Losantiville Mining Co.

I appreciate that [it looks like] we'll have paper brochures for Grand Carnivale this year. If this really does turn out to be the last year of the event then I hope its successor will be as nice and as fun as Carnivale originally was.

I think they've left it very intentionally vague to build hype around it, though I won't be surprised if Kumba's Revenge turns out to be a completely different experience. BGT is in desperate need of a dark ride so I could see something like that using the Kumba theme. I feel like a giga or a (somehow) extended layout is less likely than anything else. I'll forever be upset that I won't be able to experience Kumba, but in the end it'll be like any other roller coaster whose time has come before I got to ride it.

I know it was mentioned somewhere on here that you [silver2005] ate and drank outside the park during your Michigan's Adventure trip, but do you or anyone else here know how the drink plan works at the new Enchanted parks? We're now looking into a potential Six Flags St. Louis trip and I've been seeing some conflicting information where some people are just given a souvenir cup while others are given paper cups. I figured this would be the easiest place to ask about it. I'm hoping they still have some SFSL-specific merch (I've seen some in videos from this season) by the time we get there since I've inadvertently started a little collection of extinct park merchandise. Having an Enchanted Parks souvenir cup would be the cherry on top, but I'm not worried if that's not happening at every park.

I decided to keep the snacks at 3 Points since they seem to be a premium option, but changing the serving size could help bring them down to 1 Point items. That's the kind of thing I think we'd need to see actual numbers for though. Either way I think I'll need to keep researching the other park dining plans to get a better grasp on what else is out there. The newest version of the Disney Dining Plan feels really confusing, but it might just be that I'm not actually booking a resort stay so it's not giving clearer information. As for the current situation it all comes back to the idea that Cedar Fair/the new Six Flags have dug themselves into a hole with the dining plans. Keep the system as-is? Get told you're losing money. Remove the system entirely? Food and beverage sales decline drastically and guests are upset with regular theme park pricing. Change it? Run the risk of making the new system far too complicated. I can't imagine the Legacy Membership folks will be happy with more complications to their benefits either. If there are any changes, I think it would be a good idea to put up big signage around the park listing the new details. They did that last year with the Haunted Attractions Pass as well.

I think they actually made it just one price for everything, no matter the pass type nor what parks it can access (another reason they're "losing money" on meal plans). On to more about the Dining Points system idea: here's what else I've thought up. 3 tiers of Points (listed with price values even though they won't exactly line up) 1 Dining Point — A simple salad, burger, hot dog, or chicken tender basket. The Classic Chee from Tom + Chee would fit well in this category. $10-ish value. 2 Dining Points — A hamburger/cheeseburger with toppings, anything from Panda Express, or the Pep + Chee. The Chef's Special or any of the Festival Food items could fit well here. $15-ish value. 3 Dining Points — A funnel cake, cup of Dippin' Dots, ice cream cone, or . $20-ish value. No amount of Dining Points can be used for meals like the Mother's Day Lunch, Fright Feast, or Winterfest Buffet (should any of those return). Each park could have a Pass Perk of 1 additional dining point once or twice per season. Each meal comes with a side, but items like funnel cakes and Dippin' Dots (obviously) do not. Marked as it already is on menus. Generally the same as the current system. 2 tiers of Dining Plans (plan works at whatever parks the guest's pass works at) 1 Dining Point Plan ($99) — Each guest receives 1 Dining Point to use per day and an extra 5% food & beverage discount. Price reflects the possibility of getting 10 meals throughout the season to consider it "paid off". 3 Dining Point Plan ($199) — Each guest receives 3 Dining Points to use per day and an extra 7% F&B discount. Price reflects the possibility of getting a minimum of 10 meals throughout the season to consider it "paid off". The Single Meal Deal stays the same with no point totals involved. ($25) The All-Day Dining Plan stays the same, though the distinction between Meals and Snacks is removed and the price is increased. ($60) The Premium All-Day Dining Plan stays the same, though the price is increased. ($85) Points do not accumulate, nor do they roll over. I contemplated a few other ideas, but felt that they would either complicate the system too much or be too similar to the current system. If the new and old systems are too similar then I think guests will just see the changes as a money grab. The prices need to go up a little either way. Someone with more business experience can say more, but those are my thoughts in the moment. These don't really solve the issue of people using their meal plans to come get lunch every day, but I think it splits up the pricing more evenly compared to the current system where everything is one price. I still think most passholders barely break even on their dining plans based off of my personal dining plan tracking. There's not a great way to actually limit guests from getting $800 worth of food per season without putting a numerical restriction on how many times it can be redeemed. Legacy Six Flags tried that and it failed.

Something interesting I noticed during my meal at the Brewhouse today is that the receipt now lists the official Dining Plan "price" of each meal as $9.50 and the "price" of a Drink Plan cup refill at $2.75. This is down from $11.00 and up from $2.00 respectively. Before those prices (around 2024) they were $12.00 and $2.50 respectively. I'd love to know why they keep changing. This technically might mess up my dining plan usage spreadsheet, but I will continue to use the $11 and $2 "price" since that's what the season started out with. (I put "price" in quotation marks because in reality you don't pay anything at the register, nor is a number decreasing within an account.) My classic Pub Burger and Coca-Cola were really good by the way. The only complaint is that the patties were super misaligned between the buns during assembly, but I fixed it quite easily.

I thought it looked like a new roof to cover some equipment. Knowing what's stored in the giant tank next door and/or the building on the other side could be a clue.

World's second weirdest teaser campaign after the one for Project Purple.

I really like the idea of the point system and how it works. That said, it makes me wonder how idiot-proof it might be. ("Idiot" is a strong word, but the point is there.) The amount of posts I'd expect to see with people confused about the change would be a high number. The point system would also do well for fixing the Meal item vs Snack item division. A simple hamburger meal could be 1 point, a cheeseburger with toppings could be 2 points, and a funnel cake could be 3 points. I think anything above 3 point tiers would get confusing. It might also be nice for Pass Perks since they'd be able to give a +1 food point reward. I'll have to see if I can think more about your idea after I get home from work!

I think the billboard on the facade was used for HStM as well. It might've been the "Loading Dock" sign. The general cleanup they did to get all of the abandoned furniture out of the lawn makes it look a lot better. I really wish they would gut the interior and remove the exterior stairs like happened at Carowinds to give a lot more space to whatever goes in there. While I can't find a price for Carowinds' Action Theater project, it probably cost less than $600k. It's safe to say that the 4D theater concept is dead (for now) at most Six Flags parks. Here's a couple of screenshots from the video FYE Coasters got while riding WindSeeker (I believe the video is from yesterday). I definitely see the gas pumps, a cart with a striped roof, and the potentially renovated exit, though it doesn't look very enclosed. The fence in the center doesn't look like it has anything specific on it, though as always I could be wrong. Speaking of the exit, this might just be how it looked before/under other facade pieces, but it looks like there is a stylized skull painted to the left of the doorway. I wonder if those are boxes stacked up outside of the left theater or if I'm just seeing random items. Plague Productions did a really nice job with the facade for Order of the Dragon and I hope they can find a way to spruce up Action Theater like that. Whatever this maze turns out to be, I really hope they do something about the queue. Having two completely separate standby lines without a grouper causes chaos where there doesn't need to be any. Some new fences and a little connector path could easily transform it into one continuous line. (Side note: it looks like some new construction is going on backstage between the big storage tank and The Racer. It might just be a new shade structure for something, but it's always exciting to see stuff happening in the realm of park infrastructure!) It's entirely possible that this might be one of the video game IP-based mazes that were asked about in a past survey. Apparently some of the options included Castlevania, Cuphead, Dark Souls, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, The Witcher, and Luigi's Mansion. I think Left 4 Dead could be fun, but I'd also question the presence of a zombie game IP right down the path from KillMart. If that's the case then "Project 13" is definitely a code name.

We had a nice ride through the theater tonight with some surprising ups and downs. I'll try to limit my extra wording tonight by giving you all a list. Downs: Some of the flickering lamps in the station and the Audience Seating scene are very dim/off. Maestro's head appeared to be permanently turned instead of moving like it normally does. Garbonzo's cannon didn't fire at all and the crates were resetting as we rode past (the timing was off for the scene). Houdelini's entire scene was muted. Ups: We heard lots of music throughout the entire ride! The ghost notes at Larry's turntable have finally returned to their normal size. The gargoyle's eyes were on, the first boiler screen was on, and the constant radiant heat for the first boiler was on! They definitely need some fans in the queue for the hotter/more humid days to keep the air moving. The A/C works well, but it needs help just like in the Festhaus.

I'm going to use @The man's research as a jumping-off point for this, so thank you to Mr. The Man! The "Project 13" maze cost fascinates me since it has such a high price. It's lower than the $900,000 price listed on the permit report for Phantom Theater (PT:ON probably cost a lot more than that), but it still feels really high. What could we see for that price? A total gutting of the building (or one side of it) to allow for a larger maze? A redo of the queue line so it makes better sense? If anyone can find the price Carowinds paid to gut their Action Theater that would be helpful to know for comparison. I'd love to see this ready for 2026, though I'd understand if it's for 2027. As much as I enjoy Hotel St. Michelle, it's within one of the largest maze buildings in the park and only uses a relatively small portion of its footprint. I do hope the park has something new coming this Fall if they want to justify the continued upcharge for mazes. Some guests will see no reason to pay for what they experienced last year without something new, especially after parks like Kings Dominion removed the upcharge halfway through the event.

The new in-line ads appear to include themselves as regular text and/or a second link when you quote someone's post. It also changes the formatting of the quoted post a little. Not really a new or separate problem, but something interesting for documentation purposes. I believe these ads are just a new format for some ads previously seen on KIC that kept themselves within the pop-up boxes. Example below:

I don't think they will adjust any of the regions, especially considering the fact that each region officially contains 5-6 "resorts" (including waterparks). There aren't really any parks that can move regions unless you include one of the lower-tier East Coast parks. East Coast only lost LaRonde, Midwest lost four parks, and Texas lost one park — I think the regions were originally created with this in mind as they're all now much better balanced. The Midwest Region also has 4 of the chain's top 10 resorts in it, which should count for something (3 if you exclude Canada's Wonderland). See the regional breakdown below (a * denotes that the resort received a Park President position): East Coast Region (https://www.sixflags.com/east-coast-region) 6 Resorts Kings Dominion & Soak City Carowinds & Carolina Harbor* Six Flags New England & Hurricane Harbor Six Flags Over Georgia & Hurricane Harbor Atlanta + White Water* Great Adventure + Hurricane Harbor New Jersey + Wild Safari* Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom Midwest Region (https://www.sixflags.com/midwest-region) 6 Resorts Gurnee's Great America + HH Chicago* Canada's Wonderland & Splash Works* Darien Lake & Hurricane Harbor Kings Island & Soak City* Hurricane Harbor Rockford Cedar Point + Cedar Point Shores* Texas Region (https://www.sixflags.com/texas-region) 5 Resorts Six Flags Over Texas + Hurricane Harbor Arlington* Hurricane Harbor Splashtown Schlitterbahn Waterpark New Braunfels Frontier City + Hurricane Harbor Oklahoma City Fiesta Texas & Hurricane Harbor San Antonio West Coast Region (https://www.sixflags.com/west-coast-region) 7 Resorts Knott's Berry Farm + Knott's Soak City* California's Great America & South Bay Shores Discovery Kingdom Hurricane Harbor Phoenix Hurricane Harbor Concord Magic Mountain + Hurricane Harbor Los Angeles* Six Flags Mexico + Hurricane Harbor Oaxtepec

There are some loud voices who use the word in an effort to say why the parks should get rid of the dining plan, hence why I put it in quotation marks. It was just a thought to add to the list of facts This is a chain-wide flash sale (excluding Knott's), so I'm curious as to whether this is a reaction to overall visitation numbers or if it's something to precede changes to the upcoming pass sales — especially considering the fact that memberships are now on the table. Parks like Kings Dominion have the two days for just $35 while Cedar Point has them for $49. Maybe we'll find out during the next quarterly earnings call. I hope whoever becomes Kings Island's next Executive Chef is able to help advocate fixes for some of the issues we've noticed this season. Not enough indoor/covered dining, slow service times in the Brewhouse, and ensuring drink machines have ice throughout the day are just a few noticeable inconsistencies.

I'd love to know if the band organ music is a matter of flipping a switch or of physically feeding music into the machine. The placement of the pavilion makes sense with its proximity to Tower Gardens and the fact that it was further away from the IST than if it was across the pathway. I won't defend turning off the organ, but I also won't say there were many better options. (Kings Island please please please make a video about how the carousel's band organ works! I've been wanting to know this information for years.)

I've been thinking about how the chain might change or get rid of the dining plan a lot recently, and I feel like the safest solution would've been to make any adjustments under the "New Management" excuse right after the merger happened. Neither legacy chain probably thought too far ahead on that matter though. The second-best option at this point would probably be to raise the Dining Plan prices and offer a new set of options. Some of the parks now offer both a 1-meal/day plan and a 2-meal/day plan. It might help for the chain to also price things out depending on pass tier. Enchanted Parks decided to not offer a dining plan, and now they're being forced to develop a new DP program. Their meal prices also didn't go down much at all. It's still about $17 for a meal that doesn't come with a drink. It's worth noting that if the parks decide to drastically change their dining plans because guests are "abusing" them, then Six Flags should expect to see lower turnstile numbers after the changes are implemented. Anyone who popped into the park for lunch probably won't do that, leading to lower numbers. Maybe I'll look into doing a deep dive on various park chain dining plans... I know Six Flags (plus the legacy companies), United Parks, and Disney World definitely have dining plans. I believe Herschend and Universal mainly deal in event tasting passes. Enchanted Parks has nothing yet besides their one-time meal voucher tied to their passes. What chains am I missing?

No regular nightly performances in the Carousel Pavilion, please. They turn off the band organ for the entire day when there's a show on that stage. Keep it limited to special events like the recent Celebrate 250 event and Tricks & Treats.

Now that I've been able to properly watch the show, I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous versions I've seen. The jokes and overall dialogue add so much to the show's pacing, which is something you don't really get with Nytewalkers. I'm not bothered by the lack of coordination between the music and the stunts. It would not be a good show without the music. The dancers add movement to the stage that would be visibly missing without them. One part of these shows that I cannot stand is the fake-out audience member (who wears KI merch and is actually a part of the show) who they have sit in the stands and come up on stage about halfway through the show. If you've never seen the show before it really looks like someone decided to hijack the performance. Something that concerned me was the fact that the audience didn't seem very responsive toward the end. I'm not the type of person who audibly cheers (though I clap when I like something) but everyone else was kind of silent during the performance. Part of that could've been from the heat and being tired after the long weekend. Overall, compared to other theme park shows I've seen I'd give this one 3.5/5 stars because it's better than average, but not quite to the four-star rating that I have for other shows. The cast was amazing and the beach ball segment was super fun. I hope the park can continue to bring back All Wheels Sports — albeit in a different venue — in the future.

I had mostly given up on the matter until Cedar Point put the age suggestion (I think it was 14 and up) on one of their shows last season. Of course they will probably change the show for this season to remove whatever made it unsuitable for young children, but the precedent is there. They could also cover up a lot more skin — that's not the part that I'm missing from Hot Blooded FYI — but the International Showplace needs something big and exciting that isn't just a hype show. Now I won't say that the park needs to stop letting little kids through the turnstiles during Haunt, but I do think that catering to families during an event like this plays into its own ratchet theory. Whatever happens with the stunt shows I hope they can move elsewhere in the park after 2027.

The chain has been influenced by Cedar Fair in some pretty major ways, but as you mentioned there is a definite stench lingering from the legacy Six Flags corporation. I think the "integration with Cedar Fair" comment was simply John Reilly calling it how it looks. People see the Six Flags name and don't want to read through a bunch of babble explaining that it's actually CF with the SF name [insert nerd emoji here]. Recent upgrades act as a nice perfume, but the odor still permeates. I suspect his biography was repeated to include everything he provided in addition to everything the press release's writer wanted. There might be a better explanation, but that's what I thought. There is probably a good way to salvage the Six Flags name, but I don't think it can be done without first getting rid of the legacy logo in its entirety. That thing has stuck around for nearly 30 years and has seen bad publicity for at least 20 of those years. It is a literal part of the company's image problem that can't be fixed by moving the words around [for the 7th time in 30 years]. Also, taking the SF name off of parks like Magic Mountain would 100% signal that the parks are in a new era.

I feel like if they would just need to rebuild the entire venue in order to do all of that, and after the reactions to the new festival pavilion I don't think it'd be pretty. If the stunt show is bound to stick around for a few more cycles, I hope it gets moved over to Action Zone. As for the new show this year I haven't been able to see it yet, but it does have a nice set. I still think the video panels could've been better integrated into it, but for something that's been set up since 2022 I don't blame them for something that's worked well for five years. (Hopefully we can see a new Hot Blooded-level show for Haunt in 2028! For an event that's advertised as PG-13 the shows are incredibly geared toward families.)

I think I'd much rather see a super flume like RRF in Rivertown if the area gets a more intense ride. It feels like something that families could do together (and would balance the park's needs if The Vortex successor is a high-thrill coaster).

Six Flags appoints Mark Pauls as Chief Operating Officer https://investors.sixflags.com/news/press-releases/press-release-details/2026/Six-Flags-Appoints-Mark-Pauls-Chief-Operating-Officer/default.aspx I wonder how much "operational efficiency and cost reduction initiatives" we'll be seeing across the chain, or if these will actually lead to good changes in operations? Either way, congratulations to Mark Pauls and best of luck to him in his new role.

Despite the parking lot being absolutely packed with cars I was able to snag a good enough spot just north of the divider berm. I maintain my stance that KI needs to repaint the lines to be diagonal spaces but understand how that might affect the layout (it would be very worth it though). My walk into the park was smooth and uneventful. The crowd size didn't require more than one line to be open, but it would have been very nice to have a second line open on the north side. Every time I scan my pass it takes so long for the computer to process. It would be really nice if the park could do something to improve that. I don't know if the issue is internet connectivity (I'd hope the POS terminals are hardwired) or if it's an authentication issue with Six Flags' systems, but it slows the entry process down so much. I saw an associate cleaning the windows in front of Grain & Grill. It wasn't clear if there was something on it or if they were just wiping condensation off, but I appreciated seeing it. Some doors were closed to keep cold air in while others were kept open, which has me wondering if the A/C in those buildings were off/broken. There are some KI-specific Food & Wine Festival metal cups on sale for $24.99 in the Emporium. The little Amusemints candy packages are actually M&M's in a special bag — I don't know why it's separately branded while still including the M&M's name. There is a shirt (selling for $19.99) that says "Kings Island Amusement Park" with a 3-color rainbow. The Celebrate America 250 event decorations are out all around International Street and are beginning to extend into Tower Gardens. The main "Where America Celebrates" sign is inside its own little planter, though it's very obvious that the KI logo was pasted onto it. (I'd say to just size it up a little, but I have a feeling that the "Welcomes you to" text was not able to be moved further down, meaning the spacing would be off.) The rest of the decorations look good as well. I didn't get to catch any of the special characters or performances. The fact that there are two very large washers holding the Carousel Pavilion show sign to its post looks bad. We got on the train right before Soak City closed for the night, where I saw a guy wearing a Sally Dark Rides shirt. I didn't get the opportunity to ask if he was an SDR employee or anything, but it was cool to see. The blue engine had just been retired for the night when we got to the station, so we rode the green train to go pick up the rest of the Soak City visitors. I'd really like to see more improvements come to the KI&MV RR experience since it looked so good in 2022. After riding the rails we stopped off at the restroom and backtracked a little to eat at LaRosa's in Rivertown. The restroom floors could've use a good dry mop every so often. My LaRosa's experience was good even with no ice in the drink machines. Kings Island has installed ice makers in some of the soda fountains so I hope they can continue that effort throughout the rest of the park. Walking toward WindSeeker made me realize that I could no longer see the holes in the pavers where Vortex's tiny queue fence extension lived. I wonder if those pavers got replaced in 2020? Walking back toward Jukebox let me see that they mostly had the red, white, and blue cars out for the Antique Autos, which was a nice touch for the week. Later on I ventured over to Area 72 and once again felt how much it needs a good flat ride. Continuing my walk took me into the Coney Arcade, which could use some permanent doors to keep cold air inside. Monster didn't have much of a wait but I decided to forego that opportunity since it was getting dark out. Could any of you tell me why Monster has two completely separate queue lines? I can't imagine they're worth keeping separate with the way the ride's load/unload procedure works. I was going to make a quick jaunt over to The Bat until I remembered that my gym shorts didn't have zipper pockets. I settled for a look at the Son of Beast station (no changes there). Phantom Theater had a sub-15 minute wait so I took the opportunity. Much better than the 45 minutes I would've waited an hour before that. Almost everything was working so I was happy. SweetSpot now has some Boysenberry products back in stock, including the Boysenberry Preserves and the Boysenberry Jam. I really want to try it and wish the park offered a small tasting like some ice cream shops have (but with the jam instead of ice cream). My last ride of the night was on the Grand Carousel. I saw the guy in the SDR shirt again, but I think he looked at the time and got off to go get in line for something else before 10PM. My night ended with a viewing of the nighttime spectacular. As much as I love the drones, I don't think the experience would be as good without the nightly fireworks. I've been trying to figure out where I recognize the Maestro design from and I think it's similar to BryanJay's art style with how the hair is portrayed. It would be amazing if the International Restaurant could be opened for an upcharge VIP fireworks viewing. I think that would be some easy money for the park, especially if it's like $30-$40 and includes dinner. Would it sell out every night? I don't think so, but I bet there are enough guests visiting each day that would pay for it. Getting out of the parking lot via the north exit was easy. One thing I like about some of the legacy Six Flags parks is that they have these Disney World-esque directional signage which would look so much better and more permanent at Kings Island than the cheap-looking vinyl(?) signs they have now. Overall, I had a surprisingly good night at the park. The heat didn't hurt me too much, but it was close to being too much. It would be a very good idea for the park to put up some big water stations in each area with free cold water. The water fountains are useful, but guests might be better about staying hydrated if there were dedicated water stations all over the place.