The Interpreter

I know one thing. They install a Jump2 and get it to run reliably and well, and I will be a very, very, very happy camper!

Now, I'm not so sure. All my Pittsburgh friends told me last year that Kennywood was selling season passes at last, but they are not on their website. Does anyone know?

Uh, Kennywood DOES sell passes. They have for a couple of years now.

There is a minority theory in the industry that more money could be made by abolishing passes and lowering daily admission to, say, $19.95 with free parking. NO discounts to anyone, the same low price for all, per day. Shorter lines, more guests paying closer to the admission price, etc. Another group would abolish pay one price and go back to pay by the ride. In some ways, that is already happening, what with QBots, upcharge attractions, premium access (VIP tours), etc.

In a sale, the terms are always negotiable. It all boils down to what the willing buyer will pay to the willing seller...

CoastersRZ: It would not surprise me if the parks were offered at two different prices, one with the licensing rights, and one without. I certainly would NOT assume that Paramount is throwing in the licensing rights for free. Wouldn't make sense. Sumner has more sense than that!

flightoffear1996, after Cedar Point's and Six Flags Great Adventure's respective experiences with Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka, not to mention the drastic high cost, I don't think you will see a rocket coaster at any Paramount Park, at least not under the current owners. In fact, I daresay, I doubt you see a rocket coaster of any size anywhere in the USA for quite some time. Which, quite frankly, is probably just as well.

IF they aren't processing til opening day, my guess is that it is yet another of the budget cuts being made to improve the balance sheet at the park pending a sale to the new owner. Look for many other kinds of cuts during this difficult year for the park.

As I posted earlier this year (and was roundly made fun of), a sale is in progress. Cuts in all kinds of things (including hours and shows) are being made to dress up the parks' balance sheets. As for a Fear Fest show, "like always," be aware that right now, nothing is "like always." There may be, there may not be. NO ONE KNOWS. Including current management of the park. Some things will be up to the new owner, if there even is one (which there probably will be). To sum up, these are NOT normal times for Paramount's (insert name of theme park here). And after the sale, if there is one, what happens next is simply not known. This is a tough time for the people who run Paramount Parks. This is a tough year. People are concerned about their careers and their families. Please try to understand that as much fun as you may have at Kings Island, this is a business...and a business that is for sale. Tradition may be important to you, but to the owners, it is only important to the extent that it delivers shareholder value.

Well, what the policy will be for parking for 2oo7 is, to be fair, quite undetermined. It may or may not be the same policy as in the past. After all, we don't even know who will own the park by August. It may be CBS Corporation, it may not. And a new owner may not even sell passes, for that matter. Probably will, but one never knows.

Don't waste your time or breath. The name change has been announced, it is well underway, and it won't be changing back. And online petitions aren't worth anything. At all.

Beastie was already renamed once. And we weren't very amused the first time around, either. Scooby Doo, anyone?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...s.1ed3fa73.html

I certainly hope not. If there is, they most likely will NOT be free. See, for example, Six Flags and their QBot system, now known as Flash Pass. All ride reservation systems really do is generate profit for parks and make people who paid one price to do most everything pay even more if they really want to do it efficiently. And before someone says it, the Universal system, where you get immediate access only by staying on property, does the same thing. Only Disney does this in a sort of fair fashion. . . Paramount tested a ride reservation system, in the Jane Cooper days, at Kings Dominion. They didn't implement it any further, though for a while it looked like they might (remember the separate queues built for IJST and Scooby?--they ended up using them for things like walk on Wednesdays or walk on weekends, but then and now I suspect they were built to allow ride reservation systems). And next year, the likelihood is that a new and different owner will own the park(s). So, who knows? By the way, those QBots can get VERY expensive.

Yes, there was such a thing planned up in that same general area on an Indian reservation. This writer was thrilled at the prospect of a 500 foot Skycoaster..which, like the park, never materialized.... Sigh.

Well, it's not just Cedar Point that got burned going for super coasters and super records. Let's look at Kingda Ka in New Jersey. Or, let's look at Son of Beast in Ohio. Or, let's look at Hypersonic in Virginia. Or Hercules in Pennsylvania (oh, we can't, it's gone). Or Steel Phantom (same story...with a better ending) I don't see 2007 as being the year of the coaster, but one never knows. . .

New theme parks in Connecticut, or pie in the sky by and by? http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.d.../603110307/1002

Let's not tell TTRyan who owned Universal during the time Islands of Adventure was planned and built! No, it wasn't Japanese. No, it wasn't Chinese. Think about fried potatoes....or bakeries at the end of International Street (well, there USED to be one...)

It is a LOT less expensive to remove trees than to build around them. It is only lately that most parks have seen the light and tried to preserve trees. Others have gone the other route. In the last four years, Camden Park in Huntington, West Virginia has removed virtually every tree in the park. What was once a tree lined midway not unlike a small forest (somewhat reminescent of Knoebels) is now an asphalt midway with no trees. Very hot in the summer. This detracts from the guest experience bigtime. For that matter, the Kings Island of today is a much nicer place than it was when it first opened, with saplings everywhere. When I go to Kings Island these days and see those great oaks and maples where once were saplings, I feel very old indeed.

Yeah. You're right. Compared to Top Gun this and Vortex that and Drop Zone over there. And Tomb Raider here, Tomb Raider there, and Tomb Raider up there. Yep, I see your point. Sheesh.

Some of us know well how parks operate...from Busch to Six Flags to Paramount to Disney to NBC Universal to the family parks. And I, at least, have NEVER said Paramount was a bad operator. There are things they do very well indeed: rides operations, admissions, season pass processing (including letting customers use next year's pass after processing this year) customer service, merchandising, games. And there are things that they could do much better, but choose not to: theming (particularly the maintenance thereof), entertainment, shows, food, landscaping. They do what they do because it is what they have chosen to do. A new operator WILL be different. In some ways better, in other ways the same, in others not as good as Paramount. That's the way it is. I also would not assume the parks will eventually be split up. I actually think that is among the least likely of outcomes...though I CAN easily see the Canadian park going its own way. . .

PKI has an inverted coaster. The second best one in the state, as a matter of fact...

Uh, no. Universal's Theme Parks are controlled by General Electric and Blackstone Group. Together they could buy a company 10 times the size of Paramount Parks and not even sweat. Anheuser Busch could also afford Paramount Parks with very little difficulty, but probably isn't interested. Cedar Fair has already been discussed, but could, with difficulty, finance the purchase. Hopefully, though, they learned a lesson (or two or three) with their somewhat recent acquisition of Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.

Okay. Fine. Splain something to me, then. Why do some totally blind people also get sick on rides?

They didn't forget. The money to do that wasn't in the budget by the time it could be done. And in case you have forgotten, the park is for sale. I doubt that little things that only people like us notice will be fixed this year. It's called deferred maintenance. Safety items WILL be taken care of. The park will be at least as safe as ever, if not more so. But little things that less than 1/10 of one percent of the parks' guests will notice will not be taken care of this year. That's reality. And not really a whole lot different than the last several years...at Paramount...and at Six Flags, too; for that matter...