RollerColt
-
Posts
297 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Calendar
Posts posted by RollerColt
-
-
I wonder if this means Riverbend is on its way out. Seems very strange to have so many venues all in a line.
-
RIP Coney Island. I agree with @disco2000, it was inevitable. Still sad to see a historic site go but it was a shell of itself for most of my life.
-
2
-
-
On 11/9/2023 at 10:14 PM, DonHelbig said:
My primary role the last few years I was at Kings Island was managing all of the park’s social media channels, which included organic and paid content, writing and publishing blogs, and optimizing the key performance indicators. The park annually had industry-leading results the years I managed the digital content efforts.
I made it a priority to try to at least “like” every comment so the person making the comment knew it was seen, but due time restraints I wasn’t able to always reply back with comments. I would have liked to have been a lot better in this area, but was still able to accrue industry-leading results for engagement. A lot of that high engagement was derived through storytelling. That’s what I enjoyed the most, both when I did PR and then social media, telling the park’s stories.
I was hired in 2007 to do the PR for the park, and then took on social media as that was emerging in 2008 around the time construction on Diamondback began to take shape. By 2015, it had become two distinctive different jobs. In the summer of 2017, there was a marketing restructure and at the bigger parks in the chain, PR and social media (digital marketing) were split into two different jobs. I landed on the digital side, which allowed for me to expand my skill set. It was a great opportunity, which came at a time when traditional PR was changing and the printing press was no longer news outlets, but rather Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs to share your news and stories, because that’s where the people you were trying to market to were.
When I did PR, I was always looking to make noise to keep top of mind awareness for the park. During my years riding The Racer in the 1980’s, I was fortunate to be around and learn from three of the best to ever do it (PR) in the amusement and theme park industry in Bill Mefford, Ruth Voss and Carolyn Boos. They were the three most influential people in my career and the reason I was able to have a successful 27-year PR career, including 11 seasons doing PR at Kings Island.
Way too much information, but this is what my role was during my years at Kings Island.
Thank you for sharing, Don. Much appreciated!
-
1 hour ago, SonofBaconator said:
I-305 could be rebranded to DC, same with FoF and BLSC
If they rebrand I-305, it would be met with heavy pushback from the local community. Dale Earnhardt means a lot to them.
-
1
-
-
6 minutes ago, FUN&ONLY! said:
The biggest thing I am concerned about is the mention in the report about all the possibilities of the new IPs. I would absolutely hate to see DC themes come to Kings Island in any form. I would easily rather have a Kinzel-era unthemed rollercoaster installed than a rollercoaster themed to DC.
Agreed 100%. If it all becomes DC garbage with poor theming I’m swearing off of KI.
-
2
-
1
-
-
32 minutes ago, beastfan11 said:
Great points. I certainly hope they can do this the right way.
But regardless of what direction the legacy CF parks go, the association with Six Flags could potentially be damaging. They could make every right decision, but for many the Six Flags name alone is enough for people to walk away. Example? Ironically enough I made a joke about Six Flags last week in front of my mom who more or less said, “I’m glad we have KI close because those Six Flag parks are dirty.”
Mind you, she doesn’t know anything of the industry. She’s not an enthusiast (even though she used to drop me off at the park all the time when I was younger. Thanks mom!)
But that’s the cultural attitude a lot of people have of the Six Flags brand. And that would be a big concern if I were one of the overpaid fat cats driving this bus.
Just talked to my wife about this during our breaks. She's in no shape a fan of roller coasters or amusement parks. But when I told her the news she immediately said "well I guess we probably won't be going to Kings Island in the future if Six Flags is involved".
-
2
-
-
2 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:
These two chains were already owned by large corporations. So I don’t think that’s gonna change much from that aspect. They were always at the mercy of their share/unit holders. This argument would work if Six Flags bought Dollywood, but the corporate governance of SIX and FUN isn’t changing all that much. Will this be good or bad? Who knows, but this certainly isn’t a case of Walmart coming to town and running everyone out of business. It’s more like if Walmart and Target merged, but they kept being Target and Walmart (if that makes sense).
You could have made that argument when FUN bought Paramount, but that was a net positive, I think. I wish you would clarify about “righting the ship.” What do you think is too far gone to be fixed at this point?
As always, you school me with logic and reasoning Bodda!
-
13 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:
For those of you who think this is a monopoly, you need to know what a monopoly is.
Remember, Six Flags won’t own every aspect of entertainment. They’ll own the local park. The local park largely competes with other outside avenues to that are fighting for your discretionary income. As @DispatchMaster stated, the parks aren’t competing with each other, with the exception of some small overlapping markets. Kings Island isn’t trying to draw guests away from Kentucky Kingdom. They’re trying to draw fans away from the Reds. One could even argue that Disney World is a much stronger competitor than your neighboring park. With that said, the competition still exists. The buying power is stronger, thus typically leading to higher margins, which is something both chains desperately need. Let’s just hope and pray that they do take the best of both chains and do something special rather than making it kind of dismal like some of the Six Flags parks.
How is this a referendum on capitalism? It’s two companies who were already publicly traded. If a private equity firm had stepped in, bought up the shares, and started making cuts then I could see a first semester freshman philosophy major blaming capitalism, but this is nonsense. You earn money, you choose what to do with the extra. The parks compete for that money. The parks absolutely exist because of capitalism.
This is directed at me, and I get it. I was the one who called this a monopoly and that's not the correct term for it.
I don't really care about the competition between parks, because as you say they're regional.
What I do care about is large corporations caring only about profit and not the consumers.
-
4
-
-
1 hour ago, Benjamin22 said:
How is this a monopoly? Regional amusement parks are peanuts compared to the larger destination entertainment providers. Also throwing around monopoly doesn’t really make sense in this context given for the most these parks aren’t near eachother.
It's more about the trend. Some of the two biggest amusement entertainment companies merging together is worrisome. We're seeing it everywhere in an ever growing corporate dominated world. Nearly every business and product we interact with is owned and controlled by a parent company. Just look at what Kroger is doing. They're buying out other stores and companies, and are meanwhile increasing their prices while lowering the quality.
Sure, the regional parks like Holiday World and Dollywood are doing their own thing. But for how much longer?
-
1
-
1
-
-
Monopolies are never a good thing for the consumer. This is a win for Cedar Fair but a loss for us.
-
1
-
-
I'm thinking possibly 2025. We'll see.
-
2
-
-
I'm glad to see this legend getting much needed love. Hopefully this leads to rides for years to come.
-
1
-
-
I would love for Adventure Express to get an overhaul. I remember as a kid, I used to create a replica of the ride in Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. The only change I would make was to add a little extension after the 2nd lift hill. Just a few dips and maybe a helix. I was always wanting more on the real thing.
Is it realistically feasible in real life? Not really...
-
Orion looks absolutely stunning!
-
1
-
-
It hurts more than I thought it would to see the station torn down. Nothing lasts forever...
-
3
-
-
We’ll miss you Vortex...
-
2
-
-
I'm speechless. This was the ride I would spend hours as a kid just watching. To be honest, it was the reason I fell in love with roller coasters. I was fascinated by Vortex's design and its physics. I loved the presence it had. As others have stated, it wasn't just another ride: it was an icon and a landmark. I was born in '88, so for me this is like losing a friend who I grew up with. I know that sounds ridiculous...
-
7
-
-
2 hours ago, JonahWilliamson said:
Idk how possible this is, but companys rent the park. Anyways we could schedule something like two years down the road with the and try to communicate with the park not all the rides open but the major ones. We sell tickets on KICentral and its only open to enthusiasts. Im sure we could run into problems such as who gets to buy tickets who doesnt. But Im not sure KICentral brings enough people to cover a cost like that.. But i would pay like 70-80 bucks if i knew lines were gonna be short and we get a day with enthusiasts.
Count me in. Is it unrealistic? Of course it is, but I think it would be a lot of fun!
-
1
-
-
Just wanna say great job to those trigonometry wizards out there who figured out the height as 287.
You guys took decoding to a whole new level this summer!
-
13
-
-
1 minute ago, upstop said:
I’m sure it’s not Polaris, Orion or Shooting Star. I’m making a guess - Quasar. It’s not on anybodies radar.
I like that name. Good choice!
-
1
-
-
As with every decoding thread that’s has existed on here, there were lots of ups and downs. But you all stuck with it. Enjoy tonight fellow enthusiasts, this night is for you!
-
7
-
-
4 minutes ago, shizzzon said:
I'm just going to say this....
If they were to have the layout modified to have the first loop on a giga, don't you think they'd do anything and everything to keep that element hidden from the public regardless of how obsessed one is on decoding?
Loop or something else, something is being kept hidden because there is nothing mind blowing on the current layout unless it's a giga flyer, lol.
But anyways, I'll just use a loop as an example.
I'm assuming the loop on SoB was kept hidden from everyone, correct? Until announcement .
Decoding was nowhere near the level of dedication back then...
-
2
-
-
59 minutes ago, collin.klopfstein said:
I’m 14 and a first year coaster enthusiast, I don’t know how to do that trade mark stuff or what ever you call it
As Jallie says, http://rcdb.com is the site for all things roller coaster. I used to live on that site when I was your age!
-
7
-
-
6 minutes ago, ohiocoasterfan said:
So are we thinking that Polaris and Orion are out now? They could file the trademark on the day of the announcement like MT.
A doomsday coaster sounds actually really awesome for a theme! They could have mangled FH track and cars as part of the theming. Hence why the track was getting restored and the trains are still onsite.Well, technically Orion ticked off Gaia once when he boasted he would kill every animal on Earth, that’s kind of apocalyptic.
-
1
-
Coney Island Permanently Closing
in Coney Island Central
Posted
I immediately thought of you when I saw the news break… I feel like a piece of me has died today. That was my very first park as a little kid back in 1992. I was only 4 but I remember that summer.