Taste of the Season

[Gavin]

Racer 75 and Dominator being the only two coasters isn’t because of staff, rather ride maintenance. Dominator, Avalanche, Flight of Fear, Backlot, Ricochet, & Racer (if you count both sides) are the only coasters in the park with 3 or more trains. This allows the park more time to do tear downs on the trains during pre and post peak season when these additional units aren’t needed.

 

[mwhinva]

Over 90% of WinterFest has nothing to do with coasters, so I see little reason why which wood coaster is open matters much to most guests. KD is getting a lot of families in the park and those who care about the ambiance and spectacle of the season, and then trying to get them to spend money on up charge activities such as the carriage rides, Santa pics, or skating. The ride lineup just doesn’t matter that much to that clientele. It’s the same thing at Busch Gardens - the place is packed at Christmas and it has little to do with Invadr or Verbolten.

I am glad that someone brought up the fact that Cedar Fair stated the Holiday events in the park chain, Taste of the Season / Winterfest, would NOT emphasize rides. It would be about lights/decorations, entertainment, activities, atmosphere, general family fun. Rides would take a back seat at this time of the year. Yet, a certain number of folks on here have been obsessing about whether or not the event would succeed with or without Twisted Timbers being open. I realize some want to ride coasters and only coasters. Well, this event/time of the year is not going to be about coasters. Especially, in the short time frame KD threw this together. I think the park will have limited staffing and will not be able to man all rides/attractions they might have wanted to open if COVID were not an issue. If you don't want to go because of the ride selection for 2020, we'll see you in 2021.

 

[bill s]

For any group with at least one person riding at least one ride, rides matter.

 

[horsesboy]

Personally I am not thrilled with the reservation system I found it hard to use and hard to find. I am also not thrilled with the idea of only allowing 1 reservation per a pass. Especially this time of year and with the park's history of closing if there is bad weather by limiting a pass member to just one slot the park might be blocking them from being able to go if things change. I think there should have been a system that allowed you to make a backup that would have been canceled automatically once one was used.

 

[rswashdc]

I think it's just one reservation at a time. Once you go, you can make another reservation. It's definitely better than Busch Garden's system where there are members squatting on reservations for every day they can find.

 

[vacoasterfanatic]

I can’t even find the reservation system

 

[rswashdc]

I can’t even find the reservation system

Go to where you buy tickets or season pass add-ons and it's there. It's not obvious at all.

Edit: The site is updated and the reservation button is in the header. It's really easy to get to now.

 

[vacoasterfanatic]

Have they announced the open rides yet?

 

[Johnkleindl]

Wow. That was a real pain in the ass

 

[Memles]

I made a Carowinds reservation that I may not end up using, so I had already been through this system, and my sense is that it is annoying not but the fact they’re doing it this way means that the reservation will be automatically loaded onto your membership, which is a convenience compared to Busch’s current system.

 

[rswashdc]

Have they announced the open rides yet?

It's in the FAQ now. Racer 75 is the second big coaster they will open. No Twisted Timbers.

 

[MikeLovesKD]

For any group with at least one person riding at least one ride, rides matter.

I'm glad you see this Bill.

For those who think rides don't matter; I disagree. Imagine there being only Planet Snoopy open, along with animals and shows. Do you think many people would attend? Just picture you not being able to walk down to the bottom of the park at all. Let's take out Dominator and pretend it's closed. How many people do you think would show up, if the park decided to run the holiday event like that for the next two seasons. Do you think it would survive without any big rides open and just kiddie rides?

Even the gentlemen I spoke to on the phone this morning from KD said "I know, it's such a great ride. Hopefully the park will update the list".

There is still a lot of time until the park opens on December 5th. My guess is that they will look and see how many people are booking reservations. I booked mine this morning for December 19th. My prediction is that if not enough people book reservations between now and next week, they will probably update the ride list and add Twisted Timbers. My guess is that they will advertise it on the parks website.

 

[wombat96]

It's in the FAQ now. Racer 75 is the second big coaster they will open. No Twisted Timbers.

Oh no. I can already hear the thousands of pass holders burning their passes at the gate as they officially put the chain outside of the entrance of TT signifying the closure of the ride for 2020. This was the only draw for Taste of the Season, for everyone. Lights? Nah. Food? Nope. Shows? Of course not. Being able to ride TT at a sluggish pace in the cold? “Yes,” says the millions of guests that were going to visit the event throughout the Mid-Atlantic area solely to get a ride on TT, even though it closes when the temperature drops below 45F out of fear of valleying most days. This was probably the single biggest mistake throughout the parks forty plus year history, ever. Without TT, the park will probably be a ghost town, only staff, absolutely deserted.

/s

 

[rswashdc]

For those who think rides don't matter; I disagree. Imagine there being only Planet Snoopy open, along with animals and shows. Do you think many people would attend? Just picture you not being able to walk down to the bottom of the park at all. Let's take out Dominator and pretend it's closed. How many people do you think would show up, if the park decided to run the holiday event like that for the next two seasons. Do you think it would survive without any big rides open and just kiddie rides?

Planet Snoopy, shows, and other non-coaster attractions were basically most the visits for my family until the kids were about 6 or 7 and tall enough for bigger rides. A big part of the park's guest volume is coming from guests who aren't there for the big coasters and those guests spend quite a bit on various things in the park. Most holiday event attendees aren't there to ride 2 coasters, but are there for everything else, and frankly I'm not sure the park would make much revenue on guests just coming in for the coasters since they wouldn't be interested in other attractions that drive revenue.

 

[Nicole]

Imagine there being only Planet Snoopy open, along with animals and shows. Do you think many people would attend?

Yes

You left out lights, music, and holiday food.

Without having actual data, I would imagine that they make more money from families than thrill-seekers, especially during the holiday season. Moreover, I would hope that they know their own revenue trends and have planned this event accordingly. Ultimately, theme park holiday events are generally targeted at children and families across the industry. I’m not sure why anyone would expect them to focus their limited resources on big coasters.

 

[BGWnut]

I'm glad you see this Bill.

For those who think rides don't matter; I disagree. Imagine there being only Planet Snoopy open, along with animals and shows. Do you think many people would attend? Just picture you not being able to walk down to the bottom of the park at all. Let's take out Dominator and pretend it's closed. How many people do you think would show up, if the park decided to run the holiday event like that for the next two seasons. Do you think it would survive without any big rides open and just kiddie rides?

Even the gentlemen I spoke to on the phone this morning from KD said "I know, it's such a great ride. Hopefully the park will update the list".

There is still a lot of time until the park opens on December 5th. My guess is that they will look and see how many people are booking reservations. I booked mine this morning for December 19th. My prediction is that if not enough people book reservations between now and next week, they will probably update the ride list and add Twisted Timbers. My guess is that they will advertise it on the parks website.

Like we have discussed the focus of these events are on the rides. Ultimately I think that the rides are not something that people expect this time of year. There's a reason why both KD and BGW downplayed the rides portion of their Christmas events when marketing them. And also why during a traditional Christmas event that don't have as many rides as they normally do.

I also think that your logic is faulty. This year the goal isn't too get as many people to attend each night. Instead it's on trying to sell out their reservations each day.

 

[Mushroom]

.

This year the goal isn't too get as many people to attend each night. Instead it's on trying to sell out their reservations each day.

And, more importantly, to get the people who do attend to buy stuff. This event is probably going to be largely attended by pass members, who already paid for their passes and have them through the end of next year. So focusing on selling extras (read: FOOD) is going to be the key to this event generating revenue.

Imagine being a park executive in a board room trying to figure out how to maximize in-park sales at this event. If I were in the board room, I'd choose catering to families with children over adult thrill-seekers in a heartbeat.

 

[mwhinva]

For any group with at least one person riding at least one ride, rides matter.

To that one person I would say, "parent" thetically: "Suck it up buttercup, we are going to the park to enjoy the event. Either come with us or sit in the car for 5-6 hours.

 

[mwhinva]

.


And, more importantly, to get the people who do attend to buy stuff. This event is probably going to be largely attended by pass members, who already paid for their passes and have them through the end of next year. So focusing on selling extras (read: FOOD) is going to be the key to this event generating revenue.

Imagine being a park executive in a board room trying to figure out how to maximize in-park sales at this event. If I were in the board room, I'd choose catering to families with children over adult thrill-seekers in a heartbeat.

I wonder how the private vendors have done over the last 2 years of Winterfest? I only saw maybe 2 empty stalls that KD had available in 2019. I know the park has spread them out in groups of 4-6 around the park. In Planet Snoopy, behind the Eiffel Tower, and Old Va next to Santa's photos. Not sure if they were able to recruit for 2020.

 

[bill s]

Of course they'd rather you pay to park and toss money out the window. But if they want to people to fill capacity, they need to appeal to a range of people. I went many times last year and was happy with 2 great coasters and a nice dining plan meal. The rest was nice I guess. I spent $0. I don't care who it's aimed at. If somehow it made sense for an amusement park to open with no rides, I'd just not reply on this thread.

I do know I only had one conversation with strangers during Winterfest 2018 and they were trying to decide whether to ride Volcano or Intimidator first. It was 39 degrees and they were wasting time eating. So maybe it doesn't matter what rides they list as open -- until people figure it out.

It's in the FAQ now. Racer 75 is the second big coaster they will open. No Twisted Timbers.

That's not bad to me. If somehow they ran both sides (with rows closed?) it's almost as good. Main thing is I'm not somehow tempted to ride Delirium because, with Finnagan's just barely within my tolerance, it would be a really bad idea.