TombraiderTy

I had the same question years ago, and there's at least one other car located above one of the entrances. I'd bet money that they're the same cars though. Here's a couple shots of them from the Days of Thunder queue in the 1990s.

Here's a pair of pictures of the grove from this tweet. I have a theory that they re-used the shelter for Drop Tower's queue building... they look similar, but I haven't been able to figure it out either way.

Then you saw something you thought was a King Cobra car, but actually wasn't. The cars left the building years ago, as PKIVortex said. There's a bunch of other objects still being stored in the building though.

I think a lot of the confusion on when The Beast's water was removed is due to the fact there were two halves, with water on either side of the station. Here's a photo from 1986, courtesy ODOT: The water on the bottom right was removed with Vortex's introduction in 1987. But the water on the top left coexisted with Vortex for at least the 1987 season.

One of the cauldron-shaped ride vehicles from Winnie Witch's Cauldrons has been listed for sale on Facebook. Only $1,950, and it can be yours! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1786720408469147/ More information about the ride, which operated at Kings Island from 1972 through 1991: https://KICentral.com/parkhistory/past-attractions/winnie-witchs-cauldrons/ (I strongly suspect that the product description on Facebook used this page as a reference)

Here are all the times that the ride is mentioned in the Cincinnati's Coney Island book: Page 46, 1922: "Coney got a bumper car ride called the Dodgem. It was owned by A. H. Light of Cincinnati. John A. Miller of Miller and Baker designed and built a new dome-shaped building for the ride." Page 114, 1947: "Postwar model Dodgem cars were purchased." Page 130 and 143, section "1948 to 1961": Photos of ride cars on both pages that show one-person vehicles. The cars have the same bodies in the two photos, but detailing on the front is different - uncertain if they're different cars, or just updated. Page 165, 1962ish: "The wooden building that had housed the Whip, Cuddle Up, and Dodgem was torn down and replaced with a new steel one." (Note this implies the pre-1960s Dodgem building isn't the same as the dome-shaped 1922 one) Page 182, 1967: "New cars were purchased for the Dodgem."

I could understand the Ship of Theseus debate if the 1986 Dodgem had retained the same cars or same location, and only later changed one of those... but it was an outright replacement in every sense, and it was marketed as such. Saying the two rides are the same would be comparable to saying Coney Island's Shooting Star and Kings Island's Racer were the same ride... they're both wooden roller coasters with an emphasis on airtime. But I think most people would agree that they're different rides. For what it's worth, it's only been a recent trend for Kings Island's marketing department to classify the current, 1986 Dodgem as an original ride.

Thanks for sharing! I especially love the footage inside Enchanted Voyage. If you wanted confirmation it's from 1981 and not later, the Firestone International Airshow's last year was 1981 - with the presence of The Bat (opened in 1981), that limits the video to that year.

Zodiac was before my time, but I've always been fascinated by it - it was such a cool looking ride. Technically the ride was from Waagner-Biro and was brokered by Intamin. Intamin almost always gets credit for it though. And technically one still exists - Scorpion at Parque de la Ciudad in Argentina. It hasn't operated in almost 20 years though. Source

Thanks for sharing! I love old park maps. If you're a fan of Six Flags Over Texas' history, I'd recommend reading Six Flags over Texas: The First Fifty Years - it was gifted to me a couple years back and is a good dive into the park's rich history.

Maybe the Infinity Flyer trains Clair announced will be used on a Titan Track ride, but that wasn't confirmed and that's speculation. All that's confirmed is that Infinity Flyer trains are going on a new ride. The Infinity Flyer trains don't have to go on a Titan Track ride, and there's tons of reasons they wouldn't - they can operate fine on wood track and allow for a lower height requirement, tighter turn and crest radii, and reduced maintenance.

For what it’s worth, Clair didn’t confirm Titan Track, but only confirmed the Infinity Flyer trains. Everyone is speculating it’ll include Titan Track, but as he said, the trains can be used independent of the steel track.

The Fun Box is included on KingsIslandGear.com, which the park has linked to and I believe identified as their official online shop in the past. So sounds like it's official.

You can see the room next to Willard's at the 1:25 mark in this POV that Kings Island recently shared. It appears to be an endless hallway effect. At the 3:18 mark of the same video, you can see Houdelini's box on the left. I don't think there was anything on the same level as Maestro. Regarding the statues, I don't believe that those audio files have ever found their way online.

Thanks for the comments! Friday, June 3 (Part 2) Back toward the front of the park, I explored the Route 76 area that Valleyfair overhauled a few years back. It includes their Intamin Impulse (Steel Venom), a few flat rides, a good chunk of the Wild Thing hypercoaster, and Northern Lights. Northern Lights is a Zamperla disk'o coaster, aka the same ride as Kings Island's own Surf Dog. The ride experience was pretty comparable, but this one has LED lights along the track. I didn't have the chance to see the ride at night, but if it's anything like Cedar Point's Pipe Scream, I really wish Kings Island would enhance Surf Dog with a similar lighting package. Next door was Delirious, a Larson super loop. I believe this is the only one of its kind at a Cedar Fair park, which I've always found odd - I know that enthusiasts aren't wild about these rides, but the general public seem to enjoy them and they seem like a smart addition. I didn't ultimately ride this one, but I liked how the ride's marquee was in a planter with purple mulch, matching the attraction's color palette. I took a break from the rides and walked around the park, enjoying the sights and looking for a place to eat. As mentioned in the first post, Valleyfair was a little understaffed, and the number of closed food stands reflected that. There was an interesting stand named Minnesota Eats that featured local flavor, but it was closed. The park's version of Chicken Shack was also closed. A few of the places that were open had (understandably) long lines. I ultimately settled on Mama Chetta's Pizzeria, which was a very standard theme park pizza place. I think the slice of pizza, bread sticks, and the drink would've rang up around $18 or so, but I was able to use my newly-acquired meal plan for the first time here. I had been traveling solo up until this point, but my friend James arrived around here and joined me. We started with a new ride for both of us - Wild Thing, Valleyfair's tallest (207'), longest (5,460'), and fastest (74mph) coaster. The ride was one of only a handful of hyper coasters built by Morgan Manufacturing, which was later purchased by Chance. Wild Thing was a quirky ride. It felt reminiscent of an Arrow (which Morgan founder, Dana Morgan, had came from), with its abrupt transitions and long straight sections. It was still a ton of fun though, and there was a wacky tunnel section midride that was a good surprise. I think I'd rank it below the other Morgan hyper coasters I've done (Steel Force at Dorney Park and Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood), but it was still a great ride and one of the park's best. Up next was High Roller, a classic out-and-back wooden roller coaster from the defunct International Amusement Devices, Inc., which was the successor to National Amusement Device Company. The ride wasn't anything spectacular, but it was enjoyable. It also had a very bright, seemingly recent paint job. One weird thing about High Roller was that it was located in the heart of Planet Snoopy. It wasn't too intense and I'm sure a lot of kids love it, but its location was a tad odd. It'd be like if Kings Island put The Racer in its Planet Snoopy. We next took a spin on Renegade and then Excalibur, James for the first time on each. We did Renegade in the very back, which is easily the best row for the ride. Excalibur was toward the front, which was comparable to my earlier rides on it. The school crowds had been crazy all day with endless middle schoolers in all the queue lines, but there weren't too many younger kids in Planet Snoopy. Considering this, there was almost no wait for Snoopy's Rocket Express, which is comparable to Kings Island's Woodstock Whirlybirds. Unlike the KI counterpart though, it featured open-air vehicles. We decided to give the small ride a spin. Snoopy's Rocket Express was a good break from the back-to-back roller coaster rides, and it gave some nice views of the Planet Snoopy area. I know Kings Island's area won the Golden Ticket Award for ages, but Valleyfair's was really nice and gave the Kings Island counterpart a run for its money. One big thing that Kings Island has the advantage of though is child-friendly coasters - there's four (including Surf Dog) coasters with 44" or lower height requirements in KI's Snoopy area, whereas Valleyfair only had one. We followed-up Snoopy's Rocket Express with another slower ride, Ferris Wheel. Valleyfair's was placed near the heart of the amusement park on a small hill and gave a good panoramic view of its surroundings. I don't know if it was for balancing purposes or staffing or what, but they were only loading maybe a third of the cars. This resulted in what was probably the longest wait of the day, but it wasn't too bad and the ride was worth it. Adjacent to the Ferris Wheel was Corkscrew, which was also one of only two roller coasters I hadn't ridden yet. We followed-up our ride on Ferris Wheel with a spin on this classic Arrow looper. The ride was really pretty and its placement over the water was great, but the experience itself was about what you expect from an old Arrow. A little rough with some sharp transitions and not-so-great restraints. It was a one-and-done for me. We wrapped up our first day at Valleyfair with one last coaster, Steel Venom. I believe this is the last Intamin inverted impulse with a holding brake, which I was excited to try out (I think Possessed at Dorney Park still had its holding brake when I rode it in 2008, but that was so long ago I don't really remember). We rode in the very back. The launches and the twisted spike are great, but the holding brake was honestly more painful than fun. No desire to ride this one again. The park closed at 5pm, right as we were riding Steel Venom. We headed out afterward with plans to return at opening for day two. Day 2 coming soon; any comments welcomed and appreciated!