super7

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.

Kings Island needs quality dark rides. Something on the order of Calico Mine Ride at Knotts. Kings Island needs more total family rides, and indoor all weather attractions. The Tomb Raider building and Backlot coaster are the two biggest eyesores in the entire park. Both are prime examples of Paramount destruction of the park beauty and theming cohesion. I wish they would at least plant groves of white pines on both sides of the Tomb Raider building to hide it. Or better yet level it and put something worthwhile there. Remember it’s a huge space that one housed a lake and a Flume.

Unfortunately it was built in the early days of Cedar Fair ownership where they were using the Cedar Point philosophy that just adding a huge ride was all that was important. Theming and atmosphere got little attention back then. Thank goodness Ouimet got involved with his Disney experience. That’s when the parks started getting theming details again.

I wound be happy if the just planted some trees around the plaza station area and pre lift turn around of Beast. It all used to be back in the woods. Like the rest of the park, it’s pretty barren these days.

Kings Dominion has the most beautiful entrance area of all theme parks. The large mature trees and the landscape islands make it absolutely gorgeous. I like how the islands separate the seating areas from the main walkways. Kings Dominion I Street fit Winterfest is soooo much more immersive with lights all above everything in the high trees KD I Street was even better when the Eiffel Tower was totally surrounded by trees. But some insect or disease wiped those trees out. That was the failure of the Kings Island I Street renovating. The single row of trees and lack of landscape iislands. it was probably done for parade purposes but it feels much more linear and boring than KDs design. The other fault of the renovation is the hideous exposed light poles. Although those exposed light poles do make Let It Snow work great.

Let’s be thankful Paramount didn’t destroy the beautiful queue building of Racer. At Kings Dominion they bulldozed it, and then built the most ridiculously long, unshaded and HOT I’m the summer queue ramp they possibly could.

It belongs in Rivertown. The cartoony painting of the rustic buildings has never looked good.

I attended Kings Dominion NYE. Their rides closed at midnight. Regular activities and about half of dining closed at 10. I can’t remember when skating stopped. Park and rest of dining closed at 1am.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has totally ended 3 production major shows 4 days early. This virus is real and many people making 0 effort

Tuesday night probably had 500 people with the rain in the forecast. And it was only drizzly. Then they did a Cedar Fair special and closed at 8:30. Cedar Fair parks in general lack indoor attractions and their gaining reputation for closing in bad weather stops people from coming in less than ideal weather. Not that now is a good time for crowded indoor attractions, but that seems to be a reason for low attendance when it rains. It’s not just Winterfest that this happens. It was dry this year and the event had great attendance . If the event is ever plagued by rain it will be a disaster at the gate. I do wonder how much of Winterfest attendance though is just regurgitating low spending season pass holders. The park was crowded between 6 and 8:30 this year. That seems to indicate that a majority of the attendance didn’t pay ticket price to get in. It’s my favorite event of the year and I’m glad people are going so it can continue , but just some thoughts and observations

You are right. I should avoid most of the food there for a better experience. I just don’t get it how simple food can be made so poorly.

“The original design of The Beast had the upper and lower track in the helix on top of each other. In order to simplify the geometry of the crossover, the lower bents will be upper bents until the tunnel.” What exactly does that mean? I find the most clunky part of the ride is the banked turn after the 2nd drop/before the covered break run. One could see the trains jumping around. It sounds like that is being completely retracked