Unless they were never planning on putting in an S&S 4D, and instead they were planning to put in the first S&S Axis!
But, yeah, if the really do put in a 4D freespin, they wouldn't likely put in an Axis too.Concepts Think Tank
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Unless they were never planning on putting in an S&S 4D, and instead they were planning to put in the first S&S Axis!
But, yeah, if the really do put in a 4D freespin, they wouldn't likely put in an Axis too.I give Cedar Fair more credit than what I probably should. I think if they really wanted to, RMC would have been able to convert both wooden coasters into something much greater. The opportunity was there, but they went with the more cost efficient option. If they had done a two coaster conversion; that would have probably stood in place as a Volcano replacement. Rather than opening in 2018, it would have debuted in 2020 and gotten delayed by covid. Riders would have had to wait until the 2021 season or whenever this ongoing pandemic is finished.
In the mist of everything, I could see KD optimizing to a limited number of attractions if they manage to open. Let's just pretend that the park opens it's doors for HAUNT 2020. Let's say the Governor finally gives KD a 3,500 or 5,500 capacity. To avoid the loss in operation cost, I could see the park limiting the amount of attractions that are open. In reality; we would end up getting WinterFest 2.0; where a few more coasters are open. Here is my ideal list.
- Dominator
- I-305
- Delirium
- Drop Tower
- Carousel
- Ferris Wheel
- Berserker
- Stunt Coaster
- Twisted Timbers
They could probably get away with doing this because there would be HAUNT mazes to compliment the shortage of attractions. However; one good thing could come from this experience. With a limited number of people; the scare mazes may be a little bit scarier. Normally during HAUNT, there is bunching; which results of seeing the scares before you reach them. With not as many guests packed in the scare mazes; scare actors could get more creative with the scares.
I have my doubts that they'd run any indoor haunt mazes. They would be a covid-19 petri dish, not just for guests, but especially for the actors. I just don't see that happening. But they could have the outdoor stuff and they could ramp that up. I think the most likely scenario is they open only for Winterfest.
They could do Cornstalkers and Tollway, then maybe come up with another outdoor maze or enhanced scare zones. All the indoor mazes would almost certainly need to be closed though.
Noe that you mention covid; I withdraw that I had originally said. I'm still in the mindset that southern VA will soon be like Maryland and just allow more people inside of buildings. So yes; they would need to come up with some pretty good outdoor mazes. Now that you mention Cornstalkers; a new idea comes to thought. There are a couple of elements that made Cornstalkers good for me. One was the barn facade theme, at the entrance. The other, were the tall neon lights that distracted you enough for the scare actor to take you by surprise. Imagine a much more intense version of Cornstalkers being installed in Volcano's spot. There is so much room for creativity.
I highly doubt, that the park would open just for WinterFest. I managed to go to WinterFest twice this passed season. My first visit was very nice. My second one, not so good. I believe my second visit was after New Years during the last day or so of operation. Of course you know, the temperature fell below a certain degrees and they shut everything down. I only got to ride Dominator and Delirium once. The ideal image of WinterFest is good; but it all depends on the weather. KD seems to follow the policy of shutting down if the temperate drops below 50 to 45 degrees. I believe that is the ride manufacture policy. Over the past decade, there have been Octobers that were rather colder than usual; which is why most theme parks on the east coast shut down after the last weekend of October. In wasn't until recent years when weather stayed warm clean up until mid-November; which gave way to operating the park during the Christmas season. If the park takes a chance of setting up for WinterFest and it's cold every weekend; then they are going to lose profit. If it gets to October and the park is still not open; I doubt they will open at all for the 2020 season.
Here is my idea. If the Governor ever raises the capacity for KD; I'd say that KD should open up in August. If things are looking good; they could start HAUNT a whole lot earlier. I'd love to see them pull of HAUNT during every weekend in September and October. Rather than planning for WinterFest; they could just extend HAUNT clean up until the end of Thanksgiving. Again; I wouldn't take a chance of WinterFest, because it all depends on how good the weather is. Nobody from the Washington Metropolitan area wants to drive the 2 hours, just to be told that "ALL RIDES ARE CLOSED. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE".
I highly doubt, that the park would open just for WinterFest. I managed to go to WinterFest twice this passed season. My first visit was very nice. My second one, not so good. I believe my second visit was after New Years during the last day or so of operation. Of course you know, the temperature fell below a certain degrees and they shut everything down. I only got to ride Dominator and Delirium once. The ideal image of WinterFest is good; but it all depends on the weather. KD seems to follow the policy of shutting down if the temperate drops below 50 to 45 degrees. I believe that is the ride manufacture policy. Over the past decade, there have been Octobers that were rather colder than usual; which is why most theme parks on the east coast shut down after the last weekend of October. In wasn't until recent years when weather stayed warm clean up until mid-November; which gave way to operating the park during the Christmas season. If the park takes a chance of setting up for WinterFest and it's cold every weekend; then they are going to lose profit. If it gets to October and the park is still not open; I doubt they will open at all for the 2020 season.
Here is my idea. If the Governor ever raises the capacity for KD; I'd say that KD should open up in August. If things are looking good; they could start HAUNT a whole lot earlier. I'd love to see them pull of HAUNT during every weekend in September and October. Rather than planning for WinterFest; they could just extend HAUNT clean up until the end of Thanksgiving. Again; I wouldn't take a chance of WinterFest, because it all depends on how good the weather is. Nobody from the Washington Metropolitan area wants to drive the 2 hours, just to be told that "ALL RIDES ARE CLOSED. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE".
A few thoughts.
I‘m not sure there is any way to have scare actors jumping out at guests or even stalking them with COVID. It would be unsafe for both staff and guests for people to be screaming, for actors to be yelling, and for people to be in close proximity. I think the parks will have to find different approaches to Fall events, if they do open.
Holiday events have become very popular across the industry. I am fairly certain KD started holding WinterFest because of the national trend, not because of any specific weather conditions in the Mid-Atlantic.
WinterFest, like other holiday events, is focused on shopping, food, entertainment, and decor, not rides. Yes, all of the parks keep a few open, but even Disney closes some normal attractions for Very Merry. A lot of holiday guests are more interested in the special holiday attractions than in normal coasters and flat rides.
I‘m not sure there is any way to have scare actors jumping out at guests or even stalking them with COVID. It would be unsafe for both staff and guests for people to be screaming, for actors to be yelling, and for people to be in close proximity. I think the parks will have to find different approaches to Fall events, if they do open.
Holiday events have become very popular across the industry. I am fairly certain KD started holding WinterFest because of the national trend, not because of any specific weather conditions in the Mid-Atlantic.
WinterFest, like other holiday events, is focused on shopping, food, entertainment, and decor, not rides. Yes, all of the parks keep a few open, but even Disney closes some normal attractions for Very Merry. A lot of holiday guests are more interested in the special holiday attractions than in normal coasters and flat rides.
I agree with some of this.
But I am sticking to my thoughts about weather in the mid-atlantic. If we still had the winter weather from 15 to 20 years ago; I don't think Cedar Fair and other parks would have started operations in December. Why? Because those winters started at the end of October. By mid-November, we were already in the mid or low 40's which would have violated the ride manufacture policy. It could have easily have been a trend back then; but let a couple of trains valley and there we have it. When it comes to weather just look at how long it took for it to get warm this year. It was cold in the mornings clean up until the end of April-early May. Weird; isn't it.
If they can't do mazes; just make sure all rides are operational. They could compliment rides like Twisted Timbers, Grizzly and I-305 with spook themes. With Grizzly being surrounded by woods; I'd love to see them put fog in particular spots of the ride. Stunt Coaster could even be complimented with a HAUNT theme.
Nicole, if it's too much trouble could you answer this question. Was KD not allowed to play songs with lyrics inside the Club Blood Maze. All the songs they played were Deadmouse songs; but they only ran the instrumentals.
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Maybe just do the kids Halloween events for that reason, and not the adult ones at all, or at least not any adult ones that involve scares. If they have the rides open, people will come just to be able to ride them.
Having said that, I think we'll be lucky if every state isn't in full on crisis again by Halloween.
Having said that, I think we'll be lucky if every state isn't in full on crisis again by Halloween.
IMO this season is a wash - but I think they could do scenery/decor and maybe figure out how to use mechanical/audio scares in the pathway scare zones (a few more zones than usual this year would be a plus) to get away with not requiring an actor to be in harm's way. That's depending on what capacity restrictions they have to work with.
That said, I dunno if they really need to throw off their regular seasonal festivities calendar - people are naturally excited for holidays within about a month or two of said holiday (general opinion, not fact), so extending a Haunt season past Halloween or starting super early near labor day doesn't make much sense to me.
That said, I dunno if they really need to throw off their regular seasonal festivities calendar - people are naturally excited for holidays within about a month or two of said holiday (general opinion, not fact), so extending a Haunt season past Halloween or starting super early near labor day doesn't make much sense to me.
I've always said that if they are never going to build a ride behind Flight of Fear, they should use it for Haunt.
Concept: Construct a Haunt maze building (similar to the two behind WindSeeker and within Twister Timbers) or outdoor maze behind the Flight of Fear queue building. There's plenty of room either or both.
Also, if needed, they could utilize most of the Flight of Fear outdoor queue for the queue to the maze(s) and still keep Flight of Fear open with the bypass queue path that goes directly into the building.
Concept: Construct a Haunt maze building (similar to the two behind WindSeeker and within Twister Timbers) or outdoor maze behind the Flight of Fear queue building. There's plenty of room either or both.
Also, if needed, they could utilize most of the Flight of Fear outdoor queue for the queue to the maze(s) and still keep Flight of Fear open with the bypass queue path that goes directly into the building.
Somewhat of a random shout, but do we know when CF’s Intimidator naming contract with the Earnhardts expires?
Just wondering what the feasibility of FoF and i305’s area getting an Area 72 (Area 75?) type rework would be like.
If the contract expired, i305 could get a new name and a repaint, and possibly even some queue theming like Orion to fit the area - CF could even repurpose the “Polaris” trademark that they opted not to use at KI.
Something like this would do well for the park imo - it would keep the park feeling refreshed without needing to invest too much, and could even address some of the weirdness in that section of the park. Instead of the theming going from Safari Village to a random space themed ride to race cars, an Area 75 retheme could bridge the gap between i305 and FoF, creating some more continuity.
Sorry if I haven’t worded this well - this may not even be feasible, but it would be a neat update if it is : )
Just wondering what the feasibility of FoF and i305’s area getting an Area 72 (Area 75?) type rework would be like.
If the contract expired, i305 could get a new name and a repaint, and possibly even some queue theming like Orion to fit the area - CF could even repurpose the “Polaris” trademark that they opted not to use at KI.
Something like this would do well for the park imo - it would keep the park feeling refreshed without needing to invest too much, and could even address some of the weirdness in that section of the park. Instead of the theming going from Safari Village to a random space themed ride to race cars, an Area 75 retheme could bridge the gap between i305 and FoF, creating some more continuity.
Sorry if I haven’t worded this well - this may not even be feasible, but it would be a neat update if it is : )
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Gotta say, I absolutely adore this idea. It'd probably cost a pretty penny, but I'd love to finally see a continuous theme in the Safari Village area. Could actually see this happen once the freespin gets built.
I could even see them keeping the Safari Village theme in the freespin/old volcano area - based on the track color on the freespin I’d assume that’s what they will be rolling with. Maybe it could be something like this, where the green is kept as Safari Village, and where the Path to FoF starts could be the entrance to Area 75 (Marked in blue)?
Super rough sketch by the way lol
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Can someone expand on what Area 75 would be? Since I am not familiar with any other CF park that may already have that area, my best guess is either an Area 51 knock-off or something to do with Racer 75... Which while the turnaround is relatively close the platform is on the other side of the park.
Ok so I didn’t even look at the other concepts, but I had forgotten Mtpelepele already proposed something like this (Project Galaxi) a few months ago - didn’t mean to copy that, I’m sorry.
Jonesta6 - what I was thinking is a retheme just like what Kings Island did this year when they added Orion to the old x-base area. Instead of adding a new coaster back there like KI though, the KD version could center around a rethemed i305.
Jonesta6 - what I was thinking is a retheme just like what Kings Island did this year when they added Orion to the old x-base area. Instead of adding a new coaster back there like KI though, the KD version could center around a rethemed i305.
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Yeah, this is exactly what I was thinking, sorry for being vague lmao. This is such a cool idea.
I encourage you guys to check out what mtpelepele had - theirs is really well planned out and had some sweet concept art
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