TombRaiderFTW

A diversion would be part of a teaser campaign. The city condemning a structure is not part of a teaser campaign.

Wow, I can't believe Six Flags got the city of Mason to condemn the Son of Beast station as part of the elaborate teaser campaign for an RMC! They've outdone themselves! My hopes are UP, baby!

Quick note for future readers (this is not directed at anyone in this thread): As of this writing, it is not rumored that ArieForce One is coming to Kings Island--or any other park, for that matter. This idea was originated by Reddit users who heard that a park containing a well-regarded roller coaster is closing, and they got their hopes up that the coaster would be sold to their local park. It has not been announced that AFO will be sold, has been sold, or even will be moved within the Fun Spot chain. For all we know, it's getting torn down with the rest of the Atlanta park. RMC answered the question of "can AFO be moved." They did not drop any hints about it being sold/moved anywhere. No, Kings Island's PR team (or any other park's/chain's PR team) did not tell them to say that. If ArieForce One does not come to Kings Island, I don't want to see anyone express disappointment that "misleading hints were dropped" or "that rumor wasn't true after all." There is a difference between someone wishing for something to happen and rumors (which have a source close to the decision makers.) The way the coaster fan world tends to eagerly blur the lines between the two is crazymaking. Please do not set your expectations high because someone used their imagination.

It's sad to see any park close. It's also not tremendously surprising to see this park close. ArieForce One was an expensive and very sudden change in direction for a park that, by all counts, was an arcade with a few flat rides, a kiddie coaster, and a Miler adult coaster. The warning signs were there with the number of enthusiasts reporting that they received zen rides on AFO. I personally also see this as an example of why "just give [small park] a chance with an addition, the crowds will show up if [chain] would admit it's their turn for a new coaster" is not sound business logic, and I wish many enthusiasts would digest this news as such. It doesn't matter how many years it's been since a park received a coaster, that expansion will become a loss and maybe take the park down with it if it doesn't sell tickets. Roller coaster additions do not work in real life the way they do in RollerCoaster Tycoon. Fun Spot Atlanta existed for 30 years before Fun Spot purchased it. Surely Fun Spot will either move AFO (to Orlando, I presume, because the Kissimmee park seems pretty landlocked) or sell it. It's probably got decent enough capacity for a mid-size park. If Enchanted Parks has the money, it wouldn't be a bad purchase.

Now that you mention it, why ARE those trams gone?! 😜

So, I rode Phantom Theater its second weekend, and it's taken me a bit to process exactly what I think. The ride storyline? Wonderful. It reimagines the original concept of the ride (which, not to be a hater, but I think it wasn't anything to write home about) into something that has a story and a progression and is engaging. The new "guns?" Fantastic. It's such an elevation of the shooter dark ride concept to have you aim at projections instead of specific targets. They can put a target anywhere, make them move, make them disappear when shot--it's an objective improvement over the 20 year-old standard we had from 2003 to 2025. It makes the whole experience much more dynamic. The animatronics? Incredibly well-done. I LOVE the queue. The way the cars have been reconfigured to move in close groups of 1-2 cars (with plenty of space between groups) instead of consistently placing them with one empty space between? SO smart. It allows scenes to reset between groups, which was something the shooter dark rides in that building severely lacked. Giving the scenes the chance to refresh makes the experience feel a lot more intentional, rather than seeing (for example) Boocifer finish his line for the car ahead, reset, and then repeat himself, which was basically always my experience on Boo Blasters and it reminds you that you're on a dark ride instead of on an adventure. However. I feel like Kings Island, across every owner since at least 1991, has consistently bitten off more than it could chew (or, to be plain, upkeep) when it comes to theming. I fear Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare may become one of the more egregious examples of this, perhaps even by the end of the season. Adventure Express, the original Phantom Theater, Flight of Fear, Tomb Raider: The Ride, Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, Queen City Stunt Coaster, Boo Blasters on Boo Hill, and Mystic Timbers have all opened with theming that none of the owners across those eras could or would put the upkeep budget or staffing into consistently. Boo Blasters infamously had a fog wall effect that lasted maybe a month or two after opening, disappeared, and never came back. The best that's happened (almost all within the last 5 or so years, mind you) is that some of those rides got their theming repaired and refurbished as a capital investment, meaning they became advertised additions instead of, y'know, part of the maintenance budget so the park could consistently offer top-form attractions. Without knowing details, Phantom Theater seems like the most high-tech ride to hit the park since at least 2002, possibly ever. And like, elsewhere in the park... Adventure Express's final lift is basically back where it was pre-refurb. None of Mystic Timbers' lights sway, the Coke machine doesn't move, and more. It's just the tape deck, the lights that may or may not flicker, and the projectors that may or may not properly align audio and video and train location to show you whichever monster. QCSC probably won't use the helicopter at all. Even on my Phantom ride, cracks were showing. One scene, a screen didn't play as our car passed. Another scene, the appearance/disappearance of notes was out of sync with our car. They disappeared as we passed. Neither of those ruined the experience, by any means--I'm not disillusioned with the ride because that happened. I had a great time. But I'd be lying if I said that from an upkeep standpoint, that didn't feel the slightest bit ominous. It was weekend two. I'm supposed to believe that the management who can't keep Adventure Express's final lift fully lit will keep several projectors properly calibrated with the lights from dozens of flashlights and timed with the car groups for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 6 months straight this year? I'm having a very hard time believing opening day 2027 Phantom Theater will feel like the same ride as 2026 Phantom Theater, in an unfortunate way. And it's annoying, because this is a darn good ride that millions of people should be able to experience as it was meant to be experienced. I would really, really like to be wrong. It does make me wonder what the strategy is with new rides. Like, does the ride have to serve a certain ROI the first year to be considered a success, and then it just has to be enough of a semblance of itself to not actively drag down the average guest's day while not demanding too much money? Tangentially related, I've got a hunch we'll see PT replace more of the Boo Blasters chainwide. Much like with Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, I wonder if the cost of developing the ride will be offset by copying and pasting it elsewhere. It certainly wasn't a cheaply-developed ride, and I wouldn't be mad to see it show up at some of the other parks.

I've only had one breakdown happen at KI while I was on the ride. The Crypt stopped midway though its cycle and veeeeery slowly returned to its home position. As I later discovered, the computer had lost track of the ride, and the slow return to the load/unload position was it rediscovering its position. I've also been on KD's Crypt and both Tempesto and Apollo's Chariot at BGW during a breakdown. The KD Crypt and Tempesto breakdowns were during the same weekend.

Yes? Literally yes to both of those questions, lol. That's the point of stories and social media. Best of luck to you.

You clearly do. Otherwise you wouldn't have posted the story in the first place?

That's a bold strategy of building support and demand for future stories by condescendingly misusing the language of mental healthcare and calling us geeks and virgins, Cotton. Let's see how this one plays out. Quick detail for the room: Raise your hand if you've ever been told, unsolicited, by KI's security team that you would "end up in some sort of trouble" by the end of your visit when you otherwise weren't being disruptive. Surely with the number of people here and the high frequency with which we triggered geeks and virgins visit the park, it would've happened to someone else here...?

Yes and no. It's my understanding that Tapu Tapu was a virtual queue that everyone had to use. There was no standby option. You also had to be at the ride to reserve it. Q-Bots (and their modern smartphone equivalent) were/are an upcharge, like legacy Fast Lane. You can reserve rides from anywhere in the park. The amount of time you wait compared to the standby queue depends on what tier you purchased. When it's time to ride, you join the equivalent of the Fast Lane queue, not the standby queue.

Bless. The Flash Pass (more accurately, the Q-Bot) has always been the better Front of Line system for seasonal parks because it actually regulates the FOL queue instead of letting guests flood the queue without restrictions like Fast Lane does. I'm so glad to see it stay--I was fully expecting legacy Fast Lane to go chainwide since it almost certainly has lower operating costs. I just wish they'd use the actual Q-Bot devices (which typically came with ways of hooking them to your belt loop, in my experience) instead of going fully cell phone-based for the same loose item reasons as others have mentioned, but whatevs. The mobile app-only version already exists and works well enough at other parks--it has been in place at Lake Compounce for a few years, at the very least. I have to imagine it was also at the legacy Six Flags parks in recent years, maybe as an optional alternative to the Q-Bot devices? It's interesting that they're selling the base version (FOL wait time = standby queue wait time) and the ultimate version (FOL wait time = as low as 10% of the standby queue wait time) but not an intermediate between the two. The legacy Flash Pass system, at least anytime I've ever used it, also had a middle tier that reduced the standby queue wait time by 60%. I don't think it's some huge mistake for them to not offer it, but I think it's interesting that they've streamlined the system to just the two options.

It was added opening year (2012.)

I mean, it doesn't EXCLUSIVELY mimic drifting--the cars themselves are on a controlled spin. Here's a video: They've only said it's opening this year, so it may very well not be close to opening. I would also assume that if they've started testing, we won't see a massive amount of theming in the ride area.

All gigas with lift hills have a wow factor based on how tall the lift hill feels as a rider. In my opinion, gigas are most enjoyable when they follow that up with extended high-speed moments to let riders grasp just how fast they're going. Millennium Force, Pantherian, and Fury 325 do this excellently. I think Fury does it best. Orion and Leviathan, in my opinion, try to make an impression based on height alone. To me, the remainders of both rides don't feel different from the respective B&M hypers in the same park, and I can't fully explain why. I think part of it is that the "look how high up we are" factor just doesn't calculate for me once I'm already past the anticipation of the first drop. If I'm experiencing floater airtime over a camelback, my mind isn't lingering on how high up we are; I'm thinking about how odd weightlessness feels with just a lap bar to hold me in. Which is the exact same experience I have on Behemoth and Diamondback, which coincidentally I already don't have strong feelings about. Orion breaks the mold just enough that I do like it marginally more than Leviathan, but like... As someone whose favorite ride in the park is Adventure Express, I'll take a mine train over a B&M hyper or giga any day (except Fury.) I guess I'd probably "fix" Orion by giving it more Fury-like low turns. If the wave turn must exist, make it take the ride behind WindSeeker, over Racer, and over the midway to the east half of Vortex's plot, where a gorgeously-lit ampersand turnaround a la Shambhala becomes a cool icon of the park before a low camelback takes riders back across the midway.