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Got to ride Snoopy's Soapbox Racers today as part of yesterday's ACE silent auction. They sent us around twice so I got to ride it twice and I'll say it is an awesome ride and a great addition and will be a big hit with families! Awesome job to Vekoma and Kings Island! Now I would love to see a Vekoma launch replace Vortex

The last construction update before the opening of Camp Snoopy.

It has been open, just not at the times that I went to ride it either to windy or other issues.

Every time I have tried this and last weekend, ET has been closed. That is why there have not been any pictures.

I personally wish the park would hit the reset button on all the music in the park. Especially on International Street, Rivertown, and Planet Snoopy. Gosh I can't go into words about how I'm not a fan of the music in either of those areas! Jazz does not belong on International Street, bluegrass covers of Thunderstruck/other metal/rock songs are just a big no to me, and cringey covers of pop songs sang by a kid group just doesn't do it for me!

They’ll play the main Peanuts theme from time to time. I selfishly would loooove to have the whole area accompanied by Vince Guaraldi.

So much has been “modified” from this it’s disappointing. Outside of the new coaster, It was already more of a style over substance redo with mostly redressing of existing areas. Now that so much of the style has been cut, I feel it’s a pretty weak finished product.( at least as it looks like it’s going to stand next week at open.

Has anyone else noticed that Orion’s light package this year hasn’t been on? The blue LED light strip up the lift hill still works but the colored lights that would change on the supports and track throughout the ride seem to be missing this year.

If you are an ACE member, check out their discounts. I can't publicly disclose them, but last years discount for BGW was phenomenal! When you make the trip back to Virginia, the membership may well be worth it if it's still offered!

Today's progress

Here are some more pictures of the markings outside the park.

It was good, the only downside was the limited toppings. No cheese or raw onions everything else, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes were present.

Odd that the Candy Canes have been reinstalled (minus the curved tops. Dont seem necessary just for lighting as each one is almost right besode an existing light rig that has room for additional fixtures.

Had the coveted grilled chicken sandwich at Jukebox Diner for lunch.

Some photos I got over the weekend:

The Eiffel Tower is currently down due to maintenance reasons. I can't go into anymore details due to obvious reasons, but I do not know when it'll reopen.

Yes, I rode it Friday the 10th

Has Eiffel Tower opened at all this year?

Photo request- can we get a shot of the new stuff from the Eiffel Tower?

That’s two different things. A styled shot of a Big Mac still has the core elements promised. Will your lettuce look that crisp- no, but they don’t budget cut the seeds off the bun, they just don’t hand place them with tweezers. For this- lots of themed elements were cut and they still use the images showing them. Are they deal breakers? No, but when this project was mostly redressing and decor with two capitol additions, it’s unfortunate when a lot of that decor and theming was cut. Maybe it will be amazing what’s been added since… yesterday by next Friday and I’ll be totally wrong.

They were on Friday and Saturday nights last week. (Yesterday and the day before).

I 10000000% support this idea! If I have to listen to the Kidz Bop Party Rock Anthem one more time...

I hope they get the rights to Vince Guaraldi's music and stop playing Kidz Bop.

Continuing my slow paced rant. 84 degrees out before noon, Rivertown freestyle is closed. You know what isn't closed? The new boozy bar they built between freestyle and potato.

Yet, many will ooh and ahhh next week when it opens. Concept art is just that, a concept. It generally is more embellished than the actual execution. Kind of like how McDonald's advertised a perfect Big Mac™ and what you get as not so perfect. It's definitely going to be an upgrade that is surely needed...I'd put forth the entire kids area needs an overhaul as this enhancement is going to highlight just how ghetto Planet Snoopy really is.

Apart from the obvious logo swaps and color changes, I think walling-in the station to look like it's in a cave would easily turn The Bat into The Batman. Truth be told, I don't want the name to change; I simply want something done about the theming. The OG Bat was "Old School Horror" (namely the victorian house and bats) while the "new" Bat is currently "We lost the rights to Top Gun." I've wanted some sort of bat cave theming for the ride ever since they swapped the name from Flight Deck and it probably wouldn't take much for me; a few rubber bats and some fake cobwebs would do the trick.

According to the renderings, yes.

I agree a no eating pic would have been more representative. If you think of it on your next visit please share.

They may be out from time to time, but as you can see, I got one yesterday. It was crunchy outside, fluffy inside… perfect. And if you read my original post, the no paper pic was after I ate half of it (making it the size of the portions we’ve seen this year) my before and after should’ve been before I started eating for a true comparison.

I'd also add that there's more to do around KD than Carowinds. Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia Beach are relatively close, and you're also not too far from DC and everything there.

Wasn't it stated earlier that Coney BBQ no longer has hush puppies? And at a cursory glance, @brenthodge, without the paper it appears ( to me) that the portions are meager compared to with it. I ate at Grain and Grill yesterday and tried the soy beef and garlic potatoes. The potatoes were quite good and the rest of the sides looked tasty. But, the beef had a chemical taste and I could see lots of blood vessels. The shrimp looked good, as did the pork, but I don't like shellfish and pork tends to have chunks of fat, so it wasn't for me. As with Chicken Shack, the tenders looked very small and did not appear hand breaded as advertised, rather they looked like standard Sysco issue elementary school tenders The staff was friendly and efficient there, as always. But I think I will stick with the three side items meal as it never disappoints. I think Grain and Grill has potential but is still finding it's way. They advertise locally sourced food on a regional map with a star. I think they should proudly feature the local sources to the public. Or are they doing what Aramark did with their University of Kentucky contract, which stipulated a certain percentage of food has to be sourced from Kentucky, so Aramark used Coca-Cola as a local source since it's bottled in Lexington. Also, it's supposed to be International Cuisine and healthier. What countries do the beef, pork and chicken represent? The only obvious menu item is that represents an international food is the Greek salad from my viewpoint. The others could be obvious, but without knowing, it's just another food option. And what health benefits come from these options? Of note, it was the shortest food line in the park with the hoards of school aged children on field trips. Since it's supposed to be "healthy food" they avoid it and go for the more well known foods.

I was looking while at park yesterday, I still don’t understand why they didn’t push out just a little more to include Kite eating tree in Camp. It blends perfectly with AirRail, makes thematic sense and would provide a great “gateway” into the area. They could’ve clad over the drink/snack stand with wood and minimal theming to make a “Camp Canteen” to frame the entry and dove the ribbon of stamped concrete a bit further out with some rocks and landscape on both sides. They could’ve reused the footers from the PlanetSnoopy signs for camp style signs or the “welcome happy campers” posts instead of the cost of removing them and doing an odd little circle patch job in the concrete. Have to wonder how much closer to the concept art this area would be if we had the money they spent on painting AirRail only two years ago to just repaint it again. Poor long term planning seems to have wasted money there.

Another photo from the walkway to the picnic area.

This is crazy this year. It’s all over the place. Today - pretty quiet (maybe that’s the secret-when crowds are low you get the A portion-drops to B as attendance increases) got heaping helping of burnt ends at Ciney. Love no portion cuo- makes it look like a real meal. I took off the paper to show how much better all the food would look without the giant flappy aped that falls apart under the food. That was after I ate sone, so it would make their lean portions not look so lost and tiny. The new square plates are so much better than the thin “boats” Why is this so hard folks?

Id recommend Carowinds like others have said. Fury is, IMHO the only real draw for the dry park. Carowinds to me, was very corporate and sterile, generic. Kind of like Kentucky Kingdom with bigger coasters. Kings Dominion has charm, is tied in with the history of Kings Island, and in my experiences, has better ops than Carowinds. But if you are going to Virginia, it would be a shame to not do Busch Gardens. It's phenomenal. Of course, if time and money is of no issue, you could loop Dollywood into a Carowinds trip

Well its probably meant for, ya know, kids.

I don't think they are hand breaded, more like freezer crusted. Here is one I got last weekend. Before this season this was my favorite place to eat. Please bring back the old tenders KI!!!

These chicken strips at the Chicken Shack are dry, stringy and smaller than a wooly worm. They appear to be standard kindergarten issue strips...are they even hand breaded anymore or just out of a bag and into the oil?

Is this the year they try to see how much alcohol they can add to one park?

I turned 21 in December and have been wanting to go to wine tasting festivals and just hadn't found one close enough to justify the drive for me. So I'm VERY EXCITED about this and how close it is to where I live lol. I'm not all concerned about the food lol, BUT I hope the wine atleast tastes good. Also on a somewhat related note, could you imagine if they had a blue ice cream (blueberry) flavored wine?

They created this event so y’all can add some cheese to that WHINE!

Only if you were there the first 2 hours of preview night

Remember....same group that brought you the double grilled chicken sandwich and Nacho fries

Haha I thought you were so much younger than you are! lol Agreed...unless it's cheese and crackers...hard to mess up lol.

Just a note CGA and Canadas Wonderland are also doing the same event as well it appears.

Honestly that was my first thought. The concept of having a "higher" tier set of food options for such an event sounds wonderful, but I can't imagine the execution living up to the hype due to your already stated reason. I know my fiancé and I were very disappointed with the Grand Carnivale food offerings. Most of it was lukewarm, somewhat flavorless and overall just left a lot to be desired. I fear that the same would be set forth for this event which is a shame seeing as you know the price point will be at a premium. I hope I am wrong though.

I turned 21 last June. Also even if I'm not much of a drinker I enjoy the atmosphere of such events and I love when the park hosts events like this!

Rivertown currently has four coasters (Diamondback, Mystic Timbers, The Beast, Backlot) I think the main issue with Rivertown is that it doesn't offer much outside of those four coasters besides WWC and the train. I think what Rivertown needs is a new flat ride or two to better round out that section of the park. Right now, the only coaster that's present in Coney Mall (unless you want to count Area 72 as a part of Coney Mall) is The Racer, so I think whatever goes in The Vortex plot should be a Coney Mall addition to give that area a second coaster.