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The new character sculpts look fantastic, excited to see more!

It’s one of the best food items I’ve had at the park since 1972.

I’m excited because it will truly be a surprise the first time I ride. I don't remember the last time that we haven’t been able to see construction photos for a ride at all and where it is not out in the open like most of the recent additions!

I feel like a lot of enthusiasts dislike the Six Flags corporation because they won’t work with Intamin, but I don’t blame the executives or whoever is choosing not to work with them. Intamin has had so many different opportunities to prove that they are a different brand and they are more competent now. Especially with quantum accelerator and Georgia gold rusher. Beyond the fact that both rides didn’t open on time which probably has more to do with the park they have still had problems. It just doesn’t make sense to work with a brand that can’t deliver and that has major downtime almost every single project. From what I’ve heard also the parts are hard to get and take forever so it makes sense to phase out rides that are expensive to maintain and don’t have spare parts on hand. While they may produce quality rides that are awesome to ride they just seem to be so maintenance heavy and always seem to have a lot of problems. While new rides usually have some problems they shouldn’t have to see extended downtime.

I fear that most Intamins, regardless of model, may see the axe a lot sooner than we want them to. Considering a lot of the "greatest hits" are now 20+ or close to that age mark now, most of them being prototypes or early technology users, I fear we may see a lot more of them get taken down in favor or lower cost/higher reliability rides. Maybe I am overreaching on this mentality, but I really don't think I am. This is a chain in absolute dire straits from everything we've seen so far. I have zero faith they will invest in anything they see no profit from or anything that is going to cost them more than it's worth if they can get away with it. Even if said coaster is historic/popular, I simply don't see them caring if their bottom dollar has to suffer to improve or upgrade something that is over 20+ years old. Six Axes seems to know no bounds.

When has this strategy led to long term, sustained success? A fundamental issue with low admissions pricing is that it invites the wrong kind of customer - frugal or price sensitive families, parents looking for cheap summer day care, etc. - who are unlikely to spend frivolously regardless of how things are priced inside the gate. Giving away the gate also squanders a unique advantage these regional parks have, which is that they are down market of Disney-level entertainment options, so if/when economic conditions lead to a softening of demand on the higher end, they can absorb that business, giving up the lower end customer to FECs and the like. Another fundamental problem is that it takes a long time and effort to build gate integrity. Demonstrating to customers that your product is worth the elevated price point you're charging can take years, even generations, and all of that is completely undone in an instant by lowering the gate price. Once the gate integrity is destroyed, declining revenue and per caps, and attendance when the economy softens, make it virtually impossible to correct course before bankruptcy is the only option.

Chef Majors had some items on the Food Truck in the Water Park we got twice in one day. Those are some of the best. His special meals are great.

The future of FUN is no longer looking that bright. It is going to be really hard to come back from this. Investors are ****ed and are looking into suing the company. If that happens more loses will ensue monetarily and debt will not be able to be repaid. The product quality has decreased for former CF Parks. But a few pre-merger six flags parks have had an increase in quality. That truly does show how far behind the pre-merger six flags parks were behind the CF parks. If parks do start to get sold I would love to see KI sold, but it is too much of a cash cow for them to probably sell. Things are not looking good especially with how they did haunt. They should have set the price of passes $30-$40 more and just had the mazes included with park admission. There is literally no point in giving away the gate. When things get so cheap people look down on it. That is the opposite of what they want to happen but they managed to achieve that. I do not really know what to say. I think at this point the company either needs to sell some parks immediately or just declare bankcruptcy. Investors have lost hope with the board and the only way to bring that hope back is to start fresh. At the end of the day I hope that I am proven wrong and that they make it out of this without having to sell parks or declare bankruptcy. What is the C-Suite actually doing on a daily basis this company is in free fall and someone has to take the reigns or else it is going to get away. I've spoken about being hopeful, but at this point in time it is hard to have that outlook. I really think selling parks is the way to go and that is what the company should be doing they need to find buyers.

I posted this link back in March so thought I'd do it again since he came up. I do not know Mike but thought this was a nice article. https://www.journal-news.com/lifestyles/the-story-of-one-of-kings-islands-busiest-performers/6HCSAM3U65GG3PUT5A24R2MEZE/

This kinda sums up the social media backlash crowd LOL: Everyone claims they bought their passes EXCLUSIVELY for Haunt, but when they start charging $10 for the mazes suddenly all of the haunted houses are run-down run-of-the-mill boring snoozefests that aren't worth a nickel out of their pocket. If that's the case, why did they buy a pass just to go?

Giving away the gate, in and of itself, is not a terrible strategy. In fact, its a tried and true strategy that parks started a long time ago because the real money was in concessions and merch, etc etc. But now they basically give food away (to locals that visit often at least) and that's a big chunk of the revenue. Of course if we're being honest: It's not like KI or CP or KBF or the other top parks are losing money. The real problem is that successful parks are being used to pay off a debt that they didn't create to and to subsidize struggling parks. Since the dining plan came up, I think it would have been smarter to offer a food discount add-on instead of the dining plan. That is, to pay like $70 or something to get 50% off any and all food items in the park up to a certain amount per visit. I doubt many would see the appeal but it would work better for those of us that can't visit the park as regularly and it guarantees that the park gets not just up front revenue but revenue for every use.

I had just found out the trick where you can hold down the trigger to not having to keep pressing it. My scores doubled. The ride stunk. Cardboard cutouts with non-working blasters. The kids liked it though and for them I'm glad the "blasting" part is staying. My first few ride will be just observering though.

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!

Please note that this topic should have a MASSIVE "rumor" tag on it. The comment very much read like it was hearsay, but then again this is how some of the rumors of Kingda Ka's demise came out. I don't intend any harm to come from this topic so please treat it as the hearsay rumor that it is. I recently read a comment from a Knott's Berry Farm guest who spoke to a "reputable source" who said that Xcelerator is on its last train. They continued to say that the park has halted the ride's lifetime maintenance planning/budget that would be responsible for ordering new trains/train parts. Once this newest train fully breaks, it will not be repaired and a new train will not be ordered. The source gave Xcelerator 3-5 years and mentioned that the wheels are wearing faster than expected. This could all just be a random commenter with a source that knows nothing, and I fully accept that. If anyone knows more about how that coaster works and its history please let me know if any of this sounds right or wrong! Six Flags is doing awfully with their financials so it is well within the realm of possibility that the future funding for major maintenance needs like this are being halted. I'd bet that this could be what happened with most of the rides lost in the 2024 Ride Purge, and we all know how that turned out for Kingda Ka. If I can find a way to link directly to a YouTube comment then I'll post it here since I am but a tertiary source at this point!

Unfortunately, an added $40 cost to the passes might not have helped much when the company is giving away 40 parks for the price of one. Maybe it'd work better if they had made it 3 parks for the price of 1 (like Cedar Point/CPS, Kings Island/SC, and Michigan's Adventure/WWA), with the All-Park Passport available for an additional $50. I think I'm going to try to come up with a better pass system to better prove my point and post it here on KIC when I'm done.

I NEED them to bring back the 7 LAYER CREPE CAKE at Grain and Grill. That thing was the best amusement park dessert I think I have ever had other than Dollywood cinnamon bread!

New characters animatronics looking good! Glad to see the park giving real updates and keeping people engaged again

All I'm going to say is that I think liquidation of some parks is inevitable at this point. They can't afford to keep running the ones not bringing in high profits. Unfortunately, instead of giving another company the opportunity to right their wrongs, Six Flags will most likely close any and all parks that are within any potential competition distance of their other properties. It makes sense to eliminate the competition but it SUCKS for everyone else! Why not sell SFA? Well because it's too close to KD and Dorney Park. Why not sell CGA? It's too close to SFDK. Six Flags doesn't care if all of your memories go to heck when your park closes or if you have to drive 2-3 hours to your nearest park. Both companies were in a lot of debt pre merger and their issues have only continued. It's very disheartening to think about more parks closing. SFA sucks so I'm not too upset about that one but I was just at CGA and there's no argument that it's better than every other park in the Bay Area.

I agree, the pricing has not kept up with inflation in regard to season passes and add-ons. I also think they also suffer from too much reliance on analytics and market research. In a lot of ways, I don't think they actually understand their customers or what a customer experiences.

Good to know! I'll have to try it next time I go! Thanks @IndyGuy4KI and @DonHelbig for your input!

I have gotten it a few times. @DonHelbig and I got it when it was new and we both enjoyed it. I am not sure it tops the pub burger for him though?

You got it!

I did on Saturday night after I took my last ride on Boo Blasters! I also looked at POVs for Scooby Doo and The Haunted Castle because I barely remembered it’s differences from Boo Blasters as it became that when I was just a little kid.

Putting this here because it could be foreshadowing for how Kings Island's Haunt map will look. Carowinds released their SCarowinds event map earlier today, and it looks good! To me, it's a mix between the Fright Fest maps that Six Flags has put out over the last few years and what I've previously seen of the Knott's Scary Farm map. I do really miss the old style of the Haunt/FearFest maps, but I'm happy that this one actually looks good. The fact that the skulls that marked the maze entrances were the same design as the ones that marked them on the map was always so cool to me. Some things to notice: Lots of alcohol available. So much that bars make up 9 of the 13 specialty food & drink locations. This map actually has trees! One reason why the regular season maps looked so bad was because it was severely bare bones. They're also using the nighttime version of the map that we briefly saw on the Carowinds app earlier this year. The gray ground they use for the Haunt events is also very good for making the map look better. Something subtle, but interesting, some of the words/dates have stamp lines like the Fright Fest logo has. I'm glad all of the "presented by" marks are not emphasized too much. The interactive lantern is referred to as the "Conductor's Lantern" much like it is at Knott's, though I don't really understand what the relevance of The Conductor is here. Maybe it's just consequence of Six Flags' typical lack of quality control, or maybe it's just what it's always been thought of as being. I hope we can see similar things with the Kings Island Haunt map. The trend of putting Tricks and Treats and Haunt on one map has irked me a lot ever since they started to do it. Link to the SCarowinds 2025 Event Map PDF: https://qr1.be/94L4

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.

I don't think I'm going opening day to Kings Island in 2026 because of how busy it's going to be, so I'm going to refrain myself to any pov videos of the ride so I can avoid spoilers, I want to be surprised by the ride myself.

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.

Was at the KY State Fairgrounds yesterday for something unrelated to Kentucky Kingdom... but I did manage to sneak a peek at the construction happening in the front of the park. (For posterity, no trespassing involved. These were taken from outside the park, in full view from the parking lot.) Pretty obvious what's going on IMO. They will really be shoe-horning the "new attraction" in there... Here's a photo dump... Shaggy

A lot of things like this are par for the course-look at how everything is the past couple of years. UN inspiring. I still have no opinion of the merger, in “wait and see” mode. myself, I am skipping haunt-real life is scary enough!

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.

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.

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 Rib Pitt, I just want that. LOL Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Or just regular brisket at Coney BBQ like CP had at Back Beat Que. I'm not a fan of burnt ends, but I love the brisket at CP!

Yeah those cables have been hanging for a moment. I guess you could say it's still very "Invertibroken". I wish the park would make some kind of formal announcement about it-whether they decide to remove it or repair it. I really hate this whole line of secrecy. And the fact that the park was essentially hounded into making sure people knew Monster wasn't going anywhere. Why can't the same courtesy be made for Invertigo? I know that SF has been awful about letting people know about ride removals, but I just don't see the benefit in doing that. Transparency will always garner more respect than not.

Yes, confirmed by KI shows and entertainment.

I think Siren's Curse might've had some of the same issues at Knott's as it had at Six Flags Mexico, which is why it went to Cedar Point. Permitting and available flat land are probably the biggest answers of why it didn't get sent to another park under the Six Flags umbrella. SFM couldn't get permits, Knott's probably didn't have the land or the permit ability, Magic Mountain and Kings Island aren't flat enough, and Carowinds and Great Adventure probably hadn't been told to purge their ride collections yet. If Xcelerator goes down for good, I think they should replace it with another small launch coaster after the money becomes available.

Going off topic a little-I’ve been to the park twice this fall and I’ll have to say I’ve had good experiences both times. That being said, DB seemed shaky and I’m guessing it needs wheels. Orion-holy heck that was great! I’ve kinda changed a bit the last few years and just kinda appreciating good when I can find it. There are a couple I’m avoiding, but I’ve been impressed with the engagement of the staff. (Unpopular I know lol)

I don’t think Xcelerator is going to last forever. With Six Flags already taking down the world’s tallest hydraulic launch coaster in New Jersey, it seems like the writing’s on the wall for Intamin’s hydraulic coasters in general. They’re maintenance-heavy, parts are harder to come by, and Xcelerator was the prototype. If/when Knott’s replaces it, there are some interesting directions they could go. In theory they could go the TT2 route if they wanted to preserve the ride- and add some length and duration with a swing launch. If they were looking to completely demo and rebuild- an S&S air launch could deliver the same burst of speed with far less downtime. Or, Knott’s could even be a test site for something like the S&S Axis coaster, which would give them a real marketing hook. With all this said, I can’t help but wonder if Siren’s Curse would’ve been a better fit for Knott’s than Cedar Point. I know Cedar Point will always get the massive record-breakers, but Siren’s Curse might have made a bigger impact at Knott’s. I think it would have felt different enough from HangTime to stand on its own.

Unfortunately, I believe Xcelerator's fate is pretty much inevitable regardless of any rumors. It also doesn't help that Knotts' is extremely land-locked, so they need to remove attractions if they ever plan on putting in any new ones. I would hope that Xcelerator could get the Zamperla treatment, given that TT2 has been running pretty well now, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

New trains are a few Million and they need at least 2. That doesn’t look likely under the new Six Flags. Hate to say it but I think the rumor may have merit if true.

Goetta...................