Here's A BUNCH Of Photos From Flight Of Fear On Opening Day And Its Oddly Lit-up Queue. On The Bright

Here's a BUNCH of photos from Flight of Fear on opening day and its oddly lit-up queue. On the bright (pun partially intended) side, the lights being on allowed me to get some good shots of things I'd never noticed or been able to read before! We ended up getting a front-row ride that day, allowing me to get those last two shots of the launch tunnel & down that hallway to get that peek of the "spaghetti bowl" respectively!

Images taken April 20, 2024

IN HONOR OF KINGS ISLAND NOW BEING OPEN, I've decided to do another ✨Kings Island lore post✨, this time moving over to Area 72 in order to talk about the Project X Initiative!

Feel free to speak up and ask me anything if you want further elaboration or have anything in particular you want me to talk about! This can be in the comments or through an ask, whatever you feel more comfortable with!

Now with all of that out of the way, sit back, relax, and mentally prepare yourself. The ramble shall begin after the cut!

The first time we are introduced to the Project X initiative is on July 2, 2020 when Orion first opened. It's mentioned by name in the description of the video "Orion: New for 2020 at Kings Island" on Kings Island's YouTube channel (which can be found here -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNV6lnyv2s0) It says:

"Themed to the park's new Area 72, the ride features the latest prototype vehicle developed by the Project X Initiative. Scientists are in a race against time to develop technology capable of weaving transport vehicles through a coming meteor storm and traveling to a new planet within the Orion constellation. For the program to be successful, it needs volunteers to help with testing."

So if Orion is the latest prototype vehicle developed by the Project X Initiative, then there had to be more from before that, right? CORRECT!

Orion is actually Sequence X of the Project X Initiative! The full 10 sequences are as follows:

Sequence I - Shooting Star-47, Study of Astrology & Rapid Directional Changes

Sequence II - The Rotor-72, Study of Centrifugal Forces & Gravity Centrifugal Effects

Sequence III - Bayern Kurve-73, Study of Interstellar Travel & Acceleration

Sequence IV - Zodiac-75, Study of Symmetry & Radial Forces

Sequence V - SkyLab-86, Study of Gravitational Pull

Sequence VI - Vortex-87, Study of Inversions & Inversion Effects

Sequence VII - Flight of Fear-96, Study of Acceleration & Sensory Deprivation

Sequence VIII - Invertigo-99, Study of Balance & Motion Pull

Sequence IX - Firehawk-07, Study of Maneuvering/Evasive Maneuvers

Sequence X - Orion-20, Study of Time Space

Are any of these names sounding familiar? They should! They're the names of Kings Island attractions, both past and present! And the numbers after them are references to the years that those rides opened!

All of these different "Sequences" can be found throughout Orion's queue, particularly on the fake pin board on the Fast Lane side of the queue where you'll find posters for each of them & on the wall next to the front row line for the ride itself in the station. For the station one, I'll put an image below:

The first time we were clued in on any of this "Project X Initiative" stuff was on the construction fence for Orion back when it was being built. Every once in a while, the park would put up a poster with one of it's rides (past or present) on it (which ended up being Sequences I-IX) with a faint letter in the background. Eventually, with a hashtag made up of QR codes in the front of it, it spelled out "#TETOWAWKI," which for those of you who were following Orion's teaser developments, ended up standing for "The End Of The World As We Know It." The QR code hashtag led you to a petition on Change.org by "Concerned Citizen" who talks about how Kings Island needs to reveal what's behind the wall for the safety of the public. Concerned Citizen even got a signature from a Mr. Christopher...fans of Flight of Fear will know that name...

(Here's a link to the Change.org petition in case you want to check that out for yourself: https://www.change.org/p/kings-island-kings-island-what-s-behind-that-fence-85f62e10-4170-437b-9cc3-ae87d9973b45?recruiter=987799620&recruited_by_id=fd9dc1d0-b26b-11e9-87b8-9b832214eee5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_content=bandit-starter_cl_share_content_en-us%3Av4)

Change.org

Sign the Petition

KINGS ISLAND- What's Behind That Fence?

Honestly, the #TEOTWAWKI/Orion teaser campaign is so interesting and lore heavy that I'll probably end up making a post on it in the future at some point XD

And that's it for this KI lore post! Again, feel free to let me know if there's anything in particular you want me to touch upon! And if you're ever looking for any of my other KI lore posts, they can be found under the tag #kings island lore. I hope you have a wonderful day!

ALMOST THERE!!!

WHY ARE THE QUEUE LIGHTS ON???

This is 100% my new favorite Boo Blasters ghost lmao

Can we talk about the explanation that's been given for the Florida Haunted Mansion's Hatbox Ghost placement (according to the wiki)?

“[The Hatbox Ghost’s] heavily critiqued placement [in the WDW Haunted Mansion], which breaks the original narrative flow of the ghosts not fully materializing until after Madame Leota’s seance, has been given a handwave explanation by the WDI team of him being an “unhappy haunt” not bound to Leota’s spell choosing to materialize whenever he wants.” -https://hauntedmansion.fandom.com/wiki/Hatbox_Ghost

Pretty much everyone in the Haunted Mansion fandom (including myself) was either nervous or angry about the placement of Hattie in Florida breaking the Mansion's continuity, and their explanation is that he's a cranky old ghost who doesn't give a sh*t & just decided one day "You know what? F**k it! I can materialize whenever I want, thank you very much!" and then did just that.

I'm not even mad! This is so much funnier! XD

(I also read somewhere [I think on here maybe?] that apparently cast members have been telling guests that on top of being grumpy, he also really likes putting on a show, so if you see him in the Mansion & he does his hatbox trick, you should thank him as to not incur his wrath??? And people have been actually heard thanking him?? I don't know about you, but I find that delightful! Next time I find myself at the Haunted Mansion in WDW, y'all are gonna find me 100% thanking this man for his performance XD)