JimParker85

Yeah the gate rules only apply during the early entry hour. I'm interested in line closure times as well. 90 minutes early was the most aggressive line close we observed last year (Valravn). This year, with the big 4 being back off access passes I wonder if it'll be 120 minutes early on Maverick/SV on very busy days. Not ideal.

The dwindling calendar is just a fact of life for all Cedar Fair parks right now. I really hope to see the trend reverse in 2022, but that's a long way off. Contrast that with Six Flags, who have decided to expand the operating calendar at nearly every park. Just today, Over Georgia announced they were adding more days to start up daily operations sooner. Some parks, like Dorney and Kings Dominion, have shockingly small days and hours listed for this year.

10 minutes from my house. The property is now in a sorry state after some summer vandalism last year. Even before that, Apex had let the park deteriorate significantly over the last few years. Silver Comet is a decent CCI, but there is not much else to work with. It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

I think the idea of price variance would be to increase the cost per FL and reduce the amount available so that the park ends up making slightly more money but delivers an experience that is perceived to be better for more guests (shorter wait times in standby lines). However, the parks likely reason that the current dynamic of selling a significant amount of them at the current price points is best for business. My wife and I have all season. Wonderland just extended our passes through Labour Day 2022. I love the benefit, but I've been to Wonderland and Cedar Point on days when daily fastlane has sold out. The fastlane lines for major attractions can be 45 minutes long. (Our final trip to Wonderland pre pandemic, we waited nearly an hour for row 1 Yukon Striker WITH fastlane. Standby line was out of the queue and up the path towards Wonder Mountain). With the way that many stations favor fastlane, it just crushes the standby line. I feel bad for a guest who might only ride 3-5 coasters the entire day, and I worry about the overall guest experience. I'd be willing to pay more for mine, but I realize it is not something everyone would or could do.

It's already $850 for all season platinum.

I believe they sell too many. The numbers in 2019 at CP and Wonderland were insane. I would move to make it more exclusive and sell far fewer. 1k-1500 for all season platinum, $200 for busy days at the major parks in the chain. I don't see that happening, however. Top Thrill Dragster is really the most obvious implementation of how much FLP has changed the guest experience. For the last 4 years, the park has reserved the entire front train in the station and the left side approach line for FLP. The ride host is supposed to move standby line guests into the front train queue when no FLP is entering the station, but in 2019 specifically I saw two instances where they had to hold the gates as the host didn't notice that they were about to load a half full front train while the standby line was back to the vending machines. It's not ideal.

We have Platinum All Season. As far as analysis, it has changed Cedar Point I think more than any other park. With their complicated and temperamental coaster lineup, combined with the rain and wind downtime major rides there have, you really need it to get a full experience if you only have 1 or 2 days. It does create haves and have nots, especially considering that it can cost $150 on the busiest days. We get our passes and add ons through Wonderland (our home park) but even so the cost is very high.

Plans can always change and there could be variation among parks, however at Chill Out at CP in February, Tony and Jason both spoke on Halloweekends when a question came up in our presentation. Both mentioned that they anticipated some combination of the event style they had to use in 2020 along with some elements of a traditional haunt, including outdoor scare zone but likely EXCLUDING indoor mazes/houses.

BGW has been doing a limited park offering, and really struggling with guest satisfaction. If you pop in on BGWfans forum, they have a lot of regulars on there who posted detailed updates during Spring Break that painted a very frustrating picture. The bigger comparison to me is Six Flags America. They opened at the beginning of March and seemed to have the park running better than ever. I watched videos from multiple enthusiasts who praised their experience at SFA in the Spring. In the past, pretty much every coaster channel on youtube was almost completely negative on SFA. It was very surprising. I just think KD is being left behind, and keeping a small and relativity inexpensive coaster sitting in pieces in their parking lot for 2 years can't be a good sign either.

That is GREAT to hear that they stayed open.

Dominator

Last season, I observed 930 line close on fireworks nights for both Beast and Orion (3 visits). All other coasters remained open until park close.

Another blow for KD. Their calendar this season is so sad, they have fallen so far behind that even Six Flags America could be perceived to have passed them. And is that free spin still sitting in the parking lot? My god, what a shame for a park with so much potential and natural beauty, plus a solid top 3 coaster lineup.

If it's for CP, I believe it was originally planned for 2021, pre covid. Could mean some of it was paid for from a prior year's capital expenditures?

Shambhala, Leviathan, Mako, Fury, Flying Dinosaur, Fenix, Thunderbird, Valkyria, Banshee, Candymonium, Orion all built in the last 10 years. Monster, a return to the classic restraint invert, also looks outstanding. Modern B&M gets a hilarious bad rap by some enthusiasts.

I love this topic. I picked Carowinds, but there are so many good choices. Kings Island is very close for me. I also think the best SF park lineup is Over Georgia.

The SDC location would be interesting for a thrill coaster. The clearing and construction wall is located in their Fireman's Landing childrens area I believe. Not saying it won't be SDC, but it would just be a bit unusual to locate it there.

I'd be fairly surprised if Cedar Fair became the first large chain (unless you count Herschend) to lift the mask mandate. While Disney, Universal, Six Flags and Sea World still have it, I feel like they'll also stay the course. I guess we'll find out today.

Pre pandemic I would say this had to be Cedar Point. Now, I'm not so sure. A May opening would seem to exclude Six Flags. Interesting.

Except in CA. Interested to see what they will be doing at Great America in Illinois. Edit: I just watched Parks Bros new vlog from Magic Mountain from today. They are starting to fill trains on some coasters as well.

My final rides on SoB came just two weeks before it's closure in mid June of 2009. They were absolutely awful. By the time it closed, it was good riddance. I never got to ride it pre-loop removal, but by the end it was nasty. It's kind of like Disaster Transport to me. A lot of CP fans fondly remember the original queue or blacklight queue of the early 2000s. By the end, it was ugly and not even air conditioned anymore. I much prefer Banshee and GateKeeper in their places.

I am looking forward so much to getting back. VERY nervous about how well any CF park will be able to handle the anticipated high attendance, however. I must admit that, without the all season Fast Lane, I'd be much less excited.

I know it used to win the Golden Ticket every year... But I think the current look of the kids area is ugly and mostly underwhelming, the least impressive area of the park (even beyond Action Zone).

Other than the 2 California parks, I'm very interested to see what Cedar Fair does for the covid rules. Masks, queue line rules, train cleaning interval and train capacity. With how desperate they seem on social media for hiring, big crowds are making me very nervous for the in park experience, regardless of what they decide on for the above issues.

We have made 3 trips to Carowinds. 2016, 18 and 19. Had 2 days at the park for the first two, only one the most recent with fastlane. It was easy to do everything multiple times in one day with fastlane. We have stayed at the Hampton Inn Charlotte/South Park at Phillips Place. It's SO WEIRD. South Park is this crazy upscale little area of a few blocks. They still have free parking at this one unlike some city Hampton Inns. We really enjoy it, it's the most memorable Hampton Inn I've stayed at. About 15 minutes from the park and also about 15 minutes to downtown Charlotte.