gad198

^ Can't answer that, but you do bring up something interesting. Take a look at the front seat, and notice that there is nothing blocking your view of the track! Even the GCIs relatively open front obscures your view of the track from up close, but these trains don't. Front row rides with these new trains are going to be wild!

We've definitely got a way above average collection, particularly in the steel department. DB filled an enormous hole in KIs lineup. Our wooden collection is good but certainly not great. Unrelated, but if The Beast were to get Timberliners does anyone think there'd be any chance they'd get rid of some of the trims on the ride? To me, the easiest way to answer this question is this: if you had never been to the park before which park would you want to stay at the longest because of what they had to offer? I'd venture to say that KI, Cedar Point, SFGAdv and SFMM would all be on the list. The other thing to consider is whether you like a lot of "good" coasters or whether you like a lot of bad coasters with one or two great coasters. I personally get more out of a day at Cedar Point than I do anywhere else I've been thus far, so I'm more of the variety guy.

This might be the best announcement for me personally for next year. Carowinds and KDs rides look cool, but this announcement almost made me tear up. Voyage is by far my favorite coaster and to have it improved this way is nothing short of amazing. I really hope that these trains are as advertised. Add this along with Wildebeest and I'd suspect that Holiwood Nights next year will have a few more people than this past year! I'm curious to see how riders opinions will change after their first ride. My friend who rode last year liked Raven more than Voyage, but I'm betting that if the hype is deserved then she very well may change her mind. I'd be curious to find out how the Interpreter feels after his first ride.

I probably went 50 times this year to KI. The lady at the gate this past Sunday said "wow, 92 visits!" but I'm thinking that's since I've had my PP (which I obtained at the end of 2007). I also visited these other parks: One visit each - Busch Gardens Tampa, Carowinds, Worlds of Fun, Canada's Wonderland, Kennywood, Waldameer, Knoebels, Six Flags Great Adventure, Dorney Park, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Over Georgia Two visits - Holiday World Three visits - Cedar Point Four visits - Dollywood It's been a great season. I'm very thankful that gas prices came down and that I was able to get into a lot of the non Six Flags and CF parks at heavily discounted prices. 2010 should be fun too!

Yeah, but try and renew an existing Platinum Pass at another park. In the famous words of 49ers coach Mike Singletary..."can't do it". Someday Cedar Fair will wake up, realize they need to go to a generic Cedar Fair Platinum Pass and that be the end of it. I can dream, anyway... I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no reason for KI visitors to get a PP if they are going to visit only KI. You would ABSOLUTELY upgrade to a PP at Cedar Point because of their get-in-an-hour-early-with-the-PP feature that their "regular" season pass does not have. At KI you have no incentive to do this. There are no Platinum Pass benefits that Gold Pass holders don't already get. The main reason I bought a Gold Pass at Dollywood over the regular is primarily due to the free parking and merchandise discounts. That single 20% across the board discount on purchases has been great, and quite frankly, I wouldn't have spent hardly anything there had it not been for the discount. Therefore, Dollywood not only got me for more up front but also gave me the incentive to spend more during the season. I would love for KI to be able to have some "extra" PP benefits over the Gold Pass, and in time I think this will happen, but I'm not sold it'll be anytime soon.

I didn't catch that portion of the transcript, as I only read the summaries. It does make you wonder, however, exactly who is going to be responsible for creating any more hypers/gigas in the US. Europe has already moved away from building any coasters over 200'. It seems as though only China is really ramping up their amusement park projects whereas everyone else is scaling back (and in some cases way back, see Six Flags).

If nothing else the numbers truly point out one of the B&M hypers greatest strengths: moving a lot of people through the line quickly along with the associated uptime. Most of the DB crews this year were really good about getting trains in and out and even long lines always moved fast. On a side note, this was really a great year for me and the B&M hypers. Behemoth, DB, Nitro, Goliath @ SFOG gave fantastic rides for me this season. Nitro and Goliath, in particular, gave me airtime that I didn't experience in my go-arounds last year. Behemoth and DB are the two best B&M hypers going right now, and we've got the Carowinds Intimidator to look forward to as well, so I can't wait for next season. I'd like to thank CF for continuing to produce these fantastic additions. Between the three hypers (Behemoth, DB, and Carowinds Intimidator), the giga (KD's Intimidator) and Prowler (winner of best new ride, and deservingly so), we've seen and continue to see some great new world-class rides. CF is really the only big chain adding any really big rides right now, so I'm hoping their financial situation improves.

^ That twisty element is a lot of fun isn't it? You actually do get airtime on the top of Nitro's second hill, which I didn't think would be likely given how quickly you change direction. The fact that you'll be adding another change of direction midway down the second drop should be fantastic, especially in the back row. The best B&M hyper moments for me, aside from the above, would be: * the hammerhead on Behemoth in the back row * the drop off of Nitro's MCBR in the back row * any first drop in the back * Goliath (SFOG) midcourse helix * DB's second and third hills in the front I really hope that they leave this thing untrimmed until the MCBR. There's a rumor floating that they will put one up on the way up the third hill, but we'll get confirmation of that shortly given the rate of progress.

Saturdays during Halloweekends are actually busier than most Saturdays in July and August. It is nuts. Now Sundays during Halloweekends, that is the time to go, with the exception of Columbus Day weekend. I'd agree completely. I know it's not feasible for a lot of people, but Friday nights in September and October are among the best days we've had at any park, much less CP. Getting even more specific, the first Friday night after Labor Day has been golden for us. This year on that day the first hour and a half after opening (with early entry) not only could you walk on to Maverick but probably have the train to yourself. MF only was running full trains because people were using the walk-through gate on the unload platform to hop right back onto the next train. Granted, this was a day that was originally supposed to be closed to the public this year, but hey, whatever works! It is amazing to see the variance in crowds from Saturday to Sunday this time of year. The only park we've run into crowd issues on Sundays in October is Great Adventure, and even then if you get there early enough it's still very doable.

I think it's a two-edged sword for me. If I'm traveling to another city there's a good chance that I'm there specifically because I want to visit a specific park (or at the very least if I'm in the city I'm looking for a new park to visit). So much of how we decide where to go are based on what the park has to offer, and obviously that includes coasters. We like to look at POVs of the "bigger" coasters any park has to determine if it's worth investigating, and therefore, we usually know the layout of those coasters beforehand. However, a lot of those same parks will have rides that aren't on our radar, and we don't know much about those from a layout perspective. Personally, if given a choice I'd probably prefer to know. My friend rode the Voyage for the first time at Holiwood Nights (in the now legendary storm aftermath) and thought that it was too wild for her. We came back for the Coasterbuzz event in September, in the daylight, and she enjoyed it a great deal more simply because she could see what was coming. I do find it interesting that the Voyage has already been mentioned three times in this discussion!

I agree completely. Ride experiences will always vary wildly based on the person who's doing the riding. I also think how lucky one is in catching a good ride plays a part in it too. I've had a number of so-so rides on B&M hypers. My first ride on DB, and some rides on Nitro and Goliath at SFOG were fun, but just OK otherwise. I've had some amazing rides on both of those coasters as well, so a lot depends on circumstances. Sometime it takes 5-10 rides just to get an accurate assessment. Raging Bull only took a couple of rides to realize it wasn't very good (outside of a great first drop). People's opinions do vary, and I think that's what makes being an enthusiast so great. Personally, I think DB is a world-class riding experience, particularly in the front few rows. Some people don't feel that way, and that's cool too, because it means a shorter line for me when I go! All I know is that I see many of the same people in line for the ride on each visit. I also believe that I didn't fully appreciate how good some coasters were until I stepped out and went to some other parks. We have so many great coasters here in Ohio that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that people in other parts of the country would love to have a B&M hyper. There are exactly 0 B&M hypers west of the Mississippi. In one trip next year you could ride 4 B&M hypers in a two day trip, maybe even 5 if you were hustling. It's very easy to be a little critical of rides when you have an abundance of great rides so close. All but three, maybe four of the top 20 steel coasters in the Golden Tickets are within a days drive. The top 17 wooden coasters are within a days drive. I'm not here to debate the merits of the Golden Tickets; my point is that we have so many good coasters close enough to us that it tends to distort our frame of reference. Part of the reason why I'm really starting to dislike comparing coasters is because each experience is unique. Either a ride is fun or it isn't. I'll ride something if it fills a void in what I like in rides, be that airtime, laterals, speed, whatever. As long as it comes out as even marginally fun then I'll probably take a spin, even if it's only on an occasional basis.

As promised, here is part II of the trip report... Phunfest at Knoebels was scheduled to go through 10 pm. My brother and I talked about the fact that we had done what we wanted to do there, and looked at the time...7:30. Interesting...you know, Dorney Park is only an hour and a half away...let's do it! We hopped in the car and drove off to Dorney Park, which was scheduled to close at midnight (more on this later). Dorney Park: We got to Dorney Park around 9:15. We went to the park last year around this same time when temperatures were in the low 40's, and I've gotta say that was one of the coldest days we've ever experienced at a park. The park was also way beyond crowded (Talon had a 45 minute wait time and Steel Force was an hour, and cars were parking on the grass). We pulled into the lot and noticed it was way less busy than at the same time last year (coincidentally, our Platinum Passes worked without incident). We decided to get two of the credits we missed on our last trip first, so we headed to Possessed. Possessed is Wicked Twister at Cedar Point with just a straight back spike instead of a twisted one. We waited three trains for the third to last row (toward back spike). I thought that the back spike would be a little bit more thrilling than it was, especially with the holding brake working. Having said that, the ride, while not thrilling, is fun enough. Probably not worth more than a 10-15 minute wait, but fun enough for what it is. Grade: C+ We headed to Steel Force next, the parks Morgan hypercoaster. There was a one train wait for the third to last row. The first two drops were really nice, and it has some really nice forces at the bottom of each hill. The helix was a little too drawn out for my taste, but the drop off the blocks and bunny hills back to the station were really good. The ride also rode as smooth as glass, something I wasn't expecting at all. I find it amazing that Morgan coasters (Mamba at WOF, Steel Force, and Phantom's Revenge) are generally smooth, but Arrow coasters, essentially using the same track, are generally not (Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood excluded). This, to me, is one of the underrated coasters out there. Grade: B+ Our night got really tricky from there. We wanted to hop back in the Steel Force line to try and front seat, but noticed that they closed down the line, saying there were some mechanical difficulties. OK, well, we'll just come back. We rolled over to Hydra, noticed a train rolling through the course, but the line closed. The attendant at the front of the line said the ride was closed. Interesting, given the fact we just saw a train roll through the course! A guest asked him how long it'd be, and he said it was closed for the evening. What? Really? I looked at the time...11:10. OK, strike two, but we're still good as long as Talon is open. We knew it was going to be bad when we didn't notice a train rolling during our four minute walk back there. Line closed, and strike three. I swear I remember the signs saying the park was open til midnight. The park did have signs out in front saying they would close at midnight, and signs on the windows indicating their Haunt hours, also showing a midnight close. I wanted to talk to Guest Relations, but there was no one in the building and the lights were off. I still don't know the reason they decided to do this, but to say that this was poor taste by the park would be selling this short. The park wasn't that busy, so I'm sure that this was the reason they decided to shut down early, but doesn't the park have some responsiblity to make sure that guests know this by at least making an announcement? Randomly closing rides and shutting the park down early is a sure way to get bad guest satisfaction ratings and leave a bad taste in their mouths. Listen, I understand if you want to shut down the park early due to attendance, but at the very least you need to let everyone know. They didn't. I could only imagine if something like this happened at a bigger CF park like KI or CP. Dorney Park is actually a nice park. They have a good variety of rides and enough to do to keep you interested. They've got a nice flat ride selection, but they need a good dark ride to round things out. There are only two things I don't like about the park: (1) their parking lot exits are terrible. Last year we waited for a good half hour to exit, and even with a sparse crowd on our visit this year we still waited seven or eight minutes with only 30 cars in front of us. (2) Navigating the park is really difficult unless you know for sure where you're going. A lot of the paths just dead end into something. There's signage up directing you to the rides, but it's not entirely clear where some things are until you get right up on them. I do like the park as a whole and I'm sure we'll be back. Compared to some of the other "smaller" CF parks, I like this one better than WOF and Carowinds (for now, although that will surely change with the B&M Intimidator). Grade: B- Six Flags Great Adventure: We got inside the park right as they dropped the ropes at 10:30. We knew from reading other trip reports that everyone goes to Kingda Ka (which they did), so we ducked to El Toro instead. El Toro right at opening was a walk-on unless you were waiting for the first six rows. We figured that we'd probably need to snag a front car ride while the wait was short, so we opted for row 3. Intamin rides are generally better in the front, and last year our best rides were in this row, but our first ride felt a little more sluggish than our rides last year. The airtime during the first few hills wasn't quite as intense, although the ride was still very good. We noticed that they were allowing re-rides, so on our way out we hopped into the last row... The difference in the last row was night and day. We were nearly standing up on the first three hills and the hill over Rolling Thunder. The only real knock I have on the ride is that after these aforementioned hills the ride is over for all intents and purposes. There is a lot of track that simply doesn't do all that much, and for an ADD coaster guy like yours truly who enjoys rapid-fire elements I'd rather use the track to get in some bunny hills or something (like, on Phoenix at Knoebels). I will say this...Voyage IMO is still a better ride but El Toro's first three hills and hill over RT cannot be beat on any coaster, anywhere. If the second half had the same fun levels as the first half it'd be my #1, but it's solidly in my top 3. Grade: A- After a huge crowd (probably 1,000 people, and this isn't exaggerating) made their way to El Toro we knew our riding there was done, so after three walk-on rides we headed over to Bizarro. I liked the coaster as Medusa, so I was curious to see how much of a difference the rebranding and new effects the ride made. Answer: they just didn't affect the ride experience much. The speakers they have for the on-board audio garbled much of the sound, and many of the effects went by fast enough that I really didn't notice them much. Having said that, our second-to-last row ride was good. The zero-g roll is my favorite inversion anywhere, and I love the fact that B&M designs perfectly shaped elements, taken at just the right speed for optimum smoothness. I haven't ridden a bad floorless yet (and yes, that includes Scream! at SFMM...I like everything about that coaster sans the parking lot setting ), and would love to see KI get one of these (after they get their B&M inverted, hehe). Grade: B We took the Skyride over to the other side of the park and got on Nitro. Nitro did very little for us the last time we were there, and I wanted to get the same ride everyone else got when voting for the Golden Tickets. We hopped in the last row, and I will say that the ride was a little better this time around. The first drop is the best on any B&M hyper I've ridden to date, and even with the MCBR turned on we got an absolutely stand-you-up-out-of-your-seat pop of airtime off the block. After our ride we got back in line and waited 10 minutes for a second row ride. I must say that I get the adorement of this ride now. There was good floater air on every single hill! I really like this ride. I don't think it's as good as Behemoth or Diamondback, but it's right up there. B&M hypers are some of the best rides in the world today (minus Raging Bull), and I am really glad to have one in this part of the country. Grade: A- in the front, B in the back. We spent the rest of our short time at the park checking out the rest of the park and just kind of taking in the scenery. Great Adventure is such a fun park. There's a lot of coasters (obviously), and I think the park does have a lot of character. They need to add a few flat rides and dark ride, but I really like this park. The scenery is beautiful and the park has really turned things around. We definitely had a great time. Grade: B+ Thanks for reading!

^ I did not, unfortunately. We finished eating just shy of 6, and we wanted to get in some other rides. The line for the Haunted Mansion was long enough that we knew we could get on other things quicker, and it worked out that way, but we just never made it back. I've heard a lot of good things about it, and see that it's usually ranked pretty high in the Golden Tickets, so I'm a little disappointed we didn't get on it. Is it better than Spiderman or Curse of DarKastle?

Overview: I had read some trip reports from others who had gone to Knoebels, and decided that one day I was going to go. Fast forward to this weekend. I checked the weather forecast for this past weekend on Wednesday...rain-free. I called my brother and asked him if he wanted to take a quick park trip; he agreed, and we figured that we would head east. I also noticed that Phoenix Phall Phunfest was being held at Knoebels, so we decided to head there on Saturday and then do a quick Six Flags Great Adventure trip on Sunday. Knoebels: We arrived at the park around 5. We pulled up to the lot and noticed there were hundreds of cars parked in a meadow. We found out that the Covered Bridge Festival was running at the time, and it is apparently a very popular event. We eventually made our way through the festival setup and found the parks front entrance (if you want to call it that, because there's not really a sign directing you!). We made our way back to get our Phunfest admission stuff, got some Cesari's pizza (which was just OK at best...the pizza looked much better than it tasted!), and waited for the park to reopen at 6. Our plan was to ride the flyers right at 6 to avoid a long line, but we overheard someone saying that they weren't going to allow any snapping. Never heard of that! Anyway, right at 6 most of the crowd started making its way back to Phoenix as did we. The Phoenix stands at a meager 78' tall. Much of the layout is hidden from the entrance and even from most of the queue line. We found the entrance, and ten minutes we were in the backseat. I love the old PTCs with just the buzzbar and no seat belts! The ride in the backseat is good, but doesn't leave you with the feeling like it should be a top 5 coaster. The airtime is there, but it's not as intense or as abundant as I would have thought. We figured we'd get back in line and try the front, opting for seat 1-3. MUCH. BETTER. I'm not sure that this was the magic seat on this coaster but it sure felt like it! The airtime on the first couple of drops wasn't as good from up here, but the second half of the ride made me stand up on at least four different occasions. We caught a night ride later in the session in the same seat, and it delivered even more air! The second half of this coaster is simply outstanding. The ride tracked very nicely, and it's pretty evident the park has taken good care of this ride. The ride crept in my top 5, and I can see where the love of this coaster comes from! We took a ride on Twister, which was running really fast! The layout of the coaster leaves a bit to be desired, but the night rides we had on this were fun. This is only coaster in memory that not only rides better but also smoother in the back. We took two rides on this and then rode the aforementioned Flyers. Apparently, the word about them not allowing snapping was false, as enthusiasts were snapping to their hearts content. It's really fun to see what some of most experienced veterans can do in those things! The flyers were fun and it was nice of the park to allow us to work the sails. We opted against the bumper cars. My brother's back was bothering him a little, and judging by the looks of the cars circling the track it didn't look like a bumper car rally was what his back was looking for! I will say that I was surprised that the bumper cars weren't faster than they were. They may have been a shade faster than Holiday World's, but what they may have lacked in pure speed they more than made up for in hit value. Watching people go airborne in a bumper car is quite a sight! Knoebels is a nice old school park. It's beautifully situated in a mountainous valley and the park really blends in nicely with its surrounding environment. The park really is a "park", as I'd be apt to say it's a forest that happens to contain an amusement park. As advertised the food prices were very reasonable, but unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to sample anything other than the pizza. We did try some of the birch beer (both white and blue), and I thought it was interesting. Root beer is better IMO but it was worth trying at least once. The park really does have loads of charm. We had a really good time at the park, and will definitely be back in future years, presumably when Flying Turns opens. Thanks for reading, and our Dorney Park and Great Adventure trip will follow in part II, coming tomorrow.

I think both Dvo and DaveStroem bring up valid points. I'd say that the tipping point for me is those night rides on the Voyage. Holiday World's operating schedule just doesn't allow you the opportunity for night rides very often, so the opportunity for two + hours of them is very cool. We really enjoyed our Holiwood Nights experience last year and will definitely be back next year. I'd love to get to Cedar Point for Coastermania, and we were going to go this year, but when we saw the ERT schedule we immediately knew it was not going to be good from a quantity of rides standpoint. Having the ERTs only last an hour on Maverick isn't a good start, and when you compound that by having that as essentially the only ride available for ERT it spells trouble. I understand the Raptor ERT was OK, but I'd suspect that was more due to the later hours. As a side note, if KI decides to do Ride Warriors Weekend again, I really hope they extend the ERT out to include The Beast as well as DB (assuming that DB ERT is at night again).

Nice trip report! How were the lines out there when you went? I'm glad to hear you say that about Disneyland being better than Magic Kingdom. I never really had the desire to go to the California version, but I'll have to make that a must do park next time I'm out there. SFMM is a really nice park, and has come miles in a few years. It's definitely on a short list of most panoramic and picturesque parks. You mentioned that your ride on X2 was rough in the second half. Did you happen to be riding in one of the outside seats?

I was just thinking about the same thing the other day. I always wondered how much lower and narrower they could have conceivably built the loop and still have the trains pass through safely. It would be interesting to see how much different the layout would have been had they made the ride smaller. I think the bigger question is what will eventually pop up in its place. I'm really glad that CF is not at present averse to building GOOD new wooden coasters (Renegade and Prowler come to mind immediately), so I am secretly hoping that GCI or Gravity Group can come in and build a good out and back in SOBs place.

Very nice report! The event was truly a blast, lines non-existant and rides plentiful. The pizza was good (I know opinions on this vary) and their fudge was outstanding. It was funny when Will Koch came in and made the announcement about the weather and ERT moving up. It was almost as if some people knew that announcement was coming and were practically out the door rolling to Voyage immediately after he finished speaking! One of the reasons why I love Holiday World is the fact that they allowed the Voyage to run in that weather. I think most of the people there were secretly hoping for a shower or two to grease the track, and they got it. The thing is, it wasn't just a shower! The description of it being a torrential downpour is right on the money, and I can't think of any other park I've been to that would have allowed coaster rides in those conditions. Holiwood Nights this year was very similar with the weather, and the Voyage rides there were epic too. I'd be curious to hear if it's your #1.

^ Any advice on what Friday nights are like after Fright Fest starts? I know not to visit there on Saturday, but our visit last year on a Sunday was enjoyable, especially in the morning. Between Friday nights and Sunday, which is better?

Dvo is a very credible poster, so I highly doubt he'd make something like that up just for the sake of creating buzz. Let's just say that SOB does open later in the season in theory. The ride will still be exactly the same as it was before the accident, unless they've been doing some major rehabbing on the coaster that we don't know about yet. Both of those things are huge "if"s.

Mine is definitely Diamondback now. Prior to this season it was probably Vortex, but now that the new world-class hyper is in town there's no reason not to power lap DB whenever possible! Perhaps it's just me, but I've really grown to appreciate DB more and more over the course of this year. My first rides on it (in the back or middle) were just a little above average, but I think that first front row ride changed everything. I vacillate between DB and Behemoth as my favorite hyper (in the DB camp, for now at least), but I am truly thankful we got a ride of this magnitude at KI.

^ I agree that launching right into a trim is a little odd, but I don't know that I'd enjoy the second half without the trim. Those Stengel dives are already borderline choppy and I'm not sure I'd want to be going any faster through them! Manhattan Express is easily the worst steel I've been on. The original X comes in a distant second. I will say that the modifications have made (now) X2 a slightly better experience. I won't ride Ninja at SFOG or any of the hang-and-bangs. No credit is worth that. Worst wood goes to SOB, hands down. GASM at SFOG and Wild(e) Beast at Canada's Wonderland round out the win-place-show. I'd say Georgia Cyclone would be up here too, but I think that's more "aggressive" than rough.

Prowler is a really, really good coaster. It's not quite as good as Thunderhead but it's really close. I think the voters may have been swayed by the fact that it's a wooden coaster, and you don't have as many good ones come out year in and year out as you do steel.

I'm surprised Diamondback finished 2nd in the Best New Ride category. I thought for sure it'd come down between Manta and Prowler. I'm not surprised, however, that Diamondback finished 7th in Best Steel. Diamondback is a world class ride and I'm betting that it will climb higher in future polls (along with Behemoth...once more people ride this it will definitely climb higher).

I agree with everyone in regards to the food prices. Outside of the fudge I have purchased only one food item in any CF park this year (been to five different parks in the chain so far) some chicken tenders at Outer Hanks (thanks to everyone who posted about this, excellent suggestion!). Neither the quality or price of the food compel me to purchase anything. I could definitely be swayed by a season pass discount, but it'd probably have to be in the neighborhood of 20% before I'd start thinking about it. The only reason I eat anything at Dollywood is because of their 20% season pass discount. The discount has to be across the board, though. It's much easier for everyone if you facilitate it that way, because then both season pass holders AND employees know about the discount and don't have to wonder if any discounts apply at any given location. The only other big thing I see is how their Platinum Passes program operates. I've been to five different parks in the chain outside of KI (Cedar Point, Carowinds, Dorney Park, Canada's Wonderland, Worlds of Fun) and have had a wide range of experiences using the pass for parking and admission into the park. Cedar Point, Carowinds and Worlds of Fun presented no issues with either parking or admission. Dorney Park I only had issues with the parking but not with admission. Canada's Wonderland; I've not only had problems with parking (on both visits) but then was initially denied admission this last time. They indicated that my PP was only valid through 08. I explained to them that I had renewed the pass at the park in 08 for the 09 season, but they couldn't see that on their computer systems. I told them that I had been to KI, Cedar Point and Worlds of Fun with that pass all within the last month but again, they couldn't see that. I asked if they would call KI and verify that the pass was good, and they finally agreed to do so. 25 minutes later they came back and said that the pass was good, and suggested that I get a new PP when I got back to KI, updated for the 09 season. Uh, no, not when I've already used the pass dozens of times to get into various parks! Perhaps it's just Canada's Wonderland that needs to be integrated into the system, but what CF needs to do is simply have a "Cedar Fair" Platinum Pass, not a "insert park X" Platinum Pass and integrate all the parks on the same system. I know the current system is there for accounting purposes, et al, but I don't know why the system can't be tweaked to find another way to allocate season pass sales to the individual parks. If I make 10 visits to CF parks total, 5 at KI and 1 visit each at five others why not just allocate half of my PP sales to KI and then 1/10 to each of the five others. It's not like this would be hard, but again, this is assuming that all parks would have access to a common system. Overall I think CF has been great for the parks. They've either recently added or will be adding rides that each individual park has desperately needed (well, except for Great America, but that's more due to the current situation IMO). CF will continue to invest in each park and try and make each park better, something I didn't necessarily feel was entirely true just before CF took over. I would simply ask that they continue to look at ways they can make the guest experience better, and if they do that then I'm sure everyone will be happier.