Kentucky Kingdom Off-Season Tour – King Louie’s Winter Walk-Thru

On Saturday, February 24th, Kentucky Kingdom held a special tour for invited coaster enthusiasts, club members, and select media. The annual event, appropriately named King Louie’s Winter Walk-Thru, provided fans with an off season behind-the-scenes tour of the park.

Since majority of our staff was at Cedar Point for their annual off season charity event, our own Kris Werner made the trek to Kentucky Kingdom to cover this event (Who also designed the 2018 event logo). King Louie’s Winter Walk-Thru kicked off with a nice welcome speech about the operation and command facilities as well as info about the new additions for 2018—more about that in a bit…

The tour offered guests access to the parks storage areas where ride vehicles were staged for winter rehabbing. Participants got an up close look at cars from popular attractions such as Lightning Run, Eye of the Storm, and even Prof. John’s Flying Machines.

Attendees were provided a unique opportunity with exclusive access to Storm Chaser, the park’s intense Rocky Mountain Construction coaster. Not only were attendees able to tour areas that are usually restricted, they were also able to take close-up photographs right alongside of the track!

Along their journey to the waterpark, attendees passed by “The Eye of the Storm”—the park’s 2017 attraction. It’s certainly an interesting sight to see a ride without any vehicles.

Once in the waterpark, participants were allowed to walk to the top of the Deep Water Dive slide tower. There, they were able to take some amazing panoramic shots of the park’s iconic rides.

T3 and Deluge Water Coaster

In 2018, Kentucky Kingdom will be adding a new “Scream Xtreme” thrill ride, the “Rock ‘n’ Roller” family ride, and two new films for their 5D cinema, along with re-tracking sections of Thunder Run.

• Scream Xtreme: a Zamperla Endeavour thrill ride which is a new version of the old Enterprise ride.
• Rock n Roller: Spinning ride that goes over slopes and flat area in a circular direction.
• 5D Attraction Double Feature: “Happy Family The Ride” and “Journey to the Mysterious Island: Chase Over Atlantis” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
• Thunder Run: Classic wood coaster built by the Dinn Corporation that is undergoing extensive track work.

Many new amenities will also be introduced in 2018, including new, affordably priced cabanas situated alongside the giant wave pool, more shade structures, and new seating areas throughout the park.

Interestingly, we learned that many of the rides in the park are named by employees. Names are brainstormed and nominated by employees, before being selected and finalized by senior management.

During the tour, participants were treated to an exclusive first glimpse at one of the new attractions that will be opening in 2018. The new “Rock ‘n Roller” attraction is positioned in-between Prof. John’s Flying Machines and Tin Lizzies. Rock ‘n Roller will be making its debut on Opening Day.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the second new attraction , Scream Xtreme (Zamperla Endeavour). Work on that ride has not started yet. But we do have a render of what the ride will look like.

Sadly, with new rides coming in, that often means saying farewell to old rides. Enterprise will be removed in 2018 to make room for Scream Xtreme.

Crews recently wrapped up a re-tracking project on multiple sections of the parks classic wooden coaster, Thunder Run. This will allow for a faster and more importantly, much smoother ride in 2018!

While touring the operations center, attendees got a sneak peek look at the parks new uniforms. These sleek new uniforms will be worn by employees starting on opening day—May 5th.

Here’s a look at the parks conference room—aka where the real magic happens! Here, senior management and director meetings take place as well as daily park planning.

At the end of the event, participants were treated with pizza and given a key to the kingdom souvenir. These are really cool!  Looks like the design was a bit inspired by our Coaster Nation logo 😉

Kentucky Kingdom now has more than 70 rides and attractions and is scheduled to re-open for the 2018 season on May 5th. General admission is $54.95. Admission for children (under 48 inches tall) and seniors (age 55 and over) is $39.95. The early bird price for a 2018 season pass is $69.95. The benefits of a season pass include unlimited admission, free parking (a savings of $8.00 on every visit), $1.00 soft drinks (regular price is $3.00), and 20% off all food and merchandise purchased in the park. Free tubes for the water park and free sunscreen are offered to all Kentucky Kingdom guests.

Early bird season passes for 2018 also include new benefits: $12.00 in discounts for selected games, $18.00 in discounts for the new cabanas, and a $10.00 discount off the price of a large, family-size pizza (regularly $29.95) all season long. The additional $30.00 in games and cabana discounts, as well as the season-long $10.00 discount on the family-size pizza, will automatically be loaded onto each early bird season pass card.

For tickets and more information, visit the official Kentucky Kingdom website here.

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