bkroz

Is the $9.95 pricing during the fair a Season Pass Holder rate? Or for the general public? If the latter, than what do Season Pass Holders pay during the fair? Just admission to the fair itself?

Cedar Point is a very different park. On a summer Saturday, its ten longest queues might have an average wait of 90 minutes. Even the most moderately attended days see an hour+ wait for Maverick, Millennium, and Raptor. Providing near-immediate, in-station access would turn Fast Lane into a very different beast. Emphasizing that it allows guests to skip most of the line is a much better offer, operations wise.

Has anyone already posted this and I missed it? Plans leaked.

It's definitely a plus in some regards. I would imagine (having never been a local to Carowinds) that the park "belongs to" both states in terms of the collective consciousness of the people, which is maybe a psychological plus? Is that how it feels, or would locals consider it one state over the other? Very unusual. And a logistical nightmare?

Thanks! And welcome to KIC. Cedar Fair would hope that - even with near immediate access to rides - you will still take a break between each. Just, instead of spending that break queuing, they hope you'll spend it in a shop, arcade, or restaurant.

Which state(s) authorize the operation of Carowinds' attractions?

You can't get them to utter "Blackfish" when discussing an 84% tumble in profits. Instead, it's the weather. The Californians. The timing of Easter. They won't so much as mention "Blackfish." But then, their marketing strategy for the last years has been nothing but "Blackfish." Sorry to say, but the timing of Easter fails to excuse SeaWorld's unimaginable decline while every other operator - including those with properties in the same regions open on the same Easter - has skyrocketed. I maintain that they need a shift, and apparently they'll get one. I just pray that this "strategic shift" isn't just yet another rebuttal of Blackfish. At this point, those who trust SeaWorld, visit. Those who trust Blackfish, won't. Honestly. How many people are left "on the fence" at this point? Maybe it's time to do less desperate pleading convincing (which only reminds the public about "Blackfish," by the way) and instead do some repairing and rebuilding with the customers who are willing to visit. I also maintain that SeaWorld needs lessen the "astounding zoological park that Blackfish completely mischaracterized" motif. While I wholeheartedly agree with that view, it's just not going to work as a marketing angle. "For just five times the admission cost of your local zoo, you can come to a really good zoo!" Like... no. That's not going to work. SeaWorld needs to be a family theme park (i.e. shows, coasters, dark rides, flat rides, fireworks, thematic environments, beloved characters, etc) that also offers quality educational animal exhibits, not just a really nice zoo.

I visited Six Flags Great America a few years ago. I purchased a ticket, food, The Flash Pass, and souvenirs. I had a great time and was very impressed. When I got home, the first thing I did was to email the park to let them know that I would've returned for a second day and done it all over again... but I didn't because of the parking charge. Maybe that sounds crazy. At the time, it was $20. I think $20 is a psychological barrier for people. To hand someone a $20 bill, get no change, and get "nothing" in return is very disquieting and totally off-putting. Their position, I imagine, was "they gotta park." And I did. But just once. Had parking been $10, even $15, I would've returned for a second day at the park - upgraded to a pass, another The Flash Pass, another two meals... As it was, I was so turned off by the price of parking that I did not return. There's a valuable lesson in there for Six Flags to learn, and if parking is now an astounding $25, it's clear that they haven't learned it. Which is a shame. A great park. But I was so put off by that somehow that I haven't returned and wouldn't go out of my way to. Maybe shame on me for being such a raging bull-head about it. I'll just never forget that... It's even more frustrating to hear that at some point this year, Terp was able to get - essentially - a Six Flags Platinum Pass for less than the price of two parking spots. It's just silly. Pricing integrity?

Truthfully, SeaWorld's orca pools are pretty darn abysmal. Love the parks, love their mission, and know better than to trust Blackfish. But those enclosures in particular really are in sparse, blue swimming pools. Compare it to the massively expanded pools that are part of the "Blue World" Project with their currents, geysers, natural colors, depths, and textures, etc. You wouldn't expect pools like that for any sentient creature in even a moderate local zoo. I believe SeaWorld cares for their orcas. I just think it's not wrong to say that those enclosures are subpar, especially for such brilliant animals.

Few others have the budget to bother replicating natural landforms. Even fewer do it well.

On the website under FAQ and the question concerning pass benefits is this gem. First sentence has amateurish "!!!!!" Second sentence spells "opperating" wrong. The third sentence actually doesn't have any glaring errors. However, the fourth sentence is identical. Sigh. The final question on the FAQ even misspells the park's name as Wildwater Kingdome. All this from a site that features PDFs of the 2014 park map. Of course, why not? Nothing's changed since then. Not since 2007, if you're keeping track. At this point, it's two slide complexes and one water fortress might as well go elsewhere. This is a joke.

And it would all amount to an announcement that an announcement would be coming soon.

^^ Ohhh, I see. Like, the announcement location. I thought you were implying that this was the beginning of the construction for the Antique Cars, which seemed like quite a leap. Phew. Cleared up.

Just because a wooden ramp and wooden stand?? That would be the smallest Antique Cars I had ever seen, and a real disruption for guests in the showplace.

Fair enough. Not directly to you, goble, just a few thoughts: What about the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter? Dark ride? You didn't move an inch. So is it a show? Twilight Zone Tower of Terror? Purely a thrill ride / dr0p tower? So, same classification as Drop Tower at Kings Island? Or could we begrudgingly admit it's a hybrid dark ride / thrill ride? Tomb Raider: The Ride? Same? DAFE (Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts) grappled with that question. Is their classification like the RCDB is for roller coasters, where many take it as official? EDIT: Here's DAFE's categories, by the way: http://www.dafe.org/rides.html

So then Idlewild's Neighborhood of Make Believe is a dark ride. Not saying I agree or disagree. But that certainly is a vehicle-centric ride wherein the majority of said ride's thrill / amusement is visual or suspenseful in nature. I might say the same of Disneyland's Autopia frankly. Or the Disneyland Railroad, especially bolstered by the Grand Canyon and Primeval World Dioramas.

So wait. Imagine two rides. One is a hurl-and-twirl style zipper ride at a local carnival. A thrill ride. The other is the Spider-Man dark ride at Niagara Falls in Canada, which is essentially a low-budget, non-motion-simulating version of Islands of Adventure's... Same concept, just on a slow-moving classic dark ride track. A dark ride, even by your definition. Categorization aside, you would say that Universal's Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man is defined more accurately like the former rather than the latter...? Because it spins? Hm. GYK, just playing Devil's Advocate to make sense of a complex question to which there may be no right answer.

Interesting qualifications. But if Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man isn't a dark ride... then what is it? A category like "dark ride" seems very broad and inclusive to me. I imagine "dark ride" as a wide categorization that could then be sub-divided into smaller categories: classic dark rides, multimedia dark rides, interactive dark rides, dark ride coasters, [(EDIT:) maybe even walkthrough dark rides,] etc. To me, your qualifications (primarily 3 and 4) seem akin to saying "It's only a roller coaster if it goes upside down" or "It doesn't count as a roller coaster unless the whole family can ride it." Maybe those are things that make a good dark ride in your opinion, but should the definition be that exclusionary? Perhaps your 5 qualifications together fit a classic dark ride, but how is Curse of DarKastle not a dark ride at all?

On here, we've had a few rousing discussions about what it takes to be a "roller coaster." What is a "roller coaster" and what isn't? That discussion might be as never-ending as wood vs. steel. In the same vein, I had an interesting discussion with a close friend. What defines a dark ride? Does it have to be dark? Because some aren't. Sinbad's Storybook Voyage simulates daytime. "it's a small world" is pretty darn bright. Does it have to be a ride? Wouldn't Waldameer's Pirate's Cove be most effectively called a "walkthrough dark ride?" And if so, wouldn't you say the same thing of Poseidon's Fury? Does it have to have a plot? Nights in White Satin didn't. Does it have to pass through multiple rooms? Alton Tower's HEX doesn't, and Tomb Raider didn't. But are those "dark rides?" What about simulators? Is Star Tours a dark ride? After all, it is dark and a ride, and features a plot and characters and settings. One could even ask if it needs to be indoors? Idlewild's Neighborhood of Make-Believe is an outdoor attraction, but does that disqualify it from being a dark ride? If so, does it become one at night when the theatrical lights turn on to illuminate the animatronic scenes? What about Jurassic Park: River Adventure, which is mostly outdoors. Hmmm... Just an interesting thought! Where do you draw the line? How do you define a dark ride?

Something big had better happen to that Tomorrowland. Seriously. And I, for one, hope it's NOT an all-over Star Wars overlay. Tomorrowland doesn't have to represent a scientific future. But it shouldn't be dedicated to a single intellectual property, either.

Be happy that you've never seen them turned on. It's such an eye-roll-inducing experience when those lights are just casually left on as if that doesn't change the ride experience. Like no one noticed. "Really??" (Cross-threading.) Nothing more anti-climactic. Imagine taking first- or only-time visitors on their only night ride ever and The Beast is lit up. By the way, the same goes for Backlot and Flight of Fear. On all three, I've walked up to an operator after and said, "Hey, uh... the work lights are on... Kinda ruins it." Usually they shrug and I just mosey along. I get that if it needs to be on for maintenance, it makes sense. But once the ride is in operation... #KIBestDay How many times have you ridden Space Mountain or Revenge of the Mummy or Indiana Jones Adventure with the work lights just casually left on? Please.

When the scene amounts to occasional strobe flashes, it tends to stay operational without much work. I'm sure they're both experiments in their respective categories, and to be fair, the pattern so far is that each Triotech installation is better than the one before. Also, Wonderland (and all of the former Paramount Parks except Great America) had a Scooby-Doo dark ride that's now a Boo Blasters, so if it didn't stop Wonderland, it shouldn't stop Kings Island. Most also still have Action Theaters, which is hardly a dark ride but is one more indoor, air-conditioned, themed experience than most legacy Cedar Fair parks offer.

Not to brag, but I prefer these countdowns: Seven Natural Wonders Seven Technological Wonders Seven Ancient Wonders

I would sure wonder why they would sign a 5-year agreement, which seems outrageously short unless their plan was to milk the brand for its identity just during its ad campaign and shortly thereafter. Anyway, if this is the case, I think they'd have their work cut out for them in rebranding. Keeping the same colors, flags, and racing theme would certainly be dangerous. The owners of the Earnhardt identity could say that Cedar Fair would have purposefully not done enough to distinguish the ride from its former identity, in a sense riding on the coattails of the brand without paying royalties. To be honest, I'm surprised that didn't happen at all when the parks were sold from CBS, but I guess there was a larger deal at play there.

According to the English term for the contraption, "roll-er coast-er," sure. In many other languages, the name translates to Russian mountain. Does a Russian mountain need to "coast?" The whole thing is murky. If "coasting" via gravity is the official requirement, why is Devil's Den not considered a roller coaster? Just because it doesn't look or act like a traditional roller coaster? Why does Thunder Run count despite being called a "powered coaster?" Just because it looks more like a traditional roller coaster than Devil's Den? Even by that strict definition, you'd have a lot of convincing to do to make me believe that gravity doesn't power Surf Dog at all for any portion of the ride's course. Even the downhill portions are powered in such a way to overcome gravity? Hmm. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter anyway. But it's an interesting arbitrary classification that no one seems to be able to perfectly define when things get complex.