Leaderboard

Sell more actual coaster/ride merch. I know I talk about CP a lot, but they really have such an amazing collection of ride/coaster merchandise and different selections in various shops. KI has a lot of the same exact stuff in most of the same shops. A wide variety would be great.

What a photo bomb!

Canadas Wonderland literally just announced earlier this week the removal of theirs. The one at Canadas Wonderland is slightly newer having been built the year after Kings Island. https://www.canadaswonderland.com/rides-experiences/xtreme-skyflyer I would be surprised if the one at Kings Island is still around in 10 years. The entire area where it is located is ready for a complete remodel and the skyflyer is getting old, and sitting on a very good piece of land. I feel like the next big new coaster at Kings Island will be located in what is currently Action Zone and either the sky flyer or Congo falls will be removed to make room for the station. The problem with Action Zone is half the land feels like it’s ready to be removed, Invertigo, Congo Falls, Timber Wolf, and Skyflyer. I keep seeing people asking how much longer do any of these attractions have. There is a reason that retheming the whole land keeps coming up, and has been trending towards DC with the Six Flags merger.

I would love to see a screen printing store like you see at many malls, but in this case it would have a lot of different designs for various rides throughout the park. Have ten or so different plain colors in various sizes. You would buy your shirt pick your design, they would screen print it, and you could pick it up later in the day. From the park's viewpoint they don't have to keep a ton of inventory for rides that may not sell a ton. But if someone comes in and wants to buy a shirt with Zephyr or Cargo Loco they could easily screen print it.

Not to mention, most coaster merch is geared toward the same five rides (Mystic, Beast, Diamondback, Banshee, Orion) which I understand are the most popular, but for those of us whose favorites are less represented, more merch of other rides is greatly appreciated. I really like how there were new shirts for Adventure Express in light of its Adventure Port touchup, as well as a few items celebrating Bat's 30th anniversary and even some Phantom Theater merch during the respective show's run! That's definitely a step in the right direction!

Or it stacks, but only for certain things. They had 60% off “select” 50th merch toward the end of the season. No one seemed to be sure what it was good for. My friends and I tried several times to buy 50th things, only to find out it didn’t qualify. Finally, it was consolidated to a few shelves. When we went to purchase something from one of the shelves, we were told that it was good for anything on the shelves except what we wanted to purchase, which happened to be sharing the shelf with the sign advertising the 60% off. Based on what we saw this past season, as well as the many displays this offseason, I imagine this level of competence to continue this year with the Pass Perks. Option 2 will be that it’s for something of zero value to passholders. For example, a small discount on food that’s on the dining plan. I don’t know what part of the new app would make anyone think that this absurd five-year-old program that has not delivered would begin to do so. It’s very evident that they don’t know what to do with it. The person they hired to manage it doesn’t understand the business, and the “as adorable as it is predictable” etc statements made by park officials demonstrates how they think of the season pass base anyway.

In the last few months barcode scanners at Fast Lane entrances have been installed at Carowinds and I think Kings Dominion. They already have scanners at the Fast Lane entrance to a number of rides at Cedar Point. The wristbands at Cedar Point have had barcodes for a while but they just have rarely been using them. Starting to look like they might by go chain wide this year, and actually see some use. EDIT: Just wanted to add there are signs the new app will allow guests to purchase single use Fast Lane in app and likely will have a barcode/QR code and guests will scan the phones at the Fast Lane instead of having the kiosks with paper receipts.

It's paid off, and an up charge attraction. As long as nothing large comes up maintenance wise, and as long as nothing is planned to take its spot currently, I don't see it going anywhere. My family from out of town always rides it when visiting KI, and it definitely seems to get enough traffic to pay for the employees running the attraction as well. I would say it still scares me the most out of any attraction at KI. The initial free fall feeling sensation when you pull the cord is unlike anything else.

I just hope if the weather doesn't cooperate and is a total bust, that people still feel they got their value. Or worse if they cancelled the event, would they refund? That could set the tone for their entire season...

At one point, Cedar Point had something like that. Back in 2011 or 2012 I got a red hoodie with the Disaster Transport logo printed on it. Loved that hoodie!

When you can relate to how other population centers feel about their local theme parks. Such as when I visited Worlds of Fun in Kansas City last year. What Kings Island is to us, Worlds of Fun is to them.

We are looking into some new merch soon. Stay tuned.

If you've read Kings Island: A Ride Through Time 3 times in a row, even though you have other books on your shelf.

I THINK the arrangement is a revenue share. Skycoaster may own the equipment. Not sure. If that’s true, they’ll keep it until they find a more profitable use of the land.

I love the contortions places will go through to try to work their name or what they are into things. ZOOLunimation is weird to say... but kinda fun!

I saw a picture of the coupon and it does say it is an additional 10% so it should stack.

As a passholder you already get 10%, or Prestige 15%, and I highly doubt this is on top of the pass discount, so basically a useless perk....

Former supervisor for Dinosaurs Alive! Here. You are correct. All the Dinosaurs Alive! Animatronics were leased from a company that was based in Canada. The dinos themselves were very hard to maintain. The park would have to call the company and have someone from the parent company come out for repairs which didn't happen often due to price if I remember correctly (at least from what I was told so take that with a grain of salt because how much of that would be true and told to a seasonal associate). Squirrels loved to make nests inside of the dinos and would wreak havoc on the internal wiring. Honestly working the attraction was my absolute favorite time while working at the park. Sent from my SM-F946U using Tapatalk

Trail of Terror was my favorite Haunt attraction. I’d love to see the path be utilized for something similar in the future.

Pretty sure a few years back before covid they used part of the path for a haunt maze. I wanna say it was Cornered or something abandoned.

The physical path is still there. Only a small sliver of it was torn up for Orion. Wonder if they will ever use it again...

I still haven't tried it out but I do know you can fit up to 3 people. Still unsure if I'll try it or not.

I can understand PETA defending animal performers. I don't understand them putting energy into replacing an inanimate object. That seems like a waste of resources.

I am pretty sure the Dinos were rented/leased. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

I feel that Dinosaurs Alive was a good concept, I feel it didn't need the admission fee and should have been included with the parks admission. Which makes me wonder whatever happened to all those Dinosaur animatronics?

In other words, a change for the worse.

No reason to feel dumb for asking a legitimate question.

Here’s a piece I wrote on Theme Parks By Don. https://themeparksbydon.com/six-flags-and-cedar-fair-merger-faces-doj-hurdle/