super7

This is a great point that i forgot about. And it also makes me question just how profitable Winterfest actually is despite the great attendance. If it is just regurgitating the same non-paying season passholders, then it isn't making what it would seem. With the short 5 hour nights, there isn't really enough time to encourage in-park sales (hunger, thirst etc) IMO Cedar Fair should have made Winterfest a $25 add on to the season pass. Nobody would have blinked. But I also think KECO was idiotic including the water park in one gate....... Maybe they are headed that direction with the $99 Cedar Point pass that doesn't include Haunt.

IMO the previous failure of Winterfest was because of the lack of any rides and only having a small part of the park open. The most recent version of Winterfest basically follows Busch Gardens formula that worked and grew over a decade. Limited rides including some coasters, live entertainment (although Cedar Fair went with quantity over quality in this dept) and lights all over the park. IMO Mystic Timbers was designed with Winterfest in mind. Low to the ground with less chance to valley in cold temps.

I remember this playing back in the Taft days. Some of this style music should return This was at the sane time of the Coney Island disco by Zodiac https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=chuck+mangione+give+it+all+you+got&docid=608050099612508507&mid=960AB90145EDDB3EB432960AB90145EDDB3EB432&view=detail&FORM=VRAASM&PC=APPL

If the park had quality food, they wouldn’t have the franchises in there. IMO. But then there is LaRosas and Skyline, which is some of the worst food on the planet. Which contradicts that theory! Honestly if it wasn’t for the cheap season meal plan and the recently added vegan options, I would never eat at the park. The food is that bad and way overpriced. And easy cheaper options outside the gate on Kings Mills Rd

I agree back to Rivertown. I never liked the cartoony overlay on the rustic building.

It has been pretty obvious that thst cookies, brownies etc were shipped in because they were always in the stale side. The park has been missing revenue in this shop for years by selling baked goods that were big, but of the lowest quality. A real bakery is a great revenue source (see Herschend)

it’s more than the music that’s out of place. It’s great to have better theming than Paramount that is somewhat coherent with Rivertown (lumber company) and having themed trains. However 60s truck does not belong in the steam train era! They should have went for model T era truck and train theme. Also how much effort would it take tj change that music for Winterfest and even Haunt? Small touches matter.

I would think that is the plan but they give away drinks all year long for $30

The area around to tower and behind it is absolutely barren. Like much of the park. One capital investment they refuse to do is adding trees for shade. CF seems to like keeping their customers miserable in the heat. They don’t even fully shade their line queues.

Eye appeal is everything. Peeling faded paint gives the image of an attraction not being well maintained, even if it is. I’m happy they are painting this coaster and not giving it the Paramount Thunder Road treatment. TR looked horrible without paint.

Herschend is able to operate almost daily from April until New Years by attracting that demographic Perhaps Cedar Fair is finally realizing theat they have more operating days by marketing to a different demographic Cedar Point kept the haunt portion to the Frontier section They seem to be trying to attract people that aren’t interest in gore or scares by keeping the majority of the park free of scares Winterfest is gorgeous A pumpkin and friendly monster version in orange green and purple lights would be equally gorgeous

Maybe I missed it on the list Sky Ride station in Hanna Barbera Land is the toy store

Dollywoods Luminights are packed. It seems like the better route for the future. Kings Islands Haunt crowd is questionable enough that they don’t allow re entry. If Haunt is attracting the sane unsupervised crowd as last spring, that’s a consideration. The scare mazes and dark foggy pathways are a liability. They have cut down on the fog recently. Ultimately they will chose the demographic that spends the most at the park. On a side note I would let be one bit sad if those hideous metal side Haunt buildings disappeared from the parks.

Remember last year they cut hours off the original schedule in June and closed at 8 instead of 10. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again. The park is best at night.

I don’t know why they would open it again. With the incident, no insurance is going touch it unless the walkways and queues are fully protected (catch fences) It’s closure last year did not affect attendance. It’s doesn’t make sense to have the additional cost, maintenance and liability for a ride that won’t effect attendance much. Cedar Point has to use their space wisely This space would be better used for a reliable, high capacity, more re rideable attraction

Cedar Fair rejected. Thank goodness SEAS horrible mgmt is not coming to the Taft parks

They have had Taste of the Carolinas in the Spring in the past. I think this replaces that

The “new” boat ride at Cedar Point was super popular last year. KI needs more rides like that. However the terrain at The Vortex site is best suited for a coaster. It would be a waste of terrain for something that could be built on flat land. And I’m a proponent of total-family rides (dark rides, cable skyway, monorail etc) over coasters

With all this work will they finally clean the final brake run roof of all the garbage and put up a small wall to stop that nonsense?

It’s only 4 feet but if that’s the case it reduces the terrain aspect of the coaster a little

The track ran slightly uphill before the second tunnel set. If they are raising that track right before the tunnel, it sounds like they are just reducing the downhill slope after the covered trim brake run. If so that’s not an improvement on the ride experience IMO

But that’s in the Florida thene park area with Disney Universal Lego etc. That’s an entirely different scenario than Richmond-Hampton Roads. Florida is a worldwide destination where VA is only regional. They *could* market KD BG as a destination if this disastrous acquisition happened, but history says overextended theme park companies love to shutter parks for quick cash (Astroworld, Geauga) KD has far from met it’s potential under Cedar Fair. Attendance there is not that great despite being located on the busiest interstate on the East Coast and close to the DC metro area. Cedar Fair has given Carowinds lots of live but KD not so much. I believe if it was under the same ownership as BG, it would be even more neglected.

Yes. They had liens filed on them in 2020 for missing payments on their new rides. The same rides that sat dormant all of 2021 even though they’re were completed. Probably for the same reason.

This would be a DISASTER for any of us that has enjoyed Cedar Fair ownership of these parks. From attending Busch Gardens over the last 10 years, i can attest the quality of experience has went in the gutter there. The SEAS parks are run by penny pinching. They are constantly cutting hours, entertainment, food service, theming etc. Christmas Town this year looked HORRIBLE because they cut the lights so much. Here is a great example of the low-quality experience that BG has become. They advertise a 10 am opening, but open the park in phases and normally do not have the full park operational until an hour or hour and a half after opening. Another example is Pantheon has $0 theming. Its station is a box with 6 posts. Compare that to the quality renovations of Area 72, Blue Ridge Junction, and Jungle XPedition under Cedar Fair. Remember SEAS has little cash. They had liens filed on them in 2020 because they could not pay vendors. They would be SOOO leveraged to buy CF that their cash flow would be going to pay interest, and park improvements will be less and less and less and cuts would be more and more and more. And then theirs the possibility of beautiful Kings Dominion getting the Geauga Lake treatment. That would be a sad day as that park has so much potential. And for those that like their season dining passes, day goodbye. SEAS doesn't offer that. SEAS pricing is much higher than CF ($190 for a one park pass). While CF is underpriced, SEAS is overpriced for what they offer. I would much rather be paying separate admissions to both chains than see this fiasco happen.