Jump to content

Kings Island Power Outage 7-4-2010


dustyj1986
 Share

Recommended Posts

So WCPO Cincinnati reports that Kings Island experienced a massive power outage around 6p.m. July.4th, 2010

Does anyone have any insight as to what caused this power outage, what (if any) rides/attractions were damaged or in anyone was injured.

If you were at the park today and experienced this power outage, please share.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doubtful that rides were damaged per se... I read from other posts here that International Street and Festhaus were without power. Many of the rides were also down. Of course, like any attraction, there are emergency lights and backup generators that are always powering the things that need to be powered - block brakes, dark pathways, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, as a slight aside, I have been at Coney Island when the entire park has lost power before. This was way back in like 2007. It was around 4:15pm on a busy Saturday. I was working the Ferris Wheel, and we had a full load and were in the process of loading a car when our ramp went dead. We had no power to power the ramp, and had to rely on people power to keep the cars from rotating, and good old fashioned gravity and the brake to unload the rest of the ride after about ten minutes from the point of power loss. The power came back on about an hour and a half later that day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ I wouldn't think so???

I actually think it would be cool to be at KI when the power is off, just me though.

It's interesting the first couple minutes, until you head for the front gate and see a line of people stretching from guest relations to the fountains.

I been through a total 3 power outages there >.>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ I wouldn't think so???

I actually think it would be cool to be at KI when the power is off, just me though.

It's interesting the first couple minutes, until you head for the front gate and see a line of people stretching from guest relations to the fountains.

I been through a total 3 power outages there >.>

Wow thats weird you've been through that many!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest rcfreak339

I thought brakes on coasters are auto defaulted to shut, so in case of a power outage the brakes would not even need to rely on generators? I highly doubt anyone was hurt, rides are designed for these things, I would also think employees are trained to know what to do during things like power outages. I would be willing to bet everything went alright.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest rcfreak339

I have heard that some rides today stayed open or only closed down for a while during the outage, only certain areas were hit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doubtful that rides were damaged per se... I read from other posts here that International Street and Festhaus were without power. Many of the rides were also down. Of course, like any attraction, there are emergency lights and backup generators that are always powering the things that need to be powered - block brakes, dark pathways, etc.

Speaking from quite the unique experience today, I can confirm this. Most of the west-southwest corner of the park (namely Action Zone, though also including Oktoberfest and International Street) was off and on most of this afternoon, with the International Street shops, the Festhaus, and select Action Zone rides (Flight Deck, Drop Tower, Congo Falls, Delirium) generally remaining shut down for the duration of one very busy, humid, and warm Fourth of July afternoon. It was incredibly odd to walk (momentarily) into an almost completely dark Festhaus, the lights from Panda Express being the only electrical source of illumination... Of course, when I realized the A/C was out, too, it didn't take much thought to walk right out the same entrance.

(I actually had a mildly hilarious conversation with an Emporium employee about it, on a side note. When we asked him about the power problems, he responded with, "Think of the creepiest scene you can think of from a movie. Now dim the lights on it. A lot. And crank up the creepiness factor by like ten thousand. That's what the warehouse is like right now." :lol: )

I have quite a bit of sympathy for Guest Relations folk tonight... I'm sure they got quite the earful (or five, ten, fifteen...) As I understand it, the park has not been offering refunds for today. Viking Fury and even the Eiffel Tower (as well as the aforementioned AZ rides) were off and on all day on a major national holiday, and there was no really great escape from the heat since at least half of International Street, Action Zone, and Oktoberfest had ZERO power in the hottest part of the day. This lead to full queues for at least Diamondback, Vortex, and The Crypt, the last of which leads me to believe that Flight of Fear most likely had a high demand since it's also indoors and therefore also (assumed to be, anyway) air conditioned. Yes, I don't think you could pay me enough to be a poor GR soul today...

EDIT: Now that I think about it, wasn't it just a season or two ago that the park was experiencing similar power issues around June/July? I clearly recall the odd situation where the power issues had Blue Racer down but weren't affecting Red Racer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a trucker at Rivertown tonight I can tell you that Rivertown, Coney, and Snoopy were completely closed at 5:30 PM when I started. Rides and all.

I talked to a Duke Energy worker tonight and he said "I have never seen a power outrage to this degree before". At 1 AM, equipment was still down

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were at "Don't stop the music" when it happened; they lost half the audio of the show (they had mics, but lost the bass speakers); International street lost power in all the shops (at 10:30 the shops were still dark), The fountains stop putting out water, Snoopy on Ice didn't happen; All the water rides in the park were down some with boats stuck going up the lifts. Racers were down for awhile but then started to run, Delirium was not working, Boo Blasters were down, The candy shop on Coney Mall was down. Drop Tower had some other problem, it was loaded with test people (plastic wanna be humans). Allot of the parking lot lights were out (at 11:30 they still had portable generators running lights in the parking area by the gold lot). Vortex was working, The Beast was working, Sponge Bob 3d was working, The I tower was working but had an intermittent problem coming down, Diamond Back was working. It kinda looked like they got selected rides up to run to keep people happy.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a trucker at Rivertown tonight I can tell you that Rivertown, Coney, and Snoopy were completely closed at 5:30 PM when I started. Rides and all.

I talked to a Duke Energy worker tonight and he said "I have never seen a power outrage to this degree before". At 1 AM, equipment was still down

I guess he didn't work for Duke back in 2008 when Hurricane Ike passed through...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...Most of the rides, shops and restaurants that closed about 6:30 p.m. were reopened by 9:30 p.m., said Don Helbig. Some park visitors had to be escorted off stopped rides, he said. No injuries were reported, and a 10 p.m. fireworks show was expected to go on as scheduled, even as some power still was being restored.

"Now it's just like a normal night at the park," Helbig said.

Johnna Reeder, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said the failure was on Kings Island's equipment, not the utility company's.

"The problem occurred with the customer's switchbox where our equipment feeds into theirs," she said. "Our crews are still on site trying to help them restore power."

The cause of the failure remained under investigation late Sunday, Reeder said.

One possibility could be an overload on Kings Island's power system, she added....

Sunday, current and former military personnel were admitted free. Helbig declined to give an admission figure.

No refunds were given, he added.

Some park visitors said several guests were upset and formed long lines at the customer service desk.

http://news.cincinna...t-Kings-Island-

So, after a journey of perhaps several hours, some had a far less than perfect day, but no refunds were given. Why am I reminded something about a pickle? And Coney Island? Nickel wise and future attendance foolish? Or does only the current quarter matter in circumstances like these?

Terp, just askin' Qs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a season pass holder I suppose I wouldn't mind about the refund issue however if I was a guest who paid for admission and say came after 5pm then yes I would be a little disgruntled to say the least. And for pickle terpy, could it be the bottom of the barrel?

Or perhaps to save money to pay Becky Minger to sing the national anthem this morning...lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...Most of the rides, shops and restaurants that closed about 6:30 p.m. were reopened by 9:30 p.m., said Don Helbig. Some park visitors had to be escorted off stopped rides, he said. No injuries were reported, and a 10 p.m. fireworks show was expected to go on as scheduled, even as some power still was being restored.

"Now it's just like a normal night at the park," Helbig said.

Johnna Reeder, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said the failure was on Kings Island's equipment, not the utility company's.

"The problem occurred with the customer's switchbox where our equipment feeds into theirs," she said. "Our crews are still on site trying to help them restore power."

The cause of the failure remained under investigation late Sunday, Reeder said.

One possibility could be an overload on Kings Island's power system, she added....

Sunday, current and former military personnel were admitted free. Helbig declined to give an admission figure.

No refunds were given, he added.

Some park visitors said several guests were upset and formed long lines at the customer service desk.

http://news.cincinna...t-Kings-Island-

So, after a journey of perhaps several hours, some had a far less than perfect day, but no refunds were given. Why am I reminded something about a pickle? And Coney Island? Nickel wise and future attendance foolish? Or does only the current quarter matter in circumstances like these?

Terp, just askin' Qs.

This is why the Reds are the best organization in town. The Joey Votto figurine was held up and didn't arrive on time, they not only gave everyone a voucher for the figure but also a voucher for a half price ticket for any seat in the park other than the 5 dollar seats and the 235 dollar seats.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if I missed my chance at walking down the steps from the top of the Eiffel Tower observation deck? Anyone know? (Let me rephrase that before The Interpreter does his "yes" answer...did the park have to evacuate the top of tower and walk the customers down the steps to the bottom during this power outage?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True. One wonders if the Kings Island of 1972 would've offered refunds for the day... What about twenty years later? There are those here who can answer that with far more confidence and evidence than I can, but I certainly believe the answer would be yes.

Talk about a perfect storm, though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This would really be no different than if a thunder storm moved in and closed everything down for a few hours and here is their policy for that "Kings Island cannot issue rain checks or refunds for inclement weather." Granted, nothing is said on their site about power outages. Secondly, how would they know if they were giving a refund to someone they let in for free since it was a military day?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This would really be no different than if a thunder storm moved in and closed everything down for a few hours and here is their policy for that "Kings Island cannot issue rain checks or refunds for inclement weather." Granted, nothing is said on their site about power outages. Secondly, how would they know if they were giving a refund to someone they let in for free since it was a military day?

Actually there is a huge difference and of course you would have to have a ticket stub or something to show proof.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...