Winterfestguy

I image the park will immediately begin their 26 day transformation to Winterfest immediately after the last guest passes through the exit (which is likely why no extended ERT on the last Sunday). With lots of rain and unsettled weather predicted in the coming weeks, it will be a tough schedule to remove all Halloween and be totally ready for Winterfest Nov 23. Carowinds even has less time to transition since their opening Winterfest date is Sunday Nov 18.

There is likely a good profit in beer and alcohol sales, so doubt the CF would ever stop selling it in their parks. It is impossible to monitor the parking lots for people drinking before one enters the park. If you have ever been to Universal Horror nights, alcohol is sold everywhere, and at least KI limits the few places that sell beer during Haunt hours.

For those that don’t have a season pass and may be thinking about purchasing Winterfest tickets for their other guests, note that the on-line ticket processing fee comes up as $6.99 for one advance ticket which defeats the purpose of buying in advance on-line to save money and time at the gate. Very tricky marketing by the park when you see savings but only come to find out at checkout the ridiculously high processing fee.

The Saturday nights later in October are historically the busiest for Haunt. If the approaching rain hits KI during Haunt tonight, it may thin out the crowds some, especially since the outdoor scare zones will likely close due to rain.

It seemed like every time I visited CP this summer, WindSeeker had malfunctioned and stopped at the top - on one visit, it was stuck for 15 minutes at the top until lowered (and did not run the rest of the night). I agree that for whatever reason the one at KI seems more reliable and less likely to malfunction.

The MT webcam tonight showed the Christmas lights being tested on the whitewater canyon covered arbor that is used as the train entrance during Winterfest - more progress in stringing the millions of lights

Worlds of fun just announced “Snoopy’s Countdown Rocking NYE Party”. Since CF typically re-uses the same shows chainwide, there is a good chance this same show will be the KI NYE Winterfest entertainment in the Festhaus starting at 10pm.

The kiosks need to also allow for the ordering of the all season drink season plan. Many times at the Chicken Shack using my all season dining pass at the kiosk, my food was processed quickly but could not get a drink because the manual cashier line was so long with others redeeming vouchers. I hope with the promise of newer digital technology by CF, KI will allow viewing menus, ordering, and payment on the app; then just show up to pick up your food. For those that have been to Disney, this technology was great to ease standing in lines and greatly improves efficiency (and the app technology works very well with the Disney Dining Plan as we experienced.)

It is good to hear that some have had good experiences and food quality at Coney BBQ. For me and the guests I have brought to the park, we have only had poor experiences. So much so that I (and my friends that come to the park with me) have avoided eating at Coney BBQ late season. My friends and I have had rock hard hush puppies that you could not even bite into, tasteless mac & cheese, ice cold chicken, cold pull pork, and forever checking out with one cashier. The only bright spot was the sidewinder fries which were hot and crispy because they just came out of the fryer. So in my opinion, Coney BBQ still seems inconsistent in their food quality and there is room for improvement during Winterfest and next season.

If you watch the webcams, the park has been busy stringing lights in the trees (and testing them at night as seen on the webcam). There have been many burned out bulbs on buildings this summer (like around Hanks and I-street) and even missing bulbs (where someone took them) around the windows at Reds Grill. Let’s hope they fix those before Winterfest begins after Thanksgiving. Carowinds is having a sneak peak of their Winterfest (according to their Winterfest calendar on their webpage) the Sunday before Thanksgiving (Nov 18) so likely will be checking that out. Also noted Carowinds Winterfest is doing 2-10pm Saturdays this season while KI made it clear they would stick to the 4-10pm Saturdays. With the Corporate emphasis now on special events I would not be surprised if KI changes their mind to also go with 2-10pm Saturdays.

The new show Haunted Homecoming was the worst Kings Island has ever had for Haunt or Fearfest in my opinion. The lack of a good soundtrack and overall excitement just made this a sad show. The story line quickly fell apart in the first two minutes. The show really belongs over in Planet Snoopy in the Barnyard theater. Can Hot Blooded or Dead Awakenings please return next year and let this awful show RIP after one year? Budget cuts so obvious.

I wonder if Cedar Fair management is studying the Disney model of upcharge events early in the morning and at night. Disney now has an early morning Fantasyland with breakfast upcharge package as well as a late night upcharge package in addition to their Halloween and Christmas upcharge party events. All done by the wristband changeover between regular park and special event hours. All have significantly increased the profit to the Disney bottom line. However with the Cedar Fair budget cuts with Haunt of removing “extras” such as less mazes, elimination of skeleton key rooms, and elimination of special meals, I am not sure how many would be willing to pay any extra upcharge for less activities, and any upcharge model would likely not work.

The 2019 Season Passes have the 30th anniversary of Kentucky Kingdom in them (1989-2019) and from the additional teaser, what could be in the wind for 2019 to celebrate the 30th?

Last year Tower Gardens closed early around Labor Day to install the giant candy canes and Winterfest light packages before creating Backwoods Bayou for Haunt. But with the Backwoods Bayou appearing to be off the website now, maybe more budget cuts in the works.

Gold/platinum pass early entry line into Soak City was also backed up with a very long wait - appears the park will have another one of their busiest days of the summer season.

This is exciting and likely all weather dependent for attendance. Last year the high on NYE was 14 and low of 7 not to mention windchill and dusting of snow. The last night of Winterfest last year had an abbreviated schedule with no rides running due to the extreme cold/snow. Let’s hope this NYE temps stay in the 30s with no snow so everyone can enjoy the special activities.

As Cedar Fair continues to cut costs, I am not surprised the Skeleton Key rooms have been discontinued. It did take several people to run each special room along with the cost of the souviner skeleton key. Sad to see this experience go as it was always us a tradition to collect the cool souvenir skeleton key attached to the fright lane lanyard. Wonder what cost cutting measures come next?

If this is anything like Kings Island escape room during Haunt (for the skeleton key rooms) in the Kings Island Theater, this may be a big disappointment- not only is this type of attraction labor intensive, but also very low capacity as Haunt as shown. Not to mention if you find yourself in a group that just wants to look around and not help out with any of the clues of how to escape. When the lines got long, they hurried you through which lessened the overall experience. Thanks goodness that Steel Vengence may still draw in next years attendence at Cedar Point and attract new season pass holders.

This type of “gold pass sale” is nothing new as many years ago also used to give the remainder of the year free with purchase of a new pass. Definitely an attempt to boost KI lagging season pass sales. The trick will be in 2019 to keep those season pass holders in their 2020 renewals. If auto-renewal is chosen when purchasing the 2019 season pass with this “special sale”, read the fine print carefully (locked into 12 payments which will impact your credit history if you don’t pay or your credit card becomes no longer valid in those 12 months). My guess is that CP is hoping people won’t realize they selected auto-renewal and will automatically by default be locked into a 2020 season pass as well.

Could the antique cars all refurbished finally be making their comeback!

It will be very interesting in the off season as CF management discusses what to do about their loose article policy such as cell phones on their coasters. Universal discovered years ago it was cheaper to give free lockers for loose articles while riding (and checking with metal detectors for adherence) than face lawsuit cost of having a loose article hit somebody. In my visits to Universal this summer to ride Hulk and Rip Rocket, not only did I have to leave my cell phone in the free locker, but after successfully passing through the metal dector, the attendant told me that my wallet (with no metal) in my cargo shorts zippered pocket must also be placed in a locker (I am still shocked about the wallet removal). If Cedar Fair is serious about their no loose articles policy on coasters, just telling violators to put the cell phone away is never going to work. As coasters become taller, steeper banking/inversions, and faster, the problem will only become worse because there will always be one idiot that will want to take his video after leaving the station. While I don’t want to see metal detectors at some of the CF coasters, Universal’s program has been very successful in maintaining rider safety from loose articles.

The 2018 update to the men’s room on I street was horrible. For those that have little ones that need to use a real toilet, there is only one stall (and there is always a line for it). Once inside the gate, the next nearest is Action Zone or festhaus (or the one family by the women’s) and sometimes little bladders can’t hold any longer or make it to the next one. And if you are a larger male adult, good luck squeezing into the closely spaced dividers like a sardine. The update to the men’s was definitely poorly designed and executed.

Used the Indy offer with my neighbors since they don’t have season passes - just print out the ticket (or have on your phone) - will scan your ticket at parking, will scan the same ticket like all other tickets at the gate, and will scan the same ticket for your all day drink wristband. They never checked their IDs. The best location to get your all day drink wristband is the drink stand under the Eiffel Tower (although you can do it at any drink or food stand, have noted this summer that some don’t seem to have the wristbands and send you on to another location). Enjoy the day and special the stunt show which is not to be missed.

Strange to see that Blood Drums and Monsters Rock won’t be playing Haunt opening night Friday Sept 21 - the descriptions on both say opening on Sept 22 which is Saturday night.

Kings Island should take note of what all the Disney resort food courts have - a regular ice machine beteeen each two regular soda fountains. This allows the high capacity of guests per hour without any guest going without ice for their drinks (and an ice machine is clearly safer than the kids having to climb a step ladder with a heavy bucket of ice to pour in the top of the freestyle machines - surprised there have not been any medical injuries with the “ice bucket dump” into the top of the machine)