CoastersRZ

And don`t forget for several years they had Holiday Fest. You could ride in a pedal boat in their lazy river! Holiday Fest wasn`t much, but I ended up going to it a few times. Winterfest is hands down better. I only visited the water park once in the late 90`s. We had received some comp passes from some family when we went.

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2022/09/22/the-beach-waterpark-permanently-closed.html

The one time I tried it at Festhaus it was a disaster. They never saw my order and I waited fifteen minutes before they finally gave me my order. I still think they need to work on the configuration of the soft drink machines at the Festhaus so there is a more efficient flow of guests. There is always a bottle neck after the cash registers. It would be nice if they could get mobile ordering implemented and working smoothly at the park.

If I recall, a Gold Pass for 2022 when they went on sale last year was around $105 if renewing and $110 for new. So they went up about $20-25.

Thanks for sharing those photos. I love going to Dollywood. It is one of my favorite parks to visit, outside of Kings Island.

Interesting to see them break out the averages guests per park operating day metric. An average of 10,900 guests on average per park operating day. Glad to see that things are improving for them. Hopefully it means more investment in the parks in the future, including our KI.

Well, the main source of revenue, even when the rides were around was Riverbend. Every concert ticket sold at Riverbend and PNC Pavilion includes a parking fee that goes to Coney. Riverbend only owns a handful of handicap and VIP parking spots, but relies on Coney for parking, and for the really big concerts neighboring Belterra Park. Coney also staffs all the concession stands at Riverbend and gets a cut of that revenue.

Yes it is sad. I spent many hours working in rides there. I worked a few shifts at the paddle boats last year. Sadly this is the first year since 2001 when I have not worked down there. They certainly have let the place slide downhill. And they have essentially added nothing (other than an obstacle course in the deep end of the pool), since the rides were removed. I still hold out hope that a new owner will come in, or they will start to add some family/kiddy rides back. I don`t see anything like that happening with the current ownership however. I had some great times working there, and am still friends with many of the coworkers that I worked with over my 20 seasons there.

Yep. And said employee posts on here from time to time.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Paul!

Yeah, closing areas of the park, especially areas with kids rides is not a good sign. Seems like they are looking to cut costs wherever they can. That coupled with the reported mass layoffs, and doesn`t sound like the "premium experience" will offer much to those willing to pay.

Their new CEO is trying to reduce attendance to provide a better experience for the guests, so that those guests that do show up, will spend more money in the parks. Based on their quarterly results, the guests didn`t spend as much money as they had hoped. According to Screamscape, there were lots of layoffs at Six Flags in the last few weeks. That coupled with the apparent lack of capital investment in new rides set for next year, doesn`t bode too well for them. I haven`t been to a Six Flags park in years, though having small kids the last several years has limited our trips to Kings Island, Dollywood and a trip to Kentucky Kingdom. Six Flags parks always seemed very cheap to me. Not much theming, and a hodge podge of Looney Tunes and DC comics smattered all over the park.

I have a feeling that we will see something along these lines in the future. I too would love to see something like that, as well as a revamp of Planet Snoopy. The area could definitely use a refresh.

I still find it odd that Worlds of Fun is not bringing back Winterfest. They had it when it debuted at KI. But it was not brought back last year, and looks like it will not be back this year.

There is a mention on the KI website that says the Prestige passes are by invitation only. They also are apparently introducing a Silver Pass, which is similar to the summer pass, except it does allow day time visits in the Fall. So essentially no Haunt or Winterfest visits. Not sure if it will black on Saturdays since they have both the kid friendly activities and Haunt at night.

Interesting to note that Gold Season passes for KI are now on sale. No mention of a new ride or anything for 2023 at KI. Gold Pass prices are now $130 a person ($124 for renewing passholders). Canada`s Wonderland has announced their new additions: https://www.canadaswonderland.com/new-in-2023

Here is a direct link to the Zambezi Zinger page on the Worlds of Fun website: https://www.worldsoffun.com/new-in-2023/zambezi-zinger

I believe that Doppelmayr (the same company that worked on the Disney Skyliner), is the company that owns the rights to and provides spare parts to the Von Roll skyrides.

Hasn`t KI always said four hours between meals with the Dining Plan on the pass? I haven`t ever tried to get three meals at the park in a day, but I have grabbed two, including grabbing some slices of pizza on the way out of the park for the ride home at Winterfest a couple of times.

Surprised they raised the Platinum price but the season pass to MiA still seems fairly cheap. It looks like if you were to buy the dining plan on your 2023 pass at MiA, that it would be valid the rest of this season and all of 2023. This is a change, at least to how KI has done it in the past. The dining plan was always good for the year in which the pass was bought and not the remainder of the year before. Also, the MiA dining pass is good for two meals a day. At KI, you can get three meals with the 4 hour window, depending when you get your meals.

Where did you hear that Platinum passes are going up to $250 for 2023? As far as I know, they haven`t released pricing yet for 2023 season passes. That will likely happen shortly after announcements are made for 2023 additions.

I believe that the train has closed at 9pm most nights the last several years.

Good to see them replaced. I noticed a few of them were missing when I was at the park on Wednesday.

I agree. They need to put something in where Vortex sat. Seeing that fence and an open area of land just doesn`t seem very pleasant. Heck, I would be happy if they added some more flat rides back there, or even a wild mouse coaster. Just something back there to provide some action and interest instead of a wood fence.

Yeah. I still miss working the rides down there... Definitely was a swing and a miss. They were promoting this even a LOT on the radio when I was listening driving into the office. It really is unfortunate.