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Attractions Magazine has quite an interesting story reporting on the Six Flags Investor Day at Cedar Point (see link below). Six Flags outlined aggressive growth in attendance, season pass sales, expanded food and beverage revenues, significant increases on in park spending, festival/special event growth, among other plans for revenue enhancement. Six Flags was also reported by Attractions Magazine to recommitting to continued cost reductions in coming seasons in the $50-60 million dollar range for the next two years. At the time of the Merger Six Flags/Cedar Fair management assured the investor community serious operating cost reductions and synergies were planned. However, the markets seem to have been disappointed in the delivery of these promised reductions. It appears, to some investors, the bulk of the savings have been achieved simply by tearing down and/or removing significant marque rides and attractions from multiple parks. In other words, by simply discontinuing operating the stock-and-trade of the amusement park industry--landmark rides. Investors question the wisdom of simply reducing attraction inventory to achieve cost reductions. Particularly given most of the removals occured with little or no warning at the close of last season. No revenue producing final season fanfare, or collector merchandise, or send off celebrations. Hasty closures suggests management may have been having difficulties delivering on the promised cost savings. Absent in the Attractive article was a deep dive into how Six Flags proposed to increase revenues across its many hotel, campground, and resort hotel properties. If Six Flags covered this area it must not have been impressive enough to merit mention. Enjoy the read: https://attractionsmagazine.com/six-flags-entertainment-future-focus-investor-day/

And folks wonder why the chain hasn't put an emphasis on marketing KI....doesn't mean we can't squeeze some more attendance, but is the cost worth the incremental increase or are they better off to try to squeeze more money from the existing guests....which has been their approach in recent years....

Grace is valuable to the company....glad she is taking the reigns as the spokesperson.

Sure, it would be cheaper, but they made the right call having Grace do it.

Elizabeth isn’t PR. She’s social media. She shouldn’t have any worries about Grace coming in today for the media.

Looks like some media people got a sneak preview this morning: https://www.wlwt.com/article/kings-islands-soak-city-new-attractions-memorial-day-weekend/64852450 https://local12.com/news/local/soak-city-to-open-for-memorial-day-weekend-with-new-water-coaster-at-kings-island-cincinnati-mason-riverracers-rides-memorial-day-weekend-food-drinks And just like that we're getting close to calling it a wrap on another construction thread!

Couldn't agree more. I listen to Tower Topics regularly and have to say how ironic it is that they sit there and critique the KI Media department while, indirectly, doing the job of the KI Media department. The one thing that I find unfortunate is they sit and say what the Media depertment SHOULD do in advance. To me this puts the Media department at a disadvantage. Either they do nothing and get critiqued for it, or they do something and then TT can take credit for "forcing their hand" and even leading them on how to do their job even if what they do was planned and coincidently or not was what was suggested. In my opinion it would be more fair to wait until after the event has happened and then after the fact critique the Media department. Obvisously whatever the Media department does or does not do is irrelivant to the numbers the investors are being presented.

Couldn't agree more. Two types of people, one group that complain the park is "giving away the gate" and is too crowded and another that says they should be marketing more/better to "get the word out" and some people are in both camps. From what was revealed at the investors meeting, "getting the word out" is a waste when word of mouth seems to be doing just fine. Kind of explains the resent personel decisions during the past 12 months. Also ironically things like podcasts, X accounts and facebook groups actually seem to be doing an equal or better job than employees in the past making their positions not as necessary. You can even see that this website is contributing to spreading word of mouth. I've been keeping an eye on pointbuzz.com (Cedar Point fansite) and they are not nearly and active as we are here. Just my 2 cents.

A few things from the webcast: Kings Island has the highest market penetration in the entire chain. Fiesta Texas is already a high market penetration park. Need to increase market penetration at Magic Mountain, Over Texas, Over Georgia, Chicago, NJ. They want to boost attendance by at least 10 million at low market penetration parks and think they can get 7 million of that from Magic Mountain, Over Georgia, and Over Texas. Lots of money going to the big five legacy Six Flags parks because they are all underperforming their markets. Thrill and family attactions are planned out for future years at Magic Mountain.

Well when a member of the regional team is let go, the head honcho of the team has to step in as there likely was no one else able to do so. There really aren't any single park spokespersons anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva/videos/1211697703829230/

So happy we are getting the funnel cake shrimp! Those are FANTASTIC at CP.

I can never stay connected to the KI WiFi....even if it's not crowded.

The rest of the park is barely even busy. We did Frankenstein, Werewolf and Hiccups with walk ons essentially. Just got to pizza moon the Ube pizza and pizza nicarossa? Is AMAZING!

Exactly! I had said the same thing in a wall of text post in 2023 after a certain event happened and many thought I was crazy LOL. Excerpts below: Just like social media has changed the landscape of the traditional news outlet, where in the past the TV news and newspapers needed two separate sources to confirm news before they would publish it, I think it has changed the direction parks are going. Now it’s often as simple as re-tweeting somebody else. The immediacy of X, Facebook, TikTok, and Google searches in this new 24/7 world of news has created this rush to be first, albeit now with typos, inaccuracies, and whatever else. Has this same immediacy phenomenon resulted in differing skillsets and has the need for the traditional top notch “marketing professionals” in amusement parks been diminished over the years as a result of social media, bloggers, influencers, etc. Let's face it - all the free publicity and answers to questions KIC provided over the years, and all of the questions fielded on the Facebook season passholder page is basically doing the job of paid employees for free! How many less positions are needed to be staffed in the call center now that many of these answers are provided by people on social media sites answering the questions for free? It is clear people would rather go to Facebook and ask random strangers the hours of the park rather than opening a browser and finding the official park website and pulling up the hours LOL. And you are very well aware many will respond with the wrong answers as well, yet that seems to be where people are going for their information. Jim is putting out more frequent information and marketing on the FB season pass page than KI does. As such his stuff has higher visibility. Is it possible that things like the FB season passholder page and influencer channels are a better marketing tool than the official KI social media channels? Way more traffic on the passholder page or even KIC than the official KI FB and twitter pages. And then let’s not forget about the countless bloggers, influencers, channels, etc. that all have a larger audience than the official park social media sites. And many of these influencer channels do a great job of “marketing” a park and their new attraction that reaches a far broader audience that the park isn’t paying for! At what point do you let that type of marketing/Q&A be handled for “free” by overzealous employees and park fans on social media sites and eliminate a PR role and some staff in guest services and roll “marketing” up under the GM umbrella for those rare occasions something happens that a spokesperson needs to be provided to the media? Or simply hire a PR firm for the couple times a year marketing blitz on new attractions and special events or when something goes south and an incident requires damage control? Don’t get me wrong, I think there will always be a need for a guest services call center and park marketing staff as not everybody is on social media LOL, but has social media influenced the amount of money a park needs to spend on marketing and the type of professionals needed in those roles, or maybe a redirect on how that money is allocated? Maybe the park should be paying you and your admin staff for your FB page! Or put another way, should parks make an investment in being more active on their social media channels? Is the old marketing way of not over-saturating the public with constant material to the point that it becomes background noise and no longer paid attention to relevant anymore in the social media age? Just using CF as an example, it appears to me that the amount of posting and interacting by park staff is somewhat driven by CF policies. The parks generally post about the same frequency and while some of the parks interact with guests on social media, it certainly isn’t constant, and far more posts are not responded to than responded to. From a social media perspective, would a park be better off to adopt some of the social media methods that influencer sites have? Look at Don as an example – he is way more active on social media now and providing content more frequently than when he was at KI – was that CF driven or did he have so many other duties that social media was a backburner? For example, while it may hurt the FB season passholder page, would KI be better off posting to their social media channels and responding to comments at the frequency Jim and the admin crew does on the pass holder page? And maybe that role isn’t a PR person but a guest services type person? Or would KI posting at that high level of frequency cause people to tone out and not pay attention to the official social media sites? Would daily posts by KI on park hours, if there are fireworks etc., be a good thing or should they stick to the infrequent posting and as such end up getting buried and lost amongst all the other influencer channels? Just a bunch of random curiosity thoughts LOL.

I started the day driving by a very much closed Kings Dominion and made the hour trip down south to Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is also celebrating their 50th birthday. There was references around the park making it known that it was the parks 50th with photos of the park over the years. Unlike KD which for their 50th they stuck a banner on the main gate out front. The park was clean, and the landscaping was that of the level Disney would do. Everything was operating with the exception of Big Bad Wolf, Busch Gardens Railway and Verbolten. Some of the rides were celebrating birthdays and had AI generated placards like KI. However KI’s had a brief history of the ride on their placards. I got to ride The Lochness Monster for the first time since being refurbished. There is theming improvements for the coaster throughout. Because of it being a weekday the food and wine festival was not going on. Because of the short operating hours for the day, I opted to just have myself a brew at Gogran’s Pub. Overall I had a good time at the park. I’ll definitely be back to ride Big Bag Wolf’s Revenge

Not sure if this a jab at a former employer, or just a word of advice: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matt-ouimet-42387521b_over-the-years-i-have-watched-several-talented-activity-7320043780886208512-z6n2

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ-VI6YxgK6/?igsh=MTRsam4yYWp2Zmw0cg== Oceans of Fun has delayed its opening weekend due to weather. Six Flags might be quicker to make the call on waterparks on weekends like this if it means saving on operating hours.

Still no mention of a tasting card or completion card either. It works for other parks that have a Food & Wine event, so why not have it available? I don't think it would even need to be a separately paid thing — just a "passport" type option for people to check off their lists with a completion prize at the end that costs $0.30/item to make.

When KI is even mildly busy I find the WiFi to be unbearable. Hope this will address this. In comparison, CP has gotten better over the years.

Yes, they said the new app comes out in July. Also working on in park wifi for all parks so that it is easier to use the app.

Agreed on the KIC compared to PointBuzz aspect. Part of the problem I think PointBuzz has, is that the forum set up is just not well designed nor is conversation actually encouraged. There was a 2025 General Conversation thread created (similar to KIC's) and the one moderator closed it complaining that the information was too hard to find in a general thread vs targeted specific threads. Almost an over moderation on what users can and can't do in regards to sharing information. Whereas, KIC allows for information to be shared in the best way possible for all users. But I digress, lol. The world of information sharing is ever changing. There have been pages/sites that I've stopped following because of the over saturation of information....there have been some that I've followed because of the hyper specific information being shared. Either way, I think it's all personal preference. ---- Another note from Investor Day. I did see that they are going to be releasing a new app for all parks within Six Flags. (Did I see that hear? If so, I've slept since then lol).

I took it as a jab of Cedar Flags.....he saw the writing on the wall and left.

I like how last year, they listed the pricing was included on the guide and this year it's not. Either they aren't sure what prices are just yet or they prices are less attractive and they don't want anyone to know before ordering.

There were changes made to the menu for 2025, with a few things returning. Here is the 2024 Food & Wine Festival menu for comparison: https://web.archive.org/web/20240526034810/https://qr1.be/JLZ1 The new options on the menu seem more appealing than last year. Although I’m not sure if the menu changes will be enough if every tasting is haphazardly placed into a boat. Sea-world and Disney at least attempt to make their tastings presentable for their respective Food and Wine Festivals: Seaworld: Disney:

I think I heard that this is the strategy the park uses with its surveys. If it were a coaster it would probably mess with the coaster schedule even more, therefore pushing a Vortex replacement back even further.

There is rumor from Tower Topics that the long-term plan (as of 2023) was to put the 2026 attraction in that building. A lot has changed in the world since then. I won't swear by it being true, but the signs point to something going in there. We'll probably see permits soon-ish for whatever happens. This is one thing I won't get my hopes up for today. I'll also reiterate my point that I hope Kings Island does something special for the 25th year of Haunt this Fall. I'm not the most convinced about it happening, but it's an awesome opportunity to bring the event back up to par with its former self.