CoastersRZ

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110308/NEWS01/303080029/Ohio-River-expected-flood-by-Thursday?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE This past weekend when the Ohio reached just over 50', the east parking lot at Coney was partially submerged under water. A flood with a crest of 54 or 55' is enough to make Sunlite Pool be under water. The last time the Ohio River crested above flood stage was back in 2005 when flood waters crested at 56.66 feet. Prior to that, it last crested at 54.50 ft on 02/22/2000. A flood of 54 or 55' is quite significant for Coney. Sunlite Pool and the filter building will be under water. And potentially other building on property will be under water as well. Riverbend Music Center is partially under water, and Kellogg Avenue between Coney and River Downs is impassible because of high water.

And look how popular places like Hofbrauhaus are in Newport....

They will likely use a temporary crane, similar to what they used for Diamondback. That is how they built Drop Tower and the Eiffel Tower.

Wow! That is some incredible footage. He truly is lucky to be alive. Will most have been looking down on him! Hopefully he makes a speedy and full recovery!

I read an article on earlier today on an Evansville new site stating that the bus pulled out in front of him. The bus driver couldn`t see his car because her view was blocked by another bus that was turning into the park lot. The driver`s kid`s were on the bus, as she was going to take them to a doctor`s appointment after her morning run. In addition to prayer`s going out to Matthew`s family, I`m sure that the bus driver could use some prayers too. I know after a bus accident in front of the local middle school here in Anderson Township, which critically injured a student who was crossing the street, his family asked for prayers not only for his speedy recovery (he is doing fine, but still not back at school yet after suffering head injuries), but also for the bus driver in that incident.

I was shocked when I read about this at lunch. A very sad situation indeed. Hopefully his condition improves. The full time staff at Holiday World certainly has had a lot to deal with recently.

I agree it will be interesting to ride The Racer this year with WindSeeker`s tower so close to Red Racer. And keep in mind, that once they actually start vertical construction on this ride, it will likely only take a matter of days to get the tower assembled. After all, the tower is comprised of what, six pieces? The first piece will be the most important piece, because that sets the alignment for the rest of the tower. And if the tower isn`t plumbed correctly, even a 1/16" off the centerline can make for a big tolerance error over 300'!

And who is to say that they are trying to cover up Son of Beast? Maybe they are trying to cover up something else? Many would be quick to point to Son of Beast, because they desperately want some indication on its status. I think it is a foregone conclusion that the ride will NOT operate this year. Otherwise, we would have heard or seen something about the ride by now.

Indeed. And often times, GPS units are not updated for road closures. In fact, on the way home from a Carowinds/Dollywood trip last spring, myself and a friend (who posts on here from time to time) found ourselves having to stop and ask for directions, even though we were using a GPS. Why? I-40 was closed due to a rock slide in NC near the Tennessee border. And obviously, the GPS didn`t know that, and kept trying to route us back to I-40, even when we tried to detour that route.

You would think that with Google maps or other GPS devices you wouldn`t get lost. But when I attended an end of year luncheon for Coney at "Receptions" in Eastgate, many people that were using GPS devices got lost, and if you are familiar with the Cincinnati area, Eastgate isn`t exactly a rural area. The issue was that the address for the place was registering about a half mile from where the place was actually located!

I just read an article over the weekend about Lake Winnie. You can find the article in the January 2011 edition of FUNWORLD Magazine (the magazine published by IAAPA). Here is a link to the article:http://www.iaapa.org/industry/funworld/2011/jan/features/FamilyTies/index.asp A very interesting read. I highly recommend it if you have the time. As an aside, FUNWORLD often has very informative articles, and usually they are well worth the read if you have time to peruse their articles. And for those who do not know, IAAPA stands for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, or IAAPA for short. One of these days, I`d like to get down to Georgia to check out this park, and parks that are owned by a company that numbers its flags, and by a company that has a local property in the Cincinnati area.

And coincidentally enough, the arch seen in that first picture is almost the exact spot that the new arch was built for the entrance to Planet Snoopy this year!

I believe they didn`t relocate it. Rather, they shortened it. Instead of being a connector to Rivertown, they cut it in half, and put tables in it for the food stands in that area.

Yes I was! Although, food prices and merchandise prices may increase at parks. Admission prices may increase because Ohio's minimum wage went up two nickels iat the beginning if the tear, to $7.40 an hour. I know that Coney's admission rates are unchanged from last season, so they are not passing on the increased labor costs to customers with increased admission prices. At least not yet. This is the second time I wrote this response. I had it typed out on my computer but a phone call interrupted me. And now I'm in a car, so I'm retyping this on my iPhone.

Well, according to that map, there was a lazer maze next to the Festhaus. It obviously was not the same building as the recently demolished building (originally the Cinema 360 building) that resided in Coney Mall.

So sad to hear that vandals want to see things burn. Its also sad that this park is still closed. Things like this fire are going to make it more difficult for the park to eventually reopen.

That second article paints a pretty gloomy picture. In short, because of increases in oil prices, you can expect almost every product from groceries to cereal and sugary snacks to shipping packages to clothing, to concerts, and even to consumer electronics to increase their prices in response to the increase in oil.

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I have never been on the Frog Hopper ride at Coney. And it has a big boy seat in the center too... The Scream Machine ride at Coney is nowhere near as tall as Drop Tower at Kings Island, but it provides quite a little rush in the stomach when you drop. The only downside with working that ride, is the ride cycle time is so short. If you are at that ride, the time seems to drag by because it is such a repetitive operation, with only about a minute ride cycle time.

Unfortunately, I have been called some rather bad things last year at Coney. One included a time when I was working the Ferris Wheel, and the parents needed to ride with the kids who were too short to ride by themselves. The only problem was that the parents had not bought rides wristbands and therefor could not ride. I apologized to the guests and told them that they needed to have a rides wristband to ride, and that their kids were too short to ride by themselves. I was then called a Nazi by one of the parents! I just brushed it off and apologized to them and said that those are our rules and the height requirements are set by the state. Another time, I was a manager and responded to an irate guest who claimed height requirements were not being uniformly enforced on a certain ride. She was throwing cuss words at me, towards the park, and the ride operator, all in front of her kids. I apologized to her, but her kid was clearly too short to be admitted onto said attraction. I got the distinct feeling she was looking for a free hand out in the form of comp tickets. (She even told me that her visit to the park that day was from comp tickets). As the conversation ended, I said "Have a nice day." She muttered under her breath that that was impossible after her atrocious experience at the park. How hard is it to understand that height requirements exist for the safety of the riders?

We are quite fortunate that Kings Island was featured in two television shows during its first two seasons. No other seasonal amusement park can lay that claim to fame. Not to mention, it gives us wonderful video clips of the park from its early years. And remember, that Kings Island, which is 39 years old this year, is still a relative youngin` in the industry. (Just look at my avatar). Coney Island is celebrating its 125th anniversary this season. (The exact 125th birthday is on June 21st).

So if you are terrified of Zephyr, are you going to ride WindSeeker? Ferris Wheel`s do not scare me. I actually had to ride the Ferris Wheel at Coney this past year, because we had guests complaining about wasps at the top of the ride. Not exactly the place you want to be, 40' in the air in a car with wasps swarming around!

Yes. It was not played in the park, unlike the Coney theme song which has been around for nearly five years now, I think. And trust me, after working the Ferris Wheel as often as I have (which is right next to the open air Lakeside Pavilion, where the live shows are held), that Coney theme song can get a tad bit annoying!

Good customer service is central to any business. And positive customer interactions are critical to creating a fun and positive atmosphere for the park guests- they are after all the paying customers. Without them, there would be no park to run. A family may only be visiting a park one day a year, and if you are in a bad mood, that could hamper their fun visit to the park. Remember, an unhappy customer will generally tell others about their unpleasant experience, so it is paramount that parks emphasize customer service to their front line employees. Having worked at Coney for as many seasons as I have, I can say that Coney certainly emphasizes customer service training. Throughout the years, I`ve attended scores of customer service training sessions. I may be atypical when it comes to working in an amusement park now, since the job at Coney is my secondary job. I do it simply because I have fun doing it. It always helps to have employees that enjoy what they are doing, because they will generally be more enthusiastic and typically will produce better interactions with the customers. Because of the low pay that most of these seasonal positions attract, often times the employees do not care about how their actions are perceived as a reflection on the business itself. Instead, they are counting down the minutes until their shift ends. Although, i am not longer a ride operator at Coney (I will be back again this summer at Coney on weekends, but as a rides manager, not an operator), I have already had to deal with scores of upset customers. Unfortunately, there are some customers that cannot be appeased, no matter how polite and courteous the employees are. I still remember what one of my managers told me at Coney when I was exhausted, and still had several hours to go on a busy Saturday during my first season. He said "look at all the kids that are smiling and having fun on your ride. Just think of all the memories they are making right now because of you." So whenever I am having a bad day, I think of what he said, and try and put on the best smile I can since the customers are there to have fun after all. Boy I kind of rambled on and went off on a tangent.

And apparently now, they play no beach or summer oriented music at all in the water park, and play rock and roll only. At least they do not have a theme song like Coney does. They play that jingle every morning after Sunlite Pool opens, and after every live show in Lakeside Pavilion. "Coney Has It! Yeah, yeah yeah!"