DirkFunk

I can't believe how many posts were spent talking about the inconvenience of getting pseudo-free food. Also, let's be real: season dining plans at theme parks are primarily for parents to buy their kids when they treat the parks like day cares for their tween.

Who knows? Maybe it was slightly beneficial to increase expenses for tax purposes. Maybe they thought it would be beneficial to the park this year... it really doesn't seem that strange since as you stated they're the same ones that the other parks have so they'll obviously be able to move them wherever they want (which since we're talking about lounge chairs isn't really much of a process). Honestly they're probably going to the expanded water park less than 2 hours up the road. LOL, yeah, they could have spent $50,000 on chairs, but that seriously isn't that great an expense. Too bad they use the same crappy ones in general as Cedar Point. Those things are trash. Again: this is a park that had a section consisting of the same Little Tykes play sets that sit outside just about every trailer home where 5 kids are running around their single parent du jour and treated it as an attraction. There was no heavy investment done.

If he has reduced sensation in his lower body, then maybe that explains things... Imagine for a moment that your life is so hideous, so pathetic, so bad in general that your entire personality and self-image is built around the fact that every day you go to a theme park, charge past children, and board amusement rides. Imagine that.

Cedar Fair has been shopping the land now for several years and finally got a hit on some of it with Meijer coming in on part of the Geauga site. It seems pretty clear to me that the operation of WWK was largely on a conditional basis that they couldn't sell the real estate under it. They could have filled the place every day: if selling 500+ acres of land was contingent on it closing, it was closing. Given that they had communicated plans about the redevelopment of the site months ago to the local authorities, it appears that is either on the verge of happening or actually happening. My personal belief is that if Matt Ouimet was in charge rather than Dick Kinzel back in 2004 when the opportunity to buy the park came up, we'd still have a Geauga Lake in some form. The best I can say about Kinzel's administration of the park is that it was done cynically enough to create the opportunity for sale and dispersal of the rides if it didn't succeed on its own merits. What happened there between Six Flags (primarily) and Cedar Fair (secondarily) is one of the great travesties in the history of the industry.

If you can snap the Compounce flyers, you're probably pretty darn good. If you can snap the Rowdy Roosters, you're a goddamned beast.

I've gotten one snap on Lake Compounce's flyers. One. Ever. There's a long story behind it, but like any story involving getting snaps on a flying scooters ride, it sucks and isn't really worth telling. It isn't impossible, but requires a convergence of skill, luck, and an operator willing to hit the start button when the ride cycle starts to slow IMO.

http://www.meadvilletribune.com/news/bankruptcy-court-approves-conneaut-lake-park-s-bankruptcy-plan/article_7402876a-744a-11e6-b713-e78fda4398d8.html TL;DR version - Conneaut's got a fighting shot for long term sustainability now.

The water park probably served no real purpose except to generate revenue while they shopped the land. Could have been bonkers and still been scrapped for condos.

Great White is fun as hell and worth the trip alone even if it weren't for all the other super great stuff around.

Also worth adding: Sea World San Diego: Ocean Explorer Dark Ride https://seaworldparks.com/seaworld-sandiego/attractions/other-attractions/2017-new-attraction/

99% of the stuff "Cedar Point is missing" is stuff that the same haters would say afterwards is lost in the mix of such a big park.

This. If you have "kids" working on obtaining degrees in, I dunno, urban planning, working in an environment where they gain experience pertinent to that is the very reason they attend a 4 year university in the United States. That experience is valuable to them later on when they graduate and start applying to work for some transit planning group in Omaha or whatever. Being in a wet lab if you are going for a degree in several of the STEM categories is valuable and worth some sacrifice. Having experience working as a scare actor in a theme park is not valuable to that end and thus is not. This is even before mentioning that most people I've employed in the university setting make more than their theme park peers unless they're doing basic office stuff like making copies or filing. This is what theme parks are up against. Do you want to work at Six Flags for 9.25 an hour every weekend night outdoors, or do you want to work days at Macy's and maybe get something that resembles health benefits and 10.15 an hour? If they can't adjust their business model, that's the industry's problem.

Regional theme parks generally get a pass from a lot of people for being unable to find employees. I honestly don't know why: If you're paying people to do a job that requires no actual talent aside from the capability of autonomously breathing and pressing a button occasionally, you shouldn't be having a tough time filling those slots. One could even say that the inability to fill those positions suggests that amusement parks aren't competitive in the labor market. But alas....

Melt at Cedar Point: A game changer actually worthy of the kind of coverage Orlando bloggers give to new cupcakes.

Those lists often expand over time as kiddie coasters opening in bowling alleys and mini golf facilities end up being "discovered". Here's 2016 in North America: 7 were new SBF kiddie spinners 5 were mountain coasters 5 were relocated coasters 3 were Orient Expresses That's more than half the list. We could easily end up past 30 still.

Apparently the water park in Mexico is a previously SBNO place called Parque Acuatico Oaxtepec, not an entirely new build.

Pretty sure this model uses electromagnetic launches. Also the tighter turns.

And what coaster is heading to Santa's Village? Do tell Their preview shots seem to suggest an Interpark Cyclon/Galaxi. Nothing stupendous, but something.

The bigger thing was that contract between SF and RMC ending. No longer any reductions in price as a result, so it is probably priced out of their range. You still have a few parks out there for which nothing has been announced, some with big rumors: -Silver Dollar City -Silverwood -Morey's -Wild Adventures -All the Palace parks -All the CNL parks -Holiday World My guess is that Kings Island and SDC will be the two main folks battling for the Golden Ticket for best new attraction of 2017.

Between this and the new coaster likely heading to Santa's Village, its back to the Chicago burbs for me.

Good work on the video. The ambient park stuff is more my favorite on youtube (like the Coasterbob62 vids for Cedar Point) and this is closer to that by far.

The act of operating an amusement park (hell, a brick and mortar business) opens yourself to lawsuits. Different companies have different ways of approaching this. That's all. Not a right and wrong answer, just a question of who is willing to give you more autonomy as a guest (answer: Disney, Knoebels).

The easy answers for being in the burbs are Lou Malnatis and Portillos since both have multiple locations. Downtown Chicago is one of the most competitive restaurant markets on earth and there's tons of really, really great food. Without knowing a budget, tough to make a suggestion.

Considering I've spent 7 days at Cedar Point this year with SFOT 15 min from me and I've only spent 3 or 4 days there...I would have to disagree with your judgement. Besides, Famous Dave's isn't an Ohio "thing", it's a typical BBQ chain like many others. Now if you would like to suggest a place for me to try that's local the next time I visit, that's more productive and friendly. Last time I was at Berardi's, they had a note on the menu proudly proclaiming that they get their food from GFS. Not that their stuff is all bad, but that kinda hurt my excitement for it. They do offer "authentic" upper midwest style food though, definitely, like the tenderloin sandwiches. HD Tony's is supposed to be good, but of course I've never been. Otherwise, just do what everyone else does and scope out Yelp.