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I'm not really sure what to expect in there if they are actually using the old TRTR building. I imagine a flat ride of some kind, but it would be rad if they put some kind of small wild-mouse type coaster in there kind of like The Dark Knight coasters at the Six parks. Either way, that building having a new lease on life would be really great. It would offer some relief from the summer heat/colder/rainier days for one, but also waken up a dead space in the park. Excited to see if this chalks up to anything good.

I wish they would go for gusto and add in a ride like Verbolten in and out of the building. It surely has the potential to be a record breaking family thrill attraction. You have plenty of outdoor space, you have got height inside the building for some great interior elements and an opportunity to add to the lore of the area. But, whatever they do..please address the look of the outside of the building. Some paint would go a long way and some projection mapping lights would be great at night. Or just tear it down if it's not going to be used. Give up the ghost.

Guessing it'll just be used for seating and maybe live music

You can see it in Tower Topics where you can barley see drills and trash containers for drilling concrete.

She may become the point person for the event, but everything should have been in place and ready to go by now.

There were changes made to the menu for 2025, with a few things returning. Here is the 2024 Food & Wine Festival menu for comparison: https://web.archive.org/web/20240526034810/https://qr1.be/JLZ1 The new options on the menu seem more appealing than last year. Although I’m not sure if the menu changes will be enough if every tasting is haphazardly placed into a boat. Sea-world and Disney at least attempt to make their tastings presentable for their respective Food and Wine Festivals: Seaworld: Disney:

https://attractionsmagazine.com/six-flags-entertainment-future-focus-investor-day/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKbCQFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHiyOgX407vlSTq5Y4paBt0NeIS4RWwP5eeSrryWWyKmtqKtljg-litCplqgG_aem_Fn-7C_wzhyzR-WClY0d9Gg

The difference is work wasn't really started for Camp Snoopy before permits were filed. For Adventure Port....the removal of Slingshot was on a separate permit. The person who would care about leaks is gone. They cannot do major construction without permit. They can be fined if so. Speculation is out there for drilling...but there's no actual confirmation. Cleaning out and removal of temporary walls would not need a permit. Most of the work for Hotel St. Michelle was inside at this point of the season. Haunt stuff can begin as early as April/May. Knotts is currently building haunt things.

I would agree unless we see definitive evidence otherwise. With all the staff cuts across the chain, I would agree with the second statement as well.

I don't have many great photos, but I do have this one I took a few weeks ago. I was watching from The Beast queue and there were two electricians laying wires and working on the power management system inside the door seen open in this photo. Sorry because of the lighting I couldn't capture what I saw from my eye level.

My partner and I flew into DC and decided to spend a few hours at SFA before heading down to the ACE Spring Conference in Virginia. Six Flags America was a park I had only visited once previously and I personally never felt the need to go back except that my partner had never ridden a Vekoma flying Dutchman so he needed that credit before it becomes extinct. So takeaways from the experience is that the ops were much more friendly and active. The food and beverage service was still pretty abysmal. The rides still had a fair amount of downtime. We were able to get all the coaster credits except Superman which was down the entire day. Overall it was a better experience than the previous visit but still just an alright park. BGW spring con was such a wonderful time. We arrived at Busch a little after 6pm and rode a few rides before the evening ERT event on Pantheon, Apollo, Tempesto, Turkish Delight, and Trade Winds. My friends and I lapped Apollos Chariot and got one ride on all the others. The next morning we had ERT on Darkoaster, the wave Swinger, dogem, and Big Bad Wolf: The Revenge. After waiting nearly an hour for BBW, we finally got to ride. Overall it was a nice homage to the original although I'd take an arrow suspended coaster over a B&M family invert any day. The theming around the ride was fun and the Bavarian village section was what really got me excited. This ride will look much better once the trees have grown in around it. Overall not the most thrilling coaster but still fun. During the day we got the remaining coasters and also did escape from pompii. We ride the Rhine River Cruise and then headed over to Kings Dominion that afternoon. My partner and I returned to Busch on Monday to reride some coasters and hit up the remaining flats. We arrived at Kings Dominion and focused on riding the rides in Old Virginia before the evening ERT. We got rides on the flying eagles, the antique Cars, the log Flume, and grizzly. Grizzly was running FANTASTIC. The evening ERT was in jungle expedition on Tumbili, Rapterra, Reptilian, Arachanidia, and Backlot Stunt Coaster. We got 4 laps on Rapterra. I thought while it did have a slight bounce/rattle, it has a wonderful layout and is arguably the second best coaster in the park. Morning ERT was on Twisted Timbers, Apple Zapple, Carousel, troika, and Delirium. We also had lunch at the picnic pavilions and I won a vintage KD park map and a park map from SFOG from the ACE auction. We took a group photo at the Eiffel Tower and also were excited to go up in it after it has been down for a few seasons now. I think that KD has some great 50th anniversary merch but the overall decoration was definitely less than Kings Island. BGW looked fantastic as usual and the ACE event included a food and wine tasting card which we thoroughly enjoyed. Of course pantherian, verboten, and le scoot were closed during the trip. Pantherian looked like there was no activity going on so I have no clue what they are doing or when they plan to open it. Le scoot was testing over the weekend and is probably gearing up for a memorial Day weekend opening. The representative from BGW told us that they plan to have verboten up sometime in June. Hopefully both parks get those rides back up before the main season really kicks in.

And because it's in a building, we won't necessarily know what is actually going in there. Sure, we may see some track/pieces of a ride, but we probably won't know the layout or anything of that sort until the announcement or some sort of leak/permit happens. I'm really excited to see what is coming, and think this is a good use of that empty space (at least it's not used until Haunt). I think a dark ride would be great for KI, and fills an empty spot that they don't really have, except for maybe Boo Blasters. If we got some interactive dark ride, that would be really cool! It would fit in to the "family thrill attraction" and the Crypt building would be a great space for that. They do already have Boo Blasters, but it's really outdated. If you got rid of Boo Blasters and then put an interactive dark ride in the Crypt building, then that leaves the Boo Blasters building for something less thrilling and more Snoopy-ish. You could theme this interactive dark ride to the Rivertown Mines where you enter the Rivertown Mining Company on a minecart and try to collect gold and diamonds. Or, you could have the minecart go "off track" and the bats (or some other monsters) start attacking you and you have to "blast" them to get rid of them. There are endless possibilities with an interactive dark ride, and would be fun for families to enjoy, while still being thrilling. I wouldn't mind a wild mouse dark ride like The Dark Knight or a spinning ride like Laff Track in darkness like @DJSkyFoxx said. But, I think I prefer the interactive dark ride. We shall just have to wait and see what ends up happening!

Hmm... if a new attraction is coming there, I wonder if KI will do #whatsinsidethebuilding

Don't push it too hard. I'll try to tell Mike Koontz to send you something Tomb Raider related stuff. And if I can't, well 2027 could be the year Vortex returns.

This is awful news, especially for those who were part of the team. I can understand that it's probably due to the corporate restructuring, but having those teams at each park is an invaluable resource. Hopefully those teams can be brought back after the dust settles and the company is more stable as a whole. It's hard enough as it is to find good design work right now, especially something on this scale. Seeing more AI in the parks would also decrease my experience as a regular guest. I can mostly understand badly produced ride anniversary signs, but anything more gives off the impression that the park/chain doesn't care as much as they should. I already have enough negative emotions about AI.

Drills has been spotted inside the Crypt building. (For digging or footers for a dark, flat ride.)

Started the trip by setting up camp at Kings Dominion Camp Wilderness. The campground and facilities were clean and the staff were friendly. They upgraded me to a deluxe site which included electricity as well as a camp site light which was nice. First day I spent at KD and immediately greeted at the front gate with banners commemorating the parks 50th birthday. However, that was the extent of the birthday decor going on at the park. The Eiffel Tower had no banners or decor to commemorate the parks birthday or itself for that matter. They didn’t even bother to place the “AI generated” birthday signs next to rides that were celebrating their birthday within the park. One of which was Racer 75, which turned 50. No subsequent merch for Racer 75’s 50th either. I got to experience the VIP lounge at KD and WOW, what a lounge. It’s everything one would expect for a VIP lounge. Comfy furniture, plenty of TV’s, Air conditioning and it’s nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the park with a nice view of the pond which is very relaxing. This alone would totally be worth the upgrade to Prestige if King’s Island had something similar. Other than that, Pantherian was not operating and the subsequent area was blocked off. I got to ride Rapterra a bunch. It was well themed, and had a good pace. A good addition for KD. When it comes to food at KD you really can’t go wrong but if I had to pick a favorite, Grain & Grill would be my choice. photo credit: @DonHelbig

Interesting article exploring the evolving food and beverage service and offerings, particularly from the perspective of kitchen equipment and labor reduction techniques: https://fesmag.com/topics/trends/22740-amusement-parks-make-major-f-b-investments

Epic Universe has its Grand Opening tomorrow, May 22nd, 2025! This park has looked great so far through everyone's pictures and videos. Everyone who worked on and in this park has done an awesome job and I can't wait to see what the future brings for this amazing new theme park! The Grand Opening Celebration livestream is happening now and will probably continue tomorrow, so go watch if you'd like and get hyped!

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/food-and-wine-festival More details including the drink and food menu. It appears the new tent structure won't be used for the Food & Wine Festival.

I would honestly rather a fully indoor ride in that building. With KI focusing on dry park rides that can operate during Winterfest, a fully indoor ride would be better as a way to fully escape the outside elements no matter the time of year.

They could have been surveying for an attraction in the Crypt building maybe not the coaster itself.

Camp Snoopy i don't think plans were filed until later same with Adventure Port. I could honestly see after the whole leak thing last year with Soak City that the park would want to keep this under wraps as much as possible. Its also still May and the Soak City attractions weren't filed until like mid June i think. I could see it being a Haunt though worst case scenario, but would they really be cleaning it out/doing all this drilling work now for Haunt? Correct me if im wrong but i don't remember seeing this much action this early for Hotel St Michelle when that was new.

Really cool story. Thanks for sharing the link.

No permits have been filed for new construction. Honestly, I'd bet it's a new haunt. Cedar Flags probably won't spend the money to do anything major to that building.

Does anyone have photos of said activity going on in the crypt building? Maybe someone here can get some photos of the backside of the building from The Beast plaza. I’ve heard they use a portion of the building for storage.

Time to revoke my pass! I swear if a madhouse or something lame gets put in that building that housed the best dark ride of all time, I'm never going back.

I'm holding out hope that more anniversary decorations will be put up as the official celebration starts. Some stuff was already brought over from Kings Island's celebration and rebranded, so hopefully more is on its way. Big plus if they can put the huge medallion on the front of their Eiffel Tower!

I would think it could be a week-long celebration at least. If anyone knows what amusement parks did for the bicentennial in 1976, that might give some kind of indication from what's happened in the past. It's a massive milestone so I just keep assuming the parks will look to do something a little bigger than normal. This could also be a fun opportunity to get a big americana show in one of the theaters. The big box section appears to be 90' x 90' based on measurements from Google Maps. It's not the biggest indoor ride space (the whole Boo Blasters building is about 175' x 160'), but that's still enough to house something sizeable. The largest constraint will probably be getting parts into the building. I believe I heard that the building was built around the ride for TR:TR if that means anything. Whatever it is, I just hope it is thrilling, has good and cohesive theming, and is not just a ride brought in from a park that is closing. Send those rides to parks that wouldn't have otherwise gotten something; don't interrupt what was already planned.

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I assume some of their design work was also used towards SF Qiddiya (another team was the architect and designer, but from what I understand SF basically was a consultant and provided some additional design aid), so now their huge project is winding down, probably less work. Still very sad if this is the case, I've really enjoyed what the CF design team has done in the past decade or so.

If you spend 1,000 hours recreating KI rides in games..............

It is well known that ancient cats need more time to sleep. Especially after all those years of tireless driving for NASCAR!

Please bring back Mr. Six!!!

Kings Island is hosting a Mother’s Day Brunch event: https://cf-ki.store.cffunki.com/packageList/promocode/motherbrunch?utm_source=park_facebook&utm_medium=social%20&utm_campaign=mothers_day_brunch&_cid=1454421321.1742345509

Some hopefuls (wishlist) with the future events is better tasting offerings. Maybe less fried food and more of a Chef’s plate style of tasting. Here is what a comparatively priced tasting looks like at Disney: Also after hours ticketed events would be nice.

My hope is they are testing out a new and improved Carnivale at the park this year, but only time will tell.

How much of Grand Carnivale not getting much fanfare is due to the lack of social media presence for it, the shortened event run time, and the lack of tasting card? Hopefully the event gets a refresh now that Kings Island seems to be one of if not the only park doing it.

I really liked GC, but as much as I did like it you can tell they're kind of putting the event into maintenance mode. It doesn't get the fanfare it did previously. I like the idea, but it needs a refresh direly. It kind of feels like the BooBlasters of events. It's getting worn out and needs a bit more than just paint, but they just don't seem to care. As for the more irritable side of me, I would not be surprised if they accounce 4 new festivals all featuring more and more alcohol. Maybe the River town Freestyle could be open more with a Budweiser drink mix machine in the building so you can add cherry+vanilla flavors to your **** water.

Have heard that Six Flags has let go the Planning and Design team. This is the crew that would do the theming work for Orion, Mystic Timbers, Rapterra, Georgia Gold Rusher, etc. Hope that's not the case, but Six Flags wouldn't shock me by this move sadly.