Losantiville Mining Co.

RIP to Six Flags America. I wonder how soon the chain plans to remove it from their maps and such. IMO it would be a disservice to leave the website up as-is with no indication of the fact that the park is closed (though I wouldn't put it past SF to leave it up as-is). The earliest that anything will happen is tomorrow when people are in their offices. If any rides get relocated then I could see announcements coming in about a month. Most of the fixtures (at least racks and such) will almost definitely be sent to other parks to be reused. The logistics part of me would love to see the plans for what's moving, and how, and when — though realistically those plans would never be released.

The final day has arrived for Six Flags America. After 50 years of family fun, the Maryland amusement park will permanently close tonight at 6:00 PM. A councilmember from Prince George's County spoke with a local CBS station about the future of the site and what could come to it.

Why not try to gain some more visitors who are displeased with their local Six Flags park? Good on Dollywood for advertising themselves so far out!

I have to wonder who in SF corporate wants to get rid of the winter events because (as we've said) it's looking that way. Fall and Winter events are the prime time to bring guests back and have them spend more money. They also, notably, add a lot of value to a season pass! So many people have remarked about the perceived value that Haunt and Winterfest add to their season passes, so why take that away (genuine question)? I cannot believe that most of the winter events held on that long without making enough money. It feels like it'd be a very slippery slope to cancel even more events next year. I could more see them scaling the event down like this, first closing the areas outlined in red, then the ones in green if they need to cut even more. Cutting more than that would probably jeopardize the quality of the event too much (after already taking it down to the size of the 2005 event). As for changing up the ride lineup, I'd vote to add Woodstock Express over Adventure Express if it needs another roller coaster. Losing the most accessible indoor attraction for this year's event is sad, but I think it's well worth it for Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare. I'd love it if they could turn one of the arcades into a warming station, though moving all of the equipment into temporary storage might be too much work. Maybe I'll try to come up with my own Winterfest wish list and post it somewhere here.

Order of the Dragon was by far the best maze this year. Some of my praise might be rooted in recency bias and are further colored by the fact that the rest of the mazes are between 3-16 years old (they could never make me hate you, Slaughterhouse). I hope we can see more work from Plague Productions continue with future events.

I hope we can see the event details released on Monday because I'm so excited for Winterfest!

There might still be a decent amount of people in the park, just spread throughout it. The maze upcharge definitely helps the numbers too. I think they should keep Thursday Haunts at Kings Island.

I wonder if they will move the ice carver to the new pavilion. With the potential for a downsized Winterfest this would make a good second location. Although, if the event maintains its size or is expanded this will be a great spot to have another show. I think the stretched covers have to be removed once it starts snowing though.

I haven't been noticing the music too much this year, but I do remember wishing there were some older songs mixed in there. There are some specific tracks that used to play every night (I can't remember what they were called) that I think suited the event very well.

You'd think they could play carnival music in Coney Mall during Tricks and Treats. I'd support the move but it does need to have at least 4 hours of music on it.

I'd welcome the orchestral music back in full force any day. I wonder if there's any chance the park would play instrumental patriotic music (like they have on Main Street 1776 at SFA) next year for the Quarter Millennial? Major props as well if they can figure out how to put more than 10 songs on a playlist that's supposed to play on repeat for 12-14 hours.

Let me clarify, I think the new design would detract. The old designs looked scarier and were put out when the company was still interested in having a scarier event. The new, more cartoonish and family-friendly designs would be like having a Five Nights at Freddy's house at a horror-focused event. (The park could put the PT characters out, but I'd rather see them out for Tricks & Treats rather than out for Haunt.)

Adding it to Haunt might have detracted from the family-friendly nature of the new attraction and/or the scary nature of Haunt. If anything it might have been withheld due to the fact that it wouldn't have been able to be replicated at the other Tricks & Treats events. Corporate seems to enjoy keeping the events nearly identical (Legacy Six Flags also enjoyed keeping most of their parks near clones of each other). If they do anything with the characters outside of the ride I hope it'd be special meet & greet characters. Then again, if they need to cut down on costs I'd rather have a great ride with no walk around characters instead of a meh ride with walk around characters.

Kings Derby would actually be a new ride with a new structure to compliment the Grand Carousel's pavilion! The queue structure for Diamondback would be a recreation of the old shooting gallery/shop building and serves to bring the "town" back to Rivertown. I have another concept with Action Zone becoming a Medieval Faire area, but this one struck some inspiration yesterday.

The issue I was running into when trying to fit the boat ride in was figuring out where the most trees could be spared. The new one at Carowinds looks like it's just a big pool with a boat track in it, and I'd like this one to be set in a larger area with more trees. Maybe instead of putting the boat ride there the park could figure out another way to reduce/clean up the amount of concrete in the area. I know the park prefers to have excessive amounts of clearance for their trucks (whether it's intentional or not), but areas like that and the front of International Street are in desperate need of something (even temporary) to break up the vast swaths of open pathway.