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Actually it's been the opposite. Premier has been slowly and quietly downgrading the City Museum (in my opinion, at least). Don't get me wrong, its still wonderful and amazing and literally one of my favorite places on earth. But there have been slides closed for years now, and one of my favorite slides is definitely not coming back (the one on the first floor where you hang from a bar and drop into the basement). The ball pits have been emptied. And they put up a map. A MAP I tell you. Bob is rolling in his grave. They've definitely added some great stuff too, but it feels like every time I visit, some little feature I used to adore has been taken away.

That's the creepiest way I've ever heard anyone refer to a roller coaster.

Okay, time to get back to it here. Kings Island: 2022 Haunt Day 1 (October 14th, 2022) After my long drive from Delaware, checking in to my hotel, I made my way over to Kings Island just before 5 PM (for a 6 PM opening) on Friday the 14th. This was the sight I was greeted with: Oh yeah, it was gonna be busy. But it was good to be back for Haunt! The lines of people waiting to get in at 5:15. At 5:45, I was finally inside! I grabbed my all-season Fast Lane Plus wristband and Fright Lane lanyard, and then hung around for rope drop with the massive crowds: The releasing of the monsters! M4H03118_Trim.mp4 You can also see that the preparation for Winterfest has begun, with the lights on the buildings and decorations in the Tower Gardens. An ominous Angel of Death watches over park goers: Hey look, Kings Island has these things too! Except here, the art in them was designed to the various mazes and and scare zones throughout the park, instead of generic Halloween-y scenes like at Dorney. Before proceeding further, I came across one of the history signs I hadn't seen before: The first stop on my agenda here was the new-for-2022 maze, Hotel St. Michelle, way back in no-mans-land at the old Action Theater. I opted to not use my Fright Lane for this yet, and had a 5 minute wait. I was very surprised that they were initially sending guests through alone (or with your personal group); this obviously wouldn't last throughout the night, but it was a nice touch at the beginning of the night. Of course, about half way through I caught up with the previous groups and it became a conga line. All said and done, I thought this was a great concept and there were a TON of actors (though very few were in character, just doing generic groans and screams), but it was definitely too dark to really appreciate the artistry. Next up was an old favorite... Again, I didn't bother wasting my Fright Lane yet, and had zero wait. They modified the layout her from previous years, and changed out the "moving-car" prop for a band(?). As with Hotel St. Michelle, it was far too dark to fully appreciate the artistry, and despite having a lot of actors, all but one were not in character. The one that was, though - a faux mannequin - was absolutely spectacular and actually got me the first time through. Now it was time to check out the new scare zone... I swear Cedar Fair got a group rate on these water-crate-things. No scare zone actors yet, so it was time for... My first use of the Fright Lane. More or less unchanged from last year, but the addition of some very detailed alien costumes was a nice touch. The mirror-suit from Kings Dominion's 21 would fit in perfectly in the mirror maze section of this house (which I mentioned to the staffers outside). This one also had a ton of actors, with the scientists playing their roles well. Next up was... No wait with Fright Lane. Now anyone who is familiar with my reports knows just how over the whole butcher-shop haunt theme I am. That said, this was a very pleasant surprise! Again, tons of actors, all of them in character, and there were a couple of very nice physical prop gags, including a wall-closing-in-on-you thing like at Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror, which was my next stop. But not before grabbing a shot of this awesome decoration: I guess this was a thing? I didn't take a notes video after it, so from what I can remember it was pretty much the same as last year. Again, a ton of actors, which was an awesome constant at Kings Island's mazes. With all of the indoor mazes complete, it was time for some shows. First up was Terror Rising, their main musical show at the stage at the end of the fountain. This was your typical "drummers over an EDM backing track" type of show, but with the variant of including a guitarist and dancers. I did not stay for the whole show, but here's a video: M4H03152_Trim.mp4 As it still wasn't 8:00, and Cornered (their lone outdoor maze) had not yet opened, I grabbed some more pictures of the decorations... ...and then took in part of the Monster Rock show, held in the Festhaus. Fun Fact: They legally cannot call it "Monsters of Rock," which would be a much more fitting show title, as the name is trademarked by a company that puts on classic rock shows on cruises. Anyway, this was kinda "meh" I guess. It was entertaining enough, but I swear the acoustics of the Festhaus are not suited for this and the vocal talent just isn't there. How Kings Dominion holds such a domain over musical Halloween shows over the rest of the Cedar Fair parks is beyond me. That said, enjoy some videos...perhaps you'll find it better than I did. VID_20221014_200532006.mp4 M4H03167_Trim.mp4 M4H03168_Trim.mp4 With those two shows out of the way, it was suitably after 8:00, and was now time for Cornered. This was a vast improvement over previous years' Cornstalkers mazes, with plenty of wide open areas and a distinct lack of actual corn. It was very long with a lot of actors, with no narrow corridors of corn walls, and was the surprise of this trip. That said, I'm still totally over this theme. Now it was finally time for some rides! First up? Nerd shot. I had a 5 train wait for front row (both trains running). I can't remember the last time I rode this at night, and let me tell you it was awesome. Almost completely black. See? A bat train actually passes right in front of the camera in this video. M4H03180_Trim.mp4 We can all add The Bat to KIs list of awesome night rides. Now it was time to take in the Coney Maul section of the park, their carnival-themed scare zone. Zephyr looking all foreboding... So you see those trees that are all lit up in red? Yeah, not just red! I guess this is where the pixel mapped lights from Kings Dominion's Winterfest ended up. Anyway, it was really cool. M4H03184_Trim.mp4 I always love the light packages that CF parks have on their Troikas. I then took my second laps through Hotel St. Michelle and Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror, both now pure conga lines. Very poor showing. This was the walkway between Coney Mall and Rivertown, where the Pumpkin Eater scare zone was last year. Are we sure it's not Winterfest already? Ah, here we go! The Beast, at night, front row! 25 minute wait. It took me all fucking year but I finally got my front row night ride, and it was incredible as always. So, so good. Nice little advertisement for the painters of the Eiffel Tower. I didn't realize it had only been repainted three times. The Squishmallows store is back, but moved further down International Street near the Auntie Anne's pretzels. Which, by the way, I took this picture in line for. A rather substantial line...It took me 21 minutes to get to the counter. It was right around 11:00 at this point, and having been up since around 4 AM, it was time to head back to the hotel for a well-needed rest, wrapping up Day 1. Stay tuned for Day 2!

Cannibal at Lagoon. Absolutely amazing coaster!!

Remember when we all used to complain about not having a hyper? Then, we were thrown a couple bones. A small GCI here, a small spinning coaster there. We still longed for our hyper, but started to think about settling for a RMC I-box treatment, which was sure to come at any time. Instead, we got Justice League, which I remember being told verbatim was "our hyper," because there wasn't any like it in the chain and it would be the best. Only to have one of the worst in the chain a few years later. But, we were all still so grateful to have it. "Think about some of the other parks and the lack of dark rides they had." Then, we got smaller flats like Super Girl. But hey, at least Six Flags was getting a new attraction every year, right? Now, we've lost Tidal Wave and Superman, only to be replaced by something with a laughable capacity for a major theme park chain. Some were saying we should be thankful for that, while other areas in the park become more and more in disrepair. We can't even refurbish a ride, but we should be so thankful the park is going to give us the very best finished product, which will open as the solo new attraction for that year. Meanwhile, they gave us planters and charged more money. People still kept coming. Next year, they're offering less, while we just ask for railings to be painted and shit paper holders to be fixed. In two years, we'll all be so thankful when they give us an extra weekend and repaint Joker. The people who complain will be called ungrateful. The hopeful will cross their fingers for a small flat to end the ride drought. How far have we come from our wants for a Hyper, yet how normal does getting so little feel? If it wasn't such a parallel to American society, it would be funny. Six Flags is just yet another bubble from boiling the frog. The icing on the cake was placing blame on a prior 'owner.' Was this post ever about Six Flags?

It's a clue. Flaming Dragster.

Some notes from yesterday: Most of the parks were very uncrowded. Walk ons on Spiderman, Hulk, Mummy, Transformers, ET, Simpsons, Forbidden Journey. VelociCoaster never longer than ~25 minutes. But for some reason Hagrid NEVER posted a line shorter than 2 hours. I mean...I like the thing but if that continues today I guess that'll be an easy skip. Had my first Mummy rides in 10 years, forgot how fantastic it is! Legit airtime a couple times in the coaster section, the sets are great, just a total home run. I did get in one more Woody ride! Transformers is just super bouncy Spiderman. Rode VC in front for the first time. Quite terrific, but the back has more teeth. Incoming storm had Hogwarts looking spooky as all hell. Back it today and probably here on Sunday as well.

Iron Gwazi on Saturday afternoon. My 35th ride on it!

Day 2: Sunday, October 25th. I was back at the park 15 minutes prior to the opening of the gates on Sunday, to be greeted with quite the crowd. Thankfully, this was not indicative of the crowd levels throughout the day, which stayed quite light. To kill time prior to entry, I took a walk over to the designated smoking zone and snapped the same picture that everyone takes of Dominator: At opening, I made my way inside the park, grabbed my FL+ and Premium All Day Dining writstbands, and snapped this picture of the tower, with both demon eyes lit up (this will be important later). Walking down International Street, I took a quick picture of one of many wooden jack-o-lanterns that lined the fountain. First on the agenda for today was Dominator, open during the standard half-hour not-early-entry period. A one-train wait for back row, left wing. Notably not as rattle-y as I recall from the past. I tried to get another shot of the train at the crest of the loop, and missed it once again. At the full park opening at noon, I headed over to Woodstock Express to find it closed with some maintenance workers fiddling with the ride, so I instead made my way down to the Outpost Cafe, one of the new restaurants for this year. I opted for the Citrus Fried Chicken with sides of mac & cheese and fry bread... ...which was not only a much bigger portion than I imagined (I couldn't even finish all of the chicken), but was also delicious. For a normal guest price of $19, I guess it better be haha. Very impressive, KD. I then took advantage of the non-existent lines and hopped on Reptilian again, twice! One-train waits for both the front row and back row. Man, this ride is so good. Poor Volcano queue/station building... Hey, look at that, the scrambler has lights now! Sadly, later in the night I would learn that they're not even LEDs :(. The only other thing left to remind us of what once was... Next up was another ride on I305. A 13-minute-wait for front row, the best place to ride this and any other coaster that's all about speed. Grabbed a few pictures of the Site X scare zone, in the day time: Some more of the decorations surrounding the fountain. Boo! Change this already! Am I the only one who remembers when the line for Days of Thunder would get so long, they needed to use this bridge to route the queue to the overflow area on the other side of the pathway? The entrance to No Vacancy: Condemned. A better picture of the giant skull. Shenandoah Lumber Company log flume was running today! It would close with the arrival of Haunt later on. A better shot of the horse-and-carriage. Unlike last year, when Grizzly ran during the day but closed at Haunt, this year it appears to be closed all together. Preparations for Titan track or RMC? The world may never know. Though in actuality, we all know the answer is a decided "no." Entrance to Grimm Woods... ..and one of the spooky trees out front. I always loved this feature, though they didn't do any kind of Halloween decoration on it this year. Riff Raff stage in daylight. I'm not sure if I preferred this to the "on-top-of-shipping-containers" of last year. Next on the rides agenda was... I've never noticed this ACE Landmark plaque before, somehow. Holy crap, it was actually racing! I also never noticed they returned the paint scheme of old, which was obviously done a few years ago. ..,nor have I noticed the non-body-color covers for the restraint locks. Anyway, this was a train-and-a-half wait for the left side (which I hadn't seen open in quite a while). Great ride, very smooth, and we won by like a whole train length (the lift synchronizer was working). Enjoy a fun video using my proper camera and clamp-having tripod. M4H02952_Trim.mp4 Closed for wind. Entrance to Blood on the Bayou, in daylight. 90 minutes had passed since my last meal, so it was time for another! I stopped in the Jukebox Diner and grabbed a double-cheeseburger with fries. Burger was decent (not as dry as they usually are at this location), but the fries were great and seasoned with something. Next up was my #2 at this park, Twisted Timbers! About to do its thing... ...And there it goes... Two-train-wait for the front row (I told you crowds stayed light!), and awesome as always. I'm warming to the stupid locker system, especially now that I realized I don't have to remove everything out of my pockets, only the big metal stuff. I was playing around with the clamp tripod again, so enjoy M4H02963_Trim.mp4 The Ferris wheel doesn't look as depressing in the day. Now, I'm not a huge carousel connoisseur like @bert425is, but I did take some time to appreciate the one here at Kings Dominion. Some history: Some details: They even have an old-style ticket booth! Daytime shot of the outside of Trick or Treat. The always-cool signs for Candy Apple Grove. Sorry, Kings Island, I get the history behind Coney Mall, but this is a much nicer rendition of a classic park midway. Following are a whole bunch of pictures of the Cleaver Brothers Carnival scare zone, including every booth and decoration. Jack is back! As is the bar truck... But Drop Zone is closed for the year. I grabbed a quick walk-on ride on Bad Apple (their Troika) and continued down Candy Apple Grove. I get it that the Pizza Parlor and Dodgem are park-originals, but they could use a little love. As could the Wave Swinger, which was my next ride. One-cycle wait for what's always a nice relaxing way to catch some breeze. Enjoy yet another video. M4H03009_Trim.mp4 Everyone loves the singing mushrooms! Even the unattended brat that knocked over my camera mid-filming. Seriously folks, if you chose to reproduce, keep your kids on a tether (literally if you have to). M4H03013_Trim.mp4 Snoopy looking festive as always. Some shots of the Uprising scare zone. And the awesome flower clock. Spiders in the light. A map posted at the entrance to Jungle X-Pedition. Didn't see any hints for the Volanco-site's future, can you? Flight of Fear was next. Part of me prefers the original exterior design, as opposed to the partially-damaged one at Kings Island. This was a 16 minute wait for front row, and was a quality ride as always. It always confused me why both CF and SF have kept these spaghetti-bowl Premier launchers in such good condition yet SFGAdv couldn't manage to keep Batman & Robin: The Chiller functional. After that, the park basically shut down for impending lightning (which never materialized) and rain (which did), so I took a brief nap in my car before coming back in, and heading to the top of the tower. It had been a while since I've been up there, and even longer since I took pictures, so enjoy! (Nightime pics will come later, too!) Nothing going on in the Volcano site, just a bunch of rubble. It's always fun when you can spot your car from an elevated position. Took the long elevator ride down the tower, and ducked into Camp Snoopy, snapping a shot of one of the trick-or-treating houses that I thought looked cool... ... and made my way to Woodstock Express. Nerd shot. 20 minute wait (!) for back row. Yeah, one train only. It was now past 6:00, and indoor haunts were back open, so I took another stroll through Condemned (around 5 minute wait without Fright Lane) and took a lap on Blue Ridge Tollway (which should totally be a haunted attraction again!). Now, it was time for the Haunt opening show, Blood Reign. This has a substantially different plot from last year's opening show, and incorporates the Burnette the Barker character and a guy who literally catches on fire. Bigger news! My absolutely favorite actor from Kings Dominion, who played Astaroth in last year's Heads Will Roll Haunt show and Tinker in the Tinker's Toy Factory Winterfest show, was back as Astaroth! Who knows what else he was doing the rest of the night, but I'm told that he is involved in the full Queen's Ball show that wasn't performing this weekend. Even more reason to come back. Anyway, enjoy some pictures from this show. As night descended, it was time for some more pictures! The giant skull, properly illuminated. Pumpkin Eater zone Took another walk through Grimm Woods (one minute wait without Fright Lane), and was equally as impressed as I was the night before. Riff Raff, at night. Another stroll through Trick or Treat (no wait with my possibly-not-the-right-color Fast Lane+ wristband), and then I stopped to take in the full Burnette the Barker and Black Widow Burlesque shows, with the Queen character watching on approvingly. Apparently, she roves the park and interacts with shows and scare actors, which is kinda cool. This was just awesome: Apparently, one of the scare actors sustained a leg injury, so instead of opting her out of the festivities, they incorporated her kneeling-scooter into an act (a mobile popcorn seller). Brilliant! Another walk through 21 (no wait with my probably-not-the-right-color FL+ wristband), this time I saw the other opening part (still no spoilers!). But, there were some jerk teenagers in the front of the group who made some snide remarks to one of the in-character hosts, who promptly proceeded to send them to the back of the line. I absolutely loved it. Every park should implement a "no unattended minors" rule, if not making Halloween stuff 21+ events. Site X scare zone, in the dark. See, scrambler does have lights. But like I said, not LEDs. Better than nothing I guess. Tiki Twirl ominously lit up. Oh, and it is on Fast Lane (Plus only) now! I did not ride it this trip; once back in March was enough for me. Next it was back to I305 for a one-train-wait for the back row; I was out of my seat the entire first drop. Only running one train, but it didn't really need more than that. Back through the Cleaver Brothers Carnival zone, and saw a fire twirler that I hadn't seen before. Very entertaining. Grabbed a quick ride on the other side of Racer 75 (half-train-wait for row 2); just as smooth as first ride, and then Twisted Timbers (two-train-wait for the back row). An awesome, non-stapled ride in the dark. Stopped back by the Cleaver Brothers Stage for the full set of Big Top Band... ..and then made my way up the tower with 15 minutes until closing, for some night-time shots. Yes, that is the Virginia State Fair rides midway in the distance. I did not attend this year. A few more pics of the International Street decorations... ...and it was out of the park to call it a night. If you look close, you can see that the demon eyes on the tower were now winking at us! I don't think this was on purpose haha. All in all, this was a wonderful day-and-a-half at a park I should have spent more time at this summer. Overall, Haunt this year was a bit of a step down from last year's event, but was still super fun! It was opening weekend and should improve as the season goes on. I will definitely be stopping back for some more rides and shows. Ride counts: -I305 x 3 -Reptilian x 3 -Twisted Timbers x 2 -Racer 75 Left x 1 -Racer 75 Right x 1 -Flight of Fear x 1 -Bad Apple x 1 -Wave Swinger x 1 -Blue Ridge Tollway x1 Haunt Maze counts: -Grim Woods x 2 -Condemned x 2 -Trick or Treat x 2 -21 x 2 -Blood on the Bayou x1 -Cornstalkers x1 Thanks for reading!