CoastersRZ

The Golden Ticket Awards are the only annual awards that are given out to the amusement park industry. As with any voting scheme, it is essentially a popularity contest. There is no scientific method about how the awards are determined. Parks like to use the Golden Ticket Awards as a marketing strategy. For Kings Island, that means saying that they`ve had the best children`s area in an amusement park for seven straight years. For Cedar Point, that means saying they`ve been voted best amusement park for ten straight years.

Yeah. I saw this article at lunch. Hard to believe that Kings Island`s parking prices were the same as Disney`s. But the difference is that Disney orchestrates their parking very well, directing you to your spots and offering shuttles to the park gates. The latter of which is a tradition that has all but fallen silent at Kings Island, likely a result of cost cutting.

Ok, because a ride is a couple of years old and has had some mechanical difficulties, they should just give up on it? Keep in mind that the park spent millions of dollars building the ride back in 2002. Yes, I agree, those casket picture taking opportunities were terrible taste last year as well. I just think that with all the negative publicity that Son of Beast has received over its lifetime, between the accident, the roughness and all the downtime, that the park would not want to be using the old trains. While they are there simply for decoration, in my opinion, they seem out of place. I wonder if they will bring back several of the Phantom Theater characters to the Phantom Theater cars like they did last year.

And to think Cedar Fair has been so concerned with pricing integrity for admission to the parks! There isn`t much pricing integrity with those prices! Those are some pretty good deals for those that do not have season passes!

Actually, the park did have The Worksite set up last year. For the first couple of weekends, it was over between Slingshot and the Age and Weight Stand by the Festhaus. Then they moved it (and expanded it) to the path next to the Dodgems that leads to the Eiffel Tower. It was also at this time when they made these scare zones attractions in themselves. Both midways were one directional, and you had to wait in line to experience the scare zones. This was likely a result of trying to keep parents from dragging their screaming kids through a 'normal' park midway. And I thought Fear Fest last year was one of the best ones they`ve had so far. I`ve been to every FearFest except for the inagural one back in 2000.

That, by the way, would be an incorrect assumption. Son of Beast, believe it or not, has had to use the queue lines in the Top Gun exit plaza since 2000. I wouldn`t be surprised if they`ve even been used a couple of times this year on really crowded days.

I too was at the park yesterday from about 2:15 until close. Had a fun time, including getting three consecutive rides on Drop Zone (which was not rotating on the way up). Son of Beast was a walk on, but I bypassed it as I didn`t want to ruin the rest of my day with a headache. I also found it kind of odd that the park decided to put out two cars of the old SoB cars with skeletons in it. With retrospect to the accident that happened on the ride last year, they almost seem to be in bad taste. With regards to the Top Gun queue, see my post here.

Incorrect. Top Gun has indeed been painted since it opened back in 1993. It originally had red track. When the park unveiled the Action Zone with Face Off and Drop Zone in 1999, Top Gun (and King Cobra) were repainted. That is when Top Gun got its current silver track color. And I wouldn`t call Kings Island a tree hugger. Yes, they did design The Beast to save as many trees as possibly. But that was more than 25 years ago. Look at the Action Zone. Yards and yards of concrete with little or no shade trees. And don`t forget all the trees that were ripped out from the old Antique Car site when the park put in Italian Job in 2005. And to touch on your comment Elmer Fudd, it will be interesting to see if they intend to keep Top Gun open for the nightly portion of Halloween Haunt. Because, the new Haunt building they have built appears as if either the exit or entrance will share Top Gun`s entrance for about ten feet. Which might make that area rather congested if they do intend to open Top Gun. Unless, of course, they plan on doing some reworking in that area.

The only slides that have been removed from Boomerang Bay/Waterworks were, as Ryan mentioned, the speed slides. That location is now home to the Coolangatta Racers which were installed back in 2004 when WaterWorks was transformed into Boomerang Bay. The wave pool was added to the water park, along with a children`s splash and play zone back in 1997. The surfing simulator ride was introduced in 1998. Then, of course the most recent addition was 2004 when they added Tasmanian Typhoon and yet another children`s area to the mix. And, keep in mind that Boomerang Bay is now closed for the season. It will reopen again in 2008, around Memorial Day weekend.

The stained glass, bunting, and large mountain mural are still present. The stage in the round was present only for WinterFest and was only present at that time. The stage they used to perform the shows on has also long since been removed.

Well, most log flumes don`t float down the final drop. They rely instead on the set of wheels to carry them down the final drop. For example, on the final drop of the Wild Thornberrys, the boats are riding completely on the fiberglass structure. The water that is pumped up for the final drop is merely there for show. The splash at the bottom is caused when the boats hit the water that remained in the trough.

Well, I`ll be heading up to KI on Monday, and that is only because I`m working at Coney tomorrow and Sunday and have an off day on Monday from my two jobs! With the weather being slightly cooler than it has been for most of the last month, I think the park has the potential to be fairly crowded all three days of the weekend.

Just a hunch, but I`d have to say that an individual Kings Island only pass will be slightly cheaper than the Cedar Point only pass. And I don`t believe passes to Kings Island only will get free parking this year. The only way you will get free parking will likely be with the Platinum Passes. And it sounds like the Gold Pass Perks will now be rolled into the Platinum Pass Perks Program.

InsideMan, it doesn`t make sense if you purchase a 2008 pass before the end of the season that you would be unable to use the 2007 pass the remainder of the 2007 season. That means you won`t be visiting the park anymore, and spending (potentially) even more money at the park. Would a struggling company really want people that are giving them money for a new season pass who had a pass this season, to be barred from entering the park for a couple weeks during the Halloween events? Sure doesn`t seem like people not getting into the park would HELP their bottom line and per capita spending.

While Halloween Haunt is geared toward the older crowd, Kings Island still doesn`t forget about activities for the younger set. Last year, they had Nick-Or-Treat (which I believe will be back on Saturdays and Sundays this year as well) in which kids could go to "trick-or treat" stations and get free candy. They also offered the Pumpkin Patch Express to take kids to a mini pumpkin patch to pick out a miniature pumpkin. So while the evening portion is geared to an older crowd, the day portion of the activities are geared more towards families and children. Keep in mind that one of the Fear Fest logos the park used after they transitioned from an upcharge FearFest had the slogan "Fright by night, fun by day."

Yes, as Ryan said, I did purchase my 2007 Maxx Pass at Kings Island on P&G day last year. I hadn`t intended on buying my pass that day. But, Kings Island were offering a special deal of $20 off passes. I couldn`t refuse the offer to buy a Maxx Pass for $105 as opposed to the $125 they were selling for last fall! It will be interesting to see how the purchasing works this year. If you buy your `08 pass before the end of the 07 operating season, will that then make your 07 pass void at the park for the remainder of the season? Or will you still be able to utilize your 2007 season pass for the remainder of the season, and then have the 2008 one for next year. It would really stink if you couldn`t continue to use your 2007 pass for the remainder of this year after you buy a 2008 pass.

I think that this was a smart decision by the park. Yes, the overall experience might have been improved had they charged for it this year (and to shorten some of the lines up for the haunts). However, because it was so close to the event, and they had not advertised a new pricing strategy, it would have been a hard push to get the public to understand the new structure, this late in the game. I`m all for paying to get into Halloween Haunt if it means shorter lines. Which, looks like it will now happen next year.

I`m actually quite surprised the park hasn`t removed those Christmas trees from Swan Lake.

Well, it used to be schools started later than they currently do. And if they are forced to reopen after Labor Day, might some districts not push the end of the school year farther into June? Granted, the fact that some schools start the first week or two of August is a little extreme. That being said, some districts are even going to year round school, with several weeks off for summer recess as opposed to several months. This type of school calendar has the benefit of no educational lag from the long break from school. I can definitely see how amusement park operators would want to conserve as much time as possible between Memorial Day and Labor day. That is there peak season when they bring in most of their money.

My only gripe, and King Maple touched on it, is that if they do decide to go to an upcharge for Halloween Haunt, they are putting the announcement of this off for quite some time. Keep in mind that the first weekend of Halloween Haunt is less than a month away. They announced Halloween Haunt a couple weeks ago, but they did not mention anything about it possibly having a new pricing structure. They better make up their minds soon. If there is a change from how things were done last year, they will need to start advertising, and soon. Otherwise, they will get a lot of season pass holders showing up around 7 who are upset they can`t get into HH. In my opinion, it just seems, like with the season pass program, that they rushed putting things together and didn`t take time to evaluate all the options before announcing details to the public. They should have waited to publicly release information on Halloween Haunt when ticket prices were finalized. That way, if the event is a separate charge, they could promot it as such. Instead, it has been on their website for several weeks, without a mention that it is an upcharge event and not included with season passes.

I believe that they reason they never had the public offering of additional units is because the unit price never rose high enough. The higher the unit price went, the less units they would have to sell in order to make the $250 million figure. And, the fewer units they have to sell means less dilution for current unit holders (having to split the pie more ways with the additional units).

Well, I`m 24 miles and about the same amount of time from Kings Island. I am about seven miles and ten minutes from Coney Island.

Exactly. Charging for Halloween Haunt could make the overall guest experience far superior to what it was when it was included with park admission and season passes. However, if they charge TOO much or offer a product that is not substantially better than what FearFest was, the guests and general public will not be very forgiving, as the Interpreter stated. Lets not forget, that one of the problems that the park had with WinterFest, was that they overpriced the event, compared to comparable events, like the one across the freeway from Kings Island, where admission was less than half of what it cost to get into WinterFest. Even if the park charges $20 a head for Halloween Haunt, the value offered will be far superior to other haunts that are offered in the area, as others have previously stated. And the park should really clean up the wording on their event page. If they do decide to charge extra for Halloween Haunt, that phrase could cause confusion among park goers. I know that at Coney we had a complaint this past weekend because a guest thought that the height requirement for the Scream Machine was posted differently on Coney`s website than what was actually posted on the ride sign. (In this case, the guest was arguing that online it stated guests must be 40" to ride, when in actuality, guests must be 48" to ride.) Guests do read the park websites, and statements such as the one on KI`s website could cause issues without a clarifying statement by Halloween Haunt.

But see, Cedar Fair wants to have less season pass holders at the former Paramount Parks and more general admission customers. Why? Because when guests spend $40 to get into the parks, they will generally stay all day, and not leave the park to get food elsewhere for cheaper. As a result, they will pay the high prices of food while inside the park, padding the per capita spending numbers Cedar Fair likes. Also, if a guest without a season pass visits the park twice, that means that the park will bring in more money off of admissions, then had they bought a season pass. Lets face it, most season pass holders who go to the parks rarely will spend an entire day at the park, and rarely will they eat two full meals at the park. However, if you are one of those people that only makes one trek to Kings Island a year, you will likely be at the park from open until close, and spending lots of money inside the gates. And, it will be interesting to see how many changes are applied to the "old" houses that remain from FearFest. While there may be some changes made to those haunts, I`d have to imagine that the basic elements of some of the haunts will remain unchanged from past FearFests.

No, I know exactly what you mean Ryan. I was merely pointing out some of the noticeable changes that were made to the pass program at Wonderland from this year to last year. When passes go on sale doesn`t really bother me, because I know I`ll end up getting one before opening day of next season anyway. (And for those that don`t know what GAAP stands for, it is generally accepted accounting principles).