MisterSG1

Not sure if this topic belongs here. week I’m heading to Universal Studios to participate in the (Toronto Metropolitan Thrill Design Competition) and then spending a day at IAAPA after. I’m just wondering if anyone else here is going to IAAPA this year.

Well, I think the real thing at play is the increase substantially of cost of living involved, with less disposable income means that people would spend less time at Wonderland. I mean seriously, go look at the price of renting anywhere in southern Ontario, you’ll probably be shocked. Many of the associates at Wonderland now have a very low customer service attitude, this has been especially true since the pandemic, and I presume this has caused patrons to stop going. Combine that with more recent situations of teenagers acting up, and the line jumping often without consequence, and the customer is upset. A friend of mine from university who formally worked at Wonderland as a ride op for years told me that Cedar Fair had brought in people from their headquarters to Wonderland by the end of last season.

This is the actual table from the report in case you wanted to see.

The “most visited seasonal theme park in North America” is no longer Canada’s Wonderland. Back in 2019, Wonderland had just missed the 4 million mark, something they’ve never accomplished to my knowledge. Of course, then came COVID, and with that the totally canceled 2020 season and highly restrictive 2021 season. Even back in 2021, things seemed more optimistic about the future of the park. 2022 had a recovery of guests but not back to where we were understandably, they had 3.76 million guests that season which is close to where they were before. But last season, 2023, was a totally different story, they had only 3.23 million guests, that’s a drop as I said of 500,000 guests, meanwhile in the same year, both Kings Island and Cedar Point both had more guests, Cedar Point even cracked 4 million last season. I do have a theory why this happened, as life in Canada severely declined after the pandemic, but that’s something that would take longer to explain.

If I was blunt about the issue, I’d probably get banned, go look up the CanadasWonderland Reddit and you’ll see what has happened. A friend of mine from university who worked there told me that by the end of last season, they had brought in people from corporate because of the problems in the park.

It's a real shame though however the actual park has went downhill this season.

I don't want to delve into politics, but you can't shield kids from reality. Looney Tunes are good fun, but people like Elmer Fudd, trying to hunt the rabbit indeed exist. Just as Sylvester wanting to eat Tweety. In reality, hunters do exist, and there are predators and prey. Trying to shield kids from the world is a dumb proposition, and obviously doesn't seem to be working. I mean back when Bugs & Tweety aired, you didn't see kids committing mass shootings did you? As someone else said regarding Peanuts, how often do you really see them other than that Christmas special? Wonderland has a ride themed after the Halloween special because that's kind of the relevance they have, only specials.

Which Space Jam are we talking about? That newer one or the one I grew up with Michael Jordan in 1996. As for the Big Three, I honestly didn't know who Wonder Woman was growing up, and I still don't know what her superpower is. Batman took a dark turn since 1989, I mean that animated series that starts with a bank robbery in the intro was a show I didn't like much as a kid for its darkness. Superman has always seemed lame to be honest, this is in contrast to Spider-Man or the X-Men. I mean seriously, Halloween was 2 nights ago, how many Batmen or Supermen showed up at your door, compared to how many Spider-Men. That should settle it right there.

That arguably happened because the Looney Tunes were not as easily accessible as they once were thanks to Federal Government regulations on Children's Programming known as E/I. In a nut shell, E/I was the main reason why the Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks disappeared. So eliminate the ease of seeing the Looney Tunes on TV, and there you have it, kids don't know who the Looney Tunes are anymore. The Looney Tunes were seen every weekend for over 40 years on ABC up until 2002 in the many variants of the show that ultimately came to be known as "Bugs and Tweety" in its final years. On top of that, in the 90s in those before and after school blocks on WB Network, one of the shows shown was "Merrie Melodies" which showed 3 shorts in a half hour. In Canada, Global TV showed "Bugs and Tweety" at 5pm on Saturdays, I'm not sure if I agree that Peanuts is a stronger IP than Looney Tunes, I always see them as even nowadays. If the Looney Tunes are dated, does this mean the classic shorts made over at Disney, starring the character we all know are dated as well. Think about it, just hearing the word "Disney" makes you think of a certain character does it not?

Since this appears to be a merger, it would be good if the parks could remain belonging to their family. When I was very young, Costco and The Price Club merged, and suddenly you could use your Costco membership at Price Club. What’s important is that for at least 5 years there was a separate brand of Costco and a separate brand of Price Club. I presume when it comes to IP and overall feel to the parks that most of that would most likely remain the same. Retheming is expensive, and pointless for the little theming rides have in the first place. Maybe 20 years ago, the Looney Tunes were a stronger brand than Peanuts, but I’m presuming most kids nowadays are kind of clueless about Looney Tunes. If I recall, ABC stopped showing Bugs and Tweety way back in 2002. Furthermore, Saturday morning cartoons and my personal nostalgic favourite, the before and after school programming blocks on FOX and WB (also there was Global TV here in Canada) Detective Comics, they’ve been has beens pretty much since the 90s when the X Men cartoon first aired and Marvel became an unstoppable force.

Remember, the LA area also has: Dodgers and Angels (MLB) Kings and Ducks (NHL) Lakers and Clippers (NBA) Rams and Chargers (NFL) Having the two theme parks still there shouldn't be an issue. I think the key there is to make the two parks distinct, as Snoopy should stay at Knotts for example.

It would be extremely foolish to rename Kings Island or Canada’s Wonderland for example. While Six Flags over Toronto may sound cool, the park has been known as Canada’s Wonderland in some form throughout its 40 year history. Same goes with Kings Island. (There’s also the civic nonsense involved here saying that Wonderland isn’t technically in Toronto so it shouldn’t be called that) If they were stupid enough to rename it, the vast majority of guests would refer to it by its original name. Kind of like the Skydome, Rogers bought the building and arrogantly renamed it Rogers Centre in 2005, but almost no one refers to it by that name except the media. Even during the days of “Paramount Canada’s Wonderland”, most still referred to it as Wonderland or Canada’s Wonderland. Thinking of the park as “Paramount” almost never happened.

I was thinking of it (in case Kings Island could entertain the idea) of it being an overflow lot to watch tennis. A pedestrian bridge isn’t that far off of an idea, not far from me, a pedestrian bridge was built to connect a parking garage to Pickering GO Station which crosses over the mammoth Highway 401’s 16 lanes of traffic! What I was thinking was something like this which can serve as an overflow for the Cincy Open from Kings Island’s parking lot.

Let me guess, were you inspired by that wacky proposal to link Wonderland to the Toronto subway system using a gondola system? Wouldn’t a simple pedestrian overpass from the parking lot be a better option? It could arguably move people a lot quicker than the gondola could. You might find this weird, but Toronto and Cincy do have a fair amount of things in common, like how we have the tennis tournament before you guys, and our tennis venue isn’t that far from the theme park relatively speaking.

Around this very time, we were into the infamous 2003 Blackout. I was at Wonderland when it happened enjoying a funnel cake when I noticed all the rides weren’t working. Obviously Kings Island wasn’t out that day, but I think Cedar Point was out, if anyone has any recollection of that day up there it’d be nice to hear.