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Cassy and Travis's Trip Report for Phantom Fall Fest Preview : Yesterday Travis and I attended Kennywood's Preview event for their new halloween event, Phantom Fall Fest. We have spent a lot of time at Kennywood, but have not been to their halloween events, so we didn't know what to expect! From my understanding, they used to have two separate halloween events; one for kids in the day, then they would close and reopen for the haunt event in the evening. Kennywood's new event Phantom Fall Fest combines the two events and lets families enjoy the festivities during the day and at 6pm the haunting starts, so families with small children know when to leave if they needed to. They had five mazes: 1. Villa of the Vampire-vampire themed maze that takes place in the arcade building, they clear out all the arcade machines and build this maze inside the building, very well themed! (I liked the skull wall) 2. Shady Grove Memorial Hospital-you are going undercover through this maze, to see what's going on with the patients and hospital staff, there's rumors of an evil doctor (where did all their eyes go?) 3. Dark Shadows- this is their "blackout" maze, which was the first of these that I've been in that was outdoors, and we went when it was slightly light outside and we still couldn't see anything! (I love these kind of mazes) 4. Kennyville Cemetery- Very cool cemetery themed maze, located at the front of the park (loved the ghost in the water!) 5. Voodoo Bayou-cool voodoo themed maze that takes place in the rapids ride, they empty out the water and you get to walk around where the water was which I thought was really cool! Also we were told they use their old dying plants from the season as decor for the maze! They also had four scare zones: 1. Fear Fest- this is a carnival themed walkthrough section where the kangaroo used to be (rip kangaroo) 2. Manor Estate Sale- cool little area that makes it seem like you are in someones house looking at their belongings 3. Hellbilly Hollow-name says it all, your classic hillbilly-zombie themed area, some very good scare actors! (they were always chasing someone) 4. The Departing-the final walkthrough, this takes place in the tunnel when you leave the park, they put scare actors in the tunnel and pump up the fog! (this starts later in the evening, I think 90 minutes before they close) Here are pictures from our evening: Kenny was in his halloween best! love sky rocket! such a fun ride next was phantoms revenge, loved the theming of decor since they are currently working on painting the track the purple track looks cool! sad that this ride was blocked off, but thought it was funny they decorated the blocked off area had to try the "scary waffle cone" you could choose the ice cream flavor, then it had orange sprinkles and gummy worms for the preview we tried some of the new seasonal offerings they have this year such as roasted corn, turkey legs, hamburger steak, and spooky desserts! Noah's ark is one of my favorite attractions here, its so unique! have to ride the whip! such a great ride! Lots of photo-op areas everywhere! picture of the voodoo bayou sign in the day, this was my favorite sign for the mazes I loved the effort they put into theming the haunt decor to what was going on, these guys are doing a little construction! Next for the preview event, we went on a behind the scenes tour of Villa of the Vampire. Like I said before, this maze was inside the arcade area and is built from scratch every year after they move all the arcade machines out. Super cool to see all the detail you don't get to admire when the maze is dark (and avoiding vampires). I thought Laffin' Sal was scary as she was! Now she's hanging out with the vampires! this is the main room where they explain the rules of the maze we got to go where the scare actors go, and see all the doors and windows they use Mark showing off one of the secret doors my favorite area! I want the skull wall for my house! the woman in the picture on the wall was an employee for that attraction for years before she passed away and they honor her by putting her photo in the room where she worked the most gotta take that spooky mirror selfie! one of the cool effects they use for the bug rooms is they have fishing wire that brushes against your face and hair making you feel like you're walking through webs Then we got to go behind the scenes and see makeup being done on scare actors, and look at some of their masks and props they use to transform scare actors for the the night! had to get some pictures back there too! this is where they work on everything for the upkeep on their wooden coasters RIP Also RIP (I really miss this one) Glad we went on this earlier in the day cause the whale was full! love seeing real chainsaws being used for haunts! they pumped fog into the carousel, I thought this was a really cool touch! we left a little earlier than when they started this walkthrough area, but there were some scare actors at the end of the tunnel had to take a spooky tunnel selfie Overall we had a good time, and really enjoyed the night! Our favorite maze was Voodoo Bayou, and we loved that all the areas had a ton of fog and really good scare actors! This is a great family event, with something for everyone to enjoy!

The fun thing about Marineland is that I wouldn’t be shocked if they closed forever tomorrow and I also wouldn’t be shocked if they announced a hyper GTX tomorrow because it’s a park run by insane people.

Someone said haunted house will go in that space

New closures posted. Manta 10/18 - 11/28 (New paint confirmed) Seal Lion Stadium 10/18 - 10/28 Kraken 11/29 - 1/3

I went on a couple of weekdays last week. Crowds were light, but there were one-train ops on everything except Twisted Colossus (which ran two trains). Everything had about a 5-10 minute wait except for X2, Full Throttle, and Superman - which were both close to 30 minutes. X2 was running 4-minute dispatches in addition to one-train ops, and only the forward side of Superman was running. Apocalypse, Viper, Riddler, Batman, and Scream were walk-ons. I would expect this week to be similar.

The lighting game is strong this year. As far as the concrete, there's one certainty. It won't be used for Goliath's station. Seems like a good place for a Skyline Attractions compact MGR.

I am under the impression that means one park in the chain visit per day. LIke, you cant go to carowinds until noon and drive to Kings dominion for the rest of the day. Not you having to pick from SCarowinds at night or carowinds in the day.

Honestly, if you only had a half-day you probably didn't have time to ride Dragon Mountain anyway. It's in the back of the park.

Fastlane saved the night tonight for sure. I couldn't believe how crowded the park got...most midways were so full of people you couldn't move. After dinner I hit Banshee which had a pretty full line but walked right up fastlane and right to the front row. I love this thing...my favorite invert and the night ride was even more insane. Feeling the temp changes was really neat. Around 8:30 I started a loop around the park as most major coasters were showing 2-3 hr standby lines. First up was Orion, which had both the fastlane and standby lines full to the entrance. Fastlane took 30 minutes, greeter was telling people 3:15 for standby. Ended up in row 2. Real fun at night. Love that speed hill and the 2nd to last airtime hill. Just wish it was longer, no brake run should be 100 feet high. Headed back to Windseeker which had a standby line stretching back almost to Troika but not a soul in the fastlane line. Awesome view and I feel like this one spins faster than others at the top. Next up was Beast which had a line spilling out the entrance and posted at 2:45. Even the fastlane was beyond the split with the exit line. Took over 30 minutes but still saved a lot of time. Rode in front and got my first night Beast ride in 14 years. Absolutely love it. The first half is like Blair Witch Project: The Ride. Then that damn helix is unreal at night when you can't see it and can't anticipate when you're going to slam into it. Headed over to the best standup coaster in the world...Mystic Timbers. Got two rides in 10 minutes as there was 0 line for the fastlane despite 1:30 for the standby line. The airtime on this thing is mental and some of the sharp turns catch you off guard at night. To have these two woodies in the same park as 3 top tier B&Ms should be illegal. Too much greatness in one park. Finished up with Diamondback and a front seat ride. Almost as good as Nightro, but nothing beats 20 degree rides on Nitro in January. This definitely has the better ejector air of the two, especially in front. The camelbacks just launch you into outer space. Was time to head out by then, but scored a Boo Blasters ride on the way by just before closing. This park is already pretty special as it is, but when the sun goes down it's just the best. Some parks have a designated night ride that you always need to finish the day on. This place has 6. And now that Boulder Dash sucks, the Beast can reclaim its crown as the best night coaster on earth. Only thing I didn't get to that I wanted to was Bat. Theres no fastlane access for it. I actually went to get in line for it as Queue Times said 45 minutes, but I knew it would be longer when I only had to walk 45 seconds to find the back of the line. Heading to Strickers Grove tomorrow at 1 then coming back for a few hours. Only open till 8 so will only have time for one fully dark ride to wrap up the trip. There's only one candidate for which ride that will be.

Goliath was open yesterday! The only major attraction closed for maintenance was Lex Luthor. Superman was closed because of lite rain early in the day.

Just made a quick trip to Dorney for haunt. #1 highlight should be obvious.... Demon Drop. Man I love that thing. Two of the mazes were just terrible. The others looked nice and had some decent actors in some, but overall not very good and very little scares despite going through as just the two of us through almost all the mazes. In the blackout house, right near the end I managed to get lost and go through an emergency exit (because I thought it was the end and I didn't see any more arrows; the other houses had real exits through the emergency exit final door) and went through a door which took me back to the beginning of the maze LOL my wife who was in front of me got to the end of the house and waited 8 min for me to get out. I don't think the people behind me who followed me were too happy lol!! Talon ops made me want to scream more than the houses... guy was CLEARLY too big... guy starts arguing in his seat and refused to get up... they unlock and relock and try again, not even close to getting the buckle to latch (also note that the larger seat is right next to him but they didn't move him or try to get him on another train or anything so the train sat there about 15 min while they kept trying for no reason). Rides had the longest lines I've ever seen but I had free FL/FrL despite having a one train wait it took 20 min to get off Talon. Steel Force actually had some decent floater air because it was a full train! Never seen that happen at Dorney before, lol. Anyways, if you are looking for a good haunt, I'd stay away from Dorney this year. We are going to hit up Reapers Revenge and Hellstead Manor after a quick trip to great Adventure in the morning so I can (hopefully) ride my first ever RMC single rail. Huge thanks to Mike240SX for the free fright lane tip. Even though it wasn't the best visit ever, it was better than sitting at home. And... Demon Drop. C'mon. Oh, and $10.01 for a waffle cone full of twist custard at Rita's, ouch. No platinum discount. Good thing I didn't get sprinkles lol. It WAS good though

My apologies then. It was two years ago...I didn't actually go back and look it up.

Did you purposely not include a link to where you got this info because its exactly one former employee claiming on his twitter that this is all happening with absolutely no actual evidence to back it up?

Great report there, @cfc Now for mine.... Photo TR: Sunday, October 3rd So, after my brief detour to the Virginia State Fair (<-click there for the report), I made it to Kings Dominion slightly before opening at 1:30. Decent crowd built up, and glad I spent the $45 for Fright Lane here. Made my way in to the park.... ...and got stopped at the rope heading in to Planet Snoopy. Dominator and Berserker were operating, but meh to both of them...I needed me some Woodstock Express! While waiting, snapped a picture of the Halloween decorations under the Eiffel Tower. At rope drop, I made my way to Woodstock Express for a one train wait for back row. This ride was glass smooth...I don't think I've ever had a smoother ride on any one of these that I've ridden. I didn't notice any new wood anywhere, but man was it nice. I then made my way through Safari Village, in which part of the old path toward Avalance had been turned into a scare zone....unfortunately I didn't get to experience that tonight. Anyway, made my way past Flight of Fear after getting a thumbs down from the greeter (chain was still up, guess they were still doing their tests), and instead hopped on Intimidator 305 for a one train wait for front row. Still super, super awesome. The last couple of times I got on this I was in the back; I forgot how insane the speed and wind are in the front. Here's a video of it, even: VID_20211003_142340478.mp4 On the way back out, Flight of Fear was now operating, so I hopped on for a one train wait for front row. Amusingly this is on Fast Lane, despite not being indicated as such on KD's website. Ed.Note: Apparently, it is now listed on the website, but as of a month ago it wasn't, I swear! I then hopped on Anaconda for a walk-on, solo-ride, in the front row. This piece of shit was shuffling on the straight climb into the first loop. WTF? Time for it to go. As much as I love these old Arrow multi-loopers in theory, yeah, its time has come. Continuing down Candy Apple Grove, I finally was able to stop in at Mac Bowl for a delicious custom Mac & Cheese...my first from here since 2019. Sadly, the portions have shrunk and the cost has risen (now $15 for a standard bowl). Next up was Rebel Yell/Racer 75, for a train and a half wait for the front row on the left side (only side operating). Was very smooth, especially given that I don't think this has gotten anywhere near the track work that its sibling at KI has gotten recently. At this point, it was time to check in to my hotel, so I started making my way back towards the front of the park, but not before stopping at Grizzly for a four train wait for the front row. New wood in a bunch of places for a more tolerable ride than usual, but yeah, this can go die in a fire. I'd almost want to see it RMC'd but if it'll run like Cedar Fair runs their other RMC's, maybe the GCI Titan Track would be a better option. At this point, I left to check in to my hotel. Once back in the park, I headed back to Twisted Timbers area, but stopped to take some pictures of all the old Haunt maze signs first: Then it was time for a lap on my #2 hybrid, Twisted Timbers. Back row, of course, 21 minutes from locker-to-locker. I still hate this system, mostly for the combined FL/standby line after the locker checkpoint. It doesn't help that you can go ride a RMC at a SF park without having to go through any of the metal detector/locker nonsense. Insanely great ride, insanely stupid policies. Outdoor mazes weren't open yet, so I took a walk through Condemned. Nice and long maze, plenty of actors, well done artistry, but a couple of the areas were way too dark and I needed to feel my way around. Headed to Trick or Treat next, which was very well done...much better than its sister at Dorney. Spectacular artistry, and one of the actors actually got me, a true rarity! Blood on the Bayou was up next, and was also super impressive. Great artistry, tons of actors who were awesome at their jobs...all around very well done as well. I also stopped to grab a picture of the only remnants of the sole coaster at Kings Dominion that was around while I was alive (and of adequate height) that I never got to ride: At this point, it was time for the opening ceremonies: Blood Reign / Heads Will Roll at the end of International Street. So I made my way up there for that show. Blood Reign was great, with the scareactors for all of the scare zones for the park assembled and then mingling with the crowd when told to "Go forth!" by Queen Majesty. Heads Will Roll was incredible, and I'll talk about that at length at the end of the report. Outdoor mazes were now open, so I took a walk through Cornstalkers. Still a very tired theme, but at least this one smelled like corn instead of fire retardant spray. This one did have a decent amount of actors in it, a few of which were very well placed, but still...meh. Of course the giant skull was back: Made my way through the Pumpkin Eater area, to some nice decorations: Last of the mazes was Grimm Woods, the one I had been looking forward to the most. As has been mentioned, this takes place during a large portion of the old Dinosaurs Alive path (but not all of it), but was still quite long indeed. You'll take a stroll through three of the Brother's Grimm fairy tales: Red Riding Hood, Little Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty), and Hansel & Gretel. All were very well done in terms of artistry and costumes and actors, but there could have been more of both given the sprawling walk-through area. I also have to say that it was a total missed opportunity at the end, where (spoiler alert) there's an oven in the Hansel and Gretel part that is big enough for two people to fit in. How awesome would it be if there were actors in there acting like they were getting cooked alive? After Grimm Woods, I took in the Riff Raff show near the end of Candy Apple Grove. A great cover band rocking out to 80s hits, including this awesome rendition of Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell" Riff Raff.mp4 Eagerly looking for more shows, I ventured into the Cleaver Brothers Carnival area... ...and found that they also had a Fortune Teller booth set up, much like the one at Cedar Point. Unfortunately this one was just one booth, and you only spend about two minutes with the fortune teller instead of the 10-15 as at CP. Similar process through, you draw one card from a tarot-like deck, and she explains what it means. Entertaining enough. I then took in the Burnette the Barker show as well as the Black Widow Burlesque dancers. Burnette was entertaining enough, and the Burlesque show was more risque than I was expecting for a park, but still quite tame by burlesque standards (the girls were all quite covered despite what the following image may show). As the night was winding down, I grabbed a $15 Jack-and-Coke from the bar-truck that they drove up from the water park (the normal standing bar near the Carousel had one person working it and a line 20 people deep), and stopped to listen to the Riff Raff set again. I did not hang around for the other show, The Ruckus, as I did not recognize more than one of music acts listed on the website. After finishing the tasty adult beverage, I took a trip up the Eiffel Tower and grabbed a bunch of pictures of the skyline at night. Apologies for the quality of these pictures, for some reason the camera in my phone sucks at night when there are multiple light sources. While I was up there, I saw that the Heads Will Roll show was getting started again, so I headed back down and took in that show again, before heading out for night. All in all, Kings Dominion easily had the most impressive overall Haunt lineup of the three that I've been to this year (Cedar Point, Dorney, and here). Great mazes for the most part, and a spectacular show lineup. I'm going to try to get back here later in the year just to experience some of them again. I said I was going to talk about Heads Will Roll at the end of the report, and here it is: This was hands down the best song-and-dance show I've ever seen at an amusement park. From the costumes, to the acting, the choreography, and especially the singing...OMG was this just incredible. The main male and female leads had insanely powerful voices (it didn't hurt that they were both super cute too!). Both performances of this show I saw were so on-point. I can't possibly say enough good about it. I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures of the show as well as some select video highlights: "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads Show-Psycho Killer 1.mp4 "Hungry Like a Wolf" by Duran Duran Show-Hungry Like a Wolf 1.mp4 "Falling" by Trevor Daniel Show-Falling 2.mp4 "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga Show-Bad Romance 2.mp4 "Heads Will Roll" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the grand finale. Show-Heads Will Roll 2.mp4 So long, Kings Dominion! Thanks for a great night!

We have been looking into Denver since Meow Wolf's opening a new exhibit there soon, that mini golf place will be a must do as well.

Wow, so this mini-golf looks like a Denver Non-Disappointment!?!

COVID only delayed the conversion of this park to 800 condos at a project valued at $2.4 billion. It did not stop it. If they were nice, they could give all their old rides to Trey and Matt Stone and they could build a Cartmanland next to a Casa Bonita. Mui Bien! Or takeover Lakeside and build a new Casa Bonita over there?

It's amazing how bad the traffic is. The crowds stay alllll night long. Lines close 30 minutes + early. We were pretty much forced to eat in the park since it would take a lyft/uber driver 35 minutes to get in to us at the hotel, and then get out. The one walking distance restaurant, Famous Dave's, closes at 8pm daily!!! If you have FL you're going to have a great day, but just don't go on a Saturday. We figured we'd just do one or two rides if the crowd thinned out but that never happened. I bet people were stuck in traffic till 130 or 2am. I bet the reached capacity or got very close to it.