2008 Holiday World announcement

So it sounds like WIll could use some decision making advice with this 4.3 million.

First off ChanceMorgan makes a 36' double decker carousel that would look very nice.

A Mondial Shake, put it in Thanksgiving, call it Squanto's Last Ride.

Use the rest for your public works, or implement that new Free Hot Dogs incentive you all know you have been wanting to try!!! *** Edited 9/20/2007 8:20:45 PM UTC by woohooboy***

LOL, could get a Huss Breakdance and show SFKK how good they CAN be...

Alternatively, I like Matt's suggestion of a Hexentanz....ALOT! :)

I still think the Santa-themed carousel from Santa's Workshop on Pike's Peak was *the* carousel for HW... ;)

If I remembered right....when HW decided to make the 2nd wave pool. Will quoted something on the lines in the next 3 years or so about doubling the capacity of SS.

I guess the ride opt was right to me about what was coming. There was just some misunderstanding what he met by water wars.

I'm for one am a bit excited about them bringing another playland. I know I have a hard time getting my little cousin to get on the big waterslides because she's afraid of heights. It took 6 trips this year to get her on bakuli. Therefore the rollercoasters don't mean a thing to her. We received so many new innovated waterslides in SS. I think we all forgot about the little ones as of lately. Props to HW for giving the family members more to do.

Atleast, it gives me more ride time on the coasters. :)

Will gets it, probably better than any other water park operator in the world (save for maybe the Schlitterbahn cats). The thing most water parks suck at is capacity. He's hell bent on keeping pace with attendance.

Well done.

Is it me or does this attraction look like the addition to Wild Adventures a few years back.I know this will do well at Holiday World I just find it hard to get excited about an attraction I have already played in. (with my kids of course)

Kevin38

P.S. There is a pretty long que to get into this attraction at Wild Adventures. I can only assume it will have longer line at due to higher attendance.

P.S.S. I recall this same attraction at another park but can't remember where?

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Charles Nungester said:
It's not what I wanted. Boo hoo!

Oh well, build your own park.

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Oh, the irony! It's so sweet, I'm getting cavities just thinking about it. :)

What a bunch of crybabies. I'm all for expressing opinions, but some of you are really acting like spoiled kids. I'll admit that I would have been much more jazzed about a new coaster but a small park investing millions and millions every year isn't anything to get down about. Did anyone every bother to think that a better waterpark will get more guests and make the park more money so they can eventually spend on more rides?

My reply was Sarcasm reguarding all the whinning because it's not what they wanted. They got 4-5 million left to play with people. Sheesh.

The better the waterpark does, WELL YOU MAY YET GET A B&M at HW!

Chuck

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Charles Nungester said:
WELL YOU MAY YET GET A B&M at HW!

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May I please be first to say:

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Its a good move. Smart operators like Will (and the "Kennywood's" of the world) know that slow and steady wins the race. Over-capitalization is a recipie for failure. Just look what happed to Six Flags...and Cedar Fair to a lesser degree (jury still out on CF though, next few years will see). CF is a little different because they have been able to convince Wall Street so as long as they keep their quarterly distribution schedule in place, growth is not necessarily their game. Wall Street has bought it so far...

I know some smaller parks have "rules" in place not to allocate more than 5% of their gross revenue toward future cap-ex spending and this is a very smart thing to do. Are these parks building B&M's every year, no. Are these parks going anywhere, no again.

You can't expect a $15M+ cap-ex program from Holiday World every year...maybe not even every 5 years. Smart operators know that "bigger" isn't always better. You can grow attendance and drive per-capita spending in other ways than "huge" new rides. Coaster lovers may not like this, but the remaining 99% of guests who visit HW in 2008 will enjoy their new play structure just fine, than go ride the Voyage, put their hands in the air, and go "weeeee".

I wouldn't expect anything from HW to the level of the Voyage for several years. ...and that's smart operating. Slow and steady wins the race in this industry. *** Edited 9/20/2007 10:15:24 PM UTC by Hanging n' Banging***

Yet HW is virtually matching Kings Island in spending every year with 2 million less in attendance.

How does this happen? BY MAKING SMARTER CHOICES.!
Chuck

That has nothing to do with the success of either park, Chuck. I can choose to buy a cheap car or a cheap house. It doesn't mean I don't make a good salary.

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Charles Nungester said:
Yet HW is virtually matching Kings Island in spending every year with 2 million less in attendance.

How does this happen? BY MAKING SMARTER CHOICES.!
Chuck

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I think you were trying to compliment Holiday World but you (rightly) smacked PKI in the process.

The obvious answer is that PKI has made horrible (and/or insufficient) cap spending choices most every year for the last 12. Delirium is the only attraction that I think they got right. Well, and Drop Zone. Don't even start me on SOB, Face/Off, Firehawk, IJ, TR:TR, etc

Holiday World on the other hand has (as already stated) taken a slow and steady, methodical approach (with one big bump in 2006). They have added intelligent capacity where it would do them the most good, and that was in the Water Park. They didn't waste money on Big rides that quickly lose their marketing appeal, have horrible capacity (or both Face/Off), or otherwise weren't the right attraction for the park. Holiday World gets it right, that's either a testament to the mgt there or whomever is giving them advice. (probably both)

(And yes, I put the P in PKI because it stands for Pre-Reorganization, as that's what this period in Cedar Fair's history will be known as). *** Edited 9/20/2007 11:38:29 PM UTC by CreditWh0re***

Exactly. PKI missed more than it hit.

Their successes were FOF (After the retrofit, Drop Zone, Delirium and Nick Central.

Their failures are huge and they spent hundreds of millions on em. SOB, ACTION Theater, Face Off, Splat Central, Tomb Raider. Non of which DRAW very well. If you want to go into the chain, Stealth, Waynes World, Both Hurlers, Excellerator. ALL flops or foul ups not helping the parks

I lay none of this on CF. The park, while still basically being the same was enjoyable this spring. Im visiting again in two weeks.

HW is making the right moves for HW and I don't think i've seen a bad one yet. They have even researched the used market and added rides with more capacity while still keeping and refurbishing some old favorites.

Chuck, stating thier growth isn't a accident, It's the result of smart decisions that make it both Enticing enough and affordable enough for people seeking fun and thrills, Which is what a amusement park is all about.

Nice one Chuck. You've managed to derail another thread by introducing your distaste for Kings Island. We get it, you don't like the park.

PKI had the highest attendance of any seasonal park a couple of years ago. For making poor decisions, they seemed to do well anyway. You see what you want to see, but the numbers tell a different story.

And Holiday World's growth has been anything but "slow and steady." Double digit year-over-year attendance growth is unheard of in this business. And yet they keep packing them in.

I'm not a water park person, but people seem to love them. Plus, it looks like a nice addition to their already big lineup of attractions. If it eats people, even better.

The only "negative" thing I'd say about it is the theming or lack thereof. I'm hoping the renderings are lacking some of what will actually be built. For example, the marketing for the attraction shows a fun barrel of monkeys. Why doesn't the big "dump bucket" look like a barrel of monkeys? That seems sorta obvious to me. Hershey's similar attraction at the Boardwalk has some amazing theming on it. Hopefully HW's turns out just as cool. I loved hanging out at the Boardwalk just watching all the activity surrounding their aqua structure.

I really enjoyed my visit to HW this summer. So, I wish nothing but the best for the park. I can't wait to see what other improvements they're making. Hopefully Paula was able to snag some money for painting Kringle's Kafe. :)

Yes, the renderings are definitely generic and will have an assortment of funky monkeys added throughout (including the bucket).

The WhiteWater West staff was at the IAAPA summer meeting this past week, so the graphics aren't as refined as we all would have liked.

Paula

Whitewater west is the manufacturer of the play structure we had at the waterpark I work at, which will remain nameless. It kinda fell apart one piece at a time. In fact a big spinning blue wheel nearly fell 20 feet onto a kid. I'm sure that Holiday World will take extra time to make sure everything is properly installed, however! Overall, I do like Whitewater West, especially the Zip Coaster and Flow Riders. Hey, by the way, Paula, maybe you can answer this. Is Kima Bay going to be in the "woods" kind of? If so, that would be sooooo awesome. Even if just a few trees surrounded it, that would really rock. One of my favorite things about Holiday World is the trees! *** Edited 9/21/2007 4:03:19 AM UTC by WildStangAlex***

I love Holiday World, and am "somewhat" excited about the announcement, because even though my friends and I have slightly(;)) out-grown these attractions, we do find ourselves shooting each other with water contraptions evey once in a while.

But Paula, will you do me a favor? Tell Will that Daniel wants a swinging ship, I'm sure he'll take it into consideration....;) *** Edited 9/22/2007 4:55:37 AM UTC by DantheCoasterman***

swinging ship sounds nice, but hey...why not a new B&M every 3 or 4 years. hahahah

I did enjoy the ship at "the point" well before I ever was on a real thrill ride. I miss the pirate ship...yarg!