KI-ORIG-EMP

I worked at the park on that very day and it was something to see!

Now the very same people that were convinced the price would drop after October 28th will complain the current price is too high and the park is too greedy. The price has always gone up after the fall season.

Why ask why?

Then if that person thinks the park is too crowded and the lines are way too long for them, then that means that the season passes and general admission ticket prices are priced too low. Maybe the prices need to be increased as the remedy to reduce the crowd sizes and ensure the wait times for rides are short. Then they will be happy, providing they can afford the ticket prices, which if not, they will be back to complain that the admission price is way too high and the regular folks can't afford to visit the park. Well, that is crazy. Crowd sizes are large because the park is very popular and you can expect ride wait time to increase as the weather becomes warmer and on the weekends, when people go on vacation. Look at the Reds, The team attracts large crowds when they win and people want to see them win. It is the same with any venue that people are attracted to. Expect crowds to be large on weekends and for special events. If they want smaller crowds, go on the weekday.

Look at the ride station for The Vortex, it used to be the station for The Bat. I am sure they will work it into a new ride when they decide on the ride that will take SOB's place.

Thanks for sharing all your pictures with us! It looks like everyone had a great time and are really enjoying themselves. It is something to see everyone bundled up while riding Diamondback and going on the tour of the backlot of The Beast.

Not getting into the price of the Gold Pass, the cheapest way to buy general admission tickets to the park is by going to the park's web site and buying them online, which is far cheaper than the at the gate price. Even if they are at the park and did not buy it online, they can always use the app on their smartphone and buy it via their phone and use the confirmation number to give to the sales window. Now if they were a guest of one of the sell out days in September with either GE, P&G or others, then they could had purchased it at a $20 discount from the regular price.

Prior to opening day this year, we had a couple hours in Action Zone with a couple of rides open for the employees to enjoy, along with food and snacks. There are still a couple employee nights during the season after the park closes for a couple of hours, with supervisors operating a couple of rides for the employees to enjoy in an area of the park. It is the park's way of saying THANKS for all the hard work the employees do during the season.

If an employee or a group of employees want to take in the rides before or after their shifts is up to them. Employees are free to enjoy the park on their off hours or to go to other parks in the chain and enjoy the rides there.

I lived in Kings Mills all my life, when the area was noting but corn fields and you can breath in and smell the "country air", well before I-71 was constructed. When Kings Island was built, we could tell the time when the fireworks were set off at 10PM. But from my my house on Oak Street, we could really hear the lions roar early in the morning when they wanted to be fed or the male lion was feeling frisky. But the loudest noise we heard on a nightly basis was the sound of all the traffic on the interstate and not the park. But we were used to it and just lived with it.

Just go direct to the Guest Services lobby inside the front gate Lance. Bring all your paperwork and Diane or one of the other supervisors can assist you. When you call the park, you get the call center and as a former call center worker there, they will answer your question as general as they know and end of transferring you to GS anyway. So bypass them and go direct to Guest Services inside the main gate. Also, the payment plan is only on the web site. Get it taken care of before the end of day Sunday.

It is strange that they were wearing their sweatshirt with the hoodie tied under their neck and freezing al the while they were wearing shorts. As the day gets colder and the night approaches, they would had wished they had long pants on. But we might had a sale on sweat pants with KI's logo on it.

Even today, I still observed several young guys wearing shorts and a light sweatshirt. I joked with them saying, you are wearing the sweatshirt with the hood pulled you head and you still wore shorts? They just shrugged it off. I said to myself, don't schools teach common sense anymore? Folks, it is no longer summer but fall with fall temperatures. Dress for the weather even if it is sunny out. The temps will drop and you will be glad you wore a jacket and cloths meant for the cold temps.

I don't know how deep the footings for SOB are, but the footings for the monorail average 3' X 4' X 6' and there are several hundred of them that the steel rails were attached to. It would be labor intensive to remove all of those and I am sure there are still a lot of them. If Don said they will all be removed, then I would say they will.

Removing footers that do not inter with any new expansion plans cost money. Just look at the footers that are left from King Cobra, The Bat, the monorail (which I helped construct) after those rides were taken down.

The choice is simple. Don't buy the product if it is at $3.00 per bottle and see how fast the price comes down. If there is a steady drop in sales of bottle soda, the price will come down. As for beer at that high price, it is priced to prevent people from chugging beer after beer and getting drunk and rowdy. The higher the cost for beer, the less people will buy. People don't go to parks to down beer after beer. They go to have a good time. Now if they want to go after their day at the park and down a few brews, then more power to the, just don't drink and drive afterwards or you will be stopped.

Here is a thought. Grab a fire extinguisher and use it as a weapon to use against any intruder. If he is close enough, fire it into his face and or throw it and anything you can against him if you are cornered. But a solid defense would be a teacher with a concealed carry permit. Like a fire extinguisher is used in case of fire, a teach with a CCW can protect against a criminal with a weapon. He is counting on no one to oppose him and is why they kill and injure whoever they can. I know schools are against this but a well trained person in the use of a fire arm can help prior to the police coming on scene. The weapon can be locked in a secured place in the classroom and use when the need calls for it.

The old guest services was nothing more than a couple windows for guests to interact with the people inside. The guest services were enlarged with the new lobby that took out the wall where the admission entrance was for employees and office space inside was taken for the improved guest services. Guests do not have to wait outside of the old window to speak with a guest services person. So rather than the former area that housed admission and guest services, it was enlarged for better access for the guests. The shops are operated by the merchandise department and it was not infringed upon with the former admission/guest services expansion. At the time guest services was expanded, it was felt it was needed to better serve the parks guests than the former arrangement, where they had to wait just to talk to someone. As for the kennel, if and when they decide to tear down the current building and include all the features, the current kennel would obstruct the construction of the new building without going further out into the front of the park. With the new building, if and when it is built, it would be a single building housing both, which would include a sales area, season pass processing, group sales, will call, rest rooms, offices and such. But this is just my belief rather than just build an entire new front gate complex with all the current facilities.

Only include a kennel in any NEW sales and season pass complex construction. We are all in the same department, which includes admissions and guest services. Both the kennel and the NEW sales, season pass complex would be included in the new building and not apart. The current kennel would be in the way in any new construction and we can share the same offices and functions now included with the current building, which include HVAC, which we do not share. With a NEW sales and season pass complex, we would share the same HVAC, plumbing, have access with each other without going outside, have access to a new restroom which would be included, have more security cameras and we could provide support for each other. But the only reason for the new kennel is the current kennel would be in the way of construction as both areas would share the same building and not a separate building for each as it is now. Now if in the future the park decides to add a new camp grounds, we will be almost filled to capacity on a regular basis like it was when we had the old camp ground. But that is only and if the park decides to include a new camp ground, either on their own or if a private came ground is built somewhere near the park. But a camp ground is a different thread.

In my when I went to school, none of these safety procedures were in place. You could enter via any door. With the schools today, all doors other than the front doors in the lobby, should have panic alarms that sound when they are opened. They are to be used as emergency exits only and not as an entrance or exit for students to use. If a door is opened, besides the alarm, an alarm should go on in the office to show the door that has been opened. Teachers and other authorized users should have either a key card and or an electronic lock that records who opened the door. When I worked at FedEx, all of our entrances and exits had card key access for its employees and a separate secure lobby.

Schools still have side entrances that an intruder would wait for a student to exit from and then once inside the school, they are free to conduct mayhem. There are always soft spots that the criminal will look for.

The kennel is not outdated but guests do not want their pets in the heat even if there are fans. Some guests have ask why it is not inside where it is air conditioned. But outdated is not the issue. Nothing has been done to it since it was built. The elements have taken a toll on the dog cage area with the fans, lighting, overhead insulation and other things needing attention. What I am saying if they were to build a new sales/season pass building complex, it would not be hard to include the kennel in the design. Right now, we are next door to the sales complex and both could be included in any new building. The current sales buildings were constructed in the early 80's and it could be made more efficient in getting guests in and out of both sales and season pass processing. Now we don't need a new front gate complex but it could be remodeled. As it is now, it serves its function in getting guests into the park. Most other parks only have the gate to serve as turnstiles for guests to enter and exit the park and shops. But ours serve a much great purpose with the second story that serves as a food preparation area for the entire park and group functions. It just needs rehabbed from time to time like the guest services center was a few years back.

I would rather after a panic switch is pressed, a couple well armed and trained teachers with their hand gun in between me and the criminal. It might take several minutes for the police to respond and then time to locate their armed intruder, all time for the intruder to cause deadly harm. You can have the school's entrances redesigned to prevent unauthorized guests, but it only takes one person to sneak in from a soft spot.

A less crowded park means less sales while inside the park and this is where the parks make their money.

I mentioned the front gate being remodeled sometime down the road. But believe me, the kennel has not been touched since it was built following the construction of the ride formerly known as Faceoff and now Invertigo when the former kennel was torn down where the lift hill is now. It would not be hard to include a new kennel if they were to build a new season pass/sales complex.