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Rumor and announcement season is in full swing in the theme park world, and haunt season is also well underway at many parks. Kings Island, near Cincinnati, Ohio, has seized the opportunity to start their own rumor mill, by revealing that a coaster would be closing for good this October, during their Halloween Haunt event.
Kings Island has confirmed the rumors that arose during their opening weekend of Halloween Haunt are true: one of their coasters is set to close on Oct. 28.
One of Kings Island’s fan-favorite attractions, the antique cars ride formerly known as Les Taxis, is returning to the park in spring 2019.
Hosts Banks Lee and Elisa Rodriguez bring you this week’s theme park and attraction news. On this week’s episode: [Read more…]
King’s Island Halloween Haunt will start September 23 and run every Friday and Saturday night through October 29.
Halloween Haunt at King’s Island will run from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m., except for September 24 when the Mason, Ohio park opens to the public at 7 p.m. The event features 11 haunted mazes, three outdoor scare zones, three live stage shows and more than 600 assorted clowns, ghouls, vampires, werewolves and zombies, plus 20 rides including the Banshee, Beast and Diamondback roller coasters.
New this year is Field of Screams, a 10,000-square foot outdoor maze experience. Returning haunted attractions include: Backwoods Bayou, Blackout, Board to Death, CarnEvil, Kill Mart, Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror, Slaughter House, Sorority House, Urgent Scare and Wolf Pack.
The live entertainment lineup features Blood Drums, a percussive blood bath of rhythm and music; Hot Blooded, a seductive after-life revue; and Monster Rock, which features the music of Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and others.
Tickets for Halloween Haunt start at $30.99 when purchased in advance online at visitkingsisland.com/haunt or the Kings Island’s mobile app, which Android and iPhone users can download for free. Admission to the event is free for Gold and Platinum season passholders.
Guests can add Fright Lane with Skeleton Key for as low as $40, which allows them to bypass waiting in line to experience 10 of the haunted attractions. The Skeleton Key unlocks a secret extra room inside of five of the attractions: Kill Mart, Madame Fatale’s Cavern of Terror, Slaughter House, Sorority House and Urgent Scare. In addition to the five mazes with a secret extra room, a new standalone Skeleton Key room, The Viewing, has evening services each night of Halloween Haunt.
Parents, be advised. Halloween Haunt includes graphic scenes, suggestive themes and intense imagery and is intended for mature audiences.
For younger guests, the all-new Great Pumpkin Fest, presented by the Hershey Company, takes place every Saturday and Sunday in October to provide fright-free fun. Kids can trick-or-treat, play in a foam pit, visit a petting farm, enjoy Halloween activities, participate in a costume contest and meet characters from the Peanuts gang. Guests can also watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary.
For further King’s Island thrills, watch this ride-through rendering of Mystic Timbers, a new wooden roller coaster coming to Kings Island theme park in spring 2017:
By Andy Guinigundo
Mason, Ohio – If one thing can be said about the people of Southwest Ohio, they surely are coaster enthusiasts. Amazingly, guests began to queue up over two hours before the announcement of the new major attraction to be opened in April 2017 in Kings Island theme park.
What was all the excitement about? This was all based on the assumption (or wishful thinking?) that the new attraction was to be a new roller coaster, although this was never certain. Prior to the 2D blueprint being released a few weeks ago, people were guessing everything from giga-coaster like sister park Carowinds’ Fury 325, to a new log flume like the Kenton Keelboat Canal ride that formerly stood in the spot.
If you guessed a wooden coaster, and many did, you win, well, a new wooden coaster! The coaster is being built by Great Coasters International, a Sunbury, Penn. company which specializes in the design and building of wooden roller coasters. Some you may recognize are Thunderhead at Dollywood, Gold Striker at California’s Great America, and Orlando’s White Lightning at Fun Spot. Just this past year, they refurbished several older coasters including Holiday World’s The Legend and Knotts Berry Farm’s GhostRider. Kings Island Vice President Greg Scheid mentioned Worlds of Fun’s GCI coaster Prowler in particular as an attractions he has wanted at Kings Island ever since its debut in 2009. Prowler may be Mystic Timber’s closest “cousin” in features and layout.
Mystic Timbers will fit nicely into Kings Island’s soon-to-be 16 roller coaster line-up. They have their share of steel: DiamondBack, Banshee, Stunt Coaster. They have legendary wooden coasters like the record holding longest coaster in the world, The Beast, and classic duel racing coaster The Racer. Mystic Timbers will be a lower to the ground, airtime beast. It will be nestled in-between The Beast and The DiamondBack, but in the woods, taking advantage of the classic Southern Ohio landscape.
Two other things they teased at the announcement: At the ride’s end, it enters a shed. What is in the shed? This is anyone’s guess. They additionally stated that in August, they will have another big announcement.
More details for Mystic Timbers
The ride is themed to an area surrounding a lumber company becoming overrun by a mysterious medusa-like overgrowth of vines as nature reclaims its land.
Mystic Timbers will be 3,265 feet in length, reach 109 feet in height and weave along steep cliffs, down ravines, cross over water and go through an extreme S-turn, among a forest of trees, at speeds up to 53 mph.
The ride will feature a total of 16 airtime hills, a mid-course tunnel and interact with parts of the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad and White Water Canyon attractions.
Three trains will accommodate 24 passengers each (four riders per car and six cars per train) with a capacity of 1,200 riders per hour. Guests must be at least 48 inches tall to ride. The ride experience will last more than two minutes.
