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Kings Island
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cedar Fair Entertainment
Park News - (8/19/16) Kings Island has also announced that in 2017 their Soak City waterpark will see the addition of a new smokehouse style restaurant as well as an assortment of other new amenities and improvements. The new restaurant will serve pulled pork, smoked or grilled wings, hand-breaded chicken tenders and shrimp and much more. This actually sounds quite a bit like the awesome new Harbor House restaurant they added this summer to the waterpark at Carowinds and if so, Soak City guests are in for a treat.
(8/18/16) Kings Island has confirmed that after 12 long years WinterFest will return in late 2017.
The focal point of WinterFest will be the world’s largest Christmas tree display with the park’s iconic 314-foot tall Eiffel Tower decorated with thousands of lights which will be seen for miles.
Below the Eiffel Tower, International Street will be transformed into a colorful and quaint winter village, featuring the fun of holidays past – outdoor ice skating on the park’s Royal Fountain, Christmas carolers, and homemade crafts. Tasty foods, colorful gifts, live stage shows, fun rides, and of course, Santa’s workshop will all be part of WinterFest’s warmth and excitement.
Rides will include the Grand Carousel and a journey through the park’s Rivertown area on an authentic steam train.
Operating dates, hours and ticket prices for WinterFest will be announced at a later date. The event will be included free for 2017 Gold and Platinum season passholders.
 2017 - Mystic Timbers - (4/14/17) Kings Island held a media day for Mystic Timbers on Thursday and from all the reviews and words I've seen go far the coaster gives a fantastic, wonderful and unrelenting ride from start to finish. Of course, this is where things get odd... because after about 9 months of hype, what everyone really wanted to know was, "What's in the shed?"
Kings Island went so far as to edit out any of the on-ride POV footage shot for media day to not show off what was in the shed, and the only hints you get are from the reverse POV footage showing rider's faces as they travel through the shed... most smiled, but there was also some confusion I noticed.
Why? Because it seems like Kings Island may have pulled the biggest "troll" on the coaster enthusiast fanboys and fangirls for all time. They sat by and watched and theory after theory has been hyped up online about drop tracks, hidden inversions, reverse launches, immersive tunnels and more... but what's really in the shed?
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
Do not keep reading if you don't want to know... and even I don't know all the details, but here is what I do know.
SPOLER ALERT!!!!
--- Ready? Ok...
It is almost as if Kings Island just pulled the real world equivalent of "Rick Rolling", because riders will slowly enter the shed to an audio warning system that begins to glitch out, only to roll forward into an area of blue/green lights. Suddenly old pop-rock music begins to play... and you'll have to ride several times to hear the different tracks being played. Meanwhile there is apparently a projection screen you pass as you turn showing off some kind of giant bat monsters (or it may have been an animated tree monster) looking creation.
In the various video clips I know I heard Man Eater from Hall & Oats being played in some, along with some other songs I wasn't sure about, though the one thing that would have made this perfect is if they do opt to play Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Givew You Up", but so far no one has seen it yet.
So to summarize... fantastic coaster... quirky ending, but the nice thing is that the park can always change the ending at will as time goes on to play up seasonal holiday themed and more throughout the year if they choose to do so.
(3/27/17) One of our readers runs the Great Lake Coasters site and reached out to GCI for an interview about the new Mystic Timbers coaster that should be ready to open with the rest of Kings Island on April 15th. He was lucky enough to chat with GCI's Adam House for a bit and wrote up his own article about the interview and wanted to share it with Screamscape's readers as well. Enjoy!
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Mystic Timbers is a new wooden roller coaster coming to kings island in the spring of 2017. It was built by Great Coasters International and will be 109 ft tall with 16 airtime hills. It has a midcourse tunnel and is 3,265 feet long. The ride will interact with the Miami Valley Railroad and White Water Canyon at a top speed of 53 miles per hour. But Mystic Timbers is highly anticipated for one reason. It's the one question everyone is asking. What's in the shed?
I recently called GCI to find out more on its new project. They said they would have a representative call me back. A few days later I got a call from Adam House. At least I think that was his last name. It was never made clear. We talked for fifteen minutes and I got all the information I needed. So without further ado here is our interview.
I started off asking how tall the drop is. Adam replied with “the drop is going to be about 104ft you're just off the ground when you hit the bottom”. When I saw that the midcourse tunnel was not on kings islands map I asked if it was still happening? He replied with “yes it is”. I then asked if there was anything he could tell me about mystic timbers that we don't already know.
He replied with “I have ridden the ride now and having ridden the ride I think just the ride experience in of itself is that its fast pace it's low to the ground it really keeps you guessing. I think what's cool is it's really worth a night ride on this thing. It is truly going to be like the beast, It's going to be an entirely different animal at night. It's one of those rides that even for general guests you're going to have to ride multiple times. Once in the daylight, once at night, and then once or twice just to find out what’s in the shed. I think just the entirety of the experience is just coming from a ride that's just completely out of control completely crazy and going right into the shed experience immediately after that is going to be just awesome. It's going to be a great ride and no doubt it's going to blow people away”.
After that long explanation of mystic timbers I had more questions for Adam. I asked him the big question of what's in the shed? Of course he told me “I can't confirm or deny anything you're just going to have to be here next month to find out”. I then asked him if there would be any over banked turns? He replied with “Over banked turn is a term we use just to throw you a little more than you need to be. What’s great about this ride is that we take those turns and compact them. At one point there is actually a quadruple s turn on this ride. it s probably worth waiting to have your first ride as a night ride because you're going to be blown away by just how insane this ride really is”. I then asked “you said you have personally ridden the ride is that correct?”. Adam said “correct just GCI employees have ridden the ride”. I assumed that meant the ride would be ready for opening day April 15th.
Adam told me that it would “absolutely” be ready. I then looked at a picture with a sign that said Miami River Lumber Company. I asked if that was part of the queue. Adam told me that “So the experience takes part in the fact that the Miami River Lumber Company used to operate here and now whatever is happening inside the shed is really taking control”. I then asked about the building be built in the background of the same picture. He said “They are all part of the shed experience”.
After taking to Adam for some ten minutes I started to wrap up my interview with a few final questions. I asked about the cars. He told me they were themed to a 1957 Chevy truck. I asked about how long it took to build it and he told me “ it has been in development for a year and a half”. I then asked a question that has been on every coaster enthusiast mind whether they agree or not. I asked “is there anything that could be a tribute to son of beast?” Adam said “No mystic timbers is a whole unique experience that has nothing to do with son of beast”.
That question wrapped up my interview with Adam. If you read through the entire thing you may have noticed I aimed a lot of my question on stats I should know. I did this to try and interpret what is in that shed. I learned that every experience will be different. I learned through my son of beast question that there won't be an inversion, and I learned that the shed has multiple other buildings that contribute to its experience. I think you guys will be pleasantly surprised by Mystic Timbers.
William Skladany AKA Great Lake Coasters
(3/21/17) Great news from Kings Island came in on Monday afternoon with the announcement that Mystic Timbers successfully completed its first test run on Monday. They sent out a brief video showing the coaster diving down the first drop... now if only we knew more about what's in the shed.
(2/10/17) The charity auction to be one of the first riders on Kings Island's new Mystic Timbers coaster is starting up with proceeds going to the Andy & Jordan Dalton Foundation. Follow the link to the official site to read up on the details if you want to participate.
(1/18/17) Some fantastic aerial shots of the Mystic Timbers coaster under construction shot by an airplane flying over the park this week can be found here. This gives us our best view yet of the overall construction project and how it runs through the woods around the rapids ride area.
(1/11/17) A reader sent in a link to some interesting new graphics from the Mystic Timbers project posted on Twitter, including a couple of layouts showing off the station and queue areas as well as some concept art showing off how some of the proposed themeing for how the queue structures will look. Unfortunately, no secrets revealed about just what is in the shed just yet. Click here and scroll down to see a few near the top.
(1/7/17) Kings Island has been showing off the progress on the park's new Mystic Timbers wooden coaster, posting a ton of new photos to their official construction blog as of late, including some cool shots of the new coaster bridging over a small ravine like area. The increase in coverage is likely also the start of the build up to solving the mystery of exactly of "Whats In The Shed?" as we progress towards springtime.
(11/14/16) A new construction video from Midway Mayhem taking a quick look at the Mystic Timbers construction site has been posted this week. Check out the video below, as it is nice to see such huge sections of the new wooden coaster have already been put up.
(8/30/16) A nice video showcasing the start of vertical construction on Mystic Timbers at Kings Island was posted by the local news. Make the jump to check it out.
(8/17/16) New construction photos from the Mystic Timbers site at Kings Island have been posted to Coaster101. Tree being cleared, wood arriving and starting to be worked on and tons of new footers being poured.
(7/29/16) Kings Island announced their new 2017 wooden coaster a few hours ago from GCI (Great Coasters International) to be called Mystic Timbers. The ride will be themed to an old lumber company which has been overrun by a magical overgrowth of plants and vines. The coaster will be 109 feet tall, have a 97 foot first drop, 3,265 feet of track, and hit speeds of up to 53mph along the course that will cross over itself, run down ravines, over water (and the park's rapids ride), through a dense forested area and end with a strange encounter as the train enters the darkness of The Shed. #WhatsInTheShed ? That is one secret the park is keeping to themselves until next spring.
If I had to guess however, my first bet would be on there being some kind of special effects room followed by a free-fall drop track inside the back-half of the shed, not unlike Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Thirteen at Alton Towers, though this would be a first for a wooden coaster. The odd thing however is that there is a 360-view of The Shed on the official website's video page, and it shows that The Shed is an L-Shaped structure, where there doesn't appear to be room for the train to make the turn and exit the shed properly to return to the station. I'm sure we're not seeing the entire picture here of course, but it does create a very interesting mystery.
In addition to The Shed, Mystic Timbers will feature a tunnel at the mid-point of the ride, 16 air-time hills and feature three GCI Millennium Flyer trains (24 passengers each) featuring a themed front car that kinda looks like an old blue truck. Mystic Timbers will also have a 48" height limit.
Oh, and as for that SplinterCat thing... as that doesn't look like it would fit at all with the theme of the ride, I'm guessing Don Helbig threw that out into the internet this morning as a red herring to throw everyone off the scent. (Well played Don... well played...)
Though I have to admit, I really like the idea of the SplinterCat theme for a wooden coaster... it just sounds like a more thrilling name or theme than "Mystic Timbers". Or at least it sounds like something that might sell a few more t-shirts by comparison.
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