BryanJay

The two videos would be the video and shorts version of the same episode. I wouldn’t discount them not working on more episodes documenting the construction process, but I’d be worried personally of them spoiling too much if they did that.

I understood the All Park Passport thing from the sale, I'm still partially confused on what exactly this is so I can only imagine what the GP must think, but this is cool I suppose.

The Reddit source claims programming starts the first week of March and will take to months (installation’s definitely still going to be happening awhile into February regardless of how long it takes to program. My understanding is the animatronics and ride cars aren’t at the park yet, but don’t quote me on that.) If taken literally that would place the ride’s completion date at the start of May, but since the park did say it opens in April I’m now leaning towards it opening with the park (if nothing has changed it’s essentially a difference of a week, assuming there’s not a charity thing that would happen before passholder previews.) I’m also optimistic because the park said since the beginning that PT’s set to open in the spring, and Camp Snoopy/Adventure Port were always advertised as opening in Late Spring/the Summer.

Last season they didn’t have any shows inside the theater and used it as a meet and greet space that kept the doors opened. Depending on how many turnstiles they’d be able to fit I’d imagine it’d be easy enough to fit most of the crowds back there considering the reused ride system has consistent loading times and any returning ride operators have experience with it. For opening weekend it could potentially be an issue of deciding whether they want to create a within the Great Pumpkin Coaster entrance, or the exit to PT. I’m now questioning the source’s belief that it won’t be ready by opening day, but it also depends on how much integrity the park wants to put into a first impression. If show programming starts the first week of March and takes 2 months, April 18 is in sorta in the middle where if programming takes faster than expected it could be ready, or they could choose to open it with some effects potentially not working and making any adjustments within the weekdays before they begin daily OPs. It could maybe be a case where they do passholder previews until a few weekends into the season, but that would probably only make more people upset than if their flashlights weren’t working properly.

If I recall someone made a mockup in one of the threads, but I'm assuming for about the first month or so they'll loop it back by Pumpkin Coaster, possibly going through the Peanuts Showplace theater as well (Which I still think would be cool if they put some of the old displays they used for the lobby of Encore in there). They used a similar setup for the final week or so of Boo Blasters, but I imagine Phantom's going to have a larger turnout.

From my perspective (not being directly involved or knowing much about construction) I’d believe it isn’t a holdup, but rather they just didn’t plan for it to open April 17. The leaker said they’re completing theming until February, and beginning show programming which would be completed in about 2 months. I think this is the closest turnaround they could complete considering guests would be in the park for Winterfest which hasn’t been an issue. I selfishly hope they don’t do an unplanned soft opening because I really want to be there opening day, but it wouldn’t shock me if they opened it as soon as programming was finished, and it would be even more surprising to me if they waited until Memorial Day. Because it’s accessible and indoors, I’d assume it’s the kind of thing KI wouldn’t want sitting dormant besides when they absolutely had to for Haunt/Winterfest to allow for the building to be cleared.

Never trust everything some rando claims to know on Reddit... except for this one time, it's for sure legit. I'm not necessarily shocked, we haven't had a new addition open alongside the park in years. I'm just disappointed that Phantom couldn't be the exception. But I've been waiting like 15 years for this, what's another few weeks? I just hope they announce a firm date instead of having a random soft opening which I miss, and they jump up and down in anger for not choosing to go that day.

As of November it’s been said to be opening with the park in April, but I think it’s too early in construction/a liability for them to confirm that it is. I also won’t claim to know anything about construction but I assume there’s less room for error when retrofitting an indoor attraction with new props than there are with an outdoor project built from the ground up. But I choose to be optimistic. I have faith in Sally Dark Rides.

I wonder what the construction timeframe will be for that. In my mind the exterior would probably be the last aspect of construction to be completed, but who knows. I wonder if when we get closing to opening daymare, we’ll get more on-site construction updates outside of Curtain Class episodes. Part of me wants them to save any photos from inside the ride to be saved so it’s more of a surprise, but I’m also desperate for any updates so who cares.

I actually really love Sir Pretzel and the reasoning behind his name, he’s my favorite now because there’s no previous design from the original to compare him to. (I had a shock seeing they slightly changed Lionel’s outfit in the background and I’m hoping they do him justice (as if he was a vital character in the original)) Also RIP Bosco for real now, iykyk.

Here’s every animatronic (except one I guess, I’m not sure if they’re counting the gargoyle as one). I’m assuming some of the head sculpts will be reused for the main characters. I wonder if them being yellow within their model means they have facial movements (Which would align with Maestro and Larry well. The two oddballs with this theory are Hilda and the Boiler Men which I assume would talk but I after this new episode I also need to remember that it’s a homage to the original versus a remake. Also if Houdelini gets a voice that will be cool.) They all look fine here, and when judging the models with the physical figures we’ve seen I’m sure they’ll look fantastic!

Love the new precedent of announcing Curtain Call episodes in advance so I don’t have to stress about a random drop on Thursdays. Starting the new year off right.

So like… they’re fitting them in holiday outfits already.. Winterfest overlay?

Important to note that I still don’t think this is 100% what is in the ride vs early ideations: Bottom row,5th: Final scene where the Boiler Room was in the original. 4th row, 2nd: Larry turntable (with also the same flower setup as boo blasters) 4th row, 3rd: Peppers Ghost (??) stage scene. The 5th scene also looks to be Maestro at the organ again, so I wonder if this is before they got the budget and maybe used more elements from Boo Blasters retrofitted to Phantom (which they still could do but I think it’s a complete rebuild unless they use any props as easter eggs) 3rd row, 3-5: Houdelini, Hilda, and ?? Houdelini again??? Also after much reflection… I actually kind of feel bad at calling the documentary thing underwhelming I apologize. I think I expected more new footage of the animatronics, but this is also a good intro for someone who may not be extremely familiar with the phantom theater lore like me and probably everyone else who was refreshing for this all day. The next episode will be the best one yet.

Potential spoilers from new documentary episode

Simultaneously underwhelmed personally because I knew about this stuff before and not much new footage was shown (I get very high expectations so I expected a full ride pov in my mind ig lol), but very excited that this is a continuing series! What’s interesting to note is that there’s at least 3 private videos in that series, so either it’s a monthly thing leading up to March, or it’s on some other schedule. I also love the opening to the video so much. It’s very well done and honestly should be in like the commercial they’ll inevitably make for advertisements.

… guess I called off work for nothing today

I know Sally Dark Rides have done this with the past with other projects (Treasure Hunt the Ride) and I don't think it would involve much besides changing out the models they used in-game and adding decorations to the ride. Personally, I hope they wouldn't do anything until like 2028 for a Winterfest thing, but also people love the Haunted Mansion holiday overlay so who knows.

I actually really love this, animatronic theater shows are my favorite type of attraction and I’m sad that Kings Island never really had one (I don’t really count any of the action theater shows since they’re mostly movies). Absolutely with a phantom theater stage show, they’d have the bit where Garbonzo is shot out of the canon and shoots out to the back of the theater like Donald in Philarmagic. Semi related, but I always wondered what Phantom Theater would be like if they chose to build it in with Enchanted Voyage boat ride system (Flooded Theater?)

Thank you so much for sharing!! I’ve probably spent hours looking for this over the weekend so I really appreciate seeing this. Here’s what a noticed from it. First looks at Hilda and Houdelini. They both hook great digitally, and with all the others I’m sure they’ll look even better in person (Garbonzo looks sooooo good sculpted out). I’m assuming the character at the bottom is Sir Pretzel, they don’t look like they’d be Lionel to me. Based on how this figure is being constructed compared to the others (with pupils) I think this might be the static figure? Unless they count something like the culture of gargoyle which were also shown. Also the gum chewing comment on the poster is really weird to me, I wonder if that’s a reference to something in the new attraction. The no flash photography rule does make me feel better about this ride allowing photos on it, which I figured since Boo Blasters allowed phones out, but I’d be ****ed if I couldn’t take thousands of photos in this one.

Currently on the live cams, what I assume is some sort of ventilation or electrical work is going on. (Also for my last post I used ibispaint)

These are some very quick sketches I made, but this is sorta how I’m predicting the entrance will look like. At this point, I’m not expecting them to massively demolish the whole facade and more so do a paint job and overlay to make it look different enough to recognize it’s a different attraction, but not anything major since I think a majority of the budget is going into the animatronics and theming. I didn’t want to draw it, but especially since they’re canonically ghosts at this point, I think a small detail to add that would go a long way is putting tombstones in the grassy section of land to the right on the entrance.

So IAAPA is officially over. I have scoured literally every social media platform possible to find more/better footage of the BTS videos and concept art shown in the presentation, but if anyone took any they haven’t shown it yet (If anyone on this forum took it please share) but here’s all the new info/my predictions I have after the event. -Rather than being an abandoned theater that the guests just happen to stumble into, I interpret the vibe now as more as a theater for phantoms and wandering spirits (think the original retirement home idea for the haunted mansion at Disneyland) -The original soundtrack is rescored and will be present in this version. I interpret this as being Maestro’s new composition he discusses “Terror Toccata in D Minor” (unless of course he’s taking credit for bach’s work) -The animatronics on display went through 3 different spiels, and I believe this is the setup we’ll see in the queue. However, I think the particular Maestro animatronic they used will be located at the finale to the ride as opposed to the queue, as this figure has full legs and a “bowing” movement. The Larry animatronic could be in the queue to show off how to use the flashlight, or at the very beginning if they changed from the concept art for the opening scene they showed off. At this point, I think Maestro on the organ is a scene they’ll save for the physical ride (I think in the first room where the graveyard is now), but I really love the dynamic between Larry, Maestro, and the guests they showed off, so I’m fine with that. But I think there will be more that they say in the actual queue, I’d say more of a 15-40 minute loop. - We saw new bts videos showing off the Boiler Men, Arpeggio, the vulture from The Beastie, and Willard being wrapped up (by the ghost notes I assume) into the mummy. -They showed off the flashlight technology, which I’m very curious to see how it works. I wonder if the scoring system will be off of points or how many ghost notes you capture. -The park promises more updates throughout the Winter, which at this point I sorta hope they don’t show off too much more of the ride. Overall very impressed with the event, we got more than I expected. Thank you sally dark ride and Kings Island.

RIP to the Mighty Bosco appearing heavily in this thing, he’s probably still trapped in his dressing room

I already know I’m not going to last a day once the park actually releases merch, because I need phantom theater drink… I need $75 eBay reselling of the IAAPA poster which I’m not even sure is real because they’re selling like twenty of them… I need more footage because I’ve spent literal hours trying to find the footage they play on the side of the animatronics because I don’t know anyone going to IAAPA who can film it for me nor know if they even allow people to film that.