super7

I agree it would be very difficult to take away the meal plans in anyway. But the meal plans should’ve never been part of Winterfest. That was a huge business error. In fact, implementing the meal plans at all was a huge business error. The whole point of the season passes is to get people to come back and spend money. This defeats that. I know there will be the people that say they spend money on something else since they don’t have to pay for the meals, but they’re still getting nonprofitable meals, and I would guess the majority of the people on the meal plan. Don’t feel obligated to spend anything when they come back. The holiday events that seem to be the most successful, Dollywood and Busch Gardens. Do not include any form of a meal plan. They also include higher quality, entertainment, and experiences such as the train that everyone can do together. I also don’t feel these events, push up charge attractions such as ice-skating and cooking decorating etc. these events are profitable through admissions and selling food. Both of which Six Flags/Cedar Fair has given away at the gate. One other note about these events is that they are an excellent opportunity for these companies to bring in new customers that have absolutely no interest in amusement rides. Because the park is now this magical Christmas village. The rides are secondary. Carowinds has chosen to totally abandon this aspect of the event and just provide more ride operating days by closing at 7 PM. Which is just going to attract the same people that come for the rides in the summertime and most likely have season passes a meal plans and won’t spend any money

I think having attractions like the train that the entire family can ride together are key to this event. Kings Dominion Winterfest failed competing against Busch Gardens, which has multiple family attractions to enjoy the lights. Carowinds Winterfest has also been drastically changed and it lacks a great family attraction as well. It appears that these events just regurgitate season passholders, and then Six Flags small cost cutting minds they don’t make any money because the season pass holders aren’t paying to get in the gate and the season meal plan holders aren’t buying any food. The season meal plans are a terrible business decision that has affected these events negatively. But cutting out these events, just reduces the value of the season pass. I know myself if they discontinue Winterfest in Kings Island I will no longer buy a season pass regardless of the price. it also speaks of the gross mismanagement of Cedar Fair that they could pull crowds at these events like they did not make them profitable. From the beginning, Winterfest should’ve been some kind of ad on the season pass and the season meal plan should’ve never been included with the event. also, they are so terrible at running theme parks. They cannot figure out how to run these events more than just the weekends except for the school break weeks. So the limited number of operating days makes it hard to justify the labor involved in the lights, etc. Dollywood runs their event daily, and even Busch Gardens runs their event daily in December. Their assets aren’t sitting dormant like six flags assets are during this event

The train would be better with lights in the trees/or uplit trees instead of the framework lights.

Can that ride even run in less than 50°? Every time I’ve been to the park when it’s below 50 in normal operating season it has been closed.

The trees are gone in area 1 now. Even though it was just a few trees, any more tree removal around that ride is concerning since thats a lot of its magic. Grizzly at KD was once totally surrounded by trees. Look at it now…..

They are reporting despite a 3% increase in attendance they have a 2% decrease in revenue. Also keep in mind that more people in the parks is going to increase expenses to maintain the parks. The loss and profits will be even greater than 2%. Their business plan is not “resilient.” It is a failure. Anytime more customers result in less revenue and less profits that’s a failure. The other thing to keep in mind is that if people weren’t buying, they already underpriced season passes and decided to buy them because of this lower price, they probably aren’t going to be the kind of customer that’s going to pay the high prices in the park and contribute to end Park spending We should enjoy what we can of what’s left of 2025 because I have a feeling that they are going to be massive cuts in 2026 if they’re revenue is decreasing They may have a short term bump in revenue because of their up charge of the haunted houses, but that is not going to reverse course.

, I agree. But they have dug their ditch with these meal plans. The customers expect them now. They can’t eliminate them or they lose customers, but if they keep them, they lose money.

Yes. They were a great souvenir. this was the kind of souvenir that would actually make you want to return to the park when looking at it. But they were another victim of cost cutting. What Kings Island did the last year they have them would’ve been the best way to handle it. They had a limited number of these maps over on the side by the customer service instead of in the main entryway. That way, the people that really wanted them would get them and there was less waste. these parks are missing a revenue opportunity and not having the souvenir poster size maps like they did back in the 70s and 80s. Especially now with computer computers, they would be easy to modify from year to year. oh yeah, Dollywood still has them. Because their goalis to provide the best experience possible to everyone. Apparently enough customers still want them.

Every other Cedar Fair park that I have been to has brisket at their barbecue. Which just further cements that Kings Island has the worst food of any Cedar Fair Park.

I don’t think a Disney executive could even save this sinking ship. The problem is cheap season passes, and meal plans, and then having to cost cut to make up for the low revenue leading to a lower customer experience and decreasing attendance. Plus, they also try to make up for the loss in revenue of the cheap season passes by overcharging for everything else, and that leads to lower spending. they also have the problem that they only install attractions for trail, riders and little children, so they can’t operate most of their assets when school is in session. These parks said vacant almost half the year. in order to right the ship, they would have to lose a significant amount of money for quite some time and invest in a very high quality customer experience. That includes investing in more midtier attractions that everyone can do like dark rides, transportation rides, and live entertainment. That would lead to an increase in attendance and the ability to raise season pass prices to a realistic prive. and eliminate the meal plans. It would also bring in a guest that would spend more at the park. They also need to reduce the in park prices for food merchandise, etc.To reasonable prices so people will actually spend if they are attracting more people and a higher quality customer than the spending will happen if the prices are reasonable but they can’t do it because they don’t have the cash to do it and they are too far in debt so it’s a downward spiral. instead, they keep following the formula of cheap season passes, meal plans, high prices on everything else and only having attractions for low spending thrill, seeker and little children. It’s definitely not a recipe for success.

I think it was Huckleberry Dairy after they removed Smurfs

Lord its still going to be a shooting ride. That means half the capacity of the original Phantom theater and probably lots of cheap screens. as much as I loved the original Phantom theater and thought blue blasters was absolute garbage. It’s hard to get excited about anything this cost cutting company does these days

we don’t know how many of these all season access passes that they actually sold. It seems like they are now saying that they were “sold out” to make a sense of urgency for people to buy the passes that they are now offering for $75….. we know the kind of behavior that this company engages in when selling passes

It was usually crowded. Only Cedar Fair mismanagement could pull crowds like that and not make money.

There are several reasons at this business is bleeding right now. All of them have been caused by mismanagement. But one of them is because they are actively chasing off customers by cost cutting that has negatively affected the customer experience. So their solution is to keep on cutting, reducing the and keep on losing attendance…… Unfortunately, like I said before there’s no way out for this company other than bankruptcy at this point. Maybe a few of the better parks will get sold off to ownership that can properly manage them and not become housing or warehouses