Losantiville Mining Co.

I'll post a longer rambling either tonight or tomorrow after I hopefully get my second ridethrough in. This was an amazing ride! There were so many Easter eggs that I noticed and even more new things overall! I don't think anyone who's ridden it could call this a Boo Blasters reskin or anything of the such anymore. Some spoiler-ific things below including both good and bad things! I'll try to not repeat what others have said, but apologies if I do. I think I'll like it more as I ride it more, but I'm glad it's back IIRC for the first few days they had return time tickets that helped the queue line feel quick while ensuring social distancing could be observed. I think I might've waited an hour before my first ride on/around July 2nd or July 7th (whichever day the park opened that year).

To be honest, I feel like that is what the VIP Lounge should have had from the beginning — especially for something its size. Some small portions of chips, sodas either for purchase or redeemable with the drink plan, and a place to sit and relax while you're in the park. Is that what happened? No, but this is one part of the Prestige benefits that I don't feel bad seeing. The expansion of the Preferred Parking lot was really nice to see, though. I would've preferred (hah) to see the guard booth moved and the service road entrance fixed, but it's fine. I've also seen some people complaining about how the new asphalt/sealing coat looks. While it does look cracked, there's still part of the lot that isn't done so I'm thinking it can still be fixed if it becomes a major problem.

Rivertown also has some new music! We heard some Dolly Parton playing as we walked past LaRosa's, though I didn't notice much of the other music. Our day was kind of centered around Phantom Theater (which was really good btw) so that was most of what I was listening for.

I feel like this is kind of standard for the park at this point. If nothing has changed in terms of the meal plan meals then I wouldn't be surprised if they just keep the 2025 list up. I also wouldn't be surprised if we see some quality issues in printed/digital materials. Canada's Wonderland just released their 2026 map that still had the color palette for Daredeviller in squares next to the ride. I've also noticed that CW and Carowinds have started to use Futura as the font for ride names on their maps, while Great Adventure and Kings Dominion are using the Seoge UI Variable font (I'm pretty sure that's what it is from my research).

I will probably also be trying to stay offline until Friday afternoon (which, admittedly, will be hard to do). The photos shared by Local 12 look so good! I'm sure they're from the professional casting call as well. To be honest I don't think the park will do anything for the original photoshoot folks besides give them free one-day Fast Lane or something like that. That's a great catch! I wonder how much else we might recognize😄

I think the park is still working on getting the lights around the fountain in working order. There's been one light tower and a tree uplight consistently lit up while the rest sit dark since the beginning of April. When they were testing the fountain show the front left jet wasn't cooperating either. The lights on the Eiffel Tower also looked like they were having some troubles a couple of nights ago, but they seem to be fine now.

They haven't posted any more shows to the entertainment page yet, but I really hope we're still going to have nightly fireworks. Some of the choices we've seen from the park and corporate this year are really odd to me — especially when it comes to information release dates compared to other parks like Carowinds or Cedar Point.

It looks like we're also getting a look at the "trade secret" wait time sign (as it was referred to by the City of Mason) 😂 Aside from that I like this look for the ride. The signs haven't been installed yet, but it looks like the mounting points are still there. Thank goodness the teeth were removed from the entrance. The windows above it look like they could use some decoration, though. It also looks like they replaced the lanterns that used to be on the front of the facade. Those might be the base for the lanterns so maybe they'll come back? I haven't been able to see any lights on the facade from the webcams but I hope it has some fun lighting. As for the merch stand I'm a little intrigued by the wording. It looks like it says "MERCH" and "ICE, COLD SODA" with either a fancy "and" or something else in between them. Personally, I think it's an odd choice to include the comma between ice and cold. They also chose to leave "Opening Nightmare" off of the merch stand's sign, so I hope they'll also sell some original PT merchandise in addition to the PT:ON merchandise. Some Phantom Theater Encore merch would also be nice!

IIRC the last Boo Blasters POV had riders shooting at the targets (you could hear them talking and maybe see an arm ). Theirs and others' POVs interacting with the ride really helped make it not feel so dead, so I hope any PT:ON POV has people interacting with it. Releasing a POV at the end of Summer would make a lot of sense. Let everyone come see it for themselves and then release the video. Another thought: now that the ride cars are grouped in pairs (except for #27 which appears to be alone on the plans) do you think there will be 3 or 6 different flashlight colors? We know there will be at least three colors per vehicle, but depending on how interactions in each scene are planned out I think six colors could be helpful.

*Correction: I think the other two arms of Monster might be installed on the ride, they're just hard to see because of the camera angle. Someone posted a screenshot from the webcams that had orange lights and it looked like it could have all 6 arms lit up.

I should've clarified: I don't think it's the ride that isn't ready but rather the park or someone higher up involved in the photoshoot. Someone could've gotten sick (the most likely scenario IMO), or the camera crew (whoever that might be) needs time for something, or maybe there's an issue with another thing in the park. I think all of the ride construction and programming is done. While we're speculating, when do you think the park might take a ride POV? Will it just be a camera riding alone in the car or do you think they would have someone there capturing ghost notes? Maybe the park will wait a little bit before filming the POV. Who knows (I don't, that's why I'm asking all of you) That's an issue I could see popping up like this. Selecting participants via a Google Form that shut down 2+ hours before it was advertised to close isn't exactly the best look. There also could have been an issue with either participants not being chosen fairly — though I would think that might only be an issue if those chosen were being paid. I've heard stories about these photoshoots only including people with certain physical aspects. The private casting company will be much better for all of the above since they're probably held to a higher legal standard. Either way, it's upsetting for all of the folks who were selected and got all gussied up for it. As for media invites, I'll remind everyone that Six Flags had Quantum Accelerator's 2025 media day planned with invites sent before cancelling it. (I don't think that will happen here, just saying that it's happened before.)

It appears that this photoshoot has been cancelled at the last minute according to an email from a (the?) producer at Six Flags Creative Services that was posted to Facebook. The event was scheduled to happen tomorrow, April 14th, but apparently an email was sent out at 6:02PM tonight saying that it was cancelled. The post didn't have any date for rescheduling so I don't know if the park is just not ready for it or what.

If that happens then I can't wait to hear about how Kings Island never gets any massive thrill coasters anymore I think the major hold up is from both the park and corporate at this point. John Reilly has big visions for more entertainment and better guest experience. Cedar Point hasn't released their entertainment lineup yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got to have 10-ish shows to add to their major festivals and events again. Something I really want to know is who made the decision to cut back on Kings Island's Independence Day celebration. It used to be a two-day event and now that Cedar Point is extending theirs to be a whole week, KI only gets one night of festivities. Over Texas and Great Adventure were really slacking on their entertainment in recent years, so those don't surprise me. It seems that even after the sale of 6 parks and the upcoming sale of LaRonde, Six Flags seems to be complacent with what Kings Island has. We don't know the rest of the park's entertainment lineup for the 2026 regular season but I really hope it involves some new shows that aren't just [stunt show] and [bubble show]. There could be another show that goes in the KIT after Brad Ross (Kings Dominion had a simple laser show in theirs last year). I think that only required associates to man the theater and to press the buttons, meaning they wouldn't need performers or costumes and the set could be simple. On a separate note: HiFi Honey will be returning to Kings Island for some performances in 2026. That said, it appears someone got their dates wrong when entering them into the website. If I had a nickel for every time someone put the wrong dates for a KI event/show on their website, I'd have two nickels; which isn't a lot but it's odd that it happened twice.

I think it's still missing two arms as well. It's entirely possible that the park is waiting to install two arms from Cedar Point's ride and are currently repainting them and some of their pods. As for the fence, I think it will be up until they get most of the ride assembled and begin testing it. If it's not opening with the park then it'd be nice if KI at least put up a sign on the fence saying that the ride will return.

I was curious about that as well. The constant movement of the drone camera didn't help me to see anything clearly, but I didn't immediately see any trim brakes when I paused the video. Also, they had the clearance envelope device propped up against the railing at the top of the second lift hill! I do hope that they will replant some of the trees and foliage that were taken out for the rebuild. For my fellow webcam watchers: most of the major coaster lifthill lights that we can see (on Orion, The Racer, and Diamondback) have been turned on! The park also appears to be testing some fountain shows as well. I'd love to see the fountain show concept we saw during Haunt come back for the regular season and expanded to include something for a set of hourly daytime shows. No lasers (for now), but the lights in the fountain and on the Eiffel Tower are clearly dancing for a show. I think I can even see someone working on programming the show from a laptop in front of the park sign at the bottom of the screen. Have the Swiss flags above the Starbucks dining room entrance always been lit up? Something else I noticed on the I-Street camera is that the medallions weren't installed with the colorful banners on the light towers. I wonder if they just weren't put up or if there will be some new ones coming this year. There are some special ones for the Food & Wine Festival and others for Haunt, but maybe we could see something around the 4th of July even though the park isn't having a multi-day event? The medallions on each light tower during the 50th anniversary were my favorite — especially since they had the ribbon shapes — and I'd love to see something similar come back.

I'm right there with you on jumping between wanting to see it all and also wanting to avoid spoilers. This is one of the first rides that I've been super invested in the development of, and I can't wait to be back in the park. Luckily, I have some big tasks to accomplish this week so my brain won't entirely be occupied by Phantom Theater. We're currently trying to figure out what time we need to leave the house to get to the park by 11 for the parking tolls to open, then for the park to be open at 12, and to get to Phantom Theater as quickly as possible (maybe with a quick restroom break somewhere in there). I made sure to mark myself as unavailable for work on Thursday night so I can hope to get to sleep earlier than my work schedule would normally allow. One of the people in my group isn't great with standing in incredibly long lines, so I'd like to try to save us from a 2 or 3+ hour wait. I think it would be nice if the park had return time tickets like they had with Orion in 2020 when they couldn't pack everyone into the queue.

Sadly it looks like we won't be getting the two wooden floral carts back this year either. They looked very nice on either side of International Street and I haven't seen them anywhere else in the park since they were removed. (Photo: Brad Perdue on KICentral)

I wonder if we will hear that variation on the theme music during the ride or in the queue line? I also saw some interesting shots in the video that I'm curious about. Something to keep in mind if you're looking for how this version is connected to the original through the Phantom Theater storylines and lore: the theater has been renovated in a manner for which some things are new and other things have been designed/redesigned to look old. The phantoms might enjoy the look of a more decrepit facade. These specters have been preparing for their grand reopening and, instead of wasting away as they were for so long, are now less gaunt and more lively. "Where were these ghost notes before?" Maybe that question will be answered, maybe not. It's a theme park ride so don't look too far into it. I loved how Drew Hunter (Sally's VP of Creative Design and the bald guy sitting in front of the concept art) was talking about what this revival of Phantom Theater might mean for other dark rides and ride concepts that could be brought back in a similar way. If all goes well, we could see a resurgence of parks installing new dark rides! Six Flags has expressed their intents for additions to replace various Boo Blasters and Justice League attractions via surveys, so maybe we can at least see some fresh concepts? I'm personally rooting for a Disaster Transport dark ride at Cedar Point I think if we get any new Phantom Theater merchandise it would be so easy to make a sticker set of the various posters from the original ride and maybe some from the new ride! Hopefully it wouldn't cost $20 for one set of stickers, but I think I'd pay $10 for a nice set of 6 original poster stickers. The plushies would also be very nice to have, though I don't know what the park would do for that besides making expensive Squishmallows. A small wood ride vehicle could be nice and might fit well with the coaster versions. Only one week until we're on the ride!! I'm so excited!

They seem to have done a really good job for what they accomplished in such a short time frame. The biggest issues I've found are the lack of clarification on if Six Flags add-ons that guests paid for will be honored and the fact that some items still advertise Six Flags passes, such as on the maps and some promotional materials. I'm really interested to see what the new logos for these parks will look like.

Six Flags did not hesitate to take the parks they just sold off of their website. Now they're all under "parks [dot] enchantedparks [dot] com" addresses! The most notable name changes are coming from Six Flags St. Louis (now Mid-America by Enchanted Parks) and Schlitterbahn Galveston (now Galveston Island Waterpark). Each website shows a "Now Under New Management" badge as well in case you didn't know about the sale. Schlitterbahn Galveston has a special 20th anniversary logo on their website, Valleyfair has their 50th anniversary logo, and Michigan's Adventure has a special 70th anniversary logo. Putting the old Six Flags-based URLs in the address bar directs you to a landing page similar to the Six Flags America website before it was deactivated. There is a link to the each park's new website and a link to other Six Flags park websites. https://www.enchantedparks.com/ https://worldsoffun.enchantedparks.com/ https://mid-americaparks.enchantedparks.com/ https://galvestonislandwaterpark.enchantedparks.com/ https://valleyfair.enchantedparks.com/ https://miadventure.enchantedparks.com/ https://greatescapeparks.enchantedparks.com/ https://worldsoffuncamping.enchantedparks.com/ https://greatescaperesort.enchantedparks.com/ The new chain has also released new pass options, including the Enchanted Hero Pass and the Enchanted Legend Pass. Both passes grant guests similar perks, with the main difference being the discount percentage, parking tier, and number of Fast Lane passes per season and type of Bring-A-Friend ticket deals. The new Legend pass also includes one free Combo Meal (though what that means is not specified) per season. From what I've seen there are no meal plans, drink plans, all-season Fast Lane (or other name of Priority Pass), or all-season photo pass. There is a parking page and cabana rental page though. Some parks also list "admission to Halloween Event" as a perk. I just hope they don't choose a name as bad as "Mid-America by Enchanted Parks" such as "Scary Halloween by Enchanted Parks". Each website lists the same passes and pass prices. I found it interesting that the Legend Pass is only $25 more than the Hero Pass, but when the only real multi-visit difference is the parking tier and the combo meal it isn't surprising. Personally, I think the price difference should be closer to $50. That way the parking benefit would be a little more exclusive. Limiting the Fast Lane to only 1-2 per season seems both good and bad. Good for the people who only visit twice a year, bad for the people who are used to their Prestige Pass and getting one Single-Use Fast Lane per visit. I haven't been able to find anything about if the Six Flags pass add-ons will work at these parks, but it's somewhat clear to me that the websites aren't finished yet. From what I remember hearing/reading, the issue is/was with getting the Six Flags and Enchanted Parks systems to work together. I'd love if my dining plan got me a free combo meal. How would that work? I don't know, maybe Guest Services could print out a QR code ticket for the one-time meal or something. What do you think about these new Enchanted Parks websites and passes?

It looks like they've also been adding some more weathering to the facade! I appreciate that they did more than just changing out the windows (as happened with the conversion to Boo Blasters). I'm not terribly upset by the lack of more structural changes considering whatever might've replaced the castle could've had the same goofy look with a different shape. I wonder what they're hiding in the entry portal besides the No-Legs Larry Drama Masks and the rest of the repainted facade? Maybe a new marquee or a special surprise? The staircase was counted as one of the "scenes" on the plans that we got from the city of Mason. The semi-permanent extended queue will be really helpful and looks so much better than what the park normally does. Even the Fast Lane line looks like it has a little bit of extended queue! That's probably not as good for the standby line, but hopefully the priority ratio is handled well.

I agree with most of your points except for these ones. The area between Diamondback and the log flume, in my opinion, has no chance of being cohesive unless they are in the same thematic area and/or there is some serious work done to make those two plazas feel like one. Kings Island started this process by including that area in Camp Snoopy, but it still feels disjointed. The Diamondback theme is fine — even though it doesn't fit into the "History of Cincinnati" theme as mentioned — but it does need more trees and foliage around it. Anything to make the splashdown look less constructed. The gravel is probably good for drainage and isn't really affected by any (presumed) chemicals in the water, but there's so much manicured grass around it that makes the basin look empty. This image from Kings Island History on Facebook shows a comparison between the area in 1972 and 2019. This photo from Robbie Zerhusen shows just how many trees were still in the area around the time of Diamondback's construction. Now that I'm thinking about it, most of my problems with the splashdown are with how manicured it is. Is a giant patch of neatly cut grass good theming for a historically themed area? (Side note: The theme of Rivertown as a "History of Cincinnati" based concept is not rigid, as shown by The Beast and more by Mystic Timbers. That being said, I would still love to see more nature incorporated into the area.) As for the big box, I'd much rather it be demolished and replaced with a new expansion of Rivertown than try to shove something into it. A small but natural-looking lake, an entertainment venue and/or dining location, and a new ride would all fit around that area with ease. The largest issues would come up with the parts of the building that are directly adjacent to Diamondback's track and supports.

As long as they remember to take the Cedar Point logo and decals off and do some extra painting I think it'd be cool. The one thing I couldn't stand about Cedar Point's monster was that it had the eyes and goofy sign. I like how KI's Monster looks more old-timey (at least with the sign). One thing I really hope we get and see installed are all of the lights from their ride. It looked like they still had the lights on the rotor and some of the ones on the arms, which would help give ours more visual life!

Nice upkeep of foliage, trees, tables, trash cans, and paint all help guests feel so much better in a park. What's sad here is that — just as Matt Ouimet said — not enough industry professionals seem to understand that fact. Some things can't be immediately helped, but change can happen over the course of a few years. Something Kings Island really needs is a renewed interest in trees and foliage. Little displays like the floral calendar, carousel horse, and season-marking Eiffel Tower display (behind the Grand Carousel sign) are really nice. On the other hand the Floral Clock has been broken for a while, the Eiffel Tower topiary often looks like a... well a... poorly kept topiary. The park could also place some non-foliage-based displays if they don't want to put strain on the gardening teams. If I had to choose three areas of Kings Island to plant more trees, it would be Camp Snoopy, specifically near Franklin's Flyers Rivertown, specifically near Diamondback's entrance and near the path at the area formerly known as Swan Lake Vortex's plot (this one is very specifically foliage that a new coaster would go around and/or that would compliment a new coaster) Action Zone is somewhere on this list, but I would tie any new trees and foliage there directly into a larger area redevelopment rather than somewhere as a quick fix. I'm sure there's a worry about obstructing some sightlines and getting trees too close to coaster tracks as well.

I'm still hoping that Wild One can be saved — even if it's as a complete rebuild like the Zippin Pippin had after Libertyland closed. This also has me wondering if Six Flags will clear the site of everything they can before the ownership transfers (move all of the the operable rides and sell the rest for scrap) or include some rides in the sale and let 35V and TPA Group deal with scrapping/reopening them.