Lemur

That would be factually incorrect, by about an hour and twenty minute's worth of non-rush hour drive time. It'll open, no debate there. As for competition, I think you're forgetting the fact that indoor waterparks are effing gross, and going to an indoor waterpark in high summer season is a special type of effing gross.

Irony being that the amusement business in the US was, at one time, centered on "trolley parks" as a way to get people out of the cities and riding public transportation for reasons other than commuting to work. And then the car became the big thing post World War II and it effectively killed off the sprawling public transportation system that was in place. And now, for the most part, the trolley parks have gone the way of the trolley too. If they have held on, there's not much public transit running to them (the obvious exceptions being Coney and Lakeside - which is moving).

Heh. You never know. I almost got arrested for drunkenly heckling Peter Noone a while back when Herman's Hermits played Ocean Grove. Highlight of that weekend.

They're still terrible, also they're target audience is a bit outside of the demographic, which may actually be the point.

They need a better booking agent. This line up - Cirque/Wallendas aside - is very, very summer at the Jersey Shore for the over 60 set.

I used to go to the Waldorf Astoria once a year. Does that count?

*Crosses fingers for a good bonus season* I wonder what kind of power hookup I need for a Tilt-A-Whirl ...

You're probably right in that, especially since they voted to double the amount of common stock they can issue in May. And right now isn't a terrible time to borrow, what with the Fed announcing no rate hikes for the next year. I think the issue is still desire to take on those liabilities along with the assets and the debt load. I think every park watcher and person familiar with the industry read that and immediately thought of the SeaWorld of Ohio/Geauga Lake/Worlds of Adventure disaster x 3.

Zhonghong's stake in Seaworld cost them over $400 million in 2017. They just defaulted on $174 million in bonds. Yeah, doesn't look good for Zhonghong. And yeah, they could raise the cash by selling off all or part of their 22% stake in Seaworld (they could theoretically sell off a quarter of the stake to raise the cash and still maintain control of the board). The issue is ... who is going to buy it? Six Flags' has about $68 mill in cash on hand and another $230 mill or so they can borrow against in a credit facility. Cedar Fair has more - $145 mill or so in cash for investing and another $160 mill or so they can get ahold of by financing it (they have a credit facility, but only for operations, not financing). Even if Zhonghong wants to take a 50% loss in valuation on that stake - which they most likely wouldn't want to do unless absolutely necessary - neither SF or CF is in a position to buy it. I'm sure the management groups of all three parks are in contact though, as that's common industry practice. Portfolio managers routinely check in on companies that are on their watch lists. It could easily be a twice-yearly visit from SF triggered a rumor and some admin ran with it. Stranger things have happened. As for the article, most large papers don't actually employ regular journos other than editors and big-name feature writers. They largely rely on freelancers who get a lot of their information much the same way we do - scraping through internet forums, Facebook groups, reddit subs and other places insiders are wont to post about their jobs. The piece itself is pretty innocuous if not exactly rooted in reality for the reasons listed above, but it's not exactly what the Columbia J-School would label "good journalism" ... or really, "journalism".

They're pretty great for everything except the safari, which is closed for the season. Bonus weekends almost feel like locals only/passholder exclusive days.

If loving Knoebel's is the dark side, I'm really, really okay with that. Like really okay.

You forgot that just when they're ready to start running the light rail tracks, a new governor will come into office and cancel the funding.

It's easy ... in theory. The practicality of it right now is terrible though. Rush hour trains are SRO and the daily commuters are jerks (I can say that categorically as I've been commuting on NJT for 18 years). Secaucus is about as friendly as a tomb and half of the escalators aren't working on any given day. They can't run on time to save their lives. And when they held the Super Bowl out at MetLife the Secaucus shuttle was a nightmare. Also, if you're coming from Newark Airport, you actually need to take *3* trains to get there - the airport monorail from EWR to Newark Airport station, the NJT train from there going to Secaucus and then the Meadowlands train.