Rivertown Rider

I'm not opposed to them keeping the Firehawk station, but I would prefer it be used all season for something rather than a Haunt. At least with the SOB station it is out of sight/out of mind.

An updated pic from the park's Twitter:

Hopefully they are working on Red this offseason as well as it has been rougher than Blue.

Of the two big woodies at CW, I enjoyed Minebuster more than Wild Beast so if I were going to RMC one it would be Wild Beast instead of Minebuster.

Yes, you can either go to the regular ticket booths or guest services to purchase/renew.

One thing that would improve the park is having another large indoor show building, especially during WinterFest. I would love to see them build something like Harmony Hall at Carowinds that would function as both another show building and indoor food area. Yes, I realize we already have Festhaus but considering that Festhaus is always packed I feel that the park could support two big indoor eating areas. I would either take out the existing International Showplace and build a brand new building (a la Harmony Hall) which would use the land that the existing International Showplace sits on along with the former Salt Water Circus area. The other option would be to build a new eating area over where the presumed new coaster is going by FOF and if you put in something like Harmony Hall it would take care of the bathroom issue as well since something like Harmony Hall/Festhaus would have bathrooms inside.

I took some pics last night:

I'm a little surprised. FHE has always seemed like the little engine that could and has continued to grow over the years. The good thing that they have done is their bundling deals which has brought the ticket package prices down especially if you are seeing multiple shows. I worry that with WCI that is going to go away which is going to end up hurting some of those shows.

Congrats to KI and the workers on the award. The park truly has world class operations. One of the benefits when you check out other parks and see operations that are not as good is that it makes you realize how good KI is at ops.

I would say it is a one day park if you are going on a non-Saturday. If you want to hit every coaster, try and do a Sunday or thru the week. The three B&Ms all have good capacity but I found their ops to be lacking on their other rides so that could slow things especially on a Saturday.

I've wondered why KI hasn't had more festivals. I think as Winterfest and Haunt have shown, events are great ways to get more people in the parks. The Peanuts Celebration was really well done this year as well. I know many parks (Canada's Wonderland, Dollywood, Epcot, etc.) do a variation on that theme so there is a lot of good things that they can do.

One of the things I would like to see the park do is add a bigger selection of shirts at the park. CP has a shirt option for every big coaster. I would like to see that come to KI as well.

I too struggle with the Dollywood vs. KI. I think from a pure lights standpoint, I would give the edge to KI. Glacier Ridge was heavily hyped but was a bit of a letdown after going to their Illuminights. Dollywood actually felt like it has less lights this year vs. previous years. From a show standpoint, DW still is ahead but it is getting closer ever year and I might give the slight edge to KI overall.

After Xbase presumably gets an upgrade with the new coaster, I would like to see Oktoberfest be the next area get some love. The first thing I would do is give Festhaus some love. If you have ever been in Busch Gardens Williamsburg Festhaus, it is gorgeous with big sweeping art vistas on the wall. Call up one of the local college art departments and have them work on putting some great paintings, mosaics, etc. Expand the building and redesign the layout to be more like Harmony Hall at Carowinds. Have multiple food kiosks with one of them focused solely on German food. Have German themed music. You walk in front of KI theater, you hear German music. You cut between Starbucks and the Emporium headed towards Festhaus, you hear German music. You walk past Delirium on the way towards AE, you hear German music. You get the idea. Retheme and rename Hanks. You could easily turn this into a German quick service. Keep half of it as the mac and cheese bar and then the other half can have kielbasa, hot dogs, brats, German potatoes, cabbage, and similar foods. Move Slingshot over by Backlot. There is room between the diner seating area and the basketball game that it could go. Tear down the airbrush stand and build a smaller location elsewhere. Put a Ferris wheel in its place. Build a new set of Keggers close to Viking Fury and also put in an extreme flat like a sky roller between KI Theater and Chicken Shack. Put in a Musik Express where Slingshot is now. I doubt the park would give Oktoberfest that much love. But for the cost of a mid size coaster you could add three or four flats and really rejuvenate that area of the park.

I had a great time at Winterfest on Saturday night. I thought they had done a great job with the additional lights in Coney Mall and really livened up that area of the park which was kind of dead last year. I saw GM Mike at the KI Theater and told him I thought it was even better than last year. We ate at the buffet at Reds HOF and it was solid as others have said. I would be in favor of them making that a buffet year round. One neat thing that I hadn't seen anybody notice is that they have old school Winterfest pictures hanging in Coney Bar-B-Que so you all might want to check that out if you haven't already.

Rivertown has changed a lot over the years. While Mystic with its theming is a return to form for the area, I still miss the green tunnel (a great transition from the kids area to Rivertown), the Blacksmith shop, and KCKC.

I am hopeful for a giga, but I would also be happy with something like Maverick, Time Traveler, and Steel Vengeance in the park as well.

I prefer the classic blue and orange. Hopefully it gets a paint job to liven it up especially with the Antiques right across from it.

It looks like someone took the supports and background from I305 and they plopped some of Fury and Leviathan on top of it. I agree with others that this is not real.

I agree that I don't think they will use the DA area. I would love to see the giga go into a tunnel and under a bridge like Fury does but the bridge probably wouldn't happen based upon where it is in the park.

Now that the regular season is over, can we get a list of the top ten rides in terms of ridership and the number of rides given in 2018?

I've always wondered what it would cost them to buy the Great Wolf beside the park. The place seems to be busy year round.

I give big props to the maintenance team for getting it back running today. Also a shout out to the crew who were running a pretty efficient ship.

Firehawk was running earlier today. It went down in the afternoon and I am not sure if it came up later today or not as I left around 4:30.

They could even put a big wrapped present where Firehawk is now.