Kings Island Adds WinterFest Wonderland Parade in 2021

[IndyGuy4KI]

WinterFest Wonderland Parade

Location: Parade Route

NEW THIS YEAR! Celebrate the spirit of the holiday season as the WinterFest Wonderland Parade winds its way through the park each night of the event. Guests will be treated to a stunning mix of dazzling displays and extravagantly decorated floats with classic themes such as toy boxes, gingerbread houses and choo-choo trains, along with the WinterFest singers, dancers, classic holiday characters and the big guy himself, Santa Claus! The nightly parade starts at 8:30 p.m. in Coney Elf Village. Line up along any of the parade route Show Stops for an opportunity to celebrate with the performers as they pass.

Showtime 
8:30 PM

https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/winterfest/attractions/wonderland-parade

 

What do you think of this new addition? I am very excited to see it.

[beastfan11]

Great news. Creatively, the park really pushes itself for Winterfest. My favorite time of year to visit. Can’t wait to see the parade in action!

[BoddaH1994]

So excited!!!!! 8:30 is so late! But I’m not complaining!

[KIghostguy]

Awesome news! Can’t wait.

[Oldschool75]

So excited!!!!! 8:30 is so late! But I’m not complaining!

I bet that time changes if needed.


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[BoddaH1994]

22 minutes ago, Oldschool75 said:

I bet that time changes if needed.


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Quite possible. Unless this is the fireworks mentality that it keeps people there. But I’m still shocked it’s that late. Maybe it’s so it doesn’t interfere with other shows. I’m sure it’s the same performers. 

[disco2000]

That and you get folks that come early and leave by 8pm and you have others that show up around 9 for an hour, so 8:30 may may encourage those that show up early to stick around a little longer and get those that come for an hour to show up earlier, all with the hopes that they partake in extra charge items... 

[brenthodge]

1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Quite possible. Unless this is the fireworks mentality that it keeps people there. But I’m still shocked it’s that late. Maybe it’s so it doesn’t interfere with other shows. I’m sure it’s the same performers. 

Exactly, I think you’ll see most show times end around 7:30-8 so they can get over to the start point. Some of the small shows might do one after the parade, but I think that’s how most entertainment cast will end their shift. 

[CoastersRZ]

When was the parade time when they did Winterfest in 2005?  I want to say it was around 7:30.

[TombraiderTy]

24 minutes ago, CoastersRZ said:

When was the parade time when they did Winterfest in 2005?  I want to say it was around 7:30.

Per the 2005 WinterFest map, you're correct that it was at 7:30pm.

This is exciting for the event. The floats look really great and I bet the 8:30pm time will encourage visitors to stay at the park longer.

[BoddaH1994]

4 hours ago, brenthodge said:

Exactly, I think you’ll see most show times end around 7:30-8 so they can get over to the start point. Some of the small shows might do one after the parade, but I think that’s how most entertainment cast will end their shift. 

They also may not have to change. The characters may simply represent their shows. That could be a different take. 

[brenthodge]

1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

They also may not have to change. The characters may simply represent their shows. That could be a different take. 

Based on the initial version at carrowinds, it’s a mix of the streetmosphere characters and some of the performers in their show costumes, and others in different costumes that relate to the float unit (very similar to Carnivale)

[BoddaH1994]

Weird night for the parade tonight. The lead float, the train, stalled just outside of Area 72. This caused about a 25 minute delay in the parade. Once the parade got going, the floats were out of their typical order. It was also missing the Ice Princess float. I'm speculating that the electric tug for the train float was disabled so they used the one from the Ice Princess float. Maybe the logistics of this caused the floats to be out of order.

Hats off to the KI performers who came out to the first stretch of the parade to sing, dance, and entertain the crowd during the delay.

[robintodd]

9 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Weird night for the parade tonight. The lead float, the train, stalled just outside of Area 72. This caused about a 25 minute delay in the parade. Once the parade got going, the floats were out of their typical order. It was also missing the Ice Princess float. I'm speculating that the electric tug for the train float was disabled so they used the one from the Ice Princess float. Maybe the logistics of this caused the floats to be out of order.

Hats off to the KI performers who came out to the first stretch of the parade to sing, dance, and entertain the crowd during the delay.

I was wondering what happened.  I was there with my wife, son in law and 3 grand children at the Coke billboard.  The kids were looking so forward to the parade as they had seen and loved Carnivale.  At 8:50 I noticed Blitzen's Brass walk toward Adventure Express and knew something was off.  I went to look down Coney Mall and didn't see anything except a horse drawn carriage so we left.  We heard no announcement except the usual pre-parade ones.  If we would have known it would have started later we may have stayed.  I figured it was a problem with a float.  My thought was someone forgot to plug them in the night before (can't recall if they are electric or not).  You would think electric would be the way to go, but then again if they are not electric I obviously don't remember engine noise

Either way an announcement would have been appreciated either that it would be delayed or that it would start at (insert time).  I'm pretty sure they have a way of making such announcements as I've heard them when they are closing early, etc.  It would have been a good opportunity to try out the new SMS messaging system.  Heck send a couple people down the parade route with a large sign saying "there will be a delay".  Either way informing the crowd I think would have went a long way.  I heard a lot of frustrated people on my way out and I kept assuring them that this was the first time I knew of that the parade didn't go off.  

Kudos indeed to those cast members that helped out at the start of the parade.  The crew there does such a great job and I always stick up for them as I know they do their absolute best.  Clearly this was an unforeseen incident and  I'm sure management will learn from it and be more prepared next time.  In my opinion communicating the situation honestly, no matter how embarrassing, is the best way to go rather than leave the general public of hundreds of people to form their own ideas and opinions.  Still a great night and I let the grandkids know we'd be back again to see the parade.  

[BoddaH1994]

4 hours ago, robintodd said:

I was wondering what happened.  I was there with my wife, son in law and 3 grand children at the Coke billboard.  The kids were looking so forward to the parade as they had seen and loved Carnivale.  At 8:50 I noticed Blitzen's Brass walk toward Adventure Express and knew something was off.  I went to look down Coney Mall and didn't see anything except a horse drawn carriage so we left.  We heard no announcement except the usual pre-parade ones.  If we would have known it would have started later we may have stayed.  I figured it was a problem with a float.  My thought was someone forgot to plug them in the night before (can't recall if they are electric or not).  You would think electric would be the way to go, but then again if they are not electric I obviously don't remember engine noise

Either way an announcement would have been appreciated either that it would be delayed or that it would start at (insert time).  I'm pretty sure they have a way of making such announcements as I've heard them when they are closing early, etc.  It would have been a good opportunity to try out the new SMS messaging system.  Heck send a couple people down the parade route with a large sign saying "there will be a delay".  Either way informing the crowd I think would have went a long way.  I heard a lot of frustrated people on my way out and I kept assuring them that this was the first time I knew of that the parade didn't go off.  

Kudos indeed to those cast members that helped out at the start of the parade.  The crew there does such a great job and I always stick up for them as I know they do their absolute best.  Clearly this was an unforeseen incident and  I'm sure management will learn from it and be more prepared next time.  In my opinion communicating the situation honestly, no matter how embarrassing, is the best way to go rather than leave the general public of hundreds of people to form their own ideas and opinions.  Still a great night and I let the grandkids know we'd be back again to see the parade.  

They had the characters telling people that they were having a delay, but we were close to the beginning of the parade route. I imagine they stayed in a position where they could get back into formation quickly. I do agree that some sort of announcement would have probably been nice. I suppose hindsight is 20/20. I feel bad for the people at the last show stop. When they say the parade is at 8:30, it seems like some people, especially kids, don’t understand that it takes quite some time to get to them. The parade probably arrived at the last show stop at 9:25 or so without any real explanation. It is what it is. This is the first time I’ve heard of a parade delay in the modern era of KI. They did the best they could with it and still put on a great show.

By the way, what’s the deal with the Jack Frost float? It’s clearly made to shoot snow but it rarely does. I thought maybe it never worked as intended, but last night it was shooting random plumes of snow as the float was moving and it was the coolest thing ever! I hope they “fixed” it so it continues to do that!!

[Timchat2]

The Jack Frost floats at Carowinds and Kings Dominion seem to have been generating "snow" for their entire runs this season, so it would nice for Kings Island's float to finally join the party. It's a great effect!

[IndyGuy4KI]

4 minutes ago, Timchat2 said:

The Jack Frost floats at Carowinds and Kings Dominion seem to have been generating "snow" for their entire runs this season, so it would nice for Kings Island's float to finally join the party. It's a great effect!

We were stabbing but the Racer entrance and it was putting out snow. Very cool.

 

 

[BoddaH1994]

50 minutes ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

We were stabbing but The Racer entrance and it was putting out snow. Very cool.

 

 

Not to go off topic, but who were you stabbing?

[IndyGuy4KI]

6 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Not to go off topic, but who were you stabbing?

Well, it was too be "standing by" not sure what happened with the auto correct.

[brenthodge]

No snow tonight on coney. Really bad music sync issues on coney. The “light show music” didn’t cut out until the show stop. Then the parade track started and was a good 15-20 sec behind the float track. They eventually stopped the PA track and did just the float speakers, but then at some point got it synced back up. The “race to the start” around the back of the tower and back down coney is just weird and bad show. I personally think they should eliminate show stop 2 to shorten the run time and keep going with the parade back to coney going the route they took with carnivale to eliminate so much back tracking. 

[Timchat2]

Does Kings Dominion leave their floats out after the last show stop since it surrounds the Eiffel Tower? We haven't been this year to see what happens.

[brenthodge]

That would be MUCH better solution. What they do now is  bad show and dangerous as the “parade” is over and they are fast laning these things through the dark around the tower, then against the flow of people back down coney. They are actually honking horns at people, but then there are a few remaining characters that are secured to the floats that can’t get off still waving and chatting. It’s just a really bad way to end a great addition. I still don’t understand why maybe the floats can’t go through the gate by child center at least for the night, then get driven back home at close. The gate seems very tight, but that could be renovated. Even if a few parked on the backside of the tower for the night and a few went through the larger gate behind boo blasters  beside the French cafe. 

[Kenban]

It’s not just getting through the gate, and I am not sure all of the ones people are mentioning are big enough without removing trees or parts of buildings.  You also need space to park the floats.  Ending the parade at a gate large enough for the floats with a behind the scenes parking lot would be better.

The route already passes a location like this.  Eliminate the last stop, and never even make the turn down the second side of International street.  Between the restrooms at the entrance to the park is a large gate.  There is a small employee parking lot located here which is easily large enough to temporarily store the parade for a few hours.  Just reset the parade after the park closes.  It would not be that expensive to build a storage structure here either, I believe it would be roughly 20 parking spaces which would be lost.  

[robintodd]

Would there be room to park them just inside the blockades around the tower?  They could move the trees by the exit toward Kiddie land and drive them into there for a couple hours before resetting them after close.

[brenthodge]

21 minutes ago, Kenban said:

It’s not just getting through the gate, and I am not sure all of the ones people are mentioning are big enough without removing trees or parts of buildings.  You also need space to park the floats.  Ending the parade at a gate large enough for the floats with a behind the scenes parking lot would be better.

The route already passes a location like this.  Eliminate the last stop, and never even make the turn down the second side of International street.  Between the restrooms at the entrance to the park is a large gate.  There is a small employee parking lot located here which is easily large enough to temporarily store the parade for a few hours.  Just reset the parade after the park closes.  It would not be that expensive to build a storage structure here either, I believe it would be roughly 20 parking spaces which would be lost.  

That’s the best solution. I’ve always thought that’s best but was trying to figure out a way to not loose that show stop. Wonder if it would even be possible to run the parade 2x. Once from that gate to coney at 5 or so to “kick off” Winterfest and introduce all the characters, then again at 8:30 to return it to “home” 

[Kenban]

1 hour ago, brenthodge said:

That’s the best solution. I’ve always thought that’s best but was trying to figure out a way to not loose that show stop. Wonder if it would even be possible to run the parade 2x. Once from that gate to coney at 5 or so to “kick off” Winterfest and introduce all the characters, then again at 8:30 to return it to “home” 

This is common when resetting the route is difficult and running the parade more then once is needed.  For instance the Disneyland Christmas parade runs at 3 and 5:30 this year.  The first showing is forwards, the second is the same route but in reverse.

Not sure the attendance at Kings Island can justify running the parade twice a day, and with how many performers are also performing in shows around the park it would limit the parks ability to put in shows.

[brenthodge]

26 minutes ago, Kenban said:

This is common when resetting the route is difficult and running the parade more then once is needed.  For instance the Disneyland Christmas parade runs at 3 and 5:30 this year.  The first showing is forwards, the second is the same route but in reverse.

Not sure the attendance at Kings Island can justify running the parade twice a day, and with how many performers are also performing in shows around the park it would limit the parks ability to put in shows.

The performers piece is the challenge. It would also eliminate the “let’s stay till 8:30” incentive if people could catch it early. 

[gforce1994]

Well, after Christmas,  they have removed Santa and replaced him with two elves. It looked like they were portraying it as elves taking their boss’ sled on a joyride.

[IndyGuy4KI]

1 minute ago, gforce1994 said:

Well, after Christmas,  they have removed Santa and replaced him with two elves. It looked like they were portraying it as elves taking their bosses sled on a joyride.

That is a brilliant way to use that float.