HOW TO GO
What: Kings Island
Where: 6300 Kings Island Drive, Mason
More info: (513) 754-5700 or visitkingsisland.com
Season Pass: An adult gold season pass costs $105 each or $90 for a renewal.
Single priced tickets: $54.99 at the gate, $37.99 if you purchase tickets in advance online.
Parking: $12
Daily operation begins: Friday
Closes: Oct. 27
Hours of operation: Varies. Check the website for details of the date you plan to visit.
CONNECTING YOU WITH THINGS TO DO
Our staff lets you know about a variety of entertainment and recreation options.
DID YOU KNOW?
Kings Island amusement park in Mason begins its season of daily operation on Saturday. The park opened for weekends on April 27.
Impress family and friends with these Kings Island facts and figures.
• Kings Island boasts 14 roller coasters in all, including four kids coasters. Highlights include The Racer, which has given more than 96 million rides since 1972 — the most in park history. Diamondback, the fastest (80 mph) and tallest coaster (230 feet) in the park and, of course, the world’s longest wooden roller coaster — The Beast. The Vortex was the world’s first roller coaster to send riders through six inversions. Flight of Fear was the world’s first LIM-launched roller coaster (Linear Induction Motor) and The Beast was designed and built in house by Kings Island.
• Construction of Kings Island began on June 15, 1970. There are 10 remaining rides that opened with Kings Island in 1972: The Racer, Eiffel Tower, Grand Carousel, Scrambler, Monster, Dodgem, Linus’ Beetle Bugs, Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, K.I. & Miami Valley Railroad and Woodstock Express.
• When the park’s famous replica Eiffel Tower was originally painted, in 1971, it took 1,000 gallons of paint to cover it. On a clear day, guests can see 18 miles out into the region from the top observation deck of the Eiffel Tower
• The Fountain on International Street is 320 feet long — more than the length of a football field! The fountain shoots up more than 10,000 gallons of water at a given time.
• The Grand Carousel — the oldest ride at Kings Island — celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2011. It was purchased by Cincinnati’s Coney Island in 1926 for $201,000 from the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. A popular family attraction, it features a 1918 Wurlitzer Duplex #165 organ with 28 jumping horses, 20 stationary horses, and is painted with more than 20,000 sheets of 23-karat gold and 1,000 sheets of sterling silver. During the 1937 flood, when it was in operation at Coney Island, some of the horses were swept down the river. A reward was offered for them, or pieces of them, and parts were returned from as far away as Memphis, TN. In 1968, the carousel was completely restored and it took one man, Bill Tull, seven months to hand paint the horses.
• The original marketing slogan for the park when Kings Island opened in 1972 was “C’mon, Get Happy.”
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