Kings Island A Ride Through Time by Evan Ponstingle

This is a book about the local theme park, Kings Island. It's about 45 minutes from my house (I live in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Delhi Township) and one of the biggest theme parks in the area of Mason, Ohio. It was originally in the smaller area of Kings Mills, Ohio, but was annexed to Mason, Ohio. It's a constantly evolving beast, no pun intended for the resident roller coaster, The Beast. This is a popular destination for residents of the Tri-State area of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Even out of state residents rent cars to come here. It's an interesting read for anyone interested in local history like this.

-This book talks about the history of the local theme park, Kings Island. It starts out talking mainly about another theme park located in the city of Cincinnati, called Coney Island. This particular park was more along the lines of a kiddie park because it had a big pool and low thrill rides. Rides that could be rode by both adults and kids. In fact, the most aggressive ride that Coney had to offer at one point was the Shooting Star or the Python, steel coasters that didn't have loops, just big hills and bunny hills (small, short hills for those who may not know).

Delirium in Adventure Zone next to Banshee. Most would say that engineers cranked up the G-force on this, making it harder, faster and more aggressive. WARNING: You will get severely dizzy on this ride. I rode this the first time I went to Kings Island and I had to close my eyes otherwise I was going to be sick all over someone

The retro pickup truck-looking cars of Mystic Timbers in Rivertown

Zephyr in the Coney Mall / Midway. This is one of my favorites because it's old school. Those white timbers you see in the background? That's part of the Twin Racers

-A lot of the rides were relocated from here to a large, empty plot of land being planned, in development, for a large park off of Interstate 71. The developers for the park noticed that Coney Island was off of Interstate 75, but Interstate 71 had nothing. They decided to build a new theme park and relocate these rides there. Of course, building a theme park costs money and developers asked local Taft Broadcasting for funding. The company gladly did when they heard the pitch for a new theme park. Once construction began, everything started moving in the positive. Once the park was built, the areas planned out, it needed a name. A contest was held to decide the name and a local thirteen year old named Rebecca Richards chose the name Kings Island as a combination of "Kings" from the area the park was located in, Kings Mills and "Island" from Coney Island.

WindSeeker. It's beautiful during the day. It's magical at night, especially clear nights. You can see everything, at least everything that's lit up. You can see the lights on the signs before the drops on The Beast, which is right next door. And on clear days, you can see for miles. Don't do what I did: take your phone on with you unless you have a death grip on it. This ride goes up pretty high, at least 300 feet. Otherwise that phone is smashed. I took my phone on it during Halloween Haunt and I took some amazing photos. I had the best view of Cincinnati's skyline all lit up

Celebrating 50 years of spills and thrills. Because it opened in the 1970s, in the Fest Haus, there was a 70s-themed show that would play periodically

The hanging, suspended cars for Banshee. Definitely my #1 favorite ride here. Designers engineered it that way to make it a fan favorite. Ridership is extremely high on this one because it's smooth, no bumps and the right amount of speed and thrill

-As time went on, things came and went, things changed. Initially, there was an animal safari park, but the cost of caring for the animals became too high and they animals were shipped to places where people could properly care for them. It was then decided that this park would just be, exclusively, a theme park. The layout was set in a four leaf clover design, each "leaf" being a different theme area with rides and attractions to that theme. Over time, the themes have changed, the rides come and gone. Currently, the theme areas are Rivertown (modeled after the early days of Cincinnati being a literal river town as it straddles the Ohio River. The buildings are all of that single sided clapboard shingling common to buildings during the days of river boats), Adventure Zone (originally known as Adventure Village where all of the heart-racing rides are), Planet Snoopy (originally known as Nick Central because Viacom, who owns the children's channel Nickelodeon, had rides modeled after their cartoons) and Area 72 (named after the year the park opened, 1972 and made to look like a super, top secret government facility).

A banner announcing the opening

Diamondback. This is my #2 favorite ride. I was nervous the first time I rode it, but after that first hill, it just got better. I always say it's that first hill that gets you every time.

The Eiffel Tower during WinterFest, a beautiful Christmas-themed event that didn't happen for several years because of low attendance. It was brought back to much fanfare and is the second most popular event at the park behind Halloween Haunt

Halloween Haunt. This is what would happen if a heavy metal fan and a horror movie fan put their minds together and also worked in a theme park. Heavy metal is playing loudly throughout the park. Rides are open, but the wait lines are long, usually 1-2 hours. But, the park closes at midnight. You can usually tell when the employees are preparing for closing when you see them roping off the entrances to the rides

-At one time, Paramount owned the park and had movie-themed rides throughout the park. The Drop Tower, as its's known by now, was originally The Drop Zone, after the Wesley Snipes film. This ride has you sitting in a row of seats, you're taken up in to the air and dropped suddenly. Another ride is The Italian Job, named after the movie of the same name. The cars you sit in are modeled after Mini Coopers since that film popularized the small British-made car. This is a stunt track-type coaster that shoots you off at 55 mph in four seconds. There's also Face/Off, a coaster that allows you to face the people across the car from you as you do both a forward and backwards lap. Top Gun was a suspended pivot coaster that swiveled to the left or right.

Invertigo, formerly Face/Off when it was still Paramount Kings Island

An old school look at Kings Island back in the 1970s. That ferris wheel-looking ride was called Zodiac. This is a view down the dual tracks of the Twin Racers

The Mini Cooper cars of formerly The Italian Job, but now the Backlot Stunt Coaster

Banshee lit up at night. It's one thing to ride it during the day. But it's completely different at night because you can't see what's coming. This is one of the biggest, fastest coasters in the park. And my #1 favorite. I wasn't even nervous about going on it. I was excited about it. And what's also cool is that at night, the wailing and howling you hear while waiting in line adds a sinister vibe to the ride in addition to the tombstones scattered around, bearing names of rides that have been demolished, such as Son of Beast, Vortex, King Cobra, etc. I laughed so hard the first time I went on it because it was at night and the wailing and howling startled my sister, who wasn't expecting it. I told her it was because the Banshee is also known as the Wailing Woman. A figure who brings imminent death to those who hear her wails

-But when Paramount lost the rights to the park, the rides had to be renamed and repainted. Top Gun was repainted in black and orange and renamed The Bat, after a ride of that same name once operated in the park. The Italian Job was renamed and painted the Backlot Stunt Coaster. Face/Off was repainted in a blue-green color scheme and renamed Invertigo. The Drop Zone was renamed The Drop Tower.

The park's oldest, but yet most iconic ride. It's been there since the mid to late 1970s and is still drawing crowds in the hundreds

The park and Mason-area's first giga coaster. This ride is tall and fast. The story behind it is a secret government facility is testing out a new escape transport to evade the meteor storm threatening humanity. And the riders are the test subjects to test its success at evading the oncoming meteor onslaught

A side view of Mystic Timbers with that large hilly coaster visible nearby being Diamondback

The Monster, now known as Octopus in the Coney Mall / Midway. Visible in the background is the initial hill you climb for Twin Racers

-There was even an onsite water park that went through many names. Originally, it was the WaterWorks. When Paramount owned it, it was heavily Australian-themed to tie in with the wildly successful Crocodile Dundee series. Then it was finally repainted and renamed Soak City. The book even talks about other parks similar to Kings Island under the Cedar Fair chain, which is the company who owns Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Those parks include King's Dominion in Dorney Park, Virginia, Carowinds in the Carolinas, Wonderland in Canada and, of course, Cedar Point in Sandusky.

The first drop on Twin Racers. My #1 favorite wooden coaster

The red and blue cars of Twin Racers. I do apologize for having a lot of photos of the Twin Racers, but Kings Island is proud of this ride being the first ride in the park that was built and they take pride in it still being massively popular after all of these years

The Woodstock Whirlybirds in Planet Snoopy

-There are also facts I didn't know. Such as:

-Kings Island was the first to introduce pizza as a food option. Theme parks up until that point had only offered finger food such as hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries. Kings Island managers wanted to offer additional options for food. With locally-owned pizzeria LaRosa's being still in the process getting started, managers thought it would be good to offer the fare from this local pizzeria and it worked instantly.

-Kings Island's first official coaster built in the park was the Twin Racers, sometimes affectionately referred to as The Racer. Ride designers had been inspired by other parks who had "racing", coasters, roller coasters who raced side by side. Originally, the ride was painted red, white and blue, but a new paint job in the 1990s had the tracks painted white and the cars left red and blue. For a short time, the blue car ran backwards as a gimmick to draw more people into the park. It worked until designers realized roller coasters aren't supposed to run backwards. They reset the chain dog lift that pulls a car uphill back into the correct setting and now the blue and red cars run forward. Of course, this also doesn't stop people from the red and blue cars talking smack about who will get back into the station first. Of course, Kings Island's main "competitor", Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, also has a racing roller coaster very similar to The Twin Racer. They call their racing roller coaster Gemini. A lot of the rides at Cedar Point are incredibly similar to Kings Island

-Their model of the Eiffel Tower, built in 1/3 scale, is nearly as tall as the real one.

-The park is haunted. It's in almost every major book about haunted locations in and around Cincinnati. It was featured in an episode titled "Roller Ghosters" on the TV show Ghost Hunters. The TAPS team picked up the voice of a little girl who was thought to be buried at the cemetery near the front gate to the park. The cemetery is visible no matter which way you go in. Whether it be getting off at Western Row Road, going straight at the traffic light and following the cars, you'll see the cemetery on your right in a nice, shaded wooded glen, or getting off the highway at Mason-Montgomery Rd and turning onto Kings Island Drive and passing the Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park and hotel. It's visible on the right on this way as well.

-And the spirits not picked up by the TAPS team still haunt the park. The spirit of a 17 year old high school graduate named John Hartner haunts the Eiffel Tower. It was Grad Night sometime in the 1970s and his BAC (blood alcohol level) was more than twice the legal limit. He had tried to climb the staircase to the observation deck on the Eiffel Tower. He slipped and fell, getting tangled in the elevator cords. When the elevator operator noticed a "funny jump" with the elevator, training told him to run the elevator up to loosen the slack. This worked and unfortunately, allowed a drunk Hartner to fall to his death. It's believed his spirit is haunting the Eiffel Tower. His death marked the first time a guest was killed. Another unfortunate death involved a woman named Candy. Once again, alcohol was involved. This 32 year old woman and her friends were drinking heavily throughout the day and decided to get on the Flight Commander, a spinning ride in which you buckle yourselves into a sort of hang glider-like car. She was so intoxicated that she slipped out and her leg caught on part of the ride. When it went to do a revolution, she was thrown to the grassy hillside nearby, killing her on impact. Another series of accidents was labelled Black Sunday in the early to mid 1990s. It involved two people being killed and one seriously injured. At the pond in the Oktoberfest part of the park, a fountain without properly insulated wiring and GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter to prevent electrocution) had sprayed. The water was electrified and had electrocuted a security guard and a guest. Both were rushed to nearby Bethesda Hospital, but were pronounced dead on arrival. The other person was rushed to University of Cincinnati Hospital, but had survived. The park was fined $11,300 and ordered to put in ground fault circuit interrupters in all of the fountains throughout the park

-Park managers make sure that every guest feels safe throughout the park. This means adding in first aid stations, private suites for nursing mothers and plenty of food options and bathrooms. They also make sure to consider special diets and foods for those with food-based conditions such as Celiac Disease and any food-based allergies. They also have what they call "sitting walls", which are raised planters with plants and trees providing shade and a place to sit. They also offer sit-down restaurants that offer more than just your average theme park fare. One of the better sit down restaurants is the Miami River Brewhouse in Rivertown. It has a bar and regular, non-theme park food and a sit down environment if you want a change of pace for food. It's also right in the middle between two of the park's more successful rides: White Water Canyon and Mystic Timbers. There are even nationally and internationally-known chain restaurants in the park, like Chick-Fil-A, Skyline, LaRosa's Pizza, Starbucks, Subway, Auntie Ann's, Panda Express and more.

-Both The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family filmed an episode here. The Brady Bunch episode is called "Cincinnati Kids". The Partridge Family episode is titled "I Left My Heart in Cincinnati". David Cassidy from The Partridge Family rode the Twin Racers 12 times in a row while Danny Bondauce outdid him and rode it 22 times in a row

-This park is the reason there are Fun & Safety guides before every ride in every theme park in the world. This park introduced the concept of the Fun & Safety guides before each ride. It came as a result of a gentleman in poor health getting on an early coaster in the park, the Bavarian Beetle. It was a relatively smooth steel coaster relocated from Coney Island, a family-friendly park with a large recirculating pool. This steel coaster was aging and slightly bumpy. This 91 year old, who was already in poor health to begin with, had gone on the Bavarian Beetle and broken his neck. He tried to sue the park, but even his attorney stated he should have known not to get on a ride if he knew his health was bad. But, none the less, the attorney kindly asked park managers and even the attorney for the park to put up signs before each ride stating that if you have conditions that will be aggravated by the ride, please don't get on. It was more to cover the park's bases than anything else. They say it's not trying to ban people from riding; it's mostly if not all for the safety of the rider. Park mangers want to keep people safe. That's why before you ride each ride, there are requirements for height so you can ride safely. There are warnings to those with epilepsy if the ride has flashing strobe lights. There are warnings to little kids scared by loud noises if the ride has loud noises. There are warnings to those with cardiac issues if the ride is fast, warnings to pregnant women not to get on so as to not jostle the baby you're carrying and warnings to those with cervical neck braces to ride because of the bumpiness if there is any.

-Kings Island has a set up similar to Disney Land in Florida only in the sense of having themed areas. The setup of Kings Island and the other sister parks under Cedar Fair have similar setups. They are set up in the shape of a four leaf clover, with each "leaf" being a different themed area and rides, games and shops themed after that area's theme. In Kings Island, some of the themes include:

 -Rivertown, which is modeled after the early days of Cincinnati, which is a literal river town. The single sided clapboard buildings harken back to the days when large river boats would land in Cincinnati to unload cargo and people.

-Adventure Zone, originally named Adventure Village. This is where all of the really fast, heart-pumping rides are. Planet Snoopy, originally Nick Central. When Paramount lost the rights to the park, all of the rides here had to be repainted, redesigned and renamed. Runaway Reptar became The Flying Ace's Aerial Chase and was given an orange and yellow color scheme. The Wild Thornberry's River Adventure became Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown. It was redesigned to look like an old lumber mill and as you get to the top of the flume, you hear buzzing sawblades to simulate going down the chute at a sawmill. The Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster was demolished and instead in its place was It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It's a small coaster for little kids, like preschool and kindergarten age kids. 

-Oktoberfest is a small part of the park where a lot of old school rides reminding you of carnivals exist and it's heavily German-themed. The International Street is, no pun intended, world renowned for its authenticity. It has buildings with different flags on it and the main fountain draws your eyes to the Eiffel Tower straight ahead. Some of the flags on International Street include the French flag, where you can get French-inspired food. The Spanish flag where you can get Spanish-inspired goods. The Italian flag where you can get pizza and other Italian food and goods.

-The Coney Mall / Midway is where all of the old school-type rides are in addition to being a heavy games area. Some of the rides here are that of old school carnival type rides. One is called Shake, Rattle & Roll and it's a tilt o whirl type ride. Then there's the Scrambler, which puts two people to each car and swirls them round and round.

-Area 72 is a small part of the park off the Coney Mall / Midway. It's designed to look like a super secret, top secret government facility. The "72" is from the year that Kings Island opened, 1972. This is where the region's first giga coaster, Orion is located, adjacent to the park's own indoor coaster, Flight of Fear. This ride has you locking in tight to your car and shooting you off at 55 mph in semi darkness. It will, quite literally, take your breath away because you don't see it coming. You also get off at a different station than where you got on. A funny side note. When me, my sister, her boyfriend and a friend of his went there for the first time, that was the first ride we went on. I, of course, forgot to put my glasses in our locker (you have to rent a locker for this ride so you don't lose your valuables). So when it came time to board, we seen empty cars coming in and my sister's boyfriend said "Where'd all of the people go?", knowing it would get my sister wondering. I can safely say that I had to hold my glasses the whole time and it quite literally took my breath away. I was shaking so bad when I got off the ride from the adrenaline. It was awesome, but I had to stand for a bit to let my legs adjust from the G-force I was just thrust into. While the story behind Orion is far cooler. You're test subjects in a new escape transport. A meteor storm is coming. You have to get out fast. Orion is your new escape transport and you're the test subjects to make sure it's safe and effective.