Adventure Express

Entrance sign.

***Adventure Express*** is a roller coaster located in the Adventure Port section of Kings Island. It is the only hybrid coaster in the park. The ride is themed to an ancient mine cart through a jungle-infested ruins, and originally played the theme music of the *Indiana Jones* film series in the queue line.

## ​History

Plans for *Adventure Express*​ began when park officials wished to make a mine cart coaster with *Indiana Jones*​-styled scenery, specifically the second film, *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom*, which featured a mine cart scene. The only hints to the franchise were the music from the films played in the queue line, though. *Adventure Express* opened on April 13, 1991, and remains in operation to this day, with a few notable changes to operation procedures since it first opened. During the 2021-2022 off season the ride got repainted for the parks 50th anniversary celebration.

## ​Story and Ride Experience

### ​Story

According to a Kings Island employee who is currently designing Adventure Port, the backstory for Adventure Express goes like this. A group of brave adventurers discovers an ancient temple, rumored to have treasure concealed in it's walls. Once inside, the team finds long-abandoned minecart tracks that go deep inside the temple's tunnels. Once starting the minecarts, the team is attacked by Native Americans, who seem to have unintentionally been sent centuries into the future. After just barely making it out alive, the team realizes that they have disturbed an ancient temple, and may have put the land under an ancient curse, which is setting up future storylines for Adventure Port

### ​Ride Experience

The ride begins by going down a hill into the first tunnel, which has a sign that says "Track Closed." The cars travel through the tunnel anyway. As the train exit the tunnel, they pass a skeleton of an archeologist who has been killed by a spear trap, with a snake surrounding his remains. The train then begins to climb the first lift hill, which features support beams with tiki masks on them. The building of *Flight of Fear* and part of the track for *The Racer,* and *Orion,* as well as *Banshee* are visible while on the lift hill. As the cars reach the top of the lift hill, they go down a downward curve and twist and turn past several structures and tunnels, before approaching a final hill, in which several angered tiki gods begin to bang on drums, with the main god exclaiming:

> "You have disturbed the forbidden temple! Now you will pay. You will pay!"
>
>

As the head of the tiki gods is about to pour lava on the riders, the ride exits this tunnel, and the ride concludes.

## ​Trivia

* *Adventure Express* is a hybrid coaster, which means it is made from both steel and wood. It is the only hybrid coaster at Kings Island.
* The lift chain is reused from *Vortex*, added in 2020.
* The queue line used to play the *Raiders of the Lost Ark*​theme by John Williams, as the *Indiana Jones*​ films at the time were distributed by Paramount Pictures. Even if Paramount still owned the parks, the music would still have been dropped, as Lucasfilm, the primary owners of the film franchise, are now owned by The Walt Disney Company.
* The ride also plays a soundtrack of various sound effects to simulate an actual jungle environment. These sound effects are the same that were used on *The Crypt*.