disco2000

^I have well documented this problem in other threads. I have seen improvement recently, but it does still happen unfortunately and yes it is a royal pain and bog down of the total line.

^LOL - no they had a sub maker and a cashier - but I was literally one step from the cashier - my sub was being wrapped and placed in bag. Perhaps I should have said something to the offenders but it really isn't a guest's place to inform another guest of the line - we have seen reports of bad things happening - heck guests are rude to employees saying something.

I seem to be the only one on this forum that complains lol about the line cutters at the food places bypassing those in line just to refill their cup and creates a bottleneck - I have posts back two years stating this. I have also posted I have seen an improvement in this area as the season has gone on. To date, I have seen the following improvements: Chicken Shack has the exit doors locked to prevent folks from entering the exit to fill their drink. I-Street LaRosa's added a queue line and an additional cash register that creates a "wall" making it harder for those to enter thru the exit. I have seen the cashier at Chicken Shack, Hank's, and LaRosa's stop someone coming thru the exit simply to fill a drink and inform them to get in line or go to a drink only stand. Unfortunately, today at Subway, I was the only one in line and while my sub was being made, 8 people jumped past me to the cashier simply to get a drink refill, so my finished sub sat while these jumpers filled their drink. 5 minutes later, I had my sub. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal to many that probably wonder why I complain, but I have seen how this really slows the line down because you would then have people with food in hand that would have been able to be processed out had a large group of drink fillers not jumped around them. As people realize and use the drink refill stations, this should improve the food lines overall.

They have removed the FunPix watermark on the viewing screens now

Well considering Montgomery Inn purchases over two million pounds of Heinz tomato paste every year (the tomato paste is the basis of the Montgomery Inn sauce) and is a top 5 customer of Heinz, I suspect the Montgomery Inn sauce is staying at KI. In fact, Montgomery Inn wanted to be able to label their sauce as gluten-free and with no high-fructose corn syrup, they had enough pull with Heinz to reformulate their tomato paste. That was not an easy task and took over 2 years to formulate it so that the sauce tasted the same.

^Yesterday when I arrived, there were more "lanes" going through the checkpoint than there were at the "ticket gate". And by "ticket gate", I am not sure if you mean the place where you can actually purchase a ticket or the entrance where they scan such ticket or pass but in any case those were less staffed than the checkpoint. My line to get my pass scanned was near as long as the security checkpoint.

^ Nope, they were not given receipts. Employee tore them all off the register and tossed them when it was my turn. I was going to tell them to go to guest services, but they were nowhere to be found after my pass was scanned.

While at I-Street LaRosa's today, I saw the cashier ring up 4 separate folks in front of me over $20 for the 2-slice pizza, 2 breadsticks, and drink combo. When guests said "but the sign says $15-something", employee said that is what the cash register is ringing up today. The guests reluctantly paid. I noticed she keyed in the combo and added a drink, which is why it was coming out more than it should. Said employee's nametag indicated she was a supervisor. And we wonder why there are problems!

Thanks KI for attempting to fix this horrible condition when exiting the park at close at the south exit. Last night, they placed cones dividing the two lanes and the right lane cones were curved in such a way that everyone should have realized it is a right turn only lane. Doesn't mean some moron didn't go through the cones, but at least it should prevent a lot of it. So the bigger question that time will tell will be what I posted earlier - if the south exit is intended to only be a left turn lane only and a right turn lane only, then they should essentially concrete island the area created by the cones to further enforce/guide drivers that the right lane is a right lane only lane. I still think the revisions to the south exit are worse than what was there previously. They continue to put security folks to block lanes entering into the exit so that traffic from the other direction can leave and last year this was accomplished simply by cones, but the new traffic pattern within the parking lot prevents it going back to cones.

Those of us that have been at the entrance before the gates opened have seen that there is an exit point on the left where the gate is to allow you to exit - it is concrete and marked exit - however, that requires one to realize they made a mistake before going up the hill and seeing the new tolls. Once you pass it well then yea currently you have to go thru the tolls. But I would expect an employee to use judgment on if the person is really visiting the park or made a mistake. I made a mistake once and got to the tolls at Cedar Point and simply said I made a mistake and they let me through and I went out an exit.

Clearly they are taking a cue from the Kings Island Drive roadwork and got an idea - they are going to build a parallel lift hill of giga size on Diamondback that traverses into the wooded area being cleared and will reconnect to the exiting track just past where WWC new entrance is. Once said giga lift hill is complete, they keep both lift hills in with a Firehawk-like track switcher and have existing Diamondback and Giga-Diamondback. By alternating lift hills, it eliminates DiamondStack

I mentioned this earlier in the thread regarding the south exit and how what used to be 3 exit lanes (left turn lane, middle lane to turn left or right, and right turn lane) has now been reduced to two lanes - a right turn only lane and a left turn only lane. People are used to the old one and I watched for 20 minutes at close tonight that the majority in the right turn only lane turned left onto Kings Island Drive. What makes this troublesome is the construction has the southbound lane of Kings Island Drive down to one lane, resulting in many beeping horns and flip offs because two lanes are now turning into a one lane road (and one of the lanes turning left is now doing so illegally). Not that people pay attention to signs, but they need some better signage as the only indication is painted arrows on the pavement that most are probably missing. Further complicating the problem is that they have two left turn arrow lights at the intersection, which means two lanes can turn left. So the questions are is the current exit configuration permanent and they need to fix the signal light or is the exit going to revert back to two lanes being able to turn left after construction is done? Also, it appeared as if a sobriety checkpoint was occurring in the parking lot tonight. I noticed a weird cone configuration when I entered the parking lot and such configuration made sense seeing them pull cars into this lane. Maybe it was something else, but sure looked like a checkpoint. I do like the new queue lines being installed in the food places. It is doing a lot to deter the drink only people from skipping the line and clogging up the register line. I did see though someone at Chicken Shack from back of the line yell to the worker if they had the orange cups and the worker responded yes. Customer proceeded to go to the unused side and get such cup from employee and then walk out the exit without paying - why would you give someone a cup that wasn't in line? I also saw people cut through Showplace Theatre to get into Banshee Brew - I don't know if paying folks were given a wrist band or anything, but I pointed it out to a security guard that just kinda brushed it off - maybe they radioed in after we separated, but it didn't appear he was concerned. And I agree with above poster that for it being a light night attendance-wise, the food lines were out the door of every open restaurant from 6-10pm

It is in the purchase area as an add on to a single-day ticket. At least on the website, you cannot purchase separately. In the park may be another thing...

Well the lines were pretty much gone in recent years, so it is easy to see why folks parked in those areas. I had witnessed where security would put the garbage cans in the middle of the illegal spot, and then watch people pull up, get out of car and move can, and then park in the striped spot. Now with the new lines and stripes there should be no excuse, except many folks feel entitled and the rules do not apply to them. I don't think the citations they received amount to anything - unless it changed, I think in years past it would state something like don't do again or risk being towed. I wish they would just tow immediately. No excuse parking in clearly defined no parking spots. Ironically, they striped the lines improving site lines to leave the rows the same year they changed the vehicle traffic pattern such that vehicle traffic is now a minimum in those lanes, at least compared to previous years where that was the main path! So parking in those spots isn't as much of an accident waiting to happen as in years past. Also ironically, the parking spots on the new pathway go right up to the new travel lane, thus creating the difficult site line of pulling your car out to see around the parked cars and risk getting the nose clipped. They should have shifted the parking stalls towards KI so that a striped no parking stall on the new main enter/exit pathway closest to Kings Island Drive could have been placed to improve site lines trying to leave a parking row. They could have shifted the parking stripes a half stall, thus creating a spot not large enough to park in on both ends of the no parking striped areas.

Yep, I heard folks in line over the weekend complaining about the yet to be seen stunt dog show and the cruelty to animals that show is.

Observations on April 29th that were not there at previous 2016 operating days (or maybe I didn't notice lol): Lot now has been striped. Hopefully the new striping will prevent most from parking right up to the travel lane with the clearly marked diagonal lines. International Street LaRosa's added a queue line to help take some of the line into the "restaurant". In addition, they changed the drink machines to fill yourself and added 2 cash registers. It is fairly tight in there now, but it seemed to speed the process up. Brand new stone entrance that stated Kings Island is now missing the Kings Island lettering. Even on the light day attendance wise, when I visited food stands, all the registers were staffed on the side serving food. PR Don was making Skyline due to understaffing (or maybe a promo video lol) I realize it was a light day attendance wise, but overall things seemed to run a little smoother.

Do you know that those with the wrist bands were indeed not gold or platinum pass holders - many pass holders do purchase Fast Lane. The point he's making is that Fast Lane is not supposed to be able to be used during ERT. Even if you do have a Gold or Platinum Pass. Oh my bad - I thought they were complaining that people were in the regular line with Fast Lane during ERT. If the ERT line was open, then yea that is a problem (but not really why would the park tell someone that just forked over money for Fast Lane that they cannot partake in ERT?)

On the plus side, I have complained in other threads last year about so many folks cutting the line at Chicken Shack just for a drink refill and thus really bottlenecked the pay line because I would witness frequently 6-8 folks go thru the exit or skip around people in line to get to drink station and then back up the line with many folks already having their food but not able to get to cashier. This year they keep the exit doors locked and it is comical to see people try to go to that door and see it is locked, bang on said door, have cashier come open door and the customer says they just want a refill and the cashier tells them to get in line! The way it should be. Doesn't mean folks are not still cutting the line, but it has been a lot less this year so far!

Do you know that those with the wrist bands were indeed not gold or platinum pass holders - many pass holders do purchase Fast Lane.

I actually talked to Chef Nathan today. (Great guy - say hi to him when you see him!) I've spoken to him and a few others about the food lines. I do know a few Executive Chef's in real life and was super impressed that he was focused on Front of House as well as Back of House. It did resound to me that he was taking the time to observe the lines. This means they are at least going to attempt to do something. Chef Nate is a nice guy and personable. I have met and spoke with him many times. I know many people that are nice and personable but don't understand or know what they are doing. And that is all I will say about that...

Oh I don't know if it was because of security but around 5pm a car appeared to be exiting out the new entrance and swerved into the grass and almost hit the new sign to get out of the way of incoming traffic

They cannot add a dining plan at Kings Island to a Platinum Pass processed at another park, so I am sure Apple Pay or Google Wallet is out of the question

As has been pointed out in other topics, this app isn't extremely accurate. Folks have the dining plan and it says they don't; other do not have the dining plan and it shows they do; I have visited the park twice yet still shows 0 visits lol

Unfortunately I think that "stunt" will be pulled time and time again - once Soak City opens! The current path to get to Soak City from the now one and only entrance for guests is to proceed down that lane that parallels I-71 all the way to the south exit and then veer left right before entering the curbed area of the exit to proceed to Soak City. Such path directly conflicts with those trying to exit. They are "forced" to keep entry path where it is now as I believe as they do not want to send hundreds of cars down the lane between parking and the park as too many pedestrians become moving targets trying to get into the park. The park would rather inconvenience the few dozen or so trying to leave the park at 11am than the thousands trying to walk safely to the park from their car at 11am. I just don't think much thought went into the reconfiguration and now they have this mess.

We can blame politicians on this lol (but there is some truth). Very few are willing to do what is right for the overall good - if they would have shut Kings Island Drive down between Western Row to the new park entrance the day after the park closed in November, such improvements would have been finished before the season started. People still could have got to Great Wolf Lodge and other businesses via the north and yes some would have had a little extra to drive for those that used Kings Island Drive, but any extra time going around for the locals will be more than lost sitting in traffic while KI is open. Politicians wouldn't do that as it may upset a voter or two, so construction workers had to maintain traffic during the winter months and everyone going to KI will deal with the delays of such construction occurring during park season. I can assure you the traffic counts on Kings Island Drive are higher in the summer months than the winter months! Why did KI annex to Mason? You think they would have had a say. Unfortunately, even when it is finished, problems will still exist (those I referenced earlier).