A_Titanic_Mess

Was at the park on Saturday, and no trams were running. A sign at the parking tolls did say there would be no tram service. Not a big deal as the walk from the car to the front gate was not that far. My issue is $10 to park, but no tram. The parking toll is outrageous, and PKI should be embarrassed by charging that kind of money to park a car.

I sure hope so. We stopped by the food stand 'It's Fried' in Coney Mall to grab some drinks before we left the park. The employees 'working' (if you can call it that) were the sorriest group I have seen in a long time. And the food stand was just a mess. Time to tear this one down to the ground and start over.

I was also at the park this weekend for a company picnic. I ran into one of the VP's that I worked for during my tenure at PKI. This person told me the exact opposite of your statement. This person said that Cedar Fair does things very differently than PKI, and that a lot of internal changes were happening. This person said it has been difficult to adjust, and that many of them are unsure of how things will play out. This is a very similar statement that my friend that works at what is left of Paramount corporate at Carowinds told me. Cedar Fair will be going to each park throughout the next couple of months to give 'town hall' type meetings that will spell out what to expect. IMO, I would expect that on the surface, we the guests won't notice many of these internal changes. It will be next season before we see any big changes.

Winterfest was a huge disappointment for the park. When no one shows up, the park makes no money. The original Winterfest was faltering in it's last few years. I never understood why the park would try it again. I worked with the person who did the preliminary report for Resale back in 2002 as to whether Winterfest should come back (from a Resale perspective). It never worked on paper. So my guess is PKI decided to increase the ticket price to make it work. That was their downfall. Good for Cedar Fair for putting this event out of it's misery! Please concentrate on making the park better during the rest of the season.

Well I did not ride it 30 times in a row, but I was one of the people in the original photo shoot for TRTR. We were on it for close to 2 hours. The photographer was also on the ride a certain times. He had his camera duct taped to his hand. We rode in the dark, and with all of the lights on. Ride was stopped upside down over the 'lava pit' several times while photos were taken. I actually think it is one of PKI's better attractions, just wish the theming were better. An interesting note, the end sequence of the ride was cut about 25 seconds. The ride was to do two additional full rolls with the gondola spinning. However, during testing, it was determined that the mechanical equipment/motors could not produce the power for the two additional rolls. You can clearly tell that the ride ends abruptly. Still a cool ride though.

The growth potential in China and the east is huge. Mandarin has surpased English as the global language of business. This is probably a smart move for Paramount, keeping their foot in the theme park business without the need for the North American parks. Paramount Pictures always envisioned the parks as a way to promote the movie studio and television side of the business. However slapping the name of a movie onto the side of a roller coaster did not quite convey the message. Paramount never supported the attractions with the capital needed to really have an impact the way that Disney and Universal have done with their attractions. Paramount's most successful attempt at combining movies with with a themed experience is Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. PKI's best attempt was Tomb Raider, but it fell short of expectations. It will be interesting to see how the China park plays out.

Spoke to a friend who is working at what is left of Paramount Corporate out of Carowinds. This person said they have been told that representatives from Cedar Fair will be going to each Paramount Park over the next couple of months to give a 'Town Hall' type meeting to all full-time employees. Most will learn their fate at these meetings. My source at Paramounts feels many jobs will be eliminated, or relocated. The winds of change are upon them...

The 30th anniversary map cost close to $1.05 to have made. The maps retailed for $2.99 I believe. The whole printing issue still existed when the last souvenir map was printed. The issue is that the design studio that actually illustrates the map is the only one that can print them. It is written in their contract. PKI does use a local printing company to do all of their other collateral. The local printer was going to be able to print the souvenir maps at a cost of less than $.40 each. However, given the existing contract, this was not permitted. Thus the maps cost close to $1.05 each to print, and resulted in a $2.99 retail. A small price to pay though for a souvenir from PKI in my opinion. By the way, the price for the map illustration was incredibly outrageous, in the tens of thousands if I remember correctly. The good part is that only small adjustments needed to be made each year since most of the artwork stayed the same, so no additional major costs were incurred.

The map produced in 2002 was for the 30th anniversary, not the 20th. I was on the team that designed the map for the souvenir shops. It came out late in the 2002 season due to a delay in the Paramount Pictures approval process. TRTR was new, and everything with TRTR on it had to go back to the studio for approval. Around 1000 to 1200 souvenir maps were printed, but only a few hundred sold. You could probably contact PKI merchandise and purchase one if they have not wrote them off the books and trashed them. They tend to keep merchandise for several years even though it is outdated. It usually is about 5 years after an item is introduced before they can write-off and dispose of old inventory. You might get lucky and be able to still get one.

A friend and I visited Holiday World last summer, on a weekday, and the waits for both of the coasters mentioned were less than 10 minutes each. I don't recall waiting for any attraction for more than 5 or 10 minutes. A fun park. I really enjoyed the river rafting ride through the flooded ghost town. Looking forward to visiting again this summer.

Finding other rides for children that do not meet the height requirement is not as easy as you make it out to be. First, children that come to the park are already limited in the amount of attractions they can ride. Now a new height requirement is limiting that even more. This guest had a legitimate complaint. Trust me, I worked at the park for over 12 years and have heard hundreds of silly and worthless complaints. Why charge this guest for a season pass when the child is for all practical purposes now considered the same as a 2 year old, which would be free? PKI did the right thing. And they were smart to offer the same refund to other families that may find themselves in this situation. PKI made this concession because they knew it was a valid issue.

I am sure PKI had legitimate safety issues that caused them to increase the height requirements. The problem was that the guest had purchased a season pass that was for all practical purposes worthless for this child. While many on this board think the complaint was frivilous, the woman was exactly right when she said that children shorter than the new height requirement should be considered the same as children under 2 years of age. They would be limited to riding the same attractions, so why should one have to pay while the other does not. The park and Siebert did the right thing by refunding for the pass.

PKI has spent over 20 million on attractions. SOB was one of them, but the most costly attraction the park has ever installed was Tomb Raider: The Ride. TRTR went over-budget, into the mid 20's (millions). It's too bad that even with all of the money spent on that attraction, it was not able to operate as designed, and 30 seconds had to be cut from the ride length. The souvenir ride photo system was one of the most expensive ever to be installed anywhere in the world. PKI took a huge loss on that investment. TRTR did not live up to its potential, and that was reflected in the lack of sales for ride photo.

I spoke to a friend who still works at what is left of Paramount corporate in Charlotte. The word this person gave to me is that Cedar Fair had aquired or was close to aquiring Paramount Parks. I spoke to this person on Monday, May 8th. I have seen no official word, but this person is a reliable source, so I would expect we should hear about the sale soon.

Skywriter, I agree that at times the security department is not equiped to handle some of the issues that go on at the park. The fights and vanadalism have increased over the past several years. The riots a few years back at PGA that closed the park were hopefully a wake-up call to all of the Paramount Parks. PKD also experienced a mini-riot at a hip-hop concert the same summer that the PGA riot happened. While I do believe that in general you are safe at the park, I do wonder how PKI would handle a large scale riot such as what happened at PGA. It is unfortunate that a fight broke out on Sunday and disrupted for some what should have been a great day for all. You just never know who is coming through the gate and into the park.

WooferBearATL, you are classic PKI...I love it! My top 3 would be... 1. The Bat 2. Enchanted Voyage - Pre Smurfs 3. Gullivers Tubs - my favorite ride as a kid. As far as later rides, I also thought that Skylab and Flight Commander were great attractions. Sorry to see those go. Was flight Commander sold to another park after the accident? I know that it was closed for an entire season before the removal. Skylab sat in the boneyard for years before it was finally sold.

I no longer work at the park. I was there for 12 years. Both when it was just Kings Island, and also during the Paramount years. I would be a little shocked if FOF was removed. I think the capital spent on that attraction was pretty substantial. However, if they have plans for something bigger and better, then sometimes other rides have to go. I read a post on here that mentioned FOF might move to PC. If that is the case, then yes, I could see if closing and being replaced by a new attraction. Similar to the PGA Stealth situation. It seems like time for PKI to get a steel hyper coaster of somekind.

Not offended. I worked with Marketing on the design of the map when TRTR was new. I was responsible for for getting the approvals from the movie studio on the souvenir map that was sold in the shops that year. Since TRTR was an addition to the current map already in use, the studio had to give approval before it could be sold. At any rate, the souvenir maps that were sold in the shops was a one-time purchase, 3000 maps I believe. The marketing maps/guides were ordered and delivered throughout the season, and updated as needed. The cost for the park to order all of the guides/maps at the start of the season is outrageous. Sometimes the park does decide to make a change mid-season, or they need to include an event in the park that was not in the guide at the start of the season.

DevilMayChew, they do have a stock of maps that are kept in the shed. They go through those fairly quickly though. Tens of thousands of maps are distibuted each week. You are talking a few million maps/guides over the summer. The shed they used to keep them in would leak during heavy rains, so many times entire pallets of maps were ruined. Central Warehouse stores some of them now.

Maps are printed and delivered sometimes weekly to the park during peak periods. This is done so that any changes that happen throughout the season can be quickly updated on the park maps. I am talking strictly the guides that are given at the tolls. If Merchandise is selling souvenir maps, those would not change. They would sell through the existing stock.

I say sell the park as scrap metal !!!!!

Thats fine if the park gives out free tickets, the problem is when at the end of the day we have an attendance figure of say 15,000 for example, but when the daily ops are posted the next day, they attendance number has jumped to 40,000. My question is how do they just come up with 30,000 extra people? This pretty much happened at the end of every season. An extra 30,000 to 40,000 people added to the attendance. Marketing did say once that these were "group sales" numbers that were never included over the summer. Frankly I think they were just massaging the numbers for a more positive attendance number. The goal of course every year is to beat Cedar Point's number. As far as handing out free tickets the last weekend to boost resale, I would disagree with that. It would be to boost the final attendance number. Giving out free tickets for an already budgeted weekend for Resale just wrecks the precaps. Now of course you cannot take percaps to the bank, but much of the budget is built upon percaps. Free tickets, gold pass bring-a-friend days always hurt resale. Actually any days with high season pass percentages spelled hurt for resale.

Well I am really talking late 90's and early 2000's. I remember like 2000 through 2003 as when PCW was really making a move forward, while PKI was flat or losing ground. The year that Titanic was at the park was a good summer, but the years after were pretty flat.

PKI has always been thought of as the "big dog" of Paramount Parks. However PKI has been steadily slipping for the past 5 to 8 years as Wonderland has been picking up steam. PCW regularly was beating PKI in attendance and in revenue and per caps. Even PGA and PC were able to overtake PKI in some revenue areas. PKD also was topping PKI just a few years back. Since I am no longer at the park, I can't tell you if this trend has reversed, but I can tell you that it was of great concern to Marketing and Resale. There were many weekdays during the summers (a few years back) that attendance at PKI barely broke the 10,000 mark. Most of the time it hovered in the 13,000's. This is extremely low for a park desinged to hold about 65,000. Most Saturday's were in the low to mid 20,000's, again a low number for the park. There was some research done by Marketing, and a few possible explanations were discovered. One was that the park had "priced" themselves out of the market, just too expensive. A decision was made however by the GM that the admission would not be lowered. He felt that PKI offered a product as good as the Disney and Universal resorts, and lowering prices would "cheapen" PKI. The other explanation was that the tri-state area had pretty much been tapped out. The population growth in the region where PKI draws its customer base was flat. The third was that theme parks had "peaked" in the late 80's to early 90's, and that many parks were declining in attendance. PKI was one of those parks. Whatever the reasons, it sounds from the original post that overall attendance has increased this year for many parks. I just want to add one more thing. As several of you may know that work in the park in revenue generating departments where attendance is a factor in your budgets, PKI is notorious for adding tens of thousand of guests to the final attendance number at the end of the year. I am not trying to imply that they are fudging the numbers, but one has to wonder how on the last day of the year when the attendance was say 15,000, but then the next day the daily ops would show 3 or 4 times that number. Interesting.....

There is/was another website around that did document actual safety issues/accidents for theme parks across the country. I am not sure of the name or website address. Many of you on this board probably know more about it than I do. I just wanted to make a comment about the safety of SOB. I firmly believe in PKI's safety record. I have not been a fan of all of the things that the park does, but I will say that they very much take the safety of their guests and employees very seriously. I do not believe they would continue to operate SOB if it were not safe. With that said however, guests have been injured on the coaster. A guest was seriously injured during SOB's second season. Legal action was taken by this guest. I never did hear the outcome of the litigation, and whether this guest fully recovered from the injury. This park was able to keep this incident pretty quiet, which surprised me as this was a pretty serious injury that the guest suffered.