XGatorHead 8904

Well, I managed to go! I left the house at 10:30, in the gate at 10:45. Headed to SoB, but it was closed. I thought it was on the list, but got home and found out it wasn't. Rode Firehawk, FoF, Firehawk again, and then headed to Beast. I got in line at 11:50, waited 9 minutes in the queue near the vending machines (not because there was a line, I just wanted the last train), then headed to the station. I got the last train of the season, in the front row of the back car. Great way to end the season! And now the long 5 month wait starts...

I give them a C+. The park looked good, I enjoyed Firehawk and HH this year, the shows were a big improvment over the past several years. But... many of the full timers I know chose to leave under the current regime. From the stories I heard from them, CF demanded way too much of them (as if they didn't work hard enough under Paramount and before) and did not give them the freedom to do their tasks on their own. And some of these were people that have been there 20+ years, since before Paramount bought the place, people who had a lot of time and effort invested in the place, really cared about the park and wanted to see it improve and prosper. For that reason I lowered my score. Edit: I forgot about the food! Cold and overpriced, a majority of the food associates I dealt with were not very friendly. Make it a C-.

I just realized if I don't go tonight, I will have ended my season on Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle! I'm seriously considering going tonight, I realized I haven't ridden The Beast at all this year. That's what happens when you have a 2 year old and spend all your time in BB and NickU, your wife and you only get to go once by yourselves and she doesn't really care for coasters anymore! I'll have to let the wife know and go once the little one has gone to sleep. Hopefully she won't have too much of a sugar buzz and will go to sleep somewhat early!

I meant I agreed with Mr. Couch's intentions when he tried to run the park as a full-on park in 2002. But yeah, if he could do a campground/park combo that would be great. I hate to see the rides, especially Screeching Eagle, fall into disrepair.

I don't know about that, I can have some very strong opinions about my former department myself. I'm just passing on the info that was relayed to me by several former coworkers, not making accusations... I couldn't agree with you more. These meetings were vital during my time as a line associate in the department, and later in my various management positions in the department we made sure that we dispensed as much info as we could in these announcements. I know Kevin too. He is a good manager and very capable of doing the job, and I'm not placing the blame solely on him. He just recently within the last few weeks inherited the department from Jason who ran the department 2006-07, who inherited it from Rodney who ran the department 2005. Somewhere along the line the meetings, for whatever reason, were discontinued. I'm just saying that now that he's top manager, he should seriously consider bringing back the morning meetings. I think you and I can both agree on that point. Kevin is a good guy, and I wish him the best of luck with heading the department. Now, what support he gets from upper management will play a HUGE role in his ability to turn the department around. Hopefully they will give him the freedom to make whatever changes are necessary, and not try to micro-manage the department the way they did the last couple years Paramount ran the place.

Kind of good to know it wasn't just us, but I kind of already knew that from the people riding with us. Too bad it's still that way, they should shorten it. I rarely feel that ill on any ride. I agree with your assessment of Jerry Couch's intentions. I was rooting for him when he reopened the place, but, yeah, the management company left a lot to be desired. Hopefully most of the rides can be salvaged and/or sold.

Wow, how many times in this thread is it said that the theming comes out every year and when they do maintenance on the ride? If only people would read more than just the last post in these threads...

Thank you for the pictures and story. It's always sad when one of these classic parks closes forever (RIP Geauga Lake). I had been to Fantasy Farm on school trips before, but never to Americana. I only got to visit LeSourdesville Lake once, in 2002. I was looking forward to finally getting to go, but unfortunately, my wife and I had the worst experience here that we've ever had at any park. The company that Mr. Couch hired to run the place definitely did not have the best employees. We were in line for The Whip, and we witnessed a teenage girl laying down, with her head in the seat, while the ride was running. I would think this would be a safety concern, but the ride operator did nothing about it. When we went to The Raging Thunder log flume, the ride operator running the controls was smoking. Now I have no problem with smokers, but to do this while operating a ride was something I had never seen before or since, not even carnival rides. I commented to my wife, he's smoking, the entire structure is made of wood, is that even smart? Also, they were stopping every log at the top of the lift hill before the final drop. We thought this odd. When our own boat gets up there, the ride operator at the top of the lift stops our boat and undoes the plug in the back of the boat and drains the water out of it. I asked him what he was doing, he said he had to do it for every boat, every time. It killed the momentum of the ride having to wait for every boat to get drained, I would think there would be a way to fix that. A couple of the rides ran to long to be pleasurable. I usually love the "round up" rides, but operator let Electric Rainbow run way too long on the cycle we rode. Everyone around us was complaining that they wanted off, as did we. The "flippy" ferris wheel, where you're in a cage and your car can turn all the way upside down, also went too long. The operator even unloaded cars before us that had loaded after us. It was like he didn't keep track of what order he was loading/unloading. My wife and I kept yelling at him that we wanted off everytime we got down next to him, but it took forever to get him to unload us. The worst experience was at the Tilt-a-whirl. We were let into the ride area, but my wife and I didn't get a car, as the operator let too many people in. We went back to the entrance gate that we had just come through and the ride operator, who was smoking at the time, said "Where do you think you're going? The exit's over there." I told him what happened and we were getting back in line. He got within three inches of my face, blew smoke at me and said "Don't get smart with me, boy!" This is when I started getting mad. I told him that maybe he should count better next time. This got him going even more, he started yelling something else at me and my wife started pulling me away. We walked down the midway, I was severely ticked. We saw a manager walking and I asked him if he was over the rides deprtment. He said yes, and I told him what happened. He weakly apologized and started walking away. I asked him what he was going to do about it, he said, "I guess I can talk to him." We followed him to make sure that he did. He went up and talked to the ride operator, the operator got in the manager's face yelling, blowing smoke in his face and waving his arms wildly. The manager walked away from him and started going back down the midway. I stopped him and asked what was happening. He said, "Well, I talked to him, that's all I can do". I told him that wasn't good enough and he suggested I go to Guest Relations. We went there and were brought inside the office. The woman working there listened to our story and Jerry Couch himself happened to come in at that time. We had seen him earlier in the day walking around some ACE members that I recognized from various coaster shows on tv. He was standing in there cooling off I guess, and was listening to us while we were telling the GR woman about everything that I listed above. He looked very uncomfortable being in the same room where someone was criticizing the park. He wandered off back outside before we were done. The GR woman, while kind, was not able to do anything for us. I thanked her for her time and told her that we would be leaving and never coming back. Which it turns out wasn't an issue because the park closed two weeks later. The highlight of the trip was riding The Screeching Eagle. I had heard raves about this coaster, and we did have fun on it. I think Mr. Couch got in over his head when purchasing and trying to operate the park. While he seemed like a nice enough guy himself, the staff he had was not very high quality. It takes a lot to run a park, and I'm sure he did his best with what he could get. But still, definitely a sad situation when classic parks like this are forced to close.

I got a little bored at The Beach's holiday thingie both times I went, prefer the zoo's more. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. Anyway, I like The Beach during the summer. When I worked at KI, we had Beach SP's for a change of pace. Aztec Adventure is great, and the real sand around the park adds something to the atmosphere. But I do agree with MarketingExpress's statement, it is nice to have the hard park to go to. And since BB has added Tasmanian Typhoon and the Coolangatta Racers, I'm leaning a little more towards BB being better. Plus, I remember reading rumors on here about something new back there to replace Down Under Thunder next year, it will be interesting to see if those rumors come true and what it is. Woohoo! 50 posts!

I don't remember that, but I do remember hearing alot of Men at Work in the queue. Everytime I hear "Who Can It Be Now" I still think of standing in line for The Beast. It's weird how memories work.

Or how about a hyper that is completely underground? I know it's possible, I've done it on RCTycoon!

^Bingo! The Beast just wouldn't be The Beast without all the trees.

Yes, please post the answer when you find out. That would help some people on here, including me if I decide to go tonight. Or would my 2008 parking work?

I have heard gripes from my former co-workers in the Admissions department. We used to have daily meetings with the whole department before the early shift started with any new policies, promotions, etc. and those same announcements were posted in the Admissions break room for the later shifts. According to my former co-workers, the morning meeting and the announcements on the board have discontinued since my time there. These were vital in dispensing information. Admissions always has so much to handle and trying to keep the associates informed of everything should be a priority. I would suggest to Kevin Cowden (the new Admissions Manager) and his crew to restart these for the 2008 season.

Yes, and several people who unknowingly give out bad info. (Not saying you in particular, but in general). Not everything is as it seems when we leap to conclusions.

Yes, but there's a huge difference between GL & KI. KI's attendance and revenue has always been much higher than GL's.

So you were in the DeLorean to get the press release from the future? I just knew the rumors were true that they were taking Vortex out due to it sinking!

Yes, Sunday is a Bare Bones night, but during the day all rides should be running. The daytime is a regular operating day.

^ Ha! Good point. Now I need to ride EVERYTHING this weekend as if it were my last time!

CHAOS! CHAOS! CHAOS! Love the ride, probably my favorite flat as well. Too bad to hear about their decline. Love Demon Drop as well, I may have to make a trip to CP next year to ride both a final time!

PARAMOUNT!!! Just kidding! There is a big difference in movie companies such as Universal, Disney or Paramount owning parks and gaming companies owning them. 1. Movies tend to live in people's memories longer than games. Sure, Wolfenstein and Doom were great games for their time, but how many people still play the original incarnations? People are more apt to watch Top Gun or Italian Job than play an old game with outdated graphics. There are exceptions to this rule. How many people in the GP remember Drop Zone was a Paramount movie? And why would Paramount think it would be a GOOD idea to theme an entire section of a park to Wayne's World (Carowinds, I'm talking about you!)? 2. Movies have higher name recognition among the GP than games. Sure, games are popular with a certain demographic but movies have more widespread appeal. In the mind of the GP, do I really want to be bombarded with what basically amounts to an ad for a game that I will probably never own while I'm waiting in line for Soldier of Fortune: The Ride? I'm more likely to spend $5 at Blockbuster and 1 1/2 hours of my time to see Italian Job because I liked the ride than shelling out $300 for a PS3, another $60 for the game and 700 hours of my time trying to shoot everything that moves. CF won't be selling KI any time in the near future, as they have a lot of money invested in it. And to sell it to a major competitor (which I don't even know who that would be. Disney, Busch, Universal are unlikely candidates, and the thought of SFKI is just too darn scary to consider) would not be a smart business move. Sure, it would be great for visitors to stimulate some competition, but wouldn't CF rather keep that money in their own pockets?

Disney had Club Disneys in other cities. I frequent a Disney site also, and a question was raised a couple of months ago about the one in Phoenix. http://www.allears.net/aa/aa080607.htm#ques6

I'm not sure what you mean by receipt. You should have a paper with a barcode on it, which you would take to the SP building to have your pass processed. Your "receipt" should have instructions on it, or at least tell you what you need to do to get your pass. When I was asking about delivery options, I meant for the season pass, not the jacket. The jacket is only available for pickup at the park.

What delivery option did you choose (mail, will call, print at home)?

And if you had a 2007 pass, bring that and they can transfer your info over to your 2008, and you won't have to have your picture retaken.