2 hours ago, DJSkyFoxx said:

Why is it that when I looked at this photo I just hear pure silence. No music. No "ooooo ahhhh!" Just the grunts and groans of this guy waving a bubble wand. Maybe a fart for an encore. 

Maybe you saw the show previously and I just awoke a suppressed memory?

I saw it at SeaWorld in 2017. I'm not sure what the consensus was from a guest standpoint, but it didn't last all that long. I think they needed something quick and cheap. This was back when they were really close to bankruptcy and they closed their cirque show as a budget cut. Dollywood brought this in last year, but only for a limited run. I do not know the backstory behind that. 

My critique?

It's okay. You sit through 25 minutes of gut-wrenching boringness of a grown man making bubbles and then there is a 5 minute finale with lasers and bubbles on the crowd and stuff that is pretty cool. I'd give it a 6/10. Of course, since the park didn't get ahead of this news, the narrative isn't going to be "we are getting a bubble show," but rather, "we are losing Phantom Theater Encore."

I know it sounds slimy but this is very typical in business. 

2 hours ago, disco2000 said:

On the plus side, the whole show isn't coming from the entertainment budget - they are purchasing soap for the bubbles from the Park Services budget - so when the restrooms are out of soap you know why 

I think the more likely case is that they run out of soap in the restrooms and then borrow it from this dude. 

33 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Cedar Fair must be listening to our complaints involving the VIP areas. First Knotts opens a nice indoor lounge and now Kings Dominion is converting their country kitchen into their VIP lounge. Hopefully this is implemented at the other prestige pass parks as well.

https://x.com/KingsDominionVA/status/1759006083320783286?s=20

 

The Kings Island people think that the prestige pass people are, “as adorable as they are predictable.”

Enjoy your lean-to this season. 

Fascinating. I wonder if they fell victim to some legal battle within the record companies that trickled down. 

19 minutes ago, Timchat2 said:

A weekends-only longer run might be possible if they aren't moving floats between parks. Presumably there are savings in only have three parks do the event without having to move everything to another three parks.

Part of the benefit for the park is that it creates urgency to buy tickets. If they make it too short, there’s very little value. If they make it too long, it has no urgency. It would be interesting to see what the compromise would be. In today’s world, it would be the most efficient and cost effective. In the past, that decision would have been much more precise. 

Please don’t ruin my legacy…

 

Totally kidding! Looking forward to it!

On 2/13/2024 at 9:07 AM, DispatchMaster said:

Budget aside, 10 continuous days anywhere seems like a waste of entertainment dollars to me.

If I were doing nothing but marathoning coasters, yeah, 3 days would be too much. But the family-centric stays we've done there included shows/live E, copious beach/pool/resort time, water park time, etc., and we've never felt we overstayed during our 4/5 day visits. YMMV.

Agreed, but I don’t marathon. My favorite part is the beach. 

7 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

Agree. And maybe by concentrating efforts, we could see a more robust offering than the skimpy event we got last year. 

You’re going waaaaay to far.

If it comes back it’ll be how it was last year, or less. I think we both know that.

1 minute ago, brenthodge said:

What a stupid waste of a fully capable theatre. I feel the same way about the one at Dollywood as well. It could go in Festhaus and be better in that you can’t really focus on anything in there anyway. I’m feeling like this might be the last year for KI passes for a while. Really not liking the way things are heading. 

I saw this show at SeaWorld. 
 

That’s all I have to say for now. 

According to many reports in the Kings Island Season Passholder group, Phantom Theatre Encore will be replaced by a bubble show. This is likely similar to the ones held at Dollywood and SeaWorld Orlando.

More info on the likely show: https://gazillionbubbleshow.com/meet-the-artists/

10 hours ago, Timchat2 said:

Grand Carnivale at Kings Dominion is listed as "select dates" and Carnivale at Orleans Place at California's Great America appears to be just Friday-Sunday for 2024, so if Grand Carnivale returns to Kings Island this season would it also have a limited schedule?

I almost wish they would do that. Have GC Wednesday through Sunday, but run for three or four weeks. That way They can run it longer, but the cast doesn't necessarily have to work the whole run without a day off.

39 minutes ago, Timchat2 said:

With the recent song changes (presumably due to issues with the song rights) to Dreamland Drive-In we had a feeling it likely wasn't going to be around much longer. Sixteen years is an incredible run though. Dreamland was truly something special. Few theme park shows have that kind of heart and emotional impact. Hopefully the future productions will continue that tradition.

Yeah, I have a feeling that they felt like it ran its course. I doubt they had trouble with the rights. They probably just changed songs to keep it fresh. Kings Island used to do it a lot when they ran shows two or three years. 

I just hope the replacement for Dreamland is a story-driven show. They have a lot of concerts. That one was unique in that regard. . 

SP revenue was down slightly as a result of the change in the program with the All Park Passport. That tells me that Prestige didn’t do well, since they would have mentioned it as an offset. 

“Decrease in per capita as a result of a change in admissions mix.”

Sounds like what I heard about a too big of a SP mix in Q4 was correct.

They also mention they saved operating expense due to cutting seasonal and entertainment costs.

If Grand Carnivale comes back, it’ll look a lot more like 2023 than 2019.

6 hours ago, DispatchMaster said:

Budget aside, 10 continuous days anywhere seems like a waste of entertainment dollars to me.

If I were doing nothing but marathoning coasters, yeah, 3 days would be too much. But the family-centric stays we've done there included shows/live E, copious beach/pool/resort time, water park time, etc., and we've never felt we overstayed during our 4/5 day visits. YMMV.

I do most of the things that you are mentioning. My favorite part is the beach. I just don’t have the patience to wait in Cedar Point lines at my age. lol 

On 2/8/2024 at 7:03 PM, BeeastFarmer said:

Nickelodeon characters are trashy. 

The characters were problematic. 
 

Spongebob was the timeless one, but I feel like we are way of his hump in popularity.

Wild Thornberrys was off the air in the U.S. when the log flume was rethemed.

Many of the characters are live action, which doesn’t help. 

The heyday of Nickelodeon was ending when Splat City was coming in. All the Gak, “kids rule” etc stuff was great, but they don’t do stuff as much anymore. 

It would be cool to have Star Trek, Mission Impossible, and so on back though. Unfortunately, the extend of their theming was often to drop a movie name on an off-the-shelf ride.

Of course, it’s been a very long time…

3 hours ago, disco2000 said:

As a passholder you already get 10%, or Prestige 15%, and I highly doubt this is on top of the pass discount, so basically a useless perk....

Or it stacks, but only for certain things. They had 60% off “select” 50th merch toward the end of the season. No one seemed to be sure what it was good for. My friends and I tried several times to buy 50th things, only to find out it didn’t qualify. Finally, it was consolidated to a few shelves. When we went to purchase something from one of the shelves, we were told that it was good for anything on the shelves except what we wanted to purchase, which happened to be sharing the shelf with the sign advertising the 60% off.

Based on what we saw this past season, as well as the many displays this offseason, I imagine this level of competence to continue this year with the Pass Perks. 

Option 2 will be that it’s for something of zero value to passholders. For example, a small discount on food that’s on the dining plan. 

I don’t know what part of the new app would make anyone think that this absurd five-year-old program that has not delivered would begin to do so. It’s very evident that they don’t know what to do with it. The person they hired to manage it doesn’t understand the business, and the “as adorable as it is predictable” etc statements made by park officials demonstrates how they think of the season pass base anyway.

 

I THINK the arrangement is a revenue share. Skycoaster may own the equipment. Not sure. If that’s true, they’ll keep it until they find a more profitable use of the land.

Great article out of CP Food Blog. He’s writing about CP, but I imagine the story will be relevant to Kings Island too.

https://cpfoodblog.com/2024-modification-to-pass-perks/?fbclid=IwAR0wn0ViPBiGoOgDapQHjICwFBoLMu00tvmUsZP8-CROHnaiqPQD9AhEF4A_aem_AZF_SRQO2gRGReQrjNrN8UJkmawSzR-mcw7mQnV1dpv79GdAELzakaaJutOqFn-3fgQ

I’m good for about three days at CP before I’m over it. 

11 hours ago, brenthodge said:

Heck-there are so many streamers STILL left in the trees that the park was too lazy to remove, if they cancel the event, we can just look up and pretend it’s still happening. 

Or just convince ourselves that we missed the parade. 

To be fair, I don’t think laziness is the reason why some streamers are still around.

 

She talks about everything Holiday World, including that Good Gravy! Will be the first Vekoma Family Boomerang to open in the U.S. 

Listen or watch: https://linktr.ee/attractions_group