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.

[kingsislandfan1972]

As a hat collector, im hoping to see a Phantom Theater Opening Nightmare hat in the gift shops, if they hadn't already sold them yet. Also a nice Racer hat, The Bat, and Sol Spin hat would be nice to see. I was surprised to see a Flight of Fear hat this year, I would like to see more rides featured on KI hats. 

[brenthodge]

On 1/4/2026 at 11:50 AM, SonofBaconator said:

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.

It could quite easily be reconfigured with the train station and path to have it wrap around to the front gate area, or have separate check in station for those with existing tickets to scan before entering the water park. Simplest solution would be to just eliminate the water park stop for the train and walking path all together and have all admissions off the parking lot entry. Maybe add some set pieces to hide the walking path (now only for employee use) a bit and add landscaping to disguise the station area, but keep it funtional in case ever needed again. I could see having it be included for GOLD passes but being a separate gate charge for day tickets and maybe an add-on for SILVER SUMMER passes. I think its time to do that honestly. 

 

[BeeastFarmer]

@brenthodge, good to see you.  It's been a while. 

[SonofBaconator]

5 hours ago, brenthodge said:

It could quite easily be reconfigured with the train station and path to have it wrap around to the front gate area, or have separate check in station for those with existing tickets to scan before entering the water park. Simplest solution would be to just eliminate the water park stop for the train and walking path all together and have all admissions off the parking lot entry. Maybe add some set pieces to hide the walking path (now only for employee use) a bit and add landscaping to disguise the station area, but keep it funtional in case ever needed again. I could see having it be included for GOLD passes but being a separate gate charge for day tickets and maybe an add-on for SILVER SUMMER passes. I think its time to do that honestly. 

 

I hope that doesn’t spell doom for the train if that happens- I always argued the waterpark saved the railroad from potential removal as it became a transport ride.

[brenthodge]

23 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I hope that doesn’t spell doom for the train if that happens- I always argued the waterpark saved the railroad from potential removal as it became a transport ride.

There was probably some truth to that during the "make it all new and DAZZLING" Paramount days when the goal was to actively get rid of the past so the park seemed hip and new (like removing Antiques and Flying Eagles to put a new ride in that spot that arguably wouldve been way better in a different part of the park) but with the new focus on being a well-rounded, family-friendly, multi-generational park, I think the train would be safe as just a round trip ride. 

[beastfan11]

As opposed to making SC a separate admission, I feel like it might make more sense to just increase the prices of season passes. Which, unpopular opinion, I wouldn’t be opposed too if it meant improved experiences. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

If the company does it right, I think they could pair raising season pass prices with a rebrand away from the Six Flags name. That would at least give them a visible excuse as to why they're doing it as a "new company".

It will be interesting to see how soon any immediate changes come to Kings Island from having the new CEO and Chairman.

[brenthodge]

On 1/11/2026 at 4:12 PM, beastfan11 said:

As opposed to making SC a separate admission, I feel like it might make more sense to just increase the prices of season passes. Which, unpopular opinion, I wouldn’t be opposed too if it meant improved experiences. 

I think they could (and should) do both increase pass prices a bit AND make the water park a second gate that could be a nominal charge add-on for season passholders across all tiers.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I'd rather they keep Soak City included for Gold and Prestige passes and bring back the Silver Pass with a different set of limitations. Make it separate admission for day tickets and Silver Passes while increasing the price of Gold and Prestige. An all-season Silver Pass with blackout dates (instead of ending after Labor Day) would probably also get more people to buy it.

Having one of the only large-ish waterparks in the area should be a bigger selling point, but it's probably not as marketable as I think. Kings Island used to advertise itself as the largest amusement and water park in the Midwest but now where other Six Flags parks have something like "The Carolinas' Premier Entertainment Destination" Kings Island's website simply says "Kings Island".

[RollerColt]

I am already wishing for warmer weather and longer evenings. These cold, dreary days damage my inner soul. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

My 2026 "wishlist" for KI:

1) New music in the park. While I think Area 72 and Adventure Port should keep their own soundtracks I think it is time for a reset on all the music in the park. The jazz on I street is outdated and just doesn't work with I-street. I want the orchestral soundtracks back. Or maybe since 2026 is the 250th birthday of America, celebrate that with patriotic music on I-street like what is played during Tricks and Treats in Coney Mall. Speaking of Coney Mall, it is time to ditch pop music there and do a custom soundtrack. I think you could split it into two areas. If you want to keep jazz in the park, you could have it in the front half of Coney Mall near Racer's entrance. Then in the back half by Jukebox Diner and Antique Autos, have 50's/60s style music playing. In Rivertown, please ditch the bluegrass covers of pop/rock songs and do actual bluegrass/country songs. Sorry, but as someone who likes rock music, hearing a bluegrass cover of "Enter Sandman" just makes me want to puke lol. In Snoopy, it's time to add a custom soundtrack for Camp Snoopy. I say move the playlist that plays in the Soapbox Racers queue line and have it play in the rest of Camp Snoopy. I just think it is a missed opportunity hearing Kidzbop in that section of the kids area. If you want to have Kidzbop in the Planet Snoopy section that's fair, but have it cut off right around the Snoopy's Boutique and transition to "Camp Snoopy" music. Finally for the rest of the park, I think pop is fine, but change the playlist. It's been the same list of songs the last couple of years so I think it's time to add more and maybe remove a few current ones. 

2) More limited time special events. No I'm not talking about Food and Wine or Carnivale. I'm talking about pop up weekend events like the park used to do in the past. Like food truck fridays, dive in movies, etc. I also really would like to see the park bring the color run 5ks back. I don't understand why the park doesn't do that anymore. They could get some local organizations to sponsor it and/or have it raise money for a good cause. KI already does the JDRF walks and the A Kid Again Family Festival so they still do stuff like that, but I think a family friendly fun 5k in the spring time would be perfect. I like the color run idea as it really adds to the fun especially at a park like KI. KD still does Run and Ride so it's not like legacy CF has abandoned events like this. I also would like to see Grad Nites brought back (which tbh would kinda sting to fairly recent HS grads like me who didn't get a grad nite at KI). Multiple legacy Six Flags parks do Grad Nite and I believe I saw somewhere Carowinds is doing one so I think doing a grad nite would be great. 

3) More New events: Now I'm going to talk about actual seasonal events. While nothing is confirmed, I'm willing to bet Carnivale is not coming back so something needs to go in its place. Obviously other parks in the chain have introduced "La Viva Fiesta" and while I think that would do well at KI, I want to see KI do their own take on a "Summer Nights" event. Like Cedar Point has Boardwalk Nights and Knotts has Summer Nights. Even Worlds of Fun calls theirs "KC Nights". So I think a custom event for KI would be perfect. I think "Island Nights" has a good ring to it and KI has used that name before, but in Soak City. Another event I'd like to see come to KI is some sort of Kids event like Kidzfest at Canada's Wonderland which is very popular there. Worlds of Fun also introduced their own version of Kidzfest and it seems to be doing well there as well. It would be a great way to show off our large kids area. When it comes to timeframe I think Food and Wine should be moved to late April through Memorial Day. That just makes more sense as Food and Wine feels more like a spring time event instead of a summer event. Then hold Kidzfest in June and Island Nights in July/August. Then Haunt and Winterfest during their normal timeframes. 

4) A New Indoor VIP lounge: I know I'm not the only one who thinks this, but our VIP lounge is an embarrassment when compared to other parks in the chain. Plus with more people buying the prestige pass, a glorified patio next to the dumpster and restrooms is not going to cut it. It's time to take a page out of Kings Dominion and move it indoors. I personally think the best location for it would be the International Restaurant as it is a large indoor space with a great view that isn't used that often, but there are some obstacles that would likely prevent them from going that route. The next potential location is the Antique Photos building in Rivertown. The final location I thought of is the Graeters building. Idk if it is just me, but I don't usually see that many people in Graeters at KI. I personally wouldn't mind them moving Graeters somewhere else in the park like Rivertown and converting that building to the VIP lounge. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

100% agree on using actual bluegrass music in Rivertown, although I think they could also have some of the covers still in there. I wonder if there's a rule about using license music in a park or if they just choose to go with the covers. 

Having some more limited-run events return would be fun and could encourage attendance. My personal choices would be for the Food Truck Festival and Grad Nite to come back. The former would work similarly to the Food & Wine Festival and the latter would work like the other Grad Nite events at Six Flags parks.

Island Nights would be a good Grand Carnivale replacement. KidZFest on the other hand might push the limit as it seems Kings Island only does 2 big Summer festivals alongside Star Spangled Nights. As small as the Food & Wine Festival is compared to an event like Tricks & Treats, I'd hate to lose it. Speaking of longer events, I think it would be nice to see a little longer run for Star Spangled Nights this year for the special anniversary. maybe running it for 5 days instead of 2 or adding some specialty menu items would make it seem more special.

18 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

4) A New Indoor VIP lounge: I know I'm not the only one who thinks this, but our VIP lounge is an embarrassment when compared to other parks in the chain. Plus with more people buying the prestige pass, a glorified patio next to the dumpster and restrooms is not going to cut it. It's time to take a page out of Kings Dominion and move it indoors. I personally think the best location for it would be the International Restaurant as it is a large indoor space with a great view that isn't used that often, but there are some obstacles that would likely prevent them from going that route. The next potential location is the Antique Photos building in Rivertown. The final location I thought of is the Graeters building. Idk if it is just me, but I don't usually see that many people in Graeters at KI. I personally wouldn't mind them moving Graeters somewhere else in the park like Rivertown and converting that building to the VIP lounge.

As for this point, I think they should construct a new building for an indoor VIP lounge instead of shoving it into one. I'd place it in a new section of Rivertown as part of The Beast's 50th anniversary Rivertown expansion that I've posted elsewhere on this website. A new building would allow them to also make it two floors like the one at Kings Dominion.

My issue with the places you've listed is that putting it in the International Restaurant would effectively cancel out its ability to be used for private events and for public events like the Winterfest Wonderland Buffet. It's also far too close to the park entrance to be used as a non-Special Events space IMO. The Antique Photos building in Rivertown might be a little too small for an indoor VIP lounge. I think a VIP lounge being indoors would attract more Prestige Passholders to it, meaning the space might be filled before too long anyways. Graeter's is probably the one that I could get behind, I just also think that it would be unfortunate to lose the ice cream parlor space.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

27 minutes ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

 Speaking of longer events, I think it would be nice to see a little longer run for Star Spangled Nights this year for the special anniversary. maybe running it for 5 days instead of 2 or adding some specialty menu items would make it seem more special.

I've always said that KI's 4th of July event should be more than just "come for what's already here and stay for a bigger firework show". Add specialty food offerings, have special activities and entertainment geared towards the holiday. Give the locals something that would make them decide to spend their 4th of July day at KI rather than their local July 4th festival. Bc locals can go to KI pretty much anytime over the summer, but they can't go to a local 4th of July event any other day. Also since Soak City usually gets the most crowded on the 4th, I wouldn't mind spreading some of the "special activities and entertainment" over there. Like set up a stage and do live bands over there. I also think doing some sort of camp fire/s'mores thing in Camp Snoopy as the sun goes down would be kinda cool. I believe Knotts used to do something like that as part of Summer Nights. Like imagine spending your day in Soak City then coming back after the waterpark closes and seeing special camp activities and campfires/s'mores going on. As a kid I would've LOVED that.