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BLOG: Viking Fury gets new coat of paint https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/march/viking-fury-gets-new-coat-of-paint

BLOG: The aviation pioneer that invented Kings Island's Monster https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/april/the-aviation-pioneer-that-invented-kings-islands-monster

https://www.knotts.com/passholder-update A Message from Jon Storbeck, Vice President & General Manager of Knott's Berry Farm April 4, 2020 Update As we all continue to navigate this unprecedented situation, we want to thank you for your continued patience and support of Knott’s Berry Farm. Our team would like nothing more than to open our park and welcome you back. Clearly that is not an option for us right now, and our priority is to keep everyone safe --- our valued guests, our amazing associates, and our cherished communities. Given the uncertainty around our park reopening, we want to share how we will manage 2020 Season Passholder benefits: 2020 Season Passes and purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products (if applicable) will be valid for the remainder of 2020 when our park is able to reopen. Additionally, 2020 Regular, Gold and Platinum Season Passes (as well as purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products) will remain valid through the 2021 Season, ending December 31, 2021. * For 2020 Passholders participating in our Easy Pay Program, we have automatically suspended monthly billing as of today, April 4, 2020, and will continue to do so while the park is closed. When the park reopens, billing will resume. Passholders will need to be current on payments in order to receive both 2020 and 2021 Season Pass admission and associated benefits. Our Season Passholders represent some of our most loyal guests, and we want to ensure that you receive a full season of fun as promised when you purchased your 2020 Season Pass. This is a very unusual time for all of us, and we again thank you for your understanding and loyalty to Knott’s Berry Farm. *Scary Farm Pass Add-On will be valid during 2020 only.

Well, Six Flags has already been hurting. That is why they offered to merge with Ceader Fair not that long ago and Sea World last year. In the case of Six Flags, they might be better off to let it go because it doesn't seem like anyone there is savy enough to run a successful amusement park corperation.

Six flags is using what is called a "poison pill" strategy in attempt to prevent a hostile takeover of the amusement park company. Technically called a "Stockholder Rights Plan," the strategy allows shareholders to buy more shares of the company at a discount if any one shareholder acquires more than 10 percent ownership of the company. The idea is to dilute the value of the hostile shareholder's stake in the company, making it more expensive for them to take over the company without the current board of directors' approval. Both Cedar Fair and SeaWorld also have market caps lower than Six Flags at this point, so none of the top three independent theme park companies in the United States is enjoying a great financial position right now by making it more difficult for other companies to buy so many shares to take over. You can read the whole article here... Six Flags Looks to Prevent a Hostile Takeover

BLOG: Annual care keeps The Racer in peak operating condition https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/march/annual-care-keeps-the-racer-in-peak-operating-condition

When it was brand new, we used to have scream fights were each side would try to yell the loudest when their side went up in the air. Later the scream fights became "Taste great" on one side and "Less filling" on the other side. Leave it to the alcoholic culture to only being able enjoy something if it is based around drinking.

In one of those drone videos I could see the break run for The Beast behind Orion's turn around. I hope Orion doesn't take away that 'ride through the woods' aspect of The Beast. It's like the park is slowly encroaching on The Beast. I guess it is bound to happen eventually but that should be a treat for future generations to witness. Today, I want to keep riding through the woods.

That turn around looks like it is really going to be something crazy. That height, the curve at the top and the steep drop back down. I cant wait to have a heart attack while riding this thing. I will become an urban legend as employees claim to have seen my ghost.

Disney World and Disneyland closures are now indefinite: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/travel-information/ https://disneyland.disney.go.com/travel-information/

A Message from Richard Zimmerman, Chief Executive Officer, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company March 20, 2020 Update At Cedar Fair, the safety and well-being of our Guests and Associates are always our top priorities. We have been continuously monitoring and following regional and national health directives related to COVID-19 and we want to keep you informed on how these events will impact our park schedule. Currently, it is our hope to open Kings Island mid-May or as soon thereafter as possible. We believe this decision is in the best interest of our associates, our guests, and our community. We will work with Guests who have prepaid tickets during the time period of our park closure. You may contact us at www.visitkingsisland.com/help/contact-us. For 2020 Season Passholders, we will be adding days to the park’s operating calendar to accommodate for the days the park is temporarily closed (against original 2020 operating calendar). Additionally, 2020 Season Passholders will enjoy added-value benefits to be announced at time of park opening. We appreciate the support and cooperation of our Guests and Associates during this ever-evolving situation. Your loyalty to our park is invaluable. We look forward to seeing you soon.

BLOG: 5 ways to have some Kings Island fun at home https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/march/5-ways-to-have-some-kings-island-fun-at-home 5 WAYS TO HAVE SOME KINGS ISLAND FUN AT HOME March 25, 2020 Don Helbig Area Manager Digital Marketing - Kings Island Twitter: @DonHelbig Looking for something do at home with the kids? Here’s a list of five ways to have some Kings Island fun from the comforts of home. Be sure the share your fun with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #KingsIsland. We’ll share and retweet some of our favorites. Enjoy a virtual roller coaster ride Take a virtual ride on one of Kings Island’s world-class roller coasters. We have several rollver coaster Point of View (POV) videos on our YouTube channel. Play them on YouTube’s TV app and add to the experience by sitting in a moveable chair in front of the TV with other props such as a broomstick for the lap bar. Enjoy a virtual water ride Here’s a fun one! Take a virtual ride on Race for Your Life Charlie Brown. We have a Point of View (POV) video on your YouTube channel that will make you feel as though you are experiencing this attraction. Add to the experience by having a non-virtual rider tossing small splashes of water on you at points during the ride where you might get wet. Watch a parade If you love a parade, you’ll love watching a replay of the electrifying vibe of the Spectacle of Color Parade from our Grand Carnivale event. You’ll feel like you’re watching it live from International Street! Make a sketch of your favorite rides Get out those No. 2 pencils and sketch drawings of your favorite Kings Island rides, present or past. Challenge yourself with these thought-provoking Kings Island trivia questions 1. A rider on Drop Tower will drop 264 feet. How many times would you have to ride this attraction to travel a mile? 2. The height from which a rider drops on Drop Tower is 264 feet. There is 5,280 feet in a mile. What is the length of the fall expressed in miles? 3. A ride on Invertigo lasts one minute, 30 seconds. If you and a friend rode this ride continuously across from each other, with no stops from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., how many times would you “Face Off” with your partner? 4. The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world at 7,359 feet. One sheet of toilet paper in the park is 4.5” x 4.5” and there are 500 sheets in a roll. The park will use 700 cases of toilet paper a year. Each case contains 96 rolls. How many times could you cover the Beast’s track with all of this toilet paper? 5. The park sells over 280,000 pounds of hamburger a year. How many quarter pound burgers would that make?

Smoky Mountains National Park is set to close stating on March 24 and will remain close at least until April 6. This includes roads inside the park as well as hiking trails. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is set to close for at least two weeks.  Read More: Great Smoky Mountains National Park Set to Close | https://wbkr.com/great-smoky-mountains-national-park-set-to-close/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Disney is taking such a beating with closures of all the parks, movie productions put on hold and canceled theatrical releases because of the coronavirus that its stocks have dropped to an all time low. Now Apple is thinking about making a take over offer. Apple Could Look to Acquire Disney Amid Stock Drop, Analyst Says

Lego Land will reopen this week. I'm sure the entire amusement industry will be watching the re-opening of Legoland, Japan and the Merlin’s Sea Life aquarium in Nagoya Japan to see how this goes.

Yea, I'm not at all surprised.

More at https://www.visitkingsisland.com/park-update

https://www.holidayworld.com/covid-19/ Message to our Guests on COVID-19 During his twenty-some years serving Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari as park president, my dad—Will Koch Jr.—never missed an opening day. Especially not when a new attraction was on the line. We do everything in our power to uphold his same standard—though circumstances beyond our control may intervene. I hate to say, but we may not be able to welcome Guests through our gates on our scheduled opening day this year. We’re around six weeks out from our scheduled opening—and our maintenance team is still on track for May 2. But this year we’re up against forces stronger than most years. We’re watching reports about COVID-19 from the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization carefully and consulting with our colleagues at other parks to find out when it will be safe for both our Guests and Team Members to open. At this time, we can’t share a date with any certainty. But our opening day is coming. We’re going to do our best to make sure the Platinum Season Passholder event goes on, and we’ll reschedule every other event we can if we’re not able to open in time. When we reopen, we’ll have changed our operations in ways you may or may not notice. We’ve had our kitchens professionally cleaned this year, and we’re working on getting hand sanitizer readily available all over the park. You may even have to deal with some temporary closures while we sanitize our rides throughout the day. The important thing that you should know is that we’re ready to rise to the occasion when opening day comes. What can we say? We’ve been the cleanest park in the world for two decades. You’ve developed high standards, and we plan to continue to exceed them. What’s important now is that we all follow the recommendations of the CDC and our state governments so we can beat this virus and have the best summer ever. -Leah Koch, Fourth-Generation Owner and Director of Communications on behalf of the Koch Family

I never realized that the last tunnel covering the lift hill was so long. Seems like only a forth of that when your zoming into it on the train.

Clear view of the site from this new video:

All Great Wolf Lodge locations are closing for the rest of the month: COVID-19 UPDATE: GREAT WOLF LODGE CLOSING FROM MARCH 16—APRIL 1, 2020 The health and safety of our guests and pack members is always our primary focus and it guides all decisions made at Great Wolf Lodge. In response to COVID-19 we implemented enhanced sanitation measures at our resorts and provided CDC updates stating there is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread through the use of pools or hot tubs. We have had no reported positive COVID-19 cases within our guest or pack community. However, with the recent focus from federal and state government officials on restricting large gatherings, we believe it is in the best interest of our guests and pack members to temporarily close all of our resorts and plan to re-open on April 2. The closure will be effective starting at 2pm on Sunday, March 15, so that guests staying at the resort the evening of March 14 will have full use of the water park and recreational facilities before departing. For all guests with reservations from the evening of March 15 through April 1, we will automatically cancel your reservation and provide a full refund. Please be patient with us, as with the number of reservations that need to be cancelled it may take 7-10 days before we’re able to process all refunds. This is an unprecedented and challenging time, and we are very appreciative of the overwhelming support from families like yours who enjoy spending time together at our resort. We look forward to welcoming you back after we re-open and hope to help your family create more fun-filled moments. We will continue to stay connected with federal and state health officials to monitor the ongoing situation and provide our guests with additional updates as warranted. After the resort re-opens, we will continue following official health department recommendations and the enhanced sanitation measures we implemented for the well-being of our guests. These include: More frequent cleansing of public and pack member areas of the resort with hospital-grade disinfectant solutions. This includes high-touch areas in waterpark, lobby, food service areas, attractions, arcade, retail outlets, elevators, vending machines and other guest areas. We use the same hospital-grade disinfectant cleaners in all guest rooms, and room attendants are trained to pay special attention to high-touch areas such as door handles, light switches, in-room phone, power outlets and television remotes. We have placed hand-sanitation stations throughout the resort to provide our guests with a convenient method of maintaining good personal hygiene. Along with the hand sanitizers, we are encouraging all guests and pack members to wash hands frequently with soap and warm water. We believe family time together is invaluable and hope you will continue with your planned family getaway to Great Wolf Lodge. However, if you are feeling the least bit uncertain, we wanted to share some modifications to our booking policies: STAYS WITH ARRIVALS THROUGH MARCH 14TH, 2020 The closure will be effective starting at 2pm on Sunday, March 15, so that guests staying at the resort the evening of March 14 will have full use of the water park and recreational facilities before departing. We look forward to hosting you. However, we realize families may have concerns about traveling at this moment and we want to provide you the flexibility to modify your stay. For any bookings with arrivals through March 14th, you will be able to apply your deposit to any future stay at Great Wolf Lodge up through November 18th, 2020. STAYS WITH ARRIVALS FROM MARCH 15TH, 2020 THROUGH APRIL 1ST, 2020 The closure will be effective starting at 2pm on Sunday, March 15. For all guests with reservations from the evening of March 15 through April 1, we will automatically cancel your reservation and provide a full refund. Please be patient with us, as with the number of reservations that need to be cancelled, it may take 7-10 days before we’re able to process all refunds. This is an unprecedented and challenging time, and we are very appreciative of the overwhelming support from families like yours who enjoy spending time together at our resort. We look forward to welcoming you back after we re-open and hope to help your family create more fun-filled moments. STAYS WITH ARRIVALS FROM APRIL 2ND THROUGH APRIL 17TH, 2020 We are looking forward to re-opening and hosting you. However, we realize families may have concerns about traveling at this moment and we want to provide you the flexibility to modify your stay. For any bookings with arrivals through April 17th, you will be able to apply your deposit to any future stay at Great Wolf Lodge up through November 18th, 2020.

I'm going to see the original King Kong, playing at the cinema today only. Also, I need to go out and buy a water heater. We haven't had hot water in almost 4 weeks. It's like taking the ice bucket challenge when you shower. I must boil a pot of water and poor it into the sink to wash the dishes and I might have to go to a laundry mat to wash some clothes. Everything is coming up dead roses for me.

Dollywood opened today for season pass day but then decided to close for two weeks.

I love the closeness and angle of Diamondback.

16,000 Americans have died from flu this year, only 2,810 people have died from the coronavirus virus WORLD WIDE. Most people who are effected with coronavirus usually get better, although they may be wishing they are dead when it reaches it's worse point. The ones who generally die have either diabetes, heart disease, late stage cancer, are elderly, have lung disease and anyone else who might have some kind of medical condition that could compromise their immune system... like cirrhosis of the liver as another example. If you feel flu like symptoms coming on, get to a hospital pronto, do not try to ride it out because it could be coronavirus and not the flu... although you should go see a doctor even it turns out to be the flu, because you are more likely to die from that than coronavirus. I gathered this info from reputable medical and science sites, not Fox, NBC or any news sites exaggerating headlines to create ratings and clicks.

Cedar Fair's Schlitterbahn waterparks in New Braunfels and Galveston are also closing until the end of the month. https://www.schlitterbahn.com/home/corp/information

The above Cedar Fair statement is now obsolete. Knott's Berry Farm is closing through the end of the month, and Carowinds, Kings Dominion and California's Great America have all postponed their opening date to April 3/4. https://www.knotts.com/park-update https://www.carowinds.com/park-update https://www.kingsdominion.com/park-update https://www.cagreatamerica.com/park-update

To promote their 150th season this year, Cedar Point will be returning to it's roots. Just like the parks of yesterday, it will be free to get in and roam around, but if you want to enjoy one of the open attractions you have to purchase a ticket for that attraction. Think of the E-Ticket system that used to be at Disney or any carnival or fair today. If you want to ride everything and see all the shows, you can buy an "all day" wristband for $20.20. Otherwise it might cost you like $4.00 for one ride on Valravn or $3.00 for one ride on Wicked Twister. I'm just giving an example here, they haven't said how much each ride and show will cost as of yet. It will only be for two of the midways, the main midway and the lakeside midway, so no western town. This event will happen on May 2nd and 3rd. It would be something neat to do if you just want to go, walk around and reminiscent about going as a teenager, but not as much if you want to ride stuff all day, although $20.20 is a pretty good price to be able to do that on the rides that will be open. Valravn and Gate Keeper are going to be the two most popular. Reservations to do this must be done in advance. Just for Fun Weekend featuring free admission

I was just thinking earlier this evening that a great place to catch the Coronavirus would be at a fast food restaurant. Some kid teen could catch it and then he or she is making your tacos or Big Mac, and you know they're kids so they will not have the best hygiene and washing their hands enough, if at all. And you know some of them will take short cuts on proper cleaning of dishes and equipment to get out of work faster, especially the boys. I just read that Target, even though it already has very clean stores, is increasing their cleaning budget to get them even cleaner to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Don't you have to pay via auction? Money is so tight for me currently, between medical bills and having to get a new water heater I haven't even had enough money to get my 2020 season pass yet. So there is no point for me to go to 'First Rider' auction weekend.

A former employee of Cedar Point’s parent company claims she didn’t receive payment for overtime. A former employee of Cedar Point’s parent company claims she didn’t receive payment for overtime.

This video by Flyin High Dronez shows a full test cycle of Orion from the air:

Vortex's former location, now being fenced off, can be seen in this recent video of the park by Flyin High Dronez:

If you look at the ride in person I think you would think otherwise. The spine on the ride is huge!

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BLOG: Aerial view of Kings Island's new Orion giga coaster opening in April https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/march/aerial-view-of-kings-islands-new-giga-coaster-opening-in-april

I'm kind of glad that Kings Island got postponed because I don't have the money for a season pass right now. They started trying a new cure/ treatment in New York today. Trump says he wants the country running like normal again by Easter, but I don't know about that. All it takes is one infected person and we'll all be back to this in four months for round 2.

When I was a drive-in manager they did not have to pay over time. Movie theaters, circuses and other forms of work in the amusement industries were all exempt from over time. In fact, they were even allowed to pay Student Wage which was less per hour than minimum wage. I don't know what the rules are today and if they have changed or not. Walmart pays what is often refered to as a slave wage and many of their employees are on government assistance, so it doesn't sound like things have changed too much if it has changed at all.

Apparently, a woman jumped to her death at Disney World's Contemporary Resort. The Contemporary Resort is the big "A" framed building that the monorail goes through. I guess killing yourself at the happiest place in the world takes some of the sad edge off of the depressing act you are about to do. Disney seems to be having a really rough time lately... Story Here