robintodd

I've been to KI a couple of times now since the announcement and the line for Boo is always to outside the building. The "ghosts" in the trees is a nice touch, not sure if they are the current "boo" ghosts leaving the park or new ones coming in....

Said should infer when I mean could injfer. We'll see when haunt get's here. I would think there would have to be a limit on these because the Conjuring has a limited capacity. Either way capitalism will rule the day, the stockholders must be appeased. I hate that. Corporations no longer care about their employees or their customers, just the stockholders who are often NEITHER an employee or a customer. As far as the "sold out" situation I think what happened is management changed their mind on the price. Maybe a 59.99 will be offered without Conjuring or express lane. They recognized the problem and the quickest way for the IT department to "stop selling them immediately" would be to just put them as "sold out" because that option is probably already on the system (as we saw with Coasterstock). I'm sure their IT Department took a hit when the cuts were made. I think Disney may be interested in that land for their new park.

Montgomery Inn Ribs!

I've always expected this may happen ever since Rick visited years ago. If Bastrop's company is doing the ride, maybe he did a couple of plaster casts of "certain cast members of a particular show" to use in the new ride. That would be epic.

First since entry to the Conjuring is limited (just like VIP Parking) it seems wrong to sell something that is one time every visit for something with limited capacity. I think they would sell more season long if they offered a 39.99 or 49.99 tier that included one (or two) conjuring along with all mazes through the regular line. Again, we are in a capitalistic society so one could infer that they are selling alot of these, otherwise there would not be upping the price. Hard to blamke them. Capitalism is King most chase the almighty dollar. Sure the mazes used to be free and now they charge for them, kind of like putting podcasting content behind a pay wall when all content used to be free. The old swicheroo.

I actually saw qutie a few people skating last year, along with cookies, etc. I find myself spending more now thatn ever and I have all 3.

With the amount of locals I would think there is enough attendance to keep Winterfest around. Maybe not, we'll see. I still feel like where as there will be Winterfest, this may be the last year for the Ice skating.

My comment was it IS and always WILL BE a park for locals. I did comment that in the beginning because it was new to the industry it had different needs than it does today. (remember the first year attendance blew the estimates out of the water). The only thing missing is a "resort" (it was a hotel with a conference room, far from what I would consider a resort). Golf has lowered in popularity over the decades and the campground has been replaced with Camp Cedar. New hotels have also been built in the area. It all comes down to what's said in business quite often: Location, Location, Location. KI being where it is has brought more jobs to the area as well has housing developments.

Abolutely my point, check out CP with it being on a coast it's numbers are similar to HW. Try ChatGPT and ask it how many people live with in an hour drive of each park. It tells the story very well. Also explains why there is no express need for marketing at KI. Reguardless of what word get's out or what's added or taken away, "They will come". It cannot be overstated how the pick of the location was vital to the success of the park.

As I've stated before, the big problem with KI becoming a theme park with high thrills is it's location. It is and always will be a park for locals, not a destination park. Too many people/families live within a 30 minute drive to the park for it to be anything else. With a 1 million person consumer base there is simply no need for it to require people traveling hours to get here. It already has plenty of potential customers in the area. It has a niche that has allowed it to grow. If there is something the park is lacking in my opinion it is not a thrill ride but rather a quality dark ride (finger crossed for Phantom Theatre's Revenge ) and more flat rides. The industry is changing. I was born in 1969 and have been with KI through out the years. Back then the area around wasn't built up with houses and KI was new and they had to prove themselves in the market. They competed with area parks and of course the coaster wars between them and CP are legendary and will not (unforunately) happen again. Both KI and CP are now loaded with coaters some may say at an unsubstainable level. With the population base they are located in (and the mid-upper class of families, I'm using Blue Ash as an example compared to Sandusky) there is simply no need to draw from around the country. Don't get me wrong we do draw travelers (Camp Cedar isn't exactly sitting empty from what I can see of the amount of campers from the road.) and having a new large hotel would probably be a good addition. It's the location, so wisely picked when they moved Coney Island, that has led to making it the theme park it is today. Ironically it is the location which allows KI not to have international employees like other parks do. In the end I share, in part, with your frustration but at the same time it's the "home park feel" that make KI my favorite park (The Beast doesn't hurt either ). Steel Vengence is a great coaster but there is no way at my age I could marathon it like I could The Beast or Diamondback. It's a nice coaster to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. In the end I'm very happy to have KI as a home park, but I do respect your opinion and like to type as well

After riding Justice League battle for metropolis at Six Flags over Texas I would love to see something like that at KI. My first preference, of course, is that when Rick came to do the meet and greet at the Phantom Theatre Encore show, he signed a contract and has spent the last 2 years molding and modeling the anamatronics for Phantom Theatre's Revenge!

You are correct, it does say priority access. Still I believe that whreas I may be interested in going into all mazes each time I go, I feel the Conjuring will be a once or twice thing. Maybe a 39.99 tier that includes all mazes, only 1 conjuring for the season and regular (not prioirty) access would get my money.

I agree. I do think that the 59.99 for all Haunt season is too high. At 29.99 or 39.99 I'd be tempted, but 59.99 would be what I would expect to pay for ALL parks (with a passport of course). Even if they did the 29.99 or 39.99 without the Conjurng it would be better. Some may just feel like the new experience is too intense, plus with the limited availability it would seem more senible to make it an additional charge reguardless (maybe 5 or 10 for those with the full haunt season?). Either way, as I've always stated KI is a family park. For that reason I can see a path where this upcharge strategy absolutely bombs. What will they do when 2-3 weeks into the Haunt season there are a bunch of scareactors with nothing to do in the mazes?? I think it would have been better to just do the upcharge for the Conjuring and enforcing the "no boo", no strollers/wagons & age restrictions at the enterance to the lines. Your season pass should have your age information and for people without, they could get a "haunt" band that would require proof of age. Either way it will be an interesting Haunt season.

Questions is with an all passport do you get other parks for the $59? Looks like no.

Simply put, don't allow strollers/wagons or anyone with a no boo necklace (or have them turn it off) since they don't work in mazes anyway. As far as the strollers/wagons go maybe one call to the fire marshal would solve it.

Actually prefer it this way. Should keep the lines down for the and give the mazes less of a kindercare feel.

I, for one, am glad this decision was made. The mazes were getting ridiculous with the number of small (sometimes infants) being taken in strollers/wagons thorugh the mazes. Most probably voilating fire escape codes. I've been through alot of mazes at KI over the years and NOTHING beats riding The Beast at midnight. Scare zones will still be available and will make the lines more manageable without having to let groups in so often as to spoil the experience or having groups of 30 people. It has been proven this model works because it has been done at Six Flags for a long time. Change is inevitable, but I believe this is for the best.

Big shout out to the crews at KI. Looks like all Carnivale decorations have been removed overnight! Nice job.

I'm of the mindset that they took away from other parks to add to a park with a better attendance and season pass base. With the addition of an upcharge maze (mazes?) it would seem counter productive to cut hours that could bring profit. This is an answer to those that were becoming critical of how tame the haunts had become.

Yea, I also remember the massive backlash when it wasn't a droptrack. darned if you do situation. Many (not me) are still sore and using it as a critisizm of the marketing department at the time.

This also mentions that Conjuring will be an upcharge of 7 - 10 dollars also that "Other Haunt attractions should continue to be free with park admission". Almost makes me think they may add 2 upcharge indoor mazes, giving the pricing option of $7 for one or $10 for both. Details should be available accroding to the article August 11th. Once again it seems some have jumped the gun on what will happen at Haunt without waiting for the information. So much hubub about "charging for indoor attractions" may have been premature. Just like early in the year some speculated about hours being cut from Haunt when in fact they added Thursdays. (Some may be outragged that yet again they did a swicheroo after people bought their season pass and ADDED hours without letting everyone know when they bought their pass.... oh wait, this is a BENEFIT, not something taken away, so no credit should be given). Seems as though they are just adding an upchrage attraction (like they did with eXtreme Flyer. Remember all the outraged when they added that upcharge attraction? Neither do I.). I think this is a wise decision to "test the waters". I still maintain that this will be some type of an escape room experience taking 5-10 minutes to go through with the suggestions of puzzles to solve. Unfortuntely we may still have to put up with parents carting their small children through indoor mazes (isn't that some sort of fire-code violation?).

Looks like it, just with much more theming.

I think that the weather had ALOT to do with the crowd. With the cooler weather the dry park will be more crowded. When the heat index in 100 people either stayed home or were in the water park. This could be easily deduced by the line at either the season pass sales booth or taking forever to get in the park because of people getting their pictures taken at the gates. Too many people are concerned with spending on school supplies and will likely wait till the last minute to buy new/renew their pass. I do have a theory that there may be alot of pass holders that buy every other year. Thinking about it they would only miss Mid April - July (4 months) in a 2 year period. They buy a pass now for the rest of 25 and all of 26, take off mid-April - July in 2027 and buy a pass when they go on sale in 2027 for the rest of 2027 and all of 2028.

Looks like a twist on an escape room. I can see the reason for the upcharge, otherwise the lines would be ridiculous.

Simple mathmatics. With a population base of 500,000 - 1,000,000 within a 30 minute drive of KI (compared to 100,000 for Cedar Point) helps. People who still find it a better entertainment value. For example an annual Cinemark move pass is $132 that get's you 12 movies a year, even at 2.5 hours each that comes to $4 an hour. If you go KI 10 days and stay all 8 hours (or 20 days at 4) that comes to $1.24 an hour. Bengals and Reds season passes are even less of an hourly value and neither of the others have rides/coasters. (The Cincinnati zoo is the only thing that competes and it's $160 for unlimited visits and rides on the carousel and train. But it's a different audience entirely). I think that even not adding anything over 90% would renew. It's now part of their routine. For me it's a great xmas gift to my kids and grandkids that I know they will use and is much better than any toys I could buy them. With the park getting bigger and more expensive to upkeep let alone add attractions it's a different time. The addition to Soak City was 1 ride but the facelift of that area as well as the new fence completion on the path from Camp Snoopy and painting of the lazy river was desperiately needed and looks great. Like it or not KI is and always will be a family park due to its location. Most on this board are in a different mindset than the average park goer. I would suggest we are less than 5% of those that go to the park. KI will never cater to us, nor should they. For everyone who "is done and not buying a pass this year" there will be more to fill their spot.