First Visit to KI ever, some questions.....FL+, safety, etc.

[Quizzylish]

Hello everyone,  just some general questions about visiting KI for the first time ever.  My family of 5 are going to be heading to KI some time in June or July.  Due to my work schedule this will be a weekday event, most likely a Monday to Wednesday or Tuesday to Thursday.  A few questions for the gallery. 

Is 3 days too much, is 2 enough to have enough time during the week? 

Is FL+ necessary during the weekdays or should we just see how it goes and add it the day we get there?  I was only going to do it for 1 or 2 park days depending on how many we attend.  

Is park safety a real concern?  I'm sure there are always isolated incidents but we are from Michigan and have only gone to Michigan's adventure or Cedar Point.  Have never had an incident in years but I read some posts on here about KI possibly having a problem, is that true? 

Thanks for any help, I appreciate it!!

[tks944]

If you are doing water park then 2 days would be plenty. If you are just doing the dry park 1 day with FL+ will get you on everything. 

Park safety has really only been a problem late nights on Friday and Saturday and that is very isolated. Pretty common sense is to avoid large loitering crowds, 

[DoomPlague]

12 hours ago, Quizzylish said:

Hello everyone,  just some general questions about visiting KI for the first time ever.  My family of 5 are going to be heading to KI some time in June or July.  Due to my work schedule this will be a weekday event, most likely a Monday to Wednesday or Tuesday to Thursday.  A few questions for the gallery. 

Is 3 days too much, is 2 enough to have enough time during the week? 

Is FL+ necessary during the weekdays or should we just see how it goes and add it the day we get there?  I was only going to do it for 1 or 2 park days depending on how many we attend.  

Is park safety a real concern?  I'm sure there are always isolated incidents but we are from Michigan and have only gone to Michigan's adventure or Cedar Point.  Have never had an incident in years but I read some posts on here about KI possibly having a problem, is that true? 

Thanks for any help, I appreciate it!!

As far as I can tell, the incidents have been mostly early in the season on the more crowded days and have been a little exaggerated. You should be fine on weekdays. In any case, these incidents mostly affect a small group of people and innocent bystanders are not likely to be harmed as long as they keep their distance.

I can't speak to the water park but Fast Lane shouldn't be necessary on the days you mention. Weekdays are usually pretty light. June tends to be better than July.

Even without Fast Lane, you should be able to do all of the coasters and some other rides, even in one day at the dry park. Of course, that's not guaranteed to be the case, but you might "see how it goes" as you suggested. Some rides build up a bit of a line even on mild days because of capacity: Invertigo, Flight of Fear, Flying Ace Aerial Chase and Backlot Stunt Coaster. You can just try to hit those early on. Other major rides have good capacity and might have 5-to-15 minute waits all day on a weekday. FL could still be helpful even on mild days depending on how much you want to do but keep in mind: among the rides that require FL+ instead of the standard FL, it includes 2 coasters with high capacity: Orion and Beast and one with fairly good capacity: Mystic Timbers. Flight of Fear is the one coaster that builds up a big line and a lot of people hate that ride (Not me but I say just hit it right at opening and decide if its worth your trouble).

Also, this probably goes without saying but some people don't realize how often it rains in the area: Watch the forecast and be prepared for the possibility that rain might try to ruin your trip. Though at least rain helps clear the crowds and can give you some fast rides on certain coasters.
 

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

Ride Adventure Express at night. You will thank me later.

[BoddaH1994]

To be clear about the safety piece: there has never been a moment where I felt as thought I was in danger or that if I had kids I wouldn’t bring them. I think most of us can agree that the concern is more about the reputation of the park, the devaluation of admission (this has gotten better), and where we will be in 10 years if this continues. 

[teenageninja]

If you have younger kids who will spend a lot of time in Planet Snoopy, 3 days is probably good, including one at the waterpark.

If you don't have younger kids, you can probably do everything in 2, if you rush, without FL+.  I would wait until you get into the park and see how busy it is before buying FL+.

Also, it might be worth you buying season passes and getting some of those perks if you plan to go 3 days.

Enjoy your trip!

[Quizzylish]

Well, the trip is over!!  Had a blast as the park has a lot to offer in a relatively confined space, we didn’t feel like it took forever to make our way around.  We started with Orion since it was an early ride, have to love a giga-coaster with 90+ mph speeds, it was great.  We did Flight of Fear and I don’t know if it was because we only rode it once but it gave us all a headache and we never rode it again, partly because of the headaches but also the wait times were up.  Mystic Timbers was an amazing ride, probably my favorite…. loved all the quick, sharps banks and turns.  We could only get on Beast one morning as the ride times always swelled and couldn’t do it at night.  Banshee was awesome and I had a hard debate in my mind but I think I liked it better than Raptor!!  

You all were right, ride time early in the week were fine and a lot of weather did go through the area.  We got a deal on Great Wolf Lodge and used that as backup in case of inclement weather and it came in handy a couple days.  Everything was walk on or 10 minute waits, that is until today, the park was obviously busier because of the crowds walking around and we didn’t realize it until we got into Mystic Timbers and the wait was 45 mins.  We planned on leaving today as an early day so it worked out well. Never ended up paying for FL+.  

[IndyGuy4KI]

Sounds like you had an awesome time! We hope to hear about your future trips. I know I'm not the only one who enjoys reading trip reports.