WinterFest 2025

[BB1]

Considering the calendar already shows December schedules that align with Winterfest I'm sure it's here to stay next year. I follow a simple adage "I vote with my feet" - that is to say, I visit the park for events when they are active that I actually enjoy and focus on trying to spend in park to reinforce that I like the product. Winterfest is something I try to get to every day possible (sans an orlando trip or so) so that the event continues to operate throughout the years.

 

[disco2000]

4 minutes ago, BB1 said:

Considering the calendar already shows December schedules that align with Winterfest I'm sure it's here to stay next year. I follow a simple adage "I vote with my feet" - that is to say, I visit the park for events when they are active that I actually enjoy and focus on trying to spend in park to reinforce that I like the product. Winterfest is something I try to get to every day possible (sans an orlando trip or so) so that the event continues to operate throughout the years.

 

The chain has removed dates before....

[DonHelbig]

3 minutes ago, BB1 said:

Considering the calendar already shows December schedules that align with Winterfest I'm sure it's here to stay next year. I follow a simple adage "I vote with my feet" - that is to say, I visit the park for events when they are active that I actually enjoy and focus on trying to spend in park to reinforce that I like the product. Winterfest is something I try to get to every day possible (sans an orlando trip or so) so that the event continues to operate throughout the years.

 

Means nothing the WinterFest dates for 2026 are on the calendar. Ask those who bought Kings Dominion passes for 2025 after seeing the event advertised. 

[super7]

Monday 12/15 was a great night to see the Christmas lights with snow completely covering the ground.

The crowd however was very low but park management did a great job tonight. They kept the park opened for the advertised hours.  

Racer and Flight of Fear were operating all night.   Racer was just operating the red side and the blue side still has snow on the tracks. 
 

Mystic Timbers, Soap Box and Sol Spin were closed.    The train and Shake Rattle and Roll closed early and most of the outdoor entertainment was canceled.  They also quietly closed down the duplicate restaurants earlier in the night (pizza, burgers). But there were rides open until Park close and restaurants open until at least 930.

 

[Orion-XL200]

Went for my likely last visit to Winterfest for the year last night. 

I had a great time in all honesty. The weather was great and the crowds were light. First thing was dinner at Coney BBQ. The Turkey and Corn Soufflé tasted great especially with the Cranberry BBQ sauce (turkey). 

I did not go to any shows during this visit, but did catch several midway merriment characters and part of the parade. Took a ride on the 12 Days of Christmas train. This time, they actually played the song, though by the 5th Day display, we were on the 9th day of Christmas. 

 

 

Of course, there were lights out including the number 12, but it's okay because the song was already over and we were on some weird version of another Christmas song. 

Some displays were missing their heads, some of them were lit well. I still don't know why they can't send them to the manufacturer (I think it's a business in the Pigeon Forge area) to get refurbished in the "off season." 

This was my first visit to the park with snow on the ground (even if most of it was in piles) and some on the rides too. It made the event more magical to me. I ended up buying a print from Theme Park Art and it's one of Vortex. It was fairly priced and a gorgeous piece.  

The highlight of the night honestly was the food. I got the turkey ball at the end of the night and wow, I'm sad I hadn't had it before.  

[DonHelbig]

1 hour ago, Orion-XL200 said:

The highlight of the night honestly was the food. I got the turkey ball at the end of the night and wow, I'm sad I hadn't had it before.  

Turkey Ball in Grain & Grill > then the Meatloaf Burger outside Juke Box Diner in the cold.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Our Thursday night visit to Winterfest was rather nice because of the small crowds and friendly associates. The operations were remarkably slow in some areas and perfectly fine in others — both of which are completely understandable and acceptable for me. I had expected high crowd levels because of the warmer weather, but it looked like the rain kept a lot of them away. We had dinner at Rivertown Potato Works where I had a nice Coca-Cola and some Bacon and Cheese Fries while my group member got the Honey Ham Fries and a drink. My fries were a little under-cooked, but the bacon bits and cheese improved them a lot. Personally, I like the under-cooked fries a whole lot more than the burnt Potato Works fries I've had in the past. I had wanted to get some ice in my Coke but the nice associate had already started filling the cup with pop before I could request any ice. 

We rode the train and got to enjoy a break in the rainy weather. There were more lights out this week than before, but it looked like there were associates out along the route that were working to either get them lit or to get them ready for heavy rainfall. The engineers had us absolutely hauling our way along the track, but we still had to make the stop at the end before Mystic Timbers despite being the only train operating. I'm curious to know why they started making that scheduled stop this year when it hasn't been made most other times. Also, if that stop becomes a more permanent feature then I'd love to see either more decorations along that guardrail or some kind of display to entertain guests while they're stopped. 

A little stop into the Rivertown LaRosa's led me to find out that the ice machine in there was dispensing about 5-8 oz of ice with the quickest of presses. It was also interesting to find out that my Coke was nicely mixed while my group member's Coke was not well mixed at all. The Shooting Star section of Winterfest Way was very nice to walk through again. I did notice that the small back-most passenger window of the purple car is now missing — which certainly cannot be good for the interior and the longevity of the car's life in the park. The version of A Christmas Carol playing was one that I've never seen before. It was older and had a staunch difference in quality compared to the chopped up version of It's A Wonderful Life that they play. We walked over to Area 72 to look around and I noticed that there was a Firehawk oil can just like the one found up front in the Kings Island Trading Co. hidden among the display at Flight of Fear's exit. The last part of our night consisted of sitting on the warm Coney Bar-B-Que porch to catch up on some messages and decide our next steps. The two announcements for the early closing were clear and concise, but seemed to be presented awkwardly. I'll chalk that up to the fact that some information was accidentally skipped in the first announcement. It was super rainy as we exited the park, so we stopped into the Starbucks dining room (which should definitely be connected to a park-owned restaurant instead of Starbucks). I'd forgotten how nice and large that room was. Getting back to our cars was very wet, and I wish there was an easy way for the park to fix all of the drainage channels so there wouldn't be as large and deep of puddles everywhere.

Overall it was a good night despite all of the rain and leftover snow. The only things I think the park could easily do to improve guest experience on nights like this would be to make sure the french fries are fully cooked and to have associates with dry mops in the restrooms every so often to make sure the floor isn't so slippery. I nearly slipped a few times around the park with how wet all of the indoor floors were (particularly in the arcades, restrooms, and shops).