DragonLord

I can't belive an officer would touch a guest, especially a child, even to take them out of line. I would NEVER touch a guest unless I was tapping them on their shoulder to get their attention if asking for it didn't work. There are way too many problems that can happen by touching a guest... As a side note to that, if the guest doesn't get out of line, I would wait for them in the station and hold up the train if I had too. Worse come to worse, I would just call in the Park Police to deal with it and they will make you leave the park (sorry, no refunds!).

lol A lot of people have ways around the ropes... the legal ways are the ACE walkbacks, the not so legal ways I won't mention but if caught be prepared to be charged with trespassing! Seriously, it's not fun to be on the wrong side of the ropes in the morning. I usually try to end with a "have a great day" and remind them how much time is left before I drop the rope. I also tell the people in the front that they are the ones that really need to walk because it will force the people behind them to walk as well... kinda like a pace car at a race. I also ask them to check their shoe laces because I have had people fall during the rush after the rope drops and it's not very fun. I have been in the middle of that as well and I was being pushed along by the crowd. I make everyone stay where they are at till I (and the rope) am out of the way. I know it sounds very frank and honest, but I don't like to sound too playful or not serious when I tell the rules. It's hard enough to tell how many people actually listen (or can hear me, I will get a bull horn, at least on the weekends) so I want to make sure everything is as clear as can be so there are no miscommunications.

I love photography, used to work in a photo lab in fact. Just email me at DragonLord@cinci.rr.com for more information. I live in Mason, just a few minutes from the park. I hope I'm over 18 otherwise the park hired an underage security officer! Don't mind giving out my home address (as long as it isn't on line of course).

I’m not sure if every officer does this, but in the morning I always give some sort of a spiel at the rope to remind people of the rules and to give out some advice. Usually I start out with a nice big “Good Morning!†and wait for a response. If I’m not pleased I do it again after a (usually lame) joke about needing more coffee or caffeine or about the time of day. I always give a weather update and end with new rides (sometimes with stats), attractions, and directions to rides they might be waiting for. Anyway, below is a ruff outline of what I talk about… it usually takes me 5 minutes to say it all. I was just wondering what you think: Good Morning! Welcome to Paramount’s Kings Island! I hope you all have a wonderful day. I wanted to remind you all of some rules while you are in the park. There is no smoking in any of the ride lines! If you smoke, put it out before you get into a ride line. It is posted at the entrance to all of the rides, and you can be kicked out of the ride line for smoking, so please don’t do it. Also, there is no line jumping! Line jumping consists of any reason you get out of line and get back in line where you were at and not at the very end. You are not allowed to save places in line, not allowed to get out of line for food, drinks, or to use the restroom. If you are in line, stay in line until you are off the ride. If you are caught line jumping, you will be kicked out of the line and you can be kicked out of the park. Don’t do it! If you catch someone line jumping, make sure you can point them out to Security. You must be able to say “They did it†for us to anything about it. If you buy beer or any other alcoholic beverage in the park, you must keep it in the building or on the patio where you bought it. You are not allowed to walk around the park with any alcoholic beverages; we will make you throw it away! You are not allowed to transfer the alcohol to any other container than the one we give it to you in. If you are caught doing that, we will make you throw it away. Keep your clothes on! Shoes shirts and shorts are required in the park at all times. We will tell anyone walking around the park with no shirt to put on one. If you don’t have one, you will have to buy one. Just because you see someone else without a shirt on does not mean that you can take yours off. The exception is the water maze in Nickelodeon. You must have your cloths on while walking to and from the water park. The water park opens at 11am and is included in general admission. If you go to the water park there is no smoking allowed at all in the water park. You can get to the water park by walking on the path in the very back of Nickelodeon, or by riding the train from Rivertown. Water in the park is free! You can ask for a glass of ice or ice water at any of the food stands and it is free. A bottled water in the park is $2.75. If you ask for a glass of water it is free. Please drink lots of water! If you have a souvenir cup, they will fill that up with water for free as well. Again, please drink lots of water! Parents, if you have cell phone please make sure that your kids have the number. If you become separated from your kids it’s the easiest way for them to contact you. If you do become separated from your kids, tell an employee right away so that Security can be called, we have procedures for helping you find your kids. We do not page anyone in the park unless it’s a verified police or medical emergency so please do not ask us to page. You can put a message out for someone at Guest Relations under the Front Gate, in Lost Parents located in Hanna-Barberra, or at the kiosk under the tower. If you have any questions, feel free to ask

Backwords Racer is my favorite in the park, next to The Beast. It has lots of air time and is a pretty unique ride. The passes are only allowed to be used once a day even with the photos on them. They are right in saying it's so that they aren't passed off, and so that we know they aren't stolen or "borrowed" from family members or others. If the pass is used once a day, we have time to flag passes that aren't supposed to be used for whatever reason and so on. It's a great way to catch stolen or "borrowed" passes. Honestly, some of the admissions people don't really pay attention to the pictures although they can never stress it enough. Letting the passes in only once helps to catch human error (or stupidity). Handstamps are nice, but they need to have two or more people doing it at once when it gets busy. When I notice a long line for a handstamp, I try and get a stamp to help out or admissions sends someone out after I tell them about the line. Of course, coming in they need to have more than one light to check them... One of these days I hope they go to a biometric pass where you have to scan your thumb print and your picture comes up on the screen and we let you in that way. It would save a ton of time and keep down on some problems.

QTV plays the same thing over and over again, but in the same area of the park. I don't think I have seen the preview for "Timeline" anywhere else but Rivertown. I also think they need to change the background music. It's the same everyday! They need a ton of variety in the QTV and in the music. Something new needs added sometime during the summer. Paramount releases a few movies every year, and we can preview most of them, if not all. It's been said before, but the park is owned by Viacom, so why can't they get some decent music videos in the park? They could also do delayed shots from earlier that day, you might be seen on the QTV! It would make people pay attention to them for messages and would probably help out on behavior if they knew there was a chance that they would be seen on the QTV.

You can't blame the officer for doing their job.

Hey now! My uncle has a farm just a few miles down 741 from the park! The one I hear a lot on the radio is Sponge Bob. Honestly, I've watched the cartoon and I hate it. I have no idea how it can be so popular! Maybe I can come up with something just as stupid and make a fortune off of it?

Delirium probably had a long line, you just didn't notice it for the crowd. We had bike racks set up to curve out along the fence, so what might have looked like people watching the line from the fence was the line. I know it got up to the Age and Weight game a few times, but mostly on Saturday (whiched seemed busier than Friday although we had less people in the park?). Friday wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though and I think we were actually under our estimate. All in all it was a good day, though.

I'm glad you guys had a great time... it doesn't sound like you had any problems. I'm also glad you got to enjoy some things around the area, like Wright Patterson AFB. Hopefully your return trips will be the same. Make sure you look into the different Gold Pass perks for next year. I'm not sure if they are passing out information about them or mailing them at a later date, but odds are they will still have a Bring a Friend Free Day next year as well (probably 3 or 4 of them like this year) so try to avoid them like you did this year! BTW, did you mind the metal dectors? Hopefully you got through them without any problems!

It would be great if we got more feedback from the Guests, that's why we have the GR people throughout the park taking surveys and things, we aren't getting enough from the guests, so we get it from them. It really does get down the a specific employee if a guest makes a comment, good or bad, about that employee. We like both types of feed back and would always appriciate more. I know I have had both good and bad things (at least in the guest's mind) reported at GR and I always have a sup asking about the bad ones and congratulated on the good ones. It makes me have a better day when I know someone out there had a better day because of me.

There are a lot of storage spaces built behind The Racer and the park's water treatment plant. They are probably just building more storage, probably for Tech Services since they work out of the basement of FX Theater...

Your too funny Mr. Chef. If you ever do have to drive through the parking lot you will notice all sorts of cars... from the very expensive to the cheapest you can build yourself. It's pretty interesting to see them all together. It would be interesting to see how many of what we have in the parking lot, it would be some useless but interesting trivia.

It would be a lot of paper work as well, Tanner. I don't get a power trip in uniform and the officers that do get it are noticed by our sups and are usually asked to join another department. Officers with power trips are the ones that will get either themselves or a guest(s) hurt or really ticked off. We don't need that.

I heard that Saturns are more of a pain to work on then any other car that there is... I think I'll just stick with my Ford and when that is dead and gone move on to a Dodge (which I should have gotten in the first place).

It's something that has come up before, although I'm not sure what the deal is with it... I've heard a ton of things about CF trying to buy other Paramount Parks and what not, and that they have been trying to get PKI for a while. Who knows... I don't get the Viacom financial statements anymore b/c I don't own any stock in them anymore, but I would be looking at that to see if the Paramount Parks division is making money that they need.

Is there "definitely a grey area between theme parks and TV based entertainment. "? I mean, look at the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family... and the MTV show Newlyweds that is coming out this month with Jessica Simpson, and all the coaster shows that are filimed, and the live BET awards shows and stuff... The park would do better, IMO, if they could find a good show to film live at the park... maybe not all the time, but something like a Nick family game show would be cool... maybe another episode of something can be filmed at the park? It would just be neat and would draw more guests to the park.

Your too nice... that is just not supposed to be done. Vortex is the one line in the park that is the hardest to curb line jumping of any kind. They need a higher fence put in something.

Tanner, make sure if you ever see employees walking through a line with their shirts on that you tell a ride op about it. Employees will be fired for pulling a stunt like that.

Honestly I don't care about name tags unless they are on the clock. I do know that they can forget them, or that they can break, which is no big deal. As of taking IDs away, I will do that to any employee who decideds to bad mouth me after I ask them to do something that is as reasonable as tucking in a shirt. I won't take an ID away just because a shirt isn't tucked in, nor will I take it away if they don't tuck it in after I ask them to. It is a different situtation when the employee happens to be operating a ride, though... not only can an untucked shirt be a bad presentation, it can be a safty hazard. I won't tolerate an employee (sup or otherwise) with an untucked shirt while operating a ride. I don't come up with the rules, I just enforce them... I have to do what I'm told to, and some officers actually take the job seriously, like myself. I don't go around to every employee I see to ask them to tuck in a shirt, I can't because we do get other calls that are far more important. If I do see an employee with a shirt untucked and I can ask them to tuck it in, I will. I'm never rude about it, never mean, never have an attitude. I just ask them to tuck it in and keep it tucked in while they are in the park because not only is it a rule, but it makes the park look better as a whole. KI_Kid, I never ment it to come across like having a shirt tucked in is more important than guest's safty... and it certainly isn't. In fact, I just started this thread so I can get other's opinions about it, and I'm glad I'm getting it. One last thing, KI_Kid, if you would have told me something like your last comment to my face, sup or not, I would have had your ID and we would have had a talk with an OD and my boss. I might be a "rent a cop" but I don't have to deal with employee's bad mouthing me. Read the back of your ID it says "Upon request you must surrender this card to mamangement or security."

Several good points were made, but now I get to chime in again. First, it is the job of a sup (and security) to make sure that the employees are following the rules, on or off the clock. Since the uniform standards are part of the park rules for employees, they should be followed. Second, beastfreak, security does have the right to enforce the wardrobe rules. Security is not equal to anyone on wardrobe standards because we can be fired for being out of wardrobe... I mean, we get written up for not wearing black socks, for not having ink pens (which are part of our uniforms) and we would certainty be written up, if not terminated on the spot, for wearing our uniforms un-tucked in the park. All other employees are just told time after time to follow the wardrobe standards, but security officers can be fired for not doing so. Az Kinda Guy, you need to watch your employees a little more! I have seen several working at Sling Shot, Delirium and on Drop Zone that do not have their name tags on or their shirts tucked in while operating the rides. For something like that I would ask them to tuck it in (and take down their name to tell a sup) and if I see it again, I am allowed to take their IDs. You better get your eyes checked if you think yours, or anyone else’s employees are following the standards for wardrobe while operating a ride. There was an employee (on his first day) working a ride and he had his shirt un-tucked and no nametag and there were three sups in the driver's box. If a sup thinks security has no right to tell their employees how to dress (on the clock operating a ride or otherwise), I'll be glad to sit down with them, the OD for the department and the security OD to go over the rules again. The bottom line is this: Wardrobe standards are supposed to be followed by all employees on or off the clock if they are in uniform. The standard states that the uniform shirt must be tucked in, name tags must be worn, your not allowed talking on a cell phone while in the park unless you are backstage, and all employees sign a paper stating that they will follow those rules. Security officers DO have a right to enforce those rules, and supervisors have a responsibility to enforce those rules. Be nice to an officer if they ask you tuck in a shirt... if they hear you cuss at them or if you say anything out of line, they will take your ID. If you don't want to follow the rules, then leave. It's as easy as that. Of course, it's stupid to quit just because you don't like to tuck a shirt in... even at "casual dress" places you have to have your shirt tucked in. "Casual dress" does not mean sloppiness.

I have a question for the guests and would like input from the employees about the uniforms... We have had a lot of problems with employees not tucking in their shirts, not having their name tags on, walking through the park while talking on a cell phone or listening to CD's (while in uniform). To the guests: What do you think when you see an employee 1. just walking through the park with their uniforms untucked and no name tag on 2. operating rides while looking like the above 3. employees talking on cell phones or listening to CDs while walking through the park 4. Your idea of a "professional" look while employees are walking through the park To the employees: 1. Do you think you should be allowed to walk through the park (while guests are in it or not, i.e. pre-morning ropes) with your shirts untucked 2. Do you think you should be allowed to talk on cell phones (non-emergancy calls) and/or listen to CDs while walking through the park 3. Remember that you signed a paper stating that you knew the dress the code and would follow it (and it states that you must have your shirts tucked in and name tags on while in the park). 4. Know (or have read) that at the blue gates and the brown gates have signage that states how you are supposed to look before entering the park and that it says you have to follow uniform standards (having your shirt tucked in and name tag on) before entering the park. I just would like some input... I personally hate it when I see an employee walking around the park, on or off the clock, looking like crap. If an employee has no respect for how they look in public, they have no reason for working in such a public place. There is also no excuse for operating a ride, or being in public, without having your shirts tucked in and a name tag on. It just plain looks bad!

The problem with that is that people would call for all sorts of other things as well... not a good thing when it's supposed to be for important things. That too, we could get tons of prank calls, or we could run into other calls that are more important than a line jumper and then the caller would get ticked that we didn't do anything. Things are fine the way they are...

Maybe someone can get ahold of Jeff and see if he can tell us when things are coming on. He would know for sure, and if he doesn't know, he'll find out. The show with Jessica Simpson in the park is supposed to be on either the 14th or the 19th at around 9:30pm on MTV, so be looking for that!

Ugh, like monitoring the ques from camera would work... by the time Security would get there they might already be at the station or on/off the ride. Cameras never hepled deter anyone anyway.