TraderJake

I bet I'll be working that Friday, but we probably only need two sups that night and maybe I'll get the night off. Yet if I do get the night off, that probably equates into recieving the early shift for the official opening day that Saturday.

Saturday, 10-4, readying the store for a large amount of people to be trained and then training people. Get to leave at 4 because of a school dance, but my associates are stuck there till 5:30

I wonder how they'll pull off Metal Detectors at the Season Pass entrance in Water Works, maybe they'll make a more elaborate season pass entrance so that the detectors do not get wet. They'll probably do something because I doubt that they would leave one entrance with lack of security when the others have them.

Extreme Southern Colerain Twp/ Dent Area, a good 25 minutes from the park.

Yeah, I believe all 15 year old positions are currently full (not to mention all but one of the departments that would even hire a 15 year old), I'd wait until the middle of April and then see if they are then hiring people the age of 15.

Ah, 40 minutes? That isn't bad... I know people who work at PKI and live an hour and 30 minutes away. There are plenty of people who make a long trek to PKI, as a West Sider (I live in Dent) I got to make a wonderul 30 minute trek to work every day. If you really want to work at PKI, then do what your heart desires. Just heed this warning though, Rides, Games, Merch, and Admissions are all currently filled, so perhaps if you want to be in one of those departments then you want to wait about two weeks, because then there would probably be openings. BTW, let's not have a school war, now, this is a PKI forum...

Funnel Cakes... Mmmm.... Hand made Pretzels... Mmmm...

I agree with Yogi-- Take a year off building Multimillion Dollar Blockbuster attractions, and work on Major Capital Improvements to heighten guest service and experience. Bring a carnival, festival like atmosphere to Coney Mall, have street performers, give the place an updated, lively feel. But then, this is about updating an existing ride at the park now isn't it? Well, I'd love to see Racer repainted, and the Eiffel Tower be repainted to Eiffel Bronze. Do something to the path from the Eiffel Tower to the Rear Rivertown Bathrooms, do something to make it more than a path to Paradise Island Smoothies. Perhaps the biggest suggestion of all I have to say is to do away with HB Land. Let Nick Central take over, I'd love to find a kid now who knows who Pixie, Top Cat, and Mr. Jinx still are. Kids can Identify better with Nick characters, for most already know who they are. It may be hard to pull of since so much money recently has been placed into Scooby Franchises, but I think the conversion of HB land to Nick Central would be a good move overall.

Well Scooby is HB, and we have an entire store now dedicated to Scooby, and there is a new Scooby cart. I do not know if Animation will be still sellong HB products, but I am pretty sure that they will, but like last year the HB stuff is mainly Scooby to begin with. As for if we sell Rugrats videos, I do not believe that we will this year. Last year we had sold Spongebob Videos, and not Rugrat Videos.

Front Gate Merchadise Sup Here. That entails most all the stores at the Front Gate, such as Spotlight, Gateway, Strollers/ Wheelchairs, and Front Gate Lockers. First year that I'll not be in WaterWorks , but oh well, while I'll miss WW I sure will love working in Spotlight all the more.

Parkwise, my first sign of spring is when I meet my associates on Dry Run day, I feel like such a teacher on Dry Run day, but is the true sign that everything is starting to come together fully at PKI. Outside of the park, it's got to be storms. They're are awesome in size and power, and it is the true herald of the volatile atmosphere of the spring season.

Wow, I was thinking that but I didn't say that, but how true it is, that demographic is definitely abundant at the park, and in what I have seen over the last two years, almost more than every other demographic. I do get a laugh out of reading that, after having so many experiences with people of this demographic. Quite funny, really...

Merch is a lot of funfor associates, you interact with the guests quite a bit, and often you get to be creative, say for instance, I want someone to fix up a gondola (display). All the supervisors are extremely nice as well, and you get some snazzy benefits too that other departments don't get. There is also the Merch Olympics, which is also fun for associates as well as myself. But, at least have a good work ethic, and desire to have fun, and be good with money, which I am sure you are, if you have been in food. Shadow-- Without saying her name... she was the head supervisor of Candy last year, and an asst mgr of Spotlight two years ago, towards the end of the year. If I am thinking on the same wavelength as you, then yes, the people you are thinking of are gone.

Thanks for the encouragement shadow. But hey, I am ready for it, I don't think front gate lockers will be anywhere near as rough as WW lockers, I have so many stories about those lockers, many good, some bad. And besides, our store should run perfectly this year, we have 3 wonderful sups (including moi), and our Location manager was at Spotlight/ Gateway two years ago (you can figure out who it is, she is the only member of the 2001 Spotlight who is still at the park) After pace of Waterworks, Spotlight will be a welcome change of pace. And if things do get rough, at least I can be consoled by the fact that now there is a phone in the stockroom. BTW- You'll like your sups as well shadow, they're all really nice. A little off topic, but hey, how often posts are.

Well it was Full Season, Waterworks was open and so were my stores, but now since I am actually in the main park, in the center of merchandise operations (but then, one could argue that Waterworks was the center of Merchandise Operations, but I won't tackle that issue) I don't know which season will be best now, probably still summer, it draws the big crowds, and it is actually warm outside! But then I'll be in an air conditioned store, that will take a while to get used to...

I think that it will probably be Scooby. Like has been said before, this ride attracts people of all demographics, not just thrill seekers. On top of that though, I feel that Scooby reinforces the fact that PKI indeed does have the best kids area in the world (I believe that PKI got the Golden Ticket award for best kids area for the last two years). The fact that the ride, coupled with the many other wonderful children's rides, will make Scooby the better draw for the park. Pure speculation however... but it sure is fun to do so.

I will be a Front Gate Sup this year for Merchandise, keeping watch over such wonderful locations like Spotlight Souvenirs, Gateway Gifts, and Stroller/ Wheelchair Rentals, with the occasional locker problem to deal with at Front Gate Lockers. It should be a fun year.

Spopngebob is not evil in anyway! He is rather funny (hooray for being able to listen to the show while working in your stockroom). Spongebob is what kids like now, and it is an extremely lucrative program. I don't know how I could possibly hate it after all the money it made last summer.

Welcome to the crew, and congrats! Though I do not work in rides (hence the name), I hope you have a fun season. BTW-- nice sn, I just happen to go to that school.

I want to see the International Street Soundtrack played thoughout the park. Those songs are so... soothing... puting me in a good mood on a bad day. I would love to see the Water Works soundtrack get a major overhaul to music without words, hearing words over and over again gets extremely annoying (I'll call it the Smashmouth Allstar effect) But if they can't do that to WW then bringing back "Jacques Costeau" to the soundtrack would be a nice consolation.

Actually, Money issues for many upcharge attractions, including slingshot, skyflyer, and Eurobungy are handled by Games, not Merch. While they fall under concessionare, they are (as of last year) games concessions, not merch concessions. How I wish I could stand at one of those booths and push for people to ride the rides though, it would be so fun. Oh well I can push the sale of strollers. Anyways back on topic, I think that Street Candy may see a remodeling in the future, there is a condemned (well at least I think it is condemed) second floor up there which was a problem two years ago, and there are other things with that store which if one sees it it looks so run down and awful. (ah, the joys of spending days in a store and noticing its quirks).

The Drop Zone Stunt Tower

On the subject of Coney Mall, there are a few things they could do to make the place feel upbeat. Paint, as suggested before would be welcome to Coney Mall. But perhaps what Coney Mall needs more is more flat rides. Not the multimillion dollar attractions seen lately, but regular flat rides, They don't have to be old. But they would do one thing that would help out Coney Mall-- they would be exciting. New rides would cause incite feelings in the public that the rides that they are so used to seeing do not. The new flat rides would make Coney Mall look more modern, while keeping the all of the old time aspects of Coney there. Nitpicking, Skeeball looked so bare without the Kareoke machines on its outside, it looked like a nondescript white box (or whatever color it was, I don't know I worked in WaterWorks). Doing something to the outside of Skeeball that gave it feeling would make me happy. Just do not keep it blank. Old carnival posters would look cool. And the store at the entrance to Coney probably will not be going anywhere anytime soon. Even though the building itself is so, so ugly, the store was completely redone in 2002, with new tiling, paint, fixtures, concept and a name change-- Fudge n' Fun. I don't think Merch would really want their new store to go away.

BeastFreak: Are you sure that they are letting us use our ID's to log in? I know that they were considering it, but I did not know that actually were going to do that. Also, I really don't know if every single associate that uses a register will need an new ID if they have already gotten their 2003 ID. The magnetic strip is used in Merch to log associate IDs, and one's ID does register. They could probably just rework the register system to just be able to swipe the ID, yet who knows. I'd like to be able to swipe my ID, it is a royal pain to have to log over someone over and over again to fix voids, swiping would be much quicker. We in merch also did some complaining about having to constantly log in, so who knows, maybe there was enough vocal opinion.

I noticed how our associate ID's had two noticeable changes in them. One change is the new PKI logo, which I think is very nice. Yet I think it is funny how the Paramount Parks logo is still the same. But, I also noticed how our names on our IDs are larger, darker, and in the center of the ID. It sort of reminds me of the rumors last year of all PKI associates having to wear the nametags on their uniforms. Perhaps this year one may actually have to wear it on the uniform, who knows though. I'd be really disappointed though if we no longer wore nametags, I have two magnetic name tags and it would be disappointing if I didn't get to use them. Oh well. Maybe there will be several surprises in store with the nametags, we'll see. It would be interesting to see though if they change all the logos inside the park, especially the sign by 71.