PKIWorker19

As sad as it is, we do prosecute/fire MANY associates each year in just Food Service alone. How this girl was able to get $4000 from Skyline is beyond me. However, our void system is set up so you can basically steal...I will not go into detail of course, but it is set up completely wrong. The cash handling procedures at KI are laughable and when I was on Carts, the people who were checking tills that were off would just bag them up, even if they were off $100 or more and they would,"Talk to the associate tomorrow." Cedar Fair needs to examine these policies and make sure that there are cameras in each stand(most stands have cameras, I am mainly talking about cameras on the Cart Locations!) and on each register and that the void procedures are totally redone.

As stated before, 16-17 year olds DO NOT have to be out by a certain time unless it is a Sunday when school is in session, and that time is 11pm. There is a certain amount of money that you have to make PER hour to stay open. When I was working there, that number ranged from 150-250 depending on the stand and how many people you have at the time. And especially now that you have so many stands that serve the same thing, you can close two down and send everyone to Festhaus, which is what we do most of the time. PKI is a business and you can't stay open without making money, period. We can not put the closing and opening times of the stands on the map because those change A LOT. One stand can start opening at 10, and then move to 11 or 12. Beer serving locations have to, BY LAW, close an hour before the park does. Pretty much what it comes down to is if you want to eat, get to any beer serving location an hour BEFORE the park closes, or go to International Street pizza, or International Street Funnel Cakes. Those are the two stands that normally stay open until we run the lines out.

ALL stands that sell beer close an hour before the park. Cedar Fair has also implimented a policy that no Food stand can close before 8pm. So, if attendance is low and a certain stand is not making enough money, once 8pm hits, it is closed for the evening.

When I was a kid and went to Festhaus there were all types of shows and the streamers and just everything made it worthwhile to go. In 2004 and most of 2005, however, they decided to take all that themeing down. It took away from the point of Festhaus and it really didn't make it any different than any other restaurant that we had at the time. Winterfest was a chance for them to get back in the program and they did a very good job at making it be a place where you wanted to spend you time(and money). A show in there would be a great thing since it would bring people in and raise Festhaus' revenue considerably. The QTV's being gone also helped with the decor of Festhaus cause they were just tacky. There is some music being played there, but it is very, VERY low and if you hear it, depends on if they decided to turn it on that day. Overall, they have done a great job and I hope to see this change stay and maybe get better over time. Also, air-conditioning would be a plus... there is air-conditioning, "in-theory", but making it work would be a good thing.

In response to your question, the Gold Pass Meal Deal that is at the Pizza places is $28.10 I believe. That is about a 2 dollar increase from last years price and about a 4 dollar increase from the year before. Ice Cream prices are rediculous (I work there and I can tell you that it is rediculous!) and a whole CHEESE pizza for $19.10. (Sausage and Pep is about $22) I also work at LaRosa's and a large cheese pizza (the same as at Kings Island) is $11.99. Also, the pizza that we make at KI costs about 2 dollars to make, so in all actuallity, we are making about 17 dollars in profit. People do notice this and are very aware that bottled pop went up 50 cents and that the dippin dots went up to $4. They are very aware of this and that is what drives their thoughts of if they want to return to a park that is just about making money. Also, about all the ride things that aren't working... since IJ:ST never really had the subway effect in the first place, I highly doubt that people are really missing that. That ride is, in my opinion, a really good ride that thrills a lot of people daily. Now, they may notice the fact that the audio doesn't work or something else, but that ride is still really good. SOB- They tried and it was a success at first. Then it went to hell and has not be able to come back. TR:TR- I worked at this ride my first year during FearFest (thats right, a food guy in rides, which I loved by the way, the crew there was really nice and it was a great time!) and that whole pre-show thing is a vital part of that ride if you ask me. When I was working the pre-show, it was awesome and I think that you need that and if you don't have that, then you have lost the ride entirely. NU- I am a 20 year old, but I must say that NU is freaking awesome. You have no idea how many of those kids are having so much fun... they don't care what something used to be called or that is used to be HB (which, by the way, was completely and totally dull and boring), they care about the kid rides that they are able to ride. It is their section and they can do whatever they please. It is an awesome addition and I can say that I love it and Avatar is amazing. I love that ride, I don't care if it is for little kids.

As a member of the Food Service Department, I know what you are talking about with the prices and trying to get every little cent out of a product. I work at one of the Carts locations and you would not believe the amount of times I get asked,"Why are the prices so high?" I can't answer that because I don't make them. PKI was actually the CHEAPEST of all the Paramount Parks until this year which is why we saw a rise in prices so we are level with the other parks. PKI does need to realize that they are pricing themselves out of the market by charging that much at the gate and then not letting up once you get in the park. Cedar Point actually lowered their ticket prices because they saw a drop in attendance and are trying to remedy that. PKI seems to be trying to get people to stay home by charging that much. Then there is the labor concern with PKI. We have 3,000 seasonal associates with an AVERAGE payrate of 7.65. Do you know how much money KI has to shell out just to pay us? A LOT! Say there were a 1000 associates that worked at the park ONE day for say 8 hours. That is 8000 hours times 7.65 which is around 61,000 dollars that they have to pay for labor. Then they have to maintain the rides and then there is Son of Beast which is just causing more problems and causing more money to be spent. Kings Island is also understaffed big time. We have hired (at least in Food Service) unreliable people who do not show up and that is hurting up tremendously. So overall, I do believe Kings Island is pushing it, but I have to believe that they are doing it for a reason other than to make money, cause there are some serious things wrong that need fixing and I hope they fix them and don't just hand them off the the people who buy us, otherwise you won't see a change in how things are run because that company will have to clean up PKI's mess and then start on remaking the park to be better and more friendly and just generally a better time.

That location has been various things: Skyline, All-Star, Skips Bagels, All-Star(again), Mandarin, Border Cafe (Ole!), and now Skyline again. (That is all that location has been as far as I know) This location will remain skyline and is managed by Area 1. This location did very well in the last weeks before winterfest and did pretty well during winterfest so it might actually stay there for a while hopefully. The Skyline in coney mall will remain open, however, the one in Rivertown is now "World's Greatest Funnel".

I can say for certain that Huck Dairy is now called... get ready for it, "Its Blue Ice Cream" and Busytown is now "Central Grill". As for the other building, I do not know of another new food building that we are getting so I would probably rule out that, however, I am not in that area, so you would have to ask someone who is. That's all I got.

Whether people think it was a success or not doesn't matter. What matters is that in the paper, it was said that Kings Island did what they expected to with WinterFest. Nothing spectacular, but not totally horrid. It was rated one of the best attractions for winter and despite the price, it was a very good thing. We have had this conversation before and it got out of hand. IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!! The park made what they had projected and therefore it is probably going to come back again next year. Also, with this "new buyer" stuff... we may not even notice a change... there will be some changes yes, but probably so small we won't even notice them until they have already happened. No one should be getting worried or anything. This is a good thing. Kings Island is ok, no one's getting fired, so yeah. Also, Nick Universe is NOT GETTING SCALED BACK WHAT-SO-EVER!!!! They are marketing this thing as "the most elaborate collection of Nickelodeon-inspired rides and attractions in the world opening in the Spring of 2006." Doesn't sound scaled back to me...

Really this does not surprise me at all. As an employee I like it because it will get me out of there earlier. If you look at all the other parks (Dominion, Carowinds, and Great America) you see that the latest they stay open is 10, some only stay open til 9 or 8. We were the only park out of all of them last year to be open til midnight and 11. You have to roll with the punches and so what if there is a big rush in the morning... I personally think that this is a good thing because working in food service I was at a stand that had to be open at 9 when I-Street opened and we were lucky to get any business until 10 or 11... it makes sense because you are cutting back on labor and you are cutting back on operating expenses. And as someone posted, they are going to monitor attendance very closely and might make some adjustments. And to answer someone's comment about low attendence being the reason to cut back on hours.. yes, attendance does play a HUGE roll in that. Why stay open until 11 if people are leaving at 9 or 10...

I agree that the park made a good decision about closing. They were putting the safety of their associates and the safety of the guests before making money. I do agree with the person that said no one here can ever seem to be pleased about anything the park does. There is always that one person who starts something about how ****ed off they are and how much they hate what is going on and I am just thinking, if you hate it so much, either stop going or give the park some ideas on how to change it so you would like it better. The thing about screwing GE over is blown way out of proportion. GE saw the weather on Thursday and probably anticipated this would happen. PKI was probably thinking of ways to make this up to them Thursday night. We are not just going to say,"Well, s**t happens sorry about your luck." We are going to make it up to them somehow, someway. And to the person that commented about the whole GE thing. Were you there on Friday? From the sound of it, you weren't. You just seemed to be speculating. I do know that we did not open anything for them, cause I work there and I heard that. Anyone can know that information. I digress though. Who did you talk to from that event? Did anyone come to you personally and say,"Well, this sucked and we are going elsewhere next year?" From the sound of it, no. Don't say that GE is going else where next year when you don't even know what they were thinking. The person who posted after you said that their parents had a dandy time. This just sucks that this site has come down to this. I used to like coming to this site to read about what was going on. Now every time I come here there is a new fight about something so idiodic that it blows my mind. Have you all not realized that PKIC already closed one topic because of how petty it was getting? Maybe yes, maybe no. You wouldn't be pleased if the park stayed open and someone got hurt, and you aren't pleased when they close. What the hell pleases you? GET OVER IT! Hopefully this will be my last post defending the park that I work for and have worked for for 4 years now from people who are ex-employees and who are just random people who have opinions. I really hope I am not like some of the ex-employees on here when I quit. That would be a shame!

My understanding of the situation of not letting season passholders in is so that they can determine how many people they can draw without the season pass holders. Now, this is not totally stupid, but it is close. They are doing what they did with Fear Fest, in which they charged admission for season pass holders (my dad and I had to pay extra, like 18.99 which is what the "discount" price is for WinterFest is) then they are probably going to change that and let season pass holders in free... like they did with FearFest. They are just taking a risk and seeing what the results are... it is, like I said, a risk, but I think it is one that they are willing to take. This is NOT a one time event. They would not spend as much money as I heard they did for this to be a one time deal. We will be having WinterFest next year. They have decorations leased, and the ice machine thing leased for a while. Its sticking around. As far as A Titanic Mess' opinion, it is just that. The only part that was not really needed was the Jeff comment. Let the dude be and lets move on to another topic that we can bite eachothers head's off about.

I shouldn't be voting for my own department, but I do also have to represent Food Service. Thanks to all my associates and counterparts for making this season at least bearable. I do have to go with PKIFoodGuy, our staffing was horrid this season, maybe just in Food. And, not being biased, I do think that we are the hardest working employees... now we have already had one fight about this and it didn't turn out to well. I have had people from games and rides tell me that we work our butts off just to make everything run right, and then we have to clean it all up. Its true, we do. Short and sweet... I am voting for Food Service. P.S. I am also voting for Eco and Communications and Trams... THANKS YOU GUYS!!!

You have no idea how hard we worked this year to get this place looking like this. We had from when FearFest ended to November 22 to get everything done and I am very happy to be working Winterfest. Yes, there were only about 2000 people in the park. However, everyone that is in attendance was having a blast. Their kids were having a blast and therefore I think it was a hit. So there are some minor things that are in need of fixing. You will have that with any park or anything new. Remember, we have not done this in 12 years. As KIEmployeeforlife stated there are people working on this who have never even heard of Winterfest and there are people who are working it and who set it up did not work the original winterfest and don't know much or anything about it. If you were so ****ed off by this, then maybe you should come to Kings Island and pitch them some ideas so they can make it better for next year. That would be the mature thing to do, now wouldn't it. You did the immature thing and made a negative screen name and gave a horrible review just cause it was not like it was 12 years ago. Things change. Hate to say it, but they do. Now, onto the Jeff Seibert comment. That was just plain wrong. I have met Jeff and I have so much respect for him. He has done a fantastic job and loves what he is doing. The "sinking ship" that you are referring to is so wrong. Kings Island is not sinking. In fact, it is better now then it has ever been. There are some things that we could improve on, there always will be. However, that comment about Jeff was so out of line and was very disrespectful. I challenge you to take your complaints and talk to someone at Kings Island. That way you can actually do something and try to make it better instead of just bashing it on OUR website. Please have some class and do something about it. That is all.

The screens at Festhaus will NOT be coming back next year as far as I know. They were the worst thing that has ever happened to that place and they were so hard to take care of. As most of you know, the fourth screen never worked and just was there, taking up space. I cannot comment fully on there being live entertainment next year because I do not know for sure what they are doing. I, personally, do not think that they will have anything in the Festhaus next year. Now the year after that, that is a possibility. I know that the Festhaus is staying the way that it is now (minus Christmas decorations and the stage in teh middle) next year. The red, green, and purple banners are staying as is the frontline and kitchen of Festhaus. That's all I got. Hope that helps.