No more BEAST night rides?

[acer510]

Heard on a Cincy radio station the other day that starting Aug 1st hours at Kings Island will be 11am to 7pm The offical website shows they're open 'til 10pm on aug 1 and 7pm or 8pm the rest of August.

[t***@gmail.com]

Sunsets start to turn a corner by August, occurring
1.5 minutes earlier per day by then.

[s***@aol.com]

I thought they were closing at 7 everyday this summer. All parks have reduced hours (except Fun Spot). Night rides in most parks are not happening this year. Beast, of course, is the one that it matters most to.

[Dave Althoff, Jr.]

***@aol.com wrote:
: I thought they were closing at 7 everyday this summer. All parks have
: reduced hours (except Fun Spot). Night rides in most parks are not
: happening this year. Beast, of course, is the one that it matters most
: to.

You misspelled "Voyage".

Although THAT park has never been a good place to get night rides, except
during special events.

I still don't understand why parks would rather open early and close early
rather than opening later in the day and closing sometime at night. Why is
11-7 preferred over, say, 2-10?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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[s***@aol.com]

Dave, I 100% agree with you on the early vs. late hours.

[t***@gmail.com]

Dave Althoff, Jr:

Re "11-7 vs 2-10"

I've recently pondered the same regarding dry-goods(non food) retail stores(Walmart,
PC Richards, Macy's, etc).

And I've found that I am the opposite of most Americans on this issue: I'druther earlier
than later! I'm up by 6-6:30am everyday, whether work beckons or not, and horizontal
by 9-10pm. Been that way all my life. I'd prefer dry goods to match grocery hours,
opening at 7 or 8am, but shuttering by 7pm so retail workers could still have some time
at the end of the day to be with their families, before going to bed.

All the "late" American lifestyle(stores, parks, wherever, opening at 10, 11am) does is
explain why we have daylight saving time: To delay sunrise & set by an hour so folks
can stay up until after midnight, sleep in til 7 or 8, and still get to work on time.

Weird lifestyle if y'akse me!

[s***@aol.com]

I just on the park’s Facebook they’re open until 10pm Fridays through August 14 and Saturdays through August 29!

[Dave Althoff, Jr.]

***@aol.com wrote:
: I just on the park?s Facebook they?re open until 10pm Fridays through
: August 14 and Saturdays through August 29!

Two things I have been saying all season where the big parks have been
killing themselves this season...

1) Mask rules. At least harmonize with the A's HJ. The parks that have done
that are also the parks that haven't cut days and hours from the schedule.

2) Early closing times.

Well, our former FAQ-keeper was at Kings Island yesterday and reports that
they had a more-normal-looking crowd. Not a normal Saturday crowd, but not
the ghost town that the park has been all season either. Trying to figure
out what had changed...it's that the park was open until 10pm.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
NEW! When emailing this account, include the 'canonical magic word' in
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[a***@gmail.com]

Post by Dave Althoff, Jr.
: I just on the park?s Facebook they?re open until 10pm Fridays through
: August 14 and Saturdays through August 29!
Two things I have been saying all season where the big parks have been
killing themselves this season...
1) Mask rules. At least harmonize with the A's HJ. The parks that have done
that are also the parks that haven't cut days and hours from the schedule.
2) Early closing times.
Well, our former FAQ-keeper was at Kings Island yesterday and reports that
they had a more-normal-looking crowd. Not a normal Saturday crowd, but not
the ghost town that the park has been all season either. Trying to figure
out what had changed...it's that the park was open until 10pm.

Truthfully, nobody in the hobby cares to pay attention to Lake Winnie or Magic Springs as they do Six Flags/Universal/Disney/Cedar Fair properties. Lake Winnie is running 10-6 and 12-6. The only option vs. cutting hours at that point is just closing outright. I know there's plenty of people who won't go to parks with mask policies in place. I personally wouldn't go to a park that doesn't have one, and it seems that the overwhelming majority are scared to do so either way because the disease is so widespread. Bit of a catch 22, though I would guess promoting the masking/social distancing aspect and trying to establish a lack of cases related to attendance would do some good for amusement/theme parks in this country so long as they aren't heavily dependent on international tourism where there's no hope on the horizon :looks at Orlando:

[s***@aol.com]

Aren’t the parks that are staying open longer hours doing so because their attendance has justified it? I know it probably works both ways-
Park is going to be busier on certain days so they stay open longer, and also
Park is open longer hours today, let’s go today instead of a day they’re not open as long.

I personally would rather a park be open later hours rather than early hours (if it’s the same amount of hours either way). I like being in the parks at night, plus I prefer not having to wake up/get up early on my vacation/day off when I go to a park. So instead of 11-7 (8 hours) I’d prefer 4-midnight or 3-11 (8 hours). But that’s just me.

[Dave Althoff, Jr.]

***@aol.com wrote:
: Aren?t the parks that are staying open longer hours doing so because
: their attendance has justified it? I know it probably works both ways-
: Park is going to be busier on certain days so they stay open longer, and
: also Park is open longer hours today, let?s go today instead of a day
: they?re not open as long.
:
: I personally would rather a park be open later hours rather than early
: hours (if it?s the same amount of hours either way). I like being in the
: parks at night, plus I prefer not having to wake up/get up early on my
: vacation/day off when I go to a park. So instead of 11-7 (8 hours) I?d
: prefer 4-midnight or 3-11 (8 hours). But that?s just me.

No, it's not just you. It's what I have been preaching for years. Going
back to when Six Flags would cut the hours at Wyandot Lake in the later
part of the season by closing earlier instead of opening later. The upshot
of this was that I was no longer able to visit the park after work, as the
place was closing too early for that. In other words, closing earlier was
actually reducing attendance.

This season I don't think any park is busy enough to justify running more
than one shift per day, and that means a 6-8 hour operating day. So why
does that day have to start at 10am? Why not run like those old beachfront
parks that were only open in the evening, when people came in from the beach?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX
NEW! When emailing this account, include the 'canonical magic word' in
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[Heather Kendrick]

Post by Dave Althoff, Jr.
No, it's not just you. It's what I have been preaching for years. Going
back to when Six Flags would cut the hours at Wyandot Lake in the later
part of the season by closing earlier instead of opening later.

Years ago when Michigan’s Adventure was a lovably low-rent wonderland of
nonstop walk-ons, my ex-husband and I had season passes and would go probably
around every other week all summer. (It’s our closest park at a bit under
two hours’ drive.) We would usually go just for two hours or so and then go
on to visit the shore towns for dinner and ice cream. The park would be open
until 7 pm most of the season. One day we drove out there and arrived around
4 pm with the intention of having two to three hours in the park and then
heading to Grand Haven or something. As we got to the parking lot, we noticed
every car leaving... and then looked up and saw the hours on the sign, 11-4
today. Oops. We had forgotten that in the early season it closes at the
insane hour of 4. (Still does, I think.) That’s my most Wally World moment
as a park-goer.*

During our honeymoon we also discovered how early de Efteling closed. After
we checked into our hotel we tried to walk up and buy tickets at 6 pm for
what we thought was 8 pm closing. The ticket person told us that they were
about to close; they didn’t start keeping “late” hours (until 8) until
the following week – the second week in July. It boggled our minds. I have
only a little bit of experience with parks in Europe but they seem to tend
toward very early closing by American standards.

[Heather Kendrick]

Post by a***@gmail.com
I know there's plenty of people who
won't go to parks with mask policies in place. I personally wouldn't go to a
park that doesn't have one, and it seems that the overwhelming majority are
scared to do so either way because the disease is so widespread.

Unfortunately I place myself in that last category, and my husband likewise.
Unless things change significantly before the end of the fall season, this
will probably be the first calendar year in which I will ride no roller
coasters since 1998. (Why 1998? Because I only started getting back into
visiting amusement parks in 1999. From about 1993-1998 I had become too old
for family trips and too young to have things like a car and money.) I’m
very strict, though it hurts me badly inside. The only thing my husband and I
did all summer was go to a couple of drive-in movies. Today is the last day
of my summer(I’m a professor): they’re starting up classes early, to
finish before Thanksgiving. So tomorrow starts whatever cascade of doom is
going to come from that.

Here’s to better times whenever they come.