Ride On_17

^I laughed out loud so much when I read that.

Sometimes I feel like minor park improvement like these should be a priority over new, shiny rides every year. I agree with the original list and the X-Base restrooms. It's the little details that really turn a good day into a great day at an amusement park.

Considering it will be 1 to 2 months before I get down to KI, I definitely decided to watch it. Banshee looks more and more awesome every time I watch a video or see a picture. Thanks for the POV!

Hopefully that's the case, and hopefully it will be up and running soon. That ride's so awesome and someone I know who was at the park for the 1st time for Media Day and Opening Day was disappointed it wasn't open. But thankfully Banshee seems to have running pretty well despite just a few short breakdowns.

$99? REALLY?!?!

No mobs of people, for once. Me standing by the field: O-H with my mom: Such an incredible experience. Hopefully one day soon I'll be marching down this exact ramp as a member of TBDBITL. A cool perspective of the rotunda: This is the fitness center, RPAC (Recreation and Physical Activity Center): The iconic Independence University Hall: These gargoyles on one of the buildings are creepy but cool: The building with the gargoyles is for geology classes: Looking out over the South Oval from the parking garage before we left:

Hi, cardinal. This Brutus statue in the Union also results in many people doing this...I've done it before but felt like doing it again. Buckeye Donuts! And Tommy's Pizza! A zoomed picture of one of the flowers in Ohio Stadium's rotunda. Not known by many people, the colors of the flowers and their backgrounds would be determined by the winner of the inaugural game when the stadium opened, which was a game between Ohio State and...of course...Michigan. Well, Michigan won so the flowers were actually pained blue and gold. So if OSU would've won that game, they would have been pained scarlet and gray. The rotunda:

The view from the top floor of the library will never get old. Looking down from one of the glass-walled levels in the library. It almost looks like there's no wall at all. The Oval. My dad and I in the Oval: In the first presentation: In the engineering presentation: In one of the South Campus dorms, with our student guide explaining to us the differences between South, North, and West campus residences. Inside the fitness center, Carmen Ohio (the Alma Mater) is shown using license plates. This only shows like 1/1000000 of what is inside the amazing facility. There's a balcony off of the fitness center that has a great view of the Horseshoe.

My mom, dad, and I arrived on campus around 11 am for Ohio State's Spring exploration Day for Juniors. It is a free event open to all current high school juniors that includes a presentation about the school, specified information based on a major of interest that you had to indicate during previous registration, and a student-led campus walking tour. Check-in didn't start until 12:30 but we wanted to arrive early to explore a little bit before it started. First we grabbed a little lunch in the Union, and after that we headed over toward the library. On our way we came across a Bouncy House set up as well as a table with several students giving away donuts. They were a part of what they called "Project Smiles" or something like that. Just a fun way to be happy, make other people happy, and relieve some stress before finals. It has been a couple years since my dad has been to OSU and he hasn't seen the library since it has been renovated. We showed him all around, and he really enjoyed the top floor. By this time we needed to head back to the Union to check in and get ready for the exploration program. When I checked in I received an Ohio State folder and pen along with a bunch of pamphlets, papers, and brochures about the school. We went into a large room for the presentation and it started at 1. Anything and everything relating to the school, its academics, activities, admissions, and more were discussed. This presentation lasted for about an hour. Then everyone broke off into groups based on their pre-selected major of interest. The engineering group (my group) stayed in the same room. There was another presentation about OSU's college of engineering. It was pretty interesting and I learned some great information. Then were divided into smaller groups for out walking tour. My group's student ambassador leader was awesome. He had lots of energy and was great as showing his passion for his school and showing it to other people. We took a big loop around campus, stopping inside one of the South Campus dorms and the brand new, huge, AMAZING new fitness center. Between a double level gym, too many raquetball courts to count, massive rooms full of workout equipment,and much more. I can already see myself spending lots of time here. It is the largest building of its kind on any college campus in the country. It has over 60,000 square feet of fitness, aquatic, meeting, and recreation space. That's massive. When walking through the Oval, a bunch of students kept yelling "O-H!" and impressively a good amount of the people in my tour group knew to yell back. Our student guide was really impressed too and loved our spirit. Other students were having what they called "High Five Friday" and were giving everyone high fives, smiling at people, giving out free soda, and just being nice and happy. It was pretty funny but I loved it. The tour also stopped at several other locations and toward the end of the hour and a half long tour, we went inside a classroom where our student guide talked to us about what classes are like. The tour was a lot of fun and was a great experience, even though I'm already very familiar with the campus. After telling our amazing guide thanks, my parents and I went back into the Union to decide what to do next. We planned on walking along High Street, but before we left, we saw our guide again. He was very friendly and we thanked him again. So then we headed off down High Street. By this time it was between 4:30 and 5 pm and since it was Friday night, all of the bars and clubs were just starting to fill up. All throughout the day there had been just an exciting, fun atmosphere. As we were walking, a car pulled up out of the side street we needed to cross. The person in the passenger seat suddenly smiled and started waving at us. As we got closer, I realized it was my student guide from the tour. We just had time for a quick hello, but it was funny to see each other again. Goes to show how small this campus gets (and I also so someone I know from school here too). We had to stop at Buckeye Donuts as well at Tommy's Pizza (both were delicious as always.) Then we walked over toward the Horseshoe (AKA Ohio Stadium). I was taking some pictures through the gate looking down the ramp that leads straight out to the field when several workers walked by and said they'd let us enter the stadium to get some better pictures. This was very nice of them. My mom was practically crying and jumping all around (she's a crazy Buckeye fan--in a good way, though). We walked down the ramp and out onto the field. It was so cool being able to stand in that amazing stadium, especially since it was so empty. It was a chilling and incredible experience I'll never forget. When we left we thanked the workers again. Then we continues looping around campus and stopped near the Oval as the sun was setting. It had been a fun day. Eventually we left but drove down the Short North and through downtown Columbus before getting on the freeway to head home. This Exploration Day just reassured me even more that this is where I want to go to college. I'll have several posts with pictures. They were taken both by me and my mom.

1) I love every detail the park went through with this ride. Even the little things like the chandeliers in the station make a huge difference. 2) AMAZING pictures. I especially love these 2. They're awesome. The second one is so cool seeing the track dip down into the valley, hidden in fog.

Sounds like you (and everyone else) had an awesome time! Thanks for all the pictures and information! I can't wait until June to ride this amazing new coaster.

Have fun! Can't wait to hear about Media Day and every other trip you'll take this year!

When someone creates these skyscraper, city roller coaster Photoshop images. This is very cool. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2014/04/surreal-photos-city-roller-coasters/8835/

https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/newsroom/holiday-in-the-park-announcement It sounds promising, but hopefully Six Flags can pull it off. I wish I was posting something like this about Kings Island, but as we all know, another Winterfest type event just wouldn't work.

That looks AWESOME!

Sounds like you had a great time! And awesome pictures. I particularly like all of your "artsy" ones.

And a Twitter update from Tony about the new Starbucks from earlier today: Tony Clark‏@TonyClarkCP Good morning! Over the weekend, this building got more @Starbucks-ey. Mocha anyone? https://twitter.com/TonyClarkCP/status/453139266252447745/photo/1

I wasn't really sure where to post this, but Jason McClure just said this on Twitter: "Great Halloweekends meeting today. Exciting new shows and attractions being planned. Lots of new family fun and night time scares."

^I really want a Vekoma Pandora's Box for a dark ride. http://www.vekoma.com/index.php/specialities-and-attractions/pandora-s-box

I love how CF is starting to branch off to different coaster companies. Yes, I love Intamins for their thrills. But as we all know, Intamin rides can have some serious flaws and issues, while there are so many other companies that provide unique, run coasters. Lately Cedar Fair has received B&M's first (and as of now) only giga coaster, they have received a record breaking wing coaster, they have reborn the inverted coaster, and among several other additions they have built a family friendly yet thrilling GCI wooden coaster. There are tons of options other than Intamin that could provide a nice blend and balance to a park's lineup, and there are still many other companies and coaster types that I hope Cedar Fair will go to for future additions. I love the thrill of Intamins, but I love even more seeing a park with varied thrill levels, ride types, and coaster companies.

I really wonder how Banshee will compare to other inverts like Raptor. I'll be very curious to ride it and see. I can already tell it will be a fantastic ride, though.

I still wish I could have gone to that Birthday Bash. KIC's birthday celebration + my own birthday celebration = 1 huge amazing birthday celebration! Aw well. All the pictures and videos are great.

I never even knew there was a KICentral theme. Let alone any other theme from the one that was posted in the original picture of this thread. I guess I'll keep the IP one though. I'm used to it and am fine with how it looks.

I have been very busy lately and haven't had time to stay up to date with this thread, so I have enjoyed spending my evening reading through all the new pages of this thread. Now that I'm all caught up, I have several thoughts: 1) Regarding the shades over the queue, they look great and I love that the park went with a color that compliments the ride itself. Seeing these shades makes me wish that Cedar Point will install more shades over Gatekeeper's queue. Last year it only had shades along the few rows of queue parallel to the beach, which wouldn't always be used. I thought it made no sense how the busiest part of the queue and where there were almost always people waiting had NO shade whatsoever. Just a random, sort of off topic thought but I really want this area of GK's queue to get these shades or some some of coverings. Last summer it was brutal waiting there with the hot sun beating down. 2) I'm predicting that the structure previously pointed out across from Banshee's entrance will indeed be where the lockers will be. (Not the area of the former Action Zone target, but the white structure recently in discussion.) It may look small, but keep in mind the perspective we all are getting of it right now if from a webcam on a structure far away and very high. It will look small from that vantage point, even if it is in fact a decent sized structure, which I think it is. I believe that the structure is definitely large enough for lockers, and I think it looks to be about the same same as Gatekeeper's. Plus I noticed some people saying how that structure doesn't look permanent enough. Well, look at any locker bay structure like Gatekeeper's. It looks very similar to this "mystery" structure by Banshee. 3)I believe the queue is also larger than some of you think it is. Keep in mind the perspective and vantage point of the camera that you are basing your assumptions on like I previously mentioned. Something that high up and that far away will make the queue area look smaller than it really is. And remember the picture taken of Banshee's queue a while back, the one that faced back to the valley? According to that picture alone, it looks as if that will be a pretty large area for a queue. Will Banshee's line stretch out into Action Zone? I believe this will be likely to happen especially on opening day and during Haunt, but I feel like the existing queue is very suitable to fit the crowds of normal park operation. Also keep in mind how quickly Cedar Fair's latest B&M, Gatekeeper's, line flies by. I am sure that Banshee will be just as good of a people eater as GK and that the line will be moving along very well. 4) For those of you going to Media Day, I would love it if you would be able to provide us with updates throughout the day such as ride reviews, pictures, and any other experiences or descriptions. All of us who aren't going I'm sure will greatly appreciate anything you tell us and show us! 5) Banshee is turning out to be an incredible addition, between its theming, exciting layout, and even aesthetics. Kings Island was already a great park before this addition, and now and into the future it will only be an even better family fun and thrill destination.

^This past week marks the 1 year anniversary from my very first Disney World and Universal trip. One year ago today I was at the Magic Kingdom and had the great honor of marching in the Main Street Electrical Parade with my marching band. That was one of the best experiences of my life and I will never forget it.