Outdoor Man

Not to worry, supervisors weren't interested in cleaning the tables and got about every 5th piece of trash on the ground. A couple supervisors stood talking at the edge of the 6-table eating area; appeared unable to see any of the 6 seriously messy tables. and it shouldn't be a standoff as to whose job it is to assure a section is clean. It should be the "Associate Culture" that the park presentation is everyone's responsibility. Put glasses on those blind eyes so the can see the ketchup-slathered bench seats

After cleaning off the Skyline serving window myself because.... it was a disgusting mess of cheese, spaghetti, and chili we went to Coney Mall to sit/eat. From the images below: Table with my (full) drink on it is ours before we "dusted" it off. Grounds sweepers -sort of- sweeping randomly, missing more than they were sweeping. Supervisors walking by, blind-eye'ing it. After WE cleaned our table and prepared to leave, a family of three were going to leave the area because of the 4 empty tables.... the images below are a sample of what they saw; we gave them ours. In a story I heard, at Holiday World, ALL employees (from gate workers to Matt Eckert (Park President) or anyone with a Koch family lineage) are trained to pick up and throw away trash anywhere on park grounds they saw it. I heard Mr. Eckert say in an interview that it is so engrained that his family will make fun of him because they'll spot him picking up trash in the parking lot of a Walmart to throw it away. This is Guest Experience 101. Make your areas clean and welcoming. At a minimum, if you can't get staff to clean it, install kiosks that will give guests Disinfectant Wipes to clean themselves. I grew up on Kings Island. Have been an annual pass holder every year since 2006 + a handful of years before. 2025 and this year have been terrible on keeping areas clean. I get it, guests can be gross and disgusting. They will do things in the park they would NEVER do at home. But, this is awful. I have no ax to grind. KI is a great park- but wow, it's been a bad year+ for attention to the "little" things. and, looking at the pictures after posting... it really looked worse in person.

I, personally, wouldn't do that. I'll post it here; I know park employees have a working familiarity of the posts that show up on this site. I'll post pictures here and give someone who works "back stage" a chance to address. I don't have an ax to grind with KI, SF, etc... just want them to do better! And, while I'm at it- REPLACE THE BURNT OUT BULBS LINING THE BUILDINGS ON I-STREET

I agree. Guests are gross. People do things at the park that they would NEVER do anywhere else. That said, there's no discipline in keeping areas clean by employees either. I mean, does Skyline know one of their locations has a serving area that looks like this? I agree with Don; Kings Island was a near-benchmark of cleanliness for YEARS; one season changed that perception.

The park NEEDS to address this. This is horrible, terrible, gross. What's worse is that while enjoying our Skyline, no fewer than 4 employees in Supervisor attire were nearby standing, talking, walking by, etc... addressed nothing. I didn't take a picture of the Brew House mens room... which I felt like my hands would have been cleaner had I NOT washed them. Water all over the floor.

What this person said! I also liked the vintage Orchestra-style music. and.... REPLACE BURNT OUT BULBS on the iStreet buildings. It's the first AND last thing guests see.

I get it. But, on Sunday, it seemed to be a lot of people "with" the one(s) who legitimately needed to go through the back entrance.

Home Run by KI & SDR. The line was deceivingly long Sunday afternoon. We rode near the end of the operating day, so was in the line room when the Fast Pass and Accessible lines closed. Once those were exhausted, the main line went very fast. I don't recall hearing anything from the original musical score from the original- thought that was to have been played somewhere. Good (ride) add though. From here, it's really on the "guest." For instance, I get that some are physically unable to navigate the line queue; but I don't feel like that is a license for your party-of-10 to skip to the front of the line. The accessible line was out the door and down the walkway a bit with what seemed to be a lot of able-bodied people surrounding one. We'll see how long it is before line queue props are damaged from enterprising <18 guests going to places off-limits. There are a lot of moving parts to keep maintaining, so I hope KI is up to the task; lots of "burnt out bulbs" that weren't replaced from last Fall on those front buildings though....

It's almost time to raise the curtain....

Oooh.. free tap water. At Kings Island.... that's not such a great benefit. Mason City water is TERRIBLE!

Got to go with "C". I think, on it's own, it will be a great addition. However, I'm of the generation that felt that the changeover from the original PT to SDatHC was unnecessary and have felt every iteration thereafter didn't stack up. My concern is that this new version is going to be cartoon'ish and leave the nostalgia longing. Kind of like the Disney line of "a modern adaptation of a timeless classic"... how has that gone?

the same way that 47 years after it's construction, The Beast is still a top 3 (maybe even 1 or 2) at KI- and is usually featured on a majority of their marketing pieces. It always has a wait, high on guest reviews.... and that popularity has endured the pandemic, droughts, hot weather, terrible summers, bad ride attendants, GMs, and countless recessions. It is a a textbook definition of a "Great Coaster". It is remarkable, out of the box, and not available anywhere else. People come, sometimes specifically, to ride the legendary Beast.

LOL... OK- don't rank it. Guessing you're affiliated with the park or draw some sort of income from therein. No other could be that non-objective.

I'm just asking for his ranking. I'd place it 7th or 8th. Not bad. I'm not a coaster enthusiast; just someone that picks and chooses where to spend $. That said, it was the largest investment in park history and they installed a coaster that barely made it to giga status... and does not offer any unique experience that separates it from others in its category.

Rank it. 14 coasters; where do you place it?