My experience was amazing, especially Chicken shack the best place to eat in the world. I would…read morerecommend Chicken Shack to anyone and is only good things. Also there needs to be Chicken shack merchandise or else I will never buy anything.

The chicken at the chicken shack is absolutely phenomenal! Best part of the park hands down. I…read morethink it deserves its own merch selection, since it's an extremely popular pick for many around the parks, possibly the most popular. My friends and multiple strangers I talked too would have to agree.

+ Staff. Amazingly helpful. Everyone friendly. I can't say enough how awesome every staff member…read moreis. - Price. Everything is insanely overpriced. $20 dollars a day for parking. Weekend lodging costs $75+ vs the weekday. Especially considering that it is... - Dirty. It's old and it shows. Built in early 2000s and the last renovation was 2013. The room was spotless, but you can smell the mildew. Carpet + waterpark. Good thing we had a balcony, so we could air it out. The water park itself is filthy. They took the MRSA scare from years ago seriously by just adding more chlorine. The chlorine fumes in the wave pool burned my eyes before the water got to my knees. That, plus the water flow, has eaten the concrete of the lazy river. The smooth concrete ends at the waterline, both my husband and I skinned our knees. The water is never changed, only recycled. It all has a brown tenge to it. Many of the large tube slides have dark streaks on them, originating from the water spigots. It just highlighted the obvious priority, as most hotels have, money vs customer health. Can't close shop for a weekend to power wash or to change the water seasonally. These, plus my 9 yr old child could not play with her dolls nor wear her mermaid tail in the shallow end of the baby pool, are the reasons we won't be staying or visiting here again. I do understand the possible dangers with both (toys and a tail in water) and life guards were polite about it, but we have done both in a public pools for considerably less money.

For the most part their staff is personable but they were a hot mess with organization,…read morecommunication and check out processes. We were incorrectly charged over and over again. I waited an hour plus to get it fixed and checked out and the next day - another charge hit. How many people are they charging extra? I bet it's more than we suspect. Slides are fun but I'd take a pass on this place. Cant even get ahold of mgr to dispute sketchy transactions.

Second time staying at Jellystone! 1st time in resort camper, 2nd time in cabin. There are…read morepositive/ negatives to both selections. I found more storage that was easier for me ( I'm 5'1) with the camper, but the cabin was really cool! One of the best features of the campgrounds was the staff. All except for 1 person, I would rate them a 10/10! I camped with my bestie over the weekend and my kids mentioned the lady with the attitude at the front to my friend. She knew exactly who we were referencing. BUT besides the one person, EVERYONE was amazing, maintainance had us laughing after we got locked out of our cabins, Everyone else at the front desk were kind and helpful. The manager at the restaurant was loving her job, and also helpful!! This time I learned to ask to find out when different events took place, once I got help with that, we had tricker treaters, cabin decorations, and knew when different activities were. The Boo and Brew was fun! Kings island transportation was seamless!! There is a lot to do, and it's a nice get away for a budget friendly family! I will be staying next summer a lot just for the ease of KI transportation!! Thank you Jellystone staff!!

Currently staying here, tomorrow is our final day. Love the pull throughs, pools are great BUT they…read moredo not enforce the adult only, trying to buy a drink Sunday, 10 year old kids sitting at the alcohol bar blocking seats, kids screaming and jumping around (don't advertise adult only unless it is). Very clean park. Good luck finding staff to wait on you at the restaurant. Monday the bar and restaurant to the pool area were closed so no pool side service . Tuesday, bar open, no one around to serve though. Staff is super friendly when you interact with them but just know the perks like poolside bar, adults only pool and poolside service are spotty and you will NOT be enjoying an adults only pool. Shuttle is super clean, on time, great perk for visiting Kings Island. Overall, we booked for certain advertised perks that we didn't get so we would not return at $150 a night.

Best ride in the park. Amazing start middle and end. The ambiance is fantastic with an excellent…read morefinish.

This ride hurt! I never felt so much like an old man than on this one and I swear I think I got…read morewhiplash. This one beat me up. Line was long. By far the longest wait. Inside was cool and loved the atmosphere. We rode it in the evening and it was so dark and jarring that it was hard to enjoy myself. I survived and I would probably ride it again now that I know what I was in store for.

My favorite B&M invert!…read more Tip: Ride it immediately after a rain shower. The ride seems to go even faster afterwards due to the slick track!

I used to love this ride so much as a kid but as an adult this ride is so rough. Once I rode…read morebanshee and I had a massive headache when I got off and had to leave the park. Another thing that happened was when my son first turned 52 inches tall (which was during Covid) we went to Kings Island to ride Banshee for the first time. When we got off he loved it so much that he said that he wanted to do it again. I said ok let's go but this time we should take our face masks off for the picture. We got off to get our picture and the lady working there said that she couldn't give us our picture because we had our masks off! So I responded with "so you wouldn't even give us our picture if our masks blew off" she responded with "yes". My son started crying and said that he never wanted to come here again during Covid so that's what we did.

So, if you don't want to get too beat up on this ride, try not to sit in a wheel seat…read more I love the theme for this ride, although on my most recent ride, the audio on the first lift hill didn't work. :(

This is janky old mine train coaster with some pretty hilarious theming. The helixes aren't half…read morebad but if you're like me you won't have your hands up but on the safety bars just to brace yourself for bumpiness. I was cracking up at the several levels below Disney and Universal theming on the second lift hill but was then let down upon discovering it was a lift hill to nowhere... or rather back to the loading station. Was this early Kings Island theming the inspiration for The Shed™ at Mystic Timbers? So riding The Beast many years ago made the Indiana Jones wannabe lift hill very anticlimactic to me as it instilled in me the expectation that a second lift hill meant more ride. Even if I hadn't ridden The Beast before I think I would have expected more ride, cause why wouldn't there be, but The Beast heightened that expectation. Then that damned second lift hill spoiled the one on The Beast for my friend Derek. Derek was going into The Beast blind, even more than most people riding it into the dark forest at night. Never ridden it, not the stereotypical roller coaster enthusiast who would have seen a pov video or review on YouTube, Derek had no clue The Beast had a second lift hill and I had closely guarded the secret, eager to experience his reaction in the dark Ohio woods. Well, Adventure Express instantly normalized the idea of a second lift hill for him and not only was Derek not surprised but he correctly predicted it wasn't just a tease like last time but we had more ride ahead of us. "Oh, it's not like last time! We're not done! We're not done! We got more Beast ahead of us!" Still pretty awesome I'm thinking as I'm typing this out but I can't help but wonder if he'd have some astonishment at the layout were it not for Adventure Express. Adventure Express is an okay family coaster, though it's moderate roughness takes away from even the family element, but really what does it say when I spend half my review talking about The Beast?

For today's review, we have Mystic Timbers at Kings Island. Now, on paper, you look at this ride…read moreand are like "Oh, typical GCI, nothing special." WRONG, WRONG WRONG WRONG. This is one of the best wooden coasters EVER!!!! I'm serious, this ride is so freaking awesome, it's in my top 10 overall coasters! So yeah, we're in for a TREAT with this ride! :) First we sit down, get our seatbelts on and lapbars down and th.... oh, the train dispatched before I could finish my sentence! Yeah that's typical, Kings Island ops are amazing! Anyways, we have some small dips and turns before heading up the lift hill. We are told by some speakers to turn around and to go home back to our video games. But since we're f*cking stupid, we don't! We then hit the drop and into a big left turn, so far this isn't anything special. But don't worry, the real madness begins now! We then drop off and have a SHARP moment of ejector air. Yeah, I preached about how Prowler and Thundehread have airtime better than some RMCs, yeah, Mystic has that as well. We then hit two back to back bunny hops which provide AMAZING ejector air. We then hit a s bend that hits us with some good laterals with EVEN MORE AIRTIME! Along with another curved hill. Yeah, you get the idea. This ride has a lot of amazing airtime with laterals thrown in. Prowler has this as well, but Mystic adds the insanity that Thunderhead provides, making this the overall stronger ride. We then turn into a tunnel that provides some exceptional laterals followed by more airtime. And you do NOT slow down. You are just FLYING through this layout. After some more strong airtime and laterals, we hit one last double up into the brake run. And then.... THE SHED!!!! Yeah, this ride has a mini dark ride section, SWEET! So we enter the shed and we hear some music play (if only it was Justin Bieber or Misha, THEN it would be scary). After the train ahead of us leaves the station, the lights start flickering and we move forward. And a screen shows us a TREE MONSTER who attacks us, and then back in the station. So yeah, that's Mystic Timbers. Sure, the Shed scene isn't that great, but I do appreciate the fact that it exists. It still adds on to the ride and makes Mystic Timbers stand out even more. And on top of that, THE RIDE IS FREAKING AWESOME! This is seriously if you took Outlaw Run, Thunderhead, and Prowler, and combined them all into one coaster you get Mystic Timbers. This is easily my favorite GCI (Sorry Thunderhead) and my 2nd favorite wooden coaster (Only Behind Voyage). So I obviously recommend riding Mystic Timbers. It's the best ride at Kings Island and one of the best coasters ever made! Final Score: 100/100 Opened: 2017 Built by: Great Coasters International Last Ridden: August 9th 2025

The Twelve Days of Yelpmas Day Twelve…read more I didn't get enough coastering in down in Florida so on the spur of the moment I decided to drive down to Kings Island Winterfest. I knew there would be three coasters running and expected Mystic Timbers to be the star of the show. It took awhile to get on, as it was sitting idle after several test trains right after rope drop so I decided to knock out The Racer and Flight of Fear first. Then when I got back to Mystic Timbers it went down shortly after I got in line. So it was back to the supporting cast. Third time was a charm, though. I ended up barreling through the woods five times on Mystic Timbers. It hauls pretty well through the cold air but wasn't quite as marathonable as I expected. Don't get me wrong - MT is a blast but as far as Great Coasters International rides go I was hoping for a little more White Lightning airtime and a little less Renegade intense laterals. That's just my taste for elements and the quick side to side motions were probably exacerbated by the fact I was a single rider going crashing into a stranger every time Mystic Timbers did a sideways whip. MT is definitely smooth enough for a wood coaster but it kinda doesn't matter when the turns are that hard. Still fun, I rode it 5 times but eventually I found myself desiring another ride on The Racer which I didn't think was gonna happen. The ride ops were on point. Much better than the laggards down at Busch Gardens Tampa. And the theming is cool but I can take or leave it. I like the cheesy 80s music appearing to play from a cassette on a vintage boombox better than the video screen in the shed. At least it's something for the dead time on the brake run. I recommend Mystic Timbers even if it wasn't quite the masterpiece I was hoping for.

On this National Roller Coaster Day, I pay tribute to The Beast at Kings Island. It is…read moreacknowledged by roller coaster experts as one of the greatest wooden roller coasters ever built. When it debuted in 1979, it was the biggest, baddest, fastest, longest, highest steepest roller coaster in the world. It continues to hold the record as the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. I was fortunate to ride the Beast my first time when it was unleashed to the public for its first day on April 14, 1979. I remember waiting three hours in a queue line. During its first season of operations, it was not unusual for the line to be 3 or more hours, especially on the weekends. Crazy! but people had no problem back then waiting for hours to ride the best roller coaster in the world. On its first day I knew a way to get in front of the line by accessing the park's backlots. I was a Kings Island employee working in Ride Operations and took the day off so I could ride the Beast. Since that first day, I estimate I have ridden the Beast over 700 times during my lifetime. So many great memories! Riding with my parents' numerous times, all my friends, fellow coaster geeks, co-workers (like Scot Lahrmer and Steve Gayfield), and then later in life when our family of seven lived in Mason for 11-years. My best memories are taking my wife and five children for their first time. And then numerous times since then as they grew up. The first ride on the Beast became a rite of passage for each member of my family. It was in our blood to ride and always ride the Beast. We had to pay our second son, Taylor, $20 to ride when he finally became tall enough- yes, basically a bribe. He was apprehensive but he loved it. And like his parents and siblings, he now makes sure he can ride it whenever possible. We don't get to ride it as often now that we moved to Minnesota, but we still find a way to make it part of our summers. Every ride of the Beast from the first has always been an awesome experience- especially those night rides. I remember when working at KI we got the benefit to ride the Beast after the park closed into the night. I got to ride it after midnight one night for two consecutive rides in the front seat. Now, that is a memory you don't forget. And without the seat belts, restraints, and padding. Those were the best days to ride the Beast. The Beast milestones- 1. taking my wife on it for her first time in 1992 soon after we were married. Of course, she had to love roller coasters to make a marriage proposal. 2. We then made constant visits to Kings Island with all five of our children to ride the Beast when they became tall enough. 3. While working for the City of Mason, we had employee retreats at Kings Island to ride the coasters. 4. I got to ride in the front seat on my 50th and 60th Birthdays. The Beast will always have a place in our hearts and minds. We really loved riding it this year after Kings Island reconstructed the track to make it so smooth. May the Beast live on forever.

It's a staple. I couldn't come to Kings Island and not ride the beast! They added another car to…read morethe track so when we got up there they temporarily shut it down but opened about 30 mins later. We were next in line so we waited and glad we did. I forgot how much fun it was and brought back memories of when I was younger.

The Bat was the first ride Derek and I hit on our recent Friday evening trip to Kings Island. I…read morecould not believe how far back into the woods it was, especially being near the front of the park. The ride sign seems like it's a half mile from the station and the queue resembles a paved nature trail at times, only with guardrails. Our Fast Lane was useless on this one so it was good we got it out of the way first. I love the look of this one set against all the foliage. Orange seems appropriate for The Bat but black or dark purple supports instead of the very light gray, almost white ones would fit the theme better especially at night. The Bat was surprisingly intense and smooth. I've now ridden 3 of these old school suspended Arrow coasters and I think The Bat is my favorite. Vortex at Canada's Wonderland might be a little more intense but The Bat is decent in that department, too, with a better setting and smoother, too. Both of them blow Iron Dragon out of the water, which I guess would be the little man made lagoon it sits above. I guess The Bat is still a family coaster but it at least trends more to the thrill side of things. I'm very curious about night rides on The Bat. I guess I should have thought about that previously as bats are nocturnal and Kings Island is known for its night rides. And the first four letters in the name are "The B" just like a certain epic wooden roller coaster at the back of the park. We skipped Invertigo and Stunt Coaster. Adventure Express didn't quite live up to its name but The Bat did. All hail the King of the Also Ran Coasters at Kings Island. As much as I wanna ride Orion and Banshee at night along with the mandatory post dusk lap on The Beast I think The Bat is now second on my list of most desired night rides at Kings Island.

If you're a taller person, definitely sit in the front row of a car as the back row has a lot less…read moreleg room.

This drop tower is so unpredictable, which makes it fun! Always funny to hear kids try to countdown…read morebefore it drops, and be wayyyyy off!

When I visited Kings Island with my wife we did many of the rides and this one is not one of my…read morefavorites. All they do is take you up high in the air and drop you and you wait in line for that so it's not anything exciting that is take you high up in the air and drop you so not too fun comparison to what they have