CoastersRZ

Sorry for not getting commenting on this topic sooner. I thought I would offer some insights into my history in amusement parks. I am starting my 18th season as a seasonal employee at Coney Island. The last nine seasons I have been one of the rides managers at Coney Island. I do all the scheduling for the entire department for the entire season. There are days that I miss being a front line employee running rides all day long, but being a manager presents its own challenges. I love working at Coney, and it has enhanced my appreciation for amusement parks. Little did I know I would end up working at Coney so long. I really do not look at it as a job. I look forward to going into work every day. Currently, I can`t wait for the season to start, and for us to hire our new crew of ride operators to put smiles on kids and families faces and to help create memories worth repeating (I am stealing that slogan from another park). I have also worked at Kings Island during Haunt in rides at Skyflyer many years ago. That was a fun experience and provided a unique contrast to Coney Island. My professional job, for when I am not working at Coney on the weekends, is as an architect. I have been privileged to work on some pretty cool projects, including some amusement park projects. http://tra-design.net/portfolio-type/entertainment/ Pretty neat job, if I do say so myself. I hope that helps give you some insight, even if it is a bit late.

It might or it might not. I am sure that they know what they are doing with their capital expenditures budget. And they likely are trying to maximize the return on their investment. After all, they are a publicly traded partnership, so they do have to report to their unit holders, who expect to see their cash distribution continue to rise. I think we can agree that Cedar Fair has done wonderful things to the infrastructure of Kings Island. From things like installing brick pavers, to the new parking tolls, they have really been taking care of the park as a whole, and not just slapping paint on buildings that are falling apart.

But looking into growth opportunities at those parks does not mean that they will not be investing in the other parks in the chain. Carowinds, as can be seen with all the investment of late, and the new hotel they are building will bring in more revenue, especially with Winterfest. Keep in mind that a hotel allows Cedar Fair to capture money that they consider to be "out of park revenue". That can help fuel growth. Not everything has to be park related to fuel growth. Look at the sports park they built in Sandusky.

I don`t think that they will be cutting their losses. It is likely similar to Michigan`s Adventure. I am sure they are getting a return on their capital with those parks, and likely getting a nice operating profit. Just because they have not been expanding those parks does not mean they are not profitable.

Thats certainly going to take some getting used to! Cool nod to the original history of the ride though!

My guess is that it is S&S track for Steel Curtain at Kennywood. That ride has black track.

The ride was a great ride. One of my favorites at Kings Dominion. The ride did not have great capacity though. So ride wait times were often long. It will be interesting to see what Kings Dominion installs in the next few years. Do we know what new things they are adding this year? I don`t recall hearing anything big for them.

I actually prefer Topspin at Coney over Delirium. Its not quite as tall, but it does go upside down. It is quite thrilling. My wife will not ride Topspin, but she will ride Delirium though.

I doubt it, as they listed a large quantity of rides. The parks do not have that many Huss rides. Although i know Delirium was down early in its career as they were awaiting a part from overseas.

If I had to take a wild guess, it would be after. Although they may have removed the restraints prior to shrink wrapping it.

I believe that the disk with the seats is still there. It is just hard to see because they put shrink wrap on it, similar to what you do with boats during the offseason when they are in dry dock.

That is impressive. There is also a location in Milford right off of 275. It is definitely a fun place to visit, if you have not had the chance to do so. And besides, who doesn`t love a race in electric go karts?

https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/mason/teen-charged-after-mason-indoor-water-park-employee-suffers-fractured-skull-in-parking-lot

But in this case, said ride manufacturer is slow to provide replacement parts. So this sounds like another supplier has agreed to make these parts that are hard to get.

If you combine Arrow with S&S, they do have a lot of rides at the parks. KI has three arrow coasters, Cedar Point has five arrow coasters. Add in S&S, and you can get a lot of rides, but I don`t know if all those would add up to 160. Seems like a high number. It could be something like polyurethane wheel supplier, which could apply to not just S&S Sansei/Arrow, but could extend to Intamin, Premier Rides, and RMC. That might get closer to the 160 amount. As Brad indicated, if the chain can get reliable parts cheaper, that do not jeopardize the safety of the ride, then it is a win win situation.

So my question is which overseas manufacturer "turned their back" on the US? It is a company that has a lot of rides in Cedar Fair parks (160 legacy rides according to the article. Intamin comes to mind immediately, but does Cedar Fair have that many Intamin rides?

I am not defending the processing fee, but I do believe that Cedar Fair uses a platform created by a third party for their online sales. Cedar Fair uses accesso for their online sales platform. https://accesso.com/news/cedar-fair-extends-accesso-passport-agreement-through-2022 I am not privy to the breakdown of that processing fee, but I would imagine that accesso gets a bulk of that fee.

Which were likely related to the Kings Mills Antique Autos construction.

The lap bars debuted in 2001 on Flight of Fear. A much needed improvement. Too bad the seat belts still attach to the side of the car. That slows down dispatch times considerably.

Then again, when I last visited Carowinds with a physical Platinum Pass card, they still tried to tell me I couldn`t enter the park! They were trying to tell me as I was standing at guests services that I would have to go back to Kings Island to get it fixed. Thirty minutes later, they finally let me in the park.

Given the proprietary nature of their manufacturing and the trade secrets that originate from that factory, I highly doubt that they give tours of their facility. That being said, Coasterbuzz posted a video taken from within the facility when Gatekeeper was being built and Matt Ouimet and Rob Decker toured the facility.

I would not look too much into that. That area seems to be where they dump excess dirt from various projects around the park. They likely are just doing some grading out there with some of the dirt that has been dumped. Or they need fill dirt for somewhere in the park and are hauling it the area where they need the fill.

I believe that Carowinds is open during the week for spring break this year. If staffing at KI is anything like staffing at Coney, once mid-August rolls around, we have a hard time staffing all of our rides from that point until the end of the season. Come September and October, we typically as rides managers each have to run a set of breaks just so our employees can take a break (and that is with multiple rides managers working, in the summer we typically only have one manager per shift).

Is the season not extended enough for you now that Winterfest is back? I mean the park is open eight and a half months out of the year. Granted not all the rides are open during Winterfest. But back in the day, the park used to essentially be open from May through mid October.

It even states on the calendar page that Winterfest will return this year. They will announce the hours in the summer.