CoasterJack

In terms of regional parks, the Premier Spaghetti Bowls. The compact layout and launch leads to quite an intense experience. I especially love the Flight of Fear Clones (my 2nd favorite KI coaster), the experience can't be found at many other non-Disney or Universal. I know the queue video can be a little corny, but I have a special place for this ride.

I totally agree with this. There are countless paths and ways to travel the park and everything is centered (for the most part) around the Eiffel Tower. Additionally, I feel like the park infrastructure and supporting buildings are much better prepared than most other parks. Each owner has contributed and withdrawn different identities for the park, and while KI seemed to struggle for a bit, after Cedar Fair added some large scale investments, the park seems to have a rather diverse lineup (3 B&Ms, 2 Vekomas, 2 Arrows, 2 Premier Rides, 2 PTCs, a GCI, E&F Miller and an in-house designed and built). But nothing beats walking into International Street, the fountains, the lights, the orchestral music, the Eiffel Tower, and the coaster skyline looming in the distance. It's no Disneyland, but it's an atmosphere like no other. I could praise Mike Koontz all day, and while I do miss TR:TR and some Paramount (1st year) theming, they've done an amazing job keeping the park in great shape, it feels modern, yet also retains plenty of original charm.

I would agree with this. Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland saw more experimental rides, but overall, Kings Island seemed to receive the most attention and attractions. Carowinds wasn't nearly where it is today.

I don't see Kings Island installing another B&M or high price tag coaster for a solid 5-6 years. We had 5 years between Banshee and Diamondback, and Mystic Timbers was medium sized investment between the 6 year gap of Banshee and Orion.

I definitely think that would be cool for something different and maybe add a smoother experience, but I feel like the arrow swinging trains give The Bat part of its unique charm.

I voted Flight of Fear. Even though the current lap bars are loads better than the overhead restraints, there's still room for improvement. Flight of Fear always has a long line, and if it had an extra train, they could potentially launch after the train clears the MCBR. Also I think part of this coaster's roughness is the small claustrophobic trains. Especially for a taller guy, these trains are the least comfortable in the park, I'd even go as far to say worse than Invertigo.

This would explain why AE was closed the last few weekends.

They are relatively low maintenance rides. The trains don't experience any extreme speed or hard g forces. They should last a long time plus due to the slower speed it doesn't feel as rough. Plus they are good family coasters and fill a good spot in almost any park line up.

The Big thing that sticks out to me is the upcoming news of more track slices being available for purchase online, which will be handy for those more long distance fans or those who couldn't make it to the park in time.

I agree, I'm having the same problem

The only arcade I tend to wander into is the main one in Coney Mall. Most recent being Winterfest last year. I mainly only venture in there when the lines are too insane to bear. To be honest, most of the games were well kept and there were some pretty modern games, and decent prizes, which honestly surprised me. Has the arcade in the building next to Beast been open this year, I haven't looked yet. Sorry if we're getting a little off topic, but the small stuff like this always intrigues me. You can have the greatest coasters and rides, but I always try to pay attention to the infrastructure and you can always tell a park cares and has self pride when everything is managed down to the smallest little thing.

I agree with this so much! Regarding wooden coasters, I don't know any other coaster that has been around for this long while remaining ever so popular. Especially compared with other coasters from the era, no other wooden coaster still draws in as much of a crowd at 41 years old other than The Beast. Sure there's El Toro, Lightning Rod, The Voyage, etc, but none of those have been around for nearly as long, and Beast stands out as something different. Instead of focusing on elements, it really feels as if it's an experience unlike no other, especially during a night ride.

I've heard it's supposedly packed today. Like worse than some Cedar Point weekends. It it truly that bad? I'm considering heading up in about an hour, but don't know if it's worth the drive if it's so packed I can't ride anything in under 2 hours.

All I can say is Orion didn't have the same effect Fury 325 had on Intimidator. Screw the slight roughness at the bottom of each airtime hill, nothing will be able to beat the floater airtime filled layout of Diamondback, or the splash down. At least for me personally, Orion was a great addition to the park and all, but it's still number 3 in the park for me.

The wood planks are still present down by the first drop, and there are big tire tracks. But in terms of Banshee, it was running fine. In fact, on blue train today I probably got one of my smoothest rides ever at the park.

It could just be wood for a re-tracking over the winter. Don't know if it would involve GCI, or just some yearly maintenance on The Beast.

It would be really hard to match the faded paint as well. The drop would look off, and worse than just a weld. I definitely agree it would be much easier to just weld the existing track already in place.

And this is when I wish the Banshee webcam was up to watch the action over the weekdays

The they added an LED sign a few years back, they sometimes display animations. Source: https://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69924&start=20 P.S. There's multiple threads talking about when they did all this: https://KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29050-kings-island-is-getting-a-marquee-sign-upgrade/

Quite a bump, but.... Now that it's been a solid 9 years, any change in feelings in management, especially now after Area 72. Would you say Area 72 is better than anything Paramount could have done, or was Top Gun, Action Zone, TR:TR still much better than anything Cedar Fair could attempt? And is the new atmosphere better than before?

Definitely the first time my friend tricked me into going on Flight of Fear. As a kid the biggest ride I had conquered was Adventure Express. So on a cool crisp spring day when we didn't have school, my friend convinced me to join him on the first ride of the day (I had no idea about the launch), I shocked but thrilled at the experience of the ride and it's what really got me into roller coasters. It's been my favorite ride at the park since then and probably always will be.

I noticed this as well. While I couldn't exactly see them relocating or replacing the sign, especially right now, my theory is... They're doing parking lot work this off season to fix the flow lanes into the rows, and they're just marking the electrical to the sign to avoid confusion. Also if anyone says ODOT required them to take it down as a distraction, if I'm driving by on the highway, I'm already gonna be looking at the park regardless of the sign, so I see this as highly unlikely.

The only explanation about the Cedar Fair thing that I can think of is that since Blue Streak is the only traditional wooden coaster, it's probably better to send them off, while at Kings Island they have 4 traditional woodies. Now I know Mystic Timbers is an exception cause sending the trains to GCI, but still, Kings Island has a better in-house department compared to some other independent parks.

I enjoy the current theme, however, if they would ever invest into new trains (I doubt it), on-board audio would make a world of a difference. You can only really hear the theme, faintly in the exit station, or after coming to a halt on the mid-course break run. Also my friend who works the ride says the theme is engraved into almost all his dreams by now

I can concur, it's usually teal train that hammers. The blue train seems to be the smoothest out of the three. Sadly, I almost never get blue train.