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Winterfest Returning soon?


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I never attended Winter Fest, I would think it would be cool to do so I wish I would have done it when the opportunity was there.

When it boils down to it, Kings Island is a business. They are in business to make money, not lose money or to break even. With all the options available for winter entertainment within a short driving distance, I don't know how it could be hugely profitable for them to open up. You have Perfect North Slopes, places to skate, I have heard the zoo is decorated nicely - with having that kind of competition, it would not truly benefit them to do Winter Fest unless they find something to one up them.

I strongly prefer having the park focus on the open season and making park improvements vs opening up in the winter time to make little to no profit. I personally think they continually are improving each year to make each year a very memorable year - and I love that.

Of course, this is my own opinion.

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There are a lot of other "winter/holiday" things to do around the area, but there are a lot of halloween type things to do in the area as well, so that's not much of an excuse.

However, with the success that the Fest has apparently had, and the tradition that it has become, we're not going to see that stop any time soon. With the Fest ending around the end of october, and any "winter" exhibit needing to be ready by Thanksgiving (at the latest) that doesn't leave a lot of time for maintenant to both set up the event while also starting their regular park maintenance they do every off season. I'd imagine, that in order to properly do a Winter fest again that would be successful, they've have little choice but to scale back part of fall festival. I doubt we see that happen, so I doubt we'll ever see it back until the halloween festival is no longer an option.

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couple of thoughts.

I loved WinterFest (first run and Paramount redux)- so his response was encouraging. Definitely leaving the door open, whereas I think the answer in 2006/2007 was a resounding "NO." that said, with all due respect to Don and his position, a PR guy is several links down the chain when it comes to decision making capacities. What I do like is that Don probably does not comment on anything he isn't authorized to. So, if I'm a bettin' man (which I'm not)- based on my neanderthal thinking I'm guessing there's a feasibility study going on regarding the details of a Cedar Fair run Winterfest. There are actually probably few left in the administration that were here for the last go-'round.

With an X-Disney CEO at the helm... a 2014 or 2015 Winterfest would be one not to miss!

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There are a lot of other "winter/holiday" things to do around the area, but there are a lot of halloween type things to do in the area as well, so that's not much of an excuse.

What WinterFest at KI brought to the table is the same as many other venues.

What Halloween Haunt at KI brings to the table is nothing like any other venue.

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https://www.facebook.com/kiwinterfest

Over 4000 likes on this page with close to 3000 coming only in the last couple weeks. Winterfest Needs to happen again, somewhere down the Road...

Liking a page and participating and spending money at a said event is 2 different things. That being said, I would like to see it return some day!

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If Kings Island puts on a similar event to Busch Garden's Christmas Town, I can EASILY see them making more money than they do from Halloween Haunt. There's tons of Halloween events in the Cincinnati area, but there is nothing much to compete with as far as Christmas goes. Kings Island is very scared to put all the work into this kind of event because of how much Paramount failed at it. If you have the good food, lights, ice skating included with admission, flat rides, 1 roller coaster (Busch Garden's Christmas Town usually opens 1 roller coaster, weather permitting.) Racer is the Kings Island classic, so I think opening racer with a lot of Christmas lights covering it would be great.

As far as weather goes, Ohio weather is NEVER predictable. Yes, it will most likely be very chilly. But that's really what Christmas is, isn't it? If it was 80 degrees would it really feel like Christmas to you? I think they SHOULD have some rides open. I don't know why people complain all the time. There have been PLENTY of Halloween Haunt nights where it's been winter-like temperatures and I still saw tons of people riding the rides, all happy. They just bundle up, it's not that hard people.

As far as staffing goes, they should have NO problem getting enough people to run such an event. It would require less than half of the employees they need during the summer. I think running it starting the 1st week of December and running it through the last weekend would be a huge success.

Just my thoughts. Kings Island could have something really special, if they use their brains.

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There are no plans to bring it back in the foreseeable future.

You have been throwing around No and Maybe when it comes to this topic... I don't know what to think anymore.
He hasn't been contradicting himself. Someone could ask if anyone has ever considered having me replace Ouimet as Cedar Fair CEO. If I met the right people, got the right work experience, and had the right attitude, then maybe it could happen. However, Cedar Fair is (presumably) not considering me for the position within the foreseeable future. It could happen, but no one who matters is banking on it happening soon enough that they need to start preparations for it. (Especially me!)

One of the statements is opening the possibility that the event someday, somehow may happen at Kings Island. The other statement is telling you that that "someday" isn't going to be any day soon.

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That would be great if it did return now that the Beach don't have any Christmas Cheer.

they don't?? that's news to me!!!

Here's the deal with WinterFest. The last time they did it (I believe it was winter 2005) it was a MAJOR fail. I know this because I worked it! Season passes (both current year and next year) were not valid for WinterFest, it cost quite a bit to get in (I believe at least $20 for admission, not including parking) and once you got in there were only two things you could do for free:

1. Walk around

2. Ride the train

Food prices were insane, there were no holiday shows in the FestHaus to my recollection, and you still had to pay to ice skate even if you brought your own ice skates. I worked over at RPW and we were DEAD. So dead that just to get our hours and make some money we were still scheduled to work but 2-3 employees would be sent on an hour long paid break at a time because it was better than having a bunch of us stand around bored out of our mind. To make things worse, customers got mad because we didn't have food that was instantly ready. Sure we could have made the food in advance.... but it would have been cold by the time it got ordered. We did that the first night or two.... but then again the first few nights were actually really popular.

So at KI you paid $20 a person plus parking to get in the park and walk around and look at Christmas lights and maybe ride the train.

Meanwhile up at the Beach at Holiday Fest (which I have also worked)

I think admission was $10/person plus parking, current and next year season passes were valid.

Shows

Nativity scene

Petting Zoo

Tobogganing down an old slide into hay (this was back in 2006 I believe)

Free Ice skating (free with skate rental, free if you brought your own skates)

Affordable food that would be ready in a minute or two

Season pass discounts on food

Oh, and best of all, on NYE admission was 4/$20. IE on NYE you could get 4 people in to the Beach for the same price you could get ONE in at Kings Island.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see WinterFest come back again, but Kings Island lost so much money when they did it in '05 (or whenever it was) that the whole event needs to be re-planned from the scratch before they do it again in order to not lose money. WinterFest was just such a bust last time because it seems they just didn't plan it out very well and didn't take into consideration their biggest competition just 5 minutes up the road.

I would love to see WinterFest come back and be successful, but I think a lot needs to change before they get to that point :)

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I'm sure someone here has some knowledge about Winterfest before Paramount did it it 2005. What was admission prices when they did it in the 80s? Did they include admissions with season passes? What attractions were open? I always heard just the train and the grand carousel, but could someone verify? Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 8 months later...

I noticed something on the Banshee Souvenir "refillable" cup yesterday that said "Good through December 31, 2014." I know that there is less than a 1% chance that there will be a 2014 version of WinterFest- but 'splain that one to me.

I recall in May 2005 talking with a park employee (not the Dippin Dots guy) who said that the 2005 WinterFest was the worst kept secret- as park employees leaked it, paper tickets issued in April said that there were not good for "park sell-out days, private events, or WinterFest..."

If something that "big" was coming, I'm sure it would be telegraphed to the masses.

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I noticed something on the Banshee Souvenir "refillable" cup yesterday that said "Good through December 31, 2014." I know that there is less than a 1% chance that there will be a 2014 version of WinterFest- but 'splain that one to me.

Knott's...

The Banshee cup is honored here (Knott's)

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I noticed something on the Banshee Souvenir "refillable" cup yesterday that said "Good through December 31, 2014." I know that there is less than a 1% chance that there will be a 2014 version of WinterFest- but 'splain that one to me.

Probably part of the stock template used for the cups chain-wide, to account for the fact that Knott's Berry Farm is open year-round. I doubt it's worth the effort to tweak the expiration date for each park individually. Plus if something highly unusual happens (e.g. a natural disaster forces the park to close for the last scheduled weekend), they can tack on an extra day or extra weekend without the cups "expiring" before then (as they would if the date listed was the originally scheduled closing day).

EDIT: Plus what faeriewench said.

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