Kenban

Craig recently became the COO of a new division of Herschend called the Growth and Opportunity Group. Which was to support the acquisition of theme parks, and other properties. This happened back in I think November.

Simply put that map that map is a map of Herschend properties. The one in New Jersey is Adventure Aquarium. I also see Newport Aquarium, Dollywood, and Silver Dollar City. There is one more circle I cannot account for though.

They are 4th, Kings Island is ahead of it as well, by a decent margin. The weakness of the Canadian Dollar really hurts their revenue and profitability. Even without the currency difference I am not sure if they would be 3rd in profits due to the lower operating costs at KI.

Basically reservations and blackout days. All guests are required to make a reservation in advance. Have several different price points with the difference being what days are blacked out and how far in advance you can make a reservation and how many reservations you can make at a time. Higher tier pass holders get a number of extra visits which by pass blackout days. Disneyland sent out surveys to former pass holders which outlined possible tiers and pricing. At the high end around $1500 for 6 reservations few blackout dates, 90 days in advance reservations, and 6 by pass blackout tickets. At the low end only 1 or 2 reservations at a time, 30 days in advance, lots of blackout days, including the entire summer, and few if any bypass blackout day tickets. All of the passes appeared to still technically be unlimited, as long as you can manage to make reservations but same day reservations are unlikely. Disneyland is pretty unique they had a pass holder base which was estimated to be 5 times larger then the total resort capacity. Combined with the tourists and it was either hitting capacity or close to capacity frequently. There are only a handful of other parks on the planet which had similar issues before the pandemic. The only other one off the top of head is Tokyo Disneyland. Capacity issues in Florida were basically only ride openings and Christmas to New Years. Unless seasonal parks start seeing capacity issues outside of special events like Haunt, it’s unlikely to be replicated widely. Although something might need to be done about attendance during Haunt. I could see requiring reservations or just going to a separate ticket.

That’s the thing I remember another article which went into detail and broke that price down, x going to Clermont for the steel, y going to B&M, etc. That was what made it different and special. Wonder if it was not the Sandusky Register and was instead another site.

Many enthusiasts do not understand ride pricing, and how to properly compare the price of attractions. That $24 million or $30 million dollar B&M is for the entire project. That’s the total being spent everything from land clearing, design, track, trains, control systems, to the theming, signs, and plaza. On a ride like Orion that is going to include projects done at the same time, like the modifications to the Flight of Fear queue, the plaza, food stand, etc. Which is why it’s often difficult to compare the price of two coasters because what enthusiasts have access to is not really the price of the coaster itself. Is a B&M more expensive then a comparable ride from another manufacturer? Yes, but not by as much as you might think. This is also the cost of the attraction and ignores the total cost of ownership. Cedar Fair has publicly stated part of the reason they like B&M is the reduced maintenance costs. There is only one time that I can remember the real cost of a B&M leaking. If I am remembering the source correctly, the local newspaper in Sandusky published a document they received which gave the pricing breakdown for Valravn. The issue with finding the information today is that it was published well before the ride opened and I think it was also before the name was announced. I know it was available on the internet a few years ago, but I suspect finding it today will be difficult.

As a company B&M is likely fine. Most of their sales have moved to parks in China, which is seeing less effects from the pandemic then other countries. They only need a handful of ride sales a year, 3 or 4 is a typical year for the company. They could likely survive on just one or two a year for a few years. They also have a large install base which will need maintenance for decades to come. I am not even sure this is the end of the relationship between Cedar Fair and B&M. The biggest Cedar Fair parks still need rides with massive capacity, high reliability, and low maintenance costs. Unless we see a sustained drop in attendance the need for high capacity attractions is not changing. Cedar Point is basically at a natural end, other then the new surf coaster which no one is still sure exactly what it is, and a flyer there is not much B&M makes which they could still build. But parks like Canada's Wonderland, Kings Island, Knott's, and to a lesser extent Carowinds, and Kings Dominion are still going to need rides with excellent capacity. It really depends on how attendance is this year and next year on how quickly the two work together again. But unless attendance does not return to normal rides with low capacity just do not work well at the bigger parks and your not going to see them at the bigger parks. The real issue here comes down to how quickly will the industry bounce back? This is not something unique to a single manufacturer, chain, or park. I have had discussions with industry insiders and many think there will be a rapid return to normal, and some are optimistic we will see a roaring 20s situation where people have been stuck at home with no way to spend their earnings that will suddenly be able to travel and have money to burn. I know several people who work at the big chains which think we will see record attendance as early as 2022. During the last down turn parks which continued to build new rides and increase capacity saw a more rapid return to normal and often bounced back even higher then before the recession. Building as soon as the recovery starts is a good way to get in front of capacity needs and if executives see good attendance this summer smaller cheaper rides could be ordered for 2022, and larger installs could be started in 2022 for a 2023 opening. Personally I have not traveled for over a year now and since I work in an essential industry I have gone into the office the entire time. I am waiting for the restrictions to be lifted and I have like 3 or 4 weeks of vacation time and the money saved to take advantage of it. I used to spend 50+ nights a year in hotels, and plan to return to that as soon as I am able to do so, possibly by this summer.

They are cancelling them as well, and refunding the Disneyland side of the pass. The handful of people who have one are allowed to renew to a Disney World only annual pass. They never sold very many, and really never tried to either, the admissions systems at Disneyland and Disney World are not compatible and the passes were in reality two annual passes sold as a bundle, then put on the same card. The cards had a barcode, a magnetic stripe, and an RFID chip. They could only be purchased in person at a park, and could only be renewed in person at a park, although on time renewal was a waste, there was no discount.

This news story is misleading, this is not a new policy and what the two resorts are doing is very different. This is only news because of what is happening at Disneyland. Disney World stopped selling annual passes when they closed temporarily due to the pandemic. They never restarted selling them after they reopened last summer. Which means the last time someone could purchase a new annual pass was March of 2020. But Disney World is letting existing pass holders keep their passes and to continue to renew them. The restrictions are only for new pass holders. Disneyland is completely ending their pass holder program. They have cancelled all annual passes and are issuing prorated refunds.

Testing has begun again. I have not seen closeup pictures of the lift yet so no clue how much work was done. But I have seen videos of the trains cycling. Still wondering exactly how this accident occurred. I believe the train had to be traveling backwards for the front wheel assembly of the third car to end up under the car in front of it. But I have since seen high resolution photos of the lift with the train stuck on it and the chain is clearly intact. So I am still a little confused on what initially broke.

Wiener Prater in Austria has removed 26 according to RCDB. Here is the parks that I could think of and I grabbed the numbers off of RCDB. Geauga Lake - 14 coasters Great Adventure - 15 coasters Palisades - 16 coasters Cedar Point - 17 coasters Dreamland -17 coasters Wiener Prater - 26 coasters I doubt Kings Island is even in the top 20 or 30 for most removed coasters.

Those cabins look fantastic, I have wanted the park to get a campground for years, and feel this is long overdue. I am torn about staying in one, mostly due to distance once you are far enough away that I have to drive why stay in one of the cabins instead of a hotel which is likely cheaper? I feel like this should have been built by Cedar Fair and it should have been located where the old Safari was located, basically behind Great Wolf Lodge. Actual woods, I could see a walkway to the river, and not directly next to the highway. Great view of the park, and it would be possible to walk to the park, which could have built a second entrance. But then if the park owned Great Wolf Lodge, a campgrounds could be a natural extension of the resort.

KD needs work and it needs good solid unique rides. A B&M hyper would be a great start, but it has to be something special. For instance a speed hill, maybe right after the drop. The turnaround from Shambala, instead of the standard hammerhead. Plus lots of good solid airtime hills. Two loading stations, which would allow 4 trains and they can use one station for forward and one for backwards trains, enabling the ride to basiclly be two different rides. To keep the costs down use the standard B&M hyper trains instead of the staggered seating.

Land should not actually be a problem. This is complicated, but the park used to own like 150-200 acres because they have a giant campground across the street, and they are not even using large sections of that land. Apex sold all of the land to a holding company and was paying a lease. I remember the new owners of the park had stated before the purchase closed that being able to repurchase the land was a requirement. But I have never seen any evidence either way if the land purchase occurred. The counties GIS website still lists Store Master Funding as the owner, but it also still lists Apex as owning the rides and structures.

My guess is this will be a parking lot coaster. It’s pretty compact, it appears to be 130’ x 260’ when I measured it on Google maps. Likely to be located next to Steel Hawg. If the park is planning to continue to expand we will likely see more rides located in this lot and people will have to park in the grass lots and walk in.

There was a Q&A at Dollywood Earlier today, the park representative stated approximately 2,160 feet of the track is being replaced with I-Box. The ride is only 3,800 feet long, so basically 57% of the track is being replaced with I-Box. From what I have seen it will be I-Box from the launch through the first big drop. Then a long stretch of Topper Track. Then it goes to I-Box just before the 45 degree banked hill which leads into the quad down, turn around into the brake run, and it does not become topper track again until after the brakes. It sounds like the only topper track visible from the park will be the station area. Based on what I have heard over the years this should fix all the problem areas, but frankly this will be a steel coaster with some wood track.

It’s official RMC is RMCing an RMC. ACE received confirmation during a Q&A with Dollywood. RMC will be installing I-Box on Lightning Rod, it’s already been confirmed the layout is staying the same. It’s unknown how much track is being replaced. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHlbR53M5N5/

I am pretty certain you are wrong about it having the highest profit margins. The best profits on the least amount of capital investment? Maybe, but that is not how profit margins work, it’s about total cost of operating the parks. The problem with MA is they have the lowest revenue of the whole chain, and frankly it’s not even close, and in total profits they are either last or next to last. I do think it’s about time for the park to see a big new ride, and I think an RMC Raptor would be a great fit.

I got my order placed, received my confirmation, and the site says sold out already. Not sure how many were available but they went very quickly.

If the park does open, I suspect it will be almost only be lights, crafts, minimal shows, maybe flat rides but no coasters, and will not be called Winterfest. Since it’s what the other parks are calling it likely Taste of the season. No regular food stands so that they do not have to provide anything to holders of the meal plan, but specially foods with a tasting card would likely be available. That’s all just a guess, but Carowinds will have a few coasters open, and food stands and the parks FAQ says the meal plan will work, so it’s always possible there will be more. Having said all of that the park posted a video a few days ago and Mike Koontz states the gates closed for the final time in 2020, and the video ends with see you in 2021. Putting the lights on the tower just as decorating and leaving the park closed would not surprise me. We will likely know this week if it’s opening but I doubt it, there should be signs of the park hiring and I checked the parks job site and there was nothing seasonal.

The effects in the last tunnel do not appear to me to be new. It just appears the existing effects have been fixed. But it does look the best I have seen in a very long time. There are a few feet of red track, the area it is in is very smooth now. It’s hard to tell while riding but I do not think the sections correspond to track segments. Which suggests to me that the rail or maybe more was cut out and refurbished or replaced. Overall though it’s a few feet of track, maybe 10 ft total.

Easily the total change in elevation from the top of the lift hill to the lowest point is 201 feet. Ignoring the trim brakes, friction, and wind in theory the ride should be able to hit around 78 MPH. Wooden coasters are actually known for how well they maintain speed because they experience a lot less friction losses then a steel coaster, if I remember correctly a wood coaster losses about half of what a steel coaster does over the same distance. Before the change to magnetic trims I do not see any reason why it would not have been possible to hit 75 MPH, although likely only after it rained. Today it’s unlikely, but I suspect 70+ still can and does happen.

Holiday World still does a charity auction annually. They do it as part of Holiwood Nights. You can see the items they had and the prices they sold for here. The big item this year, an actual ride logo off the front of one of the Voyages trains, for only $681 dollars.

Wheels are somewhat rare. They are a wear item so you would think they get replaced frequently. But what happens is they are reused like car tire rims. The nylon, urethane, etc is removed, and they are checked for damage and relined. Since they are remanufactured parks rarely dispose of them. For a ride like Vortex the wheels will be interchangeable with others in the chain, maybe even Adventure Express, and they would have been sent to other parks or kept at KI if possible.

I had a friend visit Cedar Point a few weeks ago, and his experience was similar. He went home extremely unhappy and while he is an enthusiast and would never vow to never return, he really did not seem to want to return anytime soon. He rode three coasters and was in the park from open to close. I know Cedar Fair is trying to make as much from their Ohio parks as possible, but they are really ruining a lot of good will. They have to reduce capacity if to do nothing else then to get the lines under control.