bkroz

Precisely what they hoped!

RE: Marineland. Is it too late for me to correct this to rides "placed what seems like kilometers* from each other?" What about the lift hill, that doesn't look safe to you? Probably the apparent lack of support structure compared to most coasters. But arches are one of the strongest shapes we can create, right engineering people? I think? Of course, a few rides with similarly unsupported hills have knott remained that way for long. See what I did there?

Aside from the season long one which you could definitely use to your advantage, I think these are more about convenience than they are about money-saving. Which is fine. Some people want that. You'd have to be strategic and eat quite a bit more than most people would otherwise to save any kind of big money on these plans. Just my two cents.

This may be old news and may have been the case for years now, but I just stumbled across Six Flags' "Membership" program, which is separate from its season pass. I'll link to Great Adventure's page on the program, but it seems most if not all of the parks offer this? https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/plan-your-visit/membership-faqs#97 The season pass program is divided into gold and regular. BOTH provide entry to ANY Six Flags park, and BOTH provide parking at your home park (for now... that perk goes away for the regular-level pass pretty soon, just like Cedar Fair's). Both also allow you into Holiday in the Park and Fright Fest events. The only difference I can see is that the gold level pass also provides parking at the other parks, while the regular pass only gives you admission. The membership program is based on the season pass program and again comes in gold and regular. Memberships have exactly the same benefits. Exactly. The only difference is that "membership" is paid in installments (as Cedar Fair allows with its season pass tiers). "Membership" is an auto-renewing monthly program (just like Cedar Fair's). Every month for 12 months, you're charged the $6 - $8... for 12 months. Yes, even when the park is closed. You may cancel your membership at any time AFTER the 12 months are over. Or you can keep it going for years or more. Membership doesn't require a security deposit, but if you choose to give one, you will pay less per month. How much less, I'm not sure. Also not sure what the security deposit is. Missing a monthly payment and not correcting the error within 30 days, having your membership or any pass on your account revoked, or failure to finish paying your due before the 12 month date will result in loss of the security deposit. Cancel before your 12 months is over and "you will be subject to the termination fee described in your agreement." If you want to cancel your membership after 12 months, you must notify Six Flags 6 weeks prior (that's one or two additional payments) to complete the cancellation. Is it just me, or is that all a bit dramatic? Would you prefer Cedar Fair's "6 payments of $14" or Six Flags' "12 payments of $7" with all the stipulations and contractual agreements therein? Odd, I guess.

Epcot is hardly being addressed if the new paint scheme on Innoventions is their answer. The park is monstrously outdated in many ways. The way the pendulum of time has swung, it would be passable if the architecture of the park was rooted in the '60s or '70s. Unfortunately, the park reeks of the '80s, which has not come around to being fashionable yet and might never. Just consider the pavilions: Innoventions is a dead spot. Has been for a long time. Universe of Energy still has it's early-90s retrofit of Bill Nye and sitcom-era Ellen. Wonders of Life is closed. Mission: Space is not exactly a fan favorite, especially for the money it cost and what it replaced. Imagination pavilion is still showing Captain EO and contains a universally-despised dark ride. The Land and Seas are passable at this point in time, and certainly Test Track is still one of the resort's biggest draws. Many years ago, Epcot was to have undergone a "Project: Gemini" that would have transformed the entire Future World land into a version of what was - at the time - envisioned for California's WestCOT. Rather than the harsh, concrete, metallic, "Republican future" that it still today resembles, Future World would've been recreated as a land of fountains, trees, gardens, organic rocks, golds, coppers, winding paths, jungles, and towers. The entire north half of the park would've been not just re-decorated, but re-branded (think Disney California Adventure, which turned its entire story from a modern spoof to a reverent, idealized look... Same here... it was an entire identity shift!) Over at the Studios, don't expect a larger Star Wars presence for at least a while. To put it into some perspective, PANDORA - The World of Avatar was announced in 2011, and will open in 2017. IF a fully-realized Star Wars land does somehow get the green light from the infamously budget-conscious resort, I wouldn't expect it until 2020 at the earliest. Much would also hinge on Disneyland getting a Star Wars makeover for its Tomorrowland (since Walt Disney World would undoubtedly share the budget for any attractions developed therein) and that rumor appears to be slowly fading... As it is, I believe that Hollywood Studios will get some additional Star Wars presence, but no giant, much-needed E-ticket attracition. Probably a Yoda meet-and-greet and a Cantina restaurant. Again, that's a park that really needs an ENTIRE identity shift. In the past two years, Universal Studios Florida has been a great example, ditching the "showbuilding" / "we're a working movie studio" theme in favor of themed lands. Universal Studios Hollywood is doing the same. The era of the "studio" park is over, and Hollywood Studios needs to catch up. It happened at Disney California Adventure, where as part of the park's re-build, the "Hollywood Pictures Backlot" area became the 1940s "Hollywoodland" complete with electric trolley, new facades, new attractions, reverent music, street performers, etc. As for Marvel at the Studios? Nope. Marvel - in a financially unstable moment 15 years ago - provided Universal Orlando with exclusive use of certain heroes and intellectual properties within X miles of Universal's resort. Disney owning Marvel doesn't undo that contract, so unless Universal decides to break the contract or Disney decides to charge astronomically when that contract's renegotiation comes to the table, Walt Disney World will not have Marvel super heroes except in very specific and limited ways. That's why Californian and Hong Kong parks are adding meet-and-greets, walkthrough, and attractions while Walt Disney World does virtually nothing but stock hero merchandise. At Animal Kingdom, Pandora is CERTAINLY a huge investment (though recent word of mouth is that it, too, is being downsized to opening with only one attraction, not two) but fans have been lukewarm at best about it, and there are many who believe that it was a mistake. To the untrained eye (and maybe to some trained ones) it appears that Disney freaked out when the Wizarding World showed it would be a lasting success and simply gobbled up the biggest "other" franchise they could find. In 2011, that was Avatar. Obviously in hindsight we can see that Avatar didn't exactly remain in the public consciousness. It's not a film that's transcended into pop culture. As a matter of fact, it's sort of... disappeared. Granted, two sequels are on the way, but did this film deserve an entire land at Animal Kingdom, and will it bring the people flooding in? We shall see in three more years. Meanwhile, Universal opens its second Wizarding World, Transformers, Despicable Me, a renewed Spider-Man, a Simpsons land, a brand new CityWalk, and supposedly a massive King Kong E-ticket and land all in the course of 30 months. Yep.

Opening delayed. http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/27/3477526/opening-of-second-kansas-city.html The article ends by mentioning the ride's previous life...

The Epcot thing is a perpetual rumor. To be fair, it needs a complete revamp today more than it did yesterday, etc etc. Truth be told, each of Walt Disney World's parks could use a $1 billion redo like Disney California Adventure. Epcot needs to entirely revitalize the Future World section; Disney's Hollywood Studios needs a complete identity shift from its tired "Studios" theme (see Universal Studios Florida & Universal Studios Hollywood); Disney's Animal Kingdom needs rides. I suppose Magic Kingdom is taken care of with New Fantasyland and Animal Kingdom with Pandora, but still.

^^ Until the year it doesn't!

Ah, yes, true! Silly of me for forgetting to mention - that's why I made the distinction to begin with, just forgot to follow through! Thanks!

DISCOVERY COVE Discovery Cove is fantastic. If you're on a budget, I'd even recommend doing it without the "dolphin interaction" portion. It adds about $100 per person onto the ticket price, and while it's a really unique experience, it lasts only about 10 minutes and certainly isn't the frolicking in the water with dolphins you'd imagine it as. It's fantastic to interact with them, but if you'd rather save the hundreds, you'll still have a great day. The good news is that a day at Discovery Cove also comes with two weeks of access to SeaWorld OR Busch Gardens, including the free shuttle to Busch Gardens from SeaWorld's parking lot. For a slight up-charge, your Discovery Cove pass is good for two weeks at SeaWorld AND Busch Gardens. HOTELS / TRANSPORTATION As for where to stay, base that on the focus of your trip. Consider this: the International Drive area (along which SeaWorld, the Busch Gardens shuttle, Discovery Cove, and Universal Orlando are located) has countless familiar hotels that are all reasonably priced. The entire area is also connected by the I-Ride Trolley. So if you select a hotel along International Drive, you'll have quick access to the parks, restaurants, and attractions there, and 95% of those hotels offer a free shuttle to Epcot (from which you can obviously reach the rest of Disney's parks). You will, though, need to book a Super Shuttle or other shuttle service to get you from Orlando International Airport to your hotel. Recognize that the opposite is not true - Disney does not offer any kind of shuttle to the International Drive area, Universal, SeaWorld, or Busch Gardens. You will need to get a taxi if you plan to stay on Disney property and visit Universal. Disney's whole schtick is to get their visitors to stay at long as possible. So, Disney DOES have free transportation provided via the Disney Express from Orlando Airport to your resort if you're staying on-property. EDIT: I forgot in this section that you're driving down. Still may be worth noting, though, since parking is nearing $20 at those theme parks, so saving $20 a day for a week will add up if your hotel provides a shuttle... Something to think about! WHAT TO SEE It's so hard to narrow a trip to central Florida to a few key attractions. Obviously Disney World has four parks. All have tremendous strengths and each park has at least two "must-see" attractions, so it's incredibly difficult to eliminate one or more. If you want to see Test Track, you can't skip Epcot; you can't skip Animal Kingdom if you want to ride Everest; you can't skip Disney's Hollywood Studios if you want to ride Tower of Terror. Unless you want to pack the trip to the gills and be at one park each day, you'll need to eliminate some or Park Hop, which is obviously not ideal for first-timers or if you haven't been in a long time. It's just a trade off. I cannot recommend Universal Orlando enough. Its two theme parks are incredible, aggressively expanding, perpetually updated with the most recent technology, and just a whole lot of fun. I'd say that easily, those two parks contain as many "E-tickets" as Disney World's four added together. Particularly Islands of Adventure is every bit as detailed and incredible as Disney's best, and includes thrilling coasters to boot. Each of those parks deserves a day and a half at least, but if you can only commit to one day at Universal, at least do the Park-to-Park ticket option, and do yourself the favor of buying Universal Express Pass Plus. Hop right to the front of Dueling Dragons, Poseidon's Fury, Spider-Man, Hulk, Jurassic Park, Revenge of the Mummy, Men In Black: Alien Attack, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers... There's just so much to see and do. As of now, even their front-of-the-line pass does not work on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Doubtlessly, it won't work on Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts when that opens this summer. However, they're BOTH can't miss, and they're in two separate parks. You probably know that the easiest way to travel between them is the Hogwarts Express which connects the two parks, can only be accessed with a Park-to-Park ticket, and is said to be an E-ticket itself. Something worth considering: Universal Orlando has four on-site hotels. One is "moderately" priced. The other three would fall between Disney's categories of "moderate" and "deluxe" in terms of pricing. They can be expensive. However, your room key acts as unlimited front-of-the-line pass (the paid-for version open to everyone else allows only one skip on each attraction) AND visitors to the hotel get in to the Wizarding World an hour before everyone else. It's pricey, but if Universal is a focus of your trip, it may be worth it. Even for a night or two... NOTE: When I go to Central Florida, it's for Universal Orlando. I might take a day or two at Disney World, but Universal, to me, is exceptional.

Two of my top three roller coasters in the world are Premier. The other isn't B&M or Intamin, either!

Micechat has a great podcast this week left over from this year's IAAPA interviewing president of Premier Rides, Jim Seay. Mr. Seay has fantastic recollections on his time working for Six Flags, then Premier, and has plenty to say about the development of The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear. He also mentions visits by Disney executives who rode the ride and were blown away and complimentary of the theme. His comments on Flight of Fear, Al Weber, and Paramount's Kings Island begins at 23:00. http://micechat.com/65640-season-pass-podcast-jim-seay/

I'm quite certain Universal recognizes this issue and will make upgrades to Park-to-Park tickets a very simple task right there at the station.

It's pretty darn good, but Amazing Spiderman is great as well, as is Dinosaur lol! http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140515/18008/5-disney-clone-pairs-you-may-not-recognize #1!

Jeez. That ride really does pack a punch. The speed going into the brakes is outrageous... I wouldn't be surprised to see it trimmed. Looks very forceful!

Already there's a screen installed at the end of "it's a small world" that will say goodbye to you by name.

^ What surprises me most of all is that even months later, the fix is still black tarps hung half-heartedly over old 'FastPass' signs. I get leaving the machines while they're converted into FastPass+ reservation kiosks (which, last I heard, was their fate) but to still just have black tarps strung over the signs is odd. And yeah, you'll still see paper FastPass tickets here and there. The system crashed at Disney's Hollywood Studios a few months ago. And unfortunately, park admission, dining reservations, and FastPass reservations are all controlled by the same system. It was mayhem, of course, and paper attraction readmission tickets were used instead. Genius idea, putting an entire theme park's infrastructure in the hands of a new technology, eh?

I know this is reaching a few weeks back, but it's worth noting. The article is about how use of FP+ is up 40% over FP. Certainly. That's the point. With the old system, us pros who knew how to use (note: not abuse) the system could score five, six, seven Fastpass reservations over the course of a day. Many visitors would only get one or two, simply because of the running back-and-forth, return times, and a lack of understanding about the system's ins-and-outs. Still others assumed FastPass was an additional charge on top of park admission, as similar systems are at almost every other park on Earth, and used zero. The new system, FastPass+, is now part of trip planning for everyone. It's inserted into the early stages of vacation planning. First you pick how many days you want to visit the parks, then you pick your FastPass+ reservations, then you pick your hotel, then you make your dining reservations, etc. My understanding is that ideally, almost 100% of Walt Disney World visitors will now be using those FastPass+ queues, and instead of some getting 7 and some getting 0, everyone will have three - maybe four. In a sense, it's more equitable. It removes some learning curve (while admittedly installing many others) and walks you through the process of selecting ride reservations just like you select dining reservations. There are some great benefits, and there are some major detractors. Luckily, Disney is fine-tuning the system to smooth those bumps and detractors. The general viewpoints remains, though, that from a visitor's standpoint, old FastPass probably wasn't broken enough to necessitate this. There's more at play here than guest satisfaction. We all know that.

I just don't understand the sudden oversight here. Absolutely proper names should be capitalized and information should be accurate more than it's inaccurate, but what major amusement park doesn't have an unofficial dedicated fan site or discussion board or community? And of the ones that come immediately to mind, ours here at KICentral.com/forums is absolutely among the best moderated, most positive, pro-park, open discussion communities out there. This is not an outrageous garbage dump of accusations and anti-park / anti-Cedar-Fair nonsense. Altogether, this is wonderful and positive community that shares a common love and appreciation and respect for Kings Island and its direction under Cedar Fair. It's odd that "the park" even has a presence here in the form of DonKIPR. That's not typically the case - at least publicly - on the limitless other discussion boards out there. Look at Theme Park Review, which runs rampant with speculation, rumor, and downright negativity. The owner of that site is infamously rude - sometimes even offensive - and posts his questionable comments and opinions right alongside exclusive interviews and ERT photo reports, associating his particular brand of annoying-crazy with the site's exclusive content provided by parks! And yet, guess who's at Banshee media day? Look, too, at MiceChat, a community focused solely on Disney Parks (Disney being one of the most valiant defenders of intellectual property in the world today) where speculation and rumor are off the charts, every day, constantly. The site specializes in "leaks" and inside information from anonymous sources. Certainly there is no official "DisneyParksPR" account posting vaguely-threatening comments and sometimes being downright off-putting to the community there. (EDIT: Imagine "DisneyParksPR" commenting: "Not sure where you got all this inaccurate information but this site sure has a lot of it..." It's sort of laughable to imagine. Sort of like "Wow this is a pretty fun site. Too bad... Hope nothing happens to it.") There was a time when fans of Kings Island were celebrated for their enthusiasm and interaction. There was quite another time when they were seemingly ignored. The presence of an official "PR" account in this community seemed a shift toward the "old way," but now it's actually become off-putting. Does Kings Island have every right to view these boards and even participate on them? Sure, why not? And if something here falls out of alignment with their legal expectations, I should expect the site administrators to be contacted. But the downright dismissive tone is becoming tiresome... We're not the enemy, or some horrible vitriol-spewing Facebook fans. We're not even a "bad" fan community, as far as fan communities go. I'm glad for the park's presence here and I understand the account owner's obligation to defend the product he represents, but at this point it's like... we as a community are not harmful. We are not tarnishing Kings Island or Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. It's just frustrating to feel like we're being moderated by a multi-million dollar company when we're just fans having fun, being optimistic, and speculating together. It first occurred to me in a personal way two years ago when the park tweeted "What would you like to see added to the park map for 2012?" I said "TREES!" The "park" responded "It's a map of attractions, not of individual trees." Like, is that professional? Is it kind? I understand that as the most aggressive consumers of the product, we can be annoying. But c'mon. In what universe would Disney respond to a fan that way on Twitter? Universal? SeaWorld Parks? Six Flags? (EDIT: By the way, trees were added. Or... bushes. Either way, The Beast no longer looks like it's sitting in a field, making the map a much more accurate representation of the ride, thank you very much!) And that tone appears to be mirrored here, again representing the park as a sort of "big brother" whose presence here is only to scold us or keep us in line and remind us that we're in thin ice all day every day. Very odd. Not very welcoming. Not very FUN. Don't get me wrong: We're lucky that the park we love has become an active presence on this site. We're lucky that rather than ignoring us, news gets posted here and we're invited to participate in exclusive events at the park we all love. We're lucky that, in general, it seems Kings Island's management views this community as the positive, helpful, enthusiastic, and beneficial community it is. But the oversight... the sort of vaguely dismissive treatment... it's not exactly precedent, and that's my point.

Much to the surprise of some here. And to others, not so much.

Probably the reason you don't see a Peanuts dark ride in our park is because Boo Blasters was commissioned by the former CEO, who saw fit to save money by ordering the same re-theme to all existing Scooby Doo themed dark rides. Our dark ride happened to be in the Peanuts-themed area, but that's not the case at all of the rest of the Cedar Fair parks. And Kinzel wouldn't waste a time personalizing ours. That would be outrageous!

For a long time I was a huge supporter of Kings Dominion over Kings Island. Now that I've gone a few years without either, I would much rather return to Kings Island. Kings Dominion is absolutely gorgeous, and I'm sure the recent changes this season have had a marvelous impact. The Congo area (which I would prefer to be named Congo still) is really of impeccable quality, and the forested setting of the park is unlike anything Kings Island could provide even if it wanted to. But the people, the workers, the food, and the operations can be incredibly frustrating. As they can be anywhere, but my memories of Kings Dominion are particularly tainted. $11 cheeseburgers with that horrible "toppings bar" of shredded lettuce and tomato slices, one train operation from Intimidator to Backlot on a sunny summer afternoon, lackadaisical employees, terrible treatment of the park's wooden coasters (of which at least one has been improved this season)... Not to mention their Backlot Stunt Coaster is abysmal compared to ours, their Flight of Fear lacks the upgrades ours has; etc. etc.

Visiting Disney? Is that Florida, California, Japan, France, Hong Kong?

Perhaps Six Flags will notice soon that they can stop running - no one is chasing them. I think they're doing this to own detriment. There are very few areas where Six Flags Parks and Cedar Fair Parks share a market, but I think Cedar Fair Parks will see a greater return on investment with their current plan, which seems centered on renovating infrastructure, rejuvenating food service, a slew of entertainment upgrades, and tons of new programs and incentives meant to bolster that idea of the "best day" experience. New Six is doing a nice job making up for the obvious flaws of Old Six, but it's still fundamentally missing out on the things that Cedar Fair has started recognizing. See Knott's over the last two years vs. Magic Mountain over the last two years. EDIT: I think Six Flags is still intent on capturing the teenage, thrill-seeker demographic. Just take a look at film marketing to realize that doesn't work anymore. First because that demographic is NOT the one that spends money on food and merchandise. Second, because why would you want your park overrun by teenagers on summer vacation with annual passes? That in and of itself can deter other demographics from giving the park a try.

Okay, and the question is... do people want that? Are people really clamoring for an ultra-extreme ride where you flip endlessly in a hamster ball? Because if there is not a significant market for it, parks won't buy it, manufacturers won't design it. If it's some niche ride that only the "XTREME RIDE WARRIORZ" are going to come to the park for, why would Cedar Fair spend $10 million + on it? And for that matter, why would a reliable ride manufacturer put their resources into designing and offering one? The "Age of the Coaster" is not over. Roller coasters continue to be staples of major amusement parks. They continue to be the biggest draw at those parks, too. But we're entering a realm here of family-focused rides, "best day" experiences, and quality over quantity. And truth be told, it's overdue.