We visited Kings Island in Ohio on June 10. It's the 16th most visited theme park in the world, in addition to a great collection of rides it features an array of live shows to entertain visitors.
Here's our review of the day:
Diamondback - a brilliant 230ft B&M hyper coaster with so much airtime and a great splashdown. It's a long ride, racing off into the woodland surrounding the park, soaring up high and plummeting down again over and over. We loved it.
The Beast - this certainly lived up to its name, one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world, incredible. Until you reach the top of the lift hill you have no idea of what awaits you, how long it is (over 4 minutes!) and how intense the speed (65 mph) feels as you hurtle though woodland and tunnels.
Banshee - the world's longest inverted roller coaster is fantastic, especially in the front row as it feels like you can almost touch the winding track as it rushes past above you. The loop around the lift hill is an iconic feature, just one of seven inversions, and the ride entrance is themed well.
Two surprise highlights of the day were located in X-BASE, flying coaster Firehawk and indoor coaster Flight of Fear both with a technological theme. Firehawk sends you up a lift hill laying on your back looking up to sky and then flying through an intense course of inversions. Flight of Fear starts with a powerful launch section then plummets through an exciting course into the darkness, it's an thrilling ride.
Eiffel Tower - a one-third replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, offering panoramic views of the park and for miles beyond. It's a wonderful centerpiece to the park and together with the impressive fountains along International Street looks great.
We also tried a variety of other rides such as the Backlot Stunt Coaster, Adventure Express, The Bat, Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad, White Water Canyon and Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. These were a mixed bag, and most were fairly standard versions of their ride type.
There are some excellent live shows at Kings Island, so it's well worth taking a break from the rides to enjoy these. We were lucky enough to see all of them on our visit including music shows Let It Rock and Hollywood Nights, the animal feature JUMP! The Ultimate Dog Show and acrobatic spectacle Origins: A Cirque Experience. To finish off the day we enjoyed the Off The Charts live music performance, but the Fireworks were disappointing, which didn't utilize the Eiffel Tower or fountains as promoted, and were launched from a site further back in the park so difficult to view.
