malem

Criticism of the park is definitely allowed, but everyone needs to be respectful about it. Posts contributing to arguing and park bashing will be removed. These types of comments create a negative tone that everyone is tired of.

This thread has been cleaned up. Just another reminder to keep the conversation respectful. Those who can't comply will be given time off from KIC.

As of today, Schlitterbahn has dropped the price of 2020 season passes for the holidays to $89.99. The price for New Braunfels was originally $144.99 ($104.99 child/senior) when passes went on sale in August, dropping to $129.99 ($89.99 child/senior) last month.

The value of the assets and land, minus the reputational cost of being associated with that property, apparently isn't worth $6M. That price never suggested a business that would be a going concern. Surprisingly, the local auditor still appraises the property at over $25M as of this year.

According to Kings Island via Twitter, Vortex's final rider count is 46,030,685. That works out to an average of 862,117 riders per season over the past four seasons.

It's good to see the guestrooms being refreshed. They were still pretty nice, but they were definitely due for a remodel considering the price they sell for. Bedbugs affect all types of hotels, from Motel 6 to Four Seasons. Part of the risk of having different guests bring their stuff into the rooms every night. The first thing I do when entering any hotel room is to check the mattresses and behind furniture for signs of bedbugs. GWL follows industry best practices for detecting and eliminating infestations.

There will be a holiday pass offer at KI, of course, but it won't be the same price as the fall pass offer. If you want the absolute lowest price, now is the time to buy.

I got 28 rides this weekend, including 5 today and 13 in a row last night. Going up the lift in what I knew would be my last ride in seat 7-1 was surreal. The park was packed today, but Vortex's send-off deserved a large crowd. It was great seeing so many familiar faces, old and new, turning out for a last ride. Vortex's original 1987 crew gathered at the park for the last day, and the final public train was reserved for them. I was much sadder at the end than I thought I would be. Vortex was a very special ride and a quintessential part of what made the Kings Island of my memories Kings Island. The future is bright, but today is truly the end of an era.

Cedar Point just announced on Twitter that the park is nearing capacity and that the causeway and chaussee are both closed to incoming traffic. Incoming guests are invited to return tomorrow or next weekend.

Indeed, Diamondback and Banshee wouldn't be able to run most days of Winterfest due to temperature. Kings Island will be busy getting all their coasters ready to open on Opening Day 2020, something not all park chains will achieve.

This M&A talk might shed some light on the timing of the CP pass fire sale. My hope is that cheap passes this fall proved that the Six Flags model of giving away the gate to fill the park doesn't necessarily work as well on the Cedar Fair side of things. Especially with CP, families accustomed to paying $300/night to stay at Breakers are likely to demand much more from their vacation than guests used to paying $59.99 for an entire season at their local Six Flags park, with all the other SIX parks included free. Kings Island, Cedar Point, Carowinds, Knott's Berry Farm, Canada's Wonderland and Schlitterbahn really deserve to remain premium destinations regardless of who owns them.

The connection issues I've seen are issues with the cloud provider they contract with for management and the captive portal. I haven't had any problems connecting since early this season. Since most of the equipment was installed c. 2017, it is unlikely that 802.11ax is currently supported. Someone with a capable device (Pixel 4, Galaxy S10 or iPhone 11) would be able to tell for sure if a given access point supported it. Maybe @acole5292 can tell us on (Vortex) Closing Day.

It's long been speculated that one of the bigger factors preventing a Six Flags merger is Cedar Fair's tax advantage as a limited partnership. A merged entity would almost certainly be a taxable corporation rather than a pass-through partnership. I really hope this doesn't go through. I'd hate to see a combined chain with as much debt as this deal would create, and I'd hate to see the Six Flags management style applied to any of the Cedar Fair parks.

HalloWeekends Sundays haven't been bad so far this season. Fridays have been pretty busy, and Saturdays have been nuts (with the parking lot filling to capacity on good-weather days). Gold Passes are new at Cedar Point for 2020, and the introductory price of $99 is drawing lots of people to the park.

The Racer has been running well all season, but rides this fall have been particularly impressive. Blue Racer has a slight edge, but both Red and Blue have been delivering lots of airtime these past two weekends. I highly recommend riding both sides when visiting Haunt this year.

Check the terms of your ticket to see which dates it's valid. Most 2019 single day tickets are valid any operating day through October 27, 2019, including during Haunt. If you're referring to discounted starlight tickets sold at the front gate, these are not offered during the fall season. Hope you enjoy your visit to the park!

I wouldn't expect another major installation in 2021 or 2022 as Kings Island continues its focus on Orion and then the 50th anniversary. Sometimes, a ride reaches the end of its service life sooner than everyone would have liked. Today is a sad day, but the future for the park is bright.

I'm sure Vekoma is willing to supply parts for any of their rides, for the right price. As older installations reach the end of their service lives, it becomes a cost/benefit analysis. An interesting tidbit: if Boo Blasters remains past 2020, it will have beaten Phantom Theater to be the longest lived theme our dark ride building has seen.

The KI&MV RR is open during the day in the fall, though it closes on Saturday before Haunt starts.

Holiday World has closed coasters for the fall season in the past to get a head start on major maintenance projects. They have typically given advance notice of the downtime, the construction projects aren't always easy to predict. As annoying as it is to have rides down, it's better to not ride something on a particular visit than to have an inferior experience on a ride in need of maintenance. Always good to see parks investing in the long term.

Layoffs have begun at both acquired parks. https://www.kens5.com/amp/article/news/local/schlitterbahn-laying-off-employees-following-ownership-change-this-summer/273-1334d590-7277-40c4-930f-4ba42d8dc7c0

The policy page mentions that cars off dropping guests (presumably parents dropping off their kids) will be handed a copy of the rules. I think this is mostly about communicating expectations more clearly. Rowdy guests were ejected from the park last weekend. Perhaps we'll see more bans and fewer warnings, since no one can claim ignorance.

Carowinds has posted a new guest conduct policy for Scarowinds after complaints about fighting made the local news last weekend. Horseplay and running are now expressly prohibited during Scarowinds.

It had separate load and unload stations. It was down quite a bit in its final years, and being built into a former dark ride building didn't make maintenance any easier. It was up and running at the beginning of the 2018 season; I got what were to be my final rides on Opening Day.

Its a shame its service life came to such an abrupt end, but it's nice to see a parts of the ride preserved for historic value. The National Roller Coaster Museum doesn't (yet) have visitor facilities, but the collection can be seen during special events and by arrangement.