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I have lots of Made to Thrill posters and love them! They are a little different than the ones you have though...I have Mystic, Diamondback, Orion, Fury 325, TT2, Steel Vengeance, and Maverick for Made to Thrill posters.

Someone had posted on Facebook in one of the Kings Island groups that his last day is Saturday 5/31.

Kings Island Bar crawl?

I mean, why would his departure change a group outing event? Would a middle school band trip change with his departure? The only thing I can see changing is if he is scheduled to speak. However, the California VP/GMs are staying through May, he would likely have the same treatment. If that's the case, he can continue on and the enthusiast community present can give him a good send off.

If Mike sees this I wanted to thank him for everything he has done for the park and preserving its history. It is sad to see someone go especially someone you knows cares so much about the park. This is definitely a scary time and will be the reason the park truly starts to see the merger.

It's.... something. I understand the need for artificial turf, but it looks so saccharine and sterile. Who knows what the future holds under this new direction, but things like this make me concerned for WinterFest. If they really want to ramp up attendance, they need to invest in more climate controlled structures. I could see the event being tossed around to reach the ~10m mark they are aiming for, but they would need to invest. If they aren't going to invest, the event could be on the chopping block. If history repeats itself, it could return in 10-15 years after being cancelled.

The new Kings Island’s Nighttime Spectacular debuted Friday evening. It continues the trend that began with the Golden Celebration to have an original soundtrack, drones, and lasers along with the traditional fireworks.

Tony has Michigan’s Adventure. Don’t be surprised to see him cover Kings Island.

Former CEO Matt Ouimet offered his views on the routing of tenured leadership at the merged Cedar Fair/Six Flags. Ouimet indicates he retired and left Cedar Fair a year prior to the merger to avoid being a part of the cost cutting dismissals of top leadership. This Orange County Register article covers Ouimett's statements in its broad article reporting on the elimination of the Park President positions across the entire Six Flags Entertainment chain: https://www.ocregister.com/2025/05/23/six-flags-lays-off-knotts-and-magic-mountain-presidents/

And yet, the most well compensated alligator mouth that promised the lofty (knowingly unattainable) number to the investors remains at the helm, sigh. Sparky, watching this from afar, $1500 richer this year and indescribably happier.

I am hoping that the park manager role really fulfills the role of general manager and that someone is promoted internally from Kings Island to this role. Someone that worked directly under Mike and will help to continue his legacy when he is gone. My hope is the park manager role pretty much is the GM just with a pay cut to appease the people in accounting.

Here is an open story, which includes Ouimett's quotes: https://www.amusementsource.media/news/2025/5/24/more-six-flags-cuts-all-park-president-positions-eliminated-former-cedar-fair-ceo-responds

All of the park presidents and GMs across the company were given until May 31.

I have the Made to Thrill posters for The Beast, Banshee, and Mystic Timbers hanging up in my home office. Last year, I got the wooden coordinate signs that they had in Emporium for The Beast and Banshee, but never could find one for Mystic Timbers. Looking in Emporium and the shop on my five visits so far this year, believe it's the Trading Company up near the gate, I don't think they carry these anymore? Last Sunday though when I visited, I did stack my Pass Perks for merchandise with my Prestige discount and ended up getting the three license plates for the price of two. I'm also curious if Cedar Point carries similar merchandise, as I have Made to Thrill posters hanging up in the office for Magnum XL-200, Maverick, Steel Vengeance, and the original Top Thrill Dragster - I am hoping to get back up there in the next couple of weeks and plan to check then.

If Koontz is really gone, curious what's gonna happen with Coasterstock next weekend.

Got everything booked finally. For the HW portion, I'm staying in Dale, IN as that's where I stayed last time and its more simple than staying in Owensboro. The plan is to leave on June 28th, explore Owensboro the first day and have 2 days at HW. For Chicago and Cleveland, I'm halfway between those cities and the respective parks (SFGAm and CP). I just need to familiarize with Chicago to be able to stay off the toll roads. For Cleveland I should be able to wing it. Itinerary- Leave and do Indiana Beach on July 15th, go to Chicago on the 16th-19th. Possibly do SFGAm the day I go there and do a full day there and one for Chicago exploration. The 19th is a travel day to Cleveland, mainly for the time change adjustment if needed, might visit Port Clinton, at the very least something on Lake Erie that day (not staying in Port Clinton). Then explore Cleveland on the 20th and CP the 21st and 22nd. Just waiting until the week of my trip to scout weather to get my FLU for SFGAm (only getting it for the 1 full day I go) and the R&RHOF ticket. All parts of the trips are somewhat flexible in terms of dealing with weather. silver2005, knocking furiously on wood to not repeat Raven's and Legend's lengthy closures during his last non-HWN visit.

^Another casualty. I doubt whoever replaces him will have as much respect for the park as he does. Unless Jeffrey Siebert comes back, but he's a Texas bigwig now.

And Grain & Grill has you get food first then pay, so at least you can eat while waiting to pay, unlike the pay first, wait who knows how long until food comes out...

I think Disney benefits from having a lot of tasting locations throughout their park. But even with that their popular tasting locations have very long lines. Skyline in Coney mall for example is a location where you order first. And that line is typically very long and it moves very slow. A Disney method the park should adopt in my opinion is better food presentation for its tastings. Like Chef’s plate but portioned in what would constitute as a tasting.

An in-depth insight into the current state of F&B at parks these days! I'd be interested to see more into how much farther some of these parks can go in food innovation. The ordering/serving/order tracking technology at the Six Flags parks is what I would like to see improved next. I can't tell you the amount of times I've been somewhere like Tom+Chee or Rivertown Potato Works and could not understand what order was being served. Put an order number on each receipt (make sure each customer takes their receipt) and have a screen showing order status at these dining locations, and that would solve most of the issues. Mobile ordering should also be (re)implemented across some of the dining locations in each park. Kings Island tried this out for a little bit, but ultimately it did not work because the necessary resources were not put into it.

It’s ok for WHAT it is…horrible for WHERE it is. It would look fine on the other side, tucked back behind Shiwpjace- then demo the winterfest leftover food stand and build 4-6 permanent swing food stalls that can be redressed and reset depending on the event. This is just ugly where it is.

I wonder how similar this set is to Cedar Point's Blood Bath maze (AKA Club Orpheus). Kings Island definitely needed a new maze, and if it means the return of vampires to the event then I'll be super happy. Medieval/gothic are also themes that I don't remember seeing at Haunt in recent years. This could be a re-skin of Madame Fatales in a new location, but those sets do look more gothic than MFCoT. Now to just get a good Hot Blooded replacement show and some special stuff for Haunt's 25th season at Kings Island!

Yes it is

Is this the blackout building?

This is interesting. The new haunt maze is going to be themed to medieval torture or another from of Gothic vampires. What do you think the theme is gonna be?

I do somewhat like how it looks in everyone's pictures. Was it the best look? No, but at least it looks nice. The view of it in front of the Grand Carousel is a little sad though. The park is not likely to invest in something as grand as that at the moment. Look to Cedar Point, Dorney Park, and Carowinds if you'd like to see what Legacy Cedar Fair liked to build for their new carousel structures. I have a feeling that the turf areas not under the tent may be used for something like cornhole or other lawn games. It looks better than asphalt would have. Depending on the underlayment, additional tents/items could be staked into the ground as well. I would have preferred those areas be filled by plants and a tree, but I don't know what the plans are for this structure. It may see more use during Grand Carnivale, especially since that event is supposed to be bigger than F&W and has been even in its reduced state. (Is the seating in Tower Gardens still there? Or has it all been moved under the canopy?) It's possible that the area is still missing one or two things that will make it look better. If anyone has seen the new Communicore Hall at Epcot, you'll know how bad it looked when it opened. I won't swear by it, but I do think this may follow suit and look better as it comes into use during festivals. Also, if Kings Island's Winterfest gets anywhere near the full-on chopping block, I think that would say that Six Flags is doing a lot worse than anyone could have thought. I do think they should've put up a little fence near the curbs though. Just something to separate the canopy area from the pathways. 2025 has been and will continue to be rough for everyone. Don't be shocked if cuts continue and additions are less exciting than in the 2010s. Just like how Cedar Fair had to bring the Paramount parks up to standard, now they have to do that with the Legacy Six Flags parks. That being said, Six Flags corporate still has a lot to figure out before I can fully trust them to do right by all of their parks. I'm a little too doom and gloom with everything else in the world right now, so I think I'll at least try to get some happiness from my favorite parks.

Jason has had Kings Island and Cedar Point among his parks as the regional general manager. Nothing changes there.

It will be interesting to see who ends up in those six regional park director roles. Jason McClure (former GM of Cedar Point) seems likely for the region that includes Cedar Point and Kings Island.

^ I think there are 6 regional park directors now. It sounds like Jeffrey Siebert and John Krajnak are moving into those roles. They were already running multiple parks.

So basically everything will be handled out of Charolette, and what little was already left of the company having an idea for what is going on within its parks will now be completely severed. This merger smelled of desperation, now it just reeks.

I guess it's alright, but what is it for, I thought it was going to be used for the Food & Wine Festival. The closest restaurant is Coney BBQ and that already has seating and the patio with shade is behind Scrambler, so that's close by as well. They took out some green space to add this, when they could have planted more flowers and greenery, would have added to the area's feel and look. I’ll wait till I visit in person to really decide how I feel about it, just saw some pictures and video of some of it on Facebook.

Next will be a bar in one of the grassy areas across the pathway Certainly there is something else food/beverage coming because with the added seating put in Tower Gardens, most would probably go to that area first than this. And what food is close to this already has its own covered seating.

I'm the first to step foot in the new dining area. Are you happy with this change?

I think some have moved to a new regional GM position. Word is that Jeff Siebert has moved from SFFT to a regional GM of the Texas parks. I personally do not think the 10% reduction in full time staff is a good thing. It will certainly impact the guest experience. Remember a few years ago when they were increasing the full time head count because they said it was actually cheaper than having to constantly train seasonal/part time staff? If I had to guess, Mike Koontz at KI will retire. Then likely one of the ops managers or assistant GM positions will become the "Park Manager", reporting to the regional GM.

Six Flags lays off Knott’s and Magic Mountain presidents – Orange County Register Looks like the President positions are being eliminated at all parks in the chain. The article has that number as 27 but I thought it was closer to 40?

He may in the future. He was at Six Flags Great America when this all went down....she was available. Either way, she's the leader of the team as far as PR/Spox goes....sometimes the leaders have to take charge.

Still doesn't make sense that he's not covering KI and Grave is. Thanks for clarifying.

As far as coverage goes, Tony Clark covers Cedar Point and Six Flags Great America...maybe more.

Not sure if this a jab at a former employer, or just a word of advice: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matt-ouimet-42387521b_over-the-years-i-have-watched-several-talented-activity-7320043780886208512-z6n2

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.

Backbeat BBQ is better than anything Coney BBQ tries to be. Brisket is amazing. Chicken fall off the bone juicy. Potato wedges seasoned right. Big rectangular plates with theme appropriate wax paper. This park in general is putting our food to shame. Clearly KI has realized they don’t even need to try with the 1000s of dining plan people “popping in for dinner”

Well. They always say “wait to you see it in person before you pass judgement” I have. It’s bad. They are too similar in scale and mass, yet too dissimilar in style. Whoever “planned” this should’ve been let go in the purge. Oh, and the ENTIRE area is now synthetic turf. All of it curb to curb.