KIghostguy

Walked through this yesterday. What a great way to activate this space and bring some new life into this beautiful respite! Remember when this was just a trashy smoking area under a previous administration? How far the park has come! My only other comment with this is that I'm genuinely surprised there is no mention of Gary Wachs or even Charlie Mechem. They did such a nice job paying tribute to Rick Bastrup in the Phantom Theater Encore lobby, I'm baffled why they didn't do the same thing for the park's founders! In fact, there's no substantiative mention of either of them ANYWHERE in the park at all this year. When you go to Carowinds, E. Pat Hall is on everything, when you go to Hersheypark, Milton Hershey is everywhere, etc. Just a really bizarre choice for Kings Island, especially for its 50th Anniversary. P.S. Bring back the waterfall!!

I arrived back home from interning this summer at Hersheypark on August 13, and I'm so glad I came back just in the nick of time! I was able to catch the 2:30 and 5:00 showings on Sunday and immensely enjoyed them. The music was catchy, the script was funny, and all the actors and actresses and dancers really put in a lot of effort. The audience was very engaged during both showings. There were lots of great references to the ride, and it's awesome to have the characters and music back in the park again in a prominent place! And of course, the lobby display was fantastic! Seeing photos and videos of the show and lobby all summer has been great, but it was even better to finally see it in person.

The two scrim portraits in the lobby are original. They were discovered in the basement of the Action Theater IIRC. As far as the stage, Garbanzo’s cannon and the mummy case are from the ride. One of the vases on stage is from the Prop Room—it was right next to the mummy. Not sure about the other stuff on the stage, but those items I know for sure are original! They were all thrown away in a dumpster, unfortunately.

Interesting—Off the Rails was previously listed as ending August 14 and Phantom Theater Encore was previously listed as ending August 21.

I’m not going crazy—the show is supposed to end August 21, correct?

Goodbye and good riddance. Even an empty plot of land would be an improvement.

Holy cow! I watched the video, and this is so much more than just a "stunt show." Really, really impressed and can't wait to see it in person. I will say I am surprised that there's no mention of the biggest dreamer in Kings Island's story, Gary Wachs. Is there mention of him in any of the 50th programming this summer? He only founded the park...

It looks beautiful, can’t wait to see it in person. I am absolutely baffled why this wonderful production is only lasting until August 21? It seems tailor-made for Haunt. And it would be great to do a Christmas version for Winterfest this year…

Looks wonderful, but bizarre that the park never even publicized they were doing anything with Tower Gardens! What an easy positive PR story.

I was told that the music is back in Orion’s station as of yesterday. So there’s at least one step forwards.

I would rather Phantom Theater not come back at all as a ride if the alternative is a video screen shooting ride. I rode Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair in March, and while it’s nice to have those characters and music back at Knott’s, lavish dark rides like Bear-y Tales and Phantom Theater are just not suited for turning into an arcade game.

Ditto with this. Area 72 looks very shabby at night especially. The light inside the meteor, the focal theming point for the land, has been burnt out since early June of last year. Is it that hard to replace a light bulb? Surely Daniels Wood Land designed some sort of hatch into the prop so the bulb could be easily switched out. And the red lights on Orion's ride photo booth and Meteor Canteen are burned out or aren't turned on. The white spotlight aimed on the Bureau of Paranormal Activity logo on the front of Flight of Fear has been out of service for a while as well. And like you said, the Orion soundtrack not playing in the station. With the soundtrack not played in the queue or station, there's nothing tying the "Orion soundtrack" to Orion specifically at all. Since Area 72 is the newest land and it houses the newest coaster in the park, I'm surprised that they let it get to this point, and have let it exist in this state for so long--as I said, the meteor has been out for almost an entire year. At least they fixed the WERD Radio van for opening day this year. The audio and headlights had been broken since Labor Day-ish 2021.

I don't mean to double post, but was anything else shared about this at Coasterstock?

So why even pay to have a marketing department?

Can’t wait. This is definitely the attraction that I am most excited to see this year!

This is absolutely perfect! I can't wait.

I don't think this is the case at all. Putting in exclusively family-friendly rides at Disneyland didn't stop two people from getting murdered there. Cedar Point didn't see an increase in violence when they closed the Pirate Ride and started almost exclusively building roller coasters. I don't think the types, or lack thereof, of attractions is what causes fights/brawls/violence.

They repainted it in fall 2021 and counted it as one of the rides being painted for this season.

I really hope they finish painting it by the 29th. For many people who will be there that day, it will be the first time they have been back to Kings Island in years. It would be embarrassing to show them a half-painted ride.

Yes, you can!

April 29 will be a great day! Don’t miss your chance to pick up a signed copy of Kings Island: A Ride Through Time at the Kings Island Collections gift shop. From 1-3 p.m., you can get it signed by yours truly, PLUS two amusement park industry leaders: Dennis Speigel, CEO of International Theme Park Services, and Mike Koontz, Vice President and General Manager of Kings Island!

The ride was custom-made for Kings Island. Yes, the park owns the characters.

I like the sequins. But this would have been so much more impactful with the vintage logo, especially when taken in with the restored International Street around it.

This is exactly right--the extra cost for pass holders coupled with a very cold winter that year led to a "very bad" attendance at both Kings Island and Carowinds. The Charlotte Observer titled their Carowinds Winterfest piece, "Walking in Empty Wonderland." Paramount Parks planned to continue the event, but once Cedar Fair purchased it, Kinzel and co. took one look at the numbers from the year before and decided to cancel it. The company was $1.24 billion in debt; I can't say I really blame them at the time.

Behold what logo was used for the KI! Perfect. Wish they would just commit all the way to that logo already.