KIghostguy

William C. Price, Kings Island's third general manager, passed away recently at the age of 89. He was originally hired by Taft Broadcasting in 1974 to be the marketing director for Kings World, their planned park in Chicago. When plans for that park fell through, Taft moved him to Kings Island as the park's director of corporate sales. In 1975, he was promoted to the marketing director position. He was Kings Island's vice president and general manager from September 1976 to October 1980, when he was promoted to a position in the Taft corporate office. On a personal level, he was the second person that I ever interviewed for my book. He was so supportive of the book project throughout my entire writing and publication process, which meant a lot to me. He had been hosted at the park a few times in recent years, including for the park's 50th birthday on April 29, 2022. His legacy includes bringing Evel Knievel to the park for his record-breaking jump, and spearheading the projects to bring The Beast and the original Bat to life. His tenure helped put Kings Island on the map, and established Kings Island's position as one of the world's most prominent amusement parks.

It's ridiculous that based off the map, Phantom Theater will be closed during Halloween Haunt. I get that it saves on labor costs, but wouldn't it make sense to showcase your new, spooky-themed ride during your spooky-themed event?

IAAPA News reports on how Dollywood and Mack Rides collaborated to bring this ride to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIy5RE0CJY&list=LL&index=2

The Director of Marketing and Sales position was filled at Kings Island earlier this year, in May. Jennifer Hoban is the director, she was with Strategic Alliances before.

I'm pretty sure the shoes behind the curtain is just supposed to be a spooky Easter egg, to do something with that gap there.

Your comment about the voice acting is interesting—Richard Doyle does reprise his role as Maestro in this ride. So I would say that’s as authentic as you can get. I think the music definitely needs more fine-tuning. They turned it off on Thursday so they could film on-rides for media day, but while they turned it back on in the queue, I don’t think they turned it on the ride as of yesterday.

IAAPA News goes behind the curtain at Kings Island--and Sally Dark Rides--to discover how the newest incarnation came to be. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRflPyJjp50

There was a surprising amount of stuff closed yesterday. Adventure Express, Beast for most of the day, Zephyr, Bat on one train. But that being said, there’s a lot of new music in the park, as others have noted, including themed music back on International Street. The carousel got touched up for its 100th anniversary and looked great. I didn’t notice any burned out lightbulbs. It just felt like there was more attention to detail around the park than in the last few years. Despite the closed rides, Kings Island felt the most normal it has since the pandemic. Just my opinion.

The Sally Dark Rides newsletter today featured this great video with interviews, concept art, and footage of the attraction's development:

Thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's hard to believe we are coming up on the five year anniversary of the book's release.

This press release they handed out at IAAPA sets the opening in April.

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.