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and dropping into separate post, here's the "welcome packet" / "room packet" one gets when checking into Hotel Charles Lindbergh: postcards included! and map of hotel (with "pods" and bar/restaurant info and map of the Rookburgh area (not whole park, because remember.. we're Aeronauts on a stopover in Rookburgh. . not at Phantasialand). F.L.Y. skip the line passes (only way available. . you cannot do any kind of fastlane/flash pass on F.L.Y. . . . you must stay at Hotel Charles Lindbergh to get these) oh. and each room has chocolate bars in em for each occupant too. DAMN good chocolate

Wow that hotel and the entire area looks so cool. I'm jealous that you got to experience it...maybe one of these days I'll get myself over to Europe. Thanks so much for the report!

Day 5, part IV - the conclusion of the day: arriving at Phantasialand ! it had already been a packed (and thrilling) day, but we weren't done yet! Soon, we pulled up outside of Phantasialand (which is really well hidden from the surrounding area, as you couldn't really see any rides at all), stopped in front of our home for the next two nights: Hotel Charles Lindbergh - a fully immersive ON SITE boutique hotel that is heavily themed from the moment you walk inside. unloading bags from the bus and waiting outside for our room keys/directions. so I wandered and took some pics of the outside of the hotel facade as noted, it's heavily themed. you are an "Aeronaut". . . traveling thru time and space, and you've checked into this steampunk/time lost hotel to rest between time jumps. here's the lobby check in: these long hallways connect the lobby to the main "Pod A" (tower) of the hotel - which has, I believe, 4 "pods" of rooms. Although Pod A also has the access into Rookburgh. what is Rookburgh? well, Rookburgh is the themed area of Phantasialand where the new F.L.Y. coaster is. It's also where the Hotel is located, and guests at the hotel have access to the area after the park has been closed to guests. (no the coaster is not operating after hours. . . but holy crap is it cool to wander around that area, JUST with hotel guests - as you will see coming up). anyways - the walkway that would lead to Rookburgh/Pod A: and the way we went to get to our Pod C rooms OMG. . yeah, the coaster is RIGHT there. interacting very closely with the hotel. this is going to be so cool during the daytime operating hours! the coaster is literally outside the walkways to the rooms! love the old-timey / lost in timey tin ceiling tiles in the stairwells between floors. looking across at Pod B tower. . those are the back-side of rooms (ie: the bathroom windows) here's me looking out our bathroom window in Pod C and the view from said bathroom window: (went a little out of order). . . here's the door to our room and what the inside of the room looks like. Very small - in keeping with the theme. and a LITTLE cramped with two people plus luggage. But OMG, so cool, it doesn't matter. again, heavily themed (we didnt' turn the tv to anything other than the "old time static" broadcast it was on when we came in the whole time). James and I standing in doorway to get a pic of the walkway across to Pod B (and the access to the rooftop viewing platform that only guests of the hotel have access to) Bathroom. Small, but decent. again, the theming is that you're an Aeronaut only resting briefly before your next jaunt. ok. . settled into the room. . it's time to stretch our legs before dinner (which is included in the Restaurant attached to the hotel. (the only area of the hotel that during the day, non hotel guests have access to). from the end of our pod walkway, you get an EXCELLENT overview of Rookburgh area, and the F.L.Y. coaster and how much it weaves in and out of the theming in the area. SO well themed. . other than Mystery Castle - the tower off to the right in the distance - you can't see anything else of the park other than Rookburgh. They really put some thought & design into this theming! the steps under the rounded turret on the right are the ones that lead down to the Hotel Entrance into Rookburgh snapping pics, as we walk over to Pod A and head up the steps to the Hotel Exclusive viewing area. . . up on the viewing area, we bumped into Andy (the Great Zo), who had the same thought to come up and see the view/take pics. so we took a pic of all of us. the view from up here is SPECTACULAR. and even up here, other than Mystery Castle, you can't really see any other parts of this park! Pics taken. . let's head down into Rookburgh popper, since we still have about 30 minutes until dinner seating. such an amazing job with the Steampunk/time lost theming. . the private gate out of the hotel into the park. and looking back into the hotel entrance - during the day, there is a staff member stationed here that only will allow Hotel guests in and out of this gate. down the steps and into the deserted Rookburgh. the park had closed a couple of hours earlier, so we were the only ones there. . one of THE best reasons to splurge and stay onsite here. the theming is incredible, and it's so cool that you can see it / touch it/ take pics of it - without hundreds of people around! fully immersive. . . one of the "exit gates" into the other sections of the park. . .tho as noted, the park closes off this area at park close, to keep Hotel Guests inside Rookburgh and maintain the "Aeromaut" role-playing. . . the special gate for F.L.Y. that we would use our hotel passes at tomorrow or the next day. the main / standby line entrance for the ride. (which by the way is an AMAZE-BALLS flying coaster. . that some in the group didn't realize was a "flying" coaster until the seats tilted face down on the main lift/launch. . LOL). security stands here during the day. but off hours? yup, photo op! and I absolutely adore how they keep all the theming on even after park close in this area. steam and lights stay on until well after 11pm for hotel guests to enjoy the area/atmosphere. another "gate" that would lead to the indoor section where Winjas is located (tho oddly, these doors never opened while we were there. . so maybe they just don't use these any longer, as the other entrance - thru the tunnel - is way more immersive into the Rookburgh area) peeking across/thru the coaster track & theming, you can see folks sitting in the private Bar patio in our hotel. . only hotel guests have access to this bar/patio. (based on that blue shirt? I *think* that's Daniel sitting there?) tho it would be cool if they operated this coaster after hours for hotel guests? I can totally understand why they do NOT. can you imagine the noise in the rooms? I mean look how close it gets to the pods. Instead they give hotel guests "skip the line" / "special Hotel entrance" passes to use during the day. (so cool! and because we had ERT one day, and some folks gifted us extra passes, I didn't have to use all my passes and had some to take home as souvenirs) it was just about time for dinner. . so we headed to the restaurant parkside entrance (again, the only area that is open to park guests during the day). the downstairs level of the hotel houses the private bar, and the restaurant, UHRwerk: a peek at the menu. almost everything we had was excellent by the way, tho I thought the pastas were way stronger than the burgers. But all were decent. James showing off his Tartar appetizer (and that "newspaper" on the table? thats the full menu, and also filled with themed "stories" - none in English, but I still took one as a Souvenier, as they are also avail. in the lobby) I had the triangle fried ravioli like things. . . eye candy in our waiter (he was so nice too) TPR took over about 1/2 of the dining room, since it has limited seating (hence an assigned dining time, like on a cruise ship) John showing off his massage skills to Daniel. our table. . clockwise from Noon: Smisty, Erick, AJ, me, James, Ryan my Main - one of the Pasta bowls, but can't remember which one. Only that it was really good! one of the slider options (I think it had various meats depending on which one) one of the Burgers, another tablemate got. look how juicy! and of course, a stacked desert - I think the Nougat Surprise (which was dryer than it looked like it would be, but still was very good) by the time we finished eating, the sun had set, and the lighting in Rookburgh had come on. holy crap, as amazing as this looks during the day? INCREDIBLE at night. (and really the only way to see it at night is to stay onsite at the Hotel Charles Lindbergh) so I wandered around a bit in the area taking more pics: heading into the tunnel (which, as noted, was closed off at the end that would put you into the main street of the park). . but even inside the tunnel the theming is impressive. and with no people around, can get good pics of the design work on the walls. exit side of tunnel: entrance side of tunnel: peeking thru the closed gate into the main street of the park: it had been a really long day, but not heading up to the room to sleep without checking out the bar 1st! so went back into the hotel, and down to the private 1919 Bar it has indoor seating as well as the outdoor patio that is under the coaster, and between Pods in the hotel. looking up from the outdoor patio. . some of the rooms (bathroom windows of Pod A) after a cocktail, taking the steps back up to our room, so I could enjoy the tin ceilings (rather than wait for the elevator) one last peek down into the outdoor bar patio from the walkway outside our room, before I headed inside for shower and sleep. and then I passed out. . and probably kept James up with my snoring in the tiny sleep pod room. . LOL. . . but yeah. . stay here. COMPLETELY worth it. and with that, day 5 concludes. Day 6 (and 7) are full days at Phantasialand. . and I could not wait for these, as I knew very little about this park, other than I'd heard some rumors about the river raft ride, and of course knew about Taron and Black Mamba. So I was excited. and starting the day off with F.L.Y. ? yeah. . good thing I was exhausted (and slightly buzzed) otherwise would have been up all night with excitement. thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed. Day 6 coming up in the near future!

^ Ah well, at least you tried, with hope.

Easy, pal. That's toxic masculinity you're speaking of. Better start working on that public apology.

I see what you did there

Last update! The coaster will be called 'Gotham City Escape' and there is already Poison Ivy theming.

It may be insane to you, but Cedar Fair apparently does care and has been doing a lot to Worlds of Fun in preparation for the 50th anniversary. It’s not an accident that a reimagined Zambezi Zinger is opening with the 50th anniversary. The park has been putting more emphasis on restoring theming to Worlds of Fun and started working on this during the summer months of 2022, in addition to any planning that was going on before that time. They’ve announced at least some of their plans at Coaster Christmas at Silver Dollar City over the weekend and it was also in an article in Amusement Today a few months ago.

Kings Island Day 2, Saturday, October 15th, 2022 Day 2 started off pretty uneventful, and I grabbed my FL+ wristband and made my way to Banshee for my first ride of the day. Nerd shot. Train-and-a-half wait for the front row, right wing. It was certainly a little sluggish on this chilly morning. Next up was a quick ride on The Bat (walk-on for back row). Man, do I miss Big Bad Wolf. The highly unused VIP area. Some of the fake games booths that make up the bulk of the Coney Maul decorations. I then hopped on the Scrambler for walk-on ride, and continued down Coney Mall. Definite Winterfest preparation underway. Another one of the history boards. How disrespectful of them to put Vortex's tombstone so far back, so unadorned, when Flight Commander and King Cobra get front-row-billing and their own fancy text. The clock, looking suitable decrepit. A hearse decoration, which was quite animated at night. The typical CF ogre. My next rides were Diamondback (one train wait for row 2, right wing), Mystic Timbers (three train wait for back row), Beast (25 minutes for front row - notably they have resolved the stop-and-go when trains come back to the station), and Orion (three and a half train wait for the front row, right wing). On Orion, I caught some sort of bug in my lip at the bottom of the first drop, which hurt a lot worse than you might expect. I then grabbed a ride on Racer (half-train wait for row 2, red side, did not win), grabbed a quick shot of these cool spider decorations... ...and made my way up the Eiffel Tower for some aerial shots. I continued to wander the park, coming across the Fangtastics show, which was pretty decent. Everyone loves Auntie Anne's pretzels... After that, I went out to my car for a quick nap and waited for a friend to meet me at the park. On my way back to my car, I found a cute (but Angry) pup had been left in a car. I of course notified the park Security, but after about 45 minutes they had yet to respond, so who knows what happened with it. I hope the dog crapped all over the interior of that $80k GMC Yukon Denali. Not really tired, and with some more time to kill, I took a lap on the train and grabbed some "everyone takes these pictures on the Kings Island train" shots. Does anyone know how true the story the train spiel-er tells about the "house inside the walls that the park isn't allowed to touch" is? There's too much tree cover to get a good look on satellite maps. She arrived, and didn't have Fast Lane, so we just kinda wandered and caught up on each other's lives, the only ride we enjoyed together was Windseeker (30 minute wait). I did have to take a pic of this cute skeleton brass band on the way back. It was then time for Nytewalkers, the park's acrobatics show. Prepare for a bunch of pictures and videos. M4H03267_Trim.mp4 M4H03270_Trim.mp4 M4H03271_Trim.mp4 M4H03277_Trim.mp4 What did I think? "Wow, this is a Kings Island show?" I was totally impressed. Around 25 minutes long, awesome acrobatics (I was especially impressed with the Razor Scooter rider), a great mix of music, awesome choreography and dancers, impressive video on the screens, cast members running through the audience and taking people's phones for close-up shots, and ,the biggest way to win over my heart: An actual cohesive plot! Which, in this case, was a cheerleader-and-jock couple wandering in to a demon infested area, the main demon girl attempting to seduce the jock, the cheerleader being convinced to join the demon side, the jock attempting to impress both ladies (the slackline bit), and the jock finally choosing to remain with the cheerleader and them walking off together. Very impressive, 10/10. After that, I grabbed a picture of the only thing KI does better than KD in terms of Haunt: the International Street decorations. I guess the lack of trees allows this, complete with flame throwers. Now it was time for a re-ride on... ...Banshee, for a train-and-a-half wait for back row, left wing. By the time of day, it had definitely warmed up, and was flying through the course as normal. It was getting late, and I was kinda tired, so I decided to close out a night at Kings Island the only way to do so: With a night ride on Beast. But wait, what's this? Yep, that was the Fast Lane line at 8:05 PM. It took me 45 minutes to get through it (I believe the standby queue was posting over 2 hours) for front row, including a 15 minute stoppage for something I had never seen at a CF park before: Stopping a train on the lift hill due to cell phone use and an employee walking up the lift hill to confiscate the phone. Guess they're getting SFGAdv serious about it. Anyway, how was the ride? Incredible, as always. There is seriously very little better in the world of coasters than a front row, night ride, on The Beast. Making my way out of the park, I grabbed some shots of the hearse in action (sorry for the poor quality)... ...and the ogre. I thought about taking a trip up the Eiffel Tower to get some night shots, but forget this FL line: Grabbed one more pic of the Terror Rising stage... ...and then it was time to say goodbye to Kings Island for 2022. All in all, a great trip, but mostly for the rides and Nytewalkers show. Most everything else about their Haunt was mediocre at best. Maybe I'm just getting tired of these things? I don't know, but Cedar Point's Halloweekends report is up next, and (spoiler alert!) did not help assuage me of that concern.

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!