johnjniehaus

That's an interesting thought however, do you think there would be a high demand/fan base for phantom Theater at KD, Carowinds, of Wonderland? I mean it's almost like a cult classic here in Cincinnati but I don't believe any of the other parks ever had a "phantom Theater" did they?

So glad you got to venture out to Stickers Grove! Technically, seeing as I live in Harrison, OH it would be considered my home park but I have always given that title to Kings Island seeing as stickers isn't open very often. Teddy Bear as you said is a classic (literally an ACE Coaster Classic) but isn't that great. Tornado is where the money is at. I really enjoy that one for a figure 8 style woodie. Also, stickers electric Rainbow and pirate ship rides came from LeSourdsville Lake so it's kinda cool that they have lived on at stickers. I also think that strikers has a nice miniature railroad seeing as it has nice views of the river and the tunnel under the entrance road. Stickers is about closest thing I can get to Knoebles without driving 8hrs away...

Yeah makes you realize how big our country actually is! Figured I had to do this stuff while I'm young and free. Got to have something to tell any future kids and grandkids about some day...like "hey guys back in my day I went on rollercoaster road trips and I know that it's 2074 and you can sit in your VR home simulator and ride any rollercoaster on the planet but back in my day I actually rode the real things!"

Planet Snoopy needs quite a bit I think to bring it back to #1. I haven't been to Dollywood since 2014 but for pictures and what people tell me it's a really really beautiful park and the kids area deserves the golden ticket award. Part of me wonders if the ship has sail for KI holding the award for best kids area? Keep in mind that a day at Dollywood is double the price so they are making you pay for that better kids area. I'm just curious as to wether it's worth it to KI to continue the battle over the kids area or just let it go and focus on something else.... Also glad you enjoyed your trip and I agree with you that all the Dollywood coasters I rode were really good. Again it's been a very long time since I was there (really need to try and get back soon) but I remember thinking that TN Tornado was truly something special with the terrain and that first drop inside the mountain tunnel.

I'm not 100% sure about the whole camp snoopy thing. Been discussing some the the "rumors" with friends and it's come up numerous times that Planet Snoopy kinda needs a little something however I agree with Shaggy that it's not necessarily the rides, it's the atmosphere which is a more wood/forest setting which currently the number of mature trees in Planet Snoopy is rather low. Another concern that was voiced to me by some friends is wether long term Peanuts will still appeal to the younger generations. Sure my grandparents know everything about it and my parents know some about it and because I love older shows/movies I know about it but are most millennials really that into Peanuts? Millennials are the generation starting families now and if they aren't into Peanuts it's probably safe to assume that their kids and the next generation won't really know that much about them either. I say it's at least something to consider whether long term Peanuts is what is going to be marked for the kids area at Cedar Fair parks. As for my hopes for next year, I personally hope we see a phantom Theater return since it's kinda been teased last two years and boo blaster is in such bad shape. It would be really great if they could reconfigure the que to connect to I-Street instead of Planet Snoopy but even if they continue utilizing the old entrance, I think that phantom Theater deserves a return as the Kings Island dark ride. I would like to see some attention to Planet Snoopy (possible revamp/theme and new ride/coaster addition) however, I think that is too much to ask for in a single year. I would like to see a two year plan comprised of one year is spent on phantom Theater project and the other is spent on camp snoopy revamp idea. That would really bring new life and excitement back to that side of the park.

Alright tonight I saw PTE for the second time and I think it's an absolutely amazing show and I will be greatly disappointed if the phantom Theater ride doesn't somehow return to the park. Seeing the direction of the park with tying in nostalgia with new themes I would think a Phantom Theater revival would be right up their alley. For example they brought back the antique cars, sol spin is a modern Skylab, cargo loco pays homage to the keggers, and they even brought in a lesser version of flying eagles to Planet Snoopy. Even the re-tracking of racer and beast, the organ restoration on Grand Carousel, and the theming enhancements to Adventure Express show how the park is trying to restore some of the older rides to former glory while paying homage to defunct rides by building their modern equivalents. Also, has anyone noticed that Boo Blasters is in exceptionally bad shape this year? Like I've gotten so many broken blasters and I've even got blasters now that set off the targets and don't actually compute the score. Animatronics are broken, all sound and theme has been removed from the que, the strobe lights at the end don't work and service lights seem to be on during certain parts of the ride. If the plan is to give boo blaster the axe, that could explain why they're kinda letting it fall into disrepair. I got to see Adventure Awaits this evening as well. It was a really good follow up to the 50th anniversary show however, I found the song to be just ok and the audio was kinda bland and generic (smoothing about memories). The lazers and the drones look amazing this year and even the fountain had some cool choreography.

I generally trust manufacturers however the actual maintenance of the ride is on the park. It's really terrible that this happened... Obviously this is not the first time that a derailment has occurred but this one was obviously much worse than most. I mean for example, The Bat at Kings Island derailed last year I believe. Is that on Arrow Dynamics? I don't think so...it's ran for nearly 30 years with no issues. I have to assume it's on the park at that point. Can we also point out that safety standards on certain rides perhaps were less strick in times past and that some are probably grandfathered into the system. For example if Cedar downs Racing Derby was built today, would it operate without seatbelts? I get that freak accidents happen but instances should be investigated and more than likely this particular coaster will never come back from this. Even if somehow they managed to get it "safe" and operational again it will always carry the stigma that someone was killed in this accident

So I drove 8hrs on Sunday to Charlotte to have all day at Carowinds on Monday, then drove most of the night to get to Kings Dominion Tues. Stayed till ten and got a hotel. Dominion and Six Flags America are probably only 2hr or so apart so I got there easy Wed. Left SFA around 5pm and drove 3hrs and got room in Hershey PA. Drove an hour to Dorney Park Thur and left around 6 to get to my room in Ithaca NY. Got up at 5am of Fri and drove 5 hrs to Toronto for Wonderland and stayed till 10. Got a room right by park. Sat morning drove about 1hr 30min to marineland stayed for 3 hrs and drove to Darien Lake and stayed from 3-7 and rode all coasters and moose on the loose. Then I stayed in Jamestown NY. I actually hit Cedar Point for 3 hrs on the return journey Sunday...

Just saw phantom Theater encore today and I'm kicking myself for never checking it out last year. I thought it was a really good show and I'll be sacrificing prime ride time to see it a few more times before the season ends. My grandma and aunt were with me today and my aunt said that while.she couldn't remember the ride she still remembers all the characters and of course my grandma remembered the ride much better than my aunt. As Maestro said in the show "adults loved it, children loved it, so of course they closed it....is that boo thing still going on over there?" Anyway the show and the new phantom Theater encore merch looks really good. I really really hope that they bring back the ride at some point because not only does the original look like a load of fun but the show was pretty great as well!

Just saw the show for the first time today and it was really good! I'm kicking myself for never checking it out last year...merch looks awesome too! Which shopping location has it?

Wow I remember the "Christmas lights" display as I called it as a kid. Always wondered why they stopped it. Does anyone remember what year they did away with it altogether? It's just something that I remember and then have forgotten about since and can't really go back and say I noticed exactly when they did away with it

I'm not necessarily afraid of the Drop Tower when I'm standing on the ground but when I get to the top I always get the sensation that I'm going about to wet my pants then once it drops I'm perfectly fine. It's weird because I do ride it and enjoy it so idk if I'm subconsciously afraid of it or not. The one I worry about breaking down while I'm riding is definitely wind seeker because I don't want to be stuck on that ride at all let alone a couple hundred feet off the ground.

So yeah I ended up just using water fountains. It was just so strange that the staff kept pointing to the next food location and saying I could get water there but once I got there they didn't have it either. Jokeys Jalopies...so I just have a thing for car rides no matter what type they are. Yes the one at KI the guest has control (gas powered not electric or self powered) So I tried to ride Snoopy's Racing Railway and was told I couldn't ride without a kid by the operator working the que so that ended that venture real quick. And yeah I'd be mad about losing anything for time warp. That coaster sucked.

So my week long amusement park trip for 2023 has come to a close. I visited 7 different parks across numerous states and Ontario, CA. Here's my mini novel on how it went! 6/12/23: Carowinds - let's just say that this park was smaller than k thought but it still has a very diverse coaster collection. Fury was amazing and I really enjoyed intimidator as well. Nighthawk I thought was a lot rougher than Firehawk ever was at KI. I also got to experience our flying eagles (now mountain gliders) and they definitely lived up to the hype seeing as I was 2 when they were removed from KI I only have the stories of my dad and uncle to go off of. Now I can say yes they are absolutely one of the best flats out there. Ricochet, Carolina Gold Rusher, and Cyclone coasters weren't the best of their models but still enjoyable. I was happy to see a Schwarzkopf enterprise (scream Weaver) still in operation as well and got 2 rides on it. Vortex was closed still for whatever controls work they are doing on it (got that info from emailing the park about a week before my trip). Copperhead Strike was a great coaster and I could see something like that at KI one day. Also I found Hurler to be fun and not that rough if I wasn't in a wheel seat...rode it multiple times 6/13/23: Kings Dominion - Ok this was my favorite park of the trip! I was surprised how much I loved this park. First impressions were terrible so I'm glad that isn't everything. After waiting an excruciating 30 minutes to get through security at the front gate I finally got into the park. First ride of the day as Flight of Fear and their version is running much smoother than ours and also doesn't stop on the break at the top. Overall, theirs was running better than ours and the line was super short every time I rode it. Next was Intimidator 305 which I think is the child of Maverick and Millennium Force making it my new #1 coaster of all time. I rode it so many times that morning and I also ended the day with numerous rides on it. Anaconda is not as rough as people act like it is and in fact I enjoyed the ride quite a bit. Reptilian was a cool bobsled coaster that I rode a few times. Dominator was pretty smooth and forceful. Only got 1 ride on it seeing as it wasn't close to other coasters (had to walk through Planet Snoopy to get over there) it's really the only coaster at the park that looks like it was just plopped in there. All the others have alot of trees or terrain around them I think. The Woodstock Express here had an extra little hill at the end. Anyone know why that is? Did others have the additional hill right before the break run and it got removed or is KD version just different? Twisted Timbers was good but anyone saying it was a top tier RMC is wrong. There's numerous ones I've ridden better than that one. Sure it was probably way better than hurler but it's not the best ride in the park like some have claimed it to be. Apple Zapple was a good wild Mouse and Racer 75 was super smooth and running great. The red side won every single time though and it wasn't very close so for actual close racing ours is better. Ride/speed wise KD is probably better. Grizzly was a coaster I wanted to like because of all the hype about the re-tracking and sure those parts were great but you could immediately tell when you were back on the old stuff...those parts hurt! Idk who was riding this before they did re-tracking on the parts they did do. Overall I didn't hate it but it ranked middle to bottom of the lineup. Someone has told me that KI is the only park that has the stunt cars effects turned on however, KD had the fire working and some sound effects working. They also had water in the trough at the end under the bridge. So while I'm still not a fan of stunt cars, at least some stuff was working. KD flying eagles was pretty good as was the blue ridge parkway car ride. One other thing I'm questioning is why the Eiffel Tower was closed and when I say closed like que line fenced up with a privacy fence. It was like they boarded it up type of closed? Anyone got any info on how long it's been that way, why it's boarded up/closed, how long they plan to keep it that way? 6/14/23: Six Flags America - This was not a great park. I didn't stay all day and my biggest take away was the Marvin Martian t-shirt I bought in the gift shop. First, superman ride of Steel is pretty good (rode a couple of times) however the one train ops makes this one have a unnecessary long line. Batwing broke down right after I got off the first train of the day. Thankfully it ran smoother than Nighthawk at Carowinds. Jokers Jinx was a good ride as well but once again one train ops made that line crawl. Also, the operators weren't good on it. They checked the back half of the train before the lap bars actually locked and went on like nothing was wrong. I mean I could have pushed it up if I wanted to. Anyway of course the main operator activated the lock and everyone in the back pulled down but the checker op never did come back and check the lap bars after they locked. That's just not good operations if u ask me. The Firebird was probably one of the roughest b&m coasters I've ridden and Roar wasn't much better. Both of those were one and done. Ragin Cajun was a little too much spin after standing around for 45min in the blazing sun. Kinda felt a little icky after that one. The one coaster that exceeded expectations here was Wild One. For a coaster that's 100+ years old it's surprisingly tall and fast! Great layout and airtime and while it's not super smooth it wasn't painful rough either. It really did maintain its classic feel really well. 6/15/23: Dorney Park - this park blew expectations away! Why doesn't anyone really talk about Dorney? Sure it's small but all the rides I rode here were really good! Steel Force is a mini Magnum hyper that runs smoothly. Thunderhawk was running really smooth and is a classic. Hydra is unconventional but a fun floorless. Talon is a great invert that runs smoother than some newer ones (less rattle). Possessed was a lot of fun and the ops were killing it one that one too so wait time was minimal. The wild Mouse was well just a typical wild mouse but at least it was smooth! The demon drop was really amazing and I'm so glad Cedar Fair moved it to Dorney instead of scraping it after CP was done with it. Dorney also had a great collection of other rides like the huss enterprise, the unconventional log flume, and the zephyr railroad just to name a few. 6/16/23: Canada's Wonderland - alright this was the park I was most excited about and it delivered! Rode Leviathan first thing in the morning and I actually thought it was better than Orion meaning that Orion is my least favorite giga? (Still a great ride but I'm not a fan of wave turn or helix sections and leviathan had more airtime hills). Behemoth was a good hyper (in the back rows but unfortunately unlike Dback they wouldn't let you pick your row so half of my rides were towards the front with the weird acceleration as you get held over the drops waiting for the rest of the train to catch up) Yukon Striker was definitely better than Valravn and the vest restraints didn't bother me that much on this one. Vortex is an absolute beauty and rode well too. I prefer the back seat on The Bat (extra car gives it just a little more whip around the turns) but Vortex was still a great ride. Wilde Beast was the one I got the most rides on and I thought it rode extremely well (not smooth but just the perfect amount of rough to where it had some bite but wasn't uncomfortable in any way). Mighty Canadian Minebuster was a great layout (a few spots such as the helix were a little rough to me). Wonder Mountain Guardian is a great dark ride coaster (wish it was little longer). Thunder Run was really cool family ride and The Bat was the smoothest boomerang I've ridden yet. Dragon Fyre was good fun I just didn't get anything out of it's layout that I couldn't have gotten from another arrow looper. The stunt cars coaster is definitely the worst of the 3 installations as no effects worked and it doesn't even have all the signage anymore it appears. The Fly was a great wild mouse (just like apple Zapple) and of course I rode ghoster Coaster just for the credit. Now Flight Deck and Time Warp are two of the worst coasters ever! Both are extremely rough and both need to make way for something better. One ride and done on those. As for the flats, I rode Skyhawk, Wilde knightmares, and sledge Hammer. (I wasn't feeling adventurous enough for some of the other ones) sledge Hammer is my new favorite flat and I got 3 rides on it. So glad it was open during my visit. 6/17/23: Marineland - Ok so I had read some mixed reviews of this place some saying it should be closed for animal abuse and others praising it for its laid back atmosphere and good operations. So I drove there and after making sure Dragon Mountain was operating I bought a ticket and hiked back to that Coaster. The man made cavern that the station is in was way too cool to exist at that park. The ride itself was similar to Loch Ness Monster at Busch gardens in my opinion. Long Helix section through a tunnel and one of a kind inversion element (bowtie element on dragon mountain, interlocking loops on loch Ness) I rode this 10x and it made the trip to the park worth it. After DM I decided to explore the rest of the park and that's where things went south. The ladybug coaster was fine and the magic carpet ride was something I'd never experienced but the animal exhibits were disappointing. The penguin aquarium looked like it was 10,000 years old and the floor hadn't been mopped since 1980. The whale tank was smaller than sea world Orlando and had more whales in it. I don't profess to be a wildlife expert but the exhibits seemed super outdated and unlike sea world there was nothing about conservation at this park that I saw. So I know some people would say they wouldn't support this park because of the animal situation and I wouldn't blame anyone for that. Me personally, I figured I'd see for myself and I'm just telling myself that my $45 went towards the preservation of a wonderful arrow coaster. I really hope this park gets some new owners that either give the animal exhibits the upgrades/space they need or just revamp the park altogether and phase out the animals for more rides. 6/17/23: Six Flags Darien Lake - Ok so just like it's cousin at SFA ride of steel was fantastic. Prowler was also really good and I enjoyed the smooth ride in the metal track they put in places. Boomerang was typical, moto - coaster was closed for some reason, viper was fine, mind Eraser was the smoothest SLC I've been on yet, Tantrum was really fun but way too short of a ride (and running only one train with 8 seats on a euro fighter on a Saturday is terrible operations) overall not really impressed with Darien Lake but I still enjoyed the couple of hrs I spent there. Well that sums it up!

I mean was sand serpent great? No...but I'm still a bit sad to see it go. Hopefully they replace it with something that is actually awesome and not something that they say is awesome and then it's just kinda meh (aka Cedar Point ditches witches wheel for restaurant with outdoor seating)

Just a few pictures from yesterday. Lines weren't super long. Probably 30-45 for leviathan and 20 or less for everything else. Got quite a few rides in - Wilde Beast 4x, Behemoth 3x, Minebuster 3x, Vortex 3x, thunder Run 3x, wonder mountain guardian 3x, Vortex 3x, Sledge Hammer 3x, Yukon Striker 2x, Dragon Fyre 2x, Leviathan 2x, Backlot Stunt Coaster 1x, The Fly 1x, Wilde knightmares 1x, time warp 1x, flight Deck 1x, ghoster Coaster 1x, The Bat 1x, jokeys Jalopies 1x, Skyhawk 1x. My only complaint is I could never find a location that gives out the free mini cups of water... didn't have it at Coke places, beer places, counter service restaurant places. I was told they could charge me for a drink at one place. Is the free water not a thing at this park? I just decided to use water fountains the entire day.

While it's true that Cedar Fair will never let Kings Island be bigger or better than Cedar Point it is true that they have made some great investments at the park. They have just changed the market to local instead of destination. To be fair KI is still a bucket list park for enthusiasts but probably less for vacationers. That has pros and cons. Cons are that CP will always get better new coasters Pros are we don't have the insane wait times CP has. Also to be fair, the management of the park in 2004 was Paramount and they are the idiots who axed both our antique car tracks and gave our flying eagles away to Carowinds in the first place! If it wasn't for a bad move on the part of paramount, we wouldn't even have this discussion thread right now lol

I too think that Orion is too similar to Dback however it's still a great ride and no it's not as good as other Gigas but it's still a really good coaster....the complaints usually are that they could have done better and I hear you they could have but they gave us what they gave us and at least we have a giga of some sort. A "bad" giga (if there is such a thing) is better than no giga. Furthermore Orion is better than the coaster it replaced (Firehawk) so to me that counts for something. I say let's be thankful that Cedar Fair gave us the giga coaster instead of scraping the design altogether whenever it was clear it wasn't going to CA great America. Now back on topic, the zamperla flats aren't as nice as some other manufacturers however they fit well in the park, visually look nice, and fit the budget and seeing as the whole idea came together last minute, I think it's safe to say that originally 2023 would have been the down year with no new rides (just Dback repaint and Red Racer Re-tracking jobs). I really hope they have something good to follow this up with next year (Phantom Theater 2024 pretty please!) I personally think The Vortex replacement is coming in 2025 but who knows. Regardless I'm glad they spent some money and made a nice small investment instead of doing nothing basically.

I'm going tomorrow so I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for all the info!

I got it to snap a few times whenever I rode it this past Monday. It's a great ride! There's a reason we want it back and they won't give it up... I do want to make the point though that we sent them our old Vortex trains for Carolina Cyclone and our old Firehawk trains to use for parts on Nighthawk.... what has Carowinds done for us lately?

I'll be there this Friday (June16).... anyone got any recommendations or tips?

I voted no. First I'm not the target audience for an additional cost attraction because if it's more than $5 I'm not paying it. I rode eXtreme Skyflyer three times on a day where they ran a $5 special (I only paid once, friends paid other two times). I never rode slingshot and I have already ridden it's replacement Cargo Loco

So they have fixed the audio on first lift. I could hear the entire thing tonight. Anyone else think they turned it up?

I personally don't think we need any more kids rollercoasters. Our lineup is extremely solid with the 3/4 we do have and once kids hit 48" they are onto better things anyway. The only kids coaster I still ride is Woodstock Express because that's actually a good rollercoaster. I feel like if the park wants to target younger guests they should continue investing in more flats with low height requirements (like cargo loco for example) to get some of those kids out of kiddy land. People seem to forget that kids can ride things like the scrambler, monster, shake rattle and roll, viking fury before they hit 48". Maybe another family coaster would work but it would need to be something that adults/teen want to ride too (maybe something like Dollywood Big Bear Mountain, Wild Mouse at Cedar Point, or Seven Dwarves Mine Train at Disney) something that has a lower height requirement than 48" but will appeal to more than just kids.

I think The Beast (after re-tracking) is still one of our most popular rides that people travel to the park to ride. Some people may come to ride Mystic Timbers or Orion but those are probably the biggest rides with drawing power. Nobody plans a trip to Kings Island from out of town to ride Dback, Flight of Fear, Banshee, The Racer, or The Bat which are all top tier rides at the park as well (at least in my experience with out of towners I've talked to. As for the Orion VS Dback debate I personally think Orion is a good ride and it's far superior to Firehawk (which is what it more or less replaced). However, Orion has a few elements that don't do anything for me including the wave turn (top of second hill) and the "belt" section (helix). The ride also just feels short and while any row delivers good airtime, the back rows of Diamondback are better than any row on Orion. Diamondback is longer in ride time and provided you are in the back always delivers great airtime over every hill. Diamondback is my personal favorite coaster out of approx 170 credits. Now I personally LOVE millennium force and Magnum XL 200. They are my #2 and #3 right behind Dback. These two coasters are a perfect example of what makes a good hyper/giga combo. Magnum is an airtime machine and milli is all about the positive Gs and speed. Two vastly different rides unlike Orion and Dback which are too similar in my opinion. The contrast of Milli and Magnum at KI would be Dback and Beast to me. Dback has the airtime like Magnum and beast is a coaster built for speed much like milli. Did I forget to mention beast is my #4 of all time? (Sure I'm a little biased towards Ohio I think)