CoastersRZ

Was it Cedar Fair that decided not to put the pictures on the passes? I seem to recall that my 2006 season pass did NOT have a picture on it anymore. I would look at my pass, but they made me turn in that pass when I purchased my 2007 pass. That is the only old pass from Kings Island that I do not currently have dating all the way back to 1998! 2000 was the last year that they actually printed the names on the passes at Kings Island.

Agreed. Hey, back in the day when the passes did have pictures on them, you couldn`t even scan the passes at the gates to the other Paramount Parks. You had to go to guest relations and they had to print a ticket for you to get in. I agree that if they at least printed names/ and years on the passes, things would be a lot easier in case the computer system went down. I mean, Coney still prints pictures on their passes (at least last year they did) and they were color pictures too! Unfortunately, when people use their passes for the rides, we as ride ops have to compare the picture on the pass to the person using the pass. If we catch people using a pass that isn`t theirs, we confiscate the pass on the spot, no questions asked. That happens more often than one would think. Especially with parents trying to swap the pass between them to ride with a kid that needs a chaperone!

Well, we`ll see. My pass didn`t scan the second day I went to Carowinds. We`ll see if it scans and lets me in at Kings Island in less than two weeks!

Except in this situation, and in my situation last week, the park hadn`t even opened yet. Its kind of hard to have already used your pass that day before the park even opened. And secondly, Carowinds has none (at least from last weekend) that they had some issues with the KI Platinum Passes. One would think that they would be able to pull up the history of the pass to see when it was swiped in and where. If not, they might want to look into a feature like that. Clearly though, there is a serious issue. And it appears that this time, it resulted in a very upset pass holder, who will undoubtedly think twice about returning to the park. I`m still shocked that they did not apologize. In my years at Coney, they have always stressed the importance of apologizing, even if you did not do anything wrong, and even if the customer is in the wrong. You need to listen to their concerns, and try to appease them. After all, without customers, your business can`t properly function.

They clearly haven`t had very good customer service training. First and foremost you should apologize to them. There was once a time where "the customer was always right" as well. You would much rather have the customer leaving happy after the good service they received, then making the customer mad and leaving angry, because they might not ever return, and will spread their bad experience to their friends.

By blaming the customer he means by accusing them of already having used the pass that day to gain entry into the park. Or in my case, them asking me multiple times if I had in fact renewed my pass and if it was indeed a 2010 pass. You should not accuse a customer of doing something wrong if you know you have a problem with your computer system. I mean, last Sunday I was told my one of the admissions managers that my KI Platinum Pass was about the seventh or eighth pass that had worked the previous day, but was not working on Sunday, for whatever reason. So clearly they knew last Sunday that they had some sort of computer problem. One would have thought that they would have tried to fix it by this weekend. In any event, you do not want to be making your paying customers mad. Because they are giving you money. And once you loose a customer, it is hard to get that customer back again. So was it you whose pass would not scan in? I would have been irate at the situation you described. (I was a little mad last weekend, but the employees were generally nice about the situation, and it only took about ten minutes to straighten out, and they did not accuse me of already being in the park that day.

Well, my pass scanned just fine in the parking lot the first day. The second day, my pass did NOT scan at the parking lot tolls. And then it did NOT scan at the entrance gate either, just showed the big red X. I presume it did the same thing at the parking toll as well. Clearly there is something wrong in the system that they need to figure out, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Wow. I wonder if this is just a glitch affecting Kings Island Platinum Passes or if other Platinum Passes have been affected. One has to also wonder if this glitch applies to just Platinum Passes, and if it is just at Carowinds. Ie, have similar things been happening at Kings Dominion? I`m still slightly concerned I`ll have issues with my Platinum Pass at Kings Island/other Cedar Fair parks I visit this summer. Fortunately for me, they didn`t accuse me of already entering the park that day (I arrived right around 10). They did ask me multiple times if I had renewed my 2009 Platinum Pass to a 2010 Platinum Pass! I even have "`10" written on the back of my pass, since when I renewed and processed back in October, KI gave me a new, exactly identical Platinum Pass. I wanted to be able to differentiate my 2009 pass and 2010 pass! Hopefully, they get this figured out and soon.

Assuming their computer system is up and working. If one had, for instance, a Kings Island Platinum Pass at Carowinds on, say, April 3 of 2010, and attempted to gain entry, one might well spend more than 20 minutes "trying" to gain entry to a park where one had been admitted the day before. At minute 21, and manager number three, one might even leave the park and head back home, taking one's nickels with them. Just theoretically, of course. One might even think the park would be nice and/or gracious or about it...but that, too, would only be theoretical, sad to say... This is purely theoretical, isn`t it? I mean, I had issues with my Kings Island Platinum pass on the second visit last weekend. They aren`t still having problems with this, are they? If they are, they need to get things figured out, and at least streamline the process for handling such issues. Twenty minutes is a bit long to simply print out a receipt that can scan at the gate, which is what they ultimately did for me last Sunday.

Yes. Just take a stroll through the history gallery here to see that going to Kings Island back in 1972 was more about the overall experience. It was a kin to trips to Disneyworld today, where the rides may not be that spectacular (some rides down there are awesome), but the attention to theming and detail makes for a memorable experience. Much of this original magic has been lost over the years at Kings Island. I so wish that some of that magic would come back, particularly some of the roving entertainment that the park once had. Some of my fondest memories from my early visits to the park in the late 80s and early 90s are of seeing the Kings of Komedy Clown Band running around International Street. Too bad KI can`t bring back some entertainment like that! It does wonders to the overall atmosphere of the park. That is partly what made Winterfest in 2005 so magical, was that they had entertainment just roving around the midways.

Remember, Coney Island was "America`s Finest Amusement Park." Be sure to check in on Coney Island Central in the coming days. I`ve been working on a small update that will certainly please you if you liked these photos!

Yeah. I personally have never used ebay before. Sometimes you can get real bargains on things, other times you can end up spending a lot more for something than what you originally intended to spend.

It should be noted that Cedar Fair is now spending LESS on capital projects for all of their parks than what Paramount and Cedar Fair were spending prior to the merger. And yes, Kings Island rarely has had any years in which no new attractions were added. 1978 and 2008 come to mind. However, the following year after those two years saw the introduction of major new rides.

Paramount didn`t do anything? Who was the one that installed Drop Tower? Who was the one that added Delirium, arguably one of the best flat rides that Kings Island has seen introduced in years. Yes, they did do some terribly stupid things (removing the Eagles and Tiques ranks right up there with among their worst decisions). But they did install Flight of Fear, which is fourteen years old this year, and still has retained much of its theming over the years. At least more so than some newer rides like the Crypt and Backlot! From what I understand, B&M had proposed a design to Kings Island when it was under CBS/Paramount. They were at the time not interested in the ride, as CBS was more interested in milking the parks for every penny they could muster. When Cedar Fair took over, they initiated the conversations with B&M about the ride they had previously proposed. And enter 2009 and Diamondback was here. So while the ride was likely commissioned by Cedar Fair, B&M had a concept design for the ride before CBS even sold the parks.

Solar panels can, and have been used in parking lots before. As mentioned, this reduced the urban heat island effect caused by passive solar heat gain on the parking lot surface/cars parked in the parking lot. Check out this image to see an example of how solar panels are used in parking lots: Selective, I still think you grossly underestimate the cost of PVs. Not to mention that there are tons of intelligent people currently working on them to perfect them and bring their price down so that they are more affordable. Secondly, you mentioned that the panels can store the power. That is not accurate. They produce the power. While some energy can be stored in batteries, this is again not very efficient and you loose some power in the transfer to the batteries. That is why the current electric grid is dependent on real time consumption. In other words, utilities generate exactly enough electricity to meet the demands at any given time, since they cannot effectively store it for use at a later time.

Well, technically it is out of Cedar Fair`s hands right now, and up to their unit holders to decide the fate of the company.

Yes. But as I`ve said, the investment on a per kilowatt hour basis is still more expensive than coal power. So parks have little incentive to invest the capital. And while his utility bill drastically decreased, it doesn`t mention how much money he invest in reducing his utility bill. Given the huge surges seen when some rides operate, solar power is unrealistic to provide all the power to a park. Can a park use solar power to help offset some peak demand energy usage and save a little bit on their energy bill. Of course. Has it been done before. Yes, see my example of Dollywood. Is it something most seasonal parks are going to do? No, because they are not open year round, and would not likely see a big enough benefit. And technically, they would be selling the energy back to Duke, since Duke Energy Ohio has the service area in Mason.

Well, I wouldn`t say that the storage place destroyed the place for travelers to stay. More likely, the motel in question was beginning to loose business as newer options opened around it. As such, it couldn`t compete with those newer venues, and as a result, it appears the owners decided to sell the property to someone who had a different use in mind for the property.

Again, thanks for sharing such wonderful images. I love seeing the park in its heyday like that!

Yes, Stricker`s grove also has an Eagles ride, although it is an 8 tub model, and is more difficult to snap than what KI`s was. It still is possible, just not as easily as Kings Islands/Carowinds. And as an aside, back when some LeSourdsville Lake rides were auctioned/sold off, Coney tried to buy the Flying Scooters ride from LeSourdsville Lake. They were outbid by a park (the name escaped me right now) that only wanted the ride so that they could replace their own Scooter ride with newer tubs!

You can still ride the Eagles, just down at Carowinds. They still give some pretty intense snapping too! And Carowinds is home to Afterburn, still one of my favorite inverted coasters.

Someone using charm in the same sentence form Backlot? In my opinion, Backlot NEVER had charm. the ride that was there before, the Antique Cars had a lot of charm and that area of the park was so tranquil. With Backlot, a once beautiful area of the park was turned into a big pile of gravel and warehouse esque buildings and theming. I would gladly welcome back both the Tiques and eagles in that spot if only it were possible. Those two rides had a lot more charm in that area of the park than what it has now.

Except, how many of those that visited actually spent a good amount of money inside the park? I know my purchases at Carowinds last week were limited to the one meal I ate in the park on Saturday. $13 is too much for two slices of cheese pizza and a 20oz soft drink.

Except Cedar Fair DID try and sell two parks. Worlds of Fun and Valleyfair. There were no serious offers.

Very awesome! And yes, that coaster on the right is in fact the turnaround for the Shooting Star. The Wildcat coaster used to stand at the end of this shot, but was removed to make room for the skyride station seen in that shot.