Kings Island 50th Celebration Superlatives

[BoddaH1994]

I originally typed this out in the “best moment” thread, but I can’t really pinpoint a moment that defined the 50th Celebration. This was Kings Island at its finest. Instead I created a list of superlatives. Feel free to create your own list and add your own categories. Tell us why you think your answers are the best!
 

Best Element : Fun, Fireworks, and Fifty

Best Conventional Show : Phantom Theater Encore 

Best Hidden Gem : Off The Rails (excellent show, hidden in the shadow of PT, IMO)

Biggest Miss : 50th Street Party (No particular complaints and no disrespect intended, but after years of Carnivale, this just felt scaled down. People seemed to appreciate it, though.)

Best Specialty Food Item : Flight Commander Fries 

Best 50th Merch : Golden Eiffel Tower

Biggest Surprise : Return of the concert series 

 

 

 

[Coasterteam]

Best Element/Addition : All the TLC the rides got. Racer paint job, Beast track work, and the other paint jobs

Best Conventional Show : Phantom Theater Encore (agreed)

Best Hidden Gem : While I would agree with you on Off the rails, I’d rather say seeing everyone enjoying the park in by far its finest moment. I loved seeing people checking out the 50th anniversary boards around the park, looking in awe at the new racer paint job, watching and listening to everyone enjoying The Beast again, especially now in the final brake run where people were more in awe at what just happened rather than moans of pain in previous years. I loved watching people take a trip through history at the Tower Gardens, or even seeing a kid fast asleep as their family were leaving after a long day in the park. It’s not something that makes up the entire day but it’s these small things that add up over multiple visits that make it such a gem to me. 

Biggest Miss : taking too long to put the parking signs back up Not getting The Racers retro raised lettering back on the front of The Racer trains. At the ACE conference last December at GWL, the park said they wanted to bring that back. The Racer trains did not change from the stickers. I don't know whether this was a logistical, construction, or a maintenance issue but nonetheless they were not brought back.

Best Specialty Food Item : Beast Burger

Best 50th Merch : The 50th Coin stuff 

Biggest Surprise : I was not expecting how quickly they got Bat back up and running after it’s partial derailment. I thought it’d be down for most if not the rest of the season to fully re-inspect the entire rides track. 

[BoddaH1994]

I was kind of directing this at the 50th celebration, which ended Labor Day weekend. I think we could do a whole new list for Haunt!

[Coasterteam]

9 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I was kind of directing this at the 50th celebration, which ended Labor Day weekend. I think we could do a whole new list for Haunt!

In that case let me change one of my answers, un momento! 

Edit: Updated my first response

[MDMC01]

I'll give this a try, though I do have a more prepared list for Haunt since we just came off of that...

Best Element: Fireworks show. I had never seen a drone show before in person and it did not disappoint. Though I got to see it in some cool locations (viewing it from The Bat's rainforest was really cool!), the final show I saw was probably the best viewing experience as I got the whole package (as I was able to hear the audio and see the building projections).

Best Conventional Show: Phantom Theatre: Encore, only because I saw it the most out of the special 50 shows. I didn't know what to think at first, but it grew on me with repeat viewings. Also, Larry was my favorite character!  Off the Rails was fun as well and acted as a "pep rally" for the 50th!

Best Hidden Gem: Those Adirondack chairs outside of Brewhouse! I loved them so much, I got two for my backyard! 

Biggest Miss: Maybe the 50th "parade" because of how short it was? As you can tell below, this season was jam packed with epicness; things that didn't fit the mold of these questions are below

Best Specialty Food Item: Golden Ice Cream (I'm a picky eater, so this is the only thing I tried...)

Best 50th Merch: Although the posters started last year, I grew my collection with the addition of the Flight of Fear poster!

Biggest Surprise: Getting FREE tickets to the Berlin/Flock of Seagulls show! Runners up would be finding out that Phantom Theater: Encore actually had a Meet and Greet when it previously hadn't had one and finding out that the park was open until 12 on July 3rd (which included that epic WWC ride with @malem)

Rides I appreciated more: Banshee; I really enjoyed riding in the back seat as it reminded me of Rougarou!

And I'd be remiss without mentioning other fun moments, like the book signing (+ dressing up for the 50th that day!), seeing Skillet rock it out once again at Timberwolf (and they actually played songs I knew instead of just pulling from their newest albums!) and meeting some people from Germany in line for a Beast night ride. There was also that time I lost my Gold Pass in line for The Bat (I accidently yeeted it into the bushes) and I got to walk through the line (and surrounding "rainforst") after close - that was also the same night as the Berlin concert and the rainforest viewing of the fireworks!). 

And for a Haunt list, I'd add "Best Scare", "Best Room in a maze" (which is not the same as the best maze) "Best theming" and of course "Best overall maze"