AZ Kinda Guy

I'll say this again. Anyone expecting ANYTHING "big" other than Delirium and Scooby will be very disappointed.

Although I'm not sure about AYBS, I know S500 is a HUGE Jackie Chan fan. Sorry Cletus, I couldn't resist. It's ok because one of these days your going to beat me down with a height stick.

Folks, Delirium, or any part of it for that matter, was FINE sitting out in the weather. Do you honestly not think the engineers plan for this kind of weather?

Brother on your back too Joe?

Hmmmm...Lets see here. Pick one: a ride with OTSR that beat your brains out OR a ride that now has lap bars and does not beat your brains out. Seems like a simple choice to me. I can see why you would be upset but it is by no means "another coaster that PKI got stupid with," nor was it a "poor idea."

Barnyard you wouldn't even make it to the train. You would end up running into the entrance gates. Good times no?

No, a full boat will get you SOAKED. No ands',ifs', or buts' about it. Now add on the geysers and you'll be ringing out your underwear!

You act like you hit the e-stop and then the water rises in a matter of seconds. It does NOT happen like that. It takes minutes for the water level in the station to rise. The station does not flood. Although I have witnessed a few close calls the majortiy of the time it is barely noticable.

I prefer Amazon er, Congo Falls. It's quick and to the point. Lets also not forget it has the best pop of airtime in the park!

Anyone who is expecting another major thrill ride other than Delirium will be very dissapointed come opening day.

Tomb Raider does have a locking device. There is a locking device for the gondola itself.

Thanks for the feedback guys and gals. This isn't going to be a normal thing so don't expect it. My class had got cancelled and I just started typing away. Looping brakes was right, this is merely a tip of the iceberg. Words will never be able to describe what us ride ops go through. Days are NEVER the same which is a good thing though. I have two "plans" for my life. Plan A: Win the lotto and work at PKI for the rest of my life. Plan B: go to college, get married, yada yada. Needless to say, I'm onto Plan B because Plan A hasn't worked out just yet!

Sorry Dank, your wrong. The third attraction will NOT be an up-charge ride.

::Beep beep beep:: What? 7 AM already? I stumble out of bed and turn on the Weather Channel. "Another record setting day for heat with a high of 99 degrees" Great I think to myself. I eventually make it out of the shower and into my PKI wardrobe. Throw on the no show socks and low cut running shoes and I'm ready to go. Into my 90 Corsica I go and within minutes I'm heading down Interstate 75. Not so fast says Mr.traffic. Great, a two car pile-up at the Route 4 split. 15 minutes later I'm out of the traffic and finally in the flow of traffic. I get off at the Traders World exit and make a left. Ohh Tim Hortons looks good. 5 minutes later and three dollars less I have my breakfast and orange juice and continue on the road to PKI. 15 minutes later I pull into the PKI employee lot. Not bad timing considering the traffic, one hour and ten minutes. I scan in at the security post and make my way towards the always exciting Action Zone. Theres the usual faces all congregated around the benches, talking about the heat and trying to out do each other on the farmers tan. 9:15 rolls around and off to our second homes we go. Cletus decides he wants myself and Barnyard down at Congo(good times) and himself, Sherina, and McChris at Face/Off. Down to Congo Barnyard and I go. Barnyard starts the ride and gives it it's morning checks. Everything works until he gets around to checking the PageComs. Static, ouch. We laugh, "nothing new here" Barnyard exclaims. Before you know it the ropes are down and the troops are on the mission to deciding which ride is first. A few brave sould challenge Congo Falls. "Those geysers haven't worked right in years," exclaims JimBob the guest. Boy is he in for a big surprise. JimBob rides and you guessed it, gets hit dead on by the recently renovated Congo geysers. JimBob arrives in the station. "Ya'll never said I was gonna get wet." "well this is a water ride" I explain to JimBob. "Can we ride again?" asks JimBob. I'm sorry sir there are too many people in line so you must go back around. "This is bullcrap we drove 500 miles just to ride this here ride and you wont let us ride again?" "That is correct sir." " Whats your name son I'm going to have you fired!" "My name is Aaron and I work at Congo Falls," I tell him. JimBob then decides to flip me off while he is going up the exit ramp. Ah don't you love guests? "Have a nice day," I tell JimBob. Before you know it, it's time for breaks! Great, I'm not a minor so I'll be going on break at 2. 2 rolls around and as soon as i get ready to leave the phone rings. "We need you to send 2 to DropZone/Skyflyer." Ah great, sending. We send two people to DZ/Sky and by the time the confuison is cleared away tis 2:45 and I just now leave for my break. "Only half hour breaks today," Cletus tells me over the phone. 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes to get back leaves me with 10 minutes of actual break time. Todays special at Oscars, Three Cheese Chicken Bake. I'll pass. So I get chicken fingers and a Coke. Not bad for only 3 dollars. Sit down and its 2:55. I take a bite into my food and low and behold, its cold. Four chicken fingers later I'm grossed out and have to back to Face/Off. Around 7 PM a little girl sits in the train and pulls down the restraint. "Can you come over here with me so I can check your height for you?" I ask the little girl. "Sure," she says. She steps up onto the height stand. I swing the metal bar around and it meets her on the forehead. "great! Your tall enough to ride!" I tell her. She jumps off the stand and plops back into her awating seat. She smiles ear to ear and tells her family that she is finally tall enought to ride the big coasters.I think to myself, that right there made the day for me. Before you know it, it's 10:45 PM and almost time to close the line. 10:55 rolls around and I'm driving the ride. As the trains comes back through the station...:beep beep beep: the control panel tells me. ::THUNK:: Hey look, there goes the train. Hey look there it goes again, and again. Ok so the train miscaught. No big deal, its happened before and this surely isn't the last time. At 11:05 the electricians arrive and repostion the train in the station. The passengers get the ok to get off the train and its time to send through an empty cycle. Good, it made it. The time is now 11:30 and we still have about 30 minutes worth of cycles to do. So 12 AM arrives and we send the last cycle. Time to leave? Not so fast, we still have an hours worth of cleaning to do. While cleaning I pull a bag of trash only to have it break open and spill down my leg into my shoe. Nothing like the feeling of fresh trash juice in between your toes. Got done sooner than expected and its now 12:30. We go to clock out, ::thunk:: The ink punches the time on the timecard. What?? 7PM? I yell "Cletus the timeclock is broke again." No biggy, times can be fixed another day. Out of the Action Zone we walk as a crew and make jokes and laugh about the exhausting day we have all just experienced. I'm back in my muggy car by 12:50 AM and very tired. Out of the parking lot I go onto Kings Island drive leaving the park behind. Only to be there at 9 AM the next morning. Would I trade this day for the world? Not a chance!

Now don't let this thread give you guys any ideas or you might have to get a lecture from us ride ops!

WAYYY too much hearsay folks. BTW, Fort Cooper is named after the former Paramount Parks manger, Jane Cooper.

Ok ok my turn. So I'm walking the back way to Drop Zone behind Congo and in front of Timberwolf. I get behind Drop Zone and its kinda muddy but I don't think anything of it. I start walking down this tiny hill and BAM! I fall straight on my side and my one side is covered in mud. Shoes, socks, shorts, shirt, everything was muddy. Needless to say I sported some rain pants for the rest of the day. Barnyard, that gate trick is hilairious! The expressions on the guests face are priceless...As with the Tower phone call, I won't go into that. Well maybe I will...You called Tower and said your name and I was like "don't say your name!" and then you hung up real quick. That was some funny stuff.....Ahhh good times my friend, good times. Folks, you see these memories we are putting up here? These are the things that make KI such a great place to work. The friends and the memories. I wouldn't trade any of those two in for the world.

Going on my fourth year in the rides department! I've had the best time of my life working at KI and I've made so many friends. Including several who post on this board. Sure it's hard work but with all the friends I've made and all the fun I've had, I don't even call it work.

Darn you John taking my thunder! We could have easily reached 23 trains except we had one upbar. We missed 23 trains by about 30 seconds I think it was. Cletus could help me out on this...Yeah Barnyard, you and Lauren got that and then Willie asked if I wanted to try and it was late in the day so I said no. Then Lauren said I wouldnt be able to get it even if I tried and well, we see what happened after that.

Scheduled chats, yes. An open chat, no. It seems that open chats really take away from the traffic of a message board. Just my opinion!

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Barnyard, I have a web address with DZ and F/O construction pics. I'll send them to you in email

I should have clarified my post... I was referring to him being able to fill out a rehire packet.

I'm going to elaboarate on Cyoungs post...First off, you've got them turned around in refrence to the line length and capacity. If the line is not long, that would imply that the ride ops were flying all summer and lets face it Barnyard, we worked there all summer and we weren't flying all summer long. We had our "power hours" and even a new record for number of trains an hour but most of the time we weren't busting our butt the whole shift. Either way, the line for Face/Off is always going to be long in a typical summer day. Even if we do pump 20+ trains an hour(which is really good BTW) the line would still be back in the que house. Now don't get me wrong, our crew kicked butt his year and we worked our butts off but with all the upbars, munchkins, ETC, your capacity goal really gets flushed down the toilet. Now if they could only figure out a way to get that second train on... BTW, the new record for number of trains in one hour was achieved by myself, Rory, and Cletus. I was at exit, Rory was at dispatch, and Cletus was driving. Oh and the record...22

Sobrider, Might want to call and check your rehire status.