BeeastFarmer

The thing I liked about Cedar Fair vs Six Flags was the simplicity of, for the most part, the CF pricing structure. Platinum pass= all park access. Drink plan= choose paper or plastic and get a refill every 15 minutes. Meal plan= two meals per visit with four hours in between. Six Flags was more convoluted. You can buy a pass at Labor Day but it has to be activated at that park by November first ( but the park is closed the majority of that time frame) You have to have a plastic cup. I never really used the meal plan extensively, but the year I had it, it was fairly easy, but the food choices were limited. With many things, the company is making things more complicated. If you change the meal plan to be more complicated, it would add to that. Once the company stabilizes, and can actually start to "premiumize" as Bassoul called it, that would be the time to pivot, not now. Current strategy is to pivot to the lowest common denominator, which is cheap pass prices. I would conjecture that they still make a killer profit from the meal plan. Not every park is KI with a huge season pass base, they likely use the law of averages. And with moving away from locally sourced food to national distribution for bulk prices, the cost per meal is probably lower now, even with increased prices in general nationwide. They have made a killing on me, as I have only redeemed it four times because I just don't go often enough, and I bought it last year out of habit, not thinking I would continue staying away from the parks.

You are late to the party. Everyone knows that is the first stage of construction for Step Sister of Bavarian Beetle!

Interesting. I just watched a YouTube video about The Sphere last night, and the plan to roll them out worldwide, but in different scales. Subjectively, I don't think Six Flags would have the money, or if they did, actually invest the money in one of these. I think for a mini sphere the cost they projected was around $250 million plus the operating expenses are exponential. The Las Vegas sphere took in something like 1.25 billion in top line revenue and was still in the red in spite of the luxury experience and spend. Unless Kings Island had this open every day of the year, I think it would be a paperweight, and probably the end of Six Flags as we know it.

You want to do what with your what?!?! This is a family park! ( Done in my best pte Maestro voice)

Interesting that John Reilly thanks Tim Fisher for his time with Six Flags and the integration of Cedar Fair. Those of us who supposed that the CF "feel" would out shadow the stank of most of Six Flags have been disappointed for the majority. This "thanks" is a CEO manifest of that for me. Or maybe I'm being paranoid, pendantic, or pointed. Also, why did they repeat his bio?

TruGreen ChemLawn stopped using "ChemLawn" in all but a couple of locations in 2007. They, from what I'm told, encourage the use of the name incognito. They dropped the name because of the association of ChemLawn with poisoned playgrounds. The trademark is abandoned now, almost 20 years later. The point being, CF saw the value of the name Six Flags, even with all the negative connotations in the investor community, the industry and the enthusiast community. Hopefully, when the ship rights itself, the name will have either redeemed itself, or they retire it.

While not a result of the merger, another intamin install haunts former CF. Georgia Goldrusher is down for the rest of the season.

I assume it could be a donor...lift chain, motor, control/sensors, even some track pieces? Not to mention the train (s).

My memory of Kings Island food in 2014 and prior was that it was basically bland, besides pizza and chili. (Not being from the area, skyline and La Rosa have been a treat typically reserved for Kings Island. Before I started going to ki alot in 2014, I only ate skyline and La Rosa when going to the park). I remember the hamburger meat was terrible in 2014, the patties still had the round extruded look and feel, and tasted terrible. It wasn't until 2015 coasterstock that I was eating some sandwich special at Reds that Chef Nate designed that was really good, that I took much of an interest in park food.

Unfortunately, it's a paywall article.

One my one visit this year, and my one visit last year, food was still very good. I had terrible Coney BBQ pulled pork in the past , though, and that was under the direction of Chef Major. Food was really good under the direction of Chef Nate, too. Maybe he will come back. I do realize, that my experience is anecdotal.

Let's not kid ourselves into a delusion that all was perfect from June 30 2024 backwards. The only perfect year under Cedar Fair that I experienced ( and I started following things in 2014 with multiple visits vs once or twice yearly) was 2022. Every time I went it seemed as if the park was purring along like a well taken care of Mustang GT, although my blinders probably shielded the misfires that year. Before the current lament, there were dirty tables, surly employees, no ice, no soft drink syrup and food issues. There were Cedar Fair SUPERVISORS (emphasis added to reflect the uniform) who stood around and ignored problems or worse yet, tried to maintain a "bestie" relationship with their reports to avoid conflicts. However, in 2022 around Haunt or WinterFest, things started changing. In 2023, things ramped up with the park's lack of attention to detail, midways not being washed amongst other things. The veil was ripped open and internal politics were laid bare and incompetence across different areas exposed. Then the merger news came out and was consummated mid season 2024. All appeared to be going well, and there was optimism about Cedar Fair bringing the Six Flags properties up to standard. And now here we are. My hope is that money will flow, smart decisions could be made, and the Kings Island legacy will prevail. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. Hopefully, homeostasis will prevail and things will return to a new normal.

I wonder where Travis Kelce is?

But they suck at the burrito shack. Nothing like getting your food either blasted off your plate or blasted with concentrated microbes, hair, dead skin cells and other dust components.

What happened at the train station?