Oldiesmann

Interesting series of developments regarding Lakemont Park and specifically the Leap the Dips coaster. The organization that runs the park under a lease agreement with the county has apparently decided they can no longer afford to maintain the coaster, which would give the county 60 days to decide to take it back, after which time the park could sell it. However, the county is claiming that the organization running the park hasn't been keeping up with maintenance as required, and therefore cannot back out of the agreement or sell the coaster. https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2025/12/lakemont-blair-lawsuit-partnership-officials-responds/

Interesting that they set the story in Huron rather than Sandusky. Huron isn't far from Sandusky but it's not where the park is located.

The Six Flags app has been updated to include all of the legacy CF parks as well. However, I can't get it to behave properly (possibly because I had an account with Six Flags and an account with Cedar Fair, both with the same email/contact info and with the same pass added to both accounts from when I visited Great Adventure last year). It also doesn't seem to want to behave when logging in - the status thing just sits there spinning until you tap on it again (at which point it tells you there's already a user logged in). Other than that the app doesn't seem to be much different than the various legacy CF park apps were, beyond being able to select which park you're interested in.

I could see one of the MIssouri parks going to Herschend (maybe Worlds of Fun), but I don't know if both of them would. I haven't been to either of them (though SF St. L is on the agenda for next year's summer coaster trip - unfortunately I won't have time to do WoF as well since I'm also doing SDC and want to have time to actually see some things besides amusement parks in both Branson and St. Louis) but both are far enough apart from one another (about 4 hours) and SDC (3½ hours for each) that they wouldn't be overlapping too much if both ended up in the hands of Herschend, especially given that there's nothing of note in Kansas as far as amusement parks go.

I'm glad I ended up making an unplanned visit to that park this summer (KD was closed due to a water main break, it was too late to change hotel reservations and I already had a two-day ticket for BGW later in the week). I didn't get to see everything because of the drive (I was coming from Beckley, WV and it took me 6 hours to get there with stops), but it was still a fun visit and I got a lot ridden in the 6 hours I was there. Hopefully someone else will buy the property and keep it an amusement park, though it also might depend on how many rides Six Flags wants to relocate to other properties

Great to see Herschend going headstrong into improving Kentucky Kingdom. I never made it down there this year, but will definitely find my way down there at some point next season. The fair board seems to have finally picked the right folks to run the park, and I hope they get a good return on their investment for this. KK has been a bit of a mess since Six Flags left and needs stuff like this to revive it.

I'm not sure what's worse - this or the one I got yesterday about Oprah. At no point have I ever had any desire to see either one in a bikini

These ads just keep getting more ridiculous.

Apparently the contract between Palace Entertainment and Cartoon Network has ended and isn't being renewed, so they're retheming the hotel to Dutch Wonderland Inn instead: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/the-cartoon-network-hotel-to-become-dutch-wonderland-inn/article_547e3068-f210-4aaa-bfda-f9a2f76e4304.html

Nice to see a theme other than "haunted <something>" like what is so common with the legacy CF parks (Mystic Timbers, Iron Menace, Siren's Curse, etc.), though I'd imagine a bull fighting theme would be far more meaningful in Texas than in the midwest or eastern PA. Either way this looks like a fun coaster, and I might have to venture down to Arlington to ride it at some point in the next few years (already have Missouri on the list for next year and possibly a Canadian trip in 27, so maybe 2028?)

These ads are getting a bit weird/crazy...

I'm not surprised at all. Yes, they have Looney Tunes already, but slapping Bugs and friends on all the Peanuts themed areas/attractions is not at all cheap. New signs, new costumes, significantly more new merchandise (instead of just replenishing existing stock - for instance they'd need to completely clear out and restock the Snoopy store), updating websites and marketing materials... It would be a significant investment. When Cedar Fair switched everything over to Snoopy, they only had 5 parks to deal with and they didn't have much of an option besides just making them generic kids' areas.

Also a corporate sponsor apparently, which will likely help cover the costs of the service

Silver Dollar City is partnering with O'Reilly Auto Parts (based in nearby Springfield, Missouri) to create a new "transit department" to shuttle guests between the parking lot and the front gate. There will be three types of vehicles, each with a different theme - stagecoach (typical smaller shuttle bus), carriages (full size flat-front school-style bus holding 40+ passengers) and welcome wagon (traditional tram type vehicles). I haven't been to SDC (yet - that's on the agenda for next summer's big amusement park trip), but this seems like a great addition, especially with the new resort opening next year. More info here: https://www.laughingplace.com/parks/silver-dollar-city-reimagined-parking-transport/ It's nice to see a park focusing on making it easier for guests to get to/from their vehicles instead of taking trams away like so many other parks have done over the years.

Apparently you can now rent hourly lockers at KI from the comfort of your phone. Signs popped up at all the locker stations with a QR code that you can scan to rent a locker at that location. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that you can rent the multi-ride locker from the mobile site, though t does appear that once you've rented one you can use that QR code to move it to that location.

What group? I'm in quite a few KI groups so either I'm not in that one or I just don't pay enough attention to it

I think a big part of it was people coming back from Soak City. I ate dinner at RPW and there were a ton of people coming from the train between 6 and the time I got in line for MT around 6:45. Even so, having a posted wait time of 35 minutes and waiting twice that long (yes, seriously - it was almost 8 by the time I finally got on) was annoying. Diamondback's line apparently ballooned around that time too as the app said it had a wait time of 80 minutes while I was in line at Mystic. By the time I got off the line for Mystic was much shorter and the line for Diamondback looked to be closer to 20-30 minutes. I don't know if wait times at other rides increased dramatically around that time or not as the wait times thing wasn't working properly in the app (I got Diamondback's wait time by switching to map view and tapping on the icon for that ride). I ended up cramming a lot in in the last two hours though - Boo Blasters, Soap Box Racers, Woodstock's Air Rail, Diamondback and Woodstock Express all within about a 90 minute period.

I'm waiting until after I visit Cedar Point in a couple of weeks, just in case the 2025 all-season addons don't work at other parks after renewal.

Weather was definitely a factor - even BGW was dead when I went in late June (granted, during the middle of the week, but still) - but I doubt it was the only factor. It'll be interesting to see what attendance figures look like for the rest of the year - especially once the weather stays cool for more than a week.

It is, and I already saw one person on Facebook who claimed that the statement from the park is them "admitting to their mistakes" even though we don't have all the details about what happened.

Image from the park's Facebook page. More info: https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2025/07/25/hersheypark-death-what-we-know-about-child-drowning-at-boardwalk/85370065007/

If it remains an amusement park, how much would Six Flags see it as competition with KD being two hours away and Dorney being three? I don't see United buying it at all since BGW is two and a half hours away. Herschend would be nice but I doubt they're looking to acquire any more parks at the moment given that they just picked up Kennywood, Idlewild, etc. earlier this year.

Interesting development. I wonder how many rides Six Flags will want to relocate, and of course there's the issue with having to re-theme everything, but there's a chance the park could be saved. https://attractionsmagazine.com/six-flags-america-for-sale-2025-washington-dc-largo-redevelopment/

I was out at Riverbend for the Cincinnati Pops concert on the 4th. It was weird not driving through Coney to get to the lot and not seeing any rides.

I used my KI pass for parking but had the pass added to the Six Flags app to use for entrance. I've heard others saying they had no problem using their pass from a legacy CF park to get in and my sister and husband didn't have any problems when they used theirs at Great America earlier this year.