Day, but that's kinda what happens when KI is an hour and a half away from you. Still, that trip had good points: -Riding BLSC for the first time since 2010...I had forgotten how much fun that little thing is. -Trying Chicken Shack for the first time- it was incredibly yummy, and is the best-tasting food item I have tried to date at the park (though I have yet to get to everything...). -Waiting 4+ hours for Banshee...yeah, this may seem like a low point, and it was EXHAUSTING but hey, it's something I can now claim to have done and can tell any future kids or grandchildren about. Won't wait that long for Banshee again though. -Actually riding Banshee itself for the first time- amazing new coaster. I now have a 2nd ride I really look forward to on each and every trip, in addition to The Beast (and I do like all those other rides too to be fair). -Trying Hank's Burrito Shack for the first time- not as good as Chicken Shack, but still excellent, and would have been the best food item I'd ever had on any of my KI visits had it not been for Chicken Shack. -Trying Dinosaurs Alive! for the first time- it's a pretty cool exhibit and one I may do again in the future. That HUGE Dinosaur near the end, Sauroposeidon...what a behemoth! Plus those long-necked Sauropods are my favorite dinosaurs... -Riding The Beast at Night with my younger sister. Awesome ride as usual, and it was fun riding with her. I also promised her on our next visit (which is scheduled for Tuesday, May 13th) we would ride Flight of Fear first (after doing ERT if we reach the park in time for that, of course) since that is her favorite ride at Kings Island. Yes, even after Banshee- she did really like Banshee too though. If you would have told me, before this trip, that I could have an awesome time at KI and only ride 3 rides, I would have been a bit confused, but now...I understand 100% that it is not how many rides you ride, it is how much fun you have, and while more rides in a day usually does mean more fun (sometimes it may not though), you can still have an awesome time with friends and family riding only a few things a day. Though, we picked a weekday for our next trip for obvious reasons- we would like to actually get some rides in this time, of course!

Oh dear...I just imagined that...the ride starts off and is just like normal Adventure Express, but then after the "NOW YOU WILL PAY!" scene... Riders who have ridden AE before: "Here comes the tiny drop...as usual..." But then, to their shock, the ride goes crazy with Outlaw Run-like twists, turns, airtime hills and inversions for roughly a minute or so before returning to the station.

What is this "Outlaw Express" you speak of? I have heard of an "Outlaw Run", but not "Outlaw Express"... LOL Yeah I realize it was likely a typo.

I also think a GREAT addition would be a Dive Machine. Think about it. The nearest one is in BGW. Honestly, I forgot about them. Yeah, that would also fit in with the current line-up fairly well. Granted there are only 2 in all of North America, and both of those are at Busch Gardens parks, so it'd be a first for Cedar Fair, but I don't know if Busch still has the "exclusive" tag on them or not.

No, but have heard the horror stories.

Also must-rides if I ever get to Universal & IOA, to be honest. Possibly even more than the coasters they have. (No offense- Hulk, Dragon Challenge, etc etc. look very fun but those water rides...)

^ Yep. And it's a good thing. If rides were never tested prior to opening, who knows how many people would get hurt/killed...heck, if I remember correctly back in the very early years of coasters they weren't tested and there were a LOT of deaths...

Themed Water-Based rides seem really, really awesome from the POV's I have seen of some of them, like the ones at Islands of Adventure (Jurassic Park River Adventure is basically #1 on my I-gotta-ride-that list when I visit that park) so I can totally agree with your idea Voicetek. Even if I know Kings Island will likely never get anything THAT themed...well, we can dream right?

Well...I guess it is better to break off, and have the ride go down and need repaired, then blow up and potentially kill riders. Still- not good for Intamin's image, or the park's. Hopefully it gets fixed...but the way some Intamin rides, like Pilgrims Plunge/Giraffica, have fared recently I dunno...

^ Eh...I wouldn't be able to know. Never been on either Wild Mouse "type"- classic or spinning. But, upon further thinking, a regular Wild Mouse would work too- I actually looked up a bunch of parks that have them, and some BIG popular parks- some even bigger than KI- do have Wild Mice. Europa Park gets 4,000,000+ guests a year and they have one... I've also just seen some really, really fun-looking spinny Wild Mice in No Limits before.

^ Yikes...yet another Intamin having issues...wonder how long it'll last if these keep up.

OK, found one- something like this would work: http://www.coastercrazy.com/14086/Eureka The capacity is, according to the guy who made it, 600pph- which is also what Vekoma claims for Flying Ace, and is similar to what Delirium & WindSeeker can do. I can see one of these, themed to Snoopy, working in the kids area as the "Big New Toy" in a Planet Snoopy expansion that would also add a couple new flats to the area. Here's Flying Ace's RCDB page for capacity comparison, it says 650rph: http://rcdb.com/1037.htm A similar real-world ride- hey, 930pph: http://rcdb.com/2657.htm

Edit: Nevermind. Upon further review, this comment was BS.

I have to agree with everyone who's said it- Kings Island has a nice, solid coaster lineup already and thus, before it gets to adding any more new coasters, the flat ride lineup could use some work (although Kings Island does have a nice flat ride selection even now, more flats could be used). On the more family-oriented side, stuff like Flying Eagles, Tilt-A-Whirl, etc etc. It wouldn't hurt to add another "big" thrilling flat ride like a Screamin' Swing either. The kids area has not gotten any true new attractions since 2006 (Planet Snoopy was just a re-theme in 2010), so if some family flat rides are added, they could go there. A new dark ride would also be awesome, since Boo Blasters has apparently deteriorated since my last visit (I rode it in 2010 and have yet to re-ride it, so I don't know what it's like now). Even a newer in-park water ride would be welcome...though it'd likely be a Mack since Intamin has really had problems with those recently. Another non-coaster area that needs improvement in the ride lineup would be the waterslides at the waterpark. All of them are fairly old, with the "big thrill" waterslide being a ProSlide Funnel built in 2004. Go to Holiday World's waterpark, Splashin' Safari, and ride Zinga (another funnel) then compare that to Bakuli, Wildebeest, Mammoth, or Hyena Falls...yeah, Kings Island could use some new more modern water slides and perhaps a second "lazy" river (since they turned the current one "Action"). A Behemoth Bowl, Multi-Slide Complex, Water Coaster...there are a LOT of options KI could do in the waterpark. After all that, then we come back to the coaster lineup, which is actually pretty solid right now. A B&M Invert was the "big hole" in the lineup, and it's been filled. As for what the park can do there...there are some good options. A Giga (as long as it's very different from DB layout-wise), Floorless, Wing Rider/4th Dimension (if I can choose, 4D), Modern Woodie (GCI, GG, or RMC) or Blitz (Intamin is out but I think other companies, like Mack, do do this ride type) would all be good fits for the park. And that ends my big post.

After all the recent issues Intamin AG rides have had, and Cedar Fair's change in direction, I can say Cedar Fair will PROBABLY never buy an Intamin anything in the near future. So no Gigas, Blitz Coasters, etc etc. from them. As for a Giga period, that is actually a possibility still since B&M introduced their version of the 300-foot coaster with Leviathan in 2012, and it has gotten pretty solid reviews thus far with great capacity and reliability to boot, so I would not rule that out all. Also, just because Diamondback is marketed as "The Tallest, Fastest, Meanest" coaster to ever strike Kings Island does not mean it'll hold those titles forever, since Beast had similar marketing back when it debuted in 1979 ("The Biggest, Baddest, Longest and Fastest Roller Coaster in the World") and now it has been surpassed by other coasters in the park in every category save length.

Well- everyone's going to have different opinions, of course, since everyone's tastes are different and all. Even the most popular rides that win all the polls and thrill most riders will have some people who just can't see what the big deal about them is, and some of the most hated rides in history have/had (if they got demolished) their fans. As for Voyage itself- I really like it a lot, but not to the point where "OMG This wooden coaster is miles ahead of all other woodies EVAH!" like most seem to- though the polls are starting to "cool off" and it now seems to rank about where I'd think it would- but that's just me. In my "small" collection of coasters ridden- I have yet to hit 20 (need to ride more)- I'd rank it 4th behind The Beast @ KI, Legend @ HW, and Banshee @ KI. If you're counting water coasters though, Wildebeest over in the water park also surpasses Voyage in my eyes, and Mammoth would be biting at its heels. But again- this is all just my opinion. I can, without much hesitation, call Voyage the MOST INTENSE ride I have ever been on though.

To expand on the Hot Sauce analogy...at Holiday World, with their coasters, at least IMO: Gentle (no spice): Howler Mild: They don't have any "Mild" coaster at HW- a flaw in the park IMO. They need something here... Hot: Raven Extra Hot: Legend Jalepeno Extreme! : Voyage And one more thing I thought of- Voyage is not only intense and Violent, it is VERY long...so you get thrown around for a good while, which may be a part of it.

Hmm...I can believe the whole "It's not really rough- it's just violent and turbulent" thing about Voyage. To be honest, I had just assumed that if you got off a ride and were a bit sore, it equaled "rough", but perhaps that's not the case...which basically makes The Voyage like the Extra-Hot Sauce of the coaster world. It's so "hot", especially in the second half, it may not be for everyone...there were 2 spots, however, where I DID notice track problems during my last Voyage ride though, so it's not perfect...and for the record, I've never found Voyage so bad that I couldn't stand up or walk afterwards, and any pain it caused was usually gone after a relaxing sit or ride on a lazy river in the waterpark... The only other ride that I would consider "rough" I've been on that did leave me in pain the rest of that day, though still not so much I couldn't ride other rides, was Flight of Fear in 2010. And I've also had rides on that that were very smooth...it's kind of odd in my eyes for a steel coaster to behave like that. (Vortex and Adventure Express are also "jerky", but that's the nature of Arrow rides and they have never given me serious issue. Raven was actually a bit rough last year, though again not to a degree where it actually hurt the ride. Beast was a tiny bit rough in 2010 IMO, but that's since been fixed and again it was a non-issue. I have NEVER had any issue with Red Racer, Blue Racer- though it was a little bumpier than Red, or Legend @ Holiday World)... Dang- if this is all true, I may be in for a rude awakening if I ever actually do hit a truly rough ride...(So far I have only been to Kings Island and Holiday World in recent memory, plus Indiana Beach but that was back in 1999)...

Ugh. Kennywood apparently has so much good stuff, you forget good stuff about them! I have heard about the fries- they are supposed to be so tasty, the line for them can often be longer than the line for the roller coasters...