First look at Kings Island Friends & Family Night 2023

Hey guys hows it going. Without giving too much away. we got invited to Kings Island Friends and Family night. What is this private event? Ki employees can invite their friends and family for a couple hours of fun.

With the park only being open for 2 hours (they extended to 8:30pm) not everything was open. Your major rides that were open coasterwise was Diamondback, Orion, and Mystic. They had a few flat rides open throughout the park and actually a decent amount of food places open!

So first things first, everyone is asking about the new Adventure Port. So here is what i can tell you. Seeing it first in person the area looks AMAZING. I am super excited to see this area when it is finished. What i could not see was over by Adventure Express. I was told it is supposed to open this weekend but we shall see!

They still have one of the old "Hanks" signs up on the new restaurant. They had the midway blocked off by the airbrush stand and by Racer exit. So from what i can see, there is a beautiful fountain they added. There is some kind of building that is new over by the old VIP area.

We also saw them working on the new VIP area behind the restrooms and behind Tower Gardens!

Diamondback is not fully painted. The whole lift, station area, brakes, and the turn around into the splashdown is all that is done. The back half back by WWC and behind Crypt building is not done. Not sure what is going on there.