robintodd

In my opinion there is so much talk about Fast Lane and getting it early and they sell it literally as soon as you enter the park. I can imagine more than one family of 4 dumps over $500 on Fast Lane passes only to find that the regular lines are all less than 30 minutes because of light crowds. I for one would be furious and feel taken advantage of. They always talk about how Fast Lane sells out so I could see people dropping the money early and not waiting to see what the day has in store. I'm not talking about people who buy Fast Lane in advance, more over those who buy it the day of. On a light attended day I would think the number of Fast Lanes sould would be small so I would think it would be better to just not sell them rather than see how many gullible people there are that day.

Nice interview Brad, very informative. I was hoping that after he talked about how fast they threw together the plans for AP you would have followed up with "Were the orignal plans for 23 scarapped or did they get delayed until 24?". I do appreciate the honesty about how fast AP was thrown together and it looks great. As I've stated in a previous post I do wonder what the oringinal plans for 23 were. Maybe it was delayed because of supply chain issues? My first thought is the replacement of Boo Blasters with an updated Phantom Theatre experience and a refresh of Planet Snoopy. That may be why the Peanuts Playhouse is stting empty this summer. Seems strange that it doesn't house the character meet and greet or the petting zoo this season. We'll know soon enough but I wouldn't be surprised if next season Planet Snoopy gets some much needed love.

Let me start out again by saying that in my opinion PTE is the best overall show ever in the history of KI (my optinion, your mileage may vary ) That being said I saw PTE yesterday and noticed that during Happy Feet there was an audible tap track playing over the dancers. As a tapper myself I found it to be disturbing as volume of the track drowned out the "live" tap dancers (who are excellent). Originally last year I suggested they mic the stage from underneth to get a little more volume and I think at the end of the season they seemed to be doing that. I went up to the sound guys and asked them saying that I wanted to hear the dancers. One of the guys told me "it is a recording of the dance by the cast". The problem with that is it sounds like only 1 dancer was recorded. There is a definite difference between 1 dancer and 8 when it comes to tap. I'm not saying they needed a recording of 8 dancers but at least 3 would have made a difference and taken away the "solo" feel of the recorded track. Tap is a very specific type of dance in that you can see the feet hitting the floor. "Overdubbing" the sound of the dancers takes away from the live aspect of the piece in my opinion. I also noticed that some of the chorus parts were overdubbed also. Maybe they were last year and they just didn't have the sound adjusted right but I was under the impression that last year EVERYTHING was live. It was obvious when it was being played because it came in louder when they punched it in. That being said the Hilda understudy did a great job and they did overdub just the 2-3 falseto parts of the character. It was pretty seemless (nice job by the audio tech) and didn't bother me as I could understand how not everyone can do it the way the usual person who plays Hilda does. Again the show is still fantastic I wanted to point out that (again in my opinion) the new overdubbing takes away from the live aspect of the talents of this extremely talented cast. It also may have played a part that on a non-busy day with the rain in the forecast the theatre was only about 1/3 full. I could understand overdubbing with a full house but then again I was there for the last 2 shows last year and noticed no sound issues at all. In my opinion, keep it simple and keep it live and loose the overdubbing when not needed. One last thing. The new dialog that took the place of "blasting your boo's or something" is interesting and I'm thinking may be a hint for next season. When the Phantom says "is that boo thing still there" it almost seems like he expects it not be there. Like it's going to be replaced. After seeing the interview with Mike Koontz and how he stated the plans for Adventure Port were thorwn together in a year it make me wonder if something else was planned for this year and because of supply chain issues or other delays that had to be put off till next year. Hense "is that boo thing still there". If we do get a new Phantom Theatre in place of Boo Blasters next year and they do the PTE show for one final year the dialoge could still be the same and instead of the audience saying "yes" a resounding "no" would be heard. It would be really neat to have a show foreshadow a new attraction. We'll have to wait and see.

Seems to be priced according to crowd size like I believe Fast Lane is. Frankly if the crowd size is small enough to only charge $5 for Orion then in my opinion don't sell it. I think they should only be sold on very busy days. Seems like a money grab to have people spend $5 to skip a 30 minute wait.

"Dorfman, I've given this alot of thought. From now on, your name is Flounder." "Flounder!"

Not that hard if they stop the ride and you can alternate targets...

They've done it in the past. I think the emphasis may be a bit more this year because they haven't had spirt song in 2-3 years and pre-sale may be lacking. They've been offering 10-20% off tickets for a while now. Unfortunately with the lack of other concerts this year I think Timberwolf's days are numbered.

Where I do think/hope the next theming upgrade is the area I'm sure it will be the same theme. Of course this would fall in line with an old Phantom coming back as well.

I'll hold off judgement on Sol Spin till I ride it. It being open air alone will be different than Skylab. My comments on Cargo Loco had nothing to do with capacity and more with the ride experience. I never saw the queue spill into the midway and my wait was about 20-25 minutes. I've seen alot about the capacity of Sol Spin and on the surface to me it seems like the right call. Remember a smaller diameter could actually mean a faster ride experience or a more forcefull one. We'll have to see when it opens. I think lines may be long to start but by the end of the season and for seasons going forward I would see it as another Monster/Scrambler type people eater, which the park needed. Double the seats means twice the restraints to not only check but to have issues with causing the ride to go down as well as more cost that in my opinion was better spent on themeing of the area. If the lines for both of these rides are out to the midway next year I may see the point of getting the 48 instead of the 24. This new area was to give a nice faclift to a part of the park and add some general rides that are found at other parks, not put in something that would bring people from around the country to ride. Either way, the people in line for these rides are less people in line for The Beast, Orion, etc. Which is a good thing.

Saw PTE and it has returned with a vengence. I apprecitate the changes for not only those that saw it last year, but for those of us lucky enough to ride the original ride. The cast and crew has done a fantastic job and the performances were spot-on even the new cast members. Not sure if I'm just reading more into it than there is but I think I caught a hint that the ride will be returning in some form "very soon". In the past shows would run 2 years. Earlier in this thread it was mentioned a 3 year run. The only way I see that working is if next year the show cooresponds with the return in some form of the Phantom Theatre ride. For people to ride the ride and be able to compare it directly with the show would be fantastic. We will know soon enough but part of me believes that the Phantom and cast are already being worked on in a shop in California ever since Rick make his trip here last year. He could have seen the show on you tube. But to make a presentation and sign contracts, that would be best done in person. But that's just my thoughts, I could be wrong. Nice job again to the KI Entertainment department.

Off The Rails Show is exactly what a "cirque" type show should be and it was done in a theatre that could allow the performers to show off their skills. In my opinion having a "cirque" type show Kings Island Theatre felt like it had to be "downsized" because of the cramped performance space. Where it is now the tricks are bigger and you have several things going on at once for the finale. It add to the intensity and excitement of the show. PTE is exactly the type of show that belongs in the Kings Island Theatre in my opinion. It is a nice return to the broadway-style show of the 80's like Celebration, Gotta Dance and Fasinating Rhythm and fully uses the theatre lighting, fly space, etc. The only thing they don't do that they did back in the day was have someone appear from beneth the stage on a rise panel.

Rode salt and wasn't able to spin it at all. I'm sure they are governing the barrels because of some safety issue but I agree they all need to be adjusted as the manual spinning of the barrels help with re-ridability. My 10 year old grandson was so upset he couldn't spin the barrel to try and make grandpa dizzy The ride overall is good and a needed addition but for those of us that remember Keggers, Loco is no Keggers. First, keggers had 3 turn tables of 6 barrels each along with the "tilt" of the table itself. Most importantly they were easy to spin. I remebmer spinning them so fast it was a challenge to sit up and the only reason I could was because I was holding on spinning the barrel. You can see it in action here:

Watched the show toinight (Saturday, May 27th) and was overall impressed. Pretty much what I expected as a toned down version of FFF (which it should be concerning the FFF was for the 50th and what they do now looks much more substainable for years to come). Love the concept the original music and the lazers which have a fantastic effect when shown through the fountain plumes. It is tuely beautiful. Also the lights in the fountains seem to be hilighted more with colors and synch with the show. The only thing I would suggest is one or two more drone formations. Seems like the go to the "generic fireworks". Hopefully this will change as they make changes to the show and add different things to the drone show (like an AE logo as suggested in this post). They did do changes last year as the summer went on. Finally about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the show there seemed to be a partial power outage. All things Adventure Awaits releated went out and I street went black. The usual building lights stayed on so it wasn't completely dark but the fountains, lazers and music all went out. Fireworks and Drones went on like nothing happened. I'm sure they'll fix the issue before tonights show and what I did get to see was fantastic. Amazing job again, glad to see the the drones will be a part of the show after FFF and it was nice to see new drone formations as well as some favorites from last year. Well done again KI. Don't forget to flip that breaker back before tonights show

That would be episode 28, Jan 17,2023. I always listen (watch) the podcast on youtube. It's really well done and very informative. Ryan and Don do a fantastic job.

I believe it's part of the theming. Sol is an ancient Roman god personifying the sun (short for solomon) hence the yellow and oragne colors.

Thanks but was more looking for the times.

Any word on times for Phantom??? Can't wait for the opening show.

Except on Sunday's. It was such a waste to have a kitchen and staff that are not available on one a busy weekend day. I won't miss them, I found Chicken shack to be a good substitute plus they have wings.

King Cobra's seats did have a "give" to them to. It was most noticable in the loop. The seat would lower a little where your knees would bend. Of course this may have also been due to the forces experienced during the loop.

Yes it was as well as before Paramount.

That was my thinking as well. If memory serves the have the same temp fencing there as well along with a security person standing guard.

Fountains are back to full bloom. Made a point of looking for that on Saturday.

Sorry BeastFarmer, I actually meant to quote SonOfBaconator's post not yours. Just to point out that some were getting 2. I understood (and appreciated) the jest!

Sorry, I should have been more clear, yes they did have shredded chesse but I was looking for melted cheese to help keep the temperature up. Weird to have hot protien and then cold salsa on top of it. At least the melted cheese would help heat up the salsa when put on top. As far as the portion on the beef, I got 3 slices and was fine with it. It is nice to have a "lighter" option that lands between the 1/2 chicken and Coney BBQ and the French Corner. Especially when the quality is there.