super7

You are absolutely right about the original theming. There was a Cinti influence in those 3 areas. I totally agree about the outside food vendors. The park should be offering unique food that wants to make you wait to come to the park to eat. Not more expensive poor quality versions of food you can get outside the park! I don’t know why they went in this direction. The sponsorship but he must be pretty good because the food isn’t as far as do you mean something like steel curtain, I really think it’s the lazy way out with the theme rides to IP‘s. Disney has become very lazy and That’s all six flags does Copperhead strike it definitely has a Carolina theme. When Carowinds was built the entire park was 100% Carolina themed. Original theming Not IPs They did add Hanna-Barbera land after Taft bought the park, but IPs are fine in a children’s area The original Carowinds was so well thought out and so well tied together. Paramount destroyed almost all of the Carolina theming of Carowinds Cedar Fair has done a great job trying to return the theming Unfortunately IMO Ohio doesn’t have as much charming aspect as the Carolinas when it comes to creating theming after the state

The only areas that are tree covered there is are the Frontier Trail and part of Frontiertown. Little trees on the entrance midway, lakefront, dragster area, Gemini area and Millennium area etc On a hot day there it’s miserable and several of their major queues lack shade. It’s miserable at KI when it’s hot as well Kings Dominion is Cedar Fairs most beautiful park and pleasant park on a hot day. Most of that park is tree converted Shade makes for a better customer experience but that seems to be a lost aspect with most CF parks

Look how exposed The Beast is now Cedar Fair does some great things but KI is just about as barren as Cedar Point these days

Definitely. A great place to chill and enjoy the view ruined by the air quality.

Put a mountain facade on it and make it a family dark ride like Calico Mine Ride at Knotts. That building and junkyard coaster are the biggest eyesores in the park.

Schwarzkopf coasters are still amazing. but in this case the SDC Galaxi (the model of Barvarian Beetle). has a superior layout compared to the Wildcat. The Wildcat brutally hits the brakes straight out of the final helix and gives a gut punch with the lap bar. The Galaxi made a jig jog around the lift hill and then around another turn before the brakes. Galaxis also run 2 car trains versus one on the Wildcat. The Galaxi at Kings Dominion had a fatality in 83. These coaster don’t have a lot of clearance and a kid perished when he hit his head on the ride. It’s believed he stood up. The one at KD was removed after that.

Just about every theme park company except Disney lost that concept long ago in the coaster wars. They decided to appeal to Thrill seekers and little children and eliminate activities and attractions that families could do together. Paramount lead the way with this concept with their removal of so many true family rides at the parks. However since Cedar Fair has come along they have pointed the needle back in the right direction with their events Such as Winterfest and Carnivale, Better live entertainment, And even bringing back a family ride like the antique autos. They havent far enough but at least It’s the right direction. Overall Cedar Fair does have a problem with bringing on low quality food and merchandise that you can get outside the park. Some of it has to do with their sponsorship deals but it really takes away quality from the park

Those trains are hideous. They look like a rolling easy chair.

The change to The Demon came about tgd sane time Scooby Doo was changed to The Beastie. After the installation of The Beast and The Bat. They went with a The “insert monster name here” naming scheme to their coasters except Racer. IMO Screamin’ Demon and Scooby Doo were better names. And it was overuse of the word THE.

The best maps were the PM Pierce maps from ‘79-80 I consider those the best theme park maps ever. The coasters and ride layouts are not necessarily accurate, but the creativity of these maps is outstanding. So many details!

I agree. They keep removing trees without replacement. They also have a lot of unshaded queues. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that she makes for a pleasant day and a hot park. They don’t get it.

An amusement park is supposed to be a fun carefree day away from reality. Who wants to spend the day at an amusement park wearing a mask, being afraid to touch anything and being afraid to be within 6 feet of any other person? Not to mention The unpleasant experience A reduced capacity rides gives Additionally, these parks are going to have the added cost of their fantasy health checks and attempting to distance people from each other. Temperature guns can read a lower temperature if they’re not held close enough to ones for head. So any scanning done that way is useless Even if they don’t limit attendance, a significant number of people are not going to want to attend. Probably enough people are going to stay away that these parts are going to struggle to be profitable if they operate. Cedar Fair is already giving away a year of season pass revenue. It may be better for The bottom line, and definitely public health, just to stay closed for the season.

It definitely needs more trees. It’s the most barren part of the park. Although at the rate they’re cutting down trees the rest of the park is catching up with it

If the parks open and the virus is still there, they will have LIABILITY. They are already deemed an non essential business. They would be opening at their own risks. The potential lawsuits could lead to bankruptcy. Cruise lines are already being sued. It is not possible to enforce distancing with queue lines, walkwAys etc. sure they can mark spaces, but that is only as good as The people that follow the rules. Is everyone going to remain 6 feet away from their friends all day? It’s just not logistically practical. Besides, it’s going to be hard to turn a profit. A lot of people are not going to come to places that are viewed as a potential places to catch this virus regardless if the stay at home orders are issued. If half your customers stay home it’s going to be hard to break even.

That’s a great article. I wish Rivertown still had its “river” water all around it. The removal of the water really took a lot away from the area. So did the mass removal of trees for Diamondback The other things that mess up the theming most now are the warehouse that was Tomb Raider (a Paramount disaster). The sketchy line queue for Diamondback (early Cedar Fair days And they really didn’t care about theming), and yes that truck at the entrance of Mystic Timbers and the truck fronts of the coaster (although I absolutely love a coaster with themed front cars). They are 60s models. I also agree that some of the buildings are too colorful. And the log flume belongs in Rivertown!

A Schwarzkopf monster and a Huss Magic Are very similar and don’t have that issue as they load all gondolas at the same time. The Eyerly Monster Spends more time loading the than giving rides LOL

You nailed it. The sense of entitlement that now comes with a low price season pass is stunning. I don’t think there will be much of a 2020 season. Why else would they be giving away a season of revenue when most parks have just lost a few operating days so far?

This does seem like the parks will not be open Very much this year if at all. Why would they give away a year of revenue at this point ? Kings Island has only lost one operating day and most of their parks have only lost a few days.

Troika is still a great ride. All Huss rides really are great flat rides. I wish the Kings Island had more of them. Enterprise, Magic, Flipper, Tri-Star, Jump, Breakdance, Swing Around, Rainbow, Ranger, Take Off, etc Huss rides typically have a fantastic lighting package. . I preferred the previous paint scheme because each we all had different color gondolas. However the previous light package was severely lacking. Even with the old style lighting, every bar of the wheel should have lights on top of it it. Look at pictures of this ride from German carnivals. The troika at Great America also has this ful lighting package Unless they have neglected it over the last several years. When they put the current LED lighting on it did it correctly. they did put the lights on the inside of the bars but they show well when the wheels are in the air. They don’t show well when the wheels are down.

If they are going to give away the full year of season passes by extending Them to 2021, they might as well stay closed all year given the loss in that revenue. The parks haven’t been closed that long and some have an even missed an operating day. Seaaon passes are cheap and still time to get ones money worth even if they open in July A platinum pass is around 190 Including parking. It takes about five visits to get ones money worth. Those complaining about not getting what they paid for we’re Probably getting way more than what they paid for the past Btw I have a fully paid for 2020 platinum pass. I only get to use it a few times this year I’m OK with that because in the past have use my pass a. LOT. The sense of season pass entitlement starts showing when people are complaining that they may only get to go 10 times instead of 20! Knotts jumped the gun

It was stupid to convert it to the generic Siak City from the themed Boomerang Bay. They did it for standard branding, but that was done before Cedar Fair hit the excellent management that now cares about theming.

Such a shame it wasn’t a Schwarzkopf. Those coasters coasters ride as smooth as glass even after 40 plus years. So much better designed than any Arrow. Six Flags Mindbender and Revolution are still excellent rides. Sooperdooperloooer is shirt but smother great coaster I believe Olympia Looping and Thriller. were produced around this time frame, which have/had amazing designs for portable coasters. But unfortunately the Schwarzkopf coasters of this tine period had the “newer” wheel assemblies which Came apart and caused the fatal accidents in Edmonton and South America.

More tree removal from the park. They took out the berm with the trees. That really looks like a parking lot.

The racing was awful last year fir two reasons. The blue side was much slower going to the lift hill. The entire first half of the ride there was no racing Because the red side always left the lift Hill at least a full train earlier than the blue side. Sometimes the blue side would catch the red side because the far turn around was uneven due to One side being retracted. unless they fixed the track going to the lift hill it’s still not going to race very well. It really needs a synchronized lift hill like kings dominion’s version. In the big picture that can’t be too expensive of an improvement and it makes Racer 75 at Kings Dominion an amazing ride every time

I think the current lighting on it looks great. The thing about the LED lights is that all the lighting ends up looking the same because they program the lights to constantly change in different patterns Using all colors. It really doesn’t matter if the patterns are different the use of all the colors make just about all the LED lighting on flat roads look the same.