SmartCat7162

I’m really loving how active the socials have been about this new dark ride. It appears that the park and the marketing teams realize how special this is and they are really pushing it which makes me happy. You can tell there are lots of passionate people bringing this project to life and they want to show us all the work and time going into this addition!

It is nice to see that the park is once again pushing stuff like this on there socials. It seems that the current marketing team sees the value in stuff like this. It does bring pride to everyone in the area when they win so it is nice to see. When I was an associate it always felt good knowing that you contributed to that and even as a guest you get to contribute to it as well by voting.

Thanks for the clarification I could not remember so hopefully it will be back for next year. Especially since they painted the platform. But the chain has done crazier things than painting something and removing it right after.

I like how they integrated the online store with the rides and attractions on the site. Now they just need to update the store! Also a few of the shopping places are missing. Also the picture they have of the "Beast Cart" is a picture of The Beast Photo stand. The "Beast Cart" I believe is located under the arcade pavilion. The Sweet Spot and Kings Island Collections (I think that is what they are calling it now formerly the Squishmallow store) is missing from the new site and the photo for Coney Confections picture is severely outdated and the fixture in the picture is no longer in the store. The food stand side of the website looks fine, but it appears that the merchandising team could update their side of the site or at least get new pictures sent in.

The monster is still listed on the new website which is a good sign. They did remove the message that they were waiting to install a part. Was this ride open for WInterFest last year? If so I really hope that we see its return for Winterfest. If not things still look very promising that this is not the end for the ride.

My days to pick from are Sunday January 4th, Monday January 5th or Tuesday January 6th. I am hoping to go the day that will be the least busiest which I’m thinking will be that Tuesday since it is getting farther from the first and into the week. But any input is appreciated. We did decide to get the park hopper between IOS and USO. Once again thanks for all the help already!! Are operations in the parks typically really good? Right now my bucket list is Velocicoaster and Hagrids. Are there any other must ride attractions?

I am unsure probably a week day it might be January 5th. Is there a day you recommend for going to the parks in early January?

I was just given an opportunity to go to either Epic Universe or USO and ISA. This trip will be in early January 2026 probably the 2nd week. I have never been to any of the Universal Parks and only have one day to go. Right now I am leaning towards going to USO and ISA, but would be open to going to Epic. My main reason for not going to Epic right now is crowds and I feel like it will still be a pretty big issue in January. Also ride reliability at the two parks are still a lot better then epic from what I have heard. What do people think about this is it really that much better to go to Epic. I am really wanting to go ride VelociCoaster so that is one of the reason I am picking the two parks.

If you were to split up the parks how would you do it?

I thought ZDT's closed because they could not find a buyer and the owners were looking to retire. If this was not the case please let me know.

This may go even lower than a Six Flags play. These are two parks that were shut down without a goodbye not just rides. For me it is way worse to shut down a park without final goodbyes then rides. This is actually crazy to me and I feel for the people who just got places that they loved shut down without any prior notice. If Six Flags did this I think people would go berserk. I get that they may be smaller parks without rides or anything and just like an arcade and some mini golf, but someone grew up there and loved to go there so it stinks to see.

What did you think about the zoo portion of SFDK? I feel like I don’t hear much about it and I think they have a pretty large collection of animals.

I really like this idea since it will truly stimulate the rider and light up their brains. It would be revolutionary nothing like this would ever be done before and KI would once again be able to be the first to do something. I would be worried because it wouldn't be my instagram reels so it wouldn't be tailored to me, but they could make it so you can login in to your account.

Thanks for all the pictures by any chance did you get to checkout the Sweet Spot? If so how did everything look is it mostly new desserts for haunt with a few classics returning or is it the same menu?

If they have a poster board of menu items in front of the stands please take pictures and post them here. I won't be able to make it to the event this year, but wanted to see all the food offerings. I would really appreciate it. I still am holding out hope that they post the menu online, but they still have yet to.

They teased some desserts and dishes on the instagram and twitter. More dishes were posted on the instagram than the twitter. I put the descriptions from the post on here, but there are pictures posted as well. Here is the instagram post if you want to check it out yourself: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOqswrZD3HQ/?igsh=bzg5Y3ozdjNrYTVj ”kingsislandpr Fall flavors have arrived at Kings Island! * From spooky sweets to savory seasonal favorites, these dishes are a treat for your tastebuds. Here's a peek at what's cooking: Harvest Moon Mischief Flatbread: Sink your teeth into this loaded flatbread from International Street's LaRosa's, with ground Italian sausage, pickled onion, sliced tomato and provolone. Boo! Berry Wings: Get these crispy wings coated in a sweet and tangy blueberry BBQ sauce at Coney Bar-B-Que. Rampage Chicken Paprikash: A comforting classic! Find this chicken paprikash with a potato pancake, lemon crema and parsley at Grain & Grill. Brimstone Cream Puff: Sweet Spot is serving up this delicious red cream puff with a crunchy black crisp and a chocolate cherry filling. Boonanas: Swing by Sweet Spot for a frozen, chocolate-dipped banana customized with your favorite toppings. Spiderweb Cheesecake: This spooky cookies & crème cheesecake, topped with white chocolate icing and a chocolate spider, is waiting for you at Sweet Spot. (Please note: Items shown that are not served at Sweet Spot are only available until 7 PM.)”

Swapping to Looney Tunes at this point in time would probably be too much of a financial burden for the company, so when they ran the numbers they realized they could save money in the short term by renewing the contract.

At the end of the day the little kids do not care. It is more about what the parents want because at that age the parents mostly decide what the kids do. So if the parents are nostalgic to peanuts then they will want there kids to like it thus making them go to the park. The theming is more for parents and awards more then anything most people could care less about what the ride is called and looks like and more about what it does. Most kids say they want to ride something because they see what it does not because it is painted to look like something else.

They are able to keep costs down because they do not order for one restaurant and do not have different suppliers for everything. They are still producing enough food to be able to have the cost of the goods be low enough. But if you are operating as smaller individual locations you are not able to get the bulk discounts since you are ordering for one location and not able to use the same type of chicken. You aren't getting the discount you get when you order a full pallet of chicken breasts as individual locations and that would cause the cost to make higher and thus less profit. Also if they franchise food locations they make less money since they are renting out the location versus running it. If the park runs the location they get all the profit and all the loss. But if they rent it out they only make money on the rent which would have to be less then how much the stands make or else it wouldn't be profitable for an outside person to come in and run it and that means the park loses the money they would get if they just ran it themselves. While it seems like a good idea on paper at the end of the day the park makes less money since they don't run the stand. The chain wants to make as much money as it possibly can so keeping food at the park level helps to bring in more revenue.

I don’t see the divesting happening ever. Kings Island has a dedicated food warehouse and warehouse team and also an ordering team. If the park were to have outside vendors more shipments would show up requiring more warehouse workers to unload trucks/ more shifts that will need to be worked thus more labor hours. The park makes more money by keeping food in house. If you had third party vendors you would also probably have more shortages in product due to the fact that they wouldn’t have as much dedicated space to storage.

Do you have the attendance number for the two or a rough estimate?

https://investors.sixflags.com/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Six-Flags-Reports-Strong-Attendance-Growth-and-Season-Pass-Unit-Sales-Through-Labor-Day-Weekend-Reaffirms-2025-Guidance/default.aspx?utm_source=ITPS+Leisure+News&utm_campaign=c09a5b7ad3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_09_11_07_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-c09a5b7ad3-231742673&fbclid=IwY2xjawMxS2JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFmWjJKTmFsUHkwMThWdUJTAR4ANYMZev83cjk3zZ21AuXRFd1IcDwrey1WeHP_69kTsvo0jvbRGK2sJFoimQ_aem_G_ZBEykd5KwKttAXJDwWQw This was posted by corporate and it looks like the company may be on the come up! It seems like the last few weeks have shown and increase in attendance and season pass sales.

https://investors.sixflags.com/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Six-Flags-Reports-Strong-Attendance-Growth-and-Season-Pass-Unit-Sales-Through-Labor-Day-Weekend-Reaffirms-2025-Guidance/default.aspx?utm_source=ITPS+Leisure+News&utm_campaign=c09a5b7ad3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_09_11_07_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-c09a5b7ad3-231742673&fbclid=IwY2xjawMxS2JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFmWjJKTmFsUHkwMThWdUJTAR4ANYMZev83cjk3zZ21AuXRFd1IcDwrey1WeHP_69kTsvo0jvbRGK2sJFoimQ_aem_G_ZBEykd5KwKttAXJDwWQw This was posted by corporate and it looks like the company may be on the come up!

Current Six could never bait and switch because expectations are already so low. It would be impossible for anyone to expect anything other than the bare minimum and even then they surprise me and somehow find ways to go below.

It is interesting to see this. I assume it is because the events didn't make enough or didn't break even. Its interesting that they cancelled the events but added other days in different places. I am guessing they are hoping people will show up later in the year and spend money in the park. Only time will tell if it works or not.