Losantiville Mining Co.

Calling out to all of the Monster lovers... WE HAVE PROGRESS!!! I spotted a notable change behind the fence this evening: the rotor (spinny middle thingy whatchamacallit) has been reinstalled in some manner! We didn't get to go over that way to peer over the fence, but this is an amazing change after nearly 8 months of nothing except a new fence and paint on the ride pad. I'd love to see it in the daylight if anyone can get a good photo in the park (without breaking rules or trespassing) or even on the webcam! I'm so excited to see this small bit of progress <3

I suspect they did that because Huron, Ohio is where the Sawmill Creek Resort (where this group met with Jason McClure) is located. At least they're doing something there since that resort's holiday festivities were cancelled for this year. I don't know how much giving away the gate (at least through the MVP sale) bumped the attendance numbers, but either way I think increased attendance is good either way. If there's nothing "big" coming next year — which it seems there isn't — I hope they can use some of their funds to add shade to the Cedar Point Shores and plant more trees throughout the rest of the park. Maybe they could even do some work to improve the parking lot! Best of luck to Cedar Point as they ride the wave of their newest coasters! I'm hopeful that they can keep up the attendance and maybe even set a new record soon enough.

I've been seeing a remarkable amount of old Kings Island entertainment content lately, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I'll try to include what I can decipher in text form as well. Credit: VideofromGeorge on YouTube Hanna-Barbera Characters (9:30-6:00?) Kings of Komedy (I think this is the clown band) (12:30, 1:30, 2:45, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00) International Air Show (depending on flying conditions) (8:00) Kings Company (five show times) and three more shows that I can't make out the names of one with four show times the Salt Water Circus (?) with six show times) another with four show times Someone posted these photos in the Season Passholder group and I can't find their name to give credit, but here's two photos that I saved from the post. To save you the counting, that is 10 shows, 1 meet-and-greet, 1 set of "atmospheric performers", and about 2-5 show times between most of them that span the entire operating day. I believe this is either from 1990 or 1991. While I understand that live entertainment costs a lot of money, and also that Cedar Fair/Six Flags are more in the rides business, it's still a little sad to see just how much entertainment the park used to have. It would be very nice to see the company put more effort into live entertainment (or even a few pre-recorded shows like was in Action Theater) while they attempt to not buy a ton of coasters each year. I won't get into my thoughts about what could improve some shows tonight, maybe tomorrow though.

I had a pretty good night tonight despite the anticipated crowds (which I don't think ended up fully manifesting). There were some very enthusiastic elves trying to get us to go into St. Nick's Pics (we didn't but I enjoyed their enthusiasm nonetheless). Our visit to the Brewhouse was good and ended up tasting better than I'd originally thought. The downside of going to the Brewhouse was seeing a good number of tables that needed to be cleared off and only seeing one associate with the cart to clean them. I also realized something on this visit that I'd never noticed before: there are not a lot of 2-person tables. If KI built another indoor restaurant (come on Grand Pavilion dressed like the Moonlite Gardens!!) I'd love to see just a little more seating variety beyond 6-person booths and 4-person tables. We had the pleasure of being on the KI&MV RR train that had a rollback — an experience that I quite enjoyed. The lights are still out throughout the course and I noticed that only the boarding side of the cars are decorated with garland. It would be nice to see some changes to make this experience better next year if at all possible. Anything would be nice especially if they can move away from it just being a ride-through holiday light show. Next, we took a trip through the Rivertown Arcade to warm up and had a nice time watching Jingle Jazz. During this performance I was only reminded of how much I'd rather see them perform in a better venue. The LaRosa's porch is nice (although it doesn't sound so nice when I say it like that), but there's something about the crowd needing to negotiate with everyone walking by just to watch. I think they could even look better in a gazebo with benches in front than on that porch. It was odd to not see the Holly Jolly Trolley stationed in Coney Mall. I wish it could be used to take performers to their shows or be used in the parade if it isn't being used as a free guest experience. There's a hoodie with (an approximation of) the original Winterfest logo in Coney Confections that I'd like to get a good photo of. I made a stop into the Adventure Port restrooms and remembered just how tight the space between the urinal dividers is — I hope that can be resolved somehow to make them wider. To round out our night we stopped by Theme Park Art by Allen's booth where my group member purchased another round of prints. I stopped by Tom + Chee for a drink. Interestingly enough I found out that the parade music plays on the right side of the Eiffel Tower during its stop near Tower Gardens. We made it into Sweet Spot before the parade caught up. I wish they'd get a new shipment of Boysenberry Jam so I could just buy it in the park. Our last stop of the night was into KI Collections, and then we were out of the park before the parade got too close. Overall it was a good night at the park. My complaints remain the same of KI needs to do a little more to change up the event in addition to needing more indoor dining/entertainment venues in general. It really is an amazing event that deserves the high praise and good placement on the USA Today voting tallies. I hope we can keep it going for many years to come.

IIRC that might have been a model of one of the Sesame Street dark rides at IAAPA. It does bear a striking resemblance to the original Phantom Theater facade from this angle.

If this is the same scene board as in the SDR tour video, I posted my thoughts on each scene a little while back. I might try to go find that post and share it again since this is a better view than before.

They're looking good so far! I hope they can achieve a little more of a glossy red for the final product, but even the current finish looks like a nice change compared to the Boo Blasters "oozy" look. The fact that the roundels are still on there is a little strange since they went through the trouble of rendering the rest of the doom buggies without them for the teaser art. Image: Kings Island / Sally Dark Rides via KICentral.com Photos: Rick Davis via DAFE (https://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/scoobyDooHauntedCastle.html) These same ride vehicles in their original form. The ride vehicles in their Mystery Machine scheme, complete with front-mounted "tire". A view of the initial castle construction that shows how the new was built over the old.

I bet those parts of the calendar (like July 4) might be released with the events schedule. With the park already putting out the America 250 merch I could see them having a longer Independence Day celebration than normal as well.

You can add your pass to the other parks using that 20(?) digit number. The only thing I haven't been able to do yet is add any new passes to my Apple Wallet.

Dollywood has begun the process of switching their drink program over to microchip/QR code cups and bottles. According to Jonny Amusement on Facebook the new drink system will use QR codes with the all-season plastic cups already having them, the season refillable mugs getting them soon, and older tumblers and mugs being fine for the rest of the 2025 season. From what I've read there are QR codes available for people who have already picked up their season refill mugs as well. There have been some complaints online about how the system is being complicated while other comments praise Dollywood for taking a stand against soda stealers. This change has already been implemented at some Disney and Universal properties with the "smart" soda fountains reading either a microchip or QR code and then providing a timed window to get their drink and go. Good luck to the park as they embark on this new drink program. I would not want to be there getting drinks during the inevitable period where they have to straighten out all of the kinks in the program implementation. I already read enough comments about "soda stealing thugs" and "un-mannered children" who abuse water cups, I don't need to hear adults complaining about a "newly-complicated" drink system too. Do you think Six Flags should look into implementing this kind of system? Personally, I think it is not a good idea for a company that has long struggled to keep its soda fountains fully stocked and functional. A better solution — at least temporarily — would be to continue installing pressure plates at the exits to Refresh Stations and to install more water stations that provide cold, filtered water throughout each park. The pressure plates help to ensure nobody can come in through an exit while the associates manning each point of service are able to control who gets a cup. The water stations (with water cups next to them) would help keep guests who want to drink water from needing to go to a restroom just to get said water. These could come in the form of new bottle fillers placed at each dining location or a push-faucet that closer resembles the functionality of a soda fountain nozzle. Sure, something needs to be done to improve things at SF parks, but I don't think microchips would help much right now.

There is a button for it that pops up when you're in the park, but it currently just pulls up all of the dining locations. It looks like they may be using the Sand Bar in Soak City as a testing location if you look on the website.

That's certainly possible, but if it's anything like Mystic Timbers and that is not accounted for to begin with then I'd guess it won't happen.

John Reilly is now officially CEO of the Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. I'm curious to see if any (relatively) immediate changes come through compared to what happened right after the merger around this time last year. The release of some parks' operating calendars yesterday is certainly different, even if was in the works under Richard Zimmerman's tenure.

There will be screens used throughout the ride. I find it highly unlikely that the Pepper's Ghost effect will come back — especially not on the scale it was in the original.

I've often wondered why the park didn't include the Kite Eating Tree or Snoopy's Space Buggies in Camp Snoopy. There's a case to be made for SSB not fitting into the camping theme, nor might the other four rides on that side of Planet Snoopy, but I feel like there's a way the park could've made them fit without changing much at all. That would've at least made two more equally-sized areas. Given that it felt like they ran out of money I think adding more might've been a little out of the question. As likely as it might be that no exterior work will happen until after Winterfest, I'd love to see the park or Sally Dark Rides put out a December teaser with either some material/set close-ups or another look at the inside of the building. They've been releasing a new piece each month and I hope that can continue. I wonder if there will be screens for the scores like on the Justice League dark rides or if the scores will only be shown in the ride vehicles like with SDatHC and BBoBH.

Several Six Flags parks have released portions of their 2026 operating calendars. Knott's Berry Farm (January 1 - March 15) Schlitterbahn Galveston (May 2 - September 7) Discovery Kingdom (January 1 - March 8) Great Adventure (March 28 - September 7) Magic Mountain (January 1 - March 12) Six Flags New England (April 11 - May 24) This one is likely not finalized yet. Six Flags Over Texas (May 16 - September 7) Six Flags St. Louis (April 25 - September 7) Worlds of Fun (April 25 - September 7) All of the calendars released so far look normal — aside from SFNE — and none appear to include random days off in the middle of the summer season. I suspect the parks with no operating dates past March will release their calendars with parks like Kings Island. The most surprising calendar for me to see is Six Flags Over Texas with its mid-May opening. That might be normal for them, but I would've assumed they'd at least open earlier in the month.

Have there been any official updates on this? I know it's only been a couple of days, but there's a lot of people acting like this is a done deal with different buyers listed depending on who you ask. I think the Warner Bros IP is safe at the Six Flags parks. If the licensing term somehow got cut short I think there would be a grace period like with the Paramount IPs. While this would be a nice way to fix the errant theming across all of the legacy Six Flags parks, it might be a little upsetting for guests to suddenly lose both DC and Looney Tunes so quickly.

I think most of my opinions on it have been soured by current events, but putting my political opinions aside I'm glad to see that it's currently limited to this little section. Kings Island has a lot of fun park merchandise — even if some of the same items are available in most stores — that I'd rather see filling most shelves. I still don't understand why they brought in the "lifestyle" products this year. The America 250 logo is kind of nice and contemporary while keeping one or two things from the 1976 celebration logo. Any issues I have with the look of that is not with the park. US Bicentennial Logo Link to the America 250 website: https://america250.org/ Does anyone know if any parks (aside from maybe the Great America parks) had Bicentennial celebration merchandise? I know Cedar Point added the patriotically-themed Corkscrew and Kings Island added the American Heritage Music Hall (which could be a cool thing to rename it back to for next year), the living liberty bell, and a bunch of other patriotic displays for 1976, but did they have any special merchandise?

My question with adding that to the Fast Lane ticket benefits would be this: would it be handled differently than they did with The Conjuring: Beyond Fear? I think it could work, I'm just not entirely sold on it being worth the effort. It certainly shouldn't be used as the "major project/addition" for any given year.

I sure hope they don't change too much about this second half (aside from the roughness). The banking and the closeness of the tunnels are indeed one of the best parts. In terms of adding anything I'm not entirely sold on the idea of Beast eyes in the woods/in a tunnel, but I'd love to see anything they can do to improve the entrance area. Fixing the exit/handicap access/Fast Lane areas would definitely be a good start.

I don't know why I thought they just rebuilt the entire double helix not too long ago. If they change anything about it I'm wondering if they'd build the tunnels to be a little wider so it doesn't feel like you're gonna hit the wall — even though that is one of the best things about the second half of the ride.

I don't expect to see more than 1 post about it per month, but this would be a really cool thing to document in preparation for it's 50th anniversary in 2029. On the KIC post with those photos there was even someone calling for The Beast to be removed because it's rough (which tells me they haven't ridden it with any of the recent retracking efforts).

Tonight's visit to Winterfest was short and sweet! We only popped into the park for dinner, but still got to experience some of the magic of Winterfest during our time there. I used my Six Flags app in the park for the first time since the big v5.0.0 update and it worked every time I used it. We got to see about the first minute of Yuletide Follies on our way over to the Tannenbaumhaus for Swingin' Into Christmas. The line for LaRosa's felt a little long, but not enough to warrant opening the second line. We saw the show twice and I noticed that two of the performers were wearing the same costume. That's odd because normally all of the performers are wearing outfits that go together, but nobody normally has the same exact outfit. It's just something I noticed was different and led me to believe that someone else might've called in sick with this being a quick change. (Side note: I think I heard that the Cedar Fair costume department is based out of Worlds of Fun/Kansas City in general. Is that true?) I really enjoyed Swingin' Into Christmas and thought it was very energetic! The live band really helped and might be what was missing from Ghouls Gone Wild that made it feel so bland for me.

Kings Island has put out its first round of America 250 merchandise in preparation for the national Quarter Millennium celebration coming in 2026. The new merchandise comes complete with the official logo (as seen in other park chains' celebrations) and a new park name/skyline design. Other patriotic apparel is available from previous releases. There are currently: a new America 250 t-shirt (big design on the front, logo on left sleeve) a new America 250 hoodie (big design on the back, logo on the breast) a new America 250 cross body bag (logo on front pocket, no KI logo) a new America 250 baseball cap (logo on front, no KI logo) an older patriotic Kings Island t-shirt (KI logo on the front, no America 250 logo) an older patriotic Kings Island baseball cap (KI logo on the front, no America 250 logo) I think the flag might be the only piece of AI art on the new merchandise (given it has 11 stripes at most and does not follow regular physical conventions between the obverse/reverse sides where visible) but overall looks very nice.

I think someone said these "visitor cities" were where people visited from, not the cities where parks are located. My question is this: how do they know the home cities and how is NYC 2nd on this list? I believe the numbers, but it's interesting to see. Kings Island being in the top 5 overall is not surprising. As much as I want the other parks to also increase, I very much hope KI maintains its top 4 status overall. We have a very special thing going on and I'd hate to see anything happen to it.