New Kings Island Dark Ride

[NickL]

I would recreate the iconic haunted house ride trying to be create as exact a copy as possible.

[beastfan11]

Killer topic bump. 
 

Kings Island is severely lacking in the dark ride department. It’s a glaring issue given the history of their past dark ride attractions leading up to Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle. 

In turn, Boo Blasters comes across as pretty lame. It’s not the worst dark ride on the world, but in comparison to the former occupants of the space it certainly doesn’t live up to the standards of the past. So… what would I do? Well, I don’t know if Planet Snoopy is the ideal location for a traditional, haunted house style dark ride. The space would be prime for a sort of revival of The Smurf’s Enchanted Voyage but with the Peanuts characters. Each scene would highlight the different seasons/holiday celebrations. It’s a great concept that would highlight the popularity of the Peanut TV specials. I’m posting they could include the shooting aspect of the attraction since it seems to be popular enough. Who wouldn’t want to shoot Snoopy? 
 

A second dark would do well in Coney Mall. This could cover the haunted house gap left by the removal of Boo Blasters. It could be generic, or tied in with an IP. RL Stine has a storied history with the park. It’d be cool to see either an original or existing story adapted into a dark ride. This is from 2008, but I’d be curious to see if Sally has the ability to create these attractions: 

https://www.attractionsmanagement.com/index.cfm?pagetype=products&subject=product&codeID=90873

All that said, I’d rather them develop their own idea: They’ve showed with Mystic Timber’s and Orion that they can sort of take a stab at themed attractions. They do have an issue when it comes to story telling. To this day, I honestly couldn’t tell you what the story behind those rides are supposed to be. So if they were to create and original dark ride, they’d have to put work in creating not only and impressive experience, but also a cohesive and easily understandable story to go with it.

And for the love of god, screen based attractions are not the way to go. No one is expecting Disney level quality attractions at a seasonal chain park, but not everything has to be screen dominant. It’s possible to create a fantastic dark ride without them. Or at least without the ride being 90% screens. 
 

A fantastic example of a classic dark ride that’s considered one of the best in the country:

Also, Sally is capable of doing incredible work if you look beyond Boo Blasters: 

 

A high caliber dark ride would do well at Kings Island.  

[purdude86]

I would love to see more dark rides added to parks. I always think they're fun plus it gives another indoor attraction to escape the heat or rain. Ideally I would like to see Kings Island have at least 2. I'd retheme Boo Blasters into an interactive Peanuts ride. The ride is basically in Planet Snoopy as is and it would give another good family ride to the kids area to help them reclaim the title. Kids probably really enjoy the interactive aspect a lot too.

I would then add another dark ride in Coney Mall where the Action Zone theatre currently is. If I had my choice I'd theme it to Phantom Theatre and bring it back in some manner. With the ride area being within Coney Mall but kind of hidden from the main midway by The Racer it could have a secluded rundown theatre appearance on the outside without really impacting the look of the rest of the land too. Since we already have a shooting dark ride in PS this would be a standard dark ride that is focused more on the story and you just get to ride through like the original PT.

[beastfan11]

My only concern with a Phantom Theatre “reboot” would be how it’s executed. It would have to be as good, if not better than the original. 

[silver2005]

^In Sally I trust.

[KIghostguy]

2 hours ago, silver2005 said:

^In Sally I trust.

Or how about sticking with R&R Creative Amusement Designs…they designed the original and are still in business.

[PKIDelirium]

Yeah, R&R is still around and there's nothing wrong with re-using the existing conveyance system, it works fine.

I think Rivertown could be an interesting place for a dark ride themed to the overall "Miami River" concepts they have running. Knock the giant box off the Crypt building, reuse the entrance and queue parts redone to something like a mine shaft, and build an all-new dark ride in place of the box that lines up with Mystic and The Beast "mine" somehow. Could even add theming to WWC to tie it in too.

[beastfan11]

3 hours ago, KIghostguy said:

Or how about sticking with R&R Creative Amusement Designs…they designed the original and are still in business.

I’d love to see what they can do. Talk about a dream. 
 

Phantom Theater may have been the best ride in the history of the park. What a treat. You kids have your Orion. I’m ready for my slow moving Phantom Theater. 

[silver2005]

Scratch what I said, gut the inside and do a track-less system by ETF like Kennywood's Ghostwood Estate. 

[PKIDelirium]

Eh, I like the current system. Steady and reliable. The only full Sally I've ridden was the cheesy "turkey caller" one at HW, and it was really jerky with those small cars.

[SonofBaconator]

Let’s assume KD and Carowinds have successful year round operations and the chain decides to expand this practice to KI, they would need another indoor attraction of some kind. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is debuting Dar Koaster which is sure to help with the cold winter months along with the already existing Verbolten (which the majority of that ride is indoors or covered anyway.) Unfortunately, our old ride building isn’t big enough to fit a coaster, perhaps an indoor drop ride similar to tower or terror but that’s really the extent unless they bring back a top spin.

 

[robintodd]

On 3/17/2022 at 7:49 PM, KIghostguy said:

Or how about sticking with R&R Creative Amusement Designs…they designed the original and are still in business.

Not to mention if anyone saw the Q&A with Mr. Bastrup he obviously has ideas for the new attraction.  My guess still is he was in town to dot the i's and cross the t's over a contract for something new in 24.  (Fingers crossed).

[beastfan11]

1 hour ago, robintodd said:

Not to mention if anyone saw the Q&A with Mr. Bastrup he obviously has ideas for the new attraction.  My guess still is he was in town to dot the i's and cross the t's over a contract for something new in 24.  (Fingers crossed).

That would be incredible. I loved hearing him discuss the ride and the potential of new characters and show scenes. 

[johnjniehaus]

I love how the park has continued being back the modern equivalents of previous attractions and I personally feel like the Phantom Theater deserves to be next. God knows when we're going to get a coaster to replace Vortex but I would be more than happy to wait if we got a phantom theater announcement! (This is coming from someone who was born the year it closed so no memory of it whatsoever). I think it looked like a killer dark ride and give it a really good theme and story it could rival many park's dark rides. I think the action theater is the perfect location if it's a big enough building. If not it's probably still the perfect location. 

 

I would also love to see something done with the old Tomb raider building. Does anyone else think that the hype of reopening the crypt would be way more epic than what's in the shed? I mean nobody has been inside the Crypt for 10 years.... what is going on in there? Wether it's a top spin or drop ride like tower of terror themed to an archeology dig shaft it would be awesome and probably the best themed/story ride given the legacy Tomb Raider the ride and The Crypt left behind. Not quite sure how it fits with the Rivertown theme but hey it was epic before and didn't really fit...I just think it would be epic to reopen the crypt and take an adventure into whatever madness awaits us in the darkness of that building 

[IndyGuy4KI]

9 hours ago, johnjniehaus said:

I mean nobody has been inside the Crypt for 10 years.... what is going on in there?

Right now it is hosting a wax museum with a host named Madame Fatale.

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

10 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Right now it is hosting a wax museum with a host named Madame Fatale.

Can I do Vekoma Madhouse for 100 chances.

[IndyGuy4KI]

2 hours ago, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

Can I do Vekoma Madhouse for 100 chances.

Sure, but I am not feeling lucky for you with that bet.

[johnjniehaus]

22 hours ago, Cedar Fair Fanboy said:

Can I do Vekoma Madhouse for 100 chances.

I love Vekoma Mad House rides and that would be a solid replacement. Probably a better chance Kings Island will bring back the Wild Animal Safari Monorails than give us a madhouse but one can hope! 

[SonofBaconator]

KI used to boast 4 indoor attractions and now they’re down to 2. Do people miss the 4D theater as an attraction?- I never got to experience it..

[MDMC01]

It would be cool to see the 4D theater make a return (I enjoyed it when I was younger), but Urgent Scare/Hotel St. Michelle are good (seasonal) replacements.

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

They use to have 4 dark rides (Indoor rides) in the park, but now they have 2. (If you include Flight of Fear.) 

They used to have the Action Theater, and where I wanted a Madhouse inside, Tomb Raider: the ride. (The Crypt)

[silver2005]

15 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

KI used to boast 4 indoor attractions and now they’re down to 2. Do people miss the 4D theater as an attraction?- I never got to experience it..

I remember the first 2 films, Days of Thunder and 007: License to Thrill were both hugely popular.  The line would snake past The Racer hills and sometimes even past Vortex's station despite the HUGE capacity when both theaters were in use.  The films after didn't have the notoriety of the movie IP films, but they still held their own.  Then they let it die down after Spongebob and they had a dino movie to coincide with Dinosaurs Alive! without the seats being able to move.  It had seats that basically made it a giant motion simulator.  

I've been looking for on-ride footage of DoT and 007 for a while and have come up nothing.  

[SonofBaconator]

I’m not saying KI competes with Disney, but I think they should seriously look into some lower budget dark rides/indoor attractions that could potentially allow for a longer season during the winter weekends. With how Cedar Fair wants to incorporate stories into their attractions, they could come up with some concepts that people would enjoy; similar to how people have a cult following behind Phantom Theater. In fact, most dark rides have strong followings and fandoms that the chain could utilize in the form of merchandise.

[Delirium13]

Not sure if this has been mentioned… but if the park wanted to bring back phantom theater, is there a chance it wouldn’t be as expensive as bringing something of that caliber from scratch? They have the ride system, plans already (from before), and all the audio, etc… just need to build new sets and some ride vehicles… I know that’s probably way oversimplified but just something I’ve thought of.

[PKIDelirium]

The conveyance system itself seems to be perfectly fine still, they own the rights, the company that did the theme job still exists... I'm sure they could have new cars built and installed on the existing track. Still a lot of work to have all new props and sets and animatronics built, but they've got the building and the actual ride system which would surely make it cheaper than having it recreated by Sally or the like, whether in a new building or gutting out and rebuilding in the existing one.

[SonofBaconator]

@Delirium13, also static figures go a long way. There were figures that didn’t even move (the portraits for example) and most of the figures that moved only really moved a few body parts (head, mouth, arms, eyes, etc.) If they can incorporate more static figures into the ride, they could save some $$$ in maintenance and upkeep. If you look at the Haunted Mansion at the Disney parks, few figures move very much- some move very slightly or they’re on a mechanism that makes them move.