CoasterJack

Not necessarily retracked, but I've experience a few rollbacks this year. The Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion has had a rougher time than it's KI counterpart . It was closed basically all of 2006, and it's always been more rough in my opinion. I do agree with that video though. That welding job looks awful.

I haven't seen the actual animatronics during Haunt for a couple years, but when the display used to be out they were already looking kind of rough. I can only hope they've been given some TLC and have found a nice home somewhere in park storage. It would be a shame to see them thrown out, especially after all the time that went into making them. Maestro on the Organ was always really impressive and set the mood of the ride as a child, and surprisingly I wasn't terrified by his laugh.

If they do recycle the animatronics from Phantom Theater, they will definitely need a refurbishment. Maybe combining older Phantom Theater animatronics and creating some more modern animatroinics. Maestro was looking pretty worn out and tired the last couple years of the Haunt display. But I do like the idea of doing sort of a combination of the two. If there's one thing I miss about both Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Theater was the pre-show. Now it's just FunTV, but I miss the better days of the pop up ghosts, scooby, and Maestro playing the Organ were such a better use of the queue, and it made the line feel faster looking up at Maestro playing and chuckling.

Got to give a hats off to Cedar Fair on this one. 10 years ago, no one would have guessed Cedar Fair would reach this level of theming. While its been a progression from Dinosaurs Alive to Forbidden Frontier to Area 72, they've really started taking it up a notch with Mystic Timbers and Orion. While it's still not quite the level of the KECO or original paramount theming (90's & early 00's), I think they're really showing their dedication to this park. While still a small area, this is going to be one of the better themed areas in the Cedar Fair Chain. It'll be fun to see how it turns out, but I 'm already hyped (FF Queue extension, IMA SCORE!!!, Prop Building, backstory, "themed" food stand). This is really gonna be interesting, but I hope it convinces them to keep up the good job with theming and continue to try new things like this.

Agreed, the only problem being that the older coaster some parks have are located at smaller parks in the chain where they need to keep the coaster for capacity reasons. But I do agree, Kings Island has gotten the short straw in terms of coaster removals. But I think Kings Dominion has gotten worse luck and they might be in for more trouble with Anaconda. But I do hope to see Bat and Invertigo stick around for some time. Also I love the idea of a new film and renovated Action Theatre. That section is really lacking after the absence of Vortex, with basically just Wind seeker and Antique Autos.

So they only have special weeks or weekends where they offer this. Most of the time its posted last minute (like a week or two in advanced). It's a couple times it's been $14.99 per guest during Haunt. I took guests last year, however I only tried once, so I don't know if it works multiple times or only once per season. This year all regular season Wednesdays it's $21.99 per guest according to the Kings Island Website. Make sure to check the website often, they usually have lots of frequent offers for bringing guests.

Definitely Agree, Backlot and Adventure Express serve as great family coasters for those looking to move out of Planet Snoopy. Also the flame effect is always nice for the Haunt Fog. But I also agree that having the water effect return would be really nice. I know all the water effects and barrels were turn off on the second brake run, but does anyone know why they removed the final water splash or the on-ride audio system. Was there a water problem for the splash down or couldn't they have just made generic car noises and action music after the loss of the licensing?

Even though Back Lot Stunt Coaster is no where near a favorite coaster, at least we can be thankful we still have the fire effects. While it's nothing compared to what the theming used to be, we could always not have an effects, and have burnt out cop car lights, weeds and trees growing between the rocks. While something else would potentially look better in the plot of land, it serves it's purpose as a decent family coaster. At least our version is still the best kept out of the rest of the chain.