Adventure Port Construction Log
Park: Kings Island
Location: Former Oktoberfest
Project: Adventure Port
Projected Opening: Summer 2023
Description: Area Rebrand, Coaster Renovation, Two New Flat Rides
For years, Kings Island has kind of been going around the park updating every area with new additions. Action Zone got some love with Banshee in 2014, Rivertown took center stage in 2017 as Mystic Timbers was added, both the antique cars and Orion gave them an excuse to touch things up in Coney Mall, but one area that seemed to get sort of skipped over was Oktoberfest. This small but quaint area of the park near the Festhaus had at one point resembled a Bavarian village, but that's basically gone away with all that's left being the Biergarten. We've got a Norse Viking ship, Mexican burrito shack, Mesoamerican mine train, and Sling Shot which I thought should have been moved to Area 72 behind FOF's photo wing. I'd wanted them to just show the area a little love, maybe some theming, get rid of Sling Shot to undo the blocked in midway, maybe theme it as a World's Fair instead to do something with all the thematic inconsistencies going on there. But when I saw what Kings Dominion did with Jungle X-Pedition creating a beautiful world that could have been part of a much more themed experience, I knew this is what I wanted us to get. I wanted Lion Country Safari there, bring the name back, make it match Adventure Express, so when we sort of got Adventure Port announced out of nowhere last fall I was ecstatic!
I go to the park a lot, but when I went the first weekend of the season, I was somewhat disappointed to see how little was ready. But hey, this just gives me an excuse to cover it! Stay tuned to this page to see Adventure Port take shape before you can pack your bags for your own adventure when it opens in the fall!
Area Completion Update 6/24
Adventure Port: Now Open at Kings Island! Sol Spin opened a few weeks ago, the construction fences are down, and Adventure Port is now free to explore. I made plans to pop down here to check it out for real and now that I see it complete, I think Kings Island ultimately has a winner on their hands. Not a 100% flawless product, but a winner.
New merch is available at the park!
First thing I did was checked out the completed spread of merchandise offerings and some of it looked pretty nice for what it was. Few new shirts, Adventure Express tin cup, and of course the stolen IOA logo on shirts and stickers.
They also have this deal going on where one Adventure Port bag is $3 with any purchase, better for the environment and looks great!
Well I wanted Eiffel Tower pictures of it, but sadly, it was down for the day. Hmph. Onward to Adventure Port!
I went to ride Cargo Loco first and honestly, this ride was a downgrade from my first spin on it a month ago. I asked for the potato barrel, having heard it's the best, but I couldn't even get it to spin because those bearings have so much resistance to them. Maybe it was because I was the only one spinning it (I rode alone) but KI needs to fix it, this literally does not spin.
Drew met me next and we did lunch at Enrique's where they had these really good chicken enchiladas special that day, which happened to be on the dining plan. It's three corn tortillas rolled up with shredded chicken, topped with your choice of red or green sauce (I go green) and served with rice, beans (I asked for double rice instead since they didn't have them refried), cheese, and they were gonna put lettuce on mine but I said no as I hate lettuce. Overall it was delicious though! I'd order this again if they kept it.
Cute little boat they put on the water, wish it had been a seaplane instead since I love that trope in this genre of theming but the boat is cute too.
Side by side of the concept art verses finished product.
Drew got a shot of me rocking the new Indiana Jones camera bag. On the way in, this super nice old guy at security said, "you look like you'd be hiding gold nuggets or something in there," so that made me chuckle.
Next we did his first spin on the new Adventure Express, and he was very impressed with the queue line theming that had been added. Loved the little posters, I had to explain a few of them to him since he's not as good at KI history as I am.
Loved the details on this little bulletin board, including the tribute to the coaster that made me an enthusiast. Can you spot it?
We had a small summer shower while we were luckily in the covered bridge, and they kept the ride open, but the rain stopped for us just after getting the tracks nice and wet. And oh my god, this thing hauls after a good sprinkle! I don't remember ever being this excited on Adventure Express, the work they did on it in the offseason, both aesthetic and mechanical, really elevates this as an experience. I'm now super proud to have an Arrow mine train that's not only among the best themed of the bunch now but is arguably the best on ride alone. Not sure I like it better than Thunderation but it's a solid second at least.
Also got a nice shot of the fakeout track switch they added through the planks of the bridge.
Okay, one more left to try out and that's Sol Spin!
I really like the old school Schwarzkopf enterprises, I always thought it was fun looping upside down in the little cabin with no restraint whatsoever, and yes, I figured Zamperla's take on it just wouldn't be the same, but regardless I was excited to ride this. Not like I hadn't had the opportunity, I've been to parks that have these, but I just never bothered. But this was at my home park and easily accessed, so I was hoping it would be good so I'd have something else to enjoy there.
Queue line audio! It plays like generic vaguely Mesoamerican music, lots of drums, lots of pan pipes in the queue. Sadly this is about the extent of the theming in that cattlepen, would love to see them add more. And a shade structure, I know it's themed to an ancient sun disk and all but it was pretty hot and no relief in sight.
Line was annoyingly long, really wish they'd picked the 48 seat model verses the 24, I know there was a budget and a timeline, but money can be made back and a late opened ride is eventually good, I know I was a little irked when the park opened and this was nowhere close to done, but it just makes me wish this hadn't had to be rushed as much as it did. Maybe this'll be a mainstay when it's not the shiny new ride anymore but for now, I wouldn't wait in this every time I came. But eventually we made it there and got on, time for a spin around the sol!
First thing I noticed? Seats are uncomfortable. I'm a chonky dude, got some wider than average hipbones on me, and I felt it because these are like Vekoma bucket seats (think Invertigo) but now undersized. They're narrow and they don't stick out far enough and I felt like my thighs weren't as supported as they should be, and Drew isn't even that big and he had issues with this as well. You're sitting in an undersized butt bucket that sort of reverse thighcrushes you, though it's a bitchy complaint and once the ride actually started I didn't notice it.
Okay, so ride dynamics are actually lots of fun! It's definitely not quite the same experience as an old school Witch's Wheel/Scream Weaver/Skylab Enterprise but that doesn't mean it's not a good ride. Zamperla's, unlike their predecessor, have the advantage of not having you in a little cabin, and it feels a lot more like a liberating, flying experience than the originals. So you've got your feet dangling, you're turning flips and loops over Adventure Port, and my favorite part? When it reaches full tilt it appears as if you're dive bombing the midway with people walking about.
On that note, I had to head out and head to my grandma's for other obligations (which will also be on this blog, look for a Columbus Zoo trip report in the coming days), but all in all, Adventure Port impressed me. Hank's stepped it up to another level with the retheme and I think the food is about the same, but it was always a safe, solid choice in the park and I'm glad they kept it. Love that they tapped into the potential that they had with that water feature and made it look nice with the boat and crane and buoys. I think the flats both have some flaws that are easily noticed but they're still fun and I'm glad we got them. One thing I always loved about Six Flags parks is how proud the locals can be to get something like a Frisbee or an Endeavor and still love it and bring the out of towners to ride it when they go, so it's nice to have that feeling. The ride I got with Ben on Cargo Loco was a hell of a laugh and Sol Spin is great fun turning loops over the midway with your feet dangling, unreliable spin, poor capacity, and bad seats aside. But the real winner here I think is Adventure Express, both in terms of what it did to the machine and the theming that gives it so much personality. I always loved that they did something kind of different with the mine train concept outside a generic Western gold mine but without making it not work, and now it's unique in that the ride experience is among the best Arrow has cranked out and it has theming to match that quality. It really feels like some janky mine tracks someone discovered in the jungle and decided to send tourists down with disastrous consequences. I love what was done with it and I love seeing one of my favorite coasters from childhood as popular as it is. They created something special, nice-looking, well-themed, and in the area that needed it most, and I'm so glad it's at my home park and I can look forward to it on just the casual KI weekend trip I sometimes do.
Well what are you doing? Don't just sit there and keep reading, sail on out! Adventure is calling!
Update 5/27
This was somewhat impromptu as a park visit, but long story short, Ben ended up in Dayton and we went to Kings Island on Memorial Day Saturday before he had to leave town, and man oh man were we in for a surprise! We were ready to crash for the night, he was packing it in on my couch while I'd gone to my room, when I see from Kings Island that Cargo Loco opens tomorrow!
So we wake up the next morning, get Wendy's on the way there, and of course, Ben has an issue with his pass and we get sent to admissions to wait in a line. I check queue times and lo and behold, it notes Adventure Express as being open? Not sure what that's about, but when Ben checks social media, they've soft opened it for us and we were going to be able to ride!
Good morning Adventure Port!
When we got back there, NOBODY was at Adventure Express but the new entrance was still somewhat of a clusterfuck, as Sol Spin is still under construction and that's near the new entrance, so they had temporary railings to better direct traffic into the queue.
Ahhh I love these vintage travel posters in the queue! For those of you that maybe don't know your KIology as well as the locals might, these all reference certain attractions that are or have been there. Wild Animal Habitat is the old Lion Country Safari (this was a later name for it), Amazon Falls is what is now Congo Falls, Southern Yellow Overlook references Son of Beast's large Rose Bowl of Southern Yellow Pine, Forbidden Temple is obviously Adventure Express, Dutchman Arches are Firehawk (A Vekoma Flying Dutchman), and Cobra Caversn pays homage to King Kobra. Kings Dominion should make a Volcano one, I'd buy it!
Station even looks like a jungle train depot now and it's really cool, makes me want to watch Indiana Jones when it comes out.
So let's break down the new ride experience!
Adventure Express now has a story to it. They've taken the "Express" part of the name a bit further, and now it's advertised as a touristy sightseeing rail line through the jungles and ruins surrounding Adventure Port. There are two tracks on the railroad, track one is the calm tourist sightseeing one, track 2 is the closed track. That turn out of the station now leads into a rail switch prop, with a dummy track piece leading down track one but you accidentally get switched and head down track 2. You head through the tunnel and up the lift, where there's radio communication from dispatch telling you you've been rerouted and they're trying to get you back to track one before you drop. The big new thing that was added here are several "derailed" prop cars with monkeys playing on them, which adds perfectly to the already out of control janky feeling that this ride had. At the end of the ride you enter the tunnel past two of the old Tomb Raider monkey mummies before climbing a fully refurbished lift, with all the props returned to working order. The statue still tells you you will pay before actually tipping the glowing lava bucket forward, his mouth moves and everything. But even after that, when the ride rolls forward into the brakes, the audio explains they switched you back to track 1 just in time and adds that "Adventure Express is always on the right track," actually tying up the story the ride was telling fairly well. I still think the initial design for the ride should have had this theming on the first lift hill and the breaking bridge theming on the final one, but I'll take this any day.
They've really gone into detail with some of this, saw an Adventure Express insignia on this barrel.
It feels just like an Indiana Jones chase sequence and the malformed Arrow jankiness now feels even more like part of the theming than it did before. I give it a golf clap! And I really hope that the new animatronics in working order, audio, props, all that gets maintained long term because they created a really nice product with this coaster.
So we went off, rode other things, rode Racer, and when leaving Racer I noticed Sol Spin was testing!
I assume this gear and chain are for Adventure Express.
On the way out the Cargo Loco wait had died down so we did that, with me requesting the Tequila barrel because, well, it's me and I love me a good margarita, though later I was told Potatoes is the one that spins the hardest. Ben initially didn't want me letting loose and going full balancer on this thing, but when we found that the bearing isn't the freest spinning, we scooted together to throw the thing out of balance, I let her rip, and we got some decent spin out of it...and Ben told me to stop so we balanced it back out and slowed it down. I definitely used by background dealing with spinning things and unbalance for evil today (as any true coaster villain would) and I have no doubts that once I ride this a few more times and figure out the best way to spin it and the like, I'll be able to spin it hard enough to tear open spacetime no problem.
I love some of the theming they added here! The Olmec head, the cargo rails on Cargo Loco (if anyone here has seen Survivor: Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers this took me back to their East India Company-themed Tribal Council set), and the harbor theming on the water really tie the area up in a way I've seen Kings Island do only in Area 72, and I would love to see this standard of theming spread around the park. Rivertown, I'm looking at you!
And of course, because it's Ben and I, it can't be a normal day without something totally ridiculous happening that we laugh about that I write about here for your entertainment. We take one more spin on Adventure Express and as we're getting off, this gentleman comes up to a supervisor madder than hell about...something, so I stealthily start filming, knowing already that this is gonna be good. His grievance? He was not allowed to take his sticky pop bottles strapped to his backpack on Adventure Express, complaining that when it was Paramount (and the park also had disgusting bathrooms and decaying queue lines) he worked there and you could take loose articles on the ride. And when they politely explain that the pop could spill and make a sticky mess on the train, he decides to stick it to 'em good by never riding Adventure Express again, and will instead continue to pay to get in and eat and drink there! That'll send a message!
(Sorry for the poor video angles, I didn't want Brad here knowing we were making fun of his shitty behavior towards park staff and I didn't want to film anyone's face in this)
Better burrito bar? Check. Cargo Loco? Check. Adventure Express? Check. All that's missing is Cargo Loco and I plan to be back on 6/25 for that! Stay tuned for the conclusion of my Adventure Port coverage as well as nice DSLR photos of the area and new stuff! This adventure is almost over!
UPDATE 5/14
Your loco cargo has arrived in shipping, and is being dropped off barrel by barrel at Adventure Port, out for delivery this summer! This ride is really starting to come together, with theming in the queue present, and while its neighbor Sol Spin is still just a concrete slab, they're putting good work in the little temple thing behind it. Adventure Express's new entrance and extended queue are also looking really good and I can't wait to see more added to the rockwork.
I climbed Eiffel Tower today after seeing...something in Adventure Express's infield near the curve between the first two tunnels, while I was riding Banshee. Couldn't shoot it from up here, and from the ride alone I couldn't tell if it was equipment or new theming. But hey, it brought me up here!
The Arrow Mine Train that thou shalt not mess with has a lot going on around its station and queue infrastructure, and from Banshee I was able to see exposed plywood on the face of the building that faces the front of the park. But here's the new entrance, you can see fake temple brickwork going up that's being painted, and there's also new queue railings going up to extend the queue with a small cattlepen up front. Also seeing new lights, speakers, all that taking shape, as well as the sheds near the basketball game getting repainted in Adventure Express's color scheme, which I don't think was the case last year.
Over at Sol Spin...not as much activity. But it looks like they're really detailing the little temple thing, not sure if that's a queue structure or op booth or what. Got a feeling it's a loading area like what Delirium has.
Back on solid ground, you can see that they've detailed the building a fair bit since my last visit. Little paint chips in the corrugated metal, painted signage, and even a cute little poster are now decorating the building and it looks much better now. Also noticed they have metal trash bins here, similar to the ones on Cedar Point's new boardwalk instead of Cedar Fair's infamous gray/brown plastic ones with a sticker on it. I expect some kind of nice Kings Island sticker with an adventure theme to be slapped onto these bad boys before this whole thing takes off for real.
Side note: Enrique's had a pineapple salsa special today, I ordered it wearing my pineapple flannel and matching pineapple socks, and this stuff was GOOD. Hope KI slowly starts adding things to elevate an otherwise ordinary knockoff Chipotle.
Cargo Loco has a water tower now! One of these is a sign for Yukon Striker even, but this has a nice "FLECHA DE CARGA" painted on it and what appear to be crates and barrels near it.
Panorama of the whole Cargo Loco site, I can't wait to load this thing off balance and make it spin like crazy when it opens!
Not as much going on in the way of ride hardware at Sol Spin, but you can see them stenciling brickwork onto this building here, so I do like seeing that attention to detail. A lot of work is going into this and as annoying as it is that I have to wait for it, I know they're taking the time to do it right and build something really cool and special.
Close up look at some of that rockwork, which is looking gorgeous. This isn't just concrete and chicken wire at some golf place, this looks really good and they're going through the trouble to paint the rock texture and lichens and stuff on it.
On my way out, I was gonna ride Racer and then do my burrito hack at Enrique's, but getting off I saw some more work going on over here.
Cargo Loco was definitely the star this time around, hopefully by next time we get to see more on Sol Spin and Adventure Express's sign really starting to shine. Whole area is coming together so nicely and I can't wait to go putting three really really big dudes on one side of these barrels all huddled together and just throw it astronomically out of balance. Gonna spin so fast we rip open a hole in spacetime, best day ever at KI.
UPDATE 4/30
Today there was noticeably more work done than last week, which gave me hope that we'll see this completed with the time and effort it deserves in a reasonable manner without too much of the season passing us by prior. Theming is starting to take shape along with the construction and something in the parking lot might indicate vertical construction on the flats starting soon.
Biggest thing I saw? Cargo Loco has signage in place! And it looks well made and themed just as well as the stuff in Jungle X-Pedition!
The Adventure Express entrance had some cool theming in the concept art and you're now able to see rockwork begin, both on the new sign and nearby planters.
Visible somewhat in the last photo, you can also see more work done on the bamboo queue structures and wooden lampposts! The op booth for Cargo Loco is also out of its Tyvek now and they have the perimeter taped off with some sort of red caution tape.
Kings Island seems to have somewhat? of a head start on merch, with this super cool ultra original compass logo never before seen at another park, especially not Islands of Adventure! It's available on a t-shirt as well as on these cute little carabiner backpacks, plus I saw it on a sticker near a register. There also seems to be a place set up in this gift shop for Adventure Port merch, so I assume more will come when the area is ready to go. Love this little window facade thing, it's got a Coco vibe to it.
Leaving the park, my friend and I had also noticed this coming in but I wanted to shoot it on the way out, there was a crane in the parking lot near where they were staging stuff for Orion in 2019. I think this might be here to do more vertical work in Adventure Port? Perhaps with the rides themselves? It's about the size of a cherry picker but it has a hook on it, so I assume it's there to lift stuff into place and I'm not sure what all else would be needed that isn't already on site equipment-wise.
UPDATE 4/17
When I got to the park, I knew not to expect the flats or Adventure Express to be ready, but what I saw was...less complete than I was hoping. I wanted to at least see the theming, enjoy the atmosphere here, if you can't ride anything yet oh well, but not much is going on yet. Infrastructure coming together, and the restaurant seems mostly completed and that was even open, but nothing beyond that. No theming, nothing resembling the concept art, it still feels very much under construction.
They have these construction fences up with concept art printed on them to get people hype for the new addition, half moon wind vents peephole covers included.
Behind this, you can see concrete is the largest thing they've gotten done, as well as the start of queue railings. Metal railings in place in the cattlepens and stakes of bamboo for theming. The op booths are both in place, though Cargo Loco's is still wrapped. But the strangest thing is a large concrete building behind the Sol Spin plot, not sure what that's about.
The restaurant is ready, not much has changed but it is there and it was repainted and renamed. I wanted a little more out of this so I hope they do more, but this is a good start. The Biergarten is basically the same thing but as a margarita bar with nachos, Hank's is now Enrique's and I think they did some sprucing up inside but it's the same food. They were out of burrito shells which ruined my burrito hack so I was a little miffed about that but hopefully that was just opening day being opening day.
Hands of a man's burrito hack, Kings Island! I want guest services you ruined my vacation I couldn't sit at home with a burrito and margarita in my PJs like the worthless bum I am!
