On Thursday, April 13th KICentral will be at Kings Island starting around 5:00AM to cover the unveiling of Mystic Timbers. We will be adding media day pictures to this thread throughout the day. You might want to follow this thread if you would like update notifications. Once the media event is over we will continue to post pictures here and answer questions you post in this thread. 

KIC will also be on Facebook Live. We will give you a closer look at Mystic Timbers, the theming and answer your questions. We will also be live with interviews with fellow KIC members, Kings Island, and hopefully GCI. We will be going live pretty early, so make sure to be on the lookout in the morning. If you don't already follow us, here is the link to our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/kingsislandcentral/

We will be posting to our Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/KICentral and on Instragram @KICentral as well. 

Please note: For those that want the surprise of #Whatsintheshed on opening weekend, KIC staff will not be revealing that info in this thread. If any KIC member posts info about #Whatsintheshed, please be respectful of others and use the spoiler tags. 

 

 

Got my email today about Media Day on Thursday , cannot wait to attend !

Me too!  I'm excited for my first ever media day and first riders charity event!  Also, MT will be my first new coaster from teaser to completion since I became a park/industry/coaster enthusiast.  Pretty exciting!

Well I know I won't say anything about what's in the shed lol. I haven't gotten an email yet though about details....

I got my e-mail from Don & Scott Short from ACE today!!! I'm pretty excited. This will be my first Media Day event.

Have fun everyone! I'm going to bed.

Lots of interviews on facebook! Adam House, Don Helbig, Mike Koontz! Go check them out!

 

Been watching Brad! Enjoying the coverage!

Be out there about 5pm to take part in the First Rider Event!

More pics

KIC folks cheering on an empty train. 

What exactly is Media Day and how do people get selected to be part of it just curious?

The idea is that the park is showing off the new attraction to the media.  Which basically means TV, radio, newspaper, on-line reporters, etc.  It is park of the marketing for the new ride.  The park invites a coaster club or more than one to make the ride look better by filling the trains with enthusiastic people.  

For this event, the park invited members of ACE, the American Coaster Enthusiasts to come and ride Mystic Timbers.

Its cool they do this, but is anyone else mildly irritated that the "First Riders" Auction is auctioning off like the 400th ride?

Not at all, it is about the good cause and knowing you are helping children who need it. Riding Mystic Timbers is just a bonus!

10 minutes ago, Stoan said:

Its cool they do this, but is anyone else mildly irritated that the "First Riders" Auction is auctioning off like the 400th ride?

Doesn't bother me at all. I never viewed it as a first rider auction. I only thought of it as raising money to get to ride it before the passholders and general public. And what IndyGuy4KI said above.

Not that it bothers me at all, but perhaps they could change the name of the auction.  Maybe they could call it "Early Riders" auction or something.  First riders is a bit misleading regardless of how you feel about it. It's still pretty cool that you get to ride it before the general public and be a part of a good cause in the process.

Which is my point, its called something it clearly isn't. I understand it is for charity, which slightly annoys me more.

They front-load the idea with "do this thing for charity we will give you something as a reward!", but then just sneak in a bunch of other people for free who didn't pay for the charity. Do the media day, do the promos, but start with the first riders. Shoot the promos with them, let the media go after. Changing the name as well.

Either way, I didn't participate in the auction, it just seemed a bit of a corporate bait and switch.

They are still the first riders before the general public. So the name is still not inaccurate. All in how you want to twist it. The media event is going to happen no matter what.

Getting back on topic. Media day pictures have been posted on the Mystic Timbers page. https://KICentral.com/rides/mystic-timbers/

If you did not watch Facebook today there lots of great interviews including new park General Manager - Mike Koontz.  https://www.facebook.com/kingsislandcentral/

 

Plus, the first human riders would technically be the folks that designed the ride and park employees as part of testing and what not.

Anyone who gets a first rider t-shirt and thinks they were truly the first riders are kidding themselves lol. 

And it's a brilliant move on the park having coaster clubs be the "extra riders" as part of media day.  They will tend to be the most enthusiastic riders that will be seen on the news.  While most doing the first rider auction may be coaster fans, just as many or more could be doing it as a fundraising event for a loved one and they don't really like coasters but are taking part in the charity event to support the cause. 

Paying money to participate in something doesn't make that person an enthusiastic rider or person for a media event.  Don't believe me, go to any professional sports team that is successful and has all the boxes and seats purchased by those with money - in many instances the crowd noise is non-existent.  I went to many a bearcat bball game during the Huggins era where the crowd noise was dead cause it was all corporate money in the seats and not true or real fans.

Just out of curiosity, can you make out what's going on in the shed from the queue/station?  Or is it more well concealed? 

silver2005, who will be bringing his headphones with his phone on Friday.  

I also love the way the train looks approaching the station.  It looks like its meandering through an old saw mill town. 

You can see the shed from the station queue but I don't think what you see would spoil anything. 

Great coverage, I did like this article, http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/04/13/i-tried-it-kings-islands-new-mystic-timbers-roller.html

To someone who rode it, What does the lift-hill audio state?

That's part of the story and you should wait to hear it!

It's actually hard to hear all of it when you are on the ride, due to the anti-rollbacks clicking, I hope they turn up the volume a bit.  But, without spoiling it, it sets up the storyline of the ride...  referencing time, place and a warning...

I want to try to listen to the lift hill audio from off-ride, because yeah, it's hard to hear over the chain. After a dozen rides, I more or less got what it said but it's difficult. I also would like to hear all of what is said in the queue videos without people talking over them, but that's unlikely any time this season

It does take several trips to get a good idea for what the whole story is.  I feel like I saw something different I hadn't noticed before each time I rode it.

The attention to detail is impressive and I think it will take several visits to discover everything. I love it! 

Would Mystic Timbers confuse people who are just visiting the park, i.e someone who doesn't regularly visit like from say Florida or even Athens? 

20 minutes ago, Rivertown Rider said:

It does take several trips to get a good idea for what the whole story is.  I feel like I saw something different I hadn't noticed before each time I rode it.

That's because it changes ;-)