medford

^^^ Assuming you don't have a platinum pass since you didn't say so, here would be my agenda (take it for what its worth): 10:00 am, rope drop, immediately back to X-base for Flight of Fear/Firehawk. If Firehawk is up and running, hit it first, if not, jump on Flight of Fear and hope Firehawk is running when you get off. Assuming you have both of those done, head back near the front of the park and jump on Invertigo, which is the other slow mover. You'll by-pass some coasters along the way, but most of those of those have typically have shorter waits even on the busiest of days. After that, you've talked the 3 rides most likely to bog down, so I'd start working my way around the park, counter clockwise: cut across international street for Diamondback, then head over to Planet Snoopy for Flying Ace Arial Chase (which moves slow and can bog down a bit for Planet Snoopy) then over to Surf Dog (KI considers it a coaster, some don't) then Woodstock Express. At this point, you've covered all the coasters in kiddie land unless you can convince someone to lend you their small child so you can get on with them at The Great Pumpkin Coaster (riders over a certain height, must be accompanied by a child b/w 36" and ???) in order to ride) Work your way over to The Beast, then Stunt Track, Vortex (car 7, row 1), The Racers (ride the Blue Side if its opened), if not check back later in the day as sometimes it only opens when the park gets busier to re-ride the blue side. Finally its Adventure Express, Banshee then The Bat and you've complete the loop, you'll have all the major waits out of the way and are fee to catch a show, grab some grub, reride something from a different seat, etc... If you start at rope drop and the crowds are light to start, you may make you way thru the ride list by 2:00 (4 hours)

I will say what I always say, even on crowded days (save perhaps the haunt) if you plan on being at the park all day, and the weather is such that all rides are open, you should be able to ride all of the major attractions at least once, plus re-rides of your favorites. If your goal is to ride everything once, you don't really need Fast Lane. If your goal is to ride everything as often as possible, then it will work in your favor. If you are somewhere in between, then you can gauge when you get to the park on how crowded it is. Also factor in the water park, if you plan on attending into that equation. I agree with others, start in the back of the park and hit Firehawk and Flight of Fear first. Unless of course, you have a platinum pass to Valleyfair, then you'll get ERT and get jump on Banshee before the official opening (and other rides as well, check the website, can't remember for sure) 3) see previous replies 4) depends on the crowds, if you get there early and its not overly crowded off The Bat, you may be able to get on everything major by lunch time. 5) Eats: Reds Hall of Fame grill is great, and priced very reasonably for a sit down restaurant in an amusement park. Its also included in the meal plans if you have one thru a Valleyfair platinum pass, or buy one of the all day plans at entry. If you get skyline, get it at the front of the park, not the back. Its definitely a Cincy thing, so it may not be up your alley. Try some Graeter's ice cream for dessert (south side of the fountain on International Street). Its been featured on several foodie networks as well as Oprah and other similar talk shows. Shows: Catch Cirque Imagine if you can, I haven't seen it, but the reviews are great. There are others around the park, but nothing up to that level. Rides: If you are there long enough, catch a night time ride on The Beast. Classic woodie that takes you thru the woods in pitch black darkness. No matter where you are at, as long as you are in line at closing time (10:00 on a Tuesday I assume) you'll be able to ride. The Beast stops during fireworks due to its proximity to the launching area, but will start back up and cycle thru the line. Most, if not all, other rides will operating during fireworks. Fireworks start at 10:00. Even if you don't have kids, there are a couple of rides worth catching in the kids area. Surf Dog and Flying Ace Arial Chase are fun, no matter your age.

blue171717, I've successfully used the "your 5 year old cousin is going to ride The Beast" move on his older cousin to get her to ride it. I was with her the first time she got to the 48" mark, and wanted to ride The Beast. She happily rode it, as we walked off the ride, she pointed over to the big orange and blue steel and asked if we could ride that. I asked if she understood that it went upside down a few times, she said yes, and happily rode Vortex. Then sometime over the next couple of months she developed a fear for both rides, until I told her that her cousin 2 years younger was getting on, all of a sudden she was no longer scared (or admitting to fear more like it). No way was she going to get upstaged by a 4 year old. Ironically, I'm attempting the same thing, in revers however, on my 47 year old sister in law, who's 70+ mother rode both Banshee and Diamondback last season. She's not so worried about being upstaged by her own mother

We used to give our daughter M&Ms when she first started using the potty. Now that she's turned 3, we give her 2 M&Ms when she has a dry pull up. I gave each of my kids $1 for the 30 min they spent "helping" me spread mulch, so they could use it at the pool. Our children must eat their veggies and/or fruit at dinner in order to "earn" dessert". Our children get sent to timeout when they misbehave, talk back, refuse to listen, become overly whiney, etc.. They lose book privileges in the evenings/before nap if they aren't following orders in a reasonable manner. Our son gets to do "awesome cool ninja stuff" when he/the class listen to their martial arts instructors, they get to sit on the floor and listen to "talks" when they are not paying attention. My son "gets" to sit 1 minute on a bench at Kings Island when he wonders too far in front of us when transgressing from one part of the park to another? Listening at the pool may entail and extra swim period, not listening may entail heading home instead. Bribery, or incentive? Kids/people take incentives or bribes to do lots in life. Some of them can be rewards, some of them can be punishments, heck sometimes I just tell my 6 year old to head down to the basement to play with his Legos to give both him and his sister a little space from each other before the things escalate to a time out or lose of privileges. Riding a roller coaster is not much different, while I wouldn't recommend "punishing" a kid for not wanting to ride any specific ride, I think its perfectly reasonable to offer a kid some sort of reward if they can overcome that fear, or on the flip side, make them sit out a ride while others are enjoying a ride. Kids are inherently selfish and it takes a little social conditioning for most to learn that the world is significantly bigger than just themselves. Its part of a parents job to direct their kids, help them realize when its time to "spread their wings" and when its time to be cautious and patient. For a young child, heck for many adults, roller coasters are going to inspire an irrational sense of panic. They designed to go high, go fast and in some cases flip you head over heels. They want to give you a feeling of being "out of control" while engineered to be perfectly safe with multiple layers of safety built in, often not seen or felt directly by the riders. My wife and I bribe our kids all the time. Sometimes its in an attempt to get them to overcome their fears, sometimes its an attempt to improve their self, and sometimes its out of an attempt to give them an experience you know they'll like. I spent all last summer trying to get my son to jump off the 10m high dive at the pool, he'd climb up the steps a few times, but would never walk off and jump, yet he eagerly rode Drop Tower with my wife when he was four. Now 6, I still can't get him off that high dive. There's no sense in pushing overly hard, if he'd take the bribe, great, if not, that high dive is still going to be there when he turns 7, 8, 10, etc.. he'll jump off it someday. Same could be said of roller coasters for many, but even if they never get on board, there are plenty of other experiences in their lives that will occupy their time and give them fulfillment.

I've never been to Carowinds, do they have a hotel on property? I thought a hotel, or a revamping of a hotel if one current exists, was part of the $50 mil package presented to the state(s) for funding. Expanding the water park, could lead to including an indoor water park as part of a new hotel on the property, allowing guests to use it during the colder fall/spring seasons before the outdoor park is open. A new hotel would cost a lot of money, and will chew up most of that $50 mil investment.

So I see, that the company who purchased them also owns Dominos & Popeye's chicken, both whom serve Coke products. There is hope that world order can soon be restored

First roller coaster (The Beastie) First backwards ride on a roller coaster (The Racer) (only other time has been on Faceoff/Invertigo) First inversion (Vortex) First Stand up (King Cobra) Aside from that, I couldn't tell you much else that I experienced the first time at KI, I'm sure there are other things, but its been a long time.

Would the pass holder even have to type in a zip code, or would the "ticket taker" type it in for them as they walked thru. It wouldn't be that hard to tell someone to punch in an Indiana zip code, or ohio zip code no matter what the person tells them (if they even ask). The employee likely doesn't even know why they would input such a number, so likely doesn't care much if its accurate or not.

thanks, JC, I figured that out yesterday when I switched over to see if that was the issue. Old habits die hard.

I watched the first half of "Let it Rock" facing the stage while my wife fetched dinner for everyone. At first I couldn't figure out why, but I couldn't get into it. The stage looked good, I liked the musical selection, but something wasn't clicking. At half way thru, my wife and daughter got back to the table with dinner for everyone, so I turned around and was no longer looking at the stage. If found that I enjoyed the 2nd half significantly more and was wondering why. It finally hit me, its a rock 'n roll show, but with no live instruments (well other than vocals). Perhaps it would be too difficult to pull off given the rapid pace of the show and changes b/w songs, but it detracts from the show (at least for me). A bit of a shame, b/c the singers did an excellent job I thought, and got into the crowd a different points to interact, which I think enhanced the show a bit. Just wish they had a live band up there playing the songs.

If you are eating inside the park, I'd definitely recommend the Reds hall of Fame Grille. There is a lot of neat memorabilia in there, the food is excellent, and the prices are pretty comparable to a casual sit down joint in any strip mall in Ohio, which is to say, for an amusement park, the prices are far lower than you would expect. If you want to save a few nickels, you can pack a picnic lunch and eat out at your car, or at one of the picnic tables outside the main gate. There is also a slew of fast food type joints just up the road (McDonald's, Wendy's, Jimmy Johns, Chipotle, and several others) as well as a handful of casual sit down joints (Outback, Perkins, some Mexican place I've never visited, and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head) Even on a busy Saturday, you should be able to get a ride on all of the major rides and attractions, especially if you follow the advice above and hit Flight of Fear and Firehawk early on. If your goal is just to ride everything once, and perhaps a few things twice, you should be able to do that w/o FastLane. If your goal is to squeeze as many rides as possible into the day, then depending on the crowds, FastLane could be worth your money. I'd recommend a both a daytime and a night time ride on The Beast. I'd say the same about Banshee, but I have not actually ridden Banshee at night yet (should fix that this year now that my 6 year old is tall enough to ride it), it has a neat light package for the evenings. As long as you are in line by closing time (and assuming the weather is clear) you will get a ride. As noted above, The Beast will shut down during fireworks, but starts up again once they are done and the track is clear (part of the course runs close to where they launch from, so it is shut down as a precaution). Adventure Express is a fun ride at night time as well. Depending on the time of the year, you can grab a ride on Adventure Express at night, then slide over to Banshee fairly quickly to get in line before closing. No body has mentioned the water park. I've never been, but from what I've read, secure your belongings if you plan to hit that side of the park. Just setting it on a chair will not guarantee it remains there when you are done sliding. There are no bins on Banshee, if you plan on riding and are carrying a bag, you'll either have to store it, or you'll have to have somebody hold it for you. I believe most everything else has storage bins, someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I don't usually carry anything that won't fit in my pockets, so I don't worry about it. If you want a Pretzel, the Auntie Ann's (2 locations I believe) are preferable to what you'll find served around the park in different areas. Lots of people like the Banshee or Blue Ice Cream, if you've never had it, I'd recommend getting some Graeter's Ice Cream, its near the fountain and some of the best ice cream in the country, its thick, so they can only make small batches at a time, which makes it a little more expensive, but awesome (at least in my opinion). If you like turkey legs, they can be found near the entrance to Adventure Express in the Beer Garden. They are pretty solid, and filling. They have new KI themed craft beers this year, I haven't tried them, but might interest you if that is your thing.

Still can't get the quote feature to work, but Boddha is correct, not only should you not expect it to be open, its a good ways away from being finished off, at least as far as I can tell from 71.

Haven't seen anything posted on this, but I've been watching them clear land for the last 2 seasons and start installing new slides. According to their website, which seemingly the forum won't let me link to (I've also had issues trying to quote someone, if anyone has solutions) I am assuming this new attraction is going to be called Rip Tide Racer, a 4 person across racing slide that by the picture appears to be on mats, head first. Not much up on the park's site other than a mention and 1 picture.

Might as well throw this in here as a PSA. On the radio the other day, they were talking about hotels in the downtown area and the All star game coming this summer (I don't know the exact dates, but its usually early July IIRC) They said most hotels downtown and across the river were sold out, and the hotels up into Mason were starting to fill up (all while the price was going up as well). If you plan to stay In the area over that time frame, may want to expand your search a little to the North and take on a larger drive to/from the park.

Took my first trip to KI yesterday afternoon. Despite a crowded lot when we arrived around 3:00 pm, the lines (at least we were, mostly Planet Snoopy) never felt too long. Speaking of arriving, I'll start there. I've seen the numerous complaints about the parking lot, and have never really understood the fuse. After yesterday, I realize its b/c of how my normal routing operates. Typically, we go in the evenings, mid week as a family, I drive up from the south after work, my wife drives down from the north with the kids, we meet around 5-6 pm, the park typically isn't too crowded, and generally we always park in the same handful of rows, so most of our parking lot time is spent driving along the main road that runs down the middle. Yesterday, we had to traverse "up and down" several rows of parking to find a spot, looking for a spot vacated by somebody that had left for the day (or food). As such, I got a feel for just how bad the rows of the parking lot are. The lot desperately needs repaving. If Kentucky Motor Speedway can advertise how its the roughest track in NASCAR, and how the best love it, while others fear it, KI should pull out a similar slogan for their parking lot, the roughest ride in the park. Anyhoo, we got in, got the kids measured and headed to Planet Snoopy. I wasn't sure if our 6 year old would be at 52" or 54" to start off the year, I was kind of hoping for something less than 54" b/c our 2 year old daughter hit the 36" mark over the offseason and it meant there would be a significant amount of rides they could do together in that part of the park, and knowing we only had a short window before he'd hit 54" and be considered too tall for many of the attractions there. Even when our son hit the 48" mark 2 years ago, and discovered that he loved The Beast, Adventure Express, White Water Canyon and all of the others "bigger" rides he could hit once he got to the 48" (and in some cases like WWC a shade less) he still always had fun in Planet Snoopy and there were things there he definitely wanted to get on again. I assumed that would still hold true, at least early in the season while he could ride some stuff with his sister. Dad was wrong (not the first time, certainly not the last), he "hated" Planet Snoopy; he's definitely hit the "I want to be in the big kid part of the park" stage. I'm hoping that phases out b/c there are a couple of trips with some of his friends too small, or too scared to ride The Beast or other bigger coasters. I did get him on the flying scooters, and he had a ton of fun. I've forgotten just how much swing you can get on that; generally I don't do spinning rides, but the Eagles never bothered me as a kid, so I gave the new version a twirl and enjoyed them just as much as I remembered from my earlier days. They were surprisingly snug for myself and my 6 year old, would be tough to fit two adults into 1. Our 2 year old seemed to enjoy them. We caught a couple of other small rides, headed over to The Scrambler so our son and daughter could ride it with grandma. Our son has always loved it, our daughter has never been on it; not sure we'll get her on it again, she definitely wasn't a fan. Of course she felt the same way after riding The Monster last season, but by the end of the year, she had made 4 runs of it with Mom in a single trip, so perhaps she'll "grow" into it. After Scrambler, we grabbed some dinner, then finally got our son on one of his "new coasters". He said at the beginning of the day (and last season when he was getting close to the 52" mark) that he didn't want to get on Banshee. I had him talked into Flight of Fear and he seemed excited, but when he realized we were going to the Festhause for Dinner, and new Banshee was right by it, he made up his mind that was the one he wanted to do before we left the park. To his credit, the fear he talked about earlier in the day never popped up once he decided he was going to ride it. He loved the theming and was asking about the tombstones and if people were really buried there. I had never thought of it like this, but once we were in our seats, he made the comment that it felt like The Banshee had captured us the way the seats come down on you, which I thought was a good analogy. Seeing that we are going to have to "divide and conquer" a little more than I thought originally with our 2 kids, and since my wife has the "9 month flue" I see the two us having a good amount of trips on Banshee this year. He's got about 1 more inch to go for Diamondback, he's really looking forward to that one. After Banshee, his grandparents headed home and we meet my wife back in Planet Snoopy then hit Graeters before leaving. Something I have never seen before (though I doubt its the first time they've been there), was seeing about 4-6 Canadian Geese swimming in the fountains. I would have assumed the water was chemically treated, but I noticed one dipping its head in and drinking away, perhaps not, or perhaps they didn't care. Will these take up permanent residence, or will KI chase them off this week? Don't know when they stopped in. All in all, a good, quick 4 hour trip to KI. Great weather, loved the new location of the dino up front, employees were all friendly and helpful. Looking forward to the season.

are these things dishwasher safe? There is no mention that they shouldn't be placed in the dishwasher (like the souvenir cups) as well as an emblem on the bottom that seems to indicate that its ok for the dishwasher (or perhaps top rack only), but I'd hate to put it in there and see it melt away like my souvenir cup has done in the past when I wasn't thinking. after posting this, I went looking to see what that emblem meant exactly, it appears to mean the product is "safe for food or beverage use". Well, I would certainly hope so; don't have it in front of me, not sure if there was anything else that may indicate one way or the other. May just wash it by hand to be safe.

Write in vote for recar, or the Backwards Racer.

I can't answer for him, but take him directly out of the equation and I think I can answer for the first 2. Given the notable lack of PR, I would imagine this site generates a great deal of influence on attendance at KK, good or bad. There are not many places, if any that talk about the park to the extent that is seen here. A good or bad review by a respected member of this site (no matter who that person may be) will go a long way to influencing others decisions to attend the park or not. When they're fighting a lack of attendance, and a lack of good PR, reviews on this site count for a bunch. Obviously its a small percentage of people that are aware this site even exists, but its a fairly influential site for area parks in terms of information and reviews. If terpy was targeted for refusal of admittance, the park once again missed out on a huge PR opportunity. They had someone who has the minds of many people thru this site (and I'm sure elsewhere), they could have offered a park walk thru, talked about his concerns, talked about their plans and areas they plan to address. Rather than "give the boot" a good PR person would have tried their best to influence his opinion and at a minimum make it seem like the park is striving its best to succeed. I don't know that anyone is "hating on KK", there have been many missteps along the way, many questionable decisions. I think most, if not all would like to see the park succeed, but many have pointed out the obstacles and missteps along the way. It is no one's job on this site (as far as I'm aware) to promote the park, the reviews and comments on the steps taken to bring it back to life have been honest, but as with any good reporter, you just can't point out the rosey aspects, you have to point out the pitfalls; it would appear there have been many pitfalls to date.

How many of those 2000 entrances was your credit card charged for?

^^^ I've seen you say that before, and it still befuddles me that the state allowed a deal like that to go thru. I'm sure the proper backs were scratched along the way, but if that were to go down, things would get very ugly, very quickly.

I really have no way to verify this, not do I know if its actually true or not, but... I remember going to the park as a kid one year, it was either memorial day weekend or 4th of July weekend, and it was packed. The line for The Beast extended all the way near the front gates. This would have been early to mid 80s, like around 1984 or somewhere along those lines. Could have been my childhood imagination just exaggerating a busy day, I was too little (or perhaps too scared, can't remember for sure) to ride The Beast back then, so it didn't matter to me, but the thought has always stuck with me. As I've grown older, I seriously doubt my childhood memory is 100% correct, but it makes for a great story

I once hopped on a Train in Venice Italy got off in Belgium to transfer to the Chunnel Train over to London, 3 hours in London before hopping on another train to Whales, then hopping onto a Ferry for Dublin. All told a day and a half later, I reached my end destination (before moving on again 2 days later for Scotland). My point being, 3.5 each way of train travel when in a foreign country is easy, its not every day your going to get the opportunity, make the most of it. How much have you looked into transportation? There is a possibility that you can take a "tour" van out of London to Alton Towers, either way, if your traveling by bus or train, its relatively easy travel as you can kick back and take a nap and don't have to worry about driving.

I would expect something along the lines of Missouri Jane and ghost for KI's theme, fitting into the "history" of the park.

Neither The Bat nor BLSC are (in my opinion) for the hard core enthusiast that populate this site and others like it. While I'm not sure it was their original intent, they seem to fit a very key demographic in the KI market. The family that has young kids and is transitioning from Planet Snoopy to the collection of rides that require a 52 or 54" height requirement. For some family, that can be 2 seasons. Add The Racer and Adventure Express to that list (and personally I'd love to see a Fire Chase Express type ride added at the 44" mark to further compliment this demographic) There are many young kids that won't ride Vortex simply b/c of the loops, there are many who won't ride The Beast b/c of the roughness and perceived "scariness" of flying thru the woods and having no idea where you are heading to, on the flip side, there are many adults who won't ride The Beast b/c of the roughness nor The Vortex b/c is knocks the blank out of you (I'll ride it a couple of times a year, but my body can't handle that wonderful ride the way it did when I was a teenager). Tearing down either of those rides, really puts a dent into a key demographic. I'd venture a guess that this demographic is at or near the top of money spent inside the park per visit. Lord knows they're not getting a ton off the 12 year old season pass holder who is dropped off at the front gate and only wants to marathon Diamondback and Banshee in comparison.

Terp, when the career-o-matic stops spinning, perhaps you'll be coming near a grocery store that sells that ice cream Good marketing effort.