Paramount Kings Island

[A Foolish Mortal]

I decided we should have a thread about Kings Island!!! Has anyone ever been there??? How did you like it??? What were your favorite rides??? Do you know of any good PKI books, or websites??? This is open to anything about the theme park.

[A Foolish Mortal]

Ok, I guess I'm gonna post 1st. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts on the rides-
(all ratings out of 10)
Firehawk- 6 An ok flying ride. Not worth more than a 20 minute wait.
Adventure Express- 6 Pretty much a not as much fun Big Thunder Mountain clone. Not worth more than a 20 minute wait.
The Beast- 9 My favorite ride at the park. Amazing. Not to be missed.
Fairly Odd Coaster- 7 A great little kids coaster.
Flight of Fear- 6 Painful! Sorta like a not nearly as fun RnR.
Italian Job- 8 Lot's of fun. Not to be missed.
The Racer- 6 Boring going forwards, AWESOME going backwards.
Runaway Reptar- 7 A great first kids hanging coaster, but pretty rough.
Son of Beast- Closed. Looks really scary though!
Top Gun-8 Not to be missed. Lot's of fun.
Vortex- 4 Extremely rough and painful!
Tomb Raider: The Ride- 5 Oh! I wish this was better! It could've been so good. Extremely dissapointing.
White Water Canyon- 7 Great fun. Not to be missed on a hot day.

Well, that's it for now. I'll have more tomorrow.

[Jakk]

Well I live 10 minutes away from PKI so I guess I'll post. Here's my breakdown on some of the rides (1-10):

Firehawk 5: Basicalley an average flying coaster, I'll admit I got a bit sick but all in all an okay flying coaster. I do believe it was WAY to hyped..
Adventure Express 7: This was my first coaster I ever ridden so alot of memories with this certain attraction. I do agree though it's alot like BTMRR minus the AWSOME themeing...
The Beast 9: A classic pure and simple
Fairly Odd Coaster 3: Never really cared for it but I hated they changed the name to FOC I liked better as Beastie
Flight of Fear 1: I feel like all I did was wait in a dark room then go on a fast roller coaster that only 30 seconds, and afterwards made me nauses!
Italian Job 6: I feel really letdown with this one, I felt as it had more potential...I guess it's okay
The Racer 8: A ride not to miss a true classic
Runaway Reptar 2: Ehh fun for little ones I guess...
Son of Beast 10: One of the best attraction in the entire park a wonderful example of what a wooden rollercoaster should be! Not to be missed...to bad it's closed though
Top Gun 7: A preatty good hanging coaster
Vortex 10: A ride never to be missed! One of my all time favorite thrill coaster!!!
Tomb Raider 1: I wish I could've had my 2 hours of my life back. I was so disapointed! I was there on opening day the lines were about 2-3 hours long. I was really excited for the ride, once I got out I litterally cried! All I did was hang up side down for a minute and *BOOM* it's done...*sigh*..
White water canyon 8: A very fun water ride, like you said not to be missed on a hot day!

Well there ya go....^_^

[Jenemmy]

I am about 30 - 40 minutes away from PKI. This is the first year in a long time that we haven't gotten season's passes -- although I am sure we will make it down there at least once. It is just far enough for us, that the current price of gas made me wonder how often we would go!

I have always lived in this area and am about the same age as PKI -- I grew up with it. In fact, when I was 6 and in WDW for the first time, I actually asked my mom as we were leaving the MK if I could still go to King's Island. She looooves to throw that back in my face now that I am such a Disney freak!

I thought they were re-opening Son of Beast without the loop this year? No? I agree with the original poster about Flight of Fear and Vortex being too painful to really enjoy! Nothing like a light concussion to make your theme park experience complete! LOL. I do really like Face/Off and --- of COURSE -- the BEAST

[A Foolish Mortal]

The Beast, The Italian Job, and Top Gun were my favorite rides.

[Spaceship Tigger]

While I remember Flight of Fear being a painful, very short ride (that was the last time I ever waited two hours for a ride when it opened), I remember Vortex as being a very good, classic steel coaster. One of my favorites. The Beast is great, but it can also rattle the teeth out of your head.

[dinahvixen]

I live in Cincinnati, too, but for 19 years, I lived in Tampa. We had Florida resident passes to WDW growing up and went all the time. I am 35 now and stuck in Cincy, and I do not enjoy PKI. I will proclaim for the record that I am not a coaster fan, but I do have a daughter and we really do have to stand and wait at the kids ride section so she can ride, then I wait with her so DH can ride the coasters. It's not very family friendly for those with young kids, but probably great for those with teens. I took DH to disney for the first time when our DD was four and he was unimpressed - he thinks the rides there are the same as PKI, appealing to some members of the family, but not others (SW, Pooh, etc.). At PKI there just isn't much to do all together. There isn't the immersion quality that I like at Disney, either. PKI has a lot of fans, but I am not one of them.

[teresa955]

I live about 1 1/2 hours away from KI (I am guessing we should stop using the "P" now) and have visited there frequently since I was a teenager. I even bought season passes a few years. What really spoiled it for me was going to WDW. I was used to waiting an hour to ride a coaster that would only last a couple of minutes with little or no story or theming. Then I went to WDW for the first time. We usually go in Sept., so it is a slower time of year, but have very minimal waits (maybe 5 minutes). We went to KI a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to me like there was less of a crowd than what I remember from summer weekends in the past (honestly, I had been dreading it). It seemed most of the day was consumed by waiting. For example, we waited 45 minutes just to ride The Monster (carnival type ride). We skipped the coasters because the wait times were long and we had our young niece with us.

[SallyP]

Did live near there, daughter actually worked there a summer or two while attending Lakota High. Anyway, I remember Yogi and all the Barbera characters in the park.
Twin Racers was my fav until The Beast came along. It's really a rough coaster but a great thrill ride. Liked the Bat too but that's long gone isn't it?