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Yes. I remember that very well. Shake Rattle & Roll was gone for the 2014 season and I cried because it was gone. To this day, Shake Rattle & Roll is one of my favorite flat rides. That year during Haunt, they put some construction themed haunt stuff at Shake Rattle & Roll’s footprint. That was also the first year I went to Haunt more than once and wasnt really scared. First time at Haunt for me was in 2012. Who knew it would only take 2 years for me to become brave enough to try it again. Monster was gone for a season either in 2015 or 2016. It was weird to have the Monster just gone like that.

Looks like the ribbons are going up on the trusses

Once again a Six Flags park didn’t control the narrative with a ride closure and only responded to the media because they had to with a photo in circulation.

Could be gone today, here tomorrow as they run more cycles.

I'm a little hesitant to say they removed them. I feel that the helix would pull some serious positive G's, in kind of a bad way, with no trims. Also, there are hotter days in the summer where it runs kind of gnarly (even as a self proclaimed Beast fanatic, I admit it can have its bad days), even in the better seats, and in those scenarios, I'd rather the trims stay.

Again it's early but the forecast for Saturday looks hit or miss with a 20% rain chance. Early forecast also is calling for 13-15 mph wind high which is fairly moderate especially high up so that may affect the 3 tower rides. Remember to take forecasts a week out with a grain of salt.

I know its early, but it appears opening day may be a bit rainy.

Lionel made his way to the main stage in the finale Pepper’s Ghost scene as well! Dude needs to get some new threads. Outfit looks almost identical. Ha. You can see him (barely) in the POV around the 3:36 mark

We live in Michigan and we are planning a trip for late May next month. I don't know how I'm going to avoid the spoilers but I'll try my best! 😅 Also I'm hoping the line for PT:ON won't be as long when I go in May, but I don't want to jinks it.

I'm right there with you on jumping between wanting to see it all and also wanting to avoid spoilers. This is one of the first rides that I've been super invested in the development of, and I can't wait to be back in the park. Luckily, I have some big tasks to accomplish this week so my brain won't entirely be occupied by Phantom Theater. We're currently trying to figure out what time we need to leave the house to get to the park by 11 for the parking tolls to open, then for the park to be open at 12, and to get to Phantom Theater as quickly as possible (maybe with a quick restroom break somewhere in there). I made sure to mark myself as unavailable for work on Thursday night so I can hope to get to sleep earlier than my work schedule would normally allow. One of the people in my group isn't great with standing in incredibly long lines, so I'd like to try to save us from a 2 or 3+ hour wait. I think it would be nice if the park had return time tickets like they had with Orion in 2020 when they couldn't pack everyone into the queue.

Sadly it looks like we won't be getting the two wooden floral carts back this year either. They looked very nice on either side of International Street and I haven't seen them anywhere else in the park since they were removed. (Photo: Brad Perdue on KICentral)

Definitely happens more at places like Disney since they operate year round. That’s a lot of wear on the machine over time! I actually can’t recall any breakdowns personally at Kings Island, but our trip to Disney last year we had the Three Caballeros ride and the Little Mermaid Ride break down while riding. Three Caballeros was pretty funny though. Even the music shut off, and the boat behind us had a big wedding party. They all started singing the song and getting everyone else in the section going. Staff was laughing as we all came into the station once the ride started up again.

I do hope this is the last new thing from Phantom I see (I’ll be trying to avoid the spoilers next week from previews). Never to insult the work of whoever made the initial concept art, but I’m so glad we got the final designs that we did. Larry is looking ROUGH in these. That being said I do love seeing the concept art. I wonder if anymore scenes will emerge after the opening.

I believe that's Haunted Hotel at Funtown Splashtown USA which is a newer Sally creation

I wonder if we will hear that variation on the theme music during the ride or in the queue line? I also saw some interesting shots in the video that I'm curious about. Something to keep in mind if you're looking for how this version is connected to the original through the Phantom Theater storylines and lore: the theater has been renovated in a manner for which some things are new and other things have been designed/redesigned to look old. The phantoms might enjoy the look of a more decrepit facade. These specters have been preparing for their grand reopening and, instead of wasting away as they were for so long, are now less gaunt and more lively. "Where were these ghost notes before?" Maybe that question will be answered, maybe not. It's a theme park ride so don't look too far into it. I loved how Drew Hunter (Sally's VP of Creative Design and the bald guy sitting in front of the concept art) was talking about what this revival of Phantom Theater might mean for other dark rides and ride concepts that could be brought back in a similar way. If all goes well, we could see a resurgence of parks installing new dark rides! Six Flags has expressed their intents for additions to replace various Boo Blasters and Justice League attractions via surveys, so maybe we can at least see some fresh concepts? I'm personally rooting for a Disaster Transport dark ride at Cedar Point I think if we get any new Phantom Theater merchandise it would be so easy to make a sticker set of the various posters from the original ride and maybe some from the new ride! Hopefully it wouldn't cost $20 for one set of stickers, but I think I'd pay $10 for a nice set of 6 original poster stickers. The plushies would also be very nice to have, though I don't know what the park would do for that besides making expensive Squishmallows. A small wood ride vehicle could be nice and might fit well with the coaster versions. Only one week until we're on the ride!! I'm so excited!

^It also had the most annoying anti-rollback noise ever. I still liked it, though. I prefer it to the 2 Superman clones I've ridden (GAm and GAdv)

Man. Looking better and better with every new glimpse we get. Loved getting a few glimpses at some yet to be seen, new versions of old characters. Gonna be a long week. Few screen grabs. Some clearer images of things we’ve kind of seen. Some new. Obviously spoilers, but nothing too crazy.

The Sally Dark Rides newsletter today featured this great video with interviews, concept art, and footage of the attraction's development:

Impressive planting in front of The Royal Fountain! They have filled it up, when it's perfectly justified to be sparse for the first few weekends since there is still a risk for frost/freeze.

It looks like they've also been adding some more weathering to the facade! I appreciate that they did more than just changing out the windows (as happened with the conversion to Boo Blasters). I'm not terribly upset by the lack of more structural changes considering whatever might've replaced the castle could've had the same goofy look with a different shape. I wonder what they're hiding in the entry portal besides the No-Legs Larry Drama Masks and the rest of the repainted facade? Maybe a new marquee or a special surprise? The staircase was counted as one of the "scenes" on the plans that we got from the city of Mason. The semi-permanent extended queue will be really helpful and looks so much better than what the park normally does. Even the Fast Lane line looks like it has a little bit of extended queue! That's probably not as good for the standby line, but hopefully the priority ratio is handled well.

But once again. they weren’t in front of it and were reactive instead of proactive.