SonofBaconator

It would be neat to see something like “Winter Weekends” which take place during weekends in January and February. The Holiday overlays would go away but the winter activities would stay such as the sled riding and ice rink. I’d like to see if KI could get away with having an event with little to no rides open. They partially did it when they moved the children’s Halloween event to Soak City for a while (granted the rest of the dry park was still open.)

To my knowledge, Adventure Express has 4 block zones: Station, 1st lift hill, second lift hill, transfer track. (If I’m missing one, please correct me. 3 train operations would require one train going through the course of the ride while one train is in the station and one train is on the transfer track. The 3rd train, in theory, could be waiting at the top of the second lift hill in tunnel but that would ruin the affect of the final tunnel imo. If I’m right on the total number of block zones being 4, and you want to run 3 trains, you would need to slow down the chain speed on the lift hills to space out dispatches (similar to The Beast). A 5th block could be added in the 2nd tunnel before the hill and a show scene could be incorporated (similar to BLSC) but that would require a lot of work.

https://www.chancerides.com/electric_cphuntington_train/

Would it be worth it if the park opened earlier on certain days for Winterfest or should it just say an evening event?

I’m pretty confident that they will keep the spinning barrels open for Winterfest next season and possibly even the enterprise. With exception to Orion, all of the new attractions that the park has debuted, since Winterfest has returned, have been incorporated into the event: Mystic Timbers and the Antique Autos. I’m not sure what the maintenance is like on Arrow mine trains, considering you have tubular track on top of wooden supports. I like to think they could run it with Winterfest, but I’m not an expert on roller coaster maintenance.

I don’t disagree that DB changed the landscape, but I argue TR:TR had worst placement of any ride in that section: http://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/tombRaiderTheRide.html

Adventure Express would be fun and it could fit in with Adventure Port like @MDMC01 mentioned. I ultimately voted for Racer just because it’s along the Coney Mall midway and would be easy to run considering they could either shut down one side and run it as one coaster, or do what @IndyGuy4KI said and take trains out of the rotation. Also, I think Woodstock Express could be added to the lineup.

I always include all coasters in my lists but please be realistic!

“Now when you pick a pawpaw, or a prickly pear, and you pick a raw paw, well next time beware” It’s been a while since I had a pawpaw

I might get tarred and feathered, but I would like an ending after the boiler room scene myself. I believe he talked about that in the Q&A session. Given that the last time you see Maestro is right before the prop room, and you only hear him when you’re exiting the ride when he says “you’ll be back.” I personally wish that you could physically see the character one last time after the boiler room before exiting the ride.

If you had the capital to invest in a project in the Mason area, (you can also include the surrounding area), near KI, what would you I do? This could be anything from a hotel, to an entertainment center, to parking, etc.

If they were to make any improvements to a returned Phantom Theater, I’d like to see a more immersive que.

My concept (below) was made prior to the announcement of Adventure Port. I originally had it to where one station stood where the basketball game was while the other one was where Shake Rattle n Roll currently is (I relocated it across from Killmart.) In theory, you could still have a skyride there, just move it down a bit: I always thought that they should relocate SRR and expand the pathway where Coney Mall bends, especially with KMAA jetting into the midway. Make it one straight midway and you could have the skyride end there by Vortex’s old station

I don’t think an eastern Pennsylvania amusement park has the intent of taking a secondary logo from a midwestern college who hasn’t used the scratch mark since the mid 2010s.

This is more of a fan fiction so bear with me. Full disclosure, I don’t think that all of what I’m about to say will happen; if any of it at all. Starting off with the updated que, I would put some posters along the line, similar to what you see when you are in line for Mystic Timbers. Here I would do a lot of callbacks to past attractions, as well as tie-ins to other Cedar Fair properties. I would keep the Tomb Raider queue music, but I would also add the outpost five and Station master audio prepping you for your journey. I don’t really know what work could be done to the station interior but adding a few crates and other enhancements: again taking some ideas from Mystic Timber’s station. Regarding the coaster itself, I would put a lot of changes in the tunnels. The first tunnel would include enhanced audio and maybe some vines of sort hanging from the wooden beams. The second tunnel is where it would get interesting. In the second tunnel, I would add a block section that would stop the train entirely. I would have somewhat of a midcourse show scene or story telling audio before ascending the first lift hill (again, fan fiction.) The third tunnel would feature a bunch of spiraling red and orange lights underneath the track to give the illusion of lava. Then finally, we get to the fourth and final lift hill. I would first focus on the animatronics and make sure that they are all working and maybe light them up a little better. After the end of the final lift hill, I would enclose the final break run/storage section (Again, very similar to Mystic Timbers) and have one final show scene before entering the station. This idea pretty much borrows elements of theming from Backlot Stunt Coaster with the mid course break run and Mystic Timbers with the enclosed rides, storage area, providing an extra scene for riders. The only problem with this idea is that you would need to operate all three trains, and to my knowledge they haven’t operated three trains for quite some time with the third one just being used for parts. Train one would be in the station waiting to dispatch, train two would be either ascending the final lift hill or waiting long the final break will run in the final show scene. Meanwhile, the third train would be on the midcourse breakrun scene before the first hill. Again, this is purely be fanfiction, and I don’t think the park would go through all that trouble, especially with commissioning a third train, but it would be cool.

I count 48 seats in the concept art. It looks like 12 sets of 4 seaters to me.

Let’s assume KD and Carowinds have successful year round operations and the chain decides to expand this practice to KI, they would need another indoor attraction of some kind. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is debuting Dar Koaster which is sure to help with the cold winter months along with the already existing Verbolten (which the majority of that ride is indoors or covered anyway.) Unfortunately, our old ride building isn’t big enough to fit a coaster, perhaps an indoor drop ride similar to tower or terror but that’s really the extent unless they bring back a top spin.

I think it would be cool to make that back half of Coney Mall the BLSC path become its own section. After the park added A72 and announced Adventure Port, I’ve become interested in the idea of smaller sections that focus more on a specific story. If they take the back part of Coney Mall and retheme it to something new, they could accomplish that. Just a thought

When I walk through Coney Mall, I feel like I’m in two sections. The 1st section is the part by the beginning of Racer and ends at Zephyr. After that, you have the second section that goes from the Killmart building to WindSeeker and over to Backlot Stunt Coaster. I know this is all one section (and from a rides standpoint, BLSC and SRR are Rivertown rides), but I always felt like the back part of Coney Mall was it’s own section for some weird reason. Am I alone in this feeling?

I’m honestly fine with it being absorbed into International Street. If you want to get technical, International Street branches off to KI Theater, Boo Blasters, Tower Gardens, and the Carousel so I wouldn’t think it would be a stretch to include a Scandinavian swinging boat ride and a German themed dining hall into that mix with the internationally themed buildings. In fact, I argue tying Feathaus and Viking Fury into International Street fits better

My takeaway: Oktoberfest is a great concept that served for many years, but looking at it now it does seem like something new was bound to replace it at some point. Allowing for the section to breathe a little bit more and focus on an overall story vs a single event that happens in September makes sense. That being said, I’m excited for Adventure Port. It gives me Safari Village vibes, which was unfortunately before my time. I like how essentially the area complements Adventure Express. I think the biggest complaint people had was what exactly did a burrito shack, a Viking ship, a mine ride, and a slingshot really have to do with a German festival? This new concept pretty much corrects that. I think that Viking Fury and the festhaus will just be tied into international street as that makes more sense. The two new rides that they are bringing in are callbacks to classic Kings Island rides that inhabited the same area, so in a way it seems like they had never left. People have been wanting more flat rides to come to the park and I think this is a great way to do that. i’m excited to see what enhancements will be done to Adventure Express. Will the que have props and scenery to it like Mystic Timbers? Will there be changes to the tunnels? Will there be more things for people to see along the right? The sky’s the limit. I think this also gives you a sense of the direction things will be going in the future. Oktoberfest always seemed like it was just the in between section between Action Zone, international Street and coney mall. It seemed like the identity had kind of slipped out over the years with some parts of the area reminiscing safari Village with Adventure Express and then you have other aspects like the festhaus in Viking fury. This rebrand makes it truly its own thing. In a way this also allows for coney mall and Action Zone to do more their own thing. We could possibly see Action Zone getting a similar overhaul in the coming years. I’m excited for these changes and I look forward to seeing these next year!

Everything has been announced, but out of curiosity…what is one ride that you would like to see open during Winterfest that hasn’t yet? I’d say operating one side of The Racer is a possibility. It would be cool to see 4D theater return as a seasonal indoor attraction that could feature a holiday overlay.

I’d like to think Action Zone would be closed as there isn’t anything to ride in the winter. I think the focus would be I-Street, Planet Snoopy, and Coney Mall/Oktoberfest. I like to think they’d close Rivertown to allow for maintenance on Mystic Timbers and the train after Winterfest.

I wonder if the train will do the 12 days of Christmas again or be different. Busch Gardens Williamsburg has done an awesome job with their train ride: https://buschgardens.com/williamsburg/blog/christmas-town-villages/

I think KI would have a similar approach to operating in the winter months as they did with Winterfest where Planet Snoopy remains open as well as other family attractions. There would need to be more indoor options available for guests though. If the park ever decides to remain open on weekends between operating seasons, it would be advantageous to look back at the Crypt building in Rivertown. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is putting a small coaster into their building, so it might be something to look into for KI if the opportunity ever presented itself.