disco2000

It was a shame a lot of food places and refill stations were not open on a holiday Friday with free entry for military active and veterans. Food lines were crazy today, albeit better than opening weekend. And like others with the dining plan, I actually left the park to go eat somewhere else because of the long lines. First time I have done that as a dining plan holder. However, I did eat lunch at the park and a shout out to Will at drinks at Rivertown LaRosa's - he was specifically calling folks out that skipped the line through the exit for the drink only and wouldn't serve them. Most were ticked and expressed frustration, but that was met with a "yes" from those in line with food in hand stuck because of a large group that came through the exit for just a drink. Food service speed suffers when this happens. I know there are some on this forum that don't see it as a big deal, yet they complain about food service. Spend some time in one of these places and watch the line stall when a group comes in through exit or skips past people getting food. It does create a bottleneck and slows the overall line down. Maybe if they had more cashiers this wouldn't be a problem. But when the line is progressing well and someone gets their food, then gets drink (either refill or water) and proceeds to cashier it flows, but when a group bypasses the food either cutting past people or through the exit, it now restricts and halts the line and now instead of 1 or 2 waiting at cashier, it is now 6-8 people.

It was a good show that will become great as the season goes on. This is the first time this has been shown and was specifically developed for KI. Some of it worked and I think the parts that were a little rough will be modified and/or get better now that they have an audience to perform for. Certainly different than Cirque Imagine and hard to really compare the two. Personally I think Cirque Imagine was better (well I liked it better), but this is no slouch and I will be seeing it again and maybe my opinion on which I like better will change as the season goes on. And definitely awesome that CF invests in bringing in this type of talent. Although I liked Imagine better, Origins does show how Haut Vol has grown and expanded and matured, if that makes any sense. Hard to explain.

^The other LaRosa's locations in the park need to follow that model then! Obviously I am not in those places the entire time, but in the times I have been in, the line stalled when someone ordered a whole pizza.

^Yea in that scenario I am ok with someone (notice one) going around if they stood in line and when it got to the point of get food and/or drink and you only were getting a drink, yea you will be long gone before I make it to cashier. The problem is the group that comes through the exit or someone that comes through the entrance and skips past everyone in line just to fill a drink and then almost everyone in line just for a drink decides to do same thing. Last year this happened every time I went to Chicken Shack - maybe I just have bad luck lol, but a group would come through the exit just for drinks just as I was getting my plate handed to me, so I forego getting a drink and bypassed them and went to cashier. When cashier would try to upsell the cup - you know the line - "Would you like to buy a souvenir cup and save money on drinks?" I would simply reply that until KI gets this line jumping of drinks controlled why would I want to stand even longer in a line to now fill up a cup behind 6-8 people that came through the exit simply to fill drinks.

True - the whole pizza order is a puzzler - like why not have that person/group continue down the line and get drinks and pay and then hand them the pizza in a box at the end. That way the line keeps moving. I mean there are times I have ordered fries at Skyline and they were out and the worker simply told me to continue down the line and they would bring the fries out to me instead of bringing the line to a halt. That has happened several times. If only one side of LaRosa's is open, it is easy for said person to step aside, but when both sides are open, that person standing there creates quite a bottleneck.

So I have been doing an unofficial study lol and this week the majority (90%) of folks I have seen smoking in non-designated areas also are carrying around orange drink cups. Presumably these folks would also be pass holders to have purchased a season long drink cup. Obviously they have been going to the park and should know better - it is observations like this by management that could lead to a park-wide ban on smoking - I mean if frequent visitors disobey it is reasonable to assume the one time visitor may be even more likely to disobey. Last year my unofficial study showed more violators had FastLane passes so they obviously felt they paid for the right to smoke wherever they felt. Your observations may vary...

^ I agree - I don't know what the "cut off" should be - going through the exit should be serious no-no. But is bypassing 10 people standing in line appropriate just to get to drinks - what if some of the people standing in line are in line just for a drink? That is usually how the big pile up at the drink station occurs. Someone standing in line witnesses someone go past them and directly to drinks and next thing you know almost everyone in line just for a drink refill follows, thus the big pile up KI should really promote the drink station when people purchase the cups - "please refill at drink station if you are only getting a refill and leave the food stands for those purchasing food". Of course, if KI is selling these cups, then they should have the refill stations open everyday. Hopefully this becomes less and less of an issue as people realize and use the refill stations.

^I hope that would speed up the process, but if the FunPix self-serve kiosks are any indication, it will be faster going to a person. For those not aware of what I am referring to - when you get off the ride, the photo operator can immediately pull up your picture and scan your FunPix. If you go to the self-serve, it takes minutes (could be 2 could be 10) before your photo pops up. I have had more than one worker say to me "just give me your card, I can add it to your account before it even shows up at the kiosk".

Ironic that your tag line is "You don't butt in line" as that is really what said person has done. Is it ok to let someone line jump a ride line cause they say they want the back row and you want the front row? Now if I am at Chicken Shack and my salad is being made and the 1 person behind me asks me politely "do you mind a go around I just have a drink" maybe then. But what if I am just getting a meal and not getting a drink and said person jumped in front of me and is now at cashier getting drink paid for or scanned when I could have been the person at the cashier checking out - now what happens when 8 people jump the food line just to fill a drink. Now I am waiting for 8 people to finish at cashier - and this happened to me ALOT last year. There is a reason the food places have a sign that says "place order here" and "pick up order here" or an entry and an exit. KI is making good strides at preventing this as I posted in another thread. Adding queue lines to I-Street LaRosa's makes it a lot harder for a drink refiller to jump the line. Chicken Shack keeps exit locked from outside entry and stops a lot of what was happening and re-configured the queue line to make it harder to bypass. The drink stations should help as well, as long as they are open and people use them.

^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.