Kings Island 2018 Discussion Thread

[Creed Bratton]

13 hours ago, Quirkster said:

I really am not sure with the weather. It looks indeed Monday/Tuesday it is the kind of weather where isolated PM showers could pop up, hopefully nothing long lasting. I hear Wednesday though it could be more scattered. 

I'd probably would go if I was set for Mon/Tue instead of Tue/Wed. I could change the hotel date, there are some definitely rooms still available. 

I find weather predictions to be so off, up until an hour before is forecasted. Saturday at my house, it was supposed to storm literally all afternoon, it sprinkled on me as I was driving into town for a few things. 

When I visited the park on 5/5, I will have to say, I had a blast and it rained off and on. It's all about your tolerable levels with weather. If you aren't comfortable with the forecast, then I'd hold off. If you are okay with the possibility of getting wet and/or rides going down for weather if it's severe enough, then go have fun. Only you know what you are comfortable with.

[Quirkster]

Well I am at the park waiting for early entry! 

[kikid74]

20 hours ago, Gannersdaddy said:

Interesting.  Just saw this.  I did not realize they did this.

 

How do you get to this? I'm not seeing it on the website and probably just not looking in the right place. I live in Indy (with gold pass) but we will take friends and family on a couple of occasions. I would be interested in the pricing.

[brendan71388]

I was extremely excited for the Indy combo deal! 

My wife and I were initially talking about going and had a couple possible days picked out. Then I found out one of those days would be free for me as a paramedic. Then we discovered the Indy deal but they were all sold out at Kroger. Then I saw that it was available online! I wasn't thrilled about the extra 5.99 in processing fee, but it's still an incredible deal with parking and drinks included! We threw on an all-day meal plan that we'll share and can't wait to go Wednesday.

Now if the weather would cooperate...

[Gannersdaddy]

6 hours ago, kikid74 said:

How do you get to this? I'm not seeing it on the website and probably just not looking in the right place. I live in Indy (with gold pass) but we will take friends and family on a couple of occasions. I would be interested in the pricing.

Here it is.  I found it by accident the first time.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/tickets-passes/daily-tickets

[King Ding Dong]

4 minutes ago, Gannersdaddy said:

Here it is.  I found it by accident the first time.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/tickets-passes/daily-tickets

I don’t get that offer.   The site probably uses some IP address filtering to serve up special offers.  

[gforce1994]

7 hours ago, kikid74 said:

How do you get to this? I'm not seeing it on the website and probably just not looking in the right place. I live in Indy (with gold pass) but we will take friends and family on a couple of occasions. I would be interested in the pricing.

It seems like Columbus residents are getting a discount as well. This post I made  to CN shows the rather nice discount.

 

[Gannersdaddy]

1 hour ago, King Ding Dong said:

I don’t get that offer.   The site probably uses some IP address filtering to serve up special offers.  

Other than having a pass, I am a good 1.5 hours from Indy.

[malem]

It's nice to see that the offers online now match what's advertised locally. It is indeed IP based; I only see Everybody Pays Kids Price on the homepage and on the daily tickets page if I'm connecting from a Columbus IP address.

The only problem with IP geolocation is that it's not particularly accurate for mobile connections. Indeed, I don't see any regional offers when I load the Kings Island site on my phone.

[King Ding Dong]

Ok, I am getting the 39.99 offer for Columbus now.  But isn’t that about what you can buy them from Kroger for? (And not pay the Accesso Tax)

[malem]

^ The Everyone Pays Kids Price offer is the same as at Columbus-area Kroger stores, yes.

Tickets at Kroger don't come with the convenience of online ordering, which customers (for better or for worse) expect to pay for these days.

[gforce1994]

1 hour ago, malem said:

It's nice to see that the offers online now match what's advertised locally. It is indeed IP based; I only see Everybody Pays Kids Price on the homepage and on the daily tickets page if I'm connecting from a Columbus IP address.

The only problem with IP geolocation is that it's not particularly accurate for mobile connections. Indeed, I don't see any regional offers when I load the Kings Island site on my phone.

To add to Malem’s final paragraph, I’m getting that offer a few miles from Cincy. I’m not doing anything to alter my GPS coordinates on my phone.

[Quirkster]

I was so concerned about rain, did nothing (though it looked borderline during the 1 o clock hour). I certainly was able to do everything in one day. I sorta see the tradeoff going this time of year more, I got to ride the rides a ton but no shows for me to just sit back and relax and enjoy. 

One more day, I am now hoping it sorta rains for a period so at least I'll get a break from the sun and I get ride to coasters as water rides. My skin being from the northern side of the state is not ready for this heat yet. 

I like Mystic Timbers, The Beast, Banshee, Backlot Stunt Coaster. Drop Tower. But to no surprise for me I like Diamondback the best. 

[LuvingKI]

6 minutes ago, Quirkster said:

I was so concerned about rain, did nothing (though it looked borderline during the 1 o clock hour). I certainly was able to do everything in one day. I sorta see the tradeoff going this time of year more, I got to ride the rides a ton but no shows for me to just sit back and relax and enjoy. 

One more day, I am now hoping it sorta rains for a period so at least I'll get a break from the sun and I get ride to coasters as water rides. My skin being from the northern side of the state is not ready for this heat yet. 

I like Mystic Timbers, The Beast, Banshee, Backlot Stunt Coaster. Drop Tower. But to no surprise for me I like Diamondback the best. 

Diamond back never gets old. Especially on the back

[Quirkster]

That's exactly where Iiked it on Diamondback, beautifully smooth airtime.

[Quirkster]

Well I dumbly lost my platinum pass, I think I put it in my unsecured pocket and lost it on Banshee. I bought it up to guest services and the lost and found but I am doubtful I could get it back before I had home. Thankfully my pass is saved to my Kings Island and Cedar Point app. 

 

Well I guess I learned a lesson cause I will probably have to pay for a replacement card when I get back to Cedar Point. 

[Bansheeback]

How are crowds generally on weekdays now? Thinking about going today or tomorrow but debating whether to wait until tomorrow in case the lines get longer later in the day.

[teenageninja]

Look at the live cams on their website.  I can barely see anyone in the park.  These weeks are generally walk on city until the schools get out.

[DMann1979]

Planning on heading down tomorrow, weather calls for maybe an isolated thunderstorm but given how the weather has been I imagine it won't be all day.

[Quirkster]

I can attest being at Mon/Tue here everyone is pretty much a walk on or just a few minutes all day. Besides Firehawk and Flight of Fear during midday, morning and evening they got short.

[VortexBFForever]

The park was DEAD today! Vortex's trains were never more than half full and WindSeeker flew with no more than ten guests in tow (when it wasn't too windy of course ). I even got to ride Vortex a few times during the last hour and I had a train to myself as we were sending out empty trains every few cycles!!

Going off of today's experience, DO COME ON A WEEKDAY!!!! And make sure you don't buy Fast Lane. Yes, we saw several guests with Fast Lane at Vortex today. I felt bad for them.

[McSalsa]

^

Today did look like it was super dead (via webcams, Diamondback was a walk-on all day). I agree 100% in feeling bad for anyone who wasted money buying Fast Lane, unless they bought the $500 all-season Fast Lane, in which case they will have more chances to get their money's worth out of it, especially if they plan to visit on days like Saturdays in Late June-Early August and on Haunt Saturdays (in which case, if you were planning to visit multiple times on those kind of days, the $500 FLP is easily worth it).

 

[AnyPancakes]

I was there from 6-8pm last night.  I saw empty trains on every ride.  It was amazing.  This was probably because of a few things, school was in.  It was overcast.  North of Kings Island there were severe Thunder Storms.  I'm hoping to get another week day visit while school is in.

[DMann1979]

Here at the park, got two early rides on Mystic and then walked over to The Bat for an early ride. For a 25 year old coaster it's still a fun ride for me. If money were no option I think themeing the queue to entering a batcave, with stalagtites hanging from the top would be cool. Alas I know not to be.

Sent from my LG-M150 using Tapatalk

[YOULLBEBACK]

Man...I feel a cold coming on...I might need to take a day off work here sometime before the end of school ye...I mean, next week...

[LuvingKI]

16 hours ago, VortexBFForever said:

The park was DEAD today! Vortex's trains were never more than half full and WindSeeker flew with no more than ten guests in tow (when it wasn't too windy of course ). I even got to ride Vortex a few times during the last hour and I had a train to myself as we were sending out empty trains every few cycles!!

Going off of today's experience, DO COME ON A WEEKDAY!!!! And make sure you don't buy Fast Lane. Yes, we saw several guests with Fast Lane at Vortex today. I felt bad for them.

I was their Saturday and Vortex was a walk on,  my wife said we look like dummies taking the Fast Lane because people may think we bought a daily fastlane..

Shorter walk to get on though 

[Joshua]

Today wasn't too crowded. I was able to get 10 rides in roughly 2 hours. Almost all the rides were walk ons, so I decided to take the extra few minutes and wait for the front seat on all of the coasters today. Combined with the breezy weather, it was the perfect feeling. 

[JubJester]

If you look down in the right seat on Diamondback when you're going back into the station, you can see a birds nest. Looked down and saw it with a bird in it. There's enough room between them and the wheels.

[VortexBFForever]

Today, like yesterday, was dead! I would love to be a guest on one of these days! We again saw Vortex's trains no more than half full, and I saw no more than nine people riding WindSeeker. Sometimes we sent cycles with only two aboard!

Also, I got a surprise during the last hour. I started off driving Vortex as usual when one of my fellow drivers came to take my spot and told me to go to WindSeeker. So I went over...and I got drive trained!!

I will now remember May 16, 2018 as much as I remember July 29, 2017 (when I became Vortex's newest driver!).

-BFF, WindSeeker's newest driver!

[King Ding Dong]

Except when I am at the park.