SonofBaconator

As a guy who loves polls I added another one. The park's already been blessed with 3 B&Ms and getting more is never a bad thing. That being said what type of B&M would you like to see come to Kings Island next? This is all hypothetical so please vote honestly. I included all models that we do not have just to keep it interesting and avoid bias. I know this thread is going to be met with some controversy but never the less please keep this civil.

Orion more than made up for Firehawk. The part of the ride that didn't make it re-ridable was its super loud anti-rollbacks right at my ears and having my face fully exposed to the sun. If Vekoma built their Flying Dutchmans like B&M Flyers where you face the ground the whole time, I think it would've been more enjoyable to me

KI's media team is on it with this video

Unfortunately that'll never happen. There was an incident at Knott's a few years back on their log flume where a scare actor fell into the water.

I had a few ideas to potentially improve the seasonal haunt experience. This doesn't have to just apply to our haunt as it can also be adapted to other parks. Also these are just ideas so please don't get upset. Idea 1: Integrating Haunts into the rides This was a Paramount practice when they introduced Fear Fest. Rides like the Miami Valley Railroad, Phantom Theater, and the Antique Cars became haunted attractions. In a way it kind of bridged the gap between haunted houses and the rides. I recall there being an actual Beast that was seen at night when riding The Beast. I think this whole haunted rides idea should be brought back and improved on. Knott's Berry Farm does this beautifully where they change their log flume and their Mine ride into an awesome Halloween experience. I think it would be possible to make alterations to the shed on Mystic Timbers as well as the tunnels on Adventure Express to fit in with the Halloween theme. Idea 2: Scaling back the outdoor haunt Kings Island introduced the idea of Hallo-tween (I might be butchering that) where certain haunts were open during the day with no scareactors. I thought KI, as well as other parks, could really capitalize and expand on this. Maybe remove the scare actors from the midways and outdoor areas and place them in haunted attractions or designated scare zones. That way younger people could attend the event and not have to worry about encountering monsters. I know there's the "no boo" necklaces that the park makes money on but I think more parents would be willing to take some of their younger kids if they knew that you would have to pay for a "no boo" necklace. My argument is this would bring in younger people on the weekends and bring in more money for the park. The trade off would be scarier haunts. Less scare actors on the streets would mean that there would be more attention to the haunted houses, scare zones, and mazes . They could even put up temporary structures like in the Paramount days. I know people thought that these were cheap but for a seasonal event I don't see the issue with it. They could even do a tier system like what Busch Gardens did where it would say something along the lines of fear levels where 1 jack-o-lantern means not so scary where 5 jack-o-lanterns is extremely scary. So if you wanted to walk around the park at night and not be scared you could don't have to buy a boo necklace but if you really wanted to get your socks knocked off you could wait in line for a haunted house/ maze or walk in a scare zone. My two cents. I'm sure I'll come up with more. What are your thoughts? *I just realized I already made a thread like this a while ago. Oh well.

I've been following the poll daily. KI was in 3rd place following Cedar Point at #1 and Busch Gardens Williamsburg at #2. Silver Dollar City must have jumped over night because now we're at #4 and they're at #2.

When people go out of their way to defend Intamin, I go out of my way to remind them there's a whole Wikipedia section dedicated to their safety incidents

There's no reason to if you think about it. The last major game-changer they had was Son of Beast but like you said, that was pre acquisition. That doesn't mean we haven't had good coasters since the acquisition: Diamondback, Banshee, Mystic, Orion, and even Firehawk was a decent move. I think game changing rides are a must if you're a destination park where you have to add pretty impressive additions to keep people coming: Busch Gardens and Cedar Point come to mind. KI as a regional park pulls in over 3 million people annually so unfortunately there's no true need to give the park anything game changing. There's no true competition either, as long as they keep Kentucky Kingdom and Holiday World in check. I'm personally happy with what we get. Would I want the park to get game changers and record breakers? Absolutely, who wouldn't? But for a regional park, we're treated very very well. We're constantly ranked high in park polls, some of our coasters are on top 10 lists across the community, and no one ever really has anything bad to say about the park. Also I feel like if we get a massive game changing coaster, people will just be disappointed when the park makes their next installment. The park is focusing more on quality vs quantity which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

@purdude86 It depends on how much the park wants to spend. I love Dive Machines but I would want one with great theming and at least 3-4 inversions which would be pricy considering the cost of steel.

They could always add a facade to the front like they do for Haunt and Winterfest if they wanted something different.

CF has been on a reliability streak this past decade. We'll never lose B&M

Here's a really cool video which more or less explains why Orion was built the way it was

I'm not the expert when it comes to water parks but I typically have a pretty good idea of their general purpose and how they can be most effective. Recently, I talked a lot on the other water park threads about updating certain aspects of our water park to make it more modern and profitable. There are other parks, however, that I question their placement and if its giving the respective park their money's worth. The two parks that come to mind are Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland where their water parks are placed inside the park itself instead of being put to the side near a separate entrance like our Soak City, Carowinds newer Carolina Harbor, Oceans of Fun, etc. If you look at Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland's map, you see both Soak City and Splash Works only have one entrance and they take up a lot of dry park real estate. I personally think its problematic when there's not a separate entrance who want to just enjoy the water park and have to walk all the way through the dry park. Would it have been a better business decision for these two parks to relocate their water parks to a different property? I'd argue no for Kings Dominion because many consider it a mid-tier CF park and relocating the water park wouldn't help out as much. Canada's Wonderland on the other hand wouldn't be a bad idea. I know the financial setback of relocating a water park would be astronomical, however I foresee some potential benefits. For one, Canada's Wonderland is landlocked so it would always benefit the park to free up some more space. Additionally both the dry and the wet park would be able to expand on their own without having to worry about affecting one another. Like I said this would be a lot of money but don't necessarily think its a horrible idea. Anyone else care to voice your thoughts?

That's another argument I have- if there are more dark rides in a park, there's more of an incentive to go/stay during less than optimal conditions. They could also give a park good excuse to close a coaster or thrill ride down early for off season maintenance if needed. I know coasters are reasons why people go to parks, heck they talked about that in this documentary, but I think dark rides are good insurance. Dark rides provide shorter lines for other attractions, comfort, shelter, something the grandparents can ride, and the ability to operate without worrying about bad weather.

Here's the story https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/07/dad-sues-over-9-year-old-sons-near-death-experience-on-hersheyparks-storm-runner-rollercoaster.html

In the words of DJ Khaled, "Another one" https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-amusement-park-2020/kings-island-mason-ohio/?fbclid=IwAR15txZx00uqIMLYADiaKjCLu3l8jYr-SltTWFtBHTEQSO90zmU1HdRrQHE

I feel the same way. It would take away from the Eiffel Tower in my opinion.

The fact that they said that for many years always led me to believe management didn't care, until I read what you said. One time the train robbers at Knott's asked guests for money and one guy replied he didn't have any money. The robber replied "you're right, if you had any money you'd be at Disneyland." I thought that was pretty funny. The scambler thing is passable too just because ride ops and associates always try to set up a rivalry. I remember riding Mystic Timbers where an op said "enjoy Mystic Timbers, the best wooden coaster in the park" then when I went to ride The Beast later they were calling The Beast the "best woodie in the park." Rivalries are fine and in my opinion encourage guests to ride the other rides but I understand the unprofessionalism that people can see in that. Its when people flat out trash talk the new product that I have trouble understanding.

I'm not trying to get anyone fired. I'm saying people DO get fired for stuff like this so it surprises me that employees are so bold to criticize a ride while on the clock. For the younger employees, KI is their 1st job so they don't know how to act in a professional manner. I worked for a place where this kid kept complaining about how the place was ran and the decisions that were made so they let him go. I just think people need a little bit more foresight.

Get em @DonHelbig

That stuff I'm fine with. In 2018 CP built up a rivalry between Maverick and Steel Vengeance and it was fun to see the associates make playful jabs about the opposing ride When an associate is bashing the park's newest ride around guests however, it looks bad. The park didn't pay millions of dollars on a coaster to have it be negatively reviewed by it associates; especially around guests during work hours. If you have employees talking ill about the park around your guests, how do you think the guests will react?

It baffles me how some employees blatantly criticize the company they work for while on the job. Most companies will fire employees if they talk ill about their company or product.

Jeez, do you like anything at KI or do you just like to crap on everything about the park?

Two RMC's don't make one park better than another. Two RMCs certainly improve a park's line-up but KI is still the superior park. I've talked about KI not underestimating KK and from what @BeeastFarmer has convinced me, they seem pretty responsive to what other competing parks are doing