Prestige Lounge Replacing Country Kitchen

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@horsesboy and @warfelg, your points are well taken, but I’d offer this: to me, the things that make a park special are the things that aren’t “park icons.” Things like I305 and Twisted Timbers are what get people to come through the gates, sure. But it’s the little, unexpected things to discover and places to explore that I believe are what make parks feel so special — that make them their own world to take your time in.

I maintain that if CF wanted a place for passholders to feel exclusive, there’s nothing stopping them from adding something new to accomplish that. Take the arcade by Firehouse for example. In addition to renovating the inside, they could fence in the grassy field that sits right between it and Delirium, and make it only accessible through the back door of the VIP lounge (arcade). Replace the grass with astroturf, cover it with a nice big shade structure, add a bunch of Adirondack chairs, sprinkle in a few large games like cornhole, and finish it off with nice landscaping, a few fire pits, maybe a small water feature, and string lights.

It might be more expensive than just roping off Country Kitchen, but compared to most of the park’s additions, it would be a very modest investment. I’d argue it would be worth it by providing a more premium space designed specifically to cater to VIP members. And this way, the park wouldn’t be actively removing something from the park just to charge more for it.
 
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@Mushroom - your sentiment is definitely one I want to hit at because, being honest, I feel this way about some spots in some parks.

At KD I love catching a few minutes back by Dominators turn around or under the arch by Slyflyer.

I guess this is where you can accuse me of thinking too business minded but there has to be value to KD/CF and KC is it. They won’t put in the money for a new buildout in case this flops. They need the space to be big enough. They need it to be central enough. KC does check all those boxes for them.

I’d like to believe that this was not done on a whim and they did all this research before and landed here for those reasons
 
I think that’s fair. For all we know, Country Kitchen could just be a test to see if a pass lounge is even worth further investment. And who knows, maybe the lounge will look super nice and it’ll be worth the extra money.

Plus, I’ll be the first to point out the irony:

ParkFans for the past 10 years: “KD should add a pass member lounge”
KD: adds a pass member lounge
ParkFans: “No not like that”
 
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The VIP lounges at Carowinds and Kings Island were almost always 90% empty whenever I’ve seen them. Granted, all they really offer is shaded seating, some TVs and maybe complimentary soft drinks (might just be full priced). The Carowinds one in particular is pretty sad.

If KD is aiming to provide an improved lounge experience, retrofitting an existing building sounds like the best way to do it, because it’s possible it will be mostly empty. The Carowinds lounge does not motivate people to join. KD’s sounds like it will have a better chance with a dedicated building and patio, but who knows what they are planning to do with it.
 
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What would be great is if they fixed up the interior and added nice leather seats and sofas with some TVs and served a good selection of beer and champagne splits with snacks. An attached outdoor patio surrounded with trees and bushes would be nice. The fall and winter months would have fire pits and heating on the patio. They could have specialty drinks as well corresponding to the various seasons. Maybe add some entertainment like a three piece jazz band on the patio - like these guys
 
guy305 said:
The VIP lounges at Carowinds and Kings Island were almost always 90% empty whenever I’ve seen them. Granted, all they really offer is shaded seating, some TVs and maybe complimentary soft drinks (might just be full priced). The Carowinds one in particular is pretty sad.

If KD is aiming to provide an improved lounge experience, retrofitting an existing building sounds like the best way to do it, because it’s possible it will be mostly empty. The Carowinds lounge does not motivate people to join. KD’s sounds like it will have a better chance with a dedicated building and patio, but who knows what they are planning to do with it.
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I agree that Carowinds looked cheap and tacky. Take Chickie and Pete’s building for this use. Maybe even open the upper level.
 
EdK said:
What would be great is if they fixed up the interior and added nice leather seats and sofas with some TVs and served a good selection of beer and champagne splits with snacks. An attached outdoor patio surrounded with trees and bushes would be nice. The fall and winter months would have fire pits and heating on the patio. They could have specialty drinks as well corresponding to the various seasons. Maybe add some entertainment like a three piece jazz band on the patio - like these guys
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As of early December there are tvs in there part of hy I was fairly confident that the rumor was correct.
 
warfelg said:
I’m not too shocked by this, saddened that they would use this over their MANY other options but both SF and CF (IIRC) have flat out said that surveys reflect that this is what pass holders want - area that feel exclusive. They want experiences and things you can’t get elsewhere.

And frankly, I hope they don’t sell day passes, not because it would feel like a money grab but because it gives you a reason to buy the pass. We don’t know the plans yet but if this has some free things like charging stations, sofa fountain that you can’t take the cup out, maybe something like ice cream sandwiches, this would be a win. Who knows, maybe they wanted a kitchen involved because this could also be a small/large group dining hall (like company picnic on smaller scale of like 100-300 people). 10-15 days a year of that would be smart.

And this is generally my thought on parks in general:
We lament the loss of things that aren’t park icons (like VTBC, BBW) almost too much. Is this a loss of a quiet corner? Sure. Is it something worth getting so mad over? I don’t believe so. Business is constantly a value vs cost proposition. To CF/KD the value of that space is better as a revenue generator in passes than it is in food sales. Especially if they do what I proposed above.

If there’s one thing I always applaud Walt Disney on, it’s his belief that he instilled in his theme parks that the park is never done.
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It's more than a loss of a "quiet corner" it's a loss of the bulk of indoor restaurant seating. It's another in a line of stupid decisions.
 
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Looking at the response on social media to the announcement I am once again shocked by the new found love for a departing thing from park enthusiasts. Country Kitchen may very well have at one time been one of the best and most popular restaurants in the park but with the exception of the Holiday menu for Winterfest there is zero way to claim with any degree of credibility that it has been either of those things in at least 5 years it not more. The place was a ghost town every non Winterfest meelbthat I ate there in recent years and the food was sub par.
 
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The concept of a passholder exclusive area just seems silly to me. They should name it Country Club.

Edit: or they should name it The Cloud District. Then all the pass holders can go around to the plebeians saying “Do you get to the Cloud District very often? Oh, what am I saying - of course you don't.”
 
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There have been consistent requests for pass holder lounges in Virginia for ages. It is a great perk in Florida, and I think it is a fantastic idea at KD. Whether the Country Kitchen building is the best location is open for debate, but I don’t understand an objection to their providing a benefit promised under the new annual pass structure. Everyone is able to decide whether to pay a premium for access.
 
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The passholder lounge at Cedar Point and Carowinds are tents. At Kings Island it’s a makeshift patio covering. They didn’t take out an indoor, sit down restaurant to accomplish that. An indoor, sit down location is an opportunity to provide all customers, a quality dining experience, if done correctly

These locations are normally empty throughout the day. It doesn’t appear that they’re very well used. It’s just something to get more money out of passholders IMO.

Pre-pandemic the country kitchen had excellent food. It was normally fairly busy. The park chose to chase people away from this location by hardly ever having an open and downgrading the food quality there.
 
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Yeah, and the thrown together pass holder lounges in tents at Cedar Point and Carowinds look trashy and unpleasant. You say they're not very well used—maybe that's why? Seems to me like Kings Dominion is doing things the correct way.

And yes, these lounges are a ploy to get more money out of pass holders. Why is that a problem though? Their goal is to make money. Offering a new, premium benefit to a new, premium pass tier doesn't sound like a problem to me.

The only angle I can see thus far for criticizing Kings Dominion for this addition is this: IF Kings Dominion shuttered Country Kitchen BECAUSE of the addition of the pass holder lounge, that sucks.

That said, that is relying on a big assumption—that Kings Dominion would have been planning to operate Country Kitchen in 2024 if it had not been for the pass holder lounge. Given the dramatically scaled back operating schedule at Country Kitchen the last few years paired with—as others in this thread have said—the apparent lack of popularity of the restaurant when it has been operating, I think there's a solid chance that Country Kitchen was closing this season regardless. I'd much rather the space be used for a pass holder lounge than to see it sit vacant like so many other areas in Candy Apple.

Anyway, my point is that criticizing pass holder lounges in general is a weird direction. There is clearly demand for them in the industry and Kings Dominion seems to be trying to do a really good job with theirs—a far better job than their sister parks. That deserves praise, not critique in my opinion.

Meanwhile, the loss of Country Kitchen is a fair point of criticism and scrutiny, but I don't think we can assume that its death is a direct result of the addition of the pass holder lounge.
 
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