|
Kings Island
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cedar Fair Entertainment
 Park News - (2/10/2025) Given that we’ve seen a number of roller coasters closed and removed from several parks within the newly merged “Six Flags” theme park chain, a couple of rumored candidates for retirement by the end of the 2025 season (or they may survive until 2026) have been sent in to Screamscape. At this time, I’m not saying with any certainty that these rides will in fact be removed… only that this is a new rumor of something being talked about by the corporate office. I also have to admit that closing these rides would indeed meet the requirements that Six Flags management has been looking for when it comes to retiring older coasters that are possibly getting more problematic to maintain.
With that out of the way, the two rumored roller coasters that I’ve heard mentioned are actually clones… the Premier Rides “Flight of Fear” indoor launched coasters that first opened at Kings Island and Kings Dominion way back in 1996 under the name: Outer Limits: Flight of Fear, tying into the Paramount Park’s studio branding.
Depending on if they close in late 2025 or 2026, the two Flight of Fear coasters will either be 29 or 30 years old, and the identical rides were also billed as the world’s first LIM launched coasters when they first opened. For those that remember the early days of these prototype coasters, there were quite a few teething issues that took place in order to not only open these rides, but to keep them operational in those days.
Two years later, Six Flags opened four of their own LIM launch coasters from Premier Rides, Mr. Freeze at Six Flags over Texas and Six Flags. St. Louis and the dual-tracked Batman & Robin: The Chiller at Six Flags Great Adventure. The later creation suffered the most problems, which eventually saw The Chiller closed for good in 2007. However, some have also suggested that the Mr. Freeze coasters could also be up for retirement following the rumored retirement of the two Flight of Fear coasters. Again… just a rumor upon another rumor, so no truth to this yet, but just something to keep in mind because nothing lasts forever. (and yes… Superman: The Escape (now Escape from Krypton) at Six Flags Magic Mountain also comes from this same era, having been planned to open in 1996, but was pushed back until 1997 due to Intamin having technical issues with that ride’s LSM launch system.)
Anyway, we’re getting way ahead of ourselves… so for now, if you get the chance to ride Flight of Fear this summer, go ahead and take it. You never know when the ride could be retired for good.
(1/23/2025) Kings Island has announced that while the park will open for the 2025 season on April 19, 2025, we won't see the new additions inside the Soak City waterpark ready to open until the waterpark opens on May 24th.
(12/21/2024) Regarding that rumor claiming the era of The Bat could be coming to an end, sooner than later at Kings Island, new alternate rumors are also rising about what attractions Kings Island may choose to close instead. This has been the case at every park where rides have closed thus far, as rumors begin flying pointing the finger at entirely different rides. In the case of Six Flags Great Adventure, they actually lost everything that was rumored.
In the case of Kings Island, the united thread between closing The Bat and the alternate rumor is a design to revamp the park’s Action Zone into something new. Based on this other report, alternate rides on the chopping block would be the park’s Vekoma Invertigo coaster and the Congo Falls flume ride next door.
The loss of Congo Falls would be no surprise as one-by-one all of these shoot the chutes style flume rides have been getting removed across the nation for the past 15+ years. Meanwhile the Invertigo coaster (formerly known as Face/Off) would likely be retired for most of the same reasons that Six Flags just decided to close Nighthawk at Carowinds for.
The Vekoma made Invertigo is also the last such roller coaster of it’s kind operating in North America, having opened at the park back in 1999. Vekoma only produced four Invertigo style coasters in the world and strangely enough, this is the only one that is still standing in the original park it was built for, as the other three have been relocated at least once, and in the case of the original model, HangOver from Liseberg, it is now running at it’s 4th location, currently at Bagatelle in France under the name Triops. (For those keeping track, another one is currently at Movieland Park (Italy) as Diabolik, and the final one started as Invertigo at California’s Great America then moved to Dorney Park as Stinger where it ran for just three seasons (2015 to 2017) before being scrapped.
Just as the report about The Bat, these are all just rumors at this point, so nothing has been confirmed or announced by the park or Six Flags management. However, I wouldn’t expect any kind of pre-announcement to come either, so next time you are at the park, be sure to give them all a ride just in case. You never know when your favorite ride may be retired.
(12/17/2024) As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the new Six Flags management is looking to retire a few old rides at each of the chain’s parks, with older rides that are no longer popular, or those that are very costly due and difficult to maintain being high on the list. While previously it was thought that most victims of this strategic endeavor, known internally as “Project Accelerate” might be removed this winter, Six Flags CEO, Richard Zimmerman, referred to Project Accelerate as a long term plan. This will involve a review of each park’s portfolio of attractions over a span of time, which means that while some rides may be safe this winter, they may instead be on the chopping block next year. This would explain why some of the rumors that are starting to surface may also involve very different rides being talked about for removal at any given park, as the situation may still be very fluid.
So what does this have to do with Kings Island? Well… we know Kings Island has already been tapped to add a large new attraction for the park’s 2026 season, and they already have a large open space in which to build it, assuming they use the former Vortex site. However, a new rumor that has come to my attention claims that Kings Island may be planning to remove yet another old attraction at the end of the 2025 season. In this case, it sounds like they may be talking about retiring The Bat, the park’s Arrow Suspended coaster.
It’s ironic that they might think about retiring The Bat, which started off life at the park under the Paramount regime with the name: Top Gun: The Ride. It opened in 1993, and strangely enough, out of the 10 Suspended Coasters that Arrow created, The Bat was the very last one ever built. Strangely enough, The Bat was also the very first Arrow Suspended Coaster, also built at Kings Island in 1981, on the site of the former Vortex coaster for that matter. This prototype version of The Bat had some serious design issues and was only open from 1981 to 1983, and sat idle at the park for two more seasons until Kings Island decided it wasn’t fixable and removed it.
Other than the current version of The Bat, there are only three other Arrow Suspended coasters in operation in North America: Iron Dragon at Cedar Point (1987), Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain (1988) and Vortex at Canda’s Wonderland (1991), and as a result of the merger, all four of these fall under the ownership of the new mega Six Flags chain.
I’m not sure what this says about the long term future of the other three, as Iron Dragon is often a much forgotten ride at Cedar Point by today’s high thrill seekers, while Vortex at Canada’s Wonderland is said to be popular with that park’s more family oriented atmosphere. This leave Ninja up for discussion at Magic Mountain as well, and while there is a goal to ensure that SFMM maintains their record of having the most roller coasters in a single park in the world, Ninja hasn’t had the best life, having been subjected to more than a few Earthquakes over the years, as well as having a large trees or two also fall on it.
Regardless, when visiting Kings Island over the next year, give The Bat some love and get a good number of rides in, just in case.
2025 - Soak City Improvements - (2/5/2025) Kings Island has posted a construction video showcasing the progress on the waterpark’s new RiverRacers attraction.
(1/1/2025) A late Christmas present arrived at Kings Island just before the end of the year, with a special delivery of pieces and parts for the park’s new River Racers and Splash River Junction attractions coming to Soak City in 2025.
(8/9/2024) Kings Island has announced that a new dual-racing water coaster is coming to the waterpark in 2025 called RiverRacers. In addition the waterpark will also expand further to add Splash River Junction, a new cool place for families to relax and cool off, featuring a water tower and seven new kid friendly slides for the younger set.
(7/6/2024) Backing up those rumors we had the 2025 Kings Island plans to update their Soak City waterpark, a screen capture was posted to KICentral showing off a series of permits that have been filed for the various waterpark projects as well as other behind the scenes improvements (fire suppression, cell tower upgrades, signage) and it looks like the park is also adding a Human Claw Machine too.
(7/2/2024) Screamscape sources has confirmed to us that Kings Island’s plans for 2025 will focus on some improvements to their Soak City waterpark. This will include an upgraded “pumphouse” to improve the water flow at the park’s Mondo Monsoon (Tornado) waterslide, an upgrade to the kiddie area that will likely see some new slides added, or possibly replace some older ones, and for the thrill seekers, look for a new Master Blaster slide to be added.
From what I’m hearing however, the Master Blaster slide may be a smaller model, as it was described as featuring one major uphill blaster section near the start of the layout, and maybe a couple of minor mini-hills along the course before arriving at the splashdown.
2026 - Family Thrill Ride / Former Vortex Site - (11/14/2024) A press release from Six Flags today confirmed that the company is planning to spend over $1 BILLION on the parks over the next two years. Some of this will come in the form of enhancements to the guest experience, such as new themed areas, dining upgrades and technology enhancements. While we’ve seen the 2025 capital projects ($500 million) already announced, they decided to post a list of teasers of what they are already confirming will come to some of the parks in 2026 as part of another $525 million capital investment plan.
Kings Island made the list with a teaser to add “a new family thrill attraction”. This could be just about anything, but as the park already added new attractions to Camp Snoopy in 2024, I’d think this might be something a bit bigger and with wider appeal. Plus there are survey markings said to be around the former Vortex plot, so keep your eyes peeled here during the 2025 season.
(10/27/2024) Something new may be in the early planning stages for Kings Island. I’m told that a number of metal stakes have been pounded into the ground and pathways at Kings Island around the plot of the former Vortex roller coaster, with a number visible along the pathway from the Jukebox Diner to The Beast.
Obviously this is the biggest open plot of land available in the park and can easily accommodate the biggest of attractions when they are ready to do so. So what do you want to see built here?
Future Ride Concepts Guest Survey - (4/28/2024) A new guest survey was sent out by Kings Island to get opinions on possible new ride concepts for the park. Similar surveys were also sent out to guests about Carowinds and Cedar Point, though the style though not all the rides were the same.
Rides proposed for Kings Island include a strange sounding ‘Tower Coaster’ that would launch riders out on outwards-facing circular cars, through an upside-down launch and up a 200 foot tower with a spiral at the top, only the roll backwards through the course again.
Also proposed is a 4,500 foot long family launched shuttle coaster, a 300 foot tall B&M Dive Coaster, and unique to Kings Island was a proposal for an Indoor/Outdoor Dark Ride Coaster. Described as taking riders “through a high themed mysterious adventure, part dark ride, park coaster. Encounter multiple scenes and show elements through darkened passages where you’re never quite certain of what lies ahead. Experience surprise track switches, speeds reaching up to 40mph, snaking riders indoors and out, with unexpected moments and a startling finale.”
|
