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https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1128440032657017&set=a.644361881064837

Surprise guest Gary Wachs.

Adventure Express and Flight of Fear tour.

A bit from the Orion/Racer tour.

Welcome VP of Ops/Park Manager Tony Carovillano! https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kings-island-shakeup-gm-retires-new-park-manager-employee-layoffs

Here ya go:

Same stuff happened when CF bought Paramount, then they had to go through years of trying to get back what those people brought to the table. Many of whom were around since early KI days.

The company railroaded all of their park VPs. This is NOT a good sign of things to come. These parks are going to the Six Flags level.

How do you start The Beast tour? With Beast Feast!

It is starting to look that way for sure. As much as I want to see Six flags flourish and be successful, I think they are in way over their heads right now. You can't get rid of the most experienced and dedicated people and expect it to keep running good or better than it was before.

All valid points. My quick take: They held a dog and pony Investor day to try to oversell their efforts and generate positive buzz and the investors saw right thru and asked the pointed questions. They are falling well short of the pre-merger synergy savings they touted as a reason for the merger. Eliminating a bunch of rides and counting the reduced O&M savings as a synergy of the merger was called out. Once you take the shine off the sell, they only have about $60M on hand, upcoming $350M in notes due, and carrying almost $6B in debt. They need money and they need it fast. Stock price down over 30% this year. With the dumpster fire of an Investor day, they feel a sense of urgency to act quick to try to gain investor confidence. We are now seeing the knee-jerk reactions and direction changes based on whatever direction the wind is blowing the Six Flags over the HQ at Charlotte. The media has latched on to the park head honcho terminations (or um retirements), but there are lots of other positions let go and at several levels below head honcho level that folks thought wouldn't get that deep. That is their story to tell, so I won't share how deep, but expect to see more cuts....just because you never heard about it or didn't know them doesn't mean they didn't provide tremendous value in your day at the park. Buy your silver pass....

Slaughterhouse tour.

That's for keeping us updated @chad_1138! Much appreciated.

Worth noting that Mike didn’t retire. He was laid off.

Backwards train ride into the shed!

Today, Saturday, May 31st Kings Island announced it is Mike Koontz Day. Mike was always supportive of KIC and answered any questions when asked. I am personally very sad to see him go. KIC admin wish Mike all the best in his next adventure in his life. Let's use this thread to post your congratulations , appreciation, and wish Mike all the best! Here you see KIC interviewing Mike at the opening of Adventure Port.

Wish I was there today (at Dollywood) really like Mike. Looked for him the other day (Tuesday) when I was at the park.

I believe its a local, regional and system team effort. For instance, Kyle Kruthoffer from KD is helping oversee it.

Jason McClure is the General Manager of about five parks. Tony will be park manager. Think of him as the manager on duty, while all decisions run through Jason. The park manager is well-below the rank and pay grade of what the General Manager/VP was. The park manager will be a point man, while still maintaining their duties - in this case, Tony will also be VP of Operations along with Park Manager.

Can someone explain to me exactly what has been restructured with the retirement of Koontz? What job positions have been eliminated/combined by having Tony as the new manager of the park? I'm assuming there has been some restructuring and that Koontz wasn't simply replaced. Any explanation is appreciated. I do like the idea of our new manager having ties to the park from back in his early career so hopefully we are in good hands

This was actually added in 2019. I was a little surprised the original Beast Canyon sign was visible again. I think they just did some touch ups of this sign during the offseason.

I hope they don't cut the fireworks and live shows.

He's a good guy. Glad to see this, although I'd rather see him be the General Manager, but y'know...

Congratulations Tony! Photo credit: https://www.worldsoffun.com/blog/2020/from-16-year-old-ride-operator-to-gm-tony-carovillano

Blog Post from his Role at Valleyfair: From 16 Year Old Ride Operator to GM: Meet Tony Carovillano Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't he our assistant GM and current VP of Ops already? I know he was GM of Worlds of Fun for a bit as shown in the blog post.

Don't miss rhe bubble show preview at 7pm!

Maybe instead of the Q&A they will show the episode of Ghost Hunters

Great photos Chad!

They should show the lost Bert the Conqueror episode. (Wasn't there an attempted taping where there was some issue with the no reride policy and so nothing ever came of it?)

She may become the point person for the event, but everything should have been in place and ready to go by now.

So is Elizabeth now in charge of this event?

So got wrist band, shirt, and a frame for a beast picture. Kinda funny as it is from the 40th anniversary of Beast...(2019??)

yep got ours today as well.

Materials arrive via FedEx in a nice box. If you are a season pass holder, drink wristband ticket, meal tickets, and fun pic ticket are in your season pass account. So excited for Coasterstock this year.

I received my items today - via Fed Ex. I'll not spoil it, but it made my day. The T-shirt is my fav design to date! There's another surprise in there too ;-)

Daughter just saw a posting of someone who got their stuff today. Not sure if by FedEx, UPS, ....

We have not. The packets were said to be shipped this week, so whether that meant on Monday or Friday? I’m anticipating them showing up next week. 20 days to go!!!

Has anyone received their shirt and other items for Coasterstock yet in the mail? Rumor was it was sent out early May but no sign of it yet or heard anything.

You're not the only one. As far as trim-less Beast rides...wouldn't they have to physically remove the trims? If so, they'd either have to suspend operations toward the end of the day to remove them for ERT or leave it trimless all day for everyone. If not, then nevermind .

This may just be me, but beginning the sentence with "In fact," feels very unprofessional and/or too casual — even for a park speaking directly to its biggest fans (who weren't already going to Holiday World's event). The sentence would have been just as fine without it. It reminds me of how awkward and standoffish the little blurb about Monster's ordered-but-not-yet-received part felt. Does anyone else feel this way? Also, the "handful of surprises" make the itinerary incomplete (for guests) on paper, not "not final". Am I going too far into this? I'd appreciate more thoughts on the matter whether you agree with me or not. Trim-less rides on The Beast might be a nice surprise, but would there be a possibility of hurting the retracking done over the last few years? If I was going I think I'd rather take a trip to the Sign Shop than do something that would hurt the coaster. (I'd like to see inside there either way!) Sorry for nitpicking. This FAQ answer reads like someone trying to be cool and possibly failing at that. Thank you for coming to my unprompted rant.

Trim-less Beast rides and one side of The Racer turned backwards.

https://images.app.goo.gl/F25Qy7sJg2kbu8ge7

A sneak peek at the new 2026 "family thrill attraction"???

Anyone wanna take a guess on what the "handful of surprises that will enhance the event" are?

The Coasterstock schedule/itinerary is now on the KI website. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/coasterstock

We not going to go because we are going to go to holiday world. I don't know what the big deal is because people were mad they didn't get into holiday world so having coasterstock as another choice would be a good thing. Lots of people think Kings Island has gone down hill ( just like Diamondback lolol). But I still love it and I ride Diamondback all the time but I like now beast and Orion. Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

It annually sold out three months ahead of time in minutes before this year, which took seven hours. They didn't create the level of demand as in previous years. They didn't have three times the capacity ready to purchase tickets when they went on sale at 10 a.m. That's the difference between this year and previous years. It is always exciting to see old friends and make new ones at Coasterstock. That's what the event was built around, what made it the success it has been.

The event was sold out by late this afternoon. KI did a much better job of simplifying ticket purchases this year than they have in past as well. I do think it doesn’t make any difference how long it takes to reach maximum capacity for a sell out as long as the event sells out (and in this case sold out three month ahead of time)! There have been years where other parks such as CP Coastermania took over a week to sell out (but likely not this year at CP with two major coasters opening/re-opening). It will be exciting to see old friends and meet new coaster friends this May.

While not ideal to go head-to-head with another event, that's not why Coasterstock didn't sell out in minutes like it had in previous years. If the park wants to reach out to me, I can share with them for a nominal fee, of course, tips on how to sell out a roller coaster event in 15 minutes or less!

There’s just way too much going on that single weekend. To be frank with you I will be coming off a whole week in Epic Universe, I had no plans on doing HWN or Coasterstock as it’s just way too much happening all at once. I’m not shocked, in the slightest, that this event did not sell out because HWN took precedent as it went on sale first.