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MASON — Visitors to Kings Island will notice the new owner making changes at the 35-year-old amusement park.

There's a new name, new ticket prices and admissions policies, a used roller coaster trucked in from another park and more shows added to the entertainment.

Paramount's is gone from the name, after Cedar Fair LP purchased Kings Island along with CBS's amusement park division last summer for $1.24 billion. The Sandusky company also owns Kings Island's long-time rival Cedar Point. Both parks competed for attention and customers by building bigger and faster roller coasters.

This year, the new ride is an old ride Cedar Fair officials decided to move to Kings Island.

Trucks are hauling more than 300 pieces of the coaster, to be renamed from X-Flight to Firehawk, from Geauga Lake in Aurora near Cleveland. The ride is scheduled to open Memorial Day.

Spokeswoman Maureen Kaiser said she rode the coaster at Geauga Lake and calls it awesome. Readers commenting on the newspaper's Web site cheered the addition of the ride while others said that Kings Island and Cedar Point used to try to out-do each other with new coasters instead of offering a ride already seen in another park.

"This is very disappointing. I now live in Columbus but I grew up in Trenton and have been to KI many times. My wife has family near Cleveland and we have been to Geauga Lake several times as well," reader Michael Hansford wrote on the Web site. "Now that Cedar Point owns both KI and Geauga Lake, instead of investing in new rides, they are going to scavenge from one park and 'invest' in the others. This does nothing but hurt those that enjoy the lower cost of Geauga Lake, forcing them to pay higher prices and travel further for the better rides."

Kaiser defended Cedar Fair's move and said that it is commonplace in the amusement park industry to move rides from one property to another. The move from Geauga Lake, which has about 750,000 visitors a year, to Kings Island, with more than three million visitors a year, will cost about $750,000 — far below what a new coaster would cost, Kaiser said.

That doesn't mean Cedar Fair is not investing in Kings Island and its other parks.

The $21 million Maverick ride opens this year at Cedar Point and a wooden coaster is under construction at Valleyfair in Minnesota, Kaiser said.

"You can't just keep swapping rides around, that would be silly" Kaiser said. "Cedar Fair is very focused on bringing in new products."

At Kings Island, the company will spend $10 million this year, with most of the money to restore the Son of Beast coaster and add an ice show.

Son of Beast was closed after 27 people were injured on it in July. Its steel loop has been removed and other repairs to the wooden structure are underway. Son of Beast is not expected to be ready for the park's April 21 opening but could be ready later in 2007.

Cedar Fair is also chipping in for a new ice show as part of the capital investment, but details have not been released. Four other new shows also will be introduced. Last year, Kings Island offered a rock music show and a parade, Kaiser said, "so this is a major expansion of our show programs."

The Firehawk coaster is going in next to and slightly behind the Flight of Fear. Work crews are setting up footings now and the ride assembly should begin soon. Kaiser said the ride takes up about five-and-a-half acres.

"You are sitting four across in the seat and have a shoulder holster and lap bar holding you in. The ride starts out and you are leaning back as you travel up 115 feet. You are facing the sky and going up backward, when you get to the top it turns over and you are facing the ground and go through five inversions at 50 m.p.h.," Kaiser said. "It really feels like you are flying. I've never felt anything like it before."

It will take about 2 1/2 minutes to jet through the half-mile track.

Also new this year

• Ticket prices: Kings Island offered a two-day ticket for $44.99 last year. Now, one- and two-day passes are available for $44.95 and $54.95 respectively.

Tickets will still be available at a $10 discount through the park Web site and at Kroger and Meijer stores.

An adult season pass for Kings Island will cost $89.95 — $4 more than last year.

Passes for admission to all Cedar Fair amusement parks include the new Cedar Fair Maxx ticket for $125 for an adult.

Cedar Fair also owns five water parks. The Cedar Fair Maxx Plus adult season pass will get you into any Cedar Fair park for $149.95.

• Gold Pass is back: Cedar Fair also listenened to customers who wanted the Kings Island to continue to offer its Gold Pass.

A Gold Pass costs $84.95 for the season if four or more adults purchase the package together. The Gold Pass also offers deals on parking, prime parking spots, early water park admission, double-ride days and other perks.

• Season passes good at 12 parks: Kings Island plus Wonderland near Toronto, Canada; King's Dominion near Richmond, Va.; Carowinds near Charlotte, North Carolina; Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.; Cedar Point in Sandusky; Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif.; Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pa; Valleyfair near Minneapolis, Minn.; Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Mo.; Geauga Lake and Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, Ohio; and, Michigan's Adventure near Muskegon, Mich.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.