CoastersRZ

I agree that they would make good Cedar Fair parks. I would rather they be Cedar Fair parks than Six Flags parks.

I think that Cedar Fair would be a much better fit for the Sea World parks, compared to Six Flags. Also, keep in mind that the last time Cedar Fair added any parks was when they purchased Paramount Parks back in 2006. However, as others have stated, is the price right? Cedar Fair is still paying off the debt from purchasing the Paramount Parks. Sea World would give Cedar Fair several more parks that are open year round, and other than Busch Gardens Williamsburg, none of the parks directly overlap markets with current Cedar Fair parks.

The parade was a cool experience. That was back when they were also doing the Nickelodeon Celebration Parade at the Paramount Parks (it rotated across all five parks throughout the course of summer for a couple of years). Definitely added a lot of energy to the park. All in all, the entertainment at Winterfest last year was amazing. Everywhere you turned there was live entertainment of some sort. That was not the case for Winterfest in 2005. I did attend the original Winterfest in the late 80s, but I was only three to four years old, so I do not remember much of that event to compare.

Back when GWL was built, Kings Island had a small ownership interest in it in exchange for giving GWL the land. I believe, and I will have to dig into this to confirm, but at the time Cedar Fair purchased the Paramount Parks, they did not purchase the ownership interest in the Great Wolf Lodge (Castaway Bay in Sandusky, owned by Cedar Fair competes with the Great Wolf Lodge Sandusky). Eventually CBS, who owned Paramount Parks when they sold them to Cedar Fair, sold their interest in the GWL to Great Wolf. In a weird bit of fate, Apollo Global Management, who almost took Cedar Fair private back at the end of 2009 and early 2010, eventually purchased Great Wolf Lodge and took them private.

You hit the nail on the head. They are opening hotels at Canada`s Wonderland and at Carowinds. That should help increase their out of park revenues. Especially as they stretch the season at their parks with Winterfest. It would be cool to see a new hotel on property at KI. But there is a lot of competition for hotel rooms just north and to the south of the park (they are building an approximately 8 story hotel down at Fields Ertel Road exit of 71 that can be clearly seen from the highway.

I can dig up some information on this. I have a book that details some of these long lost parks. There was also Chester Parkm which was a main competitor to Coney in the 1920s. Sometime this off season I will detail the history of some of these long lost parks.

Based on my ride on the train on closing day, it looks like we can expect a near identical experience on the train for this year`s WinterFest (using the same lights from last year). I too think they could have done more. I still loved the train experience from the 2005 version of WinterFest, that featured some live entertainment in the station and on the train. It really reminded me a lot of Dollywood`s entertainment.

They almost always do that every season at the end of the season, regardless of how well the passes/attendance have been. I believe that they are scheduled (Cedar Fair) to release third quarter numbers tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how things shake out. All the times I visited Haunt this year (Fridays) the park seemed really busy.

I highly doubt that it will be reused. Firehawk is set up for the dual station, with the egress for the exit in the center. Unless they do extensive modifications, I just don`t see them reusing the station. It would likely cost just as much to alter the station than to tear down the old station and build new. The stations for Banshee and Diamondback are not was wide as what the station for Firehawk is. If they end up installing a Giga, I would think that the ride itself will head out towards the front of the park/Banshee Bat area in more of the Son of Beast area, and not towards the Dinosaurs Alive area.

No way should The Beast get the RMC treatment. The ride is fine the way it is. Remember, that back when you exited by Slaughterhouse there was actually a fourth queue house. (The station, middle one and the lower one are all that remain today). It used to reside where the fence and ride photo is today. Also back around 2009 or so they removed the center divider queue rail on the ramp. You used to have to decide front or back of the train at the bottom of the ramp up into the station.

Which I have always found funny. How do analysts come up with these numbers sometime? Then when the company doesn`t meet the analysts projections (they do not work for the company after all) the stock price suffers.

Yes, the company missed what analysts had predicted for growth. They still notched 2% growth. The articles I have read said that the profit margins at the five park`s where the acquired the leases wasn`t as high as they had hoped, which cut into their profit margins. It will be interesting to see how Cedar Fair does when they release their Q3 numbers.

https://kicentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/KIC-Podcast-Firehawk-Removal-Episode-3.mp3 If you wish to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, you can do so at this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/kings-island-central-podcast/id1342475078 Show Notes: Join host Robbie Zerhusen (CoastersRZ) and Brad Perdue (IndyGuy4KI) as they are joined by KICentral forum member Sonofbaconator. They discuss the recent announcement that Firehawk would be leaving KI at the end of October, 2018. They talk a little bit about the ride`s history, its location in X-Base, the ride experience and why it is being remove. They discuss what they would like to see replace Firehawk in the future (who doesn`t love a giga coaster)? They end by talking about Kings Island`s 2019 addition, the Kings Mills Antique Autos.

The next several episodes we will have guests on the podcast. I would like to know what other people think as their dream guest for the podcast.

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/couple-visits-disney-world-disneyland-on-same-day-it-was-incredible That is 6 parks in one day, on both coasts! Very impressive. Though I wonder if they actually had time to ride any rides.

There is a reason they call it theoretical hourly capacity. It all depends how many times they have to upbar certain rows for riders with unusual body positions that can`t get the belt to buckle, loading people through the accesibility entrance, etc. all play factors in not hitting the marks.

I know that it has been a while since Episode 2 came out. Okay, over six months. But I have been busy. Working sixty hours a week on average between my day job and my side hustle as a rides manager at Coney, since Coney opened back in May for the season. But this upcoming weekend is Coney`s last of the year, so I will have more time to devote to this. Hopefully people still want to listen to the podcast and future episodes. We will be releasing another episode soon! With another one following that in the not to far off future after episode 3. I also have content ideas for two additional episodes. If you would like to be a featured guest speaker on an upcoming podcast, let us know. Also let us know what subject area you would want to discuss. After all, part of what makes KICentral a great fan site, is the community of people that love going to and enjoying Kings Island.

I would say without a doubt that Phantom Theater is the ride I miss the most. It was a great ride, and had a unique theme, and was similar in concept to the Haunted Mansion. It even had the Pepper`s Ghost effect that is used at the Haunted Mansion at the Disney parks.

I too voted for Copperhead Strike. Looks like a well rounded fun coaster. Granted, I also love going to Carowinds. I haven`t been there since Fury 325 was put in though. I am hoping to change that for next year. Yukon Striker looks like a fun coaster to. Canada`s Wonderland is also a very nice park. If you are in the area, I highly recommend you visit there.

Cross threading a bit here. Carowinds announced today that the Flying Scooter ride that once resided at Coney Island, Cincinnati, and then at Kings Island, will be returning next year at Carowinds as Mountain Gliders. https://www.carowinds.com/blog/2018/blue-ridge-junction

Cool to see the full plans as well.

Pretty cool to see the layout. I like that TRA logo too. http://tra-design.net/team/robbie-zerhusen/

The park has said that the ride will be 1/4 mile in length. A quarter mile is 1,320 ft.

I wonder if the Fair Board continues to balk at granting the action of Kentucky Kingdom would truly cancel the coaster, or have the Gravity Group attempt to redesign the turn around, shifting it closer to the lazy river. I know that the Gravity Group would likely have to charge more engineering fees to do that, but that would be better than not having any coaster. Kind of surprised they haven`t been able to do a soil bearing test yet. That is fairly important to the design of the ride foundations.

The "sway" is a structural term known as deflection. Yes, wood can deflect more than steel can. But all structures, even buildings made of concrete will deflect some. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower on a windy day and you will be able to feel it moving due to the lateral load applied by the wind.