Kenban

Look at the type of coasters which are most often cloned. They are almost always smaller, more compact rides. The savings on a cloned attraction come from not having to pay a design fee, while the track, trains, construction, etc are going to be same if the specs are basically the same. Also clones work best on flat ground because cloning a ride includes the supports. Cedar Fair is just not building the types of attractions which lend themselves to cloning. They did build a Raptor from RMC which is a stock design and a mirror image of the ride built by Six Flags. Cedar Fair has publicly stated if they are going to build a $20+ million dollar coaster they are going to want as many records as possible to help market the ride. Basically why save $3 million on design fees to instead spend more money moving dirt around, and losing any chance of marketing your ride as the tallest, fastest, longest, etc. If anyone is wondering the $3 million is what I have heard is the standard design fee for B&M on a custom layout. Six Flags has committed to building an attraction in every park annually, so they are building a lot of smaller rides. When they build a larger coaster they are building unique rides, but the smaller coasters like the 4D coasters are clones. Which makes sense, your saving more than 10-15% per a ride. If Cedar Fair changes directions and starts installing smaller attractions you will likely see more clones, but as long as it sticks to the larger more expense rides they will likely remain custom.

Six Flags before the bankruptcy and SeaWorld today are in very different financial positions. I wish I had the 4th quarter results from SEAS, but I do not expect to see them until February. But looking at what data has been released, SeaWorld is profitable again. For the last 4 quarters over which data is available so October 2017 to September 2018, they made $35.41 million dollars total. Last year they announced a pivot away from animal shows to more rides and these announcements and all of the 2020 plans in general are a huge piece of those plans. The chain needs these kinds of additions to be able to get itself back into a healthier position. When Six Flags declared bankruptcy they were losing more than a hundred million dollars a year. If interest rates rise it is possible SEAS will get into trouble but at least right now they are stable and so far the additions they have already made they have been able to afford out of their earnings and are not being financed by debt.

The rumor that I have heard is that the plan is a park with a small number of highly themed worlds. It sounds to me like an Islands of Adventure 2.0, except only 4 or 5 total worlds, the big difference from IoA is I have heard the worlds are separate and will require that you enter into that world somehow and the sections will mostly not be visible from each other. Think about how Diagon Alley was done in Universal Orlando, except on even larger scales. For instance to get into the Mario section you will need to walk through a giant green pipe. The most obvious world is Mario, and it is featured heavily in the leaked concept art. We will likely see another expansion of the Wizarding World and it will likely be based on the Fantastic Beasts movies. Other rumors have included Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Kung Fu Panda, Universal Monsters, Jurassic World, Shrek, and How to train your Dragon. My guess is the monsters is likely, but I doubt Lord of the Rings or Star Trek will appear. Jurassic World is also pretty likely because they are already building attractions based on the property at other parks and I think that Universal will just leave the original in IoA alone and not convert it, although I do believe the coaster is coming soon.

The last on point dorm already closed at the end of the 2018 season. Two new dorms are being constructed off the peninsula next to the existing dorms and will be open by the start of the 2019 season.

Season pass holders can use any of the lanes at the tollbooths. All of the lanes have the self scan kiosks and even when a lane has an attendant the kiosk still works. The electric signs are primarily there to direct guests who need an attendant to the correct lanes. If you have a pass just hop in any short line and scan your pass. Although I do head to the left side every time.

A little note on how the metal detectors work, the magnetic field used to detect objects is horizontal. So you want metal you are wearing to be away from each other vertically. I wear a belt and an Apple watch, if I leave my arm at my side as I walk through the detectors I set it off everytime. But if I hold my wrist up so that my watch is around shoulder level, I rarely set the detector off.

Wear and tear on the train, the catches on the bottom of the train will take a lot of abuse if they were left on all year. Plus it is actually pretty easy to install and remove. Its just a big piece of steel with teeth which is held by about a dozen bolts. The hardest part is likely moving it around due to the weight. Maintenance is out working on the coasters all year long as the temperatures fluctuate. For instance if you pay attention to the color of the wheels on Diamondback, you will notice there are different wheels based on the season. During the summer it runs softer wheels which give a smoother ride, in colder months it has harder wheels which provide less friction so it can keep its speed better. This kind of work is just part of the job.

I only rode Flight of Fear once tonight, but the train launched faster then I ever remember it from this summer. We still had a ton of speed when it reached the MCBR. Even better while the brakes activated we left the MCBR with some actual speed, I was so used to the train basiclly stopping I was extremely surprised. It was the fastest and frankly best ride I remember ever having on FoF. I had the buffet in RHoFG on Saturday. It was around 7 PM so it was pretty slow. There was plenty of food and nothing was out while I was there. The food was very good, except the turkey is just a little plain, I would stick to the ham instead. I thought it was worth the extra $5 and am likely to eat there again.

This all depends on if you want to trust the rumors. Last year Merlin supposedly tried to purchase just the Busch parks because they did not want anything to do with Seaworld. At the time the rumors were that SEAS made it very clear it was all or nothing and they were unwilling to split off just the Busch parks. The samething is likely true now, a deal is all or nothing. SEAS is stable and does not need to be purchased or to sell any parks. But they are open to being acquired. Can Six Flags pull off a purchase of SEAS? I doubt it, financing a deal like that just seems unlikely.

Found it Typically something like this is done annually at most. It is just not possible or needed to do this frequently.

I am trying to find it but there is a video of individuals climbing the coasters using ropes to inspect them. If I remember correctly it’s from Kings Dominion. My hope was someone might be able to link it before I can find it again.

I just wanted to say think you to the employees of Kings Island and especially the maintenance staff who kept the ride going through the cold and the rain.

Ride just opened, 2:19 PM

I think it is fair to point out that those signs are typically used to indicate a minimum. I have frequently seen rides listed as being closed which ended up operating. Normally this just means maintenance was unable to get the ride running by the time the park opened. The station is staffed with ride ops and it appears they are going to try to operate today. So I think it is a little premature to assume it has already given its last rides.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. The small amount of parking on that lot is not worth fighting over. I could see it being payback for the lawsuit. But honestly I suspect it’s just the fair board is used to working on their own schedule. From what I heard the park only made the request about 2 months ago.

Totally different layout, and I really prefer ours. Cadillac Cars is basically a clover layout which has a covered bridge in the middle. Here is a screenshot from google maps. Also I should point out Cedar Point actually has two antique car rides, the second in the back of the park has a much better layout.

^ The signage is so generic that it is the exact sign which is over the cars ride on the main midway at Cedar Point.

Page 5, it is located next to the gas station. "Fuel tank and dispenser"

While Kentucky Kingdom is the largest tenant, do not think they are really that important to the fair board or the facility as a whole. The state fair brings in something like ten times the money that the park pays on its lease. Also the giant expo center is used year round for conventions. The bad part is that the park entrance is across from the main expo center entrance so basically people want to park in the same lots if they are at the fairgrounds for the park or for an event. I did a quick google search and found the budget for 2015-2016. KEC as a whole brought in $40.5 million, according to KK they pay around a million a year. So they are only two and half percent of the total revenue from the entire facility. I do hope the two work this out quickly. But I worry the layout of the parking and the facility does not allow for a resolution of the parking lawsuit which will satisfy the park.

I knew the airport was older then the park but your question made me courious. According to Wikipedia there has been an airport in that location since 1941.

The park provided this image to local news agencies. I linked to it from the Courier Journals website. It gives a good indication of where the park can expand (at least according to the park), and where the ride is planned. The dispute right now is purely over the area in yellow. While the red shaded area is the long term expansion space. Although the left side of this is going to have a very low height limit because it is almost directly in line with a runway.

Disney World allows you to complete the entire order on your phone. It tells you when it will be ready and you just go to a counter to pick it up. You do not need to go to a kiosk or talk to an employee at all to place the order.

^ While speaking about the location for the coaster, Ed Hart says “both trains”. Nice to get some confirmation of two trains.

On media day Steel Vengance opened at 5 AM so it would be possible to get night rides. While it did warm up when they first opened the ride it was in the low 40’s.

Rides typically have a minimum startup temperature and a minimum operating temperature. Theoretically the park could install heaters below the station to keep the wheels warm when it is parked and extend the operating ranges. There are parks in Europe with brake heaters, wheel heaters, etc and they are able to operate below freezing. But does anyone really want this? It gives maintenance a lot less time to get the park ready for the following season, the more rides open at Winterfest the greater chance some of the rides or at least some of the trains will not be ready in the spring.