AmyUD06

So basically Winterfest minus Delirium and Blue Ridge Tollway plus Apple Zapple. I'm very surprised to not see Racer 75 on this list. I wonder if the list will change as the "off-season" progresses? And though I'm too much to a clutz to ever do it, I'm glad they're continuing the ice skating.

Nice. Though this might be better suited for the Roller Coaster Models forum.

Actually, the park is closed due to the extreme temperatures, as is every other outdoor park in the Northeast that does something for Winter. You should know better than to trust SF app reporting. Though it wouldn't surprise me for SF to completely ignore the well-being of their employees and be operating tonight.

Nah, the SFoG thread gets a normal amount of traffic compared to other threads here. This one gets so much more because every few months someone(s) come crying about how "Corporate hates us!!1!!" and "We need new major additions every year or the park is going to close!" What results is several pages of those more rational individuals logically disproving the doomsayers, and the doomsayers trying to convince everyone that they're right. It is entirely possible for parks to be profitable without a constant influx of new customers; returning customers are just as much of a profit center as new ones are. Look at any of the non-major CF parks; no major additions for years and years, yet the parks still continue to operate and draw substantial crowds. If it turns out that the cancellation of HiTP results in substantially lower season pass sales (to the point that the cost-savings from not running it doesn't outweigh the additional income from the SP sales) they'll reverse course and bring it back, as any business that is trying to make money would. (Arguments about whether Six Flags, under the current CEO, is actually a "business that is trying to make money" are better suited for the Corporate thread, since this is not the only park affected by it.) Boo-hoo that you don't get two additional months of ripping off the chain with your "this was way too cheap to begin with" Diamond Elite Membership. You are not the profit drivers for the park and never were.

I'm pretty sure Holiday World holds all the records pertaining to water coasters.

Nevermind SFoG, any of the Texas parks, Mexico, or Magic Mountain. Though if you meant "the farthest south park without HiTP," yeah you'd have a point. I think turning a profit is absolutely the point, especially for a company in SF's financial shoes.

Seriously? A standing dark ride? Lame.

Shooting dark ride.

2+ years is a lot of time, especially in the business world. Don't get too excited just yet

Queue-Times.com is also showing that entire week to be packed. Which will be super-fun when half of the major rides are closed for "reasons." I'd save your ticket, Flash Pass, and gas money and do literally anything else.

How exactly does one prove a negative?

I think the better bet would be on "How many hours per year will a Skyline ride actually be operational?"

I had no idea they kept the lights on when the park is closed during the week. Seems wasteful.

I wouldn't trust any prediction about any Six Flags park's calendar, even what they've posted, at this point.

I think you're conflating a regular weekday and non-gathering holidays like July 4th or Labor Day with Thanksgiving, the #1 day for travel (and thus gathering) out of the year for the country. Employees want to spend time with their families and/or loved ones. I do think tomorrow would be a better indicator of what might be open during some future trip.

@SoCalJasonlandIt is the literal actual day of Thanksgiving. I'm surprised they got anyone to work at all, and I feel absolutely terrible for everyone that has to work, since you know they're not getting anything special for holiday pay. To your question, I would have to imagine that most "non-Holiday" Thursdays should be better staffed, but maybe not since kids are still in school.

Thanks for the report! I always love them, especially for these foreign parks that I might never get to. And you always seem to post just in time to remind me to get caught up on reports too!

According to RCDB, yeah from the old Americana park in Ohio, by way of Kokomo's Family Fun Center in Michigan.

I can't speak to IG, but as of February 2021, no ride had mandatory lockers IIRC.

I'd argue the original (Walt) was in it for more than the money.

It's been 21+ years since I've done a Build-a-Bear, but I believe that indicates that the speech box is located there so that's where you squeeze.

Great report so far, keep it coming! Dollywood runs the entire park during the Christmas season?

Wow that hotel and the entire area looks so cool. I'm jealous that you got to experience it...maybe one of these days I'll get myself over to Europe. Thanks so much for the report!

On the way back from Kings Island (normally a 9-10 hour drive), I decided to "stop by" (ignore the fact that it adds 6 hours to my total drive time) Kings Dominion to try to catch the full Queen's Ball show, that I missed during my initial Haunt trip here. Was I successful? Read on. BONUS! Kings Dominion Sunday, October 16th. I arrived at the park around 4:00 PM, grabbed my FL+ wristband, and then made my way around the park. I had some time to kill until 7 PM, when the show would begin. The skies were overcast, and the weather forecast called for a good chance of light rain, but I figured, "hey, shows should still happen in the rain, right?" Winterfest preparation had begun: I grabbed a "quick" ride on Reptilian: 17 minute wait, with Fast Lane, for the front row. Yeah, they really need to put a grouper in place to manage this station. Here was the standby queue on my way off the ride. After that, I decided to just plop myself down in front of the main stage to make sure I got a good spot for the opening ceremonies, Blood Reign. Despite the same name, this show was different from last years. I know I provided some pics and videos in my initial report, but this time I was a lot closer! Note that a slight drizzle had begun. As a bonus, here's videos of pretty much the entire show: M4H03298_Trim.mp4 M4H03299_Trim.mp4 858818504_BloodReign3_Trim.mp4 Now, Queen's Ball was supposed to immediately follow this show, but the Astaroth character (so dreamy), said something to the effect of "come back later, I melt in the rain." Uh-oh. I asked one of the ushers if that meant that the show wouldn't be happening as scheduled, and they confirmed: try again at the 8:30 show. Bummer. With some extra time to kill, and the rain increasing slightly, I took another walk through Grimm Woods with my not-the-right-color Fast Lane band, and noticed a really cool animatronic dragon at the end which I hadn't noticed last time. Unfortunately, the oven prop in the Hansel & Gretel section was still not illuminated. I then took another walk through Trick or Treat, and it was good as always, but was a pure conga line. With the crowds at the park, and many rides shut down for weather, I guess they didn't have a choice. Winterfest lights in place. I made my way back up to the International Street Bandstand, and plopped myself down in the still-increasing rain, waiting for the show to hopefully start up. The ushers first began pushing the water from the stage in an attempt to dry it, but around 10 minutes before the show was to start, some of the entertainment managers came out, walked over the stage, and shook their heads. Alas, it was not to be. Sad face. Now properly soaked, I depressedly made my back to my car, and began my 4 hour drive home. *sigh*

Kings Island Day 2, Saturday, October 15th, 2022 Day 2 started off pretty uneventful, and I grabbed my FL+ wristband and made my way to Banshee for my first ride of the day. Nerd shot. Train-and-a-half wait for the front row, right wing. It was certainly a little sluggish on this chilly morning. Next up was a quick ride on The Bat (walk-on for back row). Man, do I miss Big Bad Wolf. The highly unused VIP area. Some of the fake games booths that make up the bulk of the Coney Maul decorations. I then hopped on the Scrambler for walk-on ride, and continued down Coney Mall. Definite Winterfest preparation underway. Another one of the history boards. How disrespectful of them to put Vortex's tombstone so far back, so unadorned, when Flight Commander and King Cobra get front-row-billing and their own fancy text. The clock, looking suitable decrepit. A hearse decoration, which was quite animated at night. The typical CF ogre. My next rides were Diamondback (one train wait for row 2, right wing), Mystic Timbers (three train wait for back row), Beast (25 minutes for front row - notably they have resolved the stop-and-go when trains come back to the station), and Orion (three and a half train wait for the front row, right wing). On Orion, I caught some sort of bug in my lip at the bottom of the first drop, which hurt a lot worse than you might expect. I then grabbed a ride on Racer (half-train wait for row 2, red side, did not win), grabbed a quick shot of these cool spider decorations... ...and made my way up the Eiffel Tower for some aerial shots. I continued to wander the park, coming across the Fangtastics show, which was pretty decent. Everyone loves Auntie Anne's pretzels... After that, I went out to my car for a quick nap and waited for a friend to meet me at the park. On my way back to my car, I found a cute (but Angry) pup had been left in a car. I of course notified the park Security, but after about 45 minutes they had yet to respond, so who knows what happened with it. I hope the dog crapped all over the interior of that $80k GMC Yukon Denali. Not really tired, and with some more time to kill, I took a lap on the train and grabbed some "everyone takes these pictures on the Kings Island train" shots. Does anyone know how true the story the train spiel-er tells about the "house inside the walls that the park isn't allowed to touch" is? There's too much tree cover to get a good look on satellite maps. She arrived, and didn't have Fast Lane, so we just kinda wandered and caught up on each other's lives, the only ride we enjoyed together was Windseeker (30 minute wait). I did have to take a pic of this cute skeleton brass band on the way back. It was then time for Nytewalkers, the park's acrobatics show. Prepare for a bunch of pictures and videos. M4H03267_Trim.mp4 M4H03270_Trim.mp4 M4H03271_Trim.mp4 M4H03277_Trim.mp4 What did I think? "Wow, this is a Kings Island show?" I was totally impressed. Around 25 minutes long, awesome acrobatics (I was especially impressed with the Razor Scooter rider), a great mix of music, awesome choreography and dancers, impressive video on the screens, cast members running through the audience and taking people's phones for close-up shots, and ,the biggest way to win over my heart: An actual cohesive plot! Which, in this case, was a cheerleader-and-jock couple wandering in to a demon infested area, the main demon girl attempting to seduce the jock, the cheerleader being convinced to join the demon side, the jock attempting to impress both ladies (the slackline bit), and the jock finally choosing to remain with the cheerleader and them walking off together. Very impressive, 10/10. After that, I grabbed a picture of the only thing KI does better than KD in terms of Haunt: the International Street decorations. I guess the lack of trees allows this, complete with flame throwers. Now it was time for a re-ride on... ...Banshee, for a train-and-a-half wait for back row, left wing. By the time of day, it had definitely warmed up, and was flying through the course as normal. It was getting late, and I was kinda tired, so I decided to close out a night at Kings Island the only way to do so: With a night ride on Beast. But wait, what's this? Yep, that was the Fast Lane line at 8:05 PM. It took me 45 minutes to get through it (I believe the standby queue was posting over 2 hours) for front row, including a 15 minute stoppage for something I had never seen at a CF park before: Stopping a train on the lift hill due to cell phone use and an employee walking up the lift hill to confiscate the phone. Guess they're getting SFGAdv serious about it. Anyway, how was the ride? Incredible, as always. There is seriously very little better in the world of coasters than a front row, night ride, on The Beast. Making my way out of the park, I grabbed some shots of the hearse in action (sorry for the poor quality)... ...and the ogre. I thought about taking a trip up the Eiffel Tower to get some night shots, but forget this FL line: Grabbed one more pic of the Terror Rising stage... ...and then it was time to say goodbye to Kings Island for 2022. All in all, a great trip, but mostly for the rides and Nytewalkers show. Most everything else about their Haunt was mediocre at best. Maybe I'm just getting tired of these things? I don't know, but Cedar Point's Halloweekends report is up next, and (spoiler alert!) did not help assuage me of that concern.