 Righty! So I'm here today to talk to you about the future of Cedar Fair. This one's extremely easy because Cedar Fair is very vocal and very open about what they're doing in terms of future growth, expansions, where they're going to invest their money, how they're going to invest their money. They're so open that they have a slideshow here for you today made by Cedar Fair that explains exactly what they plan on doing to grow the business even more. So this is going to be one of the easiest videos I make because it is all coming from Cedar Fair themselves. And then obviously I'm going to give you a little bit of my opinions on things. But nonetheless, on Instagram, our account is amusementinsidersplural on Instagram. We asked a question, sticker, why do you think Cedar Fair is doing so much better than Six Flags right now? I'm going to read off a couple of these. So a lot of people are saying just overall park management, making quality investments, Six Flags really needs a redo of many park entrances, pathways, etc. I can honestly say that Cedar Fair could use the same just to be fair. A lot of people just, some people are saying everything. I disagree with that even though I do think Cedar Fair parks are much nicer. People are saying Cedar Fair doesn't clone everything whereas Six Flags tends to clone a lot of their stuff. The business model that Cedar Fair uses is just that much better. The park environment, so that's going to be a big topic of discussion in this slide. Knott's Berry Farm was referenced compared to Six Flags, Magic Mountain, the food services, and the rides. I will say that Six Flags does have some amazing rides, especially back in the day. The attendance, the money, and if you compare Laurent to Wonderland, it's extremely easy. Wonderland's clearly better. That's from someone else, not my opinions, although I would agree. I haven't been to Laurent yet, but there's no comparison. There's no argument. Cedar Fair doesn't like to build parks in other countries. That is very true. Making new partnerships with other brands, exactly. You're paying for quality at Cedar Fair, money. They just have better parks. I love how Cedar Fair just focuses on adding quality attractions because Cedar Fair is smart with their money because I think they have a better business model and Six Flags can't start a new park. They just have better parks. I love how Cedar Fair just has an adding quality attraction. I think I just screen shot that twice. All right. I'm going to get into the slide. Those are just some things that people have said on Instagram, but nonetheless, here is the most important slide of the day. This literally tells you exactly what's going on at Cedar Fair and there's a big change. So a lot of people have been complaining about Cedar Fair not investing in every park every year. Well, guess what? It looks like they heard you. The heavens have answered and every park moving forward is going to get something new every year. So I don't know if this is something entirely new, but this is a promise. This sounds very Six Flags to me. So it'll be interesting to see how Cedar Fair does that, but something new at every park every year. So that is something Cedar Fair is going to be doing. They're going to prioritize, prioritize investments in more immersive guest experiences within the core. So Cedar Fair is an entertainment company now. Huge emphasis on entertainment from shows like live performances, live actors. I'm trying to think of everything they do. You have those all seasons of fun. So they have entertainment events through every season, spring, fall, summer, winter. Cedar Fair does it best and they're focusing on getting all the guests, no matter their age, race, color, religion, all of them into the park. So that's something that Cedar Fair is really good at. And honestly, I can tell you from hearing guest reactions at Winterfest at Canada's Wonderland, they nailed it. Lots of people were so impressed with Winterfest at Canada's Wonderland. I was blown away. I was honestly just expecting millions of lights thrown around the park and then just tacky singing here and there. No, no, no, it was much better than that. And honestly, I will always be a returning customer to Winterfest. I know I'm biased because I'm an enthusiast and I love Wonderland, but where I want to point out my unbiased is a lot of enthusiasts actually don't like Winterfest. I love Winterfest. I'm a much more well rounded, like enthusiast in terms of I love theming, I love entertainment, I love the atmosphere. And I think that's why I honestly have all this love for Cedar Fair. I just love their business model and I love what they're doing with the park. Trying to think if there's anything else in this slide. So I do want to talk about the fact that Cedar Fair is much more recession proof than Six Flags. So Cedar Fair in focusing on its American North American parks, obviously, they don't have parks in other parts of the world yet. They are ready for a recession. So they invest in their parks, they build up these season pass sales and these loyal clients with the Gold Pass. And by the way, we're hearing rumblings that Cedar Point sold 500,000 Gold Passes. And I'm hearing rumblings that Canada's Wonderland has sold very similar to that. The Gold Pass is just a huge hit with the offerings that Cedar Fair was offering at the end of this season by a 2020 Gold Pass. And they were blasting that at Canada's Wonderland. I know they were at Cedar Point too. Buy a 2020 Gold Pass, get into Winterfest in the remainder of this season for free everywhere. Everyone was getting Gold Passes. Like literally, it's all I ever heard, especially at Cedar Point with their Halloween, Halloween weekend event. It was just jam packed. So Cedar Fair is pushing the School Passes and it's working. Whereas we're hearing at Six Flags, their memberships are down. Well, it turns out later on in this presentation, Cedar Fair did a study into memberships versus season passes and why the season passes are a much better system than the memberships. And this might be part of the reason as to why Six Flags isn't doing so hot in terms of their memberships and why their membership sales are down and their attendance is down and thus their revenue is down. I do also want to touch that Cedar Fair is already, as of the end of Q3, almost made the same amount of revenue that they did all of last year in 2018. That's insane. And that's excluding the Schlitterbond water parks. With the Schlitterbond water parks, they are exactly where they were. I think they're like 100 million above what they were last year. I'm going to have to recheck that fact. But nonetheless, they are going to outdo Six Flags in terms of revenue for the first time ever. So that's crazy with like literally half the amount of parks that Six Flags has for a company to be pulling in the same revenue as Six Flags. You know they're doing something right. So some key findings that Cedar Fair has done. So this presentation is all about key findings, research that they've done going into the market and asking the guest and then coming back with information and building a business plan. That's what this presentation is by the way in front of me. So something for everyone. Consumers are syncing entertainment options that can accommodate all types of people, ages and interests, disconnecting to connect. Despite the pervasiveness of technology, people still appreciate simple fun that fosters connection. Consumers are on the hunt for never before experiences, craving atmosphere and experiences with the sense of place. So I love how they emphasize that. So sense of place is something that Cedar Fair is focusing on. You can see it with Frontier Canada, Forbidden Frontier, Ghost Town, Alive, I think is what they call it. Not so very fine. Correct me down below if I made that up or if I misnamed that. Consumers are see local as more authentic. Authentic diversity is differentiating. So Cedar Fair is definitely focusing on growing their base. So they want, every age, again, as I said earlier, every age, every race, every religion, just a diverse group of people to be able to go to their parks and be like, oh, I don't have to be here if I don't like roller coasters. Or like, you know, I want to be here even if I don't like roller coasters. I can go watch the shows, you know, I can drop my like teenage family members off and then go watch and do some entertainment options at the park. That's what they're going after. And they're looking for these never-before seen experiences like Ghost Town Alive, Forbidden Frontier. You're going to see that popping up at all the major parks I can already tell. But they're trying to broaden the guest experience with more visits from existing guests and incremental visits from new guests. So they're trying to draw on those new guests again, as I've just been talking about. They're expanding the season pass program, increased to market penetration through targeted marketing efforts. We're seeing that there's Winterfest said advertisements on buses. They did the push notifications for upgrade your day ticket today into a season pass for the lowest price possible and the pursue adjacent development. So this is a huge thing with Cedar Fair. They are going to be developing their adjacent lands with hotels, sports venues. And we're going to get into that a little bit further down the slide. But to get back into the immersive experiences, Cedar Fair is going to be offering guest immersive experiences like the Grand Carnival, Ghost Town Alive. So I did get it right. And then Winterfest Forbidden Frontier and then the Monster Jam. So these are very diverse immersive experiences that Cedar Fair is offering. They've been expanding them out to their other parks. And it's just working really well for them. We're hearing that Grand Carnival had like a similar draw in attendance to building a roller coaster that Winterfest has a similar draw in attendance to building a roller coaster. So these are very to enthusiasts. That's not something you want to hear. But these are really good things to hear for a company like Cedar Fair, you know, that building investing in something cheaper than a roller coaster is drawing in the same amount of crowds. So entertainment is definitely a route that Cedar Fair is going to want to pursue because it's making the money and it's bringing in the gas and it's creating that diverse atmosphere where the whole family is going to want to visit, not just maybe the mom and kids or the two teenagers that live in that household. You're going to want the grandparents, the father, the mother and all the kids of the family are going to be able to visit. So food and beverage is playing a key role. Obviously, Canada's Wonderland, please listen, no shade, but just please listen to this. Or when is Cedar Fair going to invest in food? I know that in my video it's coming, but Cedar Fair is investing in better restaurants, more diversity in restaurants, indoor places to go sit down and eat because of changing weather patterns. It's getting colder, it's getting warmer, it's getting more wet. I know that doesn't make sense, but that is exactly what's happening. That is a huge decline on attendance for a lot of parks and Cedar Fair is trying to build more indoor attractions like dark rides, indoor restaurants, and stuff like that. But definitely love what Cedar Point has done with upgrading their restaurants and I can't wait to see what other parks do. From what I understand, Knotsbury Farm and Cedar Point definitely have the best restaurants and food. I've heard Kings Island has some really good food too, but I'll have to check that out when I go there. Canada's Wonderland, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. This season pass payment plan, I don't know why I didn't understand what SPs did for, I had to literally think really hard there for a second, and the loyalty program meet objectives. So the Cedar Fair season pass program is a two-tier program now, so they're linking in a loyalty program and a payment plan into their Cedar Fair season pass, and they set it up right here to compare it to a subscription model, and it just doesn't work for Cedar Fair based off of this. Now, I don't know if Cedar Fair is ever going to pursue a subscription model because they did talk at the beginning of the quarter, so Q1 about maybe trying it out somewhere, but it definitely looks like they did their research and it just doesn't fit into their lineup. A lot of people have been asking me, what's going on with the hotel at Canada's Wonderland? Well, it has been delayed due to the neighbors next to Canada's Wonderland, blah, blah, blah, complain, complain, complain, complain, but everything's been sorted out and it now has a targeted opening of Q2 in 2021 with 140 rooms adjacent to Canada's Wonderland. So this is one of those adjacent projects that have been developed that they're working on. So it is still going forward. I know a lot of people are like, why didn't you include that in the future of Canada's Wonderland? It completely slipped my mind because I just assumed that everyone knows about it or doesn't care about it. But here it is. The hotel at Canada's Wonderland is happening. Spring Hill Suites at Carolins did open up already, so that is open. Ours was supposed to open same time, but it has just been been delay after delay. Nonetheless, this is what Cedar Fair has to offer for the future. And honestly, I couldn't be more excited and more impressed. They are recession proof. They're going to be building rides and attractions at every single one of their parks every year. I said rides and attractions, but that includes restaurants and shows and entertainment as well. But every park is going to be getting something new every year. Very six flags, but I'm very interested to see how Cedar Fair does it. I know that Cedar Fair is doing exceptionally well. They've been paying down their debt now. They've been putting money aside to buy future properties. So again, from what I understand from their presentation is they have around 250 something million dollars set aside, and they're going to be saving up money and more money to purchase other parks. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this quick presentation or I shouldn't say quick, it's 15 minutes. This presentation on the future of Cedar Fair. Don't forget to hit that like button, subscribe if you haven't, and share this video for others to enjoy. Comment down below what you would like to see me do future of next. Thanks for watching guys. Have a good one. Bye.