I went ahead and highlighted in yellow the special meal options on the Winterfest menu provided. Feel free to correct any mistakes or if anything should be added:

 

Enrique's mac and cheese bowl might get me to come down once just to enjoy a few hours eating, drinking hot chocolate, and taking photos of the park.  I may as well get one more use out of my pass.

I think I'm understanding the new strategy. Keep most exclusive items off the dining plan to entice people into buying them and / or get regular food to improve efficiently. 

2 hours ago, Taylor.B03 said:

I think I'm understanding the new strategy. Keep most exclusive items off the dining plan to entice people into buying them and / or get regular food to improve efficiently. 

They got your money, so no incentive to improve.  Enough will still buy meal plans and food.

On 11/7/2023 at 11:36 AM, Orion742 said:

Glad to see Sol spin and Cargo Loco on the attractions list! Does anyone know if Flight of Fear will be Flight of Cheer or is it just a mistake on the website? It is listed as Flight of Fear currently.

The park is kind enough to provide us make up days for the days we lost with Cargo Loco and Sol Spin not opening on time. 

19 hours ago, Orion-XL200 said:

Grain and Grill is Scrooge’s Sausagehaus - featuring items that are found at other places in the park. 

Surprised they paid homage to one of the early names of this food location. Kind of neat.  

20 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

lol the TAS Lady…

Her voice will forever live on in my memory.

“The time is… 1 o’ clock, PM. Press… 1… to start shift.”

39 minutes ago, TOPGUN1993 said:

Surprised they paid homage to one of the early names of this food location. Kind of neat.  

That picture shows how they should’ve redone the pavement for IS. The curbs were gone, but it still felt “street like”. If you made the brick part a bit narrower and moved the lamps closer to the buildings when they put them back in, the floats would still fit. Also shows what I feel was a miss-adding seating back at the end where the junky funPic booth is that could easily be relocated-along with fastlane sales to a new “guest add on” building by the lockers and stroller rental  

 

1 hour ago, TOPGUN1993 said:

Surprised they paid homage to one of the early names of this food location. Kind of neat.  

It would be neat if they could bring back that sign and put Grain & Grill on it, hopefully it is still around so they can find it. 

On 11/20/2023 at 11:03 AM, BoddaH1994 said:

As expected the sale was extended until 4pm today...

The winter buffet at the International Restaurant will be open November 24-26th, and December 18th-29th. Cost is $35.95 for adults and $17.99 for kids ages 9 and under.

 

Thank you Daniel.

So the trolley is free, but imagine that it is broke lol.

Flight of cheer is only one train ops.

On the plus side Grain & Grill is busy. No doubt cause it is indoors lol.

58 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

So the trolley is free, but imagine that it is broke lol.

Flight of cheer is only one train ops.

On the plus side Grain & Grill is busy. No doubt cause it is indoors lol.

Mystic Timbers is currently a 90 minute wait. Is it on one train ops as well? This further confirms my thought that we need more coasters open at WinterFest. Hopefully Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers will be able to run at this time of year in 2024.

19 minutes ago, Orion742 said:

Mystic Timbers is currently a 90 minute wait. Is it on one train ops as well? This further confirms my thought that we need more coasters open at WinterFest. Hopefully Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers will be able to run at this time of year in 2024.

If memory serves me right, Mystic usually ran with two trains during Winterfest from previous years. Even with that, there would still be days where the wait would still exceed an hour. It doesn't really help that it's the only major coaster open on that side of the park, and the other major coaster is all the way in Area 72.

But yes, I also wish that there was some way to have more coasters open during Winterfest, but I also understand why the options are so limited in that department. Looking at both Mystic Timbers and FoF, it makes sense as to why both of those coasters are open. Mystic Timbers isn't that long and stays low to the ground after the second drop. Flight of Fear is completely indoors, so it isn't affected by the temperature outside. Anything else besides that would likely be at risk of valleying, hence why they don't run.

Looking at this footage, it seems Energylandia has no problem running at least some of its coasters in cold conditions, including rides like Hyperion and Zadra. This is important to note since their Family Boomerang has the same exact layout as SSBR. I haven't seen footage of Energylandia's Family Boomerang running in cold weather, but if they do run it in weather like this, it's a pretty safe bet that Kings Island could run SSBR during Winterfest no problem. It's also worth noting that if we do get some sort of launch coaster in The Vortex plot that stays low to the ground, then that could also run during winterfest too. It would mainly depend on the manufacturer though, as I can't see B&M wanting to run a coaster in colder conditions.

 

Thing is it’s not really a coaster event, so I don’t see that happening. 

1 hour ago, WoodVengeance said:

If memory serves me right, Mystic usually ran with two trains during Winterfest from previous years. Even with that, there would still be days where the wait would still exceed an hour. It doesn't really help that it's the only major coaster open on that side of the park, and the other major coaster is all the way in Area 72.

But yes, I also wish that there was some way to have more coasters open during Winterfest, but I also understand why the options are so limited in that department. Looking at both Mystic Timbers and FoF, it makes sense as to why both of those coasters are open. Mystic Timbers isn't that long and stays low to the ground after the second drop. Flight of Fear is completely indoors, so it isn't affected by the temperature outside. Anything else besides that would likely be at risk of valleying, hence why they don't run.

Looking at this footage, it seems Energylandia has no problem running at least some of its coasters in cold conditions, including rides like Hyperion and Zadra. This is important to note since their Family Boomerang has the same exact layout as SSBR. I haven't seen footage of Energylandia's Family Boomerang running in cold weather, but if they do run it in weather like this, it's a pretty safe bet that Kings Island could run SSBR during Winterfest no problem. It's also worth noting that if we do get some sort of launch coaster in The Vortex plot that stays low to the ground, then that could also run during winterfest too. It would mainly depend on the manufacturer though, as I can't see B&M wanting to run a coaster in colder conditions.

 

Big Bear Mountain and Dragonflier are both able to operate at Dollywood during their Christmas event. I know they are different ride types but same ride manufacturer. The trains on Big Bear will be almost the exact same on SSBR. I know Silver Dollar City operates almost all of their coasters as well. Including Outlaw Run and Time Traveler. 

So, if you are planning on the Winter Buffet this year, here is the pricing, and notice that dessert is no longer included with the cost of the meal.

 

46 minutes ago, Orion742 said:

Big Bear Mountain and Dragonflier are both able to operate at Dollywood during their Christmas event. I know they are different ride types but same ride manufacturer. The trains on Big Bear will be almost the exact same on SSBR. I know Silver Dollar City operates almost all of their coasters as well. Including Outlaw Run and Time Traveler. 

Keep in mind KD runs about the same amount of rides as KI does.  Meanwhile BGW runs basically all their rides during their Winter event.  One cannot say that the temperature is that much different between KD and BGW.

Mason has a similar average December temperature to Hershey, where they run Candymonium, a B&M hyper, for their Christmas event. Given the crowds here, I would love to see additional coasters added to our Winterfest lineup. I understand that this event is for "experiences," but when you are running basically the same shows since 2017, you really should be giving repeat visitors a little something extra in my opinion. I am very glad that they opened Cargo Loco and Sol Spin for Winterfest this year! 

I'm shuddering at the notion of the kind of wind chill Orion would produce...

1 minute ago, silver2005 said:

I'm shuddering at the notion of the kind of wind chill Orion would produce...

Sitting on the brake run like

2 hours ago, chad_1138 said:

So, if you are planning on the Winter Buffet this year, here is the pricing, and notice that dessert is no longer included with the cost of the meal.

 

Well, Kings Island is one of the only parks in the chain in my experience that will nickel and dime you over house sauce. So this isn’t surprising. 

2 hours ago, chad_1138 said:

So, if you are planning on the Winter Buffet this year, here is the pricing, and notice that dessert is no longer included with the cost of the meal.

 

New for Winterfest '23 - the Winterfest season dessert add-on   While it isn't valid on the select Nights, it is valid the other nights LOL

We went up for a few hours last night and the park looked fantastic.  The only show I saw was at Festhaus as we mostly just walked around.

It was very nice to see the lines at some of the flats and those rides getting some love.  Every indoor food venue appeared to be packed as well.

As the park looks at improvements over the next several years adding more indoor eating venues needs to be a priority.  They should also look to add some additional flats as well.  Both of these things would improve Winterfest even more.

Did anyone here ride the train last night, and if so, can you update?

I rode the train last night.  Nothing new compared to last year.  It does appear that they fixed up some of the 12 days lighted sets (and replaced light strands in some spots).  Sadly, it still seems a little underutilized.  I would love to see them decorate a couple of tress wrapped in lights like they did this year outside of the Festhaus.

Last night Mystic Timbers was running two trains.  Our train had to wait for the blue train to refill for water around 7:45, so we were sitting by Mystic`s break run for about ten minutes.

Keep in mind, that compared to the original Winterfest, there are far more rides open now than there were back then.

I do agree it would be nice to spice up some of the shows every year.  At least with Tinker`s Toy Factory, they have had two versions.  I love both of them.  Last night we went to the 6:30 showing, and the place was just about at capacity.  The line before the doors opened started past the back entrance to the Festhaus!

Having the webcam on at work, on the 2nd monitor.  Idiots are mounting the polar bears and acting a fool.  I hope the polar bears are anchored into the ground.  

This is what you get with cheap passes.

 

Bah humbug, I reckon. 

See the KIC 2023 photo gallery with over 240 pictures and the KIC YouTube video on our Winterfest page on the main site.

https://kicentral.com/park/kiwinterfest/

Was there a noticeable increase in the amount of lights this weekend? 

1 hour ago, Orion742 said:

Was there a noticeable increase in the amount of lights this weekend? 

Definitely, especially in Adventure Port.