When did you start going to KI and where did you hear about KIC?

[Young Gunz]

When did you start going to KI and where did you hear about KIC?

I've been going to KI since like 1990 when I was a little kid. I heard about KIC at Beastbuzz a long time ago but only read the forums for a while before I signed up.

[BoddaH1994]

KI Since 1991, heard about KIC when a guy named Dane approached me and said, 'Hey, look what I've been working on...." The rest is history.

[The Interpreter]

I first heard about Kings Island in the summer of 1971, when I found out, much to my distress, that Coney Island was going to close and a new park was being built in a field north of Cincinnati on I-71. I first started going on the very first public day.

And this site inherited me as a member from another website, pkiunlimited.com; which bit the dust quite some time ago.

[PKIVortex]

I don't remember when I first heard of Kings Island, but the first time I went was in 1987. I learned of this site also thru other fans of Kings Island.

[mutedarkness]

My mom always talked about ki then when i was little she took us. I heard of kic from geauga guide.

[WooferBearATL]

I'd have to check but my earliest memories are from 1975.

I was a mere cub at that point though.

[scotty]

I was there in 72 for its first season. We are in Cleveland, so I assume it was on the news or they advertised up here then, as I was 5 years old.

[Gordon Bombay]

I first went to the park in 1996 when I was 7 and took my first pictures of the park (which i still have in an album somewhere) with a free disposable camera that came with these industrial size jugs of ragu spaghetti sauce my mom used to buy. I still love KI, still love photography, but I absolutely hate spaghetti these days. I heard about KIC through a friend of mine while visiting the park in 04, he would later send me the link that night. When I went to the IJ construction tour in 05 I met Ryan, Dane, and Bill and thought they were the biggest jerks I had ever met, little did I know that just over a year and a half later I'd be filming commericals, and traveling to Geauga Lake in a burning automobile with them that summer and gain some very good friends.

[deb]

ooh, my first post!

I started going to Kings Island yearly beginning in 1994, when I was a freshman in high school. Our academic team always did a trip a few weeks after school ended, and we had a blast every single time we went!

KIC, I found through that itty-bitty no-name search called Google... ever heard of it?

Anywho, I just got seasons passes for the first time, and we're planning a trip for Saturday, should the local weather guy be right (he usually is) and it be near 70. Hope too see ya there!

deb

[Raptor66]

I've been going to KI since 1992, before I was even 1 year old! I found this site while searching for interesting facts about KI. My earliest memories were of being terrified of riding Little Bill's! (at the time it was Scooby Zoom)

[ssdd1970]

It was 1986 for me I had just gotten my drivers licence and my folks to the family there to celebrate and I even got to drive there As for KI Central I seen someone at the park with a KI Central shirt on and the rest is history.

[Cory Butcher]

Let's see, I have visited Kings Island since I was about 6, Im thinking 1994 maybe 1993!

As far as KIC is concerned, I really do not know how I came upon it, but Ive only known of the site for about 6 months. I think I was on RCDB and clicked on the fan sites one time when I was trying to confirm what I told a friend about the size of the park!

[boricuabud]

^ same, around 94 or 93. It was amazing.. even at that young age i was rarin' to get on the big boy rides.

[AvatarOp16]

I first started going to teh park when i was around 6 years old, and I remember being tricked on to Beastie. As wimpy as it sounds, I cried my eyes out I was so scared during the ride. But luckily I got over that fear

I found KIC because someone on my crew sent me a pic of Avatar on this site, where you can barely make out an associate standing on the platform. After looking close enough, I realized, its me

[Monroe]

Opening day 1972, I was having withdrawals from missing my beloved Galaxi (Bavarian Beetle) and just had to ride it. Of course my girl friend soon to be wife thought I was crazy and that opinion of me has not changed. I discovered the web site while I was in Germany about 2 years ago, I was browsing rcdb.com and decided to take a look at some of the fan sites listed at the different parks. Good or bad here I am.

[CoastersNSich]

I have visited Kings Island just almost every single year since 1982, when I was an infant riding the Wild Animal Safari Monorail. I discovered KICentral.com (or its predecessor) around 2003, became a member, but only lightly used it until the merger with PKIUnlimited.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

I was a big fan of Coney Island and as a life long resident of Kings Mills, I was thrilled that they decided to relocate right next door. I would sit in our lunch room at Kings High and watch the park take shape and could not wait until they opened in 72. Kings Island was my very first job and I have had loads of fun at the park ever since then!

Mike

[JxAx]

My first few times were in 95, when I was 2 or 3.

Last summer, I wanted to find out a bunch of info about Kings Island, so i typed in "Kings Island" on google, and found it.

[flightoffear1996]

I have been going to the park since 1988 when I was one year old.

I heard about KICentral when I was on pkiunlimited.com

[Jasper]

I first went in 1996 for Lexmark Family Days because i remember the little button pins we got that had Outer Limits on them as their new ride.

I heard about KIC from google when i put in Kings Island pics and it came up with this great website. From then on i have been a loyal member to the KIC Family.

[CoastersRZ]

Well, I made my first visit to Kings Island back in 1985, at the ripe young age of nine months old! The rest as they say, is history.

I started out over on PKIU, until someone encouraged me to begin posting on PKIC (I don`t remember who that was). So then I gradually began to post more on PKIC than I did on PKIU and then the two sites merged. I first met Bill (ZosoBeast) at a commercial filming for The Vortex back in September of 2005. Little did I know that I would become friends with Ryan and Dane and eventually become a staff member here at KIC. I`m still honored to be a staff member on this site and thrilled to share my enthusiasm for the park with others on this site and in the forums.

[touchdown62]

My first time at KI was like in 1998 or 1999. It was definately in the pre-SOB days. I had a couple years with King Cobra and the Phantom Theater. A friend of mine goes to KI every year for his birthday (same birth year as The Beast), and he introduced me to the park. I heard of (P)KIC from rcdb.com when I clicked on one of the site links for the park.

[coasterlova054]

I first started going to Kings Island around the age of 7 back in 1995! I don't remember much about the park then, but I really got into going several times a year around 4-5 years ago. I first heard about KIC from my friend Kirk (reclaimer) about a years ago. All he said was "Hey, look at this site it is pretty cool...you should join it." I did.

[SOB_TOM]

I have been going to KI ever since I was a wee lad. And when I first heard about this site? Probabily when it was mentioned on the old PKIU, and started posting when the merger happened...... which led to my notorious argument with Ryan on my side porch one morning at like 4am..... and the rest is history.

[bear295]

I went to KI on opening day, 1972. I used to drive up to the park in 1971 and watch the construction from outside the fence. I was a big fan of Coney Island, especially the Shooting Star. I have always wished that KI would build a duplicate of that coaster. It was terrific. I loved the park. (I read or heard somewhere that Mighty Canadian Minebuster is listed as a mirror image of Shooting Star.) The Racer was brand new and was really RACED and not treated as two separate side-by-side coasters as it mostly is run today.

I was also at KI with ACE for the ERT on The Bat the morning of the grand opening. It was a GREAT ride. I for one was sad to see it go.

[Thrill_Biscuit]

My first trip was with my family on my 3rd birthday in 1972. I first heard about KIC in 2004 while Googling something about the park (can't remember what I was looking for, but I remember being blown away by how much info (P)KIC offered about the park!)

[AdventureExpresser]

My first experience at Kings Island was in 1975 at the ripe age of 8 years old, to this day I can sit back and recant every step in the park that day, as a child I had never seen anything so amazing up to that point in life. County fairs were the biggest thrill I had been to up to that point. This was the same year my parents got divorced but they put aside all their bickering for this one day and the five of us actually were a family for this one last time. I will never forget riding the enchanted voyage with my little sister and brother and our eyes were as big as saucers, we had never encountered anything so wonderful in our lives, I can't tell you how many times we rode that over and over as my parents sat and watched. My moms fave was the Zodiac and my dads fave was the Tumblebug. Of course my parents are both gone now, but when I actually am in the park I can go to where these rides stood and I can still see the smiles on my parents faces and hear their laughter from that very first time we ever went to the park. I am a true Kings Island fanatic but sometimes the memories of the past is what makes the new experiences even more fantastic.

[fanofbigmedia]

My first trip to KI was 1987. I was too little to ride The Beast. I recall my brother riding Vortex (it was it's first year in operation {I believe}). He bought one of those "Baby on Board" like signs that read "I survived The Vortex" or something like that. We joked that it should have read "I survived The Vortex Queue". He and my father must have waited 2 and 1/2 hours.

My second fondest memory of KI was my first ever ride on The Beast (must have been like 1991). However, my fondest memory of KI was my first ever ride on The Beast at night! This was only a few years ago. I can tell you that I was about 27 years old and for the first time in my life, I was actually convinced that I was going to die. Literally. I nearly had a mess in my pants.

Best. Roller. Coaster. Period.

It will never be topped.

How did I find KIC? I owe this to The Interpreter. He had mentioned a few months ago on another, unrelated message board, that KI would have a "Major Announcement" soon regarding the 2007 season. He was talking about X-Flight/Firehawk but it took Google and my finding this site to figure out what the devil he was talking about.

[Browntggrr]

My first trip to KI was in 1978, I was 5 at the time. It was then that my dad heard of plans for this huge wooden roller coaster that was to blow away all kinds of records. We came back in '79 and have been hooked ever since.

I found KIC through the now disfunct PKIU, back in September 2003.

[The Interpreter]

Bear295:

I rode the Shooting Star many, many times (as my wallet back then could prove).

I have ridden The Mighty Canadian Minebuster more times than I probably should.

I wish I could tell you the MCM imitates The Shooting Star in any credible fashion.

I can't.

They both were/are made of wood. Both had/have PTC trains.

That's about it...

Sigh.