WOF Guy

Which REITs? As far as I can tell, Wynn Resorts does not lease its land in Vegas. Her time working at Harrah's Entertainment predates the creation of Vici Properties.

^CF moved the cars to WOF shortly after buying KI.

^ this isn't a refurb like Monster Mansion. SDC has constructed a new building with a new ride in a different area of the park.

If put up for sale, I would expect the Fun Spot parks to be purchased by a chain that specializes in smaller locations. Interested buyers could include Five Star Attractions, Palace Entertainment, or Premier Parks.

Would she consider working at Cedar Point instead? Housing is more plentiful there.

And license an Evel Knievel name/theme. A perfect way to retheme the ride and tie-in park history

There is a difference between revenue and cash flow. CF does not recognize all proceeds of a season pass in the quarter it was sold. The price of the pass is divided against the forecasted number of visits, to equal an approximate price-per-visit. Each time a season pass is scanned, a portion of the purchase-price is recognized as revenue. If I use my pass in March, June, September and November, the money I spent on the pass will be reported as revenue spread across all 4 quarters. Cedar Fair is essentially deferring season pass revenue from 2020 to 2021.

Kennywood has also posted vacancies for Food Director and Safety Director. Don"t forget, Palace just hired former SeaWorld executive, John Reilly as their new COO. Someone in that role us certainly on the position to change the culture and expectations of the park.

The color scheme and font is consistent with the Ride Warriors merchandise line from 2010.

Sent you a message.

I hear KD's new marketing director was hired away from BGW.

I don’t think SEAS will sell off the Busch Gardens parks. A company left with just SeaWorld branded properties would be more susceptible to poor-performance related to public relations issues. That said, I think SEAS as a whole is a nice target for acquisition. Some have pointed out the potential synergies of a merger with Universal Parks and Resorts and the deep pockets of Comcast. I believe Merlin Entertainments has the most to gain by purchasing SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment. Merlin has struggled to develop a strong and effective corporate management system for its North American properties. This is especially true for the company’s “midway attractions” like Madame Tussaud's and LEGOLAND Discovery Center. The time difference between the American attractions and their management in the United Kingdom is a challenge. Merlin’s British management systems often clash with American legal requirements (think HR or disability accommodation) and marketing trends. If Merlin buys SEAS, it can place the existing Orlando corporate office in charge of all North American attractions. Additionally, a combined Merlin-SeaWorld would create some needed cross-marketing opportunities. SeaWorld and Aquatica San Diego could be packaged with LEGOLAND California. Busch Gardens Tampa could be packaged with LEGOLAND Florida. Merlin’s Orlando Eye attractions could be packaged with SeaWorld. Rumor has it that Merlin is looking to build a full-size LEGOLAND park in Virginia. Building the park in Williamsburg would help make Busch Gardens and Water Country a multi-day destination. If Merlin would were to buy the company I would expect them to connect the SeaWorld and Sea Life brands. In addition to using similar logos, the local aquariums would serve as a promotional outlet for planning your next trip to a SeaWorld park. Visitors to SeaWorld parks could purchase a pass to see marine life at an aquarium near home. All of this depends on SeaWorld hiring a strong and talented CEO who can get the turnstyles clicking again.

If you just want to explore the show floor I'd recommend getting discounted admission for Thursday/Friday.

^^Brad Marcy is now GM of Dorney Park. ^Tim Boals was reassigned last August (to focus on merch/games exclusively at Cedar Point). A former Disney executive now heads the corporate merchandise office.

The Best Lockers system does not allow a four consectuvie numbers (it also rejects 1234). Having worked with both keyed American Lockers and digital Best Lockers, I think the passcode lockers are overall better for the guest experience. With the old system, at least one guest would lose their key every day (they were always unhappy when they had to purchase a replacment locker). Many families also split up during the day. With the new system you don't have to hunt down the person with the key to get into the locker. As others have said, guests MUST protect their passcode. That means huddling the kiosk when renting the locker. It also requires obstructing views of the keypad by using both hands. It's shocking how many guests will just blurt everything out, "honey we're in locker 1292; the pin is 1955."

$75 for a vintage T-shirt seems far less crazy than the Geauga Lake fortune teller machine going for $10k.

There's almost no capital cost to a park because (usually) the park doesn't own them. Most electronic lockers are owned by a locker company that pays the host park a percentage of reveune. I will also say there is way more labor and technical support involved in electronic lockers than most guests observe.

I think Six Flags has a very balanced approach. At Fiesta Texas this year, one-time use lockers were $1 per hour. But for $5 you could buy a coupon code that would allow you one free hour. The code was valid at every set of ride lockers and could be unlimited times throughout the day (you have to end a rental before you can use the code to start another rental). Most Six Flags parks also have numbered cup holders on exit platforms.

I hope KI renames the store Possesions (as DP did with an existing store near VooDoo in 2008).

^Not really different at all. Only in that situation you should be able to take your Platinum Pass to Guest Relations and get a comped ticket. I wouldn't expect CP GR to refund someone's parking because they have a gold pass from KI. Another issue is time it takes to connect to another park's server. Last year at Kings Dominion, my WOF Platinum Pass was approved BUT the ticket taker didn't give the computer the extra few seconds it needed to connect to the servers in Kansas City. Instead he scanned again. And we all know when you scan a pass a second time in the same day it brings up a red x.

I recall in 2008 (first year for Platinum), MIA advertised their parking-add-on option was valid at all Cedar Fair parks. I also recall Kings Dominion advertising their Gold Pass included free parking at all Cedar Fair parks. At one time at least, parking was parking in the Gate Central system (with no differentiation between parks). Even if this is still the case you could still run into problems. The first has already been mentioned: convincing the CP toll employee to scan the pass. If they do scan the pass there is still the possibility that the system may fail to connect to the KI servers.

Right now I would oppose putting these new trains on an existing coaster like Mamba. I suspect it would increase the minimum rider height by 4-6 inches and reduce hourly capacity by a third.

Valleyfair! has a small amount of on-site housing.

A lot of mistakes were made, but I think combining the two parks was the biggest one. It made sense for one operator to own both properties and consolidate overhead. It didn't make sense to try and have one undervalued ticket for both parks. Secondly I think CF should have remodeled the former waterpark and expanded it into the area occupied by Steel Venom, Head Spin, X-Flight etc. Then they could have sold off the Seaworld side of the lake (or better yet operate a seperate zoo). As for the future, I'd like to see an FEC built adjacent to WWK. It would be something to extend length-of-stay and increase revenue. If Merlin bought the property they could put a Sea Life Aquarium in the former Shark Encounter facility. One of the other vacant buildings could be used for a Legoland Discovery Center.

I'd like to see CF parks sell an unlimited soft-drink season pass add-on. For an additional $40, you'd receive an unlimited refill wristband each day you visit (souvenir cup sold separately).