Kenban

Somewhat, in the planning commission notice it lists the height as 106 ft tall. While Switchback at ZDT is only 64 feet tall. So this would be a much larger version of the ride.

Here is the bad news something is missing on the plan. It appears Possessed might be getting removed. It was not just forgotten off the design, the issue is you can see where the plans show saw cut lines and new concrete being poured where the sign for Possessed is currently located.

https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2020/04-08-2020-211458352 Six Flags put out an investor update. They have enough liquidity that they believe they can last until opening of the 2021 season, even if the parks do not open this year. They did cancel $40-50 million dollars of projects intended for 2020, no details on exactly what was cut. But people have been putting together some clues, SFDK for instance has deleted the pages from their website associated with the new ride that was supposed to open this year.

The quickest way to move on would be to build herd immunity quickly. If we were to round up younger individuals and put them in internment camps with the intention that everyone who goes to the camps gets the disease. About a week after it can be confirmed that they have gotten sick, and recovered, they can be released, because we need to make sure they are not released until after they can no longer spread the disease, the average stay would likely be around a month. Once about half of the country has gotten sick, and recovered we will basically have reached herd immunity and the spread will largely slow to a manageable rate. At that point we should be able to go back to normal. We can choose if we just let it spread like wildfire through the camps or if we infect them on purpose as they are put into the camp. But either way we need to make sure that everyone gets sick. These are the individuals who face the least risk from the disease and by doing it this way we can keep the elderly and those at risk separated. Rounding up those at risk and trying to protect them would put them at more risk because it will basically be impossible to keep the disease from spreading in those groups. Either that or we can just wait until the spread dies down, and implement mitigations which should help slow the spread. Like face masks, and testing to find infected individuals, and then have individuals they have had contact with get tested.

I took advantage of the free FLP deal, and the exchange rate and renewed my platinum pass through Canada's Wonderland last year. Your pass becomes a pass of whatever park you renew through. I stopped getting the King's Island pass holder emails and now receive the pass holder emails for Canada's Wonderland. The different park apps show it as a Canada's Wonderland pass now, even through the actual card still says Kings Island. Here's the crazy part of this whole thing. If you go on Knott's website the passes they are selling right now including the platinum pass are being advertised as 2020-2021 passes which expire Dec 31, 2021. This includes the platinum pass, which Cedar Fair lets you buy the platinum pass through any of their websites and process it at any of their parks. So if you buy a Knott's pass what happens if you process it at Kings Island?

Universal Singapore already closed a few days ago. Also at least two of the parks in Japan which only reopened less than 3 weeks ago are closed again, both Fuji-Q and Nagashima Spa Land are closed with no indication of when they will reopen. Do not put much faith in the park staying open, even if it does open this year. Everything is in flux, and likely to change quickly.

There are two parks in South Korea which are still operating and have actually not closed at all due to this outbreak. Here is the guidelines from Everland in South Korea. Would the average guest be willing to follow these guidelines? Temperature check to enter the park, no parades, no shows, no indoor rides, I believe no water park either. If the park does open this year, its not going to be normal operation.

Kennywood has already announced there will be discounts to extend the pass through the rest of the season next year, so we know that it will not be full price. But how big of a discount will it be? Enough to justify buying one to fill the gap? Currently my thinking is, your 2020 pass is good through June, 2022 passes will likely go on sale in August with the rest of the season free. Just skip going to the park in July and get 2 and half years for the price of 2. If I was in management I would offer a combo 2021/2022 pass to 2020 pass holders at a slight up charge over what a one year pass would typically cost. But this is all still very fluid, we have no idea when the parks will open this year. It is very possible, and maybe even likely this is not the last time this changes.

Six Flags has already announced they are doing something similar for pass holders. Basically however long your home park is closed this year you can use your 2020 pass through the end of that month in 2021. If anything it is the Six Flags members getting screwed, they are continuing to charge the monthly fee, and giving free months at the end of your membership, which means after you cancel. The upside for members is they are getting the next tier benefits for the rest of the year, but at the same time that means a lot more customers will get free skip the line passes every visit. Just an FYI if anyone ever sees Six Flags offer free months on memberships, that is the same deal, you get the months after you cancel. I am expecting Cedar Fair will come to the same conclusion once they have to move the opening date far enough it will not be possible to add enough days to the operating calendar. I am expecting 2020 annual passes will work for a portion of 2021, and there will be heavily discounted upgrade options to finish off 2021. The big problem is most parks are now giving the end of the season for free if they buy a pass for the next year, it might not make much sense to upgrade to a full 2021 annual pass if you already are getting half the season due to having a 2020 annual pass.

This is a new park which was not planning on opening until July. Last time I saw a video of the location there was still a lot of work left to do. If construction shuts down for a month or two there would be no way the park could open at a reasonable time this year.

Virginia has just extended their stay at home order until June 10th. So that is basically Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I have my doubts that off season maintenance is finished, and all the rides tested. Plus the parks need time to hire and train employees. Assuming the order ends on the 10th as currently scheduled, would it be possible for the parks to open before July? Also there is no way to add that many days to the 2020 season.

I thought this was interesting. Warning this is a preprint medical article and has not been peer reviewed. Stability of the virus on surfaces and at different temperatures, in short at 4c (39f) the virus is basically stable and most of the culture was still alive after 2 weeks, at 22c (99f) the virus is undetectable after 2 days, and at the extreme of 70c (158f) not detectable after 5 minutes. It also tests several surfaces, for instance on paper its not detectable after 3 hours, but on Plastic or Stainless Steel it takes more than 4 days.

This is a misunderstanding of what warmer weather means to the spread of a virus. Warmer weather brings an end to the cold and flu season, but it does not mean you cannot get the cold or flu in the summer, just that it is less likely. A virus can and will still spread, just more slowly. Anyways the number of cases in a location is meaningless on its own. You have to examine where the person was infected, how many people did they infect, etc. Australia is still a prime example of how warmer weather is likely to slow the spread of covid-19. The Australian Department of Health has statistics on how every known case was acquired. Here is their nice little graph, most of which is purple, which as it states on the graph means the individual was infected overseas. There is community spread, but currently it is very slow.

No, because I care more about it being a good ride then if its a clone. There are tons of rides I would be very happy to see cloned and show up at Kings Island. Hangtime at Knott's Berry Farm for instance, its fun, decent but not amazing capacity, and compact. I love watching the lighting on the ride at night as well. It would be a very easy ride to clone. Sticking with Knott's, Sierra Sidewinder, another compact easy to clone ride, which is why there are two copies, one in Dubai, and one in England. I hate terrible cheap clones, like the Vekoma SLC models. Also clones reduce my desire to travel, when a park installs a ton of clones why spend a bunch of time and money visiting the park if I have already ridden all the rides somewhere else. But if you want to see a clone done right look at Dragonflier at Dollywood, its a stock model from Vekoma. It is also the only copy in North America and its a good ride. Its not like Kings Island does not already have clones, Invertigo, Flight of Fear, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Flying Ace Aerial Chase , Woodstock Express and the Great Pumpkin Coaster are all clones. If you add in rides which are the same basic layout like Racer and Bat, more than half of the coasters at Kings Island are clones or have been cloned. The park only has six coasters with totally unique layouts.

Unless something has changed the kdfans website claims to have seen documents which suggest that the S&S Free Spin is a custom layout. No idea how custom the design would be, but it does at least sound like it will not be the same ride as what you have seen or ridden at Six Flags parks. If the clone is on the other side of the planet does it matter? Also there is a giant difference between building two and building twenty. I really see no issue with getting a copy of a ride when the original is in China, almost no one in the US would even know it exists, let alone ride both. While Raptor is the original, a clone was built a few years after it opened in Japan, since then it has been relocated to France. I do not look at the ride any differently just because a second copy exists. I cannot say the same for the Batman ride which exists at so many Six Flags parks.

Total lockdown, closed all businesses except those that are actually essential. Only allowed to leave your home in the event of an emergency. Sent doctors, and nurses from around the country to the effected area. Implemented good quarantine practices among workers at the hospitals, basically two layers of protective barriers, swapped the outer layer between patients, with specific designated areas where they removed the protective barriers. Ramped up production of needed medical supplies and made sure hospitals were fully stocked with whatever was needed. They also tested a lot of people. China is lifting restrictions, and sending the health care workers home. You might not trust the numbers but it’s obvious they consider the outbreak contained.

Cedar Fair does not issue annual passes. You must purchase a platinum pass from a single park, for the purposes of the pass that is your home park, and that park is the issuer of the pass. When you get a platinum pass from Kings Island your buying a Kings Island pass which has the privilege of visiting any other Cedar Fair park during a public operating day. It was not that many years ago only your home park was able to issue you a pass and if you lost your pass you had to return to your home park to replace it. I remember one year I purchased a platinum pass but I did not have a platinum pass the previous year and when I visited Knott's before Kings Island opened for the season I found out that new passes even if they were processed and you had your plastic card did not activate until your home park opened for the season, customer service at Knott's issued me a complimentary ticket to let me into the park for the day. No one including Cedar Fair, Kings Island, and none of us know how or when this will end. No one can say for certain if the park will open at all this year, and if it does open how much of the season will be effected. It just seems really premature to discuss compensation when opening day has not even been missed yet. I do not feel like platinum pass holders are due anything extra at this time just because Knott's is closed and a handful of other parks had to move their opening. My feelings might change depending on how the year goes, but again it seems premature. The entire situation is rapidly evolving and its very likely anything that is announced now will likely have to change. It really is a lot more simplistic when dealing with passes which are good for a year from the date of purchase instead of a season, its a lot easier to just move the expiration back by however many days the park was closed.

There has been years of work on why there is a cold and flu season, but it is still inconclusive to an extent. The best explanation we have at this point is due to a coating on the virus which basically melts in higher temperatures and hardens into a protective coating at lower temperatures. Combined with the fact that the warm moist air is likely easier on your respiratory system and the cold and flu seems to die out in the summer. Even though it is still possible to get sick and spread these diseases. Note if these assumptions are accurate it will be easier to get infected indoors this summer then outdoors due to the temperature difference. I will be very surprised if this virus somehow was wildly different from related diseases and it was totally unaffected by temperature. I feel like Australia is a good example of the fact that the virus transmission is likely to slow with warmer weather. The Australian department of health has statistics on how many infected there are and even details where they got the virus originally. Out of 375 confirmed cases, 189 of them occurred overseas. Slightly more than half of all their cases did not occur in Australia. I would expect more cases of community infection if it was as easily spread as it is in the northern hemisphere. Every single case in Hawaii is due to overseas travel, not one person has been found which became infected through community spread. Warmer temperatures are unlikely to be a cure all which totally prevents transmission, but I suspect they will help. This is why I say the spread is likely to slow, but to my knowledge I have never said it will totally stop this summer. Combine widespread testing, with isolation, and quarantine of infected individuals, and warmer temperatures, and I see how it should be possible to stop this in the next 2 or 3 months. But people who will not isolate like this individual in Kentucky, are not helping. I still think a semi-normal summer is actually possible at this point, not sure I would say likely, but possible. I personally think the first step needs to be to figure out just how many people are infected and that requires a LOT more testing.

While it was publicized that Disney World closed the college student dorms and told the residents to go home, I have not seen a lot of reporting about that they have also told the international workers to move out. The countries in EPCOT have traditionally been staffed by individuals from those countries, all of them lost their jobs last week. Disney World is also firing live entertainment employees, no idea what percentage but I have seen several acts reporting they were let go. Its pretty obvious Disney has no plans to reopen the parks anytime soon, they are shutting down for a while.

I saw this on Reddit, I just wanted to post it to give people an idea why this is so important. According to the post these are the death notices in a local news paper in Bergamo, Italy. This is showing you first February 9th and then March 13th.

Maybe? It’s a long ways away still, previous pandemics suggest that the spread will slow in the coming weeks, but it will also get worse before it gets better. Take a look at South Korea and Japan with proper testing and quarantine it’s very possible to change the spread. Ohio has no idea how bad it is, because there is not enough testing occurring. Some officials have also just made up insane figures of possible infected. Actual testing would give us an idea of how bad this really is, and slow or stop the spread. My guess is the park will open, maybe a few weeks late but it will open. The most likely to be affected parts of the season are the beginning and the end, basically April, May, Haunt, and Winterfest. While the cold and flu season ends with warmer weather, it starts up again in the fall typically around September or October and even if life goes back to normal this summer unless we stop this now it’s very possible it will be back and spreading even faster this fall.

Indefinite, there is no scheduled ending to the ban. Likely it will be ended when the outbreak is under control, at this point there is no easy way to know when that will happen.

Looking at the picture on Reddit since most of the trees were removed already I hope the park fills in the hole and brings it up to be level with the surrounding land. Build a new path from The Beast Plaza and connect it to WindSeeker. Build a new entrance for Backlot Stunt Coaster which based on where the queue is located could be easily done. Finally remove the existing path as part of an expansion. The only item which would need to be removed is the basketball game, all of the bathrooms, restaurants, buildings etc are built facing the other pathways which would not be modified. Opens up a massive amount of land in a prime location in the park. The hardest part is filling in the hole, and if I remember correctly they did something similar to build Firehawk.

We are about to find out, Santa Clara California has issued a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people. It states indoor or confined outdoor gathering, so possible it does not apply to theme parks. California’s Great America has its opening day scheduled for the 21st. No word from the park if they will open on time or reschedule.

Without more information its really hard to guess just how important this lawsuit might be. But I suspect this has nothing to do with regular park workers. Several items point at this being an extremely narrow lawsuit which might actually have a chance of success but will not make a big difference even if it does succeed. "The civil complaint alleges that affected individuals could exceed 40 people." That seems strangely low, not hundreds, not thousands, forty. Something about this case seems to be limiting the possibly effected individuals. So I went back and read it again, according to the article she was an "employee of Cedar Point's parent company", while it says she worked at Cedar Point, it suggests she worked for Cedar Fair and not the park directly. Also the individual was an intern, there are additional laws which govern internships. Without the lawsuit itself I am not certain what special circumstance exists in this case, but I do not believe this lawsuit is very important.