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    (12/31/19) If you visit California, Florida, or even Tennessee, keep in mind that theme parks can become crazy crowded during the time period between Christmas and New Years. For the past several days we’ve been sent several reports where just about every park being slammed by capacity crowds, some being forced to stop allowing new guests to enter for a time as they were busting at the seams with guests. I dropped by Dollywood myself on the Friday after Christmas and found the park to be more packed than I have ever seen it in my life (said to be 30,000+), with the entire main parking lot full and the park had just about filled up the entire parking lot of Splash Country across the street with the overflow… which is where we parked. (Fun note: due to what looked like a long wait for the tram, someone in our group decided we should walk to the front gate, a journey that took about 28 minutes of continuous walking, and by my best guest we traveled a distance of about 1.15 miles. Needless to say, we took the tram back to the car at the end of the night.) With several days left before most Students head back to school, just be aware of what you might be getting into when heading out to a theme park this holiday season. Not only does this mean long waits to get in, and longer waits to ride anything, but you will likely experience similar wait times just to get food as well. This goes double if you are planning on hitting a park for New Year’s Eve, especially Disney parks which are almost guaranteed to hit capacity and stop allowing entry earlier than you might think.
    These crowds are not just packing the Disney parks, but just about every park who is still open where the weather is nice. We’ve heard about near capacity crowds packing Carowinds here in the Carolinas for Winterfest and even Six Flags Magic Mountain hit capacity at 4pm on Sunday, as documented by Coaster Kings.

    (12/31/18) As I sit here this morning, I’m finding it kind of hard to fathom that it was 20 years ago today that I clicked on the “Publish” button and launched the SCREAMSCAPE for the first time. While I had messed around under another name, without a true domain on free hosting sites for a couple years before that, the launch of Screamscape into the world of cyberspace at the time was a huge step for me… one that would lead me into far more adventures than I had ever anticipated.
    For 20 years now Screamscape has been a part of my life during those years so much has happened… I got married, moved to Orlando for a time, moved to North Carolina… had three beautiful children who are growing and preparing to take on their own adventures. For them, Screamscape has always “the family business”, and I do hope that they will eventually jump in here to help their “old man” out from time to time as I hope to continue to push out Screamscape for at least another 20 years more.
    Keep an eye on the site as we move forward into 2019, as I’m planning a few surprises for everyone in celebration of our 20th anniversary… including one that has been long overdue. 

    (1/17/17) A major announcement came out the other night, shaking the live entertainment world at the core. After a successful 146-year run the world famous “The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus” will come to an abrupt end in May 2017. The announcement came from the offices of Feld Entertainment late Saturday, Feld being the mammoth company that is also behind other traveling live-performance shows like Disney On Ice, Marvel Universe Live, Disney Live, Monster Jam and more.
    According to Kenneth Feld (CEO), the difficult decision to close the circus forever follows a trend of declining ticket sales that has been happening for years, but once Ringling Bros. bowed to pressure and officially pulled all of the elephants off the road in May 2016, they described the fallout as causing a very “dramatic drop” that has not stopped. Mix this in with the ever rising costs to maintain and keep a production of this magnitude on the road, and it was determined that it “made the circus an unsustainable business for the company.”
    As it has been for years, there are currently two different traveling Ringling Bros. show tours taking place across the nation. The current “Circus XTREME” tour will hold their last show in Providence, RI on May 7th and the “Out Of This World” tour will conclude in Uniondale, NY on May 21. For those lucky enough to find themselves within range of one of the final shows, you might want to make the time to see it one last time while you can, because the curtain is falling forever for “The Greatest Show On Earth”.
    Now while the general concept of the Circus itself certainly was not started in, nor was it exclusive to America, there is still just something very engrained in American culture about the circus to me. Of course it may just be the way it was embedded into our culture over the years with visions of a carnival, games of skill, rides, and in the right era, even a freak-show or two. All a well honed operation designed to lure in the public to spend their money to see things that they believed they would never see anywhere else… often thanks to the expert manipulations and lessons of the world famous P.T. Barnum himself.
    The loss of the circus, while it did evolve for modern times, does make me feel like there will forever be a new hole in the fabric of our shared American culture. So what was to blame? The Internet? Mobile Phones? Short-Attention Spans?  Modern Expectations? Animal Rights Activists? Yes, No… and perhaps a little of it all, mixed in with countless other factors, many of which would include just the nature of how the circus business evolved over the years, what they changed, and what factors had never changed. For example it was mentioned that some members of the circus (performers and crew) would actually have no home to go to once they shut down, as they have lived on the road for their entire lives, with only their living quarters on one of the traveling train cars serving as the only home they know. In some cases, whole family units still live together on the road within the circus, who also employs teachers for the children to make sure they get an education.
    So what will happen next? Feld Entertainment isn’t going anywhere after the performers take their final curtain call in May, as the company still has plenty of other shows traveling the roads of America and could be developing future show concepts to take the place of Ringling Bros. There has been some speculation over the past year or two however that Feld could be purchased by another entertainment giant, with Disney being quite possibly the best fit. According to some rumors Disney had previously looked into buying Feld Entertainment several times, as they already have a working relationship with them through the production of the Disney Live, Disney on ICE and Marvel Universe Live shows. Time and again however, the biggest negative that pushed Disney away from finalizing any such deal was the Ringling Bros. circus shows… which occasionally found themselves on the wrong end of the press and at odds with animal activist groups. Once the circus is no more… the time may be right for Disney to make yet another acquisition. There are also others who may be willing to make a play for Feld… as it wasn’t that long ago that Herschend Family Entertainment (Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, etc) also decided to enter the market when they purchased The Harlem Globetrotters in 2013 from Shamrock Capital Advisors… the private equity firm that was actually started by none other than Roy E. Disney.
    So what other fallout could come from this big announcement? You can bet that the leadership at the SeaWorld parks may be taking this news carefully to heart as well. While SeaWorld would find it incredibly difficult to just “retire” all of their killer whales and ship them off to live the rest of their days in seclusion (or release them to the open ocean as some would like), they have already taken the first few steps that could lead them down a similar path as Ringling Bros. As of now, all breeding of killer whales has stopped and the San Diego park has now closed the Shamu Show in favor of a new educational Orca Experience exhibit experience to open later this year.
    Some have questioned if the loss of “Shamu” would be enough to topple SeaWorld, and I think there is merit to this line of though, especially in light of what has now happened to Ringling Bros. In my opinion, there is a bit of historical precedence for this and you have only to look at the overgrown plot of land just outside Cleveland, Ohio to see what now remains of the SeaWorld Ohio and Geauga Lake amusement parks. The two companies successfully co-existed for years, existing on opposite ends of the lake, with Geauga Lake agreeing to focus just on their amusement park business and SeaWorld would focus only on their marine life park and exhibits.
    Geauga Lake was eventually sold and turned into Six Flags Ohio and seemed to be a hit. From here, I’ve never been entirely sure if SeaWorld was looking to sell the Ohio property or if Six Flag just made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. My thinking leans to the later, as the growth rate and actions of Six Flags at the time, shortly after being purchased by the very aggressive growth-minded Premier Parks management team, would be just the kind of deal that could have gone down. In short, SeaWorld sold the Ohio park, but they would not sell the killer whales, which were then sent off to the other three remaining SeaWorld parks. What was left of SeaWorld Ohio was gobbled up and added to the Six Flags park as a major expansion, and the park renamed Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.
    It didn’t last. Soon after the giant park fell on hard times, with attendance plunging and eventually the park itself was put up for sale, only to be purchased and soon after closed down entirely by area rival, Cedar Fair. So how did the local market that had successful keep two very successful theme parks alive and well for decades suddenly sour so badly in such a short period of time?  I can only point to the loss of ‘Shamu’ from the playing field as being a likely key ignition factor in starting the demise of the Geauga Lake attractions.
    Hopefully SeaWorld Entertainment will be taking careful steps for their own future, lest they follow the same path as Ringling Bros.

(1/6/15) Screamscape is proud to announce that the site was voted once again as the Best Unofficial Theme Park Website once again by the readers of Behind the Thrills in the 5th Annual Thrill Weekly Poll for 2014. For the complete rundown of all the winners, including best Halloween events, Best Theme Park Show, Attraction of the Year, Water Park of the Year and Park of the Year click here.
    Thank you to everyone who voted for Screamscape to sweep this great award for the 5th year in a row.

(7/17/14) I’d like to thank everyone who voted for Screamscape in the USA Today poll for Best Theme Park Blogger for the past month. Screamscape came in 3rd Place against some very stiff competition and I couldn’t have gotten there without everyone's support. Thank you one and all!

(7/14/14) This is a final call for help out to the Screamscape readers. I’ve been nominated by USA TODAY / 10BEST to become your “Favorite Theme Park Blogger” and I’m up against some stiff competition. You can vote now and can vote again daily until the winner is announced on July 16th. Please do consider voting for Screamscape to take this high honor and spread the word to all your friends. Thanks!
 
(6/17/14) Screamscape has been nominated by USA TODAY / 10BEST as one of your favorite theme park bloggers. I’m honored to be listed along with so many of our other favorite bloggers and friends ranging from Theme Park Adventure, Behind The Thrills, CoasterRadio, Attractions Magazine, Jim Hill Media, Theme Park Insider, Theme Park Review, News Plus Notes and so many others. Please consider casting a vote for Screamscape. You can vote daily, so please do it as often as you can remember. Thank you to everyone for your support.

(5/2/14) The summer season is nearly upon us, and it’s time for the list of annual complainers to rise from the depths of their winter slumber and pretend to be in shock and awe about how a particular park or attraction has hurt their feelings or violated their rights for any number of reasons. The list evolves a bit from year to year, but if we follow the trend set for the past few we can expect to soon see articles about subjects like:
 
1) How a park’s policy on front of the line passess for disabled (mental or physical) guests just doesn’t work ‘for their family’ and how their complaints fell on deaf ears.
 
or 2) How decorated military veteran or handicapped guest who was missing one or more limbs was wronged by a theme park when they were told they could not ride XYZ coaster(s). Six Flags Fiesta Texas already kicked off this one back in mid March.
 
then 3) The annual complaint list by those seeking employment at any given theme park about how they were offered a job on the condition that they follow the park’s grooming standards, and how they refused to comply with the policy about (facial hair, no corn-rows, religious headwear, facial jewelry, etc…) and are now seeking legal council.
 
Then we have 4) No Hijabs or Turbans On Go-Karts.
   It’s not even summer, but this particular complaint has already fired up in California as Sikhs and Muslim groups are complaining against this policy at the local Boomers family fun parks. The groups refuse to accept Boomers (Palace Entertainment’s) justified Safety Policy banning any kind of loose fitting clothing, extremely long hair or headgear on their go-karts as being legit. The religious groups says that past accidents at other go-kart tracks that have involved serious injury and death due caused by riders wearing headgear that becomes loose and quickly entangled into the speeding go-kart wheels should not be considered because they took place outside of the USA. 
   (pause)
   Yeah, that makes no sense to me either… or anyone else. People have died because of this and Boomers is not only legally protecting themselves, but these rules have become a global industry standard in the go-kart biz because of these prior accidents and injuries as recently as 2010! Much like how the military veteran who lost his limbs defending our country is unable to ride a coaster at his local Six Flags park, the rules are in place because other people have died when they were allowed to ride. Safety rules are in place for a reason, and no matter if you agree with them or not, it is the right of the park or attraction to enforce their safety rules.

(1/7/14) The results from the 4th Annual Thrill Weekly Awards are in, and in addition to all the theme park and thrill ride goodness getting love, I’m happy to report that the Screamscape readers have voted Screamscape as the winner for the Best ThemePark Website award for the 4th year in a row. Thank you to everyone who voted! Click here to read the rest of the award winners.

(11/19/12) A very disturbing article was written on the Orlando Sentinel that poses some very dangerous speculation about the future of the amusement industry. The title itself should send shivers down anyone’s spine, “Attractions dip toes into airline-style pricing”. In plain English… imagine a future trip to the Orlando theme parks where you might find cheaper than normal (say, $60?) ticket prices into the Disney parks if you visited in February, and yet if you wanted to visit in the busy summer months, you could encounter a $150 ticket price?  How you would feel about visiting Shamu and pals at SeaWorld for just $75 on a weekday… but if you went on a weekend you would be asked to pay $135 to get in?  Or maybe you were planning a day at Wet ‘n Wild with the kids, but sour weather ruins the fun, so as a backup plan you pop over to DisneyQuest instead, only to find out that the price of buying tickets last second at the door are double what you expected.
    Anyone who travels by air has heard many a tale of woe from those who had the misfortune of bad dealings from the insufferable airline industry. So very concept of basing anything in the theme park industry on something that happens in the airline biz seems just seems simply bonkers. Even as the article points out that while other industries have dabbled in airfare style pricing where you benefit from off-season visits and are punished if you need to travel in peak season, the amusement industry has been very hesitant to do so. The only clear examples in Orlando where they have tried it are tied to extra-ticket special events like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas or Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights where the price of admission can change depending on the day you visit.
    A misguided (in my opinion) assistant college professor at a panel held at IAAPA last week to discuss the idea commented that the concept of raising the price on busy weekends at the park, as well as seasonal pricing changes was a virtual “gold mine” of opportunity. The practice is already rampant in the Ski Resort industry, who are closely tied to the Hotel side of things who have also been doing it for years.
    According to Scott Sanders, a former WDW VP on the concept, “In general, consumers are wiling to accept pricing as long as they perceive it to be fair.”  Of course given his Disney background, this also comes to someone who has clearly had blinders on for years as Disney and the rest of the Florida parks have already raised their ticket prices to levels previously undreamed of. Back in the early ‘90’s most people in the industry felt the price of a park ticket would never go above $50 a day. Once it did… many felt it would then never go over $75 a day. Now we are on the doorstep of $100 a day tickets, and I don’t know a single park guest who is even close to happy about that little fact, especially after stomaching the virtual kick in the groin from what the parks are asking at the parking lot toll booths these days.
    While it is true, guests are still paying to get in… I’ve never been a fan of the management attitude of riding the price increase wave until it “breaks”. In other words… cranking up the prices over and over until people finally give in and stop going to the parks. While it does fill the theme park coffers rather quickly, the damage it does to their public image is irreversible, even amongst their own staff whom are often the first to groan when the prices go up. Park employees know full well that they are not going to benefit one bit from the price increases.
    As we approach the new magical $100 price barrier, perhaps that is why there is talk about trying a new heavily disguised ways to raise ticket prices, by hiding them in a complicated matrix of high and low season prices. I really don’t think anyone wants to be the first to announce a triple digital ticket price, but I also firmly believe that if the parks this approach, this will be the straw that breaks the camels back once and for all. The general public already regards the Orlando theme parks as being very “greedy” over the prices they are grudgingly paying now and are very close to alienating their fans. Six Flags and Cedar Fair know this, as I recall several parks in both chains actually chose to cut their ticket prices rather than raise them in the early years of the recession due to declines in their local markets affecting not only basic park attendance, but also rampant declines in private event bookings as well.
    Instead of finding new ways to shake every penny out of the Orlando tourist’s pockets, I’d rather see some goodwill price cuts, and the return of some valued lost benefits such as making park hopping included in all multi-day passes at Disney, or the abolishment of parking lot tolls. If a fantastic regional park like Holiday World in Indiana can gain nationwide fame for offering free parking, free sunscreen and free soda included with the price of park admission, what’s wrong with the big parks in Florida or California?

(8/6/12) The Sad State of Theming In Las Vegas -
    Looking back through some old news, it kind of hit me once again how sad and generic Las Vegas is becoming. While I’ve never been the kind of person to think Vegas should have been full of theme parks and kids in strollers, I always felt Las Vegas itself was like a giant theme park for adults. Instead of themed lands, there were themed casinos featuring themed rides and attractions spread out here and there, in between the shows and ringing sound of the slot machines.
    There was Egyptian World (Luxor), Medieval World (Excalibur), Adventure World (Tropicanna) Roman World (Caesar’s), Pirate World (Treasure Island) Circus World (Circus Circus), and so on. Even if the theme of the resort wasn’t clear, there were many themed elements all around to enjoy, such as the lush oasis of the Mirage, the top notch Star Trek: The Experience hidden within the Hilton, along with their cool Sci-Fi themed casino room. The rides and sounds of Nascar over at the Sahara, the vertical thrills of the Stratosphere Tower, the huge themed indoor mall of the Aladdin, the incredible aerial Mardi Gras parade at the Rio, water fountains of the Bellagio, the city scapes of New York, New York, Paris and the Venetian, not to forget the old MGM Grand Adventures park. Even the Las Vegas Monorail joined into the theme park style fun, featuring one train that was themed as if it was taken over by The Borg (Star Trek villain), with themed dialog recordings on board along with the occasional ride-along characters taking a spin from Star Trek: The Experience. Once upon a time I’d say that the themed casino elements outweighed the old style serious gambling only casinos, but over the years more and more theming has simply been dropped in favor of more generic casino space and resorts. While Luxor may look the same on the outside as it did so many years ago, a quick trip inside will tell you things have completely changed and the heart of the once themed resort has been ripped out.
    Over the past few years the big movements in Vegas has been all about new shows and the building of generic time-share and condo towers far too close to The Strip as well as the rise of new unthemed resort clusters like City Center. Many such projects have stalled out in famous ways due to the economic depression, but there is life still pumping into Vegas in the form of some new attractions at last. In perhaps a reversal of everything that was wrong with Vegas, we now see the city giving birth of two epic Giant Wheel projects on opposite ends of the strip. The Stratosphere has not stopped adding new thrilling ride experiences to the massive tower with last year’s addition of Sky Jump, the most frightening thrill ride in Vegas letting guests plunge 108 stories to the ground and even the name Wet ‘n’ Wild seems poised to leap back into Sin City next year.
    Before that however we will see Eli Roth’s Goretorium open on Sept. 27th on the Strip. According to the press release, The Goretorium will be open year round and promises to create the most intense live terror experience a  person can have. “The multi-level maze of frights submerges visitors into the tale of Sin City’s most deadly mythical hotel and casino, The Delmont. The self-guided horror experience begins in the lobby of the Delmont and unveils gruesome and ghastly sights of past hotel guest victims and the serial-killing family behind the deeds at every turn. Employing high-tech Vegas showmanship with old-fashioned scares, the terrifying labyrinth of live actors, animatronic frights and stunning special effects is contained in a vintage hotel setting that rivals Hollywood’s best movie sets.” Look for it across the strip from City Center off Harmon. Goretorium will also feature a themed bar called Baby Dolls, which will feature caged zombie go-go dancers with periodic live feedings! There will also be a unique horror themed retail shop and an event space with it’s own private bar called Bloody Mary’s.
    I’m hoping this is just the beginning. The start of another beautiful wave of themed entertainment to hit Sin City. What I’d really love to see is the rebirth of the massive Star Trek attraction that was ALMOST built in Las Vegas years ago. Designed by The Goddard Group, we would have seen the construction of a scale recreation of the Starship Enterprise itself, dry-docked on the Las Vegas Strip down at Fremont Street. You could board the Enterprise which would have served as a themed hotel, casino and attraction all in one. In the end the idea was nixed by a shortsighted exec at Paramount, but you can still check out the artwork and ready the story how this attraction almost made the leap off the drawing board here. I’d still love to see it brought back… I know I’d make the trip to Vegas to see it. Otherwise the Vegas of today has gotten just a little too generic.

    (7/21/12) It seems the lawsuit happy society we live in today has taken yet another step towards end of the world status. In the theme park world we’ve seen guests file appropriate lawsuits against parks for accidents and wrongful deaths of various kinds, but we’ve also seen countless other frivolous lawsuits from those attempting monetary gain from injuries caused by their own hand and even claims of embarrassment, emotional suffering or mental anguish.
    Now that it seems about every park has been forced to defend itself in countless lawsuits, they’ve become very proactive about not only safety, but attempting to control every possible aspect of their environments to prevent any future lawsuits. As such, we’ve seen some interesting rule and policy changes come down the pipe over the last few years that you have likely read about here on Screamscape. Some are downright silly while others do have merit.
    Go for a ride on a Ferris Wheel by yourself lately? These days it is getting harder to find a Ferris Wheel that will let a single rider go by themselves, as the paper pushers seems to think those who ride alone are either possible suicide jumpers, or will behave in an irresponsible way while riding putting their own life at risk. The silly actions of a few have punished us all in this case. You may also recall the issues about Muslim Hijabs being banned from certain attractions. A big riot broke out at Rye Playland last year when a large group of Muslim guests were told that the park’s safety rules did not permit guests to ride several of the park’s attractions while wearing any kind of head covering (ranging from Hijab’s to Baseball Hats) out of concern that they could get caught up in the machinery. Restrictions like these, if not in place already, were adopted more widely when a woman wearing a Burka was strangled to death on a go-kart when it became entangled in a wheel.
    For the summer of 2012, it seems the newest development has been a sudden batch of lawsuits and media driven complaints from handicapped guests complaining over new and some existing policies that are preventing them from riding many of the park rides. Two amputee guests at Universal Studios Hollywood have filed a lawsuit this week after being barred from riding the Revenge of the Mummy Coaster. Angel Castelan had his forearms amputated, and was told back in 2010 that he couldn’t ride The Mummy because he did not have hands to grip the safety bars. He returned to the park a year later with a friend who was missing both legs, and his friend was also barred from the same ride because an update to the policy now requires riders to have at least one hand and one leg to ride.
    Similar stories to this have been filling my news box all summer. A burn victim who lost both hands as an infant was the subject of several news articles earlier this summer when he visited Six Flags over Texas and was told he would not be permitted to ride the Texas Giant, nor most of the park’s other attractions. Earlier this year a teenager with no hands was barred from riding coasters at SeaWorld Orlando, and on a previous trip was barred from Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure. Another man was stopped from riding Goliath at Six Flags over Georgia with only one leg. One similar story in 2011 did have a happy ending when a man in a wheelchair who was barred from riding the Zippin Pippin in Green Bay managed to get the policy revised to allow him to finally ride the coaster with his daughter. Of course not every story ends well, as most of you will also remember the army veteran was who missing both legs who was killed when he was thrown from the Ride of Steel at Darien Lake in 2011 when the employees failed to stop him from riding, despite a posted safety sign outside the ride stating that “guests must have two legs” to ride.
    As sad and unfortunately as any of these stories are, I have to also acknowledge that we really seem to have brought this upon ourselves. The parks and ride manufactures are simply trying to protect themselves from future lawsuits in some cases, and simply stating the facts in terms of maintaining rider safety in others. In the case of leg amputees, it does seem reasonable why they would be banned from riding an airtime filled coaster like Ride of Steel that only has a lap bar style restraint. For those without hands, the issue is more complicated, as they are forced to sit on the sidelines and watch other rides go by with their hands in the air, and really should come down to the style restraint used on the ride itself. It may suck being told you can’t ride due to a disability, but it’s also these same safety policies also tell kids when they are still too short to ride and for some of us, when we are too big to ride. As someone who has struggled with weight issues for a number of years, I can say that indeed sucks being told you can’t ride something for any reason. In the end however, most of these rules are there for a good reason: to ensure that every guest sent out on a ride returns in one piece.
    Now if you'll excuse me, there is an Elliptical machine in the other room with my name on it.

(1/11/12) Great news for Screamscape this week, as the results from the Behind The Thrills, The Thrill Weekly Awards: Best of 2011 have been announced and for the second year in a row Screamscape is proud to have won the award for Best Theme Park News Site.
Thanks to everyone who voted for Screamscape!!

(8/10/11) Industry watchers should be keeping a close eye on Cedar Fair right now, as the company is in the midst of change and transition right now. We will see the end of the Dick Kinzel era and vision for the chain of parks, soon to be replaced by whatever masterplan Matt Ouimet may be cooking up, which could be quite interesting given Matt’s Disney Pedigree. While I have big hopes for what we may see from Matt, I’m not to keen on what Kinzel has been cooking up this season in the form of a couple of test projects for upcharge cut-to-the-front-of-the-line pass programs.
    Back in December 2010, Knott’s quietly rolled out their prototype upcharge program under the name, “Hate to Wait”. Guests were offered the chance to buy a Hate to Wait Pass for $40, which offered a one-time each front-of-line access to the parks top eight rides.  Prior to this rollout, Knott’s had only the program briefly at the Haunt in October, but has continued to offer the Hate to Wait passes through this summer.
    The follow up program is currently testing this summer at Kings Island under the name “Fast Lane”, with an upcharge price of $50 per person. Unlike Hate To Wait, the Fast Lane program offers unlimited front-of-line access to the park’s top 10 attractions, but only between Noon and 7pm. (UPDATE: Fast Lane was changed in late summer to now offer front of line access all day long.)
    As Cedar Fair seemed to have been the one chain to resist the temptation of offering these upcharge style line-cutting passes, I’m more than a little disappointed by the thought that they could be planning on rolling them out chain wide as early as 2012. Each version of the program is very low-tech, requiring no major hardware installation to be done throughout the park (unlike Lo-Q or a Disney FastPass style program), making them easy to roll out without a huge set-up cost or making a multi-year term deal with an outside vendor.
    So I’ve got to wonder, will these line-cutter upcharge programs go down as Kinzel’s departing shot to the Cedar Fair chain, or will Matt Ouimet’s Disney background put the kibosh on the idea of charging for such a program?  I’m kind of hoping for the later, as I’ve never been fond of the concept of theme parks having a “tiered” guest experience program. Every guest pays for admission in some form (day ticket or annual pass) and deserves to have the same experience, and not being able to whip out their wallet to bribe their way to the front of a line. For every line cutter who drops $50 on a pass, you’ve got several hundred (or thousand) regular guests who are steaming angry on the inside watching these people cut in front of them.
    In addition to line-cutting passes, Cedar Fair also seems to have been experimenting with a few other odd things in 2011 (and previously) that could affect the future of the parks. We’ve seen parking prices start to climb at certain parks, following the irrational rise of parking fees started by Six Flags. If high priced parking fees were not enough, you can now choose between normal parking (for $15) or a premium parking spot up front for $20 to $25. Want to ride a few waterslides? Not so simple anymore… you can’t visit a waterpark hardly anywhere anymore without a park trying to upsell you on the concept of renting a private cabana for your group for the day.
    Then there is a possible rise of the seasonal “upcharge” attraction concept, like Dinosaur’s Alive at Kings Island. I’ve already heard rumbling rumors suggesting that we may see Dinosaur’s Alive spun out into as many as three other Cedar Fair parks for the 2012 season, where guests are asked to pay an extra fee to see this animatronic dinosaur display, and in the case of Kings Island, then asked to pay an extra fee if they want to see a Dino 4D film at the end, running inside the park’s previously free Action FX Theater attraction.
    Then there are the little upcharge items being sold to ‘plus’ your experience. It may only be a buck or so, but I don’t really care for the upcharge concept of tricking some guests into buying 3D glasses to use on the Boo Hill dark rides, or trying to sell you 3D glasses for select Halloween Haunts or special glasses to plus the experience of the Starlight Spectacular light shows. To me, they add little to the experience, and as a parent, the sales tactics used here are akin to the grocery stores putting the candy at the checkout counter in order to instigate a riot from your kids if you don’t buy them one.
    In short, I think we’ve got to the point where the true POP era (Pay One Price) of theme parks has come to an end, and has been replaced by the Upcharge Era where guests can add-on a variety of experience options and thus creating an unfortunately extremely tiered guest experience.
    A tiered experience based entirely on the cash in your wallet, which cuts to the heart of the matter, because parks are now admitting that virtually anything you want is for sale… for the right price. And that just kind of takes a big chunk of the “fun” out of visiting the fun park, doesn’t it?

(7/27/11) Screamscape was honored earlier today as being named as the best theme park news and rumors site by Orlando Local Guide. Thanks guys, I’m honored. Check it out.

(1/4/11) Behind the Thrills has posted the results of their Best Of 2010 polls, and I’m happy to report that Screamscape ran away with the award for the Theme Park News Site of the Year. Thanks to everyone who voted! Check out the rest of the winners for things like Best Park, Friendliest Crowds, King of Halloween and much more over at Behind the Thrills.

(8/5/10) It’s that time of year again… the time of year when the industry groans as a whole as Disney and the other Orlando area parks push the ticket price envelop to see just how much further they can go.  It’s a sick trend really, as Disney and the other Orlando area parks have raised priced each and every year for about the past 15 to 20 years, and the overall impact is staggering at just how much more they are taking from your wallet than they were just 10 years ago. The new adult ticket price starting today at Walt Disney World is an astounding $82, however it really wasn’t that long ago when tickets were still at $50 or much less!

    All Ears Net has a great chart which documents all the Walt Disney World ticket prices since it opened in 1971 at a low price of $3.50 for an adult ticket. The last time Disney went more than a year without a price increase was back in December 1987 when they raised the ticket price to $28 and kept it until May 1989 (18 months) when it went up $1 to $29. When Disney did raise prices over the years, it was typically by just $1-2 up through 2003. More recently however annual price increase have typically been between $3-5, with a huge leap in 2006 when they raised priced twice in one year ($3.25 in January and another $4 in August!). Yep, that was a $7.25 increase… in just one year.

    Now I did mention $50 previously, which was the price of WDW admission back from September 2002 to June 2003. Watching ticket prices really start to creep upwards throughout the biz in the 90’s, I had settled on $50 to be magic threshold number for the industry at that time. It has always been my opinion that there is a “glass threshold” point for ticket prices. If the ticket is raised past a certain point, the perceived value will shatter and the attraction will see their attendance figures plunge dramatically. Today I’d place at somewhere between $50-60, depending on the region.

    Disney has unfortunately proved that with their perceived quality, marketing, image and product line, they were able to pass through this glass threshold and move far beyond it. For the most part, the rest of big players in Florida have been allowed to also pass through this barrier in Disney’s wake by being part of the same local market. The rest of the nations theme parks however, have not.

    Lets take a look at Six Flags for a moment, as they have parks all over the country and have adjusted their ticket prices quite a bit for to account for this threshold point in each local market. For example the price of a ticket to Six Flags Great Adventure (New York/New Jersey market) is currently $54.99 at the gate, and $59.99 at Six Flags Magic Mountain (SoCal market). However you can buy tickets to both parks from the official website for just $34.99. By comparison, tickets are as low as $42.99 for SF New England and St. Louis, $44.99 for SF over Georgia, $49.99 for SF Discovery Kingdom and $51.99 at the Texas parks.

    The Cedar Fair parks also show a similar spectrum: as low as $39.99 for Carowinds and Valleyfair, $41.99 for Worlds of Fun, $45.99 for Cedar Point, $49.99 for Kings Island, $54.99 for Knott’s Berry Farm, Kings Dominion and CA Great America. Much like Six Flags online discounts are plentiful and easy to find.

    PARC Managements bigger parks (Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake) are close to $40 and Herschend’s biggest parks (Dollywood & Silver Dollar City) price themselves in the low to mid 50’s. The price to the SeaWorld / Busch Gardens parks also range quite a bit depending on the market: $75 for the Tampa, FL park while only $61 for the Williamsburg, VA park. SeaWorld Orlando is asking for $78 to visit while it’s only $59 to visit the California and Texas parks.

    Keeping all that in mind, it looks like $60 is the current price threshold that no one outside of Florida (with the exception of Busch Gardens Williamsburg) has been willing to push through just yet, while clearly some areas of the country are still behind the $50 barrier as well. Disney though… they just keep pushing along, year after year, without the break. About the only thing that caused their attendance to fall in a major way was the time period following September 11th, 2001 which to be fair, shook up the entire travel industry as a whole. With Disney making big increase after increase every year however, I think it’s only a matter of “when” the world market says enough is enough and the barrier shatters in Orlando. Will it be $90? Will it be $100?

    Hell, for $100 a person to visit the Magic Kingdom… I’m going to be expecting a lot more than just a fun day at the park. For $100+ per person I want Pooh to change my baby’s diaper, Lightning McQueen to shuttle us from park to park, Aladdin and his Genie to rub my wife’s feet when she’s tired and a nice back massage from Jessica Rabbit for me. Now shove that in your Project Next Gen folder.

(7/30/09) While discussing the impending removal of the Big Bad Wolf from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, an interesting point was brought up.  After 25 years the park had stated that the Wolf had simply reached the end of it’s lifespan and it was just time for it to go. While the nearby Loch Ness Monster coaster turned 31 this same year, it’s been said that the unique forces and stresses related to the Wolf’s design style are part of the problem.  However, Busch also felt the time was right in 2006 to remove the 30 year old Python coaster from their Tampa park. That said, there really isn’t too much difference in the technology behind Python and Loch Ness, as they are the same style of coaster, only running on a different layout.
    With that in mind, the point was brought up that potentially we could end up seeing a large number of steel coasters being taken down over the next decade as they too begin to reach the end of their lifespans. The list of rides that could become affected by this is rather large as the time-period from the mid-70’s to mid-80’s was pretty much the Golden Era of steel coaster design after the introduction of inversions.
    Going back to the grandfather of all tubular steel coaster track coasters leads us to Disneyland’s Matterhorn which actually opened in 1959. However it’s no secret to anyone that the Matterhorn has been going down for extensive off-season rehabs for the last 15 years or more where they do refurbish and replace sections of the track. Disney’s next steel coaster effort, Space Mountain in Walt Disney World, opened in 1975 and closed earlier this year (2009) for a nearly year-long rehab to fix, repair and replace it’s own coaster track after 34 years of use. Space Mountain at Disneyland opened in 1977 closed in 2003 (26 yrs) and didn’t open again until 2005 as after they had taken the time to completely rebuild the coaster from scratch.
    I’ve come to realize that while we have slowly watched Disney come across this very problem and have quietly gone about their business to rebuild and preserve these classic attractions, most other parks out there are not going to react the same. After all, it’s far easier to scrap and existing ride and just build something new than to preserve a classic coaster. Wooden coasters are obviously the exception, as they are pretty much under a constant state of having their wood replaced, track sections rebuilt and so on. Carowinds is a good example here as they have removed and rebuilt entire sections of Thunder Road over the winter for the past two years as part of a 5 year plan to rebuild and refurbish the coaster. Unfortunately it’s just not that easy to do the same thing to an old steel coaster.
    Just take a moment to think about all the great old classic steel coasters that could be getting too old to maintain or suffering from some form of fatigue or decay. We’re looking at several classic loopers like: Montezooma’s Revenge (1978), Revolution (1976), Sooperdooperlooper (1977), Corkscrew @ CP (1976) The Demon (1976), Shockwave (1978) or Mindbender (1978).
    If you really want to venture into those at risk of being taken down due to age, what about the all those Arrow Mine Trains like: Gold Rusher (1971), Dahlonega Mine Train (1967), Mine Train @ SFOT (1967), Cedar Creek Mine Ride (1969), River King Mine Train (1971), Carolina Goldrusher (1973) or Runaway Mine Train (1974)? 
    Those are just the tip of the iceberg! I’m going to channel my inner-geek for a moment and paraphrase a quote from Blade Runner. “All those coasters will be lost in time… like tears in rain…”