Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare Reviews

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Are the behavior warning stickers in the Queue line their final form or do we think they will be replaced with more permanent signage later on? Some of them looked like they were already peeling off of the wall and, frankly, for a ride that has so much detail in it I feel like the stickers are one of the only parts of the experience that feel cheap.

[BryanJay]

Findings after my ride this morning, which admittedly is extremely early so it isn’t perfect.

-The audio in some areas are already much better. There is audio with Maestro’s organ during the ride that I haven’t heard the previous weekend. Larry and portraits in the queue are significantly louder. The “main” ride music is still quieter than I’d like it to be. 
-The smells of burning in the furnace scene and the heat is turned up. This may have also been because I used early entry, but it was glorious.

-Unfortunately some screens are already broken. For the most part they have been in locations that wouldn’t be noticed by a first-time rider, but I hate to see it. 
-Operations seem to already be better with filling every car, but I do fear that having Opening Nightmare as part of passholder ERT is somewhat detrimental (for my own greedy interests in riding it in a loop). It hasn’t been open for 10 minutes and the line was already down to Pumpkin coaster. I feel like if they had a different ride, the crowds may disperse a little better than they currently are, but it is only the second weekend it’s open. 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I feel the line will be the story of this ride this whole season. I think we can expect a full queue for it everyday this season including weekdays. I even think the extended portion will be used most of the season as well. 

Hopefully if this is the case that the park and corporate will look at it and see the value of indoor attractions and look to do something in the Crypt building and/or Action Theater in the future that doesn't involve Haunt. 

[Cedar Fair Fanboy]

1 hour ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I feel the line will be the story of this ride this whole season. I think we can expect a full queue for it everyday this season including weekdays. I even think the extended portion will be used most of the season as well. 

Hopefully if this is the case that the park and corporate will look at it and see the value of indoor attractions and look to do something in the Crypt building and/or Action Theater in the future that doesn't involve Haunt. 

Vekoma Madhouse for Crypt

[beastfan11]

Got another ride in this morning. Got to take the kid this time. Still totally love it. Wow. Seemed like everything was working well too. Only had to wait 20 minutes thanks to Fastlane. Glad to see the wait time over 100 minutes. People seem to be excited by it. Hope this sets the standard for future additions. Really special stuff. 
 

That said, the enduring mystery of the man behind the curtain between Houdilini and Hilda continues to drive me insane. You can see the feet of whoever’s back there pretty easily. That, coupled with the air blast effect makes me feel like something is definitely supposed to be there.  Very odd. 

[BryanJay]

17 minutes ago, beastfan11 said:

That said, the enduring mystery of the man behind the curtain between Houdilini and Hilda continues to drive me insane. 

I can say with certainty that it’s not Larry.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

If there's another thing I think could be changed is they should turn off the music on the pathway from I-street to Phantom Theater where the ride exit is along as well as the ride entrance area and have a spooky soundtrack or even the old wind/squawk sound effects that used to play outside the ride entrance playing there. Then transition to Vince Guaraldi music when you get into the main part of Planet Snoopy. 

[beastfan11]

18 minutes ago, BryanJay said:

I can say with certainty that it’s not Larry.

Think you might be right…

[OwenFromTheRacer]

I have also noticed some effects not functioning. I fully believe it's kinks that will be worked out as season goes on.

 

[johnjniehaus]

Unfortunate that not everything is working 100%. Hopefully they are able to troubleshoot it and get it all functioning 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

We got our second ride in yesterday morning after waiting 120 minutes. The queue seemed to flow a lot faster than it did during the passholder preview. I really wish the queue line loop was a little longer than the 20-30 minutes it has now, though. All three queue line animatronics were louder and worked nicely. The portrait hall characters and Rick (the queue instructions presenter) were also louder and easier to hear. The lights during the ride were dimmer than before but I think they could be even darker. I deliberately noticed some of the behind the scenes stuff in the dark and enjoyed seeing that. We were in the front car for this ride (we were in the back car on Preview Day) and I didn't notice the repeated lines as much, but it's still very noticeable on most of the POVs I've seen. Hilda really needs at least one more line that isn't just her screaming the singular note. I think I'd prefer something more like Madam Leota's loop during the Haunted Mansion where you can't really tell where the loop begins and ends because it's constantly running and has dialogue that doesn't repeat the same thing for each car. Houdelini is also a good candidate for receiving more voice lines since his can easily be heard from both Garbonzo and Hilda's dressing rooms. Anything that sounds like a spell or magic trick could work.

I'm a little fine with some of the effects not working for now since this is only the second weekend of the ride getting full-time use, but I do hope they can fix everything in a relatively short time period. The popcorn and boiler smells weren't working during our visit, nor were the screen in the first boiler or the blast of hot air. We smelled the roses at the very end, though. 

 

I've come to some more conclusions after thinking some more about doing up the ride for Haunt/Winterfest. I still think they should record a more antagonistic queue loop (closer to the original ride) for Haunt, but for Winterfest I think they should at least put up some Christmas trees and lights. Maybe change out the popcorn smell with a pine needle smell.