Losantiville Mining Co.

Here's a photo of the new Fool the Guesser (Age & Weight) game set up in the Rivertown gazebo. I'm not that upset about this structure being used as a game stand since it's only had a bench and/or an activation point in it for the last few years. The game equipment may be the same from its former location Rivertown across from LaRosa's. It looks nice enough and the name signs are 3D (not printed), so it gets bonus points from that alone. It's clear to me that the maintenance team is doing what they can with the resources they have, though I suspect that almost every budget across the board has been severely tightened in an effort to help pay off Six Flags' debt. Effects and issues in Phantom Theater have been repeatedly fixed (minus the first boiler TV), rides like Invertigo and Congo Falls have been repaired, and some park leadership have been spotted all over the park. Just today I repeatedly saw a group of people who I believe to be the top Food & Beverage leadership making their way from restaurant to restaurant. The issues with guests are more noticeable in our post-merger world. There's definitely also an issue with some associates not cleaning the spaces around them, but that can be fixed with better training and heightened awareness. We knew that 2025-2028 would be a rough patch for parks like Kings Island as the company figures itself out and pays off debt. There are a ton of little changes that can happen at the local level and I hope those can start to happen sooner rather than later. I'm not going to shill for KI/SF, but I do think there is still a light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm saving my opinions on this park until some more full-length videos of this park are released, but I don't think I've read many good reviews at all. While it is a park completely dedicated to children I can already tell that they leaned a little too far into that prompt and didn't leave much for the parents to enjoy.

The amount of ride vehicles (27) is the same as it was during Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle and Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. Where the original Phantom Theater had 55 vehicles, 28 were removed for SDatHC and BBoBH, and then half of those were moved up one space for PT:ON. There is one lone vehicle (I believe it's opera box #1) for those who are lucky enough to be placed in it. Honestly I'm shocked at how fast this queue goes when I remember waiting a lot longer for Boo Blasters. As for the lack of a pepper's ghost scene, my complaint lies more in the fact that they went with two "small" scenes instead of either one large auditorium scene or one turntable scene and a more zoomed out stage scene. The old library looked a lot bigger because it had more depth and didn't have all of the stage wings on either side. Fun Fact: if you look in the background of the stage scene, you'll see the Boo Blasters castle painted as the background with the entrance gate and fence as a physical set piece in front of it.

Is the complexity/unfairness that you have to pay the initiation fee again if you want to upgrade between memberships? Is it that if you're already paying for a pass and upgrade to a membership then you'll lose out on any money you've already paid? Something isn't making sense to me with this scenario.

Something I've noticed recently is that whenever there's an event logo used across different parks, Kings Island has started using the generic version instead of adding the park name over it. For example, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, SFNE, SFOT, both California's Great America and Chicago's Great America, Magic Mountain, Frontier City, and Knott's Berry Farm all have their park names integrated into the Celebrate America's 250th logo — Kings Island just uses the one with the Six Flags logo. I've also seen it with the Star Spangled Nights logo (even after it was updated from the singular night logo) and the Food & Wine Festival logo. I can excuse the Grand Carnivale logo missing the park name since KI is the only park it's at. Is that something that the local PR folks are in charge of or is it more of a corporate thing? All of that said, I'll be very curious to find out just exactly what this event will look like at Kings Island. The press release lists a ton of cool stuff, but I can imagine a world where only half of the stuff gets implemented depending on the park. It's also interesting how late the information for this celebration was released considering we're about two weeks away from the actual 250th anniversary.

During my recent visit to Soak City I noticed that there's either very little or no Soak City branded merch. It may not be a standard practice for waterparks to have specialized merchandise, but I think it would be cool to have some specific stuff beyond the name-brand swimwear and the generic tropical print items. It would be especially nice to have if Soak City ever gets a Carolina Harbor-style rebrand (insert another Wildwater Junction pitch).

Or if you're like me and know the illusion a little too well, so it doesn't work. It's like when you know how a magic trick works. IMO the bust is not in the best setting since you can tell it's a box on a pedestal.

Not to mention that the price of B&Ms might go up even more now that they're no longer being manufactured 30-ish minutes away... No AlpenFury clones, but I could get behind a good AlpenFury successor. The capacity would be bad, but it would be very thrilling. As for the color I've been thinking about some dark green supports and yellow/gold track a lot recently.

Six Flags set him up with a merch package and released a PR video around late May, but I haven't seen much of anything after that. It was introductory and felt very "Look at this guy! He's working with us! Hey he's got a Raptor shirt and some new chains now!" while not really saying anything about what his future as a brand ambassador would be.

Tonight's ride on Phantom Theater was a good one. Most of the effects were working, with only the toppling crates staying upright and the first boiler screen being off. (How long until the park replaces that screen/replaces that screen with a practical effect?) The queue line moved really fast, as always, though it might need a big fan placed in one corner on hotter days to get air flowing more. I noticed that there is a small black curtain blocking the view of a projector in the last scene, which seemed really funny. Today's adjustment idea is that some of the blank walls should be repainted to closer match the original Phantom Theater as an easter egg that fills blank space in the building. Also, there need to be less curtains in the Usher Instructions scene and more in the turntable station room.

I've been having really good experiences with my dining/drink plans this season. Most meals have been hot, fresh, and of good quality with visits being at different times of day and different days of the week. To be fair, I am one of those people who've gotten their money's worth (currently sitting at $8.25/meal and $1.30/drink). The worst drink experience I've had was actually today when the Boathouse refresh station was completely out of Coca-Cola. There are examples of good dining plans at the Disney parks and there was a time when KI's dining plan food was top notch. I won't comment on what the meal plans do to the food quality at the park beyond that right now. My visit this evening was, admittedly, not as nice as I expected to be. There are a variety of things that factored into that, and not all of them had to do with the park. I barely waited 35 minutes for Phantom Theater with a full indoor queue. After that I decided it was a good day to ride the train over to Soak City. It took quite a while for the green #19 to make its way back to Rivertown, but when it did it was pulling a full six car compliment. I thought it was busy enough to get both engines out, but it was fine for a random Tuesday. Soak City was nice and clean with some freshly updated stores and restaurants. I'm still amazed at the amount of real estate in the middle of the waterpark that is blocked by the high voltage lines. That would be a great spot for another water coaster. I managed to make it back to the Soak City train station right as #19 was pulling up. On our journey back to Rivertown I got to see a groundhog. I also noticed that the model town looks very slightly cleaned up, though it really needs work to bring it back to looking good. There were quite a few refresh stations that were closed, but most dining locations were open and had short lines. I got a quick (and tasty) dinner from Jukebox and ended my night with a ride on The Bat. I had a fine time considering I'd done more than I'd gone to do. Generally, my visit to the waterpark today only furthered my belief that Soak City needs another major update. RiverRacers and Splash River Junction felt like a start, but it needs more updates overall. One more thing: As sections of the parking lot get repaved and repainted it would be awesome if KI would angle the parking spots. I don't think I'm particularly good or bad at parking, but I can't even describe how difficult it is do get into some of the spots when everyone is sticking 2-3 feet into the lane. Angled spaces would probably help that a lot since it'd be easier to park a big vehicle. There's also a major issue with people parking in the roadway around the middle of the north lot. It looks like they could be parking spots but in reality it's one row, then a buffer, then a driving lane. Some of those green plastic Jersey barriers might help.

Thank you all for working on it!

That's refreshing to read! Honestly if the park would like to complete a little renovation to help the Festhaus' A/C, I think all they would need to do is build a small vestibule in the rear entrance. Keeping the doors closed would also help. On my last visit I noticed that, despite the high heat, a lot of doors around the park were propped open instead of being closed with "Cool off inside!" signs on them.

How clean does the park feel overall? I don't think it'd be very dirty since you said it was a light crowd day, but you never know. As for the new track of Shivering Timbers, I'd love to know how far in advance Six Flags ordered that prior to selling the park. I can't believe Enchanted would've had the time to order/install it when they've only officially managed the park for about two months.

That is correct! I successfully used all of my add-ons at Kings Dominion back in March. The only hiccup I've read about is with some of the legacy Six Flags parks where people have needed to visit Guest Services because their add-ons wouldn't come up at a restaurant.

[chanting] Polar Plunge! Polar Plunge! Polar Plunge! Downtown Sandusky looks very beautiful (or at least it did on Google Street View). I highly recommend going to see the floral clock in the middle of Washington(?) Street over by City Hall.

I think this is going to be a really good ride with lots of theming and some nice thrills. It's what Carowinds needed as well since they removed all three of the water rides in the dry park. I suspect they might open the second pathway entrance and possible restaurant later on after Six Flags gets more comfortable with their portfolio in its current state. It will also be interesting to see if Thrill Zone gets rethemed to fit in with RRF. I think Fury could mostly fit in as-is (it's themed to a hornet, it's not like it'd be impossible) and Hurler already needs to be helped. The biggest aspect that I'm curious to see how it turns out is the foliage. They won't have all of the mature trees shown in the POV since they tore most of them down with the Rip Roarin' Rapids demolition, but I'm hoping they can get a lot of new trees and foliage planted ASAP so it has time to grow in between now and next May. Having a log flume in a big open field doesn't sound very nice. I'll probably be fine if Kings Island doesn't receive a new thrill coaster until 2030 or beyond, but I think they're already pushing it with a larger section of the general public. Coaster enthusiasts are a loud minority, but a lot of people have been staring at The Vortex plot for the last 7 years wondering why something new hasn't gone there. Personally, I would not like to see a super flume go in Vortex's plot simply because I think it would take a lot of work to create a basin for the water. There's a chance I'd be more open to one if it was done well and themed like Coney Island's Cascades/Lost River shoot-the-chute ride. I don't know how well the super flume would work for that, but that (to me) would be better reasoning than building a new log flume just because it's a family ride. A new Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal between The Beast and Mystic Timbers would be a different story. That would be very welcome, especially if it weaves back into some of those trees without tearing too many torn down.

Speaking of the dining plan, I wonder if we will see the 1-Meal/day plan also come to Kings Island now that Memberships have made their way across the chain. I think that one was about $99 at Magic Mountain rather than the $155 for the 2-Meal/day plan. The quality of everything F&B related has improved so much since the program began in 2014. I'll also say that the dining plans also set Six Flags apart from their competition with how easy it is for families to come to the park, even if they only go 4-5 times per year. So far this season I've effectively paid off my All-Season Dining Plan and my All-Season Drink Plan. I'll admit that I'm part of the minority that "abuses" the dining plan. (It's not really abuse, it's using something we paid for while other guests barely use half the value of theirs.)

There was a pretty loud personal matter that I'm not going to describe too much. A very upset parent pulling their very upset disabled child in some direction, which resulted in another guest chiming in. I was at the tables outside of the station itself but could still hear most of it. I guess there might've been a better word than "witnessing", though that described being able to hear it well enough. On another topic: I would love to see some more statues like Don Quixote blended into the theming around the park. I've long been an advocate that Kings Island should be more of a thrilling theme park than a themed amusement park, and well-placed static figures/displays would a good inclusion for that.

I'm getting some mixed signals here, but it looks like the 2026 Star Spangled Night — whose dates were originally fudged on the website and taken from a week-long celebration down to a one-night-only event — has now been expanded to a three night event. This change is according to the park's website which lists both July 3-5 and July 4 on the same page.

Three nice sets of consistent-spray nozzles might go a long way for prolonging the life of any other "showtime" (variable spray) nozzles in the fountain by giving the computers a break. At least, I think the issue is with programming rather than the sprayers themselves. Either that or just copying the nozzle pattern from either KD or CW would work as well. We might lose the ability for fountain shows in the latter scenario, but it's probably worth having fountains that work in general. No matter whatever we want to happen, Six Flags needs to get their financials together if they hope to do all of this work to get their parks back to running well. Otherwise maybe we'll see them fixed when the Herschend Family Mega Corp buys Kings Island, removes the dining plans, puts in a tame little family coaster, and finally charges $200/pass. (Not that they'd do any/all of that, but I'm still not convinced that they can handle their rapid expansion or that they'll treat all of their newly-acquired parks as well as Dollywood and SDC.)

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.