Winterfestguy
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Posts posted by Winterfestguy
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Not too surprising KI wants to push alcohol sales by adding another dedicated location since alcohol drinks have a huge profit margin, and as they say, alcohol sells (which equals more profits for the park). However, families are looking for food/snack options, not alcohol, and probably agree the choice of a cocktail location by the park was probably a poor one in terms of an overall family/child/teen park satisfaction.
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New Holiday World Tours - seems like KI has really missed the boat in added extras to their potential summer attendees. KI could have easily restored their Beast early morning walkback with breakfast in the Feathaus for $199.
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Now KK has also added a Petal Palooza festival as well as announcing a Forth of July festival with extended hours. Nice to see new and exciting functions coming to the park.
https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/explore-the-park/festivals-events/petal-palooza/
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It is interesting that the KK event runs through January 4 giving the school kids and families extra time to enjoy their vacation time while KI Winterfest ends on Dec 31. Wonder if more days will equal more profits for the park? Will be interesting to see how this event competes with the Louisville Down Undef Lights which is very popular.
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Nice to see Carowinds open on Easter March 31 (Easter is early in 2024) and open for the entire week after Easter for spring breakers. But at the same time sad since Kings Island won’t be open on the Easter Sunday in March.
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Getting in the front gate at opening time is ridiculous as everyone crammed shoulder to shoulder in a small, tight space along with the the secondary age/chaperon check. Lots of little kids, wagons and strollers. Lines for houses stretched over 70 minutes in some cases. Monsters Rock just needs to be retired (monster costumes were the worst in years and the band is louder than the singers). Nytewalkers had pretty much capacity crowds for all but their first show, a little better than last season. With a lack of a main show on the fountain stage, Haunt lacks the feeling it used to (miss the fire eater/spinner). I only saw two monsters on Coney Maul, and in general less monsters everywhere, even in the scare zones - budget cuts are very obvious. They are pushing alcohol this year as there is a new bar made from shipping containers in drop zone and a portable beer stand by the Eiffel Tower. Agree, it is an entirely different atmosphere than previous years (with all the little kids and strollers making Haunt almost family friendly). Time will tell if this new direction of a more family friendly Haunt is just as profitable.
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I think they are experimenting with cleaning the park at Carowinds to make their bag policy more effective. If you enter during the day, you can bring purses, diaper bags, fanny packs, etc. (probably strollers prohibited as well) - With the cleaning of the park, in theory, all these times would leave the park (assuming they will reset and clear out the lockers of items left behind during the daytime hours?). Wonder when KI will have the park clearing and enforcement of the bag policy?
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4 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:
I agree, whatever the front of the card says is now insignificant. All it is good for is a barcode.
Are you sure about the front of the card is insignificant? Typically for early ride times, you must show your season pass at the control point inside the park (just show season pass and the card is not scanned a second time). Since Platinum will be no longer a valid type of a season pass (even though the bar code may be valid on it) I doubt you would be able to use it to go through the control point for early ride times. Security may be saying next season “sorry, not a valid type of season pass for early entry”.
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All CF has done this year has totally confused the season pass purchasing with new and multiple new add on choices. Take the gold pass, then add passport for all parks, then if you want to add the all park meal plan to the all passport gold pass, looks like you have to make two transactions including an upcharge for all parks. All too complicated.
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Agree with getting rid of the fun perks corporate position. As a platinum season pass holder for as long as I can remember, I have never received any park pass perks. (Tired many times over the years to call the park to get resolved, but just get transferred and never get a resolution). Yet, park pass perks is a supposed season pass benefit which I have never received. The park pass perks program obviously is not working as intended.
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Not sure where the marketing research was behind this that supports elimination of Platinum and it’s associated perks like early entry at other parks, but if you have any CF stock (which is down to $37.40/share), now could be the time to sell before it could fall even lower after this announcement chain wide. It is a good possibility the new season pass passport may sell less or people like my family and several other families won’t be renewing any season pass. Guess will have to wait and see how Q4 results turn out for 2024 season pass sales (which season passes this year were at an all time high) and if this was a good or bad business move.
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Wonder if CF is watching what other parks do for their meal plans? Six Flags offers a 10 or 20 meal plan for their season passes. Could it be possible someday in the CF chain of parks to have 10, 20, or unlimited meal plans priced accordingly for season pass holders?
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Interesting concept partnering with Amazon and Coke to bring to bring grab and go food and beverage stores to Six Flags. These stores are similar to what exists at some sporting venues (just walk out with your selection with a cashless payment).
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Been going to Coastermania for over 10 years and this year will be skipping their event. The last few years, and especially last year, very unorganized and chaotic. They don’t cut the regular lines off a hour or so before the night ERT begins, so you end up using all your ERT time in line, especially for Steel Vengeance (cutting back on number of tickets/people is not going to solve this problem). Cutbacks everywhere including no event drink wristbands (thank goodness for the season pass drink plan), no early morning donuts for national donut day, no coaster back lot tours, conflicting boat ride times so you miss lunch, the t-shirt lunch distribution debacle last year, and the new food changes for lunch were not popular, frankly disappointing. KI Coasterstock on the other hand is a much better and organized event (and got my ticket along with my friends for this year) which is why it sells out in just a matter of minutes. Last year a month later after tickets went on sale, Coastermania still had tickets available which says something about the overall satisfaction of their event. Hollywood Nights (also sold out in a matter of minutes in December) is also the same weekend as CoasterMania so likely some have selected that event instead of waiting so long in the calendar for any Coastermania announcements.
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Been a Platinum pass holder for 10 years and never once received any pass perks (despite CF even hiring someone several years back to exclusively to handle their pass perk program). Have tried multiple times over the years (both at the park and over the phone) to figure out why, and just get we don’t know or we will get back to you (and nobody ever follows up). Maybe a good time for a complete overhaul/update of the program if intended to be a real season pass benefit.
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Would recommend HW nights over CP Coastermania which will happen to over lap the same Friday June 2. Got my tickets for HW nights (theme - Coaster Grease) on Monday when ticket sales opened. Glad to see the ticket change to first come, first served. Coastermania was a complete disaster in 2022 with shortened ERT hours (and park hours) from all previous years and horribly unorganized. After many years attending CP Coastermania, time for a change.
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Most likely year round operation announcement, but could be a big gamble with unpredictable Midwest winter weather and winter ride maintenance in the park. KD in their announcement today just made a short disclaimer about their year round operations - “Weather conditions and scheduled maintenance will limit the operation of some park attractions.”
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Attended 4 times in 2005 - the best part was Santa’s Toy Factory in the KI theater. I wish KI would move the current Santa’s Toy Factory from the Festhaus back to KI theater where it really belongs with its original spectacular set design (it’s time for the Charlie Brown show in there to retire). They gave out tickets to see Santa’s Toy Factory as to prevent over capacity, but don’t think the KI theater ever reached capacity for any of the shows that year (at least when I attended). It was nice to see the original Christmas parade concept of 2005 brought back to KI in 2021. 2005 was a very strange weather year with daily snows and very cold temperatures which combined with the admission charge created very low attendance. Often times the rocket being shot up a cable to the top of the Eiffel Tower tree at the lighting ceremony to light up the tree rarely worked, but it was a cool effect when it actually did work.
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What would be even better if KI opened for Winterfest earlier than 4pm on Saturdays. People could enjoy ice skating, cookie decorating, and several rides before the evening crowds. Years ago the original Winterfest always opened early afternoon.
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After CP 150th celebration, I imagine their 2022 budget was significantly lower, which resulted in lack luster park entertainment, no new attraction draw, and lowing the starting wage for new staff from $20 to $15 per hour. Coastermania was the worst it has ever been (2022 definitely hit rock bottom) in many years and it showed (and that’s even after an extensive attendee survey in 2021 for which none of that feedback appeared to be taken seriously). Opening two additional properties (Sawcreek Mill and the remodeled Castaway Bay) didn’t help their staff resort shortage either, and it showed (rooms were rarely ready by 4pm check in during the season as it appeared only a portion of resort rooms were being utilized). Add to the mix that several coasters always seemed down (especially for early openings) didn’t help either. Other parks are stepping up the competition for best amusement park while CP took a pause in 2022 for whatever reason. It’s always difficult to make up ground once you fall in the rankings.
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Dead Awakenings, Hot Blooded, and Haunted Homecoming all had nighttime lighting packages in the International Showplace so they can add whatever lighting packages/effects that are required for the show. My personal favorite Haunt show of all time was Dead Awakenings but that was very adult themed, especially the first night it premiered (but the water curtain for Hot Blooded was a cool effect to see in the International Showplace as well).
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As usual for CF, there is always confusion when introducing new benefits (the management that was supposed to tell the supervisor didn’t and so the average employee doesn’t know how the new benefit actually works). If the Prestige+ pass also gets the lounge exclusive benefit at all CF parks, then CF/KI needs to update their FAQ’s. The Prestige+ pass contains the Platinum benefit of unlimited visits to all CF parks plus another 5% off (total 15%), but clearly states other exclusive benefits (e.g. lounge) applies to the home park from which Prestige + was purchased.
Prestige receives exclusive benefits at the home park for which the pass is eligible. Prestige+, receives exclusive benefits at the home park the pass was purchased through, plus Unlimited Visits to ALL Cedar Fair Parks with a 15 % Food and Merchandise Discount at Other Cedar Fair Parks. All other Prestige benefits are non-transferable to other Cedar Fair parks.
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CP Food Blog is reporting slight price increases for 2023 based upon the 2023 season pass sales occurring already at other CF parks
https://cpfoodblog.com/2023-cedar-fair-season-pass-news/
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At one time the train had their boiler permits with the State limited to a certain number of hours per year, but not sure that is still the case anymore.
Wonder how long until the neighbors complain about the late night noise on those new fall Sunday Haunt nights?
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Top Thrill 2 will have loose articles similar to Universal
in Other Amusement Parks & Industry News
Posted
Last season the steel vengeance lockers went down, and since serviced by an outside contractor, were out of service for several days forcing people to use the small bank of paid lockers outside the entrance (which were all use). We decided not to ride as it was way too far to go back to the closest locker set and return to ride. If CP wants to be like Universal, then they need to get an adequate supply of lockers to support the number of people that the queue can adequately hold (and have plans to fix the lockers quickly if they go down).