Hawaiian Coasters 325

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

A little disappointed they're still keeping the stone bridge. Sorry, but this is a THEATER not a CASTLE. Name me a theater/opera house that has a castle bridge.

People really thought the queue would be next to showplace and the station would be where the brake shed is? Tbh they should've kept the old Rivertown Mining Company building and used it as the queue kinda like how Maverick used WWL's old station. Now it's just cattlepins with tarps as shade structures which doesn't scream "rusting/old west" to me.

I've said it many times Camp Snoopy feels unfinished. You can tell by looking at the concrete in the area. It's a mess of old and new concrete with some brownish stained concrete in different areas. The area over by the "new" sign near the flume is pathetic imo. It should've been all the brownish stained concrete kinda like in Adventure Port the year prior. Also why on earth does Kidzbop play in that area when they could be playing Vince Guaraldi music there? Soapbox Racers queue was done fairly well imo with the wooden posts, lighting, and decor but the whole area should have gotten that level of detail. They could easily have swapped out the metal ride fencing at the flats with wood fencing like other parks but chose not to. They could've done more wood light posts with lanterns (like Adventure Port) but chose not to. They could've added more trees to eventually become more shade, but chose not to. They could've added more "camptivities" to the area (ie scavenger hunts, craft parties, dance parties, and even bonfires as the sun goes down), but chose not to. They could've added a better soundtrack/playlist to the area but chose not to. Notice a common denominator? Goes back to my rants in prior threads.

Look I agree that the employee should not have taken that photo and posted it. In my years working at KI, when we would go in for on ride training, we would be told we can't take pics of new stuff/construction that hadn't been publicly shared by the park. I especially remember training day 2023 as the rides I worked were near Adventure Port and we were told if we got caught taking pictures of the construction we would get in serious trouble. At the same time, it's not that hard to make a simple announcement saying that "the decision has been made to retire this ride" before anything gets out by unauthorized people. It's also not hard if they know in advance a ride is going to close to announce it and let people get their last ride. Even if it is a ride with low ridership, it is still someone's favorite ride. I thought this would change with the new CEO, but I wonder if it is those on the board of directors who don't want to publicly announce these things.