tidecat

The park's taller items are on the left side of the park due to FAA restrictions. Personally I would move the picnic shelters to the right side of the park and put another tall flat where they are now. Reopening Twisted Twins next year may be a good excuse to do that as the area around it is somewhat bare.

If you plan on going at least twice, get season passes. The promotional price of $69.95 ends TODAY at 11:59 PM ET. You also now get free parking with a season pass. Otherwise the best bet would be Kroger.

I would think Flutterfly would be in King Louie's Playland, but that area is pretty well full. The areas that seem to be the most open for the taking are in front of Lightning Run near the Rio Grande Train, and between Skycatcher and Circle of Champions. There may be enough space near the Tin Lizzies behind Cactus Jack's. With Twisted Twins being revived for 2016, maybe there's a possibility for a Kraken Racer as well. There's plenty of space for some flats between Thunder Run and Twisted Twins.

Perhaps Holidog's Funtown could be re-themed as Easter? I'd think a New Year's section of the park would have some possibilities - you could theme a ride after the ball drop in Times Square, but anything with a "time" theme could center around time travel or even the future. I'm not sure there's much to work with beyond that, although Valentine's Day might be possible. Mardi Gras has a direct tie-in with Easter. Any theming ideas for Columbus Day have been usurped by The Thanksgiving section. All of the other major holidays would be duplicating Fourth of July.

I have a feeling that was part of the plan - get people in the park a few more times and have them spend more on food, locker rentals, etc. rather than on parking. At $400,000, the park is only subsidizing 50,000 visits (50,000 x $8), and it had 555,000 last year. I'm really surprised the State Fair Board let Kentucky Kingdom pull it off for that little. The bad part is that this probably rules out the park opening in October, unless if it is willing to renegotiate the parking lease. Other events booked during the Spring and Summer months could benefit as well because any season pass holder could go to an event elsewhere on the KEC grounds for free (aside from the State Fair).

I should point out that in Indiana, sexual orientation is not a protected class - the RFRA did not change that, so any Indiana business could discriminate on that basis and be within its legal right to do so. Repealing the RFRA wouldn't change that either.

Perhaps the announcement is being timed to steal some thunder from another park? (pun intended)

One of KK's Facebook posts actually had the hashtag #SevenOrEight in it.

Kentucky Kingdom posted another tease on Facebook this morning:

What is/was RRE?

Another #KingdomSeven tease:

I hadn't seen any previous discussion on it, but Kentucky Kingdom posted their 2015 operating schedule at http://www.kentuckykingdom.com/park-info/calendar/ A few things stuck out to me: The park lists its hours as TBA for May 18-22 and May 26-27, but nothing for May 28-29 The Big Surf Wave Pool will be open during the State Fair from 4-7 PM, but the rest of Hurricane Bay will be closed The last two weekends in September also have its hours listed as TBA The omission of the Thursday and Friday from Memorial Day Week seems really curious to me, as these should be decent draws.

Kroger was offering discounted passes ($69.95) either close to or even shortly after the start of the season last year.

I think children's cartoons in general will suffer a few more years of decline, but eventually they'll come back-something will happen that Disney and Nickelodeon quit throwing money at teenage and pre-teen actors for shows that have runs of only 3-5 years. I also think Warner Brothers is missing the boat with children - they have to keep pace with Nickelodeon and especially Disney, as both have the ability to cater to their entertainment needs throughout their entire lives.

Does Splashin Safari have something like Kentucky Kingdom's Deep Water Dive? It would have a similar footprint to Giraffica, and those type slides are one of the hot trends in waterpark attractions.

I don't follow your logic. If Kentucky Kingdom wanted to keep people in Louisville, they would open earlier and entice the people visiting the first two weeks to upgrade to season passes. They park shouldn't be trying to keep people away from Holiday World the weekend of April 25th, they should focus on keeping more people in Louisville throughout the season. The change in opening dates is attributable to either when operations can have everything running or a cost analysis showing that the low expected attendance the weekend of April 11th and 18th will not cover the operational costs. Parks lose money when there are not enough guests. Thunder Over Louisville will be either April 11 or April 18 (usually the latter unless if it falls during a holiday like Yom Kippur or Easter). If the weather is good a crowd that could be as large as 80-110% of the population of Jefferson County will be along the waterfront. Kentucky Kingdom being open on Derby will be a bit of a challenge because of how close the Fair and Expo Center is to Churchill Downs.

Given that you would want to build away from the airport, the thing to do would be to move towards Broadbent Arena. Once Cardinal Stadium is out of the way, build Broadbent's replacement near the back of Freedom Hall. Since 99% of the traffic will turn right at the main gate when entering the Kentucky State Fair, put most of the parking in the back.

That side of the park looks well-balanced in terms of color - T3 would have be camouflaged if it were some shade of blue or green.

I have made several visits each to Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, and The Beach by myself over the past few years. This September, I actually had someone else who was by himself at Kentucky Kingdom talk me into riding Deluge.

Random idea concerning the amphitheater: If Cardinal Stadium gets demolished, Kentucky Kingdom should have another gate between the amphitheater and the rest of the Exposition Center property, and then one between the amphitheater and the rest of the park. The State Fair could use it for the concerts currently held at Cardinal Stadium, and the park could use it the rest of the season. This might even make it possible for Kentucky Kingdom to bring in events outside the operating season for the park. The only downside is that the amphitheater would probably have to be expanded past 5,000 seats, as some of the free concerts can draw over 10,000 people themselves. Height shouldn't be an issue given that Plummet Summit is one of the neighbors.