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That Coney Island/mall entry way is awesome! Would love to see those be brought back.

Down in Orlando to get some rides in a Universal and the last weekend for Dinoland in DAK. The new signs look really good on the walkway! In contrast to what we had, these are LED billboards so I’m looking forward to what they will show for HHN! (there’s some new merch I’ll post later, the Christmas Tribute store looks like it may be closed for the season)

If you're interested in Kings Island history, here's a piece I wrote for Theme Parks By Don on what the park was like in the years (1972-1978) before The Beast. https://themeparksbydon.com/kings-island-before-the-beast-a-look-back-at-1972-1978/

I have never seen WWE, so I have no idea what WWE-style theatrics to build up hype looks like. Speaking of hype, you should have seen the early days of the Cincinnati Cyclones hockey team. Boy, did the team I worked with in the Cyclones front office know how to market and promote. Standing room only crowds at Cincinnati Gardens every game. One of the first things we did in 1990 was reach out to Kings Island and set up a "Skate with the Cyclones" event at Winterfest (spelled with the lowercase f in those days). All of the Cincinnati and Dayton TV and print came out to cover it. It was great working with the Kings Island PR team on that event.

The Park hasn't posted their calendar yet... but if I was a betting person, I would assume it will open in May. If auditions happened in December, and there has been no other announcements about more, it's probably safe to say that the window of opportunity has passed. But the good news is you know that Haunt auditions are normally in the summer, so that's a good way to get your foot in the door (no pun intended)

I think it's fair to say that asking any of these places what their plans are with attractions are going to be met with a lot of fluff or auto-generated responses. The luke-warm vagueness is all the rage.

I'm a bit biased being a Hoosier, but man does Holiday World rock the socks off of events like this. I'm very thankful my state has a park like this. I'm thankful for KI being so close as well of course!

They could have songs in the shed re-programed if they desired.

As much as I would hate to lose the Banshee name/theme, what is there could be turned into a pretty cool Arkham Asylum theme. The Bat obviously could be Batman. Drop Tower could be Superman and Invertigo Two Face assuming it stays around.

I just died a little inside...........................

I will now, going forward, refer to this company as "Six Axes". Just change the flags to axes at this point. This is the new world order I guess.

Cyclos was actually really good. And I actually liked Eye Of The Storm. Lol. If those get replaced with family rides I'll cry inside. Lol. But if Storm Chaser gets touched, I'll never go back. That thing is amazing for how small it is. I forsee this being the beginning of the end for Kentucky Kingdom. Herschend hasn't done anything but remove 4 rides, and Hart had the park growing exponentially during his ownership. I'm starting to think that Kentucky Kingdom can only thrive under Ed Hart. Nobody else can run the park like he can.

Cyclos seemed pretty popular, as did the rapids ride, but I don't think Eye of the Storm ever saw much of a crowd and it was also in a really weird spot. It'll be interesting to see what they do with the vacant land (not that Eye of the Storm occupied much space to begin with, but it was in the middle of a large piece of otherwise vacant land so it opens up some more space now)

The rapids makes sense for removal as that ride takes up a significant portion of land (about as much as T3) and I always felt Eye of the Storm was in a really weird spot. It's a shame to see rides like these get removed, but hopefully Herschend makes up for those removals with something well-themed, but we'll see.

Was Kentucky Kingdom acquired by Six Flags? Eye of the Storm, Raging Rapids River Ride, and Cyclos have quietly been removed from their attractions lineup: https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/explore-the-park/attractions/

I’m guessing they will do this once Banshee needs repainted. It was 14 years between Diamondback being built and when it was repainted so maybe we can expect AZ to be replaced with DC theming in 2028?

AZ to DC in the foreseeable future.