stashua123

I would be completely in favor of this as I said above and I think they could counter-offer with this. Even a merger that might have SEA aquire FUN but have FUN corporate suite be the majority of the new company would be something I would be in favor of. And I think it is telling that they immediately declined the SIX offer within 12-18 hours after the news broke, that is not the case here, its been a day. That does tell me they are talking about it at the least.

I would be down for this if Cedar Fair went, actually how bout I buy you or at minimum said that most of the corporate suite will stay on, and we will merge a bit of Seaworld's but rely more on Cedar Fair corporate suite to run the company. Of note, the price is lower than what Six Flags offered Cedar Fair in 2019, 3.4 billion vs 4 billion then. I think in this case, Cedar Fair may seriously look at a counter offer. Cedar Fair was damaged by the pandemic but has come out of it in much better financial shape than the other companies. They definitely are not as strong financially as they were in late 2019, but they are stronger than they were after the Great Recession. Cedar Fair I think was beginning to approach the wall in terms of what revenue it can generate for the majority of its parks other than Knotts. This would give them a great opportunity to have more parks, but not significantly more parks as a SIX deal would have been(which would have been simply too much for one company to handle in my opinion). Managing animals and such I believe Cedar Fair could keep the corporate suite and staff that allows those operations to happen, I do not see them simply saying no animals. Cedar Fair is in decent shape heading into 2022. Kings Island has kind of stalled in its 8 year trend of getting better overall for me other than Orion in improvements in operations, maintenance quality and care that the park is given since 2019, but the 50th anniversary may change that a little. They made great strides from 2016-2019 in operations, theming, and the overall theme park experience at Kings Island, but the pandemic really did a number on some of it. The paramount purchase was risky at the time in 2006, but I believe it was the best decision the company ever made, and this could be a similar line if they go about a much more balanced merger or counteroffer merger.

TTD is the star of the show and draws many to the park even despite its costs. 50% may not ride it, but the notireity of the ride itself is enough to draw people to the park, look at it, say "oof thats my limit, but I will ride Magnum". Its a net draw. I know for a fact for 2020-2021 Cedar Point Maintenance completely revamped the launch system of the ride and did major retrofits to the ride. I dont think after that investment meant to create longevity for the ride they would tear it down without serious thoughts. But the accident does expose the park to liability, from how well reported the accident was and the fact through FOIA the body cam showed an impartial view of what happened that day from Sandusky Police. This accident was the most serious the company has faced in my opinion since Son of Beast. Kings Dominion's Twisted Timbers incident from the loose cell phone lead to chain wide changes to cell phone policies in 2018-19, but this accident was different due to the liability being fulled fronted onto Cedar Fair over this incident. It will be very interesting to see the outcome. And in my personal opinion, how the park handled it initially was bungled to say the least. -stashua123 who has not been on the forum since February 2021 lol-

I think they will increase prices, but over the long term. You are not going to see an overnight 20-30$ increase, especially in a deep economic recession and global pandemic. Two cons that would already give people reasons not to visit the park. Kentucky Kingdom has always been a niche favorite park for me. I love Dollywood. I love Holiday World and Kings Island(which, after working there from 2017-early 2020 will always be my #1 in my heart). There's something about Kentucky Kingdom that is so interesting. The amount of changes, the fact that it was one of the last theme parks built from the ground up. It has a history for a 30 year old park that would put a number of 50-60 year old parks to shame in how much and how dynamic the ups and downs were. The location of the park. The uniqueness. How much they care for some of their rides. Thunder Run, an underrated woodie in my opinion, has seen more TLC than almost any other park I know of with their wooden rollercoasters. Yes, Kings Island loves of their woodies, but they do not retrack every year or two a large portion of the ride like Kentucky Kingdom did, or even purchase a brand new spanking PTC train for them like Kentucky Kingdom did for Thunder Run in 2017. Their social media presence is what I would describe as a perfect set. I personally know the team behind their social media(Jefferson, Kaley), and they are amongst the nicest people I know. Ed Hart may be a businessman, and may have gotten out at the right time, but I do think he truly cared for the park. I still remember the talk in January 2013, right when the Kochs pulled out and before Ed Hart made another bid. NOBODY saw it reopening. Yet he came in here. Yes they never reached the 1 million attendance by 2018 goal. They got to around 850,000 iirc. There were weekends in late Summer 2019 were I know they broke attendance records not seen since the late 1990s. (18,000 in a Saturday in early August 2019) But almost always Kentucky Kingdom had something unique in the second Ed Hart era. They had branding that stuck out. Their Kingdom radio station, cheesy as it may be, set it apart from other parts that just play music without branding interlaid. The Big Kahuna is still the BEST wave pool I have ever been in. Hurricane Bay to me as a whole is on par with Splashin' Safari and a million times better than Soak City. Herschend will be a great operator. Some of the uniqueness may go away. But the park is set for a great future. I do think Herschend will not Wild Adventures this park. Wild Adventures is located far away from major metropolitan areas. The placement of Craig Ross as interim GM is also a bold move that shows they are serious about their efforts. They are not gonna add the every 4 year 20 million dollar attraction like Kings Island. But I think this could allow Kentucky Kingdom to be a serious competitor against Holiday World, which has already been facing a few difficult years since 2014. Kings Island will probably look at this with an occasional glance over, but I dont think this is quite the late 1998 Six Flags about to invest 75 million dollars into Kentucky Kingdom situation. Yes you see the Facebook comments and such. But I can genuinely tell you I have never had a bad experience or witness something vandalizing or criminal at Kentucky Kingdom since I had been there in 2017. I do genuinely think they have rehabilitated their image compared to how it was in 2009. Not to where it was in the late 1990s, but getting there. Herschend will I think complete this image rehabilitation.

They operate SDC and Dollywood, both of which are fairly major parks. I would not call Dollywood a "smaller park".

Official. Looks like its Herschend. Kentucky Kingdom to change hands, state officials say https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/kentucky-kingdom-to-change-hands-state-officials-say/article_4b30482e-752e-11eb-9771-7bb3912ffbd0.html

I very very HIGHLY doubt they will reopen for Winterfest. It is far too late to setup, train, and get everything set for an event in two weeks. I dont work there anymore but I know what the logistics it would take, and there would be a lot more things happening than the Effiel Tower being decorated.

In my opinion, the waterpark has needed some TLC for ages and has ALOT more potential than what KI has given it. The additions have been nice but nothing there really makes you say "wow.... thats an attraction I would wait for hours with 200 other sweaty people". I worked at Admissions a lot at Soak City last summer and came to kind of enjoy working in the area. I think over half of my supervisory shifts were at Soak City lol last summer. It also really made me evaluate some of its strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths ironically is also its weakness, open areas with few trees. The concrete hurts like heck if you are not in sandals, which I think that KI needs to invest in that less heat concrete that Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom have in spots. People who want to get a tan have PLENTY of space to lay a towel out, especially underneath the power lines. The front gate needs some slight improvements (the sales booth/guest services is from personal experience incredibly cramped.) with like one more turnstile to really make traffic flow in and out at peak. Security also needs to be pushed back slightly to prevent backlogs. The one thing that stands out is there needs to be some of the same amenities at the main park with at least one location in Soak City. Wheelchair Rental or Stroller Rental does NOT exist in Soak City which can cause significant guest inconvenience in having to get one from the main park. The merchandise locations are suprisingly okay, there a couple of stores. First Aid and Security have their own offices at Soak City, which is good, but the other things do not exist. Other than Island Smokehouse, the food options are significantly lacking in quality. Fast Lane only truly skips the line for one slide, Tropical Plunge, and only skips the line to get mats for the others. The wave pools are great capacity wise but also do not have many things that make it anything other than a Public Pool with Waves. The slides are getting very old at this point and a major slide complex has only been added once since 2004, Tropical Plunge. They had some good ideas, Island Nights was a great idea for Soak City that was VERY poorly advertised. Keeping the water park open till 10-11 with live music, silent disco, etc was a good idea but was not implemented to its best potential. They should have kept at least one wave pool open during that time. Soak City has a lot of land to expand on, even accounting for the power lines. And has a lot of potential that needs to be met. Hurricane Bay and Splashin' Safari are LEAGUES ABOVE Soak City in any capacity. And out of those two, I actually prefer overall Hurricane Bay to Splashin' Safari despite Splashin' Safari having my two favorite water attractions, Wildebeest and Mammoth. The atmosphere is very tropical, the Big Kahuna is the best wave pool I have been in so far, and the attractions have a bit more higher baseline of quality and are also pretty unique. Deep Water Dive alone is worth it for me to visit Hurricane Bay. Kentucky Kingdom did great by signficantly investing in their waterpark. Splashin' Safari made some hopping investments in the late 90s - late 2000s but was neglected a bit after Mammoth in 2012 until this year's Cheetah Chase, which looks to be an amazing addition. Hurricane Bay has seen a few additions but they started off so strong with 2014's additions they could afford to float for a bit. One area that HW and KK have us beat is their water parks, and they have theirs included in admission.

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/03/16/kualoa-ranch-employee-with-no-travel-history-tests-positive-coronavirus/%3foutputType=amp

** correction to above. ^ There was the first community spread case announced today in Oahu. Source: I'm in hawaii and watch hawaii local news lol. The big island so far has had no cases.

I would be very, very surprised to see KI or other April opening parks open on time.

I am not speaking for the park. Just from my observations. If we get to 2000 cases nationwide before April, I would not be surprised to see such actions.

And yeesh, just found this on Yahoo finance... Six Flags Deadline Alert: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $50,000 In Six Flags Entertainment Corporation To Contact The Firm https://finance.yahoo.com/news/six-flags-deadline-alert-faruqi-143200415.html

Those results by Six Flags are incredibly atrocious, and amongst the worst earnings misses I have seen so far this year. Cedar Fair, even discounting the Schlitterbahn parks from the equation, still had 5% yoy attendance growth. I can attest personally to Kings Island being and feeling busier in 2019 than 2018, especially during the Gran Carnivale and Halloween Haunt. For Kings Island to be doing great even if it is a mature park as Zimmerman described in the earnings call speaks to the Cedar Fair model. Cedar Fair has room to relax now after 2018 being slightly challenging. I feel that they are focusing more on the bottom line than boosting the share price, which while may not cause the stock to skyrocket, leads to better long term results. Six Flags suddenly went from being HIGHLY successful in 2018 compared to Cedar Fair (at one point being priced at 70$ a share to Cedar Fair's 50 in mid-2018) to completely struggling out of nowhere. Many analysts and investors were incredibly surprised, which does not happen to the magnitude of Q4 SIX earnings often. They were expecting EPS of 30 cents per share. It ended up being negative, HUGE miss. Something seems amiss, the CFO is retiring suddenly, the CEO left too.... this often happens before things hit the fan and it seems like things may be hitting the fan. I believe the rumored offer for FUN by SIX was a last ditch hedging and bluffing of their hand in order to expand, it seems oddly similar to Six Flags circa Y2K. But after that fell through, they realized they could not outrun the can any longer.

I would be perfect at marketing haha!