DirkFunk

Who is King Willy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._W._Herenton

TBH I'd take the Boat Tour or the Motion Simulator. One is something totally like they don't have, the other is something they can run in the winter when it invariably snows but they're open in mid December.

You can read the entire filing here: https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/genm-complaint.pdf Tough to say what Disney's argument is precisely because they haven't made it yet, obviously. If indeed Fox wasn't living up to their end of the bargain when it came to their input as the lawsuit suggests intentionally to try and extract more money out of Genting and then later to just get out of the project, then Disney's probably going to have to pay a lot of money to make that problem go away.

Went on Saturday - got in around 3PM, left around 8PM: -Rode Mr. Freeze first thing when we got in, waited about 20 minutes. Wait was closer to an hour when we left. -Train is sloooooooow. The whole loop from the main station and back again probably took 45 minutes. -Batman was a walk-on when we got there around 6:30 PM. Batman is also Batman. -Food waits are indeed crazy, whether during "meal time" or not. We waited about 20 minutes for pretzels the size of Rhode Island. That wasn't ideal, but our intent was not to eat at the park anyways since we don't have dining plans. -Waited about 15 minutes for American Thunder. I'm not that damn big, but the belts on this thing are super tight for two people. -Justice League was having all sorts of issues, but I can say the screens look better than the other three of these I rode this year. Literally no one in the single rider line. -It is dark on the mine train! Extremely so! As far as the lighting being subpar or whatever - I had just been at SDC for two days. Anything was an improvement over nothing, and both are improvements in turn over a park that usually was closed at this time of year. I got to ride bad ass stuff. Call me simple or whatever, but I'm just pumped this is a thing and that I always seem to get free mug cakes when I leave.

It's very simple to me: Do you like the things that go with theme parks that aren't coasters? Like, do you actively care about flat rides, shows, carousels, ferris wheels, dark rides? If the answer is "yes", then I can see that European parks are gonna bring something to the plate. If the answer is "no", then they are not. You aren't going to find superior thrilling machines at the Europas and Eftelings and Phantasialands. Not to say the rides aren't thrilling at all, but compared to the RMCs that are all over the US, or Voyage, or El Toro, or Dragster, or Fury 325, or Ravine Flyer 2, or Boardwalk Bullet, or... ..you get the point. What makes those places good is that they feel "lived in", for lack of a better phrase. The top Euro parks feel like important parts of their communities and culture. If what drew you in was going on thrilling rides alone and not the overall feel of the parks and the variation in rides and attractions, and that thrill is gone, then you need to progress to something else. Rock climbing, skiiing, snowboarding, white water rafting, skydiving, things like that.

Monster was in awesome shape just two months ago when I rode it. It's argurably better than Raptor - not as attractive a view, but the transition from the helix into the brakes was fixed so it doesn't headbang at all any more. It only runs one train, but there's also no one in the park most days, so you can ride it to your heart's content.

There's a reasonable amount of rock work in there and some simple figures that move. That stuff still isn't super cheap to redo, especially if the boats are almost totaled out.

I just want to interject based on the t-shirt wearing that HEALTH's Death Magic was a rad record. Also the Killer Klowns stuff was out because they were doing a maze this year with that as the theme (first year for that). Maybe it'll be back in 2019?

Their debt to revenue ratio is still way worse than Six Flags', but they also have really strong assets with those parks that I think they're getting a better hold of how to maximize value on. And a big part of that is...wait for it...large passholder base.

Like I said; different companies, different management, different perspectives. Even with Six Flags' disappointing numbers in 2018, everyone seems to have seen attendance dropoffs too minus SEAS, and that you might attribute to SEAS simply bottoming out after years of backsliding and financial disaster. Six Flags' business model is not what it was in the 1990s or 2000s, and they've actually been super successful with it.

If Six Flags was wanting to buy SEAS, I don't think it is unreasonable right now that they could find an institutional lender willing to to finance the transaction. They might have to sell off some stuff afterwards (e.g. Aquatica San Diego) but I can't see a situation in which they'd be forced to rely purely on their cash in hand and revolving credit. Anyways, journalism is dead and signal boosting no-name bloggers is in.

The companies are very different now - both of them - and if there's a takeover/merger I honestly aren't all that worried about Six Flags being able to handle it without changing SEAS' stuff too drastically. The creative head at SeaWorld Entertainment got bounced awhile back, they're building more or less "conventional" attractions with theming and getting back to free beer. That's what people want of them. The last half decade has seen abandoned attractions and store fronts galore from SeaWorld. Hard to argue that Six Flags would make that significantly worse IMO given how they've approached things post-bankruptcy.

Glassblowing Theater. If you do HW->KI->CP, I recommend the following: Fly in or out of Louisville or Evansville rather than Indianapolis. They're both actually significantly closer airports to HW. You'd be connecting in the US obviously, but you have to do that for Indy too. If you fly into Evansville (same goes for Louisville but at least it is all fresh road to drive on vs. going back and forth between HW and KK), then HW, Kentucky Kingdom, KI (and maybe try to time for Strickers Grove while you're at it), Columbus Zoo (small wood coaster but also a *phenomenal* zoo, like stuff that's literally Disney quality for enclosures plus the rides), and then Cedar Point. Then fly out of Cleveland or Detroit.

Indy isn't a hub, but if you aren't flying from Frankfurt, AMS, or CDG, it really doesn't matter anyhow I suppose. You'll need to connect somewhere. From DTW to Cedar Point is about 90 minutes. Were you planning on going to see a race during this trip? If that's the case, you'll want to fly into CMH since that's by far closest to Mid-Ohio. I'd strongly recommend going to see the top levels of some series that are more American specific too - namely the NHRA Summit Nationals in Norwalk, OH about 30-40 minutes south of Cedar Point, or Eldora. You could actually book end it that way: start with the Kings Royal, do Kings Island, then head up to Cedar Point and finish at Mid Ohio.

Has nothing to do with attendance in the last hour and everything to do with how much those people are paying. Cutting an hour of pay from the day results in a roughly 7% cut in operations cost. That difference may in turn be used to make more anemic revenue increases look bigger. It isn't infinitely repeatable though for obvious reasons. You have two options: 1) The only nonstop from Germany to anywhere nearby I know of is Frankfurt-DTW. 2) Otherwise, you should accept that you'll be connecting in Chicago O'Hare, Newark, JFK (NYC), Boston-Logan, or Atlanta. At that point you can either go open gate and fly into Cleveland or Detroit (or honestly even Toledo or Akron) and out of Cincinnati (or Dayton) or vice versa. If you fly into Columbus, it's very central, but you'll be double backing through there to get from one park to the next. You could also choose to include Louisville or Pittsburgh pretty easily with this plan.

Last Call wasn't nearly as "dead" as I was hoping line wise and we didn't ride that much as a result. Alternately, the park was decently staffed. Carnival games, arcades, most of the food booths: they were all open. No question that I prefer Cedar Fair's festival setups over Six Flags. They were really slow in selling tickets (I waited almost 30 minutes to buy my one passport) and that's probably because it represented a loss of income vs. having you pay $13 for a Miller Lite elsewhere. Also someone on Goliath wound up with a bird hitting them coming down the first drop and there were feathers all around us in the back of the train. That was wild. Oh: Demon ran. Not sure what everyone was talking about beforehand.

$16 per day to get into the park? What a discount! Kidding aside, there are so many things wrong with this article. Why you would want a human trafficker anywhere near a family park shows incredibly poor judgment. LOL, he wanted to keep the girl as a sex slave (allegedly)! I don't think human traffickers being in his park is a serious concern.

You might say, "Dirk, this story is bad enough. How could it possibly get any more nuts?" https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/schlitterbahns-co-owner-henrys-bond-revoked-after-latest-arrest KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry’s bond has been revoked in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Henry — who is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a 10-year-old at the Kansas City, Kansas, water park in 2016 — had been free on a $500,000 bond. But a judge revoked that bond Wednesday, after Henry was charged with several drug-related crimes and hiring a prostitute in Johnson County, Kansas. Prosecutors for the state of Kansas requested a $2 million bond. READ: [WARNING: Graphic language] Prosecutor’s motion to revoke bond Instead, Henry will remain jailed for now on a $1 million bond. But a Wyandotte County judge did accept a host of new bond conditions, which were recommended by the state and placed strict limitations on Henry’s involvement with various business interests. Among the new conditions, Henry is barred from setting foot on the Schlitterbahn property in KCK. Court documents claim Henry took his longtime girlfriend there after business hours. Details of Henry’s latest arrest for drug possession and hiring a prostitute emerged during the revocation hearing inside a Wyandotte County courtroom Wednesday and in court documents. Henry was charged in Johnson County, Kansas, with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia, knowingly hiring a person selling sexual relations and illegal possession of prescription drugs. According to court documents, Henry was arrested by Merriam, Kansas, police July 13 at the Drury Inn with 61.3 grams of meth, 18 hypodermic needles, and 16 Xanax. Court records claim Henry agreed to pay a human trafficker $400 for the services of a prostitute. The records say he paid $240 in cash, and made up the difference with 10 all-day passes to Schlitterbahn. In court documents, Kansas Assistant Attorney General Adam Zentner argues, "Henry was willing to grant an alleged human trafficker free access to a water park that attracts families with children, and especially teenaged girls. Jeff Henry's practices made it easier for a potential human trafficker to gain access to the young women attending and working at Schlitterbahn." The documents say Henry told his longtime girlfriend the prostitute was traveling with him as his sex slave. In exchange, she would receive a $50,000 to $100,000 condo as part of the agreement as long as she did whatever Henry wanted. The human trafficking victim told police she injected Henry and his girlfriend's necks with meth at Henry's request. The 41 Action News Investigators asked Henry's Texas-based attorney Ron Barroso if Henry has a drug problem both in April and on Wednesday and received two different answers. "He's got two marijuana convictions, two misdemeanor marijuana convictions, one that happened 12 years ago and another one that happened about 20 years ago, that's it. So no, he does not have a marijuana problem," Barroso said in April. "I don't know, I don't want to talk about that in view of these other charges that have surfaced. If he does, it's related to his depression," Barroso said Wednesday. Henry, who is scheduled to appear in Johnson County court Nov. 7 for another hearing in the drug/prostitution case, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Caleb Schwab. Schwab, the son of Kansas Rep. and current Republican Secretary of State candidate Scott Schwab (R-Olathe), died on Verruckt, which was touted as the world’s tallest waterslide, in August 2016. More information on Verruckt: The tragedy, Schwab's death and subsequent legal actions Schlitterbahn and the Schwab family reached a multi-million settlement in January 2017.

This place is dead now, just like the former owner BTW: http://www.connecticutmag.com/the-connecticut-story/wild-bill-s-nostalgia-shop-in-middletown-to-close/article_c5e17bfa-a3b3-11e8-a9c2-5b823bde8ed7.html The dark ride cars and whatnot were also up for sale back in September and gee I hope there wasn't any litigation over those:

Look who's in the news again today! As vibrant as ever too... https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Water-park-co-owner-faces-new-charges-including-13350896.php KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The co-owner of a Kansas water park who is accused in the decapitation death of a 10-year-old boy has been charged with drug possession and hiring someone for sex. The Kansas City Star reports that Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry surrendered to authorities in Kansas on Monday and was released on $100,000 bond. Henry's defense attorney, Carl Cornwell, hasn't returned a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Yes and no....I had a chat about this with a friend about a week ago as it related to SFMM being 365 days a year now. By running every day, what that does is it means your employees can work for you on a standard 40 hour a week schedule. You aren't stuck with seasonal people who know their job will effectively end in mid-August. That's a good thing if you want to retain people in a job market that has labor being in increasingly high demand. You can generate revenue from people coming into a park that has to be upright and maintained to operate anyways by having them come in and work for you, and it may be more effective at keeping staffing levels than just paying more for fewer hours. Six Flags Great Adventure is not in the middle of Philadelphia - it's in Jackson NJ. If you go work there and live in the area, you can figure to get paid by them from possibly late March-first week of January. If you're under/unemployed, that's not too bad a deal while you look for something more permanent. Cedar Point doesn't have that and doesn't have any method to place you anywhere between the months of November and April. Sucks, but that's kinda sorta their fault. They're adults. They can work that out on their own.

Look, I don't disagree. You're not going to find me flailing about trying to justify that it is a good decision. That happens way too often in this hobby any time a park or chain does anything. It wasn't just the Falling Star, but they lost the Chaos quite awhile back too. So why not look at building some cheaper rides that could fit the demographics well and aren't total maintenance/operations nightmares? But again, this is about the park being "good enough" and not being "good". It sounds ridiculous to think that a Dartron Cliffhanger would be the thing that keeps someone from booking a trip to stay at Breakers for 2 nights for their family, but that's kinda the logic in place here.

People make too much of "lessons being learned" IMO - I think it's simply a situation where the park comfortably makes money but has issues in basic infrastructure and availability of labor/willingness to come up with creative solutions to labor shortages. That combined with what I understand to be the belief at the executive level that expansion at MiAdv probably would cannibalize visitation at Cedar Point from a guest base that is disproportionately likely to be staying on property and burning cash like no one's business means it is safe but never, ever going to be expanded significantly. For me, I get this. I don't automatically defer to companies and their decision making, so I'd love to know what, if any, serious market research was done to make the choices they have. But I get what's happening. The park isn't in danger. It also isn't very good IMO. To make it "good" wouldn't even necessarily require tons of work or vast outlays of cash. I'm talking about improving pay to be more competitive in the labor market, adding a second train to Wolverine Wildcat, redoing the PLCs for the Wild Mouse so the hourly capacity can exceed 100 people per hour, modifying the restraints on Thunderhawk to make them more comfortable, adding a show - ANY live entertainment, adding a flat ride or two (used even!), upping the quality of the food ever so slightly; things like that. None of that is going to happen though unless they come to believe that making the park a more pleasing experience can actually benefit them, which is a very backhanded way of saying that Michigan's Adventure merely being "good enough" is what the chain and corporation wants. Not going to Michigan's Adventure as a sort of protest move is only so helpful if Cedar Fair already has your money. OTOH, if you don't give them the same amount because you buy a regular season pass instead to Cedar Point only and give them the feedback that the synergy is important to you in making that specific purchasing decision, then maybe they'll heed us. Maybe not - just because they're profit oriented doesn't mean they're always acting in a rational manner based on evidence. It won't happen any other way.

The weather was bad this weekend, and there were several rides down. And yet, TBH, I think they did about the best job imaginable for closing day in a long long time. Almost all the big coasters ran IN THE RAIN, which is unheard of at Cedar Point in eons. Lines outside of SV, Maverick, and Valravn were totally reasonable, though the weather was obviously not choice. Lots of food trucks in the park spread out everywhere - I had the Argentinian burger (so good) and the chicken and waffle taco during the weekend in addition to the usual stop in at Melt. Can't lie - I've rarely eaten so well at any park as I did this Saturday and Sunday. The back of the arcade is definitely a lot emptier, but there's so many games in there that they still spread them out a bit. If they had staffing, it would be a great place for a snack bar and some tables. Many, many people were seeking a respite from the conditions and the Arcade was definitely that. I still don't buy the use of the building for a modern dark ride (ceiling is too low) but can definitely see a haunt in the back half. It makes a lot more sense too with costuming being right above. This year was a great year in that we saw a top notch coaster added to an already stacked beyond belief lineup of steel rides. I think they made some good moves throughout the season, and while I'm bummed about the arcade, it was something that you could see coming a mile away (even if I don't necessarily buy that they have a long term plan with what to do with the space in the ballroom). Their operations are, IMO, better now than they've been in past years. I think they've learned a lot about how to properly staff for the fall season in at least allocating people to the places they're best useful (coasters, rides with a roof) and away from that which is irresponsible to effectively staff (car rides, skyride) under the likely weather conditions.

Parks getting new rides every single year and coasters every other year is a modern phenomenon and doesn't need to be universal. The real estate is not in great demand. The park makes solid money for the corporation in spite of a really short season. It's not going anywhere.