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I think it's about what you enjoy. I actually would put Mystic Timbers barely in my top ten in the park let alone consider it an amazing wooden coaster but then again I'm not a huge GCI fan... I find the trains and restraints uncomfortable and getting thrown around like a ragdoll side to side constantly while whipping over airtime hills is just not my thing. If I want airtime give me a straight pop up and down with a buzz bar like Phoenix at Knoebels. I am still team Beast due to the incredible terrain and the fact that there is no other coaster quite like it despite its lack of traditional elements - not many other coasters are a 65mph train ride through the woods haha

It's my #1 wooden coaster as well. It wasn't until I rode a night ride on Dollywood's Lightning Rod 10 years later, that anything wood or steel compared even closely in excitement and intensity. I love Mystic Timbers, but I think there is a market at Kings Island for a wooden coaster that is taller and faster (maybe even longer!) than The Beast (as long as it's properly executed this time). It's just rather unfortunate because wooden coasters are cheaper. For the money they spent on the ho-hum Orion they could have built the best wooden coaster in the world.

I think I saw someone say the park is shooting for a Memorial Day weekend opening. That would be a nice goal if they're still working on it. It could also open this weekend or next weekend if the lineup was to get Monster open, then Adventure Express, then Invertigo. Zephyr might open before Invertigo, but that would still line up with the "one ride a week" theory.

Exactly this. The Voyage is the one and ONLY roller coaster on the planet that, if magically placed side by side with SV, would make the decision hard on which to ride if I only had time to ride one.

^^Voyage destroys The Beast imo. In fact I prefer Mystic Timbers over The Beast. While Beast has been running better in recent years thanks to the awesome work from the Gravity Group, rides like Mystic and Voyage has that non stop action packed airtime/twisted filled ride while Beast is mainly drops, gradual turns, and straight sections.

Any updates on the status of Invertigo recently?

Well the rights to both characters in terms of amusement park attractions belongs to six flags now so that's a similarity haha

I might be crucified but I actually prefer the Voyage slightly over The Beast. Never thought I'd say that but Voyage has the length and speed and offered a slightly more exciting layout. They are my top 2 wooden coasters - I see it as The Beast is the legendary classic and the voyage was the same idea but built decades later with all the modern elements and transitions. Both are amazing rides - the single best element on any wooden coaster is still the double helix finale on The Beast but I think the voyage is the stronger coaster by just a tad over the course of the entire run

RMC has made some amazing rides with impressive technology but Will Koch and the Gravity Group brought that special spark of creation to make The Voyage such a unique and incredible ride.

Great article Don! Next to a Beast night ride, The Voyage is hands down my favorite wooden coaster ever. The Voyage is the most unrelenting and aggressive coaster and I love every second of it. I was lucky enough to ride it over 20 times in one day last time I was there a couple years ago. Cannot get enough of it, although as I get a bit older I have to recuperate a bit the next day...ha!

100% while I'd much prefer them to hire a real artist or graphic designer the could have at least done their due diligence to make sure AI created realistic designs based on real photos or artwork. These look amateur at best and like they only prompted AI once and did not editing of whatever it spit out the first time. They shirts and designs look horrible and I've even seen some merch in the pass holder group with the park name spelled incorrectly due to AI merch errors....like what the heck literally nobody checked this before they hit print because the amount of errors is insane! The only way to send the message tho is to not buy this merch and let it all hit the discount racks next season when they realize they couldn't sell it. As long as people buy AI slop like this there is no incentive to stop creating more AI slop merchandise

What bothers me is that they use AI, but then don't fix the errors that exist. Like if I was the one in charge of what gets sold, I would be like "well Orion only has 3 rows so let's change that" That should have been addressed before they even printed shirts and hoodies of it. Just goes to show the lack of care they put into merchandise.

Twenty years after its debut, The Voyage still delivers one of the most intense rides in the world—and remains the best wooden coaster I’ve ridden. Read more: https://themeparksbydon.com/the-voyage-celebrating-20-years-of-wooden-roller-coaster-greatness/

I'm not here to split hairs over this. I realize there are plenty of situations where a kid may have had good parents and upbringing and still have behavior issues. That's just how it is sometimes. However, I will stand on business. Have you worked in a school recently? Because I have. I have worked as an SRO and I have worked for juvenile court. I've seen some of the worst child/parent situations. Not to mention we live in the age where the bullying/constant flow of being on the internet/information overload and dopamine hits for likes is through the roof. And this is what we see in real life every day in public places-the park being no different. Twice already, myself and my fiancé' have had a group of underage teens asking if we were of age and if they could come in with us. My response every single time is "absolutely not. I'm not liable for you". Moving on.

I remember I was expecting Mystic to be named SplinterCat up until the announcement and then that night when it was announced I couldn't wrap my head around the name Mystic Timbers bc it just sounded so strange and unexpected.

This all makes me really want to see an alternate reality version of the park with the alternate names/themes in place.

This is really good for those parks, though I have to wonder what it means that Kings Dominion didn't get Winterfest back. I feel like these two will be scaled-down events as they get rebuilt into a more Winterfest-like product. The KD locals would have probably loved to have a scaled down Winterfest compared to nothing at all. Could BGW's ChristmasTown have played into it or is this all just more fuel for the theory that Kings Dominion is going to get sold very soon?

I've had the original Phantom Theater queue audio playing basically on repeat these last few weeks and I think I see — or rather hear — what you're hearing. The biggest similarity that I can tell is that both actors are portraying characters that have gone mad and are reflecting that in their voices. I don't know if there's a specific reference or not, but it does feel like there could be. The connection of both Maestro and the Joker being theatrical individuals is a nice catch!

I just wonder how hard it is to slap a PNG logo on shirt or hoodie as opposed to asking AI to make something that’ll be sold. I did this in literally 2 minutes without AI.

Unfortunately I saw someone wearing a hoodie with the Mystic Timbers design (second photo) on either Opening Weekend or the weekend after. I could be convinced that the fifth shirt (The Beast with the claw coming down through the letters) was made by an artist, and that the only AI on the following shirt is in the coaster, but the rest are indisputably AI slop. There has been some debate where an artist claimed to have done design work for 2026 KI merch, but I believe that was cleared up to be a different set of designs. Some of the PT:ON merch also looks like it got ran through the slop machine to recolor it, but at least the art was made by a human being. I'm still baffled by the fact that they didn't even come up with a third design or anything to market Phantom Theater with (the first two being the main advertising artwork and the ride logo). I'm sure something with Archie would sell really well (as long as it isn't ai slop) and that they could have made one of those Jack Sage button up shirts for Phantom Theater like they have the other rides.

I’ll leave that to @DonHelbig to answer. I thought the name Splintercat was trademarked and the park actually did some lore building with the sound of buzzing bees and Don posting a picture of a stock splintercat on twitter. From what I remember it was all a diversion.

I know there’s dozens of Phantom Theater related topics out there but I felt like I needed to isolate this one for discussion sake. Is there a correlation between Mark Hamill’s Joker and Richard Doyle’s Maestro? When you listen to how each voice actor voices their respective characters, you can’t ignore the similarities. It’s also worth noting that Batman: The Animated series debuted in 1992, which was the same year as Phantom Theater debuted Kings Island. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, if both the characters’ voices were based off theatrical individuals, or if there’s something deeper to that. Thoughts?

Well, I first heard about the AI slop merchandise being sold at Cedar Point a month or two ago. Not surprisingly, Kings Island is doing the same. Mystic Timbers' track is going wacky. Banshee looks like Diamondback. Orion has three seats per row and a vertical spike. Those are just a few examples. And the longer you look at them, the worse they get. I wonder... have you seen anyone actually wearing this slop, whether it be from CP, KI, or other Six Flags parks?

I think my Top 5 non-ride additions would be (in no particular order): More theming in general across the entire park. Coney Mall backside rework + Grand Pavilion-esque restaurant addition to replace KillMart. Rivertown expansion to replace the TR:TR building. A complete rework of Action Zone to at least make the path shapes less awkward. A conversion of Soak City into a new waterpark with great theming. See my Wildwater Junction concept for more on that. As for things to bring back (again in no particular order): Short events during the summer such as the Food Truck Festival, Run & Ride/Color Run, and the summer BBQ event(s). I think they could host both the Food & Wine Festival and a smaller BBQ "festival" later in the summer. Something easy that fills out the parts of Summer that don't have the big festivals going on. Worlds of Fun just announced a new nighttime passholder ERT event, but it only runs from 8-10PM on certain nights. If KI did something similar I'd want it to go until at least 11PM. The forgotten theming items on International Street (mentioned by others in above posts). I'd be fine with a setup more like at Canada's Wonderland for a "standby" mode, but keep some of the fancy elements so we can continue to have fountain shows. Bring back the gas lamp-looking fixtures and add some new landscaping around the Eiffel Tower. If they take out that asphalt under the tower I'd much rather see it replaced with concrete since the rest of the street already has pavers. More entertainment that lasts all season. They can have a few weeks between seasons where some theaters are dark, but allowing most of the stages to be dark for half of the season is not great. A revitalized Halloween Haunt. Go back to the FearFest name while we're at it. This would've been a good excuse for adding the maze upcharge and making the event more scary/adult oriented. Lastly, and this goes for more than just KI, bring back the classic park logos and use them more around each park.

Add me to the list for restoring the Royal Fountain. It's just not the same; not even close.