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Park Queue TimesPQT

Kings Island cheat sheet

worked out from 26 days of our own wait data24 rides

Arrive for 10:00 and ride Flight of Fear, Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare and The Beast first. Leave White Water Canyon until after 4pm, when its queue drops to about 12 minutes. The park's queues peak around 14:00 at 30 minutes and are lowest around 10:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Friday
Busiest weekday
Monday
Quietest month
November
Busiest month
September

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 10:0018mquietest
  2. 11:0024m
  3. 12:0027m
  4. 13:0028m
  5. 14:0030mpeak
  6. 15:0030m
  7. 16:0029m
  8. 17:0026m
  9. 18:0024m
  10. 19:0022m
  11. 20:0023m
  12. 21:0020m

Arrive for 10:00. Queues climb to their peak around 14:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Flight of Fear ~54 min typical · up to 87 at peak · worst around 8pm54m
  2. 2Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare ~49 min typical · up to 74 at peak · worst around 6pm49m
  3. 3The Beast ~46 min typical · up to 76 at peak · worst around 1am46m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1White Water Canyon~34 min typical · about 12 min after 4pm12m
  2. 2Kings Mills Antique Autos~29 min typical · about 12 min after 4pm12m
  3. 3The Bat~30 min typical · about 14 min after 11pm14m
  4. 4Orion®~27 min typical · about 16 min after 3pm16m
  5. 5Woodstock's Air Rail~22 min typical · about 11 min after 7pm11m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Charlie Brown's Rushing River Log Riderunning 41% of the park's open hours41%
  2. 2White Water Canyonrunning 42% of the park's open hours42%
  3. 3The Racer (Blue)running 60% of the park's open hours60%
  4. 4Invertigorunning 75% of the park's open hours75%
  5. 5Drop Towerrunning 76% of the park's open hours76%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

Plus members get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

PlusThe day-of sheet is part of Plus

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

£3.99/monthor £29.99 a year, about £2.50 a month

See everything in Plus

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Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.