jsus

Landscaping done well would make a huge difference to make it feel separate from the outside world (e.g. I-71 and McDonald's/Wendy's).

meh

Agreed. There are way too many things that lined up to make last Saturday a miserable day at the park. Saturday before Columbus Day 8 hour day (12-8p) in 2020 vs. 13 hours (11a-12m) in 2019 No Friday night (normally 6p-12m during Halloweekends) to take some of the demand Park capacity is capped by reservations to 50% of what management sees as park capacity (which would be a miserable day), combined with Operational capacity, particularly rides, is reduced to 25-40%, due to reduced seating capacity, and increased cycle times to allow for staggered guest exits, and cleaning cycles Do the math and a park at "50% capacity" during pandemic times is worse than 100% capacity in a normal year.

Wasn't my post but that's the way I interpreted it. It's also a valid question. No worries.

But what's the cash price?

That was the implication, since I'm only aware of the ride being down last weekend, not the weekend prior. Again, @IndyGuy4KI reports the park hopes to have the ride operational this weekend (tomorrow). You seem to think it's a possibility that they're replacing a piece of track, and for the ride to reopen in that one-week timeframe, how else do you expect that to work logistically? They just had an extra piece of track fabricated for funsies? Like the claims that INTAMIN had already redesigned and fabricated the s-curve that replaced the heartline roll on Maverick... but waited until they knew they needed it to go to the expense of air freighting it to the US instead of shipping it with all the other pieces? Are you sure they would be using electric scissor lifts outside that require being plugged in, vs. a gas or diesel model?

Nondestructive Testing (see Wikipedia) Essentially, it's referring to a method or series of methods of testing the structural integrity of a material without doing any damage to it. Examples include using an x-ray scanner to look below the surface of a piece of steel track to look for things like tiny cracks invisible to the human eye, that when stressed, can cause the whole piece to fail. The repeated stress of a roller coaster train riding down the track can cause even the smallest defect to grow, ultimately leading to catastrophic failure. The one thing that makes me question a sensor or simple wiring issue like that is I would expect KI's maintenance department to have been able to resolve that last weekend. That said, I'm no expert here, so anything's possible. It's also way more likely than fabricating a replacement piece of track and installing it within a week.

Depends entirely on the specifics of any crack or other defect that may or may not exist in the steel track. All of these are possible solutions, presuming that the notion of a crack or other defect in the steel track is indeed the reason for the downtime. That said, the park stated that they hope to have Banshee operational as soon as this weekend (see @IndyGuy4KI's post on the first page). Has anyone seen a flatbed from Clermont Steel Fabricators bringing in this supposed replacement track segment this week? I'd think they'd need to have it in by now, especially if replacing track requires re-certification by ODOA.

They'd just do the same thing that auto body shops do any time they replace a panel or otherwise need to do significant paint work - blend the new paint with the surrounding paint so there's a more seamless transition between new and old. The paint looking a little deeper on one track segment likely wouldn't get most people's attention, anyway. Do you see people remarking over fresh wood on wood coasters, which sticks out like a sore thumb (e.g. light brown new wood, dark brown aged wood)? I don't. As for repair vs. replace, it comes down to whether or not any defect in the track (or a support column, for that matter) can be fixed in a way that Kings Island maintenance and B&M are confident in its structural integrity. A repair would generally be significantly less expensive, ignoring transportation costs from CSF. ~40 tons of steel (for track, dunno about support columns) ain't cheap, nor are CSF's services.

There's so much wrong with that. Raptor is 20 years older than Banshee (1994 vs. 2014). What makes you think that a mission-critical component that's not a typical replacement part kept in stock would be a simple drop-in replacement like this? Cedar Point is scheduled to operate through the weekend after Halloween. Just like Kings Island. Both parks will be open at the same time. Why on Earth would they spend the time and money to tear apart Raptor so that Banshee can operate? Etc...

But what are you suggesting that you know the current display is incapable of?

But that is an LED matrix display...

How would that differ from the one currently in place? Or are you referring to a different sign? Source: https://goo.gl/maps/MSw9Fk4kZeBZijCp7

Anything is possible with enough money and the right argument for the potential seller.

It comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how human health works. A virus infecting you doesn't just kill you. It infects various systems in your body which causes them to fail, or causes your immune system to overreact and basically attack your body, not just the infection. When someone passes away in a car crash, the car crash itself didn't directly kill them. It causes catastrophic damage to one or more organs without which the victim cannot survive. So, cause of death would be, for instance, a traumatic brain injury that was the direct result of the car crash. In other words, the cause of death is more of a chain of events than "this one thing killed the victim". COVID-19 can both cause other conditions and trigger pre-existing conditions to become fatal, in a way that would not have happened without some outside influence like COVID-19. The 6% with only COVID-19 listed as CoD means that simply nothing else was filled in. It doesn't say why. So the 6% if anything to me just says that whomever filled out the death certificate didn't have details on what COVID-19 did to the victim to cause their death. AKA 6% with incomplete info, rather than 6% who actually "died of COVID-19".

Please do some research into these things before spreading false information. That is not remotely what the CDC said, and not how human health works. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/31/trump-picks-up-where-fox-news-left-off-with-new-coronavirus-death-toll-conspiracy-theory/

It's a similar situation to steel coasters - the ride structure itself is designed, and then the station is designed around it. So there are still vertical steel support columns for station track in the station that support the track + train, then a completely separate steel/concrete structure to hold the station floor, etc. The station track is structurally sound without the station present..

Wow, I wish I got to try this. It looks and sounds awesome.

People see that the pass is valid for the rest of the purchasing season, and reasonably assume the whole pass (e.g. add-ons) is included in that. CP last fall put signs up at food service locations advising that '20 dining plans were not valid in '19, so clearly not everyone understood the distinction.

The first year was only at a few parks, and you had to buy an ASDP for each park you wanted to use it at (no Platinum ASDP valid chain-wide). I had one for CP but not KI, so I don't even remember KI's was supposed to end at labor day. Good to know, and definitely the right call to fix that. I'm not really a fan of add-ons not being valid for the entire time your pass is valid (e.g. buy the next year's pass in the fall, get the rest of that season included.. but the fine print says your ASDP and SPDP (dining and drinks) aren't valid that year. It creates confusion.

Yup. Like I said above, the economics of it to date have been in Cedar Fair's favor. If they were to determine that redemption rates (average # of meals redeemed per All-Day Dining wristband sold) were too high based on proprietary metrics, I would fully expect changes to be made. I expect that's the key metric they use to monitor usage of ADD, compared against other attendance and per-cap spending and such. Since they can't economically keep people from sharing food no matter how they advertise it, that's out. The current interval is 90 minutes, as IIRC it has been since inception. They could always increase that. They did just that with the All Season Dining Plan for passholders - it was 2hr between meals at launch but quickly doubled to 4hr. (Side note - they tried to further limit it to two short windows around noon and 6pm, sneaking the term change in after passes were sold, but reversed course after complaints). This doesn't seem too likely since it hasn't happened yet. They could, of course, increase the cost, though they've so far been unwilling to do so more than $2 ($29.99 -> $31.99). Probably the last resort would be to entirely discontinue the product, which they'd only want to do if they couldn't tweak it enough to keep it sufficiently profitable. At this point, minor price increases here and there with inflation seem reasonable. Beyond that? It could happen, but it hasn't yet. At the end of the day, as long as their calculations show it's making them more profit than if they didn't offer it, it's not going anywhere.

Here's the thing. Even if they made a big deal about how it was only for you, they can't enforce it. They're offering you, the wristband wearer, an eligible meal every 90 minutes. There's no feasible way for them to track every all-day dining customer and make sure that only the person wearing the wristband eats the food. It'd almost certainly cost more in staffing (or some complicated tech) than the food cost. Besides, they make no effort in their advertising to make it clear that All-Day Dining is for the wristband wearer only. They know you're going to share. Since they continue to offer it years later, they've found that the economics are still in their favor if a family shares the food from 1 or 2 $31.99 wristbands (or whatever it is these days).

Anecdotal update (one day observation only, on the last day of daily operations): yesterday, all CP food locations were closed by the 8pm park close, except for the new French Quarter Confections. That location only has, you guessed it, desserts. BackBeatQue and Happy Friar were open shortly before close, but because the restroom by Magnum was closed, I had to find another. By the time I got back, it was 8pm. A supervisor at Happy Friar was turning guests away and BBQ's doors were locked. Ugh. The struggles of visiting alone when you have no one to watch your stuff. Lessons: check the first restroom you can find, since the one closest to your destination may be closed. If you find a food stand open shortly before close, especially if you want to use your dining plan, get there while you can. Make it work somehow.

I'd be a little more tolerant this year due to pandemic-related restrictions (budgetary and otherwise). That said, in general, it'd appear to be a better business move to plan some of the quick service dessert and dining locations to be open for a bit past official park close. That way, people can grab one last treat on the way out, which many do like to do. In previous years, some of the stands toward the front of Cedar Point have stayed open 30+ minutes after close, getting that business as people walk out. It happened regularly enough that I imagine they scheduled and budgeted for that. Not sure about this year, though.

Oww, my head. On topic? It almost looks just like a road/walkway widening or extension. Could be for a campground. CP has been adding campsites lately on the old Sandcastle Suites site, but they lost some when they put in cabins/cottages.