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A third of their rides? Every coaster and thrill ride is open. Only Planet Snoopy, the up-charge attractions, Snake River Falls, Monster, and Antique Cars are closed.

I think it’d be cool if the setting of Backlot was changed to Cincinnati. The road signs and such could be adjusted to reflect local places.

Six Flags America is the interesting one. It’s notorious for being an awful park. The coaster lineup is weak, rides are constantly closed for maintenance, the staff is rude, and the park just isn’t very nice. From the outside, it seems like it would take a massive investment to bring that park up to Cedar Fair standards. There’s also the issue of its location. The mid-Atlantic region has so many regional parks that competition is crazy. If Cedar Fair owned America, every addition would risk self-cannibalizing Kings Dominion and possibly Dorney Park. It’s also rumored that the land on which the park sits could be sold for a higher price to developers than the park is actually worth. That park faces a lot of headwinds for any potential buyer, especially Cedar Fair. As unfortunate as it sounds, relocating any worthwhile assets, demolishing the remaining structures, and selling the land might be the most strategic move if Cedar Fair somehow acquired the park.

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently. With the current economic climate and Six Flags’ existing financial troubles, I think it’s very possible Six Flags could sell a few parks in the next five years. They actually don’t own all their parks — some they lease from EPR Properties, some they lease from local governments, and some they own through partnership agreements. The following are the parks they own outright, so I assume the only parks they could potentially sell: Magic Mountain Great America Great Adventure Fiesta Texas New England Discovery Kingdom St. Louis America Great Escape I don’t think Six Flags would be interested in selling the top four, but I think everything from New England down could be on the table, for the right price. As far as Cedar Fair goes, they have competing parks in the same markets as Discovery Kingdom and America, so I don’t see any interest there (unless they want to pull a Geauga Lake — gut and close. The land under America is supposedly more valuable than the park itself, so it’s not necessarily out of the question). That leaves New England, St. Louis, and Great Escape. I honestly think Great Escape would be a good buy for Cedar Fair. The lodge and indoor water park would be a nice source of year-round revenue for the company, and the park itself has room to grow. New England and St. Louis would also make solid additions to the middle tier of Cedar Fair parks, and would give the company access to new markets. Under Cedar Fair ownership, I think you would see a few things — the removal of outdated rides and attractions, general park improvements to meet Cedar Fair standards, a larger focus on family attractions and non-ride experiences, and improved in-park guest services. As far as theming, I think Cedar Fair has learned its lesson from the Paramount Parks. I think we would see the DC and Six Flags IPs replaced with more unique, local themes. Recent investor presentations have talked about creating authentic local charm at the parks, so I think we would see that approach at any new parks the company would acquire.

I surely hope so! It seems that KI wants Area 72 to be a truly themed land, not just a loose collection of attractions. It would be cool if actors walked around the area to really sell the theme.

The water park’s main purpose is to drive season pass sales and repeat visitation from passholders. The hope is people choose a Gold Pass over a membership to their local pool. The park can then generate revenue through food & beverage sales, locker rentals, cabana rentals, etc. To most everyone, a wave pool is a wave pool and a water slide is a water slide, so major capital investments simply aren’t needed as regularly. Guests are going to care more about things like changing room cleanliness, food stand lines, pool chair capacity, etc. than an objectively outdated slide complex. The biggest quality of life improvement I think the water park could make would be to plant more trees! It’s like a barren parking lot over there right now.

Remember, the renderings were only concepts. As with any creative project, the final design will be different than the original concept.

It’s a term referring to full-time associates. Their name tags are gold instead of white.

You’re putting a lot of effort into this.

There’s no way you can know that absolutely no parts were sent to KI in 2003. Why would Chad make that up? Sure, some parts were kept in Canada, but to say that absolutely no parts were sent to KI in 2003 is silly.

I’m going to believe the official blog over a fansite every time.

I’m genuinely impressed with that blog post! That was an extremely interesting and thorough read. Keep more coming!

I don’t think the footings mean anything — they are probably already gone. If not, they probably will be once crews get back to work, or the park decided it wasn’t worth spending the money to remove them right now. I certainly don’t think this is the beginning of some great teaser campaign.

I haven’t been following this thread, so I apologize if this has already been discussed. Do you think the park will overhaul Urgent Scare to avoid the unfavorable connection it would have with the pandemic? Regardless of the facts, some will assume the park is making light of the situation. I wouldn’t be opposed (not because I am offended, but because I think it’s time for that maze to go). Thoughts?

The ride has been brown, and the cream is new. The question is whether it’s a primer or the final coat.

I hope the lighter color isn’t just primer. A little pop of color could help the ride stand out amongst the trees. I never would’ve picked that color, but I like the look lol.

I’ve been thinking about ride removals as well. With the manufacturer being long defunct and parts difficult to source, capacity relatively low and cycle time high, and being manually operated with three operators instead of a more cost-effective two, I think the writing is on the wall for Monster. It seems pretty logical to replace it with a more reliable, higher capacity, two-operator thrill ride. Maybe something like Flying Bobs, Tilt-A-Whirl, or Electro-Spin? When it comes to a Planet Snoopy renovation, I think the park will want to offset additional labor and maintenance costs by removing an existing attraction. The Character Carousel seems like the easy choice — anyone that can ride CC can ride the Grand Carousel, so why have two? Removing that ride would allow the park to freshen up the front section of the area with a new ride and some improved landscaping. I think something like a Balloon Race would be a good fit. I hope to see a water coaster come to Soak City soon to compete with Holiday World’s fantastic lineup. Whether it’s that or another multi-slide complex, I think one of the slides near the train station could be removed in the name of maintenance and staffing. I’m of the opinion that the rest of our coasters are safe for the foreseeable future (aside from any dramatic changes in maintenance costs or reliability). I do think there is a strong chance we could see serious investment in a few of the existing coasters — Racer and AE come to mind. I am not opposed to Racer getting a ground up overhaul from GCI with new track, trains, and ride controls. I think Millennium Flyers (possibly one side backward) with a variable speed lift would breathe much needed life into the old girl. As far as Express, there is such a golden opportunity to completely overhaul the thematic experience for a new generation. As we know, Arrow mine trains can run for over 60 years, so ours still has almost half its life ahead. These would both be more modest capital expenditures that I believe could drive strong ROI.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about “adjacent development” throughout the chain. Carowinds had a successful opening of their hotel last season, and Cedar Point just purchased another resort. If you look at all the parks, KI is one of the only without some sort of onsite accommodation. Like you pointed out, the park could leverage a hotel to expand its market reach and extend guest visits. Keeping it open year round would also diversify cash flow and help during the slow quarters. I also look at the number of offsite hotels that have popped up over the last few years as a signal of strong demand. If I were KI, I’d want a slice of that pie!

If you don’t keep updated on resources posted to the Cedar Fair Investor Relations website, you’re missing out on a lot of valuable information! CF is looking to spread out the time between major capital investments and focus more on limited time, immersive events. They have done market research that shows guests are looking for more than just big coasters. There also seems to be a focus on developing assets outside of the parks themselves. Based on information from that site, I don’t think we will see our next coaster until 2024 at the earliest. I wouldn’t be surprised if we go without a new coaster until 2026. In the meantime, I think we’ll see upgrades to Planet Snoopy, Soak City, and the addition of another family attraction. We will probably continue to see older attractions removed — I would get your Monster rides in while you still can. Other than new rides, I think we will see increased focus on events like Grand Carnivale. This year we could get the WF parade, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Halloween parade is in the near future. As time goes on, I think they will get even more creative with new entertainment offerings! We will probably continue to see improvements from the guest experience side of things — new technology and whatnot. I think the app will continue to gain more functions as time goes on. Mobile food ordering is one thing that comes to mind. I don’t know if virtual queuing is something most guests would want, but I’m sure CF has at least looked into it. There also seems to be a good chance that KI will build an on-site hotel in the next 3-5 years.

We probably wouldn’t be seeing a giga. At least not in it’s current form.

A new drone video posted on another site seems to show Viking Fury in the midst of a repaint. If true, that’s some great news for a classic ride!

I doubt Drop Tower has been repainted. Surely someone would have snapped a picture of it being sanded and painted. That’s not something that just happens overnight. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t it just get repainted in 2014?

Yup, there are in fact gates in the front and rear of the station. Banshee only has a gate in the front. I would assume Orion will have two just like Diamondback.

Ride operators at KI are trained thoroughly at each and every position regardless of how similar one position may be to another. That is, someone trained to drive Diamondback won’t be able to just hop on over to Orion. The operational concerns between manufacturers are diverse and depend more on structural things. A good example are rmc’s awful restraints (from an operations pov). They are heavy, don’t pop up automatically, and require guests to keep their feet in a certain place. The worst offense however is the way the restraint completely covers the seatbelt. If you’ve noticed at CP, the SV operators have to do one pass to check seatbelts while the restraint is up, then do a second pass to lower and check the restraint. This basically doubles the amount of time between dispatches. Another example are the dispatch gates on b&ms. Think about how long Diamondback has to wait for the gates at the front and back of the station to open/close in between cycles — it probably adds about 7 to 10 seconds. Multiply that out over an entire day and your can understand why Canada is rumored to be replacing them with non-moving barrels this season.