Oldiesmann

Herschend's massive reinvestment in Louisville is continuing next year with a new indoor coaster in the former 5D Theatre building and two new themed areas. They haven't posted a ton of info about the new coaster yet but everything about this shows that Herschend is committed to making Kentucky Kingdom the family thrill destination of Louisville. https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/explore-the-park/whats-new/ New coaster - 1130-foot long indoor wooden coaster (supposedly from Gravity Group based on renderings) with "11 airtime moments" Two new themed areas - Bluegrass Downs and Happy Valley Farm with re-themed rides. In particular, Lightning Run will be re-themed to "Stampede Run" and the antique cars will be re-themed to "Country Cruisers". It's great to see someone finally taking an interest in investing in the park. Hopefully the partnership between Herschend and the fair board will continue for a long time.

Is there anything that can be done about these full-screen "Google vignette" ads? I leave my ad block off for this site since the ads aren't annoying but I get these from time to time, especially when going from the main page of the forum to a board (such as "Off Topic" in this case).

Clementon Park in New Jersey is closing and looking for a buyer after this season. The park is currently owned by IB Parks and Entertainment, the company that owns Indiana Beach and previously owned Niagara Amusement Park. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/119-year-old-nj-amusement-park-close-go-sale

I visited Iriquois Park once a few years ago when Weird Al was playing at the amphitheater there. I can imagine parking would be a pain for bigger events. I wonder whose decision it was to move it to Kentucky Kingdom though.

I love the creativity they put into this and how they snuck the actual announcement in as a "commercial". I have a feeling HoliWood Nights tickets will be even more of a hot commodity next year than they already are.

It wasn't packed when I was there on Sunday, but it did seem busier than it had been in years past, even outside of the water park.

I visited Kentucky Kingdom today on my way home from HoliWood Nights. It was my first visit in nearly 2 years so this was my first glance at seeing the changes Herschend had made. The new coaster is a lot of fun and a great addition to the park. I got two rides on it - front row and back row (and those were just the rows I happened to get assigned - I didn't ask for any specific row either time). It's at the front of the park right next to Lightning Run, but you can't get to it directly as part of the path is blocked off. Instead you have to cut through King Louie's Kingdom. The new Discovery Meadow section, which debuted last year, is quite nice. There are now quite a few kids' and family rides in the back half of the park (near Mile High Falls) where there used to be a bunch of empty space, plus a play area and more. It's going to be interesting to see what else Herschend does with the park in the coming years. I'm already seeing reports on Facebook of another major investment planned for next year.

Whatever it is, it's going to be quite large. It takes up a huge space along the right side of the path between 4th of July and Thanksgiving. There was a poster up this weekend as well, hinting at a possible August 22nd announcement (though someone on Facebook said the park president had mentioned that it would be announced in July, so it's hard to say).

Somehow I missed that earlier.

If you plan to visit more than once the gold pass is a good deal. Tickets for specific days range from $40 to $47 depending on the day. The gold pass is $100 and includes free parking, free drinks, 15% discount on food, merchandise and photos and more. The Silver Pass doesn't include parking.

According to a Kentucky Kingdom fan page on Facebook, there was a fire at the former Casa Mia restaurant at Kentucky Kingdom (the pizza place on the left as you entered the park), which was in the process of being converted into Bluegrass Grill. No injuries reported and the fire was contained just to that part of the building, but the extent of the damage and cause aren't known at this point. The park opens for the season next Saturday. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EA7Wb8FvF/

I might have to wander out there this year. I haven't been in 7 years, despite visiting Virginia and West Virginia last year (mainly because Google routed me over US 35 instead of the AA highway, so I didn't go through Huntington at all).

I never rode the original but I thought this one was a lot of fun and a vast improvement over what Boo Blasters had become by the time it closed last year. I waited about 2½ hours, getting to the park just after opening and getting in line about 10:15.

KI operated the campground themselves. According to Wikipedia, Jellystone is operated on a franchise system and is a division of Sun Communities (the same Sun that operates Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana, though I think Sun Outdoors might be a separate division)

I'm not surprised they're doing this, but I am surprised they announced it now, since they just made a big deal out of the regional pass thing and we're less than 2 months from most of these parks opening for the season. It'll be interesting to see how this affects my planned visit to Six Flags St Louis in a few months as well (I'm still planning to visit, but the question is whether I'll have to pay for parking/admission/food/drinks). It also makes you wonder how this will affect ride names - will they retain rights to the WB or Peanuts (depending on the park) IP or will they be forced to rename everything and drop references to those characters?