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That's not an apples to apples comparison. Car accidents typically don't cause people to question the safety of cars as a genre of machine. If a car is unsafe, people will at most not buy that model or make again. The amusement industry does not work the same way (with non-enthusiasts, anyway.) The car industry is not nearly as dependent upon each other the way the amusement industry is. I don't think Tr0y deserves hellfire and brimstone for their post, and I hope I didn't come across that way. There's a lot of ways that Tr0y's kind of response makes sense when compared to how online PR often works nowadays. I just think "throwing shade at Carowinds" (which IS what was original post said) isn't the right approach for the amusement industry, and I decided to explain why.

Ice cream machines being down aren't perceived as a threat to human lives. That's the difference. McDonald's ice cream machines being down doesn't make Wendy's customers wary of buying a Frosty. Amusement parks don't exist in a vacuum the way fast food, for example, does. Yes, a nationally publicized park incident makes the whole industry look bad. What you are missing is that organizations like the ASTM F24 committee, IAAPA, etc. exist to help professionals support each other and improve safety for everyone. Company lines have no meaningful presence in those places, because a loss for one is a loss for everyone. I know nothing, but I guarantee you that Fury is and will be discussed heavily there so that this does not happen again. The industry is much, much more of a family than various Twitter feeds would lead you to believe.

Why, though? The amusement industry is already perceived as being unsafe by many Americans. How does publicly throwing a major player under the bus do anything besides make that negative perception worse for every park in the country? Remember that the general public neither knows nor cares to know the difference between a Fun Spot and a Cedar Fair. Enthusiast perception is not the reality of the market. It's also not like Cedar Fair or Carowinds are in the business of being negligent. Obviously, this wasn't anticipated. If you make a big production of throwing one park under the bus and then it happens to you as unexpectedly as it did to them... Where does that leave the public perception of the industry then? You've sold your colleagues for a shot at more ticket sales, and it wouldn't have even paid off for you.

I honestly don't feel like any of the Fun Spot parks make sense within any major seasonal operator's portfolio. They're closer to roadside tourist attractions (like miniature golf, Ripley's Believe It or Not, etc.) than traditional amusement parks, in my opinion. That being said, if I had to choose, Fun Spot Orlando has the closest aesthetics to a Cedar Fair or Six Flags park, so probably them. If Disney or (especially) Universal were to buy it, I think it'd be to shut it down and sell the assets. But I also think it hardly dents the attendance at either, so it's a moot point on that front. Fun Spot Kissimmee is closer to that roadside attraction aesthetic than the Orlando park. Honestly, if I were to pick someone to buy it, I'd probably choose the family that owns ZDT's Amusement Park in Seguin, Texas. The Kissimmee park feels like a moderately bigger version of that park. I haven't been to Fun Spot Atlanta, but based off what I understand secondhand of it, it seems pretty similar in size and aesthetics to the Kissimmee park.

This is a minor point, but Boo Blasters is actually an out-of-the-box concept from Sally called "Ghost Blasters II" that exists at other parks. Like, "out-of-the-box" to the point that Sally's website refers to Boo Blasters as Ghost Blasters II: https://www.sallydarkrides.com/dark-rides/ghost-blasters-ii Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle was, I suspect, originally based on the Ghost Blasters II concept--or, at least, they were very similar. (Sally lists the SDatHC's as their own listing in their portfolio.) Either way, it kind of tracks for Kinzel's Cedar Fair to choose a theme that's both premade (i.e., cheap) and close enough to what's already there.

Formula Rossa is in a desert. You wear goggles because of sand. I would be shocked if the max height or speed of Top Thrill Dragster increases at this point. I would imagine that you don't just tack on 30 mph to a ride's speed without reprofiling the climb up. And that part is already being painted.

I agree that they should make the code unique to each person--but as a way of nullifying this issue altogether. Doing it as a generic, enter-the-code-and-receive-it promo code (which, reading between the lines, is what I speculate happened here) is an oddly low-tech way of handling this, with the risk being exactly what happened. Kings Island already has a passholder portal, both in their app and on their website. Is the technology not already there for issuing passholder-specific ticket offers...?

At the time, Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular was a neat enough change. At least when it first opened, anyway. It was in pretty sad shape towards the end--lots of burnt-out or unlit strands of lights. I think to today's crowd, it'd be somewhat underwhelming. Just about anything done with lighting at Winterfest, Haunt, or even the closing fireworks these days is more impressive. It's really nice to be on this side of the Kinzel era.

I love your picture! It makes Sol Spin look like a flower. I wonder if KI is talking with Zamperla at all about modifying the restraints so that this won't continue to be the case, if that's even an option. Purely from an operational standpoint, every other ride in the park with OTSRs has you pull down your own restraint. You can't fault people for expecting the exact same out of Sol Spin. If people pulling on the restraints is causing downtime, modifying the restraints to eliminate that would make better use of everyone's time, and there's a cost savings that could be attached to that.

I'm glad someone else is saying this, because I've always thought Screamscape "rumors" and "leaks" out of Holiday World were a little too specific to be picked up by most enthusiasts, let alone the general public. Nobody's watching chain theme parks that closely--and as great as Holiday World is, I have a hard time believing anyone is watching them even more closely.

Literally begging y'all to stop seeing Cedar Fair as an unchanging monolith who has always done things the same way and always will. People at the top have changed heavily. You just described how KINZEL ran CF. We're a full decade past that era.

Not to simp, but the thing JUST opened. I think some downtime and awkward/slow operations are to be expected right now.

I voted no. I'm indifferent to it being an upcharge; I just never enjoyed riding it. I rode it a few times. I have similar feelings about Xtreme Skyflyer.

I kind of agree with this. The Soak City station feels like an afterthought, a backstage area, and way too undersized for the volume of people who use it. It routinely doesn't have enough space for the people who are waiting to board, so the line often extends out into the already cramped adjacent path, especially on busy days. I like your placement for the new station and think it'd also make good use of that path alongside the lazy river, which (I think) is currently blocked off anyway. I think the only downside to this plan, apart from trees, is that that'd also do away with a maintenance road. But, I'm sure there's something that can be done to replace it or provide another way for employees to get around.

Alright, let me clarify my post real quick. I'm not singling anyone out. I too have talked about these things. There's nothing wrong with talking about those things. There's a reason they're common topics--they're good topics that many around here care about. You're exasperating no one if you continue to talk about them. My tone was meant to be playful, while also listing things that get talked about around here a lot. I couldn't care less if y'all were to make a thousand new Phantom Theater threads tomorrow. This is a Kings Island fansite. If you're NOT posting about hopeful you are to speculate that Phantom Theater will be back next year and what it might be like, then I'm not sure what the point of this place even is. Keep doing what you do! I apologize if anything I listed was hurtful to anyone. That wasn't my intent, but intent matters less than effect.

This is pretty typical of Inside the Magic, to be honest. "Mislead and then take 4 paragraphs to actually tell the story" is the name of the game over there.

Edit: Nevermind. This post was not my finest idea.

I'm gonna be very honest... I picked Craig because he looks like a Craig. That it has any other connotations with a statue is both unintentional and hilarious.

It took me a few minutes to realize you were naming barrels on Cargo Loco and not making a joke about eating cacao beans and fish oil and getting diarrhea.

He looks like a Craig to me.

You should probably know that the Outpost 5 stuff is originally based on Adventure Express's original queue audio. You're seeing more mentions of it because Adventure Express just got its makeover. There's a really good chance you're setting yourself up for disappointment by looking into things any more deeply than that.

If they're teasing this much, we must be getting close to an opening date announcement. I'm beyond excited to ride Adventure Express and see the updates.

Nope. Not just you. I mean no hate towards the cast and crew of PTE--their execution of the show was great--but I saw it once or twice. That was enough for me. I appreciate some campiness, but the concept and script just don't resonate with me. (I also don't entirely understand the nostalgia for Phantom Theater, but that's for a different topic.) I personally preferred the cirque shows, too, but I'd also like to see a bit more story sprinkled in if they were to return. Cirque Imagine was amazing and had just enough of a story that the show felt like a journey. Origins and Gravity were both very enjoyable, but they were a little less enrapturing than Cirque Imagine.

Now now, they didn't lie. No two rides are the same when something new stops working every cycle.

I was going to guess that that is when Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is set (i.e., a movie featuring the Indiana Jones theme and a mine cart scene), but apparently it was set in 1935. It's been a while since I watched it. (Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in 1936 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was set in 1938, if anyone was wondering.) 1937 is the only year between 1935 and 1938 where there isn't an IJ movie set in it, so maybe it was chosen to further emulate that series/era without directly copying IJ any further?