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There aren't as many true theme park people involved in this theme park company as there used to be.

I agree with you on this 100%. Everything is just Gibson Bold on a white or plain background, with a picture of a Gold/Prestige/whatever pass. This recent example from Kings Dominion has to be one of the worst ads that I have ever seen from a park. What about this ad tells the audience anything about the 50th Anniversary? What in this image compels the audience to purchase a pass? Make a visit in 2025? https://x.com/KingsDominionVA/status/1875270505097523311 Nothing about this ad connects to the audience on an emotional level. For a theme park company, it's such a shame that the branding/messaging is so consistently bland and boring.

+ 1 for individualized park logos. The chain as a whole could use a big brand refresh. The current fonts, colors, etc. are tired. A new look would be good post merger. Something less corporate-y and plastic-y.

Tbh I miss the customized logos for each park on the souvenir bottle showcasing the new attraction for that season. I think 2022 was the last time they did that with the 50th logo on the bottle that year. Also, ngl I miss the large souvenir cups they used to place to the right of the front gate plaza in the spring. I thought they were cool looking and idk why the park got rid of them.

It would be a shame to remove the rapids ride because it was one of the best of it's kind in my opinion. Rode that more than some of the coasters during my visits. I understand rides must be removed for the future expansion of the park but announcements beforehand is always appreciated.

Now’s their chance to get back into the Garfield game.

This has sorta been on my mind for a while and I think this is a good discussion to have. In recent years, we have seen a few parks including a few legacy Six Flags parks convert their parking lots into giant solar farms. With the recent merger between Six Flags and Cedar Fair and the priority to cut down on certain extra costs, is it possible we could see these solar parking lots make their way to legacy Cedar Fair parks including Kings Island? It wouldn't really be a foreign concept here in the Cincy area as the Cincinnati Zoo has had parking lot solar panels for well over a decade now and it seems to work out great there. Obviously the cost to construct something like this in the KI parking lot would be pretty high. However, long term if it can cut down on energy costs, I think it would be a win win. I want to hear your thoughts on this idea. source for photo: https://www.sixflags.com/six-flags-magic-mountain-breaks-ground-on-californias-largest-solar-energy-project

I have a solar array that provides all of the electricity needs on my farm. It's grid tied, meaning that it feeds into the grid and I get at 1:1 credit from them. I also build up a bank of credits that gets applied in months such as this. I absolutely love my system. It's my understanding that this is similar to what magic mountain and great adventure do . They would need to cover the parking lot so that the panels face south. The parking lot, iirc, is about 40 acres? That could produce quite a bit of electricity. It would coast dearly to install.

This is Crypt. 2008 Also, that was one HECK of a ride program!!!

We now have a Buy or Sell segment as part of every episode. We'll also be adding back in the "Your Kings Island Stories" segment in February. Anyone interested in sharing their Kings Island story (favorite memory) can submit it via email to donhelbig@themeparksbydon.com. Use Story for TT in the subject line.

Kings Island could run one side on The Racer backwards if they wanted to, but they choose not to. PTC didn't, after 26 seasons, tell them they couldn't do that. It was a management decision to run one side backwards in 1981, and a management decision to turn it back around after the 2007 season.

KK is moving the "adult" rides, minus Lightning Run from the front of the park to the newly expanded area between the Thunder Run Plaza and Storm Chaser. I look for everything - including Storm Chaser to be re-themed/re-named. They will close the path that ran from Storm Chaser to the former T2, mostly to remove rides and install a major "attraction" rounding out the two-year $25M plan. I believe the vacancies created by the loss of the rides at the front of the park will be filled with more substantial buildings & infrastructure (over time) that will allow them to flesh out their Halloween and Holiday events. IMO, if they don't seize the opportunity to relocate the carousel to the former location of Helivator, they're nuts. There's ZERO charm/interest to the front entrance plaza. Should the Fairgrounds ever plan to re-route perimeter road, it would obviously benefit the park greatly. But, as I understand, that's still a long-range dream. That having been said, it seems ironic that Hershend is clearing the rides from a side of the park on which a newly-routed road would need to go. The relocation of the rides could be killing two-birds with one stone - should the fairground ever move forward with a re-route. But for now the focus is on building the new Wing/Hall behind the existing West Wing. That's planned for the rear of the fairgrounds - not near or around KK. When that hall is complete, they will then move to the second phase and replace the West Wing & West Wing Pavillion. The WW Pavillion is adjacent to the entrance plaza of KK only. Of note, the renderings I've seen of the Fairgrounds remodel still show the road dissecting KK. (See pic below) One main issue that has always prevented the re-location of the perimeter road is the State Fair Midway. The Midway rides are all placed in the exact area where the new road would need to go - and there's electrical infrastructure placed in the lot that powers the rides and attractions. Not to mention the road would now dissect the SF midway from the park. During the State Fair - they "merge" the park with the Midway. But there's also been a long-standing rumor dating back to the Six Flags days that there's an intention to "flip" the entry of the park. As I understand, both Six and Hart discussed the possibility of pushing the main entrance to the (former) T2 area. With parking being placed in the lot adjacent to Kentucky Flyer. KK is still a mediocre (at best) half-day park. Here's hoping it can grow and improve. However it still fights many of the same battles it always has - mainly perception by the locals. That is, and always will be their greatest challenge.

The only thing that map tells me with any amount of certainty is that missing area of the park will not be open for 2025, which should not be surprising considering T3 is gone and Deluge still needs demo. Perhaps Rapids will reopen with a more appropriate retheme in 2026 or later with a whole new section of the park... maybe even with the new entrance and parking that I still think would be a good long term investment.

Parks operate on a 5 and 10 year plan so they have a good idea of what’s going and coming. The year it was announced Herschland was purchasing the park during the Winter Walk through (which was the last one), it was said imagine cinnamon bread like Dollywood in the park (done), imagine new festivals in the park (done), imagine a new Halloween event (done), and imagine a new Christmas event at KK (done) - plans completed over several years. Let’s hope the current 5 year plan for the park (and ride removals/additions) only bring and further expansion and exciting new things to KK.

New Year Update! It looks like we have our first look at the 2025 souvenir bottles. The bottle may be different than previous years (I have the drink plan, so idk). This particular makes it look like the Legacy Cedar Fair parks are the only ones listed on the bottle (SFEC might wait to add Legacy Six Flags parks until the drink plan is available at all current SFEC parks). It's low-resolution but I think the bottle shown specifically says "FREE REFILLS 2025 Season". Image from https://www.visitkingsisland.com/dining/drinks-dining-deals We may also soon see a slight redesign of the Legacy Cedar Fair park logos (either only online or elsewhere). Cedar Point adjusted their logo in 2018 and recently updated their main park sign in 2024. The change is slight, but noticeable when you've been staring at it as long as I have. Note the "da" and "P", "i", and "t" on the signs in the image below. I doubt any large physical signage will be changed, but we might see something happen. The Cedar Fair wordmarks (like currently exists at Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds, etc.) are each a specialized version of the font that CF/SFEC use. The new logo is a simple wordmark written in Gibson Bold, with the classic wavy flag dotting the "i". Image from https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fcurrent-sign-at-cedar-point-v0-p3kbpgc11mbd1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1014%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D8480effc0d84fabbb302cb59953a7f8fce762667 I find this kind of stuff to be interesting, so if anyone finds other new stuff like this feel free to put it here!

All the more reason to go to Cedar Point more often.

I disagree. Removing attractions quietly and not allowing people to get final rides in should not be normalized. Regardless of if it was done by Six Flags, Kentucky Kingdom or Disney. Hopefully this doesn't become the new normal, now that both Six Flags and HFE have done this...

New teaser from Kentucky Kingdom hinting at where the new expansion will take place. You can see that they deliberately covered up the rapids ride and Eye of the Storm from the map. However, you can still see Cyclos near Lightning Run.

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/

Yup, and I think this seriously warrants a community driven overhaul to the terms of service of this site. Users should not be forced to add a source for “rumors” (which it is not) as if traced back it directly affects someone’s livelihood. When the paper trail for a rumor is so small, you have to be careful about it, and in the coming months when you see markers, and construction equipment arrive, it will be a lot harder to keep these “rumors” at bay. Forcing users to add a source only strengthens the parks control on what information is released to the public, and allows them to trace back the source to that person. Many other sites successfully leak attractions without sources in an effort to protect those sources, VS KIC is concerned about protecting the pockets of the park. The closing of The Bat should be SHOUTED from the rooftops, because after next season an iconic piece of KI history will be erased from the timeline. Back to the topic, anyone who is suprised by this just needs to see the writing on the wall. You have out of industry people running this company, who don’t have an understanding of the value of an extra hour of two at the end of the night to ride some rides or get a snack with less waits. All they see is the spreadsheet with the overhead cost of keeping labor another hour or two, delaying third shift maintenance, etc. These people do not care about you or the experience you have at the park, is this true at a park level? Absolutely not, but down in Charlotte those C-Suites don’t care what this means to you or your family, and each year it’s going to get increasingly noticeable that they are cutting anywhere they can. You can only chop at a tree so much before it falls.

Neither. A post was made here claiming to have insight that, much like how Kingda Ka's, Green Lantern's, and Nighthawk's removals were handled for SFGAdv and Carowinds this year, The Bat will be quietly removed in the 2025-2026 off-season. It could easily be someone making something up, but it does track for how things are currently being handled by SF corporate, which is why I think it's reasonable to expect a statement from either KIC leadership (e.g. "we have asked the park for confirmation and will share responses"), KI's PR, or both. Instead, the thread was quietly deleted. I've been around here long enough to know what pressure from KI PR often smells like.

^ I agree so much with your post, but I do want to talk about one thing: Where is the idea that outsiders are making these calls coming from? I was under the impression that the leadership team of the new Six Flags was entirely made up of legacy Six Flags and (especially) legacy Cedar Fair execs.