Losantiville Mining Co.

Oh boy this is going to reignite my desire for Kings Dominion to build a new railroad in the park! The book looks awesome. I'll have to see if I can afford to get my hands on a copy.

I'd guess it will be a new take on an existing concept instead of something entirely new. A flight simulator (like Soarin') could be cool, but I saw how SeaWorld's version turned out — no thank you to that. What kinds of rides could go in that wouldn't require too much of the foundation to be redone?

The dive coaster additions are good to see, but I'm a little worried about what the short-term and long-term plans are for the chain. Big coaster additions are good for a number of reasons, but also come with a huge price tag — which would be a bad move when there is already a massive debt that needs to be resolved. I think Six Flags should be focusing on improving their parks in other ways. Most of the Legacy Six Flags parks had the coasters to draw in their crowds, so are multiple new coasters the answer to improving the guest experience at those parks? Should the chain focus more on replacing rides that were removed during the 2024 purge and then moving on to guest experience improvements? The old Cedar Fair model where each of the Big 4 parks would get a major addition will need to change if the new Six Flags is going to adopt it. Maybe instead of a major addition every 3-4 years across 4 parks, it will now need to be 8 years across 8 parks, possibly with some upsets to who gets the "big park" status. Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Cedar Point, Fiesta Texas, Great America, Kings Island, Magic Mountain, and Six Flags Over Texas would be my guesses for a "Top 8" who are regularly likely to get major additions like that. Parks like Knott's are unique and in their own class. Parks like Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia could be among the running, but Great Adventure now needs a lot of work post-purge while SFOG seems like it could be secondary to Carowinds for the moment. In my opinion, we won't be able to gauge what the new strategy will look like until around 2028-2030, unless Six Flags can get its act together before then. To me, it feels like the Legacy Six Flags parks need to focus more on improving their food & beverage, quality of service, and quality of guest experiences before any of them get another major coaster. Parks like Kings Island will also need to fix the quality issues that have run rampant this year before they can earn guests trust back. Cedar Fair shareholders may have taken the majority share in the merger, but some need to realize that the split is still basically half and half. If even one person from Cedar Fair agrees and votes with all of the members from Six Flags on something, that means the old Six Flags was likely to win out on that item.

Construction (rather, those who design the final product) these days also generally loves to just replace all foliage whenever they work on a site. We don't see as much tree-saving as we used to. Take a look at the before and after for Carowinds new 2026 flume site. A densely foliated area with the trough for Rip Roaring Rapids has now turned into a large empty plot of land with about three small stands of trees. They could be working on a new pumping and water retention system for Lake Como as well. I don't know when the last time any of that was fully replaced, but I doubt it was during the new millennium. Some of that land can be used for temporary offices and staging while the rest of the site is worked on. Construction offices could be moved indoors after the pavilions are restored, but they would need to use the big trailers until then. I can believe that there may also be an effort going on to replace what they can with more native foliage. Does anyone know when this CSO project is supposed to be completed? I'd be curious to see if they are going to try to get everything open at once or get one open before the rest.

Kings Dominion posted about their 100 days until Halloween Haunt counter a little while ago. Carowinds is also now promoting auditions times for Tricks and Treats/SCarowinds/Winterfest. It would've been nice to see something similar from parks like Kings Island. Universal's announcements were late this year (likely due to Epic Universe opening), but some of their stuff seems cool. I think their Jason/Friday the 13th house may be somewhat similar to the one Plague Productions put on for Paramount in the last few years. A medieval/gothic/vampire haunt would be very much welcomed by me. Pirates, not so much since it would not be located in the accompanying scare zone. I don't think the park should move Shipwrecked either just for the maze to be in it. There is really only enough props/decorations to go in the space it was in last year. Whether or not the parks are OK with continuing lackluster offerings is out of the parks hands IMO. It has been very clear this year that Six Flags does not care if their offerings are lackluster or are declining in quality. Quality and guest experiences seems to have been placed below a few other items on their priority list while dealing with debt and shareholders. If they would like to change my mind on that, they can redirect some of their funds away from top-tier executive salaries and find other ways to improve the parks without record-breaking and bank-breaking additions. Kings Island could really use a refresh for Haunt beyond just one new maze. They started to do that with the addition of the interactive lanterns, but the overall event is not what it was in 2022, and is far from what it was in 2015. I'd really like to see some new love come to the event for its 25th season!

Congratulations to Mark! I wonder if we'll see any changes to the food and beverage quality/operations at Kings Island once a new VP of F&B is appointed.

Those foot-long hot dog wrappers are either leftovers from last season or were reordered before the size of the meat was changed. It might be that someone just doesn't care what the wrappers say, although I can't imagine Six Flags having a big mandate about what hot dog wrappers in their parks look like or have on them. The new dog is a little more manageable to eat, which I can commend.

With the new Six Flags mobile app scheduled to be released in July, do you think it will coincide with any other changes? I'm curious to see when the (Legacy Six Flags) websites will be redesigned. The new 2025 map style might come to those parks with the new app. They currently use a service called Concept3D for all parks on the old app. It uses icons like the Legacy Cedar Fair apps do, but the map itself is a non-exaggerated isometric 3D model of the park(s). Those maps also are not functional for some parks, such as Hurricane Harbor Arlington, while parks like Over Texas have not been updated for 2025. Six Flags (under the Cedar Fair developer name) also recently released two new mobile apps. One is a FUNhub social networking app and the other is an Associate mobile app. I haven't downloaded either one, but it is interesting that they are there.

The menus and prices can't be geo locked on the app when they don't exist there Even the old Six Flags app has some of the menus for some of their parks on it. If we're getting more of the same when this new app comes out, I wouldn't be shocked to see that feature removed.

There was also a similarly-named event planned for 2020 that never materialized due to the pandemic. It would be nice to see the event return to the dry side of the park and become a true festival event. I asked about it previously on one of these forums, although I have no clue when or where the answer came. I'm also working on a list of all events/festivals Kings Island has held through the years using the WaybackMachine. So far I have stuff from 2000-2004 (?), and would appreciate help if anyone is able. I considered creating a topic for it, but I am already a posting/topic creating fiend. Current verdict for those curious: KI/PKI held a lot more events (with and without concerts) and festivals in the 2000s than in the 2020s.

The answer should be, "Go get more Drink Plan cups from storage", but they'd probably still refuse to provide the drink. I assume this is a directive from higher up. The associates were either told (most likely) to not provide a different size cup or are (rightfully) more stubborn due to the wage decreases this year. Guest Services would only be able to file your complaint with the others and nothing else. "We are sorry about your negative experience. Kings Island drink plan holders are encouraged to find another refill location that has products in stock." I'll say it until my fingers fall off: $15/hour is nowhere near enough for what associates and service workers have to put up with throughout the day. The drinks I've gotten this year have been much better than previous years. My group often goes early in the day, though not everyone has that luxury. Time of day should also not affect the quality/availability of drinks or ice. The larger cups have also started to come in a new teal color, probably to make it easier for someone to distinguish when handing one to a guest.

Maybe we'll have one next year to celebrate 250. I kind of enjoy that Wonderland is the only park that has something like Celebration Canada, but it would be something to see Kings Island put on an event like that. The fact that theirs is somewhat unique across the chain is what makes me like it more. With 27 parks across North America (soon to be 25 or less), I'd like to see more unique/uniquely named festivals at most of the parks. Something like Boardwalk Nights (Cedar Point), Celebration Canada (Canada's Wonderland), and Mardi Gras (Fiesta Texas) are all fun and unique to those parks. Kings Island could have an "Island Nights" festival each night.

I just wanted to share this new video from Expedition Theme Park: "The BANKRUPT History Of Carowinds & The Extinct Coaster That Saved It: Thunder Road" This is his second video about the history of Carowinds and tells the story of Thunder Road. It began a trend of additions that saved the park from total bankruptcy and closure. There are also some parts about Carowinds from the time Pat Hall sold the park to Taft Broadcasting, to the time when Paramount bought the parks from Taft/KECO. Something I never knew was that the two original trains were once themed to its namesake movie. The train on the northern track was themed to the moonshiner's car, while the train on the southern track was themed to the sheriff's car. Both had decorative fiberglass fronts with functional headlights. This is the attraction that I passionately wish I would've gotten the chance to ride. As much as I wish it would have been completely refurbished and worked around, there is unfortunately no way it will ever return with Carowinds current park layout. Maybe one day Six Flags will add a new Racer clone to another park and I will be happy to go ride it. At least the video is another opportunity to listen to Carowinds' old commercial song!

Pantherian being offline for the foreseeable future is something that seems to be harming the park more than expected, especially with the other 4 ride removals. I think most at the park-level are doing what they can to make the best out of the current situation for their 50th anniversary, but guests will just see the park/the new Six Flags as a whole as being in major decline less than one year after the merger.

Where would you rank either side of The Racer with Blue Streak? I haven't been able to ride Blue Streak yet, but Red Racer is above Blue Racer for me. Welcome to KIC!