kenban

I think you are mixing up a company name and a product name. The ProVision body scanners are made by L3.

That is strange because I know someone who also has a Cedar Point platinum pass and it works fine for the self scan lanes. Did it give you an error message or did it never seem to scan? Because I have seen problems with people not getting the machine to scan the barcode. The scanners are a little picky.

What a lot of people miss from the EBITDA pie chart is that it is showing earnings which means that is the amount each park makes after expenses. Here is the page with the latest information which is from 2016. The entire presentation is available on Cedar Fair's website. On the left you see how much each park brings in and as you can see at the top of the page that is total $1.289 billion dollars. After taking into account expenses to operate each park you can see the pie chart on the right as it shows at the top of the page total $481 million. For instance Knott's pulls in the most money but because it costs more to operate the park it makes less than Cedar Point.

Nope This is out of date. There is a new 2016 graph available on Cedar Fairs website. The new graph make it even more obvious the top four CP, KBF, KI, CW are just under 75% of the companies earnings. Knott's is barely behind Cedar Point, and Kings Island is solidly in front of Canada's Wonderland. I wonder how much of Knott's earnings are due to Halloween? It is a hard ticket event, and draws massive crowds.

Normally the traffic is worse to the South so while I would expect a little longer than an hour it should not be extremely bad.

The only thing I can state is that Don Helbig who is the head of PR at Kings Island has been asked the question a number of times at park events. From what I can remember of his answer, Cedar Fair did contact RMC and they received a quote. But according to him RMC was not certain that it would actually fix the problems. Cedar Fair needed a guarantee and RMC was unwilling to do so. So it was decided to tear it down instead of continuing to sink money into the ride.

Maybe I was not clear enough, I was assuming the prototype was going to CGA, not Knott's. Which would mean Knott's would be getting a coaster from a renewed relationship which everyone has assumed to mean Intamin. No idea what kind it would be though.

Rob Decker made an interesting comment at Coastermania. He stated that they saw something at IAAPA last year which caused Cedar Fair to purchase one on the spot. So what new attractions were announced last year at IAAPA? This could also lead into the first of its kind comment from the financial call. Mack was showing off a launched spinning coaster, and there is always the Skywarp. I actually know one Skywarp has been sold to a US park for 2018. If what was purchased is considered the 4th coaster than I suspect that the prototype is going to California's Great America. The work at Knott's looks like it has been planned for a while so I doubt they are getting a ride only purchased a few months ago. Could it be that CGA is just getting a Skywarp? Which in some ways makes more sense than an Intamin Impulse considering discovery kingdom already has one. Am I reading way too much into a number of separate comments? Very likely, but is this any crazier than reading the planning document and taking it for exactly what is being planned?

Even if this is the best new ride I predict it will not win a best new ride award. The way the awards work typically causes rides at major parks to win almost every time. Likely Mystic Timbers this year.

I have stopped and spoken with park managers at Cedar Fair parks before and just flat out asked about the numbers in these reports. I have been told the numbers are wrong. Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Canada's Wonderland do have similar attendance but the positions swap more often then the reports show based on weather and new attractions. They had no idea about the other parks but the numbers they know are wrong. You also have to understand to the parks a season pass holder is not the same as someone buying a day ticket. Profits are more important than attendance. Which is why reading the annual report and looking at how much each park makes will show you where the money goes a lot easier than this report.

I was under the impression that the contract with Universal/Marvel was limited to the Florida parks. But then again, it's been a while since I've heard it from a reliable source. I have read the contract a few times due to discussions on forums. So I am half way familiar with it. Link to the contract But here is the relevant text. There are other restrictions as well but that is the reason Disneyland cannot use the name Marvel.

The contract with Universal Orlando prevents the use of the name Marvel. Which is why Disneyland just refers to the Marvel events in generic terms like the "Disneyland Super Heroes Half Marathon". I want to see this in person. The building looks decent although I think I might still prefer the original. I am interested in seeing what other Marvel rides will be built.

The chain on the first lift of The Beast speeds up after the train in front of you clears the second lift hill. The MCBR used to act as a block but the park realized a few years ago capacity is the same with it or without it so it now just acts as a trim.

Here is an image which I found on google which shows what the park looked like after the demolition was complete. If you spend a minute or two on google you can find pictures of the trains and track at a scrap yard waiting to be recycled.

Hulk was torn down and completely replaced last year. It only reopened in August of 2016. It was a complete replacement there is new track, new supports, and new trains.

I was thinking about comments people have made about the fact that there are so many 2018 coasters with Cedar Fair purchasing 2 RMC coasters how much is left for an expensive coaster at Knott's. I believe we are looking at the expenses wrong for Mean Streak. Construction started in 2016 so depositis and initial funding are rolled into the last fiscal year this might be why the only 2017 coaster at a Cedar Fair park was Mystic Timbers. Basiclly I believe overall there is a lot more money in the 2018 coaster budget then some people might be expecting.

RMC has been pretty open about development on Raptor and T-Rex the problem is that Raptor just became a prototype and T-Rex does not appear to be at that stage yet. Raptor is for family entertainment centers not major theme parks. Neither are likely in any Cedar Fair park in 2018. I am wondering if B&M has a new train/ride design. There was a rumor of a 4D design based on the wing rider trains a few years ago. If B&M is ready to put this into production I could see a B&M 4D at Knott's.

I would recommend the Club Carlson credit card. Club Carlson is a hotel chain not as big as the others listed but they are Country Inn and Suites and the Radisson hotels. If you sign up for the credit card you can get as much as 85,000 points, 50k of those for making one purchase the other 35k for spending $2,500 in the first 90 days. The card carries a $75 annual fee but you receive 40,000 points every year plus if you spend $10k during the previous year you receive a free night certificate for any US hotel in the chain. You also get 5 points for each dollar you spend on the card. The great thing is a decent number of hotels which are only 15k points a night. The hotel across the street from Carowinds for instance. There is a hotel next to Disney World, and one at the Orlando airport both 15k a night (stay at the airport it is a much nicer hotel). If you visit Orlando I also recommend the Starwood Credit Card. 25,000 points sign up bonus with a $3,000 spend but there are two hotels in Orlando which are only 4k points a night during the week and 3k on weekends so you can get as many as 8 nights with the sign up bonus alone. There are plenty of other lower point hotels but none I can think of close to theme parks.

I think Mystic Timbers is fantastic. It has tons of air time and never seems to slow down. The theming looks great and overall the ride is one of the best in the park. The shed is a fun ending and does add to the ride but did not deserve the level of marketing it received. I feel like the park should have spent more time marketing the ride as a whole or just the coaster.

My guess at this point it is Tony Clark doing it himself. The park opens for guests in a month. There is little point at this stage to not start leaking pictures. It cannot be someone working construction at the park since they have too much access. It almost has to be a full-time employee. Considering the newest picture I have seen appears to have been taken from the top of Millenium Force because you can see Skyhawk in between the camera and Mean Streak, it almost has to be someone with permission to take the photos. If you have permission to take and "leak" the photos then it might as well be done by marketing.

First, a little history, the original design for Rip Ride Rockit was that there would not be anti-roll back mechanisms on the lift hill and they would evac the lift by just putting it in reverse. Universal was required to change this before the ride opened to add anti-roll backs which is why the lift hill was built twice. About a year or two ago the ride had a problem where a train was stuck in an MCBR preventing a train which was on the lift hill from continuing. Universal ended up having to call the fire department who had to lower the guests one at a time by rope. Typically when something like this occurs and the park needs outside assistance to evac a ride they are required to change the ride to prevent the issue from reoccurring. This is complete speculation but we might actually be looking at magnetic brakes not just trims. When these are enabled they could be designed to slow the train so much during the drop that it would immediately valley at the bottom of the lift hill. That way guests can be removed from the ride by a cherry picker instead of by the fire department. Because I just cannot see lining the whole drop with trim brakes. It would be complete overkill to put that many on the ride to make what would likely be minor adjustments.

I mean, hiding show buildings from guests is pretty common practice in all destination theme parks unless the story / theme calls for it, the obvious exceptions being "soundstage" buildings like in Universal Studios Florida and Disney's Hollywood Studios. While hiding the show buildings might not really be the best example. JK Rowling has more control than most of the public realize. She has final say over everything from the food served in the restaurants to the items sold in the stores. Which is why the stores in the Harry Potter areas of the park do not sell generic Universal merchandise and the restaurants do not serve Coke products. The plates, cups, etc are also unique and not used in the rest of the park. I do think it is important to point out that JK Rowling has to approve changes to the Wizarding World. If Universal is happy to just leave it as is and operate it without changes then there is no need to get Rowling involved. But I suspect similar to the replacement of Hulk, Dueling Dragons is approaching the end of its life. It is possible that Universal decided that they want to go in a completely different direction for the replacement on their own.

There has been a rumor around for a few years that JK Rowling absolutely hates Dueling Dragons and originally wanted it removed but Universal was not willing at the time. Obviously Rowling was talked out of the demand but I have heard she has required that other Universal parks are not allowed to build anything similar within their Wizarding World areas. Rowling wants everything to be perfect, the show buildings have to be completely hidden from within the land for instance. The problem to Rowling at least is a pair of big visible coasters in the middle of Hogsmeade. The rides take up a large area and it should be possible to build a dark ride and still have enough room for a major coaster the size of one side of Dueling Dragons. When I was looking at a satellite view I was guessing the location is large enough to fit two copies of forbidden journey. But getting approval for a new coaster without putting it inside a show building or building a lot of theming will be difficult.

[fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] The park posted this video to their facebook page.

I suspect that the Sky Cabin will also be removed soon, possibly at the same time as Boomerang. After the problems back in December the park is stuck in the same position it was in with Windseeker. Either come up with an evacuation method which is acceptable to the state or they will never be allowed to reopen the ride. Also if I remember correctly the original location for Windseeker was as a replacement for the Sky Cabin. The problem is that planning a major expansion takes several years, so unless it has been planned to use the space where the Sky Cabin is located it is unlikely that it would be a part of whatever will be replacing boomerang. I have to agree with everyone who thinks this is likely to be a B&M Dive coaster.