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I would also like to see KI operations go back to the pre-Paramount era. It's unfortunate many today did not experience KI in the 80's. It should be noted Reilly was president of Busch Gardens December 2007 (prior to Blackstone purchase) to November 2010. He had a direct influence in bringing the Busch Gardens Williamsburg name back from Busch Gardens Europe.

They finally released the food menu. https://www.sixflags.com/blog/kings-island-winterfest-food-guide Strange that it says that the Grain & Grill turkey ball meal also includes all of the other entrees and sides, as does Coney BBQ.

I, for one, trust Tony way more than what's been shown prior to him taking over PR. As you said @Indyguy4KI we know how he operates and know that information can and will be shared.

Some things I expect to see happen with John Reilly as CEO are ticket and season pass prices being raised, a stronger focus on customer service, and less regionalization with departments. It will eventually get back to the way it was and should be with more boots on the ground at the park level.

So, I do know John—I worked with him at SEA both when he was COO under Joel Manby and as acting CEO after Manby was forced out. He was not CEO when Blackfish came out (I believe he was still park president at San Diego when that occurred)—Jim Atchison & the remaining old guard at BEC were still in place when Blackfish dropped. Joel was brought in as CEO (from Herschend) to try to reverse the mistakes that had been made after Blackfish—if I recall correctly, he then promoted John to COO from the San Diego park. Personally, I like John—I thought he should have been named CEO after Joel and before they hired Gus from Carnival (who I was not a fan of). John started his career as a popcorn seller in college at BGW (he enjoyed telling that story ) so he grew up in park operations when SeaWorld/Busch were at their best. I’m a little biased probably, but I think this is a good choice.

I am going to put the menu in this thread for easy reference. French Corner: Café du Père Noël White Chicken Chili: Chef’s own recipe of Stewed Tender Chicken, White Beans, Bell Peppers, Herbs and Spices served in a Bread Bowl. Shepherd’s Pie: A hearty filling of tender Beef and Vegetables simmered in a Rich Stock, topped with creamy Mashed Potatoes and served with a Baguette. Pull-A-Part Bread: Our famous Kings Island Cinnamon Treat, topped with Cream Cheese Frosting. Rivertown Potato Works: Old St. Nick’s Potato Factory Holiday Dinner Fries: Turkey, Roasted Mushrooms, White Gravy, Gruyere Cheese, Cranberry Sauce and Crispy Fries. Honey Ham Fries: Our Fresh Cut Fries topped with Honey Glazed Ham, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, Cheese Sauce, Mustard Glaze and Green Onions. Coney Bar-B-Que – Smokehouse Christmas Country Christmas Platter: Roasted Turkey Breast, Honey Pork Loin, Holiday Sausage, Cranberry BBQ Sauce, Corn Souffle, Green Beans, Sweet Potato Fries, Drop Biscuits and a featured Hot Holiday Dessert. Other: Hand Breaded Chicken Tenders and House-Made Smoked Pulled Pork. Wishbone Grill It’s a Wonderful Chop: Grilled Pork Chop, Caramelized Onion, Apple Compote and House Chips served on a Bun. Broccoli Cheddar Chowder: Stewed Tender Broccoli, Potatoes, Shredded Chicken, Cream and Cheddar Cheese in a Bread Bowl. Enrique’s Cantina: Enrique’s Christmas Café “You Mac Me So Happy”: Build your own Mac & Cheese! Choose from over 25 toppings selections. Miami River Brewhouse: Blitzen’s Brewhouse Christmas Turkey Sandwich: Crispy Turkey Sandwich, Lettuce, Tomatoes and Cranberry Aioli on a Toasted Bun. Coney Treats: Candy Cane Concoctions Pull-A-Part Bread: Our famous Kings Island Cinnamon Treat, topped with Cream Cheese frosting. Festhaus: Tannenbaumhaus Grandma’s Holiday Meatball Hoagie: House-Made Meatball, Marinara, Provolone and Parmesan Cheese. Grain & Grill International Kitchen: Scrooge’s Sausage Haus Turkey Dinner Ball: Served with Sage Turkey Gravy, Jellied Cranberry Sauce, Holiday Cranberry Sausage, Classic Smoked Sausage, Crunchy Chicken Tenders, Macaroni & Cheese, Brussels Sprouts, Garlic Potatoes, Winter Salad and Greek Salad. World’s Greatest Funnel Cakes (International Street) & Rivertown Funnel Cake (Rivertown) – Sugar’s Cake Factory & Claus Confectionary Gingerbread Funnel Cake (Sugar’s Cake Factory only): Spiced Gingerbread Funnel Cake topped with Gum Drops and a Mini Gingerbread Cookie. Cherry Cordial Funnel Cake (Sugar’s Cake Factory only): Chocolate Funnel Cake topped with Cherry Filling, Whip Cream, Powdered Sugar and Chocolate Curls. Eggnog Funnel Cake (both locations): Crispy Funnel Cake topped with Eggnog Frosting, White Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar. Crème Brûlée Funnel (Claus Confectionary only): Crispy Funnel Cake topped with Cream Cheese Frosting, Brûléed Caramel, Cinnamon and Powdered Sugar. Pull-A-Part Bread (Claus Confectionary only): Our famous Kings Island Cinnamon Treat, topped with Cream Cheese frosting. Chicken Shack: Dasher’s Diner Naughty List Chicken Tenders: Spicy dusted crispy Chicken Tenders. Jukebox Diner: Tinsel Town Diner Holiday Meatloaf Burger: Our blend of Spices, Muenster Cheese, Sweet Ketchup, Bacon Jam, Shaved Red Onion on a Toasted Bun. Sweet Spot Giant Gingerbread Man Coconut Raspberry Snowballs Eggnog Tres Leches Peppermint Bark Brownie What are you wanting to try first? Source: https://www.sixflags.com/blog/kings-island-winterfest-food-guide

The operations have always been among the best in the industry since Kings Island opened its gates in 1972, but it’s not as good as the Taft days.

FWIW—the posts I’m seeing from all my former colleagues at SeaWorld (and a few that had jumped to Palace at some point) on LinkedIn have all been overwhelming positive on the news. I think it’s always telling when people you used to work with say good things about you and congratulate your new place of employment for getting you . During my career I’ve had a mixed bag of executives I’ve worked for I’d say that about—but John would be one of the positive ones. Regardless, he’s going to have a tough road in front of him at SF—a perception of failing customer service and crushing debt would be a huge challenge for anyone.

Amongst the many Phantom Theater threads on this forum, this one aims to take a different approach. I’ve been thinking about this alternate version of Phantom Theater and wanted to share the idea in case anyone else has imagined something similar. Basically, picture a scenario where Kings Island didn’t originally build Phantom Theater as an omnimover dark ride in the Haunted Mansion style. Instead, imagine they took the exact same characters, atmosphere, portraits, parlor rooms, and ghostly humor, but turned the whole thing into a fully animatronic stage show. Guests would still have to enter through the lobby and listen to Maestro taunt them, but instead of loading into ride vehicles, they’d take their seats in a large Victorian theater filled with red velvet curtains, flickering candles, gilded arches, and multiple small stages. Maestro, Hilda, Houdelini, Garbonzo, Lionel and the rest of the Phantom Theater cast would appear as animatronic performers, each popping out on their own miniature stage to sing, argue, perform magic tricks, or attempt dangerous stunts. The whole thing would feel like a mashup of the original Phantom Theater aesthetic with the structure of Country Bear Jamboree or even the old Chuck E. Cheese animatronic shows. In a way, it would basically be what Phantom Theater Encore became, but built entirely around animatronics instead of live actors. Same characters, same humor, same style, just reimagined as a seated ghostly revue instead of a ride-through experience. For added authenticity, scenes like the prop room – the stage hands – the show lights guy, and the boiler room guys would appear as you’re walking through the line going towards the theater area or as you’re leaving. Thoughts?

Looks like the blog portion of the sites are starting to have entries and park specific ones at that, even if they're older ones.

John Reilly brings the kind of experience and mindset Six Flags desperately needs. But as every park veteran knows, intent only matters if execution follows. https://themeparksbydon.com/what-im-watching-john-reilly-six-flags-ceo/

I am partial to the name “Phantom Voyage” myself.

Yep I was there and I heard that a lot!

Sorry, I should have looked into this more but was at work. I saw Parques Reunidos and jumped the gun. It looks like John Reily was only at Palace (Parques Reunidos) at the very end of their time in the USA so he can't really be blamed for how bad that group was. I went to Lake Compounce in its last year of Palace ownership and it was the worst operated park that I have seen. Kennywood fared a little better as their crown jewel, but they did not make a lot of positive changes during their ownership period (2007 to 2025). The turnpike was removed, Garfield's Nightmare went on way too long, and they added just two new coasters in 18 seasons of ownership – one with very low capacity and another very good, but highly unreliable. It's good to know that Reilly was not responsible for almost all of that. @Browntggrrin an ideal scenario... anyone who would operate Kings Island like a Busch Park. I see those parks as the spiritual successor of the original intent of Kings Island. Meaning that it was an elevated experience not quite at a Disney level but more special in its presentation, theming, and overall feel than a typical amusement park. Kings Island has done quite well on the coasters over the last 15 years, but the premium feel and aesthetics of the park from its early days has not come back. If Reilly can operate the parks like Busch at their peak, assuming they let him do it, then this could be a very good and effective hire.

All that sounds great! I hope your are correct.

I don’t know John Reilly, so before sharing my thoughts and opinions on Tower Topics I’ll need to talk to some people who do. I will have a piece published tomorrow on TPBD on what I’m looking for on the new CEO.

My goodness — someone from Parques Reunidos? That company's stint in US park ownership/operations was an unmitigated disaster. The new Six Flags needed either an amusement park outsider of someone who could heighten the experience and service like someone from Disney or Universal. They've instead brought in someone from old Six Flags' smaller and less successful cousin. Hopefully it works out though...

Mr. Six is that you?

The Saturday before regular season close I heard so many people saying, let's go ride The Beast. Oops!

At least we know how Tony operates, and can trust the info that is posted.

A full re-route and separation would probably be the best option for it. Widening the path would still require a new bridge and might not solve the separation issue. I'm hoping the parks can take some time over the next few years to build dedicated Fast Lane paths for any ride that's still missing one. The Beast is the first that comes to mind, but I think there are a few other rides (especially at other parks) that still have Fast Lane going up the Exit path (which should be exclusively reserved for Accessibility and exiting purposes).

This thread hasn't been updated since March, but I don't see any others. The one topc that had a more recent post focused specifically on Falcon's Flight. Anyway, Six Flags Qiddiya has an official opening date that just barely opens this year. I'm talking about New Year's Eve. Here is the link to the video. Huh. I feel like at 25 seconds, this turns into a ripoff of another commercial. I'm talking about that Visit California commercial. That said, I would love to experience that, but I don't see it as feasible in the short term. Also, for next summer, my eyes are on taking a trip to Canada, which includes Canada's Wonderland, Niagara Falls (both sides), stuff in Toronto, and a stop (back in the US) at Darien Lake before I return home.

They were just using it for the most part to park sales and promotional content the past couple years instead of using it for its intent to tell stories. If they’re not going to use it for storytelling, it doesn’t serve a purpose.

KI Blog is completely void of entries.

I thought those were the sponsors, although it's odd that they don't have Sharefax (the credit union/bank sponsor) on there. That's where the sponsor bar was on the other website. I've had a much worse experience using the Six Flags app, but if it works and feels like the new Carowinds app then it should be fine. The legacy SF app has issues with pulling up passes, takes too many clicks to switch between parks, and has a number of "buttons" that look like they should work but don't let you click them. That new Carowinds app also appears to have a mobile ordering feature, though. I may be in the minority on this, but I prefer having separate apps for the different parks/resorts. Cramming them all into one app feels like it will either decrease the amount of in-app features per park (favoring app size over functionality) or make the app a puppet of the website (meaning more in-park Wi-Fi usage through an already strained system). I feel like having all of my different park passes together in my phone wallet makes it easier to switch between them and negates any issues with having separate mobile apps. A majority of passholders might not even need more than one app if they only ever go to their home park/resort. I'd love to see the other parks get separate apps. So far whenever I try to use the new websites it gives me a 403 error and says there's either too much traffic or a configuration error. Hopefully this issue gets resolved quickly, because a company this large should be able to handle website traffic like this. FYI to get to the Six Flags America website you'll need to type out the link in the address bar since it is not listed with the other parks. www.sixflags.com/america

They're definitely planning to move the CF parks to the Six Flags app, based on the new site. But so far it still just has the legacy SF parks on it. If I were to nitpick, when you select a park on the site you get big thumbnails for each park and some have good pics that represent their parks well, including KI and CP. But other parks...not so much.

I'm wondering if this hinting at a new Six Flags app with all of the parks on it.

I like how they integrated the online store with the rides and attractions on the site. Now they just need to update the store! Also a few of the shopping places are missing. Also the picture they have of the "Beast Cart" is a picture of The Beast Photo stand. The "Beast Cart" I believe is located under the arcade pavilion. The Sweet Spot and Kings Island Collections (I think that is what they are calling it now formerly the Squishmallow store) is missing from the new site and the photo for Coney Confections picture is severely outdated and the fixture in the picture is no longer in the store. The food stand side of the website looks fine, but it appears that the merchandising team could update their side of the site or at least get new pictures sent in.

It's very nice. Web cam views are much larger.