John Peck

i don't care what they replace SOB with, as long as it runs over 1,500 Persons Per Hour. That park gets in over 3.2 Million, they could use a couple more high capacity rides.

Hey, to people like me, there are 17 now! I remember how stoked I was to get 18 credits at the park last year. "Like"

^ Thanks. I skimmed, but never saw that. Post retracted.

Sorry if this has been posted, but I got my cedar point "Getaway Guide" and it lists "17" coasters. That proves to me that they intended to have Wildcat open and operational this season considering most of those guides are printed around March and April.

Kinda Bummed about the Mine Ride, those Gemini Trains would have been better. Also, that elevator on Disaster Transport makes me think the ride will be there MUCH longer. That's not a cheap investment, it has virtually no ROI, either.

Looking at an overhead shot, Cliff's is really tiny, but is surrounded by many commercial businesses including several plazas, a Taco bell, a Pep boys, a self-storage and a few other things. Or, they could just removed their Galaxi coaster and use that back strip for G.L.

Yes, scrap is very, very valuable. I also don't think the park wants the headache of selling it. Sadly, Wildcat was one of my guilty pleasures in the park. I always hopped aboard it when I was there, and I will miss it. One of my favorites. But here is the thing, Matt Ouimet said in a recent interview that a few of the Cedar Fair parks were "at the brink" (or something like that) of having way too much and he says where there will always be new rides, they will have to remove older rides, and it sometimes will be somebody's favorite. Nothing personal, just business. So treasure what you have now, these big machines only last so long.

Forward.... March! (admins: please let me know if I posted this correctly and could one of you update the link below the "Thread Title" so it links directly to the page?) www.courier-journal.com/article/20120425/NEWS01/304250079/State-panel-gives-preliminary-approval-financial-incentives-Bluegrass-Boardwalk?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p The investors intending to open the Bluegrass Boardwalk amusement park, formerly Kentucky Kingdom, received preliminary approval Wednesday from a state board considering financial incentives for the venture. The park is on schedule to begin operating in May 2013, with predictions that it will attract 600,000 people in its first year. “We have the dollars, vision, skills and experience to transform this park into a jewel for Kentucky,” said Natalie Koch, one of the four people who formed Bluegrass Boardwalk Inc. The Koch family also owns Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari water park in Santa Claus, Ind., and in February received preliminary approval of a lease to run the former Kentucky Kingdom from the Kentucky State Fair Board. The Kochs received an initial clearance Wednesday from the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority of their request for $3.9 million in tourism tax credits toward the cost of opening the park at the Kentucky Exposition Center, which last operated in 2009 and was abandoned amid a bankruptcy by the Six Flags organization. The next step will be for a consultant to conduct an economic-impact study of the project to make sure it meets the statutory requirements for the tax credits. Requirements include that the park be open at least 100 days a year, that it draw at least 25 percent of its visitors from out of state and that it has a positive economic impact on the state’s general fund. Gil Lawson, spokesman for the state cabinet that includes tourism, said the tourism authority will probably meet in about two months to give final review to the tax-credit application, or after the study is completed. The Kochs hope to get a rebate of $3.9 million, or 25 percent of their planned $15.6 million initial investment in the project. The money is claimed in annual installments over 10 years in the form of a rebate on state sales tax the project generates. Dan Koch, chief executive officer of Holiday World and one of the Bluegrass Boardwalk partners, said the Kochs have lined up the major mortgage for the venture. He declined to name the lender. The Kochs estimate annual attendance will rise to nearly 800,000 in 10 years. In its first year, the park expects to employ about 25 full-time and 800 seasonal workers, generating a first-annual payroll of $4.7 million. The return to the fair board under the lease the first year will be about $880,000, and then increase annually, the Kochs said. The Kochs said the park will be marketed largely to metro Louisville, Southern Indiana and Ohio. They said Bluegrass Boardwalk will offer free soft drinks, sunscreen, rafts and inner tubes.

The Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays, though, as it is company-wide.

Not quite where they want to be at this time, but that's okay; slow and steady wins the race. http://www.wfpl.org/2012/04/16/bluegrass-boardwalk-says-were-not-quite-where-wed-like-to-be/ Bluegrass Boardwalk Says “We’re Not Quite Where We’d Like to Be” WFPL News by Devin Katayama on April 16, 2012 Officials with Bluegrass Boardwalk are still trying to secure business incentives to reopen the former Kentucky Kingdom amusement park next year. The Kentucky State Fair Board approved to lease the property in February to the Koch family, which also owns Holiday World in Indiana. The new park is still expected to be open next year and will be called Bluegrass Boardwalk, keeping the same family-style values modeled at the family’s other amusement parks. In February, co-owner Dan Koch estimated the business incentives package would be in place around April 15, and officials implied the group would submit its application in late February or early March. There have been several levels of review for the application, followed by requests for additional and updated information, said spokeswoman Paula Werne in an email. Kentucky Tourism Arts and Heritage Cabinet spokesman Gil Lawson said an application was submitted this week and that application will likely take weeks to review and be voted on. “I do not know how long that will take. We don’t have a scheduled board meeting yet, but we’re working on that. So as soon as we can get a board meeting together we’ll consider the application,” he said. The state requires an applicant to meet certain goals in order to receive up to 25 percent of the investment back from the state for a ten year period beginning at the time the applicant meet the requirements, said Lawson. “To qualify for our incentives, the tourism incentives, there’s several requirements. For example it has to have so many visitors a year from out of state. It has to have a minimum level of investment, It has to have a positive economic impact,” he said. Bluegrass Boardwalk officials said the group is in the process of applying for state and local incentives. “We have our financing in place,” said Werne. The group previously said there would be up to a $20 million investment from the Kochs and private lenders. The price to open their previous parks was around $10 million, co-owner Dan Koch previously said. Werne said Bluegrass Boardwalk is still expected to open next year. “We’ve met on-site with a number of ride vendors and are eager to ‘push the button’ on some exciting new additions for the park,” she said.

Folks on Facebook are mentioning that the Scrambler is gone. Any truth to that?

I wonder how many of those 80% of people went over to enjoy the ride side once they were done in the waterpark. That's what Doney's problem is, everyone starts at the waterpark but ends up on the rides in the evening thus creating massive lines. Michigan's Adventure also has this problem, though their attendance isn't quite up to creating massive lines in their ride park and the size of the park can handle larger hordes of people. Geauga Lake had that problem, too, but it was an entirely different situation. (which I highlighted in the "Who Killed Geauga Lake" thread.)

^ That's because it wasn't a Scrambler, it is an A.R.M. Twister.

Gonna add some fuel here: Wingrider track + Green = Green Lantern for SFoT, maybe?

Think about this: Todays coasters seem to have more curves than many of the older rides. Many of them seemed to be out and backs that used to grace the parks of yesterday. except for a few, most had long straightaways and high turnarounds. This is what I am getting from the Holiday world post: The testing has gone well enough for them to order their final trains, but won't enough time to have them delivered, tested, inspected and signed off on time for opening. To me, this sounds very, very good.

Predators old trains were 'trailered" which were the same as the old Raging Wolf Bobs trains, which isn't surprising since both parks were Funtime Parks and both rides were built within two years of each other. The Voyage's trains are "articulated" so they run much better.

The photo I looked at with a *Red* 6-car train on the Voyage was from RCDB, so it could be an older one from when it just happened. I need to get back down there.

^ Ah, thanks. I see Voyage is running 2 6-car trains now as opposed to the 3 7-car trains it had when it opened. I am out of touch because I haven't been there since 2006.

Putting in $3 Million for the Twins is still cheaper than building something new to replace it. IF the Timberliners are able to work on Voyage by 2013, they can move the PTC's down to Bluegrass which would drop the reopening cost of Twins. How many PTC's do they still have for Voyage? If there is a third, that might make a good second train for Thunder Run.

The main things that keep a coaster operational are cost of ownership and popularity. Grizzly obviously gets enough ridership to keep it running.

They just put in a Wacky Worm, too.

All I can picture here is the scene in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" when they took Napoleon to "Waterlube"

People are going to pay for it if they think it is of value to them, and if the park has it available, someone will purchase it. If no one decides to purchase it, then the park will either re-price it, or drop it all together. I believe that it will be successful.

2012 non-labeled Map is Posted. Crypt is still on it, Son of Beast is not.

Geauga Lake was suffering the same local fate as many parks were in the 50's and 60's and time was taking it's toll on the park. Had Sea World not moved in, I would have been shocked if Geauga Lake ever made it past 1975, unless they built a new pool or offered more beach activities. In my opinion, Idora Park losing the giant pool was a major factor. I don't hate Cedar Fair either, and I agree that the park made a bad choice in order to not warn us, but I don't think they knew it themselves. They were however planning to move Thunderhawk, Dominator and Texas Twister. The fact that all the other rides sat there for a year was proof that they would have continued operating and weren't pre-planned.