Kenban

It’s a 6 year lease with a possible 5 year extension. But the new land owner can terminate the lease at any time with 2 years notice. So I suspect Cedar Fair plans to stay until the end of the 2027 season and then close the park giving them a few months to move what they want to keep. But if the land owner wants to they can terminate the lease tomorrow and while Cedar Fair has until the middle of 2024 to vacate that basically means 2023 would be the last season. The last year of the lease is more to wind down operations and move rides, not to operate the park.

I searched for the project your showing as your example. That site is 61.7 acres not 25 like you claim. The companies proposal actually includes property they do not even own. The company does own the majority of the site and it’s used for a number of retailers in several separate buildings. Making it very easy to keep sections open and importantly making money while sections are closed and replaced in phases. Basically your example of “what is possible” is terrible. The company already owns the majority of the site, so no huge land purchase, buying a site like Wonderland is much harder than your realize, size and cost matter, and bigger is not always better. Being able to close a small section at a time for redevelopment radically changes how a project is financed and means being able to keep using the rest of the site to generate revenue. It also allows them to stop at any point if there is an economic downturn or demand just does not exist at a viable price point. Projects get proposed frequently, and frankly I suspect the majority never happen. You really don’t seem to understand how business or development works.

Let’s look at this in actual numbers what would the land have to be worth to consider closing the park? The parks earnings in the last year that I have available appears to be around 50 million a year USD, based on current exchange rates that’s roughly 65 million CAD. Typically a standard multiplier would be around 15. If the chain considers the park having good growth potential it would be higher than that, if they feel it does not it could be a little lower. At 15 your looking at $975 million CAD or roughly 750 million USD. At 20 it would be 1.3 billion Canadian dollars. The $310 million USD price for CGA is actually a multiplier around 40, which would put the land price at CW over 2 billion. I have a hard time believing a company would offer the $1+ billion dollars to buy the land it would cost to justify selling.

Easily, less towers and a shorter cable. When the one at Kings Island was moved from Coney Island it was actually lengthened, and a new tower was fabricated and added. The ride had three towers at Coney and four at KI.

The sky ride that was at Kings Island was relocated from Coney Island, and several other installations have been moved before, the one at Great Adventure is relocated from the Worlds Fair in Queens. All of these sky rides were built by one company Von Roll who also built the one at Cedar Point. The old Kings Island sky ride was the model that had small 2 person gondolas. This is a larger model with 4 person gondolas like what’s at Cedar Point. CGA has a pretty big installation, they have enough towers and cabins to basically get a third of a mile easily. For instance a station near Orion would stretch to Planet Snoopy, going over the launch tunnel on Flight of Fear, and the lift hills of Racer. Station between Racer and Flight of Fear could almost stretch to the Picnic Grove.

The exchange rate matters because the park earns money in Canadian Dollars and all earnings and profits are reported in US Dollars. While I don't have the prices for funnel cakes easily available I can compare the prices for season passes and tickets. Every Cedar Fair park charges the same price for a platinum pass, no matter the currency. A platinum pass at Kings Island is $240 USD, at Canada's Wonderland it is $240 CAD. Which is why I know several people who renew their pass on Canada's Wonderlands website instead of at a US parks. You get charged tax but the exchange rate more than makes up for the difference. A gold pass at KI is $140 USD, at CA it's $120 CAD. A single day ticket online is $49.99 USD or CAD. At the gate a ticket to Kings Island is $85 USD, while Canada's Wonderland is $75 CAD. I wish I had the prices of funnel cakes available I think you would be surprised.

Cedar Fair used to publish this data annually, sadly its been a few years. But look at these graphs, and really look at the one on the right, EBITDA, and compare the tiny little slice that is CGA and the much larger wedge that is CW. Is this a few years old? Yes, but frankly it does not change that much. The exchange rate is even similar today to what it was in 2016. CW is roughly 10% in the graph, 10% of $481 million is $48 million USD. That's how much the park was making a year. The $310 million dollars that Cedar Fair is getting for CGA is like 40 years of profits at CGA, but only a little over 6 at CW.

There is a giant difference between the two, profitability. CGA was barely making any money. This information is a few years old but Canada's Wonderland was 4th or 5th in profitability, roughly around Carowinds, a lot of this is the exchange rate. But this is still a lot of money. Unless something major changes the park is safe, the chain can make more money operating it as a theme park then selling the land. Which is the key its worth more as a park then being sold, which was not the case for CGA. When people say regulations surrounding CGA's closure. Its the height limits, the noise problems due to being near companies, parking issues, earthquake protection, etc. None of which effects Canada's Wonderland. CGA had a 35 ft height restriction until a few years ago, every single attraction was a fight. The park had potential but it was going to be expensive and a risk that the chain would never make the money back. There is none of these issues with Canada's Wonderland. Land prices would need to not just be as expensive as California, they would have to be higher maybe a lot higher before its worth it to sell. I have been worried about CGA for a while, I have zero concerns for CW.

The last year Cedar Fair published revenue and profit graphs which showed the individual parks in relation to each other was back in 2015 or 2016. But at the time CGA was middle of the chain for revenue, but either last or next to last in profitability. It was basically making around the same amount of money as Michigan's Adventure. Which is actually a huge improvement, a few years before that the park was dead last for profitability and it was not even close. The park is incredibly expensive to operate. I suspect Cedar Fair decided that the cost of continuing to invest is just not worth the returns they are getting. Especially when they are offered enough money to justify closing the park. At this point I am left wondering, when will the park close? I cannot see it being operated for another 11 years, it might be possible due to the lease but its up to 11 years, not that it will be 11 years, frankly I give it 2 or 3 years unless it sees a huge uptick in attendance due to the pending closure. What will move? I would love to see the Sky Ride move, shoot that would be an amazing addition to Kings Island, but its so old I wonder if Cedar Fair will move it. Old coasters like Demon, Woodstock Express, and Grizzly just seem like they will be scrapped. B&M coasters will likely be moved, so Flight Deck and Patriot. The only other coaster that I am pretty sure that will be moved is RailBlazer. Psycho Mouse might be moved, might be sold, but I do not think it will be scrapped. Gold Striker is a huge question mark, but I could see it being moved, its a lot of work to move a wood coaster but its pretty new and a very good layout.

I am familiar with how the frisbee rides get stuck upside down I would assume this would be similar. The motor turns off as the arm approaches the top and the control system waits until the arm reaches a set point before reengaging the motor, so it is just coasting over the top. It would be very easy to produce too strong of forces if the motor was engaged at all times. In a case like this a gust of wind or something else at just the right or for the riders wrong moment provides enough resistance the ride vehicle balances upside down. The ride system does not see the motion it is expecting so it faults and turns off power to the motor. On frisbee rides like the ones from SBF Visa when wind does eventually push the ride vehicle over since the ride faulted the motor will not engage to slow the arm, and it just swings back and forth for a long time before it stops allowing the ride op to release the passengers.

Here is one from last week.

The old tower drinks queue never made any sense. I was at the park Friday and you could just see how much of a difference it was making. Racer queue is also a great change. Not sure who is driving these changes around the park but it fantastic seeing them. These kinds of tweaks add up to making a better overall experience.

We might not get too detailed of an answer but someone could try asking at a Q&A at Coasterstock, and if their version is still down at Cedar Point in a few weeks Coaster Mania. I would expect a vague answer without too many details but I would be surprised if there is no answer at all. I doubt they are trying to hide something. It’s just not something they are going to announce.

Last year Kings Island stored the bread in a warming box. This insures everyone gets a warm loaf, but could dry out the bread over time. I have not even been inside the French Corner yet this year, but I assume they are still doing this.

Might be something as simple as a more involved maintenance that’s only done every few years. Since all of the WindSeekers were built in a short period of time they would all need this around the same time. I was at Cedar Points Winterchill out and Raptor just hit that point and they were replacing major parts on every train due to age. Most of the WindSeekers are 10 years old either this year or last year. Design changes do not mean there is a flaw either. I would love for them to upgrade the controls to be able to tell the ride ops exactly which seat is not properly locked when checking restraints for instance.

The entire hill right before the second lift is covered in anti-rollbacks for a reason. If the train needs assistance it’s typically there. I think it’s important to point out I was talking about the very first handful of runs of a freshly rebuilt train. It takes a few runs for the train to break in, it can be just a little bit too much friction the first few runs.

The rumor I have heard is that the train has only been sent a handful of times, sounded like low single digits still as of Friday, thinking 3 or 4 times. What I heard was the train has valleyed every time and has yet to successfully complete the course without assistance. Before anyone freaks out this happens every year. But everything I have heard is they still have a little bit of work to do. My gut says their goal at this point is Coasterstock, so May 20th.

I am not impressed, $99 for a 3 hour long event. Sure there is live music and ERT, but almost nothing else is included. No snacks, no food, no alcohol, the only thing that’s included is Coke products. During the day Frontier Festival is happening already. So you can likely pickup the same food, and beverages, and watch the same bands during the day with a regular park ticket. At least from the description I don’t see what makes this special enough to justify the price. June 3rd is Coastermania. It explains why the schedule is so different from previous years. It was strange that all of the evening ERT was near the front of the park.

I cannot comment on the history of this marking. But it appears to be a standard marking you often find on coaster supports. The 17 is support 17, and the R means that’s the right side. The support on the other side of the track likely is marked with C17L.

My guess is the stones are having park history etched into them. Could be just text, could be images, there is a lot that could be done.

The ribbon looks great, I like the materials they used to make the 50th sign, the shimmering effect in the wind looks great. It’s just the 50 and the text is a little small. It’s way too easy for a group or people to block. The sign looks like it was scaled to be on a float not at the front of the fountain.

I do know one person who got an invite. They are not a blogger, YouTuber, or influencer of any kind. They are just an enthusiast who goes to Holiwood Nights every year. Their plus one will be their spouse. If I remember right the park limited attendance to 500. But every invite is for 2 people, so by my math they sent out a grand total of 250 invites. I wish I knew how many people applied. But it sounds like they had a lot of applications and only a small percentage actually got invites.

On many OTSR rides that is the job of the seat belt. That’s the reason the belt is so short on B&M coasters, Intamin coasters, and Intamin Drop Towers. The seat belt plays double duty, it’s both a backup restraint and a sizing mechanism.

Falcons Fury also locks the seat belt in place. A small metal rod extends and prevents the ability to unlatch the seat belt. It’s actually visible to the rider if you look at the belt connector. Frankly building a Drop Tower with tilting seats and only an OTSR with no seat belt seems crazy to me. I was in Orlando recently and considered riding this and I am happy I skipped it now.

No invite here. Wish I knew how many people applied. Tempted to ask around and see if any friends have a spare spot available since all invites are for 2 tickets, have not even heard of any of them have invites at all. Also tempted to just try for a Coaster Mania ticket instead, don’t think they have announced ticket sales yet. I suspect they prioritized bloggers, people with YouTube channels, people who will basically help them advertise the park.