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The little things matter. They’re often what separate a good park from a great one. When the small details start being overlooked, people begin to wonder what else is being overlooked. The smallest details often make the biggest difference. Kings Island built its reputation on attention to detail. Over the past couple of years, attention to detail, and the standards that guests should expect from one of the industry’s premier amusement parks has not been there. There’s no excuse for lack of cleanliness around the park. It used to be a priority. Now it’s not. And it shows. I grew up with the park. I care about the park. The small details that are now being missed matter to me.

If the market around Louisville responds well to what Herschend is doing, Kentucky Kingdom could end up being one of the more surprising turnarounds in recent theme park memory. Things look promising so far.

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! 😁

Back up! FB_VID_2027701799472995025.mp4

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

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.

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.

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

Now KI should get one in the old Vortex spot. A Kenton’s Cove Keelboat Canal revival!

Cedar Point seems to put a decant show in their theater at the front of the park. An in house created show that runs all season would be great. They proved they can do it with PT Encore.

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.

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.

I'm glad this statue on International Street is still here in 2026! I always enjoy seeing it whenever I'm in the park! 😊

Just went to Efteling a few weeks ago and I would think the park could do a killer dark ride in the old tomb raider building akin to Dance Macabre. Perhaps a different theme and storyline but that ride system was definitely enjoyable and I'd love to see a completely indoor attraction to give guests another option during winterfest and also during rain storms. An indoor/outdoor coaster would still be forced to close in thunderstorms unfortunately

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.

Our boy’s finger is all good.

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.

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 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?

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.

Disney didn’t change the thrills of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster—but it completely changed the experience. After riding the new Muppets version at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, one thing became clear: this transformation works. Here’s why the Electric Mayhem may be exactly what this Disney World classic needed. Story: https://themeparksbydon.com/disney-muppets-rock-n-roller-coaster-review/

Feeling jealous of KD. Check this out. Beautiful.

Ah, love the International Street refurb, minus the tree and fountain situations. Wish we could’ve had both. From one of my favorite zen, solo trips way back in 2018. Sure do miss this view. Just feels a bit open and empty still. Miss the coziness.

everyone on the merch cart is moving again!

It looks terrible this year. Few things are aligned, few are at anywhere close to the same level, some don’t work at all. There doesn’t seem to be any slow change from pattern to pattern, just everything blasting water all the time at different angles. I’ve not seen the night show yet, but it can’t get much better. They used wireless enabled valves that control each jet, but the water pressure seems to be full all the time, so if they loose the signal (as this stuff like LED lighting and wireless tech often does, they go rogue. The old fountains were I believe more controlled at the pump room with mechanical valves controlling the flow to each “zone” like side jets, morning glory jets, fan jets on the bowls etc. It wasn’t as “gimmicky”, but it sure seemed to work. Can you tell I still hate this “new” fountain?!

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!

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

Even the Disney folks that visit the parks weekly notice imperfections. Although Disney will tend to the issue a lot faster in most cases because they have a bigger set of cast members to tend to these things.

I think it’s unrealistic to expect everything to be 100%, 100% of the time. Minor imperfections are always noticeable to those who frequently visit.

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.

It’s not much different than being on a payment plan for the pass and add ons. Breaking up the overall cost of a pass with add ons makes season passes even more affordable than they already are. However, include all season Fast Lane for an additional $1200+ to the overall cost of the pass. Now payment plans become much more attractive. Especially at 0% APR. The confusion and complexity comes into play when they do last minute changes to pass perks and such. But, that’s been going on before this new membership.

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?

Cleanliness is part of the culture at Holiday World and other parks outside of Six Flags. They know you can have the best rides but if the park isn’t clean guests don’t return. I just got back from visiting Epic Universe and the Disney World parks. As busy as they are they keep the parks clean.

I actually was thinking a ride like Werewolf Gorge that uses the Crypt building and goes out into the woods and hugs the terrain would be very cool.

The park was packed when I went opening day, and there was a huge crowd that showed up for the opening of Flying Fox. Attendance definitely seems to be higher than it was before Herschend started investing into the park. It's worth noting that Kentucky Kingdom still competes with Holiday World and Kings Island. However, Holiday World doesn't invest into new attractions very often, and Kings Island's investments have been slightly diminished due to the merger with Six Flags. If Herschend continues to consistently invest into Kentucky Kingdom, it may become much more enticing to get a season pass there, not to mention their season passes are still the cheapest of the three parks.

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.

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.

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! 😋

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.

Adding one of these would be so Holiday World. We know how much they love their water coasters and they have basically every type of water coaster concept except this one.