Let's take Carowinds for example... Cedar Fair acquired Carowinds in 2006. A lot of smaller improvements happened right after (like better food, landscaping, paint, etc). The first "big" thing is when they closed the Flying Super Saturator roller coaster and replaced it with a Vekoma Boomerang (now called The Flying Cobras) which they relocated from Geauga Lake in 2007. Then they removed the log flume and replaced it with Thunder Striker (formerly Intimidator) in 2010. They removed Thunder Road (the park's beloved racing wooden coaster) in 2015 and White Water Falls in 2016 to make way for Cooperhead Strike, the Mack launch roller coaster, in 2019. Even though the park was acquired in 2006, it took several years to see major investment and for all of the improvements to come to fruition, and now Carowinds is a go-to destination. Most recently, they closed/removed the old river rapids ride and it is finally getting replaced next year with a super flume.
I don’t know about multiple attractions all at once, but I do know that Kings Dominion closed Hypersonic XLC the year that Cedar Fair took over. Cedar Fair also shut down an entire park (Geauga Lake) right after the Paramount acquisition, and although it was one they already had in their portfolio prior to the Paramount acquisition, it was still a big change along with the mass rethemes that had to happen in the former Paramount parks as Cedar Fair rushed to remove the Paramount IPs that they didn’t obtain the rights to. All of this to say, yes there was some awkward and painful transition time after that acquisition.
I never visited these parks back then but from my understanding Paramount was another company which poorly mismanaged their parks. Yes the situation is different here but I brought it up to show that the new management has experience when it comes to bringing substandard parks up to standard. Over the last two years I do believe that management was trying to help the park but really had no idea how to actually do it. The Cedar Fair team knows what they’re doing. Honestly I’m more than happy to have a few years where the park is trying to reset itself if it means we can get back to where the park was in 06. Much rather that then just watch years go by without any meaningful change.
This has been my main takeaway since day one, especially with Golden Kingdom having nothing aside from Ka since 2010 and Zumanjaro since 2014, and Boardwalk having been in desperate need of investment for years now. We know Parachuter’s Perch was dead pre merger, Twister has been “definitely closing this year” for at least a decade, and I can’t imagine Green Lantern was long for this world regardless, I’ve always assumed it would be the next coaster removed.
I don't know how KD'e current operations are like but back when I visited that park in 2001 and 2002 the operations weren't good. It was the first park I ever saw that began testing their rides after the park opened, not before.
I really hope they decide not to start from square one, just because I feel like there was so much untapped potential with the golden kingdom, and tbh I don’t think they have enough time to start from square one. I do get the decision to demo the temple of the tiger though, it was hardly ever used since the tiger show was done away with and it was a terrible place for the animals with some of the loudest rides in the park directly nearby.
20 years is one of the problems, there will likely be several corporate turnovers before then, with each new team having their own new plans. People like to speak about the long run but I will quote Keynes: "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again."
I think you're ignoring the evidence we have... which is how CF turned around the Paramount Parks and made great improvements over several years and during disruptions such as COVID, like Zachary said above. That's all we can point to and nobody has a crystal ball. Based on the evidence and history, we can assume that Great Adventure will see pretty big improvements over the next several years. On top of that, the Park President and PR Manager said the same thing in interviews so that should give you some sense of optimism as well.
I say we all just bow down to @The Master and his negativity and just worship his overflowing omniscience.
