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Kings Island
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cedar Fair Entertainment
 Park News - (4/23/14) Those who know me know that I’m a huge fan of The Beast at Kings Island. There simply is no other ride like it and this special, ultra long, wooden coaster just holds a special place in my heart. Check out the video clip below to see a brand new POV of the beast shot on opening weekend 2014 in glorious HD.
(3/14/14) Kings Island reports that the park will
add a new live show called “Cirque Imagine” this season, that will feature acrobatic performers in a 30-minute show in the Kings Island Theater.
(2/12/14) Great news for Kings Island guests, as admission to Dinosaurs Alive is now included as a perk for those with a Gold of Platinum Season Pass.
(12/5/13) KIfansite has posted a new interview with Kings Island’s own Don Helbig where they discuss new details about Banshee, the transformation of The Bat, how Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular will not return in 2014, other changes to the Action Zone and rumors about that fountain show.
(11/29/13) Kings Island will hold a special event at the park on April 17th where you can try to be among the first night riders on Banshee. This is a fundraiser event for A Kid Again, a local non-profit group who helps enrich the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses. If you can raise a minimum of $100 for A Kind Again, you can take part in a special night event at the park that will include unlimited rides on Banshee from 9pm to 11pm, foot and T-Shirt and more. Space is limited however, so if you want to join in click here to register and read up on all the official rules and details.
(11/4/13) In addition to the name “The Bat” returning to Kings Island (how great is that?) in 2014, Screamscape sources tell us that contractors have been touring the park to go over their plans to not only repaint Flight Deck, but it seems that Delirium will also get a new coat of paint as well. No word on if it will get new colors, or if the current colors are just being redone. With the new darker tones in the area from The Bat and Banshee, I’m kind of hoping that the bright Red and Yellow shades on Delirium may be revamped into a new look.
(10/31/13) Since it is Halloween… and time to remember perhaps one of the most beloved rides in Kings Island… one that sadly was closed and given a Scooby Doo makeover several years ago. Yes, I’m talking about the Phantom Theater… a fairly fun rip-off concept of the Haunted Mansion, bringing a bit of Disney to Ohio. Watch the video below.
(9/19/13) CoasterCrew got an exclusive sneak peek at Haunt 2013 this week, as well as a look at the Banshee construction site.
(8/26/13) Great news from Kings Island this weekend. The park reports that the 4th annual Kings Island for the Cure campaign to raise money in the fight against breast cancer raised $126,000 this year for Susan G. Komen. This raises the grand total raised by the park since 2010 to $710,000.
Kings Island also wants to remind everyone that daily operations for the park are now over. The park will be closed August 26-29 and then open again during Labor Day Weekend (Aug 30 to Sept. 2) as they begin their fall operational schedule. Please check the park’s official website to make sure they are open before you plan your next visit.
 2014 - The Bat - (10/31/13) As rumored, Kings Island is going to repaint the Flight Deck coaster (Arrow Suspended) to have a double charcoal color pattern on the supports and bright orange track and rename it The Bat for the 2014 season, in honor of the previous legendary Bat coaster that ran at the park from 1981 - 1983. The trains will also be black. No word on if the entire Action Zone will be renamed into something more befitting of new creepy theme featuring The Bat and Banshee side by side.
(10/21/13) Is a new name or theme coming to Flight Deck at Kings Island in 2014? Months ago I did hear some early rumors and speculation that the park might rename the ride as “The Bat”, as both an homage to the old removed coaster as well as to tie into the themeing of the new Banshee coaster. I love the idea myself and would love to see it happen… but I’ve heard from a Screamscape reader that many of the old remaining Top Gun / Flight Deck aircraft carrier props have suddenly been removed from the ride over the last week or two. KICentral is also abuzz with talk about the idea and what is going on as well, so make the jump for the latest details.
2014 - Banshee - (4/22/14) Banshee is now open at Kings Island and you can check out the awesome POV of B&M’s newest inverted coaster below. Listen when the train reaches the top of the lift hill and you can hear the Banshee scream. A very nice touch.
(3/26/14) A great new picture (see below) of Banshee testing sent out by the park shows off the train p
lunging down the first drop. Everything is on track for Banshee to be ready to open with the rest of the park for the 2014 season on April 18th.
(3/17/14) Kings Island reported that Banshee made a successful first test run over the weekend, and sent us a couple of great pictures (see below) showing off Banshee in action.
(3/6/14) A time-lapse video shows off Banshee under construction from start to finish, as seen by the park’s web-cams.
(2/15/14) Crews install the first Banshee train onto the tracks in the train storage area in this latest picture sent in from Kings Island.
(2/6/14) The first cars for Banshee arrived at Kings Island earlier today… check out the pictures below to see them being unloaded and get your first peek at the new B&M Inverted coaster restraint system.
(1/22/14) Kings Island has sent us a new picture (see below) of Banshee this week, as they near the completion of installing the track for what will be the world’s longest inverted roller coaster.
(1/9/14) Special thanks to Kings Island PR Manager, Don Helbig, for sending new Banshee and Bat photos (see below) this afternoon. Banshee’s Batwing element is almost complete and the repainting of Flight Deck to transform into The Bat is ongoing, with orange track and two shades of charcoal support columns.
(12/29/13) CPRundown has posted a video from an on-site construction tour of Banshee in the snow, along with an interview with Don Helbig. Check it out below.
(12/11/13) Kings Island has sent us a new look at the Banshee construction site this week… covered in snow. Doesn’t seem to stop the construction workers however.
(11/4/13) The Banshee is going up at a rapid pace. Check out four new construction pictures from the site taken over the past week and sent in by Kings Island.
Looking good fellows!!!
(10/3/13) New pictures of Banshee were sent in this week as most of the first drop has now been installed.
(9/27/13) The latest construction picture of Banshee was sent in (see below) a few hours ago by Kings Island as workers put up column number seven for the 167 foot tall lift hill.
(9/5/13) Kings Island has sent out two new pictures from the Banshee construction site this week. Enjoy!
(8/29/13) Kings Island has sent out a picture today showing off the first piece of Banshee track now set into place. Enjoy!
(8/16/13) Kings Island sent in a nice shot of the construction crew already hard at work on Banshee this week.
(8/13/13) A couple of readers drove by the B&M track fabricator site and took new pictures showing off Banshee track and supports sitting on site, ready for shipment to Kings Island.
(8/9/13 - UPDATE) Kings Island made their big 2014 announcement at 10pm on Thursday night with a huge crowd full of park guests, all eager to hear the good news. At $24 million, it will be the single largest investment in Kings Island history. An awesome video shows a graveyard with the tombstones of the park’s departed roller coasters: Bat, Screamin’ Demon, King Cobra and Son of Beast. In the background is the massive wooden structure of Son of Beast, still with the infamous loop. The Banshee shieks and SOB explodes and crumbles into dust only to have new blue supports come up out of the graveyard for Banshee.... the Longest inverted coaster in the world. Our spies were on the ball all along… the blue pieces at the plant are indeed for Banshee, which will also feature purple track.
Meet Banshee… B&M Inverted Coaster, 7 loops, 68 mph, 4124.1 feet of track. The cars will be different than your regular B&M inverted coaster, it will will feature a pull down lapbar style restraint with vest that looks more like what we’ve seen them use on the Wing coasters. Unlike with a normal coaster, the top speed isn’t achieved at the bottom of the first drop, but will come along in the second half of the ride.
Another feature worth mentioning is that there will be no mid-course brake run, meaning that Banshee will run like a bat out of hell until she slams into the final brake run. Speaking of the ‘she’ bit... in an odd statement Kings Island claims that Banshee is ‘the first female-inspired thrill ride at a Cedar Fair’ park. I had to poke a small hole in that... but when Cedar Fair bought the Paramount Parks, there were three Tomb Raider themed rides in the chain... a coaster in Canada, a Top Spin in Kings Dominion and the Giant indoor Top Spin version at Kings Island itself. I’d say that counts as a female-inspired thrill ride to me. Anyway... other than that... Banshee looks to be an incredible and very fitting addition to Kings Island. The perfect addition to an already great coaster line-up. Now how about renaming Flight Deck as Bat for 2014 as well? I think that was a great idea too. In the meantime, check out the awesome videos of Banshee below!
(8/8/13) One more day to go until we find out what’s going on with all this Bat and Banshee business at Kings Island. That said… I’ve heard that CoasterForce has posted a report claiming that the Flight Deck logos have apparently been removed from the trains.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, I’m not buying all this ‘The Bat’ stuff Kings Island has been spewing from the social media channels ever since the blueprints leaked out last week. It’s too obvious and while a Bat logo and temporary webpages (with no real info) were leaked online very briefly… the timing of it all is just way too perfect. Something stinks here… and I think it’s The Bat. The new Bat logo looked a little rough and rushed… and more like a throwback to an ‘80s style ride logo. Which The Bat was… and may be again…
I wont take credit for this idea, as it was posted by a CoasterForce reader, but it makes perfect sense. If Kings Island is intending to revive The Bat name, why not rename Flight Deck as The Bat? This will work especially well being placed next to The Banshee. Plus, lets face it, once Kings Island lost the Top Gun name and changed it to Flight Deck, I’m sure virtually all merchandise sales came to a stand-still. Going with a fun creatures of the night theme for the coasters on this side of the park is a sure way to drive up merchandise sales, plus what longtime Kings Island fan wouldn’t jump at the chance to own some fun throw-back merchandise featuring The Bat once again? Now that I think about it… I can’t figure out why Kings Island didn’t just change the name to The Bat way back when they first lost the Top Gun branding. Flight Deck… what was Kinzel thinking?
Anyway… just a thought, but wouldn’t it be fun to have The Bat and The Banshee in Kings Island for 2014?
(8/6/13) Has all the build up and teasers hinting at The Banshee as the next coaster at Kings Island been a giant ruse? According to a post at AllAmericanThrills strange graphics were found placed on the Kings Island website briefly before vanishing promoting the return of The Bat, a new Wing coaster for 2014. I’m still kind of hoping for the world’s largest Inverted coaster instead of a Wing Coaster myself, but we’ll know more in a few days.
(8/2/13) Kings Island will make their big 2014 announcement at 10pm (yes, at night) on Thursday, August 8th. They are handing out cards to guests as they come in to invite them to “Come scream with the crowd as we unveil our plans for a new world record-breaking attraction”. Looks like Banshee is coming! You can also see a picture of an odd ‘media package’ they sent out to their local market, with a silver comb with blond/silver hair in it. Another Banshee hint it seems.
Want to see more? Check out this video found on YouTube showing off what they claim are the plans for the new KI 2014 coaster. I also find it interesting that the “IC2-J” code on the plans matches up with the label of the blue hardware just found over at the manufacturing plant. (see 7/29/13 entry below) Looks like we have an Inverted Coaster after all. Call me optimistic… but I think I saw 8 or 9 possible inversions as well. While not a world record, this would take the record for most inversions in America.
(7/29/13) All new blue supports (that appear to be for a Transfer track or station structure) have appeared on site at B&M’s fabricator in Ohio. (PIC1, PIC2, PIC3, PIC4) According to the label, these are for a new Inverted Coaster for somewhere. Could this be for Kings Island or will it go somewhere else?
(7/7/13) A reader has sent in a new picture of the Kings Island 2014 construction site which is growing is scope and appears to have new footers under construction on the right side of the photo area which I believe is just behind the Adventure Express coaster, in about the same location of where the top of Son of Beast’s first lift hill and turn was previous located.
(7/1/13) A reader sent in some new pictures of the KI 2014 construction site this week. Peering through the cracks the park has now added some freaky looking evil scarecrow type figures on top of some of the footers as well as one nice and up close to spook you when you look inside. So mix these evil figures with all the ‘No Camping’ warning signs and they are sure painting an odd picture here.
(6/27/13) While our last source seemed fairly certain the new Kings Island coaster would be a Wing design, all the latest rumors come back to what I was thinking I would build if I ran the park… a world record breaking B&M Inverted coaster.
(6/6/13) I’ve been sent a number of messages and tweets about our latest prediction for Banshee to be a B&M Wing Coaster, mostly because Matt Ouimet stated in an interview that Cedar Fair had no Wing Coasters on the drawing boards for 2014. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a man in his position has told a white lie to protect a future project in the works… and at the same time, I can’t verify that the 2014 Kings Island ride will be a Wing coaster either.
Personally, I think it’s a bit kooky to build follow up Gatekeeper at The Point with such a similar style coaster at Kings Island. As I’ve said before, I’d rather seen a gigantic B&M Inverted coaster or Floorless coaster added instead, something with more than 7 inversions. Of perhaps even a B&M Dive Machine would fit the bill.
Of course, there is the remote possibility that we could perhaps be seeing the evolution of the Wing coaster come to Kings Island as well. Going back to when the first rumors about the very first Wing coaster were coming out of Italy, our source said that B&M wanted to evolve their Wing coaster design after a few years to include 4th Dimension style spinning seats. It’s a remote long shot…and no one has even suggested this to me for the Kings Island 2014 project yet, but… I’m just going to put that idea in your heads for now. Don’t even think of it as a “maybe” yet… just think of it as a “What if?”
In the meantime, if your local, keep an eye on the track fabrication yard in Batavia, I hear they have some wing coaster track sitting around destined for somewhere…
(6/3/13) Screamscape sources have confirmed to us that not only is the new Kings Island 2014 coaster from B&M, but that they expect it to be a new large Wing Coaster. And yes… unless things change, we can expect to see it fly under the Banshee name.
(5/31/13) CoasterFusion has a construction update from Kings Island this week, checking in on the footers and progress made for the rumored 2014 coaster project. They also uncovered an odd shaped large triangle shaped footer which they also recognized as similar to a shape used on Leviathan. (You can also clearly see one near the far turn on Behemoth in the Bird’s Eye view here.)
Is it a scientific assumption to say that this is more evidence of a B&M at Kings Island in 2014? Not really… but I’ve got to admit that I’ve been hearing B&M for quite awhile for this project and this does add a small new piece to the puzzle.
(5/6/13) We’ve got a possible new name for the rumored Kings Island giant coaster project coming in 2014. Cedar Fair has just filed for the trademark to use the name “Banshee” on April 24th, 2013. Amusement history buffs will note that Banshee was first used by Cedar Fair as the original name for Mantis at Cedar Point, before they got cold feet about the evil overtones of the name. The never used Banshee logo was actually used as a playful teaser (wink!) by the Cedar Point blog in the early marketing for Gatekeeper at one point as well. Now that they’ve filed a new trademark to use it, Kings Island is the most obvious location where it would do the most good.
The local fanboys will all remember the name and Cedar Point connection, but Kings Island also can put the Banshee name to good use with the marketing of other monsterous coasters like The Beast, Diamonback and the now defunct Son of Beast. Not to mention putting a “Banshee” on the site of the deceased Son of Beast coaster is simply very fitting as well.
While we’re talking about the 2014 coaster… lets take a look at some new construction site pics sent in by readers as seen from the Eiffel Tower. The site cleared (former SOB site) is massive, but we’ve also got a clear look at what seems to be the footers in place for what may be a station or maintenance shed/transfer track area. It’s also worth noting that the old Son of Beast station has been saved and is sitting not far away as well and could possibly be reused as well.
(4/29/13) Kings Island has now opened for the 2013 season and presented guests with an interesting new construction wall blocking off access to the former Thunder Alley go-kart area. The wall is quite eye catching with the black and yellow warning tape design with large red warning signs stating that monitoring is in progress due to an increase in “mysterious and bone-chilling screams” in that area while they identify the source of “this evil phenomenon”.
The whole thing just gave me a big flashback to Son of Beast, where the lead car on the original Son of Beast trains used the same black and yellow pattern and the cars that followed were the same bright red. (See here). It almost gives me chills that we just might just see another descendent of The Beast come to Kings Island. Stay tuned, because I’m sure this will get even more interesting as the summer goes on. Just check out what’s going on behind the wall… looks like they are already hard at work making footers for “something”.
(2/5/13) While I put my bid in for a Super-Sized B&M Inverted coaster in 2014, there are quite a few other people out there who are hoping that Kings Island follows the example of Canada’s Wonderland and adds a Leviathan style 300+ foot GigaCoaster to Kings Island in 2014 instead. That’s a hard rumor to follow, as the Leviathan project at Canada’s Wonderland took so many by surprise as being a very unusual move.
(1/31/13) The latest rumors about the Kings Island 2014 coaster project are interesting, especially due to all the land being cleared out in the park to make way for it. I’m told that this is not for a new land, but really just for one large new steel coaster. While my source is being a bit coy with me regarding the nature of the coaster itself… I did take a moment to really think about what Kings Island already has and what few coaster styles they are still lacking, which isn’t much. The one really big standout and popular coaster design that Kings Island is still strangely lacking after all these years is a true Inverted coaster. Sure, they have Invertigo… but an epic large B&M Inverted coaster that would traverse through the landscape, perhaps taking a nod from Montu and using trenches, tunnels and towering structures to dodge, would be an excellent choice in my opinion. We’ll have to wait and see for now…
(10/2/12) While we really haven’t heard much at all regarding plans for Kings Island in 2013, the early rumors suggest that the park will be getting a very large and expensive new coaster experience for the 2014 season.
(8/28/12) The latest rumor for Kings Island’s next big coaster says that we can expect to see something very large rise up in 2014 on the Son of Beast site. No word on just what kind of ride it may be just yet.
2014 - Fountain Upgrade / Show - Rumor - (2/4/13) I’ve got one quick update this week on those “fountain upgrade” projects in the works for Kings Island, Kings Dominion and Canada’s Wonderland. Screamscape sources tell us this is actually a project that wont see the light of day until the 2014 season, so don’t look for any work to start in the parks anytime soon.
(1/31/13) The rumor mill on what is planned for the park entrance fountains at Kings Island and Kings Dominion has been abuzz with talk about adding a sort of Bellagio style light and fountain show that would perform to different music tracks. Unfortunately it seems this was just a leftover whisper from a previous proposal that was canceled months ago. Instead I’m told it has been replaced by a more modest and smale scale fountain improvement project according to the latest rumors.
(1/21/13) Comments made by Matt Ouimet have indicated that Cedar Fair will perform some kind of special update / upgrade to the fountains at Canada’s Wonderland, and followed by upgrades to the fountains at the entrance to Kings Island and Kings Dominion as well, based on something they saw at IAAPA. Anyone have a clue what could be in the works?
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