Kings Island

We’ll start with the good. This park has an incredible
lineup, reminiscent of the balance of SFGAm, with some standout B&Ms that
round out the park nearly perfectly. I’ll complain after the coasters.
Style: Coaster Name
(#Credit Number)
Score/10

Missed credits:
Adventure Express, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Flying Ace Aerial
Chase, Great Pumpkin Coaster, Invertigo, Racer Blue
Of these coasters I missed, the ones I wish I got on were
Invertigo and FAAC. Invertigo looks like a fun take on the standard Boomerang
and I am slightly worried about the longevity of that coaster in the park but
it had a long ass line all day and in the end it’s basically a boomerang. FAAC
was an intrigue of mine because I have a morbid curiosity with shitty rough
coasters (I tend to like them a lot) so I wanted to try this one but I got on
the Bat instead and I’m sure this one will stick around until I come back. I
can’t do GPC without a kid, Adventure Express is an Arrow mine train, and as
much as I love Arrow, getting on their better family coaster in the park was a
priority of mine. I had already done the BSC at KD so I wasn’t worried about
getting that credit, (my friends got that credit grr…) and I did one side of
Racer which was good enough for me on this busy day

Woodstock Express (#108)
A great small family coaster. A step above the Little
Dippers and Meteors of the world, but still a great coaster for literally every
human. Got an awesome picture with my friends and a few personal icons as well.
6/10 but great for kids

The Bat (#104)
This was my first Arrow suspended coaster (after missing out
on Iron Dragon at CP) and it was a ton of fun! Very smooth and the swinging was
entertaining. Wish it were longer and that the forces and swinging were more
aggressive, but it’s a great step-up coaster for younger kids. Kinda reminded
me of Whizzer with that wooded setting. 6+/10

Racer (#105, red side)
Initially I thought this was a lot better than another wood
coaster higher on this list, however it ended up down here. Although I did not
think this was a bad ride at all! The airtime was weak but fun, the newly
retracked sections made it smooth-ish, and the racing is always a crowd
pleaser. I wish it did more with the layout like American Eagle or Lightning
Run so there was more of a back and forth between the trains however the
historical significance cannot be overlooked and I definitely enjoyed myself on
this one. 7+/10

Flight of Fear (#107)
This thing is insane from an engineering point of view. It
was significantly better than KDs version with the queue line scene (that I
must have missed with fast passes at KD), plus the show building had a few
lights in it letting you see the track and train in front of you so you can
brace and ride with the track a bit more. Coming to a near stop on the
midcourse was a shame but it was overall a forceful and intense Premier.
7.5+/10

Beast (#109)
Beast night rides. Everyone loves them (mostly), and
everyone knows this. I was worried I would be overhyped due to the pretenses of
this coaster, and the blurbs of complaints about roughness and trims. This is
truly an incredible coaster. It definitely feels like it was hand crafted but
it was done so well. You feel like you’re riding on the back of a true beast
through the woods, with barely any light to see where you’re going. That drop
off the second lift is also one of the best points of any coaster, ever. During
that oh so shallow drop I got a similar feeling to being on a drop tower, waiting
for the drop. And once you hit that pullout it’s just pure insanity. I usually hate
traditional laterals on coasters (I think those forces are better suited on
flat rides) but this was done incredible. I can see why SoB was designed to try
to mimic these forces. I don’t think you can really recreate that type of
suspense into insanity. This coaster was nearly worth the 2 hour wait and
secondhand high from the rowdy clientele. 8.5+/10

Mystic Timbers (#102)
FUCKING HELL GCI! This should be an excellent GCI. The hills
are there. The laterals are there. The theme is there. The awesome ops are
there (shoutout to Steph!). Unfortunately the airtime and positives weren’t. If
I got to ride later in the day, it probably would have warmed up, but I can’t
rate a coaster on what it could have been. I’m also giving this an 8.5+/10,
just slightly ahead of Beast for Maneater, but it should be a 9.5+/10. Damnit
GCI fix your trains

Banshee (#103)
The start of the park’s top 3, all being B&Ms. I am a huge
invert fan, but I have also heard a lot of not so positive things about this
coaster. It’s definitely not as whippy as the older inverts, but it’s still
incredibly forceful. My closest comparison is actually probably X-Flight of all
coasters. Very graceful but still some tasteful hangtime and just a blast.
While XFlight hovers around 3.5 – 4 Gs at max, Banshee felt like 4-4.5 which is
awesome. An incredibly solid and fun coaster, would have made an excellent
flyer. 9+/10

Diamondback (#106)
My second B&M hyper! Definitely a lot of fun with all
the beautiful floater airtime. I remember the first half being very fun, with
the coaster dying after the midcourse. I definitely prefer the layout of Raging
Bull for the more interesting elements and the fact that it ends strong, but
Diamondback was definitely an enjoyable time. Although it’s definitely been
stood up on the other side of the park… 9.5/10

Orion (#101)
This thing is fantastic. The drop is bliss, the layout is
masterful, the airtime is great, the positives are plentiful. The air in your
face is glorious up front, but nothing is better than that back row. These are
the best trains on any coaster (also applies to Diamondback), and that finale
with the off-axis airtime on a B&M… It’s beautiful. It’s a little short yeah,
but it doesn’t matter. It ends with a bang and is so incredibly rerideable.
Basically a giant Raging Bull, and I mean that with as much respect as I can
give. Fantastic addition, and Fury is now my top bucket list coaster. 10/10
perfection, and my new #5 (just behind i305)

Rant:

Ok yeah the coasters are great. Now let’s talk about the operations. This park was slammed the day I went, and hit capacity. That’s tough with the labor shortages and on any park. But what aggravated me the most was how many times the park shot itself in the foot, making bad times even worse. Nearly every coaster had 3 trains, but for what? We complain at SFGAm running only 2 trains on Bull, but only because there’s an empty station every third cycle. This park managed to double stack all of their major coasters: Orion, Banshee, Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, Beast. And everything with only two trains for sure stacked. Cedar Fair has like 8 operators on the platform for their top coasters, for what? They hold the gates until the train is clear of the previous riders, check everyone’s restraint twice, and take so long to even get ready to dispatch. I don’t understand why Mystic needed 8 operators, with one of them apparently only there to yell at the oncoming riders who weren’t even listening. A similar sized rollercoaster at SFGAm, Viper, can run with just two operators with a remote panel and still manage to dispatch without stacking their larger trains. And that’s even with bins, something Kings Island has on none of their major coasters, forcing you to buy lockers. Cedar Fair has no excuse to have that many people on the ride operations staff, especially since they’re redundant and don’t make the ride move faster. I waited 2 hours for fucking lunch, because they prioritized overstaffing their rides than having any sense of customer service anywhere else in the park. This seems to be a Cedar Fair issue, as I experience similar things at Cedar Point and Kings Dominion, but things need to change. If you’re just going to double stack, only put two trains on the track. Streamline operations in a way that you can still check everyone safely, while minimizing queue times. Waiting two hours for every coaster in the park is unacceptable, and food should be a 15 minute wait max. Figure out how to make your operations staff more productive, and then remove redundant positions. Send that extra staff to food operations and get those wait times down. The other thing that pissed me off was the wastefulness of this park. Not only did they have redundant trains that weren’t being useful, they used these stupid cast aluminum couplers on their queue lines, along with these gigantic and unwieldy gates instead of simply welding and bending pipe and using chains. The materials costs for these things are so much more than just hiring another half decent welder. The park did look good landscape wise, but they were in clusters almost, with the transitions between them being harsh, and really not natural looking at all, like I was living inside one of my shitty Planet Coaster parks and didn’t feel like landscaping half my park. They also had zero punishments for blatant line jumping, and it was happening constantly. Plus there was an incredible amount of smoking and vaping in the lines that were suffocating at times. I just feel like this park needs to rethink some of their core policies, stop wasting money, time, and people, and restructure some things to make their visitors the priority. And maybe with all the money they save, send a bone to Valleyfair, who has their shit together.

I’m done ranting. My visit was unfortunate because the park has so much potential, yet at every turn I was rubbed the wrong way, and by the time the park was closing, I just wanted to leave and not come back for a very long time. I know how insane a park can get at capacity, but if you can’t handle a park at capacity, maybe lower that capacity number until you get your shit together.Kings Island, you’re an awesome park, fuck you.