King's Island
My wife, son and I visited King's Island as part of his roller coaster summer graduation gift. The park was owned by Cedar Fair and became a Six Flags property when the companies merged. When reading, please bear in mind that our focus is roller coasters. We pretty much ignore flat and spinning rides. My son and I are the coaster addicts. My wife is the official back monitor and professional bench tester. She has a strong aversion to roller coasters.
King's Island is a 364-acre amusement and water park located in Mason, Ohio, about 24 miles northeast of Cincinnati. First opened in 1972, it has grown into one of the most visited and acclaimed seasonal theme parks in the United States, celebrated for its world-class collection of roller coasters, family-friendly themed areas, and meticulously kept midways anchored by a one-third scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.
The park features a lineup of legendary thrill rides, including The Beast (the world’s longest wooden roller coaster at 7,359 feet, winding deep through dense woods), Orion (a 300-foot-drop giga coaster), Diamondback, Banshee (an expansive inverted coaster), and Mystic Timbers. I will describe all of them but will feature a few that stood out to us.
Adventure Express
Adventure Express is a classic Arrow Dynamics mine train roller coaster that originally opened on April 13, 1991. Drawing heavy inspiration from pulp archeology and Indiana Jones-style expeditions, the attraction sends riders on an out-of-control tour through rugged jungle terrain, dark tunnels, and ancient ruins. It is perennial family favorite and an introductory thrill coaster for younger park visitors.
The train twists and dives through dense woods, rickety-looking wooden structures, and four distinct themed tunnels. The coaster reaches a top speed of 35 mph across nearly 3,000 feet of steel track, using natural elevation changes for quick turns and lateral forces rather than massive vertical drops.
Riders encounter tiki motifs, snake-infested caverns, and tribal audio effects. The ride's storyline follows the fictional Arrow Cargo Co., where a routine tour takes an unexpected turn onto an abandoned track leading into a forbidden temple.
The ride features two lift hills, with the second enclosed inside the temple. As the train ascends, rhythmic stone warrior animatronics pound their fists, a figure appears to pour boiling lava overhead, and an ominous voice warns: "You have disturbed the forbidden temple. Now you will pay!" In a humorous, infamous twist, the coaster crests this climactic lift hill only to immediately make a gentle turn straight into the final brake run.
Banshee
I don't normaly go into inverted coasters, but this one is special. Banshee is an inverted roller coaster engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). It stands as the longest inverted roller coaster in the world, renowned for its sustained speed, massive scale, and smooth layout that takes advantage of the park's natural topography.
The ride sequence features seven distinct inversions, including a dive loop, a 147-foot vertical loop that wraps around the lift hill, a zero-gravity roll, a massive batwing element (incorporating a reverse sidewinder and sidewinder), another vertical loop, and a slow, floaty in-line twist near the end.
Unlike older inverted coasters with rigid, bulky over-the-shoulder harnesses, Banshee uses B&M's vest restraint system, providing open sightlines, reduced head-banging, and secure upper-body freedom. Your ears will thank you.
Drawing inspiration from the wailing spirit of Celtic folklore, the station and queue feature an eerie, fog-draped graveyard aesthetic with tombstones commemorating past Kings Island rides (such as the former Son of Beast wooden coaster, which once stood on this site). As trains dispatch, riders hear the signature wail of the Banshee echoing down the tracks.
Diamondback
Diamondback is a steel hypercoaster designed by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), located in the Rivertown section of Kings Island. Opening in April 2009, it was the first hypercoaster built at the park and is celebrated for its relentless, floaty airtime and panoramic views over the park's wooded backwoods. My son and I loved this one, it has a few features that differentiate it from the other hypercoasters out there (open air v seating, no shoulder harnesses, and a spashdown finale).
The coaster climbs to a height of 230 feet on its chain lift hill before plunging down a 215-foot first drop at a 74-degree angle, reaching top speeds of 80 mph. The layout includes 10 steep drops and a series of massive camelback hills engineered for prolonged negative-G "airtime."
The trains utilize an open-air, stadium-style V-shape seating configuration where the outer seats in each four-passenger row are pulled back from the center seats. Paired with minimalist clamshell lap-bar restraints (and no shoulder harnesses), riders get unobstructed sightlines and an open, floating sensation out of their seats.
The climactic element of the ride is a dynamic splashdown pool. Special scoops mounted to the back of the rear train cars displace water as the train races across the pool, throwing twin rooster-tail plumes of water high into the air and misting onlookers on the observation pathway.
Diamondback takes advantage of the natural ravine terrain of southwestern Ohio, dipping deep into valleys below ground level to sustain its momentum through helices and sudden drops.
Flight of Fear
We loved this ride, it's very unique. Flight of Fear is an indoor launched roller coaster manufactured by Premier Rides. It made amusement park history as one of the world's very first coasters to use Linear Induction Motor (LIM) magnetic launch technology.
Trains blast from 0 to 54 mph in just 4 seconds directly out of the station down an enclosed launch tunnel. Immediately following the launch, riders enter a massive, tightly wound "spaghetti bowl" layout hidden entirely in the dark, packing four inversions: a cobra roll (two inversions), a sidewinder, and a corkscrew.
Housed completely inside an air-conditioned 110-foot-tall hangar, the ride runs almost entirely in the dark with sporadic flashing lights, alien sound effects, and sci-fi music, making track transitions and sudden directional changes disorienting and unpredictable.
The immersive queue winds through a restricted government military facility and an alien research hangar built around an extraterrestrial flying saucer. When the surrounding section of the park was re-themed as Area 72 for the arrival of the Orion giga coaster, Flight of Fear was formally integrated into the area's top-secret research facility lore.
The ride originally had head bashing over the shoulder restraints. But the ride had its trains retrofitted in 2001 with individual padded lap bars, dramatically improving ride comfort and freedom of movement. The videos of this ride are basically pointless because the ride is in the dark. I did find one with the lights on if you are interrested...your choice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_2QhAqC98
Invertigo
Invertigo is an inverted shuttle roller coaster manufactured by Vekoma. It was the first inverted boomerang coaster in North America to feature face-to-face seating. Unlike traditional circuit coasters, Invertigo runs along an open-ended track. The train is pulled backward up a lift hill, released to plunge forward through the station at 55 mph, navigated through elements, pulled up a second matching lift hill, and then sent through the entire layout in reverse.
The layout packs three inversions. Because the train retraces the track backward, riders experience a total of six inversions during the 90 second ride.
Riders hang suspended beneath the track with their feet dangling. Rather than all rows facing forward, cars are paired so passengers sit face-to-face, allowing riders to watch each other's reactions directly as they hit inversions and up to 5 Gs.
Mystic Timbers
As far as wooden coasters go, this one has a horror theme which makes it unique. Mystic Timbers opened in April 2017, it won Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Award for Best New Ride of the year and is widely celebrated for its relentless pacing, rapid transitions, and terrain-hugging layout. The track hugs the natural contours of the woods, diving over hills, skimming low across water, and threading through dense trees increasing the thrills.
The ride is engineered with 16 distinct airtime hills, extreme lateral banking, and rapid directional changes. It maintains a continuous sense of momentum from the first drop straight through to the final brake run without losing steam.
The attraction is themed around the fictional Miami River Lumber Company. Park guests enter an abandoned logging facility that was abruptly evacuated in 1983 after a sinister supernatural force, an aggressive, vine like overgrowth took over the forest. The trains themselves are modeled after weathered 1960s pickup trucks equipped with front grilles and headlights.
Hype was built using the viral marketing tagline "What's in the shed?". The shed is a darkened, enclosed abandoned sawmill building. As the train halts on the brake run waiting to enter the station, riders experience a mini-show featuring flickering lights, 1980s pop/rock radio clips ("Maneater", "You Spin Me Round"), cassette tape static, and 3 alternating endings. I'm not saying more, you need to experience it.
Orion
Orion is a solid giga coaster. My son and I enjoyed it but I wouldn't say it stands out against other gigacoasters. However it is one of only a handful of giga coasters operating worldwide, engineered to deliver sustained velocity, sweeping high-banked maneuvers, and massive airtime drops.
Orion uses stadium-style seating and contoured clamshell lap bars without bulky over-the-shoulder harnesses (no head and ear bashing). This open seating geometry maximizes the sensation of free-floating airtime over the crests of the giant hills.
According to the ride's sci-fi narrative, an impending catastrophic meteor storm threatens Earth, and riders board Orion—a prototype research and escape vehicle—to test atmospheric exit routes and outrun the cosmic barrage.
Queen City Stunt Coaster
This is a fun ride that is a family thrill coaster. My son and I liked the heavy theming. It is an indoor/outdoor that pays homage to Cincinnati, historically nicknamed the "Queen City", and its surrounding lore.
Using Linear Induction Motors (LIMs), trains launch straight out of the station from 0 to 40 mph in 3 seconds. The train immediately rockets into a tight, three-story upward helix designed to simulate speeding up the spiral ramps of a multi-level parking garage.
After spiraling out of the parking structure, the coaster dives down a 31-foot drop, zigzags through sudden direction changes and an 88-degree overbanked turn, and races down a mock subway staircase.
The train comes to a sudden halt on a mid-course brake track for a cinematic confrontation. An attack helicopter hovers above with machine gun audio and pyrotechnic fire effects simulating exploding gas barrels around the riders.
Following the explosion sequence, a secondary LIM booster launches the train straight into a pitch-black tunnel themed after Cincinnati's famous unfinished, abandoned subway system. The ride bursts out through a "broken" billboard, skims across a shallow water splash channel, and completes a sharp turn into the station.
Snoopy's Soap Box Racers
This family ride is a gateway thrill coaster for young park visitors stepping up from kiddie rides. While my son and I love the the big thrill rides, we thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers is a steel family boomerang shuttle roller coaster. Operating as a family boomerang model, the track is an open shuttle circuit rather than a continuous loop. The train is pulled backward out of the station up a lift hill. Once released, it plunges forward through the station, hits a top speed of 37 mph, navigates sweeping turns and bunny hops and ascends a dead-end spike hill, and then retraces the entire layout in reverse.
The theming is great. The ride puts guests into the middle of an eccentric Peanuts-style soap box derby race. The 10-car train is styled after colorful, homemade soapbox push-cars, with Snoopy serving as the race marshal waving the checkered flag from the track's lookout tower.
The coaster features individual padded lap bars without over the shoulder restraints, it provides a smooth, comfortable ride free of head-banging or jarring transitions.
The Bat
This roller coaster is a suspended/hanging coaster. Riders sit in cars that swing freely beneath the track, so you get a lot of side-to-side motion on the turns. It is like Ninja at Magic Mountain in California. It features tight turns through the woods. It is known for feeling more intense than its size suggests because of the swinging cars and close tree clearance. It runs through a wooded section of the park, which adds to the sense of speed.
While it is not as intense as a gigacoaster but still very fun. My son and I enjoyed this ride. The suspended, swinging sensation is unique.
The Beast
The beast is one of the reasons I wanted to go to King's Island. It is their legendary wooden roller coaster and one of the most famous wooden coasters in the world. It has about 7,359 feet of track, it held the record for the world's longest wooden coaster for decades and is still the longest wooden coaster in the world today. While in line I was talking to one of the ride operators. She said that every morning before the park opens, 2 ride engineers who are experts on The Beast walk the entire track to inspect the ride.
It winds through a wooded hillside on the edge of the park, with a huge footprint. You barely see most of the ride from any single vantage point because it's tucked into the terrain and trees.
It's known for a long, twisting first half through tunnels and forest, a big drop into a helix (the double helix finale in near-total darkness at night is iconic), and a ride time of around 4+ minutes, which is long for a wooden coaster.
I heard about The Beast years ago. I was told it's the best wooden coaster in the world. I've riden over 20 woodies across the United States and wanted to see if it's legend is hype or the real deal. This ride is super intense from start to finish! Be prepared for a major adrenaline rush from this one. Lots of air time an the helix elements are
fantastic. This is a must ride.
The Racer (Blue & Red trains)
The Racer is Kings Island's original centerpiece wooden coaster and one of the most historically important rides in the industry. it features twin side-by-side tracks where two trains race each other simultaneously. It's one of the first coasters to popularize this dueling format.
The Racer is widely credited with sparking the wooden coaster renaissance of the 1970s, after a lull in new wood coaster construction. Its success helped convince parks nationwide that wooden coasters were still worth building.
It's a classic out-and-back style layout — smooth, moderate-paced, and more nostalgic/family-friendly than intense. No inversions, modest drops, but a lot of charm from the racing element and the vintage station architecture.
It's often considered a "must-ride" for coaster historians even though it's tame by modern standards, precisely because of its role in reviving the wooden coaster industry.
Woodstock Express
Woodstock Express is Kings Island's family-friendly wooden coaster, themed around the Peanuts characters (Snoopy/Woodstock). A smaller, junior wooden coaster — designed as an entry point for younger or first-time riders working up to bigger wood coasters like The Beast or The Racer.
It features a short, mild layout with gentle drops and turns. No big airtime moments, built for a lower height requirement so families can ride together. My son and I enjoyed this ride. We enjoy all types and sizes of roller coaster!
Woodstock's Air Rail
Woodstock's Air Rail is a kids' inverted coaster in Kings Island's Camp Snoopy area — the flagship ride of that section. It is a Suspended Family Coaster. Riders sit in seats hanging below the track, but it's much gentler than a full-size inverted coaster. It was actually the first inverted coaster built just for kids.
Since it opened in 2001, the manufacturer has built clones of this ride at Carowinds (Flying Ace Aerial Chase) and Canada's Wonderland (Silver Streak), all using the same Vekoma model. We enjoyed this ride. It was great seeing families riding together.
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