Coast'n Through The Hills At Kings Island Opening Day

Apr 19, 2025
5 min read

Hey all!

Today, we're at Kings Island for our annual tradition of attending opening day! After a quick stop for snacks at Jungle Jim's, we arrived at Kings Island, picked up our Fast Lane Wristbands, and headed to the Action Zone to ride Invertigo, Banshee, and The Bat! First up was Invertigo, the suspended inverting boomerang-style roller coaster that has riders face each other throughout the ride. Although this ride isn't our favorite due to the restraints being rough on your ears during the inversions, it certainly woke us up!

The next adventure was riding Banshee, the world's longest inverting looping rollercoaster. This ride includes 7 inversions and takes you over the area where the tallest wooden rollercoaster, Son of Beast, once stood. It has a subtle cemetery theme, fitting with the Banshee name, which means "female messenger of death." The ride is solid and offers some impressive moments of hangtime, though I would say it's not the best inverted rollercoaster out there. We then tried The Bat, a pleasant suspended rollercoaster that swings riders over a valley and is located at the far end of the park. We experienced some decent swings on the turns!

We then grabbed some lunch at the Skyline Chili—a Cincinnati favorite—in the Coney Mall area of the park and afterward, took a ride on The Racer, a classic out-and-back wooden roller coaster. Over the years, this ride has become almost butter smooth, which is unusual for a wooden roller coaster, but we're not complaining! We then back tracked a little bit because we had forgotten about getting a ride on The Adventure Express in the newer re-done adventure Port area of the park. This has to be the best themed mine train rollercoaster outside of Disney World. After the 2024 redo, they really enhanced the theming. However, the ride is still jerky as all get out and still has an anti climatic finale. It was a one and done.

Next, we explored Area 72, the Military and Space-themed section of the park, to enjoy rides on Flight of Fear and Orion. I consider Flight of Fear to be one of the best-themed indoor roller coasters at a regional park. Entering a UFO while waiting in line and the mystery of what lies beyond still impresses me. The ride is essentially a jerkier version of the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, but with an extra inversion and only a lap bar, making it a bit more thrilling to ride in the dark on this indoor coaster. We then rode Orion, their 300ft drop Giga coaster. This is a decent ride with a few nice floaty air time hills and sweeping turns; however, there is a better version of this roller coaster in a different area of the park. It is still worth experiencing though.

We then took a ride on the Queen City Stunt Rollercoaster, which is a slightly re-themed version of the Backlot Stunt Rollercoaster. Originally, the ride had an Italian Job theme when it first opened, featuring special effects like water, fire, and onboard audio. Honestly, in this version, it seems to have fewer special effects than it used to. Again, its a nice launched family rollercoaster and we only needed one ride on it.

We then headed to the Legendary Beast rollercoaster, the longest wooden rollercoaster spanning 7,361 ft. It reaches a top speed of 65 mph, racing through its gravity-defying double helix and twists deep in the woods. This ride truly lives up to its name—it's intense, lengthy, and unmatched by any other coaster, especially with its legendary night rides. If your making a pilgrimage to Kings Island, You must ride the Beast!

Mystic Timbers was the next ride on our list. It's a wooden out-and-back roller coaster with a paranormal theme, culminating in a shed where you're surprised by a screen effect. The ride is fast-paced, featuring numerous moments of ejector airtime as it races through the woods. It's an excellent wooden coaster and a favorite of one of our writers... (Ahem). Moving on, we have Diamondback, which is arguably the best steel roller coaster in the park. This hyper coaster boasts a drop of over 200 feet, several airtime hills towering over the woods, and a splashdown finale. It's a top attraction at the park and not to be missed!

Finally, we had the opportunity to experience the new Snoopy's Soap Box Racers, along with the other roller coasters at Camp Snoopy and Planet Snoopy. Snoopy's Soap Box Racers may be one of the best family coasters ever designed. The ride is incredibly smooth, and the feature of moving both forward and backward is a fantastic addition for a family attraction. Afterward, we took in the views from the Eiffel Tower observation deck and later enjoyed night rides on the Beast and Mystic Timbers. Overall, we had a fantastic time, and we plan to return to Kings Island if possible, especially for our annual Winter Fest trip! With that, let's dive into some photos!