Winterfestguy

Likely they have been rehearsing the new fountain show late at night and don’t want to spoil the premiere this weekend. The same thing happened last season with Icam being down as they rehearsed and fine tuned the show a week before its debut.

Materials arrive via FedEx in a nice box. If you are a season pass holder, drink wristband ticket, meal tickets, and fun pic ticket are in your season pass account. So excited for Coasterstock this year.

Since the vast majority of professional firework displays are made in China (and with increasing China tariffs), I wonder how the overall seasonal cost of the fireworks will fit into the 2025 park budget allotted for show. Or it may be the show goes on with the drones and only with fireworks added on the weekend.

I find it amusing that they turned on the I street cam for just a moment to capture a new shot of there being no snow and a sunny day (just after the dismantling of the ice rink, they turned off the I street cam to likely block construction view progress of the new gift shop and bar). The new still shot may fool some when thinking the I street cam is on when it’s not, especially since all snow has melted from the former still shot. Note in the new I street cam shot (likely taken a few weeks ago) still shows the Winterfest sign out front and you can see all the building construction over on the right.

Reading the notes on the blueprint in the upper right, the fabric roof cannot withstand a heavy wet snow weight, so would expect the fabric roof to be removed for Winterfest (which then the question becomes will this area be utilized for Winterfest at all?) The other 115 mph wind note is highly unlikely and even with climate change and more frequent thunderstorms with straight line winds, still likely a very slight risk for the structure (remember the Kings Island sign out front getting hit by a severe thunderstorm years back and having to be rebuilt?)

The I-street cam has been turned off for a few weeks now. Typically, right after Winterfest they turn it off so we can’t watch the ice rink and decorations being disassembled. However, this year the cam stayed up for most of February to watch the decking of the ice rink taken out exposing the actual fountain as well as the Eiffel Tower light stings being removed. Then they turned the cam off likely for the start of I-Street construction on the new gift shops. Likely won’t come back on line until passholder preview in April as not to spoil the big reveal.

In pass holder email today - no real surprises as everyone kind of already guessed ”To make space for these exciting new experiences, we’re retiring a few classics— Cyclos, Eye of the Storm, and the Raging Rapids River Ride. We know it’s hard to part with rides that have given us so many wonderful memories, but each farewell opens the door to a whole new chapter of memory-making fun.”

The event was sold out by late this afternoon. KI did a much better job of simplifying ticket purchases this year than they have in past as well. I do think it doesn’t make any difference how long it takes to reach maximum capacity for a sell out as long as the event sells out (and in this case sold out three month ahead of time)! There have been years where other parks such as CP Coastermania took over a week to sell out (but likely not this year at CP with two major coasters opening/re-opening). It will be exciting to see old friends and meet new coaster friends this May.

Weren’t some of these billboards in that area transformed for the Winterfest Shooting Star Drive-in theming with vintage billboard advertisements? Maybe they are just putting back the regular billboards?

I do like the one by Invertigo in Action Zone but wish they would winterize that one so that it would be open during Winterfest. I agree the worst restrooms are the ones in the Festhouse (don’t think they ever have had a major renovation) and the two single use ones in Area 72 (which have to be the grossest and smellest in all of the park. (KI should permanently closed the Mentor canteen which these are attached to since it is hardly ever open anyway and expand into a normal larger multi-stall restroom). There have been several complaints over the years about the inside front gate men’s room about having only one stall (which has not been good for the little ones when there is usually a line waiting for the one and only toilet).

The cam usually “goes down” right after New Year’s so folks can’t watch the disassembly of the fountain, tower, and I-street (just as the cam “goes down” after Haunt so folks can’t watch the Winterfest transformation). Someone probably forgot (or that person was let go) who was in charge of turning off the cam right after Winterfest.

The pictures may show that the relocation of the rides at the front of the park (pirates ship, Drop Tower, and airplanes) may be a bit behind schedule due to the harsh winter cold and snow this season. There appears tons of work still to do before the May 9 season pass reveal. Hopefully, March and April will be milder to finish relocations, landscaping, and ride re-paints/re-theme in time (and not another “opening later spring” scenario on ride entrance signs after the park opens in early May)

Maybe we will get lucky to have exclusive slide time in the schedule over in the waterpark on the new RiverRacers.

If you scroll through the list of rides, you can see the rides that are being moved from the front or kids area of the park back to this new area and their former ride name (so doubt there will be two identical rides).

The new area will be a nice addition for their Halloween and Christmas events. I wonder if another park somewhere purchased Eye of the Storm since it’s not visible in the overall park view in the video.

For a twist that would not cost much capital, KI should leave the platform and do passholder opening day concert on the fountain (chairs on the platform with using the stage in reverse). Then restore the fountain for May operations. It would be no worse than the fountain not operating during the last week of Haunt (although this last season the fountain ran longer during Haunt weekend than previous years).

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