In all fairness on the drone show the corporate budget and landscape changed quite a bit with the merger and the new combined company is now trying to fix years of neglect on several of the legacy SF parks their is no telling what cut back that might have caused.
Keep in mind that KD is getting a major coaster AND celebrating it's 50th anniversary in 2025. Neither KI nor Carowinds received a major attraction on their 50th anniversary celebrations. Something to keep in mind.
That’s generally what it looks like to me. It’s also possible they could announce it later on. Rapterra is a ~$25m attraction, I will acknowledge that is a significant cash outflow. My point is the trend after seeing them at Kings Island, Worlds of Fun, and Carowinds for their 50th anniversaries, it’s still relatively disappointing if KD is omitted from the drone show train and that trend breaks KD specifically as the track record created the expectation which would then be “unmet.”
If this is the case I'm a little more amendable to understanding. KI, WOF, Caro all have some things in common that KD doesn't: Closer to (or in) a major metro center with major league teams. That matters to me because there's reasons for companies that do that stuff to exist and be needed by places like that.
I remember hearing that the intensive maintenance process that the park’s wooden coasters undergo makes it impractical to open them for Winterfest. Unlike the steel coasters, the wooden coasters’ train bodies are fully deconstructed and rebuilt each off-season — not to mention any repairs made to the wooden track and structure. With the off-season shortened by winter operation, it would be almost impossible to get the rides ready for opening day.
Christmas version of Let’s Get Wild, hello! I’d love it. But just the thematic possibilities of a jungle for Christmas is awesome.
Racer 75 has 4 trains and often operates with only 2. If they wanted to have additional coasters, they could operate this coaster during Winterfest with 2 trains and rebuild the remaining two trains in the early spring season.
I almost never seeride lines of any significant length during Winterfest so I have to think that maybe it's not that they don't want to hire the staff it's that there just isn't the demand to justify highering the staff. Given the lines I see for shows, and restaurants if the choice comes down to it I would much rather they invest in more staff for those then another coaster.
This is also a major cost savings for the corporate office. That keeps you under the hours threshold that they have to give you benefits at, and if you voluntarily don’t work it saves them on the costs or rehire the next year. I’ve worked at a few golf courses where we did that.
