Kings Island
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cedar Fair Entertainment
 Park News - (2/26/2023) Kings Island and the “Kings Island Camp Cedar” campground that opened in 2021 have decided to part ways for unknown reasons. According to a local news report, the campground will now be known only as “Camp Cedar” and now being run by the ‘Advanced Outdoor Solutions” management group.
(10/20/2022) Kings Island Adding Adventure Port Land in 2023
(9/11/22) Kings Island has confirmed their list of haunts for the 2022 Halloween Haunt and the list of 6 haunts matches up perfectly with the prediction list from ParkFans last month. The park will also have four scare zones this season: Alien X, Coney Maul, International Street Fear and Pumpkin Eater, along with 3 musical live shows: Monster Rock, NyteWalkers and Terror Rising.
During the daytime hours however, Kings Island will be hosting their new Tricks and Treats Fall Fest (weekends only, Sept. 25 - Oct 30) from 11am to 6pm. The new daytime event will feature favorite food treats, in-park trick-or-treating, themed games and play areas for the little ones, who are invited to dress up for a big costume contest.
(8/21/22) ParkFans tweeted out what they believe to be the full list of haunts coming to Halloween Haunt at Kings Island this fall. Check it out below.
(8/7/22) Keep your eyes open for some new limited time season pass options that could be made available at your local Cedar Fair theme park. On Friday afternoon new black colored pass options called the “Prestige Pass” and “Prestige+ Pass” were being offered at Cedar Point, Kings Island and Carowinds. These higher-priced season passes come with a variety of extra perk options added to them such as free Preferred Parking, VIP lounge access, the use of a single Fast Lane pass per visit, a couple bring-a-friend tickets, in park discounts and more.
Check your local park to see if they are now offering these passes, as they are also good for the rest of the 2022 season as well as the entire 2023 season. The cost and perks differ by park so far, with Cedar Point and Kings Island Prestige passes running $299 and $399 for the “+” version, but Carowinds pricing is only $225 for Prestige and $325 for Prestige+ with the “+” option giving you unlimited visits to all Cedar Fair Parks plus the extra perks, as an upgrade options to those who would normally buy the park’s $250 Platinum Pass.
(7/16/22) Could it be true? Could Kings Island be planning on bringing back the long-lost beloved Phantom Theater attraction in some form? Earlier this season we reported that the park added a new live-action show this summer, themed all around the characters from the lost dark ride attraction. Over the past couple days the park has been posting quite a bit about the Phantom Theater on social media, including an almost sarcastic post that essentially says “Adults have Worshipped the Phantom Theater, Children loved the Phantom Theater. Everyone simply aboard the Phantom Theater. So naturally [on this date] in 2002, we closed the Phantom Theater.”
The park even brought in Rick Dastrip, the designer of the retired attraction to watch the characters he created for the ride to be brought to life on stage this past week. Rick also stayed on hand to sign a bunch of Phantom Theater posters before hosting a Q&A session with guests in the park after one of the live show’s performances.
While Phantom Theater closed in 2002 to give it a Scooby-Doo themed makeover, Scooby and the rest of the Mystery Machine crew were removed from the ride in 2010 along with all the other former Paramount owned IPs following the purchase of the park by Cedar Fair. Over this time period a lot of attractions in the former Paramount parks were renamed as the contracts for their IPs expired. Cedar Fair dropped all the Paramount and CBS-licensed names (Tomb Raider, Top Gun, Italian Job, Star Trek, etc…) right after the purchase, but they were able to keep the Nickelodeon / Hanna-Barbera themes through to the 2009 season before changes had to be made. At this point, Scooby was removed from the dark ride, and the attraction slightly changed to have the more generic “Boo Blasters” theme.
Fans of the old Phantom Theater have long held out hope that it could return someday… somehow. I can’t help but feel that all this talk and teasing by Kings Island this week could possibly be a precursor to a future announcement, so stay tuned!
Sometimes good things come to those who wait.
2023 - Adventure Port - (10/20/22) Kings Island made a surprise announcement on Wednesday revealing details of a brand new land and attractions coming to the park for the 2023 season. The new land is called Adventure Port and in many ways it sounds almost as if it may feature a similar tone and purpose as the Jungle X-Pedition land did for Kings Dominion in 2022, but with more of Mexico down to South American flair.
According to the official description of Adventure Port: “The myths of an ancient civilization and its mighty city carved out of stone have lured travelers from around the globe to this bustling port community for more than a century. Welcome to Adventure Port. New in 2023, and located between Coney Mall and Action Zone, the park’s newest themed area will feature two new family rides, enhanced theming for Adventure Express, Enrique’s quick service restaurant and the Mercado.” The two new rides will include:
Sol Spin - “This recently discovered mechanism appears to be an immense sun disk created by an ancient civilization. Climb aboard these open air, suspended passenger vehicles to experience the thrill of flying 60 feet through the air at 25 m.p.h.” The concept art features what looks like a Zamperla Endeavour, which is essentially the spiritual successor to the old Enterprise ride concept, which now loads riders into individual suspended and open-air seats rather than inside an enclosed ride vehicle.
Cargo Loco - “Need a company to ship your goods? Look no further than the Arrow Cargo Company. Their methods might be a little dizzying, but they’ll get your freight from Point A to Point B…eventually. Check out the shipping barrels for yourself and get ready for the trip of your life!” Once look at the concept art and you’ll recognize this for what it is, a cargo barrel themed Tea Cup ride, which I’m going to guess will be made by Zamperla as well. Since Zamperla’s theming division is second to none, I’m sure both rides will look fantastic once installed.
As previously mentioned, look to dine at The Mercado or Enrique’s, with the later described as offering a tasty menu of tacos, burrito bowls and real burritos, as well as salads and various side items. In case you were wondering, this new land will take over the area formerly known as Oktoberfest and the former Outer Hanks restaurant space, with the new rides going to the left of the Adventure Express entrance, taking over the immediate space over to where the Sling Shot used to be.
Now my only final thought is to wonder if this is simply Phase 1 of a greater plan to come. While there is no need to re-theme the Coney Mall area, the relatively unthemed majority of the Action Zone has long been ripe for redevelopment or to be enhanced with extra theming going forward.
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