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Aren't Dollywood's festivals the same old, same old, every year? Heck some of Dollywood's shows ran for years. What about Disney and Busch?

Not a wise move to tamper with longstanding relationships with ACE and JDRF.

Well, I’m keeping the credit. *adjusts fanny pack and glasses*

Share more on your FL experience with their new system.

The way that this title made my heart race...

It all comes down to money, or lack thereof. And while we may not agree, they see KI as a full-filled, growth limited market and don't believe the gains would exceed the costs. And Orion-XL200 has pointed out many times KI isn't hurting for attendance. That is why Texas is currently seeing the spend - they are deemed a market with a lot of growth potential.

In my opinion It's a flat, no different than antique cars. To me a roller coaster COASTS. Surf Dog and Pipe Scream both are propelled by the ride vehicle itself. You could put the ride vehicles on the ground and provide power (I'm pretty sure power is supplied by the track) and it will go/stop on its own. The track they run on doesn't have any means of propeling the ride vehicle (besides providing power) nor any way to stop the ride vehicle. Therefore I don't consider it a roller "coast"er. Just my 2 cents.

You scared me there for a second Don lol. I thought they were removing a coaster for a sec....I never ONCE considered Surf Dog a coaster. Same with Larson loops. I even have a hard time counting Alpine coasters even though they technically are.

I like how Jana took stake in October. It’s been 6 months. Over the time the organization isn’t really in business (parks operating), the CEO officially stepped down, and multiple other things have happened since then, so of course things are a bit dysfunctional. I mean I don’t think the ship is going in the right direction, but the captain needs to be able to steer it to put it on the right course.

Same. Even Planet Coaster considers it a flat ride heh…

Surf Dog has officially been reclassified by Kings Island from a roller coaster to a thrill ride on the park’s website. This change begs the question if you counted Surf Dog as a credit, does it still count as a credit because it was classified as a roller coaster by Kings Island when you rode it?

Almost as bad as when Coasters at CP had app ordering yet you had to type in season pass numbers for each order instead of the app being able to pull it up.

I did go to Carowinds, since it saved quite a bit on 3 passes with fastlanes, but I find Carowinds a lackluster park. This was my second trip and I probably won't go back. I would of went to Kings Dominion, but they wasn't open this past Friday and their hours was short, but Kings Dominion IMO is such a better park. And not having fastlane wristbands was a hassle. You have to log in to a website each day, add all 3 season passes to it, click redeem on each. It's a strange policy, because if you have people in your group, you could alternate fastlanes with them, because when you go to enter a ride, they scan my phone, see it has 3 fastlanes and let us 3 in, they don't check who's fastlanes they are.

You for sure will see me in the park this year. First time since 2019 I have a season pass. Obviously I wouldn't be posting my constructive criticism if I still was employed by the company. The event lineup is a very minor issue to me. I'll still go when I get the chance. I just think the park can do better when it comes to special events and live entertainment. Obviously we still don't know the stage shows for this year but I'm sure Hot Rhythmn Nights is returning. Not sure about Showplace, Festhaus, or the KI Theater though as last year was the 2nd year for the shows in those venues. Even if the park just did a bands in residence program on select stages throughout the park like the carousel stage, LaRosas patio in Rivertown, Enriques patio, and Action Zone along with the existing entertainment lineup I'd be happy!

And like I said, the Texas parks (AKA Jeff Siebert's parks) are getting the money as that is where the chain sees growth. Doesn't make it right, but the powers that be are complacent with a park like KI and as I have stated many times, as long as people keep buying passes, what is their incentive to improve the product? At the end of the day, complaints and all, people still return every year. Passes are bought every year. Passes are bought and never used year after year. So a park like KI suffers as a result. But people will still buy their pass. I am sure we will see you in the park this year....

KI being in a mature market is a poor excuse to not do dive in movies or passholder ERT events or pop up events that would appeal more to the locals than those out of town. Agree with Don that is not a wise move to tamper with ACE and JDRF but KI may have not had a choice bc the economy isn't the best right now and costs continue to increase everywhere. ACE may need to consider increasing their membership fees to accomodate rising costs of doing events like this. I personally think the park needs to start looking at making changes higher up in event planning. While I hate calling for jobs, I'm starting to get really frustrated with those high up in that area. While they may have their hands tied by corporate, There are other parks in the chain that are thinking outside the box when it comes to events and live entertainment (see Jeff Siebert's parks) while KI is just "ok let's just do food and wine at the beginning of summer and then a bigger fireworks show for 4th of July and then a watered down Carnivale and then Haunt and Winterfest." While I know there are other parks out there who would love to have an event lineup like that, it is a bit lackluster for a park like Kings Island with a huge fan and pass base where not that long ago used to have stacked event lineups and partnerships with outside vendors and would do all these pop up events and even charity stuff. Remember Kicks Cancer or the color runs? Changing subject, but I noticed Pass Preview has been changed to "Perks and Play Pass Preview" like Carowinds. There's still time for them to throw some sort of charity donation event into there for that as well as a Q&A/Presentation session.

I was thinking this as well. A lot of seasonal events at those parks have been going for 10+ years with some barely seeing big changes since 2020. While those events change up their menu items and entertainment offerings, I don't think Cedar Fair/Six Flags have seen much reason to change up event offerings like that — especially under their "the status-quo is fine" era. This will be Grand Carnivale's 6th year (skipping 2020 and 2022), the Food & Wine Festival's 3rd year, and Star Spangled Nights is being made into a week-long celebration. Carnivale definitely needs something to revitalize it, but if this is indeed the event's last year then I hope we'll get something new and improved in 2027 that isn't just a cookie cutter event already found at other parks. The fact that Halloween Haunt, Tricks and Treats, and Winterfest are not yet shown on the events list does worry me. Carowinds and Cedar Point both posted their entire 2026 festival calendar while some other parks are in similar situations to Kings Island. I don't think this is a sign that those events are cancelled, it just upsetting that the park hasn't released the information in (what I'd consider to be) a timely manner. Comparing the 2026 events list to the 2016 list, then yes it is indeed smaller. On this day in 2016 Kings Island had the following events posted to their website: (* exclusive to Gold or Platinum Passholders; ** exclusive to enthusiast club members) Opening Day (4/16) Banshee Brew Festival (5/06, 5/07, 5/13, 5/14) Exclusive Night Rides for Banshee, The Bat, and the Blackout maze* (5/13) Coasterstock** (5/20-5/22) Soak City Gold Pass Preview* (5/21, 5/22) Memorial Day Weekend Free Military Admission (5/27-5/30) Food Truck Festival (6/03-6/05) Dive-In Movies (6/03, 6/10, 6/17, 6/24) JDRF One Walk (6/04) Exclusive Night Rides for Diamondback, Woodstock Gliders, and Woodstock Express* (6/16) SpiritSong (6/23-6/25) Fourth of July Holiday Free Military Admission (7/02-7/04) Sundaes & Slides* (7/03, 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31) Exclusive Night Rides for Racer, Monster, Scrambler, and the Grand Carousel* (8/11) National Roller Coaster Day (8/16) Fire and Safety Days Free Admission for Active Fire and Police (8/26-8/28) Glow Run 5k (10/21) Run & Ride (10/21, 10/23) Compared to the current 2026 Events calendar: Perks & Play Season Passholder Preview* (4/17) Opening Day (4/18) Soak City Opening Weekend (5/23) Food & Wine Festival (Fri-Sun 5/29-6/21) Star-Spangled Night (7/4) Grand Carnivale (7/18-8/02) Something I just noticed while typing this up is that the week-long Star-Spangled Nights event has been quietly updated to only be one night long on July 4th. I thought that kind of thing would've been important to get right before publishing to the website, but apparently not.

Right, but they need to keep the name to build a following. Switching it up every two years won't gather the following. Who knows if KI changed the food offerings since they didn't have tasting cards lol. Or maybe that is why they didn't so the food could stay the same...

I personally counted it because it does have a downhill section. Don't count the diskos but that's just me. Not gonna argue with anyone counting it or not counting it

I’m glad someone finally said it. It’s old news at this point, I think they should retire it and come up with a new event.

I have a theory on why this merger occurred—I’m assuming it was out of desperation and the belief that economies of scale might be the only solution to dig out of the after effects of COVID. I think the COVID hangover is the reason why the “pure” park companies (those that don’t have other significant sources of other income like Disney or Universal) like Six Flags, United and Merlin are suffering financially today. I think we tend to gloss over the long lasting impact shutting down the only source of revenue for six months, a year, or close to two years (in the case of California) had on these businesses—everything seemed to come roaring back right after everything reopened, but that didn’t make up for the long period of essentially no revenue—things like maturing debt eventually came home to roost. I really think the problems the park companies are having now are part of the long lasting impact of the pandemic. Of course, there’s probably a deeper thought about how as a society we haven’t really dealt with the trauma of the pandemic either, but that’s probably a little philosophical for a theme park board 🙂

Not a complete circle is not a good argument for not counting as a coaster. That logic any shuttle coaster (Invertigo) would not be a coaster then? For me the definition of a Roller coaster is in the name. I think any ride that rolls on wheels and coasts down a hill or moves under own momentum is a Roller coaster. Surfdog is a roller coaster

I'm glad they're worrying about the important things. 🙄

Didn’t Zamperla classify these type of rides as a coaster? I remember seeing it listed at some point under roller coasters. Could this be an alignment between the manufacturer and parks?

Everyone with a brain knew merging with Six Flags would be a disaster like almost any merger that has happened in history! I literally can't believe coaster enthusiasts and CF employees/stockholders didn't try and at least attempt to organize some sort of revolt/protest to try and stop the merger. (not that it 100% would've worked but we've seen proposed mergers get stopped by protests in the past). Plus it would've gotten insane news coverage if a revolt got organized and happened. Sports fans remember Greg Schiano to Tennessee? That was stopped bc fans (and others higher up) put their foot down and spoke out against it as they knew it wasn't going to work. Also Mark Stoops to Texas A&M or Cracker Barrel and the proposed rebrand.

I think they could even get by with adding a big temporary planter or two and putting up some standing decorations like they had at the back of International Street in 2011. Anything that would give the area something to look at without being terribly permanent. I still think Kings Island should straighten out the end of Coney Mall to align with the rest of the midway. That could refresh the land while they wait for the new coaster. A (second) new vine tunnel would be nice to have, just not on the path between Rivertown and Coney Mall. That's one of the last areas of the park with a big tree canopy and I'd hate to lose it. I would much rather see the park demolish and replace the Planet Snoopy Grill in a manner that would allow for a new tunnel to go right where the original was. Most of the path is still there, albeit covered in tables and a service area for the Planet Snoopy Grill.

Delaying the release of an events calendar until just before opening day is a missed strategic opportunity. By that point, many guests have already mapped out their 2026 travel plans around parks that announced their events months in advance. In a market where consumers are making decisions earlier than ever, waiting to communicate key dates means risking that Kings Island gets left out of the consideration set entirely. It’s not about timing. It’s about mindshare, trip planning influence, and ultimately attendance from guests who may have chosen differently if they’d had the information sooner.

If Tower Topics talks about Invertigo, they will follow up with a post. 😀