Kings Island General Discussion 2026

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

The 2025 season has officially come to a close for Kings Island and 2026 is starting off strong with a new Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare update episode from the park. Some notes about the upcoming season are as follows:

• 2026 will be the second full season under the new Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, with all-park add-ons now working across every North American park in the chain.
• Kings Island will open for the season on Saturday, April 18th, 2026. A Passholder Preview event may be held on 4/17, but I haven't seen anything official on that matter.
• Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare is set to debut this Spring as a revival of the classic Kings Island attraction that occupied the same building from 1992-2002.
• There is hope that Monster will reopen after being down for all of 2025 while a little further north Invertigo has received a new lift chain, hopefully to also reopen in 2026.
• The 1926 Grand Carousel will celebrate its 100th birthday this season. Similar carousels at Carowinds and Kings Dominion received informational plaques and an anniversary horse design for their 100th anniversary.
• No plans have been released about other park projects, but we may see survey markers and site clearing for a potential 2027 or 2028 attraction. I believe we might also see some upgrades elsewhere in the park like we have in previous years with the Festival/Carousel Pavilion and other retail location renovations.

With new leadership at the helm of Six Flags and changes being made across the board, I will be very curious to see how this year turns out for Kings Island.

[robintodd]

I've not seen anything on the boards about the "New way to play" for the midway arcade.  This was taken from the (several) digital ad boards thorughout the park. The 2 things I didn't capture was the claw pulling up a fastlane pass and a 2026 Gold Pass.  Something is coming to the Midway Arcade, didn't know if anyone has any further information on this.  (Pics by me).

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

2 hours ago, robintodd said:

I've not seen anything on the boards about the "New way to play" for the midway arcade.  This was taken from the (several) digital ad boards thorughout the park. The 2 things I didn't capture was the claw pulling up a fastlane pass and a 2026 Gold Pass.  Something is coming to the Midway Arcade, didn't know if anyone has any further information on this.  (Pics by me).

Midway games will be rewarding winners a single use Fastlane, and different Season Pass benefits.

[SonofBaconator]

I really wonder if we’ll see any “construction/prep work” before the decade ends.

The park hasn’t gotten a thrill roller coaster since 2020 which has not necessarily been part of 3-5 year formula (technically it is if you include the kiddie coaster.)

With new chain however, I’m sure that formula has more or less been thrown out the window, but nevertheless as one of their most highly attended parks in the Cedar Fair legacy chain, it’s somewhat shocking that we haven’t heard a whisper of anything large coming down the road.

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

38 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

I really wonder if we’ll see any “construction/prep work” before the decade ends.

The park hasn’t gotten a thrill roller coaster since 2020 which has not necessarily been part of 3-5 year formula (technically it is if you include the kiddie coaster.)

With new chain however, I’m sure that formula has more or less been thrown out the window, but nevertheless as one of their most highly attended parks in the Cedar Fair legacy chain, it’s somewhat shocking that we haven’t heard a whisper of anything large coming down the road.

I mean in 2027, it's Vortex's 40th birthday. So maybe we can see a record breaking inversion base coaster. Feel Free to suggest any ideas of what Vortex 2.0 will be like.

[DonHelbig]

1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:

I really wonder if we’ll see any “construction/prep work” before the decade ends.

The park hasn’t gotten a thrill roller coaster since 2020 which has not necessarily been part of 3-5 year formula (technically it is if you include the kiddie coaster.)

With new chain however, I’m sure that formula has more or less been thrown out the window, but nevertheless as one of their most highly attended parks in the Cedar Fair legacy chain, it’s somewhat shocking that we haven’t heard a whisper of anything large coming down the road.

It’s not shocking if you know how not having the money works. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:

With new chain however, I’m sure that formula has more or less been thrown out the window, but nevertheless as one of their most highly attended parks in the Cedar Fair legacy chain, it’s somewhat shocking that we haven’t heard a whisper of anything large coming down the road.

I mean Carowinds and Knott's have been waiting longer. Knott's I understand as space is so limited there, but Carowinds was under a rapid expansion plan up until Covid that included Intimidator, Fury 325, and Copperhead Strike. 

Also not to mention Orion didn't perform the way they expected and we're likely in the "coaster penalty box" bc of that. The merger just made it longer. Ik it opened during a pandemic, but the park didn't see as big of a bounceback in 2021/22 as you would expect for a giga with more people being able to come check it out. The last time legacy CF invested in a giga and didn't get a good ROI (I-305 at KD) the park went 8 years without a coaster and ended that drought with an inexpensive conversion of Hurler (Twisted Timbers). It wouldn't shock me one bit if KD is about to see another major coaster drought as Rapterra didn't seem to bring the ROI they wanted with it. I think we were lucky to get at least a family coaster as KD didn't even get that between 305 and TT. I also think KI fans took the every 3 year timeline for granted so I think it was time for us to sit back a bit longer and enjoy the current lineup. Even before covid happened I suspected it would be a while before we got another major coaster after Orion as it was such a big investment for the park and CP was the only legacy CF park that didn't have to wait 4+ years for the next big thing post giga addition. 

[SonofBaconator]

1 hour ago, DonHelbig said:

It’s not shocking if you know how not having the money works. 

They were able to afford a giga dive for their Arlington Park that hits just under 3 million in attendance.

[DonHelbig]

3 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

They were able to afford a giga dive for their Arlington Park that hits just under 3 million in attendance.

In the plans by legacy Six Flags prior to the merger. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

On 1/2/2026 at 11:05 AM, SonofBaconator said:

I really wonder if we’ll see any “construction/prep work” before the decade ends.

The park hasn’t gotten a thrill roller coaster since 2020 which has not necessarily been part of 3-5 year formula (technically it is if you include the kiddie coaster.)

With new chain however, I’m sure that formula has more or less been thrown out the window, but nevertheless as one of their most highly attended parks in the Cedar Fair legacy chain, it’s somewhat shocking that we haven’t heard a whisper of anything large coming down the road.

Reply in the spoiler box to separate my thoughts.

Spoiler

While I do think the formula has been thrown out of the proverbial window, I believe Snoopy's Soapbox Racers reset the timer. Canada's Wonderland has some of the highest attendance in the chain and went 6 years without a "major" roller coaster between Yukon Striker and AlpenFury. Carowinds' timer was probably reset with Snoopy's Racing Railway. One of the announcements from the new Six Flags also stated that they will be focusing more on their highest performing parks, so I can believe that the formula has been modified more than abandoned completely. A company like this is not as likely to slow down entirely. That being said, we also haven't seen enough from the new leadership to know how committed they are to continuing any individual parts/trends of the legacy companies.

Whether the giga dive was in legacy Six Flags plans or not prior to the merger, we've seen so many projects get reallocated all over the place. CGA's hyper coaster got reallocated and eventually became Orion, the tower coaster that was on a Kings Island survey moved to Great Adventure, and the new family area from Chicago's Great America was suddenly sent to Magic Mountain since they needed to distract from their unbuilt coaster. The clearest example of this was how Siren's Curse got physically reallocated to Cedar Point after Six Flags Mexico couldn't build it. (Y'all can say that these or similar projects would have happened at each park anyways, but the lines connect far too easily.) It's very plausible that whatever Six Flags Over Texas had in the plans prior to the merger got scrapped in favor of receiving the larger dive coaster that was rumored to go to Carowinds. Jeffrey Siebert has been working really hard to turn SFOT around since he was named Regional General Manager and this project will 100% help with that overall effort. I think Carowinds' coaster collection already speaks for itself — their focus needs to be on guest experience and seasonal festivals.

Kings Island already ranks highly in guest experience, dining, beauty, and overall operations. It also has a big gaping hole in its landscape that has been there since 2019. If we're looking at the top 8 parks in the Six Flags chain (Carowinds, CW, CePo, KI, MM, FT, GAdv, and GAm) Kings Island is one of the only ones that has not received a major thrill coaster in the past couple years/has not had one visibly in the works. We've seen survey markers in Coney Mall near The Vortex plot as well.

 

I'd love to see if the park has anything new planned for 2026 besides the debut of Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare. This year will be the reset of some Live Entertainment 2-year contracts (at least 2 years is the show turnover pattern), so any changes to that lineup would be nice to see. I don't really think we'll see a Phantom Theater Encore 2 show to go with the new ride, but I wouldn't be upset to find out something like that was in the works. More restroom renovations and Soak City upgrades would also be very good. Beyond 2026 I still think the park could find a good way to capitalize on the fact that Soak City still has room to expand its capacity. They might even be able to work on trying to attract some of the crowd that went to Coney Island every summer.

Do you think we'll see Soak City be moved to a separate ticket in 2026 or 2027? I feel like the renovations required for this change would not be as hard to complete as others think. Most of it could probably be contained to the Soak City station area as well.

[kingsislandfan1972]

This picture is from around 6 years ago but everytime I go to Kings Island I enjoy talking to Pops! This year I spotted him working at the Grand Carousel, I hope to see him again in the 2026 season!

[SonofBaconator]

6 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

Do you think we'll see Soak City be moved to a separate ticket in 2026 or 2027? I feel like the renovations required for this change would not be as hard to complete as others think. Most of it could probably be contained to the Soak City station area as well.

I would like to say no because it’s always been included in park admission so I think there would be a lot of backlash. Also, a logistical nightmare for people who take the train as well as those who use the path between Snoopy and the waterpark.

That being said, I feel like the likeliness of that happening is somewhat more realistic than some would like to think, considering that Kings Island literally has no competition when it comes to the waterpark with The Beach being long gone as well as Coney Island is shutting down their pool.

[SmartCat7162]

On 1/2/2026 at 1:01 PM, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I mean Carowinds and Knott's have been waiting longer. Knott's I understand as space is so limited there, but Carowinds was under a rapid expansion plan up until Covid that included Intimidator, Fury 325, and Copperhead Strike. 

 

Knott's also has yet to open Montezooma's revenge!!! Hopefully it will open this year. I know they had a few problems with the company who was doing the refurbishment.

 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

8 hours ago, kingsislandfan1972 said:

This picture is from around 6 years ago but everytime I go to Kings Island I enjoy talking to Pops! This year I spotted him working at the Grand Carousel, I hope to see him again in the 2026 season!

Pops is one of the best people I got to work with! I always enjoy seeing him and hope he returns in 2026! He's been there since 2018 I think. Also his real name is David Maupin, but he likes to go by Pops. 

Also the Grand Carousel is paired with the Eiffel Tower as a crew! It's also paired with the Viking Fury as well!

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I feel like turning this area into a "second gate" for Soak City wouldn't be too hard if Six Flags willed it. They would need to relocate the bathhouse and lockers, but the area is big enough for turnstiles and a new waiting area for the train. It solves the issue of managing the different routes as well. A lot of the legacy Six Flags parks already have a similar setup where you enter the separately-ticketed waterpark through the dry park. It would receive a lot of backlash, but so did the upcharge for mazes. This could at least stay as being included for season passholders which would reduce the total amount of backlash.

Maybe some if there's any additional profit then it could go toward expanding the waterpark quicker. I bet paying for a relatively cheaper Soak City-only ticket might entice some of the Coney Island folks to at least check out Soak City. Realistically I think SC could also just use more expansion in general with how packed I've heard it's been in recent years. A full retheme would also be up there on my list of wants for the waterpark.