Kenban

Gay Day is the name used in orlando. Which this year is 5 days in June. Here is a great quote from the gayday website.

Disney does have a "Pride Night" as well I have to pull some info up about how it happens at Disney though. As I remember what actually happens is an organization purchases a HUGE block of tickets and resells them to others at a discount and Disney does not and will not sell the discounted tickets directly. In the end Disney would do the same thing for ANY organization that wishes to do an event like this and can get enough people to go because they do not actually support the group in any way they are just giving them the tickets at the regular discounted price for that many people. So if you can get (TOTAL guess here) 20,000 people together you can get the same rate for the original tickets and it can be whatever day you want because of the number of people from the same group there. BUT Disney does not and will not advertise the event. I wonder if this event is being done in a similar way and what they do is just rent out the entire park then make money off the ticket sales. Its Pride Night just because they rented the park for the night and PKI I bet did not give them any discouts off of the regular rental rate for the park. Oh someone was talking about the islamic day at some six flags park. This was what happened at that park they rented the entire park for the day and did not receive any discounts. Its just the park making money it has nothing to do with support for any organization. EDIT: Here are some quotes from mouseplanet.

The UDF shop is turning into a doughnut shop. This is from the IJST video that was posted here Jeff talks about it as the tour is walking down I street.

If you remember at the end of last season that shop on the right near the entrance I think it sold Hello Kitty stuff or something like that had a clerance sale. The talk was a food vendor of some sort was moving into the space. If you read the PKI message it says "Located inside the park entrance on the right side of International Street" Sounds like this might be whats going in that space.

This is what I figured would happen. Although I am suprised about the 19 locations. Most parks that do this go for closer to 6 or 7. Although I would really like to see a map with the spots marked or just walk around the park and see where they are. They should be off the paths far enough so the smoke does not bother the other quests but close enough that smokers are willing to walk over there. Just 19 sounds a little high. I just figured it would have been closer to 10.

I am positive its a Citigraph map. Really does any major park at least in the US not use them? And yes Disney does use Citigraph (I think). Was in California last year the Universal Studios, Disney, Knotts, PKI maps are very similar. Makes you think they only have one or two overworked artists. EDIT: On the disney front thats a guess really. As its not actually listed as being one of the parks they do maps for on the Citigraph site and yes PKI is listed. Its just that they have that look to them. EDIT 2: OK I was starting to wonder about those Disney maps. So I did a few google searchs. Now I am not sure if its still done this way today but as of only a few years ago they did the maps in house and websites that had old copies of the maps were even able to give the "Imagineers" name. So I guess my guess was wrong oh well.

Thats interesting was not aware of the smoking ban in Huntington. Like I said at the end of the post if you don't like the ban all you need to do is not go to PKI. If attendance goes down you will not see the ban last very long. The problem is companys don't get the same say in the matter when forced in cases such as my example of New York. I actually don't support citys and states forcing smoking bans on restaurants. I just found what happened in New York interesting. Its actually very similar to what has occured in several other citys that have banned smoking in public locations which is why I brought it up if I had known about the problems in Huntington I would have said something. Normally the restaurants don't see any differance. Ok that got totally off topic there for a second. I don't support government forcing companys to say that you can not smoke within the building. Except I do support companys who have a no smoking policy. It should be up to the company not the government what a paying customer can and cannot do. Oh and I know I said if park attendence goes down that your not going to see the smoking ban last very long. With a new high profile ride opening this year I except double digit growth so it would be very hard to put a dent in the attendence this year.

In 2002 smoking was outlawed in bars and restaurants in New York city after a very long fight with many companys saying they would end up going out of business because of the ban. In the end what happened? Business actually went up not down. Turns out even some smokers prefer having them smoke free. In surveys only 4% of people said they were eating out less often then before the ban while I believe it was around 20% said they were eating out more often. If you go and look at the big parks which PKI and the entire paramount park chain is trying to copy. Both Disney and Universal Studios also only allow smoking in marked areas. Don't really want to add fuel to the fire except to say sometimes companys do these kinds of policys to make more money. Its quite simple if you do not agree with a policy don't go there. If the attendence at the park drops because of this policy trust me it will not last.

Disney - Frankly this is the only one on this list I could almost see buy the park but there are a lot of problems with saying this. It was only a few years ago they did some heavy studies of building seasonal parks and they were very interested. Although I could not see them want the entire chain maybe 2 or 3 parks if they would even want more then one. Six Flags - Too many money problems there is no way it could happen Universal - Same boat as Six Flags they have lost money for several years (I think they finally are back in the black last year) Also the parent company wants to sell the parks and is waiting til they are making money so that they can get a better price for the parks don't expect them to actually be owned by universal for much longer. Busch Gardens - This is the same company as Seaworld. Really I could not see them purchase a park and if they did I could not see it be done in ohio they already gave up on Seaworld Ohio which is now owned by Cedar Fair. Coney Island - Don't know enough about them to really say anything but I don't think its a big enough company Cedar Fair - I enjoy the companys parks (even went to Knotts last year) but they are viewed as a stable stock for a reason. They don't expand quickly etc. With the purchase of that Six Flags park in ohio (used to be something lake and also contains the old Seaworld park) I could not see them even looking at more parks for a few years. There have been some talk about Paramount wanting to sell the park division but I don't know of any companys that want something like it right now. But I also don't think Paramount is going to sell them the parks have been doing well for a few years now and while other chains like Universal were losing money the Parks stayed in the black for Paramount. If Paramount were to sell the parks expect them to try to get rid of them as a chain and I don't think any company wants that right now.

It should have been What is your favorite Paramount Park OTHER then King's Island. This is like going onto a Disney fan site like mouseplanet and asking which is better Disney or Universal.

I do want to point out that not to long ago GE was looking into selling the Universal Orlando theme parks but they have decided to not look into it again until 2006. Heres the news story. Funny thing is if you read it turns out the agreement is to give Universal Orlando another year to improve its finacial health. I think the orlando parks would end up similar to the Disney parks in France. What happens is that Disney while they own a piece of the parks does not really own that much of it but they get a nice payment each year for the rights to use the Disney name, the ride designs etc. Is that what happens to PKI ?? I hope not but its hard to say. Really I think they are going to hold on to them for a while but who knows. One of the big things for major companys to do right now is cut out the side units (even if they make money) and focus on the 'core' business.

Rockwell Automation isn't an european country, their based in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The spelling on screen would have nothing to do with rockwell. All they do is make the PLC (Programmable logic controller) that runs the ride. The spelling is the problem of the people who program it which would be HUSS. Which last I remember they are based out of Germany.

1) when its super crowded, we run both. 2) raining, cause it has a roof 3) emergencies Maybe its just me but I think he missed the fact there are two floors on the top of the tower. Each elevator goes to a differant floor.

First let me say I understand I don't think your going to see gas powered cars running inside. BUT what I want is a drive through haunted house like ride. Think of the Haunted Mansion at Disney except that you get to drive a little car through it. Best part is the cars seem perfect as is for a ride like that. Except I would hate to think of how long the lines would end up being if it was done well.