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On the webcam now, Adventure Express has finally started testing

The tree that used to sit on that foundation was moved to Coney Mall, across from the Zephyr a year or two after Winterfest returned. Probably more foot traffic in that area. This was before they made that path be the Shooting Star path for Winterfest. That is one of my favorite decorated areas of the park.

We need to keep the fireworks. I understand they are expensive and not necessary and most people leave at 9 instead of 10 but they are tradition...and we are one of the few if not the only park in the Taft/Paramount group that still does nightly summer fireworks. Hoping the fireworks can stay and if they do need to cut back maybe they could move to Fri, Sat, Sun fireworks nights? Not that I want them to do that but I'm saying please don't get rid of them altogether

There's a good chance these trips get massively cut. I don't think I can deal with gas prices for all this. At the bare minimum, I'll try to keep Cedar Point and SDC.

The fireworks ending each night at Kings Island are one of the best traditions that the park has! If the budget really forced any cuts to that department then I would be fine with the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday schedule, but it should be one of the first things brought back when the budget forecast (presumably) improves. Not only is Kings Island the last Taft/KECO/Paramount park that has nightly fireworks — or any form of nightly nighttime spectacular in general — it is one of the only parks in the country that does it. Disneyland and Magic Kingdom have their fireworks, I believe Epcot has a nightly show that uses Spaceship Earth, and Epic Universe is supposed to have one once they get their situation figured out. I haven't heard about any nighttime firework spectaculars that happen every night from many other regional parks. I think Holiday World has one, but I can't remember if theirs is only drones or not. If the drone show does get moved to the fireworks plot then I could see a very large area of trees being cleared for it. The current setup doesn't use the entire Vortex plot from what I can tell, but the firework launch pad is not big enough.

Cedar Point is gearing up for their 2026 season that begins on Saturday, May 9th. There are no new rides or roller coasters for 2026, but the park has nonetheless been working to improve things across the peninsula. The folks at the City of Sandusky are hard at work constructing a new roundabout at the intersection of Cedar Point Drive and US-6. It is expected to be mostly completed by Opening Day. The 2026 Park Map has been uploaded to their website (https://qr1.be/LYDT) with some nice changes compared to the 2025 map PDF. Instead of a purely phone-oriented PDF that's very tedious to scroll through, the new map is designed to fit on a large sheet of paper. All rides are now listed on page 2 with their requisite height and safety information. The regular season entertainment offerings are also listed (see the image below). There is only one new show, but it seems everything else has returned from 2025 including the Henceforth Comedy shows in the Palace Theater. I will certainly be trying to go see their Country Crossroads show now that Kings Island's has been replaced. Some comparisons with the 2026 lineups and map from Kings Island: I really wish KI could have more entertainment offerings than just 4-5 shows that don't run longer than a month. If Kings Island really is "the family park" then why doesn't it have more that the whole family can do together? Cedar Point's map has trees, which would be so nice to have back on KI's online map. It would also be really nice to have the paper maps back in the park, but I don't see that happening if we're not getting physical passes back either. If John Reilly wants to know an easy way to improve guest experience, getting guests off of their phones with those would be amazing. The new Barrels and Bites event looks like it'll just be a reskinned Food & Wine Festival like the Brew & BBQ event at Canada's Wonderland. Another thing I'd still love to see come from Cedar Point to Kings Island (because there are still things that they can learn from each other) is a dedicated sensory quiet room in each of the First Aid locations. The legacy Six Flags parks were certified as autism/disability friendly, which would be good to have at KI.

The current Living Liberty Bell planter does look like it was installed as a Winterfest tree spot, but looking through historical imagery I don't think it lasted very long. Either way it looks much better now with all of the new plantings. Google Earth shows a tree there in 2017, but a real tree seems to have been planted there a few years later. It's hard to believe that next year will be 10 years since Winterfest 3.0 began. If the event makes it to 2030 then it will be the longest running KI Winter event.

And even CHAOS fits not just in space, but theming as well.

Ok another new KI dark ride idea has popped into my head and now I must share it with all of you. A space themed dark ride could fit in Area 72 if the haunt barn and maintenance building were relocated. There is enough space at the bottom of the hill next to Orion for those relocations if the park really wanted to make it happen. This would also give Area 72 the third ride that it needs to feel more complete. I would use the suspended dark ride system from Vekoma as the conveyor and have the scenes and theming done by Sally Dark Rides. That said, I don't entirely enjoy the idea of suspended dark rides, but I think it would give it a different look and feel compared to PT:ON and my Action Theater dark ride concept. This one could be another interactive dark ride with or without some screens to save on cost. I wouldn't entirely be upset if it were a slightly upgraded SDatHC or BBoBH cutout style dark ride either now that we'll have PT:ON as the "flagship" dark ride. The space theme could be either an alien-based storyline or something related to getting out beyond the park's Orion project storyline (or whatever is left of it).

Unfortunately, the drop in temperature on Saturday seemed to lead to a LOT of people walking around with the ugly AI hoodies.