malem

I had an opportunity to go on two subsequent field trips to Cedar Point with two different classes in the same year. I opted out of the second.

Terp, you know a lot more about law and about this case than I do, so I'm inclined to respect your opinions on the matter. Bear with me as I ramble on a bit and play a devil's advocate on both sides, to try to understand this better. Taking a step back with the Kroger analogy, suppose they have a system error that causes all items to ring up at a 17% discount off the marked prices. If you realize this before they do, do you have the right to insist that the implied contract of sale be upheld? Going a bit further, suppose you change the dates on a hypothetical 17%-off-everything coupon, so that you can use it after it has expired. If Loss Prevention realizes this as you push your cart out of the store, would they have to uphold the agreed-upon sale? (Furthermore, if you proposed to remedy the situation by simply paying back the 17%, would the store have to accept this?) My point here is that if a mistake or misrepresentation prevents a "meeting of the minds" at the time a contract is formed, it can* be rendered void. Back to your argument: what is odd in this specific case is that, from the news reports, the contract seems to have been voided based on the actions of Dan and KDC after Will's death. Going back to the Kroger scenario, suppose you take your modified 17% coupon to Customer Service after the sale and ask for a price adjustment. In that case, Loss Prevention certainly wouldn't have the right to void the sale or repossess your previously purchased groceries. As best I can tell, the successful argument in this case was that Dan never attempted to fully follow his obligations in the contract, by way of undervaluing the shares. Based on this, perhaps the judge concluded that there was insufficient intent when the contract was entered, making this more similar to the first or second Kroger scenario. In any case, whether the logic applies to the facts, and whether the findings of fact were indeed valid, is now a question for the appellate court. ("intent" here is of course murky; no one intended Will's untimely death.) There are obviously two sides to this, and a final decision has yet to be issued, but I do tend to respect the opinion of a court over my own feelings in the matter. Let's all hope that there can be peace and that both sides receive what is rightfully theirs - be it in form of cash, shares in KDC, control of the company, or other consideration. Best comment in this thread so far! We are all lacking an understanding of the facts, feeling an emotional or personal connection, or (like me) both. When parties are unable to reach an equitable resolution, it's great that we have an impartial** court system. I certainly feel bad for the Koch family members (on both sides) and Holiday World employees affected by this. Especially Pat Koch. On my first-ever visit to HW last season, I was one of only about a dozen guests at the gate when the park opened during a severe thunderstorm. Sure enough, the stories were true: Pat was out in the storm to greet us! *IANAL **but neither instantaneous nor perfect, by any means

Of possible interest, the judge in this case retired shortly after the ruling in December: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/dec/14/judge-recognized-for-service-on-the-bench/ Another good read from that paper: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jun/15/holidayevery-day/

^ Perhaps it was cheaper to demo Thunder Alley at the same time as Son of Beast.

I joined back in 2010, when I was still just a reader. Since I didn't visit KI between 2003 and 2012 - or any Cedar Fair park between 2008 and 2012 - I never found a reason to post. There would usually be something interesting here to read, though, and I'd end up helping my family with their visits to KI and beyond. After reading enough about new management at Cedar Fair, I finally decided to see for myself what a decade had done to KI. As my interest grew, I asked a couple questions here and popped into a few threads. (Somehow, the 2-day ticket became a season pass, two days became six, and a few posts became a few hundred. I blame the Customer Service attendant at Kroger who upsold me.)

^ Your browser must be trying to show "application/pdf" as text, rather than as a PDF file. Try now. (Ignorable details: I changed it so that it's a downloadable "attachment" file, rather than a document that the browser tries to display. Even if you have a broken PDF plugin, this fix should make it work for you. Perhaps you need a new browser and/or bad plugins disabled.) Looking at the logs, someone seems to be having a hard time guessing the password. It's the name of the coaster, all lowercase with no spaces or punctuation.

In all fairness, references to Dan were no longer accurate, as he's currently not with the park. Here is a copy of the original flyer: http://belle.zzxc.net/fun/pw/HWN13.pdf (u: kic p: coaster added to KI in 2009, lowercase) It's definitely a sad situation. At least the company seems to be in good hands this year as the legal process drags on. The particulars of the case still don't make sense to me, but a very-public battle in the appeals court can't be good for anyone involved.

^ The entire CP blog seems to have been imported, presumably by accident. http://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog-article/online-fun/The-Keyholes-Arrive Perhaps the "photo of the day" blog was disabled to hide these, until it can be fixed.

This article is quite biased in favor of the filmmaker; that the documentary stands a "good chance" of putting the chain "out of business" is far-fetched at best. Also, the chain has not gone public; they have merely announced their intent for an IPO. Fatalities are certainly tragic, and all reasonable efforts should be made to prevent them from reoccurring, but ending human interaction with orcas would be a huge overreaction. I do see orca shows being phased out over time, as parks and zoos move towards more natural and immersive exhibits. See SeaWorld Orlando's Antarctica renovation as an example. However, ending them now probably isn't best for the animals currently in captivity. These shows drastically increased public awareness of whales, and much of the resources spent to protect them in the wild can be attributed to this. As our understanding of whales improves, phasing out their use in shows is probably a good idea in the long term. As SeaWorld evolves, ending orca performances certainly won't end the parks.

Thanks for the answers, Don! I'm archiving the questions and answers here, since old tweets can be hard to find. (Even harder when people delete their questions, which at least 2 people have already done.) Q. Why did you retire from riding The Racer? (ohiocolts) A. Love the ride! First roller coaster I rode. Will ride again at some point. Q. Can you share any teasers about new shows, new food, or other additions this season? (myself) A. Ed Alonzo will be back with a new show. New Peanuts show, legends of rock type show in Festhaus and live band on the Bandstand. A2. Some more Soak City enhancements, lots of special events being planned. Q. when are you guys making an new roller coaster ? (@noahharsh1) A. Down the road. Q. how many park maps are distributed throughout the year? And how could one obtain old park maps? (@rollercoastinRO) A. Literally thousands but not as many as before with the launch of the mobile app. Old maps hard to come by. Q. Do bigger people have any issues fitting on the Diamondback or Skyhawk? I've had issues with coasters at Cedar Point before. (@UnderZenith) A. It depends on how ones body is proportioned. It varies from ride to ride. Q. when will details of Coasting for Kids 2013 be finalized? (@jporta2) A. Mid February to early March. A lot involved in putting the event on at all Cedar Fair parks. Q. What is favorite ride of all time, past or present? (@tismeansbeans) A. Favorite is The Racer. First roller coaster I ever rode. Q. any ride improvements this off season? What do you count as hidden gems at KI. How come there are trim brakes on The Beast?TY (stashua123) A. Work is done on all rides during the off-season. Racer has has had work done bottom of first drop and other places. A2. Brakes have been in place on The Beast in the same spots where the trims are since the ride opened. Just different type. Q. What is the "hot stuff" being cooked up in the marketing dept? (@Nathan90210) A. Working on series of special events that our guests will be excited about. Q. what's going on right now during the off season? (@KDFreak925) A. The off-season exists only for guests. Beehive of activity at the park in all depts. Rides get stripped down and rebuilt. Q. What is your favorite snack to eat while in the park? (ohiocolts) A. Fresh-cut thick fries in Rivertown. Q. What was ever done with the crate that sat by Son of Beast's entrance? (@TheSpeedDemon__) A. Dismantled. Q. If anything new is coming for 2014, when will we see teasers and signs for it? (coastergeek101) A. Sometimes late summer, sometimes winter like Dinosaurs Alive!, and sometimes like WindSeeker not at all. Q. If we were trying to think of a random meaningless number between 300 and 309, what number would that be? (‏@gahannaman) A. 308 Q. Any chance of The Racer running backwards again in the future? I miss it (@SteveSnowmn) A. No plans to run one side backwards again, at least for the foreseeable future. Q. will a winterfest ever come back? (@lynchc20) A. No plans to bring the event back at this time. Q. what is new in dinosaur adventure? (@the_chop) A. There will be some additions for 2013. Details will be announced in the spring. Q. how early do rides usually start testing before opening day? (@elizwal01) A. Depends on the ride but some 4-6 weeks before the park opens. Q. Will any consideration be given to increasing early ride time back to 1 hour? (@ssskellogg) A. Early rides for Gold and Platinum passholders will be 30 minutes before park opening as they were previously prior to last year.

^ You should be able to change to one of the two desktop themes using a button at the bottom of the main (mobile) forum index. If that's still broken, you can use the workaround I posted earlier in this thread, in post #20.

Insert the url with a protocol of http instead of https (secure HTTP). Since YouTube now uses https by default when you log in, the forum software should be updated to recognize these URLs. Until then, just change https:/​/ to http:/​/

^ New 2013 Gold/Platinum passes were good for one free fall admission in 2012. 2012 Gold/Platinum passes were good for unlimited admission to 2012's Haunt, and 2013 Gold/Platinum passes are good for unlimited admission to 2013's Haunt. EDIT: to clarify further, there is no re-entry to the park after 7pm on nights with Haunt. (If you use your season pass earlier in the day and arrive after that for Haunt, you're not getting back in unless you pay for admission.)

Easy: Dodgems (operating) (from Original) Hard: People getting soaked by any water ride (repeat from my last post) Expert: Fast Lane entrance

Paying attention in Driver's Ed can prevent the other kind.

Cedar Fair operated it longer (4 seasons) than it had operated as Worlds of Adventure (3 seasons). I don't think that they expected attendance to drop as sharply as it did after deflagging and closing the marine side. They lost the remainder of SeaWorld's super-regional draw while failing to bring back locals. The attendance at the end wasn't even close to what was needed to support a park of that size. After the Paramount acquisition, red ink clearly became a much larger concern, and there were suddenly a large number of successful parks in the chain overdue for major ride(s). By the way, I do blame Cedar Fair for failing to market Geauga Lake properly.

You should be able to process your platinum pass at any park. Whether the system actually works is another question entirely. If you encounter a problem on KD's opening day, you'd probably need to visit their Guest Services.

If you have gold passes from last year, renewing now for $90 each (vs. $169 for platinum) could be your best value unless you are planning at least two trips to other Cedar Fair parks. Price out your options, including individual admission tickets, parking, and gasoline. If you choose gold instead of platinum, one benefit is that you're not locked into Cedar Fair-owned parks for your road trip(s). You might consider visiting Dollywood or Holiday World, for example. (Both are significantly closer to Cincinnati than the other Cedar Fair parks, excluding Cedar Point.)

^ Renovation of the royal fountains?

Just a heads up that price for platinum passes is apparently increasing by $11, to $180, according to Knott's Berry Farm's website. The price at other parks remains $169, for now. (+$5 fee per order, of course) The other parks' prices will likely be going up very soon, as the advertised January 13th deadline for the current "sale" has now passed.

A keynote speaker would be cool indeed. The point of a game is to serve as a conversation starter. You certainly don't want your icebreaker activity distracting from the main events. The key is to make it simple yet interesting. If there's a scavenger hunt, and you want to ignore it and just talk to people, great! Some people need more prompting than others to have fun. A scavenger hunt, for example, might consist of a list of clues, most requiring you to find a location and jot down (or take a picture of, or text message) a minor detail. As a bad (and boring) example, a clue could require the number of gravestones in Boo Blasters. There certainly wouldn't be anything to encourage disruption of other guests or any violation of a park rule.

I was glad to hear that Ouimet wants to elevate Luminosity from an "A" to an "A+". I'm now looking forward to seeing that this year. A culture of continuous improvement and rooting out shortcomings is exciting to see. In this case, the openness earned Cedar Fair quite a bit of free publicity, including the AP article earlier this week. It's certainly a refreshing change from the management of old. It can't be hurting recruitment either.

For the curious, that photo was from the 1994 season. Someone in my family took it - from the angle, I'm pretty sure it was someone taller than me at the time . Scooby may have been alone with those crazy eyes that rolled about. I have photos of other characters from the same time, and they have normal eyes.

^ Don't his KI ride counts provide that answer already?

^ That's 17%. There are definitely two sides to this, but if there was an attempt to leave Will's estate less than whole, that was an underhanded move. The information released so far is from Lori, the park controlled by Lori, and the trial court ruling in her favor. It will be interesting to learn the rest of the story. Could the judge have nullified the purchase agreement based on fraud, if he accepted Lori's assertion that the shares were intentionally undervalued?