disco2000

The was the point of my post you quoted...it could be simply for marketing and not construction...

It is not uncommon for companies associated with a project to lend their machinery as marketing for them as part of a ground breaking ceremony as all the pics are free advertising for them. So maybe CF didn't spend any capital for the crane to be there. Or maybe they did. In any event it is part of the overall marketing strategy and selling of the new ride. Heck some movies spend more in marketing the movie than the actual movie cost to produce lol.

Banshee is running now.

You obviously don't understand the concept of the ceremonial act of "breaking ground". In many instances they are simply a photo ops for elected officials digging with a "gold" shovel and usually with some big equipment around that may or may not be used on said project LOL. A gold shovel isn't really used for the construction LOL, but it makes for a great picture of elected officials in suits and hard hats "breaking ground" on the new project (that may have actually started months ago) LOL. In this case, it is a company trying to get interest in their project and they are going vertical with the installation, so they bring in a big crane for a photo op. Heck the rental company may have brought it free of charge for the free publicity/marketing of their company.... What is a better photo op for the media - a system of ropes and pulleys festooned to tall trees or a big @$$ crane LOL. Granted I would like to see festooned to tall trees LOL, but that isn't the look they are going for

A coaster is a coaster so close enough

Go on a Tuesday with rain in the forecast they say...says a guest as they walk up to find an almost full Diamondback queue and FL down steps and around corner past under the lift LOL

Once the FastLane line gets longer than the regular line they shut it down I think it is just unlucky as they all have enough staff standing around to operate. Some rides are also down due to wind.

Everybody keeps posting on FB that Tuesdays and this week are light weeks and then they complain when it is busy LOL. That and this is the first day new and renewal passholders can get their front of the line pass, so they gotta get that freebie LOL. FL will be longer than regular lines LOL.

Some parents would so zip tie their child if that meant they could ride Orion LOL

Yeah but the cooler water And don't forget about the trash compactor. I never considered the 2 bring a friend as a benefit given you can put a price on that. And what are we going to charge our friend to recoup that cost LOL. I bet most haven't even used that as their friends all have passes or don't want to go LOL. None of my friends with Prestige have used that perk yet. The front of the line is a nice perk for some but now they started selling that so there is a price associated with it. Start adding that up and it takes awhile to get to the price difference.

Just a few months behind when they did that to ours LOL. And yet people still bought them, just look at your FB site LOL.

While is it good you question these things, not everything is black/white and as straightforward as your mind works. Very few marketing activities can assign an actual dollar amount tied back to it. As @BoddaH1994point out, only items where EVERY purchase is done thru a code that the business can track back how the person heard of the business. Unless KI asks EVERY SINGLE person that enters the park "Where did you hear about KI that made you come today", it is impossible to tie a dollar amount to which advertising/marketing effort it gets attributed to. So since nobody can substantiate how much revenue is brought in from marketing, it appears in your mind that a company should spend ZERO amount on any marketing activities? That is the flip side of your argument.... So you have to go with historical numbers, trends, and rely on those that have been there/done that on the effectiveness of such a program. Does P&G and Coca-Cola and car manufacturers and any well known company have to advertise? How do they tie back that the Xmillions they spend on advertising every year provides the return? Coca-Cola spends $4 Billion, yes billion, every year in marketing, promotions, advertising, etc. Can they accurately say the revenue they received as a result of $4Billion in advertising is bringing in more revenue than the spend? People are creatures of habit and Coca-Cola drinkers will continue to drink Coca-Cola whether ads run or not. The ads are probably only to primarily drive new customers or steer the non-habit consumer - can they say new customers provided in excess of $4B in sales? Of course they cannot. Can every company that shelled out $7 Million for a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl accurately provide numbers to justify the costs? Speaking of the Super Bowl, the half-time performers do not get paid. Most of the time these performers do not have a record coming out so their sales are relatively level. However, after Rihanna's Super Bowl halftime show performance, her music the following week experienced a 211% increase in on-demand streams and a 390% increase in digital song sales overall, as the songs she performed saw a similar boost. Was it 100% the result of the performance? Nobody can say for certain, but most will say it was. Staying on the football trend LOL, Kettering Health is the Official Healthcare Provider of the Cincinnati Bengals. Who knows how much they spend annually on it, but when the unfortunate situation happened with Damar Hamlin last year, why was it that UC that took care of him? UC Health got way more free advertising during that ordeal than the healthcare paying to be the "official" provider... I haven't heard any rumblings of Kettering Health looking to terminate that agreement this year or ask for money back....so they must still see value in that partnership even though they didn't provide the healthcare when someone went into cardiac arrest on the field... So a company like KI would look at the trends after an ad or marketing piece airs and like @BoddaH1994said, the uptick following the ad or promotion will be attributed to said ad but nobody can say 100% certainty that the increase is 100% directly related to it. And that is why as soon as a company hits a rough patch or a downturn in the economy, marketing budgets and personnel are usually the first things cut because it is hard to black/white accurately account for their value and people start to see it as luxury spending instead of necessity spending when they are trying to keep the doors open.

Your approach is simpler though - just hand them your credit card and tell them to take what is fair

Not surprising how many on other social media sites are saying/bragging LOL that they bought the Prestige Pass for next year. I know in the several times I walked passed it this weekend there were a lot more people in there other than the normal folks I would typically see in there. And when they sell a lot of the Prestige passes, there isn't a lot of incentive for the park/chain to want to make any improvements. It would be interesting to see how many people that have slammed Prestige on social media and in the survey this year still went ahead and renewed Prestige. I suspect it is still a high number.

Yeah but we have exclusive cooler water. Top that LOL

It's thanks to guests like you that hand CF your credit card and tell them to take what is fair

You cannot use them on any Saturday. You can use them on any Sunday except for 9/3. You can only get one per visit, so you would have to come 5 times in order to receive all 5.

They haven't thought that far ahead and will see this thread and be like whoops lol Or maybe ERT is a thing of the past?

Budget cuts LOL

You sure it isn't December 31, 2023

Packing up Grand and bringing in Winterfest floats lol

Word on the midway is the Lounge will have hot chocolate for Winterfest, but given they took away stuff in writing, I wouldn't hold my breath on a verbal lol

Just heard a guest say that the Snoopy Soap Box Racers is already built they just aren't running it until next year LOL

Word on the midway is that the Lounge is out of ice and the cooler is now a warmer Get your warm water before they find the ice lol

Meanwhile some bean counter is sitting in Sandusky, or Charlotte, and seeing the queue wait time and says "See we don't need big productions for new announcements - just throw it on social media and the demand will be there"