RollerColt

Wow… 5 years… Walking through the park it definitely is missed. It was almost like a landmark for my childhood… walking into the entrance and seeing it peering from the back… the sound of the train going through the batwing was mesmerizing, and I loved the sound of the chain lift. The wood fence just makes me sad at the moment. It’s like a huge incomplete is just sitting in that part of the park.

I’d happily buy Dollywood and then live out the rest of my days in the mountains. Second choice would be Holiday World.

Incredible. Has it really been that many years? So much has happened and changed since 2019! Love that color!

I don’t see any posts on Facebook about this…

Dang… it was working on Tuesday this week when we rode it.

That's just too cool!

Sadly investors a lot of times are like the Cookie Monster. Constantly feeding and feeding off of profits, never satisfied and nothing is ever enough.

https://www.zamperla.com/product/lightning Yeah I would not complain if we got a multi-launch, well themed ride similar to Maverick in our park. Put that sucker in the old Vortex location and I'll be very happy.

Excellent post! To add to this: The park owns and operates the ride, and is therefore responsible for our safety. Meanwhile the operator of a car, whether leasing or owning the vehicle, is responsible for maintaining it and is responsible.

My bad! Since I was with the kiddos we didn't venture over to Action Zone. I did notice it was pretty quiet around the Eiffel Tower, should've put 2 and 2 together!

Went yesterday and besides The Beast, everything else was up and running. The station teams were really starting to hit a groove in the evening hours and lines were great! Longest wait we had was for Soap Box Racers, but with only 1 train and the track layout there’s only so much they can do.

Correct! Took my kids today for their first ever experience with roller coasters, they rode Woodstock Express quickly followed by Soap Box Racers. We were very surprised with how intense that turn coming out of the station is! My 7 year old daughter absolutely loved it, however my 5 year old son might still be too small as he said it was too much. I personally found it to be a delightful ride, with some good speed and a great view!

I immediately thought of you when I saw the news break… I feel like a piece of me has died today. That was my very first park as a little kid back in 1992. I was only 4 but I remember that summer.

I wonder if this means Riverbend is on its way out. Seems very strange to have so many venues all in a line.

RIP Coney Island. I agree with @disco2000, it was inevitable. Still sad to see a historic site go but it was a shell of itself for most of my life.

Thank you for sharing, Don. Much appreciated!

If they rebrand I-305, it would be met with heavy pushback from the local community. Dale Earnhardt means a lot to them.

Agreed 100%. If it all becomes DC garbage with poor theming I’m swearing off of KI.

Just talked to my wife about this during our breaks. She's in no shape a fan of roller coasters or amusement parks. But when I told her the news she immediately said "well I guess we probably won't be going to Kings Island in the future if Six Flags is involved".

As always, you school me with logic and reasoning Bodda!

This is directed at me, and I get it. I was the one who called this a monopoly and that's not the correct term for it. I don't really care about the competition between parks, because as you say they're regional. What I do care about is large corporations caring only about profit and not the consumers.

It's more about the trend. Some of the two biggest amusement entertainment companies merging together is worrisome. We're seeing it everywhere in an ever growing corporate dominated world. Nearly every business and product we interact with is owned and controlled by a parent company. Just look at what Kroger is doing. They're buying out other stores and companies, and are meanwhile increasing their prices while lowering the quality. Sure, the regional parks like Holiday World and Dollywood are doing their own thing. But for how much longer?

Monopolies are never a good thing for the consumer. This is a win for Cedar Fair but a loss for us.

I'm thinking possibly 2025. We'll see.

I'm glad to see this legend getting much needed love. Hopefully this leads to rides for years to come.