Losantiville Mining Co.

I'm certain it has been said here before, but is the boiler prop the same one from Phantom Theater Encore? I love seeing all of the pictures from these backstage tours!

The old Beast Canyon Cold Drinks sign has been there for the last couple years, however the Kings Crossroads sign got put back up a few weeks ago (IIRC). The Kings Crossroads sign is definitely there now.

Just got this Six Flags Over Texas ad while scrolling through an article. I noticed the "Over Texas" part is a lot larger than normal. Is this a new change or has Legacy Six Flags done this for their banner ads for a while? Other Six Flags parks have also shown this formatting in recent ads. I like it a lot more than the logos where "Six Flags" is gigantic while the rest of the park name is tiny. I'm still wishing for some park name changes (reverting away from Six Flags) and/or getting some new park logos that aren't like what we've seen since 2023. The original Six Flags wordmark goes so hard. Bring that back for SFOT, SFOG, and SFSL at least.

Six Flags recently revealed a concept for a Regional Park Passport during their Investor Day presentation. This system would, if implemented, offer access to select parks in each region at a lower cost than the All Park Passport currently in effect. Some parks were circled together as examples during the presentation, such as Kings Island and Cedar Point. It was not clear to me whether the park groupings were set or not, or if there would be some changes as the idea developed more. What are your thoughts on the Regional Parks Passport idea provided during Investor Day? What parks would you pair/group together? Provide your thoughts below! For this offering to be worth buying, I would suggest allowing guests to pick their parks rather than being forced to go with one or two region presets. Maybe having a base price where guests can choose any five parks to add to their pass would be better than the preselected groupings. Someone who lives in Indiana and visits Cedar Point, Great America, and Kings Island would have to choose which region to go to if the system was as I understood it. Any changes will need to be clearly marked during the pass buying process. Legacy Six Flags customers already had to contend with pass structure changes when buying for 2025, would it be too soon to make them learn a whole new structure again for 2026 or 2027? Personally, I think Six Flags should keep the current pricing for the All Park Passport (maybe go up $50 at most), and find other ways to attract more passholders. They locked themselves into this price bracket when they released the 2025 pass offerings. The new company has proven itself to be untrustworthy so far with some aspects of park quality, and I believe too much is on the line for there to be major increases in pass prices right now — especially as some guests perceive a noticeable decline in how things are run and with rides being retired without notice. No amount of shiny new rides across the chain will help to improve A.P.P. sales when people's home park is struggling because of cuts mandated by corporate.

Kings Island has introduced a new Food Punch Card for the 2025 Food & Wine Festival! Simply pick up a card, purchase 5 different food items (from a list of 10), and head over to Sweet Spot to pick up "...an exclusive Food & Wine dessert...". I haven't seen them in person, but I am happy that Kings Island decided to bring a card to this event. Participants should expect to spend at least $50 on festival food offerings to receive the special dessert. This is certainly better, in my opinion, than having nothing available that might encourage guests to participate in the offerings. I am excited to see what this expanded event looks like on my next visit! Would a tasting card that offered five foods for $45 have been too much of a loss for Six Flags? I don't know. Budget cuts and cost synergies for the shareholders. [Massive shrug emoji goes here.] What are your thoughts? Would you welcome the Food & Wine Festival back for 2026, or would you create a whole new event? (that would cost a lot more money than reusing the current event and possibly improving on it). What [realistic] event would you suggest the park put on? I would opt to bring the Food & Wine Festival back, and expand it by having some more offerings under the Eiffel Tower. It could eventually grow to have some specialty offerings in one or two dining locations per park area, but that may need to wait until the new Six Flags is more stable than they are now. The current festival areas (Tower Gardens, along the path around the Eiffel Tower, and the new festival tent) are nice and keep the event contained. I enjoy the size of this festival for what it is.

That would depend on if there is anyone left in Six Flags higher ups that cares to cater to adults and thrillseekers anymore! Kings Island is going to be deemed 100% a family park while Cedar Point will be the major thrill park. (this is a joke) I think the park could probably squeeze a swim up bar/adult pool over near the entrance to Splash River. That pathway leads to nothing except Splash River and Zoom Flume, and it isn't under the power lines. It also gets it out of the way from the rest of the waterpark.

Are lanyards a terribly huge expense for events like Coasterstock? That feels like something that could have been factored into the ticket price.

I think the Skyline Pavilion would be a lot better if they cleaned/painted it and replaced the lights/fans/tables with newer versions. It always seems a bit disjointed/dirty, so that would almost definitely help. A few TVs would also make it more like the covered Jukebox Diner patio. Maybe the park can put in a small food stand across the path from it, blocking the view of QCSC but giving it some more purpose. The Saltwater Circus lawn would be an awesome spot to put a new flat ride. I'm choosing to believe that is why the spot next to the Grand Carousel was chosen, in addition to being effectively right next to Tower Gardens. Kings Island still has a lot to do when it comes to improving their summer festivals. I do hope the park puts one of their little stages under the tent and has some small live entertainment there.

Hot Rhythm Nights typically runs later in the day than the other shows. I believe I saw something like 6PM, 7:30PM, and 9PM on the screen, but there is a chance that I misread it.

I am definitely (somewhat close to being) a show groupie. The current entertainment lineup does leave a little to be asked for, but I'm glad we have stuff like Country Crossroads and Hot Rhythm Nights. If Six Flags is trying to find a way to improve their parks without putting new coasters everywhere, I would highly recommend investing in awesome shows for each park. The largest initial investment would be building/upgrading stages/theaters, and continued investment would be the creation of each new show. If I had my way, a dream Kings Island entertainment lineup quick list would be: (hidden for dramatic effect) An episode about the favorite shows throughout each Kings Island era would be cool to see. Either that or (hear me out) an episode coming up with a dream show lineup / a realistic dream show lineup!

As in the slide itself was shaking? I wonder if that could just be how water coasters feel due to how the water moves, I wouldn't know though. A new rattle on day 3 of operations would not bode well for any ride or slide.

I noticed a lot of classic logo merch in the stores today and thought it was interesting to see. There are still a ton of the different books throughout the stores as well. Goodbye, Coney Island, Goodbye still has about 10 copies available in KI Collections for about $7 each, but none of them have the cover sleeve on it. I'm glad I got mine when they still had their covers. The non-park consumer products are still weird to see in the Emporium. Those would be better served to be put together in a smaller and different shop. I think someone signed a deal to get those in the park because more Kings Island merch could not be made for some reason. I'd be curious to see if any new Six Flags merch comes to the Legacy Cedar Fair parks. We don't need any Six Flags Universe stores, but if the chain really does want to make the Six Flags brand be shown in all of their parks, that seems like an easy route.

Best of luck for your trip! If you're planning to spend any time in the Loop/downtown Chicago, I would recommend looking into using their metro system. It's not as scary as some make public transit sound, and will let you explore without a car for a little bit. Not sitting in traffic would be a definite plus side. Disclaimer: I've never been in June/July so that might be different from when I was there, and it's your trip so do what you'd like.

Miami River Brewhouse Review 5/25/2025: Tower Drinks was open, so we got ourselves some drinks after checking out the new festival area. I got a regular Coca-Cola which tasted a little off, but I think that was more on my end. The first dispenser I tried was just soda water, but the second one was fully functional so it was fine. We went to the Brewhouse this morning shortly after it opened and had a very nice experience. I got a Pub Burger with no lettuce/tomato/onion, and a Coke. My drink was good and standard and lasted throughout my time in the restaurant, no notes. Our food took a little longer than I'd expected to get to us, but again that was probably just me. My meal was super hot and fresh, with the tater tots being especially good. I think the order buzzers recently got new stickers. Our receipt had our entire order on it (compared to our last visit to the Brewhouse), but still said "King's Island" at the top. Not a negative, but I'm shocked that it hasn't been corrected yet. As a whole I'd rate this experience at 5/5 Stars. My burger was definitely better than the one I had earlier in the season from the Festhaus. The Coke Freestyle stand at the KI&MV RR station said it was supposed to open at noon, but the doors were closed when we were headed to the train around 12:20. No fault to the associates who appeared to be trying to get the stand open. I didn't get a chance to see what it looked like when we got off of the train. So far, my overall 2025 Kings Island dining experience is rated at 4/5 Stars!

My biggest issue (that I will keep bringing up) with places like the Skyline in Coney Mall is how they go about serving the orders at the pick-up window. Half of the times I've been there or at Potato Works it has been so hard to hear what name is called for which order, even when standing 5-10 feet away from the window. At least Skyline (if I remember correctly) doesn't have the screens between the associate and the customer that make it harder to interact. 100% agreed. There are a lot of easy/cheap ways to accomplish this as well. Using the food-safe newspaper underlayment adds charm, while using the normal KI paper visually lumps it into something you could get anywhere else in the park. Most of the nice plating techniques can also be boiled down to one additional lesson during associate training. A little extra TLC during plating goes a long way. What are the sheds for? They aren't labeled on the map like the red tents are. I also saw the festival tent today, and I think it looks better than I thought it would. Worse than it could have looked, but better than I thought. Random opinion: I think the park should have used the same kind of stones that are around the Grand Carousel sign planter instead of the stacked wood for the retaining walls. That would have been a nice way to tie the area together more. There also definitely should be a small fence along that curb so people don't trip down the step.

An in-depth insight into the current state of F&B at parks these days! I'd be interested to see more into how much farther some of these parks can go in food innovation. The ordering/serving/order tracking technology at the Six Flags parks is what I would like to see improved next. I can't tell you the amount of times I've been somewhere like Tom+Chee or Rivertown Potato Works and could not understand what order was being served. Put an order number on each receipt (make sure each customer takes their receipt) and have a screen showing order status at these dining locations, and that would solve most of the issues. Mobile ordering should also be (re)implemented across some of the dining locations in each park. Kings Island tried this out for a little bit, but ultimately it did not work because the necessary resources were not put into it.

The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California is celebrating 70 years of operation since Disneyland park opened in 1955. The park has introduced a series of fun and interactive experiences as part of their celebration. One new experience is the "Key to Disneyland", a large key-shaped souvenir that can be inserted into nine keyhole points around the park. Once all keyholes have been unlocked, a special compartment on the key will open and a collector's pin will pop out. This fun interactive experience plays select tracks from Disney repertoire and sets off special effects at each keyhole location. It retails for $59.99 and is a nice souvenir to commemorate Disneyland's 70th anniversary! Personally, I think it should be a little cheaper for being made of (what I think is) plastic and silicone, but it seems to be the right price for being a) a product sold at a theme park and b) for an anniversary. The pin itself — which can only be obtained via a key — would probably cost $10-$15 on its own, with the rest of the key being "worth" $40 as a park souvenir. The extra $10 might come from it being an experience. Using a higher quality/more valued material could increase the price a bit too much. Enjoy what you want as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. Happy 70th anniversary Disneyland!

I wonder how similar this set is to Cedar Point's Blood Bath maze (AKA Club Orpheus). Kings Island definitely needed a new maze, and if it means the return of vampires to the event then I'll be super happy. Medieval/gothic are also themes that I don't remember seeing at Haunt in recent years. This could be a re-skin of Madame Fatales in a new location, but those sets do look more gothic than MFCoT. Now to just get a good Hot Blooded replacement show and some special stuff for Haunt's 25th season at Kings Island!

I have to say, as much as I romanticize Old Rivertown in my head I think I do really enjoy current Rivertown as well. My time spent working on Kings Country (my fictional Taft/KECO park) let me think more about what the core themes of each area are. As it exists is better than it was around 2011 when the Google StreetView was taken, and it's been much better since 2022 when the KI&MV RR got its 50th anniversary upgrades!

I do somewhat like how it looks in everyone's pictures. Was it the best look? No, but at least it looks nice. The view of it in front of the Grand Carousel is a little sad though. The park is not likely to invest in something as grand as that at the moment. Look to Cedar Point, Dorney Park, and Carowinds if you'd like to see what Legacy Cedar Fair liked to build for their new carousel structures. I have a feeling that the turf areas not under the tent may be used for something like cornhole or other lawn games. It looks better than asphalt would have. Depending on the underlayment, additional tents/items could be staked into the ground as well. I would have preferred those areas be filled by plants and a tree, but I don't know what the plans are for this structure. It may see more use during Grand Carnivale, especially since that event is supposed to be bigger than F&W and has been even in its reduced state. (Is the seating in Tower Gardens still there? Or has it all been moved under the canopy?) It's possible that the area is still missing one or two things that will make it look better. If anyone has seen the new Communicore Hall at Epcot, you'll know how bad it looked when it opened. I won't swear by it, but I do think this may follow suit and look better as it comes into use during festivals. Also, if Kings Island's Winterfest gets anywhere near the full-on chopping block, I think that would say that Six Flags is doing a lot worse than anyone could have thought. I do think they should've put up a little fence near the curbs though. Just something to separate the canopy area from the pathways. 2025 has been and will continue to be rough for everyone. Don't be shocked if cuts continue and additions are less exciting than in the 2010s. Just like how Cedar Fair had to bring the Paramount parks up to standard, now they have to do that with the Legacy Six Flags parks. That being said, Six Flags corporate still has a lot to figure out before I can fully trust them to do right by all of their parks. I'm a little too doom and gloom with everything else in the world right now, so I think I'll at least try to get some happiness from my favorite parks.

Thank you for the clarification! I may have either misheard or saw something that was only true for one of the previews. My other issue with a lot of places that force mobile ordering is that you can't use cash; although the mighty dollar bill seems to be hard to use at any theme park these days. I'd rather just let my friends/family order everything and give them cash in return. The pizza looks awesome! I've been thinking about trying to make one of the mac and cheese bread cones at home to see what it's like.

The thought may have been that it's cheaper to fly one person around a bunch of parks than it is to pay all the former big salaries of everyone at those individual parks. The company as a whole has also been condensing, so why leave one department fully intact when everything else is condensed. I don't think the process was smart or fully thought out. The parks will be suffering a little until the company gets more stable IMO.

One thing I've heard is that Pizza Moon is mobile order only. Is that true for any of the other restaurants at Epic Universe? I already don't like needing to use my phone for everything, so it's unfortunate that there's not another ordering method readily available. All of the food looks really good though! If I ever get to go, I think I'll be super happy with whatever food I get.

I'm so excited to see that!!! Kings Dominion deserves the love and fanfare, and I'm glad they're getting both. I do wonder if the center of the medallion is the exact same one from Kings Island since it has "A Golden Celebration" instead of "A Golden Summerbration". Either way, congratulations again to Kings Dominion on your milestone!

I agree with most of the points about social media given above, although I have some thoughts as a former PR person (for a completely different organization) and regular park guest that might give some context. While I won't try to avoid rambling, I'll try to keep it coherent. This is also based on my personal experience in the field, yours may differ. Having some sort of boots-on-the-ground PR presence for each park is crucial for a couple of reasons. Users are more likely to interact with a post that includes a photo that relates to the subject than one with no photo at all. A generic photo from a different park will not cut it. Someone should be readily available to coordinate and release information within the park — not from an office four hours away. The average social media user will not be bothered by a few posts and IG stories per week from a park since they will see more from the 100+ other people/pages they follow. There can be a Regional PR Director/team for big announcements and who is responsible for maintaining consistency across different parks, but there also needs to be someone in each park taking pictures and handling guest questions indirectly through posts. Websites like Facebook and Instagram show posts to more people if the organization posts more often. Guests will also get excited if certain changes to the park are advertised. Anything positive in the park from the renovated KI Trading Co. to the new fencing in Soak City could have been used as easy interactions. Nothing has been officially said about the new festival tent or the relocated Living Liberty Bell either. If they get ignored, they get ignored. People want to see what is happening. Show them that the park is not stagnate. Also, look at the issues we had with Monster earlier this year. There was no official communication from Kings Island about it so anyone who saw the initial post could be led to believe that Guest Relations confirmed the ride was being retired. I'm very grateful that said poster was removed from the Season Pass group, but enough people had been fooled by that point (seriously though, thank you and good job on removing him). I personally believe that Kings Island should have taken more action after that, but I understand some of the reasoning as to why they didn't. In my mind impersonating a park employee / trying to pass off false information like that should be enough to be temporarily banned from the park, but I digress. The average regular guest is not likely to go look through the park website on their phone to find out why it is closed, and may find the statement given to be harsh or blame-y. All it would have taken is a post with a picture of the fence and a caption reading "Our Monster is currently resting and is expected to return later this season." with a sign on the fence that says something similar. No need to publicly address the fake email or put up a statement that blames someone else. In other news, Great Adventure (in all of its current guinea pig glory) has been installing wi-fi towers throughout the park. They are "tall, dark, and handsome"... umm... slim, painted black, and look like a 10ft pole with rings around the top. Coliwood Studios showed them off during his first few 2025 visits to that park this year. Hopefully we will see those come to the other parks as well.