DJSkyFoxx

I'm not here to split hairs over this. I realize there are plenty of situations where a kid may have had good parents and upbringing and still have behavior issues. That's just how it is sometimes. However, I will stand on business. Have you worked in a school recently? Because I have. I have worked as an SRO and I have worked for juvenile court. I've seen some of the worst child/parent situations. Not to mention we live in the age where the bullying/constant flow of being on the internet/information overload and dopamine hits for likes is through the roof. And this is what we see in real life every day in public places-the park being no different. Twice already, myself and my fiancé' have had a group of underage teens asking if we were of age and if they could come in with us. My response every single time is "absolutely not. I'm not liable for you". Moving on.

While I agree with this analogy, I'd rather see them finish up that landscaped backyard before the brush comes in and takes over and then do a major refocus on AZ.

Never said it was just the youth, but more often than not the issues I have witnessed and dealt with personally have been with those under the age of 18. I realize this behavior is brought on by lack of parenting or poor parenting. But the song remains the same however you wanna slice it. Bad behavior could become a valid reason to cut fireworks/drones and later nights-thus giving more parks justification to close earlier.

The sad thing is with the state of these parks I could see 9PM or earlier closings happening to help kick back the late night unruly behavior from unsupervised youth. Seems to get worse and worse as years go by.

Yeah...these gas prices really have me looking at EVs right now and that's something I never ever thought I would do! Not that I'd pull the trigger any time soon, but if gas gets to some even higher astronomical price, it may not be window shopping anymore 🙃 Also St. Louis is a lot of fun! I've been wanting to make a return trip out there to make some new fresh memories. Their zoo is amazing, but definitely huge and requires a full day to really take it all in. The sculpture park is fun and interesting. Their science museum is rad. Tons of great food to be had all around. Honestly, I'd rather just spend the day hanging out and doing St. Louis stuff rather than go to SFSL. Far too much to see and do outside of that park.

I'd rather keep the current drink plan. Especially on hot days. As for the meal plan, I really would rather they keep it since that helps make for a smooth and easy trip without having to budget that cost into my day. They could raise the price if they needed to and it would still be an incredible value for anyone who chose to purchase it. Things are priced far too low, period. If they raised the prices some that would help offset costs on their end and also enhance the quality. Then if the math mathed, they could lower the price some for those who don't have the meal plan to where it falls into some reasonable range.

I never got around to following up to this. I've taken a bit of a hiatus away from a lot of things, but since I am trying to get back in the saddle of things, I wanted to follow up here with my thoughts on this event. Starting off, getting into the parking lot itself was a bit confusing since there were no instructions on where to go to get into the parking lot. There was no clear signage either which might have been hard to do seeing as this wasn't a typical event, but alas. We had to utilize the SC entryway instead of the regular main gate. Once we parked, the rest was simple. We headed in towards the main entry and over to the KI Theater. Let me give major kudos to Mason Symphony Orchestra on how kind, helpful and incredibly warm they were to each guest. We were each given a program, a ticket to receive our free ukulele and were offered free popcorn and bottled water. They didn't cheap out on the water either. They were the medium thick sized alkaline Smart waters. They also had a small concession stand for other snacks and beverages too if one so desired. I will also mention they had the water and popcorn offerings on both sides of the theater which I thought was convenient. The gentleman that donated the ukuleles also upped the donation enough to where every single family would receive one to take home, not just a limited number. The entire experience was really positive. Cocoa is such a great movie. They had a person that actually worked for Disney there to make sure everything went accordingly and the Mason Symphony Orchestra played beautifully. They played so well that you nearly forgot that you were watching a film with live musicians. They were that seamless. You forgot until you looked down from the screen and saw real life people playing the music and sound effects. Really something special there. My only real complaint was that it was really cold in the theater. That night got particularly frigid and the theater felt like an ice box. I get cold easily anyways and I was already dressed in one of my warm sasquatch hoodies, but at one point I put my hood up over my head because it was just cold cold. I'm not sure if the KI Theater is equipped with heat, but I would say I hope if there is ever a next time for an event like this I hope they will consider placing some kind of heaters in the theater to keep it from getting so cold. The walk to the car was brutal that night! All in all, this was really an amazing experience and it was very well done. It was a unique use of the KI Theater in the off season and really showcased how capable the theater is for various things. The fact they were able to fit an entire ensemble up there and pull off this show was something special. I 110% recommend attending if they ever do anything like this again and would definitely go again myself. I just wanna drive the point home that I hope they will be better prepared to combat the cold if temps are ever that low again to keep folks warmer inside the building! Kudos to KI for hosting this and for the smooth operations and major kudos to Mason Symphony Orchestra for an incredible showcase of talent and hospitality.

The overall continual sense of "empty space" both literally and figuratively was felt quite heavy on me this past Sunday as I had talked about in the 2026 general discussion thread. And while I am trying to remain optimistic, its difficult when there is this contant sense of things being downgraded or taken away all together. I'm still in the camp of raising pass prices and keeping them at a level that makes them realistic yet not dirt cheap so long as that helps allow for better things to come down the pipeline, as well as help make the park feel less "comfortably crowded". The lack of things to see/do have really been felt since as you stated above @BeeastFarmer. This place used to constantly have events, shows and things to see and do regularly. And sadly I lived further away at the time and didn't go nearly as often where I missed out on a lot of those unique events. To stay on topic though, I wish they would really make an effort to make their most expensive passholders feel valued. Have exclusive Prestige passholder events after hours or something. Or some early morning thing. Not saying Gold pass holders shouldn't have opportunities too, but you know, if you're paying extra for EXTRA benefits, make it worth the while. The current offerings are abysmal and seem to keep getting worse each season. I'm not even a Prestige passholder but I would gladly buy one if I felt that the benefits were worth the extra cost and actually meant something instead of only having a few very small extras thrown in tat barely move the meter. The moral of the story here is it sucks to see the decline all the way around instead of seeing improvements and ACTUAL real exclusives that make the extra money spent feel like it adds something special to each visit.

In a perfect world, IF KI got a new coaster, how cool would it be for a Vortex rebirth seeing as that would have marked the 40th Anniversary for it next year. And it would be especially awesome if it were the Vekoma Ghost Rider model that was proposed in the surveys that were sent out throughout the chain. Really realistically not gonna happen, but that would be a rad way to enter both the park's 55th season as well as a nod to what would have been the 40th for Vortex.

I might catch flack for this, but here goes. After attending the park yesterday, I have to say for the first time in a long time, I left with a sad/somber feeling. I didn't leave with the normal fullness I usually feel. Now mind you, it had nothing to do with not riding anything yesterday. In fact, I knew going in without ASFL this season and with it being opening weekend, that wouldn't be happening for me. I went solely to take in the new stuff and have dinner with my lady. But after doing a few loops around the park and entering some of the gift shops to browse, we both noticed something. The park feels gutted. The sense of whimsy felt missing and honestly the park just hardcore gave off the stench of "corporate". To me its like tearing down a playground and putting an office space there. Or seeing how the restaurants from my youth went from bright and vibrant to blocky and grey. This is the feeling we both had upon exiting the park yesterday. All the goofy little claw machines/barrels that were outside of, for example, Diamondback's giftshop, are gone. The giftshops themselves feel stale. Looking around each one we noticed that a lot of them were selling overpriced stuff you'd find in the middle-way of a shopping mall ( soaps, notebooks, etc ) instead of plushies, shirts, hats, park exclusive stuff. And it felt like a lot of the decor inside the giftshops and around the park in general were barren. I know this was the first operating weekend for the park and there are still a lot of loose ends to be tied up, so I am trying to be optimistic and hopefully the things that added atmosphere to the park will return, but after what we saw yesterday, I fear this may a sign of what's to come. All of those silly little nuances that gave the park life and atmosphere and that sense of whimsy appear to be gone for now and maybe forever. Again, I realize this might all sound silly to some of you, but seeing so much empty gutted space just made the place feel stale and like I already said, "corporate". Also the continued use of AI everywhere is gross. I am on the side of AI being unethical, but seeing so much of it just gives off a cheapened feel. All I can say is that I am going to try to remain optimistic for the future of the park as the season moves on and hopefully gets things together, but if this is what is in store for the future, I can't honestly say I will be enticed to be a passholder for much longer. We shall see.

IF they were ever to bring back any water features, you already know they would have to fence it off as much as possible. People are disgusting and disrespectful. That water would get so gross so fast. If teenagers think its funny to spit on people on rides, I can only imagine a bunch of idiots trying to hocker into the water or throw trash in there. This is why we can't have nice things.

Me too. It's definitely different to see. I'll report back some time after the experience!

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/masonsymphonyorchestra/2000992 Saw this come across their story feed on IG. Thought this seemed pretty unique. Bought two tickets for my lady and I as we were both pretty sick this past weekend and didn't get to do anything for Valentine's Day. So this will make up for it. Pretty cool!

Right. And that has been my personal vote of choice since Vortex's removal would be a Vekoma new-gen looper of some variety

I often wonder what a retracked Vortex would be like. Fresh track, fresh paint and in a dream world, new trains ( preferably the new Vekoma trains used on their current sit-down loopers ). And just think-with the awesome light packages those new Vekoma trains have that could have really made a statement for Vortex while it went up the lift hill and slithered through it's twisted steel structure. That alone would have really brought on some excitement for riders and bystanders alike, especially at night! I really believe that would have revived the classic coaster for long-time fans who quit riding or rode maybe once a year and it would have made new fans for up and coming thrill-seekers. Vortex was really such a good solid middle ground coaster. Thrilling enough for the adrenaline junkies but with a height requirement that met new thrill seekers at a more modest standard so more people could get in on the action.