malem

^ It looks like the storm will be gone before too long, so hopefully you'll be rewarded with short lines. Watching storms roll through from inside the park beats sitting in the car, though needlessly walking outside during the storm wouldn't be advisable.

^ Operators at Kings Island have been calling out "scan" in recent weeks before dispatching a train. It's probably a good idea. An explicit cue to check the platform makes that step harder to overlook.

Such a change in policy would likely require training as well as changes to the gate admission software. Hopefully procedures will be revisited following this media incident, but I would expect this to take time. Even though current policy is apparently not conducive to good customer service, it's not the only problem here. Enforcing this at all for passholders in August, as the regular season concludes, seems silly. Even so, had enforcement been limited to a reminder after allowing them into the park, they probably wouldn't have gone to WCPO. The kid from the article was 1" too tall. Had his mom received a reminder to upgrade earlier in the season, she might have even stopped at an admission window and happily paid the extra ~$0-$10.

^ Enthusiasts might not always spend a lot when visiting, but in-park spending is a significant component of revenue for parks. More than gate revenue in some cases. Cedar Fair under Ouimet is increasingly data driven. It will be interesting to see how Fast Lane evolves as its impact across the board is analyzed.

Not necessarily. Long Fast Lane waits simply mean that many customers are willing to pay for access to special queues. The parks would be looking for the pricing sweet spot to maximize revenue while also keeping the impact on regular guests from becoming intolerable. I do wonder how Fast Lane is affecting average customer satisfaction as currently implemented. Regardless, guests spending more of their day in lines have less time to spend money.

^ Kick a soccer ball into the fountains and send a picture via Twitter with the appropriate hashtag. You might win a tour.

^ At least the bathrooms are no longer affected.

The Mantis photo booth is often closed, though it was operating on my last visit (7/18-19). The pictures on the CRT televisions were too bad to make out faces, but I can't say anything about the actual product being sold. I do enjoy Mantis, but only after learning how to ride it "correctly". Of course, that shouldn't be necessary for an amusement device. I'd like to ride another standup coaster at some point to compare. I'm determined to ride a TOGO standup before those disappear for good.

Cedar Point just added another bring-a-friend-cheap day. Tomorrow. Up to six $19.99 tickets per passholder. Both regular and platinum.

Mantis's first drop and loop are very enjoyable in the front row. The worst part about a remodel would be losing it as a walk-on ride for busy days.

I certainly don't think that it was planned from the beginning. The plan was to operate it as a smaller, family park. SFWoA/GL was much bigger than its attendance justified, and Cedar Fair didn't want Herschend or Busch attempting to bring Cedar Point's attendance to Aurora. Buying it and right-sizing it became the plan. The writing was on the wall once Cedar Fair acquired Paramount Parks with billions of dollars of high-interest loans. GL's attendance was in free fall, and "new" rides were sorely needed at the acquired, well-attended parks. GL's flow of red ink could no longer be ignored. Closing the park let Cedar Fair cut its losses and distribute investments to parks where they would have a much bigger return. They also hoped to pay down debt by quickly selling GL's assets and land, but that didn't pan out so well. I was a somewhat-active member on that site when the decision was announced. It wasn't fun coming home to read daily updates on the park's destruction. After the decision was announced, I never got around to visiting a park operated under a Kinzel. It doesn't seem that I ever will.

If you think that thread is sad... http://geaugalaketoday.fpb.yuku.com/topic/808/Deconstruction-began-today-32008 http://geaugalaketoday.fpb.yuku.com/topic/1266/New-WKYC-Aerial-Video-of-Geauga-Lake-Demolition-Almost-Done?page=1

There have been KIC Boo Blaster duels. I think you and Goble should go head-to-head.

There's a fine line between good customer service and letting customers walk all over you. I'm not sure what the proper policy is here, but the fact that this got to the local news suggests that it could have been handled better. Hopefully KI can avoid such dissatisfaction due to pass/height confusion in the future. My suggestion: allow one entry with a pass when the child is over the height limit, telling them to fix the issue at Guest Services or an admission window before their next visit. Keeping a family of passholders out of the park for an unexpected $9 upgrade is stupid.

Those concerned about bacteria in soda fountains should especially appreciate the Coca-Coca Freestyle machines. With no plastic tubing and cartridges that get replaced, there are less places for bacteria to potentially grow.

I think I know one member who does.

It has previously been announced that Cirque Imagine will continue through August 17. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/article/media-center/Cirque-Imagine-show-opens-to-rave-reviews The show schedule has yet to be announced beyond this upcoming Sunday. Schedules are always subject to change without notice. Some shows go weekends only at the beginning and end of the season.

That week is typically dead; so dead that many trains leave empty. Let's be glad that the park continues to operate those days. I wouldn't expect heavy crowds even with this promotion, for what it's worth. Friday of that week isn't a bring-a-friend day, and the park closes at 10:00pm. I'd recommend visiting then.

There's still quite a bit on the Frontier Trail. Until this season, it was used extensively on the Gemini midway.

^ Helping a friend is much more important than getting to Kings Island. We were just surprised not to see you at Cirque or on the last Beast train of the last midnight close. I had dry clothes waiting for me in the car. The clothes I changed out of were still wet when I got home at 3:00am, and the shoes I wore were still wet in the morning.

I just realized that I posted this in the wrong forum. If a moderator could move it to "Trip Reports" from "Meet Ups", I would appreciate it!

Last Saturday was Kings Island's final midnight close of the 2014 season, and several from this site came to enjoy a fantastic day at the park. It did get crowded, but there was plenty of fun to be had even without Fast Lane and without waiting in excessively long queues. (None of us wanted to wait more than 30 minutes for anything. And we didn't.) I arrived at the front gate right at 9:30am and had time for 2 rides on Banshee and 1 ride on Drop Tower before the park opened. Afterwards, I enjoyed minimal waits in the rest of the park for the next ~1.5 hours. IAmABanshee arrived around 12:30pm, headed to Action Zone for a locker, and bought Fast Lane Plus immediately upon seeing the crowd there. He had little time at the park before work and wanted to make the most of it. We met in the station of The Racer after I waited ~20 minutes, then we rode Adventure Express and Congo Falls together with minimal waits. He walked onto Banshee and had ~10 minute Fast Lane waits on Diamondback and The Beast. At 2:25pm, a strong pop-up storm affected the park. Intense rain and some impressive cloud-to-ground lightning came out of nowhere. Rides immediately shut down and wouldn't start re-opening until ~3:30pm. This unfortunately cut IAmABanshee's day short, and I took the opportunity to eat at Hank's Burrito Shack while watching guests on the midway run for cover. I then got in line for The Beast just as it reopened and waited about 30 minutes. After the weather moved out, more KIC members found each other. By the end of the night the group consisted of jcgoble3, DontWantToWait42mar0, Kat, Aaron, Goki32, MDMC01, Beast Man and me. (Unfortunately silver2005 couldn't make it due to a car problem, and Ryan was absent. Devan and Jon ditched us for Cedar Point.) Even though the park became rather crowded, we decided against Fast Lane. As thousands of guests corralled themselves into full queues, we took the time to enjoy other rides such as WindSeeker, Adventure Express, Vortex, Dodgems, Congo Falls, and The Bat. After a couple hours of riding together, we headed to the Kings Island Theater for Cirque Imagine. After the show, we ate at The Chicken Shack - which tasted much better than it did in May and June. I hadn't seen Cirque Imagine since mid-June, so some more recent changes were new to me. The Hand2Hand act is one of the best of the performance, and the increased roster adds a lot to the show. Of course, it ended (as usual) with a huge standing ovation. If you haven't seen Cirque recently, make sure to get to the park before it ends on August 17! Of course, the best part about staying until midnight is getting lots of night rides! In order, we did the following after dark as a group: Viking Fury Grand Carousel White Water Canyon International Street viewing of extended fireworks Vortex Vortex (re-ride) Adventure Express Racer Banshee Race For Your Life Charlie Brown Beast - last train of the night White Water Canyon is an excellent night ride. You can't see where you're going, and rapids take you completely by surprise. Kat stayed behind with plenty of quarters, and some of us taunted the tower operator. We got what was coming to us and were soaked the rest of the night, but it was very much worth it. Vortex and The Beast were especially great, with thick fog covering the area under clear skies. It was my best ride on Vortex ever; we enjoyed it so much that we had to immediately re-ride. The Beast has been running especially well recently, and Saturday was no exception. Waits at most attractions were minimal in the 11pm hour, and even full Diamondback and Beast queues were down to about 20 minutes before the park closed. We chose not to cut it close by waiting for Diamondback just before 11:30pm, so a few of us (still drenched from earlier) decided to ride the log flume. It's a surprisingly good night ride as well. We started waiting in The Beast's plaza around 11:50pm for the much-anticipated final train of the night. Once the park closed, we chatted for a good while, and some purchased a hilarious Beast on-ride photo. We took our group picture by the Kings Island sign at the front of the park (which Kat needs to post) and called it a night. Overall, it was very fun day at the park - probably my favorite of the 2014 operating season so far. A lot can get done on a busy day, especially with a midnight close. I also love seeing the park fully awakened at the peak of the season, notwithstanding the crowds. There's a certain energy that just doesn't exist on a dead weekday.

I don't think that they can have people on the trail during fireworks, so starting Dinos After Dark earlier wouldn't be an option. This Saturday is also Beast Buzz; attendees of that event have ERT on select attractions after park closing.

Definitely a great way to raise awareness and even help protect some of Saturday's park guests in a direct way. For those spending the day who applied sunscreen in the morning, noon will be a good time to reapply.

Glad you guys had a successful trip to CP, even though you ditched us at KI. You missed some great Vortex and Beast night rides through thick fog, but I suppose that Blue Streak and Corkscrew might have made up for it. I'm surprised that they let you snap the Eagles. When I rode, people were being scolded for any jerking at all. My Mean Streak rides this season have been all across the board. I enjoyed my ride at CoasterMania, but the shuffling on my last visit left me with a headache. Didn't you read the tweet? #NoRunning