CoastersRZ

I will say, based on my experience on pass holder preview day, it took me twenty minutes to get my food at Skyline in Coney mall. The way the area is set up at the pick up window is a mess. Hopefully they get into the swing of things and can make the food there quicker. Otherwise, I agree a second location would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, KI counts the number of ride cycles in an hour and the number of riders in an hour. Some of the coasters automatically track the number of cycles, and they have an "empty seat counter" button to push to count the number of empty seats. The computer knows how many people a train can hold and then deducts the number of empty seats. Other rides, like Sky flyer use hand held counter clickers to track the number of riders and cycles for each hour the ride is open. The last few seasons that Coney had rides, we too counted the number of riders per hour. In fact, the last season the rides were open (2019), the overall season had higher ridership numbers than the previous two seasons!

I think you meant assuming there are THREE sets of floats. Since the earlier date already has three parks spoken for and the later dates only have two parks spoken for, then the logical conclusion is as you deduced. July 22nd through August 6.

I am kind of bummed that the Royal Coasters won`t be back. I get that it was a tie in for the 50th anniversary, but my son LOVED that show. We would often have to watch it multiple times each visit.

So is Viking Fury paired with Carousel and Tower this year for ride crews? When I worked at Skyflyer for Haunt in 2013 and 2014, Viking Fury was paired with Adventure Express (Express Ship). I guess it makes sense as Express is likely paired with the two new rides this season. Back then, Delirium was paired with Slingshot (Deli-Shot), Congo was with Invertigo (Go-Go), Drop Tower was with the Bat (Drop Bat), and Banshee and Skyflyer were each their own crews. Skyflyer requires the ride ops to be 18. I miss my days of running rides between Coney and KI.

Anybody can edit Wikipedia. Until the park releases a map or confirms that, take anything you see on Wikipedia with a grain of salt.

Thats rather interesting, since Water Country USA is not directly adjacent to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The tracks will have to cross other tracks and cross I-64. Are we sure that this is legit, given the day that this was posted?

The park has another month where they are closed during the week to allow time for their painting contractor to finish the job.

I am glad that they are opening, I was just stating that the hours of the preview event could be limiting to those that work/are in school. Seems rather odd to close at 7. Would have been better to stay open until 9 or 10.

Kind of stinks that the preview day hours are 12-7. Some people that are in school/work won`t be able to get up there until around 5. Although it is the week after Easter, so some people might be on spring break then. Bring back the 5-10pm pass holder preview days.

As a Skyline fan, I am disappointed if there is only one location in the park. The Coney Mall location this past season was either closed when I wanted it or had a really long line that I didn`t want to wait in.

So the next questions I have to ask is: 1) Does that mean Adventure Express won`t be open with the park in mid-April? 2) Will that midway walk way be open when the park opens? If not, that will be terribly inconvenient to get from Coney Mall to Action Zone/Festhaus.

All in all, those seemed to be pretty solid numbers. I wonder how much of an impact there will be once California`s Great America is not contributing revenue. To be fair, they did get a fairly nice amount of money for selling the land, which helped them to reduce their debt load, while also purchasing units, which saves them some money when they pay out their cash distribution. I wonder what ways they will try to expand their out of park revenue. We saw them purchase and renovate the Saw Mill Creek resort, and the Sports Force Park in Sandusky, and the under construction E-Sports arena.

And honestly, I would not expect anything new this season. Which is a shame. The only thing they have added at Sunlite since they removed the rides was the floating obstacle course in the deep end of the pool.

I too thought about the not having Fireworks until Memorial Day weekend. Yes, that does seem odd to close at 7pm on Sundays. Likely due to schools being in session though. At least we still have the 10am opens. There was a year where the park was opening at 11 during Covid.

Yes, it does stink that there are no 10pm closings in April/May on Saturdays. I am sure they had their reasons why the change. Likely to save on labor costs for one. Maybe that last hour just wasn`t as profitable as they had hoped. I am sure that Cedar Fair/Kings Island have analyzed things like that and know how much they typically make for any given hour based on the time of the season.

Repainting a ride like Viking Fury comes from a maintenance budget. They probably needed to repaint the boat, and wanted it done as cost effective as possible. Yes, those details are nice, and would have been great had they been kept and repainted, but that would have cost money. Either money they didn`t want to spend, or would have come at the cost of some other project not getting funding/not happening. Be glad that they painted the ride. New rides like the ones coming with Adventure Port come from the capital budget, which is separate from the maintenance budget. Keep in mind that I don`t think KI originally intended to remove Sling Shot last year. There were reportedly a picture/post from the company that was going to be repainting the cage from Slingshot, about this time last year. Then the ride never opened last season. Not sure if that post with the cage was legitimate or not. Was is the plan all along to remove Sling Shot and add Adventure Port for this season? We may never know. I am thoroughly looking forward to Adventure Port and the two new rides within it. I think they are the perfect addition to KI. Hopefully in the coming years, we can get some more additions like this.

That ride looks like a very dynamic ride, that is sure to be a family hit. I am sure that this ride will be relocated to another Cedar Fair park, once California`s Great America closes. It seems like almost all of the ride installations at Cedar Fair this year are from Zamperla.

Keep in mind a couple of things. When the original campground was closed, the park was owned by Paramount Parks, which in turn was owned by CBS. When CBS sold the land for the campground they maintained a small (I believe it was 24% ownership) in the new Great Wolf Lodge. Upon the sale of Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair in 2006, I believe they did not purchase CBS`s stake in the resort. CBS later sold their stake to Great Wolf Lodge. I would say Cedar Fair is interested in running resorts. A few years ago they purchased the Sawmill Creek Resort in Sandusky. They just finished a major renovation to that property as well as the Castaway Bay property in Sandusky. They built a hotel down at Carowinds. I think the hotel that they had planned at Canada`s Wonderland is still on pause, however. These resorts allow Cedar Fair to generate "out of park" revenue, and is a further way to use their parks to generate additional revenue outside of the core revenues the parks themselves generate.

And I believe at one point in time there was a plan to build apartments on that site. This was years ago, and I don`t think anything other than the demolition mentioned above occured. One would think it is a prime piece of property, and a new hotel could do wonders there. \ I wonder if Cedar Fair ever considers building a hotel that they control at KI. I know there was Camp Cedar, but they didn`t own that, just managed it.

Yes, I agree that Twelve days of Christmas on the train needs an update. I still loved what they did with the train in 2005 in terms of having live entertainment in the station and onboard the train. There were not as many lights on the route as there are now, but it was certainly more entertaining. I agree that I street and the ice skating could open earlier. I have not done the ice skating in this incarnation of Winterfest but it always seems so crowded.

The reason they do the parade so late is often times after the parade a lot of guests head for the gates. Having the parade when they do keeps them in the park longer. I agree, that it is hard to see all the shows before the parade start time. I could see them maybe opening at 3 on some days. I could also see them opening the weekend before Thanksgiving. I think they did that in 2019. The problem there is the turn around time between Haunt and Winterfest. The first weekend of Winterfest, there are typically a few things that are completely set up yet.

Sounds good. Is it getting Gravity Group`s new track system? In several years, if KI keeps up this rehab work on The Racer and The Beast, they will eventually all be the new vertical style track, which will hopefully provide a smoother ride for years to come.

Or maybe Cedar Fair was asking more for the contract this year and the owners decided that the cost of the services Cedar Fair was offering were not worth the benefits. Or they received a better deal from another company. Or Cedar Fair decided the cost of the management contract was not worth the benefits. We may never know the true answer.

Or be an allusion to the rumor that the changes are not being made by the original ride manufacturer, but one which Cedar Fair has been working with a lot recently? I think we will likely have to wait until August of this year to find out exactly what they are up to.