brenthodge

No. That’s stupid and just looked petty and cheap. Honestly I’m not sure who they are marketing the chefs plate to though. There was no price on the sign. Most if not all of the marketing was on their social or pass holders Facebook group, and I’d wager 90% of the people in line (at least) had meal plans, so t he run didn’t even generate income. They make no sense. They add booze everywhere to I crease revenue, yet seem to ignore ways to generate it through elevated food offerings.

It was pretty amazing. Great portion of meat. Good sides. Definitely something they could do a slight up charge for dining plan (like 5-7$) and I’d still pay.

How did I miss the cute detail that snoopy spins around and around when the car zooms past him before resuming his side to side waving motion, complete with a cartoon “spinning” sound? Oh wait… I know… it’s been off most of the season! Just noticed this Sunday when I was there on the ride and I swore as we zoomed by backwards snoopy spun with us… yep, he does!

FWIW there’s a new menu sign with the new name and it lists new drink options, but the same food options as before (shrimp po boy included) so if they are doing fall it’s an overlay of the existing offerings. Looks like they are basically adding the bar component (of course) and doing some light remodeling.

Yikes ( but are we surprised?)

That would be a good area for PumpkinEater. It’s always seemed a bit crammed in in Action Zone. That area has a clear “path” through and can also be avoided more if people don’t want to go through it.

lol. Ok. That’s why I was wondering.

why wouldn't it do well in Cincinnati?

I honestly wish they’d make WINTERFEST a signature event at the park that started in all…KingsIsland, and maybe extend the brand to KD, but rebrand all the others Holiday in the Park, or a new, better all around name. It’s really NOT winterfest, is a Christmas Holiday festival , so I’d be ok if the name was rebranded, but locally I think it should stay the name that the event originated from.

I think KI had the blessing AND the curse of being a flagship park of the Paramount era. YES, we got a lot more investment, but Paramount was not always (almost never) good about respecting the past of the park as they moved forward. In fact they almost WANTED to obliterate the past and make the parks their own. KD wasnt a top tier park so in many ways they were spared some of the butchering (same w the first few years of Cedar Fair)

Kudos to KI for dealing with the dining pass tech glitch tonight in a guest positive way. Sometime around 5:30-6 they weren’t loading (at least at Enrique’s) so they were just manually tallying people who had them (and it you had the ap, asking if you could tap “pass add ons” just to verify) would’ve been easy to say “ you’ll need to pay until we can get our system back up. Also when I asked at G&G if they could check and see when or if the scans ever went in they said “you can just use it again-we aren’t checking time” again would’ve been easy to say “there’s no way we can verify if it’s been 4 hrs,so sorry” the park does a lot of dumb things, but this was the way to handle this. I’m sure if word got out, people abused it, but you sometimes take that risk with guest centered decisions.

I was just about to post something about that as well. They made this big deal, then nothing. Also why have lights NEVER been added back into tunnel 1 which is now the “mine”. Even some flickering lanterns… something. They made this big deal about gem mines, but then we just get a dark tunnel with pick axe noises.

So… another new “theme” added to a beach-themed water park for no real reson. Sounds about right. I’m not impressed with the leadership direction these days and this underscores it. The water park “theme” wasn’t great, and the kids area needed a refresh, but to just randomly go off in a new “RiverCountry” direction makes no sense.

Until they don’t. Original IPs -when well done, are better long-term source material for rides and attractions. With the right branding, marketing and merchandising, original characters could become so “loved” that people would come to the park just to experience them.

You hit on an interesting aspect of this- the random , moved around, dates it always gets. Why isn’t this “the festival that always runs on weekends in August” or something like that. It actually feels a bit wasted in July with all that’s already going on. With all the parks that have dropped it, there are PLENTY of decor, costumes and infrastructure items to allocate to 2-3 parks permanently and not have to reschedule the event to pass it around. I feel this really should’ve been a “Taft park” exclusive. The Eiffel Tower and international street just make it “work”. If they had seen the success in year one, invested in some real infrastructure like permanent smaller stages, semi permanent food booths that could be redressed for other festivals, development of tower gardens and Oktoberfest into the main festival centers…. But I think they got stars in their eyes (and dollars on their bottom line) and tried to roll it out almost chain-wide only to see it get so diluted at the parks that launched it, that it was no longer a valid offering. Sadly i agree this felt like a “wake” year more than a grand continuation.

We already get that. I’m concerned that either 1) there will be even more crossover or 2) winter fest will be even more scaled back do they know they can knock it out in less time because we KNOW it’s not 3) they are hiring a huge crew to make the transition from visible HAUNT to visible WINTERFEST in record time.

OMG. I think we are out of our “smaller portion” phase of the season.

Still dont understand why we have an indoor, Air Conditioned and heated, food and beverage ready location with restrooms sit empty most all year. Why is VIP not in International Restaurant. The capacity could be reduced from time to time on the very limited times the area is used for other things.

Like the HAUNT parade last year at Carrowinds. Would be interesting to see the learnings from that as the night version was very cringey trying to be a “scary Disney parade with catchy nightmare song”

How does adding something water it down, and there used to be fireworks at Winterfest, so why not a closing drone show? They could do it between the last 2 skate times while the rink is essentially empty. Right after the 8:30-9 resurface like at 8:45 as the parade hits its final show stop. Might keep people in place a bit more so parade units could return to storage easier. Make it less “fountain dependent” but still do some lasers and projections on the ice/tower.

Yes

Forgot about that. Nope. So I guess they just sent a set to each of the “tower” parks since the event overlapped. Regardless, KD has the server had last year, and we have the set we had in 21. Again, they might not ship “park to park” but from a central storage area they go back. Not sure where the components are stored between years. We do know they are broken down and I believe the bases kept to be redressed for Winterfest.

I think since Dominion started a week earlier, they couldnt have Carrowinds as they were back to back weeks. KI’s might’ve gone to KD last year after the event, or- are they stored at Kern in NewOrleans? Not sure. They might all go back there each year for storage-refurbishing since they aren’t stored in the tents (just odd pieces and parts and still parts of the 50th, that’s hopefully headed to KD next year to recoup that investment.

Yea, we had that one last year. We had a different dragon as well. It looks like we have the set that was at Carrowinds this year, and KD has the set we had last year. Not sure what happened to the self driven ones we had the first year that were fabricated here in BlueAsh- the opening, the air ship and the elephant. I wonder if the chassis were used here in 22 for the gift floats (since those were self driven) and the parts were just reassembled onto towed bases instead. Those 3 units are definitely a different design style.