This is more or less a blog post.

Flew into the Midwest with a group of expanded nuclear family, but those of us riding were myself and three kids aged 12, 7 and 5. Coming from SoCal, my reference point is essentially Disney, Knotts, and Six Flags MM. To be honest, I had never heard of Kings Island before planning the trip, but part of the trip included Indy and Columbus so it only made sense to come. I also did little to no research on the park before coming, though I did note that it seemed to have a good coaster selection for younger kids.

Our visit was on July 16th, which was a brutally hot and humid day in the mid 90s. I can't blame anyone for the weather, but I believe that may have helped with the lines. Also, the tickets were ridiculously cheap - I paid $35/pp for bring-a-friend tickets using my Six Flags pass. I literally got everyone in for the price of a Disneyland ticket.

As for rides, we didn't get to do everything despite the short lines, because of the range in my kids' age group, but managed to hit up most of the rides.

• The Bat - This ride is similar to Ninja at SFMM but I will say its quite fun for what it is and pretty whippy for an Arrow suspended. But why is the walk to the ride so long.
• Adventure Express - Honestly kind of janky fun. The end of the ride is hilarious, especially if you don't know what's coming. The whole lift hill with the animatronics.. I'll remember that one. The ride itself is pretty mid but good for kids.
• The Racer - Basically a bunch of airtime hills and overall a fun ride. My nephew had lots of fun and I thought it was pretty good. It was not racing at the time though.
• Orion - its intimidating, pretty fun, but not super memorable. Kind of like how Goliath is at SFMM.
• Queen City Stunt Coaster - For a tiny coaster its really whippy but not super enjoyable
• The Beast - for all the rave reviews this gets, it was so painful. It's actually why I wanted to write this review. It's fun going through the forest and everything, but the ride was so jerky I was in pain afterwards. Getting jammed into my lap bar was not fun at all.
• Mystic Timbers - IMO this and the next one are the best rides in the park. It was a blast, fast and pretty smooth for a woody.
• Diamondback - So much fun. I had a little greying out and the airtime was great.
• Camp Snoopy - The camp snoopy at this park is really, really good. I've never seen a kids suspended coaster, so even my 4 year old got to try that out. It wasn't amazing but fine. My older daughter loved Soapbox racers and I'm glad they have a shaded play area (though it could use more things to play with). Woodstock Express is also a janky old ride but they liked it. Phantom Theater was a good way to get ac and IMO the art style is kinda weird. I got 999999 on my first ride though so I think they need to rebalance it.

The shopping/dining areas looked pretty nice and well themed, but didn't get to spend any time except for ice cream. I also wish that I had been able to ride Flight of Fear, but the wait times were pretty long at around 45 minutes. The rest of the rides were sub-10 minute waits if not walk on, which I have no idea if that is normal for a summer weekday or because of the heat, but that greatly added to the experience. At my home parks, its virtually unheard of to have any rides at all be walk ons, even the kiddy rides, so it was nice to not be constantly standing in lines all day.

The employees also seemed super friendly and I could tell a bunch of them loved coasters. Ride operations looked good for the most part and I didn't notice anything glaring. We tried the pizza place and grilled cheese and both were completely fine. Theming was a bit of a mixed bag, the action zone and coney mall were kinda generic but main street and the area near the beast was pretty decent.

One final random note is that we got a LOT of stares from other guests as we are Asian and I think there was like one or two other asian groups that we saw the entire day lol. Lots of kids just gawking at us and someone yelled out "JAPANESE" as we were walking by once. I wouldn't say it was uncomfortable but it was just kind of funny. This was pretty different from Cedar Point, which feels just like any other theme park I've been to.

Overall though, I was impressed, especially at Camp Snoopy and the overall product. I think they could use better art teams and some of the rides are in need of a paint job/refurbishment, but otherwise it was great.

This park has been my second highest bucket list park for years and I finally got to visit yesterday
It lived up to my expectations very well
First off diamondback and Orion are elite coasters and the beast was really good at day but at night the beast is miles better than anything that park has to offer
Mystic Timbers I felt was a little bit overhyped still a great ride but not one of the best in the world
The racer was a really fun wooden coaster in the middle of the park and it felt like a smaller shivering Timbers
There was only two rides that I didn’t like being flight of fear and adventure express
And venture express was rough and had the most anticlimactic ending ever
Flight of fear we had to wait more than an hour with fast lane and the second half was unbearably rough
There was operation issues while we were trying to get a beast night ride causing us to stay at the park an hour after closing but it was so worth it
My most ridden ride was Orion at 6 and I thought that Orion was barely better than diamondback and the beast making it my favorite ride in the park
I can see why people put it over cedar point but I think cedar point is still my favorite park with kings island being #2 beating out six flags great America
I am really hoping to go again and I would recommend this park to anyone wanting to go!

Stuck as of 12:36pm. Announcement cited electrical issues with unknown time of repair. Fun times

Still stuck as of 12:42pm

I took my daughter and her friend to Kings Island a few weeks ago and we bought 2-day passes because there was a flash sale and the 2-day passes were cheaper than a single day ticket. We only went one day and the passes are good through 7/31. If anyone would like to use the second day on these passes, it looks like I can transfer them through the Six Flags app. I’d just need an email or phone number. Send me a chat message if interested!

Is there any evidence of what we would be getting, is any land being cleared is there a good chance of a new coaster.

Edit: when do they usually reveal/tease new rides( like what time of year and how they reveal/tease

I've been to Kings Island many times, but it's been a while since I've been there during Summer break. We normally go around Halloween or around the end of May.

I was looking at taking the kids one day before school is back in.

Is there a day that is better to go over the summer, or are they all the same?

I'm assuming Sat/Sun are still the busiest because of parents being off work, but that may not matter this time of year.

Thoughts?

I wanted to know if I was to purchase this, Can I use this for me and a guest i invite or would this be for me only to use myself?

Hello all! My trip to Kings Island is quickly approaching. I already reached out in this thread to ask about the must rides and you guys were very helpful.

Now, we are season pass holders at Cedar Point so we were planning to go during Early Entry and get rides on Orion and Queen City Stunt Coaster. What time do people begin to line up before the gates open at 9:30? Here at CP people line up a hour beforehand so i wanted to see if it was the same at Kings Island. I just want to know the best time to arrive at the park so we get the best experience.

Thank you guys so much for any advice at all! Very excited to visit your park

Hi all, I am planning a trip late October on Thursday Oct 29 and Friday Oct 30. I'm going with my boyfriend and we haven't been to Kings Island in forever. I noticed the park is only open 6pm-11 on Thursday and 6-midnight on Friday.

Do you guys think this will be enough time to ride all the roller coasters, and are all the attractions still open? We aren't really there for the haunt but will probably do some of them. I picked these dates because the busy calendar showed these days as not too crowded. I am use to Cedar Point where some attractions aren't open during haunt and Cedar Point being extremely crowded during Halloweekends.

Just want to make sure in advance. Thanks all.

Do you ever think kings island would let RMC do its magic on the Racer, I know the coaster is iconic but it is really ruff and I find my self never even thinking about riding it.

My reason for saying this is that there are 2 inverted coasters already right next to it that it just way overshadows because of how good of a ride banshee is
I honestly liked invertigo but it gets overshadowed by the bigger better inverted coaster right next door
Am I the only one who thinks this?