KIghostguy

I'm pretty sure the shoes behind the curtain is just supposed to be a spooky Easter egg, to do something with that gap there.

Your comment about the voice acting is interesting—Richard Doyle does reprise his role as Maestro in this ride. So I would say that’s as authentic as you can get. I think the music definitely needs more fine-tuning. They turned it off on Thursday so they could film on-rides for media day, but while they turned it back on in the queue, I don’t think they turned it on the ride as of yesterday.

IAAPA News goes behind the curtain at Kings Island--and Sally Dark Rides--to discover how the newest incarnation came to be. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRflPyJjp50

There was a surprising amount of stuff closed yesterday. Adventure Express, Beast for most of the day, Zephyr, Bat on one train. But that being said, there’s a lot of new music in the park, as others have noted, including themed music back on International Street. The carousel got touched up for its 100th anniversary and looked great. I didn’t notice any burned out lightbulbs. It just felt like there was more attention to detail around the park than in the last few years. Despite the closed rides, Kings Island felt the most normal it has since the pandemic. Just my opinion.

The Sally Dark Rides newsletter today featured this great video with interviews, concept art, and footage of the attraction's development:

Thank you for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's hard to believe we are coming up on the five year anniversary of the book's release.

This press release they handed out at IAAPA sets the opening in April.

Yes, it was a model of the Sesame Street dark ride at Port Aventura. By the way, that model was built by R&R Designs!

There's still 8 more hours in the day...they could post it at 11:59 p.m. and their post yesterday would still technically be correct But I agree with you. As an impatient person, I am surprised it has not been posted yet!

This is a very well-done story! It is wonderful that Gary has finally been inducted into the IAAPA Hall of Fame, an honor he has long deserved.

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'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

IAAPA's Funworld has released this video with new information from Sally Dark Rides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIPiFcuFBxs This video also has the full press conference: It was a great day. I was very moved being there for this.

https://amusementtoday.com/issues/2025/202511ii/assets/downloads/AT-NOV-II-2025i.pdf The latest issue of Amusement Today has an article about Phantom Theater, with some details that have not yet been released. The ride will feature a new performer, a contortionist named Sir Pretzel, and it features 33 animatronics and 1 static figure.

In 1991, when Smurf's Enchanted Voyage closed for Phantom Theater construction, the park opened two additional rides for Winterfest to compensate for the dark ride being closed (Dodgem and Antique Cars). It would have been nice for the park to go the extra mile and open something new that isn't usually open since Boo Blasters is offline this year.