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Speaking of the dining plan, I wonder if we will see the 1-Meal/day plan also come to Kings Island now that Memberships have made their way across the chain. I think that one was about $99 at Magic Mountain rather than the $155 for the 2-Meal/day plan. The quality of everything F&B related has improved so much since the program began in 2014. I'll also say that the dining plans also set Six Flags apart from their competition with how easy it is for families to come to the park, even if they only go 4-5 times per year. So far this season I've effectively paid off my All-Season Dining Plan and my All-Season Drink Plan. I'll admit that I'm part of the minority that "abuses" the dining plan. (It's not really abuse, it's using something we paid for while other guests barely use half the value of theirs.)

https://local12.com/news/local/farmer-music-center-venue-riverbend-coney-island-sunlite-pool-cincinnati-ohio-deadline-construction-cost-prices-symphony-orchestra-millions-grant-grants-donate-donations-music-musicians-bands-concerts-events-entertainment-festivals-grand-opening Basically looks like moonlight gardens might get refurbished however Aftab reducing the funding is not a great sign

The new Carowinds ride looks very similar to the two flumes at the Walibi parks over in Netherlands/Belgium. I enjoyed both of those flumes and anticipate this being a great new addition for them

There was a pretty loud personal matter that I'm not going to describe too much. A very upset parent pulling their very upset disabled child in some direction, which resulted in another guest chiming in. I was at the tables outside of the station itself but could still hear most of it. I guess there might've been a better word than "witnessing", though that described being able to hear it well enough. On another topic: I would love to see some more statues like Don Quixote blended into the theming around the park. I've long been an advocate that Kings Island should be more of a thrilling theme park than a themed amusement park, and well-placed static figures/displays would a good inclusion for that.

What happened at the train station?

Wild Adventures Theme Park in Georgia will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with fireworks, Travis Tritt, Parmalee, LOCASH, Harlem Globetrotters shows and free admission for military members. Details: https://themeparksbydon.com/wild-adventures-celebrate-america-festival/

So weather is looking alright-ish. Sunday for MIA looks on the cool side, but nice. Wednesday is looking better than Tuesday for Cedar Point.

I just re-watched UNDER THE STARS and ADVENTURE AWAITS. Either of those shows, with a little better fountain programming, and better laser programming to use the lasers for the logos instead of the drones could run nightly without fireworks or drones as a "cheaper" alternative on weeknights with 9 or 9:30 closes. They've even gotten rid of the moving lights used on the tower a little bit more each year. Don't know if these were rented or owned and have just been retired as they quit working or they no longer see the need to rent them. I think the problem was they kept trying to do the "50th light" shows (and were fairly successful) for a few years after and now they have just started a weak "copy and paste" form year to year

everyone on the merch cart is moving again!

they are - each fountain has a feed pipe that runs at 100%. There is then a control valve with an antenna that the nozzel attaches to. If it looses the signal, it seems to just default to whatever it likes and stays there regardless of what is happening around it. The alignment gets off when they are adding/removing the ice rink and they get knocked off their "mark" and no one ever takes the time to walk the fountain and re-align them to their positions. The "Finger jets" are pointless anyway in that they need to be way more arched to the center. ASs it is now they are "slightly angled" and just look crooked.

Absolutely. Has anyone else seen at least some of the Disney ride breakdowns and/or animatronic malfunction videos on YouTube? Ive been obsessed with those. The ways that Disney’s animatronics can malfunction are as hilarious, memorable, and memey as many of the rpg game Skyrim’s glitches like the one where a horse a player rides and then dismounts ends up walking diagonally up into the sky and vanishing.

I remember the first "closing show" after the first returned Winterfest when they used the new lighting rigs, the old fountains and the building LED color bars. They picked a solid song from "The Greatest Showman" and it WORKED so well. It didn't need "choreographed squirts" that aren't even really choreographed. They used what they had, supplemented it with fireworks, building lighting and some additional lighting from the rigs. Sometimes less is more if you cant really BE MORE. The finale for the 50th was amazing, but if they aren't going to do that (and they can't and shouldn't) then they just need to do less really well. Based on the corwds I saw leaving Sunday night about 9-9:30, I'd even question if we need 10pm closes with fireworks every night of the week. Id rather have solid finale shows on Friday and Saturday evenings, put some of the savings toward a better, fuller live show schedule with more evening shows at Showplace and bandstand, and a WELL LIT and ACTUALLY CHOREOGRAPHED (looking at you HAUNT shows) fountain and lighting only show at 9-9:30 pm when the park closes Sun - Th. What happened to "At the end of the Day" song from Adventure awaits? - perfect song for a simple ending show. Get a solid programming and don't screw with it for the next 6 years. If you can't do what The Island does for free at a shopping center, then quit trying - This is what we've NEVER gotten.

I have been really impressed with how quickly theyve been getting people through the line at the Festhaus LaRosa’s as of late. The last handful of times Ive had pizza there, they churned through guests so fast that I was treated to very fresh and hot pizza. It tastes so much better that way(after cooling down for just a couple minutes). Skyline’s taste and quality never changes but I waited like 15 minutes after ordering to get my food from there shortly before park closing on Saturday night. I understand that Skyline’s a serious hustle to work at and can relate to an extent due to how brutal my shift was at my job on Sunday and being threatened with being written up yesterday if I didnt do a task Ive only done partially once a twice. But Ive been getting meals there since spring 2014 with the dining plan every single year. It took so long to get my food there that a few minutes in, most people who I saw waiting when I starting waiting had already gotten their food with no more than 7 other people than me waiting for their food after that. Cant speak on pizza at Soak City because I havent been there yet this year because my job has me working on a schedule where the days I work change week after week and sometimes, I get completely random different starting and/or ending times for my shifts than Im used to. And also partly because I went to a convention 2 weekends ago where over $18,000 was raised for charity and it was a blast. Anyway, I CAN speak on Sweet Spot treats more than before. The creme bruleé(however thats spelled) cookie was really good, I got to have it hot and fresh, made from scratch. The Phantom Theater Popcorn Tart is really good. I just wish the cream in it was distinct in taste from the cream used in other treats Ive tried at Sweet Spot this year. There is a uniformity in cream in some of the treats. The Snickerdoodle bite was really good, it was like a frozen cookie dough treat. I loved eating refrigerated cookie dough as a kid and theres edible cookie dough sold in places like Jungle Jim’s. The Cookies N Cream tres leches or whatever its called was really good as well. So far, my top 2 favorites are that creme bruleé cookie at number two and the Neopolitian ice cream sandwich(which is the best value of all the treats in that shelf when looking at it from how muchmass and volume it contains versus its cost and comparing that to the other treats. Dont have to measure its mass or volume, you just have to look at it and the other treats.) at number one so far. I will note that a lot of the times Ive had treats at Sweet Spot this year, many of their treats have been well decimated due to me usually getting treats from there after 8 PM and one of those times, my sibling and I waited like 10 minutes for someone to come and ask what treats we wanted and what not. We were there at the front of the line just standing there, bored.

I really like the show. Not sure why theres dancing parts and I dont really care for them nor the song choice for the first dance number that sounds like something recorded and released about 10 years ago. Overall a great show though. The moment during the levitation trick where everyone else raises their arms in combination with the song playing gives off memey moment vibes to me. The parts where Brad Ross brings kids up to the stage are very cute and where most of the humor lies. Theres some wiggle room for those parts for the magician which is good. I dont know how most magic tricks work so I was blown away and impressed the first time I saw it(2 Fridays ago, the rehearsal show). The song choices are solid for the most part especially the first one they used and the one for the sword one. The sword trick is my favorite part of the show. The whole samurai theme and everything was awesome not to mention the swords themselves. I prefer European longswords but those swords were still really cool. (I own steel swords and sword train with some of them regularly.) It was indeed pretty overdone to have so much woman in a box tricks, could have used more variety. The front curtain that is visible most of the day inside the theater is really impressive with the illusion it gives off.

Yeah, I always see mess on those tables but its definitely worse this year. I saw like 8 geese in the patio and around it a few weeks ago. I was shocked. Never seen so many anywhere outside of the fountain’s area.

Thats one of my favorite things to see at Kings Island! I make it a point to at least look at it once while passing by it. (Heavily biased in favor of it because I love plate armor and I own steel plate armor that I like to wear even though it can be a real pain to put on by myself.)

I'm getting some mixed signals here, but it looks like the 2026 Star Spangled Night — whose dates were originally fudged on the website and taken from a week-long celebration down to a one-night-only event — has now been expanded to a three night event. This change is according to the park's website which lists both July 3-5 and July 4 on the same page.

Three nice sets of consistent-spray nozzles might go a long way for prolonging the life of any other "showtime" (variable spray) nozzles in the fountain by giving the computers a break. At least, I think the issue is with programming rather than the sprayers themselves. Either that or just copying the nozzle pattern from either KD or CW would work as well. We might lose the ability for fountain shows in the latter scenario, but it's probably worth having fountains that work in general. No matter whatever we want to happen, Six Flags needs to get their financials together if they hope to do all of this work to get their parks back to running well. Otherwise maybe we'll see them fixed when the Herschend Family Mega Corp buys Kings Island, removes the dining plans, puts in a tame little family coaster, and finally charges $200/pass. (Not that they'd do any/all of that, but I'm still not convinced that they can handle their rapid expansion or that they'll treat all of their newly-acquired parks as well as Dollywood and SDC.)

I want to say the fountain issues became very noticeable during the 2023 season. The pre-merge "lets pad the books" type of cuts. And they haven't recovered since. I don't agree with returning to the old pedestal fountains, those were dated and honestly with the budget cuts the pedestal fountains would likely have issues too.

1) You're on a Kings Island forum so you're going to see more talk about Kings Island -- both praise and criticism. 2) I think Kings Island's gap gets mentioned more because it is considered the better park by most, but also because Orion in the eyes of many was a disappointment unlike Copperhead Strike. In addition, Fury 325 made people happy for some time since it is the golden boy of B&M gigas and what Orion could have been with a bigger budget. 3) I've said similar things in the past, but I think the whining is pretty justified at this point. If we hold Kings Island to the standard of excellence it has always had, it is underperforming in many ways. Include in that standard is the frequency of major ride expenditures. We are customers after all, not a support group. 🙂

This applies to both Rip Roarin' Falls and Werewolf Gorge. With the current "budget" of Six Flags, I'm wondering just how much of the theming presented in the ride animations are actually going to appear in the final products.

Are they controlled by wiress? Is that the issue? The first year they had these fountains they used them reasonably well for the night show, and they were choreographed well timed with the music. In that show, they also used music with a strong beat that allowed choreography with the fountains. The current night show is just an absolute disaster in my opinion The music is awful and it’s just a bunch of drones flying around and fireworks shooting with no coordination to the music. There are some changes in the fountain when the music switches, but nothing I would call choreographed. They totally have wasted any potential this fountain had for a show.

They couldn’t keep flickering, swinging lamps working. Don’t dream too big.

I’ve suggested in the past a major Reno of Showplace with a new, semi permanent roof that would be more rain proof and possibly add heaters for haunt/winterfest use. Eliminate the steep raked seating (and ice gears for winter) by instead doing terraced seating with a larger area at the front for a dance floor if you do more music revues, some elevated seating areas and then table seating at the back as a dining and show setting (but only have it open around show times)

**DOUBLE POST** Watching the POV I really like the spinning buzzsaws in that little show building where the switch is in the middle of the ride. I've mentioned the idea of the shed on Mystic Timbers getting an upgrade. Imagine if as part of that upgrade when you enter the shed you have spinning buzzsaws like that over and around you along with sound and lighting effects that would eventually lead to an animatronic encounter or multiple animatronic encounters in the main show room of the shed.