I am going to make an extremely weird comparison for a second, but bear with me...
I sort of see Kings Dominion as one of those extremely overweight individuals featured on one of those weight loss shows. They always talk about how when they were young, they were really athletic and beautiful and everyone loved them, right? Then something happened, like they got a job in an office, and the continued to make poor decisions until they were suddenly very heavy. They say that people didn't look at them the same way anymore, that people were rude and mean to this person, that some people didn't even think of them as a person anymore, let alone the beautiful person they once were known as. But just as things start to get out of control, our hero the fitness coach swoops in to save the day--just in the nick of time. They work with that person and slowly transform them from an overweight person that everybody avoids into a newer, never-before-seen version of the slim, beautiful person that everybody once knew. Sure, there were ups and downs to re-beautify the person. Some things worked, some didn't. Maybe the person couldn't stand eating nothing but lettuce, but it turns out they loved, loved, loved jogging. What matters is that the person was successful, and they were back to the image that they and everybody else loved.
Okay, that sounds pretty weird, right? If you think about it, though, this journey sounds a lot like the one Kings Dominion is taking. Let Kings Dominion represent the "fat person." It started out beautiful and everyone loved it, but then Paramount took over and it got way out of shape, and everyone took it as some hideous monster that nobody liked. Just as it seemed like the park had gone over the edge and was nothing more than an asphalt dump filled with rides, our fitness coach, Cedar Fair, comes in and slowly helps turn Kings Dominion into the wonderful figure of fun and happiness it once was, with new, modern surprises along the way that help keep it afloat in today's society. Some things may have worked better than others, though. "Dinosaurs Alive!" can be viewed as either an immersive, heavily-themed adventure, or a cheap marketing ploy that clashes with the country theme of Old Virginia, for instance. On the other hand, the 40th Anniversary Celebration already has gained loads of praise--even though it hasn't even started yet.
What matters is that the park has been successful overall, and they are coming back back to the image that everybody had come to love.
This, folks, is the weird "Joe-style" way of clarifying a topic...
