KIghostguy

Yes, it was a model of the Sesame Street dark ride at Port Aventura. By the way, that model was built by R&R Designs!

There's still 8 more hours in the day...they could post it at 11:59 p.m. and their post yesterday would still technically be correct But I agree with you. As an impatient person, I am surprised it has not been posted yet!

This is a very well-done story! It is wonderful that Gary has finally been inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame, an honor he has long deserved.

I doubt we’ll see Pepper’s Ghost used. The beams of light from the flashlights would reflect off the glass, ruining the effect.

I'm a couple days behind on posting this, but for anyone curious, here is the video that they were playing on the side panels. And the posters that were displayed on the monitor as well. There was more concept art displayed on the monitor during the press announcement, but I wasn't able to get good pictures of it from where I was standing. Sorry! IMG_6602.mov

IAAPA's Funworld has released this video with new information from Sally Dark Rides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPiFcuFBxs This video also has the full press conference: It was a great day. I was very moved being there for this.

https://amusementtoday.com/issues/2025/202511ii/assets/downloads/AT-NOV-II-2025i.pdf The latest issue of Amusement Today has an article about Phantom Theater, with some details that have not yet been released. The ride will feature a new performer, a contortionist named Sir Pretzel, and it features 33 animatronics and 1 static figure.

In 1991, when Smurf's Enchanted Voyage closed for Phantom Theater construction, the park opened two additional rides for Winterfest to compensate for the dark ride being closed (Dodgem and Antique Cars). It would have been nice for the park to go the extra mile and open something new that isn't usually open since Boo Blasters is offline this year.

I appreciated that the park was open this past weekend, but I thought it was very strange that all the non-Winterfest rides went down for weather around 1 yesterday and didn't come back up. It was cold, but I was at Canada's Wonderland the weekend before and they ran everything all weekend, even though the temperature there was colder than it was in Mason yesterday. I know Canada has wheel heaters in the station. Maybe it would be wise for Kings Island to invest in those so that they can run their rides in colder temperatures, if they plan on having this bonus weekend in future years. At the very least, it would be nice to have standardized policies so that you know that all the B&M gigas across the chain will operate in this temperature, all the B&M hypers, etc.

I'm disappointed that they did nothing with Phantom Theater for Haunt this year. It would have been so easy to have Maestro open up Haunt every night or have the characters roaming around during Tricks and Treats, promoting the new ride. It would have been the perfect seasonal tie-in and help promote and build interest for the new ride. It's not surprising, but still disappointing that the park doesn't do any creative in-park marketing anymore.

Looks like a cute addition to the park. The Vekoma family inverts are a far superior product than the ones from B&M (imagine saying that even a few years ago!).

The scavenger hunt makes no sense. The short film was made as a way to drive people to attend Halloween at a Six Flags park. However, if you are doing the scavenger hunt tied in with the film...you already are at the park. So, what is the point?

But like...he's The Boss. Would you like it better if it was Billy Joel-themed instead of Bruce Springsteen?

At the end of the day, Bruce Springsteen is The Boss. You have to respect that. Imagine if he was the one who requested this retheme. Then the park would have no choice, since he's The Boss.

I think this would be a great idea, but I think it would be even better if they emphasized the racing aspect and themed the other side to another classic artist. Like Billy Joel or Jimmy Buffet.