Kings Island

It's this soft serve Blue Raspberry deal, it's pretty good. The ice cream shop next to Banshee sells it in Banshee colors (Blue & Magenta) twisted together, it looks neat and can even go in a float kind of deal. Pretty reasonably priced too.

Honestly though, the Graeters on IS is WAY better..Buckeye Sunday for DAYS

The Beast is fun! I know a couple of you said it was boring, but I grew up riding this ride and love it!

It's fun if you enjoy one minute of straight track and poor laterals...Brake shed to 2nd lift is pathetic. If that got cut out or went to second lift right where the brake shed was and into that fantastic helix, it might be one of my favorite wooden coasters. But nah, I'll spend my time on the back of Racer, the first few hills on that thing are fantastic.

The Beast is still my favorite coaster. Don't miss it during the day, the night ride is an experience in itself and it won't be spoiled by your day trip.

Careful on Vortex, it seems there was always a victim in our party. I don't know if it's avoidable either as I haven't ridden it in years because of its history.

Diamondback is one of the most fun coasters I've been on. If you like negative Gs, you'll love the airtime on this.

Getting off topic here. How come Kings Island doesn't have the Fun Size Park maps that you can buy at Cedar Point for only a $1.00? I want one for Kings Island so I can add it to my wall in my apartment.

Speaking of maps, KI has (I think new this year) digital park maps around the park. They tell you wait times for all the rides and quickest routes to different places inside the park. Do you think CP will get that for this year also? I sure hope so because they look really cool!

^^^I'm with Shawn Meyer... Often wondered why other parks in the chain don't sell the same type of map... A friend bought a CP one on his last vacation, framed it in an oversize frame and filled the dead space with some of the photos of his trip... It makes a nice display and I'm thinking of doing one, but not all the parks have them...

Our visit went well and was able to ride what we wanted quickly enough. Will I run back to visit again? Most likely no, unless I have free time and not wasting my gas. I wasn't impressed IMO. It has potential that hasn't been tapped into yet. Cedar Fair needs to show KI some(more) attention. CP still gets my vote (knowing it's not 100% perfect either-but close, lol!)

You were underwhelmed, Janeen?

KI has all kinds of great rides! Did you get to ride everything? Or just the things you were hoping to?

Kings Island feels very incomplete (for a lack of a better word) to me. There is a large plot of land surrounding the park for future expansion though which is very nice. IMO, and I'm not bashing them, but I don't think CF did very well with rebranding the park to be honest. However, out of the old Paramount parks, I've only been to Kings Island and Carowinds. With these parks, you can tell what was originally there when Paramount owned them, to what Cedar Fair has added.

Not to mention, I'm not sure what market Kings Island is geared towards, but the thrill factor just isn't there for me. Beast and Banshee are the only 2 rides they have going for them. Now once again, this is only my opinion.

Yes GDdashROM, I was 'underwhelmed' with the atmosphere. We rode all the rides we had hoped, and others as well. The rides were good. TwistedWicker77, the same rides met my thrill factor. Diamondback was good, but I expected more. But as we walked in the gate, I just didn't feel any excitement like at CP. And please note, these are the only 2 CF parks I've visited so far. With that said, it was like night and day. And not a cheese on a stick anywhere(that I could find)!

No cheese on a stick, but I bet you saw a LaRosa's or a Skyline Chili everywhere you turned.

TwistedWicker77 said:

Not to mention, I'm not sure what market Kings Island is geared towards, but the thrill factor just isn't there for me. Beast and Banshee are the only 2 rides they have going for them. Now once again, this is only my opinion.

You forgot about Diamondback! ;)

Haha unfortunately, I don't find Diamondback all that great. I think Intimidator at Carowinds is better.

went to KI today(since I was down in Columbus),big crowd,probably due to the great weather. Banshee,Beast,and Diamondback lines were not as long as they should have been ,based on the crowd size. About 3/4 hour each. 1st time on Banshee,was OK,Beast was good,and Diamondback good,but as in previous post,Intimidator is better. Picked up KI,Banshee,Beast,and Diamondback pins and a Banshee hat.

Went today as well. Got there for early entry and stayed till about 12:40. Got too crowded and was feeling ill. I love Diamondback, myself. Sit towards the front and don't get stapled in and float through the air!!!

TwistedWicker77 said:

Haha unfortunately, I don't find Diamondback all that great. I think Intimidator at Carowinds is better.

Well you are entitled to your opinion. That's the Great thing about America! In my opinion however, I find Diamondback, The Beast, and Banshee to be in my top 3 at Kings Island. If you want to complete that list, I would have Flight of Fear and Racer as 4 and 5.

My wife and I went today also. Always assumed it was a longer drive. Only took hour and a half. Found a better route I guess. We stayed until 2:30. Got really busy. There were still cars coming in when we were leaving. Rode about half the rides. Got 2 rides on Banshee. My first time. Very nice ride. Once during ERT and about 11:30. The line at 11:30 was only 5 minutes. Great capacity ride. Got 2 rides on Flight of Fear right at 10:00. Need to go back next sunday and ride the other half of the park. Did Dinosaurs for the 1st time. Would have been nice to have our grandson with us for that. I was quickly bored with that. Noticed a few of the ride crews were pretty slow. Something I don't really see at Cedar Point. Kinda had to be reminded what they were there to do. Then after being told to check seatbelts and such they just kind of smiled like, "I'm a dee dee dee." and went about it in a slow manner.

I really liked the interactive maps around the park. We used one to direct us to a restroom. And the wait times listed on the side were nice. I hope Cedar Point gets these. I'd bought a beer shortly before leaving. It was $9.60 for a 20 ounce draft. Think I'll be going out to the car in the future. Anyways after buying it we walked to the Beast. The line was 45 minutes. My wife didn't want to wait so we checked out the interactive map and the rides we hadn't hit yet all had pretty long waits. Especially the low capacity rides. Stunt Coaster and Flight of Fear over an hour. We sit down and she asks what I think. I said the beers at the racino are alot cheaper. So that was that. Spent about an hour at Miami Valley Gaming. Got $15 free apiece for it being our first visit. Overall had a pretty good day.

I enjoy Kings Island but the 'must do' rides are quite a bit fewer then Cedar point. I guess I lucked out. Went on Friday night and Saturday morning until the rains came. Everything was basically a walk on....especially Saturday. Was there for under two hours on Saturday and rode Banshee 2 times, Beast 4 times, and Diamondback 4 times. Best part was I was able to do slingshot for $4.50 on Friday night.

I think Kings Island is a really nice park. It doesn't have the same vibe or atmosphere that CP does, but it has it's own style which is nice. I've enjoyed my visit there as I have the other Paramount Park I've been to which is Canada's Wonderland. I've haven't been there since Banshee opened, but that is one of the rides I want to go on eventually, so a future trip to King's Island is definitely planned.