Is KingsIsland worth a 3 hour trip?

[AspiringCindy]

This summer we will be visiting Cleveland and Cedar Point, and the question came up on... Whether it would be worth it to travel 3 hours to Mason to spend time in KingsIsland. We would have to stay 1 or 2 days in order to do this. Is it worth rearranging all our plans to accomodate a visit to KingsIsland or is it "seen an amusement park...seen them all" situation? Any thoughts?

 

[Steve H.]

Kings Island is a very nice park, and the drive from Cleveland to Cincy isn't too bad -- the only question will be whether or not you'll be amusement park-ed out by the time comes to go to KI. It's a quite different park than CP, but you're right, it's another 2-day type park, like CP.

 

[AspiringCindy]

Steve H., Is there anything unique or special about the park or am I better off heading home to Jersey and stopping at Hershey(which we have been to already)?

 

[Steve H.]

Kings Island has a couple very, very good roller coasters (Beast and Son of Beast, among others) and the theme is very kids' oriented (with Nickelodeon, Hanna-Barbara and Paramount movie stuff around) and has a very nice atmosphere. Overall, Hersheypark might have a better "classic" park atmosphere, but there's a lot more rides at Kings Island.

Here's their website: http://www.pki.com/

 

[AspiringCindy]

Is KI more along the lines of Universals?

 

[Steve H.]

Kind of, yeah. It's a little more on the "amusement park" side than Universal (which tends to be more of a "theme park", if you know what I mean.)

I guess it would all depend what your family likes to do. If you want to squeeze in as many roller coasters and thrill rides (plus water parks) as possible, I would make the trip. But, if doing two pretty huge amusement parks in the same week is a little too much for your family (I know it would be for ours), then I'd skip it.

Plus, aren't you thinking of going to Six Flags too? If so, then I would definitely skip it and do something else around Cleveland.

 

[figmentvi]

While we're on the subject......DH and I will be visiting Akron in Sept. and we're thinking about driving to Cedar Point (DH wants to ride Top Thrill Dragster). How far of a drive is it?

Thanks,
Linda

 

[ABCMom]

I'm not sure I am understanding you right - but the drive from Cleveland (or even Cedar Point) to Cincy is more than a three hour drive (unless you can fly) More like a 5-6 hour drive. We live in the southeast and it takes us 5 hours to get to CP or Cleveland.

As far as the park goes - It's a nice park (though we prefer CP.) If it were up to me, I would probably go, just for the sake of extending my vacation a couple days

 

[LarryE]

I could make it in 3hour and 24 min and thats driving conservative.

 

[Steve H.]

Larry's right -- unless you run into a lot of traffic, Cleveland to Kings Island shouldn't be much more than 3 1/2 hours or so.

figment -- Akron to Sandusky (CP) is a little over an hour drive, 1 1/2 hours max.

 

[Dee & Greg]

Last time we were at KI was three summers ago, and I will never return! The park was filthy... standing in line for a ride I was next to an overflowing trash can that was crawling with roaches! Son of Beast was never operating (we were there for two full days), and some of the water park rides were not operating because they didn't have enough life guards for the park. Maybe I'm spoiled by WDW, but the workers were bored and rude at KI. Love Cedar Point! It was clean, fun, and had terrific coasters!

We don't have kids, and as adults were may have been more observant of the park... kids probably wouldn't mind. But I used to go to KI as a kid every summer and don't remember it looking so run down.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[mrsmom]

I Go Kings island every weekend with my kids , We love the coasters and the new deliriums ride, really like no other, and my second would be tomb raider. i would say it's worth a trip.We have gold passes so my dh and i and our four kids go whenever we can.
Kim

 

[Bob O]

I have been to PKI several times and have never found the park to be direty at all!!!
I think it is well worth a visit!!! I dont know if you have kids but these kids part of the park is great!!!! It has some excellant woodens coasters, Beast,Son of Beast, some decent steel coasters and some excellant flat rides. Also in the park is a nice water park and the pask has 2 days worth of activites to keep you busy. IMHO well worth the visit and i have found my time there more enjoyable than time spent at Six Flags parks.

 

[bobcat]

The kids area is pretty good and they have a water park attached that is included in the admission. I am not sure that I would make the drive from Cleveland if I was also visiting CP, but then I live right in the middle of the two and can drive to either when I want.

 

[AspiringCindy]

Now I really don't know what to do! We have 2 DDs that love rides and a 2 year old, so we may be limited. Last year at WDW, we dragged her on everything...but thats Disney!
Steve, you were right about us visiting six flags. We plan on spending atleast a day at the park(just because we have season passes for six flags). I'm just debating whether I want to travel extra miles for another park. YOU ALL KNOW DARN WELL IF IT WAS ORLANDO, THERE WOULD BE NO DEBATE!

 

[mooses41]

2 DDs that love rides

Go to PKI. Beast is sick, especially @ night. Delierium is sick. End of story.

I wouldn't plan on spending more than a day at the 6 flags. I've been there, the sea world part is weak, the coasters are good but the staff isn't that great. Its nowhere near on the level of SFNE or anything like that (don't even get me started on that park).
Anyway, have a great trip, I hear TTD is out of this world (if its open, which right now its not).