Oldiesmann

Having visited Hershey and Great Adventure the past few days, I've been spoiled by good interactive dark rides. Resses Cupfusion at Hershey in particular was good, but I also enjoyed Battle For Metropolis as well. Technology has changed so much since Boo Blasters and the park really needs to do something with it. I'm sure they could even develop a Peanuts themed dark ride to put in there if they tried hard enough.

Looks like an interesting event, and I'd assume the cost covers the staff needed, but it's too much, even for members (my sister and her husband are members and it would cost them over $50 to go with their two kids). If it gets you access to all the standard zoo exhibits (like what you can do during Festival of Lights), it might be worth it to some, but I don't see this being very popular at those prices.

After two days at Great Adventure, I wanted to post my thoughts on the park. It was my first visit to any Six Flags branded park, so I didn't know what to expect. It's a really odd park. Once you turn into the park it's a good 5 minute drive winding around the huge property before you get to the parking tolls. The water park is completely separate, to the point where you turn off for that before you get to the parking tolls for the regular park (they have a free shuttle to get you between parks, but you have to leave the main park and walk a bit to get to the stop). The good thing is it's a nice clean park and, for the most part, very well run. They have an impressive collection of coasters (S&S 4D free spin, indoor Mack wild mouse, 5 B&Ms (hyper, standup, floorless, inverted and flying), the two famous ones (El Toro and Kingda Ka), an indoor dark ride/coaster combo (Skull Mountain), a kids coaster and a 50-year-old Arrow runaway mine train). It also has a nice selection of flat rides (carousel, bumper cars, swinging ship, etc). Staff was friendly, security was around the few rides where absolutely no loose articles are permitted to help enforce the policy, etc. Security at the entrance was excellent as well - they have metal detectors similar to the tall open ones KI has, but someone is monitoring them and you might get sent to secondary screening. If you do, you put your phone, keys, wallet and bags in a tray, and everything is sent through an airport style x-ray screener. However, the layout of the park is just odd, and it seems at times they couldn't decide what to do with it - there's a Boardwalk section with games, boardwalk-style buildings, a frontier area, a couple of DC themed areas (Metropolis, which is where the two new rides will be, plus another area with two Batman themed rides), two restaurants that look like they're straight out of a fairy tale (and both the carousel and bumper car buildings match), then random rides scattered about. There are two kids areas, which seemed nice. The swinging ship in particular confused me. It's the same model as Viking Fury, but the ride cycle is so short it's barely enjoyable (ride lasts 90 seconds at most). Then there are the SBNO rides. They're working on renovating some classic rides for the 50th anniversary this year, but none of them were ready yet (though it appears the giant wheel will be open soon - a sign nearby says they're waiting on the state to finish certifying it). There was no sign of any progress at the sky ride or log flume, nor at the site of the new coaster and flat ride which are still being advertised as "opening in summer 2024". Twister, their HUSS Top Spin, was SBNO both days, with no sign explaining why (though I wouldn't have been able to ride it anyway as a sign at the ride says they don't allow sandals or any other open toed shoes). Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth (similar to Delirium) is closed for manufacturer required maintenance. Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom is closed for the same reason and so they can get the state to certify it again. There's also a large empty structure near El Toro that appears to have been a stadium of some sort at one time. The prices seemed to be on par with typical amusement park prices, though there's that famous "surcharge" they add on to every purchase ($1.30 to combat rising costs supposedly). Overall I had a great time (not a bad coaster in the park - I'd even venture to say that Batman: The Ride is better than Banshee), but it just seemed a bit neglected, and navigating the park was challenging at times (the navigation feature in the app is all but useless). I didn't venture over to Hurricane Harbor or do the safari (it was closed today and I was focused on getting coaster credits yesterday, especially after a storm rolled through and shut down rides for a good hour due to lightning in the area after the storm passed), so I can't comment on that part. The park could be a lot better if Six Flags put more effort into it. I was particularly surprised that the new rides for 2024 weren't even open yet (and they still have a construction fence around them).

There's an interesting discussion going on about that over at X from parkfans.net as well: https://x.com/ParkFansNetwork/status/1811084132857921696

I would assume the ads help offset the cost of hosting. On a related note, if we ever did want to do a KIC cruise, BB Riverboats here in Cincy has group outings as low as $26 a person for a sightseeing cruise as long as you can guarantee at least 50 people (or you can get a discount on a public cruise if you don't want to have the entire boat to yourself)

The desktop version on mine does not show the park's birthday. It shows "Joined in April 2009" just like the original photo.

In the original post it shows "Edit Profile" when viewing the KI feed (exactly what you see when you login to X and click on "Profile" on the left side, with your own info in place of KI's) and both screenshots also show the correct account info in the lower left corner (not just a KI logo like yours do). It is of course entirely possible for someone to manipulate images to make them very difficult to distinguish from the real thing, but why would someone go to all that trouble and make up a lengthy story about how things happened, when there are plenty of others who could quickly verify whether said events actually did happen?

In the day and age of social media, there is no "damage control" in any situation regardless of who's at fault. People will go to whatever source they can to get the answers, which is exactly what happened in this case. My sister found out about it through a Butler County Scanner page on Facebook and relayed the info to me. As we all know, the media quickly turned to other sources for details of the incident and the park didn't have any control over that. You can't just ignore facts and try to sweep things under the rug - especially in the age of "first to report" where every media outlet jumps on a potential story as soon as they can so they could possibly brag about being the first to report it if it blows up at some point. I don't fault the park for being mad at an employee for speaking to the media, but given how things were handled here, I can't say I blame said employee, especially if they can remain anonymous. Yelling at other employees to figure out who it was certainly wasn't the right response though.

I unfortunately haven't made it out there yet (a Missouri parks trip is on my to do list), but the wording of the statement from the announcement makes it sound like it was a financial decision - they weren't making enough money or were losing money on the event and decided they could put that money to better use somewhere else. A quick glance at the Visit KC website shows that there's a lot to do in the area during the holidays so maybe they had too much competition from other events as well.

This is getting annoying... Reply to a topic Click to a different tab for a minute Click back to KIC to be greeted with a full-page ad that I have to close before I can browse elsewhere on the forum

Finally got my first look at Beagle Scout Acres on Saturday. Fun place and I wish KI had had something like that when I was a kid. I know others have said there should be more playground equipment there, but I think it's fine the way it is. Kids need a place where they can just have fun running around. I do agree that some benches up on top of the hill would be nice, but they at least put some picnic tables back there now, which helps. My nieces (8 and 6) seem to love it.

I plan to be down there on June 29th for GOCC's "Spring Fling" event (see https://www.greatohiocc.org/event-5668795 for more info). KK has definitely improved since Herschend took over. I'm sure if the park remains profitable the fair board will be all too happy to keep Herschend on board as an operator.

That site is terrible. I pretty much always ignore any articles I see from them.

Got a notification from Google about this today. I don't fully understand this but it should be of interest to some. https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2024/04-16-2024-213022046

I'm planning to make my first trip to Kennywood in July. I'm disappointed that I won't get to ride Steel Curtain even though I don't like the Steelers. Hopefully they'll be able to figure out exactly what the problem is and get everything operational by next year.

Not related to T3 but related to KK in general, GOCC will be having an event there on June 29th (last Saturday in June). No further details have been released yet. https://www.greatohiocc.org/event-5668795

Last month Mattel announced plans to build Mattel Adventure Park in Bonner Springs, Kansas (about 21 miles west of Kansas City), with a proposed opening date of 2026. Residents near the site of the proposed park however say current roads won't be able to handle the traffic: https://www.kctv5.com/2024/04/10/it-would-not-be-good-time-neighbors-proposed-amusement-park-warn-roads-cant-support-traffic/

I'm glad to see Dorney finally getting a new ride and am looking forward to experiencing it when I visit again in July. With Hershey and Great Adventure both being within 90 minutes of Dorney, it's nice to see them getting the spotlight instead of just the other two big parks.

According to coasterstudios on X (Twitter), FunSpot Orlando has hinted at a possible RMC Raptor coming in a reply to one of their TikTok videos (I don't have TikTok so feel free to find the video/source if you do). https://x.com/coasterstudios/status/1774089364848427412

I read somewhere a while back that they do plan to save Moonlite Gardens. As much as people love to hate MEMI and/or CSO for this, it isn't their fault at all. This wouldn't be happening if the previous owners of the property hadn't decided to sell it to begin with. They were even selling season passes right up until the announcement of the sale was made, and have conveniently remained silent on this issue ever since (easier to let a big corporation and the city's beloved symphony orchestra take the blame I guess).

This looks like a blast. Too bad it's an 11-hour drive from Cincinnati. https://www.facebook.com/AdventurelandLongIsland/videos/2354619734722508

One advantage Carowinds has over KI is that they actually have a decent concert venue - the Paladium has individual seats and is covered.

I'll probably end up buying a pass for Six Flags Great Adventure this year. It's $115 for a pass, which would get me free parking and admission both days I plan to be there in July, saving me a significant amount of money (the current price for a good-any-day single-day ticket is $70, so a pass would already save me $25 over the cost of buying two single-day tickets, and that's not counting the $50+ in parking fees over the course of two days)

It's great to see Herschend and the fair board working so hard to breathe some fresh life into that park. It'll be interesting to see what else they do in the coming years.

I'm going to find time to get up there as well. I haven't been in a while.