Coasterguy95
Intimidator 305 enjoyer, I make yt vids, watch em!
I have ZERO clue what this is but this could get interesting real quick.
News Carowinds Project 2025/Sparrow: Camp Snoopy Expansion & New Coaster
- Thread starter Coasterguy95
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Rev up those FOIA’s, we need to see the site plan!
Project description simply states:
“Proposed renovations to a portion of the existing Carowinds amusement park.”
Project description simply states:
“Proposed renovations to a portion of the existing Carowinds amusement park.”
Coasterguy95
Intimidator 305 enjoyer, I make yt vids, watch em!
I don't wanna jump the gun and get too excited about this for several reasons. My biggest question right now is whether or not Cedar Fair would build something of any scale at both KD and Carowinds in the same season. The parks are maybe 5-5.5 hours away from each other tops. I don't know if that's wise, but who knows?
However, there are also some interesting details to this. To my knowledge, Aeronautica wasn't given a “Project *****” name. The last time this naming style was used (to my knowledge) was for Project Alpha which turned out to be Copperhead Strike. Additionally, neither Snoopy’s Junction (or whatever the train ride is called now) nor the Camp Theater is being used for the 2024 season. What's even more interesting is that both of these attractions neighbor the old Dinosaurs Alive land. While my heart wants to jump to conclusions about a ground-up RMC/GCI, my brain tells me this is most likely a new family coaster. Or maybe just a Camp Snoopy expansion in general. Color me intrigued regardless.
However, there are also some interesting details to this. To my knowledge, Aeronautica wasn't given a “Project *****” name. The last time this naming style was used (to my knowledge) was for Project Alpha which turned out to be Copperhead Strike. Additionally, neither Snoopy’s Junction (or whatever the train ride is called now) nor the Camp Theater is being used for the 2024 season. What's even more interesting is that both of these attractions neighbor the old Dinosaurs Alive land. While my heart wants to jump to conclusions about a ground-up RMC/GCI, my brain tells me this is most likely a new family coaster. Or maybe just a Camp Snoopy expansion in general. Color me intrigued regardless.
I just don’t see them investing much in Carowinds given the small returns on all the money they have sank into the park lately. The attendance was low last summer.
Their star attraction was down for much of last summer.
Do you have a source for the attendance numbers at Caro?
This is far from conclusive, but Queuetimes.com gathers app wait time info from parks and uses it to chart approximate attendance, and Carowinds' summer 2023 did have plenty of short lines, heavily suggesting low attendance.
Carowinds crowd calendar - March 2023
March 2023 crowd calendar for Carowinds. View opening times and predicted crowd levels. Find the least busy days to visit.
queue-times.com
I will be honest carowinds needs a new coaster worse then any park in the cedar fair chain but what scares me is if they advertise thunder striker as a new coaster carowinds could hold off on another coaster say this is a coaster I am going a dive coaster in the rip roaring rapids plot of land.
This is far from conclusive, but Queuetimes.com gathers app wait time info from parks and uses it to chart approximate attendance, and Carowinds' summer 2023 did have plenty of short lines, heavily suggesting low attendance.
Carowinds crowd calendar - March 2023
March 2023 crowd calendar for Carowinds. View opening times and predicted crowd levels. Find the least busy days to visit.
Sure, but that is dependent on accurate reporting in the app. Moreover, we don't know what actually constitutes "low" from a corporate financial and operations perspective.
Once again, it is fine to say that the crowds felt lower, but without internal numbers is a a stretch to assert that attendance was low throughout the season. In the case, the statement is especially suspect given the known biases of the poster.
I'd hesitate to declare anecdotes or second-hand numbers as "indisputable fact" but we aren't all insiders who have leaked attendance numbers, or secret verifiable data on how these parks operate. And I'm personally more interested in discussions that share these kinds of anecdotes, that might give some insight to the decisions made by corporate"
Right. They just need to be stated as opinion and/or observation, rather than indisputable fact.
Based on conversation with a number of insiders at different park's and reported numbers on corporate quarterly reports it appears thar most companies and parks saw a decline last year in attendance. Supporting this but not proofing it many parks saw an increased roll out of incentives later in the year last year. So that brings up the question did Carowinds fair better or worse then other comparable parks? Also Carowinds only received a retheme area and some new flats so how does that compare to parks that saw larger attraction additions?
In other words you appear to be drawing a conclusion based on only partial data that may or may not even be accurate.
I suggest that you follow Carowinds Fans Only. They constantly post pictures of the empty parking lot including tonight.
It’s obvious to me that you have never been involved in any business that involves attendance. Those of us that have know how to estimate crowds through the parking lot. It also seems pretty obvious that you have no financial background.
This is typical at that park during the summer. That’s maybe 3000 people in the entire park at best.
Kings Dominion parking lot looks just as anemic on summer weekdays
When one factors in the majority of the people in attendance are probably low pain season passholders it’s not a lot of profit being made off of certain fringe parks. It does not appear that Cedar fair has had a great turn on revestment at Carowinds. They stopped investing heavily in Kings Dominion after the parks biggest investment was an attendance failure
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