Kenban

Which might even be true. I am not even considering comments made publicly by the park or its employees. This is purely from discussions with representatives of coaster clubs that I have had at events, and with friends who include regional representatives for a coaster club. What I have been told is that it’s common for the different clubs to try to reach out to the park annually, which at the time the conversations occurred, was essentially Don, and they were shot down every time. The answer was always either no, or a requirement to have a huge minimum attendance that essentially no club could reach. The park did not want to do smaller regional events. Part of the argument I was told was that club members are already welcome to come for Coasterstock so there is no real need for another event. These conversations are mostly from several years ago at this point. Realistically I can’t even blame the park even if it’s completely true. It’s a lot of work to put on an event, especially if a club can only get 50-100 people to attend. The clubs all want their own little private events because that’s one of the best ways to justify their existence. In the parks announcement it claims “Throughout the 2024 season, Kings Island will host a series of coaster club opportunities, and we will be in touch with those clubs and past Coasterstock participants before the season begins with more details.” Having smaller events throughout the year could actually be a good thing.

The ACE spring conference just like all ACE events moves around, the dates are determined by the park who hosts based on availability to host the event not ACE. I imagine the park jumped at the chance to host the event and decided they did not want to host two events in the spring and just used the dates for Coasterstock. I would have made the same decision. Trying to host two events, plus the opening for Camp Snoopy is a lot to cram into a short period, cancelling Coasterstock is honestly the logical choice. For years the park has used the excuse of Coasterstock for why they do not work with coaster clubs to hold events at the park. I am more interested in seeing if they do smaller events for other clubs like GOCC, or just ignore them all this year.

That received date actually means the date that it reached the port. It’s unlikely to have already reached the park, likely the containers still need to be loaded onto trucks and transported to the park. But I guess it is likely to arrive soon.

To my knowledge the park has not received any track or supports for the coaster. Any vertical construction to my knowledge is going to be station, theming, or something else.

Both links are going to somewhere else than what it’s displaying as the link. Let me try https://cpfoodblog.com/good-any-day-fast-lane/

I wonder how much money the water park on its own lost or made. Ignore the cost of maintaining the rest of the property, just the pool and slides. When you consider how large the property is as a whole, around 100 acres, which is roughly the size of the Kings Island parking lot. It feels like keeping the pool and either hiring a third party or just running it themselves as a small water park, should be possible, total I believe this would be around 8 acres. The rest has to be maintained anyways. As long as they don’t need the space, and I just cannot imagine how they would, unless there are plans for other facilities on the land.

Every piece of track on RailBlazer is welded to the next piece of track, the entire coaster would have to be cut apart. If that’s enough to cause it to be scrapped, I cannot answer. It’s rare for welded coasters to be moved, but it has happened, and should be possible. These two coasters run a different train design, and a different control system. Fiesta Texas is having the trains replaced with the trains being used on the 2nd gen, and will have the control system upgraded to also match the 2nd gen. I suspect with how much needs replaced and upgraded, RailBlazer is unlikely to be moved. Typically the savings from moving a coaster vs building new is around 50% because of just how much it costs to carefully take down, refurbish, and then build the coaster. Welded track increases the costs, so would the control system changes, and replacing the trains. Taken together, just building a new coaster, even if it’s another RMC Raptor seems to make more sense. But it’s really just speculation.

I was told something by someone familiar with Coneys finances. They said “Coney is worth more as a parking lot than as an amusement park”. That was from a few years before the rides were removed. Riverbend uses the Coney parking and builds some amount into the ticket cost which is paid to Coney. My understanding is without this revenue the park would have closed years ago. Economics of scale are real, operating a small amusement park, profitably, is extremely hard. Being next to the river and flooding every few years, did not help. I enjoyed visiting Coney, but even when the rides were still there, I rarely visited the park. Since the rides were removed I have not been back. I am not surprised the park closed. People can sit behind a keyboard and claim this is due to the removal of the rides, but frankly even if they were still there I believe this is the direction the park was headed.

The biggest difference is that the queues and paths around the coasters come closer to the ride. There is nothing about the layout that separates the design of Iron Gwazi from the other coasters which allows for it to not have metal detectors. So far Sea World has been more tolerant of loose objects, in part because the only people who can get hit are employees and people riding the coaster. That might change at some point in the future. Incidents like this have thankfully been rare, but a lot of items are being thrown from the ride. If the reports are true, SEAS had a ground up new RMC designed for Busch Gardens Williamsburg, but after operating Iron Gwazi for a year they decided to cancel the project and that’s why they instead are going with a family coaster, which is believed to be a B&M family invert. Reports are the new coaster will be the exact location of the RMC so it will not be possible to build it in the future without changing the design. The only repeat customers RMC has had are HFE and Six Flags. I really like the companies coasters, Iron Gwazi is one of the best coasters I have ever ridden, but they really need to work on the maintenance and long term reliability. A cheap purchase price is not enough, companies often look at the cost over the life of the attraction.

Gilroy Gardens still gives California’s Great America pass holders free admission. It’s even listed as a perk on the 2024 CGA Gold Pass. No idea what happens with a Cedar Fair pass from a park other than CGA. There is some type of partnership still going on, I just have no idea what it involves.

These polls are more of a popularity contest then a real reflection of who has the best event. How many of the voters have even been to more than one of these events, let alone enough to actually rank them?

The worst part about these kinds of things is the missed opportunities. The number of people saying I visited frequently and never received a perk. If they are visiting frequently they should be receiving opportunities to try to push them into spending more money in the park. Spend X amount get Y item free, or just an extra discount. But one, get one free, on certain snack items. Discounts on midway games. Provide extra bring a friend free tickets only usable on weekdays or other slower times of the year. Instead it was, your already going to the park so we will just totally ignore you. I have not received a single pass perk all year. Some of those perks would have been completely ignored, but others could have been the push I needed to spend more money.

You are going to need to be more specific, because I do not know of any park who does not charge extra for this specific attraction. Cedar Point does charge per a rider and if I remember right it’s $25. Great Adventure charges $25, Darien Lake also charges $25. Some Six Flags parks do have attractions that have been paid attractions at other locations, such as Cat Woman’s Whip at Six Flags St Louis. But as far as I know, no one offers a slingshot for free.

Building a slingshot from scratch is something like a million dollars. Then you have to figure in maintenance and operating expenses. This is the problem, people keep saying I rode it when it was $5 or $10, but no one is saying $20 is a fair price. Over the life of the attraction it was likely profitable. But did it make enough money to justify building a new one? Unlikely. Kings Island is really the wrong kind of park to install one in. You need a location where people are already used to paying per a ride, a higher percentage of tourists, or something special. Kings Island is just too much of a locals park.

Jason McClure spoke about the gold passes at Coaster Mania during the Q&A session the year after it started being offered at $99. According to him enthusiasts are really overstating how many gold passes were being used during the extremely busy Halloweekends days, and that we are also wrong about how many of those passes sold. He basically stated that the vast majority of the guests when the park hit capacity were not using gold passes, and that the cheap passes had nothing to with the crowding. He was the parks GM at the time, and has access to all of the information needed to make these claims. As I remember Kings Island was essentially in the same position on the same days. The parking lot was filled to the brim with even the water parks lot full and people parking in the grass. It does feel like Cedar Point could get away with raising the pass price, or not including Halloweekends. Personally I have suspected the reason for changing how the passes work and dropping the platinum pass was to make it easier to introduce more pass levels, and taking features away from the gold pass and making them part of the mid tier(s) seems likely to me.

In my opinion it’s true in context, he took over sometime in 2021. I am referring specifically to the 2022 season with that comment. He made a lot of mistakes for the 2022 season which likely some could have been prevented if he had not fired so much of the corporate staff.

What he has claimed that he wanted, turning the parks into a more family friendly and premium experience is good. But it’s going to take more than talk, they need to invest in changes. The biggest investments were pricing and pass changes that drove away customers, reducing the crowds so that they had shorter lines. He raised prices without actually improving the quality. Claimed that no investment was needed for the next few years and cancelled most projects, then suddenly backtracked and had to order whatever off the shelf rides that were available. Whatever investments they are making are opening extremely late, one of the 2023 projects announced last year just opened this weekend, when the season is basically over. Budget cuts that including closing entire lands at parks, just wiping the rides off the map, app, and website. Where is the live entertainment at Six Flags parks? Cancelled Holiday in the park at 4 or 5 parks. Those are just the things off the top of my head. I guarantee there is more that I am not remembering. He also made changes that are not customer facing, including firing a lot of corporate staff.

The DC IP is honestly good, but has been poorly utilized, mostly just using the name, logos and a color scheme. It’s possible to actually make it good, and the IP sells a LOT of merchandise. Utilizing it at one of the two parks in Ohio makes sense, and frankly Kings Island feels like the more logical location. Building a new land from scratch is doable, but Action Zone needs a retheme already, I was hopeful we might see something that would allow Banshee to fit in with no changes, but DC makes sense. I do not think that it would be as simple or cheap as just renaming the existing attractions. It sounds like the Cedar Fair executive team will be in charge of the combined company and they realized a long time ago that just doing the absolute minimum is not enough, building larger more expensive projects less frequently produces better returns. Personally I would lean towards removing Congo Falls, Timberwolf, and either moving or removing the Skyflyer. I would even remove the gift shop and ice cream stand, just start over. That gives a giant plot of land for new flat rides, a coaster, gift shops, restaurant the works. At least that’s what I would do. Assuming this merger goes through, and frankly it feels likely, using the IP’s from Six Flags in Ohio makes sense, the closest Six Flags park is likely Chicago. Assuming DC, and Loony Toons will likely end up at one of the parks, and I feel like making sure there is no duplication and giving each their own unique feel to make visiting both parks more enjoyable. Plus to create a little more separation from Great America, Kings Island makes more sense to me.

I have my doubts, not that there is no discussions but that Cedar Fair would agree to do it. I suspect it was Six Flags who started the conversations. Also I suspect Six Flags would need permission from some third parties, for instance they don’t own 100% of some of the legacy parks like Georgia and Texas. If this gets serious I could see SEAS making another attempt at purchasing Cedar Fair.

According to Mike Koontz, the park always knew it would be impossible for Adventure Port to be ready for opening day. When the rides were ordered, the planned delivery date for the ride hardware was always after opening day. The construction was planned due to the estimated delivery of the rides, which were delivered late but not by much. Soapbox Racers is a small coaster, it’s not even 80 feet tall, and has less than 700 feet of track. The single train operation means a lot less wiring and controls. It’s a simple ride that will be able to be rapidly constructed. Vekoma has publicly stated Good Gravy will be the first family boomerang in North America, so they need to have a good reason and construction does not make any sense to me. Either it’s built into the contract or the order was placed so late that it’s already known there is no way it could be ready by opening day. The park cannot build a ride it does not have.

From what I have heard the spike is causing problems for entertainment. Iron Dragon has to shut down if a show on the stage will have any fire effects or fireworks. Typically not a big deal, but from what I have heard this is also true of Top Thrill 2, for a show to have fire or fireworks both coasters will have to close, and priority has been given to the new coaster. It sounds like Cedar Point’s current plan is to just not do any evening shows on that stage next year, and possibly not use the stage at all next year. Long term I expect the stage is likely going to move.

I have been to both, neither one really stands out. My gut says do Worlds of Fun, but that might be because my original plan for this summer was a road trip to visit WoF and a bunch of other parks on the way there and back so I could visit during the parks anniversary and ride Zambezi Zinger. The opening of the coaster was delayed and I cancelled the trip and later ended up doing a totally different trip. I am also concerned about the future of Lost Island amusement park and wanted to visit while I was certain of it still being in business. It’s a lot of driving to visit either park if you’re not planning on visiting anything else. My suggestion is try to visit something else, and would make the decision more based on those extras than one of those parks over the other, neither is that amazing, and I am concerned you might find either disappointing on its own. Two more Cedar Fair parks to throw into the mix, first Valleyfair is not much farther than either of these parks at around 11 hours just in a North West direction, passing through Chicago, and the Wisconsin Dells, on the way. On the road trip I made to visit Worlds of Fun, I also visited Valleyfair, because Worlds of Fun is directly south of Valleyfair with Adventureland in the middle between the two. Finally Michigan’s Adventure, it’s around a 6 hour drive from Cincinnati and would be closer than any of these other parks. If I were to rank Cedar Fair parks, MA is firmly in the last spot for me, but the 3 spots ahead of it are Valleyfair, Dorney, and Worlds of Fun.

The people on this site really not good examples of what average is when it comes to utilization. The pass price and meal plan price make sense in context with how many times they are used on average, when considering every pass holder, not just a small group of dedicated individuals. Most passes really are not being used more than a handful of times a year. For every pass holder going 20+ times a year there are multiple only going 1, 2, 3 times. This is an old number and I cannot remember the source, but back around 2016 or 2017 I believe, the average was somewhere between 3 and 4. I have never heard any hints at what average use is for the meal plan. But it’s obviously low enough that the chain is making a good deal of money at the current price. I am positive there are guests that get enough meals the park and the chain lose money on the meal plan, do they make it back on merchandise and other spending, maybe. Whatever my meal plan costs Cedar Fair is easily paid for from my in park spending and that I have a prestige pass and season long Fast Lane. Raising the price risks losing those guests who don’t really use it frequently. The price point was decided to try to maximize revenue and profits, using data we don’t have access to. They are selling the idea of unlimited, and using data to support how often it actually is used. Guests are really bad at estimating how often they actually use their pass and meal plan.

Carowinds, Worlds of Fun, Canadas Wonderland, and Kings Dominion all have this same policy. I know it was announced months ago for Kings Dominion, and is how they have been operating since haunt started. I do not think it was a new policy at all of these parks either. Knott’s also clears the park but it’s a true separate ticket and annual passes do not work, I believe the rest of these parks do allow annual pass admissions for haunt. Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Dorney are the only parks in the chain to my knowledge which do not clear the park before haunt and I believe the only parks that allow guests with regular day tickets access to haunt. I would not be surprised to see this expand to more of the chain next year.

You might want to take another look at the website, the existing family inverts don’t have vests. The restraints look like the vest restraints, just with only the lap bar, and the metal hoop, but there is no vest. I am pretty sure this will be the standard family invert trains with speakers added for an onboard sound system. On those trains the seats are rigidly mounted to the train and they do not sway.