A_Titanic_Mess

Maddie is adorable. KI should put her in a commercial ASAP!!!

So hard to compare the two parks. Holiday World is a great park, with some of the best woodies in the world. Also, I think a better value than KI. Holiday World lacks the stage/theater entertainment that KI has, and of course hardly any parks kids area can hold a candle to KI. I love Holiday World though and would almost always pick to visit there over KI.

Heard from a couple friends and former KI co-workers that HRP is averaging about 3000 to 5000 guests a day, not near the 30,000 they had projected. And now it is rumored that HRP is already in financial troubles and may soon file for protection. I have no links to back any of this up, I am scouring through Myrtle Beach news websites to see if any of this can be sustantiated. Anyone else heard about this???

Sweet Jesus....what an awful idea for a theme park! But hey, go ahead and build it, then the holier-than-thou bible-thumpers from this board will have somewhere else to go when KI hosts the "sinful" pride night.....

Times must tough at KI in the graphics department...the e-mail kind of looks like recycled Son of Beast graphics to me, with the big crate and even down to the monster eye at the bottom of the e-mail.

I hope to make it this year, I missed last years event. Always great to be able to be yourself, surrounded by family and friends.

LOL ... too funny WooferBear!!!

Now when I was a manager at the park, I remember that the food cost of a souvenir cup worked out to be roughly 5 cents. (Not joking about that before anyone brings up a nickel comment.) That sounds about right! I seem to recall the costs for a small soft drink coming in somewhere around $.03 when I was still there back in 2001. That included the liquid, ice, and cup. I have not been to the park yet this year, but I heard earlier this year that CF was going to install digital menu boards at food locations, and that the retail price of food and drinks was to be adjusted regurlarly based upon the hourly alpha. Can anyone confirm if this is or is not happening? I for one would not be too happy if I paid say $3.00 for a drink at noon , but then had to pay $3.50 for the same drink at 7pm because the net had dropped. I kind of understand the concept behind it, but not sure how this would be executed without high guest complaints.

Just a couple thoughts on the topics... When I was still working at the park, granted it has been several years ago now, the COG for soft drinks was pennies. I am sure this has increased over the years, but I am guessing it is still pretty low. I am sure KI before offering the wristband deal has already worked the numbers to include a certain percentage of guests who will use the wristband to get a drink for their family or friends. I am not debating whether this is wrong or right, I am saying that KI would have this number already built-in to their margin on the wristband deal. Frankly they probably make so much margin on drinks not purchased under the wristband deal that they have room to take the hit from the all-you-can-drink program. On Don H.'s comment about wristbands for seasonpass holders only...we have already heard on this board that associates are not asking to see season passes when supplying drinks to folks with wristbands, so I think KI would be foolish to make an issue out of someone getting extra drinks for friends or family when their own associates are not following the policy. Even if the associates did ask to see the pass, it does not stop the passholder from going to another location and getting a drink for a friend. Also, who is and how is this program policed? The associates serving the drinks should never be put in the position of policing this program, and having to confront a guest who is violating the policy. KI knows there is really no way to police this program, and I am sure they don't ever intend to do as such.

This "thug" culture that has taken over kids the past several years has got to stop. There is way too much violence in movies, music, tv, and video games. So many kids have grown up watching this that they think nothing of it to hurt another person. Violence is glorified in our society, and we all wonder why things like this happen. And to make matters worse, these guys will probably get off with a slap on the wrist.

Thanks for posting. These are great pics of the park through the years. Nice to see the KI connection!

The original plan for torture tower included a clear acrylic/lucite slab located directly at the exit of the elevator on the top of the tower. Guests would have to step out of the elevator onto the clear slab, with a view to the ground below. Very similar to the one at Ghost Bar at the Mirage in Vegas. There were concerns about how to build this to be safe. Also, the expense to do was quite high, so it never happened. Great idea, and the thought of stepping out of the elevator onto a clear platform, looking down at the ground hundreds of feet below sounded pretty terrifying!!!

I was a fulltime associate in resale. KI was never great with the details IMO. With the park only open for 130-ish days a year, things had to happen very quickly. Associate activities and recruiting drives were often put together without much thought. Sometimes it worked out, other times it did not. I am not saying this happened all the time, but often enough to notice. Just from my personal experiences in dealing with HR, I could easily believe the story that the internationals told. While not as extreme as the story being told now, there were similar complaints from internationals back when they were at the dorms at UC years ago. I am not saying that everyone in HR is bad, as a mater of fact there are great people that work in HR. Just offering an opinion on the situation based on my years at the park.

Just a little bit of info on the Hard Rock/PKI connection...there are about 30 former PKI and Paramount Parks employees now working at the Hard Rock in Myrtle Beach. Many of the folks at the HRP now left PKI after Cedar Fair took over. None of them had anything good to say about working for Cedar Fair, so they left on went to the Hard Rock. Sorry to hear that the HRP is not bringing in the guests. Frankly, I don't think Myrtle Beach was the right location for that park. A bigger destination city would have worked better.

The employees also stated that they were surprised that there was no furniture supplied to them and that there was no internet access. Yet, they were not to be supplied furniture and they do have internet access. So how can the students try and claim that they tried so hard to contact an HR person when other issues they brought up are false? I also find it hard to believe that these students, from another country, were able to get in touch with the local media so easily, but found difficulty in speaking with an HR representative that is located on the same property that they work. If I was in their position, and I felt slighted with my living conditions, I would have been beating doors down until the issues were resolved. THANK YOU. Those were my thoughts exactly. How can they claim to have no phone, internet, TV, etc yet still be able to contact the I-Team, or even know what the I-Team is or what it does? I'm in the process of painting my room right now and have stuff thrown everywhere. Think WCPO would run that story? The conditions are terrible! I know you are trying to be funny, but there is a big difference between you painting the room in your own home, and the internationals living in crappy housing with construction going on that is beyond their control. Maybe you should walk in their shoes for the summer...give up your place, transportation, and access to the internet (no more KI Central for you all summer!), and I bet we hear a different tune. Not trying to pick a fight, but no matter how you spin this, KI looks like the bad guy on this one, and I would suspect as someone myself who worked at the park for many and know how things fall through the cracks that KI knows they dropped the ball on this one.

I'm sorry Boddah, but regardless of whether King Island can or has the right to fire these employees, it simply would not be the right thing to do. The WCPO story, whether fully accurate or not, portrays KI in a not so positive light. If the park were now to terminate these employees for speaking out about the housing situation, it would only make matters worse for KI. The employees stated in the story that attempts were made to speak to the HR person coordinating the housing program, and were unsuccessful. Clearly they felt KI was being unresponsive to the situation. If the facts of the story are so inaccurate, the park spokesperson should have refuted the claims. Instead he looked uncomfortable while making excuses for the situation. As far as the i-team "choosing" to focus on the apartment building under construction, well if any of the exchange workers were being housed in that building, then it certainly was relevant to show that. Interesting how it took the i-team story to get any action from the park, sending the HR person over to check on the exchange workers only after the the i-team was contacted. Had the park taken the time to do this earlier in the season, there would porbably never have been an i-team report to begin with.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one. We've all seen I-Team reports. The idea of the report is to sensationalize things as much as possible. I'm not saying that the park is right or wrong on this matter, but certainly does have the right to limit statements that it's employees make. One simply can not expect to make statements to the media (without speaking with their public relations department) and expect to keep their jobs. My goodness, people around the country are terminated for far less every day! We agree to disagree. KI has every right to terminate the employees, but in my opinion it is NOT the right thing to do, Doing so could only make matters worse for the park. Don H. should have stated "No, these kids will not be terminated for speaking out"...he could not do that, so what does that tell you about the way KI works? How would you feel if you were the parents of these kids, who are now working for the summer in a foreign country, living in sub-par conditions, not getting what was promised when you signed up. The difference for us is that we could quit, and move on to other jobs. These kids probably have no choice, I would guess their work visas are tied to their employment at KI. Let's hope you never find yourself in this situtation. Sounds like poor planning on the part of KI, and now it has been exposed.

Now let me see. Kings Island sits within an At Will State. So the park or the employer can dismiss you unless it's for reason of religion, disability or age. Employees are not permitted to give statements regarding the park without the parks consent. So tell me why the park would not be within it's right to terminate the employement? Bottom line is the story presented was not favorable to Kings Island. The statements the employees gave were about the sub-par housing situation, and what they felt were misleading statements by the HR department in recruiting them to work for the season. If Kings Island is foolish enough to terminate them because they spoke out about the horrible living situation, then the park will get what it deserves...even more bad publicity. To answer your questions more directly, yes, the park has every right to terminate the employment of anyone it wishes, at any time, for any reason. However terminating the employees who spoke out would smack of retaliation against them, which is petty. Kings Island needs to suck it up, and live up to their end of the bargain. These are kids/teenagers in a foreign country, and KI should be ashamed of how this has played out. I don't know Don H., so this is not a personal attack, but frankly his job is to put a good spin on this, and he came off to me as a bit fake and unprepared....just my opinion.

This was a pretty good attraction, but I am shocked that it stayed open this long. I left PKI in 2002, and there were already talks that the attraction would close soon. The part where you are "beamed" aboard the Enterprise was just great, and the motion simulator was first class. This was an expensive attraction though. The retail had a very high COG as almost all product was branded with the ST:TE logo, made just for the Vegas location. We always went to the attraction when we were in Vegas for M.A.G.I.C., and had drinks at Quarks Bar, on the house of course since we were part of the Paramount family. Great attraction, but interest in Star Trek has declined over the years, so it was only a matter of time before the doors were closed for good. I would recommend to anyone that has not been to the experience to do it before the close for good!

Wow...this story certainly does not showcase Kings Island in a positive light. Frankly, Don H's refusal to answer the question as to whether the employees would be fired for talking to the i-team should get him fired. His answer should have been a resounding NO, the employees would not be terminated for speaking with the i-team. Kind of ironic that the employees refer to the housing as like "being in a prison". Cedar Point has been called Cedar Prison by the employees there for many years now. This story is a complete embarasment to Kings Island. Can't wait to hear the fall-out from this story. I bet the nameless HR lady mentioned in the story will soon be looking for a new job!

Hi, Does anyone know if KI is planning a July 4th celeberation with extended fireworks this year? I checked their website, and could not find any info yet on July 4th. Trying to make some plans for the holiday. Thanks!

This is really shocking! Many of us worked with Darlene for years, and I just can't believe this happened. I am sure there must have been compelling evidence since she was found guilty, but never in a million years would I have guessed she would be involved in something like this. Really a sad situation.

I dumped my Six Flags stock about 5 years ago at around $6 a share. I paid almost double that, so this was clearly not a good investment. Six Flags was on a roll for a while, but they could not keep the momentum going. There was an interesting article I read about the decline of Six Flags stock. The nutshell of the story was that theme parks almost have to put in a new attraction every year to stay competitive. When the parks were adding these mega-coasters, the cost to build was outweighing the revenue as the parks would only get an initial bump for about half of the first summer the attraction was there, but then it leveled off. The article said that Six Flags was hit hard by this scenario. Maybe with the high gas prices this summer, people will stay closer to home for vacation. This might help Six Flags, and regional theme parks in general.

A friend (and former KI co-worker) who is now at the Hard Rock sent me this construction photo last week. Enjoy!!!

Hi, wasn't sure where to post this, sorry if it is in the wrong place... I am looking for a bottle or two of the Son of Beast Hot Sauce that was sold at PKI. If anyone knows where I can find some, or has some to sell, please contact me directly. Thanks! a_titanic_mess