TombRaiderFTW

Alright, let me clarify my post real quick. I'm not singling anyone out. I too have talked about these things. There's nothing wrong with talking about those things. There's a reason they're common topics--they're good topics that many around here care about. You're exasperating no one if you continue to talk about them. My tone was meant to be playful, while also listing things that get talked about around here a lot. I couldn't care less if y'all were to make a thousand new Phantom Theater threads tomorrow. This is a Kings Island fansite. If you're NOT posting about hopeful you are to speculate that Phantom Theater will be back next year and what it might be like, then I'm not sure what the point of this place even is. Keep doing what you do! I apologize if anything I listed was hurtful to anyone. That wasn't my intent, but intent matters less than effect.

This is pretty typical of Inside the Magic, to be honest. "Mislead and then take 4 paragraphs to actually tell the story" is the name of the game over there.

Edit: Nevermind. This post was not my finest idea.

I'm gonna be very honest... I picked Craig because he looks like a Craig. That it has any other connotations with a statue is both unintentional and hilarious.

It took me a few minutes to realize you were naming barrels on Cargo Loco and not making a joke about eating cacao beans and fish oil and getting diarrhea.

He looks like a Craig to me.

You should probably know that the Outpost 5 stuff is originally based on Adventure Express's original queue audio. You're seeing more mentions of it because Adventure Express just got its makeover. There's a really good chance you're setting yourself up for disappointment by looking into things any more deeply than that.

If they're teasing this much, we must be getting close to an opening date announcement. I'm beyond excited to ride Adventure Express and see the updates.

Nope. Not just you. I mean no hate towards the cast and crew of PTE--their execution of the show was great--but I saw it once or twice. That was enough for me. I appreciate some campiness, but the concept and script just don't resonate with me. (I also don't entirely understand the nostalgia for Phantom Theater, but that's for a different topic.) I personally preferred the cirque shows, too, but I'd also like to see a bit more story sprinkled in if they were to return. Cirque Imagine was amazing and had just enough of a story that the show felt like a journey. Origins and Gravity were both very enjoyable, but they were a little less enrapturing than Cirque Imagine.

Now now, they didn't lie. No two rides are the same when something new stops working every cycle.

I was going to guess that that is when Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is set (i.e., a movie featuring the Indiana Jones theme and a mine cart scene), but apparently it was set in 1935. It's been a while since I watched it. (Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in 1936 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was set in 1938, if anyone was wondering.) 1937 is the only year between 1935 and 1938 where there isn't an IJ movie set in it, so maybe it was chosen to further emulate that series/era without directly copying IJ any further?

I really question how firm they'll be on that if Universal does well in Texas. You can't tell me there isn't money to be made by building a Disney minipark somewhere like the Midwest, East Coast, New England, etc., especially if it promises Disney magic at a price point that's less than a ticket to Magic Kingdom + airfare + hotels, and especially especially if it uses IPs Disney hasn't used (or used well.) I have no concept of a Frozen minipark outside Chicago, the NYC/Boston/Philadelphia area, Atlanta, Toronto, etc. not doing well. At the risk of tiptoeing into political territory: The Walt Disney Company and the state of Florida are already in a legal battle regarding Disney's control of the local government. Last week, Disney cancelled the move of its Imagineering team from California to Florida. Trips to Magic Kingdom are baked into American culture, the Walt Disney World complex is far, far too big to move elsewhere, and it's not in Disney's interests to start neglecting its Floridian parks... but it could also start to cannibalize its domestic WDW attendance (while still seeing a big-picture increase) by building miniparks, depending on how they're built. Why would parents pay thousands to meet Belle in Orlando when just as much magic can be found when meeting her in Chicago, and it only takes a few hours in the car?

I believe the Eleventh Commandment will be the judge of that.

Yeah... That was an inspired attempt to one-up the WWoHP-style immersion that seems to be the name of the game in Florida right now, but I think Disney really overestimated how much anyone wants to pay $5,000 to LARP at a hotel for two days. I think a better use of the space would be to operate it as almost a rideless extension of Galaxy's Edge--have in-character staff, entertainment, and food, but make it an attraction to be seen and enjoyed in moderation one afternoon during your Disney trip. A plus over the average Disney hotel experience, but at its core still a Disney hotel.

I hate myself so much for feeding the hype train... but: RMC has mentioned Outpost 5 a few times on Twitter recently. That those socks vaguely resemble RMC track is... interesting. For the sake of being able to live with myself for writing this post, I will point out that that could very, very easily just be a stylistic choice on the part of whoever designed the socks, and nothing more. Nothing about the design implies that it's meant to be photorealistic. And I would not put it past RMC to have tweeted what they did simply to have fun with people who are tweeting at them to ask if they're doing something to Adventure Express. Anyway, Kings Island seems to have cracked the code on how to get me to buy more merch, which is to make AE merch. Do I think the AE socks are pretty tacky? Yes. Will I be buying them anyway? Probably. Did I already buy the "I rode Adventure Express in 2023" pin despite not having ridden Adventure Express in 2023? You betcha.

I think you might've posted the wrong screenshot... That one's about Kings Island's food options changing this year.

It's been an issue for years. Source: I used to work at Viking Fury.

Thanks! I will. LOL

The rides not being delivered does not mean they haven't run the wiring. Which is an opportunity for things to go wrong, for things they didn't anticipate needing fixed/replaced to need fixed/replaced, etc. At one point in the park's history, Flight of Fear and Drop Tower were on the same circuit. FoF could not be launched if DT was running. That Drop Tower, Delirium, and The Bat would be on a separate circuit from Banshee and Invertigo is not a completely irrational suggestion. Why would Bat's incident last year affect it today? Why would Drop Tower bring down for lightning last year affect today? Among many possibilities, the latter and Delirium's wires could, dare I say it, be answered by the idea that the electrical infrastructure needs some work. For the record, at no point have I said that electrical issues ARE what's happening. I am spitballing. I don't know any facts.

The park was closed for a few months after Winterfest. There are new rides being added to that side of the park, which involves electrical work. I'm not sure I understand how your point is a rebuttal to mine.

I almost wonder if it is an electrical infrastructure issue. If it was The Bat on its own, then I'd lean more into the idea that it is swirling the drain. The fact that Drop Tower and Delirium are down too seems like it could be related. Over the years, when the park has had blackouts, it's often that side of the park that is affected.

I love it. That's more commitment to a theme than I would expect out of a new Cedar Fair flat ride.

It could just be the angle, but it looks to me like there's been a very slight reprofile of the red side. The hill looks slightly pointier on the red side than the blue. Which presumably would mean more airtime.

I think the Columbus Zoo has the right idea with it. They have a slow-moving boat ride that flows through their (fantastically themed) Australia & The Islands area and the animal exhibits within. Their animatronic dinosaurs are positioned alongside the boat trough, in scenes where various things are happening. I want to say one of their dinosaurs also lightly spritzes riders? In doing that, there is a little more of an experience to be had. Obviously Kings Island wasn't/isn't going to install animal exhibits for the sake of a temporary animatronic dinosaur upcharge, but turning it into an experience using some kind of ride vehicle (doesn't need to be elaborate) and simple theming would have made it more worthwhile to me. The simplicity of just having concrete paths, information plaques, and the dinosaur animatronics just off the path (even with the motion activation) felt to me like a bit of a cash grab. The boat ride at the Columbus Zoo isn't a must-do, but as someone who has never been a zoo member but who WAS a passholder every year Dinosaurs Alive existed, I've definitely paid more to ride the Dinosaur Island Boat Ride at the zoo since it opened than I ever paid for DA over the course of its existence. But I'm also not a kid (the target audience of DA) and I don't have any kids, so perhaps I'm not the best judge.

I'm heartbroken. Poseidon's Fury was dated and cheesy, and the video projections at the end had laughable costumes, yet the experience was also very charming and family-friendly and had well-done set pieces and effects. It was a must-do for me every single time I went there. In fact, PF was the last thing I did on my last visit to Universal on November 25, 2019. I'd love to be able to experience it once more before it goes, but I don't think I'll be able to make it to Orlando within the next month. The water tunnel will go down in theme park history as one of the coolest modern effects. I also remember being stunned at the disappearing and reappearing walls in the final room my first few times through, though I now understand how it worked. The queue and show building were also just GORGEOUS. The Lost Continent is (was?) my favorite land within IoA, and Poseidon's Fury was a big part of that. I totally understand removing it--I'm among the people who expected it to be removed sooner than it was--but it's still tough to see it go. I really do think that it was a fantastic medium of storytelling that also was accessible to everyone without being a stage show or a ride. That's a very unique concept and accessibility to have combined in an attraction, even 24 years after its opening. For families whose children were picked by "Taylor" to be their helper, it made memories. If there's anything to the rumor that a Legend of Zelda land will replace The Lost Continent, I'm gonna go ahead and get my hopes up that perhaps PF will be reborn as a Legend of Zelda-type walkthrough. It might be naive (read: it's almost certainly naive), but I'd just hate to see the walkthrough show concept go away. This has the same emotional impact to me as if Kennywood were to announce getting rid of Noah's Ark.