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So, I do know John—I worked with him at SEA both when he was COO under Joel Manby and as acting CEO after Manby was forced out. He was not CEO when Blackfish came out (I believe he was still park president at San Diego when that occurred)—Jim Atchison & the remaining old guard at BEC were still in place when Blackfish dropped. Joel was brought in as CEO (from Herschend) to try to reverse the mistakes that had been made after Blackfish—if I recall correctly, he then promoted John to COO from the San Diego park. Personally, I like John—I thought he should have been named CEO after Joel and before they hired Gus from Carnival (who I was not a fan of). John started his career as a popcorn seller in college at BGW (he enjoyed telling that story ) so he grew up in park operations when SeaWorld/Busch were at their best. I’m a little biased probably, but I think this is a good choice.

Mr. Six is that you?

John Reilly has been named the new CEO for Six Flags. https://themeparksbydon.com/six-flags-names-john-reilly-ceo/

Some things I expect to see happen with John Reilly as CEO are ticket and season pass prices being raised, a stronger focus on customer service, and less regionalization with departments. It will eventually get back to the way it was and should be with more boots on the ground at the park level.

This is such a bad take. You might want to do some research on John Reilly and what he accomplished while he was at SeaWorld Parks and Resorts and Palace Entertainment/Parques Reunidos.

All that sounds great! I hope your are correct.

Unmitigated disaster is an interesting take. While no CEO/ COO record is perfect, his leadership with Parques/ Palace did provide a positive trend for customer service- one opinion many have been clamoring for when it comes to SF prior to the CF merger. He also made shareholders happy at the same time. I'm encouraged the decision was not just a "money" person. Who do you believe would be better suited for the job?

I doubt we’ll see Pepper’s Ghost used. The beams of light from the flashlights would reflect off the glass, ruining the effect.

I wonder if the gum chewing is a nod to the original ride when guests would spit their gum on the glass in the Peppers Ghost scene, which is something I vaguely remember. Nowadays I would hope there would be consequences for such behavior.

I'm a couple days behind on posting this, but for anyone curious, here is the video that they were playing on the side panels. And the posters that were displayed on the monitor as well. There was more concept art displayed on the monitor during the press announcement, but I wasn't able to get good pictures of it from where I was standing. Sorry! IMG_6602.mov

Okay I know how I normally write so I've compiled my thoughts using these photos. Garbonzo gets some more dynamite I think this is the clay casting model for No Legs Larry. If you look at how it is being formed, there are plastic shells where his eyes go and the artist is either sculpting or applying a coat of something (possibly to release the mold) This wall is very intriguing to me. While it looks like it might just be a backstage wall, I kind of thought it also looked like the Pepper's Ghost glass wall covered in dust and grime and cracked in places. Could this be a reference to what was? Arpeggio, my beloved <3 He looks so good! Look at this view of a dressing room (?) door! The green above it in the transom also makes me think they could've installed a Green Room during their renovations This lower shot shows the wreath and some of the nice blue wallpaper. I hope we can see lots of color like this throughout the rest of the ride! It seems our resident electrician is still dealing with mechanical knobs and levers We've seen the boiler prop itself, but check out this nice drawing of it (Just go along with it) As the adage to new beginnings goes: "Something Borrowed..." The vulture has found his way over to the Phantom Theater to leer over guests young and old. "Something Blue..." This glowing blue cabinet is indecipherable — perhaps it contains some Ghost Notes "Something Old..." It's a little dusty, but we call it home! This outer molding for the gargoyle does make it look a little dusty... "Something New..." Look at these three characters in their newer, more corruptible state Did somebody call for a sarcophagus? Oh, it seems Willard (or Lionel, I can never remember which is which) seems to be wrapped up with the sarcophagus This movement test has me very curious. Is Maestro rehearsing his greetings or his final bows? Or is he rehearsing both? Much to think about! I believe the reference to chewing gum is from when guests would get it stuck on the glass during the Pepper's Ghost scene. All of the characters look so much better now that they're not withering away like they were all those years ago. They have something to work towards instead of just reliving the glory days of the Phantom Theater! Thank you for the video and photos @KIghostguy!!!

I think we might see references to it (see photo #3 on my last post), though any "ghosts" of that sort would probably be on the screens now. Does anyone else think that might look like the Pepper's Ghost wall or is it just my imagination?

Love seeing these updates and sad to see nothing on the use of the peppers ghost effect....

Thank you so much for sharing!! I’ve probably spent hours looking for this over the weekend so I really appreciate seeing this. Here’s what a noticed from it. First looks at Hilda and Houdelini. They both hook great digitally, and with all the others I’m sure they’ll look even better in person (Garbonzo looks sooooo good sculpted out). I’m assuming the character at the bottom is Sir Pretzel, they don’t look like they’d be Lionel to me. Based on how this figure is being constructed compared to the others (with pupils) I think this might be the static figure? Unless they count something like the culture of gargoyle which were also shown. Also the gum chewing comment on the poster is really weird to me, I wonder if that’s a reference to something in the new attraction. The no flash photography rule does make me feel better about this ride allowing photos on it, which I figured since Boo Blasters allowed phones out, but I’d be ****ed if I couldn’t take thousands of photos in this one.

I've been looking for clear footage of those monitors for days and this is by far the clearest I've seen them by far. Thanks Evan!

Wow. Thank you!

Currently on the live cams, what I assume is some sort of ventilation or electrical work is going on. (Also for my last post I used ibispaint)

These are some very quick sketches I made, but this is sorta how I’m predicting the entrance will look like. At this point, I’m not expecting them to massively demolish the whole facade and more so do a paint job and overlay to make it look different enough to recognize it’s a different attraction, but not anything major since I think a majority of the budget is going into the animatronics and theming. I didn’t want to draw it, but especially since they’re canonically ghosts at this point, I think a small detail to add that would go a long way is putting tombstones in the grassy section of land to the right on the entrance.

My goodness — someone from Parques Reunidos? That company's stint in US park ownership/operations was an unmitigated disaster. The new Six Flags needed either an amusement park outsider of someone who could heighten the experience and service like someone from Disney or Universal. They've instead brought in someone from old Six Flags' smaller and less successful cousin. Hopefully it works out though...