Losantiville Mining Co.

The park was testing some really nice fountain patterns in the weeks leading up to Opening Day, but maybe those have gone out the window? This feels like something that might be in limbo until the nighttime spectacular starts back up on May 22nd. It makes sense in my mind, especially if they're using the start of daily operations as the time to actually have everything ready by. I could see that being the case with a chain that seems to have adopted the "It doesn't matter if they have rides/shows/etc. ready until Memorial Day weekend since that's when more paying guests start arriving" attitude.

We walked down to the Son of Beast station today and got some good looks from the public path. It doesn't look like anything has changed since the initial photos from mid-April, but I was able to see some things I hadn't noticed before at the queue, station, and exit path. The air gates still appear to be in place in the station. I only remember ever going through Wolf Pack once, but I didn't realize they still had those up. It makes sense because they would block anyone in there from falling onto the track, though I also thought it'd be easy enough to build a platform over the entire track area. Most of the queue (minus the part on the hill) is still there, but it looked like the small bit of queue between the path and the bridge ramps is entirely overgrown. I've seen it before but I'd never realized just how short of a connector that is. The ride photo booth doesn't look any different compared to last year. It probably has some more holes in the covers though. I'd love to find some photos of that area (and other 2000's ride photo booths). I didn't get to see if anything besides the temporary walls had been removed, but I doubt they have. Like everyone else, I'd love to know what the plans for that station are. If it gets demolished then I think we could see another round of authentic Son of Beast track pieces get sold using the only part of the coaster that's still standing: the station track. I could 100% see that happening either way since KI and Six Flags needs all of the money they can use to pay down their debt. They could even keep the cost of production down by doing most of the work in-house using a table saw and laser engraver. I'm not entirely opposed to the structure being reused as a coaster station since it's already there and waiting to be used for something. My dislike of "bring back SoB/the SoB theme" does not extend to being a dislike of having any coaster (even a hybrid) there. The queue would need to be cleaned up and a separate Fast Lane line would probably be added, but as long as the structure is in good enough condition then it's possible. I'd reverse the direction of travel and have the lift hill go toward the park entrance though. Have it rise above the Haunt barn and then dive down into Timberwolf's valley and go from there. (I really want to see GCI build an RMC-style hybrid using Titan Track. Their website says it can handle inversions, but they also don't have an example like Twisted Timbers or Steel Vengeance. If Six Flags won't work more with RMC then maybe we can see a GCI hybrid.)

Something fun has been happening at Magic Mountain: more and more Six Flags logos are being replaced with MM's classic logo! It started with the big highway sign, then they started popping up on the new trash cans, and now the main park sign at their front fountain/waterfall has been replaced. I'd love to see something similar happen at Kings Island and Cedar Point with their classic logos being used on more than just printed park materials. I don't think legacy Six Flags would have ever done that unless it was a very specific situation.

It's been updated since your post with the new name, which is Beach Blast X-treme. Not my first choice of wording but I'm interested to see how it turns out. The real relief came from the Nighttime Spectacular description listing fireworks as being part of it. Hopefully they don't do something similar to what happened with the Star Spangled Night event where it was quietly changed to be smaller after its initial upload to the website.

Oh the things I'd do for an electric car and some solar panels at home right now. I'd really like to make it out to SFSL this season to go snag one of the last park-branded magnets or shirts (I did the same with Six Flags America), but between gas prices and the lack of meal plans I think my group's trip plans have also gone from maybe to probably not.

Key word there being "should". I know Six Flags would not bring them back in the company's current state, but I do think a company focused more on guest experience (rather than paying down debt) would know the fireworks are something that should always happen with 10pm park closing at Kings Island. There's a chance that Six Flags starts shutting the park down at 9pm during the week to say "It's not a 10pm closing so no fireworks" if the situation is really that dire. Otherwise they just get rid of them altogether with no excuse. Either is possible.

The fireworks ending each night at Kings Island are one of the best traditions that the park has! If the budget really forced any cuts to that department then I would be fine with the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday schedule, but it should be one of the first things brought back when the budget forecast (presumably) improves. Not only is Kings Island the last Taft/KECO/Paramount park that has nightly fireworks — or any form of nightly nighttime spectacular in general — it is one of the only parks in the country that does it. Disneyland and Magic Kingdom have their fireworks, I believe Epcot has a nightly show that uses Spaceship Earth, and Epic Universe is supposed to have one once they get their situation figured out. I haven't heard about any nighttime firework spectaculars that happen every night from many other regional parks. I think Holiday World has one, but I can't remember if theirs is only drones or not. If the drone show does get moved to the fireworks plot then I could see a very large area of trees being cleared for it. The current setup doesn't use the entire Vortex plot from what I can tell, but the firework launch pad is not big enough.

Cedar Point is gearing up for their 2026 season that begins on Saturday, May 9th. There are no new rides or roller coasters for 2026, but the park has nonetheless been working to improve things across the peninsula. The folks at the City of Sandusky are hard at work constructing a new roundabout at the intersection of Cedar Point Drive and US-6. It is expected to be mostly completed by Opening Day. The 2026 Park Map has been uploaded to their website (https://qr1.be/LYDT) with some nice changes compared to the 2025 map PDF. Instead of a purely phone-oriented PDF that's very tedious to scroll through, the new map is designed to fit on a large sheet of paper. All rides are now listed on page 2 with their requisite height and safety information. The regular season entertainment offerings are also listed (see the image below). There is only one new show, but it seems everything else has returned from 2025 including the Henceforth Comedy shows in the Palace Theater. I will certainly be trying to go see their Country Crossroads show now that Kings Island's has been replaced. Some comparisons with the 2026 lineups and map from Kings Island: I really wish KI could have more entertainment offerings than just 4-5 shows that don't run longer than a month. If Kings Island really is "the family park" then why doesn't it have more that the whole family can do together? Cedar Point's map has trees, which would be so nice to have back on KI's online map. It would also be really nice to have the paper maps back in the park, but I don't see that happening if we're not getting physical passes back either. If John Reilly wants to know an easy way to improve guest experience, getting guests off of their phones with those would be amazing. The new Barrels and Bites event looks like it'll just be a reskinned Food & Wine Festival like the Brew & BBQ event at Canada's Wonderland. Another thing I'd still love to see come from Cedar Point to Kings Island (because there are still things that they can learn from each other) is a dedicated sensory quiet room in each of the First Aid locations. The legacy Six Flags parks were certified as autism/disability friendly, which would be good to have at KI.

The current Living Liberty Bell planter does look like it was installed as a Winterfest tree spot, but looking through historical imagery I don't think it lasted very long. Either way it looks much better now with all of the new plantings. Google Earth shows a tree there in 2017, but a real tree seems to have been planted there a few years later. It's hard to believe that next year will be 10 years since Winterfest 3.0 began. If the event makes it to 2030 then it will be the longest running KI Winter event.

Officially, yes. Carowinds has their Boo Blasters in their Crossroads area, Kings Dominion's is officially part of their International Street (though the 2026 map has it listed under their Planet Snoopy Rides list), and Canada's Wonderland has theirs fully inside Planet Snoopy. I believe the distinction is more or less an issue of being "officially" part of an area as opposed to general proximity. Phantom Theater, SDatHC, BBoBH, and PT:ON have all been a part of International Street. Even with the Peanuts exclusivity clause saying the parks cannot place other IPs in their Peanuts areas, the Boo Blasters rides might be grandfathered into the areas since a) they're not a major IP like Scooby-Doo and b) most of them were physically separated from the Peanuts IP on a map.

I've been trying to figure something out for a few years now and realized I can just ask y'all. Who is this gentleman from the original Phantom Theater? The only character I could think it would be is one of the audience members during the Pepper's Ghost scene. His static, non-exaggerated face tells me that he wasn't any of the main cast.

I thought I mentioned that I understood that, but yes. I figured they might mention fireworks being nearby as part of flying conditions. Most of my worries stem from the lack of announced entertainment offerings. We've been close to losing the fireworks before so it's not entirely out of the question, especially as Six Flags continues to cut costs.

Rozzi Fireworks is looking for a local drone pilot to help with the nightly drone show at Kings Island beginning May 22nd. The post didn't mention anything about fireworks, but it's entirely possible for that to be a result of the job not requiring interactions with any fireworks rather than it being a sign that the fireworks have been cut for 2026. The starting date lines up with the beginning of 10PM closures. I'm a little worried that this will be the year we lose the fireworks, especially since there's not much official information available from the park on entertainment offerings. Most of the stuff we know about is either from Brad Ross' posts and signage around the park that only says show names and start dates. Source: Jonas Jakeway on Facebook.

There were a ton of $50+ hoodies in every store I looked in last weekend. I really want to get one of the nice button down shirts that they keep adding, but there's no way I'm going to pay more than $60 for a shirt like that. I'd love to know what the markup is on those compared to the production cost. They seem like a nice quality, but I simply can't justify that high cost. My thought process on upping the drink plan cup size is that it would lower some costs while lowering the amount of possible redemptions per day. I'm fine with the current model though. I'd be open to seeing a higher cost for the all-season drink bottle if they switched that one over to a "mug" like Dollywood has. Theirs at least look like they're higher quality. Something that keeps drinks colder for longer and is generally sturdier would be good if Six Flags wants to increase the quality for that. I hope they do keep the meal plan around as-is. What they could do is bring the 1-meal dining plan to more parks, but that might result in even more people purchasing them overall. Upping the price (maybe to $200/per all season meal plan) would definitely generate more money for Six Flags and could help them move toward slightly higher quality food items. IMO there's not a ton they can do about the Sysco food products since the commercial food supplier game seems to have less players every few months. Maybe they could get higher quality Sysco food, but from what I've heard that's about it unless they want to change suppliers entirely.

How would you feel about Larry saying it instead of Maestro (since his animatronic is already there)? I'd love to see that thread happen and input some thoughts of my own after you start it! The changes between seasons would probably need to be quick/easy (I'm talking a one-day turnover per season), so new voicelines and maybe some new movements might be easiest. If it was possible I'd leave the ride experience as-is for Tricks and Treats, then play the re-recorded original voicelines and the original soundtrack for Haunt. Some Christmas trees and Santa hats would be good for Winterfest since it's (likely) going to very popular for the heating. One of my only gripes about this new ride is that I never seem to hear the original main theme, just the new version that's a different arrangement.

I don't think building a Grand Pavilion-esque restaurant would necessarily push a potential coaster back to 2030, but I could see someone at SF corporate making the case for that. Generally, I think Kings Island getting anything like the GP would be smaller in footprint and have a much simpler roofline. The simplified architecture would drop the cost. I haven't been able to find a cost for that building though. There's also a chance that Kings Island builds a second Coney Bar-B-Que with a different facade design. We saw this with The Farmhouse (Cedar Point), Crystal Rock Cafe (Cedar Point), and the Pier 76 Cafe (California's Great America). Worlds of Fun got a near-exact Coney Bar-B-Que clone in the River City Grill. It's entirely possible that if we do get a new restaurant it will be a recreation of one that the company already built around 2018. This could also coincide with some of the legacy Six Flags parks getting new restaurants as part of the ongoing projects to improve dining experiences across the chain.

I just watched it and thought it would be an amazing Halloween overlay! He lined all of the audio up pretty well with the new scenes and overlaid some of the new audio onto the old to make it more immersive! Imagine this ride experience in addition to a re-recording of the original queue soundtrack. That would be a fantastic seasonal throwback to the original while still allowing the new version to keep its spotlight during the rest of the year. Great job @BryanJay! I hope the park takes this into consideration for some special event/festival rides!!

That accidental plurality on "trains" was a typo, but oh well 😆 Onboard audio could be really nice and would add more to the experience. If a new inverted boomerang was cheap enough I think it would work out well for Vekoma, much like how the family boomerangs are. A set layout that fits on a flat, somewhat compact space might be what parks look for as the prices of other, longer coasters go up. The giant inverted boomerang is another story since it's a higher thrill model, but I think the issues of the original could be somewhat easily resolved with a fresh look at it. Standard 4-across seating (rectifying a major issue with the original), a stronger structure, and a slightly different layout would be a good start. Implementing a turntable station would also be helpful for adding capacity.

We got our second ride in yesterday morning after waiting 120 minutes. The queue seemed to flow a lot faster than it did during the passholder preview. I really wish the queue line loop was a little longer than the 20-30 minutes it has now, though. All three queue line animatronics were louder and worked nicely. The portrait hall characters and Rick (the queue instructions presenter) were also louder and easier to hear. The lights during the ride were dimmer than before but I think they could be even darker. I deliberately noticed some of the behind the scenes stuff in the dark and enjoyed seeing that. We were in the front car for this ride (we were in the back car on Preview Day) and I didn't notice the repeated lines as much, but it's still very noticeable on most of the POVs I've seen. Hilda really needs at least one more line that isn't just her screaming the singular note. I think I'd prefer something more like Madam Leota's loop during the Haunted Mansion where you can't really tell where the loop begins and ends because it's constantly running and has dialogue that doesn't repeat the same thing for each car. Houdelini is also a good candidate for receiving more voice lines since his can easily be heard from both Garbonzo and Hilda's dressing rooms. Anything that sounds like a spell or magic trick could work. I'm a little fine with some of the effects not working for now since this is only the second weekend of the ride getting full-time use, but I do hope they can fix everything in a relatively short time period. The popcorn and boiler smells weren't working during our visit, nor were the screen in the first boiler or the blast of hot air. We smelled the roses at the very end, though. I've come to some more conclusions after thinking some more about doing up the ride for Haunt/Winterfest. I still think they should record a more antagonistic queue loop (closer to the original ride) for Haunt, but for Winterfest I think they should at least put up some Christmas trees and lights. Maybe change out the popcorn smell with a pine needle smell.

This is definitely a hole that the new Six Flags (and Cedar Fair) have dug themselves into by not limiting the Dining Plan usage from the start. That said, I don't think Six Flags should limit or outright eliminate the dining plan. Legacy Six Flags attempted to do that around 2022 as part of their Season Pass structure shakeup and it didn't go well for them at all. We saw a similar backlash when the Diamond Elite VIP members' meal plans were standardized to the Cedar Fair model after years of being some form of the Premium All Day Dining Plan. If they're looking for a solution, I think the only "easy" way to lower food prices would be to raise prices elsewhere. Enchanted Parks saw the price per meal issues with their acquisition and it seems to be working because this kind of change could be expected with a new company managing the parks. The other option would be to reduce the amount of Meal Plan vs non-Meal Plan options throughout the parks over the course of a few years. That would make the plans less valuable or desirable and provide an incentive for guests to either purchase food or bring their own and eat in the car. Another question I've been thinking about is this: Would you rather have the Drink Plans stay as they currently exist (16 ounce cup every 15 min) or trade that to a new plan with less frequency (20+ ounce cup every 30 minutes)? That would remove the need for the drink plan cups and theoretically save the parks some money if guests redeem less drinks.

If Invertigo did get a retheme and new trains would you like to see the loop and/or lift hills painted with the red/orange/yellow color scheme while the rest becomes shades of black and gray? That would make it like The Bat in terms of how it got rethemed, but I'd love to see it. On another note: if Vekoma was crazy enough to design/make a new version of the Inverted Boomerang and/or the Giant Inverted Boomerang, would you want to see one come to Kings Island? Assuming this would be some time after Invertigo was removed. We've seen this with the new generations of the Tilt Coaster and the Flying Coaster, so I think it's more likely than S&S bringing back the 4D Coaster model.

The legacy version of the Six Flags mobile app had menus built into it, but I don't think any of them were nicely formatted or included prices. I suspect that the park(s) expects you to visit the Dining Plan Menu(s) through their website(s) so they don't have to go update more than one document if anything changes. It doesn't look like the Mobile Ordering feature works yet either, so it may be a while before we see a "finished" version of this app.

Kings Island has now added a "Places to Stay" tab to their website that links to a Six Flags partner hotels portal. It also has one vacation package available that looks like it includes the room rate and a park ticket.

If the park still had it in storage and it was in good enough condition, then I think it was definitely reused (as opposed to SDR making a new one). We've talked on here about a potential Christmas overlay for PT:ON, but I recently had a thought about an easy Halloween overlay. I think it would be really cool if KI and SDR adjusted the queue line experience by having the characters do a new recording of the original Phantom Theater queue audio. It would require some new animatronic programming alongside the new voice line recordings, but I think it would be worth it. I could see the antagonism being a slight issue for the family-friendly nature of the attraction. That said, it'd be for Halloween. Things can be a little scary around Halloween. Bonus points if they keep it open/open it with the antagonistic tones during Haunt since that's a more adult-oriented event. Imagine Maestro repeating some of his iconic lines from the original while the now-unseen organ plays its tunes via Maestro's ghastly presence. Larry and Archie can also be a little more antagonistic — I'll admit I haven't thought through their parts too much yet.

Are the behavior warning stickers in the Queue line their final form or do we think they will be replaced with more permanent signage later on? Some of them looked like they were already peeling off of the wall and, frankly, for a ride that has so much detail in it I feel like the stickers are one of the only parts of the experience that feel cheap.