Losantiville Mining Co.

Hollywood Hits and Country Crossroads have been good shows for the Festhaus to host, there's just a few things about the venue as it currently exists that makes them harder to enjoy. I would much rather have seen both of them go into the International Showplace. IMO the Kings Island Theater definitely needs a mini Broadway-style show in it for most of the regular season. The park can host smaller shows in it for the rest of the year, but to have all of that stage space and only use the front portions is kind of abysmal. The real solution would be to build another good capacity indoor theater somewhere in the park — Six Flags won't do that though. Either Kings Island or Brad Ross (I can't remember who) shared a photo of all the people who help make the show happen. I'm not sure if it included park staff or if they were all touring with BR, but it was shocking to see how many people it takes to put on this "small" magic show.

Some of the $1 billion worth of investments in the Six Flags parks is going a long way! The new Looney Tunes Land and Shoreline Pier areas are very nicely themed and have spruced up the parts of their respective parks that desperately needed the help. Both lands are nice, clean spaces for families to relax, play, and ride. If these parks continue to improve (and strip away the legacy Six Flags brand as it seems they're starting to do) then they will certainly be amazing places for families to spend each Summer at! America's Coaster Network tour of the new Looney Tunes Land at Magic Mountain: Coliwood Studios tour of the new Shoreline Pier area at Great Adventure during its soft opening:

There's a few plantings that aren't in yet this season. I have the unfortunate feeling that it's part of more cuts from corporate, but I'm happy that at least the Living Liberty Bell is in its spot. I'm particularly missing the season marker planting behind the Grand Carousel sign and the carousel horse planting that was introduced last year. I've been seeing more and more instances of / posts about guests being rude to associates and each other lately. As we move into the hot Summer season, please remember to hydrate well and do what you need to avoid getting hot and angry. These associates are probably just as warm as you are and don't earn nearly enough to justify being yelled at by guests. It's also really uncomfortable watching parents berate their children (seemingly) because everyone's too warm and too tired. Most of you probably know this is an issue already, but I just wanted to make the point especially after recently witnessing an incident at the train station alongside 100+ other people.

I decided to try the Big Dog Basket at the Festhaus today since I skipped it yesterday. It was not as good as I'd hoped and nowhere near the quality I was used to from the Brewhouse. The fries were sliding off of the plate (I'm glad I got a tray) and while everything was fully cooked, I could tell it had been sitting there for a little bit. I'd have given some more leeway for the quality if it wasn't 1:30PM on a Sunday. There's a new(?) sign at the exit of the left refreshment stand telling guests to use the station on the other side that looked really nice. My Coca-Cola was also good. The temperature and humidity in the building was even worse today. I can't imagine how it must feel performing on that stage with such poor airflow.

I had some good LaRosa's Pizza today in the Festhaus. It was super hot and delicious, though the higher temperature and humidity of the room itself severely dampened my experience. I contemplated getting the Big Dog, but didn't see it until I had already grabbed the plate of pepperoni pizza. The tables were all clean and the trash cans were far from overflowing. My ice cold Coca-Cola provided some well needed relief from the oppressive heat in the venue. Photo of the Festhaus entree menu for those interested in such things. Shockingly (to me) the regular pizza slices are not listed on this view of the menu board. The building could use a major renovation to create better guest flow and capacity, but the park has other problems to worry about at the moment. Some industrial fans would also be very welcome.

I didn't get to experience much of F&W during my short visit today, but I did look around a little. The paint-by-number station was set up and ready around 3:45PM, but they couldn't/wouldn't let me paint until the event officially started at 4PM. There's nothing wrong with that since they were doing their jobs and handled the interaction very politely — in fact I looped right back around at 4 with no issue — I just wish they would've roped it off or something until it was officially open. I got to see Chef Perez (is that his name?) completing some final food tent checks which was fun. There was a little band playing in the Carousel Pavilion which sounded really good. Matt the Mime was doing his routine as I exited the area. I'm glad they keep bringing him back! Do I plan to purchase any of the festival items or attempt to complete the tasting card? No, but I think it's a good little event to have. Goods and Bads: I really like the paint by number. The instructions are clear and the numbers are nice and large. The paint is also a good enough quality, though the sponge brushes are cheap (with good reason). I thought there were games at last year's event, but I didn't see any this year. I did not like how small the event is for being in its third year. There should at least be some offerings up and down International Street. The park should also bring the food truck out for this event. It doesn't need to take over the whole park, but I think part of where it loses guest participation is in the fact that it feels very appetizer-heavy. Put at least one specialty menu option at Grain & Grill, LaRosa's, and French Corner to make the event seem larger. Bonus points if a few non-alcoholic drinks were added to the event menu.

I think there will be an extension if they see major backlash over stopping the sales so early. A great idea will require great execution, though it seems Six Flags struggles with adequate execution as it is. They're not part of the new membership program (yet), but it's still a valid question to ponder I highly doubt Six Flags will stop where they did if they deem the KI/other CF park membership programs to have been successful.

As one of the folks who go to the park almost every week, I agree that it's much easier to notice little things like these when you see it so often. I write my ride reports to simply update the forum on how things are going for the ride. We can get into more conversation about maintenance within the park, but Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare is well taken care of IMO. Kings Island still has not stooped to Cedar Point levels of being a maintenance nightmare — and I'm very thankful for that. I wonder how hard it would be to fit one of those Mystic Timbers trees (or a similar object) somewhere in the queue or elsewhere in the ride for a seasonal overlay...

I'm not planning on switching to a membership if I don't have to, but losing the Easy Pay option would force my hand/wallet since I/my family can't really afford the higher total price all at once. All of that in addition to every other price rising is just not financially viable for us. This was part of the reason why I referred to subscription services as "predatory" in my earlier post. There was a federal plan to stop this kind of practice when Lina Khan was the FTC Chair, but I think it was abandoned after her successor took over. I believe it would've required companies to make the cancellation process just as easy as the process to sign up for something.

During my quick visit today I noticed that the Cargo Loco sign appears to have been recently repainted! Last year it was peeling really badly.

While a number of Six Flags parks announced that Seasonal Memberships will become available starting on Monday, June 8th, Canada's Wonderland has quietly posted that online season pass sales will end on June 14th, 2026. This feels like a much better solution compared to 2025 sales, in which a pass could be purchased all the way up until 2026 passes were available around July 29th. No news from parks like Kings Island or Cedar Point on when 2026 online pass sales will end, but I could believe it will be shortly after the extended Memorial Day Sale has concluded. (Screenshot: Canada's Wonderland home page on the Six Flags mobile app) Hopefully we'll see some improvements to the jumbled pass system with John Reilly at the helm and some new members on Six Flags' Board of Directors. I'm still confused as to why a Gold Pass isn't the same price at every park within a region, but I guess I should expect things like that from Six Flags — no matter who's in charge.

Do y'all think the new Membership program will add even more complexity to Kings Island's pass program? I always saw Six Flags' memberships as just being a fancy form of Easy Pay with no need for yearly renewal. Personally, I don't like it yet. I'm not one of the people who are questioning why we'd be paying for months when the parks are closed, but I generally hate subscription services and how predatory they are for consumers.

It would be great to also see a marketed 55th anniversary celebration like Magic Mountain is having this year, and similar to Six Flags Over Texas' 65th anniversary celebration (also happening this year). I'd fully support it if Kings Island became more of a theme park again, and, in my opinion, you need good and bountiful entertainment for that to happen. 2028 will hopefully be the year KI gets another high-thrill coaster, with 2029 being further improvements and 2030 being a major investment.

How many parks will need to be sold by Six Flags before we can get back to having consistently clean tables?

I've often heard it during the slide show, but either the timing has been off (to where it's said in the middle of/over Rick's line) or I haven't been paying as close attention as I thought. Both are possible. Otherwise, it might just be that his line is so far out of the context in terms of volume and speaker placement. Something I forgot to mention was that only the first two queue switchbacks were open, while the third was closed. That was a nice touch since it made sure that everyone could see Maestro throughout the line. This is also a result of the new queue setup compared to Boo Blasters, but it's a thoughtful result.

The hole in the wall of the queue has been patched (possibly with some painted plywood, but it's covered nonetheless) and it's not really noticeable thanks to the lighting. Larry is still thanking guests. At this point it's a nice little quirk of the queue. After riding a few times with a hat on, the hat definitely helps reduce how much I care about being able to see the ceiling during the ride itself.

I'm wanting the wave pool to be moved, not for the waterpark to be expanded. The current one would be demolished to make way for more dry rides. If they have the money I think it'd be a worthwhile investment. That'd make it so there's not a hole in the park whenever the waterpark is closed.

I feel like the best major investment for the T3 and Raging Rapids area is to move the rest of the waterpark there. Kentucky Flyer is so far out of the way from the rest of the dry park. If Herschend has the ability then they should do what they can to close the gap in KK's dry ride layout. That's probably easier than removing the road that divides the park in two.

I keep noticing the lack of music as the vehicles transition between scenes. If they're worried about sound bleeding between scenes then I think it would be best to add something quiet to the onboard audio.

I think we saw some track work happening via the webcams this past Winter. Could that have anything to do with it? Either that or it could be the ride is more "broken in" than before.

I'm hoping Herschend puts some love into their waterpark for 2027/2028. It would be amazing to see them move the wave pool to connect the layout of the dry park. Either way, they seem to be turning it into quite a nice little family park.

My ride this morning was a good one, though it seems some effects have broken over the weekend. Maestro's second organ scene didn't have any sound and the first boiler screen was off. Larry also said a random "Hello!" in the queue again. I noticed the new cobwebs that Archie and the chandeliers have acquired since mid-April. They add to the spooky ambience IMO. I didn't check on the hole in the wall today, but I did see that a popcorn bucket has fallen over and that some of the tread strips on the stairs have been completely removed. Some of the emergency exit signs attached to the queue stanchions are now being held up with fixed pieces instead of zip ties. I'm still hoping that the "no horseplay" signs can be replaced with real signs instead of stickers. If there's a way to add some scenery pieces on top of the entrance wall then I'd love to see that. A nice big organ (like from the original) and some seasonal decorations would do nicely.

I had a good Pub Burger this morning at the Brewhouse. The bun was cold again, but the burger itself was nice and hot. I wonder if that's from storing the buns in a refrigerator and letting them thaw out over the course of the day. For a Sunday morning/afternoon, I was surprised by how empty the Brewhouse felt. The new locators are still working well, though I wish they didn't move around so much when they vibrate. Overall, I rated my meal as being on the lower end of "great" (5/5 stars). I thought about bumping it down to "good" (4/5 stars), but the scale is what it is. Maybe I should consider adding an "excellent" rating for meals that go above and beyond, since my scale is only based off of the standard quality of food at Kings Island.

So, what do we think? Has the new Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare performed well enough (so far) to convince Six Flags that they should develop more custom concepts with Sally Dark Rides? I certainly think it has. A lot of legacy Six Flags parks need a good replacement for their Justice League dark rides, Carowinds and Kings Dominion need a replacement or update for Boo Blasters, and Cedar Point just needs a dark ride in general. The chain should not copy Phantom Theater over to a ton of parks like they did with Boo Blasters (although it might be nice at Magic Mountain). I'd love to see each park get its own custom dark ride, but there's enough parks that I think each concept could be used twice as long as the parks aren't very close to each other. Great America and Six Flags Over Texas might spring for a Western theme to replace their respective Justice League dark rides. Carowinds' Boo Blasters building would be a great spot for a tastefully done custom dark ride with an even more custom ghost theme. I haven't worked this one out, but it would need to fit into the small 7,000 sq ft Boo Blasters building. It's located within the [Country] Crossroads area of the park and could have some kind of theme with that — though that area as a whole already needs revitalization. They could always turn that back into a theater and put a new dark ride in their Action Aeronautica Theater. Great Adventure will eventually need another dark ride, but they're already in the middle of rebuilding other parts of the park so this one can wait. Kings Dominion is proving itself to be a tough squeeze for a new dark ride, so either some new variation on Boo Blasters or a custom 7,000 sq ft dark ride would fit right in with the current setup. There are some 20,000 sq ft spaces in the park if they're willing to tear something else down, but I think they'd stick with the BBoBH building. Cedar Point has a few spots where a dark ride could fit, depending on which area could actually fit one without disrupting park operations too much. The pavilion and asphalt lot behind the One Stop redemption center takes up nearly 50,000+ square feet. This is larger than PT:ON's footprint by about 10,000 sq ft. One spot that has previously held a dark ride in Cedar Point is the former home of the Pirate Ride. It has about 12,000 sq ft without expanding into the former Chickie & Pete's restaurant. The current Coliseum Arcade doesn't take up a large amount of the whole Coliseum building, but I've estimated the arcade to occupy about 8,000 sq ft. That's enough for a smaller dark ride like Boo Blasters. Another location that may be able to fit a dark ride is the former Melt restaurant. Depending on how much of the building is dedicated to the former restaurant vs the employee dining room, I think the restaurant had a footprint of about, once again, 12,000 sq ft. This would likely require an outdoor queue to be placed between the ride and the Boeckling house, but it is relatively shaded and out of the way. Other spaces at Cedar Point could fit a nicely sized dark ride, such as the railroad side of Rougarou's plot, the former station building of Shoot the Rapids and the Frontier Fling plot, and the pond area from Snake River Falls; but I believe the park should build an omnimover with great capacity at the front of the park first. Anything at the front of the park could be themed to Disaster Transport, while anything toward the back of the park may require a more Frontier theme.

They are, but even Great Adventure is going to take at least a year or two more to be converted — and they got a head start. I think Chicago's Great America is either waiting for the real CGA to close (so they can have some of their stuff) or is going around the same pace as Magic Mountain (except MM allegedly got GAm's family area and caused the delay to 2027). I hate to say it, but right now I think even with all of it's problems, Gurnee's Great America might even have a higher guest satisfaction score than Cedar Point 😬