MASON, Ohio — Kings Island is making adventure center stage for 2023. The park announced on Wednesday that there will be a new themed area next year called Adventure Port.

Kings Island wrote in a press release it will feature two new family rides and enhanced theming for Adventure Express, the park’s mine train family roller coaster. 

The park also plans to refresh Hank's Mexican Grill, which will be renamed to Enrique's. The current Bier Garten will also be transformed into a port-side Mercado, a favorite watering hole for tourists and explorers.

“What I love about Adventure Port is that we’ve taken parts of the Adventure Express story and built upon it to create this new themed area,” said Mike Koontz, vice president and general manager of Kings Island. “When guests who have been coming to the park for years visit this area for the first time, the story will feel familiar, but it will be told in a whole new way.”

As for the Adventure Port's backstory, it's meant to serve as a hub for explorers searching for an ancient civilization’s forbidden temple and mysterious wonders.

Along with the Adventure Express, there will be two other rides. Guests can enjoy the Sol Spin, in which will board open air, suspended passenger vehicles and experience the sensation of flying 60 feet through the air at 25 mph. The ride will look like an immense sun disk created by an ancient civilization.

The other ride is Cargo Loco. Riders will board these shipping barrels where they will be able to manually control the speed of their spin with a wheel in the middle of the barrel. 

The project’s design is being led by JRA, part of the RWS Entertainment Group with headquarters in Cincinnati. Other contractors on the project include RSL Commercial Architects, Schaefer Engineers, Abercrombie and Associates and SHP Architects.