SonofBaconator

From videos I’ve seen, it looks like they’re prepping for Option 1. That being said, it’s possible that they might get that Zambezi Zinger type ride later on in the decade and displaying it might give them immediate feedback from their guests on whether or not they want it. If people seem excited about a new wooden coaster, then they’ll build it for the late 2020s/early 2030s. If people don’t seem all that enthusiastic about it, then maybe they’ll scrap the concept and think of something else. My two cents.

I think Canada’s Wonderland was meant to be the unofficial test park for Cedar Fair. You see the first B&M giga, the chain’s first TrioTech shooting coaster, I believe Yukon Striker was originally supposed to be the chain’s first B&M dive instead of Valravn (correct me if I’m wrong), not to mention the numerous flat rides, a cloneable kids’ launched coaster, and now potentially the chain’s first launched wing coaster. That’s not to say that other parks haven’t received first-of-it’s-kind stuff but Canada’s Wonderland seems to be churning out new ideas with every new addition.

I couldn’t imagine how KI fans would react if they got the opportunity to vote on what coaster they could get.

@Tr0y I don’t think that’s the best thing to do in response to this type of incident.

Try a mini Verbolten that fits the KI theme

Vortex first then Backlot. If you retheme Backlot in say 2026 and get a Vortex replacement in say 2028, you’re going to see some attention pulled from Backlot. Now, if you replace Vortex first then let Backlot age, you could treat the potential retheme as filler- similar to what Adventure Express was in 2023. Now what do you consider a top-to-bottom retheme? Would you simply swap out the props like the cop cars and city scape for something different, or would you go further and alter the trains on top of retheming?

Care to share?

I’ve been told this isn’t the case when I asked an engineer in passing but that could be inaccurate. From what I gather, it comes down to staffing and audience. The railroad is not part of the rides department in the sense of staffing, a Mystic Timbers ride op couldn’t just hop in the cab of either locomotive- the operators of the railroad are locomotive engineers that work for just the trains if that makes sense. I’m sure operating the train for long hours into the night might be hard to staff. At least with Winterfest, the event opens later so you can get enough staffing as opposed to trying to schedule train crews from 11am-12am for Haunt. On top of that, with the platform gone the train would have to run like it would for Winterfest where it goes throughout the whole course with passengers so you would have to either put scare actors along the route or add a bunch of props that they’d have to tear down for Winterfest. As far as the audience goes, Haunt draws in a different crowd than Winterfest. Winterfest brings with it a family atmosphere where as Haunt does not. I could imagine people trying to hop off the train and go into the woods (I’ve actually seen people go into the woods while waiting in line for Field of Screams years ago.) With all that said, it’s probably for good reasons that it doesn’t operate for Haunt but in a perfect world it would be cool to see it brought back in a way that works.

This won’t happen in 2023 but I would like to see a few changes in the future: I wish Haunts could be incorporated into the rides. For example, bring the train back somehow, bring back the monster that you see while riding The Beast, put spooky colored lights in the tunnel for BLSC, add haunt props to Adventure Express and Mystic, etc. Also have a transition between the kids event and Haunt. If I recall correctly, last season Planet Snoopy closed right around the time Haunt began which overlaps the events. Finally, and this might be the comment that gets me tarred and feathered, but I’d put the roaming monsters in the mazes and scare zones. There are so many people who attend haunt that I feel like the roaming actors and actresses get lost in the shuffle. If they could pull them and possibly open up even more mazes, that would ideal in my opinion. Again a controversial opinion.

Just a fun little What-If I’ve had in my mind for a while. Imagine Fun Spot wants to sell off their parks to a major chain, who buys them out and why?

I was thinking basically make a 4D Phantom Theater show. Actually it would be shows as I thought it would be cool to have alternate viewings similar to how you get alternate endings to Mystic Timbers. Imagine walking into the 4D actual theater to take your seats and looking around and seeing different animatronic characters talking to one another before the show begins. If they didn’t want to do animatronics, they could simply do voices which could further push the phantom effect.

I’ve had that thought a while ago. They could incorporate animatronics in with a 4-D feel. The best example I could come up with would be animatronics talking to one another before the ride sequence begins, and then you go through your 4-D ride. The closest example I can come up with would be how the Chuck E. Cheese animatronics would talk to one another in between show sets.

Haunted Mansion was the “Ballroom”, Phantom Theater was the stage about halfway through the ride. @BoddaH1994 most likely said ballroom because that was what inspired the stage scene as they both featured the “pepper’s ghost” affect.

Between antique cars and steam locomotives, antique cars are easier to resurrect. Once you get rid of your steam locomotives, passenger cars, and rails….they’re gone. Water works kept our trains running, where as Kings Dominion’s railroad couldn’t be converted to a transport ride considering how the route was set up unless they ripped up the rails and reconfigure the line, which would’ve cost Paramount $$.

Don was very passionate about what he did for the park and its fans. I hope him leaving doesn’t put the park at a disadvantage down the road- there are some people who do such good work that it truly makes a difference when they’re no longer there.

I heard the same rumor but for a giga. Would SEAS want two hypers so close to one another? Granted they have Kumba and Kraken and their share of launched coasters..

Does that area of the park get much foot traffic? I know the Congo train station hasn’t been open for some time.

One of the props has Charlie Brown as a Mountie so that wouldn’t translate to an American theme park- granted you can design a lot with a 3D printer nowadays so they could do something entirely different. On a side note, I wonder how much $$$ is being saved doing the theming in house.

Surprised they don’t play Peanuts

Nope, it was because of what @Shaggy said. I believe they were licensed in the Mall of America as well which ironically got taken over by Nickelodeon. Chains will always want brands to act like a mascot. Sea World Entertainment has Sesame Street, Six Flags has Looney Tunes and DC, Disney has…well Disney, Universal has their IP and Harry Potter, Cedar Fair has Peanuts, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if Herschend started to look for a brand to be featured in their parks in the future to establish more of an identity.

What’s really unfortunate is that incidents are happening to these high profile rides. You had an incident with Top Thrill Dragster a few seasons back, now you have this with Fury 325. It makes you wonder if Cedar Fair will take a break from big installs in the future in favor of smaller attractions under 200ft.

Hanna-Barbera didn’t really age great into the turn of the millennium was on leave you properties like Scooby Doo, Flintstones, and Yogi bear be recognizable by younger audiences through direct to home films, cereals, campsites, etc. Warner Bros. didn’t really want to continue to promote characters like Quickdraw McGraw, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, Top Cat, etc. Nickelodeon became a popular go-to for kids of the 90s, but where, as Hanna-Barbera had existed for a few decades, Nickelodeon’s characters more or less faded. Sure everybody remembers SpongeBob as it’s still being milked to this day, but other properties, such as Jimmy Neutron, Fairly OddParents, Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, etc all faded into memory. Peanuts, on the other hand, has predated and existed alongside most of Hanna-Barbera and Nickelodeon properties throughout the years. There’s a Peanuts special for nearly every holiday. For a while they played said specials on network tv. They still produce content for them on AppleTV and they just had a big screen film come out a few years ago. At my house we still have the old VHS tapes that we put in for whatever corresponding holiday is coming up. I don’t think the Peanuts IP will ever truly become outdated as long as they continue to produce content for younger generations and they remain present in Cedar Fair parks.

I never understood why you would want to manufacture rides if you can’t supply the parts to them down the road-that’s only gonna make you look bad in the long term. It’s not like parks can go to Roller Coaster AutoZone and pick up what they need. I remember going to a a panel when I was an intern at Cedar Point in 2018 and somebody had brought up in Intamin. Their head of maintenance said that the cost of operating their Intamin roller coasters had gone up significantly over the last decade. I have no recordings of this panel, so I have no source to back this statement up aside from myself who was in attendance so take the information how you see fit. I’m sure removing Wicked Twister saved them some future expenses when it comes to purchasing parts and providing maintenance. I’d also imagine the removal of TTD’s original propulsion system has saved them some cheddar as well.