BryanJay

Posting this here since it feels more relevant, but the recent prop put out on display is confirmed to be one of the interactive lantern points. Definitely doesn’t rule out this being a clue for something, but is definitely an explanation for why it’s out this year.

My personal opinion on the new decoration is that it’s nothing more than that: A decoration that’s basically used as a random troll for fans or a publicity stunt. SOB is one of those attractions KI likes to reference often (Adventure Port and random crates around the parks as an example) and I feel like this is just another one of those. With the addition of stuff like the Phantom Theater car infront of Boo Blasters, I think someone who works in the Haunt Decoration team just like having these on display to guest. Absolutely hope I’m wrong and this is a clue to something though, I’d love to see basically any kind of wooden coaster that just uses the name.

Absolutely love whoever’s decision it was to put references to past attractions in their old ride areas (Such as the Phantom Theater car that was placed outside Boo Blasters)

I currently have been hyperfixating on both Phantom Theater and Haunted Houses (mostly like Universal’s Horror Nights houses bc there’s no new ones at Haunt), so naturally I’ve been thinking on how to combine the two. Here’s my concept for a Phantom Theater themed Haunt house, inspired by elements of the Universal houses. I feel like the Haunt houses at Kings Island could benefit from more storytelling (something they’ve improved upon with Hotel St. Michelle and some elements of Alien Abyss). I don’t necessarily know if a Phantom Theater house would be the best direction for Haunt (If it’s too scary it would taint the IP in children’s minds, and a well-themed house would likely be a large enough investment that they would want it to be around for several years, potentially delaying any plans for an attraction return), but I’m also a sucker for an old ride returning through a Haunt (See Dueling Dragons at HHN). The following is my very rant-y concept for a PT house: The basic plot is that the house would vaguely be an origin story for how each of the performers from the attraction died (Yes I know in the original ride they’re not canonically ghosts but shhhh). Some scare aspects for this idea are taken from the Universal Haunts, so after each I’ll put a video link and time stamp for what I envision with it, warning for gore in some. Facade: The house entrance would be a recreation of the original attraction facade. Organ music is heard in the guest waiting area, with occasional snippets from the original Maestro queue recording. Before entering the house, an usher (perhaps Broken-Neck Nicki) explains the safety information and a brief explanation of the house’s plot Room 1: Theater Entrance A Candle lit lobby with torn curtains scattered around the walls. The queue posters from the original attraction would be displayed as well. A scareactor dressed as Maestro pops out of a curtain. “So you wanted to see the theater, did ya?” (1:17 https://youtu.be/-AhvQ-TJPdE?si=zVBwL88aL09T_EWY) Room 2: Hallway A long hallway with the dressing room doors from the ride. A Willard Warbler actor would abruptly slam a door open and shout at the guest. “Oh dear, close that door!” At the end of the hall, what is seemingly a mirror would ‘break’, with Larry the Usher popping out. (1:07 https://youtu.be/-AhvQ-TJPdE?si=zVBwL88aL09T_EWY) Room 3: Houdelini’s Rehersal Room A Houdelini actor pulls his demonic rabbit out of the hat. Turning to a corner, a short hallway is filled with bodies being mutilated by the magic equipment. Included is a sawed in-half Larry still in the box. A sculpture of the rabbit is seen mauling on Houdelini at the end of the hall. Room 4: Hilda Bovine Rehearsal Room A dark room with scattered wooden beams blocks the field of view. Rotting skeletons dressed as Vikings would be scattered across the room, along with props such as shields and music sheets. Hilda pops out from a hidden curtain and screams. “AAHHH!!” Room 5: Backstage A room filled with hanging theater sandbags that the guests have to walk through. A scareactor of one of the stagehands pops out, with a corpse caught hanging in the ropes next to him. At the end of the hallway is an electrical panel, which an electrified Gus the stage manager jumps out next to, shining a flashlight in the guest’s eyes. “The backstage is for performers only!” Room 6: The Great Garbanzo Rehearsal Room An extension of the backstage area, a cannon set next to guests fires smoke, seemingly into the ceiling. An actor dressed as The Great Garbanzo then jumps out, manically laughing. Room 7: Balcony Hallway A thin corridor with green walls. At the end sits No Legs Larry (either a live scareactor using a mirror effect, or just a prop), leading guest into the theater. “The show is just about to begin!” Room 8: Stage Guests walk across the stage filled with smoke. (1:54 https://youtu.be/u6xMv74SUBY?si=64JaPAl5DD6vtcME) A Lionel Burymore actor would pop out next to a castle facade, with stab marks clearly visible on his chest. Mannequins would be set up across the room dressed as Houdelini, Hilda, Garbonzo, Willard Warbler, and several theater-goers. A Maestro actor would be seen in the center, playing his organ. (1:21 Room 9: Prop Room Guest would enter the prop room, filled with references to the original attraction and leftover props from random past houses. A Mummy scareactor would emerge out of the original sarcophagus prop, with a rat puppet also being used. Room 10: Boiler Room A collapsed wall in the prop room would lead into the boiler room. Pipes and crates would be scattered across the room, with the original furnace moved over from Slaughterhouse. A heat effect would blast guests as they crossed, with two scareactors dressed as the boiler-men. “How about some heat?” Guests would turn into a final corner, with a final Maestro jumpscare at the exit of the house. “You’ll be back! You’ll be baaaack!”

A new scarezone located near the Kings Island Theater? Hmm, could we be getting a Phantom Theater Scarezone?!(Absolutely not, but I’ll always try to interject that ride into any conversation)

Admittedly, most of my disappointment that this concept may be the dark ride they go with for the next 10+ years is because I’m salty it’s not a Phantom Theater reboot, but I do objectively think this is a poor ride theme to go with for a peanuts dark ride. From the concept art and description, it appears that this ride would be extremely similar to the SpongeBob dark ride in Vegas, with multiple carnival games on small screens with a large screen at the end simulating motion (Link for those interested https://youtu.be/GrC_cdI0j-c?si=js4mckg8G_cUjqbB ), and I don’t think that game experience is nearly as good as the Toy Story Mania concept it’s imitating. I think the other two detriments to this idea are that with the 4-6 person vehicles they showed would absolutely kill the current Boo Blasters capacity, making the wait times much longer when it’s currently 5-30 minutes maximum, and that the peanuts brand doesn’t really fit in with the carnival theme, which is probably done to future-proof the ride incase they lose the license. I do think that the updated shooter ride idea can work, but I’d prefer something more closer to the Spiderman webslingers or minion blast attractions at Disney and Universal Studios respectively (and themed to Phantom Theater because just look at my profile picture)

Here’s my long-winded rants of what I’d add to each section: International Street: Could technically count as the Planet Snoopy one, but retheme Boo Blasters into an updated Phantom Theater. I feel like there’s been a recent trend in parks to bring back nostalgic past attractions (Think Knott’s Beary Tales or DarKoaster) and I think Phantom could be KI’s best attraction for that since the dark ride selection of the park is weak. Planet/Camp Snoopy: Retheme the remainder of Planet Snoopy into Camp Snoopy. Basically just making the exteriors of the current rides more rustic and replacing that Kidz Bob type music. Rivertown: The Tomb Raider/Crypt building desperately needs a replacement, as the park doesn’t have many indoor rides and it takes up a large spot of land. For the theme of the replacement, I can see a mineshaft as you’d be able to use some of the existing rockwork in the queue. Unfortunately, I’m not too familiar types of rides, especially that can fit into the building, but a wild mouse coaster similar to the newly added one in Cedar Point could be a good option. Vortex/Backlot Area: As I and I alone have uniquely noticed, the area where Vortex was remains empty. Unlike most who pitched ideas, I don’t know much about what coaster manufacturers to suggest what type of coaster it could be, but I think the park could use a spinning coaster akin to the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster at EPCOT. I have two themes I think could work well for this idea: Either set it in a new area make it a shipyard or move it to coney mall and make it carnival themed. For the shipyard, the queue could be a themed fishing village, and the coaster could be set over water with sunken ships to the side. I could see the coaster’s name being “Maelstrom”, as it’s another type of storm. For the carnival idea, you could theme it to going past a carnival ride graveyard (like going through the center of a Ferris wheel). This idea could keep the blinking lightbulbs on the lift hill, paying homage to Vortex’s lift. Coney Mall: There’s no way any park would invest in something like this any year past the 90’s, but I’d love to see a continually running theatrical show in the old action theater. As someone whose favorite theme park attractions include MuppetVision 3D and the Country Bear Jamboree at the Disney parks, a 10-20 minute air conditioned show that doesn’t require actors can be great for crowded days at a park. Unfortunately can’t think of a theme that’s not a blatant rip-off of one of the two above, but would love to see something like this regardless. Area 72: Currently a very solid area, but if they wanted another addition a themed indoor flat ride could be neat. You can have something like a Matterhorn attraction with a preshow and themed queue (similar in sale to Alien Encounter at Disney or the Alien Abyss Haunt House, minus the horror aspect). Adventure Port: Only unrealistic change would be to add more ability to spin to cargo loco, but I imagine you can’t randomly change the ride mechanics after opening (same applies for more capacity on sol spin) Action Zone: Bulldoze everything but The Bat and Banshee and start fresh. I have the same ideas basically everyone has suggested, either being a haunted themed area or a DC universe area. Invertigo has horrible capacity, and Congo Falls is the worst of the water rides. Thus ends my Action Zone roast. (Upon reading the initial question of this thread, I realized area was referring to different park aspects rather than park sections, but put too much effort into typing these out so enjoy my ideas lol)

I don’t believe these have all been posted in one place before, but here’s the photos of the queue posters.

Hello! Since Phantom Theater Encore, I have been collection as much photos and footage of the Phantom Theater attraction as I can. I currently have a collection of 300+ photos and several audio/video files. (If curious, I share what I can on this YouTube account: https://youtube.com/@phantomtheaterarchives2052?si=UIXhaYLS-9n05Z12). I’m wondering if anyone on this forum would have any photography or videography of the attraction that they may have taken (whether it be of the attraction itself, haunt displays, or anything else). A current main searching point for me currently is audio files for the queue, either the turntable or full Maestro audio (~10 minutes of maestro’s is posted to YouTube but it was likely closer to 30-60 minutes). I also haven’t been able to find the video or audio for the talking portrait projections, but I believe those to be completely lost after speaking to the creator. Anything shared would be greatly appreciated! If anyone else is looking for something specific from the attraction as well, I can see if I have it. Thanks!

I made an area concept for a Kings Island version of the DC Universe Land that’s at several Six Flags parks. I made a majority of the concepts rethemed attractions (Mostly because I don’t really want a huge IP-based land in the park and I was too lazy to go through the effort.) Banshee- Blue Beetle Congo Falls- Swamp Thing’s Plunge Delirium- Starro Invertigo- Reverse Flash The Bat- The Batman In Xtreme Skyflyer’s Section I put ‘Battle For Gotham: DC Heroes Collide’, which would be a mix of the DC shooter ride that’s at Six Flags parks already and the Spider-Man Ride at Islands of Adventure. I made a basic ride layout for this since it would be the only attraction I’d be excited for if it was added to the park.

I have a very bold prediction for tomorrow’s Haunt announcement. From what I’ve seen no one’s mentioned this and I’m sure there’s some information that I don’t know about that will disprove this immediately. With the gutting of Son of Beast station, I think there might be a chance of a house that’s subtly inspired by the coaster (akin to Dueling Dragons from Horror Nights at Universal). I don’t have evidence for it besides “it would be neat”, but I thought I’d share it anyways.

I made some concept art for what I would retheme Action Zone into. It still keeps the horror theme that The Bat and Banshee fit into, and replaces some of the older flat rides to fit the cryptid forest theme.

I made this virtual ride-through of how I would bring Phantom Theater back:

I don’t know if anyone would know anything about this, but I was reading the descriptions for the new Hotel St. Michelle and it honestly seems a lot like a Phantom Theater house. I might be just be making a stretch, but especially with it taking place in the 1920’s, and the detail of going through a boiler room, I have a theory that it may have been planned and partially constructed as a PT house, but have been changed during development to be a hotel.

Here’s some concept art that I made for a possible Phantom Theater revival. I feel like there’s a strong chance of the ride being reimagined after the success of Encore. I feel like it would likely be placed inside the Boo Blasters building in order to save money on a new ride system/building. This may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think that there’s a chance the practical show scenes from the original could be modernized and reimagined instead of relying on screens or a shooter element. I also feel like a revival could include animatronics, but with less movement compared to the originals.