CoastersRZ

I think that hits the nail on the head. The first thing I thought of was reduced maintenance and labor costs for essentially the same ride experience. The park still has an authentic steam engine running, so all is not lost. I know that Cedar Fair tracks things like maintenance costs per rider, etc. At least they are getting to keep the ride, and not just taking it out completely.

I will say that they seemed to have more trees wrapped with lights. Especially right outside the Festhaus as you navigate towards Adventure Port. Park looks fantastic.

I rode the train last night. Nothing new compared to last year. It does appear that they fixed up some of the 12 days lighted sets (and replaced light strands in some spots). Sadly, it still seems a little underutilized. I would love to see them decorate a couple of tress wrapped in lights like they did this year outside of the Festhaus. Last night Mystic Timbers was running two trains. Our train had to wait for the blue train to refill for water around 7:45, so we were sitting by Mystic`s break run for about ten minutes. Keep in mind, that compared to the original Winterfest, there are far more rides open now than there were back then. I do agree it would be nice to spice up some of the shows every year. At least with Tinker`s Toy Factory, they have had two versions. I love both of them. Last night we went to the 6:30 showing, and the place was just about at capacity. The line before the doors opened started past the back entrance to the Festhaus!

Interesting.

Yep. They don`t use paint sprayers because of the over spray on getting paint on other things below where they are painting. Baynum does everything with rollers and brushes.

Yes. But Dorney is not far from Hershey, and they do their own Christmas event. I have never been, but it seems successful. They don`t need to do it on as large of a scale as what they do at Kings Island, etc. Have some of the flat rides open, have a couple of shows, offer ice skating, etc. It would seem like they could pull something like that off. It may not bring in a ton of revenue, but a little bit of revenue is better than a fixed asset sitting unused.

And yet Dollywood just announced that they were adding 23 more operating days to their 2024 calendar. They are now open 280 days in 2024. https://hfe.widen.net/s/hm2pjhbzhb/24dw_opcal_festivals Without a festival and not being in a very touristy area, can`t say that I am too surprised that KD and Carowinds cut their year round hours. I am still a little surprised that they haven`t tried to bring Winterfest to any of the legacy Cedar Fair parks. Worlds of Fun had Winterfest, but have since discontinued it. Knott`s of course has something, but other than that, Winterfest is just held at the former Paramount Parks.

It would be nice to utilize that queue area for something other than a Haunt maze for six weeks out of the year. Filling that void and the Vortex plot would be welcome additions. Of course, I still think we will see something in the water park soon too.

And KI didn`t want to loose our original Flyers. Different company and regime at the time, but the decision to relocate them came from corporate. I have always believed that the Cedar Fair GMs have a lot of say of what capital gets spent at their parks, with input from corporate. I feel like at Six Flags, it is all controlled by corporate, and the GMs have very little say. Although Jeff Siebert, a former KI employee, seems to be bucking that myth/trend at his park (Six Flags Fiesta Texas).

I still love the atmosphere of a parade running through the park. Just creates some excitement and buzz. I know staffing it can be difficult. And I still don`t like how the parade "runs" back to its tent, after it has concluded on I-Street.

Yes, those pedal boats couldn`t turn left and right as quickly as the lazy river turned, so it often resulted in boats turned sideways. And whose idea was it to put pedal boats in a lazy river? I mean, at Coney, the footwells would often fill up with water and people`s shoes would get wet. Imagine that happening when it is 30 degrees outside! Yike! It will be interesting to see what becomes of the property now that there is a new owner. I know the Skyline near there has a new neighbor with a Texas Roadhouse. Speaking of that Skyline, it has some cool model train stuff inside of it.

Typically Haunt Saturday`s the park can get close to capacity. I know when I worked there back in 2013 and 2014 at Skyflyer during Haunt season, employees had to park out in the softball fields (past the water park) and they would shuttle us in, so that there were more spots for the guests.

I think that is overly optimistic. They have to pour foundations. And usually concrete needs about 28 days to reach 99% compressive strength. So its not like they can pour it Monday and set steel on it on Tuesday. It needs some time to cure and get its strength.

Exciting addition. I just made my first visit to Young`s this summer. Our kids loved it.