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All I’m asking… please be phantom theater!!

I don't think they would need to close it before the end of the season if it were going to sit empty next year. I think it makes sense to close it at the beginning of september so they can start gutting it for construction to begin asap if the goal is to have whatever is next open by next spring. Ik we're still concerned about 2026 capital still happening based on the conference call, but from what I understand they mentioned parks that received major investements in 2025 (ie AlpenFury at Wonderland) helping carry attendance over to next year so I think parks that received major investments this year (ie Wonderland, Cedar Point, KD, SF Great America) won't see anything new in 26 bc they can keep marketing their new for 2025 coasters. KI on the other hand got a Soak City expansion this year so I think a 2026 new ride/attraction is still on the table.

Was at the park last Wednesday. We stayed late for a beast night ride, Anyway, it was past 10 PM and as we were leaving, we cut through Rivertown and then through Planet Snoopy towards the exit. When we got to the Boo Blasters area, a security guard stopped us and said that we would have to go around because they were filming something at Boo Blasters. Now it is probably nothing, but with folks speculating about Boo Blaster's future, figured I'd see what you all thought.

Especially when one merges with the Temu of theme parks and then decides to start adopting their ways in what was a decent company.

But at the same time just about every new ride has the kinks to work out, it is just social media is capturing everything.

There's little reason to close on September 1st and not after Winterfest if the building isn't going to have an attraction at some point next season.

I'm planning to buy Holiday World passes for next season honestly. Even though I live 3 hours away we've had a lot better experiences at Holiday World this year vs. KI...

If they do end up doing an up charge for the mazes, they better have them better staffed and upgrade all the decorations. Otherwise, I see Guest Services line stretching back to the Eiffel Tower.

When the merger was announced, I said on the Tower Topics podcast one of the things people would see is the mazes being an upcharge at Kings Island and legacy Cedar Fair parks. I was told by a lot of people that I was wrong, that wouldn’t happen. I haven’t heard from any of those people today.

I am excited for what is to come of that building!

They’ve made this the biggest mess. I just waited on hold for 20 minutes to talk to Debbie who confirmed 1) even renewals have to go to their home park first to “activate” 2026 pass, but you do not have to wait till 26, when you visit in 25 you activate 26, but if you reactivate at KI and for some reason don’t return to KI ANYMORE in 2025, the YES once 2026 starts you must come to KI first as you never came to KI with your 26 pass, even if you went to other parks with your APP add on to your 25 pass, you just used your remaining 25 pass at Cedar Point for example. 2) once you activate your new or renewal pass at your home park you WILL receive free parking at all parks 3) she admitted it is super confusing and indicated the fact that I waited 20 to finally get a straight answer should indicate how confusing it has been. It didn’t have to be this hard!

I really can’t emphasize how much the park needs a good quality dark ride which hopefully we will be getting soon, it’s been such a long time since we’ve had one and it is such an under appreciated part of seasonal theme parks especially when everyone is focused on coasters

All of the little things adding up are making the experience worse overall. It'd be better if one major operation could stay consistent, but everything has decreased in quality overall. I will likely renew my pass next year, though maybe not with all of the bells and whistles I'd normally get. I'm conflicted because even though my experiences this season haven't been too bad, I don't know how much I can support a company that continues to slash and burn at every turn. That being said, I also know that Kings Island (and Six Flags beyond them) can't survive without ticket and pass sales. The best thing they can do to get me to buy a 2026 season pass is to also hold the MVP sale and allow people to buy the Gold Pass and APP for $99. Once the base price for those two goes above $160 again, I'm going to have to start questioning how much I can afford to get the same add-ons that I have this year. I'm somewhat fine with the sprinkling of ads around the park, the slower operations, and some of the smaller cleanliness issues. The company needs to cut some operations to be able to pay off its overwhelming debt. My upsets with the entertainment lineup are to be expected for a park that, just three years ago, had anniversary entertainment options that rivaled those at the Disney Parks. Shows are expensive to run and require more associates to operate than most rides do. Even the drop in food quality hasn't quite soured my tastes beyond recovery. The meals are still good enough so far and I've effectively paid off my meal plan. All of the stories about the decline of the park this season have me very concerned for its future. Six Flags has the power to severely fracture its relationship with its guests, and all I can do right now is really hope good things come out of this darker age. I've loosely advocated for it in the past, but I really do think parks like Kings Island would be better off if they were not a part of Six Flags right now. Whether pass prices would skyrocket, or if quality would drastically change, or if we'd see the park begin to improve over how it has been this year are things I don't know. What I do know is that chains like Herschend have been able to maintain a consistent quality across all of their (pre-Palace acquisition) parks despite the economic challenges here in the US. Yes, they are privately owned, but who says an independent Kings Island (with some other parks) would not be privately owned? This whole situation makes you wonder what would make things better for Kings Island and its guests at this time.

Went to Grand Carnivale last night. Having no tasting cards is definitely a miss for the park and I fear they may never come back. I always got one (or two) but after a 2 year hiatus I don't ever see them returning. I do, however, continue to be amazed by not just the parade, but those involved in it. There are just as many as I remember and EVERYONE did a fantastic job. The crowd was light but the energy from the performers and everyone in the parade (drivers included) were smiling and giving 110%. It really helps the energy and the enjoyment and everyone watching was having a great time as well. After all the years I've seen it I'm still not bored with it. This parade is a very special and we should consider ourselves lucky to have it. For that half hour it truely to me transforms KI into the happiest place on Earth. Well done KI!

MAJOR props to the Entertainment performers and crews on Saturday night! Despite a very iffy forecast and rain right before 6PM they pulled off an amazing (and oh so humid!) opening night of Grand Carnivale.

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)

Kings Island announced today that Boo Blasters will close on Sept. 1. My kids will be bummed -- this was the first ride they both fell in love with a decade ago, and they still love it. I grew up with Smurfs Enchanted Voyage and Phantom Theater, so I'm used to change in that location. No announcement about what's next, although it just talks about future expansion. I'm guessing we'll learn in 2027, maybe. I never loved Boo Blasters, but it's been a good ride for kids and (when the blasters work) a fun diversion. Curious to see what takes its place.

Kings Island already needs two more slow-moving attractions like the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad, Grand Carousel, Kings Mills Antique Autos, and Boo Blasters. I'm hoping for a Phantom Theater revival to replace Boo Blasters. A river cruise attraction would be a good addition elsewhere in the park. Addition through subtraction is not a good model for a park that needs to expand by another attraction or two. Replacing Boo Blasters with another slow-moving dark ride will be a well-needed refresh.

I would like to see the Phantom theater come back to the park in someway, I really hope that since they’re closing this in September that they’ll be a ride opening next year because if not, it seems stupid to close it so early, I really hope this isn’t like Vortex where a ride closure resulted in nothing replacing it, especially since dark rides are such a crucial part to theme parks especially for people who can’t ride coasters because they have certain disabilities and such.

I'm hoping they will squeeze another season or two out of it. It bears repeating the inversion deficit in the park...not to mention this is really one of the heavy hitters for the thrill seekers who want something intense. Yes, the ol' boy is of the old-age Vekoma and therefore doesn't always track as good as newer coasters ( and newer Vekomas) but in the saying of those of us who learn how to ride these things, I learned the best spots for me are on the ends of the trains where you don't face anyone. Keep your head on one side of the restraint or firmly placed against the headrest and you're good to go. This is now one of only a few coasters that can still occasionally make me gray-out and the only one at KI that can make me do that. We have a rare relic, but it's one that I hope makes a return before the season is out...if not by next season.

I find the final line of the post copy to be interesting. “… before its curtain is closed for good.”

Kinda leads one to wonder if this is leading up to the "family thrill attraction" or if this is something entirely seperate. Albeit this being a really old theme for this ride-effectively being a haunted theme since 2003-it will be interesting to see what they plan to do with it. Whatever they do, I hope they can keep some interactive aspects to it as well as. This is really the first truly transparent bit of movement announced recently, so this is fun.

Hey everyone! Take this for what you will... visited KI tonight as I do many times each season. While waiting for "The Beast" I noticed construction walls behind the old crypt building. There was also a forklift / flatbed truck. The fences said "excuse our mess" or something of that nature. I couldn't tell exactly what they were unloading but it appeared to be flat black metal beams of some sort on a pallet wrapped in plastic. Couldn't grab my phone quick enough before they were behind the fence. Could be haunt related, could be 2026, could be nothing... could have been there a while... no idea. Just throwing it out there.

Id like to place strong emphasis and agreement on some of your last points here. Given an already small number being available for any cap-ex in 2026, it would make me incredibly happy to have the amount earmarked for KI to be put towards those types of improvements.... right now $18 million (purely speculative number used for example) will go MUCH further towards turning a minefield into a parking lot, stocking drink cups and flavoring syrup for Freestyle machines, and allowing sufficient staff to keep 3 train ops and clean restrooms/midways than it will towards any wood or steel constructed ride or attraction. That is the reason this park drew me back and away from the joint up north, like I said good ops, food, and entertainment hold my attention far better than a new shiny $25 mil coaster at a dump.

I feel like I have been receiving a lot more surveys this season than previous ones. I fill them out every time, but I really don't think they will make any real difference as it feels more like damage control vs. really hearing what people are saying. Especially those of us who have been long time guests/passholders. I guess we will see. I hope that whatever was planned for next year still happens since the park still feels like it could use some more stuff to round it off a bit. I know most of us here really want to see a new coaster-and I don't mean a family coaster ( no shade to SSBR-that really is a surprisingly fun little addition ) but you all know what I mean. Something to really replace the loss of Vortex that's for the thrill seekers. But as far as whatever family thrill attraction was planned, its a bit concerning that there hasn't been any obvious movement or any fun hints given at all by this point. I honestly thought when the passes went on sale that there would also be some kind of an announcement to go along with it to maybe boost even more interest and excitement like old times. But alas-crickets. I will say that I am quite fatigued saying stuff in the same vein of "time will tell." or "we will see". Bleh.

I’ll have to agree. First time I’d been back in a few years. Went to the bathroom and was pretty shocked at the condition. I’ve been hearing depressing things about the park since the merger, but actually other than that I had a pretty good time. I did not encounter one jackass the whole day and the ride ops were extremely friendly with my grandson and us in general. I don’t usually contact guest services, but I probably will this time. I plan to give kudos as well

My son really got into the history of KI during our 50th, so we really wanted to experience the "other KI" during its 50th this year. We went to the park on Sunday evening and all day Monday. It was beyond dead, like park right at the entrance at 5:30 pm dead. Thought we would do a ride or two and dinner Sunday evening, but we almost could’ve skipped Monday with how much we knocked out Sunday night. KD is BEAUTIFUL on approach and walk in. It was wonderful to see full fountains that had mass and noise. It was amazing to see an International Street that looked like a park. There were gas lights. There were more interesting buildings with shaded and covered seating. It’s going to be a shock walking back into KI after being reminded how full and lush it used to look there. The pavement is a bot of a mess where the curbs were just shaved down and the ramps filled in years ago when the blacktop street was eliminated. It’s crazy to realize no major reworking of the pavement has occurred since the major redo. The Eiffel Tower looks like it is literally placed in a landscaped park. It is such a refreshing change from the patch of flat grass our sits in. Turning toward Old Virginia, it was amazing to see a working waterfall, then another one at the entrance to the water rides. That whole area had almost a Dollywood vibe to it. Love the antique cars where they are with the long path and and the dense woods. The view coming back from that ride across the bridge looking at the theatre was just perfect. Grizzly had a super odd entrance. We actually passed it the first two times in the area and had to really look to find it finally. That seems like a big miss for a (now) great coaster. White Water Canyon was also way better here. The setting hasn't been cleared out as much, and it truly feels like a mountian rushing river. The waterfalls look great and depite the odd indoor portion with creepy static mannequins, the entire experience felt way more themed. It was so cool to see a dense vine tunnel as we walked to Twisted Timbers. WOW what a great ride. Its hard to be critical of any operations since we walked right onto almost everything both days, but this was one I would still wait for. We need this - LOVE Mystic Timbers, but I think this actually edges out SteVe for the slower pacing and “you can see it coming” feeling. Candy Apple Grove seemed agin just more shaded and lush. Its odd that a younger park feels more established than its older sister. I like the carousel and ferris wheel there. Give the area a full “old time amusement park” feel. It was great to have CHIPS with a bowl at the burrito place and RED SAUCE with pizza. Victoria’s looks nice after the redo and I love the outdoor seating. Jungle X is what Adventure Port wishes it could be. Great theming and atmosphere. The shop there along with all the other shops had much stronger thematic merchandsing that KI. Food was OK, but the themed atmosphere again was almost Disney level. Rides in this area were all solid, but Rapterra is the odd exception. Rapterra in the front feels brand new - in the back it feels like it’s as old as the park. A few month old coaster shouldn’t bee this rough and janky in the back. I don’t remember Wild Eagle having this much vibration and bounce in the back. It was actually very painful. The load process was also a mess. There’s a separator at the outer “temple” telling you to go to right side or left, but they have to keep leaving and walking to the station to see the balance of people on each side. Then when you get to the station theres a single switchback to the gates. People clump up at the first gate, then you have to force your way past them to get to the other gates that are wide open. There seems like there needs to be station associate assigning people to gates, or loading the train back to front. It just gets messy and people get attitude like you are cutting around them, but there would be people in front of us just standing there not filling in empty gate slots, so we went around them to take a spot for the next train. BooBlasters was WAY better. KI should be embarrassed by the state of the exterior and queue of ours. The guns with lasers were great. The outdoor queue set the mood. The placement seemed super odd of that and Dominator just plopped along a path. Planet Snoopy could easily be Camp Snoopy as it already feels like it is deep in the woods. Just a much more relaxing setting with shade for rides with kids. Entertainment was beyond disappointing. There’s a key theatre (Peanuts Showplace) sitting empty. There’s action theatre unused, and even the KD Theatre was unused as they could figure out how to not have slipper aisles after only 2 bubble shows on Saturday when the last show, all shows Sunday and Monday were cancelled. It sounds like thats running again, but that should even BE the signature entertainment for the 50th. The “closing light show” was lame and no one seemed to be paying any attention to it. Its just music and lights on the tower and I street buildings. The bandstand show was weak. There was no parade “street party” even though the ap shows images of our 50th parade like they were going to do it there. Two left over floats from ours roll out with people on them in rainbow outfits (not the matching gold and blue). They hop off, twirl some ribbons, sing songs from the decades of KD, hop back on the flats and ride off twirling ribbons. It comes off as very amateur. I was really hoping for a “magical 50th”, but the park itself more than made up for that. I give the physical park edge to KD hands down. I give the “whats left of live entertainment at 6flags” award to KI. Definitely make the trip to this park if you want great rides, minimal waits and a beautiful reminder of how wonderful KI USED to look. WATERFALL!!! Adds so much to the area. Wonderful theming in the restaurant. International PARK more than street. Beautiful view... to a sadly underused theatre. CHIPS with a burrito bowl. Wht's up Enrique? Throw us some chips! Tight merchandising and solid theming in retail spaces.

Dollywood continues to put themselves into the premier tier of theme parks. With everything that’s happening with SIX it’s nice to see some parks continue to thrive and invest in their customers.

It’s a great deal they’re offering but giving away the gate like this is basically telling people you’re the Walmart of the industry—not something premium or worth paying more for.

Outside of using it for a Haunt maze, there were no plans to do anything big with the SOB station when the decision was made to demolish the ride.

Now we're creating threads about things all new rides go through? It ran perfectly the day I went, though I heard there was an evac on the tilt the day after, but I'm sure they got it back up and running. It's not like its closing for long periods of time when it does evac. Heck, MF and Raptor were down longer than Siren the day I went and no one batted and eye at that. It just looks worse from an optical on Siren because it's been on a section of track that ends.

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!"

Nobody from the park has ever said anything to us about the Tower Topics podcast, except they enjoy it and learned things they didn’t know. As for retiring the Tower Topics X, it simply wasn’t proving enough value for the podcast. We have chosen to put all of the channel’s social media efforts into the Tower Topics Facebook Group. That has been providing us with far more value. We did have good engagement with the content we published on X, better than many of the posts the park makes on X. It just wasn’t proving enough value for us. A lot of what we’d post on X can still be found on my personal X. Ryan and I are not going to be shills for the park. We’re going to keep doing the podcast the same way. Genuine and authentic with honest and frank discussion about Kings Island.

Now that we are halfway through July, it may be time to give the 2025 Halloween Haunt season its discussion thread. Seasonal events like Halloween Horror Nights, Howl-O-Scream, and Halloween Haunt all have parts of their websites published already. A number of the HHN houses have already been announced with Fallout, Five Nights at Freddy's, and Terrifier being notable standouts. Carowinds has also released a teaser for SCarowinds 25 Years of Fear, celebrating the event's 25th anniversary (delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic). I would love to see Kings Island put on a similar celebration since this will also be their 25 Years of Fear celebration, whether they advertise it or not. Kings Island is rumored to receive at least one new haunt maze in the building formerly occupied by Club Blood and Blackout, built by the trusted Plague Productions team. Rumors speculate that it could be themed to a story from The Conjuring, while some park-goers hope for it to be themed to vampires, gothic horror, or even a pirate maze. 2024 saw the addition of the new "Hooked" scare zone between Viking Fury and Adventure Port, as well as a new unnamed themed area along the path between the Rivertown LaRosa's and Jukebox Diner. Additional rumors are circulating around the former Tomb Raider: The Ride / The Crypt building, formerly home to Madame Fatale's Cavern of Terror, as it has been cleared to begin construction on Kings Island's 2026 attraction or for a new 2025 Halloween Haunt maze. Online sleuths recently discovered a new Haunted Attractions Pass and a Haunted Attractions Express Pass to be available at Kings Dominion. Playing around with the URL also reveals the same program coming to Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Cedar Point, Dorney Park, and Kings Island. The same website for Valleyfair still has dates listed as available for their Haunted Attractions Passes, with Friday and Sunday prices at $10/HAP and $55/HAEP. Saturday prices are currently set at $20/HAP and $60/HAEP. Prices at other Legacy Cedar Fair parks appear to range from $10-$40 for the standard pass and up to $70 for the Express pass. A similar program existed at Fright Fest throughout the Legacy Six Flags parks, where park visitors would need to purchase an additional pass to enter indoor walkthrough attractions during the event. These new tickets will hopefully bring some calm to the crowd levels and allow for Kings Island to begin receiving some well-needed upgrades to their Halloween Haunt event. What do you think Halloween Haunt will look like in 2025? Will you be attending? Halloween Haunt at Kings Island will be held select nights from September 19th to November 1st, 2025. This event is intended for mature audiences and is not recommended for children under 13. Kings Island will maintain its no re-entry after 6:00 PM during Halloween Haunt for 2025. It's time to get excited! Event Website: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/haunt

I'm in the boat of waiting and not getting into the psychological frame of " buy now ". Before all of this I was going to get a season pass ( I didn't renew for this year, first time in 11 years) , but now that the uncertainty is enhanced worse than ever, I'm waiting. If there is no clarity by the end of the month, I'll wait to make my decision, knowing that the cost goes up over time. I'm willing to take that risk...if it's not worth the uncertainty, I just won't be a Six Flags passholder next year as well.

I think the phantom theater fans never learned the lesson from the attraction: The performers refused to let go of their past, staying in their theater for decades after the audience left, ultimately corrupting them into these phantom characters. Faces rotting, skin decaying, legs falling off I guess (?) They hang onto the thing they love, performing, but their acts don’t go as well as they did in their prime. The rabbit is now a demon, the mirror breaks, everything is scary. Ultimately, sometimes its best to let go of the past instead of clinging to the past. That being said, if a phantom theater reboot isn’t announced for this season I’m going to be hopping mad!

You sure they aren't selling Six Axe's in the gift shop

Apologies for the double-post, but the most genuinely unfortunate part of this entire debacle in my case is the fact that within the past 2-3 years I had gotten to where I genuinely ENJOYED and looked forward to a day or weekend at KI. Ask anyone who knows me, and they will tell you that is saying a LOT because I am a very very difficult person to sway and once a person or place is in the gutter to me, it takes usually more than any place or person has to come back, and KI had truly done that to the point where I placed it on a pedestal above any other CF park Id attended, including that joint up north. Now with what's going on, I am just hoping my single outing this year for my Pride Night visit gives me the warm fun feelings the park gave me last year and the year before. The thing is, if they showed that they are honestly trying to make things better instead of constantly picking apart and making what people have already paid for worse, then I would look into becoming a passholder again, and I would GLADLY pay double the base price for the pass itself if that's what it takes for them to show me a solid value for it.

As I said before, when the quarterly interest alone is over a quarter BILLION dollars, the only words that can follow are... tick-tock... not if, but when.... tick-tock

The scare actors will all be carrying Square card readers so you'll have to pay them after they scare you

I know this is absolute sarcasm but man....I really wish that was something that was cooking up in the background.

Because they were going to use it as a Haunt Maze

The expanded Halloween Haunt hours make me hopeful that we'll see a better event this year, but all of the drops in park quality over the past few months make me doubt that. Maybe things like the Haunted Attractions Pass will thin out the amount of young children at the event. I'm sorry to say, but I don't think young children (especially those in strollers) should be allowed into the night time event. Haunt has suffered from being made more family-friendly, and it's about time for it to return to its gory goodness. Tricks and Treats should still exist and be a high-quality event, but there is a separation between the daytime and nighttime Halloween events for a reason. Those new operating days/hours could either mean that guests spread themselves out over more days (lessening the crowds overall), that the budget will be spread even thinner (upping the chances of a bad event), or that there are some good plans for this Haunt season that may entice guests to go more often.

I'll even go this far in speaking of Siren's Curse- while I may not want the same thing at KI, I'd gladly take a Vekoma multi-looper in The Vortex plot. Moreso if Vekoma can make one with 3 trains.

Siren's Curse currently has about 85% average uptime, which for a new coaster isn't bad. Just because a coaster goes down every once in a while does not make it another Top Thrill 2...

The show stop at the parade remains one of the most well-produced pieces of the theme park entertainment anywhere. Every time I am amazed at how quickly it energizes the crowd, pulls spectators into the action, and leaves guests smiling. The music goes a long way, of course, but it is the positive and supportive spirit of the performers and crew that make it almost impossible not to join the fun.

You might notice there's no footage of interviews with people eating the food. That is because I couldn't find any. They need to bring back the tasting cards. It gave a sense of value and that is missing without it.

Taking a break from the park has been very refreshing. Unless they have a new season pass deal like no other, I will wait until they drop the '26 calendar, if I renew.