I am not convinced quality would increase under Herschend but I do think it would stop the bleed. I truthfully would rather see Palace buy the Busch parks..... Reily knows what he is doing and already has SEAS experience. Both BGs are also in prime locations for a geographical expansion of Palace.
This isn’t the thread for it but I would be curious to hear this reasoning. Especially since both parks would be much bigger than anything Palace owns.
Herschend does an amazing job at Dollywood and SDC but in virtually every other acquisition they've made, with regards to parks, they really haven't put the same care and attention into them as they have with their two flagship parks. I don't know if BGW or BGT are bigger than *all* of the parks Palace (and Parques Reunidos) operate/own.... I think Idlewild is massively larger than them. Regardless of that argument, John Reilly has a vast experience with BGW and SEAS so it's not like a foreign concept. Palace is doing really great things right now in nearly all of their parks with a major focus on guest experience projects and overall feel of the parks and Kennywood is a shining example this year of what has been going on. To be completely honest, I think if you want to get the parks back to what they were then your best bet right now is having Palace take over.
Personally, no.... but I know people that have and have not heard much positive. I honestly had a chance to go to Wild Adventures and really looked into it and in the end really didn't have much of a desire to go. Additionally, with KK, they have kind of dropped off the face of the earth. Dollywood and SDC get new attractions that draw people in -- that's not something we really see with any of the other Herschend parks. Even if the in-park experience is more positive they seem to keep those parks on a very local park level and not with the same regard as Dollywood and SDC. I personally think that Herschend not giving people a reason to visit those parks is a big example that they aren't on par with SDC and Dollywood where I'd love to go at any point I possibly could.
That was then...... this is now. It's not the same company.
I thought that by saying “what Palace did with them” would point to me visiting them quite recently.
You said growing up..... Palace has owned the parks for a long time. It's only changed for the better since Reilly joined the company.
Oh you're referring to Dutch Wonderland..... they haven't got to that park yet. Kennywood is a completely different park this year vs last year. I know Idlewild is just starting their projects. I'm sure DW will come soon enough. I'm not exactly sure what your complaint with LC was..... I very much enjoyed my time there and thought it was a beautiful park.
Boulder Dash and Wildcat are shells of their former selves. Many of the older flats are not running like they used to. Palace treats Lake Compounce like a water park with rides rather than a full park experience. They are even overdeveloping the lake itself. Used to be much more beautiful and serene by the lake. Now it’s just screaming and splashing.
None of those things have been issues this year. The platinum pass it's self was something John Reilly brought to the chain and they had issues implementing it into the current system. They worked on integrating all of the parks together and seem to have accomplished that.
