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Since you admit you have never been to Dollywood, I encourage you give it a try before discounting it as simply a Tennesse themed park with ties to Dolly. There is a lot of variety there and I think you will walk away with a much different opinion of that park. Many people go in expecting to be flooded with Dolly stuff and walk away quite impressed with the park. I wasn't overly excited on my first trip to Dollywood as a youngster and I was expecting to be flooded with country music and Dolly songs and sucky rides and walked away a fan of the park. I make several visits every year. Also remember that it was previously Silver Dollar City and Dollywood is mostly owned by Herschend. Dolly has an ownership stake and is the face of the place, but it was more a rebranding than a park dedicated to Dolly. They don't just play Dolly songs LOL. Heck with 9 to 5 playing at KI now, we hear more Dolly at KI than you do at Dollywood LOL According to their website, Dollywood averages 2 Dolly songs per hour. Outside of the Dolly Parton themed area Adventures in Imagination you really do not hear or see much Dolly related stuff. They have great themed areas with appropriate songs for the themed area. KI is getting better at that - who remembers pop music on I street LOL.... Most will say their theming is better and more consistent throughout the park than at KI. They do a lot of things right. The coaster theming for example is better than anything CF does and they actually maintain it. From the food (all original except for Dippin Dots LOL), to the theming, to the shows, to the atmosphere, they have a lot of things going right for them. Sure they don't have a space theme, but they don't need it either. My neighbors just returned from a trip there and was the first time their teenage boys that are totally not country music fans went there. They went in expecting the coasters to suck and to hear country music all day and not be as fun as KI and walked away saying that is their favorite overall park and plan to go again before school starts. They do a lot of little things right that go a long way. In the JukeBox Junction themed area, one would expect a 50s/60s diner and sure enough they do, unlike our Panda Express in FestHaus LOL. And their rides and names are appropriate for the area as well. Now KI has certainly been moving more towards that and fixing some of the wrongs of Paramount, so there is hope at some point for something like a FestHaus to either be rebranded or the food offerings change. Personally, I was expecting more from this announcement than what was announced, but they have a target audience they are marketing to and feel this ride fits that market. I was hoping for a hyper or giga, but even so they do have an underestimated/underappreciated coaster lineup. They are a lot of fun.

Dollywood is essentially a well themed European park that's in the US. There are bits of theming between the individual rides that make it all blend together. They also do well in making it all look good in the sense that its not easy seeing behind the scenes areas. The park also has tons of trees mostly everywhere which helps with the setting. This is part of a laundry list of reasons why Dollywood is my favorite park (even over the likes of the Disney parks I've been to, CP, HW, HP, KI, and Carowinds). Also, I don't get the argument with the new coaster that it doesn't have much else to look at. How many other Dollywood coasters do? Thunderhead, Eagle, Tennessee Tornado, Lightning Rod- outside the queue and stations on those are all just tree clearings that happen to be on hills. I'm sure the entry plaze, the queue and station on the new ride will be at Dollywood's standards. I also think with the way Dollywood has expanded, if you look at the train route, I believe the goal is to expand the park to the other loop and create a second station, so stuff around the new coaster may be filled in for the future. Mystery Mine used to literally sit all by itself before other things got added. Dollywood plans ahead very well, as evidenced IMO by the way they made the park a full loop in the first place (Thunderhead Gap and Tennessee Tornado used to be dead ends). I trust in whatever avenue they go with. EDIT: I also want to add this since people often midjudge what the park is because its named after Dolly Parton. Speaking as a music history buff, she has one of the greatest stories among any musician ever and she's one of the few country music artists I'll gladly listen to (and she has some serious music award hardware to boot, heck she's the type of person to initially decline a R&RHOF nomination). Her story is very well woven into the park. She's also done a ton for the surrounding area including helping out financially with the fire damage.

We regularly go to 3 "home" parks since we moved to SC. I consider Dollywood as one of the best parks to visit with a first class ride operations. Honestly, I prefer Dollywood over Carowinds or SFOG. Lighting Rod and Thunderhead are two of my favorite wooden coasters. (Not sure about Lightning Rod being a complete wooden coaster though now.) Great themed park with very good selection of dining options. Do yourself a favor and visit Dollywood. You will be impressed with the park.

Both the VIP Lounge and FORL tickets worked at CP today with my KI Prestige Pass.

I respect your opinion about KI theming and all. However, I found Dollywood themes to be far more interesting and effective than KI. There is no coaster at KI that can match Mystery Mine. I do not find Dollywood theming repetitive at all. In my view, no CF parks come close to Dollywood in theming.

Carowinds new area teaser.

I also used my family's VIP and FoRP today. The only issue I ran into is that somehow my FunPix got kicked out? I had FunPix for my Gold 2022, and my Prestige 2023, but when I tried the Kiosk it told me my pass was invalid, and I had to get it re-re-added (twice this year now). I highly underestimated how nice it is to just sit in the shade in the VIP area. They did have plain tater chips and nacho Doritos, water, powerade, Coke and Diet Coke in the VIP area. But thus far, I can see me getting a lot of value out of this Prestige upgrade for the family.

At least, since KMAA opened, they actually put a nice looking facade over it outside of Haunt season instead of it just having that "abandoned building" theme right on the midway.

Kind of proud of everyone with their reaction. Some have have bought it, some couldn’t justify it. No real “OMG ITS A RIPOFF” response. It’s for some people and not others. Nothing is being taken away from Gold or Platinum to make this happen, so it’s a good thing!

Put it back to how it was before SlingShot, a landscaped green area (back then, King Cobra vantage, now Banshee). Put some pine trees or something in to spruce it up.

Actually it was L originally skeeball in that building. I really wish they would bring that back. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

good to know. thanks. sitting at camp cedar. Rain chased us out of Soak City. park was very crowded today.

We just used our skip the line pass on The Beast. So it is good even on Fast Lane plus.

One can certainly see removal or re-opening based on their perspective/bias for the ride. Time will tell the fate. We have heard the arguments why it won't reopen (and all are valid points BTW). Some arguments why it might re-open include: If they planned to remove it, then why not simply remove it from the website, park map, queue wait times, etc. Just show a blank space like Mean Streak and SOB? Saying it wouldn't reopen in 2022 likely indicates that they had not decided at the start of the season the fate yet. Those are a lot of markings well outside of the ride area - if they are switching significant electrical components and more power is needed there, that could explain the markings further away. Or the markers away from the ride are part of the removal and renovation of that area. But some the markers are too far away for a simple removal of the ride. The markings do not extend or go beyond the top hat portion - maybe they are not done surveying, but the largest part of the structure would certainly have utilities marked it it were coming down. Removing/trimming the bushes in the turnaround area would be low priority in removal of the ride. Could this be a relocated queue area? We will find out soon enough, but all we know for sure is that activity is happening around the ride that sat dormant most of the year. It could be for removal or it could be for refurbishment.

I can confirm upgraded Prestige+ passes get entry into CP. I cannot comment on VIP lounge, because it was closed the two times I walked past it. I didn't ask about Front of Line passes.

I haven't used my skip the line pass yet but it says go to Fast Lane plus entrance on it.

Busch Gardens offers higher level memberships that include preferred parking and other perks. The level with preferred parking was about $60 more annually. With the way their parking is divided up and the regular parking requiring a tram ride or crossing the entrance road at Williamsburg. It’s a bit of a hassle to get to the regular lot so this was worthwhile. However at KI and most CF parks it’s just one big lot. I don’t think preferred parking is worth saving a few minutes of walking. Even Carowinds with its odd shaped lot has a second gate when the lot is full. The front of the line stuff, just like Fast Lane reduces general operations. Cedar Fair is starting to get some negative operations feedback these days (KI does have decent operations) so this won’t help. This is a very Six Flags thing to do to make a few dollars I also don’t see much benefit of the skip the line passes because while one gets to skip a line, others are going to skip lines on other rides during the day the these pass members are waiting for when they aren’t skipping, increasing those waits If their is free bottled water involved in this there may be value in that since it’s not included on any drink plan Instead of a prestige entry gate wouldn’t it be much better operations to use those resources. to have No Bags entry gates? I just hope they don’t start reducing what you get with gold or platinum. That’s a possibility and seems like the sneaky American way of increasing prices (less product fir same price). I am OK however with the recent price increases on these as they were underpriced especially if one includes dining and drink. In their quarterly financials their biggest brag was that they are squeezing more out of each guest. This is more of that. While their overall EBITDA decreased about 7% since 2019 with inflation fractured in. It seems like their plan to squeeze more out of each guest instead of improving operations, trying to attract new marker of guests with new kinds of non thrill attractions (dark rides, transport) and actual entertainment venues (KI does has more sit down venues than the other CF parks), etc. They are missing most of the target market that allows Herschend to operate 5 days a week 10 months a year….

Ah, yes. The season will end! With the park open after the date the season supposedly ends! So KI is going to be open when it's closed?

We were talking about this on the Cedar Fair 2023 Additions topic on the Other Amusement Parks and Industry News forum but I feel like we need to talk about this here since I actually have a photo now.

It's a piece of paper. Hand it to anyone.

Then why is the Carowinds Prestige+ Pass $75 cheaper than if you were to buy the same pass from Kings Island or Cedar Point? The benefits of a Carowinds Prestige+ Pass would also work at Kings Island if I understand this correctly.

Since SFGAdv made their floorless coaster Medusa again, I'd like it to go back to its original paint scheme. Also, make Tatsu any other better color combination.

I saw nothing wrong with the original post you created. Please don't stop posting because someone misinterpreted how you wrote your post.

Hopefully this is similar but not exactly like what is offered through Busch gardens and Seaworld. I have a platinum pass for Busch Gardens, and there is so much fine print involved that it takes away a lot of the perks. Most of the perks are only useable for the “Florida parks.” And not the rest of the properties owned by Seaworld and Busch gardens.

Those are awesome. I have not purchased any of the cutouts because I don't want to put them together or paint them. So, this is the first one I actually might buy and put the time into putting together.

I’ve never been to Dollywood and I’d love to go someday, but I can’t help but feel like it’s not used to it’s full potential. Do you need large coasters to make a park great? No, but I think more could be done. I know that’s saying a lot when they just added a great kid’s area but I just feel like something’s missing and I’m not sure what. Maybe it’s because I find their concept somewhat restrictive- they’re a Tennessee themed park with ties to Dolly Parton. Compare that to a park like ours were there’s more variety- we have a space themed area, we have an old rustic styled section, we have an international street, etc. Even though the theming isn’t always consistent, it’s still creative: we have a ride themed to a mythological creature of flight next to a jungle mine train. All of Dollywood’s rides are more or less themed to either Tennessee or the smokies with few exceptions. I know people really want us to get a Camp Snoopy and I’d all be for it, but I don’t necessarily want a restrictive concept. Planet Snoopy is a concept that’s open and non restrictive. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky.

As of right now, it is bottled water and bottled soft drinks, power-aid, etc. Snacks are bags of chips/pretzels/etc. At the moment no limit. Of course, always subject to change...for example, I could see it switch to a fountain drink machine next year based on sales of the pass.

Do you get free bottled water and snacks using your Prestige+ pass in VIP? If so, what is available, and is there a limit on the number of snacks / drinks?

That’s 3! Time to make it happen!

It used to be an arcade

Personally, I wish this tragic incident had never occurred and the ride was still open. As for Cedar Fair, everything we know would indicate they wish the tragic incident never occurred because the ride was never built. Might sound negative myself, but Cedar Fair has given no reason to believe that the ride will ever reopen. They unequivocally came out and announced point blank that the ride will not open in 2022. They could've reopened it if they wanted to, unless we're to believe ODA and the park still have not settled on a path to reopening. And the ride was always on thin ice with management. Then, self-insured Cedar Fair got hit with the financial implications of the incident. If you were running Cedar Fair as a business, would you want the liability on top of the ongoing high maintenance costs, for what's now almost 20 years old? This year would've been its 20th season. All this is to say that it's best not to get anyone's hopes up on the idea of the ride reopening. The markings do not definitively prove anything. They do add to the circumstantial evidence pointing toward its imminent removal. I say all this as someone who, if there were a thorough, transparent review into the ride a-la NTSB air crash investigations, where we could be sure that the same thing would never happen again, I would happily marathon TTD again. Just don't expect to get the chance.

Pease do not take that as being a Negative Nancy! I really, really, really, really want it to reopen. I think that ride is incredible!!!

The pink marking usually means temporary marking, but yeah, everything is speculation at this point. CP Rundown has 60+ pics of the different colored markings around TTD everywhere from CS to the Breakers parking lot to BackLotBBQ. I give them credit, whoever took the pics was on the lookout everywhere.

Electrical? I don’t think many of us know enough about this. We don’t know what those markings mean, except that they mean something.

Do one for Vortex and I'll totally buy it!

I think a lot of people do to be honest. Kings Island advertises a new attraction every year when season passes go on sale to incentivize season pass purchases and renewals.

I think the current day Cedar Fair management is a lot less concerned with building big massive rides. I think they’re doing great at making sure their “flagship” parks have a couple 300+ foot rides, but I see them focusing more on family friendly rides for the next couple years.

KD has prime rib in their new restaurant and its on the dining plan and it looks amazing. That is now my top food wish list for KI

I will echo sentiments that a new indoor eating option somewhere at the farther end of Coney Mall would be welcome. And also that Action Zone is the one area that needs an overhaul the most. And that the offerings at Festhaus need to be rethought. They have schnitzel this year for the 50th. How about we get some bratwurst?

I was waiting to see how long KIC took to notice. Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mike Koontz said at Coasterstock this year is sort of a test to see how successful they are and they are learning about the concert business. He said he plans on doing them next year if they are successful. From what I saw both 3 Doors Down and Skillet brought in pretty good crowds not surprising as those 2 bands had the biggest following. Also, minus the hiccups of the first concert, all the concerts people enjoyed them. I honestly think Timberwolf is here to stay as long as KI is willing to continue putting money into it and use feedback from the bands and fans to see how they can improve Timberwolf. KI still has a lot of land to expand without removing Timberwolf.

Oooooh. I like this idea a lot. No matter how much nostalgia I have for the Paramount years, Action Zone's theme and design has always been at odds with the rest of the park. Retheming the area to a new and improved Oktoberfest would be a fantastic step back to the park's roots. Removing Congo Falls and Chicken Shack would open up a ton of real estate that would lend itself nicely to reimagining the area and installing some new flat rides. I'm imagining a lot of parallels to BGW's Oktoberfest area when it comes to retheming the remaining rides, though I'd probably leave Banshee as-is. The Banshee/Bat corner would work great as a spooky church/graveyard sub-area. And, dare I say it, they could actually plant some trees throughout Action Zone.

I’ll echo sone sentiments here and hope that this could mean a refreshed Oktoberfest. A nice flat ride and and update land with new food options (looking at you, Festhaus) would be great.

Pretty sure that is the marker for Hole 1 for the new 'haunted' mini golf course that is going to be underneath Banshee!

While this is a beautiful building, it would be redundant as @BB1 said above (and now I'm being redundant). Plus, the sight line of Banshee from right there has so much potential. A new climate controlled eatery/entertainment destination is needed down the midway in the area formerly known as Coney Mall. Climate control is missing in this area of the park.

I for one would not be excited for this. We already have a Festhaus, which isn't being used to it's full potential. I would much rather see the sky ride return or something akin to Der Spinning Keggers, or some form of flat ride for that part of the park. Currently, it is the ride desert of the park. Only boasting Adventure Express, the park really doesn't have anything to write home about. I for one would be very excited if we saw something like a "reimagined Oktoberfest" renovation like we did with Action Zone a few years ago. German flair in all of the restaurants, an actual biergarten that isn't choked by beer sales inside of the Festhaus, the sky ride, der spinning keggers in the plot behind the Coke Marketplace. We have so much potential under the new management with both CF and KI, who wants to flesh out their areas; so I'm not saying it's too far fetched.

Imagine something like this: Now just choose what dishes to serve lol Source for pic: https://www.frankenmuth.org/directory/bavarian-inn-restaurant/

Not exactly coasters but I like how Disney does Go-Away-Green and Blend/in-Blue to have some of their buildings blend in with the trees, shrubbery, and sky. I wonder what the outside of BBoBH and the Crypt building would look like in these colors:

Orange and teal Invertigo. Looks weird with cyan and green

Woodstock Express- Yellow