Winterfest 2019 Discussion.

[PTFlyGuy]

Holly Jolly Trolly was running this evening. I saw the 6:30 and 9:30 show happening in the distance and watched the entirety of the 8:30 performance. They perform in different locations throughout the evening, so it’s hard to know where they are going to be. 

[SnakePlissken]

I think that trolley has fixed locations but I could be wrong. Every time I have caught it was near the Chick Fil A at 9:30pm.

[super7]

6 hours ago, PTFlyGuy said:

Holly Jolly Trolly was running this evening. I saw the 6:30 and 9:30 show happening in the distance and watched the entirety of the 8:30 performance. They perform in different locations throughout the evening, so it’s hard to know where they are going to be. 

Thank you.  I am surprised we didn't see it since we were walking around the park most of the night.   So it ends up everything attraction and show were running Sunday despite the weather.

[flightoffear1996]

How are the Sunday crowds normally?  We have only been on Saturday's. 

[RedSummit20]

Who else thinks they need to change the show inside FestHaus 

[Snowball]

9 hours ago, super7 said:

They had Linus there Sunday.  Even toward the end of the night when the park was nearly empty. 

It was lightly rainy almost all Sunday night but the only thing that did not happen any time during the night was Holly Jolly Trolley.   They did not open a few food stands and closed some early, but this is the proper way to handle a slow night and not upset the customers that spent their money to come.  

Holly Jolly Trolly did all of its shows last night except the very last one of the night. The two places I’d say you’re most likely to catch it is by Chic Fil A or by Sally’s Crafts.

[flightoffear1996]

6 minutes ago, Ohio Coaster Boy 19 said:

Who else thinks they need to change the show inside FestHaus 

Me. I also think think the need to change one in Kings Island Theater building. 

[RedSummit20]

58 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

Me. I also think think the need to change one in Kings Island Theater building. 

yeah i get to have them the same 2 years in a row but 3 years Tinkles Toy factory is getting a little old imo lol 

[CoastersRZ]

They did alter the show that is in the Festhaus this year.  I personally preferred the original from the last two years.  Although, the show was better when it was in the Kings Island Theater for Winterfest 2005 (and had some added songs and elements).

[super7]

The Spectacular show in the KI Theater needs to go.   The parts with the characters are just unbearable.    They should save that stuff for the Peanuts Theater show.     The KI Theater is the best venue in the park and it deserves an A Class choreographed and vocal production with no characters. 

[brenthodge]

2 hours ago, super7 said:

The Spectacular show in the KI Theater needs to go.   The parts with the characters are just unbearable.    They should save that stuff for the Peanuts Theater show.     The KI Theater is the best venue in the park and it deserves an A Class choreographed Nd vocal production with no characters. 

Check out the new show at Knotts this year. THAT is what needs to be in KI Theatre. Move snoopys silly spectacular to festhaus and change it up a bit each year (like the Christmas pop show at the handstand, just keep it more “traditional”)  but it couldn’t be that hard to restage a few numbers each year. Get rid of the “snoopys missing”  bit and just make it a “Peanuts Christmas Review”   Then spend sone $$$ partially enclosing (heat, extend the roof, maybe some temp side walls) the International Showplace and put Timkers or some variant of that there. 

[IndyGuy4KI]

KI lists all the Winterfest shops and what are in them on the KIBlog. You might find this helpful.

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2019/december/tis-the-season-for-shopping-at-winterfest

[Winterfestguy]

It’s a sad merchandising year for the Winterfest shops, especially the trim a tree area.  95% of the merchandise is left over from 2018 Winterfest (they are still trying to sell the 2018 King’s Island ornaments) with only 1 very limited 2019 ornament.  Whereas 2018 had a pretty new robust selection for trim a tree, 2019 just brought out the 2018 leftovers with very very little new things (Very sad).  This is especially obvious in the Peanuts shop by the main gate where only 2018 snoopy ornaments have been available since opening Nov 22 and none of the 2019 have ever been available there.  And if that was not enough to be discouraged, they raised the prices on the 2018 leftovers by a few bucks!  (In the Snoopy shop found a snoopy ornament labeled as $6.99 where all the identical ones had been re-ticketed for 2019 to $8.99!  The people I was with were really amazed.  If the park is really serious about increasing customer spending in the shops, they will have to stock with fresh new merchandise, not just keep boxing up the left overs at end of season and then putting them out again for next year’s Winterfest.

[brenthodge]

38 minutes ago, Winterfestguy said:

It’s a sad merchandising year for the Winterfest shops, especially the trim a tree area.  95% of the merchandise is left over from 2018 Winterfest (they are still trying to sell the 2018 King’s Island ornaments) with only 1 very limited 2019 ornament.  Whereas 2018 had a pretty new robust selection for trim a tree, 2019 just brought out the 2018 leftovers with very very little new things (Very sad).  This is especially obvious in the Peanuts shop by the main gate where only 2018 snoopy ornaments have been available since opening Nov 22 and none of the 2019 have ever been available there.  And if that was not enough to be discouraged, they raised the prices on the 2018 leftovers by a few bucks!  (In the Snoopy shop found a snoopy ornament labeled as $6.99 where all the identical ones had been re-ticketed for 2019 to $8.99!  The people I was with were really amazed.  If the park is really serious about increasing customer spending in the shops, they will have to stock with fresh new merchandise, not just keep boxing up the left overs at end of season and then putting them out again for next year’s Winterfest.

Dated stuff should never be resold. Either mark it WAY down last night if two, or write it off and trash it. There’s nothing “special” about limited edition stuff a year later. That’s just the “cost” of this type of product. It’s gotta sell or be gone. 

[SnakePlissken]

1 hour ago, brenthodge said:

Dated stuff should never be resold. Either mark it WAY down last night if two, or write it off and trash it. There’s nothing “special” about limited edition stuff a year later. That’s just the “cost” of this type of product. It’s gotta sell or be gone. 

If you think that's bad, one of the shops on International had a tree all summer with leftovers for sale. I also don't like how this years Beast hot chocolate mugs are not nice glass mugs exclusive to Winterfest like last year. Its left over Beast 40 mugs leftover from summer.

[standbyme]

8 hours ago, Winterfestguy said:

...with only 1 very limited 2019 ornament. 

What would that one be?

[SnakePlissken]

Looks like New Years Eve is changing a bit from Last Year at Kings Island. Gonna be more family friendly. Only running rides until 10pm instead of 1am. No mention of a bar and dance area in the International Restaurant either. I wonder if all the shops and restaurants close at 10pm too? If so there won't be much to do after 10 if you don't have a family.

[MDMC01]

The lineup still looks pretty cool, though. I wonder if the adult celebrations were a) not that popular or b) created issues?

Either way, I'm super excited to be at Kings Island for NYE! I rarely go out for New Year's and I'm excited to live it up going into 2020!

[super7]

The New Years lineup is definitely disappointing.  Especially considering how bad any of the character stuff is.    Last year’s attendance was bad because of the weather. That probably caused them to cut it back this year. With no rides open after 10 PM, I agree, what will there be to do for three hours?     

Last year they also cut out almost all the regular entertainment on New Year’s Eve. I wonder if they will do the same thing this year?

[DownInRivertown]

Hey KI fans! 
Gearing up for my first trip to winterfest this year— I love reading all your posts in this forum to get me psyched! Really looking forward to trying to blue ice cream hot chocolate!

 I have some questions that the website doesn’t seem to answer:

Does anyone know if the old reds hall of fame grill still has that thanksgiving sandwich? I had it in 2017 and have been thinking about it since! 
If not, give me recommendations on where to eat—there’s so many options! 
 

Also, does Miami valley railroad still do the 12 days of Christmas display? 

Thanks in advance ! 

[IndyGuy4KI]

53 minutes ago, DownInRivertown said:

Hey KI fans! 
Gearing up for my first trip to winterfest this year— I love reading all your posts in this forum to get me psyched! Really looking forward to trying to blue ice cream hot chocolate!

 I have some questions that the website doesn’t seem to answer:

Does anyone know if the old reds hall of fame grill still has that thanksgiving sandwich? I had it in 2017 and have been thinking about it since! 
If not, give me recommendations on where to eat—there’s so many options! 
 

Also, does Miami valley railroad still do the 12 days of Christmas display? 

Thanks in advance ! 

The Reds/Brewhouse is a buffet for Wintefest.

Yes the train does still do the 12 days of Christmas. 

[FUN&ONLY!]

I have gone to Winterfest a few times this year, and I found it interesting how light the crowds were on those visits, but I went tonight for a couple of hours, and it was as crowded as ever. The line for Mystic Timbers was an hour and almost all of the restaurants at had lines out the door. It was still a lot of fun, though, like always!

[MDMC01]

Yes, tonight was super crowded and lines were insanely long (Snow Works spilled into part of Drop/Congo's queues; I got out of line), but I think this has been my best visit thus far (possibly topping that epic first Saturday night of WF) as I again ran into so many people I knew. I also got second to last train of the night on Mystic, so that was cool.

[SnakePlissken]

I was there tonight too and it was packed like Sardines. Probably due to being the first nice Sat we have had for Winterfest. Mystic was running really well and my first ride and my last were back row right side. Got 2 rides in first thing at opening and my last 2 rides were the end of the night. My Last ride ended at 10:03PM . Not sure how many trains went out after. Likely not many. I did not run into anybody I know but then again I don't really know anybody here in person either. I went to Snow Day Buffet at 4:30pm and was really impressed. Much better than last time. Ham was strangely missing from the menu but there was Roast beef, Pork and turkey. Food was hot and the buffet was full. Had all 3 kinds of meat, mac and cheese rolls and the salad. I was really happy to find hot chocolate. It either wasn't there last time or wasn't marked as such. Cookies on the other hand are now on small plates. So you can't pick and choose like you could before. I did Snow Works once and the line was long but moved quick. Rode Boo Blasters to get out of the cold and my blasters were broken. Watched the show in the Kings Island theater and I watched What the Dickens. Couldn't show laughing during that show. I had a really fun night and I plan on going back for Ugly Sweater night and New Years Eve if it doesn't rain.

[standbyme]

I was there last night...it was busy...but I still had a very good time.

I was very disappointed how Snow Works was being operated. There was only one person at the top of the slide...so even though there are 6 slides, if your party had 2 people, they only used 2, 3 people, 3 slides, etc...It really backed the line up. (So, in conclusion, they need a second person on top of the hill.)

[MDMC01]

@SnakePlisskenI love "What the Dickens"! I saw that last night too (I caught the 6:30 show). I think my favorite bits were the

Spoiler

"I'm flying out the window" and the Bob Saget reference.

Actually, the show as a whole is pretty funny. Also, were you one of the people waiting for the last ride of the night at Mystic? If so, you probably saw me hanging around. We ended up being the second to last train of the night, but I didn't care!

[BoddaH1994]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:31 PM, super7 said:

The New Years lineup is definitely disappointing.  Especially considering how bad any of the character stuff is.    Last year’s attendance was bad because of the weather. That probably caused them to cut it back this year. With no rides open after 10 PM, I agree, what will there be to do for three hours?     

Last year they also cut out almost all the regular entertainment on New Year’s Eve. I wonder if they will do the same thing this year?

I doubt they cut some of it because of last year's attendance.  When weather plays a factor in this stuff they completely understand it. They wouldn't sacrifice the success of an event because of something that's out of anyone's control.  See also Carnival.  Attendance was abysmal but it's both coming back and expanding to more parks.  They know they have a winner on their hands, they just have to play those cards again.

Also, I don't think it's fair to say that they cut entertainment on NYE.  Everything went off as it did for the other 25 operating days of Winterfest.  The WF shows stopped at 10:00, as they always do, and the New Years Eve stuff commenced.  I won't be able to be inside the actual park this year for NYE, but I had a blast last year.  I'd recommend going!

[Winterfestguy]

On 12/4/2019 at 5:12 AM, standbyme said:

What would that one be?

 

[standbyme]

My family made it to Winterfest last weekend. 
Here are a few of my observations:

• The Sweet Shop never ceases to amaze me...they come up with such amazing creations!
• The park looked great, as always...I really could go there and not ride a single ride and be happy.
• Making cookies with Mrs. Claus is always fun...one of the best family oriented activities at Winterfest.
• I love the endless photo ops that the park has set up all around the park. I am sure that for decades to come people will look back fondly at some of the pictures that they have taken. (I think the nostalgic TV was my favorite.)
• The roaming characters couldn’t have been better...I love how Scrooge can stay in character yet not scare the young ones. (Side note, is Jingle Balls still around this year?)
• I skipped the train ride...seeing the 12 Days Of Christmas from Mystic Timbers was plenty...please change the theme next year!
• I wish they could improve meeting Santa. For those who have never done it, it is actually kind of creepy. It is not bright and cheery inside, it is  only lit by black lights...perfect for Halloween, not Christmas. My guess for the reason they do this is to guarantee that parents will buy the photos...since flash photography is not allowed, you would not be able to get a decent picture unless you purchased it. Not that I have a problem with buying them, we always buy the photos, and still would not matter what. My problem is that this makes meeting Santa a surreal experience...how does a kid process that Santa likes sitting in a darkly lit room instead of a brightly lit one?
  Santa, as always looked great, different from last year, but always great...and we love our photos. I just wish the park could figure out how to prevent cell phone photo taking and have it lit nicely for the kids. Here is a shot of the room and Santa in case you’re curious.

Kings Island, thanks for another great Winterfest!

[Quirkster]

I ma thinking about going on Tuesday next week. It looks like there is a snow chance earlier in the day and the Temps looks to be pretty cold which doesn't bother me, I am just wondering will the event close or will Mystic Timbers not operate?