homestar92

If we get an addition, it will most likely be announced later. Traditionally, the earliest you'll see an announcement for any new attractions is August. Cedar Fair has brought some kind of marketable improvements to the park every year since they acquired it, so I'd wager a dollar to a donut that we'll get some kind of new thing, but I'd imagine nothing on the scale of Banshee or Diamondback or we'd have seen work started by now.

You are a very punning individual. I applaud you.

Goble, I liked your post, and then unliked it so that I could like it again. Just thought I'd let you know.

^ In a good way. 10 RPM as opposed to 8 and much more open feeling.

You might find yourself pleasantly surprised. SkyCatcher is like WindSeeker, but actually a lot scarier. Breakdance is a relatively rare type of ride, well worth riding! Their scooters are identical to every other set of Larsons (including the ones at KI) but usually have a relatively short line. The Flying Dutchman is one of the original 1972 rides from Kings Island (yes, that specific one) and is worth riding on that basis alone. Raging Rapids is no White Water Canyon, but it's a solid rapids ride. Mile High Falls is decent. Its got a straight drop as opposed to the double dip you see on Congo Falls, which makes for a somewhat different experience. If you have time for a waterpark visit, there are some great attractions there, too. Deluge is a must! The two (major) coasters, as it happens, rank in my top 5 woodies and top 5 steel respectively.

But, fear not. Invertigo will still provide all of the signature... sensations... of a typical Vekoma SLC, just with the benefit of it being over fairly quickly. I kid, sort of. I've ridden SLCs that were entirely tolerable (Mind Eraser at Darien Lake) and that were outlandishly awful (such as Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland, which is literally the only coaster on my "absolutely never again" list).

For reference, a Top Thrill Dragster train weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-6 tons. It's on a sign in the queue but I can't seem to locate a good picture of it. That's a 5-car train. Average weight would be 1+ tons each. For comparison, a 2015 Kia Rio weighs 1.2 tons. Would you park a Kia Rio in your house? Now, if someone were to get just the fiberglass shell of a train (no metal frame) it would still be distinctly recognizable as a coaster train, and would likely be able to be supported by a typical home's floor. I realize that not all coasters have fiberglass shells on the trains (some are wood, some metal, etc), but you get the idea. I have no idea where I heard this. It's probably wrong, but I recall hearing that when Steel Phantom was converted to Phantom's Revenge, some of the fiberglass shells of the old Arrow trains made their way out into the wild (be that enthusiasts, employees, whatever the case may be). Again, I could be horribly mistaken, but at very least, the logistics of that particular situation seem a bit more plausible.

There are some on here who will preach adamantly that 5-1 is NOT the best seat on Vortex. - homestar92, of the church of 7-1.

Vortex(*) is plenty awesome with the restraints it currently has. * of the Kings Island variety

The shortest operating wooden coaster for which RCDB has a record of the length, is the Little Dipper at SFGAm with a length of 700 feet. Woodstock Express is nearly twice as long. That does NOT mean that it actually is the shortest, but it DOES mean that Woodstock Express is not, and really is not particularly close.

You probably think you know what to expect in this trip report. You probably know what I think of this park. You're probably wrong. I decided today around noon to visit Kentucky Kingdom. I wanted to go for a drive, and that seemed as good a destination as any. So I hopped in my Sky, put the top down and got on the road. Yes, I drove my beloved Sky to Kentucky Kingdom, It's still in one piece, so hooray for that! Anyway, I drove all the way there and only got rained on for a few minutes. The rain wasn't very hard and the patch of rain wasn't very large, so I just soldiered it out and left the top down rather than try to get off and find a place to park. Side note, I got very badly sunburned on the way there and am now red like a lobster. I got to the park around 3:00 and happily, I'm still allowed in! I realized when I got there that I did not have a glasses strap with me, so I went to buy one. I was happy to see that they were a reasonable $1.59 rather than the outlandish $5 that they were selling for on opening day. I will not complain about dropping that amount of money in the name of safety, and I think the park has realized that they'd rather have people be safe than to gouge them for that little extra profit. I'm not going to go in detail about the rides (excluding the new ones that I rode). You all know what The Runs are like, and if you don't, GO EXPERIENCE THESE RIDES. Nothing I can say will do them justice. They are GREAT. Seriously. So, the first bit of my trip was just walking around, exploring the improvements. First new thing I saw was Cyclos. It looks great on the midway. Its lighting package is very eye-catching and makes the park feel alive. I didn't ride it because inverting pendulum rides are not my cup of tea. As I walked through the park, I noticed lots of misting fans everywhere. The misters were not turned on, but the fans were on. I could be wrong, but I'm ALMOST positive that these are new. I do not remember them being there at all. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, next I went to the back of the park, toward Raging Rapids and T3 (Which you can walk back to despite its being not open yet). There was one train sitting in the station. Nothing on the transfer track. This leads me to worry that T3 will remain a one-train coaster. That said, on opening day, only one train was on Lightning Run and the other was not on the transfer, and they were both there today. Perhaps train two will appear later. While the color scheme is still questionable, the paint job itself is VERY high quality. I'd almost guess Baynum was involved. It looks every bit as good as the new paint on Invertigo, Bat, and Rougarou in each of their first years after getting fresh paint. Very impressed. I stepped into the Taco Tequila stand to look at offerings and prices. It is a very small food stand (I believe that in the days of SIX, this was a simple clothing stand, so there wouldn't be much room for a restaurant) but there is a bar facing into Hurricane Bay with the restaurant and another side of the bar accessible from the dry side. I sent a picture of the menu to a friend who I might call an "alcohol enthusiast" and he had some complaints with the choices on the menu, but said that the prices appeared to be quite reasonable. Given that it is alcohol, I do not know if the 20% discount for season passholders applies, but if so, that's a nice savings. The menu had a lot more options than Hank's does, and prices were about the same. I did not see the portion sizes. While I was back there, I rode Raging Rapids. Most of the themeing from Penguin's Blizzard River is still there. There are a lot of penguin sculptures in the ride and it is obviously themed to the sewers of Gotham City. It even has one water effect involving The Penguin's signature black and white umbrella. Poor effort in de-themeing it, but honestly, if DC Comics is OK with it, then it's whatever. All in all, the ride is decent. I wish there were cannons that you can pay to blast people with like on every other rapids ride I've ridden, but you don't REALLY need them. The wettest riders will not get as drenched as on White Water Canyon, but unlike White Water Canyon, there is NO escaping completely bone-dry. The wetness is a lot more evenly dispersed. There is also no center hump on which to put your feet to escape them sitting in the bottom of a wet boat, so avoid riding this with socks if possible. One issue is that they only have three boats, and that leads to a lot of time sitting waiting for the next boat. But perhaps I've just been spoiled by WWC's continuous loading. Either way, I digress. Good ride. Not the best rapids ride I've ridden, but CERTAINLY not the worst. Better than the one at Holiday World, which I'm sure is the only thing they really care about. Next I went to SkyCatcher. I do not at all like its placement in the park. It's awkwardly located in a corner near the waterpark, and it's a chore to get to. The ride itself is pretty fun though, but very VERY scary. I don't mind WindSeeker. Heck, I LIKE WindSeeker. It's a great ride and it's very relaxing. SkyCatcher is not. It is much more open-feeling and the rotation is faster (by my guesstimation, 10RPM as opposed to WindSeeker's 8) and it really is a white-knuckle ride. I did encounter one disappointment. I went to Swampwater Jack's for food, and they were out of pepperoni pizza at 4:45 PM. Inexcusable. Yes, there is another pizza place nearby next to Thunder Run, but at that location, the pizza costs more (though the portions are larger) and it is a flatbread, whereas Swampwater Jack's is a bit smaller, almost $2 cheaper, and has a crust that is more to my liking. I did notice, however, that there is a flat path to get to Swampwater Jack's that is much more wheelchair accessible than the old bumpy bridge. I don't THINK this path is new, but I was specifically on the lookout for it today. I do not know if it is precisely ADA compliant in terms of width (I'd estimate it around 4.5 feet wide based on it being about one and a half arm-lengths on me) but it's something. Still no automatic door, but I've been told that isn't a hard-set requirement under the ADA. It would be very nice to have one or to prop the door, but it's something. Speaking of accessibility, there is NONE whatsoever for the Up, Up, and Away ride. to access the ride platform REQUIRES riders to walk up stairs. As for the other rides, I did notice that the ride operators were VERY focused on guest safety above ALL else, and I applaud that. Lightning Run operators reminded those waiting in line several times that they need to stand behind the yellow line. Most guests followed instructions the first time. One bull-headed guest decided to stand right on the gates, past the yellow line despite being told not to numerous times.. They were told that the ride cannot be dispatched until they stand behind the yellow line, and so, it sat, for about a minute and a half while the guest stubbornly stood there. When they finally decided that they were being a fool and got tired of waiting, they stepped back and the ride was dispatched. Security was present at every ride to check for line jumpers, and I saw line jumpers told to return to the end of the line on three occasions. Good on them for catching that and enforcing the rules. All in all, I had a good day. The park has improved tremendously since opening day and almost all of my complaints have been fixed since then. It's not perfect. It's still a small park. It still can't really expect to compete with Holiday World or Kings Island. And that's OK. Be a great small park before you try to be a big park. I'd rather have a straight-four that's firing on all cylinders than a V8 that is only firing on half of them.

Yes, full review coming later.The only out of state plate I've seen is an Ohio one, and it's mine...

Maybe. From the road that goes behind it, it LOOKED like track had been removed, but I can't say for certain. No idea, but they sell it.

540 calories at Thunder Run. ~350 at Swampwater (don't remember the exact number and currently en route to front gate to check there). Casa Mia (front gate) same as Thunder Run and same price. Calorie counts are for pepperoni. Prices for Cheese and Pesto Mia pizza are the same as pepperoni at all locations.

^ See my edit. Possible that they are not.

Pricing inconsistent for same product throughout park. Pizza at Swampwater Jacks is 5.09. At the stand by Thunder Run it's 6.79. Those prices reflect a 20% discount with a season pass. EDIT: Maybe not. Posted calorie count is higher at the Thunder Run stand. Perhaps those portions are larger.

Indeed. In better news, pizza portions are back to two slices and prices have been reduced compared to 2014.

T3 train is in the station. Read that sentence very carefully.

Good news, I'm still allowed in! And glasses straps are no longer $5. Now $1.59.

I'm off to visit Hartland right now. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I'm allowed in... And if things have improved since opening day.

They could just say "No photography". That concisely covers stills and video.

There is a common superstition that bad things come in threes...

TheCandyManCan, Your hunch about this being mismatched on Shazam and on Google Play turned out to be correct. I did some digging and I found the real identities of these songs. They are Beat Lick and Beat Lick (Underscore) by Curtis Schwartz. It's not a perfect match to either version though, so I think they have some kind of custom edit that has stitched them together in some way. They are not on Google Play or Amazon (well, they ARE on Google Play, under the wrong artist, so if you have Google Play All Access, you can just add it to your library and edit the metadata like I did) but they are on iTunes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/refuel/id406968465 Not sure how that happened, but it looks like Daniel Teper and Curtis Schwartz are on the same record label, so I'd imagine that somebody just crossed the streams when they submitted their music to the Google Play Store, and I think Shazam uses Google Play as its matching source. I'm still hard at work trying to find the last song. I'm a completionist and having a hole in my playlist is very frustrating. And thanks for all your hard work figuring this out, everyone! Hopefully we can identify that last one so we can relive the entire show anywhere we go!

I would guess that the reason Rougarou doesn't have the normal excitement and popularity associated with a new coaster is because it's not a new coaster.

KI is definitely NOT a no-fly zone. There are undoubtedly restrictions in place regarding flying over Kings Island, but there is no outright ban on it. If there were, the attraction that formerly occupied Firehawk's plot of land would never have been possible.