KILifeguard

People do stupid stuff on Taz, Racer, Snowy River, etc... and with that always comes the risk of getting hurt. As long as you follow the rules there's not much serious risk of getting hurt (and hey that's what we're there for.) If you break the rules on the slides, like jumping off your tube on Snowy River or Taz or purposely leaving your mat on Racer, we usually don't mess around and you will get a good yelling at from one of the managers and possibly removed from the park if what you did was dumb enough. It's a risk to yourself and a lot of other people's safety when people go down these slides wrong. It takes attention and resources away from people who could be honestly accidently drowning. As to the guy who hit his head on Racer, that happens sometimes but as long as you listen to the lifeguard/rules posted on the slide nothing too serious will happen. Some people do slip (it's a waterslide, after all) and hit there head or whatever, some do fall off the matt, but almost every one of them just laughs at it or themselves for not holding on. No, I don't think anyone's gotten seriously hurt on Taz, I know it's unpleasant to ride down without a tube (as some lifeguards with poor balance will attest.)

I just talked to a few of the people that I'm friends with in the same apartments described on the news. I'm friends with them and hung out with them a couple times over the summer, so they'd have no reason to lie to me or exaggerate. I asked them if things had gotten any better since the news story. They told me yes, they had. They came and sprayed the apartments to get rid of the bed bugs. Of course, to do this they had to deflate the air mattresses, and since they had no pumps they ended up sleeping on the floor. Don't tell me that King's Island expects them to buy their own beds for one summer, or ship them for Europe. How insulting is it to make people in their 20's spend a summer sleeping on an air mattress?

Haha, wow, didn't know there was such a strong backlash against the music, haha. It was off for an hour or so this morning and there were indeed many groans among the guards when it came back on. If you don't like it, you can definitely say something to guest relations next time you're there. Most of the time though, the only comments I get about the music are positive, "I love this song! Sweet soundtrack!" types. And, yeah, I dunno, I feel like if we can deal with it every day of the summer it can't be tooo bad for you a few times a month (or week or however often you come.) Most people seem to like it. And, about the employees being happy... one problem I think you'll find in the waterpark is that the way the guards have been treated lately has led to some unhappy employees, who in turn lead to unhappy guests. I know that I do the best I can to make sure that everyone in the waterpark has fun, sorry if you don't feel the same way.

I'm an employee at KI, and I had a chance to spend a day off work with some girls involved in this program. They were all very intelligent, fun, and nice. They weren't complaining bitterly, they were just disappointed at the amount of money they paid to come experience America, only to find an overpriced apartment furnished with air mattresses and nothing else. And even now, after this story, there has been zero improvement in the conditions. From what I gathered, they only had the option of living in these apartments, with their expensive rent and zero public transportation. The Metro buses do not have routes in West Chester, and these students have only the two shuttle busses a day that take them to King's Island. If these busses don't coincide with the start of their shift, they have to wait til whenever it starts. The only way they get food is to cross the four lane Cincinnati Dayton road to get to the wal-mart. When I hung out with them, it was the first time they'd done anything outside of work in over a week. From my experience, these girls wanted to enjoy America and when they signed the contract they were promised many amenities they were not provided with. Would you go to study abroad in a foreign country to be provided only with an empty apartment and an air mattress, with no access to anything but work, a wal-mart, and a waffle house? King's Island had to have been misleading about the conditions they would be provided with, or else there's no way they would have paid the airfare and exorbitant rents... just to spend all summer working to pay off the airfare and exorbitant rents. And with absolutely no means to experience Cincinnati besides the kindness of fellow employees.

As a BBLG, I get to hear the soundtrack for 8 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Woohoo. It's really not too bad, I've learned the words to almost all the songs, even the ones I didn't know before the new soundtrack. It's the same soundtrack every day, and it is on an almost exactly 1.5 hour loop. So there's no way you could hear the same song more than 4-5 times a day. Since I don't have a watch I can sometimes keep track of the time by noting what time a particular song is played. There's at least 20-30 tracks on the soundtrack, so I doubt you could name them all, haha. I still couldn't off the top of my head after hearing them nearly every day all summer. At this point I have heard them so much that when one song ends I hear the beginning of the next song in my head without thinking about it. Sometimes I'll start singing the next song without realizing it and freak a guest or two out. What can I name off the top of my head? Summer of '69, Game of Love, Boys of Summer, Ventura Highway, Surfing USA, Barbara Ann, Summer Lovin' (From Grease), Summertime (Will Smith), In the Summertime (Mungo Jerry), Wipeout, Beautiful Morning, Walkin' On Sunshine, Girls on the Beach, Summer in the City, Summertime Blues, Beach Baby, Do You Wanna Dance, Thunder Island, Captain of the Heart, Soak up the Sun. I miss Jacques Cousteau from years past. From sea to shining sea, he'll check 'em out for you and me.