super7

As far as fireworks and drones go. I know they’re tradition but I would take all the rides being open from 930 till 10 over a five minute fireworks show anytime. It used to be just The Beast they close but now its several including multiple coasters. The fountains and lasers could stand on their own in a show if it was well done ( and the fountains worked)

Are they controlled by wiress? Is that the issue? The first year they had these fountains they used them reasonably well for the night show, and they were choreographed well timed with the music. In that show, they also used music with a strong beat that allowed choreography with the fountains. The current night show is just an absolute disaster in my opinion The music is awful and it’s just a bunch of drones flying around and fireworks shooting with no coordination to the music. There are some changes in the fountain when the music switches, but nothing I would call choreographed. They totally have wasted any potential this fountain had for a show.

There is some production value to the show with some choreograhy etc. but not to the quality i would like to see in that theater. The show itself is a LOT of lady-in-a-box tricks. This is a nice theater and a great place to take a break for them heat (or cold) during a day. I wish during the summer, they would have summer-long, in-park productions like the theater originally hosted. Instead of the totally outsourced, park-to-park rotating shows they have been having recently. The Cirques being the exception. They were full-production and shows worthy of the theater.

Since the renovation, I don't believe that i have ever seen 100% the jets functioning properly at the same time. It was normally 2 or 3. But currently there appears to be a significant amount of them not working. I personally didn't mind the renovation and the changeover to the in-water jets, but it seems the system they used as replacement is problematic.

These memberships are a scam to continue to get money out of people when they forget to stop their membership. With a season pass there’s no other action required. It ends at the end of the year. I would be very, very cautious to buy a Six Flags membership. The last time I had one there I actually had to stop my credit card to stop the billing when I wanted to cancel it. They made it absolutely impossible to cancel. They wanted you to input the transaction number on the original purchase in order to cancel. This company is known for bait switch and scamming customers. This is just another way for them to do that.

KI had a lot more trees, 20 years ago. Cedar Fair unfortunately did not like to maintain trees. Anytime they cut one down they did not replace it and many times they did not even remove the stump. I agree if the park had more trees, it would be as nice as Kings Dominion I also agree another dark ride in the park would have been excellent. Something like the lost world complex at Kings Dominion.

I finally made it to the park this week on a nice slightly rainy night. So no lines. This ride is just about perfect in my opinion. I cannot believe that Six Flags/Cedar Fair build something of this high of quality these days. Especially considering the absolute piece of garbage that it replaced. I cannot believe that they have that many animatronics and the entire ride is physical sets. Several of the characters appear three or four times. When they announced this ride, I was afraid it was going to end up being a cheap screen based version like Knotts Beary Tales. Especially when they announced the interactive element. That was completely wrong! This ride uses screens exactly how they should be used. As background for the physical sets. Thunderstorms, cracking glass, blazing oven. They are all used for effects that are best achieved with a screen. This is the best interactive dark ride that I have ever seen. Mainly because it does not use screens for the interaction. The ghost notes are projections on the physical sets And one does not have to play the game to enjoy the full experience. The ghost notes actually add to theming if you’re not playing the game. And they are cute the way they are themed. Another nice touche is calling the gondolas ENCHANTED opera boxes. I really hope they take care of this ride this time and it’s a forever ride in the park. All of these parks need more high-quality indoor attractions just like this.

I thought about going tonight, but I had a huge feeling they would be closing early. No use wasting gas.

It was a big mistake at Canadas Wonderland to build a shooting star roller coaster instead of a racing roller coaster. The Racers have twice the capacity as the shooting star and that park definitely needs capacity with the crowd it attracts. But CW was a budget version of the parks IMO. They did not finish frontier Canada. They did not put any transportation or dark rides in. They did build a nice mountain. To the day I still think it’s the worst existing Taft built park (the one in Australia was even worse)

When KI renovated international Street, i belive that they designed it so we could handle parades. So it did not get the beautiful landscape islands (and all of the trees) that Kings Dominion has. When KD has parades, they do not go down international Street. They just go around the Eiffel Tower. But that park has a longer walkway between Candy Apple Grove and international Street then Kings Island does between Coney Island and international Street. When they renovated international Street, I was hoping it would end up landscaped as beautiful as Kings Dominion, but it did not. On a sidenote. Has anyone ever seen all of the water jets functioning on the new fountain? On all of my visits since the renovation, there are always a couple jets that are not functioning correctly….

it’s great that there’s such a high interest in this ride Practically every person in the world can ride this ride. A smaller % of the population can ride coasters. So it would be logical that this ride may attract more people. Maybe these parks will start figuring out that if they put in more attractions that everybody can ride, their attendance will quit being stagnant

Of course they cut down the trees around the entrance This chain is incapable of building anything new and preserving the trees. KI continues to have less trees every season.

IMO this edition of Winterfest was the best yet. It had the most lights, a solid ride lineup, plenty of live entertainment. snowy nights, and (surprising) no major cutbacks to the event despite what is going on elsewhere in the company. The only things that have been lost over the years for this event are 4 Drummers, Holly Jolly Trolley, the music-synchorinzed lights, and upcharge carriage rides. (Cool Yule and Charlie Brown's Spectacular were replaced) While coasters have been added since the 2017 edition where only Mystic Timbers operated. This is probably the most creative of all the theme park Christmas events, with the roaming characters, holiday activities and re-branding just about every shop and restaurant in the park. The weather was the coldest it has been in a while, and it seems to have affected the crowds this year. There were only 6 "warm" days with high attendance. Is that enough for survival of the event? The park did a great job operating on the colder days with low attendance. They reduced operations on those days but kept the park open as advertised. That is the best way to handle this kind of situation. There is a LOT of labor in the park decoration for only 24 operating days (which ended up being 21 2/3) this year. It seems to be an odd decision not to operate the 2 weekends before Thanksgiving when the weather is warmer. I understand that ride permits cause the Dec 31 closure. However, the Columbus Zoo is operating 2 rides at their Christmas event through Jan 4, so wondering what the difference is. It would seem that maximum operating days to recuperate the labor costs would be beneficial. This event would probably be more successful if the park had the indoor infrastructure for the event. At least another indoor theater, dark rides (1 coming soon!), another indoor restaurant etc There are 2 big former attraction buildings sitting empty that could accommodate if renovated. This event deserved the #2 award this year. Better quality live entertainment, continued increases in the lighting and more indoor options would push it to #1 IMO.

They cant even change the video or music in the shed of Mystic Timbers for the holidays…… which would be simple.

tonight, Saturday 12/20 is the perfect storm. It’s the warmest weather of the event, it’s Saturday, and school is out for break. It’s the first big crowd of this year’s event

Monday 12/15 was a great night to see the Christmas lights with snow completely covering the ground. The crowd however was very low but park management did a great job tonight. They kept the park opened for the advertised hours. Racer and Flight of Fear were operating all night. Racer was just operating the red side and the blue side still has snow on the tracks. Mystic Timbers, Soap Box and Sol Spin were closed. The train and Shake Rattle and Roll closed early and most of the outdoor entertainment was canceled. They also quietly closed down the duplicate restaurants earlier in the night (pizza, burgers). But there were rides open until Park close and restaurants open until at least 930.

The Schwarzkopf type monster is a trade-off. It is quicker loading because all gondolas load at the same time, but it does not have as high of a range of motion of their arms so it’s a bit less thrillIng ride

My passes showed up on it when i logged in. I had previously loaded them to the Kings Island Kings, Dominion Carowinds Canadas Wonderland and Cedar Point apps. So one of those carried it over. however, when I bring up the pass on my normal size iPhone, it only shows about 2/3 of the QR code and will not scroll over

They did a good job with the theme and appearance of Adventure Port. But they definitely skimped on the rides in that expansion Instead of a quality 42 person Huss Enterprise they have an uncomfortable, low capacity knock off that doesn’t even tilt 90°. Plus they didn’t even purchase a lighting package for it. The barrel ride is one of the lowest quality versions of this type of ride They also skimped on the little bit of cost. It would’ve required to have provided shade in the queues to make the customers more comfortable. So its a trade off In the case of Adventure Port, they put lipstick on a pig. It looks great, but that’s the best thing that can be said about that area.

This was something I completely didn’t notice. You are right it is an improvement. It was very annoying when one was walking in Coney.

It’s a shame that none of the Winterfest maintained their synchronized lights over the years

The park looks absolutely great. There are even more lights this year than previously. There are lights in the trees. There are lights on the shrubs. There are plenty of live Christmas trees. So far this year, I have been to both Dollywood and Busch Gardens and I think Kings Island does the lights better than either one of those. The lights at Kings Island are the most immersive being low on the shrubs at eye level and above you on trees. The only park I have seen with better lights was Carowinds but they have destroyed that event thus year 2 things that I noticed missing this year are The plastic (purposefully tacky) retro decorations in Tinseltown. They have been replaced by the cartoony trees that were previously in Planet Snoopy And none of the trees are up-lit this year on the train ride That is definitely a downgrade. A lot of live Christmas trees are big 7/8 ft trees. I do wish that since they go to all the effort to get these quality trees that they would light them properly with more than 50 lights on a tree One thing I do not care for this year is the change in music. Gone are most of the songs that Winterfest has played every year and i associated with the event. Plus, the the music is being broadcast at rather low volume this year. Finally Songs of the Nativity got a sitdown venue This also is the time of year when the food actually is good instead of just edible Overall this is a great event, and it is my favorite Christmas event because of the immersive lighting

A show with dedicated, choreographed dancers like Yuletide Follies or even the previous Cool Yule (after the split the cast into dancers and vocalists) belongs in doors for the sake of the dancers well being. The KI Theatre should host something that’s more of a total Christmas production like an expanded version of the Follies.

They have been removing eye sores from the park, such as the slingshot in the sky coaster. But the Tomb Raider building and the Stunt Coaster are the two remaining biggest eye sores. Doing anything with that tomb raider building would be an improvement for the entire park.

IMO the main thing holding back Winterfest is the low quality of the production of the live entertainment and the lack of sit-down entertainment locations. And perhaps its shorter five and six hour days compared to other events. The entire park is lit up with lights (although they could do a better job with the lights in the trees like Carowinds in previous years, there are enough rides open, and Winterfest has some creative activities that the other events lack.