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Park closes at 5:00 today (7/20/18)


jcgoble3
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17 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Just to add to that- the entire tri-state area (pretty much the I-275 loop and a couple counties outside that) is under a tornado watch until 9 pm and a flash flood watch until midnight. 

 

To be fair, I'm surprised that the park opened at all today. Soak City's closure was announced this morning and although I can imagine a lack of lightning in the area keeping the dry side operable, my guess is that safety was a priority in their reason to decide to close. That, and I'm sure the park was effectively a ghost town with only a few people here or there.

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The Beach Waterpark actually opened today; there were some people there when I was driving to work. Not surprisingly, it closed early at some point too. One of the rare days where The Beach's attendance is higher than Soak City's. :lol:

I can safely say I had my most interesting swing shift today, which included a solid drive hour at Vortex (which was running two trains FYI), the first big storm coming during my break (I barely made it back just when the rain started coming down!) and getting to explore the old Action Theater (since its basement is our tornado shelter) before we all went back to Vortex and hung around for another hour before being informed of the early closing and subsequently getting to go home early. It was weird hearing the park closing announcement at 5:00, especially the "Good night!" part which doesn't quite fit this time of day. :rolleyes:

Nonetheless, today was great! Stay safe everyone! I work an open shift tomorrow (and the weather's supposed to be bad tomorrow too...) so this weekend will be interesting.

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2 hours ago, starlitfire said:

To be fair, I'm surprised that the park opened at all today. Soak City's closure was announced this morning and although I can imagine a lack of lightning in the area keeping the dry side operable, my guess is that safety was a priority in their reason to decide to close. That, and I'm sure the park was effectively a ghost town with only a few people here or there.

I was at the park from 9:30-3 today. It was mostly just sprinkling rain until the big storm hit at 3, and it made for a great day of riding. Rode every coaster, most of them 2-3 times, and only had a line once (Mystic Timbers after the restart) - and that was despite all of the rides shutting down for about 45 minutes in the early afternoon due to lightning in the area.

But yes....it was very, VERY slow.

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9 minutes ago, VortexBFForever said:

The Beach Waterpark actually opened today; there were some people there when I was driving to work. Not surprisingly, it closed early at some point too. One of the rare days where The Beach's attendance is higher than Soak City's. :lol:

I can safely say I had my most interesting swing shift today, which included a solid drive hour at Vortex (which was running two trains FYI), the first big storm coming during my break (I barely made it back just when the rain started coming down!) and getting to explore the old Action Theater (since its basement is our tornado shelter) before we all went back to Vortex and hung around for another hour before being informed of the early closing and subsequently getting to go home early. It was weird hearing the park closing announcement at 5:00, especially the "Good night!" part which doesn't quite fit this time of day. :rolleyes:

Nonetheless, today was great! Stay safe everyone! I work an open shift tomorrow (and the weather's supposed to be bad tomorrow too...) so this weekend will be interesting.

The water park did open? I know when we got there the screens were advertising that it was closed today.

Just curious, what happens during a tornado alert? You mentioned going to the basement...do they have a designated area for guests, or how does that work? We left as 3 right as the big storm rolled in...started raining as soon as we got inside Big Boy lol

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11 hours ago, VortexBFForever said:

Soak City was closed, but The Beach Waterpark (a standalone waterpark directly across from Kings Island) did open. They're two different places.

That's what happens when I read a post after a long day, lol. Whoops! Sorry about that. 

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8 hours ago, King Ding Dong said:

Just thought I would leave this here.  

 

I mean, I agree with them. We were there from open until 3 and it was one of the best trips we've ever had. Virtually no lines at all and rode everything, with most rides being rode multiple times. It was great. 

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I was there yesterday from 11-3 and it was dead. Rode Diamondback, Beast, Backlot, Vortex, Adventure Express (in the rain!), The Bat, and rode Delirium twice. The only major wait was for The Bat, as it was down for weather (I chose to wait it out); everything else was a few cycle wait or less. I left after the 3 PM Cirque as I was raining and I didn't feel like waiting it out to ride Mystic (I had orginally planned to ride as it was down in the morning; also I was still tired from Warped the day prior). Even with the weather, it was still a great day! :D

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11 hours ago, TheRickster said:

I dont get it

11:00a: Park tweets out how days like today (yesterday) are the best days to visit because the rain makes for minimal waits 

1:00p: Parks IG does a “rain day Q&A” including fun things to do at KI on rain days

5:00p: Park closes due to rain 

I get what happened, but from an outsider’s standpoint it looked a lot like, “What a great day to visit Kings Island! LOL JK we’re closing.”

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I suspect the Tornado Watch for the area plus the rain and low crowds were the driving factors in the decision to close.   

The tornado watch thing has me thinking however.   What is the parks responsibility to the safety of its customers that it has activly encouraged to visit the park knowing  full well that inclement weather was forecast?   Many travel good distances to get there and if the park closes they have little choice but to brave the elements in their cars, some for over 100 miles.  I understand closing rides and such safety but if there was a tornado surely one would be safer in the park with storm shelters than rolling their dice out on the highways.  

If you were hosting a party at your house and a tornado watch was implemented would it be ethical for you to declare, “Party is over folks, get out now, I don’t want to be responsible for your safety anymore. Good luck.”  

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8 minutes ago, Winterfestguy said:

KI announced on twitter today shortly after 330pm announced that Soak City was closed for the remainder of Saturday due to the rain.  The weather definitely has to be one of the impacts for lower attendance and profits this season.

Definitely agree.  We typically wouldn't go to the park on the 90+ degree days, but after getting back from Florida, it was kind of like, might as well.  Some of those almost 95 degree days were some of our best of the season in terms of crowds.

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2 hours ago, chad_1138 said:

Definitely agree.  We typically wouldn't go to the park on the 90+ degree days, but after getting back from Florida, it was kind of like, might as well.  Some of those almost 95 degree days were some of our best of the season in terms of crowds.

Just like rain, heat can drive crowds away. Once you break 90°F, most lines in the dry park start getting shorter, though water rides and the waterpark get more crowded as people look for ways to stay cool. Above 95°F, the water rides in the main park get quiet, as people stay exclusively in the waterpark. And when you approach or even exceed 100°F, even the waterpark crowds go down as people decide that it's better to stay home in the air conditioning. One of the best summer visits to Kings Island I ever had was on a day that broke 100°F. There were hardly any lines anywhere that day.

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Heard they took names at guest services for complimentary after 4 tickets for anyone there yesterday. Have friend with passes that gave them the names of 7 people not even at the park that day that thought would like free tickets. Sounds like guest services didn’t really care. 

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On 7/21/2018 at 1:14 PM, BoddaH1994 said:

11:00a: Park tweets out how days like today (yesterday) are the best days to visit because the rain makes for minimal waits 

1:00p: Parks IG does a “rain day Q&A” including fun things to do at KI on rain days

5:00p: Park closes due to rain 

I get what happened, but from an outsider’s standpoint it looked a lot like, “What a great day to visit Kings Island! LOL JK we’re closing.”

Thanks, That's what I was assuming happened though. I'm still surprised they closed so early.

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The tweets were probably made before the tornado watch was given.   Is that the case?

Theme parks should close in the case of a tornado watch.  They lack safe shelter for the number of people in the park.   Most of the park structures would not hold up in a tornado.   It's a huge liability. Remember the Kennywood Whip accident a few years ago?

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A Tornado Watch is typically issued for a large area, advising that conditions are favorable for tornado development. It doesn't indicate eminent danger, but it's an indication to watch the weather and be prepared to take shelter if storms develop.

Both Kings Island and Cedar Point have severe weather plans in place and are part of the National Weather Service's StormReady program.

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