Stoan

Multi launch and dark ride

I'm in the same boat. I cut about half my add-ons this year already. I'm interested to see how things go to make my choices about next year, not to mention it'll probably be when the Six Flags merge changes start popping up. I won't say it's a bad start though, preview night in my opinion is more for Employees than Passholders. They leverage the fact we aren't really paying to do a stress test of the park, and it was BUSY. Yet compared to most years surprisingly not terrible. 3.8 röntgen. June will be my measurable month.

No more paper passes for fast pass, scan your actual pass at the GateKeeper

Coney BBQ half chicken is the smallest chicken I've ever seen

What a joke

Oh crap boys, there is a soda fountain in the VIP shack

I like collectible cards, I'm not going to get any of these packs. Unless they sell them in the stores I'm going to miss out entirely.

Many times I took a burrito or 3 way into the VIP shack to eat. Occasionally a backpack with a few snacks. Never a big picnic though.

I mean, why make it the whole day. It isn't like the park on these days is ever absurdly busy, everything works perfectly and everyone has been training for months on how to handle the small patient crowds of polite guests. 5 hours should be plenty for everyone to get in, enjoy the park and leave. Not like this day is marketed as an "exclusive" event to fans who continuously guarantee a certain amount of money for the park every year. I mean if the Preview Night was to have any of those problems it would almost need to be renamed into "Take time to figure out what we forgot to set up before REAL people show up" Night

I mean, surely they wouldn't sell us the idea of unlimited coffee and ICEEs then remove them from 90% of the park so nobody actually uses them... right?

I had forgotten the name of this ride so many times my family has gotten used to calling it "the yellow ride", it'll be years before I get used to calling it "the green one"

I think the only thing that could have disappointed me more than an adult only beverage place opening up in this location would be if they just put Subway back.

To piggy back off this discussion a bit. My youngest is turning 8 this year, she'll be real closer to the 52 inch rider. She's decided she wants to take a trip to Holiday World for her birthday which is right around the season opener traditionally for them. I was going to make a full day of it, getting in on Friday and going home Sunday. Do I need a two day pass, or can I reasonably finish the dry park in one day?

When I first saw the headline I panicked thinking Six Flags was already taking over names. Glad to hear they at least stuck with Peanuts themed, and just made it more "camp" styled. I wouldn't be opposed to redoing the entire section into a foresty/campground theme for kids.

Like I sort of alluded to in my post, I'm in the same-ish boat. I will probably still keep going, but I can see myself dropping all the way back to just plain gold passes with no bonuses except season funpix (still the best deal in the park), and possibly even cutting out passes for the whole family, and instead keeping one for the daughter I have that loves the park and me only.

I mean, I don't go to Kings Island for the music, but I enjoy hearing it while I am there. I got stuff to do, but I might walk a bit more slowly through the area or pause for a minute to enjoy hearing the sounds before needing to move on.

I have already warned my children for 2025. CF and by association Kings Island has been removing and cutting back in droves while increasing my prices. Last year was really teetering on the edge of "worth it" on most aspects aside from just a plain gold pass, and this year will really determine if they have fallen off the edge. I've cut back on most things that I don't use consistently which is just the park in a general sense. Very little effort in "perceived" gains for these increased costs. Honestly with the jokes we make about the VIP area, the prestige pass is actually probably my most used feature. It was perplexing and infuriating seeing some of my favorite rides go from setups that could run with 1 person, but could swap in a 2nd or 3rd if it was busy being ran the entire season with 1. Then those same ride essentially had the fences remodeled to completely remove the possibility of getting an extra operator (looking at you Dodge'ems). They are making more cuts to the rides group which will most definitely impact the flat rides my family and I enjoy the most. This feels like yet another example of Hannibal and Eric Andre meme. They cut back on flat rides, so less people want to / can ride them, so ridership goes down, so they cut back more because now it is overstaffed, so less people go on them. What a confusing consequence, why would our visitors not want to wait longer in artificially lengthened lines for rides that I am almost positive that they have also lowered the actual ride duration of as well. Either way, ranting cut short, cutting back on Customer Service in a business who's business is almost entirely Customer Relations is not a good sign. Either in terms of a business's health, or simply their care for their customers. Going a bit extremist, if unfortunately seems like CF is taking a hard look at simply being bean counters, and not an enjoyable experience.

I'm looking forward to the new Camp Snoopy and my lukewarm water in the VIP area that couldn't be supplied with ice due to budget cuts

I was actually thinking of taking one of my kids this year too, I guess that derails that.

I've ridden Orion like 4 times, Diamondback is just better to me.

Honestly I don't mind the outdoor VIP area, but a bigger roof would be handy.

To be fair, the LA River is also horrible looking

The seats suck. But the ride is good

My effort to follow ethics are subject to change without notice.

Please purchase a Winterfest Wonder Wand if you'd like to enjoy the music. Each train car needs at least 5 activated wands to trigger the event, per number.