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CoastersRZ

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Everything posted by CoastersRZ

  1. Bill Balfour, the general manager at Entertrainment Junction, used to work at Kings Island. As a fellow model railroad enthusiast, I was saddened to hear this news. Hopefully, someone with the money steps up and preserves this institution. It is a wonderful place. Although I wonder how much growth it can have in the future.
  2. Well, at least Moonlite Gardens might be saved... Still ashame that the pool will be demolished. I still miss working in the rides department there... Such a shame that the previous owners let it deteriorate... If only Ron Walker hadn`t passed away in 1997...
  3. I think they were hoping to see a decent ROI. And with the current state of trying to keep margins high by reducing seasonal labor, this was a likely victim. Heck, look at KI. The train used to stay open until the park closed in the peak summer months. Now they have been closing it shortly after the water park is cleared of guests. The average guest will definitely see the cost cutting moves and attempts to save on labor. How long before they decide to strip out more than bare minimum checking restraints on coasters, which would increase dispatch times, causing longer lines and entice more people to purchase Fastlane, which would bolster their margins? Disney has done similar things, decreasing ride capacity to increase wait times to artificially inflate the demand for Lightning Lane and Genie Plus.
  4. In the past, when they have had pass holder preview days on Friday, they were from 5-10pm. So 4-9pm isn`t out of the norm for preview days.
  5. I think that if the merger doesn`t go through, they have to pay Cedar Fair a termination fee. They also have to get the deal approved by the regulators, which given the scrutiny that current mergers are going through (Re: Kroger and Albertson`s), that is far from a done deal. I just wish we would stop seeing Cedar Fair cutting budgets/hours/experiences. Eventually, the park guests will realize how many things are being cut. It is akin to shrinkflation in the consumer packaged goods arena.. Keeping prices the same, but getting less product for the same price.
  6. What the ownership did to Coney still makes me sad. It had so much potential, and was terribly mismanaged by the ownership that eventually sold it to the CSO. When they removed the rides at the end of the 2019 season, that was the beginning of the end. They didn`t really invest much into the place after that point. I still miss working in the rides department there terribly. I know several of the full time staff that was laid off with the sale of the park. The concession stands at Riverbend that used to be run by Coney employees are now being run by MEMI`s vendor company. I shutter to think what the parking situation will be on the first sold out concert. Coney`s parking employees had the handling of traffic and parking down to a tee. The whole situation is sad. I don`t know why they could not continue to co-exist.
  7. Yes, but they are advertising it is similar benefit to the former Platinum Pass, which had been around for years. I don`t know why they felt the need to switch a system, that most employees had down pat. Just wait until next year, provided the Six Flags merger goes through. Then we will have all kinds of quirks, I am sure with the season pass program.
  8. Per the Knott`s Berry Farm page here: https://www.knotts.com/season-passes "++ Free General Parking is included with the purchase of a Gold Pass with All Park Passport add-on." And from the FAQ section of the All parks passport: " If they are trying to say that an All Park Passport does not include free parking, that is contrary to what is written on their website. Shame on them, if true and they are switching it. Seems like they are trying to bait and switch people and nickel and dime them to death. Wait to anger some of your loyal customers. Hopefully it was just some mis-informed employees. When I worked at Coney, several years we had a customer service program called "Give them the pickle." The gist of it was a guy owned a restaurant. One of his managers started charging a quarter for a pickle on a sandwhich. When the owner found out, he said "Give them the pickle", for free. It is not worth loosing loyal customers just to make a quick penny. By giving them the free pickle, they will be more apt to spend more than the cost of the pickle, and be a repeat customer, more than offsetting the forfeited revenue from the pickle. Same thing applies here.
  9. Kings Island was doing this last year. I know there was a kiosk by Flight of Fear where you could purchase a single use Fastlane for either Flight of Fear or Orion. I believe that there was also a kiosk in Planet Snoopy selling some single use Fastlane passes for some Planet Snoopy rides.
  10. I think the days of building large rides like Fury 325 are likely over. Why spend $40 million on a ride, when you can spend $30 million for a slightly smaller ride that will still be marketable and bring in about the same number of guests? It all comes down to return on investment. It will be interesting to see if the Cedar Fair or Six Flags strategy of capital expenditures comes into play. Remember there was a time a few seasons back where Six Flags wanted to add zero new attractions to any of their parks.
  11. Kind of sad to see that Dreamland Drive In will not be returning. It was a great show (and it clocked in at around 55 minutes long). Outside of Kings Island, Dollywood is the only other park that I have had a season pass to. Big Bear Mountain is an incredibly fun coaster and a great addition. The park is wonderful and a must visit for anyone who has never been. I highly recommend it. Have taken my kids there, my in laws, my parents. It is a truly wonderful park and well worth the price of admission. Lets not forget the cinnamon bread either!
  12. Yeah, my Dad`s pass showed up in my app as well and he doesn`t live with me. That being said, we have drink plans on four of our passes, and it isn`t showing up in the app for my son, but is for the other three of us.
  13. I think the trend is for Cedar Fair to try and pull in rides to a cohesive theme. Look at what they are doing with Dorney Park and the Iron Menace area. They are retheming their existing Flying scooter ride to fit in with the steel mill theme. Even the new shops/food stands are getting rethemed. And they pulled in the Haunt into the storyline/theme as well. I definitely like the direction of this themed area that Cedar Fair is introducing to the parks. Time will tell if it continues once, and if the Six Flags merger goes through.
  14. The question is, is there really a market for this thing? I know that model railroading can be an expensive hobby, and is often looked at as a dying hobby. There are several people on Youtube who have built some amazing layouts. There is even a former poster on these forums (not sure if he has posted in a while) that is working on a layout in his basement.
  15. What is interesting is that Sea World Entertainment is renaming themselves to United Parks and Resorts. One can`t help but wonder what would happen if they merged with the Six Flags/Cedar Fair? Again the economics might not work out, and there are a few markets where they have some overlap (Texas and Virginia), but Sea World was interested in Cedar Fair before.
  16. Yep. The food brand was owned by the J.M. Smucker company. Not affiliated with Cedar Fair.
  17. And they allowed adequate time to complete the job so that it is done in time for opening day. I am not complaining about KI opening rides around Memorial day since the park is open until end of December with Winterfest. It just seems like Holiday World allowed ample time to execute their design in a reasonable manner, which will ultimately produce a better finished product.
  18. I too have ridden all of the four rides you mentioned (in addition to the three Togo stand ups that used to grace Kings Island, Kings Dominion and Canada`s Wonderland). While it is a standup coaster, it doesn`t ride like any other standup coaster. It is just a purely fun ride. I found myself laughing with joy on the launch, because it was such a unique sensation and different from any other standup coaster. The Sea World person who was conducting the tour told us "this is not your traditional standup coaster". And he was so right. It is a very re-ridable ride. Just all around fun. One of the things I disliked about Riddler`s and Mantis back in the day was the pressure that these rides put on your legs. There was only slight moments of pressure on your legs.
  19. I rode this ride when I was down at IAAPA Expo this year. It is such a fun ride. It is definitely a unique sensation. The fact that the "seats" can move 2" in either direction from the starting point (2" up and 2" down for a total of 4" of play), is a very unique sensation. I agree that I hope more rides like this get installed. I think I got five rides on it while at Sea World for an IAAPA Edutour, and could have done several more. It was just a fun ride.
  20. Yep, that is a concrete pump`s boom. Not a crane, just a way to get concrete into a hard to reach area of a site from the mixer truck.
  21. Thanks for the kind words, Pilotank. I remember all of our rides employees coming into the rides office with Kettle Corn. Good memories. I made it a solid twenty seasons at Coney. The ironic thing is that I applied there back in 2002 for my first job because it was closer to my house than Kings Island. My thinking at the time was that I would work one year at Coney, then work at Kings Island in rides the following season. One season turned to two, my brother and cousin worked there the second season (my cousin actually had a full time job there in maintenance and was one of the many people I know that still worked there that are now losing there jobs because of this). And before I knew it I had accumulated lots of seasons there. I agree, that given the right investment, the park could have been successful and remained a success. The kiddie ride, family amusement park segment is a good niche. Introduce the kids to rides, have a pool. Similar feel to what Stricker`s Grove is, but open to the public and with a swimming pool. Too bad the ownership wasn`t more involved to make it work. Especially with all the concert goers that walked through the park every year. Seemed like a lot of missed opportunities. I truly miss that, and the small town feel that Coney had. You would recognize the frequent pass holders, and even sometimes people from the same company picnics year in and year out. Such a bad ending to a Cincinnati institution. She deserved a better ending then what she is getting. Hopefully they can include some kind of tribute in the design of the new arena for Riverbend. I still wish I could go back to running the rides there. Fun Spot Orlando can make things work with just a bunch of smaller flat rides, go kart tracks and a small sized wooden coaster. I got to tour that location when I went down to Orlando last month for IAAPA for my work. I think a small park like that can still work in the Cincinnati area. It just needs someone with some capital to invest, and someone to know what they are doing to make it work. Will we ever see something like that? I doubt it, but I can dream, right.
  22. I don`t know how to feel. I still miss the rides and was hopeful that one day the rides would make a come back. I feared that this day would come where it would cease to exist. It is really sad.
  23. But it is not just temperatures that determine whether a ride is open. They need to factor in time to do the off season maintenance on the rides. Remember that the off seasons are typically the busy times of year for the maintenance departments. That is why they will typically rebuild one of Flight of Fear`s and Adventure Express`s third trains in the summer. Then in the off season, they only have to rebuild one train, so they can focus on other rides. Same reason why Mystic only runs two trains during Winterfest. They are starting the off season overhaul on the third train. If they had more rides open for Winterfest, it could mean that some rides might not be ready to run when the park opens in April. Would you rather have a ride like Diamonback open for Winterfest, but not open until Memorial day weekend in May?
  24. I think that hits the nail on the head. The first thing I thought of was reduced maintenance and labor costs for essentially the same ride experience. The park still has an authentic steam engine running, so all is not lost. I know that Cedar Fair tracks things like maintenance costs per rider, etc. At least they are getting to keep the ride, and not just taking it out completely.
  25. I will say that they seemed to have more trees wrapped with lights. Especially right outside the Festhaus as you navigate towards Adventure Port. Park looks fantastic.
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