CoasterJack

Yeah someone sent me the video essay of this report earlier today and it already had hundreds of thousands of views in like 2 hours, so not a great look for the company

Will say, this definitely isn't all park specific, but seems to be more of a chain wide issue. Visited Cedar Point this past weekend Friday-Saturday to a very crowded but understaffed park. My hotel experience was great with very kind and attentive staff at Castaway Bay, helped us many times, however had many issues within the park itself. Two of the three food locations I visited had the newer Cedar Fair line style selection, yet both ran out of entrees during lunch and dinner. Pizza took about 25 minutes to make enough to get through the line when I started, only for the soda fountain to have ice, but no soda other than regular Coke or sprite. Steak at the farmhouse was great, but they only had about half the side options available. Had a funny interactions with some volunteers where I won't call out the location, but when a friend asked for a water cup and they didn't have any, he said to his friend behind the counter "the guy earlier today said we aren't allowed to give water cups, I really don't understand the stupidity behind this", which was fine because I just used my drink plan to grab water because only 40% of the freestyle machines were on, of which the ones on only had sugar free root beer or lemonade. Spent Saturday with a good friend with Crohn's disease who had a first time visit. Had a few good experiences with this, but not handled nearly as well as KI. Watched a lady pass out and fall down the stairs after the line reached about 45 minutes just to check in with an ADA pass on Steel Vengeance, but lots of other issues, including another ride exist attendant telling my friend he didn't know how the system worked and it wasn't his problem. Found two bathrooms throughout the day that had soap, swung and missed on 4 out of 6 😑. Also I'm maybe starting to see why they upped the price of their Fastlane, waited almost 70 minutes on quite a few rides with it on Saturday. Overall since we had three days there still had an overall alright time, but quite a few things soured our mood throughout the trip. Will probably return next year with my brother, but the rest of the group didn't really seem interested in returning when they could just visit KI or Holiday World. Also now I'm debating if it's better to have ice but no soda or soda but no ice, leaning towards the latter...

I'm pretty sure Charlotte was a preference of Zimmerman. Now that the CEO, COO, CFO have all swapped over, there may be preference for a different location. I will say, having been to Choctaw Stadium, that office location is really neat. And considering the growing Dallas region with potential for year round operation, it makes sense for the move. Honestly while Carowinds is a nice park, I don't know if I would really call it a flagship park.

Will be interested to see how this turns out. In general just happy we're getting another maze. Cedar Point only had the conjuring last year while we also had Order of the Dragon, and seems to potentially be a lot of parks in the chain will continue to only use their existing mazes, so happy KI has continued to invest in new experiences for haunt with the addition of the haunted attraction pass. Would be a lot more hesitant to buy the access pass if there were a lack of investment...

I hope the park has seen the increase of interest/ridership with the lower height limit of 42". While nowhere near the most popular attraction in the park, the 42" has helped The Bat serve as a great stepping stone coaster from a lot of families I've talked with.

While not fully promoted, apparently on the CW website, by changing the link parameters some people found this in the purchase portal, but upon clicking it's not all the way setup yet. Looks like at least the option being pictured limits the chosen option to 30 meals total. Now depends how frequently visitors plan to visit, and unknown if a more expensive/cheaper option will be offered, and if this is finalized. But appears that SF is definitely considering a change in the works. Side note their all season Fast Lane appears to exclude Cedar Point both with a Gold or Prestige. Thought @DonHelbig would find this intriguing.

Thought this article was well written and a good recap of the whole merger situation https://www.dallasnews.com/business/local-companies/article/six-flags-rollercoaster-continues-tormenta-s-22257005.php

Spotted Tony helping out earlier in Enrique's helping work through the long line

Had the opportunity to meet him in 2014 and have always had a great impression of him. Can agree that he's a great LinkedIn follow.

It appears another Monster has potentially been retired at Cedar Point. A photo was found online posted from FUN Food blog, but don't know if the image was officially approved to be taken since nothing has been announced (so not going to post it here). Could be it's getting a new concrete pad or moved elsewhere in the park, but it appears its just dirt at this point. Will be curious if some of the parts end up coming our way and if that contributed to ours reopening?

Yeah the Conjuring is open for their spring break event, so that would probably explain why they just bundled it in instead of making a whole seperate thing

These actually are off the same base, I don't know if they could 100% be restored, but look at the back of each ghost figure, look closely and you'll see the outline of both Scooby and Shaggy. Look at the backs of most of these props and if they were reused for a different SD:HC prop, a lot of them are still labeled with the original name on the back. Look at the back of Potion Group #7 (Lot #79) and you'll see it's labeled "money bag 1". The shape of the cutout resembles the money bags from the bank scene in the same area.

This is going to be dangerous for my bank account, but really excited and glad the park is going through the effort of letting fans bid for these items.

Overall after listening to the earnings call, I think John seems to understand that each park is unique, and it's a good sign that he's been traveling to each park to hear from leadership, instead of commanding a "this is what we should do response", he seems to be taking his time to truly understand what makes each park and market unique. Though also found it interesting that they declinded to comment at this time on the Enchanted Parks filing.

Apparently the first 150 groups get a free ukulele...