bkroz

hahahah! But yeah coasterfreak, people aren't trying to pick on you. There's a difference between academic English and casual English, and your post was neither. Re-read it to yourself slowly and you'll realize there wasn't a real sentence in there at all. Just re-reading it carefully will reveal many, many mismatched verbs, incorrect spelling, no capitalization, no punctuation, etc... It's something you agreed to when you signed up on the boards, and is more common sense and public etiquette than anything else.

And if the ride is to be removed, there won't be any hoopla over it. Kings Island will not call a media meeting and issue a press release and video of Helbig saying the ride will be removed. There's simply no reason to talk about it. That's what was so laughable when people said the three boxes on Facebook represented three things, and that one was Son of Beast's removal. It's like, really? They're unlikely to even officially mention it if it happens, much less announce it via viral marketing... Perhaps one day it will be mentioned in relation to a replacement. I think it's at least reasonable that they'd request to save up a few years of budget so they can remove it and build something new in its place in one year's work, even if that means the new ride doesn't open till mid-summer. Again, that's just what I think makes the most sense. Doesn't mean it'll be done that way. GYK, who always liked Son of Beast and would ride it again if it opened as it was in 2007 or 2000, and who would ride a fitting, fun replacement just as quickly.

I would imagine that they didn't sit around and think of all these minute details to tell some intricate, riddle-esque story about the future of the ride. They're poking fun at themselves, the ride, and us (the people who care so much about these things that they'll notice and build meaning around it). And since this is being discussed so heavily, it worked...

Not only that. The price of Disney's system is integrated into a daily ticket. It costs $85.00 for a day at Disney. At least a portion of that goes into the installation, maintenance, staffing, and material stock of those machines, time displays, passes, computer systems, etc. If such a system were installed at Kings Island, the price of a daily ticket / pass would need to rise to meet the additional cost of implementing the system. Perhaps the $10, $15, or $20 more expensive ticket would be worth it on Saturdays in July or October, but probably 84% of the days Kings Island is open, such a system would not even be utilized. That wouldn't matter: the price of a ticket would still need to be high to keep the machines running, the lines staffed, etc. The Q-bot system has advantages and disadvantages. It has the illusion of being confusing, and thus is an immediate turn-off to some guests. At Six Flags at least, there's a lengthy procedure to get the Flash Pass, including watching an introductory video on how to use it. Even that system requires a very large financial investment for the park - those little robots aren't cheap, as evidenced by the fact that they keep your photo ID for collateral, and if the device isn't returned, you get charged something like $250.00 to buy a replacement. And talk about tiered visitors, there's literally a Gold Flash Pass that bypasses the other Flash Pass users, and a Platinum Flash Pass that bypasses the Gold Flash Pass users who bypassed the Flash Pass users. And there's been a few times when I've noticed wait times greatly exaggerated to push the sale of Flash Pass... That's no coincidence. By far the cheapest system I can think of for the parks is ones like our Fast Lane or Busch / SeaWorld's QuickQueue, which uses inexpensive wristbands and a few laminated signs pointing up exit ways. Small expense, big income.

Nope because you buy a ticket, and all the rides and attractions are 'free'. Once something is free, people won't see a reason to pay for it again because it was previously 'free' haha. His point was that, one at a time, rides and attractions are becoming not free with the one-price admission. Xtreme Skyflier, Slingshot, Thunder Alley, Dinosaurs Alive, Dinosaurs Alive 3D!, Trick-or-Treating, Pumpkin-making, Fast Lane, Fright Lane, to name a few... At Six Flags, their Fright Fest still works that way - each house requires an individual ticket. The benefit is that unpopular attractions that are not "pulling their weight" are removed. Consider if Kings Island had such a system. Would people buy tickets to ride The Crypt as an individual attraction? Probably not. That would clearly identify it as an unpopular experience, and soon its operating cost would rise above its income. As it is, rides that are unpopular simply get dragged along with the rest of the park. It would seem people are paying for trick-or-treating with the dinosaurs this year, despite the fact that most of those people got it for free last year, and most probably saw the dinosaur display already this season. Apparently people are paying for the 3-D movies, too... If they weren't, the price would've been lowered by now, right? I don't think major parks will go back to a pay-per-ride system in my lifetime, but I think there will continue to be a focus on the "VIP" experience, with the everyday park-goer dividing into two distinct tiers. Good or bad, people who have more get more. If you have a lot, you can get a Platinum Pass. If you have quite a bit, you can get a season pass. If you have enough, you can get a ticket. If you don't have enough for that, you're S.O.L., and that's how this economy works. It's not "fair," and no one ever claimed it to be. When it comes to front-of-the-line passes and up-charge experiences, I think they'll keep coming (hopefully balanced out with "included" attractions). When I'm at my home park, they bother me; when I travel, I utilize them. Just because you buy a house doesn't mean you get water, electricity, garbage removal, sewers, and gas for free.

I think the "maze" thing is a misnomer. Haunted houses is more appropriate. Some parks sometimes have actual mazes (usually made of chain link fence, or mirrors) but its a much different experience than a themed haunted house. Half the problem is that you need to get a group through, in order, together with their friends. Take those 2 hour lines and imagine how long they might be if people were just running wild inside, getting lost, backtracking, running into eachother, becoming disoriented, etc... An actual maze would be a logistical nightmare at a high-traffic park, I think. A lot of it is for marketing. "Come get a half-dozen airheads" doesn't sound near as enticing. I guess "midget blood" entices some people, too. Takes all kinds!

I also notice how all these articles say something along the lines of "Kentucky Kingdom has been shut down since early last year, when its previous operator, Six Flags, declared bankruptcy." There's an untrue implication there that avoids bringing up a bad lease renegotiation and makes no mention of the fair board's supposedly tyrannical ways. It's no surprise, really... They're still trying to sell the place, so accidentally implying that it was Six Flags' bankruptcy that caused the rift leaves them the victim instead of the other way around, as SIX would have us believe. Six Flags' answer, meanwhile, has always been: GYK, who has gotten A's in math class since he adopted his dog. Thank God for that dog, right?!

After being refined this year, I think a more stable-priced, clear, precise system will take place next year... A certain train car for Fast Lane users, etc.

As far as I can tell, there's no reason for this system to not take root at other parks. It provides a valuable convenience for people willing to pay for it, appears to earn quite a pretty nickel penny for the park, and doesn't typically infringe on any normal guest experience. The cost for the Fight Lane pass is awfully low, and the crowds are awfully large, which I think is what resulted in Saturday's apparent debacle. Of course most of us won't use Fast Lane at Kings Island, but if you take your Platinum Pass to Canada's Wonderland on a Saturday next summer and they offer it for $40, I know I'd take it! Why not? For less than the price of admission, I've gotten free parking, access to the rides, and front-of-the-line pass. I was always bothered that I could get Quick Queue at Busch Gardens, but not at Kings Dominion. It seems that next year, that problem will be solved. Even on a mildly-busy Friday, I'll take advantage of it. I'd rather wait 5 minutes for Volcano than 25 when I only visit once a year.

200 people x $35 dollars (we're averaging here) = $7,000. How much do you think it cost to put up a dozen "Fright Lane" signs and buy little concert-style wristbands, because that is basically the only expense the park undertook to begin this program. Even if there was an extra person on payroll for each maze, their measly $500 of added pay still makes this system MOSTLY profit. I think the limit the park imposes is mathematically dervied with this formula:

It's also at Knott's, Dorney Park, Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, Carowinds, Canada's Wonderland... Let's face it: It's here to stay, and why shouldn't it be? It's dirt cheap for the park, and seems to bring in quite a lot of revenue...

How can we say what their "very limited number" is, or how it changes day to day? If 500,000 people visited in a day, wouldn't 20,000 passes be a "very limited number," available to 4% of the visitors? And like has been mentioned, the passes do not promise to get you on the ride on the next available train, or before anyone else. They simply place you in a different line that - for all intents and purposes - has a shorter wait. If the park was half as crowded as everyone makes it out to be, I'm sure that a 25 minute wait for The Beast seemed like a very fair deal compared to the regular queue.

And in the time it takes for me to say, "Yeah, please post them!" you could already have just done it. Hahaha!

Rest assured that they do! People don't put things like AED's, smoke alarms, emergency exits, and fire extinguishers in buildings just because they feel like spending a little extra money...

Funny how, thirteen pages ago, some people were excited about "a major new ride for 2011" at Kentucky Kingdom... Now, 2013... yeah, right.

Yeah, if you enter the park and turn directly to the left, it's where the lockers and that is-it-themeing-or-is-it-really-crumbling wall was by the Kings Island Theater.

Via the park's Twitter: It sure is... beautiful? It could use a flower bed at the base or something... Or a good power-washing. Haha.

And now it seems the Tower Gardens is not quite up to the par with the way they'd like to memorialize former employees. Fancy that!

I thought this was funny. This year, Six Flags Great America created a new Halloween area called the Six Saints Cemetery that had gravestones for their previous rides, often making note of parks they were moved to or what replaced them. Here's one of my favorites: Check out the whole album here. There are some good ones. Whatever happened to Turn of the Century or Shockwave?

Incredible! I didn't know about the Bare Bones nights. Very cool. Thanks so much!

Two new guys, one from Anaheim and one from nearly three decades at the Walt Disney Company and Disneyland Resort. National Hot Rod Association is certainly interesting, and as for this: Red Gold, my friends. Red Gold. And as for what thekidd quoted, I look forward to seeing how this may impact the parks' social media presence. Lord knows they're a tad behind industry standard. Disney has the Disney Parks blog. Universal has in-park events and specials centered around Twitter. SeaWorld parks has a very involved blog and massive Facebook presence. Even Six Flags' Twitter is friendly and pun-ny with visitors (which sometimes may even border on unprofessional, but at least it's welcoming and inviting and fun). Kings Island had a Facebook discussion page (gone) and has a Twitter page that is very "business," with a noticeable lack of playfulness or interaction, as though each tweet must go through corporate first (and knowing Cedar Fair, it very well may). That's sad, to me, because in-park displays at Halloween and the rare personal interaction would have me believe that the folks at Kings Island are very capable of humor and poking fun at themselves. It would be nice to see that extended to a broader social scale where others can see it.

I think their next-generation initiatives are interesting, but it'll be very telling to look back a few years after they're implemented to see if they're really used. On one hand, I agree that spontaneity is half the fun sometimes - to go to the park and ride what you will. On the other hand, I have taken advantage of opportunities to build "all inclusive" day trips at other parks. At Universal, I get the Express Pass Plus and the all-you-can-eat dining plan, and sleep very soundly knowing that the next day I could eat whatever I wanted without financial strain and that I could get to the front of the ride lines. Of course, depending on how Disney produces their new technology, it may prove to be the exact opposite of Universal's. Universal's offered freedom: ride when you want, eat when you want. Disney's thus far looks like it makes structure paramount - you may ride pre-selected attractions in a pre-selected order of half-hour windows, and eat at a given place for one meal, and a separate place for another, carrying around your bar-code-littered print off itinerary of what to do and when... Again, if / when these technological improvements arrise, it will be interesting to see how well-used they are say, five or ten years after their inception. That's the real test.

^^ You're right that new shading and dimensionality was added to all of the coasters (such as the visible texture on Vortex's track compared to the original 2011 map and the highlights on Diamondback), and Dinosaurs Alive was also added where it had once been just a logo. But beastfan11 was spot on about the shrubbery foliage. And again I'm surprised by the changes Kings Island makes mid-season... I suppose they just made sure their second order of park map's included a few changes. Very strange, but I'm not complaining [for once?].

Um, does anyone else notice anything new about this map?!? I think they listened to us me.

But it's not necessarily helping business, either! Maybe that's a benefit of the way Six Flags does their Halloween events (and a benefit of the ticketed-attraction system). Rides that aren't pulling their weight and making money are removed or overhauled. As it is, having an attraction of mediocre popularity at Kings Island might not hurt, but it doesn't help, either. It's a flat fee to enter the park, and all of the haunts are included, so whether five or five hundred people go through a given haunted maze, the park loses money on payroll and makes money with general admission, which can then be applied to all the haunted houses. At Six Flags, if a maze is unpopular, people won't pay for it, its operating expense will nearly or completely overcome its revenue, and it will be retired. One has to wonder if Kings Island does any guest satisfaction surveys to find out which themes and haunts are working? Or do they simply judge a ride or attraction's popularity by the queue line's length? As we've seen here, the two aren't necessarily correlated. Just thinking out loud!