Phantom Theater

I agree, but the park can't hold your hand (no pun intended!), it is your responsibility to be cautious and not touch your face and wash/sanitize your hands after touching surfaces.

It's just fun speculation I just think it's odd that that area is being worked in and there are markers on Columbia. If they removed The Bat, thats a lottttt of space for a new coaster. The start of the demolition could be SOB station coming down., not reusing it lol.

These developments are definitely making me want to get more rides in on The Bat.... Seems a little sus seeing all of this work near it and the park keeps posting the same video of it on its social sites.

If I get back there this year I would love to try this! I love weird foods like this.

The Coney Sky Ride idea seems way more feasible now that Vortex is gone. Unlikely, but it would fit better! I would love to see a top spin return to the park, but overall I would like to see two thrilling flats and two or three mild flats. I def think they should try and fit something into the Oktoberfest area (like spinning keggers) and bring some more attention there.

I spent 6 hours there this past Saturday. Majority of people were wearing their masks properly and keeping distance. In line for AE, there were three teens that would not keep away from me, but other than that, everyone used the markers. I watched an employee tell a girl that her mask had to be over her nose about three times on one occasion, so they do seem to betaking it seriously. One thing I did find kind of weird was the spacing in the lines. All the rows are open with markers, so you are 6 feet away from the person in front of you, but standing right next to people on your left or right. Seems like they should have closed every other row and used the extended queues and set up temp queues if necessary. Edit: Wanted to add that they did shut down AE while I was in line to sanitize the trains. They sprayed them down, wiped down all the touchpoints, and then sent them empty to dry off. Took about 10-15 minutes, but necessary.

Saturday I was able to ride Orion! Thankfully, I was able to get in just as they opened. I was allowed to get in line without a time ticket, and after the ride I got a return time of 11-12 and rode again. The theme of the ride is my favorite thing. I love that they tied so many rides in KI's history into a great story and themed area, and I particularly like that they continued with FoF's theme, despite it being over 24 years old. As for the ride itself, it was a blast. I think this is the first coaster that ever made me blackout at the bottom of the first drop. The speed and force of the ride is awesome. My only issue is the length, it is incredibly short. I overheard many people saying the same thing while exiting, but were also praising the ride at the same time. Overall, this has been an excellent addition to the park. Banshee is still my #1 at KI though. Hopefully the next coaster is not another B&M.

I tend to try to leave by 4 since I have a 2.5 hour drive home. Thank you though! I'm not making it hard at all, I'm actually trying to make it pretty simple for myself so I don't drive all the way there to be told the tickets are out. I tend to base my decisions off of what the park tells me they will do, which is "You will NOT be able to enter the park before your selected time, however, you may arrive anytime after." I'm not making a 12:30 reservation and showing up at 10 and being told to go somewhere for two hours lol. And my point still stands, if the cards are out by 1 or 1:30, and I have a 12:30 time, that's cutting it pretty close. Thanks for the tip though, wasn't very helpful.

I think I figured out a good way to ensure I get on Orion when I go, but it means I won't buy a pass The day tickets have time slots as early as 10:30 on Saturday. The earliest passholder slot is for noon. I guess I'm just going to buy a single day ticket and go Saturday and hope for the best. Sadly, I think this will be the only time I will go this season, since I don't want to buy a single day ticket and then a pass on top of that just to ensure that I will get a ticket to ride Orion this Saturday.

Yeah, that's exactly my concern. I don't live that far away, just two and a half hours. If I drove all the way there and didn't get to ride it, I'd be very upset and not want to do anything else.

Yeah, I've been kind of down about this whole thing personally. I still haven't purchased a pass, and neither has my mom for herself and my younger brothers. It just seems like such a bad time to go anywhere. I cannot bring myself to go to KI with the chance that I won't be riding Orion lingering over my head. It's completely stopped me from making any plans to go at all this season. I am really bummed out. Hopefully the ticket thing for Orion ends, otherwise I probably won't go this year

This is a great video -- thank you for sharing! I don't think very many people believe the mask will prevent them from GETTING the virus, and if they do, they are incorrect. The idea is to help limit the amount of particles coming from you mouth/nose, helping to slow the SPREAD of the virus. If a mask only keeps 10% less stuff from ejecting into the air onto people or touchpoints, that's a good thing. It is a small part of a web of things to help slow the spread.

One quick and simple question: If I am wearing a mask and I cough or sneeze, do you think more or less particles will eject from my mouth and nose into the air?

Wow, that is nuts! How many guests does KD average on a normal summer day? That seems way too strict.

I see, I didn't even make the connection there. Are the queues not spaced out?

While the park should enforce social distancing, I do not think they should be sending people out to tell people to move away from each other and singling people out. I think the park needs to have the social distancing markers, signs, and messages playing on the speakers, but nothing else. It is the individuals responsibility to distance themselves. Same goes for people not wearing masks; just get as far away from them as you can.

Glad I'm not the only one haha. I wonder what compelled them to choose such a light color while everything around it remains brown. The park has made some odd choices these past few years, but at least its getting some attention!

Possibly, but I live in Louisville and I'd say the general public here doesn't seem to be too fond of KK. Whenever I talk amusement parks, everyone seems to point towards Holiday World or KI. In my experience, a lot of non-enthusiasts look at KK as a budget, dirty, carnival-like park, and the parking is horrible. Of course I am not speaking for everyone, but after three years of living here it's what I've come to find when talking about parks.

I obviously don't know the specifics, but I'm sure the KI marketing team had plans to advertise more in the month leading up to the park opening, you know, March. The month where everything closed and most people were sent home from their jobs, some to never return (such as myself). I don't think coming after the parks marketing team for their poor marketing of Orion is fair at all. For a time, I remember seeing Orion all over my Facebook and was a big deal to most non-enthusiasts on my friend list. I think you need to take a step back and think of how much the world has changed in just the past three months. I don't think Kings Island's marketing team was greatly concerned with promoting a new attraction that was put on hold indefinitely (until today). Do many parks give construction updates, especially of new themed areas? I can't think of any parks that have made it a point to give guests an update on construction and showing an unfinished new area.

That is Orion with Flight of Fear's building and Banshee behind it.

I'm with you there. If Universal Studios can open, I'm not sure why Kings Island can't. I know they're in two very different states but I mean, come on. There's barely going to be a summer season. I wonder what projects CF is cancelling/putting on hold because of this.

Watching passholder previews for Universal Orlando and it seems that they have it figured out. We will see how it goes when the park actually opens to the public. Maybe KI can get some ideas from them.

That does make me feel better, personally. I’ve been worried they might just call off the season all together. Hopefully the order is not extended to August 1st when July comes around.

Honestly, I find it a bit annoying that KI can't open yet. I understand the concerns, but Universal opens on the 5th, Disney is set to have all their parks open by July 15th. I believe KI could handle opening the park by mid June or by July 1st. I just can't see them opening the park any later than July 15th since they'll have just a little over a month of "normal" operation. Fingers crossed

They probably do it to minimize complaints about food not being hot & fresh and also to not waste any food if someone orders something and doesn't pick it up. I worked for Chipotle for 3 months in college and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who would place mobile orders and never pick up the food. Still got the money from them since they had to prepay, but it was still a waste of time, effort, and food.