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The new character sculpts look fantastic, excited to see more!

I enjoyed your whole post, but wanted to highlight this specific sentence. It really, really was—but, having been able to see it from every angle as an employee: it was even more impressive from the other side. The loop itself was massive, but even that was dwarfed by the rest of the amazing (in-appearance) structure. I never understood (I mean, logistically, I get why) how the most impressive parts of that ride were faced in a direction no guest could see them even from the tower (outside of special access). Everything about that ride really was disappointing. - I get that there’s a ton of nostalgia for this ride now, but take it from someone who rode it in every iteration and version: it always sucked.

From the KI passholders group

When it comes to IP at Kings Island, many have come and gone. These characters on the other hand always belonged to Kings Island. So to see something so corporate like SIX on its first year green light a project like this brings me a lot of shock, yet optimism. The library of IPs they could have gone with. But some people at SIX who loved Phantom Theater are the reasons we likely saw projects like Encore and this. Seeing how far along Sally might be with this project gives me so much confidence in what will be the final product. Especially since the refit already takes place in a preexisting building. I also in general love seeing the media team at KI posting updates like this! They probably have a good idea of how beloved this IP is. Plus I love watching the process. Keep’em coming!

The Crypt building is too small by comparison. I did a construction tour today and what Dollywood is building is massive.

Paul Bonifield shared this on Linkedin a few weeks back. For those who don't know, Paul was one of the many who were unfortunately laid off by Six Flags back in May. Also in the comments, Chad Showalter (who was also let go) commented a bit about it. Based on those comments, it sounds like this project was planned for awhile and may have been the "family thrill attraction" planned all along. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paulbonifield_phantom-theater-returns-to-kings-island-ugcPost-7366851910231855104-Oe2X

This is crybaby stuff. If you don't want Halloween Haunt, don't go to Halloween Haunt.

The Golden Tickets 2025 was just announced and Six Flags took home 3 Golden Tickets. Kings Island had a good showing, the Kids Area went back up to #2, RiverRacers took the #2 spot for Best Water Ride and the park came in at #5 for Best Guests Experience. Here is a couple links. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation - Six Flags Parks Win Three Golden Ticket Awards for 2025 2025 GTA Winners – The Golden Ticket Awards | Presented by Amusement Today

This is actually for sure true, I updated the comparisons. Honestly I’m sorta torn on a few of the designs (I think having their pupils be like 20% smaller would fix most of my issues) On one hand I think a few of the concepts for the designs look off (especially the bunny unless the eyes glow in this one too, it doesn’t look scary enough). I think a good comparison is like, these versions look more like muppets rather than the original which emulated the haunted mansion figures. I think the hard aspect about what we’ve been currently given is that most of the characters have really only had their heads shown rather than their full bodies, and also the sculpts are still a work in progress so it’s hard to judge them too far. No matter what my feelings are, it’s insane to me that we’re in the universe where a non-IP, non-Disney or universal dark ride is getting at least 17+ animatronic figures. Like there will be screens in the ride, but honestly considering that they’re putting effort into making custom figures for this I honestly don’t mind.

Kinda shocked that I didn’t get around to making this before, but here’s my first speculation map (to steal horror nights terminology) of what I think we could see in Opening Nightmare. I hope it’s clear which most of the scenes are but I’ll highlight my base thoughts before anything major is shared about the ride so that it’s impressive if I get anything right: - One of the areas that I’m 50/50 split about is if the Boo Blasters bridge entrance will be reused, or if a new short outdoor section will be built to enter the attraction. I’m not sure if this is feasible or a priority, but it would be cool to make the queue wheelchair accessible so that everyone can enjoy (what I’m very much assuming) will be theming in the queue. -I’m also pretty split on what the actual queue ‘preshow’ will look like. I’m really hoping there’s a Maestro animatronic on organ like the original. Only two maestro animatronics being on the sheet from the construction teaser worries me, but this could also be a more advanced figure so who knows. Also I’m assuming the lightning affects return to this space. -I think the statue busts are repainted and reused, but I also have a gut feeling there will be a tv screen placed at the end of the hallway to explain the game mechanics by Larry. - I’m fairly confident that the ride track won’t be changed in anyway, include the path the car’s face. I’m also reallly hoping at the first scene with Maestro holding the curtain stays with “So you wanted to see the theater did ya?” because that’s just one of those iconic scenes (even being featured on the made to thrill poster they put out). -I think either in the spot for Scooby Doo or the portrait hallway, there’s going to be a flash of lightning that disguises an onride photo. I don’t think it’ll be something they sell, but I think the scoreboard at the end will show photos of each guest and there score. -I don’t have many thoughts on the rest of the scenes individually because they’re hard to guess. I think where ever they put Garbonzo firing out of a canon, it’ll be in a spot where the cars make a 180 spin to see his feet dangling out of a wall or something. -I think Arpeggio (the cat character) could be a thing where he’s hidden in each scene somewhere. -I think the part where the original peppers ghost scene was is going to be the section with the most new scenes, and I’m very confident on the stage section being used in the final room. I think pepper’s ghost is going to be used in someway within the ride, either at the ending stage scene using screens, or with No Legs Larry at some point in the ride. Overall I’m very excited, I’m basically just using two photos and a press release to go off on, so if I got any of this correct I’ll be impressed lol.

We will use this thread for you to post your haunt reviews for the 2025 season.

Please no. The purpose of a themed attraction is to get people to feel as if they've stepped out of the regular world, not to thrust them back into it.

Looks like the gang is here to stay. (Vince Guaraldi’s work outside of the Peanuts is worth getting into if you dig jazz.)

Also very interesting. With the 26 season pass presale, they are cutting way back on the free admission incentives. Last year my son’s child silver got 2 free tickets- next year none and my Diamond got 4, now 2. Guess they don’t need to give away the gate like certain other parks. And passes sure aren’t 99.00. They know they have a quality product and aren’t afraid to price it that way.

You just know that some LinkedIN Premium user in Charlotte took their kids to Disney, saw their merch, and said “we should be charging more” without any sense of irony for how poorly comparable the SF product is.

I rode the new one at Hershey this year. Being up on that hill is so fun to ride. I would love to get a screamin' swing at KI.

Animatronic construction... will have to get used to them but at least there's a lot of characters! Featuring what I think are the Great Garbonzo, Willard Warbler, Lionel Burymore, and the rope characters.

Too soon?

They’re working on clearing out the props from the building and work is being completed in Florida I assume for Phantom, don’t worry. I think there’s just going to be a week where guests return on a random Friday during haunt and the outside entrance of Boo Blasters is just completely gone. It also is an indoor ride that’s technically a retheme vs brand new ride, so it could be a thing were everything’s taken out of boo blasters over a week (which I’m 80% sure has happened by now), Phantom props are brought in a Winterfest or off season week, and the ride can still be ready for like April. Personal speculation, but I think on October 31 (or maybe October 13 because spooky number and it’s not on a weekend day) we’ll see some major teasers hopefully showing off the designs for the characters we haven’t seen yet properly because I need proper references to draw them!

That's fine! Many people prefer Chipotle to McDonalds! It doesn't mean I want a burrito when I'm craving a Big Mac.

I I didn't do the haunts but I never did them when they were free but I noticed a lot more scare actors walking around. We a had a great time and an awesome night beast ride.

Then just go to Dollywood? If every park operated exactly the same that would be incredibly boring. Roaming scare actors have been apart of Haunt all this time and even though it might be the "free" scares in today's Haunt, I'm glad they still have them. That also provides part time jobs for folks too which is also a good thing. I will still never understand the mentality of any of this "leave me alone" stuff. Simply DON'T attend Haunt? Go to the daytime event. Or go any other day of the year prior to Haunt when the park is open and stays for night rides. It's like going to any haunted attraction and complaining about getting scared/annoyed. You know what you signed up for as every haunted attraction has information and disclaimers. In some cases, even waivers. There is always going to be room for improvement and room for growth, however, this is the first year with some big changes and things will probably be different next year depending on how things go this year. But at it's core, Haunt has remained the same and therefore successful enough to last 25 years. We never know what the future holds, but I hope for 25 more years and beyond of Haunt at KI and wish it continued success.

Interior demolition of Boo Blasters has begun, in strangely public fashion (Note these were taken in public guest view areas, if this breaks rules let me know) I know they probably wouldn’t tell us, but I’m curious if Sally Dark Rides take all the props from Boo Blasters and reuses them to create another ghost blasters attraction somewhere, considering I think they’re still making boo blasters as of like 2022 I think??

https://www.dollywood.com/themepark/rides/nightflight-expedition This looks VERY ambitious. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

https://x.com/KingsIslandPR/status/1967602933782225241 Spoilers for the new maze, but why does it actually look really good (TBH I know it'll be short, but honestly the clips look to be Knott's Scary Farm levels of setwork). Also very glad the older mazes got some TLC.

I would take a mega Siren's Curse in the Vortex spot. It can be a normal lift hill the tilt track is not required. With the onboard audio, light package, and the smooth elements of the SC, it would be a great replacement in that spot.

When the ride opens in 2026... I hope to see more different merch, such as hats, posters, maybe even plush? I know I want a hat for sure!

I rode once when it was Scooby-Doo. I faintly remember it but mostly remember Shaggy telling me how to use the fright lights/blasters as I waited in line. Once it became Boo Blasters, I didn't ride it for years because it was not Scooby-Doo. Then I started riding it once in a while, then more often once Winterfest came back. And then I transferred to Tech Services where I would begin checking in the blasters on the mornings the park was open. From Winterfest 2019 all the way up to its last day this past Monday, Boo Blasters' startup constituted my morning routine. I learned exactly how the blasters worked (and they DID work, at least most of the time ) and gained experience with pneumatics as I also helped take care of the animation, as well as audio with the many sound effects. My favorite calls would come from Boo Blasters for blasters or displays, as it meant I could test ride and even fix it on the spot if I had what I needed on hand. My coworkers and I believe it's haunted as we've had unexplainable little playful things happen while we're there. In fact, every time we went to do our startup, we would say "good morning Boo!" If I did startup alone, I would "chat" with Boo since I think out loud and am proud of it. If there really is some sort of spirit or ghost taking up residence in that building, I 100% believe we would be friends. After becoming the last person to ever check in the blasters on Monday, I had a literal blast on the best last seven rides I could ever ask for with my friends. Our competitive spirit and their blaming me for stealing points (because they don't work in Tech Services ) coupled bittersweetly with seeing and hearing for the last time the same effects on which I've helped work. While I eagerly look forward to this long-overdue next era of our dark ride, I am still grieving Boo Blasters which is perfectly okay. How could I not grieve Boo when it was my morning routine for six seasons? 1 ride as Scooby-Doo 242 rides as Boo Blasters Hopefully many more rides as Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare!

Social media is not real life. A quick perusal of park-centric "social media" would have me believe that literally every ride at every park is closed for several hours every day, and when not closed, almost killed their father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's, former roommate due to a restraint malfunction, etc. It's all meaningless nonsense propelled by algorithms designed to trigger outrage. As pointed out above, the only thing that matters is whether the parks are still pulling in revenue on Saturdays in October. And there has been absolutely zero indication that the parks will have any difficulty doing so. I agree that the messaging strategy regarding now up-charging for certain attractions was poor. But the fact of the matter is that it has never been cheaper, in my lifetime at least, to visit the parks. If anyone is so so price-sensitive that they're going to complain about the value proposition, previous fall attendance trends suggest that there are literally thousands of others who will happily take their place, ready to pay extra for access to haunted houses.

Yeah those cables have been hanging for a moment. I guess you could say it's still very "Invertibroken". I wish the park would make some kind of formal announcement about it-whether they decide to remove it or repair it. I really hate this whole line of secrecy. And the fact that the park was essentially hounded into making sure people knew Monster wasn't going anywhere. Why can't the same courtesy be made for Invertigo? I know that SF has been awful about letting people know about ride removals, but I just don't see the benefit in doing that. Transparency will always garner more respect than not.

As Boo Blasters is officially no more, construction is set to begin on the transformation into Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare set to debut in Spring 2026. This thread will be used to document the construction progress of this exciting "rebirth" of a former beloved dark ride. As a reminder to keep the terms of service in mind when posting on here and to only get pics in authorized areas. To view the terms of service, view here: https://KICentral.com/forums/topic/4128-terms-of-service/ Here's to another season of construction! To get things started here's the advertisement of this new ride outside of what once was Boo Blasters shared by @Losantiville Mining Co. in the announcement thread!

I know park merch has always been a bit pricey as is to be expected in any of these sorts of places, but man do I miss the days when stuff still felt somewhat more reasonable for what you were buying vs today when most hoodies are $70+. That's not to say there still aren't some closer to $50+, but most of the ones I like are in the higher priced categories. Overall, I miss when merch was a little more reasonable vs being absolutely insane now. I get it though....cheap passes etc etc. I got to see some of this stuff while at the park for PN and saw some cool pieces. Just can't justify the cost for it.

Courtesy of the Kings Island instagram page, love that they are talking about the Maestro like an old lost friend. Also they stated that more updates will be coming soon in the comments

If a Screamin' Swing goes anywhere, as already previously discussed, I think the best placement would be in the former Xtreme Skyflyer plot. That seems like the best use of that space if such a ride were to make its way to KI. I highly doubt KI will get a Screamin' Swing though. I don't feel like there is a wide installation of those. If Invertigo ends up Invertigone ( sorry not sorry for the puns ), they better put something worthy in it's place. I will repeat, even if the ride isn't as popular as it once may have been, no one can deny the intensity factor. It is one of the very few truly intense rides left in the park that doesn't apologize for being so. If something much tamer took its place I would be really disappointed.

The fog curtain and projection lasted maybe a season. Anyone remember that?

I have been of the mind that Boo Blasters was on borrowed time for a long while now, as is evident by what feels like a 50/50 chance you'll get a busted shooter. I honestly kind of laugh at the sudden "No!!! Not Boo Blasters!!" kinds of comments after it more or less being a laughing stock about its poor functionality for quite some time, and the abuse it took after being "watered down" after going from Scooby to Boo. It is probably past time to do something different. I was disappointed to hear such a limited re-do was in the works. Same track/layout, same basic ride (go around and shoot at, or now seemingly "collect" things in the same way you'd shoot at them), whatever. I guess I was hoping for more of a fresh ride experience entirely instead of the fourth re-skin of the same ride. I think some hope was elevated a bit by the "thrill" in "family thrill ride" that was announced earlier. To me, this is just a very casual family dark ride experience, and there's really no "thrill" here if we're being completely honest. While bright, albeit extremely cartoon-like, the new faces have a similar vibe in terms of quality to the Shaggy-now-balding-guy that's running in circles mid ride. The skeptic in me assumes it will more or less have that kind of feel still. A bit disappointing, especially since it has been years since a new release has had any real appeal to me or my family (including our elementary and junior high aged kids). That said, at least something is happening at the park, and it's likely low enough budget that it hopefully won't cause even more delays in us finally getting something for the thrill seekers in the crowd again. And, maybe it'll be a pleasant surprise. We'll see.

I don't know how I'd feel of an S&S scream n swing as our "front gate" attraction.

I don't think CF ever made much progress on the PP debt, they just kept refinancing. Six Flags got way in over their heads with acquisitions and overspent on debacles like Worlds of Adventure. They were able to shed much of that debt with their bankruptcy. Six Flags business model is being emulated currently, and I personally think history will repeat. If they file for bankruptcy, creditors will get shafted. Some parks that are jettisoned may end up better off if there is a company that could take over ( HFC is probably out of the scene since they recently took on a huge acquisition). Whatever would be left of Six Flags may have an opportunity to be elevated without as much of a debt burden, if they emulate the CF model. If they follow the SF model, they will continue the downward spiral.

I’m excited because it will truly be a surprise the first time I ride. I don't remember the last time that we haven’t been able to see construction photos for a ride at all and where it is not out in the open like most of the recent additions!

When has this strategy led to long term, sustained success? A fundamental issue with low admissions pricing is that it invites the wrong kind of customer - frugal or price sensitive families, parents looking for cheap summer day care, etc. - who are unlikely to spend frivolously regardless of how things are priced inside the gate. Giving away the gate also squanders a unique advantage these regional parks have, which is that they are down market of Disney-level entertainment options, so if/when economic conditions lead to a softening of demand on the higher end, they can absorb that business, giving up the lower end customer to FECs and the like. Another fundamental problem is that it takes a long time and effort to build gate integrity. Demonstrating to customers that your product is worth the elevated price point you're charging can take years, even generations, and all of that is completely undone in an instant by lowering the gate price. Once the gate integrity is destroyed, declining revenue and per caps, and attendance when the economy softens, make it virtually impossible to correct course before bankruptcy is the only option.

Here’s a picture of the original Phantom theater production, courtesy of theme park University. Happy to have the Phantom theater back again, especially in an animatronics.

This is utterly surreal to see. Fantastic.

Pre-merger Six Flags tried eliminating meal plans. Didn't work. You are NEVER going to get passholders to pay full price for food in the park again once you got them used to enjoying two meals every visit for one price. Just look at the widespread backlash with the Haunt money grab. I just can't believe that giving away the gate, constant ride closures, dirty parks, poor customer service, and taking away things people already paid for hasn't been a formula for success. Really shocking.

The park is wasting no time; just saw they have some WinterFest lights already up in Planet Snoopy and Rivertown!

The majority of the content now being published is messaging. There’s very little storytelling. “RiverRacers now open; buy your Silver Pass!” We’ll see the same messaging next year: “Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare now open; buy your Silver Pass!”

I'd bet it is a reference to Steel Vengeance. Most of the props/posters from this era include those easter eggs because they were designed by a human who understands that there can be a connection like that between the parks. If you look at the AI generated posters in AlpenFury's indoor queue line, you'll notice they don't have any easter eggs. I think the last set of non-AI posters Kings Island has are over in Adventure Port. Now that I'm looking at this photo, I don't think I've ever noticed the hose or its box either. Any idea as to why it appears to be completely outside of the box? Maybe all that wood behind the fence will go into building the entrance for The Conjuring. Not much seemed to be going on with them this weekend, but the new entrance to Order of the Dragon looked to be further along in development.

I’ve been marathoning it since 9:30 lol, I went on a walk on at park opening, then waiting 60 minutes immediately after, and then it’s been steadily around a 25-35 minute wait for most of the day. But crowds are starting to pick up now, the fastlane is out to the bridge which I’ve never seen before. The accessibility line at the exit to the ride also stretches outside, which is what I’ve seen as the main source slowing down the line. But like if you’re debating on wanting to come to the last rides tonight uhhhh…. It’s crowded! 200+ minutes. Go away! Run!

I know this isn't likely, but something I was thinking about with the entrance and queue. Since this ride is going to be very popular and on busy days, Boo Blasters line tends to spill out on the midway, I think what they should do is connect the current queue house with the Peanuts Showplace and move the entrance to the ride to down by the Great Pumpkin Coaster in what is currently the entrance to the Peanuts Showplace. I honestly kinda like the wooded feel down there and it could make it feel like you're going into an overgrown/Haunted theater in the woods. Having 2 separate queue rooms also opens up potential to multiple scenes for this storytelling. I also was thinking if they choose not to go that route they could make the Peanuts Showplace into a Phantom Theater character meet and greet area and museum. If they wanted to create new props/decor for the new ride, they could then (if they still have them) display the old decor from the old Phantom Theater that they had in the PT Encore show lobby in the Peanuts Showplace.