Family Time At The Parks:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/trave...usement.html?hp

*Dollywood

*Hersheypark....

I have to wonder if these Christmas and holiday events will become the next Halloween for the amusement park industry. Keep in mind that in the mid 1990s, Halloween events were virtually non existent. Now, practically every seasonal park has a Halloween event and they really draw in the crowds.

Not to travel down an already well traveled road, but it would be interesting to see if these events end up catching on as a way for seasonal amusement parks to generate revenue during a time when they are normally dormant and doing routine maintenance on all their rides. I don`t see Winterfest returning to Kings Island anytime soon, but the success of these events has to make you wonder if at some point when Cedar Fair has paid down some of their debt (assuming they are still around in several years as Interpreter so deftly points out frequently) if they won`t try some of these winter events as a way to generate more revenue.