Leaderboard

I think that if the merger doesn`t go through, they have to pay Cedar Fair a termination fee. They also have to get the deal approved by the regulators, which given the scrutiny that current mergers are going through (Re: Kroger and Albertson`s), that is far from a done deal. I just wish we would stop seeing Cedar Fair cutting budgets/hours/experiences. Eventually, the park guests will realize how many things are being cut. It is akin to shrinkflation in the consumer packaged goods arena.. Keeping prices the same, but getting less product for the same price.

When are the Six Flags unit holders supposed to vote on the merger? Everything is too quiet lately.

I concur! And they could keep the simple animatronics and scenery as things to see along the way. Like the C. P. and L. E. railroad.

I would still be ok with just a boat ride without the actors. Keep the animatronics and make a simpler story during the ride.

It would have worked very well if it was just a transport attraction. Taking a nice trip from Camp Snoopy to Frontier Town is what we need.

CF attendance down while SIX attendance was up for the year: CF: For the year ended Dec. 31, 2023, net revenues totaled $1.80 billion on attendance of 26.7 million guests, compared with net revenues of $1.82 billion on attendance of 26.9 million guests in 2022. The decrease in net revenues reflects the impact of a 1%, or 247,000, decline in attendance and a 1%, or $0.60, decrease in in-park per capita spending SIX: Attendance increased by 1.8 million guests or 9% to 22.2 million. We estimate that adverse weather reduced full-year attendance by over 1 million guests. This includes rain and snow in California during spring break, followed by a record summer heat wave in Texas and eight consecutive weekends of rain or threat of rain in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast after Labor Day. Total revenue increased by $68 million or 5%, driven by higher attendance and higher sponsorship revenue partially offset by lower per capita spending.

Exciting news from Knotts:

This is anecdotal; however, I think it’s important that people know what their getting when they spend their money, especially after the Prestige Pass fiasco of 2023. A couple of friends of mine went to Knott’s over the weekend. They had already renewed: Kings Island Gold Pass, All Parks Passport (APP) and all of the other augmentations. They went to park and the attendant tried to charge them. They said they have the APP and it included parking. The associate told them that the parking with APP doesn’t work at Knott’s. The supervisor came over and confirmed. Fortunately, they allowed them to go through as a “one time exception.” I was always under the impression that adding the APP was tantamount to a Prestige Pass, which includes parking. My questions are: has anyone else had this experience in 2024 at Knott’s? Does parking only work at your home park, or is this unique to Knotts? If this is incorrect, then why did the system deny them, the associate firmly tell them that they didn’t get parking, and the supervisor confirmed the information? Hopefully this was just a chain of misinformation and not a sneaky little surprise.

Thanks for doing that. I guess we’ll need to reach out to some other parks this week to see where it works and where it doesn’t.

What the ownership did to Coney still makes me sad. It had so much potential, and was terribly mismanaged by the ownership that eventually sold it to the CSO. When they removed the rides at the end of the 2019 season, that was the beginning of the end. They didn`t really invest much into the place after that point. I still miss working in the rides department there terribly. I know several of the full time staff that was laid off with the sale of the park. The concession stands at Riverbend that used to be run by Coney employees are now being run by MEMI`s vendor company. I shutter to think what the parking situation will be on the first sold out concert. Coney`s parking employees had the handling of traffic and parking down to a tee. The whole situation is sad. I don`t know why they could not continue to co-exist.

I sent an email to Knotts just now asking about this. I'll post their response here. From what I can see, on the Kings Island pass add on purchase screen for the APP, there is a disclaimer that perks may vary based on each park and to contact parks to confirm if they support a perk or not. Knotts shop shows that their passes (with the exception of Prestige) do not come with free parking and that a parking add-on is a $85 upcharge. I assume when you apply the APP to your pass, the system clones your pass internally within all the CF park databases, the gold pass you get at each park probably follows the same exact rules as native passes which means that you would need to buy the parking add-on. Only issue is that you have no way to do so. With this same logic, I'd believe that if someone has a Knotts gold pass with an APP, they would get free parking at KI since that's what comes with a KI gold pass.

the whole thing seemed cool, but WAY too dependent on live actors, Pretty much knew this had a limited lifespan the day it opened based on the high overhead.

And so it begins. For those of you have shown your love, passion, and support: thank you for trying to preserve an important piece of Cincinnati history. For those who of you have loved to spread your contrarian opinions for the sake of garnering attention to yourself: I congratulate you on your victory, though I’m dismayed at your ability to actively fight against the preservation of industry history on a forum dedicated to celebrating a shared love of amusement and theme parks. History will certainly look upon you comedically. The loss of Coney Island and Sunlite Pool will be detrimental to the history of Cincinnati and I hope you find peace within yourself as to not celebrate the destruction of what so many loved. For those who’d still like to fight for the park, reach out to those below:

Hasn't knotts said this before?

Because, as far as I can tell, the list appears to be the coasters the ACE President happens to be personally looking forward to, which is a pretty meaningless and arbitrary metric. Obviously it's better to be on the list than not, but I think trying to figure out "why" SSBR is not on the list is silly, given how completely subjective the list appears to be. Ask 10 enthusiasts what their most anticipated rides are, and you'll likely get 10 unique lists. See above. That it's not on this list appears to simply mean that Elizabeth Ringas isn't personally looking forward to it. As the President of ACE, she is, no doubt, aware of the ride, so I don't see how marketing would have much, if any, effect on whether or not she is personally excited for the ride. HW adding their first family coaster is bigger news than KI expanding their already well-rounded family-friendly offerings. Then again, if one's preconceived notion is that poor marketing is the reason for all things bad, then of course that's the lens through which everything will be viewed. Objectivity is hard, I guess. They don't build rides for "awareness" of the ACE President, they build rides to entertain guests. And so long as the ride's operating cost per rider metric is met, then it is "fulfilling the plan for the funds".

I am slowly losing faith in CF. Not just this but other cuts to the "experience" of being in their parks. I know they want a strong bottom line for the merger but hoping things turn back around after it is complete. I don't expect them to be Disney or Universal.

SIX earnings call, in a very brief read, looks dismal. FUN would be wise, if possible, to renegotiate...if they were in a strong position, which they are not. Of course, this is from a cursory glance and I'm not a financial expert.

I'm not a fan of the name "Thunder Striker". The name just sounds clunky to me and I'm not a fan of Cedar Fair putting the words "Strike" or "Striker" in their coaster names, especially with Copperhead Strike already being in the same park. Assuming Project 305 is just a placeholder, I'm hoping at least I305's new theme fits in with Jungle X-Pedition, maybe theme it to a lion or some sort of jungle cat.

The characters were problematic. Spongebob was the timeless one, but I feel like we are way of his hump in popularity. Wild Thornberrys was off the air in the U.S. when the log flume was rethemed. Many of the characters are live action, which doesn’t help. The heyday of Nickelodeon was ending when Splat City was coming in. All the Gak, “kids rule” etc stuff was great, but they don’t do stuff as much anymore. It would be cool to have Star Trek, Mission Impossible, and so on back though. Unfortunately, the extend of their theming was often to drop a movie name on an off-the-shelf ride. Of course, it’s been a very long time…

I think United Parks and Resorts merging with Parques Reunidos would make more sense.

From what I've seen it's more likely that Paramount will merge with Skydance rather than WB.

What is interesting is that Sea World Entertainment is renaming themselves to United Parks and Resorts. One can`t help but wonder what would happen if they merged with the Six Flags/Cedar Fair? Again the economics might not work out, and there are a few markets where they have some overlap (Texas and Virginia), but Sea World was interested in Cedar Fair before.

Someone with knowledge help me. As I understand it: 1. SEC has given the blessing for the merger. 2. Now on March 12, SIX shareholders will vote to approve or deny. 3. DOJ is/was asking for further information based on SEC request. Does the SEC blessing mean that the DOJ review is no longer needed? 4. If government is satisfied and SIX shareholders approve, the merger is ready to consummate? 5. Finally, the new company will trade under FUN but the corporate entity will be Six Flags. Will the new company have shares or units? One thing that made FUN attractive to investors was the corporate structure which provided tax benefits.

They all look like a 4th grader blindfolded, in the middle of Mammoth Cave drew them.

Nickelodeon characters are trashy.