TombRaiderFTW

Nope. The park has done lights-on tours during the day during Haunt before, but that was the exception, not the norm. The houses are otherwise closed during the day and open for scares at dusk. Presumably, if they decide to offer lights-on tours again, they will make mention of that on social media and/or the KI Blog.

I'm fairly sure the LSMs have always covered the ~3/4ths of the launch they currently do. They've just been tweaked over the years to launch more slowly.

Obviously I don't know anything official, but I have a very, very strong suspicion that the end of LNM's service life drawing near is exactly why any of this is happening in the first place. "Service life" is a fact of engineering, not fancy jargon some marketing person made up to get rid of Vortex and Big Bad Wolf.

Respectfully, I disagree. I think the marketing was very a straightforward and uncomplicated attempt to market something different from the norm of what the last 10 years of ownership had offered. It was a themed roller coaster, not just the tried-and-true Cedar Fair "coasters and concrete" approach--and what's more, it was a marketing approach that proved very successful 15 years earlier for Tomb Raider: The Ride. They told us something was coming, but they didn't exactly tell us what. What Marketing said: "There's a new roller coaster coming next year with a mysterious shed at the end of the ride. That's all we'll say until April!" How Marketing advertised the ride: A new roller coaster with a spooky theme and a mysterious shed at the end. "Come ride our new ride and discover the mysteries awaiting you!" How enthusiasts took it: "There must be a backwards launch*! Or a drop track*! Or a whole second half to the layout that's not shown in the renderings*!" Enthusiasts, the following April: "What do you mean it's a themed alternative to sitting on the brakes under the sun?! It should've been so much more! I can't believe the park hyped this up so much!" * = These, verbatim, are things that enthusiasts across the Internet were saying at the time. I'd wholeheartedly agree with you if the park spent time on social media or elsewhere making hints about elements to expect within the shed, but they didn't. That's why I have a hard time agreeing with enthusiasts who were disappointed with Mystic Timbers--I kinda feel like they played themselves and are blaming the park for it. I don't feel like the public at large had nearly as much beef with the shed as enthusiasts, either.

Ooooh. Yes please. As grateful as I am that it got new paint, I really hated the all-brown paint job.

It's 4:54pm and I wish I was asleep: Why is it called Flight of Fear if the fear is being introduced, not alleviated?

[enthusiast voice] But if they do that, they'll have to say nice things about the Paramount era! What's next, saying something nice about Six Flags?! [brain explodes]

I don't dislike the idea, but I wonder if this could be accomplished just as successfully but not as narrowly by having a Concepts subforum. I'm assuming that the kinds of things that would be debated would be changes to the park. As has been mentioned, that kind of stuff gets debated anyway when brought up, but in doing a Concepts subforum instead of specifically a Debates subforum, you'd also open the doors to non-debate ideas, e.g. "Here's my concept for a new area of Kings Island!" It creates room for debates AND gives a new platform for people's creativity. It'd also open the doors to more NoLimits/Planet Coaster/RCT-based ideas, which used to have considerably more presence here (and I miss them!) The existing Multimedia subforum works well enough for that, but it's not specifically geared towards creativity--you could just as likely (or more likely, in recent years) encounter a conversation there about the latest Call of Duty than anything amusement park-related. I'm glad those conversations are happening here, too, of course, but I'd love to see NL/PC/RCT creativity make a return here. I realize the internet has changed a lot over the last 20 years and forums are somewhat taking a back seat to things like Reddit, which I think is a big contributor for why that creativity has disappeared, but I also think you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. The trade-off (which I don't particularly worry about here, but it's worth mentioning) is that in creating a spotlight for ideas and creativity, it becomes somewhat easier to critique or put down those ideas. The last thing I'd want is for people to feel like their ideas don't matter or feel picked on because they suggested something that someone else doesn't like. But, I think we generally have a decent culture of respect here, so I wouldn't expect that things would devolve into that on their own.

Correct. Much like this year, when announcements get 24 hours' notice, it's usually a smaller addition that enthusiasts don't like and put shady quotation marks on but families enjoy.

Very weird to me that KillMart and Slaughterhouse might leave before Madame Fatale's... Aren't both younger than Fatale's? Anyway, if the park had an interest in theming its houses to the areas they're located in, Slaughterhouse would be an interesting spot for a house themed to haunted woods or something supernatural, wooded, and "outdoorsy" (that could benefit from actually being inside.) Had Wolf Pack not already run its course, I'd say that's a good place for it to go. Not immediately sure of what to do with KillMart's spot.

I was! That was a really fun event. The Banshee announcement and the Thunderbird announcement the following year were some of my favorite park events I've been to.

It's almost like, and hang with me here, the park needs to stop entirely catering to season passholders. This really only becomes acceptable if someone in charge goes, "Oh well, most people will just come back another day." As a Paramount Parks fan, I cannot begin to explain how much it pains me to compliment the Kinzel era, but this kind of stuff was basically unthinkable then, as far as I'm aware. Ditch the constant nostalgia as a growth plan, ditch the meal plans, ditch the "tack on a million benefits to make the season pass experience what YOU want, even though we can't sustain our promises" model, get serious about the experimental food offerings, competitively pay your employees, and start running an amusement park again, instead of a large adult daycare with roller coasters.

How weird and refreshing it is to see Dorney Park doing a teaser campaign. I'm excited for them.

I don't care, as long as they're good. Good clones: Premier Sky Rocket II's, KI's Bat and Wonderland's Vortex, Racer 75 and Thunder Road, the B&M Batmen, the Hurlers (fight me), KD's Grizzly and Wonderland's Wild Beast, and more. Bad clones: Vekoma Boomerangs, Vekoma SLCs, the B&M Supermen, etc.

Concept #1 definitely seems like it'd require Wonder Mountain's Guardian and possibly Vortex to be removed. I wonder if they're already being considered for removal...