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- Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!aq009
- From: aq009@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (David A. Johnson)
- Newsgroups: rec.roller-coaster
- Subject: KI Attendance/GA Cyclone (was Re: Top 40...)
- Date: 27 Jan 1993 01:22:37 GMT
- Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
- Lines: 87
- Message-ID: <1k4o4uINNina@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
- References: <1993Jan26.205021.2339@pmafire.inel.gov> <1993Jan23.204513.29842@engage.pko.dec.com>
- Reply-To: aq009@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (David A. Johnson)
- NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu
-
-
- In a previous article, geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen) says:
-
- Buck>> 16 20 16 Si[x] Flags over Georgia; Atlanta, GA 2,600,000* Up 14%
- >
- Geoff>Noting like souping up your Cyclone coaster to boost attendance!
-
-
- What'd they do to the Cyclone? Some day I think I'm going to try to get
- over to SFoG; I'd like to know more about what's going on with the Cyclone.
- I hadn't heard anything about any changes.
-
- ....................................
-
- Now then, take a look at this from Buck's posting of the top 40 parks:
-
-
-
- '90 '91 '92 PARK & LOCATION ATTENDANCE % OF CHANGE
- === === === =============== ========== ===========
- 1 1 1 WDW, EPCOT, MGM Studios; 30,240,000* Up 8%
- Lake Buena Vista, FL
-
- 2 2 2 Disneyland; Anaheim, CA 11,600,000* Down slightly
-
- 12 3 3 Universal Studios Florida; 6,700,000* Up 12%
- Orlando, FL
-
- 4 4 4 Universal Studios Hollywood; 4,800,000* Up 4%
- Universal City, CA
-
- 5 6 5 Sea World of Florida; Orlando, FL 4,100,000* Up 5%
-
- 6 7 6 Sea World of California; San Diego 4,006,000* Up 5%
-
- 3 5 7 Knott's Berry Farm; Buena Park, CA 3,900,000* Down slightly
-
- 7 13 8 Paramount's King's Island; 3,260,000* Up 12%
- King's Falls, OH
- .................................
-
- If I'm not mistaken, this makes Kings Island once again the top seasonal
- park in North America. (I wonder what spurred the 12% increase... Must
- have been the Scooby Zoom.)
-
- Anyway, this led me to a question. Why is it that, whenever I go to Kings
- Island, the lines in general seem much more reasonable than they do at a
- lot of other parks (such as Cedar Point, SF Great America, and [so I hear]
- Great Adventure)? Attendance figures alone would seem to indicate longer
- lines at KI; however, that doesn't seem to be the case.
-
- Possible explanations I came up with:
-
- * Kings Island has a larger collection of "desirable" coasters. Parks like
- Cedar Point (with the Magnum and Mean Streak) and Great America (with the
- Shockwave and Batman--The Ride) may have large collections of coasters, but
- only two or three "star" coasters which the public wants to ride. Thus,
- lines at these coasters get really long. The popularity of KI's coasters
- seems to be more evenly spread out.
-
- * Kings Island has its coasters located more closely together. There's not
- as much walking time between coasters, so the time is spent more
- efficiently at KI than it is at other parks (if you're concentrating on
- coasters). Perhaps this isn't specifically related to "line length," but
- it still concerns actual waiting time between rides.
-
- * Kings Island's coasters are more rewarding, overall, than those at many
- other parks. None of KI's "adult"-sized coasters (except for King Cobra
- with a longish line) makes me think "that wasn't worth the wait at all."
- Cedar Point (Disaster Transport, Iron Dragon, possibly some others) and
- SF Great America (American Eagle, Rolling Thunder [now gone]) do. So at
- KI, the "waiting-in-line" time seems more "worth it;" one remembers the
- rides more than the lines.
-
- Or (the boring explanation):
-
- * Kings Island has a slightly longer operating season than some other
- seasonal parks.
-
-
- Does anybody else have any ideas or comments on the line situation at KI as
- opposed to other parks? I'm looking forward to hearing them...
- --
- Hello! My Name Is: David Johnson
- aq009@cleveland.freenet.edu johns176@studentj.msu.edu
-
- "Chew on this."
-