Losantiville Mining Co.

I'm hoping that Six Flags understands the chance they have right now to make or break how guests will view Kings Island for the next few years. Build a quality dark ride that respects the original while providing a new experience and guests will flock to it and buy more passes. Put a cheap, uninspired, and entirely screen-based Phantom Theater overlay over Boo Blasters and guests will further understand that Six Flags is a cheap corporation that doesn't deserve their money. People will still come and ride, but another disappointment like this might be enough to tip the scale for more passholders to not renew in the next sale/next year's sale. My guess for what we will see on Thursday is either a second teaser leading to an announcement next week (why wait even longer?) or the announcement itself. I'd be curious to know how the MVP sale has panned out for Kings Island and if Six Flags thinks they need this announcement to boost for more pass sales. I'm also shocked that no documentation has been leaked or submitted for permits, although I'm not sure how much of this project would need permits aside from "We're updating a ride with these companies". I don't have a photo of them, but they're just little sheet-on-a-ball ghosts up in the trees. They're very cute to see! That being said I think they're for Tricks and Treats, not for Boo Blasters.

Not necessarily a ride wait time thing (it's close enough), but on my most recent visit I experienced two full-stops in short succession on Boo Blasters due to loading/unloading. I wasn't bothered by it, I just found it interesting since I'd never thought about how those minor delays might impact wait times. They might not impact them at all. Maybe with this new attraction we'll see new or modified ride vehicles that are easier to enter and exit. (The current ones are easy enough to use, but I've also never seen someone attempt to transfer out of a wheelchair to ride.)

It sounds like a nice way to get around using the locker machines. I wonder how it will hold up with the standard human competence as I have to assume someone will end up testing its resiliency. I'd really like to see if Kings Island could find a way to install queue line lockers like on Steel Vengeance and Siren's Curse. Mystic Timbers probably has one of the better setups to install them in the park, with the Stunt Coaster coming in close behind it. They might be able to do it for Banshee and The Beast with a little work. Diamondback, Orion, Adventure Express, and The Bat would probably do better with the Yukon Striker-style station baskets and some queue line/exit line work. I can't imagine how you accomplish any of this on The Racer. It's something interesting to think about.

I believe it's "Kings Island Underground (Uncensored)" on Facebook. I was hesitant to name it in my initial post since some on here may be active on there, but like I said, it seems to be a pretty harmless group.

I'd love to see this kind of facade come to either the Boo Blasters building and/or to The Crypt's building. Both of them would need to have some extensive work done to look like this, but it would look so good. I feel like the biggest hang up from this concept art to what became PT was the addition to the building (with the posters in front of it). It would be a good place for some additional queue line and/or a much-needed addition of space for the Peanuts Showplace. Whatever we end up seeing, I really hope there aren't any AI posters or artwork. AlpenFury has AI all over its indoor queue and it looks bad.

I recently joined a new (to me) KI Facebook group and it is full of some wild theories. Ideas not based anywhere near the current reality run rampant and many things with circumstantial evidence are taken as 100% fact. It's harmless, but I found it interesting to see what's said in there. I like to see what people are talking about and this has been a funny way to see more.

The Bat had a station wait tonight and all of the other coasters appeared to have short waits whenever I looked. Oddly enough, my train on The Bat was almost a zen ride but as soon as we got back in the station there seemed to be a horde of people in line.

Construction fences have gone up around the former Axe, Axe, Baby game in Rivertown. Could they be for something new or are they just part of mid-season work in the park? They had the entire back wall of the booth (and I believe the fences up front) taken down with a pathway-sized clearing through the foliage heading back under Diamondback's helix. Some blue paint markings also indicated the location of a potable water pipe next to a lamp post. I'm interested to see if this could become either a new thing for Haunt or maybe even a new entrance area for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear. It would certainly help get around a need to retheme the indoor queue area and may entirely remove the need for an elevator to be used. The attraction is advertised as being accessible, so I'd assume that includes the entrance to it. It could just be August maintenance. Fun to think about either way.

As do bankruptcy lawyers! I wouldn't be opposed to more competition between Kings Island and Cedar Point, even if it's from within the same chain. Either way, this may be a conversation for another extant topic altogether.

This is precisely what I meant by my comment. While Six Flags would lose their "most penetrated" (and most reliable), they would likely be keeping Cedar Point. I think if they were to declare bankruptcy someone in their bankruptcy management would force them to sell parks that have another one in their immediate surrounding area. Cedar Point/Kings Island, SFOT/Fiesta Texas, and Magic Mountain/Knotts would probably be the major splits IMO. As I've said before in other words, I hope the transition from Boo Blasters to whatever comes next will be graceful and revitalizing. Let there be some wooden walls/fencing to block the entrance/exit instead of chain link fences with vinyl wraps. Put up some nice concept art boards along the path/fence instead of a rapidly-printed banner held up by string. There's a lot of easy ways to make the construction site look cheap, but there are also a lot of easy ways to make it look good. The difference is just whether or not Six Flags and Kings Island are willing to put in the time and effort to do it nicely.

Something they could've used more are lighting effects. Maybe some more lightning here and there and more changes to the amount of light from scene to scene (harder to do, but not impossible). The fire prop effect could be a good place to display this by having the scene lights go out and the fire is the only light. Making the doom buggies do a quick spin in the dark at one point might have also been a good way to disorient guests between two scenes, making it seem as if they had stumbled through a door/wall into a long-forgotten room.

If Kings Island gets two rides in one year, I'd be forced to assume that either we won't see any investment for the next 5+ years OR that Kings Island will be sold off to another park chain even sooner. Six Flags doesn't have the money for any big investments, let alone two sizeable ones in one park. I could very well see Six Flags resorting to selling KI if they don't think anyone would take the bait with a park like Dorney or Kings Dominion. There's always the insane possibility that whatever was earmarked for 2026 could still be coming in some form with the Boo Blasters replacement funds having been redirected from another park, but I highly doubt it. Keep your standards low if you don't want to be disappointed by what might come. Personally, I think I'll withhold my judgement until it actually gets announced.

It looks like new photos have gone up online for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear that show more of what this experience may look like. Have any of you purchased a ticket for TC:BF? Do you know if there is a way to choose your group or if it might be a situation where groups are chosen when you get there?

I'd love to see Hanna-Barbera come back to the parks if Six Flags could get a good licensing contract for it. The question for that is what properties does the company specifically have licensing agreements for? They definitely have access to the DC and Looney Tunes characters, but does their license agreement extend to any Warner Brothers property (presumably those created before WB sold the Six Flags parks)? I guess my confusion is more to what they can use without much negotiation. It seems a lot of the things on their Copyrights and Trademarks page are both outdated and do not represent properties introduced by the post-merger Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. Whether a new website is coming or not, they need to update these. They might also need to include a section for any trademarks/copyrights used for Fright Fest/Halloween Haunt experiences like for The Conjuring. If Six Flags chooses to not renew their Peanuts license, I'd personally like to see some parks get custom family area themes. Parks like Dollywood have proven that you don't necessarily need branded characters to have a successful and award-winning family land. Removing the Peanuts theming should be easy enough, and it could be redone with temporary signage if need be. Any of the parks with their own sign shops could make new signage in the off-season.

It will be interesting to see how the investigation for fraud plays out. I don't personally think much or any intentional fraud has been committed by Six Flags, but the blatant mismanagement and lack of proper announcements — combined with the high amount of euphemizing — could be considered fraud in some sense. I'm curious as to what any other legal experts might think about that. Is that Banner article just talking about how Wild One will close at the end of the season? Or is it about something else? My normal methods of avoiding signing up for free articles didn't seem to work so I can't read much of what was said.

An exciting start to announcement season! I guess now we know what they were filming that one night the Boo Blasters pathway/plaza was closed a month or two ago. I think the new Phantom Theater will replace Boo Blasters, and the shot from the antechamber at the end is either misdirection or something to lead into a new sneak peek for The Conjuring: Beyond Fear. While I'd love for a new ride (especially a Madhouse or a Dynamic Motion Stage) to go in there, I don't see what the use would be for adding two attractions in one off-season when Six Flags is cutting everywhere else. Unless Kings Island is going to be the crown jewel of a package sale, it wouldn't add up. This could also be something where the spooky abandoned theater of PT and the haunted artifacts museum of TC:BF are similar enough in concept to showcase them both together. That would honestly be a really cool way to hype up your guests for what's to come. It could be possible that The Conjuring: Beyond Fear is a one-season test to see whether or not it could be brought to other Haunts throughout the chain. If I remember correctly, CW's is going in one of the newly-reconfigured spaces in Wonder Mountain; Carowinds' is going in their Aeronautica (Action) Theater; and Cedar Point's is going in the old Town Hall Museum building. Kings Island still has the other side of Action Theater they could move this to, or they could build a new Haunt barn like they did with Slaughterhouse if they wanted to.

Some kind of 18th-19th century New England or Mid-Atlantic style would be my guess as well for the architectural style, but the building at Coney Island looks like it could have served as the inspiration for the building at Kings Island. The same design was reused for the Mason-Dixon Music Hall at Kings Dominion (now the Kings Dominion Theater). I believe the Canterbury Theater at Canada's Wonderland also uses this same floor plan, but the facade was changed due to how that park purposely avoided anything that could have made it feel too Americanized. Carowinds and Great America had their own big theaters before Taft acquired them. If I'm being honest, the Carowinds Theater does not look very good from the outside. The Great America Theater looks good for the most part, though.

I bet you the structure could definitely be modified to fit the theater facade theme. If all of the structure under it is still in good condition, it would just need new shaping and paint. I'd rather see a new facade though. The pillars for the gate are probably easy enough to redo on their own. I believe the deciding factor would be if this new attraction has a more cartoonish art style (like SDatHC and BBoBH do) or if it will have a more realistic art style (like Phantom Theater did). Speaking of construction, I hope we'll see proper fencing go up. It will probably just be the chain link with the vinyl covering, but I think wood fencing would look much better. I'd assume it'll go up where there is a door blocking the exit hallway, maybe something blocking the entrance bridge, and maybe something blocking a staging area where they'll bring some stuff out through. It would make sense for Six Flags to wait until the SFOT announcement on September 25th, but I hope they go this route and announce it before the start of the Fall events. The park will have been open to the public for 3 days before the 25th and, to me, it would not make sense to have a 3 day teaser campaign (unless they don't plan to physically tease at all). We've seen the subtle hints in the BBoBH closure announcement post, which may be all we get until the official attraction announcement comes. Realistically, I know to not trust Six Flags with anything so if they announce something for it I will be a happy camper. I would not like to see a Justice League dark ride, nor would I like for it to become a different DC/Peanuts/Looney Tunes attraction. There is a also non-zero chance that this project gets delayed or cancelled entirely within the next month. Like I said, I do not trust Six Flags with anything they promise. The fact that a lot of people on Facebook seem to think that the Phantom Theater reboot and the removal of the Peanuts from the parks is 100% happening speaks to how bad Six Flags has been at communicating basic information to its guests in a timely manner. Parks that normally had announcements by mid-August are now starving for any information at all, and the void they left is being filled by people with inside sources as well as by theorists who have no idea what might be going on. It seems that the even park's unpaid Facebook attendants have no clue as to what it will be. (No offense meant to the aforementioned FB attendants.) To be fair, the cardboard cutouts would just be a continuation of what we have seen since 2003. While I'd hate to see the ride become Boo Blasters with a Phantom Theater overlay, I think I'd rather see that over many of the alternatives. It's either animatronics and cutouts or animatronics and screens — anything else would look far too cheap. A proper full-on 2026 version of Phantom Theater with all animatronics would be the best. A slightly more budget friendly Phantom Theater would be acceptable for the time being. I really hope they save the trees all around the building.

Adjusting their hours also means anyone driving from further away would need to leave earlier or get an additional night in a hotel. It's not worth the trip from Ohio to Carowinds. It definitely will not be worth the drive from Kings Dominion to Carowinds. Six Flags Over Georgia to Carowinds might be worth the trip if you don't mind having to drive all that way and back.

My suspension of disbelief led me to think the new wraps made them look kind of like carved stone, where the weird shape could be chalked up to the shapes of the stone. A new fiberglass body could help more once they have the money to spend on it.

I bet there would be a world where they could send guests along the path to/from Soak City, turn right into Picnic Grove, and then use the original Picnic Grove path (between Woodstock's Air Rail and the log flume) to return guests back to Rivertown proper. Make the haunt come in two parts, 1) a spooky train ride over to the Soak City station (hopefully extensively remodeled and decorated to look abandoned) where guests deboard and walk into an overflow queue line, then 2) the haunt begins at the entrance to Picnic Grove where guests then follow the aforementioned path. The biggest issue would be how to get it through Picnic Grove without potentially disturbing any event hosting capabilities. Maybe they could build some new shelters over where Invertigo is now. The park should continue to encourage and host company gatherings during the Fall season to keep money coming in. There's also the question of how well-suited that old pathway is to still being used for anything other than cars, which could probably be somewhat easily fixed.

Carowinds removing their ice skating would probably not be as devastating as Kings Island removing theirs would be. While it brings in money for that park, the warmer temperatures may affect the ice quality more than it does at KI and theirs is not as centrally located as Kings Island's is. They also paved over that area so it could either be used for more festival space (as it is now) or as an ice skating rink if they decide removing it was a bad idea. Winterfest may not be the money maker everyone thinks it is, but it is a beloved season at Kings Island. I believe removing some of its quintessential activities or ending the event entirely at Kings Island would result in much greater backlash than we've seen with all of the new changes to Haunt.

There is at least one night in October where the one-night HAEP costs $59, while the All-Season HAEP cost $59 total. I'd bet it was very limited in how many could be sold. If the only event upgrades we see are the addition of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear and Order of the Dragon, I can see a world where KI's Haunt (and the other Halloween Haunt events) gets review bombed into oblivion. It seems those in charge of these decisions at Six Flags do not understand how pricing tickets and using money for investments works at all. If they do understand it, they aren't very good at showing it.

I wonder how many they sold. 200? 400? It'll pay for itself in two Saturday nights at Haunt, meaning less money that the park could make off it. The all-season express pass at KI was also $20 cheaper than the all-season normal pass at Six Flags Over Texas.

Hopefully if they're going to willingly choose the bankruptcy route they'll find a way to make it as quick and painless as possible. I have to wonder which parks would actually be retained by a post-bankruptcy Six Flags — if it exists by the end of all of this. Maybe the next CEO will be able to lead and manage the company better, or at least be smarter about where to make needed cuts and redirect investments. Any of the better parks that get closed and sold for their land will be a massive tragedy in the world of family entertainment. The guests of the ones that get sold to better-managed companies will need to deal with much higher pass prices and even more nickel-and-diming.