JPButler365

The reason why the park does not stay open longer is they are not able to staff the events and they do not make any money. I was waiting for a haunted house on a rainy night when there was only about 1,000 people total in the park. I know they want to make the event a ghost town but that was crazy. There was an employee in front of me when I was going through the haunted house and she was begging my friend and I to go to human resources to fill out an application to help out. The $6.00 an hour was enough to pass up since that would probably not cover gas money for one night after taxes. Fearfest has been a losing event ever since the first year. There were long lines the first year of the event to check it out and see if it was going to be any good. The next year the attendance was cut in half and has decreased ever since. Do not blame Cedar Fair if Fearfest and anything else about the park sucks. They did not have the time or the money to sink into the parks this year since the purchase did not go through until late in the season. You can blame Paramount for all that has gone wrong with the park since 1992 when they purchases it. There has been a lot of things go wrong too. They are busy trying to fix the Son of Beast and pay for thr repairs / law suits that were filed which has been a nightmare. (Speaking of Halloween) *****Bring back the days when Taft Broadcasting owned the park*****

All the Paramount Parks are for sale. I just hope that they get a new owner with a new business plan and is not scared to spend money. We need more roller coasters not more kids rides. The kids area was already winning awards before they decided to remodel it this year. That seems like a stupid choice. It seems like Paramounts Kings Island waits to see what new attraction Cedar Point is going to put in next year and they follow what they have done a few years later. A year late and millions of dollars short. This is not being innovative it is just trying to keep up with the competition.

People will not go to Paramounts Kings Island for the food or shops in the park during the off season. They are not going to go pay $20 for a meal that they can get for $5 outside of the park. All the shops are over priced on merchadise too. Does anyone else think it is a stupid idea to have Dippin Dots and Grater's Ice Cream open during Winterfest? I have been to Winterfest twice and there were no customers at any of these locations. What a waste of money for the labor to staff these food stands.

When you have friends that work for a company at any level you talk to them about their jobs just like you would talk to them about your job. You do not need friends in management to know that no one is attending Winterfest at either park. The numbers just are not there. I went by the park tonight just like many other nights and there were more employee cars than guests cars. This is never a good sign. I know that many of you on this site work for the park and are sometimes blinded by the light. You know the truth. Talk to the VP in your departments. Talk to your immediate supervisors. There are hourly attendance figures that are given at the park. You can go into the executive offices and see the expected attendance number and what the actual attendance numbers were for that day. They may not give you the hard core details but they will tell you the numbers are not what was expected and they will give you the reasons as to why PKI will never go to a year long season.

No one is attending Winterfest so no one will go in the really cold months. Kings Island will not go to a year long schedule. They are already streaching themselves thin by bringing back Winterfest and it is losing money hand over fist at both parks according to my friends at the corporate office. The seasonal employees have run out of hours so the park is being run mainly by the full time employees and many of them are ****ed off about having to work during these winter months. The maximum number of hours a person can work is 1800 hours before the park has to consider the person full time and pay them benefits. This will never happen.

I know several current and former executives and they told me something totally different. They informed me that Winterfest does not make any money. This is one reason that they wanted everyone to pay for addmission to the park including season pass holders. If Winterfest is such a cash cow why would Paramount ever cancel it? They brought back Winterfest more for PR reasons than anything else. The public may have kept asking "When are you going to bring back Winterfest?" but they did not want this version of it. It is too expensive for Winterfest just like it is too expensive during the summer season. Cedar Point has found out the hard way that you can price yourself out of the market and that is why they lowered the prices for next summer. Paramounts Kings Island will reluctantly announce prices changes for next year as well. The VP has stated that they did not want to announce price changes because it would "*******ize the Paramount name and the product" but they will not have a coice if the attendance numbers are down. Has anyone thought about the people that have already prepaid for tickets to Winterfest and now they are offering them buy one get one free. I am sure that has ****ed a lot of the people that were told that they were getting the best price of $16.99 buy pre ordering tickets online or at the park before the start of Winterfest. This is another Marketing nightmare and another reason to make people angry and feel like they are getting ripped off which is exactly the case if you are paying any price other than $12.99 per ticet to Winterfest.

WooferBearATL you stated that its a real task to lose money on WinterFest. Actually the complete opposite is true. The park has never made money on Winterfest and that is the main reason why Paramount canceled it when they purchases the park. It was popular with the public but it never made money bacause of the high prices and lack of entertaining things to do there.The unperdictable winters in Cincinnati have always been a problem too. I do have to say that the Festhaus is a huge disappointment this Winterfest season. I worked there during the original Winterfest and it was packed. Wall to wall people. There was a live show in the Festhaus then. During the showtimes you could not get a seat in the place and there were twice as many tables in the Festhaus at that time. We use to have the garbage crew that worked in food service that would wait in the hallway next to the restrooms after each show. After it ended and all the people would empty out of the Festhaus we would take huge rolling tash cans out and clear off all the tables for the lines of people that would be waiting for a table to sit down and eat. The food service lines were out the door. The executives were always in the Festhaus timing our food lines to make sure that the guests got there food and were seated in 10 minutes or less. It was a lot of fun to challenge ourselves. It is nothing like that this year. The live entertainment in the Festhaus is a huge flop. I am sure PKI management is kicking itself for missing the boat on another huge opportunity. The park did not expect to make money this year. Thay have invested millions of dollars into buying all the equipment needed to bring the event back. I am sure that they are hoping to make that the losses are not as huge next year. I looks at Winterfest as a way for PKI to get some additional attendance numbers to claim that they beat Cedar Point. Everyone know that Cedar Point is by far a much better amusement park. A 500 foot roller coster is on the way for them. When will it ever end? The Beast still rocks though after all these years.

This is crazy. Winterfest closed because of winter. The roads are not bad around the city at all. They had 24 hours to clear the park and make this thing happen. Di they forget to buy the snow plows? GE employees had a private party on Friday night and they still let them have it but did not open any attrations. One of the biggest corporations in the city holds an event at your park and you cannot even open the darn thing. I am sure that left a good first impression on the GE executives that shelled out all that money. You can bet they will be going to some other holiday party event next year. I worked at the original Winterfest and it was open daily regular park hours from the Friday after Thanksgiving until New Years Eve. It never closed because of weather. The Cincinnati Zoo until recently was open every day of the year. The have decided to close on Thanksgiving and Christmas just in the last few years. Is Winterfest doing so terrible that they decided it would be more cost effective to just close the park rather than open and lose money? They just recently announced that season pass holders can buy half off tickets. They should not be charging season pass people at all. Maybe if they let season pass holders in free the attendance would be more than a few thousand people since the thing opened. I think this half price ticket offer is just the first of many more discounts to come before this even closes for the season and possibly for good. This thing is a huge disappontment in it first season. You cay say waht you want about the park is working out the bugs of this event and it will only get better but people do not forget having to pay a lot of money and feeling like they have been ripped off. Do us all a favor if you cannot pull this thing together by next season and you are going to close the park when the winter weather turns to actual winter conditions don't even bother to bring it back at all. It is not worth it.

Quote From another Member - "Also may I point out that the Beach's Holiday Fest sure seems to have a lot of upcharges. With WF, everything is included except food and skating." If you look at the price list that I have provided from the Beach Holiday Fest Website and do some simple math you will see that it is much less expensive than Winterfest. The Beach ------------ Parking After 5 pm = $5.00 Group of 4 (any age) = $30.00 Adventure Passport (Enjoy all 3 Adventures!) $8.00 (Includes Skate Rental / Carriage Ride / Pony Ride) (4 Adults) = $32.00 Lasagna, Salad, Breadsticks $9.85 (All meals are served with drinks (cola, coffee and hot chocolate) and jumbo cookies) = $40.00 Grand Total = $107.00 WinterFest ------------ Parking = $5.00 Group of 4 (Adults Kroger Discount) $80.00 Skate Rental = 40.00 Lasagna, Salad, Breadsticks = $60 Grand Total = 185.00 Total Savings The Beach Over WinterFest = $78.00 Quote From Another Member - "As far as Paramount outpricing themselves, theyre not there to try and compete with the beach fest, its part of a corporate chain, so those prices are throughout the chain, not just at PKI, theyre not designed to compete with individual competiton and Winterfest offers a lot more than the beach thing." Paramounts Kings Island is not only competing with the Beach Hoilday Fest but they are also competing with the Cincinnati Zoo Festival Of Lights / Newport Aquarium / Sharon Woods Holiday In Lights. The typical family only has a certain amount of entertainment dollas to spend and many times they will have to make a decision on which of these events that they will visit. They cannot afford to go to them all each year. Each on of the holiday events that I listed above has something special / exclusive to offer. You mention that Winterfest is part of a corporate chain. To my knowledge WinterFest is only being offered at Paramounts Kings Island. I do not know about you guys but I sure could use that additional $78 that you save from going to the Beach Holiday Fest over WinterFest.

What was the name of the family that owned Kings Island before Paramont took over? Didn't a former president of the United States own the park? I think it was William Howard Taft. (Sarcastic)

Once again Paramounts Kings Island has priced themselves out of the market. Here are the prices for the Beach Holiday Fest. I will let the numbers speak for themselves. Admission Prices _____________ General Admission (Ages 13+) $10.00 Youth Admission (Ages 5-12) $7.50 Children (Ages 4 & Under) FREE! Senior (Ages 60+) $7.50 Military Personnel (show proper ID) $7.50 Season Pass Holders ('05 and '06) FREE Group of 4 (any age) $30.00 Skate Rental $6.00 Carriage Ride $4.00 Pony Ride $3.00 Adventure Passport (Enjoy all 3 Adventures!) $8.00 Parking after 5pm $5.00 Parking before 5pm FREE Food Prices _________ Lasagna, Salad, Breadsticks $9.85 Fried Chicken, Steak Fries, Cole Slaw, Rolls $9.95 Pulled Pork, Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Chips $9.50 Assorted Meat Tray, Chili, Chips $9.50 Youth Meals Available $5.50-6.50 Choose from one of our delicious holiday menus. Meals will be served in the Polar Palace by the Holiday Fest catering staff. All meals are served with drinks (cola, coffee and hot chocolate) and jumbo cookies. Additional side items may be added to any meal: cup cakes, cheese tray, meat tray, vegetable tray, shrimp tray, meatballs, wings, pigs in a blanket.