Kenban

You are comparing the smaller parks to one of the largest in the chain. Canada's Wonderland is $499 Canadian dollars, and Knott's is $499 just like KI.

The executives of the park have publicly discussed the 150th during the Q&A session at CoasterMania. What is known is that the celebration will last two years and there will be an anniversary addition. I do not specifically remember them saying it would be a coaster but it seemed to be implied. Not much was stated in the way of plans just that they know it is coming and they have big plans for it. At the time I was pretty confident that the coaster would be a part of the second year which would be 2021, but I still feel that would be a little strange for construction to occur during the first year of the anniversary. But whatever is coming had definitely already been decided and was known by several people on the stage. I have heard some rumors, not sure how much faith I put in some of them, but I do remember Matt Ouimet has stated he wanted a GCI on the beach at Cedar Point. He wanted that classic boardwalk look and feel. Anniversaries are very much about nostalgia and the work going on with the new boardwalk being built and the stadium which was torn down makes it look like Ouimet's vision could be the anniversary coaster. But there are several open plots of land at the park so there is no need for any coaster to go here, but I am reminded of the prep work for Valravn.

DVC members pay for parking lot maintenance as part of their maintenance fees already which is why they are exempt. I really hope I am wrong but this feels like it will lead to resort fees at Disney World. My recommendation is for people to look at the Disney Springs hotels, this is what used to be called Downtown Disney. The hotels share marketing and transportation. It is the best off-site transportation that I know of to Disney World. Plus this year the hotel guests will receive almost all of the on-site benefits. You get the 60 day booking window for fast passes and extra magic hours. The transportation has a set schedule and runs every 30 minutes. No magical express so you will have to pay to get from the airport to the hotel but Mears is reasonable.

Vekoma is actually very good at custom coaster design and fabrication. You are likely just thinking of their old boomerangs and SLC coasters. They do a ton of work for Disney including, Seven dwarfs mine train, Big Grizzly Mountain, the TRON ride, Expedition Everest, and the Rock n Roller Coaster. There are more but that’s just off the top of my head. Vekoma has other good coasters but most of their custom coasters are not in the US so you are unlikely to hear about them.

I do not know of any reasons why Flying Ace could not have the trains replaced. I am pretty sure the track gauge is identical between the generations. It is also possible it is the same as The Bat due to the partnership between Vekoma and Arrow. I wrote a huge complaint about VR on coasters. But I decided not to post it, in short just say no to VR on coasters, it’s just a gimmick which makes the overall experience worse. One thing which I know is possible is to replace the trains on The Bat with the Vekoma suspended versions, Vampire at Chessington World of Adventures uses them. While I have never been been on the coaster I have only heard good things about the trains. Would require changes to the station but open trains without all the fiberglass would be amazing and totally change the feel of the ride.

Just for everyone’s information RHoFG was announced March 7th. Tom+Chee returning for 2017 was also not announced until March(I believe the 15th) There is nothing abnormal about the park waiting until close to the start of the season for a restaurant announcement.

Jeff Pike designed both the Skywarp and Mystic Timbers. The program talked about his previous work and specifically his work at Kings Island on Mystic Timbers.

I think what will separate this hotel from the offerings at Cedar Point is that I suspect it will be open year round. Which is likely why the hotel is a Springhill Suites. From the discussions on the conference calls I expect this is just the first of several hotels at Cedar Fair properties. Canada’s Wonderland has been rumored to be next.

I am reminded of the aviation industry. They developed a series of checks A to D. An A check is fast and is done pretty frequently. While a D check is only performed every few years and takes an entire team 2 months. In a D check the plane is almost completely disassembled and every piece is examined, the paint is stripped from the entire body, interior is removed, fuel tanks, etc. These checks are required by regulatory bodies but also are driven by the schedule of the manufacturer. On some planes the D check is done every 5 or 6 years, on newer planes it is done every 15 years. Which I think is where the break down in this issue occurred. Amusement rides need maintenance. It is the manufacturer's job to make a schedule for how frequently different parts of the ride are inspected and how. Ride manufacturers have to anticipate issues and design rides so that they have redundancies whenever possible. Guidelines need to include an inspection schedule which is frequent enough to catch problems before they can cause a catastrophic failure. In this case it appears KMG had no guidelines for how to inspect if there was too much corrosion and how frequently it needed to be checked. For corrosion to have reached this point it has been occurring for years and frankly could have been caught several years ago if someone had been looking for it. Which is why the inspectors and the ride operator were not fined. They followed the state laws and the manufacturers guidelines. Obviously this was not sufficient and more needs to be done.

Not a chance. Holiday World actually had the trains for a while and tested them at night and during the off season. You can now purchase the trains used.

I really liked the mac and cheese kinda wish the park had it year round. I think it is a lot better than Hanks.

I am reluctant to blame the cashiers for the issues at the registers. If no one seems to be able to check people out in a reasonable period of time maybe the problem is the register and not the employee running it.

Is it weird that I had no idea we even could ask for a tour? I totally would have done it long ago, will have to check at some of the other Cedar Fair parks next year while they still have the attraction.

Here you go, this is from closing day so it is likely one of the last looks at the site we will have until Winterfest.

Pictures later but they have been removing the concrete. I am not certain how anyone can draw conclusions about what will be built there based on what work has been done.

Only 4 coasters are still closed, Adventure Express, stunt coaster, Invertigo, and Vortex. Lines are about 5-10 minutes.

Wicked twister is 400 feet long, they have not even cleared 200. It's always possible we get it but this location makes no sense. Although I suspect if it is moved it will go to a smaller park.

There is a third style at least in concept. The S&S Twisted Looper. Think a giant loop with a wing rider train plus the track has a twist on the way up and back down so it is basically a non-inverting loop. Last year this was shown off as a concept video and some advertising but I could see it being ready by now. I actually thought it looked like a good idea. Not sure how likely I consider it but I think it would be a fantastic fit for the space.

There are individuals who are on this site that likely do have good enough contacts to find out exactly what is going on. Chances are someone who has read this thread knows. But the people with that information are being trusted that they will not discuss it publicly. The quickest way to lose that trust is to post it online. If you are an employee you can be fired, if your friends with an employee you can get that person fired or at least lose a friend. What I have known about other projects in the past was told to me in confidence that I would not discuss the topic before any announcement. I have been able to keep those contacts by not joining discussions when I do know something. The fact is I know almost nothing about this project, I have heard some rumors, all of which say it will be a restaurant and just about all of them seem to agree it is a smokehouse. But all of that was just some discussions with friends about what they have heard. Which is why I have no problems discussing this topic and speculating. At this point I do not put enough faith in the rumors to rule out a ride. The enthusiast community is very good at taking speculation and turning it into rumors. Those "rumors" lead to more speculation which just drives more rumors. The problem is sometimes none of it was ever based on any solid information, maybe there was some truth at some point but sometimes it is lost in the noise. With this project we are just not far enough along to know for certain what is true, what is a leak, and what is speculation. At this time I would treat nothing posted in this thread as anything more than rumor or speculation.

Maybe a sign of things to come? Pure speculation mostly because using the building for a hunt seems like a waste. Make this building into the smokehouse. Use the space from the former attitudes store for an antique cars ride which utilizes the tower gardens.

It somewhat feels like fixing some of the food issues should be a series of corporate projects. Which seeing the self order kiosks it seems like they are working on it but having used the kiosks several times I have no clue how hard they are trying. The kiosks are a buggy mess. Watching people try to use them seems like an exercise in futility, I have watched them just totally bug out into loops you cannot get out of, vastly try to overcharge, just stop working, etc. When they work it's a huge help but it needs to be much more reliable. An area I could see improvement is the lines at drink stands if they would stop using the registers to scan the cups and passes. Have a company design a small stand with a barcode scanner and a screen. Barcode scanner points towards the guest while the screen displays to the employee. Guest scans their pass or cup and the screen states if it is valid or if they have to wait x minutes, last location used, time used, etc. Only use the register to sell drinks or activate plans and the employee can have guests scan through even when another guest is buying a cup.

That company mentioned at the end of the article as being a possible bidder sounds like more garbage.

I am sure there is an exception but the attractions at Disney World with indoor, air conditioned queues are indoor rides. The outdoor attractions like Kilimanjaro Safari, Big Thunder Mountain, and Expedition Everest, all have outdoor lines but while they do not feature air conditioning it is common for them to be covered. I would be happy with solid coverings to block the sun and rain while waiting, for instance the covering over the line for Drop Tower. I think indoor air conditioned lines for outdoor rides is just not realistic.

Nothing I have heard so far suggests there will be any conflict between the two. It sounds like Gold Star plans on operating Tom + Chee restaurants as a separate chain. At the store level it sounds like the biggest changes might be a revamped menu. I am not expecting this to have any effect except for possibly a new menu at Kings Island. It sounds like they want this to be similar to how KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut all have the same parent company.

I will admit I had not given much consideration to using the international restaurant as a buffet. Without that I do not see anything which points towards a new restaurant listed on Kings Islands website. Most of the restaurants you are able to figure out exactly which restaurant they are using by reading the description. For instance 11 Pipers Piping Pizza, states if you missed Prancer’s Pizza on the way in, and Tinker’s Spielzeug Haus is obvious so you know all three La Rosa’s locations and which is which. So we are back to rumors and speculation.