Chris wrote:Wow, only 30 mins of true ERT (not shared with the general public) and none in County Fair?
Don't you think we suggested all of that? We didn't go into planning this event with the mindset of let's get as little ERT as we can. Remember - the park has kids working (for the most part) and they can't/won't keep them there working all day and even later past closing.
Chris wrote:I have a quick question. It mentions a behind the scenes tour, but it's not mentioned on the timeline? What/when will we get to tour?
It isn't mentioned on the timeline because we don't have a time set yet. We've been told it will be a tour of some of the SCarowinds and WinterFest props.
FamousAmos wrote:How will we know when the "surprises" are?
When we get there. It's worded that way because the park says "we're working on some other things for you guys, but we haven't confirmed them yet."
saxrokinhomo wrote:Not trying to be a Debbie downer or complain but if you book right now through hotels.com you can get a rate $11 cheaper than the ACE discounted rate at the comfort inn.
That's on the hotel. Thanks for the heads up though, haha!
Jonathan wrote:I gotta be honest, it's a bit rough to see this event take place on one of the hottest and most crowded days of the year when there's not really much to it outside of the normal operating hours of the park.
Agreed, but it is what it is. In this region anytime in late summer is scalding hot. It doesn't make sense to move it into Fall because with SCarowinds going on we can't get night ERT. So, we shoot for a date that the waterpark is still open to help people with the heat and one that will allow some preview tours of the SCarowinds stuff.
Jonathan wrote:Obviously ACE doesn't deserve any special treatment and if the park wants to treat this event the way they would any standard corporate event then that's their prerogative, but it's a little sad given the way these events were in the old days when Scott and some of the other PR folks were around.
I can't disagree with you on this one.
Jonathan wrote:If this is how it's gonna be I wish they would get on the phone with Cedar Point and Kings Island and bring back a park-hosted event like Coasterstock. We went to Kings Island's this spring and had enough lengthy ERTs and other good stuff that we didn't even feel the need to subject ourselves to the crowds in the park too much during the day.
I believe the reason that the Carowinds version went away was because it never drew the crowd that the park wanted. The Ohio parks can always draw huge numbers (that warrant good ERT's) because their enthusiast fan base is so large. Down here, there just aren't thousands of enthusiasts beating down the parks door for an event of their own. In the end they decided since there were other enthusiast sponsored events at the park that pretty much did all the work for them, there was no need to continue CoasterStock. Now, since Fury 325 has opened and the park has practically exploded in growth, it might be something they look at again seeing as more local enthusiast are turning out for events.
Jonathan wrote:I also recognize that enthusiasts are some of any park's most annoying and hard to please customers, so I don't begrudge them that much for not wanting to throw any special treatment out there. Still disappointing.
I don't think lack luster event schedules are because of any animosity towards enthusiasts. It's just the little park issues that no one thinks about. For this event, here lately, it's always been chopped up because of employee overtime pay, scheduling issues, maximum working hours, etc. or at least that's what I'm told. Trust me when I say it's disappointing to me as well whenever I throw out the "event wishlist" for each event only to have it get chopped down into mostly nothing outside of an average day at the park.
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