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If I recall correctly, Dick Kinzel originally wanted to build a park in Michigan but ended up purchasing Michigan’s Adventure instead. Most of the park’s major investments - like Shivering Timbers and Wolverine Wildcat - were made before Cedar Fair acquired it in 2001. While Cedar Fair did make some modest improvements early on, like adding flat rides in 2002 and relocating a few attractions over the next few years, they didn’t introduce a major new coaster until 2008 - and even that was a hand-me-down from Geauga Lake. The long stretch from 2001 to 2008 without a significant, original addition is still hard to justify, even from a maintenance and growth standpoint. The other legacy parks in Cedar Fair’s portfolio received more consistent investment during that time, so you’d think that with Michigan’s Adventure being one of the few original properties, they might have wanted to build it up a bit more than they did. Geographically speaking, it’s actually closer to certain cities than Cedar Point - potentially appealing to day-trippers from northern Michigan, northern Indiana, and even parts of the Chicago area. Whether that would’ve poached attendance from Cedar Point is hard to say, but it does make the minimal investment strategy even more curious.  

I may have to use my last day on the trip as a rest day instead of a 2nd day in CP or Cleveland.  My knee has gotten really sore, I'm even using a knee brace at night, which helped little bits, but CP exacerbated it with all the stairs for ride stations.  The most I may do tomorrow is hit up a beach in Lorain close to my hotel.  I'm ecstatic how this trip turned out so I'm not at all bummed out about it that much.  

Disregard post.

All of the little things adding up are making the experience worse overall. It'd be better if one major operation could stay consistent, but everything has decreased in quality overall. I will likely renew my pass next year, though maybe not with all of the bells and whistles I'd normally get. I'm conflicted because even though my experiences this season haven't been too bad, I don't know how much I can support a company that continues to slash and burn at every turn. That being said, I also know that Kings Island (and Six Flags beyond them) can't survive without ticket and pass sales. The best thing they can do to get me to buy a 2026 season pass is to also hold the MVP sale and allow people to buy the Gold Pass and APP for $99. Once the base price for those two goes above $160 again, I'm going to have to start questioning how much I can afford to get the same add-ons that I have this year.  I'm somewhat fine with the sprinkling of ads around the park, the slower operations, and some of the smaller cleanliness issues. The company needs to cut some operations to be able to pay off its overwhelming debt. My upsets with the entertainment lineup are to be expected for a park that, just three years ago, had anniversary entertainment options that rivaled those at the Disney Parks. Shows are expensive to run and require more associates to operate than most rides do. Even the drop in food quality hasn't quite soured my tastes beyond recovery. The meals are still good enough so far and I've effectively paid off my meal plan. All of the stories about the decline of the park this season have me very concerned for its future. Six Flags has the power to severely fracture its relationship with its guests, and all I can do right now is really hope good things come out of this darker age.  I've loosely advocated for it in the past, but I really do think parks like Kings Island would be better off if they were not a part of Six Flags right now. Whether pass prices would skyrocket, or if quality would drastically change, or if we'd see the park begin to improve over how it has been this year are things I don't know. What I do know is that chains like Herschend have been able to maintain a consistent quality across all of their (pre-Palace acquisition) parks despite the economic challenges here in the US. Yes, they are privately owned, but who says an independent Kings Island (with some other parks) would not be privately owned? This whole situation makes you wonder what would make things better for Kings Island and its guests at this time. 

It was an arcade up until about 2010-2014 when they emptied the arcade and turned it into KillMart. If you've seen old photos from the big Coney Mall expansion, its the building with the big and really cool "SKEEBALL" sign on it. The big garage door is closed on the 2011 Google Street View capture, so I don't know what it was used for during that time between the arcade and KillMart. I also thought Skeeball Court would be a good name for that restaurant for the nostalgia factor, but the way the company is going seems like anything new can only be a dream.