Losantiville Mining Co.

I wonder if we'll see Kings Island's Halloween Haunt receive a sponsor this year. They've been popping up on the other Halloween Haunt events, and might be useful if they help bring in some money to improve the event. SCarowinds has also released a teaser referencing their 25 Years of Fear celebration. I hope we can also get something good and fun for Kings Island's 25th year of haunt. Haunt season will be a crucial time for season pass sales this year after what some guests have gone through with the park this summer. The current split between sponsored/unsponsored is about as 50:50 as it can get. So far the following nighttime Halloween events have newly received a Snickers sponsorship: SCarowinds HalloWeekends @ Cedar Point Halloween Haunt @ Dorney Park Halloween Haunt @ Kings Dominion The Haunts that remain so far unsponsored are: Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt @ Canada's Wonderland Halloween Haunt @ Kings Island Halloween Haunt @ Worlds of Fun ValleyScare I don't think the rest of the Legacy Cedar Fair parks have a night time Halloween event, and the only Legacy Six Flags parks that doesn't have a sponsor for Fright Fest are Frontier City, Great Escape, and Darien Lake. An interesting thing to note is that LaRonde's Fright Fest is sponsored by Fizz, not Snickers.

Here are the show times boards for some of this season's Live Entertainment! Shows that I do not have pictures for are listed as well using available information. "Country Crossroads" May 24 – August 10, 2025 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm (No shows on Mondays) Festhaus "Gazillion Bubble Show: Aurora" May 31 - July 6, 2025 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm (No shows on Thursdays) Kings Island Theater "Hot Rhythm Nights" May 24 – August 10, 2025 7:00 pm, 8:00 pm, 9:30 pm International Street Bandstand "Kings Island's Nighttime Spectacular" May 23 – August 31, 2025 10:00 pm nightly International Street and Parkwide "Meet-N-Greet Experience" April 18 – September 1, 2025 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm Peanuts Showplace "Trailblazers X-treme" presented by The Original Bomb Pop Extremes June 21 – August 3, 2025 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:30 pm (No shows on Tuesdays) International Showplace

I used to be a South Toll guy until they got rid of it. There is a good amount of space where a new set of south toll booths could be built, but the approach from Kings Island Drive and I-71 would be a little tight. The convenience of having one big toll plaza is probably worth the money they put into it either way. As I've written elsewhere on these forums, the entire parking lot needs a good redesign. The flow is a bit wonky, there are potholes littered throughout it, the surface gets super hot on warm days, and the walking experience in the parking lot is terrible. That first and second issue could be resolved with some good resurfacing efforts. That'd also give them the opportunity to repaint all of the lines nobody can see. The hot surfaces could be mitigated by the installation of solar panel shade structures like other Six Flags parks have. That would help with temperatures and generate some electricity for the park. They might not do as well as they would in California or Florida, but institutions like the Cincinnati Zoo have been reaping the benefits from theirs for years now. That last issue of the walking experience is also solvable if some thought were to be put into it. Kings Island could bring back the parking lot tram service (with unruly passengers being told to get out and walk) or install concrete sidewalks at regular intervals. The amount of ADA parking spaces available is also a major issue, although I could believe that is one reason why the whole lot has yet to be redesigned. Once a major alteration is put in motion then the state may be able to hold the park to new parking minimums, which might require an increase in the number of total spaces. I once tried to redesign the parking lot and came up with space for 7,939 guest parking spaces. I believe the current total is over 8,000 guest spaces, but I can't remember and my note card with the current totals is buried somewhere. See the attempt (complete with parking garage) below.

With how many people come to Kings Island, it is absolutely baffling that the overall handling capacity of the park isn't better thought out by now. That is, the park is lacking adequate capacity in rides, dining services, cleanliness, and security. Guests could've been spread out to so many more places than just International Street (albeit with a worse view of the shows), but the planning looked as if there was none outside of "put on a fireworks and drone show". The parking lot could use a rethink/redesign to make it easier to get to the exits as well. If the park can't/won't put people out to direct traffic, then they could at least spend some good time and money to make the parking lot flow better. They could at least install more signage directing guests to use both exits. The main dining room of the International Restaurant can hold 117 guests, while the Carousel Room next door can hold an additional 63, all for a total of 180 possible guests each night (page 10, https://qr1.be/BUYH). It would be super easy to have the IR open as a special dinner and firework viewing location, it just also takes planning and execution. I don't think having it open so often would cheapen the experience either. That's a lot more money that the park could be making. Maybe if the front entrance building gets renovated we could see the IR entrance moved to be a little more visible to guests. With the way that the door is facing the park exit I can understand how it might be hard to see. Giving away the gate is what makes Kings Island Six Flags' most penetrated park I have a feeling that we'll be seeing higher pass prices for 2026 or 2027, starting with the All Park Passport. If Six Flags starts to use the Regional Park Passport then I could easily see a future with a $220 KI Gold Pass (up $50) and $80 Regional Park Passport (same price, but for 6 parks instead of 26+ parks). The company needs more money and may not be willing to keep their passes more affordable. That being said, I don't know what the combination of this year's major issues, increased pass prices, and the possibility of another lackluster addition may do for season pass sales. Let's hope Six Flags is willing to put in the work to find a better route out of this situation.

Hopefully The Vortex plot gets filled first, but this would be an awesome coaster after that!

AlpenFury is set to open tomorrow, Saturday, July 12th, 2025! After months of construction, delays, waiting, commissioning, theming installation, and even more waiting, the day has finally come. This brand new Premier launch coaster takes riders through the new Alpenfest; launches them down into, through, and up out the top of Wonder Mountain; all the way down the left (south) side of International Street; and then back into Alpenfest for a thrilling experience that is set to be the best in the park. The theming for the station and area are awesome, and I cannot wait to see them in person some day. Congratulations to Canada's Wonderland on their newest roller coaster, and best of luck to everyone as it begins its public operating life!

55% uptime doesn't sound great, but then again it is much better than the alternative!

Didn't Cedar Point also only offer free parking for Platinum/Prestige passholders? It's a good incentive for parks where most passholders only visit 1-3 times per year. Parks like Kings Island would probably suffer from this policy since a lot of locals tend to get the Gold Pass and would be miffed if they had to pay more to park each time. Though, now that I think about it, maybe that could lead to faster parking lot repairs (and hopefully a good parking lot redesign with new trams)? All those guests could probably help to fund solar panel shade structures and new bioswale planters to reduce the urban heat island effect currently generated by all that asphalt.

The funnel fries and chimichanga looked really good! I'm tempted to split one amongst my group on my next visit. If not, it'll at least be something for me to try to make at home

Y'know, I think I might prefer these small signs over putting a car on a midway. You can tell they were made to be unobtrusive and easily changed out/disassembled. Kings Island has always had sponsors, as has Disney, and so have many other regional parks. The transition from the merger has allowed a ton of people to recognize a slight change and then run wild with comments. I also wanted to hop on the positivity train and mention that I've had a great time at Kings Island this season because of all the associates I've encountered. My food and drinks have been good. I really enjoyed the new Pep + Chee sandwich (I have got to find out how much pepperoni is on that thing). The shows, while having shorter runs, remain high quality. The rides are still nicely consistent. Most of my complaints are for Six Flags' corporate teams. Budget cuts affect everyone and I think there are better ways to go about doing them, but the echo chambers often repeat the loudest and harshest voices. The associates deserve much more than they're getting, and I hope the park and Six Flags are able to stabilize and improve the overall situation rather quickly.

I've heard good things about them, but I haven't tried one myself. I think they have standard flavors like vanilla and chocolate. They might also have some specialty flavors (like blue ice cream), though I can't find if they have that this year.

Fall and the Halloween season are fast approaching. We've seen some movement for Halloween Haunt as Plague Productions has been working on a new maze in the old Club Blood/Blackout building, as well as items being moved out of The Crypt's building. 2025 is set to be Kings Island's 25th year hosting what has been called one of the scariest events in the Cincinnati area. Carowinds just released a teaser video for this year's SCarowinds on Facebook. It features a red candle lit against a dark background with an eerie rendition of happy birthday playing over it. Some audio distortions interrupt the music as well. The teaser ends with the candle being blown out and "25 YEARS OF FEAR" and #SCarowinds25 coming up on the screen. The caption on the post says "A party to die for..." Could this mean anything for Kings Island as well? Both KI and Carowinds will be celebrating this anniversary this Fall, and it would be wonderful to see Haunt get some more love as well. I sure hope the event delivers well this year! Link below for the post on Carowinds' page. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GgEKhRBXo/

I really like the idea of incorporating some of Soak City into Winterfest! There could be some issues with getting guests to go out there though. There was one year where The Great Pumpkin Fest (or some variation on the name) was held in Soak City, and it did not go well enough to warrant keeping the location for future events. Maybe it could work if there were less of a walk between the dry park and Soak City -- like how it is between Carowinds and Carolina Harbor -- but not really with the current layout. Having a much better train display should also be on the Winterfest priority list. I've heard that it used to be themed to "Home For The Holidays" back in either Winterfest 1.0 or 2.0, and that sounds like an awesome way to change things up a little! It apparently had some displays of soldiers and people coming home for Christmas with some other fun displays as well. Anything to make that loop a little more tolerable in the cold. Otherwise, just don't use it for Winterfest and turn it into a haunted train or trail maze for Haunt! It could even be a premium experience if the park wanted to cut down on crowds that would go for it.

No Ice, No Carbonation, Smaller Cups: Visitors to Kings Dominion and Cedar Point are beginning to notice a new cup size when they use their All Season Drink Plan. The new cups are noticeably smaller at approximately 10-12oz, compared to the former 16oz cups. Could these be coming to more Six Flags parks as the chain continues to slash budgets? As inevitable as it is I really hope these smaller cups don't come to Kings Island. I can always get another drink after 15 minutes, but the drink plan cups have always been this size. What is the reason behind getting smaller cups besides wanting to save another 2¢ per cup? The old ones were a good size to get through a meal. I wish Six Flags would at least be more consistent if they're going to keep downgrading the guest experience. I bet they'll save the tariffs excuse for when they can't deliver their 2026 ride promises. Political unrest would be an interesting excuse though, considering there hasn't been any in the parks recently. "Due to the sudden increase in the cost of rides and roller coaster parts, we were unable to create new experiences for our guests in 2026. As North America's largest chain of regional amusement parks Six Flags is committed to entertaining our guests and shareholders. Please enjoy our existing attractions as we make way for new expansions coming in 2027."

An issue I could see rearing its ugly head would be that a lot of the higher-up people who knew what they were doing at Kings Island have either been laid off or moved to higher positions in the Six Flags chain. Unless those people come back to the park, or new ones come in that care about more than just profit, the park may not look as good as everyone would like. A new KECO would be very nice. It could bring parks like Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Fiesta Texas, and Kings Island (and more) back into the "theme park with awesome thrill rides" category. Too bad Six Flags would probably never let Kings Island go unless it were pried from their cold, dead, corporate hands.

If they had the money, I'd almost rather the parks install the RFID-reader soda fountains and invest in the corresponding cups instead of hiring more security. I've read that the cost is only slightly higher per batch for the cups, and the machines would (presumably) only have higher costs for installation. That and seasonal maintenance may be cheaper overall rather than hiring loss prevention security at each drink stand. Some Six Flags parks have also been installing pressure plates at the exits of each dining/drink stand so the gate can only be opened from inside the line. Kings Island needs these (with suitable ADA-compliant activators as well). I think Six Flags hasn't installed these at KI yet is because they don't currently see it as an investment-worthy park, and they feel it is easier to make the short term guest experience worse than to immediately do something to fix the issue in the long term. (That's not to say Six Flags doesn't invest in KI, more so they see it as a park that already has a "just fine" experience and doesn't need a lot of investment). The restaurants are a different story, especially if guests are now finding ways to steal food. I'm not normally one to rag on people who steal food, but to me there's a difference between stealing bread from a grocery store and stealing a meal from a restaurant (generalized examples). I have a feeling that one reason why people (mainly children) do the water cup trick is because their parents don't buy them a drink plan. There are those who can't afford it and then there are those who don't want to pay for it. The shift to credit-card-only operations might also help this problem. Some parents just aren't going to go with their kids to get a drink, and most don't want to hand their card to someone who might lose/abuse it like they would have done with a $5 or $10 bill. It doesn't help that there are only 6 cash-to-card kiosk locations throughout the entire park. All of this makes you wonder what Kings Island would look like if it were part of a company that wasn't hemorrhaging money and didn't have 40 other parks to look after...

Unfortunately these delayed openings have been a trend for both companies — even pre-merger. Kings Island opened Adventure Port and Camp Snoopy late. Apparently AP was a late decision, but Camp Snoopy had the same amount of time as every other addition normally does and was not finished until long after Opening Day. Great Adventure had to delay The Flash: Vertical Velocity's 2024 opening date to March 2025. Over Georgia had to delay Georgia Goldrusher by that same amount of time. None of these are to mention TT2 and its issues (the closing was justified, but it does not leave a good mark). This year makes it a trend with AlpenFury, Siren's Curse, Snoopy's Racing Railway & Charlie Brown's River Raft Blast, Quantum Accelerator, Wrath of Rakshasa, and Montezooma's Revenge all having delayed openings. Rapterra may be the only new roller coaster in Six Flags that opened with its park this year. I could understand if Memorial Day weekend (or the weekend before) became the new standard of when to open new attractions, but that should be the backup date IMO. I hope someone with a big enough voice in Six Flags right now has made a presentation that says "Why are all of our new major additions opening after June 15th?" and is at least looking at how to get things right for 2027 attractions. Money and the merger may be an issue, but I don't think guests will happily put up with that excuse. If I were a Silver Pass holder, I might be questioning my next moves for when passes go on sale (presumably) in August.

Has anyone seen development for rides at parks not listed in the November press release? Apparently there have been some B&M track shipments at Great Escape and some "theming" added to the Snake River Falls plot, but I haven't heard much else from other parks. Fiesta Texas will be celebrating their 35th anniversary soon and I think there's been some rumblings for that too. It's nice that they went back and corrected the spelling of Kings Island on the press release though — shame it wasn't caught before it first went out. I marked what the status of some of those projects are (from what I know), but I could be wrong on one or two.

Rumor has it that AlpenFury now has less than 2 weeks until opening. Some of the games they built look really nice and fit into the theming, and the areas around the coaster continue to be finished. Amusement Insiders (on YouTube) showed what they could from the fence line and it looks like the station might be the last thing keeping the ride closed. Canada's Wonderland has been receiving some semi-justified hate because of the ride's 2.5 month delayed opening. Hopefully Six Flags can see this and try to understand why it is crucial to plan for attractions to try to open by Memorial Day, not what ever has been happening these last few years. The ride, station, area, and the glockenspiel all look like they'll be beautiful when they're done. I can't wait to see it! I still feel bad for Silver Pass holders. Maybe some of them will upgrade to Gold for this year.

I'd love to see the Festhaus and Viking Fury either be sectioned into International Street and/or have Action Zone transformed into New Oktoberfest and connect it up to the remains of the original. I think the latter especially could work well, even if Banshee is kept the same (hopefully with a fresh coat of paint). I also hope the park eventually converts the rest of Planet Snoopy to become Camp Snoopy. That may have been a budget constraint — although it's odd that the most forested part of Planet Snoopy wasn't included. The most some of those rides would have needed would have been a new sign and maybe a name. Allegedly there are some new stakes planted in the Kingda Ka/Green Lantern/Parachutes plot at Great Adventure. Maybe this (late-ish) good news from Great Adventure could mean Kings Island's 2026 attraction is still on the table? With the way the company is going right now I could see a world where it gets cut.

Do you know if these (presumably somewhat correct) numbers are including or excluding the stock options? I'm not going to try to understand what goes into the top-level executive salary decisions, but $5 million per year off the top of three of those executives could help pay for a lot. That would be $20.43 million ($11.25m + $4.09m + $5.09m) down to $15.43 million ($8.25m + $3.09m + $4.09m). Whether that cash went into more staffing in the parks, small upgrades/installations to each park, or one new toy for Cedar Point (jk), it could probably do some good. I did this math without thinking everything through, so please consider it as a thought experiment and not business advice. Read it at your own risk! For context and some simple (too simple) math: a $13/hour paycheck, 40 hour workweek for 4 months will cost Six Flags $9880.00 in wages per Food & Beverage associate. That $5 million could pay the wages for about 506 new full-time (40hr/week) or 1,012 part-time (20hr/week) seasonal associates from May-August. Spread across 27 amusement parks that number comes down to about 18/36 associates per park, which isn't a lot, but could mean a little more consistent F&B operations if done right. I'd think it should only take 4-6 associates per park running around to deliver ice and syrup cartridges to every drink stand.

Hmm. Another day-of/hour-of announcement. It seems like they don't want to sell as many as they could if it had been posted yesterday or earlier this morning.

The new ads/sponsorships don't bother me too much since they just seem to be popping up around the midways and under some ride ID signs (Delirium — Presented by Snickers). If they start filling up the park to the point where everything has an ad, and where ride cars start to be wrapped in logos, then I'll be a lot more upset. If this is what Six Flags has to do for a few years to offset some of the budget cuts, then so be it. I'd rather see ads than have to experience another ride closure (which is not a guaranteed possibility either way). Did anyone else notice that Kings Island's Star Spangled Nights (presented by M&M's) logo says "Night" while Carowinds' Star Spangled Nights (presented by M&M's) logo says "Nights"? It's not really an issue, but it makes me wonder if this was a quality control (proofreading) issue or an issue with initial scheduling that would've only had one night of fireworks. The "'s" was not corrected for the event step-and-repeat outside the front gate either.

Thank you! I wish Six Flags would include showtimes and dates in the descriptions for each show on the website and mobile app.

Has anyone been able to get the actual showtimes schedules for this season? I'm trying to plan a day where I can come see all three shows (Country Crossroads, Trailblazers Xtreme, and Hot Rhythm Nights) and can't find a full list anywhere.