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I'll post a full TR on SFGAM when I get to Cleveland as I need my phone for Flash Pass and my wifi at the Chicago hotel sucks.

That is the call center.

Does anyone know what the building between Graeter's and First Aid is used for? It was always covered in vines before the 2019 International Street refresh. I'd guess that it was more offices spilling over from the park administration buildings, but there don't seem to be any functional windows and it isn't connected like the other two buildings are. I think if a second floor was added (or if the whole structure were rebuilt with one) it could be a great spot for an indoor VIP Lounge. It's kind of tucked away while still being visible to guests who know what it is. The lounge itself wouldn't be terribly big, but it would add capacity, it could add value to the Prestige Pass, and it could be used as a special event space as well if the park chose to do so. With a second floor it would also be a similar size to Kings Dominion's VIP Lounge.

Double posting because I wanted to post this little guy from when WEBN sponsored FearFest back in 2002 He's one of the reasons why I love the WaybackMachine (https://web.archive.org/web/20021001214200/http://www.pki.com/fearfest_info_2.jsp)

SCarowinds and Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park are also presented by Snickers this year. It seems most of the big Legacy Six Flags parks have their Fright Fest sponsored, while around half of the Legacy Cedar Fair parks that have a Haunt event also have their event sponsored. If it brings in money to make the event better, then I'm fine with it. Same with the upcharge for mazes. We haven't seen much work besides the new maze and the demolition of Madam Fatale's. I hope the company has decided to sink some serious initial investment into Halloween Haunt that they can compensate for using the funds raised by the new Haunted Attractions passes. Guests will not be happy if they now have to pay $20 for the mazes that will now be 6-11 years old. It's possible they could get away easier if they change up three-ish mazes (not even changing the theme, just the decorations and routes), but I do not have faith in this company for that. The downside to up-charging for mazes, as everyone has stated, is that it will drive the wait times for everything else up. Like I said in another post about rides and things to do in the park during the normal season, Kings Island simply does not have enough Halloween Haunt attractions to be able to hold the amount of people who attend the event. As of 2024 Kings Island has, what, six mazes with minimal staffing? Three shows, one of which being a glorified costume contest (run by a marvelous actor) at an event where most guests aren't allowed to wear costumes? The scare zones have been getting better, and have been one of the only things that has consistently been changed over the past 5 years. To mitigate the crowds the park could use at least eight mazes, five nightly shows (not including opening and closing ceremonies), all of the normal rides open during Haunt, and a number of additional attractions (with maybe one or two being an up-charge). Remember the casket "live burial" experience? The nightly Haunt-cert with local bands? The interactive lanterns were a new way to play during the Halloween season, and then they split them into two separate products for Winterfest. Why should I spend $35+ on an interactive item that only changes color? Hopefully we will see an upgraded Halloween Haunt event this year. Hopefully it will continue to reap the benefits of the increased revenue. Unfortunately it cannot be guaranteed that we'll see any of that. I wish they would make the event an up-charge for non-passholders and have the Haunted Attractions Pass be a slight up-charge after that. SCarowinds was an up-charge for one season, and then they pulled the plug on that because it didn't meet expectations and the execution was kind of sloppy. Close the park at 5:30PM, funnel passholders and Haunt ticket holders into a few designated areas around 6PM, and release everyone in time for the opening ceremony at 7PM. Other parks are super experienced in transitioning from the fun by day to the fright by night model. Why not take some pointers from them? Other haunts have been charging much higher amounts for events like this (albeit with a better product) for ages. Why not upgrade to justify the costs? There are a lot of opportunities that the new Six Flags could be taking as a company, but are not. There are also a lot of things that the new Six Flags should be doing to mitigate the harm done by these new changes, but are not. Halloween Haunt is not and will never be Halloween Horror Nights. That being said, it is not yet should be far above the average home town haunted house.

Six Flags Great America early ride views - Goliath- favorite coaster in the park Whizzer- very fun, my biggest surprise Batman- really, really good Bull- solid but only slightly above average air sans the pop off the MCBR with a rattle Viper and Eagle- solid for what they are but still high mid tier for me Demon- ouch, especially the corkscrews X Flight- good until a rattle at the 2nd half Wrath- my favorite dive coaster despite the shakiness, good pacing Also- So. Many. Long. Queues.

If the mazes themselves receive upgrades and they actually pour in the effort, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit shorter lines to actually be able to do the mazes for a change. But like some of you have said, this move may end up driving up the ride lines even more. And I definitely do not envy guest service folks roles with all these changes. I know people are going to be absolutely livid when the see upcharges for Haunt. The reality we are currently in is this: these places are no longer an easy thing to just walk in and enjoy anymore. The parks are 100% pay to play if you truly want to have a good time, and this right here is yet another example of that. Gone are the days of "just' buying a pass and tolerating long lines here and there. There is quite literally an upcharge for everything. Everything will cost you. I actually feel the most sorry for people who buy single day tickets and realize that ticket is literally only good to get you in and anything beyond that its "cha-ching cha ching cha ching!"

I wish they would charge even more in an attempt to thin out the crowds. Ten years ago, I never would’ve said that. But the event is becoming increasingly trashier and less fun. I say go all in and make it an up charge to even get in. Or something equivalent to a pass add on.

IMO, I think the chain should look into altering their haunted houses to not require as much staffing- i.e; mazes that have motion triggered affects, lights, and sounds. You have one or two mazes like that that use 50% of the original scare actors, those employees could be relocated to another building. I say this every year and I will will continue to- they need to do a tiered system for their haunted houses to add value. Tier 1s are mild where Tier 5s are intense.

Now with Haunt 4 hour waits brought to you by Snickers

The main reason I enjoy Haunt is The Beast night rides. That alone is worth the price of a gold pass in my opinion!

Very True Disco2000. They will show up regardless. Charging for mazes will probably make the ride lines crazy long. But they are now anyway during the event when the weather cooperates.

One thing we know about our passholders is they will come regardless. Even if the park did zero decorating and no scare zones or roamers and only focused on upcharge mazes, people will still pack the park. If people can't get in the mazes with entry into the park, then the rides lines become even longer than they already are during Haunt. On Haunt Saturdays many of the FL get to/approach the queue entrance, so the lines will be even worse.

I am torn on this one. If they do charge extra for mazes this year, it's obvious there is a need for cash any way they can get it. Only reason I can think of facing the throngs of gold passholders angry or confused why their gold pass does not include that this fall. I don't envy anyone working in guest services if so. It doesn't bother me too much. The mazes are fun, but no need to stand in a 2+ hour line usually, when I can ride my favorite rides in cooler weather. I'm at a point in my life where just walking through the park in the fall/Halloween time and riding rides is enough. If the mazes were truly scary or had better theming, etc., maybe it would matter more. Saying that, I remember when Fear Fest began and it was a separate gate charge the first few years I think. First of all, I was much younger, so mazes mattered more, the event was better than it is now, and the crowd size was much more manageable. Rides had relatively short lines while the lines for the mazes were not quite as long as they get now with all gold pass members getting access. Weather always plays a role too.

If they put a price tag on the mazes, then people paying for Fright Lane have to pay the $70, the extra for the mazes, and if they aren’t a passholder then the admission. It’s $120 with admission and FL, and we all know the price for the mazes is gonna be crazy, so it’s be about $170 for a SINGLE PERSON!!

The other benefit I could see is it may stop the hoards of children and adults pulling kids in wagons thorugh the mazes. If charging keeps so many kids who just giggle and run through the mazes only to bump in to an adult pulling two toddlers in a large red wagon, I'm all for it. It puts the scareactors at a disadvantage because who can do a proper scare job under those cirmumstances. I'll hold off judgement until I experience it. Another thing I've noticed is (I didn't check them all) that at Kings Dominion Cedar Point Magic Mountain Six Flags over Georgia Six Flags Great America Six Flags over Texas Six Flags Fiesta Texas All have their halloween events presented by Snickers. Kings Island Knots Berry Farm Valleyfair Darian Lake Canada's Wonderland Don't have it. Probably just haven't updated the websites yet, but I found it interesting.

How about a Coke Freestyle stand that isn't always closed or crowded? On a more serious note, I'd like to see a sit-down dining location in Area 72, if they have room for it. They could call it the Mission Control Café and have pictures of all their old 'flight tests' on the wall, and it would have a bunch of random sci-fi memorabilia decorating the walls. Toward the back, it would have a small NASA-esque control room with screens showing the current position of the Orion test vehicle. I don't know what it would serve, though...

Four teenage girls, sitting in row 8, were about to be dispatched on Banshee. They had waited for about 15 minutes in line, and then, right before the drive tires powered on, they asked one of the restraint-checkers... "Does this ride go upside down?" The response was even more funny: "Yeah, 8 times, in fact!"

Here's a wrap up of Chicago. I left a little before 11 in order to avoid as much morning rush hour as possible. I'm a tad over an hour from downtown so it worked out pretty well (construction didn't help things). I do need to do better parking research as the garage I picked was $51, albeit it was convenient by the big fountain between downtown and the lake, but Chicago is an easy city to navigate. I might even try to find cheap parking by an L-train stop and ride in. Oh, well. I wanted to do Willis Tower first, but the low cloud cover made it pointless. It did appear clearer later, so I got a timed ticket for 6 pm (Willis is pricy, too). I then circled north to Riverwalk. That bit has restaurants and boat rides all along the length, also a very active place other than the lake front. Navy Pier was after that, just walked up and down the length of the pier, got some good pics of the city. Then made my way south back to Millennium Park for Cloud Gate (aka, the bean), and the Buckingham Fountain before a late lunch. The place I went to (posted above) was right by Willis Tower so I chilled there for a few hours (Chicago deep dish pizza also takes a while to cook). I only stayed up Willis for 20 minutes, being at those heights while not on board a coaster is a bit weird for me, but the view was great. The last bit was walking from there to check out Soldier Field (which was by far the biggest walk of the day) and finished taking the L-train up to Wrigley (the Cubs did play a day game vs Boston, but by the time I figured my itinerary, the game sold out because the Cubs are good and the Red Sox are a big draw). Just glad I did what I wanted to do. SFGAm in the morning. Then on Saturday, I'm getting up uber-early for the trek to Cleveland.

If they're going to put in a new restaurant, I've got my eyes set on something going in the KillMart building with indoor seating, some outdoor seating along the KMAA fence, and a new kitchen and serving area added onto the back of the building. There's enough space for it and it would activate that area of the park more. Give the inside some good Victorian-ish decorations and it could even bring some of those vibes back to Coney Mall (lost with the removal of Coney Potato Works and the old ICEE stand). Or maybe a new quick-service/refresh station either where The Beast Canyon Cold Drinks stand used to be (you could put a bandstand across from it), or on the side of the path just past Diamondback's train shed. Make it bigger than the Shooting Star Cafe. A larger Brewhouse-style indoor restaurant could fit in the Saltwater Circus plot and be very useful for Winterfest. In all reality, Chicken Shack could have its dining areas enclosed (like was done at Kings Dominion) and a new quick-service location with better flow can replace the Ice Scream Zone if Action Zone ever finally gets redone.

I've had the idea of a "Farmhouse Kitchen & Grill" style BBQ restaurant across from Rivertown bathrooms. There would be a large outdoor seating area with a small bandstand, and have the Diamondback splashdown be the backdrop of it all.

I thought it was already confirmed a Cheesecake Factory and Burger King

I think he was asking about what new type of restaurant(s) could come to the park.

Not sure exactly what you are wanting....but we talk about the dining plans and food here:

Post all your ideas for Kings Island dining locations here!