Losantiville Mining Co.

Tormenta is a really cool name! It could do without the tagline, but I'm guessing that might've been done for trademark reasons. Does anyone have the stats for this one compared to Orion's stats? It could be interesting to see if this one beats Orion on both the height and length stats. I also wonder how many people will actually try to claim this isn't a Giga like how they said Orion isn't a Giga The renderings make it look like the coaster really only takes out the tram loop and a few parking spots, meaning the tram systems are probably officially dead-er than they were last year at Six Flags parks. That's very unfortunate. Trams seem to be one of the easier ways to help improve guest experience. I'd also rather see a Tilt instead of a Dive at Kings Island since not many parks have that yet.

If Kings Island is looking for a coaster model to go with, I'd much rather see something else. A wing, a tilt, a spinner, or even a regular inverting sit-down would do the trick IMO. Let's hope KI gets something that Cedar Point doesn't have.

Don't get me wrong, I also hate that kind of cookie cutter housing. The site redevelopments look good in that there's something being done instead of just leaving the foundations of everything there. Either a nature reserve or a new park would have been better than what's going there. Since contemporary condo construction is so bad, maybe when all the little issues kill it in 20 years someone can buy up the land and rebuild Geauga Lake! (I'm only kidding a little for this one too, I wish they could bring it back.)

Started my own concept art for a Kings Island front gate redesign! This iteration uses the Matt Hunter Ross illustration as a base (really just for heights and widths) with everything else being my own. For this design I wanted to keep the main building while adding a new permanent facade to the front. It solves the issue of a blank roof with giant ads while adding visual character. Two new "blocks" protrude from the facade and bring the entrances to the restrooms and to Guest Services to the front of the building. There would need to be some reconfigurations inside each facility, but I figure the entire ground floor would be renovated in this concept. Two windows are located on the second floor of each block. The two outer entry portals have LED screens above each of them to keep with the Cedar Fair way, while the center portal could either have a third screen or another set of windows. I'd get rid of the screens entirely or move them down to the top of the arches, but this way meant I didn't have to draw more windows. I took some inspiration from the Moonlite Gardens at Coney Island for the original design (seen to the right of the tape). It was difficult to decide which architectural style I should go with for this design. I tested and erased and tested again. At one point I'd thought about whether or not Greek Revival could work or if I'd accidently get too close to copying either Moonlite Gardens (below) or Carowinds' original entrance. Finally, I realized that keeping the mansard roofs and attempting to emulate some form of Haussmann's Victorian Second Empire designs for Paris (as MHR was in his concept art) was probably the safest bet. Hopefully the vision is visible! It's not my best architectural design nor photo quality, but you can see most of it.

Order of the Dragon was designed and built by Plague Productions (https://www.plagueproductions.com/), a professional haunt/Halloween design company. They were the ones behind Ghost in the Machine at Dorney Park, CryptidLand at ValleyScare, and various things at Knott's Scary Farm. The company has also done work for Paramount Scares and Lionsgate for Midsummer Scream.

Kings Island will also be staying open for 1-2 more weekends in November this year. If those days are successful this year, I could easily see them becoming a great time to get night rides without needing to do anything family-friendly with Halloween Haunt. Do we think this weekend might be a better indicator as to how the Haunted Attractions Pass system might work out? Last weekend was a good test period but it was also a weekend where: it was the first night(s) of a new system Toyota families received maze passes guests wanted to hear if anything was better now that there is an upcharge

Port Aventura in Spain uses a reusable return-cup system where you buy the drink plan, redeem the cup, and use it similarly to Cedar Fair's drink bottle plans. The difference is that you can return the cup each day to get some of your money back. An apt comparison could be to can recycling programs where you get $0.10 or so back per empty drink can you return. Six Flags could probably do something similar to replace the One Day Drink Bottle and seasonal paper cup plan. The alternative is to switch to other paper cups, even though they may degrade while in use. Finding the space and staff for dishwashers/cup returns looks to be the biggest barrier to anyone in the US going the same route as Port Aventura. A $20+ "collectors edition" map each year would only really be worth it if the parks were able to make them look really good and changed them up every 3-5 years. It'd be better to have those in Kings Island Collections or the Emporium, and then provide actual paper maps (not the plastic-y ones from pre-COVID) at one stand with a limited stock available each day. It'd also help if they brought back some of their recycling programs, but I doubt Six Flags is interested in doing anything like that anymore. If Six Flags wanted to dive further into being a sustainable company, there are so many routes they could take if they just put in the money and effort — two things the company seems to be losing every day.

It looks like Area 13 up in Oxford is not operating this year. I was looking through a few reviews on City Blood (ohioshaunted.com) last night, and visiting Area 13's website showed a "We are closed for the season" message. Hopefully they're able to start back up next year and maybe get some Miami students and Oxford locals involved. I don't know if they still do it, but Miami's student activities org used to put on a small and short haunted house one night each Fall in the haunted Peabody Hall. It would be nice to see them have an opportunity to do something like this closer to where they go to school.

I thought non-ambulant guests were already restricted from most coasters due to an inability to transfer into/out of the seat, were they not? It may depend on who is considered "ambulant" (able to walk/transfer into a seat). I have a feeling this may lead to more restrictions in Europe where their accessibility laws are much looser than here in the US with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I hope Mack Rides is able to further clarify their updated restrictions. Wheelchair users may not entirely be restricted from riding — there are plenty of wheelchair users who can safely and somewhat easily ambulate for short periods — but the aforementioned knee-jerk reaction is often not incredibly thought out. Did anyone else see that this might be opened into a manslaughter case? I can't imagine how that might work, but it's crazy to think about.

There is an alternate route so you don't have to crawl, although some scenes may still feel claustrophobic due to the size of the rooms. If you stick toward the back of the group you'll probably be led through the non-crawling route by the actor anyways.

Bumping this thread for anyone who might want to read through as Kings Island celebrates 25 years of scary good fun this fall. For those who love the Haunt sign as much as I do, check out this article from Sign Builder Illustrated about how it was made by E3 Fabrications in 2017! https://www.signshop.com/dimensional/equipment-materials-a-software/ahauntingsign/

I'm hoping one of the reasons for moving Cornered's maze layout is so they can have space to work on Invertigo as they need. I think it may be out of the running to reopen before November (just like Monster), but maybe work can be completed during the off-season?

The map can only be found on one Facebook post and in certain parts of the park so far. I'm hoping they get it together while the park is closed this week and fix some issues that have come up. It seems they either ran out of time on most things Haunt related, or someone simply chose to not have as much of everything as they did last year. All of the Interactive Lantern points especially seem to be a point of disappointment this year. It also looks like every lantern tag shows the 2024 interaction points as well, which isn't helpful now that a good amount of things have been moved/removed. I'd like to submit "Grimmwood Grove" as a potential name for that area!

I figured that's what it was but I just found it odd that they didn't put up a sign to say that. The PT ride vehicle being there makes sense for it, but I feel like they could've at least done one other thing for it to say that. Not everything needs to be laid out and directly stated, but I think it would've been better if they'd at least turned the ride vehicle around or just let it stay in storage this year.

La Ronde seems to have quietly removed the Kids Pumpkin Festival from their website. It was only supposed to take place over 4-ish days in October, but for now it looks to have been cancelled.