Kenban

I wish I had a good answer for you, my gut says people being told no is down to poor training, and likely employees who are just not familiar with the changes to the annual pass program. My experiences in the past suggests that training around details like this is just downright terrible. I am expecting people to have issues with early entry at Cedar Point this year as well. So why did it not work? My best guess is something is setup wrong somewhere, which is not really helpful. Would the same pass work in two months, maybe. Is it due to what park issued the pass? Is it something misconfigured at Knott's? Maybe it is something specific to that pass? The number of guests I have spoken with who complain about something not working on their pass is higher than it should be. I went to Kings Island with someone in October and their meal plan and drink plan worked, we went back in December for Winterfest and neither worked, the pass worked just fine for admission but suddenly none of the add on's worked. I recently spoke with someone who purchased two passes at the same time last year from Canada's Wonderland the add-ons only worked on one of the two passes, they just lived with it last year and are hopeful it fixes itself this year. This is part of the reason why I hate that there is no transparency around things added to passes, like the renewal Fast Lane, or bring a friend free tickets. Until you show up at the park and try to use something you have no idea if it actually attached to the card. Personally the majority of issues I have personally experienced with my passes are training problems, the pass worked fine, the employees had no idea how to handle the new drink plan, season long Fast Lane, prestige passes, etc. Most employees don't have problems but the guest should not have to try to walk an employee through what buttons to press on the register. The lack of consistency in policies from park to park also does not help.

It’s still listed in the terms and conditions that everyone gets free parking at all parks with purchase of the all parks passport. Most of the benefits including the lounge and what it contains are just promises on the website, the parking is actually spelled out in the actual legal terms which is more difficult to modify and has not been changed since last summer. I just cannot imagine walking back the free parking in 2024.

That's my hope at least. I have also wondered if part of the issue might be what park the pass was purchased from. I know there have been issues at Knott's in the past when using a pass from a park that has not yet opened for the season. My understanding is the pass that worked was from Canada's Wonderland. I could see a Kings Island or Cedar Point pass possibly having issues because their add-on's did not work last year. It has been a few years but I personally had issues at Knott's early in the year before Kings Island opened. Guest Services could see my meal plan but it would not work at restaurants and I had to get managers to over ride every time I wanted a drink or meal.

I just spoke with a friend who only has a gold pass and visited Knott's in January using the all park passport. According to them the parking worked, but they had a hard time finding the regular parking lot because the tunnel that goes under the street and leads to the main parking lot is closed. You can only enter the lot going one direction on the road that separates the park from the main parking lot. According to them the other many parking lots around the park are either for the hotel, stores, preferred parking, and are not included.

Here are some quotes from Knott's Berry Farms website, all of these were taken a few minutes ago, and are currently on the site. Here is the relevant quote from the 2024 Annual Pass Terms and Conditions The only thing I can think of is there has to be a mistake somewhere because its been very clear that all park passport includes regular parking at all parks in the chain, including Knott's. Any chance they tried parking in the wrong lot?

Because Six Flags attendance never recovered from the pandemic. They had an attendance in 2019 of 32.8 million. They are still over 10 million guests a year below their 2019 attendance. Cedar Fair had a 27.9 million attendance in 2019. So Cedar Fair is down a little over a million or roughly 4% of their 2019 attendance. Over the same period Six Flags is down 32%.

The one at Kings Island is the last one in North America, and the only one still in its original location.

Not sure if it matters if it’s ready. Vekoma has announced repeatedly that Good Gravy would open first, they used cars from the train as part of their display at IAAPA back in November. Where they again announced it would open first. Something has the manufacturer convinced, it will be first, even with Kings Island opening for the season first. I suspect Vekoma built a no earlier than date into the contract. Basically Soap Box Racers cannot open for media or guests before X date. The ride might be cycling, completely ready, and still not be allowed to open.

Fiesta Texas built a B&M Dive Coaster of similar scale that opened in 2022, and even purchased 4 trains even though it can at max operate with 3. Just so they can always have one train being rebuilt and still operate at maximum capacity. If they are willing to make that kind of investment, it honestly looks and feels a lot like we could still see rides like Iron Menace. Because they literally just built a very similar ride that with the extra trains, Iron Menace only runs two, likely cost more. Top Thrill 2 was a special case, but it’s also a similar investment to what Six Flags has done building their topper track RMC conversions, although these were done under previous management. Taking an existing ride and renovating it with a modified layout, new trains, etc. A better question is would they have done rides at the scale of Fury 325, Orion, Steel Vengeance, etc. The rides where Cedar Fair has built attractions on a scale that few other parks have been willing to do.

If this is accurate the best way I can describe this would be, disappointed. It feels like a waste of the main theater. Have I seen the show, no. But am I interested in seeing the show? Not really. This feels like a show aimed at children and families with children, and while its fine to target them with shows, it feels like the main theater should be utilized for shows that adults would want to go and watch. I would think the goal should be shows that appeal to the whole family. One thing that I have thought about before is chains like Cedar Fair, Six Flags, and especially the merged company should consider is having traveling shows. Smaller productions that are only at a park for a shorter period of time. That way a park could have several different shows throughout the season. A show like this would be perfect for a 2-4 week run, and I would think would be better placed in the theater in the kids area. A traveling show could do 3 days a week at the start of the season in the spring giving bigger parks entertainment options before weekly operations start. Do short stints at a number of different parks likely primarily focused at medium sized parks during the summer. Then back to bigger parks at the end of the season. If they really wanted to they could then utilize them around January to March at parks that are open year round like Knott's and Magic Mountain. Short runs gives people reasons to keep coming back, and gives a sense of need that if I don't go now I won't see this show.

More observations, I did not renew my pass, instead I purchased a new one for 2024. So the app has an expired passes button under my annual pass. Clicking it shows last years pass complete with the add ons and a Fast Lane voucher I never used from when I renewed the pass showing it expired in 2022. When everything is actually finished and working we might be able to actually see vouchers. Being able to see free tickets and vouchers tied to our passes would be good so we know everything actually worked and can just see when they expire. One last odd ball observation, the old pass has a different expiration between the Kings Island and Cedar Point applications. Suggesting the pass expiration is park dependent. Which I was not aware of. Not many parks are open past December 31 so likely does not really come up often.

I am pretty sure passes can be linked to multiple web accounts. It makes no difference who actually purchased them or pays for them. At some point in the past they were added to both accounts and never removed. The only oddity I have seen is I see no way to see the all park passport add-on, and in the Cedar Point app it lists my season long Fast Lane and the Kings Island app does not.

In the last few months barcode scanners at Fast Lane entrances have been installed at Carowinds and I think Kings Dominion. They already have scanners at the Fast Lane entrance to a number of rides at Cedar Point. The wristbands at Cedar Point have had barcodes for a while but they just have rarely been using them. Starting to look like they might by go chain wide this year, and actually see some use. EDIT: Just wanted to add there are signs the new app will allow guests to purchase single use Fast Lane in app and likely will have a barcode/QR code and guests will scan the phones at the Fast Lane instead of having the kiosks with paper receipts.

Canadas Wonderland literally just announced earlier this week the removal of theirs. The one at Canadas Wonderland is slightly newer having been built the year after Kings Island. https://www.canadaswonderland.com/rides-experiences/xtreme-skyflyer I would be surprised if the one at Kings Island is still around in 10 years. The entire area where it is located is ready for a complete remodel and the skyflyer is getting old, and sitting on a very good piece of land. I feel like the next big new coaster at Kings Island will be located in what is currently Action Zone and either the sky flyer or Congo falls will be removed to make room for the station. The problem with Action Zone is half the land feels like it’s ready to be removed, Invertigo, Congo Falls, Timber Wolf, and Skyflyer. I keep seeing people asking how much longer do any of these attractions have. There is a reason that retheming the whole land keeps coming up, and has been trending towards DC with the Six Flags merger.

I saw a picture of the coupon and it does say it is an additional 10% so it should stack.

I keep seeing monopoly thrown around, the problem is the parks largely exist as their own regional monopolies already. The majority of the competition between Six Flags and Cedar Fair occurs in discussions between enthusiasts. Guests primarily visit their local park, and in the rare instances where the chains do have parks close enough to compete they typically have other competition as well. Kings Dominion for instance is closer to Busch Gardens than Six Flags America. On a national level the two chains combined have a lower attendance than just the 4 main theme parks at Disney World. When guests are willing to travel they have already spoken with their wallets and picked someone else. I would be surprised if the Justice Department decides to do much.

All I can say is what I was told, and I will fully admit this is mostly from a few years ago, maybe I am remembering some details wrong. The thing is I have heard this from multiple people.

Which might even be true. I am not even considering comments made publicly by the park or its employees. This is purely from discussions with representatives of coaster clubs that I have had at events, and with friends who include regional representatives for a coaster club. What I have been told is that it’s common for the different clubs to try to reach out to the park annually, which at the time the conversations occurred, was essentially Don, and they were shot down every time. The answer was always either no, or a requirement to have a huge minimum attendance that essentially no club could reach. The park did not want to do smaller regional events. Part of the argument I was told was that club members are already welcome to come for Coasterstock so there is no real need for another event. These conversations are mostly from several years ago at this point. Realistically I can’t even blame the park even if it’s completely true. It’s a lot of work to put on an event, especially if a club can only get 50-100 people to attend. The clubs all want their own little private events because that’s one of the best ways to justify their existence. In the parks announcement it claims “Throughout the 2024 season, Kings Island will host a series of coaster club opportunities, and we will be in touch with those clubs and past Coasterstock participants before the season begins with more details.” Having smaller events throughout the year could actually be a good thing.

The ACE spring conference just like all ACE events moves around, the dates are determined by the park who hosts based on availability to host the event not ACE. I imagine the park jumped at the chance to host the event and decided they did not want to host two events in the spring and just used the dates for Coasterstock. I would have made the same decision. Trying to host two events, plus the opening for Camp Snoopy is a lot to cram into a short period, cancelling Coasterstock is honestly the logical choice. For years the park has used the excuse of Coasterstock for why they do not work with coaster clubs to hold events at the park. I am more interested in seeing if they do smaller events for other clubs like GOCC, or just ignore them all this year.

That received date actually means the date that it reached the port. It’s unlikely to have already reached the park, likely the containers still need to be loaded onto trucks and transported to the park. But I guess it is likely to arrive soon.

To my knowledge the park has not received any track or supports for the coaster. Any vertical construction to my knowledge is going to be station, theming, or something else.

Both links are going to somewhere else than what it’s displaying as the link. Let me try https://cpfoodblog.com/good-any-day-fast-lane/

I wonder how much money the water park on its own lost or made. Ignore the cost of maintaining the rest of the property, just the pool and slides. When you consider how large the property is as a whole, around 100 acres, which is roughly the size of the Kings Island parking lot. It feels like keeping the pool and either hiring a third party or just running it themselves as a small water park, should be possible, total I believe this would be around 8 acres. The rest has to be maintained anyways. As long as they don’t need the space, and I just cannot imagine how they would, unless there are plans for other facilities on the land.

Every piece of track on RailBlazer is welded to the next piece of track, the entire coaster would have to be cut apart. If that’s enough to cause it to be scrapped, I cannot answer. It’s rare for welded coasters to be moved, but it has happened, and should be possible. These two coasters run a different train design, and a different control system. Fiesta Texas is having the trains replaced with the trains being used on the 2nd gen, and will have the control system upgraded to also match the 2nd gen. I suspect with how much needs replaced and upgraded, RailBlazer is unlikely to be moved. Typically the savings from moving a coaster vs building new is around 50% because of just how much it costs to carefully take down, refurbish, and then build the coaster. Welded track increases the costs, so would the control system changes, and replacing the trains. Taken together, just building a new coaster, even if it’s another RMC Raptor seems to make more sense. But it’s really just speculation.

I was told something by someone familiar with Coneys finances. They said “Coney is worth more as a parking lot than as an amusement park”. That was from a few years before the rides were removed. Riverbend uses the Coney parking and builds some amount into the ticket cost which is paid to Coney. My understanding is without this revenue the park would have closed years ago. Economics of scale are real, operating a small amusement park, profitably, is extremely hard. Being next to the river and flooding every few years, did not help. I enjoyed visiting Coney, but even when the rides were still there, I rarely visited the park. Since the rides were removed I have not been back. I am not surprised the park closed. People can sit behind a keyboard and claim this is due to the removal of the rides, but frankly even if they were still there I believe this is the direction the park was headed.