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Back up! FB_VID_2027701799472995025.mp4

At this point they should just attempt to restore the fountain similar to how it was before. If corporate isn't going to give them the budget to have a fully working dancing fountain 24/7 then they should just axe the "bellagio style" fountain altogether. Also while I understand the purpose of lighting, Im not a big fan of how the park has slapped multi color LED lighting and trusses everywhere on all the buildings and along the fountain. I personally think I-street would have a better atmosphere if they just go back to just having the white light bulbs on the buildings and the gas lamps while still lighting up the Tower and fountains in multi color like before.

Ironically, they are dancing to some programmed light and fountain show right now. Looks like it's in prep for the 4th of July. Edit: After watching a few minutes of the varying sequences, it made me really wish I saw it in person. I'm left thinking about how I would actively go out of my way to visit IS during my park visits to see a fountain and light show, much like what I did for Haunt. I can't help but feel that the lack of a show makes for a missed opportunity on the daily for both the guest experience and the ability to draw people to a central shopping and dining location in the park. The Royal Fountains certainly need a more regal treatment.

They are in a bad state and its still early in the season. I sat by them to eat my dinner from Grain & Grill. I know they are trying to save money, but these details are noticed. If they can't fix these very visible issues, what are they skimping out on behind the scenes we can't easily see? Here are the photos I took this evening of the fountains and you can see the amount of jets not working.

I am just amazed with the quality of ride that they produced. So these comments below are just comments. There were a few things that were better about the original ride. The theater performance scene was more grand. The talking face projection in the armor The talking gargoyle. I also agree more music would make it better, especially in the very beginning where the posters are. The maestro’s organ music throughout the ride would increase the mood.

Let's not kid ourselves into a delusion that all was perfect from June 30 2024 backwards. The only perfect year under Cedar Fair that I experienced ( and I started following things in 2014 with multiple visits vs once or twice yearly) was 2022. Every time I went it seemed as if the park was purring along like a well taken care of Mustang GT, although my blinders probably shielded the misfires that year. Before the current lament, there were dirty tables, surly employees, no ice, no soft drink syrup and food issues. There were Cedar Fair SUPERVISORS (emphasis added to reflect the uniform) who stood around and ignored problems or worse yet, tried to maintain a "bestie" relationship with their reports to avoid conflicts. However, in 2022 around Haunt or WinterFest, things started changing. In 2023, things ramped up with the park's lack of attention to detail, midways not being washed amongst other things. The veil was ripped open and internal politics were laid bare and incompetence across different areas exposed. Then the merger news came out and was consummated mid season 2024. All appeared to be going well, and there was optimism about Cedar Fair bringing the Six Flags properties up to standard. And now here we are. My hope is that money will flow, smart decisions could be made, and the Kings Island legacy will prevail. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Hopefully, homeostasis will prevail and things will return to a new normal.

Here's a photo of the new Fool the Guesser (Age & Weight) game set up in the Rivertown gazebo. I'm not that upset about this structure being used as a game stand since it's only had a bench and/or an activation point in it for the last few years. The game equipment may be the same from its former location Rivertown across from LaRosa's. It looks nice enough and the name signs are 3D (not printed), so it gets bonus points from that alone. It's clear to me that the maintenance team is doing what they can with the resources they have, though I suspect that almost every budget across the board has been severely tightened in an effort to help pay off Six Flags' debt. Effects and issues in Phantom Theater have been repeatedly fixed (minus the first boiler TV), rides like Invertigo and Congo Falls have been repaired, and some park leadership have been spotted all over the park. Just today I repeatedly saw a group of people who I believe to be the top Food & Beverage leadership making their way from restaurant to restaurant. The issues with guests are more noticeable in our post-merger world. There's definitely also an issue with some associates not cleaning the spaces around them, but that can be fixed with better training and heightened awareness. We knew that 2025-2028 would be a rough patch for parks like Kings Island as the company figures itself out and pays off debt. There are a ton of little changes that can happen at the local level and I hope those can start to happen sooner rather than later. I'm not going to shill for KI/SF, but I do think there is still a light at the end of the tunnel.

Based on attendance increases and pass sales and general survey sentiment reports the chain puts out, yes, sadly the average visitor doesn't notice some of these things. Most are not looking for the artistry and functionality of a fountain. It is "oh a fountain" or "that mist feels good" and only the enthusiasts are counting how many nozzles aren't working. Look how many are too lazy to pick up after themselves and leave cups and plates on the tables. And many that do cleanup after themselves will simply try to shove it into an already overflowing garbage can rather than be inconvenienced by walking 20 feet to an empty or less the full garbage can.

Ah, I get it now. I never noticed the smaller gaps between vehicles on Boo Blasters or just never paid attention. I would like to see something about the flashlights too. My best guess is that there are cameras in each scene that spot your flashlight and a computer calculates the angle and distance (game consoles have done this for years) The same computer would also be tracking the notes and their point values. while adding the colored light to the display, while removing notes as needed and assigning points, like a video game.

The amount of ride vehicles (27) is the same as it was during Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle and Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. Where the original Phantom Theater had 55 vehicles, 28 were removed for SDatHC and BBoBH, and then half of those were moved up one space for PT:ON. There is one lone vehicle (I believe it's opera box #1) for those who are lucky enough to be placed in it. Honestly I'm shocked at how fast this queue goes when I remember waiting a lot longer for Boo Blasters. As for the lack of a pepper's ghost scene, my complaint lies more in the fact that they went with two "small" scenes instead of either one large auditorium scene or one turntable scene and a more zoomed out stage scene. The old library looked a lot bigger because it had more depth and didn't have all of the stage wings on either side. Fun Fact: if you look in the background of the stage scene, you'll see the Boo Blasters castle painted as the background with the entrance gate and fence as a physical set piece in front of it.

And they cycled it afterwards.

I hadn't been able to get to the park this year until today and I avoided this thread because I wanted a fresh experience: As someone who enjoyed the original ride for its whole run, I have a bias towards nostalgia but I get why they went with more kid friendly designs and interactive elements. I appreciate that you can just ignore the interactive nature of the ride without missing any of animatronic effects. That's a big plus to me. I assume the flashlights use a tracking system similar to the Playstation Move controllers? Mine was a blue light and there were some scenes where it didn't work at all while I could see other people's lights working. I just saw some videos of the ride where the flashlights had some real hiccups to their display. Fortunately I didn't have that at least. I like how nice the queue is but there's too much going on in there for how loud it is with a room filled with people, including kids. I couldn't hear anything Larry or the Maestro were saying. Apparently they removed a bunch of ride vehicles? The line still moved fast but that surprised me. The lack of a big pepper's ghost scene disappointed me. I did dig the animated paintings in the queue Hopefully I'll get another ride soon and I'll just not use the flashlight to take in more scenery. Today was more crowded than what I normally care for and I opted not to wait again. But I think as long as the ride is maintained properly (obviously a big concern for many people), this should continue to be a popular ride for years. EDIT: It just occurred to me why they probably removed the vehicles. Guessing each scene can only track 6 flashlights?

I don't think it's going anywhere. There's maintenance working on what looks like a pump right now.

Came up with a little sketch with how a Rip Roarin Falls style ride would work in the Congo Falls/Timberwolf area. Safe to say it would fit well there

I'm back at it. Went to the water park today for the first time this season. No different over there. Someone mentioned that things weren't always clean in the past. I know, but it really has never been this bad, especially this bad on a consistent basis. I would contend that when. Greg Scheid was Park president, for the most part, the park was an immaculate shape. When his successor was running the park, and his name escapes me at the moment, The park was in pretty good shape too, albeit by a lesser extent, but still in good shape. It seemed like when they eliminated the park present position and made it a regional thing is when things started falling off the rails. I had hopes that when. Tony was promoted to Park president that these things would be fixed quickly, but we're 2 months into the season and that hasn't happened yet.

Swung by the park today after not really being able to go to the park proper. (Studying for the 10 was a beast, passing it was a challenge and now it’s onto my series 9 test in a few weeks) The waterpark finally seems to have some decent operations with getting both sides of various slides in operation to keep up with capacity. The park is really busy however I decided to pass up on the wine festival, I wish we had some more pronounced wines that have some solid regional quality than what we got this year!

I have a feeling that low quality flags will keep Congo Falls for a while since they're making so many cut backs. They seem to be fine with older rides and not fixing them like they should.

It's not very family friendly to leave a dead cat sitting out there for everyone to see. 😂

I wouldn't count it out yet....

Nothing is confirmed yet, but if this does end up being the end for Congo Falls... I don't think it's being removed for a future attraction. It's incredibly weird timing to be closing this ride right at the start of summer instead of Labor Day weekend. That only signals to me that it's removal is due to high maintenance costs and the plot will sit vacant for a while. Just like a certain "other" plot that has been sitting vacant for 6 years...

Don't mean to always be a "complainer" on the state of the park in 2026, but here goes again. Sat along the fountains tonight. I don't think they're on a "program" anymore.... and it appears that 22 fountain jets aren't operating. In addition, there are weeds in the mulched areas in the grass area between iStreet and the fountains. Also, the Carousel. You know, perhaps the oldest attraction in the park celebrating 100 years this season, there appear to be more lights out on the pavilion roof than work. Kings Island management: these two things should be your showcase to people entering and exiting the park, and they look like an afterthought.

I've been having really good experiences with my dining/drink plans this season. Most meals have been hot, fresh, and of good quality with visits being at different times of day and different days of the week. To be fair, I am one of those people who've gotten their money's worth (currently sitting at $8.25/meal and $1.30/drink). The worst drink experience I've had was actually today when the Boathouse refresh station was completely out of Coca-Cola. There are examples of good dining plans at the Disney parks and there was a time when KI's dining plan food was top notch. I won't comment on what the meal plans do to the food quality at the park beyond that right now. My visit this evening was, admittedly, not as nice as I expected to be. There are a variety of things that factored into that, and not all of them had to do with the park. I barely waited 35 minutes for Phantom Theater with a full indoor queue. After that I decided it was a good day to ride the train over to Soak City. It took quite a while for the green #19 to make its way back to Rivertown, but when it did it was pulling a full six car compliment. I thought it was busy enough to get both engines out, but it was fine for a random Tuesday. Soak City was nice and clean with some freshly updated stores and restaurants. I'm still amazed at the amount of real estate in the middle of the waterpark that is blocked by the high voltage lines. That would be a great spot for another water coaster. I managed to make it back to the Soak City train station right as #19 was pulling up. On our journey back to Rivertown I got to see a groundhog. I also noticed that the model town looks very slightly cleaned up, though it really needs work to bring it back to looking good. There were quite a few refresh stations that were closed, but most dining locations were open and had short lines. I got a quick (and tasty) dinner from Jukebox and ended my night with a ride on The Bat. I had a fine time considering I'd done more than I'd gone to do. Generally, my visit to the waterpark today only furthered my belief that Soak City needs another major update. RiverRacers and Splash River Junction felt like a start, but it needs more updates overall. One more thing: As sections of the parking lot get repaved and repainted it would be awesome if KI would angle the parking spots. I don't think I'm particularly good or bad at parking, but I can't even describe how difficult it is do get into some of the spots when everyone is sticking 2-3 feet into the lane. Angled spaces would probably help that a lot since it'd be easier to park a big vehicle. There's also a major issue with people parking in the roadway around the middle of the north lot. It looks like they could be parking spots but in reality it's one row, then a buffer, then a driving lane. Some of those green plastic Jersey barriers might help.

Im not sure this is realted but there was a group screaming at each other as we left after the park closed yesterday. The group was making my kids exteremely uncomfortable.

What if...🤔😅

Still there as of Sunday. (Are we celebrating trash being strategically placed and left there now ?)

Is the pineapple still on the rock over at The Beast ? Or was it removed or blown away from one of the recent storms. Curious minds want to know. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There was a pretty loud personal matter that I'm not going to describe too much. A very upset parent pulling their very upset disabled child in some direction, which resulted in another guest chiming in. I was at the tables outside of the station itself but could still hear most of it. I guess there might've been a better word than "witnessing", though that described being able to hear it well enough. On another topic: I would love to see some more statues like Don Quixote blended into the theming around the park. I've long been an advocate that Kings Island should be more of a thrilling theme park than a themed amusement park, and well-placed static figures/displays would a good inclusion for that.

Yeah, I always see mess on those tables but its definitely worse this year. I saw like 8 geese in the patio and around it a few weeks ago. I was shocked. Never seen so many anywhere outside of the fountain’s area.

I like how the solution to the signs on the nearby map still saying Boo Blasters was to remove them, leaving rusty holes where they were originally attached.

Great Adventure has ocean/seagull sounds playing on the speakers in their new Shoreline Pier area that soft opened the other day. I can't see how KI couldn't have done something similar on the path from I-street that goes up against the ride exit and first aid as well as outside the ride entrance but with eerie/spooky sound effects kinda like what played outside the original Phantom. I just don't like how they play the Kidzbop along that pathway. If they want to play Kidzbop in Planet Snoopy fine, but move it toward the Character Carousel/Whirlybirds area and have a custom soundtrack playing outside Phantom. It's not too late to do this whoever is in charge of music if you're reading this!

Six Flags or not, seasonal park or not, realism or not: Nemo is correct that a ride of this caliber requires significant maintenance and attention to detail day by day. A story-based attraction has to tell the same story at the same high level no matter what time of day or season, and anything less will not tell the right story. The park has already learned the impact of poor (and positive) SFX investment over the years. Adventure Express, Flight of Fear, Tomb Raider, The Crypt, Phantom Theater, and of course Boo Blasters have all taught valuable lessons for what theming can do to an attraction. The park chose to add this type of ride for this year knowing what it would take to put it at the top. What is conceivable to me is that they may not have the right people caring that those details are missed, or those people are limited by higher ups on what they can and can't do. While not a 1:1 example, I do think it represents the issue well. Take a look at how many burned out lightbulbs are around the park. Nearly every attraction, shop, menu, or roofline has something simple like this burned out, and they will go months at a time without fixing them. There's a park-wide permissiveness to let some things go. I think that's more of what we're seeing here.

Opening weekend it worked and has been turned off since then my guess is it’s an effect that broke and they just didn’t feel like fixing it

Just had a solid ride with the wife and kiddo. Only thing not working was the boiler screen. Seems like the issues are intermittent and probably vary from ride to ride. Really love this one.

As a technician who worked in shows just like our phantom friends, I have to strongly disagree with this particular point. All departments have a duty to make sure that each presentation of the show is like the last and we do that fairly regularly.

I absolutely adore the ride I’ve ridden it twelve times now and I think we have to sorta come to the realization that it is an amazing dark ride that Kings Island is going to have to try diligently to keep maintaining. Having said that it is unreasonable to expect the ride to run perfectly every day or to have the scenes always running perfectly, mainly they need to try and get the flashlights working properly and the scenes can follow after, I know it’s frustrating when a certain scene doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to but I still enjoy it and I think we should all try to give the park benefit of the doubt in that they are trying to make the ride as good as they can but obviously like the other dark rides that have been in the building some days the ride will be working great and others not so great but I think trying to enjoy it the best we can is the main thing. I still can’t believe that I’m riding Phantom Theater again after all these years and especially given that the park is owned by Six Flags now.

it turns on and off, but I agree that the other day I didnt see it switch on at all.

Larry says “thank you” in the middle of a few of the slideshow segments in response to “keep your legs in the opera box” as a part of the script. Is this what it’s referring to or does it randomly glitch in during other dialog?

The hole in the wall of the queue has been patched (possibly with some painted plywood, but it's covered nonetheless) and it's not really noticeable thanks to the lighting. Larry is still thanking guests. At this point it's a nice little quirk of the queue. After riding a few times with a hat on, the hat definitely helps reduce how much I care about being able to see the ceiling during the ride itself.

Yes, I wish they at least played some of the original ride`s soundtrack music in the background more.

I keep noticing the lack of music as the vehicles transition between scenes. If they're worried about sound bleeding between scenes then I think it would be best to add something quiet to the onboard audio.

The more I've ridden this, the more the lack of music disappoints me.

I wonder if the furnace will ever have warm air blasting again, I swear on opening day I felt air blasting

My ride this morning was a good one, though it seems some effects have broken over the weekend. Maestro's second organ scene didn't have any sound and the first boiler screen was off. Larry also said a random "Hello!" in the queue again. I noticed the new cobwebs that Archie and the chandeliers have acquired since mid-April. They add to the spooky ambience IMO. I didn't check on the hole in the wall today, but I did see that a popcorn bucket has fallen over and that some of the tread strips on the stairs have been completely removed. Some of the emergency exit signs attached to the queue stanchions are now being held up with fixed pieces instead of zip ties. I'm still hoping that the "no horseplay" signs can be replaced with real signs instead of stickers. If there's a way to add some scenery pieces on top of the entrance wall then I'd love to see that. A nice big organ (like from the original) and some seasonal decorations would do nicely.

The hill would probably be a larger hindrance to expansion than its proximity to The Beast. Building the addition in the infield does look like it would be better. I think if they did this it would need to have a visually appealing facade, especially since more of it would be seen from The Racer than with the current Action Theater which is partially obscured by trees. Even with the shifted format I think a boat ride would be best. A ride like Blazing Fury (25,000 sf) or Fire in the Hole (original: 23,000 sf, new: 34,000 sf) could also work if the park found a way to make it their own. I rather enjoyed the Cincinnati firefighter theme someone on here proposed for the Stunt Coaster, so maybe that could happen within a few years before/after this. I would hope the trees and foliage lost would be replaced elsewhere in Racer's infield as well. That area and the space between Blue Racer and Orion have felt very bare for a long time. Do y'all have any thoughts about the ride theme? Rivertown and Coney have different aspects of the "History of Cincinnati/the Ohio Valley" theme and I'd personally like to stick with that if possible. (Even if the areas have strayed from their original themes I'd still like to use them.)

I feel like if they were to expand the Action Theater building it would be more toward Racer in what is the field/queue area for Hotel St Michelle.

And The Beast`s tracks run not far from the back of the building back there too.

I like the building expansion idea, however, is a large steep hill directly behind the building. The service road on the back of the building goes down this hill and connects to the basement so I don’t know how practical expansion would be

I thought about a flying theater as well but worried about how well it would physically fit into the building. Do you know how tall those normally are?

I'd like to see a flying theater go in the old Action Theater building and have it themed to flying through space. Have it be tied to the Coney Mall/Area 72 lore the park created. Could also tie into a potential Vortex replacement as well.

Continuing to work out some ideas for Action Theater: In its current state (with the seats removed and some doorways punched through the center wall) the building could house a small dark ride similar to Boo Blasters on Boo Hill at Kings Dominion. Sally Dark Rides already has a number of options that fit into a 4,500-8,000 sq ft facility. Each theater measures to about 6,000 sq ft on Google Earth for a combined total of 12,000 sq ft. These smaller dark rides have about 14 scenes that are traversed by 10 four-passenger cars, depending on the size of the facility. The ride itself should be something that the whole family can do together, meaning no indoor coaster here. If Kings Island wanted something a little bigger and different than Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare, there is space behind Action Theater for an addition that would increase its footprint to 30,000+ sq ft. The entire Enchanted Voyage building is approximately 30,000 sq ft and had an additional 2,500-ish sq ft for the outdoor section of the trough. I think an indoor boat ride would be the best option for this building addition scenario. If needed, the service road cut off by the addition could be re-routed to connect to the service road <100ft south of it. Unfortunately this project would probably require the removal of WindSeeker to give it a better entrance — similar to how the plaza existed before WindSeeker — but it could also work if further changes were made to the area. It could also be distinguished by not including interactive elements since those will be available in PT:ON. As for the ride's theme, I've been going between a few ideas. They could go for a Coney Island/history of Cincinnati concept (though I worry about how Six Flags would handle the Coney name) where you board a small riverboat and proceed through scenes celebrating either Coney Island or Cincinnati. Another option would be to use a theme found in classic amusement parks, such as a Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, a ride with a catchy tune, or a pirate ride. The pirate theme would 100% work better at Cedar Point with their history. Kings Island will have the haunted house ride covered with PT:ON. I'd prefer to stay away from using an IP in Coney Mall (renamed Old Coney in my head-canon) so no Justice League, Looney Tunes, or Peanuts themes. A carnival or circus theme also feels inappropriate (I also don't like the circus theme for Coney Maul during Haunt). The theme I've kept in the back of my head is a trolley-based theme tying back to the old trolley parks that were the precursors to modern amusement parks. Ohio has had a few of these throughout its history like Idora Park and Euclid Beach Park. Coney Island was more serviced by the riverboats than a trolley line, but the concept could work either way.