RingMaster

If they were to indeed retheme Boo Boo's Blasters, I'd fully expect the park to go the route of Knott's with how they handled the "return" of their Bear-y Tales dark ride, using a hybridization of screens and physical sets/props. Granted, Knott's had it slightly easier because it was really just a re-skin of what was already a 4D shooter attraction (Voyage to the Iron Reef). In the case of Phantom Theater RIP (Resurrection In Progress), we'd be looking at a more substantial overhaul of the former attraction, with maybe a brand new ride system having to be installed.

While at Cedar Point on Monday, there was a woman behind me while waiting on line for Steel Vengeance who was thoroughly convinced that it was the oldest ride in the park, simply because it was "a wooden roller coaster." Her reaction to the ride op manning the metal detectors telling her the actual age of the attraction was priceless, followed by her continued confusion on why an amusement park would still want to build a wooden coaster. Just for comparison's sake, Steve is set to begin preschool this year at 4. Blue Streak, now the park's only full-blooded wooden coaster, just went to his 40-year high school reunion last week and received a commemorative plaque by his former peers.

Millie just received a new cable lift this season, however, the lift isn't running as fast as it normally should. On my first trip up this season (beginning of June), one of her trains stopped halfway up the lift. Actually, that first trip was probably the roughest one considering almost half of the coaster lineup went down due to maintenance issues at some point (Millie, Val, RouRou, Mav, Gem, Keeper). This second trip (as of yesterday) was way better, even with the onslaught of mayflies. Maverick went down at least two or three times, but everything else was running fine. I will say, though, the new Farmhouse restaurant in Frontier Town is an all-around great dining experience. I had the wood-fired steak slices and their roasted smashed potatoes and they were incredible for amusement park food. I wouldn't completely say it was worth bulldozing their second Antique Car ride over, but it's definitely better than something on the level of BSC. On that note, expect to see a lot of food locations at the park running at half capacity. Even though it was a Monday, two of the major food locations with dual lines/stations (Farmhouse and The Corral) only had one side servicing customers.

Some more shots of the beautiful model in the lobby of the theater. I was very impressed with Encore and I hope it will come back next season with an expanded runtime.

Honestly, I don't think it will because we've been here countless times before. I'd argue that it was at its worst in the years between Diamondback and Banshee (see the infamous Save Son of Beast Facebook fan page), but even in that instance, attendance didn't suffer anywhere nearthe extent people proclaimed it would. Now if they pull a Disney by hiking ticket/pass prices up and blacking out dates for all but Platinum passholders to curb any massive crowds come next season, then it'd be a different story.

Given the teaser posters involve coasters/attractions that have scientific and/or flying motifs, I would assume subsequent posters will require attractions that share the same somewhat similar qualities: Vortex - A giant robot arm gripping coaster track as the ride's logo? Yeah, seems science-y enough. The Bat - Given the ride's previous incarnation as a fighter jet, I'd assume they'd add it to the list. Banshee - Not scientific, yet it's still got the massive flying motif going for it. Delirium - Not a coaster, but this could tie into the "experimental programs" the teaser posters indicate. Drop Tower - See Delirium. This also works in terms of "experiments" featuring drops of various heights given the 315 foot tower height (albeit with the actual drop on the ride being 265 feet). This also assumes the sequence in the posters ends with 8.

I do find it interesting that both the regular and Fast Lane queues are hard-routed to go through said "New Prop Building"; all riders must enter the assumed Quonset hut even at the queue's shortest length.

My best guess is to keep the "theme" of Field of Screams intact; ergo, relocate the maze to another barren field within the park. Sounds stupid, I know, but short of using any unused backstage parking lots (like the one opposite Surf Dog adjacent to the path leading to Soak City), it's the only spot I can immediately think of that would work. And just to be clear, I'm not actually advocating them putting a brown shed right next to Racer's station, especially under the assumptions that 1) they'll keep either a gaudy sign or facade up year-round like Slaughter House, and 2) it'll excuse them to leave up and not overhaul yet another maze in need of improvements (see Urgent Scare, Wolf Pack, Kill Mart, the former Tombstone Terrortory and CarnEvil, etc.).

I haven't been up to the park yet this season, but if Field of Screams isn't still in its normal place with all the land clearing in that area, then that concrete pad in between FOF and Racer will more than likely be its new home. Speaking of which, using the old Firehawk queue as an extension for FOF is a good idea come next Haunt season, as the crowds having to contend with two coasters and a Haunt maze accessible through a single cul-de-sac will be terrible (potentially two mazes if Field's relocation needs to be accessed through X-Base). EDIT: Chaos shouldn't be affected too much, if at all, by any construction for Project X; it's far enough away to remain open.

The problem comes twofold: the first was having five seasonal amusement parks under their belt that each received attractions every operating year, meaning that capital expenditures had to be dispersed almost evenly amongst the former Paramount Parks (most major installations never seemed to exceed north of $20 million, at least I don't think they did). The second, and slightly more important issue, fell on maintenance. More specifically, special effects and thematic maintenance. It's an issue that plagues even Disney and Universal (see Disco Yeti and the Jurassic Park rides) with funds being needed to maintain what elements a particular attraction has. Think Firehawk was a maintenance nightmare? I remember the first year and a half of Stunt Track having its ride crew spending more time out of the station and by the queue entrance spieling to guests that the ride is down because of all the "technological features" the ride had (most of which were also subsequently removed within two months of its opening). And let's not forget the simplistic nature of Boo Blaster's ride mechanics and interactivity that still isn't working at a satisfactory level. ...we did technically get some level of stunt shows in the Paramount Parks. One was themed to Tomb Raider that traveled from Park to Park in 2003 (I think), and another was essentially a stripped down version of the proposed Mission Impossible stunt show in 2006 that traveled from Canada's Wonderland to...Canada's Wonderland.

Having not been to Haunt since roughly 2012, I think my opinions differ a bit more than others here; I found there to be quite a lot of monsters out on the streets compared to in the past. At least Coney Mall finally had more than four actors for the entire strip as I had counted at least 15 or so milling about (at least that was with the combination of Maul, the creepers/sliders, and the queue line entertainment for Kill Mart). And I finally didn't have to deal with the one-two punch that was CarnEvil and Tombstone Terror-tory staying unchanged for almost ten years and refusing to fix major issues. That said, what few mazes I went through last night (Bayou, Slaughterhouse, Cavern, and Kill Mart) had quality levels that were all over the place. They most certainly LOOKED nice (if only the excellent outdoor lighting systems were copied indoors), but aside from Slaughterhouse, the talent was just not into the role at all. Most would literally stand out in the open like (woefully out of place) statues and then slowly lunge at guests (thankfully the screamers were almost non-existent this go-around). It's like there weren't any clever ways of hiding their actors behind doors or drop panels or they simply just didn't care. As for what BoddaH said about their storytelling abilities...yeah, they've never been successful in that regard, and you mentioned Urgent Scare as an example. I remember the idea behind the "outbreak" was supposed to be due to a release of an energy drink that proved fatal to the town the maze is set in...and yet there was absolutely no mention of said drink anywhere throughout the entire attraction except for the old Action Theater rotating marquee sign with both the logos for the maze and the drink (that remained stationary on the maze logo). And then, after WindSeeker debuted, the first and third acts of US (the riot scene queue line and the military outpost after the main hospital portion) were completely axed, so what little backstory they had that was never fully fleshed out was then gone. Club Blood had a similar situation where the backstory for its inaugural season was that the club was built to draw human victims in not to simply kill them, but to use them as blood bags and hosts for vampire babies...that again was never fully explained or fleshed out, and was also removed for just more club scenes (although in this case, it made the maze slightly better). If you want to see a much better rendition of Club Blood with a properly fleshed out story, look up Knott's Scary Farm's version from 2008. Basically, if they want to tell a story, they better be dag-nab willing to fully commit to telling a cohesive and easy to follow story, or simply just stick to simple themes (see Kill Mart or Slaughterhouse). Anyway, my initial review scores from the few attractions I did: Cavern of Terror - 6/10 Wasteland - 6/10 Backwoods Bayou - 6/10 Coney Maul - 7/10 Kill Mart - 7/10 Slaughterhouse - 8/10 Pumpkin Eater - 9/10

First things first, I am so unbelievably giddy upon news of the 'Tiques returning to the Island. Secondly, now I feel a weird suspicion as if this addition is part of a multi-phase expansion that would see the addition of a brand new area to the park where Dinosaurs Alive! once stood. See crude blue-sky plans below. Essentially a path reaching from Firehawk's exit/photo booth that snakes around the maintenance buildings almost mirroring the maintenance road and merging into the former path of DA. The original entrance to DA would serve as the second access point to the new area, with the entrance/exit to Antique Autos at its mouth. Another crazy idea is to re-purpose the former Action Theater into a dark ride (*cough*Phantom Theater RIP[Reconstruction In Progress]*cough*) and have its own path connecting to both the new area and Action Theater's former exit beside Windy Seeker. Two flat rides go in (one for X-Base and one for the new land), install a new bathroom across from Flight of Fear (where Chaos/Board 2 Death Haunt maze is now) and the roller coaster, of course, lies within most of DA to do its coaster thing. Oh, and a gift shop and eating place.

CarnEvil is the oldest haunt in the lineup. In terms of attractions under the "Halloween Haunt" moniker (haunts that were installed from the 2007 season onward), Urgent Scare is, indeed, the oldest; Club Blood was re-designed as Blackout, and Slaughterhouse was relocated and re-worked.

In its original form, the entire building housed the Enchanted Voyage boat ride. The photo booth for Great Pumpkin Coaster is where the load/unload station sat, setup similar to Disneyland's it's a small world attraction (loading/unloading outside while the "show" is completely indoors). Once the water track was removed and the Omnimovers were installed, the building essentially split in two as Phantom Theater took up less space than the previous attraction. The other half became the Enchanted Theater and ran until 2003, I believe. CarnEvil originally took residence in the Festhaus where Panda Express sits now. It was moved to the former Enchanted Theater for the 2006 FearFest season and has remained there since. The stage for the Theater still sits behind the maze, as well as storage and staging for the numerous costumed characters for Planet Snoopy.

I'd say it's possible to get through the park without getting scared. Just be wary of what you're near and know your route. Avoid the scare-zones at all costs (they are labeled on the map). Also if you don't necessarily look scared it's less likely they will come your way. To add to that, there are a few routes I know of that folks can use to get to major coasters/attractions from the main entrance with minimal monster interactions: To Action Zone (Banshee, Delirium, The Bat, etc.): Head into Oktoberfest beside Starbucks and cut through Festhaus. This eliminates having to go through the Nightmare Alley zone across from Kings Island Theater. Be warned, however, because what few roaming actors there are in Action Zone tend to gravitate towards its main entry point because of the crowds. Same goes for Banshee Plaza and queue line to The Bat, as it shares the same entry point with both Blackout and Wolf Pack. To Upper Coney Mall (Racer, Monster, Scrambler, etc.): Same as going to Action Zone, but go past Festhaus and toward Sling Shot, circling the Bier Garten. Because of Tower Gardens holding a maze (Backwoods Bayou) that exits into the path connecting International Street to Upper Coney Mall, there are a few straggling monsters that will congregate around that area. Taking this path also nets you access to Adventure Express, but take caution when going further into Coney Mall past The Racer; Scrambler sits right next to the Sorority House maze, and a majority of monsters stay around the arcade and between Skyline & Subway. To X-Base/Central Coney Mall (Flight of Fear, Firehawk, Dodgems, etc.): Take the left floral clock path beside the Carousel. Coney Mall has the largest concentration of roaming monsters, but no standalone scare zone. Entering Coney right in the middle nets you a smaller possibility of running into a monster than walking the entire length of the strip. X-Base has its own set of headaches as its one-way-in, one-way-out setup holds its own maze (Board 2 Death) as well as two popular coasters, so there may be a monster or two hidden amongst the immense crowds. To Lower Coney Mall (Vortex, Backlot Stunt Coaster, WindSeeker, etc.): Same as going to X-Base, but once you get to Coney Mall, stick to the right side of the strip beside the basketball game and Juke Box Diner. Lower Coney has three mazes alone (Kill Mart, the new Field of Screams, and Urgent Scare), and all of the action takes place on the left-hand side of the strip. Most of their queue lines are off the beaten path save for maybe Kill Mart, but that still won't stop monsters from stalking prey in that area of Coney Mall. To Rivertown (The Beast, Diamondback): Take the Lower Coney Mall route, but continue around Juke Box Diner past 3-Point Shootout and Backlot Stunt Coaster. This is the preferred, albeit lengthy path because while the right floral clock path is used for Coffin Races this season*, the shorter and more direct path to Diamondback (going through Planet Snoopy by Chick-fil-A) is home to the Freak Street zone, which stretches from Boo Blasters all the way to Snoopy Boutique, and the CarnEvil maze, stationed next to The Great Pumpkin Coaster (which also renders the path to Planet Snoopy by Graeter's obsolete as most of the area is fenced off with metal gates). Lower Rivertown is also home to two of the most popular Haunt mazes, Slaughterhouse and Madame Fatale's, both of which enter from and exit out to the main Rivertown strip (Slaughterhouse's entrance/exit also happens to be right next to The Beast's entrance). * I haven't been to Haunt yet this season, so I don't know if the Coffin Races path remains closed throughout the night. If it is open to foot traffic in-between races, then use this path to get to Rivertown from the main entrance.