Winterfest 2019 Discussion.

[super7]

2 hours ago, Ki Man said:

I'm a bit disappointed with no Flight of Cheer this year, but it's nice that Mystic Timbers will be running. Knowing that's the only coaster open, how are the lines for it? Are we looking at an hour wait if you aren't the first one there? 

In ‘17 the lines were short on regular weekend Fridays and Sundays.   Especially later at night.

But this summer the park seemed more crowded so that may be different this year.   

[SnakePlissken]

5 hours ago, Klabergian Empire said:

The Great Pumpkin Coaster is open .

Great Pumpkin polar coaster challenge anybody? 

[flightoffear1996]

My only complaint was that it was hard to see all the shows. A lot of the shows all started at the same time so you wait for one to end but then miss the start of the other 

[super7]

53 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

My only complaint was that it was hard to see all the shows. A lot of the shows all started at the same time so you wait for one to end but then miss the start of the other 

The event should run 6 hours minimum 

[SnakePlissken]

I filled out a survey last year and my biggest suggestion was extend nighttime hours. It didn't happen. Maybe next year. I would like to see the park stay open till midnight. 

[Winterfestguy]

My suggestion on the survey was to open at 2pm on Saturdays (like the original Winterfest and the one year return of Winterfest did). That didn’t happen either.  Carowinds does open their Winterfest at 2pm on Saturdays, so must be a park to park decision for hours.  Just seems to me that people would shop, skate, and spend more money if they had more time in the park, especially on busy weekends.

[brent]

27 minutes ago, Winterfestguy said:

My suggestion on the survey was to open at 2pm on Saturdays (like the original Winterfest and the one year return of Winterfest did). That didn’t happen either.  Carowinds does open their Winterfest at 2pm on Saturdays, so must be a park to park decision for hours.  Just seems to me that people would shop, skate, and spend more money if they had more time in the park, especially on busy weekends.

Totally agree. Plus all the decor is designed to look great in the day as well as night (in fact a lot of the detail is lost at night, so it would actually be better to have more day time) 

[Benjamin22]

Does anyone know if the Igloo rentals last the whole night? Thanks.

[Klabergian Empire]

9 hours ago, Ben43065 said:

Does anyone know if the Igloo rentals last the whole night? Thanks.

I looked at the site and it did not say anything about a time limit. So, I'm assuming its a leave when you want kind of thing.

[Ki Man]

On 11/13/2019 at 6:16 PM, super7 said:

In ‘17 the lines were short on regular weekend Fridays and Sundays.   Especially later at night.

But this summer the park seemed more crowded so that may be different this year.   

Thanks, I was referring to only Winterfest, not summer since that's behind us. I'd hate to get to Winterfest and be looking at an hour line for Mystic Timbers. I did go in 2017 and was able to get in two rides at opening before the line was too long to justify. Was curious if that's still the case. 

[SnakePlissken]

1 hour ago, Ki Man said:

Thanks, I was referring to only Winterfest, not summer since that's behind us. I'd hate to get to Winterfest and be looking at an hour line for Mystic Timbers. I did go in 2017 and was able to get in two rides at opening before the line was too long to justify. Was curious if that's still the case. 

It was like that last year but there is a single rider line too. Which depending on the ride separator can move fast or slow. Either way there is so much else to do I don't really mind. Only get 6 hours at most and that is not enough time to see and do everything. The only added bonus to riding Mystic this time of year is the cold. If its just night rides you want go during Haunt or on a midnight Sat close.

[Ki Man]

1 hour ago, SnakePlissken said:

It was like that last year but there is a single rider line too. Which depending on the ride separator can move fast or slow. Either way there is so much else to do I don't really mind. Only get 6 hours at most and that is not enough time to see and do everything. The only added bonus to riding Mystic this time of year is the cold. If its just night rides you want go during Haunt or on a midnight Sat close.

 

Oh nice, single rider line! That will help. I live in Chicago and don't get the opportunity to visit as much as I did in years past so the suggestions for visiting the park during the regular season don't help me, but thanks for the suggestion. I'm really just there to see the lights as I walk around and get in a couple rides on MT. I'm not in the demo or psychographic for Winterfest; just trying to sneak in an hour or two when I'm home for the holidays. 

[BoddaH1994]

18 hours ago, Ben43065 said:

Does anyone know if the Igloo rentals last the whole night? Thanks.

They were for the whole evening last year.  No reason to think it would be different this year.

[MDMC01]

In response to the comments about the shows/extending daylight hours, I think it would be interesting to have more showtimes during the day - or at least, if not more showtimes, then maybe have the same amount of shows, but move it up so more showing of a particular show are during the day (like how Gravity did for the sensory friendly shows- great idea, btw; I got to see all the shows I wanted to that day and still had plenty of time to ride rides). As a Winterfest example, let's say the Drummers show schedule is moved up an hour. Since the first show will be at 4:30, this frees people up to see more shows (assuming all the other shows start at 5:30/6:00). However, maybe shows are set up the way they are to encourage repeat visits (as you really can't do everything in one night!); I'm not sure. I never understood why on Saturdays, some shows didn't start earlier even though the park opened at 4 instead of 5 - though it was nice to just be in the park, I found myself waiting around for things to start.

[Winterfestguy]

The enhanced lighting packaging on The Racer will add to the Winterfest atmosphere this year (much better than just the color changing LED spots)

 

[SnakePlissken]

1 hour ago, MDMC01 said:

In response to the comments about the shows/extending daylight hours, I think it would be interesting to have more showtimes during the day - or at least, if not more showtimes, then maybe have the same amount of shows, but move it up so more showing of a particular show are during the day (like how Gravity did for the sensory friendly shows- great idea, btw; I got to see all the shows I wanted to that day and still had plenty of time to ride rides). As a Winterfest example, let's say the Drummers show schedule is moved up an hour. Since the first show will be at 4:30, this frees people up to see more shows (assuming all the other shows start at 5:30/6:00). However, maybe shows are set up the way they are to encourage repeat visits (as you really can't do everything in one night!); I'm not sure. I never understood why on Saturdays, some shows didn't start earlier even though the park opened at 4 instead of 5 - though it was nice to just be in the park, I found myself waiting around for things to start.

Last year my first visit was Sat, day 2 of Winterfest. Got to Mystic around 4pm. There was confusion from the staff as to whether or not Mystic was suppose to start letting guests ride at 4pm or make them wait an hour. After about 10 minutes they let us in the queue and that wasn't an issue on my second Sat Winterfest visit.

[BoddaH1994]

Interesting. Looks like KD will have Fastlane at WF. Did they have this last year? 
 

https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2019/which-rides-are-open-during-winterfest

[SnakePlissken]

4 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Interesting. Looks like KD will have Fastlane at WF. Did they have this last year? 
 

https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2019/which-rides-are-open-during-winterfest

Twisted Timbers and Dominator. Is it normally warmer there than at Kings Island? Also they still don't have Flight of Fear running. Which makes me wonder if the Kings Island Flight of Fear running last year was an experiment that maybe failed. Everybody thinks the reason why Flight of Fear isn't running at Kings Island is due to Orion and or Area 72. The park never made any official comment as to why. If the reason is really related to Orion in any way then one could ask why Kings Dominion didn't invest in insulating their Flight of Fear building and running it there. I also noticed the all season fastlane for 2020 is now good for Winterfest at that park too. That isn't completely fair to those of us who paid for all season chain Fast Lane back in Aug and had to wait till spring to use it. And yes I asked about it at Cedar Point during Haunt and I still had to buy Fast Lane plus for the day I was there.

[disco2000]

3 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

..... I also noticed the all season fastlane for 2020 is now good for Winterfest at that park too. That isn't completely fair to those of us who paid for all season chain Fast Lane back in Aug and had to wait till spring to use it. And yes I asked about it at Cedar Point during Haunt and I still had to buy Fast Lane plus for the day I was there.

And Cedar Fair giving away 5 months of the gate "free" under the "Buy a pass for next year, get the rest of this year free" promotion isn't fair to everyone that had already purchased a pass for said year.  Did anyone get a pro-rated 5 months refund...nope...  I suspect we will see this trend continue - they gave away 5 months of gate and FunPix under that promotion, now trying out the FastLane, and next will be meal and drink plan and lockers...anything to push the attendance numbers up...until it ticks too many off and they don't renew...then the discounts become even more aggressive to lure new people in...interesting cycle...

[BoddaH1994]

7 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

Twisted Timbers and Dominator. Is it normally warmer there than at Kings Island? Also they still don't have Flight of Fear running. Which makes me wonder if the Kings Island Flight of Fear running last year was an experiment that maybe failed. Everybody thinks the reason why Flight of Fear isn't running at Kings Island is due to Orion and or Area 72. The park never made any official comment as to why. If the reason is really related to Orion in any way then one could ask why Kings Dominion didn't invest in insulating their Flight of Fear building and running it there. I also noticed the all season fastlane for 2020 is now good for Winterfest at that park too. That isn't completely fair to those of us who paid for all season chain Fast Lane back in Aug and had to wait till spring to use it. And yes I asked about it at Cedar Point during Haunt and I still had to buy Fast Lane plus for the day I was there.

That whole section of the park (FOF, I305) may not be open for WF. I’m not sure. I haven’t been there yet for WF.

Not sure if this is relevant or not, but I do recall that when they installed Firehawk they had to cut a major power line that was supplying FOF. What the ultimate resolution was for that is something I can’t answer, but it may be related to why FOF isn’t open for WF. They may not have power. Just a theory. 

[Skyrider]

On 11/13/2019 at 11:03 PM, flightoffear1996 said:

My only complaint was that it was hard to see all the shows. A lot of the shows all started at the same time so you wait for one to end but then miss the start of the other 

I agree they should think about timing the shows a little better so if someone is coming for the shows they have travel time before a different show starts.  Do you think they time the shows at the same time deliberately to encourage people to visit Winterfest multiple times?

 

On 11/14/2019 at 8:21 AM, Winterfestguy said:

My suggestion on the survey was to open at 2pm on Saturdays (like the original Winterfest and the one year return of Winterfest did). That didn’t happen either.  Carowinds does open their Winterfest at 2pm on Saturdays, so must be a park to park decision for hours.  Just seems to me that people would shop, skate, and spend more money if they had more time in the park, especially on busy weekends.

I agree and wish on Saturdays and Sundays they opened earlier for daytime activities especially for the ice skating and rides when it is a little warmer than the nighttime.

[SnakePlissken]

4 hours ago, disco2000 said:

And Cedar Fair giving away 5 months of the gate "free" under the "Buy a pass for next year, get the rest of this year free" promotion isn't fair to everyone that had already purchased a pass for said year.  Did anyone get a pro-rated 5 months refund...nope...  I suspect we will see this trend continue - they gave away 5 months of gate and FunPix under that promotion, now trying out the FastLane, and next will be meal and drink plan and lockers...anything to push the attendance numbers up...until it ticks too many off and they don't renew...then the discounts become even more aggressive to lure new people in...interesting cycle...

I took advantage of the "Gold Pass" Deal in 2018. I bought my first Platinum ever at Kings Island and got in King's Island the rest of 2018 on my 2019 pass. In 2018 the offer didn't allow free visits to other parks like it is this year. So that part proves your point even more. I don't understand the Funpix thing. I thought that was extra. Are you saying new passholders got Funpix thrown in this year too?

Also to beat them on their own deal you could just renew every other year and get the added bonus months. Would probably only work if it was an off year and you really didn't want to visit until August. Or if you filled your summer up with other non Cedar Fair parks.

[disco2000]

4 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

I took advantage of the "Gold Pass" Deal in 2018. I bought my first Platinum ever at Kings Island and got in King's Island the rest of 2018 on my 2019 pass. In 2018 the offer didn't allow free visits to other parks like it is this year. So that part proves your point even more. I don't understand the Funpix thing. I thought that was extra. Are you saying new passholders got Funpix thrown in this year too?

Also to beat them on their own deal you could just renew every other year and get the added bonus months. Would probably only work if it was an off year and you really didn't want to visit until August. Or if you filled your summer up with other non Cedar Fair parks.

If you purchased FunPix for the next year, the rest of the current year is free under the promotion...

[Skyrider]

Showing my age but wish Winterfest would become the new home for the Shillito's Department Store elves that move and were apart of Santa's Workshop.  They recently were in a storefront in Mariemont but was looking for a new home after the 2017 Christmas season.  It would be very nostalgic for people who loved seeing them as a kid in the downtown Cincinnati Shillito's Department Store and share them with today's children that attend Winterfest.

see the video of them:

 

[BoddaH1994]

1 hour ago, Skyrider said:

Showing my age but wish Winterfest would become the new home for the Shillito's Department Store elves that move and were apart of Santa's Workshop.  They recently were in a storefront in Mariemont but was looking for a new home after the 2017 Christmas season.  It would be very nostalgic for people who loved seeing them as a kid in the downtown Cincinnati Shillito's Department Store and share them with today's children that attend Winterfest.

see the video of them:

 

You totally just re-emerged a memory of my dad taking my sister and I to Lazarus to see these things in the early 90’s. I concur. I’d like to see them at Winterfest too some day.

[SnakePlissken]

23 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

You totally just re-emerged a memory of my dad taking my sister and I to Lazarus to see these things in the early 90’s. I concur. I’d like to see them at Winterfest too some day.

You must be from Columbus too. I went to Lazarus every Christmas as a child during the 80's.

[BoddaH1994]

18 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

You must be from Columbus too. I went to Lazarus every Christmas as a child during the 80's.

Nope. Born and raised in NKY. We went to Cincinnati. I’m under the impression that they had one of these at every flagship store. 

[SnakePlissken]

3 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Nope. Born and raised in NKY. We went to Cincinnati. I’m under the impression that they had one of these at every flagship store. 

I was on mobile when I said that and couldn't see your location info. I think the Lazarus headquarters was in Columbus and that store would be around 100 years old now and had like 10 floors. I think the building was Art Deco but I won't swear to it.

[upstop]

Still no train display. Come on KI you have plenty of room for one! 

[brenthodge]

6 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Nope. Born and raised in NKY. We went to Cincinnati. I’m under the impression that they had one of these at every flagship store. 

These were a holdover from when Lazarus in cincinnati was Shilletos. Lazarus in Columbus did not have these guys.