Kings Island ("KI" to the locals) was technically ...

Kings Island ("KI" to the locals) was technically born seven years before I was, so it has been a Cincinnati treasure for longer than I've been alive.

I give it five stars because it seems to be experiencing a bit of a renaissance since being acquired by the folks who own Cedar Point and being converted back to a theme park instead of a multimedia movie advertising platform. You see, much like the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kings Island of the late 90s was unforgettable at best and terrible at worst. Paramount's purchase of KI led to the watering down of the theme park aspects (ie, smaller/shorter roller coasters), a ramping up of the branding aspects (every ride received a Paramount movie name and branding), and elimination of some of the fun off-season stuff (Winterfest). Since buying KI back in the late 2000s, Cedar Fair has been slowly fixing all of these things. Roller coasters are back and bigger than ever, the movie branding is long gone, and Winterfest is back and a ton of family fun.

So go to Kings Island because it's a fun place.