Losantiville Mining Co.

What price range would you put them in? Dollywood's two lower tier passes go for about $135-$170 right now and only include the dry park. Kentucky Kingdom's two lower tier passes go for $100-$120. Kings Island's 2027 Gold Passes are currently set at $115 outright or $160 for the first year of a membership ($120 every year after that). I think Six Flags is working to raise their prices to a manageable level, but as was said above they are going to feel some major pains in doing so.

Something I haven't seen much talk about is the fact that Valleyfair's new website isn't showing any information about ValleyScare. I'd hate to see the event go away again, especially after some good money was invested in mazes like Cryptidland (made by Plague Productions). Michigan's Adventure also doesn't have any information about a 2026 Fall event, but I could see a scenario where Six Flags moved all of the decorations to a different park before they moved out of the state. Worlds of Fun, Mid-America, and Great Escape all have Haunt / Fright Fest and Tricks & Treats / Boo Fest so I'm a little curious as to why the other two don't have anything for the Fall season. Maybe I'll go watch through some recent vlogs to see if I can find anything. Enchanted Parks seems to be trudging along this season, so it will be very interesting to watch them move forward with the park rebranding(s) and all of the new event names. It's nice to see that they now have the "Enchanted Experiences" passholder events as well.

I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how Six Flags is nickel-and-diming guests, but I'd like to see some examples of what you mean (if you don't mind). Beyond the high prices for food and the new (year-old) upcharge for Haunt mazes, I don't think I can recall anything else that isn't reasonably priced for the product it provides. The new dining plans might be an example, but $400 isn't a crazy price for the folks who already use that much worth anyway (which is who it is for).

This is also the exact logo Universal used last year — albeit with the "Blood Reign" tagline replacing the "UN1V3RSE" tagline. I'm excited for this maze, though I wasn't able to see much of it from the top of the Eiffel Tower today. Any guesses as to how the maze renovation could've cost $600,000? I don't think that number included the licensing fees, even though those are quite high. It's a little funny because I believe this will be at least the second (and third and fourth) Friday the 13th/Jason Universe/Camp Crystal Lake experience that Plague Productions has produced. They put up a small CCL experience/photo op for Paramount Scares at Midsummer Scream in 2024.

I'm not entirely sure that he's what Cedar Point needs right now either. Even solely on the social media side of the Midwest Region's PR, I haven't seen much of anything special from these five parks beyond the trendy nothing-burger videos that Six Flags corporate keep putting out. Most of those seem to have been filmed in Texas anyway. Something else that I can't get my head past is the fact that they are still using AI for things that there should already be media for. Cedar Point used a real photo in their Christmas in July sale (possibly even one taken by TC himself), but it was too hard to find a warm-looking photo from Winterfest for Kings Island? The lack of ticketed events doesn't phase me much, but I do think it's a shame that none are happening at KI this year. The whole Morning Rush/Coastermania fiasco probably didn't help. I won't say that Tony should move on from his current position, but Kings Island needs someone who will visibly do the PR job. Also (again), what's up with the special events no longer showing the Kings Island logo on them in the website? Like HawaiianCoasters325 said, I'd love to see Paul Bonifield come on as the new PR guy. I'm not entirely certain what his focus area was as I thought he was entirely on the Creative Development side of things instead of the PR/marketing. It would be great to have better teasers than singular pieces of media that get posted 10 times throughout the "campaign". (I'm looking at you, PT:ON teaser art.) The other special events around the park this year have been interesting to see so far. Food & Wine was a little better than last year, Grand Carnivale was fun for its (almost definite) last season, and there was a barely-advertised Reds Day that had to be rescheduled. Halloween Haunt is getting a new maze (which might add some good value and scares to the event). Tricks and Treats might be mostly the same this year, but I think it's a nice event as-is. We will have to see what happens with Winterfest now that Great Adventure and SFOG are getting their Holiday in the Park events back. I don't think we'll see anything public happen in the International Restaurant if they can keep getting private companies to host their dinners up there. I hope Six Flags sends a lot of the Carnivale stuff to a legacy SF park so they can have a "new" event. Heck, send all of it (minus the parade stuff) to Darien Lake so they can add a very easy event to their lineup. It might make the locals happy and sell a few more passes.

I think parks like Michigan's Adventure and Darien Lake could each use a brand new coaster, but not something on the scale of Arieforce One. Something that will draw a relatively larger number of guests to the park without expecting to change the fact that it's a small/mid-size amusement park. As much as I think Kings Island needs a thrilling RMC hybrid, I don't think AFO is the correct answer. All of the people saying "It would fit! It would fit! Kings Island has so much open land!!" aren't looking at the bigger picture of what the park needs IMO. What the park needs (in terms of roller coasters) is a thrilling coaster that you can't find at any of the other parks in the region. Theming can offset the need for thrills, but we haven't had much evidence to how much theming the new Six Flags is willing to put into their parks beyond concept art.

We are at the end of July, and with the new announcement today I think it's time to start the discussion thread for the 2026 Halloween Haunt season. Kings Island will receive at least one new haunt maze in the building formerly occupied by Urgent Scare and Hotel St. Michelle. The new maze, named "Jason: Blood Reign", is also being constructed at Carowinds and Great Adventure. 2025 brought some improvements to the event with the addition of "Order of the Dragon" in the Action Zone maze barn alongside "The Conjuring: Beyond Fear" in the former home of Madam Fatale's. 2024 saw the addition of the new "Hooked" scare zone between Viking Fury and Adventure Port, as well as a new unnamed themed area along the path between the Rivertown LaRosa's and Jukebox Diner. The park has not yet confirmed that J:BR will be housed in Action Theater, but that location is still the most likely for it. The Haunted Attractions Pass and Haunted Attractions Express Pass will once again have guests paying for access to the mazes. I believe the continuation of the upcharge mazes is helping to bring some calm to the crowd levels and has allowed Kings Island to continue receiving some well-needed upgrades to their Halloween Haunt event. All-Season Haunted Attractions passes may go on sale shortly after the Christmas In July sale ends on 8/3. These passes are expected to (again) only work at your home park. Looking at the add-ons for Canada's Wonderland lead me to believe that the 2026 All-Season Haunted Attractions Express passes will not include 1 free entry to The Conjuring: Beyond Fear each visit as they did in 2025. I welcome that change since it means the wait time will likely go down more. What do you think Halloween Haunt will look like in 2026? Will you be attending? Halloween Haunt at Kings Island will be held select nights from September 25th - October 31st. This event is intended for mature audiences and is not recommended for children under 13. Kings Island has not posted its no re-entry after 6:00 PM during Halloween Haunt, so we do not yet know whether it will be sticking around for 2026 or not. It's time to get excited! Event Website: https://www.sixflags.com/kingsisland/events/halloween-haunt

The phrase "that we are ready to announce" made me think that there could be something coming there sooner than we thought, or it could be that whoever made the statement knows that Son of Beast fanboys would go crazy over it. I hope The Bat stays around a lot longer either way.

Six Flags Mexico is included with the West Coast Gold Pass and the Prestige Pass. I made the point because I thought someone said SFM should be a separate ticket and not included in the pass programs.

That's what I meant about the wood burning, sorry about the confusion LOL. I should also have put my customary spaces between "wood / structure" to make it clearer that the structure itself is mostly steel and concrete. Do y'all think any of the lamps still have lightbulbs in them? I don't know why they would or wouldn't, but the thought intrigued me.

My only objection to this is that I think the Silver Pass should be good all year, but with blockout dates replacing the post-Labor Day restrictions. If a family only wants access to Kings Island then I think they should be able to only have access to Kings Island April-December with restrictions. I also think it's easier to say "Access to all Six Flags parks in North America" than to add "Excluding Six Flags Mexico". That might complicate the pass structure, especially if SFM passholders have access to the US parks. There are enough Americans who go to SFM and vice versa to make the perk worth keeping IMO. I'm not sure the food review topic is the best place to debate pass structures, but I digress.

I didn't see any visible issues with the roof during my ride, but all of the animatronics were working. The only thing that wasn't working was the ghost note projections in a few scenes. The second boiler also had a strange line near the bottom third of the screen, but I believe that is an easy fix. All of the lightbulbs were working and the heat was as well. I didn't remember to check on the newest hole in the wall of the queue, but I'm sure it was also fixed.

I think the two solutions to handle the issues with Fast Lane at Cedar Point are to either a) raise prices, or b) drastically reduce the number sold per day / per season. Option (a) feels like the better decision while option (b) feels like it could be a secondary strategy. Six Flags is doing both, but I think they're mainly relying on option (a) since people who aren't might not go enough to justify it. The $2,000 price tag would take 20 visits to pay off (assuming a $100 daily Fast Lane each time). As for the Prestige drink benefit, I would just expect more of the same as this and previous seasons. The numbers might actually work out to be similar if most Prestige guests already buy the drink plan. Otherwise I'm sure all the folks who aren't renewing will offset the drink plan losses. Unfortunately Cedar Fair and Six Flags spent the past 10+ years keeping prices extremely low and now they will have to deal with the backlash of raising prices. I can't imagine the comments would be any better if Herschend purchased Kings Island and made the Gold Pass start out at $200 with no discounted options to visit other parks in the chain.

My family will definitely be buying our season passes (although we'll likely have to switch to the memberships since that's the new payment plan) and will probably still purchase the expensive dining plans. With how much we use them, the price will be worth it barring any massively crazy changes. Am I happy that we have to pay more? No. Am I happy that the chain is at least attempting to make everyone happy while rightsizing? For the most part, yes. I'm a little shocked that none of the proposed lawsuits against Six Flags for these practices have really gone anywhere. The "benefits subject to change without notice" line is brought up a lot, but when your product(s) changes this much after guests purchase them, it doesn't feel like that line should be so protective. Companies are always protected against the consumer and all of that. (I agree that the previous statement is true, I just don't think they are protected to that extent.)

I'm curious as to if any of the wood will be removed alongside the sprinkler system? If a fire started somewhere within the structure, the (possibly already non-operational) sprinkler system would've been the last line of defense against all of that wood burning. Maybe the wood/structure is still treated to be somewhat fire resistant? I don't really know what all of that would look like after sitting abandoned for so long.

I think this may actually have been day 3 or 4, as it wasn't open on Sunday either.

Which is a very good thing. Even at $400, redeeming 40 meals comes to $10.00 each at the end of the season (as opposed to $155/40 meals = $3.88 per meal). Those of us who use it even more already know how to make it worth it. Same with those who buy the 20 or 30 meal options. The biggest change will actually be the cost per pass and what parks it will work at. Great Adventure released their 2027 add-on lineup alongside the announcement of Bakunawa. I've posted a breakdown of their 2027 add-on programs in the Other Theme Parks portion of this website in case you'd like to read more official information.

GREAT ADVENTURE 2027 SEASON PASSES There isn't a neat pass comparison table yet, but I might make one later on. to better compare benefits. Gold Pass | $89.00 online / $115.00 at the gate Unlimited visits to the Great Adventure resort for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 Free General Parking Discount Bring-A-Friend Tickets Access to seasonal events like Fright Fest & Holiday in the Park Access to Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, Six Flags New England, Carowinds, Six Flags Over Georgia & Six Flags White Water Perks & Play Loyalty Rewards Plus additional benefits RENEWING PASSHOLDERS: Renew into a Gold Pass and get a free Bring-A-Friend ticket to use by the end of the 2026 season! IMPORTANT: Pass must first be scanned at Six Flags Great Adventure. Prestige Pass | $229.00 online / $275.00 at the gate Unlimited visits to the Great Adventure resort for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 Free General + Preferred Parking Two Free Bring-A-Friend Tickets Each Year NEW! FREE Coca-Cola Fountain Drinks Every Visit* (basically an included Paper Cup Drink Plan, does not qualify for the drink bottle) One Free Single-Use Fast Lane Each Visit Access to seasonal events like Fright Fest & Holiday in the Park Access to All Six Flags parks in North America Enhanced Perks & Play Loyalty Rewards Plus additional benefits RENEWING PASSHOLDERS: Renew into a Prestige Pass during the Biggest Sale of the Year and get a $20 in-park credit AND a free Bring-A-Friend ticket to use at Six Flags Great Adventure, Hurricane Harbor New Jersey or Wild Safari before the end of the 2026 season! In-park credit will be loaded to your account on 9/18/2026. IMPORTANT: Pass must first be scanned at Six Flags Great Adventure. Valid for general parking at Canada's Wonderland & Knott's Berry Farm and preferred parking at all other Six Flags parks. *15 minutes required between refills. Present pass at designated dining locations for a paper cup; not eligible for an All Season Souvenir Bottle. GREAT ADVENTURE 2027 ADD-ONS This section is going to be condensed. If I'm able to make the fancy table then I'll include more information on there. Dining Plans All Season Dining Access | $89.00 online / $139.00 at the gate 20 meal credits per season** at Great Adventure ONLY. Time limit of 2 hours between each redemption, there does not appear to be a daily limit on redemptions. All Season Dining Plus | $129.00 online / $195.00 at the gate 30 meal credits per season** at Great Adventure ONLY. Time limit of 2 hours between each redemption, there does not appear to be a daily limit on redemptions. GOLD: Double Discounts on all eligible food and beverage items at all East Region Six Flags parks. PRESTIGE: Double Discounts on all eligible food and beverage items at all North America Six Flags parks All Season Dining Unlimited | $349.00 online / $599.00 at the gate GOLD: Unlimited meal credits at all East Region Six Flags parks. PRESTIGE: Unlimited meal credits at all North America Six Flags parks. Time limit of 2 hours between each redemption, there does not appear to be a daily limit on redemptions. GOLD: Double Discounts on all eligible food and beverage items at all East Region Six Flags parks. PRESTIGE: Double Discounts on all eligible food and beverage items at all North America Six Flags parks. **It is not clear if the counter will start in 2026, or if it will start in 2027 (it might theoretically be possible to use all 20 credits before the 2027 season starts) Drink Plans All Season Paper Cup | $35.00 online Unlimited Coca-Cola fountain beverages every 15 minutes. Works everywhere your pass does. Included with the 2027 Great Adventure Prestige Pass All Season Paper Cup Plus | $55.00 online Unlimited Coca-Cola fountain beverages, ICEE, hot chocolate, or coffee every 15 minutes. Not valid for Starbucks, Tim Hortons, or for specialty drinks. Works everywhere your pass does. Fast Lane All Season Fast Lane Unlimited | $499.00 online / $899.00 at the gate Works where your pass does, excluding Cedar Point. Photos and Videos Great Adventure All Season Videos and Photos | $39.00 online Unlimited digital park photos for the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 Valid at participating parks based on pass admission. Does not (yet) appear to be linked to FunPix, so is therefore invalid at parks with FunPix. 2027 Pre-K Pass 2027 Pre-K Pass | $0.00 Valid for children ages 3-5. Must be registered and activated by May 31st, 2027. Not valid at Kings Island, Knott's Berry Farm, or Magic Mountain. Cedar Point's All Season Fast Lane Unlimited will reportedly cost $2000.00 and will work at all parks (including Cedar Point). This seemingly closes the loophole where guests were able to purchase a Prestige Pass with $500.00 AS Fast Lane from an East Region park and use it at Cedar Point. All Season Haunted Attractions passes and All Season Haunted Attractions Express passes are also on sale at Great Adventure, with the regular AS HA pass costing $49.00 online / $75.00 at the gate, and the AS HAExpress pass costing $129.00 online / $169.00 at the gate.

Now that Great Adventure has officially released their 2027 Gold Pass and Prestige Pass programs, I'm going to start compiling and posting the information I can find about the 2027 passes and memberships throughout the chain. I'll include some of the speculation and "leaks" as well. Something to note is that while some of these benefits look different from what currently exists, most of it looks to be Six Flags right-sizing their passes and add-ons while still having options that everyone can enjoy.

I'd like to give a major shoutout to the team who's been working to spruce up the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad this season! My past few rides have each had something new or fixed to look at, especially in the historic town (#NotAWesternTown). Burrow's feeding trough has been put back together after having split sometime in 2024/2025. I think some of the items on the front of the former Golden Lamb facade have been repaired as well. (Anything called "The ___ at ___" is wildly historically inaccurate. I wish they'd have made it say "Kenton's Cove Inn" and left the "at" behind.) There is a new "bonfire" setup just outside the front of the engine house/train shed, near Mystic Timbers and White Water Canyon. The old Hot Blooded coffins were repainted. You can tell because there's no longer a visible outline of a bat on the doors. (The handmade crosses were a nice touch though.) There's a new sign on the jail facade that reads "Miami Valley County Jail". I don't know what happened to the old sign, but this is nice. Also I'll make an honorable mention to whoever keeps moving the beaver family around and put some of the tall grass in the bear's arms. I wish the turtle was still around, but I can settle for the beaver family for now. Another note that I wanted to make was that, despite being missing/broken for a couple of weeks, Chef is back to working every 15 minutes on the glockenspiel! I was so worried that this would be a second period of extended glockenspiel downtime. It's one of my favorite little things at Kings Island that sets it apart from the rest of the chain, and I'd hate to see it go back to how it was circa 2011. Thank you to all of the folks at the park who keep these things maintained and fix them when they break! Now if only we could get a proper train station in Soak City to improve the railroad even more...

It's entirely plausible that some of my thoughts on the park were also affected by its status as a legacy Six Flags property, and therefore I noticed the faults more than I have at other parks. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ride Batman (I hate queues and one of my group members can't ride much anyway) but what I was able to see of the updates did look really cool. If they can make this new family area in Yukon Territory look really good then I think that will give me more hope for the park.

That would be a really cool new cycle for a potential Haunt overlay!

There's definitely a way to improve the DC theming without getting rid of it entirely. Superman would definitely need to be rethemed to closer match Orleans Place and the entirety of DC Universe would need to be fixed up. Having seen (through videos) what Great Adventure has been able to do for their Boardwalk area so far, I think it's possible. Maybe I'll go make another concept map now that I've seen what it all looks like in person.

It was closed today as well. I believe the reasoning was indeed that there was an issue with the roof, though I'd much rather the ride be closed for a few days than let it be open and delay the roof work. There was also another portion of drywall that had been kicked in under Maestro's balcony. This is a good opportunity to hopefully fix that and anything else throughout the ride that has either broken or not worked as intended since April. It'd also be the time to either fix or replace the TV in the first boiler.

The gang and I took a very short trip up to Gurnee to experience some of what Great America had to offer for their 50th anniversary. Here's how it went. We left Thursday night to start our drive and were able to make it into the parking lot right as the drone show was ending. It looked interesting from what we could see, though that wasn't much. This was very much a "We're this close, so why don't we just go see the park at night from the outside" kind of thing, so we didn't mind not going in. After that we had some late dinner and headed to the hotel. The next morning consisted of breakfast and waiting for the park to open at 10:30AM. Our hotel was pretty much right across the street so it wasn't like we could waste time driving to the park. They opened the parking tolls around 9:45AM, we were able to scan our pass with no issues, and then we decided to forego parking in the Preferred lot since there were plenty of spots closer to the security entrance. It looked like Preferred was a "somewhat guaranteed parking spot on busier days" deal like at Cedar Point. Not the closest, but it'll be good when you need it. My first impression of the park during the day was that it has a nice skyline. We got in line for security, waited for the national anthem to play (they direct you to look at the Sky Tower flag instead of any of the other 6-10 US flags near the entrance), and then the line started moving around 10:10 or 10:15AM. Their security setup was kind of odd since they didn't seem to be enforcing a single-file line through the metal detectors like at Kings Island. We were then sent around a planter toward the front gate. The associates used park-owned smartphones to scan our passes — similar to how Six Flags America did — and the system pulled up our information much faster than it has at KI anytime this season. My number one first amazing thing I learned about Great America is that they still have paper park maps available!! It's updated for the 50th anniversary, but is still in the old Six Flags map style. They were in a little holder right at the turnstiles for anyone to grab. Carousel Plaza looked so pretty yesterday morning with the new park sign and fountain jets. We took a ride on the upper level of the Columbia Carousel and got some great views of the front of the park! This ride wasn't without its issues, though. It has mandatory seatbelts on each animal which are not very accommodating to plus size folks. I was able to have mine buckled with some help (the buckle itself was closer to my back than my front), but one of my group members was unable to fit it around their waist. I can understand why the ride has seatbelts — especially on the upper level — but there is no way the seatbelts need to be that short. All of this was an omen for the rest of the rides at the park. I managed to spot some landscapers actively working to prepare a planter bed at the entrance to Orleans Place while I was up there. We were able to check out the Maxx Force gift shop that has the original scale model of the park and the some classic Six Flags merch. Hometown Square is a fine little area with some entertainment potential. I think we passed through at the wrong time of day to get a proper look at it since a lot of the rides hadn't opened yet — the railroad didn't open until noon. I contemplated taking a ride on the Whizzer, but decided against it after seeing the line waiting for it to open. Southwest Territory was our next area. The entrance into the land takes you under another railroad trestle, and this one felt better than the entrance to Hometown Square because it didn't have a giant LED screen over it. We really wanted to ride Chubasco (their spinning teacups), but we couldn't tell if they were about to open or if there was an associate positioned there waiting for a specific time to open the ride. We ended up not riding it. The theming around ST is nicer than around the rest of the park. Their 2nd generation Intamin Drop Tower (funnily enough the same version as the one in California) had some great rockwork and theming as well. I ended up riding the River Rocker (a smaller canoe version of Viking Fury). It was shockingly tight and I had to kind of pre-position my stomach so that the bar could automatically lower enough to verify. The ride operator, Rocco, was wearing a cool helicopter hat which lifted my mood after I thought I was about to make a walk of shame. Something interesting about this ride was that the water trough beneath it was completely empty. That might be a classic Six Flags blunder. We made our way into Metropolis Plaza where, and I kid you not, the only attraction/dining location/shop in the land is Justice League: Battle for Metropolis. The blacktop pathway and unshaded outdoor queue left a lot to be desired, but luckily we strolled right past it and went into the indoor queue where we only waited 5 minutes. I took a precursory ride before the rest of my group to make sure that the restraints would fit our largest group member. It's just a basic lapbar that can accommodate large people, so they were fine. This dark ride was nothing like what I had expected. My ride description is in the spoiler box in case anyone else would like to be surprised during the ride. Heading back under Demon brought us into County Fair, Great America's largest land. I will say it right now: this land is too big for what it needs to be. Wrath of Rakshasa and Demon are so cut off from the rest of the area. Demon still has its incredibly ugly sign, which is now framed more by WoR than anything else. Google Maps is showing me that it used to be all red and was placed on top of a short wall — much better than the flame paint they have now. I'd ultimately love to see it get a better sign and some orange paint on the running rails before too long. Demon rant over. The entire stretch between WoR and the entrance to American Eagle feels very ugly and disjointed. I'd like to say that getting rid of/retheming/redecorating X Flight would help, but I don't think it will in the way I'd hope. Most of the games also looked to be closed. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets (more about this in the next paragraph) and then went over to the train station. They had a nice whiteboard sign stating when the train was expected to be in the station. I've been thinking that it'd be nice for Kings Island to have something similar, but if KI got one I'd want it to be a series of analog clocks that can be adjusted from the control panel. The railroad itself is a nice reprieve from the sun and is mostly covered in shade. There are various Looney Tunes figures standing along the route in comical poses. I noticed that they still have a water tower even with a (presumably) diesel engine. As another forum member pointed out some time ago, the foliage is overgrown and is especially noticeable aboard the train. You know it's bad when the associate has to say "Please don't touch the trees" while the train is in locomotion. Now for my rant about the merchandise. There were some fun options in some of the gift shops, but the variety didn't really make me want to buy anything. I saw a few AI shirts and a lot of generic DC/Looney Tunes merchandise. What really irked me was the near-complete lack of supply for any shirts bigger than a size large. We found a few XL and at least one 2XL shirts in the 50th anniversary shop, but it was nothing like the good size variety KI has. There were also zero magnets 😭 I collect them as my go-to souvenir to say where I've been and despite looking so hard, there were none to be found anywhere in the park. Is it something to be upset about? Not really, but I think the park is missing out Overall, I feel that Chicago's Great America is a somewhat fine park that could use some thoughtful improvements. It definitely still has that cheap Six Flags stink vibe that brings the park down in my rankings, but I would like to see if it's able to be improved with some Cedar Fair flair. Would I have preferred to stay longer so I could get on more rides? Honestly, no. The park needs a lot of quick fixes to patch up the "harm" legacy Six Flags did to it alongside some longer-term fixes that will take at least a decade to clean up. Part 2 with my thoughts on the rest of the park will be coming soon.