Losantiville Mining Co.

Son of Beast (noun) | A defunct roller coaster at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio that formerly held the records of being the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world when it opened in April 2000. I've seen all kinds of RMC recreations for Son of Beast and have also heard that the ride didn't live up to its name, and it all made me wonder if there is anything that could have made its overall design better than it was. What do you think Son of Beast could have been if it had lived up to its name and/or been designed by a better company? What kinds of elements could have been included or changed up? I haven't seen anyone else go to far with this and am now really curious as to what the ride could have been if it was built by a better manufacturer. Share your ideas below!

Tower Topics has reported that two names have popped up in Six Flags' search for a new CEO to replace Richard Zimmerman: Michael Colglazier, a Disney executive and former president of the Disneyland Resort, and Bob Chapek, former Chairman of Parks and Resorts for Disney and former CEO of the Walt Disney Company. Honestly, if they can right the ship and bring some of the fun back to the parks, I don't think I'd really mind seeing either come into the position. Every day that passes now is another day until Richard Zimmerman is no longer CEO. Some of the company's bad decisions haven't been his fault, but I think the new head honcho will have a good opportunity to fix some immediate things and improve how people see Six Flags. Maybe we could even see that SFEC name changed to something that isn't cursed; although I might be getting a little too ahead of myself.

It seems that the Boo Blasters (soon to again be Phantom Theater) queue holds about 1 hour's worth of guests, as evidenced by my experience waiting in there tonight. I'd suspect that factoring in the rest of the Fast Lane queue as well as any ride stoppages could add another 15-30 minutes to that.

I'd personally hate to see one of those come to Kings Island. If one did come to the park, I'd also hate to see it go in the Skyflyer plot since that would probably hinder the near-total gutting and revamp that Action Zone needs.

I think it could be cool if they choose to reuse some of the windows and other items from Boo Blasters as props for a new Haunt maze or as part of a new attraction during Tricks and Treats. Obviously they probably wouldn't use Boocifer or anything that might explicitly be part of Sally Dark Rides IPs, but I feel like surely the basic items could be reused by Kings Island. There's also the possibility that most of it gets sold/sent back to SDR, but I'd like to see the non licensed materials used at KI again.

It appears that the MVP Sale has been extended and will now conclude on September 14th. If you're still planning to buy your Kings Island pass, what're you waiting for?! Buy now!!! I'm pretty sure this new countdown started at midnight tonight. I wonder if they had always planned to extend this sale and/or if pass sales were horrible enough to justify its extension.

I'm super excited to see how construction progresses and how visible it will be! There's not a lot of it visible from the park's webcams, and they have tended to make sure construction cannot be seen from those in the past few years. I wonder if any of the other spaces in the building will also be renovated alongside PT:ON. It would be nice to have a better layout for the Peanuts Showplace (and a better name IMO), and I'm sure the other spaces in the building might be in need of a little TLC. I've stated in other threads how much I hope the park doesn't just put up their "Exciting New Offerings" chain link fences, and I'm sticking to that. Any hiding that can be done using a wooden fence would be great! Some of the first things I think we'll see outside is the removal of the signage and the demolition of the "BH" crests that can be seen from the pathway. I'd assume the castle won't come down until the park has time to properly demolish it. That way it's not as visible that there used to be a facade there. Any of the indoor stuff will probably come out through the garage doors closest to International Street.

They might need it to flow better or have space for a check-in table/sales table that couldn't didn't fit in the normal entrance. Using the normal queue could also come with the complications of needing a functional elevator to get down to the maze floor, which may be part of a concern with guest flow through the attraction. A wild card option could be the fact that the normal entrance still has remnants of Tomb Raider in it, and while most of it was removed there are still certain remnants that cannot appear with the new stuff. Mixing IPs is already a big no-no with the Peanuts license, so I can imagine that Warner Bros. would not want anything that could be tied to Paramount appearing in/with an attraction that they licensed. Building the new entrance might've been cheaper and quicker than a renovation of that indoor queue.

I got my last ride ever on Boo Blasters on Boo Hill tonight! It was about 6:30 when I got in line (just past the Meet n' Greet sign is and where Snoopy's Dog House used to be), and then proceeded to get on the ride at about 7:33. The roughly one hour of waiting was worth it for me. I was then out of the exit around 7:40, where I was able to snap one last shot of the BBoBH ride information sign. I wonder if they'll just put a new sticker over it for next year or if we'll see a new one produced. Six Flags might want to begin re-standardizing their ride info signage across all of their parks if they want to start looking like one singular company. My first blaster in my car would make the targets register that they'd been hit, but wouldn't show the point totals adding up. I switched to the blaster on the right pretty quickly and I'll tell you what, it worked perfectly! I was able to hit every target that I was able to aim at. My attempts to hit most of the targets in the big living room didn't work out so well, though. I'd assume that if the old ride vehicles that were taken out are no longer around then more could be produced, but that might be a bit much if they're not going to do much to the ride system itself.

I'd bet it is a reference to Steel Vengeance. Most of the props/posters from this era include those easter eggs because they were designed by a human who understands that there can be a connection like that between the parks. If you look at the AI generated posters in AlpenFury's indoor queue line, you'll notice they don't have any easter eggs. I think the last set of non-AI posters Kings Island has are over in Adventure Port. Now that I'm looking at this photo, I don't think I've ever noticed the hose or its box either. Any idea as to why it appears to be completely outside of the box? Maybe all that wood behind the fence will go into building the entrance for The Conjuring. Not much seemed to be going on with them this weekend, but the new entrance to Order of the Dragon looked to be further along in development.

I don't think they even know a problem exists beyond the fact that the Preferred lot fills up. The only associates in the parking lot are either at the main toll building or are the singular associate manning the entrance to that lot. Security seems to either always be up near the park entrance in the Handicap lot or parked out by the main tolls as well. That's why there are always cars parked in the accessibility aisles and up in the non-spaces near the bollards. Nobody is there to witness the fights and parking violations.

Kings Island could probably do well with a non-IP family area, but I feel like they'd keep at least one IP area in the park for corporate consistency. The only way I can see KI removing IPs entirely is if they are sold to Herschend and get turned into a Dollywood/SDC of Ohio. I think Kings Island is special enough in the Six Flags portfolio to be given some unique treatment, but I can't imagine they'd do something here without also doing so at the other top tier SF parks. Whatever they do or don't do, I'd hope it doesn't end up being made severely generic just in case any park gets sold. It would say to guests: "We don't have confidence in ourselves and we don't know if we'll exist in five years either". Cedar Fair had the option to use all of the Paramount licensing for 10 years after they bought the parks and chose to end it pretty quickly. I can only assume it was ended because of the clear vision Cedar Fair had for their parks at the time during their new post-Paramount era. We haven't seen anything close to a consistent vision from the new Six Flags besides the required homogenization of ticket/pass structures and the sharing of concepts between the two former companies.

I could see the line using the Peanuts Showplace whenever it opens, but it shouldn't be incorporated into PT:ON. Kings Island cannot stand to lose another entertainment venue without more being built. I understand the fact that Six Flags doesn't really do entertainment — even though they really need to invest in that sector if they want to attract more guests — but entertainment is important to a lot of Kings Island guests.

I am shocked that there is no way for them to track how many cars are currently in the Preferred Lot and that they don't even have a "Lot Full" sign that they can put out. In my opinion, these larger parks either need to convert the lot into a Prestige Pass Lot (still with limited access) or find a new way to expand the lot while making up for the fact that you're not really getting the close parking spaces. Make it similar to the old Paramount Gold Pass lot, but with better accommodations. Covering the whole thing in solar shade structures and finding a way to regulate the amount of people that get let into that lot would do wonders for it. I don't think it should be too hard to automatically count how many cars are in the lot based on the number of pass scans coming in and the number of times the exit gate opens. The real answer: Limit the amount of cars who can enter the Preferred lot and stop selling the upgrade at the parking tolls entirely. All of the people who bought the Prestige Pass will be clamoring to get into that lot and some will make proper fools of themselves if given the chance. The entire parking lot obviously needs a major redesign, but starting with the preferred lot and going out from there would probably add initial value and improve the overall guest experience. I've heard a sentiment that the park has made it so the trams can never easily come back, but I think any parking lot renovation would easily be able to include a new tram route that doesn't use the old route. I've got more opinions on it, but I'll save those for later.

I'm hesitant to agree about transforming it into Safari Village since Banshee wouldn't fit that theme and because of how many changes would need to be made for it to be done right. The tie of Oktoberfest back into the history of Cincinnati is also important to me because it was part of the original park concept. You could probably keep The Bat (or convert it to Swoop), find a new water ride to replace Congo Falls, and give the whole area a more extensive Jungle Xpedition-style makeover. I think they could also easily close the entire area (minus Banshee and its restrooms) to make sure the new area isn't a rushed project. Safari Village would be cool if they had a great way to retheme Banshee, but overall I think they should stay away from that because of the fact that Kings Dominion has Jungle X in that same general area. It'd be good to let KI and KD have some more differences in their themed lands.

I think Siren's Curse might've had some of the same issues at Knott's as it had at Six Flags Mexico, which is why it went to Cedar Point. Permitting and available flat land are probably the biggest answers of why it didn't get sent to another park under the Six Flags umbrella. SFM couldn't get permits, Knott's probably didn't have the land or the permit ability, Magic Mountain and Kings Island aren't flat enough, and Carowinds and Great Adventure probably hadn't been told to purge their ride collections yet. If Xcelerator goes down for good, I think they should replace it with another small launch coaster after the money becomes available.

I have to wonder if the limit to the modifications of Action Zone that came with Banshee in 2014 came about because of budget constraints. We saw how differently the budget was allocated this year with the additions of River Racers and Splash River Junction, and how likely it was that some of their budgets went toward restroom renovations and modifications to other parts of Soak City. We might've even seen a bigger retheme of (part of) Soak City had Six Flags been in better shape overall. If all of Action Zone had been rethemed, I could see a world where Banshee was a smaller Invert. A big part of me hopes that Six Flags will not waste the money it would take to turn Action Zone into a new DC Universe/Gotham City/Metropolis, or to retheme anything that does not immediately need a retheme/redo. Arbitrarily slapping an IP onto an area when you're $5 Billion in debt would indeed be a waste of money, and would show guests that — whether intended or not — the goal is to make the park "Six Flags Kings Island". If they did change it up then I'd much rather see Banshee become Batman: The Ride instead of becoming Superman. If Kings Island is looking for a nice rebrand for Action Zone that could work well with guests, I'd suggest they turn it all into a new version of Oktoberfest. It could begin by bringing in new decorations and ride names/signage, then continue modifying it more as the budget allows. I'd personally prefer to see everything outside of Chicken Shack, Banshee, Congo Falls pond/trees, the shade tent, and The Bat get completely reimagined. Don't even let the pathways stay totally the same. That way Banshee wouldn't look entirely out of place (an old European mythical creature in a European-themed area), The Bat could continue to live out the rest of its years as is, and the park would gain more nostalgia points with guests by expanding on an original area to the park. The park's original themed lands (specifically Rivertown, Coney Island, and Oktoberfest) related heavily to Cincinnati, and this would be a massive win in returning the park to its roots.

I'll have to see if I can find the one I took on Friday, but that photo is just of one poster. They all say something to the extent of "Kings Island Presents The Circus".

I don't want to clog up the main Haunt discussion with this, so I'm putting it here under my own thread from last Fall. Here are some things I saw from a recent TheTimTracker video from Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando that I think Kings Island could easily do to improve Halloween Haunt! There's some more things I've thought of in the moment at the end as well. 1. Better event wayfinding signage. This particular stand is not the one I wanted to show off, but I think this would be a way to point guests in the right direction in a way that is themed to the event. They wouldn't need to be entirely redesigned from year to year either if you make them correctly. I'd say to use the new ad signs for them, but I don't know that you can personalize those between each unit like this would require. 2. Bring back lanyards! This one is from the 2025 HHN Premium Scream Night (could be a fun idea for Haunt to do something similar as well), and includes a QR code for the event Food & Beverage info while acting as an easy souvenir. I think Haunt guests could easily benefit from having a lanyard and card throughout the night. Don't want these flying off of rides like a phone might? Install free lockers in the lines for most coasters. 3. I just wanted to show off the new Deathly Afraid necklaces. They look really cool, but I think I like the No-Boo Necklaces look just the tiniest bit better. Maybe making the No-Boo Necklaces look less kid-friendly is what I'd like to see with this one. 4. This was a bigger complaint of mine before I saw all of the new merch today: More year-specific merch, pretty please. It doesn't have to be t-shirts or hoodies or hats, magnets and lanyards would do just fine. They're easy for guests to collect and would sell well if you market them right. I'm really glad that I got my 25th Anniversary magnet for this year. The shirt in the screenshot says "Halloween Horror Nights Premium Scream Night August 28, 2025" on the sleeve. 5. This isn't really a major or necessary change, but I think it would be cool if the park put some of those video board panels up across the top of the Bandstand and make it say "Kings Island Halloween Haunt" when there's not a show happening. The big scaffolding at HHN is iconic and this sign might look good against the sky. Since they're video screens I think they could use it to display showtimes and to advertise the haunted attractions. It'd also look a lot better than how the park set up the video board on the Bandstand for Hot Rhythm Nights where it's just a big rectangle in the middle of the stage. 6. More permanent haunted attraction buildings backstage. I'm not a fan of how KillMart and TC:BF use up prime space along the midways that could be used year-round. Slaughterhouse, Club Blood/Blackout/Order of the Dragon, and the old Red Barn behind Meteor Canteen are great because they can stay up throughout the year without taking up valuable space along the midways. I think they could put one more in Rivertown, behind The Crypt; a second maze that uses the other side of Action Theater, like Canada's Wonderland does; maybe put one back in the Son of Beast station; and find a way to put one up near the front gate. That last one might be part of a larger park admin building rebuild dream of mine, but hey, it'd be something new. 7. Kings Island really needs at least 8 houses for the crowds it draws in. Having at least 8 houses, at least 4 live shows (not including the opening ceremonies), and 1-2 more premium attractions would help the event. I feel like the crowds are normally still the size of the 2015 Haunt that had 11 mazes, 3 shows, and the Skeleton Key. An event with those crowds that only has 5 mazes (+1 separate fee attraction) and 3 shows has something severely wrong with it. 8. Host more paid exclusive experiences. I'm thinking VIP Tours, a Premium Scream Night, the return of the Fright Feast, more Fall food items with a tasting card, and more attractions like The Conjuring: Beyond Fear. If guests don't want that kind of stuff at Kings Island, then the park can at least say they tried it. When priced right with a good guest experience, and when marketed properly, there are little to no reasons why these shouldn't work out. Great America hosts a Cosmetology Day during Fright Fest that acts as a premium experience for that park. The big Legacy Six Flags parks already have a big VIP Tour program, and some of the Legacy Cedar Fair parks have the beginnings of a big VIP Tour program. The new Haunted Attractions Pass might just prove at least one of these points. I wonder if $100 would be just around the right price for KI's version of a Premium Scream Night? Too low maybe? Too high for a new event? I'd assume it would include admission, access to the haunted attractions, and a dinner ticket. Are Kings Island and Cedar Point the wrong parks to be doing such a thing at? I feel like after hours events would do well if they're limited entry and are worth the price. Smaller crowds and having experiences included in your ticket would make it so worth it for me. As someone else here on KIC wrote: "Mismanagement is the only reason why an event like Winterfest would not be profitable." (I'm pretty sure that's what it said).

Please note that this topic should have a MASSIVE "rumor" tag on it. The comment very much read like it was hearsay, but then again this is how some of the rumors of Kingda Ka's demise came out. I don't intend any harm to come from this topic so please treat it as the hearsay rumor that it is. I recently read a comment from a Knott's Berry Farm guest who spoke to a "reputable source" who said that Xcelerator is on its last train. They continued to say that the park has halted the ride's lifetime maintenance planning/budget that would be responsible for ordering new trains/train parts. Once this newest train fully breaks, it will not be repaired and a new train will not be ordered. The source gave Xcelerator 3-5 years and mentioned that the wheels are wearing faster than expected. This could all just be a random commenter with a source that knows nothing, and I fully accept that. If anyone knows more about how that coaster works and its history please let me know if any of this sounds right or wrong! Six Flags is doing awfully with their financials so it is well within the realm of possibility that the future funding for major maintenance needs like this are being halted. I'd bet that this could be what happened with most of the rides lost in the 2024 Ride Purge, and we all know how that turned out for Kingda Ka. If I can find a way to link directly to a YouTube comment then I'll post it here since I am but a tertiary source at this point!

The fact that there is so much merch for it, and no merch at all for any of the other haunted attractions. I can't imagine they'd buy so much merch for one house and then zero for any of the other ones. Haunt is my favorite season at Kings Island, so I'm very intrigued by all of this. Maybe it could've replaced KillMart or been a pre-Conjuring idea, I don't know. I think it would have been really fun if they were going to use this as a new piece of programming either in the Kings Island Theater or in the abandoned side of Action Theater. I'll mention that I think the Slasher Cinema shirt/tote bag do look like they were made by AI, but not so much that would make me not want the tote bag. Much like the PT:ON stuff, it's entirely possibly that this was made by an artist and then either added to or adjusted. Knott's is normally good about using real artists, but I don't know if this concept came from that park or not. My gripe about using generative AI for things in the park isn't entirely about how cheap it is — though it does often look really cheap — it's more about the environmental impact and the fact that there is no meaning behind the choices it makes in its art. (Not that anyone asked, but I felt the need to say it) Something I didn't put in either of my reports from tonight: the non-scare zone/cancelled scare zone from last year now has a massive gilly suit-style covering over it from the Rivertown restrooms up to the Stunt Coaster plaza. Kings Island did a good job with this area last year, and I'm curious as to how they'll change it up this year with the addition of the covering. I didn't go over into Action Zone tonight to see if they had set anything up, but I might go look if I'm able to go again this weekend.

Some posters have gone up on Monster's fence, meaning it probably will not open for the rest of the year. I really hope it does reopen eventually. If the park decided to pull the plug then I'd love to see a Zamperla Octopus replace it. Keep the overall idea, but with improved loading and parts still in production. Whatever is lost in capacity would probably be made up by the better loading/unloading process.

More work has been done! This week's work appears to have included tearing out all of the shrubbery to the left of the initial clearing, removing a section of fence back by Slaughterhouse's entrance gate, putting hay down (in the shape of a path), and lifting one of the mesh panels at the back of the game stand. The hay could just be there because something got dug up, but I like my theory better. To me, it's currently looking more and more like Axe Axe Baby will turn into an entrance for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear. They could set up either a shed or a tent (or two of either) to act as a check in/a sales point in case they need it. It'd give the attraction a more prominent entrance (Diamondback kind of ruined any grandness that the cave entrance had) and might entirely eliminate the need for the indoor queue.

New Haunt merch has appeared in the Emporium over where the Haunt Store normally is. Here are some photos I took tonight of everything I noticed. The Wall A new 25th Anniversary of Halloween Haunt glow in the dark shirt A new Halloween Haunt shirt. This one is interesting for me because it really does look like it was made custom for Kings Island. You can see approximations of Orion and The Racer (with funky color schemes). It reminds me of some of the Fright Fest shirts I've seen from Six Flags. Cinema Slasher at Kings Island?? I wonder if this is from a cancelled house, although this is the only maze that I've ever seen get merchandise like this — the tote bags especially. It's really odd. New mugs, fans, and Elvira merch — oh my! That's it for the new merch I took photos of. I think we could see more come in when/if the Haunt Store is fully installed later this month. The Cinema Slasher merch is weird to see. I originally thought it might've been brought over from Carowinds... until I realized that they have Silver Scream Studios. It's Knott's Scary Farm that (actively) has a Cinema Slasher house. (For those wondering, the Halloween Horror Nights houses were called "Slaughter Sinema"). I have to wonder how much of this merch might have been from a cancelled 25 Years of Fear celebration like SCarowinds is having this Fall. It would explain the prevalence of both the 25th Anniversary merchandise, the Elvira merch, and the loads of merchandise for Cinema Slasher. One can only imagine what this year's Haunt would look like with the addition of The Conjuring, Order of the Dragon, The Gauntlet, Cinema Slasher, and any other new things that would help to celebrate Kings Island's 25 Years of Fear.

Big hopes that we can see the return of the stained glass piano in some form or other! It looks really cool and I think it'd be a good easter egg (is it an easter egg if it's just a reused whole prop?) to the original. Walking through the stores tonight, I noticed that they don't have any of the old Phantom Theater merch stocked anymore it's all just the new merch for Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare. I really hope they bring the old merch back to one of the stores on International Street. I get that they're promoting the new ride, but there looked to be quite a bit of merch left last weekend and I think both would sell really well. Here's the promotion for PT:ON outside of Boo Blasters' entrance, to the left of the birthday sign.