Hawaiian Coasters 325

Or they could turn the old Banshee gift shop back into a gift shop and then turn Coaster Connection into a restaurant.

Kings Island opened for the 2026 season last weekend and Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare gave its first rides and brought long lines all weekend with lines reaching up to 3 hours at one point. While the focus is clearly on that along with the other exciting improvements and events happening this season, it is never too early to start speculating for the future. This thread will be used to address any rumors or speculation about what may come to the park for the 2027 season. This will also be the place to share any potential hints or signs of work on a 2027 attraction if anything is coming. One thing we do know is 2027 will be the 55th anniversary of the park. I'm going to start by saying I think a new major rollercoaster is all but off the table for a few reasons. 1) There hasn't been any signs of work on any potential/rumored new coaster site whether it be The Vortex site, remainder of old SOB site (outside of the dirt pile in the junkyard which constantly fuels speculation this time every year but never becomes anything), or the front gate area. Unless they pull a Siren's Curse or Legacy Six Flags and start land prep/construction later in the season, I think we can rule out anything major. Under legacy CF, whenever KI added a major new coaster, land prep/clearing and/or teasing started or was underway on opening weekend. 2) Six Flags already has 3 major coaster projects under construction and/or being teased: *Project Purple at GAdv *Magic Mountain's rumored thrill glider *Whatever Fiesta Texas is building in CrackAxle Canyon Also don't forget Carowinds is building a major record breaking water attraction for next year that is well under way that will likely be an expensive addition 3) Six Flags is in major debt so I doubt there is room in the 2027 budjet for a 15-30 million dollar rollercoaster at Kings Island Since a coaster is likely out of question, that leads us to a couple of other options. With the positive sentiment/debut of Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare, does the park decide to add another indoor attraction the following year? You have 2 buildings that can be used. Before Phantom Theater was announced, it was rumored the attraction for this year was going in the old Tomb Raider/The Crypt building. So do we see another heavily themed immersive ride go in there after all these years? The introduction of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear last Haunt likely throws doubts into that, but anything is possible. Then there is the old Days of Thunder/Spongebob 4D building that is currently used for Hotel St Michelle for Haunt which this Haunt would be its 5th season. Could we see the park decide to add an attraction of some type in there? We'll see. Then that brings us to the flat ride department. You have 2 options you can go down. Do you go with a thrilling flat ride? The last thrilling flat ride added was Sol Spin in 2023 and before that WindSeeker in 2011 and before that Delirium in 2003. So the park doesn't add thrilling flat rides often. With the departure of Xtreme Skyflyer last year, that space is empty outside of being used as queue space for a Haunt. I personally think an S&S scream n swing would be a perfect fit there and you could have it tie in with the spooky theme of Banshee and Bat next door. I always thought "Phantom Flyer" would be a good name for it and would tie well with the park with Phantom Theater and would pay homage to the original name of Linus Launcher in Camp Snoopy as its original name was Danny Phantom's Flyers. There are other options as Zamperla has a major catelog of thrill rides to choose from. Then you have family flat rides which the park has leaned heavily into in recent years. The question is what would you do with it? Do you do another Camp/Planet Snoopy expansion? Do you add one or 2 in like Coney Mall or Action Zone or Rivertown? Or do you do a package with a thrilling flat ride which I think would be the most likely option. Then finally we get to Soak City. The last expansion was last year and before that was 2016. With the mixed response to River Racers, do you even want to attempt another water coaster? WhiteWater West also has other slide options they could do. There's also the option of adding one of their even bigger play structures like what KD got back in 2021. There's also the very possible possibility the park just takes a year and focus on park improvements. After all, the company is in major debt so maybe they decide that KI has recieve enough new rides since 2023 that they give them the year to just focus on sprucing up the park and making it better. Banshee is due for a repaint and Bat too so if they decide to take an off year, that would be the year to do it as repainting rides does cost a pretty penny. I would love to hear your thoughts on what the park could see in 2027 and why. Let's enjoy the 2026 season, but also have a little fun speculating! Speculate away!

They didn't remove the elevator person. They removed the person standing/sitting at the base of the tower watching guests and scanning for ride requirements and helping catch prohibited items like drinks.

People would press the button on the other side all the time especially when down for a variety of reasons. And I will say it has led to "incidents" happening in the past, but I will not go into anymore detail to protect the park and other people's jobs as well as me. Good on the AP flat ride ops still being 2. The person who told me that has a long history of spreading false rumors and I'm sure you can take a guess who so I didn't believe him but I walked past the flying scooters and saw it is in single so I wasn't sure. Its cost cutting. I was told by one of the ops who worked with me when I was there.

I don't know if the popcorn scent wasn't working yesterday when I was there, but I did not smell any sort of popcorn scent in that section of the queue. I agree with your point about the animatronics and the risk of unruly kids potentially destroying them. When I first saw photos of Larry in there while the ride was under construction, my first thought was I was afraid that unruly kids may throw objects at him and/or go behind the barrier and try and touch him. I really hope they enforce zero tolerance of any sort of interfering with the animatronics in the queue and I really hope in 5-10 years they're still on top of the animatronics and it doesn't become one of those rides where some stuff is working and some isn't like Boo Blasters was.

I got the roasted pork at Grain and Grill for lunch today. They were out of alfredo so I got the potatos as my side. I'm surprised the alfredo is a side. Fettuchine Alfredo has always been a meal to me. For dinner, I got the smoked chicken with mac and cheese at Coney BBQ. I was very impressed with the chicken. It was pretty moist which is how I like it and it is a pretty good size piece of chicken. They ran out of the chicken right before me, but luckily they had more coming out right away so I was able to get it. I definitely would have a backup plan as it does look like the chicken will be very popular so it may be one that runs out a lot.

A few noticeable staffing cuts on some rides. The Eiffel Tower cut the base person Franklin's Flyers is a single op ride now Wasn't able to confirm it, but heard through the grapevine that the 2 Adventure Port rides are single op (correct me if wrong) Not a good look for capacity and throughput as that is apparently a vision for new CEO John Reilly

Im in line right now and so far I'm impressed! The exterior is growing on me. My one complaint so far is Larry's voice is too quiet while Maestro and Archie you can hear clearly anywhere in line. I also feel the "meow" from archie is overused and gets annoying after awhile especially that one section where it's just a line of meows lol. EDIT: After riding, I was really impressed! Great addition to the park and will be well recieved! I honestly expect full queues for it every day this year regardless! Also it was great to meet @BoddaH1994 and Noah in the line!

So no more bluegrass covers?! That would be such a blessing! Now all they need to do is fix the music in Camp Snoopy and we're all set!

Orion had a line that stretched to the path between the Junkyard Coaster and DB's splashdown. That was with social distancing though. Im sure the line would've been even longer if covid didn't happen and the ride opened on time. I think they would've used the Chaos building as overflow.

I don't think we've seen an opening day line this long since Orion or even Mystic. Bravo to the park for hyping everyone up for this! I can only imagine the opening day line for whenever The Vortex replacement happens if they hype it up right....

I take back almost everything I said about current park management the last few weeks! Thank you Tony and team for bringing back the orchestral music!

Really?! About time! What is it now?

I'm happy to see that the mods of the pass group got invited to media day seeing they were basically pushed away over the last couple of years by a certain individual that doesn't work at the park anymore. That's a good step 1 in restoring relationships. Step 2 would be inviting 2 certain podcasters to an event.

Now what the park needs now is their own gormet popcorn shop like WDW Magic Kingdom has. People would pay good money to make their own mixed popcorn bowl

Well since this thread is about to come to an end I want to thank everyone for another fun offseason of watching this come to life! Onto the next project whatever that might be!

If the line is short they intentionally only load one or 2 arms just to balance it.

Carnivale still mentions fireworks as part of the night finale. I say if they aren't going to do much park ran shows outside of Carnivale, then this would be a good time to do a Bands in Residence program to try and at least fill some of the empty spots for entertainment.

Lets take bets on how often the new merch cart will be open this season. I'm going with around 50% and that's being generous lol

To those who were origionally chosen, I hope the park does something to make up for it and I mean something well thought out and worth the cancellation not an extra bring a friend ticket or credit off of merch.

Herschend would probably need to sell off a few properties to come up with the money they would need to buy Kings Island. I don't think Six Flags would even think of giving up Kings Island. Too much of a cash cow. Until the park/corporate cleans house and brings in people who actually think outside the box and push for more entertainment. We see Over Texas and Great Adventure having more entertainment. Why can't KI who's attendance and profits are higher?

And sadly it looks like the Kings Island Theater will be dark during the peak summer season. I really hope we see something else in there after Brad leaves. KI really needs that indoor AC during that peak July/August heatwave!

Again it's early but the forecast for Saturday looks hit or miss with a 20% rain chance. Early forecast also is calling for 13-15 mph wind high which is fairly moderate especially high up so that may affect the 3 tower rides. Remember to take forecasts a week out with a grain of salt.

I believe that's Haunted Hotel at Funtown Splashtown USA which is a newer Sally creation

Looks like the ribbons are going up on the trusses