Action Zone Redevelopment

[Imperial79]

Since we have a Rivertown thread, I think we need one for Action Zone also. What would your idea be of updating that area of the park? 

After The Vortex's plot is used for the park's new coaster, which is the most likely option, Action Zone is probably the next area to see a new roller coaster, since nothing has really been done since Banshee was added in 2014. I think we could see them remove Invertigo and Congo Falls to put a new coaster here. This will help even out the park, with 3 of the park's big rides already on the Rivertown side, and then 3 would be this side. 

[brenthodge]

Absorb it into Oktoberfest with consistent, festival theming and banners throughout. Minimal retheming (adjust building paint colors to look a bit more in line with the rest of Oktoberfest) and bust out a lot of concrete for varied paving treatments and additional landscaping. Don’t try to get a cohesive story other than “hey it’s Oktoberfest- it’s a fun, big festival”. Increase overall ride count a bit throughout the entire unified area with some lower height limit (36-48) flats. I think the ship sailed on an easily executed cohesive theme years ago. I also think CFair is looking to create areas that tie into local or park history (like the boardwalk or local flight history) so I think a “manufactured theme” like “haunted forest” is harder to justify. Overall it just needs a major clutter cleaning up and softening. I think 1-2 permanent small stages (instead of the crappy high school band concert stages they dropped there and in Coney  this year) would also help convey the Oktoberfest theme. There should be local acts playing almost every evening around the park. I’m sure they could hatch a deal for nominal payment in exchange for the promotional exposure. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

1 hour ago, brenthodge said:

 There should be local acts playing almost every evening around the park. I’m sure they could hatch a deal for nominal payment in exchange for the promotional exposure. 

And imo it should be more than the 2 bands that play currently. Trust me, I love River City and Hifi Honey and I 100% still want to see them play, but I'd like them to give more local bands an opportunity. Do what CP does with the Bands in House program. I think they honestly missed a big opportunity on the 50th day (the 29th) by not having more local bands play that day along with RC and HFH. Maybe also do a 4th of July celebration on the 4th and/or 3rd of July and bring in local bands or if they want to go all out, maybe make the 4th a Timberwolf concert and bring a bigger artist in like what Mason does with Red, White, and Boom where I believe they had Smash Mouth this year. 

[disco2000]

The biggest problem is they were playing on makeshift stages and as such never got a crowd, especially River City stuck by Congo Falls.  Usually they were playing for nobody and usually not more than 10 people around the stage.

[brenthodge]

another LONNNG post, but all my ideas distilled here - some new intros, some vintage returns, MAINLY aesthetic improvements that add to the overall experience of the area and opportunities for in-park spending on enhanced food and beverage:

New entry archways off of International Street by the KI Theatre, Festhaus, Bier Garden

Redress backside of Festhaus to continue front architectural detailing - Add waterfall feature into the landscaping and enlarge the outdoor seating on the backside of Festhaus

New fountain at entrance to Festhaus - “Village Style”

Festhaus becomes “International Food Hall” with better dining options and clearer separate stands for different types of food - Hanks concept moves in here along with Italian, Chinese, Rotating other international options. “American” (chicken, burger)

Banners inside return for more color and “festival” atmosphere

Rework queue of Viking fury to open up path behind IS block again - Vine tunnel here to hide back of buildings - entrance to Viking Fury come off of this new path with signage for it at both ends of the vine tunnel. Exit to Viking Fury is by funnel cake building.

Seating area by viking fury is better laid out with paving change to delineate seating/bar area. Bar opened as a seasonal beverage location - possible “Beers of the World” to tie into “international Food Hall” retime of FestHaus

Der Spinning Keggers returns to original layout and design with banners - Airbrush shop removed - possible relocate product to area in former ActionZone? Move “coaster Connection”  ride specific product to Banshee Shop - Airbrush goes into Coaster Connection as part of an overall apparel shop “FestBest”

Adventure Express - no major changes. Lighting in first tunnel and refurbish snakes - add projection mapping or fire effect lights in “lava” tunnel, refresh temple tunnel. In queue - add framed photos of German explorers to justify a jungle trick in Oktoberfest. Tell the story of Humbolts Latin American expedition - add additional travel props etc to the station. Overall refresh on a budget.

Hanks food concept has moved into FestHaus or Food Factory - this area is returns to full BierGarden with German cuisine and beer options

Bridge is re-established to connect more directly to FestHaus area.

Larger Flat ride is added to area where SlingShot was - themed to spirits, ghosts, cemetery etc to tie into Banshee right behind it. Possible Zamperla Gryphon - Can be programed for different ride sequences for re-ridability.

Beer Stein Topiary moves to former ActionZone round seating area - becomes "SteinPlatz"

All flats/coasters of ActionZone are incorporated into Oktoberfest. Possible name tweaking to bring German influence (DropTower -> Falltrum, Chicken Shack -> Hähnchen Haus, CongoFalls -> Rheinfalls, IceCream -> das Eis, Invertigo -> Achterbahn

Pole mounted banners and pennants are reintroduced throughout the entire area to bring additional life and color. Possibly even incorporate lighting for evening excitement (see EPCOT lighting banner pole)

Small stages added in BierGarden and SteinPlatzor mini performances to add to the festival atmosphere

Possibly add 2-3 additional flats with lower (36-48 max) heights to give younger rider options throughout the park. Possible by KI theatre or in former Action Zone

Redo all paving to introduce different materials and colors to better define seating areas, traffic flow and provide visual breakup. Bring more mid-level landscaping to former ActionZone, but most of she comes from overhead banners and sunshades to Bring more color to the area. Midways are lined with “streamer ceilings”.

[brenthodge]

1 hour ago, disco2000 said:

The biggest problem is they were playing on makeshift stages and as such never got a crowd, especially River City stuck by Congo Falls.  Usually they were playing for nobody and usually not more than 10 people around the stage.

totally agree - good IDEA - bad execution. Truthfully ALL of th midway based performance areas need to be revisited if they are going to keep doing it - Busker Jam suffered last year from hordes walking through every performance, and even the IS Bandstand is a terrible place to watch the level of show they are putting on there now. I really wish the two front quadrants of grass and weedy mulch would be paved over and made into tiered seating with benches (not mall food court round tables). To break it up they could have 2-3 trees pr side in tree wells and large urns of flowers. Just think all of the performers deserve more than they are getting as a stage to work on. While a much grander execution, these idea from DCA are what I was thinking - image the bandstand where the water is and Eiffel Tower where Little Mermaid ride is.

 

[Imperial79]

Kings Island could play on its history with the newest coaster for this area, and add a B&M Surf Coaster, this will remind guests of King Kobra which was closed in 2001. This would be the world's 2nd Surf Coaster, the one at SeaWorld Orlando looks awesome! It would take up the place of Invertigo, Congo Falls and cut through the trees turn around in the parking lot and come back, it could run through the Congo Falls area for some nice water effects as well. This would help give KI more variety and not copy something CP already has. 

[KIBeast]

14 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

And imo it should be more than the 2 bands that play currently. Trust me, I love River City and Hifi Honey and I 100% still want to see them play, but I'd like them to give more local bands an opportunity. Do what CP does with the Bands in House program. I think they honestly missed a big opportunity on the 50th day (the 29th) by not having more local bands play that day along with RC and HFH. Maybe also do a 4th of July celebration on the 4th and/or 3rd of July and bring in local bands or if they want to go all out, maybe make the 4th a Timberwolf concert and bring a bigger artist in like what Mason does with Red, White, and Boom where I believe they had Smash Mouth this year. 

Speaking of live music, I thoroughly enjoyed what I would refer to as the Fury band at Carowinds. Very talented. Maybe put a band in the Orion area to entertain guests while they wait?

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

I made a prediction if Areas get refurbish and new ones added. That's the result I made.

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

On 8/29/2022 at 8:54 PM, brenthodge said:

Absorb it into Oktoberfest with consistent, festival theming and banners throughout. Minimal retheming (adjust building paint colors to look a bit more in line with the rest of Oktoberfest) and bust out a lot of concrete for varied paving treatments and additional landscaping. Don’t try to get a cohesive story other than “hey it’s Oktoberfest- it’s a fun, big festival”. Increase overall ride count a bit throughout the entire unified area with some lower height limit (36-48) flats. I think the ship sailed on an easily executed cohesive theme years ago. I also think CFair is looking to create areas that tie into local or park history (like the boardwalk or local flight history) so I think a “manufactured theme” like “haunted forest” is harder to justify. Overall it just needs a major clutter cleaning up and softening. I think 1-2 permanent small stages (instead of the crappy high school band concert stages they dropped there and in Coney  this year) would also help convey the Oktoberfest theme. There should be local acts playing almost every evening around the park. I’m sure they could hatch a deal for nominal payment in exchange for the promotional exposure. 

I agree with this, however, I think that the Action Zone land should continue to cater to the more dark, mysterious horror theme. Think of it as a Black Forest sorta thing on the outskirts of Oktoberfest. The old Germanic feel would contrast well with a scary, forbidden land outside of town. Adventure Express would also work well with this theme I think.

[brenthodge]

5 hours ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

I agree with this, however, I think that the Action Zone land should continue to cater to the more dark, mysterious horror theme. Think of it as a Black Forest sorta thing on the outskirts of Oktoberfest. The old Germanic feel would contrast well with a scary, forbidden land outside of town. Adventure Express would also work well with this theme I think.

That would be wonderful, but a massive amount of infrastructure work I don’t ever see the park doing. I also don’t know how you would fit Adventure Express in there without major queue rerouting which we know they will never do. While I think “anything goes” ideas are cool, I thinks it’s more challenging to try to think of realistically grounded things the park would actually do with their existing resources to improve the experience. There’s really never been a “horror theme” in that area other than one ride “lightly themed” to a cemetery, and another ride named after an animal people associate with horror stories but nothing about it other than the name conveys “horror” unless you are scared of concrete and long walks. 

[BeeastFarmer]

While a dark forest theme would be nice, it would require...trees.  And If they started planting  even large boxed trees (expensive) this fall, it would be years before they grew in enough to complete the theme.  

I'd rather see a phased in approach with Oktoberfest getting some flats and theming first.  Do some background work in AZ and then retintroduce it as something to pay homage to  the OG land it was--safari themed.  We have a great templated about 8 hours southeast of here we could use...

[brenthodge]

On 8/30/2022 at 4:28 PM, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

I made a prediction if Areas get refurbish and new ones added. That's the result I made.

Why are they "gloomy"? i'd almost prefer they add a flat or two back there to make them LESS gloomy and desolate if they aren't really committed to a scary theme. There's nothing about The Bat that is scary in its theming or design. It wasn't scary in its first incarnation other than the frightening downtime and vaguely Gothic loading station. I don't understand why people keep trying to make the concrete jungle the dark woods when theres really no infrastructure other than a couple of fairly generic names of rides to give it that vibe. I don't see the park ever investing the amount of work needed to make a "haunted woods" that would actually have more limited appeal to the family demographic who might be afraid the theme was "scary". 

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:36 PM, brenthodge said:

Why are they "gloomy"? "I" almost prefer they add a flat or two back there to make them LESS gloomy and desolate if they aren't really committed to a scary theme. There's nothing about The Bat that is scary in its theming or design. It wasn't scary in its first incarnation other than the frightening downtime and vaguely Gothic loading station. I don't understand why people keep trying to make the concrete jungle the dark woods when "there" really no infrastructure other than a couple of fairly generic names of rides to give it that vibe. I don't see the park ever investing the amount of work needed to make a "haunted woods" that would actually have more limited appeal to the family demographic who might be afraid the theme was "scary". 

Not all woods have to be haunted to make it scary, Banshee is there and The Bat worked with Mystic Timbers to protect the woods, Bat found that abandoned construction site to live in. Banshee was a Irish woman named Scarlet Green who have a loving family till the robbers ruined her life and killed her becoming the Banshee. And if there's a horror theme coaster there, this will be a area of the park to be really dark in theming like Alton Towers" 

[brenthodge]

1 hour ago, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

Not all woods have to be haunted to make it scary, Banshee is there and The Bat worked with Mystic Timbers to protect the woods, Bat found that abandoned construction site to live in. Banshee was a Irish woman named Scarlet Green who have a loving family till the robbers ruined her life and killed her becoming the Banshee. And if there's a horror theme coaster there, this will be a area of the park to be really dark in theming like Alton Towers" 

ummm,  what? It seems like you are making the gloomy woods EXACTLY what you say they don't need to be... haunted. What construction site are we taking about? What is the horror theme coaster? There's a coaster named after a Celtic spirit with a few tombstones - nothing is exactly saying "horror" to me.  I think thrills are one thing, but an entire "horror" area I don't ever see happening. 

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

On 9/1/2022 at 9:48 PM, brenthodge said:

There's a coaster named after a Celtic spirit with a few tombstones - nothing is exactly saying "horror" to me.  I think thrills are one thing, but an entire "horror" area I don't ever see happening. 

I'd say the inescapable chill of mortality is quite horrific to most, but I dunno.

[brenthodge]

13 hours ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

I'd say the inescapable chill of mortality is quite horrific to most, but I dunno.

in concept yes, but the execution is a "modern" church, tons of concrete and a few Spirit Halloween tombstones with disco lighting that stopped working a year or two after opening. If there was a themed break run, sure. If there was a themed queue, sure. As it stands NAMING something scary is WAY different than theming something scary. You could just as easily call Banshee "EaglesFlight" and it would be the same experience. The "theming" adds little to the overall experience (which is unfortunate as it had one of the best teaser videos ever, and the gift shop was an eventual waste of space that could've been used to help finish the story as you left, or been configured to use it as the entrance instead of the exit. 

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

On 9/4/2022 at 1:35 PM, brenthodge said:

in concept yes, but the execution is a "modern" church, tons of concrete and a few Spirit Halloween tombstones with disco lighting that stopped working a year or two after opening. If there was a themed break run, sure. If there was a themed queue, sure. As it stands NAMING something scary is WAY different than theming something scary. You could just as easily call Banshee "EaglesFlight" and it would be the same experience. The "theming" adds little to the overall experience (which is unfortunate as it had one of the best teaser videos ever, and the gift shop was an eventual waste of space that could've been used to help finish the story as you left, or been configured to use it as the entrance instead of the exit. 

Whoa, so you wanna retheme Banshee, is that what you want?

[brenthodge]

3 hours ago, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

Whoa, so you wanna retheme Banshee, is that what you want?

Sone of you people are impossible LOL 

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

On 9/4/2022 at 1:35 PM, brenthodge said:

The "theming" adds little to the overall experience (which is unfortunate as it had one of the best teaser videos ever, and the gift shop was an eventual waste of space that could've been used to help finish the story as you left, or been configured to use it as the entrance instead of the exit. 

Let us agree to disagree. It's certainly no Flight of Fear, but the cemetery certainly adds to the appeal the ride has.

[BryanJay]

I made some concept art for what I would retheme Action Zone into. It still keeps the horror theme that The Bat and Banshee fit into, and replaces some of the older flat rides to fit the cryptid forest theme.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I literally just saw this on Reddit the other day and was going to share it here! Great work! However, I think they'll keep Drop Tower and I'm not completely sold on the idea of removing Timberwolf quite yet. I did make a concept the other day of cutting Timberwolf in half and giving it lawn seating and using the other half for new attractions. 

[brenthodge]

7 hours ago, BryanJay said:

I made some concept art for what I would retheme Action Zone into. It still keeps the horror theme that The Bat and Banshee fit into, and replaces some of the older flat rides to fit the cryptid forest theme.

Nothing says “horror area” like a big play area in the middle LOL (come to think of it… squealing kids kinda IS a horror) 

[Imperial79]

Here is another idea. There has been some talk about KI demolishing the old SOB station this coming off season. Kings Island could retire The Bat next not Invertigo, if they do that, it could make room for the new roller coaster's station to be built there, KI could put their next coaster here after the replacement for Vortex is added. The Bat is a long walk for guests, and a new coaster here, would mean less of a walk for guests, and it would be next to Banshee, it would look great.

[beastfan11]

The Bat is fine. Why is everyone trying to get rid of it?

[CorkscrewMcPuke]

58 minutes ago, beastfan11 said:

The Bat is fine. Why is everyone trying to get rid of it?

There are some people in the amusement park community that seem to only have interest in extreme thrill rides, I've come to find. Arrow classics like The Bat are likely about to die out across the board, and many won't respect their uniqueness until they are all gone.

[johnjniehaus]

59 minutes ago, CorkscrewMcPuke said:

There are some people in the amusement park community that seem to only have interest in extreme thrill rides, I've come to find. Arrow classics like The Bat are likely about to die out across the board, and many won't respect their uniqueness until they are all gone.

I totally agree. The Arrow Suspended Coasters were never as common as the loopers and mine rides and their numbers are dwindling. They are an endangered coaster type that needs to see a group like ACE make a motion to start preserving at least one or two. I was so excited to hear The Bat trains are getting repainted this year and of course that Adventure Express is getting enhancements. That's code for AE is going to be around many more years and The Bat has a few more seasons left as well. I personally love to see the directions the park is going with maintaining the older coasters - Racer re-track greatly improved the ride, Beast re-tracking was amazing, Adventure Express enhancement is exciting....I think it's always a debate of do we fix an old coaster or just build a new one and unfortunately 95% of the time they build a new one. Kings Island has some very important coasters that need to be preserved for future generations and one of those is The Bat. 

[johnjniehaus]

As for Action Zone, I think it's the next "area revamp" that needs to happen. I personally would prefer to see Phantom Theater replace the god awful boo blaster in 2024 and see a new coaster on The Vortex plot in 2025. After those two projects, I think it's time to focus on breathing new life into Action Zone. Since our current Octoberfest section is getting redone into Adventure Port, I'd like to see an Octoberfest theme that also incorporates the dark forest theme of Banshee and Bat (yes bat needs to get all the love and money dumped into it that the park can muster). Busch Gardens Williamsburg German/Octoberfest is a perfect example of what I want to see Action Zone become. They have a dark theme with Verboten and Darkoaster but also a festival theme with their carousel, Drop Tower, wave swinger, and dogem. Kings Island new Octoberfest would include Banshee and Bat as dark theme and would have Delirium, Drop Tower, Xtreme Skyflyer, new fats and possibly a new coaster as the festival section. Here's my personal opinion, I think that Invertigo, Congo Falls, and Timberwolf are all disposable. If I'm choosing one to keep I'm taking Invertigo just because it is the last Vekoma "face off" boomerang in the USA as far as I know. It could get a new theme to fit the area. However, I personally don't love the ride experience so I'm not crying if it's gone. I would hope they relocate it to another park where it would be more popular instead of scraping it (just to preserve the coasters model if you know what I mean). However, to really do the new Octoberfest/Dark Forest thing right, I think it will be a multi year project 

[WoodVengeance]

Given how fast KI managed to repair The Bat after the derailment earlier this year and the repainting of the trains, I think it's safe to say KI plans to keep The Bat around for a while, which is good because I really don't want to see that coaster get removed.

[IBEW_Sparky]

I think what needs to happen first and foremost is an injection of reality..... why would any company with a modicum of business sense spend an extremely large amount of money to remove one or multiple things in order to redevelop an area, when there is already a very bare plot of land roughly 1/4 mile south of it that is already prepared for development?  Lets take care of the horse that is The Vortex plot before we start putting demolition markers around the cart that is Action Zone.