brenthodge

Sitting here by the beautifully landscaped FarmHouse, at a delightful lunch of generous helpings at lunch on a Monday listening to live music makes it really hard to say KI has a superior experience to CedarPoint… it doesn’t.

Two awesome meals at CedarPoint today. No waxy tissue in sight, just nice, heavy square paper plates. Great quality. How people say KI is better is WAY beyond me. This park blows us away. Love my home park, but jealous every time I’m here.

The ride ops seem fine, it’s more the physical space I’m referring to.

I will say daily ops are actually pretty good. It’s more the long term, deferred maintenance that’s sad to see. I should’ve been more clear on that. It’s clean, it’s just you are cleaning an old house that’s not been really cared for for years. I hope they can get it back on track. You can tell there’s been both a lack of investment, and poor choices as to how the investment is executed for years.

Sorry, Gurnee.

I will never complain about the state of maintenance at KI again (ok, I will - I lied) but my god Great America is a beautiful park treated like trash. Sad to see the bones of something amazing looking every one of its 50 years. Some things look like that was the last time they were painted.

its not good

It was like that about a week after opening. Lots of things already need to be addressed like that.

good call. It's been a nasty day most all day.

AWESOME to hear. Individual experiences vary - so Im glad to hear maybe Friday was an off night. Admittedly Ive only been on 3x but each time seems to be more off, so I hope that trend is reversing. Ive noticed the timing seems to consistenly be off with that final blast. Wonder if they will keep trying to get it to synch with the set of cars, or just go to a more generic loop. Highlighting all the things going RIGHT does not you an apologist any more than highlighting the opportunities for improvements makes you miserable negative grump - both just shows you care about the park!

Sadly it’s not getting better- actually worse. Tonight a good 40-50% of the on ride screens were out. Only one load window worked, one organ window worked, one mirror worked, one boiler video was frozen till we almost past it- the first one still off. Interesting that outside of the mirrors and boiler ones, these aren’t synced with anything- just loop. Not sure why it’s so hard to keep these going. Only seen them working on preview day. Whatever people think is “supposed to happen” with the legs behind the curtain- I think what we have is it. With daily ops about to start, I don’t see any “new or broken effects” being added. I think it’s shoes behind a curtain- nothing more The sticker signs keep peeling, and I keep sticking them back down. But I’ve been doing that since previews so it’s an ongoing problem that’s not being fixed. Cmon guys. This is your “big add” for the season. Treat it as such.

I hold to my theory that the food at KI looks better without the annoying paper and portion cups.

I’d take fireworks on Fri-Sunday only if it got us better entertainment during the day/week. I personally don’t need to watch 10 pm fireworks 36 times.

Definitely this. This spot is usually packed, but still seems like a waste of a great indoor seating area. It’s a shame it’s on the same side as Grill and Grain in that it would be great to have a full sit down Italian restaurant “featuring” LaRosas pizza but that also had pasta dishes and salads. Wonder if the “Italy” side could ever be reconfigured to add that and use the Starbucks space for the displaced retail, then site build a new “Garden Cafe featuring Starbucks” where Shooting Star standing now. Nice indoor/ outdoor seating. Busy path, yet slightly “out of the way”. Great place to have featured breakfast items.

Nope- just observing. Had a great day.

Retail on Int Street (and pretty much whole park) is so weak right now. Int street is most noticeable because they have 4 spaces (more if count them broken up) that provide no reason to go in any one over the other because they have the same junk. Why do they even have different names - just call them "crap for sale" 1,2 EAST and 3,4, WEST. There is KICollection that has NO artwork, collectible items, books (other than the ones available in every other shop) or anything "collection" oriented unless you collect plaid pajama pants. Essentials - has a great new interior design (which SHOULD have gone to the "Collection") but has some essentials and again the same books and random things that you just saw in "Collection" then there is an emporioum that has all of the stuff repeated AGAIN and whatever they are now calling the spot on the right that has more "essentials" as well as the same stuff I've already seen. What happened to the idea of MERCHANDISING related ideas together to create different shops? What happened to having a "home" shop that has product that brings the park to your house. What happened to the idea of creating ride-specific "mini shops" where cross-category items helped create a one stop shop if you loved The Beast etc. There is no reason whatsoever to go in any one shop over the other and even my kid who "wantedt o shop" today pretty much said "whats the point". They really need to step it up in the merchandising area. I'd seriously love to apply, but I dont think they are even hiring with an eye toward settng up the shops that way.

I think keeping the "cold breakfast" at FC is a good idea - like the waffle, fruit waffle and even a "breakfast sandwich" but then move the breakfast potatoes and a few "classic hot options" like baon, sausage, scrambled eggs - like an "American Breakfast" to grill and grain. The move to the bar for pick up seems like a no brainer in that the kitchen staff was having to run the food over to the register anyway (as in the order takers werent getting it in a pick up window) so they could just as easily walk out the kitchen door behind the bar for one single pick up location.

Three operating weekends. That’s how long it took for the animated Larry on the merchandise cart to stop working in case anyone is wondering. The cat still works for now, but Larry-who was squeaky this morning has now stopped as of this afternoon. I believe he ties “spinning snoopy” for the “simplest animation with a short life span” award.

I think that ship has sailed, but they could at least take the time to “refocus”, inspect and program a few “classic” patterns to rotate through through the day.

Have we just given up on the fountain? It looks like a jumbled mess. Jets going crooked all over. Everything at full blast - even with the wind- except the ones that don’t even hit the same height. No changing, just all on- all the time-all over the place.

Breakfast great idea. Not so great operations or quality. You have two order lines, then no clear area or side where food is brought to. Does it come to the side you ordered? Does it come to the side closest to the kitchen? Does it come to the side more out of the way where people are all standing? Yes. Pick one, who knows which one you will get. I can guarantee you though it will NOT be the place you move to after seeing 3 orders being given out there. It will also NOT be from the bar where there is a door right into the kitchen and a single associate staring off into space because no one is drinking at 10:30am. Then when you get your food hand delivered by the executive chef who oversees all food quality and concept, you get a breakfast sandwich with a hard, kinda burnt egg rectangle and a slice of American cheese so cold it’s laying like a piece of cardboard on top. I really would’ve said “this is what you approve as ‘fine’ coming out of your kitchen, but they were so busy and backed up I didn’t have the heart to do it to anyone behind me. Again LOVE the concept and based on the line-needed, but needs to be figured out how to execute better.

I have a friend who actually loads and shoots the shows at the park sometimes, and no, they are not going away. They are posting the hiring for one specific aspect of the show (which incidentally is the more expensive aspect to run) drones. This does not affect the fireworks component.

aIt was a winterfest tree (the one in Coney) only for the first return year. It moved to coney the following year. They need to put a large red/white tripe tree there for Winterfest now since the base is there and it should be able to go over the topiary base

It should be the first thing you see before they become "real" but as you said, I think the goal was just to have the effect - not actually tell a logical story sequence as they do at the disney versions. In this version- it could actually be having a scene not using the current characters, but maybe the "ghosts of theatre greats past" who could share the stage with the current cast, but I think you'd have to show them throughout the ride as photos, posters etc to establish thesre are "dearly departed theatre greats" so when they reappear as pepper'sn ghosts it makes sense. I think thats way more thought than they were giving this refresh

When you look from overhead, you see how illogical the paver design was. Why they used the dark gray/black the way they did baffles me. Those should have been the "road" with the lighter used on BOTH sides for the "sidewalk" then an even lighter narrow row between the "road" and "Sidewalk" to delineate the "curb" that way the crappy spray painted line for the parade wouldnt need to be there. Then as someone above said - bump out in another 2-4 places. Even three evenly spaced bump outs would've been nice for additional seating and might giver room against the building to do a second row of trees or have brought back the streetlamps. With 3 bump outs, the light towers could have been integrated into pillars at the two corners of each bump out.