disco2000

Is that in order by ranking

At least they learned and will have Haunt at night LOL. I was half expecting Haunt from 4pm to 7pm

Hey, they did give us an extra hour compared to recent Sundays in Sept/October LOL. Plus our Haunt event doesn't happen on Sundays...

The child payment is not considered taxable income. They only have to pay back if their tax filing status changes - like this year they made more than the previous and it bumped them to the next tax bracket, divorce, that sort of thing. From my observations, not many were deterred by long lines and made several visits. I believe we will hear at the end of year results call that the number of times a pass was used per person will be up this year over pre-pandemic numbers. The bigger question that plays into your concern is when the stimulus/child credit dries up, will these same families then purchase a pass or will they decide to spend their money elsewhere based on their experiences this year. Many of us have predicted that the short term gains CF tends to employ will come back to bite them long term. One of these days we will be right LOL.

Sam the butcher of course

Let me hit that JustAnswer ad and see if it tells me Dane can make them go away

True, but despite the long Fast Lane lines at Cedar Point, issues, anecdotal accounts of parks being busier than in the past (since CF claims attendance is down despite park goer observations); other issues at parks, etc. CF execs said on the conference call that guest satisfaction surveys are high and in some cases record highs ("We have also witnessed this firsthand at Knott's Berry Farm where we achieved some of our highest customer satisfaction scores...") CF said they made more money the 10 weeks leading into Labor Day 2021 than they did for the same period pre-pandemic 2019 and this is despite less operating hours, higher labor rates, majority of passholders were rollovers without much "new" pass revenue, and supposedly a 20% reduction in attendance. Who would have thought the per caps spending would have jumped so much. If true, it then shows that they can make money with less attendance. Most here would say that the offerings of the parks this year were less than previous years (discounting 2020 for obvious reasons), yet on the parameters that CF looks at, attendance is the only one that is down chainwide, most likely due to CW late opening and restrictions and less operating days. Sadly it appears that we are in the minority in this thinking regarding a degraded experience. If people are willing to pay $250 for a FL+ on Saturdays at CP and still experience hour plus waits, then clearly the price of the admission to get in is deemed too low by the majority of guest that attend so they just accept that the longer lines come with cheaper entry... Social Media exploded this year with people saying CP is too busy this year and it is the last time they attend, blah blah blah...and watch come October we will hear the same overcrowding complaints we have heard the past several years. As long as the crowds and per cap increases continue, why invest they say...

Maybe this ad can answer all our KI questions

Did anybody get the mail order bride ad yet

To be fair, I think the weather every Thursday that year rained and sucked. But a lot has changed since then as well. Overall park clientele has changed as have the "normal" working hours of a lot people. Because so many do not work the traditional "9 to 5" job anymore and many have flex-time, work from home, etc., there is a demand for events that traditionally/historically would only be weekend type events. Sure the teen population still has school the next day, but they would be up past closing time regardless LOL. And more so than the last attempt, many high schools now operate more like a college campus, so if students lined up study halls or online college credit plus courses first thing, many do not need to be at school right when school starts. I think this is why we are seeing Cedar Point expand their HalloWeekends operating calendar onto Thursdays and 10pm closes on Sunday. I think Cedar Point will do very well with their Thursday and Sunday evening additions. Other Haunt attractions do very well on a Thursday. Dent Schoolhouse can seem just as busy on a Thursday as a Saturday, and I believe they added more Thursdays into the operating calendar this year than years past. While I certainly agree with you on the "do it right or don't do it", I do think that with proper manage the expectations going in, there is a demand for Thursday Haunt. Open the 5 big rides that people wanna ride and all Haunt attractions open, and people will come.

And to go along with this, as long as the park continues to win this meaningless fan popularity contest, why invest in improving the product? If the park going guests think highly enough of it as it is right now that they "stuff the ballots" for KI to win this, then "why fix what ain't broke"... As pointed out, we get a "new" maze being a corn field theme on its 14th year under 3 different names and as many locations...a lot less expensive to do that they create something new every two years. This year we get Haunt like it's a 2019 watered down event and win a popularity contest as best Halloween attraction by the people that will actually attend the event (compared to a ranking that could be done by non-biased "industry experts"). Easy to see why the powers that be provide very little budget for the event. Haunt Saturdays tend to already be very well attended, so spending X amount more will not bring in enough guests to justify the additional expenditure (if the park could even handle much more).... What incentive is there to put any more effort and budget into it? As long as the guests continue to come and vote to make it the #1 Haunt event, we will continue down this path...

Yes, except on a computer it comes up from the bottom and always seems to pop up just as you are getting ready to click next page and then you get the full ad LOL

CF has some Halloween related IP as well

Anyone else getting the annoying ad pop-up that takes up half the screen LOL?

I know many people that don't even rank Orion as a top 3 coaster within KI itself and most I talk to rank Diamondback above Orion, so this ranking isn't a shock to me...

Well you used to get a coney or fries with it, so no LOL

I got a 3-way at Skyline over the weekend

Is that the cash or cashless way LOL

The article says: "For the 10-weeks ended Sept. 5, 2021, preliminary net revenues totaled $645 million, a $3 million increase from $642 million during the comparable 10-week period in 2019. The year-over-year growth was driven by a 25%, or $12.73, increase in in-park per capita spending to $62.81, and a $3 million, or 4%, increase in out-of-park revenues to $71 million. These increases were offset in part by a decrease in attendance of 2.4 million visits, or 20%, largely due to 58 fewer operating days in the period" So an increase in revenue over pre-pandemic numbers despite season passes being rolled over and good for this year and despite a claimed 20% less attendance over the same period pre-pandemic....would be interesting to hear if the 58 fewer operating days resulted in offsetting the increase labor costs...

I got mine

^You can thank King Ding Dong for that LOL. I refer to it as the KDD platter

^Anyone in your family vaccinated (if you care to disclose)?

Sorry for double post but it has been 6 days lol. Guess who is on FUNtv @VortexBFForever

Unfortunately in today's society, owning up to one's own mistake is a lost trait these days. How many people have had their fingers nipped on The Beast tunnels and were like "my bad". How many people lose their phone on a ride because they had it out and were like "my bad". How many incidents have we seen where a mask is a requirement to enter a business and someone doesn't and an employee politely informs them of the policy and the person is like "my bad". Many instances the employee is assaulted. How many times have you been second in line at a stop light and the person in front of you is clearly texting and the light turns green and after 10 seconds you give a courtesy quick horn tap instead of laying down on it and they wave "my bad". I usually get flipped off LOL, but sometimes people road rage with worse results. My friend did a light horn tap once in that situation and the guy flipped him off and took off and turned down a street ahead. A little later my friend is sitting at a light and gets sucker punched and got his jaw broken - by that guy that was road raging.

Nope, once you are in the park, you are good to go. In years past, after Haunt starts (or maybe after 7pm), you cannot leave and gain re-entry, but you can come and go up until that point. Stay tuned if that policy is still in effect for this year....