Monday round-up: 'Frozen' food at Disney, and coasters after dark

June 20, 2016 at 10:24 PM · It's great that Disney is offering re$erved $eating option$ for a new show, after limiting capacity to three shows per day. Cut the supply, jack up the price (unless you want to fight the crowds at rope drop for one of those precious fast passes).

P.S.: Aladdin was much better.

June 21, 2016 at 6:30 AM · Cedar Point looks really cool at night!!! Lots of lighting packages on different rides.

June 21, 2016 at 7:42 AM · Priority seating is not the same as reserved seating. So you're paying for the priviledge of getting first in line to run to your seats. Whereas the person sitting behind you paid nothing extra, just showed up early.

Can't wait for the new ride video for Frozen Ever After.

June 21, 2016 at 8:54 AM · I tried to see the Frozen show on Monday, June 13th. I didn't get to the park until 10:00, so I was sure there wouldn’t be any FastPass tickets left, and there were not. What disappointed and confused me was what happened when I came back to the theater just under an hour before the first show.
There were already loads of FastPass ticket holders in the waiting area. I know they were jockeying for the best of the FastPass seats, but to me the benefit of having a FP for a theater show is just showing up a few minutes prior to show time and knowing I have a place.
When I entered the standby line with still more than 45 minutes until show time, I was told by the CM that there was no guarantee that I would have a seat in the show.
What?!
When I challenged this with, "You know how many FastPass tickets you distribute, you know how many seats there are in the theater, you count those of us entering here and then you stop when it's full..." Her response was, “But we don't know how many VIPs there will be so we can't promise you will get a seat.”
Now I see all of these premium packages and I understand why they can’t know exactly how many people will be in the advanced seating group. This leaves me cold, dare I say, Frozen.
For a long time, people have been pouting about all of Disney’s up-charged events. It’s never bothered me. The dinner packages that included priority access to World of Color and Fantasmic don’t completely exclude others. Granted – participants got the primo viewing areas, but for all intents and purposes, everyone else still gets to see the show.
Now I’ve found myself hoping to catch the Frozen show only to hear that my seat can’t be ensured because the number of VIPs can’t be established as much as 45 minutes prior to show time….well, that’s a big ol’ pile of yellow snow.
People should not be allowed to wait in a line for upwards of an hour for only a chance at a seat. Yes, sometimes rides breakdown and you find you have wasted your time, but that’s a mechanical failure. They are allowing people to wait in line for up to an hour to possibly not get a seat because someone else paid between $49 and $299 to skip the line. That is a business decision failure.
I really don’t begrudge the company from trying its best to make as much money off of this as they can. They are not a not-for-profit business and you’ve got to strike while the ice is cold. I’m just really disappointed that the management overseeing the venue can’t be better at knowing how many people without any kind of special access will be able to see the show. It’s wrong.

June 22, 2016 at 12:59 PM · Ghost Town Alive looks like a winner, I read your OC Register article, and, yeah I like how it's just casual, and you are not forced to do anything. They have a fully fleshed out town that they can totally take advantage of for this sort of thing. The town itself is an attraction, unlike the stores in Frontierland, which are just...stores. People can look at Ghost Town and think, 'well, it's just an old relic', but Knott's management made it come alive. Walter Knott would be happy.