Leaderboard

You are probably right, but with a new CEO, we might see some unpredictable changes?

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/real-estate/2026/02/13/great-wolf-lodge-mason-new-hotel/88607127007/?link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=698ef62aa9dfda0001d59006&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAP8KV1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeHLaKMZHHb7VjgWaozVdz12P0ygmcHGUnPRb1vKXjeI5s7vrLDpinIQp4Bi0_aem_2sxGtvF45YnGNUEw4imqjw This story seems to be on-and-off paywalled but the TL;DR is that Mason City Council recently approved the construction of a six story tower addition to Great Wolf Lodge.

I've been told this is on the park's Instagram page I believe. So if anyone has any burning questions about the original PT, now's your time to ask!

You can see the back of the castle top from the Camp Snoopy and Planet Snoopy cam on their website.

I could honestly see The Vortex replacement in 2028 followed by a parking lot coaster (Invertigo/Congo/TW area) along with a renovated entry plaza in 2032 for the 60th anniversary (which is crazy to think we are getting close to the halfway point to that year as the 50th year feels like yesterday). Assuming we don't run into another major financial disruption (ie another pandemic or major recession or even bankruptcy).

The name may make you chuckle. But the Texas-sized story behind the Judge Roy Scream are anything but a joke. https://themeparksbydon.com/judge-roy-scream-six-flags-over-texas/

So it seems like the new tower is going in the parking lot somewhere in front of the current building. Interesting they chose there instead of right behind the waterpark where there is some open land there between the outdoor pool and columbia rd.

Google to the rescue. https://darkridedatabase.com/rides/action-theater-3/ Funhouse Express, 2005 and 2006.

Are you familiar with the "fast, cheap, good - pick two" axiom? The idea is that a project/product can be any two at the expense of the third: It can be done fast and cheap, but it won't be good. It can be done cheap and good, but it won't be fast. It can be done fast and good, but it won't be cheap. Obviously the park cannot sacrifice the "good" component, so you're left with options 2 or 3. And considering park installations are meant to provide entertainment value for decades, it's hard to justify spending significant sums of money to achieve "fast", when all that really means is opening a few weeks earlier for a product that is expected to operate, say, 400 weeks over its lifetime. Does it make fiscal sense to increase a budget by several percent to achieve an additional <1% of operating weeks? Parks seem to have settled on "no" for that answer, which makes sense. I don't recall the announcement. Was AlpenFury ever announced to be opening on the park's opening day? Or was it announced to be opening "this summer" or whatever? Because if it's the latter, it makes no difference what pass holders expected. They were provide what the park announced - a new coaster that opened in the summer.

I agree with you on this, I just also wish the parks would give us a set opening date more than two weeks out. Construction projects have deadlines and it mostly just takes good planning to ensure each opening date is reached. AlpenFury didn't open until the middle of July and left Canada's Wonderland Silver Pass holders with only 1.5 months to experience it instead of the full 4-ish months formerly afforded. My questions would probably be better asked this way: Aside from major construction delays, why do the parks feel fine with not announcing an opening date for their "big new thing" until a week or two before it comes? I can confirm it's on their Instagram page!

To my pain, I don't know if the plan is to open it with the park (though it seems odd to me that it would open the weekend after opening instead of having a soft opening with minor effects or adjustments being made during the weekdays the park is closed) but I also don't think it's likely for it to have been delayed. For reference, two months before their opening, RiverRacers hadn't been fully assembled, and the trains for Soapbox Racers hadn't arrived. Though I suppose I'm just "defending" the April 18th opening date because if manifest it enough I'll be able to ride it sooner. I think the reddit source is trustworthy, but I'm more inclined to believe the April date that has remained on Sally Dark Ride's site. Perhaps this is more of a personal want, but whether it opens with the park or if they hold a charity event, it would be a shame to me if there wasn't a clearly communicated opening day and if it randomly soft opened without notice a few weeks into the season. The crowd energy from fans at the last performance of Encore and the last day of Boo Blasters (and probably the Rick Bastrup Q&A, I'm still salty about having to miss that) was very fun to experience and I'd love to have it for the theater's grand reopening.

At this point, I know no reason of this attraction not opening "on time," whether it's at the very first day of the season or further into April or even May.

Historically the facade’s been worked on once the interior of the ride has basically been finished (as in that happened with Scooby Doo, that’s really the most recent example). I am doubtful at this point that the facade will see much of a facelift besides a repaint, but I’d love to be proven wrong. I’m very curious if we’ll see anymore updates this month from the park. The two unlisted videos have been removed from the YouTube playlist. There’s a Six Flags shareholders meeting on the 19th, but I don’t think the opening date or anything would be released because of it.

Could have been delayed to the mass snow storm across the state.

It is amazing on how complex these rides are, even if they appear at times to be just simple on the surface. They are so incredibly complex. Thanks @DispatchMaster for a description of how much actually goes into it. I do theater work and most would think lighting is just as simple as plugging in the lights...but it's so much more than that.

I have no information nor opinion on when the ride will open, but coming from the world of industrial automation, which this ride essentially is, it would not be the least bit surprising that it would take a couple of months to program and debug this thing. It's a very complex machine, with hundreds, if not thousands, of sensors, relays, contactors, pneumatic and/or servo actuators, safety systems, audiovisual hardware and software, PLCs, HMIs, etc., all subject to hardware infant mortality, all of which is designed to be efficiently and safely operated by minimum wage operators. No small task! When automated systems are complex, the number of failure modes skyrockets to the point that debug alone can take quite a while (think ~10 engineers & technicians working 6 or 7 12-hour days for weeks), to say nothing of the programming itself. For example, a typical automotive automated production system will run in debug for ~3 weeks once the hardware is "on its feet" to try to identify the myriad ways in which it can fail. Plus, even with those failure modes addressed, it will go on to exhibit dozens more failure modes once released to the wild.

That would be a great little "mini land" that's part of International Street IMO. I'd also include Charlie Brown's Wind-Up (either keep it or move the ride and replace it). Keep the theater and renovate it to hold more guests. There's enough gift shops nearby, but some theming upgrades could go a long way! Could these be 9-10 of the enchanted opera box doom buggies sitting in front of the Bandstand? I see a hint of red on one of them and their shape fits overall. The only question I have is why they're not covered and/or which route they plan to take them into the building (whether to go around the French Corner or all the way down and around Sweet Spot).

Who says they're not planning to do that? (They're probably not, but I'd love if this would happen eventually if the ride is a hit)

I felt like the park could’ve taken this opportunity to “rebrand” the highlighted area of the park strictly to Phantom Theater. Rename Great Pumpkin into “Ghoster Coaster” or something that ties into the PT IP. For the Enchanted Theater, you could have a smaller PT show, live character meet and greets, or transform the inside all together into maybe a PT gift shop.

At Six Flags Over Georgia they have character meet & greets for the Monster Mansion dark ride, so fingers crossed we get one for Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare as well! 🤞

I don't know why, but when I saw this picture I thought of Kitty Claws at Holiday World 😂