robintodd

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.

I'll be buying my 2026 next week. last year when I bought my 2025 pass BOTH 2024 and 2025 showed on the screen, that leaves me to believe the same will be true. I'll update once passes are bought.

Did he go to guest services? The addons clearly show an expiration in the KI App for the passport as well. I'll be renewing next week so I'll see what the app shows. Last year it still showed my 2024 and 2025 vouchers till the end of the year when my 2024 vouchers disappeared once no longer valid. The only problem with the app is it shows no difference between the drink voucher and the drink voucher with the Icee and hot beverage add on. Hopefully they fix that this year.

2026 passes are for sale on KI's website. MVP sale till Sept 1st. GOLD is $115 New or $99 Renewal All 40 parks, Free parking, Haunt and Winterfest included. PRESTIGE is $199 for New and Renwal Drink Plan is $36.99 or $53.99 for Icee and hot beverages. Looks like only paper cup is available. FunPix is $56.99 FastLane $699 for home park, $999 for all park Gold Home Park Dining is $135 Gold All Season Dining Gold - All Park Add-On is $155 Gold All Season Dining Gold - All Park Upgrade is $25 Presige Home Park Dining is $135 Presige All Season Dining - All Park Add-On is $155 Presige All Season Dining - All Park Upgrade is $25 Still pretty confused on the 2026 All Season Dining Gold - All Park Upgrade ($25) and the 2026 All Season dining Gold - All Park Add-on ($155) Looks like they're trying to get more prestige (making it less prestige). I'll pass and keep's me GOLD

Looked at Gilroy Gardens website and it looks like a fun little park. Love the themeing of the rides! If you look at Gilroy Gardens website they have FastLane (which is a copyright thing for Six, I think). Interestingly enough I think this is a play to have Gilroy Gardens take some market share from Six since Great America will be closing by 2027. At Gilroy they call it a "membership" and you get all season for $104. Since Gilroy is ran by a 501 (c) the membership is tax-deductable. Could be that Six has a deal where they "purchase" a membership for each season pass holder and get to claim that amount as a tax deduction. Either way, great move on Gilroy's part to try a syphin off some people from Great America while it is still around. They probably will be getting an attraction or two from them considering the close proximity of the parks.

AGREE Hopefully the extra cost to do the indoor haunts will help this. I wonder if they'll refuse sale to small children. Back in the day people wouldn't dream of taking their kids to haunt. Turning the event more intense slowly over till should get it back to that. Kind of hard for parents to complain that it was too intense for their 5 year old when the event is clearly marked "intended for mature audiences and not recommended for childeren under 13."

It must be noted that 90 - 95 % of pass holders at KI will never go to another park, let alone all 40+. I see this as away to drive early pass sales and I prefer it to the "Fast Lane pass that can only be used when the sun is out, it's and odd number of degrees and there are more women than men in the park (over exageration). Point being that fast pass that could only be used at certain times was confusing, this is not. As I stated in another post I have always had a platinum/passport because my wife and I go to CP 3 times a year but if we are near another park because of business or pleasure travel we will go because we get in free and will end up buying merch for that park since we don't go all the time. Yes we got in free, but we bought merch the time we went where as we don't always buy merch at KI or CP every time we go. I think the most confusing thing may be the way the drink/meal plans will be structured. If I understand it correctly, one drink plan will be for your "home park" and another will be for all parks. Same thing with the meal plan. Even at $200 or $250 the pass is absolutely a value for me because I go about 50 times a year at $120 or just $2.40 a visit, close to your $2.50 per park . Either way we'll find out tomorrow, all I know is I will be purchasing my pass. Still the best deal in the entertainment industry IMO.

Not sure what happened, but yesterday I took my 2 grandkids and went to the Ice Cream in Planet Snoopy. I ordered 2 regular cones with sprinkles and 1 without, the casher rang it up and upon giving us the ice cream said "You don't have to pay." I insisted (I can afford the $22 dollars) and he let me pay for my purchase. I observed a different cashier and that group got 2 ice creams and 2 paper cup refils. I can't be certain but I think the cashier just scanned for the paper cup purchases. Do they give away ice cream when it get's above a certain temperature/humidity? I didn't report it to HR, but it is concerning that if this is happening alot it could mean less budget and less employees having jobs. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this.