The Interpreter

It needn't necessarily be one OR the other. Exclusive licenses can become nonexclusive when a bit of cash exchanges hands. Or the Nick license may not even be exclusive, for that matter.

Perhaps. But if neither Cedar Fair nor Coke wants to do business with the other, there are ways to make sure that both parties end up agreeing to end the contract early. Many, many creative ways. I'd be surprised if that Coke contract lasts that long...and wonder if it is even binding on successors of Paramount Parks.

Actually, on a big trip like that, getting to parks at opening and staying til close is an important part of getting all the rides in. Rest is very important, too. The solution, for me and many others I know, is simple. Get to the park at opening come Hades or high water. Enjoy the golden hours until the rest of the public wakes up, packs the car and gets there (especially on Saturdays). Get in as many rides as you can. As the park gets packed and the humidity (that we have abundance in the Midwest) gets atrocious, leave the park--getting your hand stamped and saving your parking lot re-entry, check into your motel/friend's, etc., and sleep. Come back two or three hours before close, when many of the public have gone home, or began the long journey back to their homes (many of the visitors are either season passholders or daytrippers). You will be refreshed, renewed, ready to drive the next morning, and will enjoy a much emptier (by comparison) park than if you stayed during the midday rush. You can save more and enjoy even more if you plan a meal for the journey either to your sleeping place or back to the park. (THIS is one of the major reasons that Six Flags proposed NO REENTRY policy was dumb!) As for SFKK, be warned that the back portion of the park (where Thunder Run, Twisted Twins, Chang and T2 live) does not open until an hour after the front section opens (where the mouse and Greezed Lightnin are)

The casual visitor from Cincinnati who visits Paramount's Kings Dominion, should they find the place dirty, WILL associate that experience with Kings Island. I actually think the Cedar Fair way of naming parks makes much more sense than Paramount's or Six Flags'. An accident at any Six Flags always brings up questions where I work and travel: Didn't that happen at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom (or insert local Six Flags park name here)? The public hears or sees Six Flags or Paramount, they KNOW the local park, that's all they know, and they hear enough to know the local park is where the problem is. Most patrons have no idea who owns Cedar Point, Worlds of Fun, Dorney Park, etc....Nor do they care.

It's NOT a local issue when the name over the door says Six Flags or Paramount or whatever....the public sees them as all the same. One dirty McDonalds affects them all, in the customers' eyes. Same for parks.

Yep. Five hundred feet....long.

Should that be true, a bunch of people will show up here and start crying about how Cedar Fair took out a wood coaster. Which is fine. Except one thing. Many of them will be the same people who now gripe and complain about SOB!

It is indeed a new day, for all parks... This is going to be really interesting, to put it mildly.

Was it by any chance a Pepsi can? --The Interpreter, running for his room

Nice picture. About two months ago, VIACOM (yes, VIACOM) announced they intended to pursue international theme park opportunities. Kind of odd, eh?

Not only that, but Six Flags New England has always been well landscaped. The crowds that park gets, along with Six Flags Great Adventure, pose...how to put this?....unique challenges that midwest parks for the most part do not have to deal with. I can't imagine Six Flags Great Adventure, in particular, being managed by Cedar Fair or even Paramount. The bravest security people at either organization do not have the daily challenges that those two parks' patrons frequently present...

Actually, that was a great idea. Not unlike the Sun Wheel at Disney's California Adventure.

That hasn't been established yet, though I can't imagine that the Kings Island/Dominion names will change. The Paramount's part may or may not be gone, though.

Yeah PKI was #1 in the USA, and PCW was ranked #1 in North America with about 15 other mega themed Disney and Universal type parks taking the other top spots. Uh, no. Tops for SEASONAL parks, yes. But those "other" top spots were actually THE top spots.

I take it you have been to those Six Flags parks THIS year? If not, your experience isn't all that relevant, given Six Flags is under new management. For the record, the filthiest park I have been to this year, BY FAR, was Paramount's Kings Dominion. It was worse than ANY Six Flags park I have ever been to.

Nothing is going to happen until the sale closes, which is expected during the third quarter---July to September. Or so they said during the conference calls.

During today's conference call, the CF representatives said there were no "substantial" commitments for rides at the Paramount Parks for 2007. They defined substantial as being in the realm of Ghostrider at KBF. I doubt seriously any major coaster is being installed at any Paramount Park next year. And don't even get me started by telling me that some enthusiasts' group is having a convention there next year. Parks do not plan major investments around enthusiasts' conventions.

Now you done went and done it. I wasn't going to say this. Now I have to. CF is gonna take the P out of KI. What you think of that is up to you.

More than once, the CF people referred to the Paramount Parks as "great parks" during the conference calls. Then again, you'd expect them to. They just agreed to spend a ton of money to buy them!

Write it down. Peanuts is a United Feature Syndicate property. It was never owned by Nickelodean, which was and is a VIACOM property. Charles Schulz would not have wanted it any other way. Nick did rerun some of the Peanuts specials, but running a program and owning it are two entirely different things.

The Disney people would like a word with you...or two or three...

They were? No, they weren't. . . As has already been stated once in this thread.

I wonder what happens to that Coke deal that Paramount Parks so proudly signed right before the probable sale was announced. Will we find Coke in some Cedar Fair parks next year? Somehow, I doubt it.

Well, yeah. That, too!

Wooden coasters built in an earthquake prone area with strict building codes don't come cheap. To say the least.