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I may have a new favorite pastime at Kings Island. I'm sitting here outside of Banshee's entrance watching people get told all loose articles must go in a locker. I swear some lady just about cried. I'm a horrible person.

I say shame shame on Kings Island for this one. If he hit a growth spurt mid summer after using the pass and buying it at the smaller size that's what pass he should get to use for the year not be forced into an upgrade.

Offend and upset parents with tweens who actually visit the park together during the tweens' formative years. Now there's a growth strategy. Delight and surprise the customer by exceeding their expectations. Or, they could do this. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This is completely fair only if Seniors who shrink below the 48'' marker within the season get their money difference returned too.

Kings Island's action and response was a total failure here. The bad publicity and customer turnoff from this incident will cause significantly more loss than the difference in a Junior/Adult pass. It should go like this: If the child is larger than the threshold on their first visit of the season, they should be required to upgrade their pass to an adult. If the child was previously scanned in as a junior in the season, and they grow past the threshold in the same season, they should be given a complimentary upgrade to an adult pass for the remainder of the season. This should just be a polite guest services situation, as the number of times it occurs in a season is going to be insignificant to KI's bottom line. If an entrance employee finds a child too large for their junior pass and the parent says "But they've been using the pass all season," the employee should tell the customer to head to guest services, and the park will take care of them. Customers will appreciate KI's willingness to upgrade their pass, and there will be an even better chance that the parent renews in future seasons as a result.

Meanwhile, they are busy throwing pricing integrity to the wind. This is...ridiculous.

I posted this same issue in a trip report. My son was significantly under 48 inches when his pass was purchased and processed and barely over the line on the day of the incident. In fact, I'm not sure he would have gotten a purple wrist band that day had we not planned to spend the day in Planet Snoopy. Long story short, I was not happy and my chances of being a repeat customer in 2015 are basically zero. Instead of taking the 450-500 dollars from my family for the passes plus in park spending of easily 50 dollars per visit they have lost money for the rest of this year and next. Post rant... I understand if you buy a junior pass online by mistake, but it should be caught during processing if the person in question is over 48 inches, or at the gate if they are clearly too tall. If someone grows a couple inches during the season they should not be squeezed harder, especially with the way Cedar Fair has been giving their gate away for those who visit once or twice a year. I've basically boycotted the park because of this policy and the way it was sprung onto my family. There are lots of other options out there for my hard earned money and the little time I seem to have.

I don't get it. If you are under 48" when you get the JR pass processed, you should be golden for the year. If a kid happens to grow past the 48" mark during the season, good for them they got a discount...for one season. It's not like that's a loophole you can exploit every year, and absolutely nothing was done wrong in purchasing the JR pass. Kings Island just looks greedy by enforcing their "right" to re-evaluate height mid-season. It comes across the same as if they decided to raise pass prices mid-season and told you that you couldn't get in again until you paid more.

So, if a pass holder turns 62 years old during the season, thereby earning "senior" status, do they get a partial refund? I doubt it.

Allowing renewals without processing (and picture taking) is what got the park here. Kings Island saves bigtime money in cards and labor, but then begrudges parents a small to it but big to them sum and inconvenience in return? Really? On junior passes renewed without processing, require measurement on first park entry each year. Problem solved.

We're upset because the policy is a bad one. Not because KI is enforcing it. This is a bad policy from a business and customer service perspective. If your policy ends up with you getting bad press like this and maybe nets you a few hundred bucks a year, it's time to reconsider your policy.

I do that too. I just sit by a chair, eat my vanilla ice cream, and watch the arguments and swearing.

I see both sides of the argument but as others have said before, it either has to be in forced every single time for every single person but will also always result in bad media and guest satisfaction. At that time is the few dollars difference worth it? Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

If they convert the ride to floorless I will be willing to ride it again as will my wife.

"Seniors" with a season pass who turn 62 years old mid-season should go to the guest services to request a partial refund.

Someone did not have a #KIBestDay, that's for sure.

We noticed Kings Island has been cracking down on the height thing for some reason this season. The first time we ran into it was with my oldest daughter. We've had Gold Passes since she was 4. I just renew them every year. This year, she is 9 which means she should have an adult pass. So one day they asked us to reprocess her pass as an adult. It was a minor inconvenience, but it didn't cost anything. Even if it had, I would have understood. A few weeks later, we came back and my youngest is in her stroller. She's 5 and she's short for her age. She's nowhere near the height requirement. But they made her get out of her stroller so they could see her standing up. Again, it wasn't even close. Mildly annoyed by that one. But having been through it with my oldest, I knew what they were getting at. KI might get a few extra bucks out of policing this policy as hard as they are this year. But it's costing them good will. For this story to hit the media is a major mis-step. Hopefully they will reconsider how they handle this. Whatever extra money they made off of upgrading passes wasn't worth this bad press or the negative feelings it created in who knows how many loyal customers who haven't spoken up. It's a shame because on the whole I feel like Cedar Fair gets customer service. But this policy is positively wrong-headed. I expect better of Kings Island.

Ok, friends, time to introduce a "Growth-Flex" pass, for those who know their kids will grow an inch during the upcoming season...

Kings Island. And the year is 2014. Mr. Hart trying to run Kentucky Kingdom like it's 1998 is much of the problem. It isn't.

Funny thing just happened at the 7:00 Cirque. As Logan, the usher, was making his "Knock kick / who's there? - Squish" routine, the clowns came out and pied him in the face! Haha!!! Anything is possible!!

In many ways, FUN is the old SIX, and SIX is the new FUN.

11 years ago? Paramount Parks. They've left the building.

But a big problem with kids who "look older" than said age. How many parents take their 3 year old thru the que, passing them off as a 2 year old (no charge)? Now imagine if there was a cut off at 5 or 6 or 7 or 8? My 6 year old has the body of an 8 or 9 year old, but often the maturity of a 4 year old. People guess his age wrong all the time, ask what level of baseball he plays and were shocked when I told them he was only 5 (at the time) and playing tee ball. A policy like that is going to have to either be very lax to the point where you take the parents word for it almost to a fault, or risk creating a lot of bad PR. There is a reason why Disney went to the full charge for everyone 3 & up.

Maybe it would be best if KI just sold passes based on age alone and not age and height. The article said that Coney Island just base their tickets on age and not height. I feel this would eliminate a lot of confusion because no parent knows for sure if their child will have a growth spurt between the time they purchase the pass, and the end of the season. This is ridiculous. Just have a cut-off age for the Jr. Pass and be done with it. No more confusion and no more unexpected upgrade charges for parents because their kid grew and inch.

Here's the issue with that cold response. If a child was of junior height for 95% of the season, they only had access to the junior experience during that time. Why should the parent have to pay the upgrade price to an adult for an entire season? At some point, there will be a child that has used their pass all season, and then they're forced to buy the adult upgrade on their last visit of the year. You never want to put your customer at a disadvantage like that. If Kings Island really wants to pinch pennies, then they could prorate the upgrade cost over the time of the season. If there is 30% of the season left, then the parent would be charged 30% of the upgrade price to an adult. However, this would need to be clearly stated when buying a junior pass, and it's still of debatable customer service. The park would make out better financially if they followed the procedure I previously mentioned. You bring up some great points, and that's actually not a bad compromise IMO. As others have said, I understand both sides. KI wants to get the money they feel they deserve from kids who grow into being able to ride some of the "adult" rides during the season, while parents don't want to pay more for their child's pass than they already have. However if you're KI, you should use common sense. If they don't force kids to upgrade in midseason once they reach a certain height, they miss out on what, a few hundred dollars per year max in aggregate from all the kids with season passes who hit that height mark during the season? Instead someone goes to the media and I notice this story 4 different times on my Facebook feed this morning from parents who have "shared" it. Really really dumb move by KI in my opinion to enforce this and defend the policy to the media.

WWDD? (What would Disney do....) Well, they used to have a junior ticket pass...that was eliminated and the price was adjusted to age 3 and up prices...no discounts.

You say that since you don't have bed bugs. Something tells me you might become concerned.

Here's the issue with that cold response. If a child was of junior height for 95% of the season, they only had access to the junior experience during that time. Why should the parent have to pay the upgrade price to an adult for an entire season? At some point, there will be a child that has used their pass all season, and then they're forced to buy the adult upgrade on their last visit of the year. You never want to put your customer at a disadvantage like that. If Kings Island really wants to pinch pennies, then they could prorate the upgrade cost over the time of the season. If there is 30% of the season left, then the parent would be charged 30% of the upgrade price to an adult. However, this would need to be clearly stated when buying a junior pass, and it's still of debatable customer service. The park would make out better financially if they followed the procedure I previously mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__pm82mJnGw My new recreation of the Best B&M Invert in the world, Banshee! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNNyucKQZOs An upgraded night pov

That was low, sir. Even for you.

Being thrown around is fun. Being repeatedly bludgeoned in the head by a poorly designed restraint is not. That's probably why I enjoy rough wooden coasters, but don't particularly care for Vekoma SLCs. Then again, a lot of people complain that Vortex beats them in the head, and if it isn't my favorite coaster of all time (definitely a toss-up between Vortex, Maggie, and Phantom's Revenge for me), it definitely holds the most sentimental value to me of any coaster in the world. But hey, to quote something that I remember from my younger years, "Everyone is different, no two people are the same!"

I hate when my trains blow up. [emoji5]

If you think that thread is sad... http://geaugalaketoday.fpb.yuku.com/topic/808/Deconstruction-began-today-32008 http://geaugalaketoday.fpb.yuku.com/topic/1266/New-WKYC-Aerial-Video-of-Geauga-Lake-Demolition-Almost-Done?page=1

Just a very ham-handed response from a park that, as of late, has done fairly well in the PR department. Seems to me that the park wants to have it both ways, saving money allowing online renewals, and charging more should a child grow an inch or three over a summer. The PR hit they are rightfully taking pales to the $$ in this case. Just mind numbing sometimes.

Oh, my. During the Fair, only the dry park is open. Hours are: Aug 14-24: M-F 4-9 Sat, Sun 1-9 41 hours a week? Really? After the fair, the park is not open past 7 at all. Really?

Get your facts straight, they're always right. The floorless may be a possibility..but it's a crazy possibility. To me it also does seem kind of SIXish to repaint and slap a new name and trains (if it even gets converted to floorless) and market it as a new ride for '15

We're upset because the policy is a bad one. Not because KI is enforcing it. This is a bad policy from a business and customer service perspective. If your policy ends up with you getting bad press like this and maybe nets you a few hundred bucks a year, it's time to reconsider your policy. 1. Just because someone doesn't like it doest make it bad. 2. What if I'm not an honest person and purchase a Jr pass in the fall or early spring for my kid who is 50 inches. By the time we go to the park I say oh he grew. 3. Many things in life are not fair. The kid grew and is able to enjoy more than what was originally planned. 4. We don't know all the facts we have 1 person's account which is actually different than about 4 other people on this website who had similar issues that were dealt with better than this. What if I buy my son a Kings Island JR ticket in December for a planned trip in June. Should he be able to use it no matter how tall he gets as long as he was below 48 when I bought it? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1. What makes it bad is that it creates situations exactly like this one and engenders ill will towards the company. KI might make a few bucks off this policy. But it's not worth the bad press they are getting. That's a bad policy. 2. They would upgrade on the first visit. Not at the end of the season. 3. This has nothing to do with fair or unfair. As a business decision, this policy is bad for KI. 4. We know what the policy is. We know how it is being enforced. And we know it bit KI in the rear very publicly. What more do we need to know? The problem with that is that until you are tall enough to ride the majority of rides in the park, it's not worth paying the adult price.

Are we upset because KI is enforcing rules? It's like people were upset that Cracker Barrel fired a guy for giving away free food... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe they should install age (height) and weight games at the entrance of each ride...you lose, you don't ride....LOL

Sarcasm: it's always understood I never ran into Godzilla. Welcome to KIC be nice and show respect and others will do the same. Starting flame arguments over drug orgy music is a bit edgy for a newbie.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well I hate to say it, but Disney has something the others you mentioned don't. They have brand recognition from birth to death. Try to walk down a baby aisle and not see 1 Disney thing. Disney Trips have become a rite of passage for many families. Avatarland may come and go and may be a big failure. The House of Mouse will bring more generations of families in with the same concept: Mickey, Minnie, and the Princesses. You have families who go yearly, even with complaints. You have families plan vacations that may not be able to afford it. Disney is similar to the Yankees where they can almost buy themselves out of mistakes. Will Carsland be popular in 10-15 years? Probably no more so than Aladdin is now but.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is it just me, or is the new paint scheme much more appropriate for a "Mantis" than the former? Green and silver with red rails? I'd count that as evidence against this being a potential Lebron coaster. Unless the Lebron coaster is a testament to his high school days, during which he was a green-and-gold "Fighting Irish" leprechaun at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School here in Akron. (By the way, my own high school's big rival! We famously lost the big basketball match 4 years in a row. ) Probably little St. Vincent – St. Mary would be easier to rein into a deal than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Social Media is a double edged sword. On one hand, it's the most efficient and easiest way to reach people - on the other hand, a lot of those people are complete morons.

Perhaps that can help make up for Q2. Kings Island brings big profit to the table, then it gets more capex. That's the way it works.

I think KI used to have a picnic area out front, or maybe as part of the campground? My parents used to drop off our full cooler there in the morning and we would go back at lunchtime to eat. Can you even imagine doing that today?

This means war now I guess No matter bahaha

I wonder if this may be headed to Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

Holiday World will be hosting their annual Holiwood Nights event for coaster enthusiasts on May 29th and 30th, 2015. Dates and event logo can be found here on the Holiwood Nights Group Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/325861871036/ Event details are still in the works. I am sure crowds will be a little bit larger than the past two years with the addition of Thunderbird. But this is a wonderful event and it is always a blast. If you have never been to this event, mark your calendars and make your way to Santa Claus, IN this year for this awesome event!

Gotta strengthen that immune system..

While getting the swirled Banshee soft serve last week, I couldn't help but notice that the young man who takes your filthy, sweaty, germ-infested, water-ride-water-soaked money is the same one who turns around and fills your cone. Yum! If you touched something else that was as dirty as money is, you'd run to the nearest bathroom and scrub for a while. But since it's money, you think little of it and go right to the mouth. Don't get me started on laminated menus, either. Basically just don't touch anything and you'll be okay.