swfan1988

Looping Starship fans rejoice! Someone on Twitter saw Phoenix testing...

I've seen those Vortex comparisons too (which for the record I think KI made a big mistake with that whole thing), but I agree I think this is different. I thought KI was also kinda playing to the "will Firehawk or Vortex be removed?" deal leading up to that first tweet so perhaps context is needed? Plus Vortex was an old Arrow, who has had few if any rides age particularly well, while Kumba is a B&M, which from I'll I've heard builds significantly superior products than Arrow ever did. It seems to me that unless Kumba is riddled with hidden problems, or is sinking into the ground (oh for crying out loud, did I just start that rumor...), or Busch just wants an excuse to use the land behind it then I don't think it's going anywhere. If anything, we know that based on KI's timeline, we all have one more year (to the day...that's hilarious I can't believe I never noticed that...) to ride Kumba! Either that...or the marketing department hasn't gotten the memo yet...

Some things never change...

Lol, At least the theming looks better than Pantheon's...where's the "Corporate hates our park" crowd when you need 'em...

Whoops... https://www.kwwl.com/news/waterloo/breaking-fire-at-lost-island-theme-park/article_bf086ee4-a0e2-11ec-a3cc-5b1bb21af10c.html Apparently one of the under-construction queue buildings burned down last night. Luckily it didn't spread, and it sounds like they only real damage is the destruction of the log flume's controls. They said it wouldn't impact their plans for a soft opening in may or june. The only truly worrying thing is they also basically said "We are grateful to the people that called the fire department...because we didn't have anyone one working there to call..." Hmmm....

Gotta love that investment in improving guest experience...

Pretty sure it's been talked about somewhere one here, but we can officially add Racer to the list of rides being painted this off-season: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2022/march/bringing-back-original-color-scheme-on-the-racer Looks pretty snazzy to me! Was kinda hoping they'd bring back the backwards train though, now that sounds fun!

I don't think anyone was surprised by this (it's been "when" not "if" for a few years now I think), I'm still excited. Plus knowing Knoebels, they'll probably find a way to make it the best version out there...

Saw on the Valleyfair thread that they are doing the same thing over there. Kinda hard to get info since both pages are exactly the same as far as descriptions and concept art. Kinda sounds like they are trying to do a more family-friendly approach, focusing on food and shows rather than "scaring the cr*p out of you". They did mention that in the Land of Tricks that they would have "mazes" but that they would be spooky, not scary. Also thought it was interesting that this is not a hard ticket event, and season passes are good for it. I always heard/thought that the most profitable part of haunt events was that everybody had to buy a ticket. Haunt is still scheduled for Worlds of Fun, Dorney, and Kings Island with no mention of Trick or Treats (as of right now). Kings Dominion and Carowinds seem to be trying to take a page from Knotts and doing both Haunt and a Trick or Treat Festival (which apparently is different from what Valleyfair and CGA are doing...yeah I know it's confusing...). Interestingly, Cedar Point has neither listed on their website...

Hmmm...anyone got any ideas? I got nothing on this one.

Six Flags released their Q4 earnings today: https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2022/02-24-2022-110026329 ARLINGTON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: SIX), the world’s largest regional theme park company and the largest operator of waterparks in North America, today reported attendance of 6 million guests and total revenue of $317 million for fourth quarter 2021. Results for fourth quarter and full year 2021 are not directly comparable to the same prior-year periods due to the company’s COVID-19 related suspension of operations and operating restrictions that began in mid-March 2020. The company believes it is most relevant to compare its results in 2021 to the same periods in 2019. In the fourth quarter (October 4, 2021, through January 2, 2022), attendance at the company’s parks was approximately 98% compared to the comparable fiscal period in 2019 (October 7, 2019, through January 5, 2020). Attendance by pre-booked groups, inclusive of school groups who typically book in advance, has been significantly diminished due to the pandemic. Excluding pre-booked groups, attendance at the company’s parks in fourth quarter 2021 was approximately 100% compared to the same period in 2019. “In my first 100 days, we have established a new, customer-obsessed culture, a lean and empowered organization, and a strategic focus on delivering a premium guest experience” said Selim Bassoul, President and CEO. “With our foundation now in place, we are moving quickly to invigorate the magic of Six Flags.” Fourth Quarter 2021 Highlights Attendance was 6 million guests, inclusive of a negative calendar shift of 363 thousand guests due to a change in the company’s reporting calendar, for a decrease of 354 thousand guests compared to fourth quarter 2019. Total Revenue was $317 million, an increase of $56 million compared to fourth quarter 2019. Net Loss was $2 million, an improvement of $9 million compared to fourth quarter 2019. Adjusted EBITDA1 was $95 million, an increase of $23 million compared to fourth quarter 2019. Net cash outflow for fourth quarter 2021 was $54 million. Full Year 2021 Highlights Attendance was 28 million guests, a decrease of 5 million guests compared to full year 2019. Total Revenue was $1,497 million, an increase of $9 million compared to full year 2019. Net Income was $130 million, a decrease of $49 million compared to full year 2019. Adjusted EBITDA was $498 million, a decrease of $29 million compared to full year 2019. Net cash flow for full year 2021 was $178 million. ... Total guest spending per capita in fourth quarter 2021 increased 32% compared to fourth quarter 2019. Applying the pro forma allocation from admissions spending to in-park spending for 2019, admissions spending per capita increased 28% and in-park spending per capita increased 36%. The increase in admissions spending per capita was driven by higher pricing on single day tickets, particularly during the company’s Fright Fest event, and a higher mix of single-day ticket attendance. The increase in in-park spending per capita was due to strong consumer trends and a higher mix of single-day guests, who tend to spend more than season pass holders and members on a per day basis. They also are scr*wing around with their fiscal year calendar for some reason...yeah I don't get it either. On the conference call apparently the new CEO talked up food and guest experience, and wants to focus less on attendance and new rides. Seems to me that this new CEO (this was his first earnings call) wants to move a way from the "every park gets something new every year" strategy, and instead focus on increasing in-park spending. Being he's from Spirit Airlines, I'm not sure if he really wants to invest in guest experience, or if it's code for "We're gonna cut costs like crazy". The company is still loosing money, so maybe he wants to fix that and than invest more? I don't know...kinda hard to say. They did emphasize that in-park spending is higher with "single-day guests" over season pass holders and members, so that might help to explain the current pass situation. My guess is that they found that while the monthly income from members was great (especially during COVID), the members didn't spend as much in the parks and the new CEO said "If they're not making us as much money, let's force them into categories that will make us more money". We'll see what happens I guess though, would expect a quiet 2022 for sure it seems.

SeaWorld Entertainment Released Q4 Earnings today: https://www.seaworldinvestors.com/news-releases/news-release-details/2022/SeaWorld-Entertainment-Inc.-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-2021-Results/default.aspx ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, today reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021.[1] Fourth Quarter 2021 Highlights Attendance was 5.0 million guests, an increase of 2.7 million guests from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, attendance increased by 0.3 million guests or 5.4%. Total revenue was a record $370.8 million, an increase of $216.7 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, total revenue increased by $72.8 million or 24.4%. Net income was a record $71.5 million, an increase of $117.1 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, net income increased by $95.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA[2] was a record $152.8 million an increase of $130.0 million from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, Adjusted EBITDA increased by $68.8 million or 82.0%. Total revenue per capita increased 7.9% to $74.87 from the fourth quarter of 2020. Admission per capita increased 5.3% to $43.65 while in-park per capita spending increased 11.7% to $31.22 from the fourth quarter of 2020. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, total revenue per capita increased 18.1%, admission per capita increased 15.2%, and in-park per capita spending increased 22.3%. Fiscal 2021 Highlights Attendance was 20.2 million guests, an increase of 13.8 million guests from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, attendance declined by 2.4 million guests or 10.7%. Total revenue was a record $1,503.7 million, an increase of $1,072.0 million from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, total revenue increased by $105.5 million or 7.5%. Net income was a record $256.5 million, an increase of $568.8 million from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, net income increased by $167.0 million or 186.7%. Adjusted EBITDA was a record $662.0 million. Compared to fiscal 2019, Adjusted EBITDA increased by $205.1 million or 44.9%. Total revenue per capita increased 9.9% to $74.43 from fiscal 2020. Admission per capita increased 5.2% to $42.17 while in-park per capita spending increased 16.5% to $32.26 from fiscal 2020. Compared to fiscal 2019, total revenue per capita increased 20.4%, admission per capita increased 18.9%, and in-park per capita spending increased 22.6%. ... [CEO Marc Swanson:] "While we have made good progress on our plans, as we look to the future, we continue to be highly confident that we can deliver even more operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. In particular, we believe our forward ride, attraction and park enhancement investment plans are the most robust they have ever been, and currently reflect the cadence, focus areas and strategies we have been working towards. We continue to improve our commercial functionality with investments in talent and capabilities in revenue management and marketing and have opportunities for continued improvement in these areas. We also continue to identify, track and execute on additional cost reduction and efficiency opportunities that we expect to continue to help offset inflationary pressures and lead to structurally improved profitability. With respect to our digital capabilities, including our mobile app and CRM implementations, we are encouraged by the early results and are in the very early innings of realizing the full potential. And, we continue to make progress on our inorganic growth initiatives related to hotels, new parks and international expansion and expect to have more to share later in the year," "We are also pleased to have ended 2021 in a particularly strong financial position, as a result of the proactive and decisive decisions made over the last couple of years as well as our record financial performance in 2021. Our available liquidity, including cash on our balance sheet and capacity on our revolver credit facility, was over $800 million and our total net leverage was less than 2.50x. Our strong financial position provides us significant flexibility to invest in our business, fund high growth ROI initiatives, consider strategic opportunities and / or return capital to our shareholders," concluded Swanson. They also say that the increase in revenue, despite decreasing attendance, is caused by: price increases, changes in "admissions product mix" (lol), and "enhanced or expanded in-park offerings when compared to 2019". Sounds to me like SEAS has found success with their current strategy and that they plan to continue with it! It also sounds like they have a lot of stuff planned, so it might be interesting to watch what they got going. They seem to be trumpeting the fact that they are in a good financial spot, which I guess is good considering that a few years ago it looked like they were really struggling. Oh, and apparently the CEO said on the earnings call that "We have a lot of respect for Cedar Fair - the assets and their management team." Hmmm...maybe I'll just leave it at that...

Alrighty! Herschend finally figured it out (maybe)! Kentucky Kingdom's opening day is April 30! Calendar and Hours: https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/plan-your-visit/calendar/#/2022/4

Knoebels is also cutting hours, only being open Noon-8 during the summer. They also increased wages, unsurprisingly. https://www.dailyitem.com/news/knoebels-hours-reduced-park-offering-employee-incentives/article_f65f95cc-933e-11ec-b216-1f2e86f00f5e.html Seems like even Knoebels, which seemed to be immune from staffing problems forever, is having trouble. Hope they are able to figure it out as it was definitely noticeable that they were having trouble last year.

I think this is cool as aside from force ghost Dolly, I thought the museum was a little jumbled and hard to follow. I have high hopes!

I think they are open on March 5, but I don't think anything will be open... Agree that it's kinda strange that they haven't put anything out yet. I'm not sure Herschend knows what to do with this place...so far they've added Cinnamon Bread and updated the website...

I know Baynum Painting is doing a lot of them and they had this list in Amusement Today a few issues back: Obviously not all of them are coasters, and I think a couple are missing but it's a start! Also saw this list floating around on Reddit but I think it's incomplete as well: I'm really curious as to why so many are being done now? Seems like an odd choice for a capital expenditure at this point?

Cedar Fair Q4 Earnings were released today: https://ir.cedarfair.com/news/news-details/2022/Cedar-Fair-Reports-2021-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Results/default.aspx SANDUSKY, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and immersive entertainment, today announced its 2021 fourth-quarter and full-year results, ended Dec. 31, 2021. Highlights (Note: To offer more informative comparisons, highlights for 2021 below are compared to 2019. During 2021, the Company’s parks had 1,765 operating days compared to 2,224 operating days in 2019.) Net revenues for 2021 totaled $1.34 billion compared with $1.47 billion for 2019, driven by: Attendance that approximated 70% of 2019 levels (85% on a comparable operating day basis) (1); Record in-park per capita spending of $62.03, representing a 28% increase over 2019 in-park per capita spending of $48.32, with double-digit increases across all key revenue categories; and Out-of-park revenues of $168 million, which was comparable to 2019 levels. Net loss and Adjusted EBITDA(2) for 2021 totaled $49 million and $325 million, respectively, compared with net income of $172 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $505 million for 2019. Through early February, sales of 2022 season passes and all-season products are pacing ahead of the then-record pace set for the sale of 2020 season pass products. “We are extremely pleased with our 2021 results, particularly given the level of uncertainty with which we entered the year and the ongoing headwinds of the pandemic,” said Cedar Fair President and CEO Richard A. Zimmerman. “Our key strategic initiatives focused on broadening and enhancing the guest experience are clearly resonating with consumers. As a result, we produced revenues over the second half of 2021 that outpaced the record revenues of the comparable six-month period in 2019 by 14%, an increase of more than $130 million. Our outstanding performance is a testament to the agility and insight of our talented team as they overcame unprecedented challenges of 2021.” “Our strong 2021 performance gives us the financial flexibility to continue rapidly deleveraging our balance sheet while investing in high-return organic initiatives,” continued Zimmerman. “In fact, with a strengthened balance sheet, we’re increasingly confident that Cedar Fair will be able to reinitiate a unitholder distribution by the third quarter of 2022, if not sooner. The Cedar Fair Board and management team are focused on extending our track-record of enhancing value for unitholders, and we are confident we are taking the right steps to achieve that objective.” For capital expenditures they said: “We are focused on continuing to advance our strategic initiatives in 2022, including investing more than $200 million in new attractions and entertainment offerings, as well as the completion of several resort renovation projects that were delayed over the last two years. With a strong balance sheet, we also maintain the flexibility to continue to expand our park offerings and develop new revenue centers, and technology enhancements, such as cashless parks, touch-free transactions, and labor management tools, all aimed at improving the guest experience and creating a more nimble, efficient, and cost-effective operating model. We are confident that we have a strong foundation for the future and are well positioned to deliver exceptional performance for our team, guests and unitholders in 2022.” I assume that the resort renovations projects are the Sawmill Creek and the Knott's hotel, and the attraction and entertainment offerings are Tumbili at KD and ??? (Grand Carnivale?) Seems to me that their rebound has begun and that they are focusing on reducing their debt and interest in the short term. The park's seem to be performing well with in and out of park spending near on par with 2019 levels, although overall attendance was of course still down. They also seem really optimistic about the 2nd half of 2021, so I hope that bodes well for 2022 for them. SeaWorld and Six Flags report next Thursday, so it will be interesting to compare.

Lol, well I guess the jokes are over now...first Iron Gwazi, now this...

According to reports private equity firm Centerbridge Partners has built a 5% stake in Cedar Fair. (WARNING: There might be a pay wall...)https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-11/centerbridge-is-said-to-build-stake-in-buyout-target-cedar-fair (No pay wall...I think...) https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/the-seaworld-buy-out-of-cedar-fair-just-took-an-interesting-turn I checked the SEC filings (as best as I could read them...) and Centerbridge has built the stake in the company, however they filled 13G forms which I think indicates that they do not intend to use their stake to influence Cedar Fair (At least in theory...). Cedar Fair has not commented on the stake. It looks like Centerbridge has previously been involved in hospitality through investments in Extended Stay America and Great Wolf Lodge. To me this seems to me that Wall Street thinks that a bidding war is gonna break out for CF and the stock price is gonna rise to to reflect that (It's currently trading at about $61/share, up approx.. 22% for the year). Cedar Fair's 4th quarter earnings call is on Wednesday (February 16, 2022), so my guess is that we will hear more then.

If this does go through I really hope it results in lower fares. I'm not sure where everyone finds these stupid low fares, I can't seem to fly anywhere for less than $150/head on any airline to any airport at any time... I agree with coasterbill though, if you know what your getting (and know that your getting what your paying for) then the Spirit/Frontier/Allegiant's of the world will get the job done at a low price. Plus a lot of people seem to complain about everything anyways so...there's that too...

Whoops...uh...that's real embarrassing...lesson learned...

Legit surprised that Tremors made the top 20 for wood coasters and ahead of Mine Blower, Gold Striker, AND GhostRider (I'm not sure even I would agree with that...), who da thunk... Also didn't expect Untamed to rank so highly, although too bad Lightning Rod stole the steel coaster crown (lol...) Something also tells me that VelociCoaster and Ride to Happiness will have their due time very soon! Thank you so much @A.J., @Comeagain?, @robbalvey, and everyone else who worked on this year's poll! I really enjoyed the format, and think you guys do the best job out there! Your hard work is greatly appreciated, keep it up!

Does anyone have any idea what this is? I think it's supposed to be part frisbee, part sky coaster...not really sure though... Either way it's apparently called SkyBlazer and is coming to COTAland this year... https://www.coaster101.com/2022/02/07/skyblazer-coming-to-cotaland-in-2022/ (Concept art from the article, there is more at the article couldn't get it to come over to TPR, probably user error...) Apparently it's a collaboration between Skyline Attractions (uh oh...) and US Thrill Rides (who again?). Looks like an interesting idea to say the least...

It could be competition too. Maybe from a park's perspective that at least as far as launch coasters go they can get the same or similar experience from Premier for probably less, with a more proven track record. The RMC raptor also seems similar to me to Vekoma's non-launch models, at least to a certain extent. Larger parks are probably staying away for capacity reasons more than anything else too? Those are just my thoughts, although it is a puzzler. Personally, I'm not even sure what all the hype about the "new age" Vekoma's is about. I kinda get the sense that it's one of those "some people have been to Europe and ridden them but most haven't" deal. I've always wanted to know are they really as good as they make them out to be?