teacherkim

I already said you were entitled to your position as well as voicing it. What I am questioning is why you are so hyper focused on it and continue to voice it over and over and over again. Again, what is the purpose? So..........it actually does sound like you are trying to make it a battle of whose been here longer, otherwise why mention it, although I will accept that wasn't your intent. My son worked at the park as well. So? That has nothing to do with a valid opinion. And guess what? Opposing opinions can both be valid, that's why they are opinions and not facts and criticism is fine. I have no issues with that! I do genuinely care for the park and I appreciate you noting that. I have no reason to think most people on here feel otherwise, we perhaps just disagree on what is best for the park or how important certain things are. However, Zach has routinely stated that he doesn't really care for the park, doesn't really want to go anymore, and that other parks are more enjoyable for him, fine; yet he posts about the carousel quite a lot on this and other threads. I was inquiring more about his motive for doing so versus the validity of his position. You say you know the truth. Ok, what is it and how do you know? I have stated that I 100% believe the park should be way more transparent on what exactly the holdup is, then we wouldn't all be speculating on the issue. We might not like the answer but at least we would know. I don't really feel that non information from the park is the same as lying though. Guys! In the end this is just NOT the end of the world in the scheme of things and while I love a good debate (social studies teacher here!) I just don't think complaining about a carousel restoration is worth the vast amount of time we've put into it at this point. Our park may not be the best but it is far from the worst. If you're on here and have money and time to devote on ANY level to theme parks then life is probably pretty good! Let's try to focus on the positive. Despite anyone's perception, historically speaking we live at the most peaceful, safest, and prosperous time in history. Truly. Eat, drink, and be merry everyone and enjoy your holiday season! ?

Not asking you to advocate for the restoration, you've made your views clear and you are entitled to them. However, you didn't answer the question. Again, what are you hoping to accomplish by constantly complaining about it on multiple threads that don't even involve this park? Particularly, when you have stated more than once that you really don't have a lot of interest in SFSTL AND that the park is a business that is free to make it's own decisions and customers can voice their displeasure by not spending their money at the park AND that you are just not into this hobby that much anymore. Just trolling? Like stirring the pot? Too much time on your hands? Care more than you will admit for some reason? Think you will start a movement to make something happen? I'm genuinely curious.

I wouldn't be against it if they outsourced it to someone qualified like PTC but you're implying to just send it to the quickest source which isn't necessarily the best. Yes, carpenters are very talented and craftsmen/women in their own right but this project also needs actual artists for the final step and those are a lot harder to find and employ. Again I don't know if that is the problem just doing some speculating of my own which the park could end by simply being clear and honest on what the issue is. I wasn't specifically talking about the zoo, mentioned somewhere else entirely but it's not bullshit; YOU have previously stated that the park does not owe anyone anything, it's a business and if you don't like what it offers don't go there and I was pointing out there are other places to ride a carousel. I really don't think the extended closure is hurting the bottom line and claiming it is embarrassing and carrying on like it's the end of the world is the epitome of first world entitlement, entirely different from criticism. That's what I meant and you know it. I know kids that cannot go to the park, through no fault of their own, and would be thrilled to go whether the carousel was operational or not. And there will be thousands more in the long run by restoring it properly and having it last longer. You are speculating as well, I don't think your crystal ball is a guarantee of the future. What I cannot understand is why if you claim that our park sucks, and you just aren't into this hobby that much anymore, and there are other carousels closer to where you live available for your family, you continue to spend so much time posting on this and other threads about this particular carousel. What the hell are you hoping to accomplish?

Glad you had fun at the fair! We had an opportunity to go to the summer fair in Dusseldorf when we were there in July (no Olympia Looping but Alpina Bahn was there) and had every intention of going ........BUT after a soaking wet cold day at Movie Park Germany, a late arrival back to the hotel due to a detour for someone who got ill on the bus and urgently needed us to stop at a gas station, and the fact that the next day was an early start and a jam packed day at Phantasialand; we never made it. Knew we would regret it later but knew just as strongly at the time that all we wanted were hot showers and a warm bed, but that was our only real hiccup on the trip so won't dwell on it.

Nah.......I absolutely cannot agree with that. It isn't just about being a ride. Historic carousels are art history. I would rather it take a decade and receive the proper craftmanship than be quick fixed or sell it to some park that can provide the proper craftmanship IF SFSTL cannot do it. If the complaint is strictly "we don't have a carousel to ride" there are plenty of others around town. The St. Louis Carousel in Faust Park is just as historic as the PTC at SF and it underwent a years long refurb, I believe longer than the current one we are discussing, and is alive and well.......and appreciated. Now I do think the park needs to be way more transparent about what the delay is, I mean just be honest about it whatever the problem (I suspect keeping qualified artists on the job MAY be a factor but of course I am speculating) The point is when they don't explain people do speculate and are often wrong, when the true explanation is given the populace is usually pretty accepting of the whole thing. Why is necessary to constantly pinpoint a year that is "our year"? And I am not saying you specifically, clearly lots of people do it. These are first world problems; really we could all just be accepting of whatever happens when it happens, particularly since none of us have ANY control over it whatsoever.

And be prepared for the dynamic to continue to change but not necessarily in a bad way, enjoy all the different iterations! Being a teacher my son and I had so many awesome summer days while he was growing up of going to parks and having a blast, particularly once he was old enough to move out of the kiddie rides. He even went through a very short phase around age 10 - 12 where he refused to ride kiddie coasters because he didn't want people to think he was scared to ride big rides. Then he came into his own and with maturity simply rides what makes him happy and doesn't worry about what others think. Even now that he is an adult we still can enjoy theme park days together, no it's not quite the same as when he was a kid and sometimes we do our own thing or hang out with different groups but it's still kind of "OUR" thing. My husband goes once in a while but just isn't as into it but doesn't begrudge us our enjoyment.

And on one of the very few points we can probably agree on ?, same for me. The park gave us the one time skip the line on 8 rides thingy and we never even used the one for Outlaw Run. I just don't think a lot of the gp ever make it all the way back there and a lot of SDC visitors probably have no idea what an RMC is or why they should care. It is a park that gets a lot of people that just come for shows, shops, food and "just walking around". I recently talked to a young student on a sub job that goes several times a year with her family to meet up with Grandparents that live in northern AR and she literally had no idea what I was talking about when I described Outlaw Run, I mean to be fair she is in 5th grade, but she knew what some of the other coasters were. Btw, her Grandma will ride only one ride at SDC, thought for sure it would be the train but nope........Flooded Mine, lol. I am curious, IF they put in a new entrance for resort guests on that side of the park whether or not it will affect traffic back there or not.

I mean look at the face on this thing. High as a kite! Kills me every time ?

The missing element seems to be alerting the public to events like this. Hopefully, they will do a better job of advertising this kind of stuff on various platforms.

Went to Coaster Christmas on 11/9 after skipping last year in a fit of annoyance over the snowstorm the year before. We got very lucky with the weather, 50's and 60's, the rain mostly stayed away other than some very light drizzle and moderate fog. The fog actually enhanced the whole experience as it was almost as good as a night ride and since it made the Christmas lights more visible during the day which gave the whole thing a cozy atmosphere. During the traditional cinnamon roll and coffee/hot chocolate with a presentation Brad Thomas went back over all the details of the hotel. Nothing more that what we already knew other than to state that prices would probably be in the same neighborhood as the DreamMore and that they basically levelled off the top of a mountain to create the space for the hotel. For those that know the area the park now owns land that goes all the way from the present park to the Dana's BBQ in Branson West. In other words they have a lot of room to work with. Of course people were trying to trip him up into revealing more information on future projects and of course that did not work, although it got entertaining and he was good natured about it. He did emphasize that the hotel was simply phase 1 of a planned decade of growth and investment and that both the park and undeveloped land would benefit from the investment. Later I talked to a local business leader that said it was basically an open secret that a new water park will be happening. This makes total sense since they do not even own the land that the current water park is on and that would allow them to entice people to stay at the new hotel and spend the bulk of their time in a SDC bubble. We then had ert on FITH and I was grateful to get some more rides on it as there really is a whole lot to take in. As for other rides during the day TT had a lot of down time on Sat, I really don't think it likes the misty dripping weather. We did get a ride in on it during one of the small up times but it was running great on Sunday. Wildfire ran like a champ both days and with two trains and it's high capacity we never waited more than 10-15 min and that was because we did front row. Diving into the fog on the first hill was amazing. Powder Keg had the longest line so we hit that first thing after open on Sunday and caught it with only about a 20 min wait. OR only had one train but it was either a walk on or station wait most of both days. I just don't think a lot of people make it all the way back there, lol. It was also a lot of fun in the fog and even better after dark in the fog. They opened up the culinary school building across from Heritage Gold Hall for the event attendees for about 3 hours in the afternoon with apple dumplings, cinnamon ice cream, hot chocolate, cider, wassail and a deck that overlooked TT. Nice touch. Short but colorful Christmas Parade, but I still say that the face of the candy cane makes it look like the most stoned thing I have ever scene!

Sorry, double post

When we were at Dutch Wonderland in PA it was July 2021 and they have an employee that legit looks like Santa, real beard and all; and he was taking tickets at the front gate with red shorts and red knee socks joking about it being his second job in the summer because Mrs. Claus didn't want him hanging around getting in her way, lol. Everyone loved it, there was a line a mile long. Of course it didn't involve the whole park just him, but it was great.

I dunno Christmas by the pool seems ok to me ? The point though is to experiment with new ideas to draw people in and see what is popular and what isn't. They need things that can be enjoyed by all ages to tempt more families to come in together, even if the kids go off to ride stuff that Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandpa don't want to do. If there are events that include special food, drink, shows, etc. etc. that entices the people with the money in the family (which are not the kids) to stay and spend. There are a whole host of ideas they could try out; back to school foam or beach party the last week of 7 day operation, craft beer festival (and I don't even like beer but it is popular), shark week in June, specialty food festivals like Epcot but on a much smaller more local scale. Or intertwine things like craft beer and whiskey tastings with the festivals. Just some examples, there are numerous possibilities. Some will be better than others but then they can get feedback. If they are putting a focus on entertainment maybe they are already thinking this way. Also, maybe offer some VIP tours with behind the scenes and/or lift hill climbs and/or first ride of the day on something. I think the one at Holiday World has been pretty popular and most gp don't get to do those things. We are just used to it because of thoosie events. Got a behind the scenes inside the volcano once, it was cool, people will pay for it. BUT whatever they do they have to get better at messaging it to the whole area. Talked to a neighbor one day who didn't have any idea that HITP had gone away, which is the exact problem. People weren't attending in droves and as a person that doesn't seek that info out she had no idea. Advertising pays off.

Thanks for the info! I think it's really helpful to try to keep everyone as informed as possible as to what's going on. The park needs to keep up the FB updates as well. That pretty much fits what I was told about the Boss/RMC. And as far as new attractions, Joker opened so late and without the funhouse so that might as well be the new attraction. Hopefully, they can finish the carousel, I have always been patient and assumed it will happen when it happens but not getting into an argument on that one at this point. I very much hope we get our own Park President and if we do it's only reasonable that that person have a season to assess and get the lay of the land. And in my opinion working on festivals is a good way to assess interest in things like HITP/Winterfest and find out what people are interested in. While I never really cared that much one way or the other about HITP, I went and I'm not against it but they will have to figure out some way to make it profitable. Despite so many people whining about it, they just didn't show up. ?

Looks great! Guess we have to come back down during FF at some point. My list of park Halloween events is getting so long I may have to start doing 2 a year ?

Well, that's a shame about Kid Flash, we never even got to know it. How did it go so wrong? Glad for you that the haunts were mostly really well done. I would be fine if they continued with only four up here IF they could just staff them well. Sigh. I'll hope it's a work in progress for the new GM. The Stranger Things house may have just been poorly done but it probably would have been more entertaining for you if you had seen the show. I went through the Stranger Things house at HHN before I had watched the show and it was mostly just a big confusing shrug from me but would love to do it again now that I have viewed all the episodes.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the park! I'm constantly telling the local gp that bitch on FB about it being the "WoRsT pArK eVer" that they are completely off base. Lol, there are far worst parks. If you loved the Boss as it is now you would have adored it when it still had the helix in place. Completely neutered it by taking that out as far as I'm concerned; but, yes you do need a mountain sherpa to guide you to the ride station ?

We did a whirlwind trip last Saturday (literally flew into Philly Fri night, showed up at hotel near Hershey at 2:30 am and had just Sat at the park) It was absolutely PACKED. In anticipation of this I had just bucked it up and bought the unlimited fast lanes for both rides and haunts online ahead of time. Still took us a good half hour to redeem our wristbands when we got to the park. To minimize wasted time since the park didn't open until noon, we stopped and grabbed lunch at Subway and did our Chocolate world shopping before park open. There still would have been no way to get on everything and do all the haunts, even with the fastpasses and 10-11 hours. It did allow us to do all the rides we wanted to and get all 5 haunts in with about 45-60 min for grabbing some dinner, most of that dinner time was standing in line. Wildcat's revenge being the only coaster we didn't have, we did focus on that, got 3 rides including 1 night ride on it. Definitely a top 5 RMC. Loved it. The new restraints on Skyrush are a huge improvement. We both thought it made the coaster much more fun now and you still get the oddly satisfying "pop" on the break run. One funny note on Skyrush; we were lined up for front row after the line closed at 10 (haunts were open until 11) wondering if they would honor that when to no one's suprise they announced last train, get on or get out. This resulted in about 10 seconds of a complete keystone cops free for all with everyone scrambling to get on. We ended up in the last row in both outside seats. Definitely more intense but not uncomfortably so. As far as Dark Nights; atmosphere/decorations were very good, scare zones ok but nothing special, unfortunately we really didn't have time for the shows, haunts were mostly very very good. They were well stocked with scare actors and nice and long. I thought Descent and Haunted Coal Mine had the best scares and Estate of Evil probably the best set pieces. Part of the problem with the scare zones is that it was just so crowded that the scare actors couldn't move around quite as freely as what would make better scares.

Super quick trip report for a super quick trip. After spending Saturday at Hershey and with an 8:30 pm flight out of Philly Sunday evening we drove an hour and a half out of the way to spend about 3 and a half hours at Knoebels. Yes, we have been there before so were prepared to just hit our favorites and do an abbreviated trip. Park was open 12-5, we were there about 12:15-3:45. Parking lot was packed, but we were able to get fairly close by virtue of needing to use the EV chargers (in PA they charge by the hour fyi) We walked past the one price, one pass giant ticket booth and the line looked to easily be 45-60 min. Time we didn't have and we didn't feel was necessary. Walked up to a regular ticket booth with no line, bought $40 worth of tickets and that worked out just about perfect. Weirdly, for as packed as the parking lot was and for as long as the one pass line was.........ride lines were not as horrible as I thought they would be, not short but not ridiculous. Although even if you were able to stay all 5 hours of opening you probably would not have gotten on everything you wanted to. Longest we waited was Phoenix but it was running only one train. In the end we got on Impulse, Phoenix, Flying Turns 2x, Haunted Manison, and Flyers. Sure it was hard to not get to stay and do more but it was expected going in and it was nice to see Flying Turns running without issues. FYI - the main ride operator on Flyers was being pretty strict about snapping. That's info from my son, frankly I could care less, ?

About time. They bought that land over two years ago and Brad Thomas was talking in a presentation in Nov 2022 both about the amount of land they purchased and how there were plans for improvements on the entrance road and parking.......although he was very cagey about whether or not those two things were connected. Guess we will find out in a couple weeks. I am thinking new entrance is a possibility as the park outgrew the old one a long time ago, maybe along with plans for an on site hotel. Now I'll wait for the announcement to see how wrong I am.

I was confused on that too, but as I understood what was told to me, we have our own GM but share a President with SFGA; two different positions.

Speaking of food. One thing that I always thought CF did pretty well at some of the parks was bring in some local flavor, pun sort of intended, with the food choices. Like Skyline at KI or Pinks and Nathans at the east coast parks, etc, etc. Would be cool to do that in more places. KC has BBQ, bring in a locally well known chain there. St. Louis has the Hill, why not have a local pasta/pizza place..........even if it's a chain like Pasta House, or Imo's or Psghetti's it would be better than most of what they have and be unique to the park.

Every new GM? No idea. Said before, sure. You can choose to be cynical and you may be right. I can choose to be hopeful and I may be right. I wasn't giving any sort of opinion, just reporting what I was told and we can all choose to perceive it as we see appropriate. Maybe the rookie GM will be a dud, maybe he will grow into his position and get a voice. Only time will tell how it goes. In the end it's a first world problem that I hope works out. Yeah, the tilt coaster would have been fun. We're also probably a good fit for a single rail, that would be nice. Or a free spin, that would not be nice. Something small and cheaper with a re-track of Boss would probably give them the most bang for their buck. Although the full conversion of Boss would be really really nice.

No, unfortunately, they didn't really do any sort of "presentation" at lunch this year like they have in the past. Not sure if that was by design, or if they just were too busy with the opening of FF and the other large lunch groups to deal with it. The most I got was from the group sales leader on the bth scenes tour that talked about the new GM's commitment to improvements. He did mention that the upper staff is still navigating the merger and exactly what that will mean over the next few years.

We were at the park last Sat for the annual ACE event. Unfortunately, I utterly failed at my intention to find out anything about the current progress of the carousel. I just never got a chance to ask, every time someone of authority was around they were being bombarded by people and I just never got a chance. Not that they necessarily would have told me anything and certainly it wouldn't have had any affect on the answer but I was hoping to get some info. They did auction off some legs from horses that could not be used and gave away eyes from carousel horses, which was a bit creepy but appropriate for a Halloween event I guess, lol. Let's not argue about it, it's pointless and exhausting. It will take as long as it takes and I am fine with that in the end. Anyway, I did get confirmation, which is probably obvious, that the funhouse part of Joker will not be open until next year. We had ert on Eagle and RR before the park opened and they did open up Joker for us the last 20 min of that but it promptly went down after a few cycles. It did come back up over the next couple hours. All in all everything else was running well other than the obvious closures of the water rides. Eagle is still running so well after all these years! But for the first time I regretted getting on Boss. I've never minded rough woodies that much and they usually don't hurt me, even at age 56, but it wasn't an enjoyable ride. I know it's late in the season, it was hot, etc, etc.........but they definitely need to re-track/do the conversion/something. Full disclosure I've been butt hurt ever since they removal of the helix. The park gave us a few nice perks; scare characters at lunch (there was also another big company group eating so that probably helped), free haunt wristbands, and we got to ride on the train with the freaks when they make their entrance for the night. I've done that before but it's actually pretty fun. There were about 100 people there and so it was a packed train. As far as FF goes, having the same 4 houses and not very well staffed scare zones as the last few years does make it a bit anti-climatic. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Halloween events and I still had a good time, but it's definitely a bit stale. To be fair it was the first weekend and the employee giving us the behind the scenes tour of Eagle did say that the new GM (we are actually still sharing a President with Chicago) is well aware and very motivated to improve things. As we all know there has been a lot of infrastructure work, which despite what the naysayers will complain about had to be done and they have done a tremendous job engaging and updating on social media. I would actually say that improving FF should be on the same level with new rides. That might be controversial but like it or not FF has always been the biggest money maker event for the park. They really need to put their heads together and try to figure out a way to improve staffing (don't get me wrong all the staff were putting in the effort, they just need way more) and get some new houses. Just my 2 cents, I won't drone on. Funny story to end on: As we exited the Jingle Mangle house which comes out where the entrance to the cars used to be, I see a skunk run out of the log flume queue and toward the entrance to AT. Of course a group of teens (looked to be in the 16-18 age range) see it and start surrounding the poor thing trying to get selfies ? I tried to warn them to just leave it be, but no of course they didn't listen and cornered it against the fence. Yep. They paid the price. My son and I laughed our asses off, the skunk escaped under the fence INTO Jingle Mangle ? and the teens probably had some splaining to do when they got home......and based on my experience for several days when they went back to school on Monday.