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When it comes to IP at Kings Island, many have come and gone. These characters on the other hand always belonged to Kings Island. So to see something so corporate like SIX on its first year green light a project like this brings me a lot of shock, yet optimism. The library of IPs they could have gone with. But some people at SIX who loved Phantom Theater are the reasons we likely saw projects like Encore and this. Seeing how far along Sally might be with this project gives me so much confidence in what will be the final product. Especially since the refit already takes place in a preexisting building. I also in general love seeing the media team at KI posting updates like this! They probably have a good idea of how beloved this IP is. Plus I love watching the process. Keep’em coming!

This is actually for sure true, I updated the comparisons. Honestly I’m sorta torn on a few of the designs (I think having their pupils be like 20% smaller would fix most of my issues) On one hand I think a few of the concepts for the designs look off (especially the bunny unless the eyes glow in this one too, it doesn’t look scary enough). I think a good comparison is like, these versions look more like muppets rather than the original which emulated the haunted mansion figures. I think the hard aspect about what we’ve been currently given is that most of the characters have really only had their heads shown rather than their full bodies, and also the sculpts are still a work in progress so it’s hard to judge them too far. No matter what my feelings are, it’s insane to me that we’re in the universe where a non-IP, non-Disney or universal dark ride is getting at least 17+ animatronic figures. Like there will be screens in the ride, but honestly considering that they’re putting effort into making custom figures for this I honestly don’t mind.

This is utterly surreal to see. Fantastic.

Animatronic construction... will have to get used to them but at least there's a lot of characters! Featuring what I think are the Great Garbonzo, Willard Warbler, Lionel Burymore, and the rope characters.

The park is wasting no time; just saw they have some WinterFest lights already up in Planet Snoopy and Rivertown!

I rode once when it was Scooby-Doo. I faintly remember it but mostly remember Shaggy telling me how to use the fright lights/blasters as I waited in line. Once it became Boo Blasters, I didn't ride it for years because it was not Scooby-Doo. Then I started riding it once in a while, then more often once Winterfest came back. And then I transferred to Tech Services where I would begin checking in the blasters on the mornings the park was open. From Winterfest 2019 all the way up to its last day this past Monday, Boo Blasters' startup constituted my morning routine. I learned exactly how the blasters worked (and they DID work, at least most of the time ) and gained experience with pneumatics as I also helped take care of the animation, as well as audio with the many sound effects. My favorite calls would come from Boo Blasters for blasters or displays, as it meant I could test ride and even fix it on the spot if I had what I needed on hand. My coworkers and I believe it's haunted as we've had unexplainable little playful things happen while we're there. In fact, every time we went to do our startup, we would say "good morning Boo!" If I did startup alone, I would "chat" with Boo since I think out loud and am proud of it. If there really is some sort of spirit or ghost taking up residence in that building, I 100% believe we would be friends. After becoming the last person to ever check in the blasters on Monday, I had a literal blast on the best last seven rides I could ever ask for with my friends. Our competitive spirit and their blaming me for stealing points (because they don't work in Tech Services ) coupled bittersweetly with seeing and hearing for the last time the same effects on which I've helped work. While I eagerly look forward to this long-overdue next era of our dark ride, I am still grieving Boo Blasters which is perfectly okay. How could I not grieve Boo when it was my morning routine for six seasons? 1 ride as Scooby-Doo 242 rides as Boo Blasters Hopefully many more rides as Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare!

I still think the ones on the top left are Houdelini: If you look at the paper, Houdelini has two images in the center where he appears to have two a split pencil mustache- which is a departure from his thicker handlebar mustache. Also where his eyes are positioned consistent with the image if you look closely. Garbonzo’s image seems to make him looking straight ahead where Houdelini seems to be looking elsewhere. Also there is a clearer image on the table in the image below of Garbonzo who has more of a wispy, “hungarian” style:

Social media is not real life. A quick perusal of park-centric "social media" would have me believe that literally every ride at every park is closed for several hours every day, and when not closed, almost killed their father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's, former roommate due to a restraint malfunction, etc. It's all meaningless nonsense propelled by algorithms designed to trigger outrage. As pointed out above, the only thing that matters is whether the parks are still pulling in revenue on Saturdays in October. And there has been absolutely zero indication that the parks will have any difficulty doing so. I agree that the messaging strategy regarding now up-charging for certain attractions was poor. But the fact of the matter is that it has never been cheaper, in my lifetime at least, to visit the parks. If anyone is so so price-sensitive that they're going to complain about the value proposition, previous fall attendance trends suggest that there are literally thousands of others who will happily take their place, ready to pay extra for access to haunted houses.

They have said they are going to exercise the option to buy the investors of OG when the options come due, which is sometimes in the next few years. I can't remember specifically, but to do that, it was hundreds of millions. Texas options come open a few years after that. Also hundreds of millions. If they can't manage to clean a park or have consistent entertainment, how would they have the money to invest in this? Borrow more? Given the tenuous situation they are in now, would lenders be willing to do so? I also remember when Saleem caused the spiral into chaos, there was discussion of a land sale of all of the LSF parks with a leaseback. This rarely works and is often a sign of desperation for a company...see Frisch's.

Pre-merger Six Flags tried eliminating meal plans. Didn't work. You are NEVER going to get passholders to pay full price for food in the park again once you got them used to enjoying two meals every visit for one price. Just look at the widespread backlash with the Haunt money grab. I just can't believe that giving away the gate, constant ride closures, dirty parks, poor customer service, and taking away things people already paid for hasn't been a formula for success. Really shocking.

Get 'em up before Six pulls the budget

I think they misjudged something important about Great Adventure was in the rankings when they closed Kingda Ka. They're clearly trying to make up for the fact that they made a series of massive mistakes at Great Adventure and it isn't happening fast enough.

This is great! Honestly I'm really liking the new modern look!

Many of the Winterfest white lights were never removed from the trees as you could still see the strings on the trees this spring/summer, so imagine they might be testing to see what still works and what doesn’t - or maybe they will use the lighted trees with white lights for Haunt as well to get their money out of them.

I'm excited about this, honestly looks very similar to the original animatronics! I wish I could find the picture for the original Phantom Theater animatronic heads that was a photo just like this one so we can see a side by side comparison!

So judging by the sheet at the bottom, here's the confirmed animatronic list we have so far: 1-2. Maestro 3-4. No Legs Larry 5-6. The Great Garbonzo 7-8. Houdelini 9. IDK TBH. Willard Warbler or Lionel Burymore I'm guessing (There's at least 1 Willard for sure physically on the table) 10-11. Stage hands (I can't make out what they're being named in this one. 12. Gus the stage manager (?) (AKA the guy with the flashlight) 13-14. The Boiler Men. 15. The Demon Rabbit. 16-17. Hilda (Not pictured but the helmets are visible.) Judging by the list, my basic scene layouts are as follows: The portrait scrim effects for the main performers return. The "Caught in the Ropes, Backstage, Houdelini, and Hilda scenes return basically as is. The hallway with doors has a physical Willard animatronic, but is mostly a screen (Maybe Bosco makes a physical debut?). The pepper's ghost scene returns at the end, but is achieved through screen projections. I'm also thinking from this list that Arpeggio (The new cat character) appears in each scene via the screens (same as the demon rat which is certainly going to be a gag that returns.) My main questions are if outside the list, they're more animatronics with physical face movement. These figures look like they have static faces (Which I'm 100% fine with, the original had these two), but the glaring ommisions from the images on the table are additional Maestro figures for the queue and opening scene (So you wanted to see the theater, did ya?). I'm really hoping that maybe they're being worked on separately, but I'm honestly so glad that there's so many physical figures being made for this attraction rather than cutouts or screens.

Where are we seeing "widespread backlash"? I've seen a few news pieces explaining that the parks will be charging for haunted house access, but nothing more than your typical amusement park announcement coverage. I do agree, however, that giving away the gate has been a disaster, which is frustrating, because it was totally foreseeable. Cheap season passes were a terrible idea from the beginning, and their bizarre "strategy" of doubling and tripling down on it has not been helpful, because as a result they are attracting the "wrong" type of customer, which may be why the Q2 per cap at the legacy CF parks barely keeping pace with inflation.

I enjoyed your whole post, but wanted to highlight this specific sentence. It really, really was—but, having been able to see it from every angle as an employee: it was even more impressive from the other side. The loop itself was massive, but even that was dwarfed by the rest of the amazing (in-appearance) structure. I never understood (I mean, logistically, I get why) how the most impressive parts of that ride were faced in a direction no guest could see them even from the tower (outside of special access). Everything about that ride really was disappointing. - I get that there’s a ton of nostalgia for this ride now, but take it from someone who rode it in every iteration and version: it always sucked.

Has anyone else been watching old POV videos of the original PT getting excited for the new ride?

@IndyGuy4KI can this thread be pinned to replace the Soak City 2025 Construction Progress thread? The one in the KIC Newsroom might work for general discussion, but I'm wondering if this one would still be good to pin. It was really nice to see the park post the picture of the heads today because I think it shows that there may be a higher willingness to share updates for this than there has been for the past few years' additions. I'll be very curious to see how everything looks as people get back into the park during the park buyouts and when 9/19 rolls around. Will the castle be gone yet? Will we see nothing yet? Who knows

Here’s a picture of the original Phantom theater production, courtesy of theme park University. Happy to have the Phantom theater back again, especially in an animatronics.

It's more about the vendors themselves. If a vendor doesn't make $ they either will leave early (if possible) or not come back the following day. I've done a lot of work with food truck vendors within festivals and they are very particular on how much traffic/money they have. If they don't accept a meal plan, those with meal plans are less likely to patronize their truck. Now, there could be additional folks who don't have meal plans that utilize the food trucks, but is it sustainable for them?!? Just thinking out loud.

Honestly I was shocked great america is going away-used to live in Santa Clara years ago….

I feel like Great Adventure fell out of the top tier when Ka closed, but the company probably doesn't agree.

I’m trying to figure out the bottom three characters to the left of the rabbit. Also, the one to the right of the two Houdelini renderings. I wonder if these are new characters, the members of the audience that you saw during the peppers ghost scene, or something else entirely. The page isn’t laid flat out so it’s hard to make out. I’m sure that more stuff will be revealed later on, but it’s cool to decipher.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19GSHE4BGK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Going off this paper^ Two faces far left: Houdelini Smirking face: Stagehand pulling the ropes? Shocked face dead center: Stagehand being hung by his leg? Grinning face- Boiler room? The never seen Mighty Bosco? Smiling face, no teeth- The second Boiler room guy? Garbanzo? (There’s a picture right under it of him but I still think it’s the thinner boiler room guy) Highest in the back- Willard Warbler? The one who’s face you can’t see- unknown- you’d have to really examine the eyebrows. Also note the Viking hats in the back right

Where'd this come from?

They just ban people calling too much While there is a lot of chatter on social media, the real test will be once the events begin. FB is full of people commenting that never even visit the park. And trolls, and whatever else.

It's pretty widespread on social media, I can't imagine how many complaints the various parks have been fielding about it. It's going to be even worse when Haunt starts and you have the people who don't follow every nuance of the park's website showing up just to find an employee with their hand out asking for $99 for something that's been included with their passes for years. Yes, the website didn't necessarily say they were included when renewals went on sale in 2024, but no one would have expected it to- mazes have been included with event admission for decades. Of course, you're going to have the park cheerleaders telling everyone how paragraph 17 subsection 12 of the terms and conditions says they can take away whatever they want whenever they want, but that really only makes things worse. The fact is that, at best, a lot of people feel they were misled when they purchased their passes, especially since many people already paid for 2026 passes before the changes were publicized. Excuses from the parks and their supporters aren't going to help with that. Teaching people that you may or may not get what you paid for when you make a purchase from their company is not a good move.

I like the Pep and Chee.

I don’t think a Disney executive could even save this sinking ship. The problem is cheap season passes, and meal plans, and then having to cost cut to make up for the low revenue leading to a lower customer experience and decreasing attendance. Plus, they also try to make up for the loss in revenue of the cheap season passes by overcharging for everything else, and that leads to lower spending. they also have the problem that they only install attractions for trail, riders and little children, so they can’t operate most of their assets when school is in session. These parks said vacant almost half the year. in order to right the ship, they would have to lose a significant amount of money for quite some time and invest in a very high quality customer experience. That includes investing in more midtier attractions that everyone can do like dark rides, transportation rides, and live entertainment. That would lead to an increase in attendance and the ability to raise season pass prices to a realistic prive. and eliminate the meal plans. It would also bring in a guest that would spend more at the park. They also need to reduce the in park prices for food merchandise, etc.To reasonable prices so people will actually spend if they are attracting more people and a higher quality customer than the spending will happen if the prices are reasonable but they can’t do it because they don’t have the cash to do it and they are too far in debt so it’s a downward spiral. instead, they keep following the formula of cheap season passes, meal plans, high prices on everything else and only having attractions for low spending thrill, seeker and little children. It’s definitely not a recipe for success.

One of the goals for the merger was to get to a place where they could buy back the land from the holding companies for Over Texas and Over Georgia IIRC. I thought they were already able to buy back the land for one of their parks (maybe SFOG?) and were working on the next one. Part of me wonders how much money Six Flags gets from managing parks like Frontier City and La Ronde (and soon SFQ). A lot of people have commented that those would be easy to cut from the lineup, but if they're easy money I don't see why they'd get cut first.

I do think there is a line that was crossed with how many questions were asked and the manner by which they were asked. Let's not forget that this was the same individual who impersonated the park (via modified email) and tried to pass it off as real.

Months back the chain said they would focus on their top 15 parks and yesterday I heard something about the top 16 parks account for 90% of revenue or something along those lines. Over Georgia and Over Texas are easily in that category, though I believe both are owned by a holding company and not completely owned by the chain? As far as the top 15, I'm assuming these 14 are included: Cedar Point, Knotts Berry Farm, Kings Island, Canada's Wonderland, SFGAdv, SFGAm, SFMM, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, SFOG, SFOT, SFFT, SFNE, SFM I recall Dorney being the more profitable of the lower tier CF parks but that may have changed. No idea about Discovery Kingdom or St Louis or LaRonde.

Also, one has to remember the markets they’re in: one is between Dallas and Ft Worth and the other is in Atlanta- they’re not going to give up those territories.

Someone getting banned for calling the park asking questions

Are still missing The Vortex in 2025.

I'd bet it is a reference to Steel Vengeance. Most of the props/posters from this era include those easter eggs because they were designed by a human who understands that there can be a connection like that between the parks. If you look at the AI generated posters in AlpenFury's indoor queue line, you'll notice they don't have any easter eggs. I think the last set of non-AI posters Kings Island has are over in Adventure Port. Now that I'm looking at this photo, I don't think I've ever noticed the hose or its box either. Any idea as to why it appears to be completely outside of the box? Maybe all that wood behind the fence will go into building the entrance for The Conjuring. Not much seemed to be going on with them this weekend, but the new entrance to Order of the Dragon looked to be further along in development.

Why not both Maestro and Larry? I think what will probably happen is they'll have Maestro up there at his organ and there will be lightning and thunder special effects for the "stormy night" part and then have the ghost notes disappear from the organ and then both Maestro and Larry will give instructions to find the notes using the flashlight. Kinda like during the Scooby Doo Haunted Castle days where Scooby and Shaggy were up there telling you how to use the blasters.

Montgomery Inn Ribs!

I'd love German food in Festhaus. An Izzy's franchise would be great too (for those who aren't local, Izzy's is a Cincinnati-area chain of sandwich shops particularly famous for their Reubens)

My dad wishes they would back beer and brats to the Festhaus.