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First time riding PT: ON this weekend and I have to say I absolutely loved it! Honestly the POV doesn't do the ride justice you Honestly have to ride it for yourself to have an opinion on it! Honestly I give Kings Island big props for how much effort was put into this ride and playing homeage to the original ride. Now there are some mechanical problems is some parts of the ride but that can probably be fixed easily. Overall I give it a 10/10 I rode it at least 10 times within the past 2 days. My favorite character is Willard Warble in case you couldn't tell by all the pictures!😅 Also I finally got my PT: ON hat! 😁

I finally made it to the park this week on a nice slightly rainy night. So no lines. This ride is just about perfect in my opinion. I cannot believe that Six Flags/Cedar Fair build something of this high of quality these days. Especially considering the absolute piece of garbage that it replaced. I cannot believe that they have that many animatronics and the entire ride is physical sets. Several of the characters appear three or four times. When they announced this ride, I was afraid it was going to end up being a cheap screen based version like Knotts Beary Tales. Especially when they announced the interactive element. That was completely wrong! This ride uses screens exactly how they should be used. As background for the physical sets. Thunderstorms, cracking glass, blazing oven. They are all used for effects that are best achieved with a screen. This is the best interactive dark ride that I have ever seen. Mainly because it does not use screens for the interaction. The ghost notes are projections on the physical sets And one does not have to play the game to enjoy the full experience. The ghost notes actually add to theming if you’re not playing the game. And they are cute the way they are themed. Another nice touche is calling the gondolas ENCHANTED opera boxes. I really hope they take care of this ride this time and it’s a forever ride in the park. All of these parks need more high-quality indoor attractions just like this.

I went to Kings Island last week and was able to get two rides with very minimal waiting. I never experienced the original ride, my hook was the show. I really enjoyed both rides, and liked how they "de-fleshed out the characters." (From my perspective from the show they are static vs dynamic). I think Hilda's personality came through most of all in the headliners. Garbonzo in the cannon was a nice surprise. Sir Pretzel was a nice addition. I like that they kept some of the elements from Boo Blasters. They flashlights were surprisingly fun for the ghost notes. The smell of roses was a nice surprise. On both of my rides, there was a brief stoppage, not sure if that was to allow for the turntable to stop for rider assistance, or a technical problem but even the stoppages were "themed" with the overhead announcement. I was very impressed and look forward to riding again.

Our boy’s finger is all good.

I will say daily ops are actually pretty good. It’s more the long term, deferred maintenance that’s sad to see. I should’ve been more clear on that. It’s clean, it’s just you are cleaning an old house that’s not been really cared for for years. I hope they can get it back on track. You can tell there’s been both a lack of investment, and poor choices as to how the investment is executed for years.

I really hope for a Haunt and Winterfest overlay I think even just adding Christmas lights and Santa hats to the characters would be cool, for Haunt though I think they could do more and go all out

It's sad to say this is why we can't have nice things, and this is why the original PT was so hard to maintain I remember during the scene with the glass, people would spit, and throw gum on it, as well as reaching for the animatronics throughout the ride. I just wish people would be more considerate when it comes to things like this, I mean it took KI over 20 years to bring PT back and now that it's back this is how the guests are going to treat it. This just disappoints me honestly.

A few foods I had this weekend. The only new one that I hadn't tried yet is the big BBQ turkey leg, it was rather costly but I did really enjoy eating it! 😋

The shows page has been updated with about 300 photos added to the galleries for Hollywood Hits and Brad Ross the Illusionist. https://kicentral.com/current-shows/

Looking at Fiesta Texas' announcement of Werewolf Gorge, I really like the theming they're putting into it. Looking at the renderings, it looks like they're going to have a couple of animatronic werewolves during the ride including one in the ceiling during the swing launch section which looks to take place in this shack/shed like structure. How this fits into Kings Island? Well I've been saying for awhile that the shed on Mystic Timbers is starting to feel outdated as it is approaching its 10th anniversary next year. My thoughts is, how about to celebrate Mystic Timbers 10th anniversary next year, they spend some capex and completely redo the shed and add things like animatronics and more effects into the shed and maybe bring back the "whats in the shed" campaign and actually have it live up to the hype this time as the park has more resources/experience with indoor theming now than they did back in 2017. Also then replace the queue shade structures at Diamondback with a full on wooden shade structure themed to the old "Rivertown Mining Company" and have an animatronic rattlesnake in the ceiling of the structure.

Tell us about your Food & Wine fest experiences in this thread!

The park has the ability to see people using flash photography on the ride and call them out for it using the ride announcement system, so I think they could've seen someone breaking off the finger. In all reality, we don't know that it wasn't immediately caught and that said guests were not met by security at the exit. The broken drywall in the queue would've been much harder to see in the moment. At this point we'll just have to see if Kings Island fixes these parts or not. As for the possibility of the finger falling off on its own, there's a possibility that it could've been due to an issue with the hand mold. It might've also been an issue from the animatronic's installation. Both situations are unlikely, but anything is possible; again, we don't know what happened to cause any of these issues. I've been thinking of making my own version of BryanJay's Halloween Haunt overlay for PT:ON using my (admittedly limited) video editing skills. Most of it would be the same, but I have some additional thoughts of what could go in there. It'll also be a good way for me to dive back into video editing. Mainly, I'd add the toppling boxes/Bosco's door sound effects and do some alternate sound mixing. The stage scene could use one of the other songs from PTE. I think it would also be fun to see if I can mimic the difference in sound quality between in-car voice lines and diegetic lines.

Also the edge trim for the stairs are peeling away. Today was my first time riding Phantom Theatre. The ride aspect and the theming within the ride itself felt fresh and new but the queue itself, more or less, got the “landlord special”.

The first time I ever went to Holiday World was in 2011 and I remember seeing videos and knowing about that ride before I went. Sadly, it was closed both days we were there which was likely a story for a lot of people who went to Holiday World when it was there lol. The next time I went was in 2015 for Thunderbird so I never got to ride it. Also fun fact from that 2011 trip. At the time, the biggest coasters I had ridden were Flight Deck (The Bat) and Racer at KI. I was too scared to ride The Beast, but the first coaster I rode there was The Voyage! I still can't believe I did that lol. I was 9 years old at the time.

Where I haven't confirmed it, I believe I heard some notes are more than others. Also the number of riders has alot to do with it. The first time I rode it i was by myself in my car and the next one had no one in it so basically 1 flashlight for all the notes and I maxed out at Hilda. However you get the other car full and you have 4 lights competing for notes instead 1. Not to mention you can try and it the notes on an upcoming scene (sometimes giving you a different color on your flashlight). Not sure but I think at that point you're scoring for someone else. Also 2 beams hitting the same not does nothing, (as far as I can tell). I would love to see how this system works exactly. None the less it's much more accurate than Boo ever was.

Took a nice little ride through the theater tonight. The wait time was posted at 60 minutes, but I only waited for 20 minutes. It probably would have gone faster if all of the ride vehicles were working. As I got into the loading station I realized that they were having to skip quite a few opera boxes, presumably due to non-functional flashlights. Having all of those operating might've cut about 5-10 minutes off of my wait time. I noticed a lot of broken/misfiring effects tonight, but I won't complain too much because I know they'll be fixed overnight. There were at least 5 broken opera boxes that passed in the 3 minutes that I could see the turntable. When I got in, the first few audio lines were each messed up a little (Larry also blurted out a random "Thanks!" in the queue), and I noticed that one of my flashlights was broken. All of the tumbling boxes and shelves were working, as were all of Hilda's mirrors. My flashlight began to have some issues around the Electric Panel, but was mostly reliable during the rest of the ride. The first boiler TV was off again, but I'm glad that they still have the physical coals at the bottom to give it a B-Mode. While I commended the park on lowering the lighting throughout the ride in a previous post, it's unfortunately been turned back up [sad face]. If I had to guess, the ride has an issue with staying 100% operating throughout the day. It's still a magnificent ride! I'm glad they keep fixing it when it breaks and I hope the maintenance teams can keep it up.

Sadly, CP has been on the decline in guest sentiment since 2019, and seems to get worse every year. Unlike a park like KI, CP has to rely on people outside of say an hour circle to make it a viable park. On years they don't add something, guest service has to be top notch or people won't go...but sadly, like KI....enough will continue to go regardless of the product being offered. But I know plenty that have decided to not make a visit this year, or cut their number of trips way shorter. But people will also still show up in numbers to the roller coast capital of the world.....

Thank you very much for this, this is the information I needed to make an informed decision this season on whether or not to attend that park.

From Facebook "Presenting the latest act at the Phantom Theater, Ghost Notes! 👻💜🎶 A Haunting combination of Grape ice cream, with Marshmallow Cookie Dough pieces mixed in throughout. Strangely Composed, and Hauntingly Genius. Graeter's Ghost Notes celebrates the opening of Kings Island's Phantom Theatre: Opening Nightmare with a collab as unexpected as the ride itself! Ghost Notes is available now at all Graeter's scoop shops, online for a limited time and coming soon to Kings Island!" I can't wait to try it! 😁

KI had a lot more trees, 20 years ago. Cedar Fair unfortunately did not like to maintain trees. Anytime they cut one down they did not replace it and many times they did not even remove the stump. I agree if the park had more trees, it would be as nice as Kings Dominion I also agree another dark ride in the park would have been excellent. Something like the lost world complex at Kings Dominion.

The Brad Ross Illusionist show opened today at Kings Island. What are your thoughts on the show and reviews Yes, she is levitating in the air. This is not AI.

The ride ops seem fine, it’s more the physical space I’m referring to.

So, what do we think? Has the new Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare performed well enough (so far) to convince Six Flags that they should develop more custom concepts with Sally Dark Rides? I certainly think it has. A lot of legacy Six Flags parks need a good replacement for their Justice League dark rides, Carowinds and Kings Dominion need a replacement or update for Boo Blasters, and Cedar Point just needs a dark ride in general. The chain should not copy Phantom Theater over to a ton of parks like they did with Boo Blasters (although it might be nice at Magic Mountain). I'd love to see each park get its own custom dark ride, but there's enough parks that I think each concept could be used twice as long as the parks aren't very close to each other. Great America and Six Flags Over Texas might spring for a Western theme to replace their respective Justice League dark rides. Carowinds' Boo Blasters building would be a great spot for a tastefully done custom dark ride with an even more custom ghost theme. I haven't worked this one out, but it would need to fit into the small 7,000 sq ft Boo Blasters building. It's located within the [Country] Crossroads area of the park and could have some kind of theme with that — though that area as a whole already needs revitalization. They could always turn that back into a theater and put a new dark ride in their Action Aeronautica Theater. Great Adventure will eventually need another dark ride, but they're already in the middle of rebuilding other parts of the park so this one can wait. Kings Dominion is proving itself to be a tough squeeze for a new dark ride, so either some new variation on Boo Blasters or a custom 7,000 sq ft dark ride would fit right in with the current setup. There are some 20,000 sq ft spaces in the park if they're willing to tear something else down, but I think they'd stick with the BBoBH building. Cedar Point has a few spots where a dark ride could fit, depending on which area could actually fit one without disrupting park operations too much. The pavilion and asphalt lot behind the One Stop redemption center takes up nearly 50,000+ square feet. This is larger than PT:ON's footprint by about 10,000 sq ft. One spot that has previously held a dark ride in Cedar Point is the former home of the Pirate Ride. It has about 12,000 sq ft without expanding into the former Chickie & Pete's restaurant. The current Coliseum Arcade doesn't take up a large amount of the whole Coliseum building, but I've estimated the arcade to occupy about 8,000 sq ft. That's enough for a smaller dark ride like Boo Blasters. Another location that may be able to fit a dark ride is the former Melt restaurant. Depending on how much of the building is dedicated to the former restaurant vs the employee dining room, I think the restaurant had a footprint of about, once again, 12,000 sq ft. This would likely require an outdoor queue to be placed between the ride and the Boeckling house, but it is relatively shaded and out of the way. Other spaces at Cedar Point could fit a nicely sized dark ride, such as the railroad side of Rougarou's plot, the former station building of Shoot the Rapids and the Frontier Fling plot, and the pond area from Snake River Falls; but I believe the park should build an omnimover with great capacity at the front of the park first. Anything at the front of the park could be themed to Disaster Transport, while anything toward the back of the park may require a more Frontier theme.

They are, but even Great Adventure is going to take at least a year or two more to be converted — and they got a head start. I think Chicago's Great America is either waiting for the real CGA to close (so they can have some of their stuff) or is going around the same pace as Magic Mountain (except MM allegedly got GAm's family area and caused the delay to 2027). I hate to say it, but right now I think even with all of it's problems, Gurnee's Great America might even have a higher guest satisfaction score than Cedar Point 😬

Sad to hear about the stuff about Great America this season. I went there back in 2024 (this was right after the merger) and everything but Flash was running multiple trains.

Aren't they in the process of being Cedar Faired?

I will never complain about the state of maintenance at KI again (ok, I will - I lied) but my god Great America is a beautiful park treated like trash. Sad to see the bones of something amazing looking every one of its 50 years. Some things look like that was the last time they were painted.

Well it’s important to remember that only a small portion of the guest will do things of that nature, most of the guest love the ride and enjoy it the way it’s intended, a few bad apples shouldn’t ruin the whole bunch, Kings Islands job is to use the security cameras they have on Phantom Theater and police the people breaking the rules, if they do that then everyone will enjoy the ride and the few bad apples will be removed from the park, I don’t recall any significant events happening on Boo Blasters in terms of vandalism so I know the park can maintain it. Having said that it is also entirely possible that the finger fell off due to malfunction, I’m not sure how really but I guess it’s possible

Is that Larry actually within arm's reach? I haven't tried to reach out toward him, but I thought he was beyond the emergency exit pathway (the path you'd use if the ride vehicles needed to be emptied mid-course). At least his finger is easy enough to fix with some glue and matching paint if you know what you're doing.

Two more "windows" with closed curtains and light panels (instead of 3D windows) would've gone a long way on the other walls. I'm curious as to how much weight the ceiling above the entrance can hold because it would be a great spot for a pipe organ and/or a Christmas tree during a potential holiday overlay. The edge strips on the stairs just need better adhesive since those are brand new. The entire floor got replaced with this renovation IIRC. Speaking of which... day 20(?)(30?) of asking Kings Island to have an original Phantom Theater overlay for PT:ON during Haunt. Once it's been programmed, it would be one more attraction with great capacity that'd be open during the busiest nights of the season.

We took a little Sunday trip up to Cedar Point because of the long weekend and had a nice time. I'd like to clarify, as always, that while my criticisms are many, I really enjoy every time I visit Cedar Point. Some of these can be easily fixed while others would require major changes. Some positives: My pepperoni pizza meal at Hugo's was good, though I'd have preferred a better dipping sauce for my breadsticks. This meal was on the lower side of a "good" rating. All of the associates I interacted with were friendly and seemed to do their jobs well. I enjoyed the pre-recorded spiels for some of the rides. That said, they need to be played louder and/or find a better soundproofing method overall. My second meal of the day was a Hot Dog Basket with Chips from Derby Dogs (hooray! it was open!!). There were four associates working the stand who kept the line moving swiftly. Two of them were assembling the baskets and the other two were manning the registers. The split-top bun (as opposed to a standard side-split) looked very nice and the hot dog itself was good. This meal was on the higher side of a "good" rating. Throughout the day I got at least 3 paper cup refills, and only one of them (a Coke from Hugo's) tasted odd. Honestly this is the one time I'll admit to wanting lids and straws offered (when requested) since all of the bugs are Some complaints: The associates are required to consistently ask about if you'd like to purchase a drink bottle even if you're already redeeming your paper cup plan. I think I saw that this was a mandate from their Coca-Cola supplier (or something like that), but I really wish the park would negotiate something that would let them tone it down. There aren't as many "fluffy-friendly" rides at Cedar Point as there are at Kings Island — a category which both parks are severely lacking in. Even Corkscrew (with Arrow's forgiving restraints) didn't look like it could really accommodate anyone with a larger belly or chest. Cedar Point is the thrill park, but I do think they need to have more rides that the entire family can ride together. I'm really just salty that they got rid of the riverboat expeditions. The lack of a dark ride is a major hindrance for the park. I think they need something the size of Phantom Theater, though having 50-ish cars in it would be better considering their crowd numbers. I'd love to see a Disaster Transport dark ride near the front of the park. A second good dark ride would be something taking over the plot from Frontier Fling and Shoot the Rapids' station. They would lose that access to the island, but would gain a big dark ride on the Frontier Trail. During our meal at Hugo's I saw at least 6 people go in/out of an emergency exit door. There isn't really much you can do about that besides giving it an actual alarm, but it was not a great thing to see. This last one gets a bigger point: Operations were less than stellar for it being Memorial Day weekend. This isn't the issue of the associates that were there, but more of an issue with Cedar Point's hiring practices. Having a group of older, full-time associates around the park who are more responsible and knowledgeable would help to provide a much better experience overall. I won't provide a possibly-AI-but-maybe-not solution though. You're not going to attract people who will stick around beyond a Summer job without paying enough for them to live in Sandusky year-round. Despite being posted at a 25 minute wait time, it took me 60 minutes to make it through the line for Corkscrew. The only thing that might've made it go quicker would be if the three associates working in the station provided a sense of urgency. I watched about three Top Thrill 2 launches between each train being sent on Corkscrew. The second train sat on the brake run for a good 3 minutes each cycle. My main point in saying this is that Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial beginning of the Summer season for parks. This is the weekend that a park like this should strive to have everything operating by. There were only two shows set to take place, and their showtimes were all after 3:00PM despite the park opening at 10:00AM. Maverick appeared to be closed until about 1:30PM: it had a line that stretched all the way back near the Stockade Refreshments with no associates attempting to corral guests into a smaller area. (Part of that issue was guests waiting outside of the queue and part of it was the lack of planning/execution on how to contain the line.) There are still a few things that I feel are fundamentally wrong with the park operations. Fast Lane has historically been oversold and sales need to be cut off sooner. There's no reason why a Fast Lane line should exceed 45 minutes IMO — so when it gets up there, close that queue for a little bit. The lack of associates on the midways as well as the closed Guest Services locations (on a holiday weekend) is concerning. If there isn't an easy way to fix the ride wait times then there need to be other things for guests to do. Live entertainment and play areas are a good start. A new/reopened park museum would continue the effort. I think Cedar Point is the kind of park that could sustain an all-season Haunt maze (even as an upcharge). More things for people to do that get them out of coaster queue lines. Ultimately, I still love Cedar Point. The park has one of the best ride collections in the world and still lives up to most of its reputation. It has a lot of things that absolutely need to be rethought. Better staff hiring practices, more boots on the ground helping to direct people and fix things in the moment, and an overhaul on some of how the park works would all do wonders. These are the kinds of things that would make guests a lot happier than another new coaster before 2030.

Thanks for the TR. I want to give John R. (the new CEO) time to hopefully see some of this with guest feedback and make adjustments.

I forgot to mention it in my ride report, but if anyone from the park is reading this: there is a small hole in the wall of the queue right under Maestro's balcony. It might've been kicked in? There's also a small bit of wallpaper that looks to have been peeled. Is this the kind of thing that could've been done by some rowdy unchaperoned teenagers. Yes, but it could also have been an honest accident (that drywall is probably 23+ years old. Whatever happened, that's the kind of thing I hope someone can easily fix overnight.

I remember it being fun for the most part with the lift hill in particular being wildly intimidating and more thrilling than the drop itself. The meandering through the waterways before and after the drop, however, was incredibly slow and boring. Fun to try once, but even if it wasn’t plagued with mechanical issues—kind of a one trick pony of a ride.

Audio glitched in the queue tonight and yes I also noticed they were skipping quite a few opera boxes. Only main thing of note that I find funny is during the first weekend of the ride I got 999999 first time but now I can’t get it so I suppose the score has been adjusted to make it hard, does anyone know if some notes count for more points or do all the notes score the same total

Even when they DO add something I expect guest service to be top notch, Im sorry and anyone who wants can call me an a$$, but simply put I want/expect Pat and Will Koch era HW level guest service every time I come into a park that (when a passholder) I dropped as much on the pass as I did on my iPhone. Throughput.... throughput, throughput, throughput (safe of course)... is what I desire as well as proper "You pay a part of my salary so Im going to be nice, attentive, and efficient" interaction at food and drink stands or restaurants. Ask anyone who has gone to a park with me and they will say I am the NICEST person to the ride-ops and all other associates in any park provided the same courtesies are afforded me when we interact. The automated spiels mentioned being on some rides is a start.... yes I understand blocking, load/unload times, and the fact that more often than not its the guests that slow said load/unload/dispatch times down but I have no desire to listen to smalltalk over the mics. All the Sirens Curses and TTD2s and whateverelses dont cut it with me unless there is a minimum of BS attached to riding said coasters.

Ghost Notes has the classic grape Kool-Aid flavor. I enjoyed it and would get it again.

Raising Cane’s reigns supreme when it comes to chicken tenders!

My lunch trip to the park yielded me two great rides through the Phantom Theater! The wait time was 0 minutes (probably thanks to the rain) and I was able to speed right through. Despite the low crowds there was still a grouper at the accessibility door (likely for that reason), one grouper at the turntable, and two associates on the turntable itself. Something interesting was that my second ride placed me in Opera Box #1: the unpaired ride vehicle. It was honestly a really nice experience and I kind of preferred it to having another car right next to me. The only screens/effects/things that weren't working today were Hilda's second mirror (the TV was off) and I think there was an issue with something in Garbonzo's scene. Other than that I didn't notice anything else being broken. I'll give the park props on this: it looks like they've finally turned down the lighting so the scenes are lit more than everything being lit. One more thing for my laundry list of little changes I'd love to see made to the ride is that some kind of dim projection should be added to the Backstage door that opens right before we see Maestro at his organ. I think the original had one that looked like a windy Vortex mixed with an endless hallway behind the door marked "DELIVERIES". That would be a really cool way to spruce up a very rigid door movement — but it wouldn't do much besides fixing something you barely see.

We'll be going to Kings Island this weekend, so I'll finally be able to ride it and make a review! (And fingers crossed that I'll be able to buy a PT:ON hat too! 🤞)

The second boiler has a blast of cold air that’s synced to the audio. The first boiler is meant to have ambient heating throughout the whole room, but I haven’t noticed it since the second week. Since the opening weekend, the 2nd Maestro had a weird compression/distortion to the audio, so I imagine the speakers are being replaced.

I would have planted about 3 or 4 times as many trees and kept more existing ones when laying out the park. By now they'd be nice, mature shade trees.

Pork loin with gravy and alfredo pasta was good for lunch today.

Enchanted Parks has eliminated the former Six Flags dining plan and lowered the price of most food entrées by 20 to 30 percent, bringing many items back into the mid-teens after some had climbed as high as $20 to $23 under the previous pricing structure. Enchanted Parks CEO James Harhi said the decision came after reviewing more than a year’s worth of guest feedback before the acquisition closed. Food cost and food quality, he said, were among the most common complaints. Harhi concluded that menu prices had been pushed too high in part to offset heavy dining plan usage, leaving single-day guests and less-frequent season passholders to absorb much of the cost. “The math just doesn’t work long term,” Harhi said of the dining plan model at a park of this size. “While there were people who really loved it, holistically it was not the right thing for the company.”

Maybe sometime in the next 10 years we can get more pieces of the park's "soul" restored! A boat ride, a Vortex successor, an Action Zone replacement, and a return to character for Rivertown would be nice to have. As for the Pepper's Ghost effects, I agree that it could have just been fun to have again even if it didn't make sense within the "story".

I think the biggest problem is how they are seemingly incapable of figuring out what they're selling before they take people's money for it. It's becoming way too frequent that their finances don't go the way they want, so they either take away something people already purchased or give away the gate and ruin the park experience to make a quick buck. And then they wonder why people are increasingly choosing other local entertainment options.

Probably, but I don't see this being another $25+ million investment like how Thunderbird was considering how long it took Holiday World to see the return on investment for that.

Saw on Facebook that someone broke one of Larry’s fingers off in the first scene in the ride, now maybe it fell off but my guess is some kid who was bored did it, that’s the only reason why I say that having animatronics within arms reach is a bad idea