Losantiville Mining Co.

I haven't been able to read your article yet (I will read it after work tonight) but I'd like to share some quick thoughts! I do think there is a problem with calling these kinds of projects "replacements" instead of simply "new rides". Anything they build in The Vortex plot will be a replacement in that it occupies the same space, but it will likely be near impossible to replicate the nostalgia people had for Vortex. My personal wishes of a lift hill with chaser lights, some very scenic views, and plenty of inversions are both because I want to see those brought into a new design and because I think they're what the park needs. It's more of an issue at Great Adventure with their 2027 coaster because there are a lot of locals there who are still salty about losing Kingda Ka and keep insisting that this new Mack Tower Spinner will do more than the signs are showing and/or are going crazy telling everyone that it is doomed to fail because it will not be Kingda Ka. They're mainly younger adults saying such things, but I've seen far too much of it.

I think the easiest solution would be to paint the "wall" behind each grate black since that's what it looks like without the walls. Looking back at some of the KIC photo albums I can't seem to figure out when those were added. I thought they were only ever there for Winterfest/general Royal Fountain winterization procedures, but now I can't remember. I've always found it interesting that the left two arches are open to let the water pour into them while the rightmost arch has the curb blocking the inflow of water (for obvious reasons). Maybe if I can find one of my photos from this year to see what it looked like during the normal season. An interesting thought just occurred to me: if those two arches have been barricaded since at least 2019, why were they completely open in 2011? Was it part of the pump system upgrades throughout the years?

How would you choose to handle the queue line as the hill slopes further down toward the ravine? Keep it flat with landfill and overhangs, or put it on tiers with stairs like Diamondback and The Bat? A queue like The Beast's could also be considered "tiered" if you consider all 3-4 parts of it (including the ramp) as an individual "tier". Are you thinking the ravine would also host an actual water feature at its lowest points? I like the idea of adding an artificial creek (maybe it could even flow from a new lake under The Beast) if they can make it look better than Diamondback's splashdown. While it does its job well, the foliage around it is so sparse and it looks more like a bare concrete basin than a "natural" water feature. Does anyone have a photo of Vortex's lower queue that was allegedly under the station? I thought someone shared one a while ago, but can't remember the who or the where.

My best guess is that the open arch is to allow light and a view out on the fountain from the control room, while the closed arch(es) are where the water pump mechanism(s) live and don't need the light or the view. The 2011 Google Street View capture actually shows all three arches being open. You can see the evolution between the three Royal Fountains below. The aforementioned 2011 Google Street View capture from Kings Island. The 2015 capture from Kings Dominion. You can see how their fountain pump house was different than Kings Island's as Taft and their park designers refined International Street for their second park. Lastly, here's the same view from Canada's Wonderland. Their pump house is located under the bridge in front of Wonder Mountain and (I believe) services both the Royal Fountain and the pools at the bottom of Wonder Mountain. I don't know where the access door is for this fountain, but it is certainly the grandest of the three versions of International Street.

Another change resulting from this merger: all of the Dining Plans and Drink Plans have been updated! It looks like they're mostly the same with new logos, but this is another step towards Six Flags actually looking like one company instead of two stacked in a trenchcoat.

Does anyone have some good photos of various Fun & Safety Guides from different parks? I keep seeing the KECO and Paramount era ones in Kings Island home videos and really want to know what those (and others) look like up close!

I'd think the "dropped objects" and slick floor issues might be fixed with some transparent panels or nets (they're more likely to install nets) attached to the top of the deck, would they not? If it works well enough over the pathway under Diamondback then I'd think they could also work for the Eiffel Tower. There's probably also a solution for blocking the walls, but I think they'd be fine as is to start back out. The elevator access is by far the hardest to fix, but it's not impossible to complete. I feel like it could be part of a park improvements year where they improve the park with little things instead of one major addition. While both elevators could probably be retrofitted to access the 50' deck, I think the park would only choose to install it for one of them. The cafe idea would be nice, but I don't think it would work outside of special occasions since the most they could feasibly put up there is a snack cart and some tables. Maybe bump that Sunrise Tour price up a little and include "Breakfast on the Eiffel Tower's 50' Observation Deck" as a perk. Does anyone know what the observation decks on the Oil Derrick at Six Flags Over Texas are like? It's also an Intamin observation tower, so I'm curious as to if it has 3 decks as well or just 1 or 2 at the top.

Bringing this topic back for those of us who are still on the larger side of life The variation of height and weight are definitely a factor in calculating how well someone will fit into a ride seat. For example, one of my issues is with how some of the B&M seats pinch my legs on the sides. I think the seat size limit for a lot of coasters is around 275-300 lbs depending on how you carry your weight (speaking from what I've seen and experienced). Some RMC seats and other seats like those on Flight of Fear are even more restrictive. Fat Tested Travel on YouTube completed a walkthrough of Kings Island this past year. He goes around to all kinds of parks to squeeze into ride seats so us larger folks will have a better gauge of what we can do. IIRC he's about 375 lbs and was somewhere near the limit of riding/not riding. The most forgiving coasters were The Bat and Snoopy's Soapbox Racers, and maybe also Woodstock Express. Those Arrow restraints seem to be really good for fitting into since he also did Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood. I'd love to see more test seats put in throughout parks like Kings Island, especially for the wood coasters. It would be harder to accomplish but could improve guest experience by assuaging some fears about fitting into a seat.

I wonder if there's something Kings Island could do to revitalize that little section of the area (specifically from the DB Trading Post over to the log flume) outside of just putting up a sign that says "Rivertown". A sign would be nice, but it wouldn't help in the way the area needs. It's a bit of a shame that the seating around the Snake Pit/Tom + Chee booth was expanded into the back of that planter only for it all to become a bar that doesn't need any seating. The loss of that foliage isn't too bad, but there's still something off about it. I think it would do just fine as a dining location again, though. That way the tables might actually serve a purpose again.

If anything can be done for Banshee's queue, I'd love to see the ride photo room/arcade/former gift shop be turned into some in-line lockers (with the ride photo booth being moved somewhere across the path). After that they could see about installing some kind of better shelter in the rest of the queue. A haunted shed might not be the best thematically — I'd imagine a mausoleum might fit better — but the station is designed in the "Cedar Fair 2012-2016 big bricks" style so any major thematic choices won't matter as much as they would have for Mystic Timbers. This would be a great opportunity to continue the paranormal park storyline officially established with Area 72. As big as this theoretical project is getting, I'd also love to see more thematic cohesion brought back to Rivertown overall. Bring the log flume back into RT, put up more nautical (in the riverfaring sense) theming, and find a way to bring the "town" feeling back. [Also tear down the Tomb Raider building and replace it with a Beast Canyon expansion] Stuff like that.

The Diamondback queue structure is so badly needed! It'd help bring the "town" feel back to Rivertown while refreshing the DB experience. Drawing the view back down to the ground will also help this section of Rivertown overall. If they do anything for the FOF queue I'd hope they would choose a design that keeps the trees or plants new ones nearby. Area 72 as it currently exists is so devoid of plant life that it'd be a shame to lose more.

We bought my $99 Gold Pass during the MVP Sale and — aside from my previously stated displeasures with the company — the only benefit that has so far changed for me is the inclusion of free Haunt mazes. My add-on all-season dining and drink plans have yet to be altered, I'm still getting the free entry to all Six Flags parks in North America, and the Kings Island operating calendar appears relatively unchanged from last year. Would it have been nice to have a list of all of the 2026 seasonal festivals and events when we bought the pass? Yes, but the park also didn't release that until March 4th for the past few years so nothing changed there. As a shows/entertainment person I'd also really love to know if any changes will happen there, but I would've bought my pass anyways. It seems the folks in my same MVP Gold Pass boat have made it through all of this unscathed. I also think changing the real/perceived benefits of the passes after purchase is incredibly bad. We'll never see the exact numbers or reasonings to help understand why this is happening but I imagine they would show some striking revelations.

I think this is a consequence of pass sales not being where Six Flags wants them as well as the new leadership potentially pushing more for the regional pass structure to come quicker. There's a nice chance that the 2027 pass sales will look very different to the 2026 sales, but we might have to go through a whole lot of experiments this season before finding out. It feels like the largest regional park operator in North America keeps trying things out to see what works for both companies instead of working out how they could make everything function without shifting the strategy every three months. One of the biggest changes might come if Six Flags ends up selling off parks for 2027.

If there's two hidden videos and maybe one episode left, then what would the second hidden video be?

How often have the first three episodes of Curtain Call come by? Was it about every two weeks or so? Some of them seem to have been planned out since IAAPA, so it's not entirely like they're all done in the moment. I'd love to see another one come within the next week!

I hope we can see a positive change in Disney as a whole with Josh D'Amaro at the helm of the whole company. Whatever era they've been in since Iger first left has gotten stale and has felt bad for the consumer and park goer alike. While I doubt prices will go down, maybe a return to better theming and creative freedom for Imagineers will be in order.

I think it may be a combination of directions from corporate and unwillingness to make more posts than needed. I also noticed that this post didn't include a pass sale promotion. This post is so refreshing to see after what we had in 2025. I'd love to see some more color on the ride, though the presence of ride parts on the pad doesn't leave me too hopeful for that. One think I'm still hoping for is that we'll see some of the lights return to the ride even though the rotor is already installed without them.

I'm shocked that the auto collision shop that has the ride cars right now hasn't put up a wall to block the view of them from the street since it seems folks keep trespassing to see them. Here's to hoping that we'll see the ride ready for the park's Opening Day. That source from Reddit could be right on some things, but I'm still hung up on the idea that it would take two straight months of work to program the whole ride. Would they not be working all week (40 hours) every week to get it ready starting in March? If it was just Six Flags with their contractors then I might understand better, but surely it'd be Sally Dark Rides employees heading the programming efforts, right? I guess what I'm really wanting is to know how fast their other recent dark rides have taken to program — not that it's public information anyways.

While I enjoy the idea of this "perk", I don't think it's very well thought out overall. What's worse is that it's another mid-sales year (starting/ending in August) benefits switcheroo with presumably bad end results. I think it would've been better to give free BAF tickets to those "upgrade-ees" as compensation, but instead we'll now have more people packing into the Preferred Parking Lot and the VIP Lounge(s). This doesn't affect me since we bought my Gold Pass during the MVP Sale (cue the Willy Wonka "You get nothing!" line), but I'm upset for the Prestige buyers whose passes are now devalued anyways. I'm thinking the company is still not seeing pass sales like they wanted and needed to find a new way to get folks buying. I think the structure should be: Prestige — All of the current perks, except at a $300 or $400 price point Gold — All of the current perks, limited to one region (All-Parks Passport eligible), and at a $150 price point Silver — All season access with blackout dates (no more ending access at Labor Day), only access to the home park complex (Regional Park Passport and All Park Passport eligible), and at a $99 price point This structure could help with all of the folks who complain about paying for a perk (go off I guess) that they'll never use while taking the bulk of the pass base back down toward the Silver Pass. You also wouldn't have as massive of a group going for the Gold Pass just for access to Haunt and Winterfest, a reason I believe is why the Silver Pass didn't stick around at Kings Island. I saw a couple of people in the Facebook groups talking about how they're planning to call corporate as well. Do you have any ideas as to what they could give you to make up for it that isn't a partial refund/cost adjustment? Anything I can think of right now is not enough.

Do you think it could have lived up to the hype if it was better constructed and/or had a different name?

If we ever do end up losing any historic buildings/structures on the rides side of Coney Island, I'd love to see Kings Island do something to either move them to the park or recreate them in some way. I know that isn't really something Six Flags would do, but a man can dream. Otherwise I hope someone else can find a way to preserve them elsewhere in the Cincinnati area. Some ideas for relocations/somewhat faithful recreations if it ever had to come to it: Kellogg Avenue auto gate Stays where it is as the entrance to the property. If it would have to be moved/recreated, rebuild it at a new local museum. The Cincinnati area has enough history with amusement parks (between Coney Island, Chester Park, and Kings Island) that I think a dedicated museum would be justified. Picnic Grove gate I think this one could stay where it is while being recreated elsewhere. A similar structure might look really nice either somewhere along Kings Island Drive, in the back half of Coney Mall, or somewhere in a revitalized/rethemed Soak City. For the KI Drive idea, I think an inspired structure could be placed on the corner where Western Row / I-71 come together and there's currently just a giant unused field. Send it to the theoretical museum. Moonlite Gardens Of course this stays and gets revitalized. Could be recreated as a new indoor restaurant at Kings Island (see my other proposals for this). Otherwise the sign gets sent to the American Sign Museum. The other buildings and features feel like they aren't as special. I think Hampton Court served as some inspiration for the Kings Island Theater and might be harder to recreate as faithfully. Are there any known plans for the Administration Building that sits to the east of Hampton Court? It doesn't look the most upkept in photos from the past 15 years.

I think the word you were looking for is switchbacks (or cattle pens). That space could use a good renovation to fit more seats in it anyways. I do fully believe that it'd be best to use that space for any extended queue. The A/C situation would still worry me — we've seen how the Festhaus gets with its doors sometimes always open — so I'd love to see some giant fans in there if it comes to be true. The Reddit source might be right on some of the points. Now that you've mentioned more about it, I could understand how the connection of all of the effects could take that long. If the park decides to do some technical rehearsal soft openings then they might want to look at how Universal and Disney have handled theirs. I personally hope they don't have any because I don't want to choose between soft opening and real opening, but let's be real I think I'd go for whatever is available. Technical rehearsals would also help to sort out any potential issues with the flashlights, animatronics, and screens.

I'd hate to lose that indoor theater space to an extended queue, but it would also mean more air conditioned and shaded temporary queue space. Although, if it does get turned into extended queue the doors would probably stay open and ruin the effectiveness of the A/C system. Does it really take 2 months to program a dark ride of this size? I haven't seen anything from similar projects, but that feels like a long time.

I've heard the reason for the Coney Arcade lights staying on is because they do a really good job of lighting the midway for security and general purposes. They might also stay on for the same reason The Racer's chaser lights and the Eiffel Tower lights stay on: to retain some of the park atmosphere during the off-season. I can't remember if Vortex's chaser lights stayed on every night, but I'd love to find out.

If it were to be the major expansion for a year then I'd really like to see the park also complete a little refresh of Planet Snoopy as well. Lots of new paint and signage (and maybe a few new trees) would do wonders for the area. Fixing the concrete would help too. As for 2026, another thing I'd like to see the park take on is a renewed effort in landscaping. They always do a wonderful job with the foliage, but it's felt like something has been missing these past few years. Maybe I really just want to see more done with the walkway between International Street, Coney Mall, and Rivertown like we had in 2011.