TombRaiderFTW

I don't disagree with the idea of stricter rules per se, but I'm intensely curious to know how "faking a disability" will be policed. If anyone other than people who understand the details of the person's disability are the ones policing it, this seems like it could turn into some PR nightmares where someone unfairly gets a lifetime ban for not presenting "disabled enough." I mean, it's Disney, so I'm sure they've thought it through. The wording on this change is just... curious.

Obviously you aren't here to have good-faith conversations and you'll show me up with a laugh reaction or a reply where you don't actually respond to anything I say and just repeat how entitled or delusional we are for expecting something else, but for what it's worth, you're ignoring a long context of the multi-park Cedar Fair pass not having these kinds of restrictions being added to them. A Platinum pass from one park was entitled to the Gold-level perks from all of them. You could fairly point out that the Gold and Prestige passes with the All Park Passport aren't called Platinum passes BECAUSE the parks want to be able to have these exclusive events, and you might even be correct, but that's simply not how passes with the All Park Passport were advertised when you consider the context of how similar products from the company have worked for 17 years. Here's how the website currently reads: (Underline emphasis mine. Link.) Does that automatically mean the pass is good for special events like the Top Thrill 2 preview where park-specific admission is required? To your point, not necessarily. If you think of this legalistically, there's nothing there to imply that parks can't have their own park-passholder-specific events. But the implication is that the status quo is unchanged, and it actually is. Adding in a line elsewhere in the pass page before the 2024 page went live to say that your Cedar Point pass gets you entry to CP passholder-only events would clear up a lot of feelings of being duped--and I daresay even function as an added benefit they could advertise with. As it stands right now... KI's Passholder Preview Day is the 19th. The text on the event page starts with, "Calling all Kings Island 2024 Silver, Gold and Prestige Season Passholders!" Does that actually mean Kings Island passholders only? It didn't previously--your CF Platinum Pass would get you in, regardless of park. Does it now? The site text does not offer a disclaimer at the bottom such as, "Passes from other Cedar Fair parks are not valid for this event." If KI were to update the page today to say that only KI passholders can attend, they'd be within their rights to do so based on what's in writing, but it's a poor PR move and arguably violates an unwritten contract that no customer had reason to expect would have changed from prior years. "Gold Pass with All Park Passport" and "Prestige Pass with All Park Passport" is not the same product as a "Platinum pass," but apart from the name, what was supposed to clue customers into that difference? It checks out on a technicality, but that's not a great way to run a company. It's giving Kinzel-era, "get such-and-such special offer on the second Thursday of every other October" 2012-FunPerks-reward-level convolution on something that should be very simple and easy to communicate. For the record, I don't actually care if the parks want to do events that are open to their own passholders. It's a neutral idea to me. I just think that if Cedar Fair is going to go down a new path, folks would digest that change a hundred times better if they were upfront about it at the time of purchase instead of changing things along the way. It's not a bait and switch in the most literal sense of the term, but it does skirt the line.

Obviously this is more of the trademark Cedar Fair bait-and-switch, and that's an issue, but I feel like what's bugging me more is how unwieldy of a condition this might be to enforce. Will they be asking for pass numbers at the time of reservation and checking each one against the database automatically to make sure they're Cedar Point passes? Surely they will... but I also wouldn't put it past Cedar Fair to not set that up and make it the poor admissions folks' job to tell KI passholders they're out of luck at the gate.

If there's one thing I've figured out in this hobby, it's that when a ride is SBNO or has its closure announced, people who were otherwise silent on the matter WILL come out of the woodwork to talk about how amazing and underappreciated it is and why the park should reverse their decision immediately. I genuinely never witnessed a single person do that for Garfield's Nightmare.

I actually own a copy of this book. It's a nice little guide, although obviously the material is 20+ years old. It makes me nostalgic for Kings Island as it was when I first realized my love for it. I don't suppose there's a legal means for KIC to scan and document it in the photo galleries, right?

Boo! Hiss! Burn the heretic!

Thank goodness. I was there in October, and rather than emptying the park and readmitting everyone like Carowinds does, they closed the rides for an hour and had everyone inside the park line up to be rescanned. The problem was that the rescanning happened by Berzerker and the line stretched past Drop Tower, so the vast majority of people never got rescanned--the park reopened and eventually the staff just told everyone they didn't have to be rescanned and could go about their day. I'm on the fence about whether or not Halloween events should be separately ticketed, but that entire experience at KD just reeked of being scare tactics (no pun intended) to get you to buy a separate ticket to Haunt that, effectively, you didn't have to buy. I struggle to imagine any nights except the most lightly-attended ones using that strategy effectively.

I love this new litmus test for amusement park amenity usefulness. If it's not relevant to KIC user FreedomPenguin, it's gotta go.

Smart move. Weird move to make in 2024 instead of 2014, but as long as this helps the chain move forward...

Finally. Someone with VISION.

^ To clarify, the Suspended Top Spin is a model that has been offered by HUSS longer than the Giant Top Spin ever was. Kings Dominion's Tomb Raider: Firefall (later The Crypt) and Knott's Riptide were both Suspended Top Spins. At this point, Cedar Fair has removed all variations of HUSS Top Spins from their parks--KD's Crypt was the last to go. Wonderland has a similar ride, but it is from Mondial (makers of WindSeeker), not HUSS. HUSS continues to offer the normal Top Spin and the Suspended Top Spin; Cedar Fair just doesn't own any of them.

Like... I'm not defending Chad, but after 7+ months of folks going after him and Elizabeth and the quality of their individual work, why wouldn't you cut off folks' ability to discern whose work is whose? Surely the criticism wears thin after a bit, regardless of the fact that there does seem to be consistent patterns in what has been observed about Chad's work. Like, yeah, maybe this is just changes from the top... but the merger has not happened yet. And there is a nonzero chance of it being rejected in the SIX vote--remember that a big shareholder for SIX was against it. Adjustments in preparation of that seem pretty premature.

^ I'm not implying you're wrong, but I'm curious: What site(s) is your data based on?

Yeah, but be sure to look at ground level for them--they've cut them way shorter than they used to be.