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As some of you may know the first thing I do every morning is check the webcams at CP and KI. This season has been interesting watching the transformation of Snowflake Lake on the Towercam. It has been left on so everything can be seen. Since Monday I've seen at least 10 people working every day, 11-12 hour days including this morning getting it ready. As of this am they are almost done with the 1st layer of plywood. Not sure how many layers there are (I would guess 2 along with the "cooler" layer of panels. Also of note, looks like the 2x2's and plywood are all new this year or at least they all look like they came packaged from a lumber company. Not sure if they use new every year (seems like they would re-use every couple of seasons) and if it's true they re-use the lumber that may point to Snowflake Lake returning for the next couple of season. Either way kudo's to those working on the project along with the rest of the team, looks like most halloween stuff was down by mid-day on Monday. It's been interesting seeing the transformation in real time and it certainly looks like they aren't "cutting costs" in this aspect of the transformation. Well done by all involved and can't wait to see the park for the first time in the 2nd week of November today.

WinterFest preparations around the park:

I tried really hard to get a good picture. If you try to pay attention on Diamondback, especially near the top of the lift. You can see it fairly well. I think I underestimated the size of the track missing. I think it's closer to 15 to 20 ft. From what I saw riding Diamondback.

I think if we lost the trims on that drop, it might become THE SCARIEST ride ever created. It has enough speed as it is, I can't imagine what it would be like without those trims. Now if we lost the trims at the beginning in the long straightaway, that would be sick! The pacing on that ride would be amazing!

PTON question of the day: I don’t mean to spread negativity through this, but this is more of a thought experiment: What’s one thing that would immediately “ruin” the ride for you if it was included? From everything I’ve seen, I’m really optimistic that this may even be better than the original, but I also have a fear that one aspect will be included that just completely makes me hate the ride for some reason. For me, I think something like including like “toilet” or gross out humor really cheapens some rides I’ve seen used that, and I’m really hoping nothing like that shows up in the new ride. Also I don’t think it would ruin it since two of my other favorite dark rides have them, but I dislike water splash effects in non-water attractions (think the Spider-Man or Transformers rides at Universal) and for my personal re-rideability I kinda hope PTON doesn’t have them.

Wow, that’s crazy. I just rode it this past Sunday!

Beast 2.0! Very interesting! Is it normal for them to be doing this? I thought they would just do some pre-cut track if they were going to do some referb, not necessarily take off a whole section of track. Anyway, thanks for the update and picture!

Just got off Windseeker and can confirm that part of the track going down the 2nd lift drop is totally gone. Where the new prefab track was used a few years ago for the helix, it starts and goes back towards the lift. There is about a 7 to 10 ft section removed, and a crane is back there. Here is a representation of the track section gone. There is no way to get a picture of the missing track on the ground that I have found.

That fall cake looked amazing. Very well decorated.

I'm glad to see this happening. I hope the work extends into the turn off of lift 2. That turn has always tracked really poorly with age and always seems to devolve into two big, uncomfortable jerks to the left, just before the track straightens out. I assume that's an issue with the support structure. Maybe we can even lose the trims on that drop...? My biggest hope for one of the next few off seasons is that they have Gravity Group reprofile the last turn before lift 2. I assume that the suddenness of that turn is a big reason why the first half of Beast has as many trim brakes as it does even now. (Think Magnum's reprofiling of the valley before the turnaround early in its life, where riders would go from airtime to positive G's very quickly and were getting hurt.) If that turn was less abrupt, it could potentially ditch some trims or even the whole "MCBR."

Nice article, Don.

It seems they're still actively building it today as well. I'm looking forward to the chance to watch them build in person for the first time ever day. Hoping to grab some Grain & Grill shrimp and watch the best live entertainment offered on I-Street this week But also as mentioned above, it's been impressive to watch. They seem to work 8:30-8:30 most days, including the weekends, so seems like quite the process.

^ I understand what you both are saying. But a dialog-heavy show like Tinkers needs to be in KIT so people can hear it. Festhaus has a terrible venue for this show. An off season park improvement should be the International Showplace. While a complete indoor venue would be impossible, a tiered seating arrangement with be ideal, along with firepits or heat lamps for a shorter show. You could even have two shows, 15 minutes each, at the top and bottom of the hour to take care of the cast better. KI really needs another climate controlled venue. If they ever get rid of The Junkyard Coaster, a complete revamp of this area with an pleasant looking venue, new restaurant, restrooms, etc would be ideal. I doubt that the current iteration of ownership would value this.

Totally agree. Tinkers back to FestHaus, swinging in showplace (or follies) and cool Yule back on the bandstand-shortened and more performances- would be ideal.

Kings Island just released a new POV of Banshee on YouTube!

Here’s a piece I wrote for the Sandusky Register. It won’t win a Pulitzer but I think it captures the spirit of the thing. https://sanduskyregister.com/news/667144/cedar-point-parent-co-considering-park-sales/

I'd love a good indoor entertainment venue in Rivertown. The general lack of an entertainment venue in that area takes away from its potential. There used to be the Rivertown Reel amphitheater (where the arcade is now) and then the Back Porch Stage (where Diamondback's station sits now), and now there's nothing. FYI: the Red Garter Saloon is approximately 60' x 70' and the Rivertown Arcade is roughly 60' x 90'. With some good, thoughtful, extensive renovations (and maybe a facade-ectomy) it could be transformed into that kind of venue. Alternatively if the TR:TR building were to be demolished that would open a good amount of space for a Rivertown expansion where they could add a new entertainment venue, a flat ride, and some buildings that could return the "town" to Rivertown.

Thanks for the clarification I could not remember so hopefully it will be back for next year. Especially since they painted the platform. But the chain has done crazier things than painting something and removing it right after.

I agree from what we have seen so far the new Phantom Theater has much more of a cartoon looking design than the old PT and therefore probably not a good idea to market it at Haunt considering that it is first a ride for families and you don’t wanna deter them from thinking it’s too scary for children

Let me clarify, I think the new design would detract. The old designs looked scarier and were put out when the company was still interested in having a scarier event. The new, more cartoonish and family-friendly designs would be like having a Five Nights at Freddy's house at a horror-focused event. (The park could put the PT characters out, but I'd rather see them out for Tricks & Treats rather than out for Haunt.)

They did use Phantom Theater props and animatronics as displays during Fearfest/Haunt in the past so I don’t think it detracted that much.

Adding it to Haunt might have detracted from the family-friendly nature of the new attraction and/or the scary nature of Haunt. If anything it might have been withheld due to the fact that it wouldn't have been able to be replicated at the other Tricks & Treats events. Corporate seems to enjoy keeping the events nearly identical (Legacy Six Flags also enjoyed keeping most of their parks near clones of each other). If they do anything with the characters outside of the ride I hope it'd be special meet & greet characters. Then again, if they need to cut down on costs I'd rather have a great ride with no walk around characters instead of a meh ride with walk around characters.

I agree its like they wanted us to forget about PT... honestly I really think the only reason why we got the PTE show is because of fans of the original ride who were upset when it was removed and the fans are the reason now why we are getting a new PT ride.

that was one of the things that I feared would go away when the chains merged…marketing is always one of the first departments to experience cuts when companies are trying to save money.