The Interpreter

Has someone forgotten El Toro...which opens very, very soon? (In a park that is also probably about as much competition for Kings Island as Beech Bend is)

Nope, I got to watch you all do that...from the station, as I was too busy talking, as usual!

Hmmm. I was there Sunday, during the filming of that commercial, too!

I see NOTHING funny about that. If the park hasn't even blocked off those seat lines, it says about all that needs to be said about customer service under CBS. Cedar Fair can't take over too soon. And laughing at guests for doing something totally reasonable? I sure hope your post isn't right... If it IS right, and I were the GM or the rides manager and I found you or your crew laughing over that situation, you would continue your laughs from outside the park...where you used to work.

Regardless of what the contract may or may not say, few companies want to do business with a company that does NOT want to do business with them. A contentious business relationship is usually soon ended, much to the relief of both sides. Cedar Fair is most definitely a company that greatly prefers Pepsi. Very proudly so, too.

And thus the topic name: Experts Guess.... I thought about putting quotes around the "Experts." Beech Bend did just get a new wood coaster this year. Kentucky Rumbler...You may have heard of it. But Beech Bend is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Honestly, either Six Flags St Louis or Six Flags Great America probably is four times the competition for Kings Island that Beech Bend is. Heck, Wyandot Lake is probably more! Experts, indeed. Thanks for noticing!

If those lower prices are reflected at the guest level, Holiday World must have one heck of a deal!

Yep. There's an interesting clue in this article, see if you can find it: http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=925

But, Paramount Parks just signed a long term contract with Coke right before the sale. So who knows?

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...377/-1/BUSINESS

And this is the last season for the Six Flags Sacramento waterpark: It will either be dismantled or sold to another chain.

So Kansas City is a resort destination? Who knew? http://www.worldsoffun.com/public/tickets/

WooferBearATL, you'll find this article interesting (as will those who think Six Flags isn't changing, but for a different reason): http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/chris_barry/...05/23/2538.aspx The pictures of Great Adventure there should, if nothing else does, convince you that the new Six Flags is not the old Six Flags.

"They" is a different "they" than last year. And things are definitely much different than before. It is way too early to make predictions, especially if those predictions are based on past performance. Besides, the selloff of excess lands and parks has hardly begun. Hold on!

The $15 parking price is pretty much universal, except at Kentucky Kingdom, which does not own its parking lot (the Commonwealth of Kentucky does, and the last time I was there it was five dollars, still). I have found Six Flags America and Six Flags Great Adventure to have made improvements comparable to those in Georgia, in guest services, cleanliness and staffing. I also found Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, though not quite rising to that level, to be much improved. I wish I could say the same about Six Flags Over Texas. I can't. I was there a week ago last Sunday and Monday. The food places were mostly closed. Those that were open were very slow. One train on most all the coasters. Only two shows on Sunday, and NONE on Monday. No trams in the parking lot. And the park itself was not very clean. The parade at the end of the evening was among the shortest I have ever seen, and the employees participating in it looked to be glum and unenthusiastic. It was if a pall hang over the park. The SFOT I remember under the old Six Flags was much better than this. Something is wrong down there, or at least was the two days I visited. That being said, Mr. Freeze is running awesome (even though it seems to not open with the park), and Shockwave was giving Mindbender a run for its money for the title of best grand old Schwarzkoph...

Erosarrow05, you may as well love those graphics, as I can about guarantee you that is the way Kings Island will be referred to next year. . .

But, but, but....they did NOT say that $20 million was to spent at each Paramount Park...what they DID say is that nothing the size of the capital investment that Ghostrider is on the books for any Paramount Park for 2007.

They will have it together long before then, or another investor will come in and/or the lenders will foreclose.

and get a bulk of capital expenditures---article in local Sandusky, Ohio paper. Here are some quotes from the story. You really will want to read the entire thing, which is posted at the link at the end of this post. Interestingly, there is not one single word about Kings Island in that story. (The effect this story, if accurate, and not just Sandusky area support from public relations, will have on Kings Island is why I posted this here and not in Other Parks. This really IS about Kings Island and the future of Kings Island, not just about Cedar Point!) Here, a link, to pointbuzz.com, which reprints the story: http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=926

They didn't use a dollar figure...the questioner compared the situation to when KBF had contracted to buy Ghostrider...and the CF rep said that nothing comparable (financially) was on the books for a Paramount Park for 2007.

Like everything else in life, there is a happy medium. Too rigid is not good. Not rigid enough is also not good.

Looping friend? Me, too. Oh, wait. I thought you meant Son of Beast!

If you say so. I've ridden both rides many, many times. Raptor is an intense thrill. Montu is not. And where, pray tell, is Raptor's batwing????

another good example. Due to making the coaster more earthquake resistant to meet building codes, I'd bet it is far more rigid than most wooden coasters...even though it does not have a steel frame.

How ANYONE could predict Vortex's future, especially right now, with 99 percent accuracy is beyond me. I wouldn't offer 99 to 1 odds that Cedar Fair will even own Kings Island five years from now...much less about Vortex. Yeah, they probably will, but 99 chances out of 100? No way. Too much in life is uncertain. And the best laid plans of mice and humans sometimes get changed with very little notice or reason.