Winterfestguy

Looks like KI closed on Easter (April 20) this year but also could be closed for a private event. Of course there is always the * hours subject to change disclaimer.

Maybe this is why park hours have been shortened (and likely more park shortened hours or rides not running to come this season). With a 25% pay decrease and having to pay for a dorm, not worth while to relocate to work at the park. Cedar Point cuts pay By Justin Dietz Special to the Register Jan 15, 2025 3:00 PM Editor’s note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing cpfoodblog.com and @funfoodblog on X. SANDUSKY — Some Cedar Point employees will be experiencing a 25% drop in pay for the upcoming season. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Cedar Point struggled to find employees when the park began to reopen. At that point, the park increased payroll by offering to hire new employees at $20 per hour, something it promoted substantially. Pay consisted of $15 per hour plus an added $5-per-hour bonus that later became known as legacy pay. Some other seasonal employees who have worked at the park for years also received the pay increase. While pay for new hires at Cedar Point continued to fall post-COVID, employees hired under the legacy pay structure have continued to receive the hourly bonus if they returned each year up through the 2024 season. This month, however, returning employees hired under legacy pay have been notified that the $5-per-hour pay bump is going away. The Register has received several messages from employees that Six Flags, the new parent company following the 2024 merger, has cut employees' pay effective immediately. Employees are now expected to return to work at their base hourly pay. Since most of the 5,000 summer jobs at Cedar Point are considered seasonal, those employees do not earn overtime pay. Seasonal employees who chose to stay at Cedar Point dorms also pay roughly $300 to $500 per month for accommodations. Due to already low local staffing levels, Cedar Point relies heavily on the J-1 Visa program to hire seasonal help to staff the park. Hiring international workers allows the park to avoid paying taxes on their wages. In addition, since foreign workers have to be sponsored, it is much harder for them to leave the job once they have arrived. J-1 workers also pay their sponsor a fee to work in the U.S.

Parks operate on a 5 and 10 year plan so they have a good idea of what’s going and coming. The year it was announced Herschland was purchasing the park during the Winter Walk through (which was the last one), it was said imagine cinnamon bread like Dollywood in the park (done), imagine new festivals in the park (done), imagine a new Halloween event (done), and imagine a new Christmas event at KK (done) - plans completed over several years. Let’s hope the current 5 year plan for the park (and ride removals/additions) only bring and further expansion and exciting new things to KK.

Maybe one of the reasons for expanding the premium parking lot was with the potential year round operations in mind - simply walk down the small hill right onto the Showstreet section of the park. It would make no sense to operate shuttles (increased labor costs and wait time) from the main parking lot which are a distance from the main gate.

Not too surprised to see Cyclos being removed as they needed more room in that area for the Halloween DJ dance parties, but was very popular and could easily be relocated to another area in the park. Eye of the Storm was all manually controlled by the operator and very labor intensive but in a weird place so had low ridership. Maybe Indiana Beach will buy Eye of the Storm as it was a good ride and still in excellent condition. Raging Rapids (a left over from the Batman Six Flags theming) was fun, but struggled as a cross over between water park vs park ride (many wanted to just be in swimwear which you couldn’t), so not too surprising to see removal as raft river rides are being removed in multiple parks. I am shocked they haven’t tried to add more flat rides in the path back to Storm Chaser like Six Flags used to have. The restaurant and games back by Storm Chaser have not been open in years, so maybe this expansion will bring them back to life. KK has also lost their water coaster and T3 coaster several years ago, and this new family expansion area and 4 smaller rides just don’t make up for the losses. It is interesting that the amphitheater remains standing in the back lot, but yet unused and still in good condition (let’s hope it gets some use before it falls apart too). It’s also sad the KK did away with King Louie Winter Walk Thru and doesn’t team up with coaster clubs anymore for special events. Overall agree the park is heading in the wrong direction with more losses than additions.

With Coasterstock being scheduled after Memorial Day and Soak City therefore being open, wonder if we might see ERT on some rides (and snacks) in Soak City similar to what HWN does?

I believe the park actually purchased the 12 days of Christmas wireframes for Winterfest 3.0 rather than yearly renting them for along the train route. You can see these wire frames in storage (when the door is open sometimes in early spring) in the Kenton Cove house along the train route. These types of wire frames from this company are not an ideal long time investment with the light types which are attached (typical life span is 3-5 years so these wireframes are likely at their maximum life span and ready for replacement, they all look really sad half lit) - a better long term investment for a little more money would have included wire frames with led c7 socket style bulbs for easier long term maintenance.

New Land coming to KK in 2025 and major park improvements announced today!

The huge sledding hill for KK Christmas is being built over the wave pool in Hurricane Bay - it’s a very impressive structure

CP should have used the months of down time to install free lockers in the somewhere in the queue line. Management knows how long the ride will be closed (although they don’t want to publicly admit the exact time frame, but given a re-design of “parts”, CP should have had time to be able to the add the free lockers in the queue (instead of saying not enough time prior to opening when the ride has been closed for months). Hopefully over the winter months free lockers will be added. ”Due to the later revision, the integration of lockers into the queue, similar to those at Steel Vengeance, was not possible.”

Agree that the fountain re-do was a bust and the re-do was a very cheap design with no spinner or swaying jets. While the park could have made the decision to re-construct the original fountain pedestals with updated plumbing and led lighting effects for a grand appearance, the park chose to replace the pedestals with only stationary jets which were much cheaper and within the budget allocated (as well as updating the filtration system under the stage). The idea of having Snoopy direct a daytime fountain show to music would definitely help utilize the fountain better and provide another summertime day show at a very cheap overall cost. It might be possible to construct a lower level platform facing the fountain on the back side of the current stage for which Snoopy and friends to direct such a water show.

CF/Six is not interested in park museums any longer. The Cedar Point town square museum closed during the pandemic for “remodeling” but later was announced it would not re-open. Such a shame as there were coaster models and interesting park exhibits in that park museum. Chain wide budget cuts make any park museum possibility very unlikely now.

Quickly sold out by 7pm

Tickets went on sale at 4pm today for Coastermania.

Almost every year at Coasterstock it has rained at least one of the days. Looks like the ACE event (in place of Coasterstock) will be no exception. Pack that rain gear and be prepared for last minute itinerary changes due to weather on Friday!