johnjniehaus

Oh I agree on using characters that were already created but how would they truly know if those characters were still relevant or engaging 20 years later if they hadn't done the show? I think it was a great way to honor the history of the park but if that show had bombed do you think we'd be seeing them invest a sizeable amount in a new Phantom Theater ride? I think not. So I agree the motivation behind the show was probably 90% let's pay homage to the history of the park for its 50th anniversary but I do think they always had it in the back of their mind to "test" the audience of how many people remember and still enjoy these characters.

So it was a test all along! Hahaha!

I also saw this and thought it's kinda cool the theater is being used in the office season

I'm curious what this big surprise sequence is in the ride where we're being watched?

I personally would love to see phantom theater characters return considering they did have a maestro character when the original opened. You know people would line up for photos with arpeggio (the cat) and larry

I personally am digging the purple wallpaper. I get the sentiment shared here that the old version of the ride had a dilapidated elegance to it that the new one probably won't have. Is the new one a little more cartoonish? Yes. But I'm approaching it as a new version a new ride entirely not trying to replicate the old one. To me this is a restoration of the theater and won't have that same dilapidated haunted feel. It will pull the nostalgia of the original characters into a more "fun" reopening of the theater that has been fixed up for an opening night performance and isn't sitting in ruin anymore

It looks like to me that the busts are gone and they filled in the walls. Like notice the frame that doesn't have glass in it. There is clearly no hole in the wall anymore where the bust would be... I'm curious if the busts will be incorporated somewhere else in the ride or que if they are indeed doing screens in the hallway

Glad for you too. Unfortunately I'm planning a big trip back to Ohio and was hoping to do Pennsylvania and now I'm really questioning if thunderation is worth rethinking my entire plan and changing flights around...

I'm personally in the camp of put boocifer in Coney mall for Halloween and let him for a few years like they did to the original PT characters. I personally don't love boo blasters and hope they don't give the new PT a cheapened look by trying to reuse a bunch of that outdated garbage

This is the proper way to retire a ride for sure. I've never been to SDC but I'm going to do my best to get out there as thunderation is one of my bucket list rides and while I'm sad to see the end of another arrow mine train, I've heard it doesn't get the lines and isn't as popular as what it once was. I'm assuming it also probably has heavier maintenance costs being an arrow. So while it's unfortunate to lose any ride I commend the park for giving everyone a great opportunity to send it off in style

Good! I was last at Holiday World in 2022 and I rode voyage and legend all day - both elite coasters. Then I rode Raven and the end was very uncomfortable and rough (and I always said mean streak wasn't that bad so I know I'm not wimpy when it comes to roughness). I only rode Raven twice. Wanted to like it much more than I did. I'll be excited to give it another go when I visit the area in August this year!

It would be interesting to know. Obviously the original animatronics were probably more simplistic and the special effects didn't include screens or laser guns. So my guess is less programming but they could have run into some interesting problems just from the standpoint that it was a new ride and pretty good for its time

Looking forward to riding this when I visit in 2026!

Great to hear that it's for sure coming back this season. I too am hoping for some more of the lights to be fixed and I personally think it would be cool if the pods were painted a different color and leave the main structure black. Guess we'll see

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Well, my partner and I just took a small two day trip down through Oregon to hit up some of the lesser known rides and attractions that aren't at the amusement parks that everyone knows about (Oaks Park & Enchanted Forest). We started with a stop at the Clackamas Town Center for a ride on their carousel which cost $5 per rider and you must be under 150lbs to ride a horse. Thankfully I'm just under that but my partner had to ride the chariot. They also had a kiddy Ferris wheel with a max weight of 90lbs per rider so neither of us could do that. Next stop was Salem's Riverfront Carousel which is a wooden community carved carousel from the early 2000s. Very beautiful and had a wide variety of animals. They had a brass ring machine that they were not using so I'm unsure why but it definitely wasn't working during our visit. Rides are $2 each or $15 for unlimited for the day. $5 minimum charge on a credit card. Later that evening, we went to the Albany Carousel Museum which has a Dentzel mechanism with custom carved animals. The carousel also has a ring machine and they had 2-3 brass rings per cycle. $2 per ride but you can ride unlimited for $10 between 4-7pm. The volunteers running this place were very generous and friendly. Wonderful operation. On the second day after a stop at Tillamook and Cannon Beach we went up to seaside. There is a small amusement park called Captain Kid which has a small coaster and go karts but they do not operate during the winter. We went to the carousel mall which has a fiberglass reproduction of a Dentzel carousel. It was also $5 to ride. The final stop was at Funland Arcade in Seaside, OR. They had a nice size fascination parlor with about 40 tables so we played a couple rounds of that. We also rode their tilt-a-whirl and lusse auto scooters. They were each $5 per ride and fascination was .50¢ per round. The tilt-a-whirl was arguably the best one we've ridden as they speed it up and slow it down during the cycle to make the cars spin more. The lusse auto scooter is one of only two that I know of that particular design with the second one being at Knoebels. There are a couple others by lusse but they aren't the classic scooter appearance or they are kiddy versions. I think this set was a bit more out of control than even Knoebels! Long cycle and lots of good bumping and shoving and skidding!

If all of this is true, I must admit it's better than I'd hoped for the site. I mean we all hate the fact Coney closed and we hate the fact that MEMI didn't seem the most straightforward with the goals or intentions at first and don't get me started on sunlight pool. However, if they keep the old arcade buildings and food court for office space I can respect that. Also I'm very happy to hear moonlight gardens might be fitting into the new plans for the space because it's been a staple for Cincinnati for so long. I was also pleasantly surprised about them keeping the picnic pavilion area which I remember being a nice venue spot for festivals when I was a kid. Nice to see that alot of the property (minus sunlight pool) is being retooled to fit the new use of the space.

Considering I moved to Seattle, I will not be planning a visit to the park until after July 4th just to be safe haha! Not flying halfway across the country for opening day only for them to not have Phantom ready

I'd say this is the most excited I've been for a season at the park since the 50th anniversary. Getting the new Phantom Theater, the remodeled Gift shop, restoration of the 100 year old carousel, and the return of the Monster - it's shaping up to be a good year! As for new additions, I honestly think I'm more hyped for PTON than either Orion or Mystic Timbers. I would rank my excitement for new attractions through the last decade or so as follows - 1. Banshee 2. Phantom Theater 3. Orion 4. Adventure Port 5. Antique Autos 6. Mystic Timbers 7. Woodstock Gliders/Space Buggies 8. Camp Snoopy 9. Anything to do with the water park Worth mentioning I was more excited about the retracking of The Beast and racer than I was about any new additions the last decade

Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain is also turning 50!

I too like some of the others on here thought the Phantoms were too "cute" or "friendly" when I first saw them but the design has grown on me. In the original they were borderline creepy and I think that's the difference in the two attractions - original phantom they were meant to be creepy and haunted. The new one they are supposed to be engaging characters once again but they are a bit more family friendly. I think it has the potential to be a great ride and as I have said before I think it's great that people are being creative and not just bringing back a 30 year old ride. I know we still have beloved old dark rides at Disney or Knoebels but when you are creating something new for today's audiences I think it's natural that it changes a bit from what the expectations of a dark ride were in 1992. Oh I also don't think I've mentioned yet that I think the red "box seats" or doom buggies look better than even the original ones did. The greyish blue was classic of course but the red gives it a real restored theater vibe. Really digging the red ride vehicles

Absolutely they don't look the same but I think everyone knows that even if they create a carbon copy of the original somehow it still wouldn't be as good in the eyes of the original fans. So pleasing the original fans is not the goal. The goal is to bring back characters that are popular in park lore and to create a ride that original fans will enjoy because it's a new version of the original and create something that appeals to the average guest and to kids because while I know phantom theater is located on international Street technically it's so close to Planet Snoopy that alot of kids go through that building

Oh I don't disagree but let's face it times are changing and they aren't giving parks new additions like they used to with the exception of Cedar Point. I'm not saying I agree with them not investing in a other major coaster I'm just saying it can always get worse. At least they are still improving our water park, giving us a "new" section of the kids area, and bringing back a beloved dark ride. I look at a park such as Great Adventure that lost nearly 8 rides I believe since 2022 and I say, I'm so thankful we're not that park because there's always a worse end of the stick to get. Kings Island might not be the top flagship investment park it historically has been but at least so far I would say they haven't screwed us like they have some of the smaller parks and how they did great adventure

Isn't that the truth! We might complain because Kings Island has historically gotten new coasters more often but looking at some of the other parks like Michigan's Adventure and Six Flags St Louis - yeesh it's been almost two decades since they got anything good

Orion has been successful but when it comes down to giga/hyper comparison, Cedar Point and Carowinds have a better grasp on two different rides. I think Orion gets hate amongst enthusiasts me included for being too similar to Diamondback. The large airtime hills just do the exact same thing. For example let's take Cedar Point - hyper is airtime machine and the giga is the positive g speed machine. Take Carowinds - hyper is light floater airtime and Fury is low to the ground speed mixed with some airtime. Orion suffers from not having that speed element distinction from Diamondback much how behemoth and leviathan feel very similar (so what if one of them is a little bit taller?) point is that layout wise Orion and Diamondback are both modified out and back layouts that focus on big airtime hills. Literally very few difference and that's why it gets all the hate it does. Having said that it's still my #3 in the park and it was an improvement from Firehawk albeit less unique in the lineup. So I think for me it was a more than worthy replacement and if CGA hadn't run into permits and permission issues one must consider that we very well might not have gotten a giga at all so their loss was our gain