KatieF

My husband and I got in an argument at Kings Island yesterday about the water feature at The Beast. I said it's never been there in our lifetime (mid 90s). I've told him you experts say it was late 80's when the water feature was removed, even if it's not true. I have to be right.

Okay, but I'm glad it's not just me who thinks Raven and Legend are rough. I thought I was just being sensitive or getting old! The only way I could describe my feelings to my bestie was "The Beast is rough at the end, but the angle of the car and how the track is laid out doesn't make you feel like you might slip a disc." The Voyage is breathtaking to ride, and I hope to do it again soon. But man, I had went into it not watching a POV really clearly-- so I kind of had no idea.

I know this is 22 years old, but I love it for that reason.

I know this isn't fully related... But I've thought it was interesting that Kings Island still uses a clip of The Vortex is one of their advertisements. I constantly get a commercial on Youtube that starts with "sometimes it's good to talk to animals" (or something similar to that) and it shows The Vortex. I thought that was odd, and probably no one notices it except me.

My bestie, Sabrina, and I ventured to Santa Claus for my first trip to Holiday World! Our whole goal of this trip was to ride "Good Gravy" because the advertisements for the coaster made us laugh so much. She knew I was a coaster junkie before, so we had an agreement she could ride anything in the park except Thunderbird. We arrived at around 11 that Saturday (I know, Saturday's in July are gonna be hideous) but parking was kind of insane. There wasn't much direction from the park, and the line of cars backed up onto the highway. We made it in though, and I was starting to get the "it's too crowded" jitters. We decided to book it to "Good Gravy" first, and the crowds did get better the farther back in the park we got. The line was surprisingly long for Good Gravy, and we waited there for probably 20 minutes until we finally reached the door of Grandma's house where we were met with an employee handing us cards with return times on them. Honestly, I thought this was a little confusing as there was no indication this was going to happen nor was there much line control out in the back of the line. I think I've been spoiled to Disney where there is the "the line starts here" guys. Whatever, we had some time to kill-- so I booked it back to Thunderbird while Sabrina went to get a bite to eat. I was/am always super duper worried I will be too fluffy to fit in a coaster car. My last theme park visit before this was Kentucky Kingdom, and I had a close call with almost having to take the walk of shame. I had read that Holiday World was not the most plus sized friendly park, so I was nervous. I am about 230 lbs, and most of my weight is held in my belly and in my chest. I tried the test seat out front, and I could get everything closed but I couldn't quite get it to buckle, but I thought I'd give the actual car a shot because I would have help from attendant. The line was long that day, but it went quickly-- and the park said if you were bigger to aim for rows 2 or 3. I got in row 3 and had zero issues getting buckled up! I was so relieved! Thunderbird was outstanding! It was a smooth coaster, fun, thrilling, and I gotta say-- there's one little corkscrew right before the brake run that took my breath away! HIGHLY recommend it. Finally it was time for our ride on Good Gravy. The crowd cards they gave out... uhhh... I'm not sure how well it worked. The line was still pretty long for the ride, but luckily the queue line is very cool to look at and is very well themed. Obviously this ride only has one train on the track, and is a fairly small capacity so it is a slow wait. But it's very cute and the decorations and theming is very impressive! It's a fun, little ride which after riding everything else in the park-- they desperately needed it. We rode Gobbler Getaway, which is a fun little break. It made me miss Boo Blasters, oddly enough. Then we headed to the looooong line for The Voyage. Let me just say-- I thought this would be a nice little classic woodie. I was like "oh this is fun! This can't be more intense than The Beast." Holy freaking cannoli. It is. I don't know if I'm just getting old, but once this baby starts going-- it doesn't stop and it feels like it's never going to end. I'm pretty sure I got a back adjustment that day. When we finally reached the station again, Sabrina had blacked out once and I was shakey. It takes a lot to get me that torn up, and we had to sit down for a bit after that ride. I would 10000% ride it again, but I had zero idea it was going to throw me around that way. Would love to get a night ride on it. Honestly, once we rode the Legend and the Raven-- they looked tame (and ROUGH in my opinion) after the Voyage. I actually felt they needed to be retracked in some spots that really jostled me. They didn't stick with me that much, as I had just had my world changed by the Voyage. We rode a few smaller little things. I did highly enjoy their little log flume. I'd love to see another water ride get brought into the park because it really refreshed me. We didn't do anything in the water parks. Either way, it was a fun day at Holiday World and I realized how old I am now (a whole 30) because I think it genuinely affected my inner ear after for a few days. The food was good, and I loved the merchandise they sold in the main gift shop. The stuff they had for Good Gravy was GENIUS. It's worth a trip. I felt their photo pass was well priced too. I was able to get it for $25-$30 bucks and it was easy to use, and I was able to attach Sabrina's phone number to it too so we didn't have to have two passes.

I feel very conflicted about these surveys. On one hand, the idea of an extended Beast really makes me excited but also a little worried because I think it's perfect the way it is. Personally, I don't think that that area of the park needs another wooden roller coaster. Maybe I'm a little basic in my dreaming-- but I'd love to see an RMC in the park. On the other hand, Boo Blasters needs to be rethemed desperately but I am a diehard for Phantom Theatre. I understand that Peanuts would fit the theming of Camp Snoopy but it seems so boring. Either way, this survey has brought me back to the forums after a few years because I HAD to know your thoughts!

I thought that Haunt was only on Fridays and Saturdays this year-- correct? Line jumping was frustrating but the fist fights just made me mad. Maybe I've been around coaster enthusiasts too long but I have a genuine love the park and the rides--so to see someone just act so foolish there made me angry.

My husband and I are longtime Kings Island fans, but this was our first year at Haunt. We went on Saturday, October 9th, and were so completely underwhelmed at the event. Here are the perks: -The decorations I was able to see this year were cool. They were so visually appealing! -Every staff member I encountered was wonderfully kind and helpful. -I only truly got one night ride and it was on Banshee. This was my first time riding and it was AMAZING and shocking and thrilling. Here's what I experienced: -I was not prepared for how horrifically crowded it was. We were there from about 4pm until around 11. We had intentions of staying till 12 but we could not deal with it anymore. In the time we were only able to ride 3 rides, The Beast, Banshee, and Flight of Fear. Because we were in line for around 2 hours at a time-- I missed almost all of the scare zones, scare actors, and night time events. -Because this was supposed to be my birthday celebration weekend, I decided to splurge with preferred parking and the Funpix purchase. Truthfully, it was so crowded entering the parking lot that I couldn't easily spot where I needed to go for my preferred parking. Not a big deal as long as I got a parking place to me. I was much more frustrated with trying to figure out how to redeem my Funpix purchase. To my understanding from the website, I printed out my Funpix redeem receipt and took it to the Funpix booth at the front of the park. I read online that the Funpix booth was supposed to give me a card to scan at the different rides. Well, the young man didn't know what that was talking about. They told me I needed the Kings Island app. So, I got the Kings Island app and tried my best to figure out where I needed to redeem it on there-- the kid at the booth tried to help, but eventually just said "you need to go to customer service." So I went to the customer service at the front of the park-- they sent me back to the Funpix booth. I was very frustrated and confused, and wasted 40 minutes trying to figure this out. Surely I am not the first person to be confused with this process. Maybe I am really that stupid, lol. -Not to sound like an old fogey, but not only was it crowded-- but it was crowded with a lot of teens and young adults who were pretty wild and made the experience pretty miserable. We dealt with some line jumping, and that was frustrating but no whoop. But in the time I was there I saw two fist fights. The first one happened in line at Flight of Fear, and it was mainly alot of yelling and security jumped on it pretty quickly. The second was at the end of Banshee. That one was pretty gross. One of the kids puked and they kept fighting in the puke. Yuck. This was kind of the final straw that made me leave the park. -Everyone and their grandma gets the line skips at Kings Island apparently, and this process really felt like it slowed down the normal line. Maybe I'm just jealous that I didn't buy one! Overall, I felt the park was too crowded for me to enjoy it. I didn't so much care to go in the haunted houses, but I was looking very forward to night rides on my favorite coasters. If I was queen of everything, there were two solutions that came to me-- I wish the park could do a 21+ only night, or set up the "Anyone 16 and younger must have an adult" with them rule like Kentucky Kingdom. My other idea is to just do a blackout night at Kings Island during the summer. Like a special ticketed event with no lights. I just want to go ride roller coasters with people who love roller coasters! LOL

I haven't done many of the flat rides because I get kind of icky on spinning things. I also haven't done Banshee, Diamondback, and Flight of Fear.

I wish he would do a video on Phantom Theatre!

I'm late to The Vortex game-- It was my first upside down roller coaster I ever rode when I was like 12. I disliked it so much that I avoided going upside down again because I was so afraid to feel that dizzying sensation again. I didn't ride an upside down coaster again until I was 25. So no, I'm not a fan of Vortex. And I'm not an expert on Kings Island nor coasters-- but the last few years I've visited (I go about once a year), Vortex was often down for hours, broken down at the top of the lift hill, or when it was running-- it sounded terrible. As a pretty much tourist in the park, I have to say that impressions of Vortex weren't great over the past few years. I am going to miss seeing it in the park though. It was beautiful.

Mine was The Beastie in the late 90's. I was maybe.. 4 or 5?

I am actually a sucker for family coasters like AE. Plus, it's one of the few rides in the park that has the potential of being "Disney"-ish to me. I would really love to see it get some TLC to really make this ride more special. Better lighting, maybe props or fog?, etc. It has gotten WAY rougher the past few times I've ridden it. It hurts my back way more than The Beast.

Anyways, while I know the 20:11 is now the years those respective rides have been running-- I still think my idea of it being something from 2011 isn't totally invalid. My first thought was maybe they'd get rid of WindSeeker for space or something, or if the new ride would be something that's in other CF parks like Dinosaurs Alive and WindSeeker were. I am a little thrown at Invertigo for some reason. That coaster doesn't get much hype anymore, so I'm glad to see it getting mentioned.

Oh, I apologize guys. I guess I missed that in the thread.