RailRider

Great article and offers some interesting insights. I had to read the following sentence multiple times, Cash SeaCow?

I have a natural distrust of anyone in important positions of business and leadership that go by silly fratboy nicknames. i.e. "Rip"

Ive heard this rumor floating around since early 2013, should be a nice partnership with some updates. The theater is going to be a central focal point of the park once again with the removal of the hat, so these changes are going to be very well timed.

Time to throw pricing integrity out the window. There may be no turning back from these pricing strategies.

Yes the rider will ride in a raft type vehicle and will be harnessed in. Not sure I see the point of this attraction and the raft reminds me of the transport system in James Bond Moonraker Here is footage inside the ride vehicle during the ride. Here are some additional specs

Social Media is best used by companies that have well established brands and identities. These marketing tools allow a business to foster additional relationship points with customers. Rarely do these channels drive guests to the store or front gate. Why? Because your reach is limited and typically your followers are your established base. Typically social media is best used to sample your customer base on potential new products or offerings not to drive new customers to your product. Social Media can be a great Market Research Tool if used correctly. But Hart doesn't understand that because if Market Research would have been conducted before the reopening of the Kingdom they would have found out many things. One main thing being Location Location Location. The Fairgrounds and the Park share the same location. Neither had a good year and this was during a rebounding economy. What do they have in common with one another? Location, Location, Location.

Having a marketing strategy that is almost entirely based in Social Media is typically on effective for well established businesses or those that are very small and run on word of mouth advertising. Expecting to drive new guests through the gates by advertising season passes solely on social media will fail. Radio Spots, TV Spots and ad space on popular websites are the called action. Yet when you have zero budget for marketing you are basically hoping folks magically show up. Anyways they only have 36,000 likes on their Facebook page. Holiday World 344,000 likes Kings Island 513,000 Dollywood 416,000 Louisville Zoo 109,000 Kentucky Horse Park 113,000 Kentucky Speedway 71,000 Kentucky State Fair 48,000 Pretty pathetic following for their Facebook page if we are being honest.

FMP has now for the most part been leveled and everything from the kitchen sink has been packed and shipped over seas. Seems as some from KK should have read this forum before making the choices and decisions they have at KK.

Love the name though the ride system may be a bit flawed.

$12??? Are you kidding me? Pricing integrity has gone out the window, soon to be followed by bare minimum park staffing, reactive maintenance and up keep. I wonder if FoxNews would like to team up with SEAS and do a BlackFish 2 documentary or CNN might want to tell the other side of the story. Ohh wait SEAS was given that offer and refused.

All of the Above except A

The in park experience is already suffering and that was prior to the announced $50 million in cuts next year. Many friends who are local to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and are not what I would consider enthusiasts have complained all year about it being one of the worst years they have seen at the park with operations and park experience.

Wow! Shockingly poor results continue for SEAS. The following quote either sums up the denial the park has over why results are so poor or is just PR garbage. Most parks in the Florida market are setting records with attendance, SEAS parks are the only major ones that are not. Public denial of your true issues does not convince investors to jump on board nor does it entice visitors to come back. SEAS has still done a poor job of handling and rebuking Blackfish. Until they deal with elephant errr Killer Whale in the room these trends will continue.

They can say what they want, but the Orlando Market is booming with tourists who have chosen not to throw their money in the SEAS. Blackfish has played a major role in this along with cost cutting measures in the parks. Guests have noticed as have potential future guests. No Comment is not an effective way of handling public relations in today's market. Either get in front of the issue or dig in and vehemently fight. No Comment is apathetic and ineffective, consumers view it as corporations pleading the 5th.

Potter Who?

http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/reports/q4-fy14-earnings.pdf I hear attendance at the Florida Parks has been record breaking this year and when you see how Frozen has contributed to the bottom line, there is no wonder all parks are getting the Frozen treatment.

I would expect in park spending to be up with reduced cost of admission. Just seems logical to me Also something else to consider regarding attendance being down is with the improving economy more folks took real vacations this instead of staycations. Rather than visiting your local park twice you may have only visited once because you took a trip out of town this year? Something to consider.

This is one of the only places that even talks about Kentucky Kingdom, hence 600,000 visitors this year

Once again lets remind people of how horrible T2 is as a ride, not rename it, paint it a new color scheme and put new trains on it to give park guests a new experience. Instead red worked in the past so lets do that. Just like we had a Drop Tower once and it was popular till it maimed a young girl. Lets put in a new one. Compare Cedar Points treatment of new paint and trains on Mantis to that of T2. Well played Mr. Hart,

Update, the plaintiffs must file separately. No longer under the same case. https://tv.yahoo.com/news/disney-autistic-kids-lawsuit-expands-234437924.html

The park is closed, the weather has gotten colder, time to reminisce about Winterfest with warm rose colored glasses.

Yes the internet spread this like wild fire last night. Yet the ride reopened shortly after. The beauty of rampant speculation and social media

The Celebrate the Magic castle projection show is amazing and one of our favorites. When the lanterns from Tangled take flight it is truly mesmerizing.

Only 45 days till we arrive at Disney, very excited to see the castle all light up. I was unfortunate to see the castle as the ugly birthday cake on my first visit to the Magic Kingdom.