April 18, 2026 1:01 am ·

One of my favorite things to do here on Theme Park Insider is bring you new attraction reviews. You can find tons of resources online that can tell you whether a group of people likes or dislikes something new. But the best reviews offer much more than that.

Criticism, if written well, can provide context that helps you understand something new. It helps connect people to what they want while steering them away from what they don’t want. Whether or not you end up experiencing what you’re reviewing, reviews should make you think. Maybe they can even entertain you.

This Thursday, we bring you two new attraction reviews – coincidentally, each review is for an interactive attraction. (That’s a fancy industry term for what we used to call a “shooter.”) First, the wonderful Jim Cole and Jeff Elliott take us on a tour of the Phantom Theater at Kings Island: Opening Nightmare. Sally Dark Rides transformed the old Boo Blasters show building at Cincinnati Regional Park to create an engaging new dark ride experience that rewards guests even without the gameplay.

I love the music theory Easter egg here, where the mission is to find and illuminate the “ghost notes” in the attraction. Sally and Six Flags came together to create a product that provides fans with multiple levels of rewards. That’s what great design does, and reviews can help people see all the other tricks, stories, and subtext they might otherwise miss. You can read their reviews and watch a video of the ride here: The Phantom Theater on Kings Island is just right.

Next, in California, I drove to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood in Burbank to check out the park’s new attraction, The Superman Experience: The Defenders. This is an individually ticketed, walk-up, 3D screen, gesture-driven interactive attraction. But that’s a clinical way to explain it, you have to join a small team to fly with Superman and fight to save the world.

As with the attractions at Kings Island, there’s more to offer here than the casual visitor can handle. Warner Bros. doesn’t need to engage in a philosophical debate about the corrupting nature of power when it comes to creating excuses for us to fly and punch like superheroes. But it did. I appreciate this. Here is my review and video: Warner Bros. invites fans to fly with Superman.

If you like what we do here at Theme Park Insider, I hope you’ll consider supporting me with some dollars. Thanks to everyone who stepped up and made a commitment after my wednesday email. Everyone who pledges will get exclusive access to my new monthly column, delivered to your email inbox on the first Wednesday of every month. Eventually, if I can get enough people to support the site with direct payments, I’ll do this bonus column every week.

Here is the promised link: https://themeparkinsider.substack.com/subscribe. Thank you!

In news this week, Six Flags reversed course and decided to reinstate the park president position it eliminated last year in favor of a regional director. But only 10 Six Flags parks in the United States have reinstated the park president position. Of course, this raises the question of what will happen at other parks, including Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Kings Reign Park. look Six Flags Flip-Flops to Bring Back Park Chairman.

Disney this week Announcement of opening date and performance list Designed for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets at Walt Disney World. it’s also Name revealed New “Up” themed wave dancers at Disneyland Paris.

On the forum we are looking for your Tips for visiting Dollywood. We are also sharing The bike we have ridden the most.

As always, thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Reply(1)