disco2000

Love that they added: "**Subject to change without notice." We are familiar with that phrase this year more than any other It appears the carriage rides are being replaced with a trolley - will people pay to ride a trolley that goes in a big loop? Probably LOL Also of interest is he points people to his personal X (formerly known as Twitter) account and not the official park account....

Anyone else get the email from KI stating: "Kings Island's WinterFest has been nominated for Best Theme Park Holiday Event in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice poll. We need your help to win! You can cast your vote for WinterFest once per day until voting ends November 29 at 11:59 AM EST." If we don't win the top spot, budget cuts will probably eliminate the event next year

That's fine, but how about simply advertising the price out the door? We know why because the price is then higher. Most places do it, but it sucks. Nothing like buying a cheap seat to an event and the taxes and processing fees are more than the actual ticket LOL. It is the same non-sense car dealers pull. Destination fees and all the other charges add up quick. If every vehicle has that, then incorporate it in the price.

While I don't expect KI to price match, most stores let you go in for a price adjustment if something goes on sale after you purchased it within the return window. Amazon doesn't of course, so you have to return and rebuy LOL. As an example, here is the generous price adjustment Best Buy does during the holidays: If our price goes lower during the holiday season, we’ll match it. The Holiday Price Match Guarantee lets you shop with confidence. Most products purchased at Best Buy between Oct. 27 and Dec. 30 can be price matched through Jan. 13 with Best Buy’s Holiday Price Match Guarantee. The Holiday Price Match Guarantee allows customers to request a price match to a current Best Buy product price for an immediately available new product during our extended Holiday Return & Exchange period. Items excluded from the extended Holiday Return & Exchange period (e.g., items purchased with a third-party contract [e.g., cell phones, AppleCare+ plans], holiday decorations, non-returnable products, etc.) are excluded from the Holiday Price Match Guarantee. The Guarantee does not apply to price matching competitor’s prices. All other terms and conditions of the Best Buy Price Match Guarantee apply.

I thought Wonderland was Canada

Carowinds and Wonderland did the same thing...maybe KI didn't get the memo

To be fair they are open for private event that weekend (at least usually), so it isn't like only one day. Or we see this day disappear if a company decides to buy out the park.

Has anyone seen the job postings for the 2024 season?

I know they have historical employment data, but if it has been shown they have to cut dates/hours, then maybe it is time to re-think the hiring process. Dollywood does very well with the older community as an example. I know many older people that do PM hours at KI and have seen the schedule and figure they really won't be getting hours until after Memorial day now.

Too bad he didn't counter the argument that other parks like Dollywood, are expanding their calendar.

Cedar Fair is drumming to a different beat this year

^And don't forget on the Prestige Pass, they wouldn't even entertain allowing someone to revert back to gold or platinum when a big chunk of the legal "bait and switch" occurred within weeks of someone buying a pass. They penalized the early bird. I bet most would have been happy if they would have even said the "refund" had to be in beagle bucks LOL. And until a critical mass decides to forego the little savings by renewing early and instead waits until the first day they decide to go to the park the following year, they will continue these tactics. As long as they continue to have healthy early renewals, they have no incentive to change their practice and will continue to pull the legal "subject to change without notice" card whenever it works for them. ERT seems like the next logical cut. Think of the savings.

Um...no comment

Yeah the post above by Super7 says he thinks CF has done a great job...I don't think he agrees with that statement anymore lol

Thanks for sharing. On the contrary, I don't think it is way too much information, and certainly brings up some more rambling thoughts and questions, but we can save that for a future podcast

Glad to hear your mom is home and doing well! Sounds like we agree on a lot of things on my rambling post. Your rambling to my rambling makes sense. Now if it does to anyone else is another story LOL.

What do you propose they change to make it better?

I was simply pointing out the differences between what a gold pass provides you access to and what a Prestige pass provides you access to - there were different levels of access provided to a particular pass. Same with what the meal and drink plan provided the passholder access to - access to 2 meals 4 hours apart and a refill every 15 minutes without specifically stating which food places or soft drinks. The Prestige Pass specifically stated you get bottled drinks (among other things), and whether someone could drink enough bottles or not for the price increase is a strawman argument - that you fail to agree with or acknowledge. There are screenshots all over social media where the park clearly stated bottled beverages were included with the Prestige Pass, but it isn't worth my time looking it up and finding it because clearly you wouldn't accept it anyway. It is clear you are a smart person, but you take everything literal and everything to you is a black/white, right/wrong, left/right, ethical/unethical to the extreme and you fail to realize that is a lot of grey area to everything in life. At this point I don't know if that is the only explanation or if you are trolling or part of the legal team for CF, but it isn't worth debating this topic with you anymore. Most, if not all here, simply don't agree with your line of thinking. Oh wait, since you are so caught up on legal definitions, here is a rhetorical question for you - Is it ok to cheat on your significant other? By your definition it probably is ok as it is not illegal. Further, to some people it isn't immoral or unethical either. But it is certainly a reputation issue to most. As you said, there is reason places have the reputation they have....and if CF continues down this path, their reputation will be harmed, even more so now with the merger as many will word of mouth state that they stooped to SIX reputation instead of elevating SIX reputation. Just because "legally" they can claim the "subject to change" clause doesn't mean that continuing down that path won't harm their reputation. It is clear you believe otherwise and believe it is good business practice to change what is offered at every whim and who cares what the customer thinks. It's people like you that cause businesses to go under. Look at the bottom line short term with no vision for the future and what the actions of today can cause in the future. A local oil change place went under near me in part because they shorted every customer a half quart on an oil change...they were saving 100 quarts of oil per day. I assume in your mind that is an excellent business practice Once their reputation took a hit by word of mouth, nobody went there. All over a half quart of oil....meanwhile a reputable oil change place that was charging more has lines consistently longer than a Chic-Fil-A LOL. You get what you pay for. Now back to regularly scheduled programming - do folks hope they re-energized the Train 12 Days of Christmas or go in a different direction?

And by "pitched to me" you mean what the park said that the Prestige pass provided to you in writing, pictures, FAQ, etc. that were access to items above and beyond simple "access" to the park. They sold the Prestige pass as access to bottled drinks, among other things. Contrast that to a meal plan that says you are simply entitled to access two meals per visit 4 hours apart. Or the drink plan that says simply access to a refill every 15 minutes. They did not state when someone purchases the meal or drink plan what restaurants or soft drink vendor would be provided. So the consumer purchases said meal and drink plan based on their prior experience with said plan or word of mouth of friends, social media sites, etc. and expects to be able to get two meals and drink refills every 15 minutes while at the park. The same with a season pass. They are not explicitly stating that you get unlimited access to any of the rides or even a specific ride because a ride could be down for a variety of reasons. Same with a particular food place or drink refill stand. They are still providing you access to the park and access to food and a drink refill. With the Prestige Pass, they explicitly stated what that pass holder would have access to and changed it. He has been out of the game since 2019, so he probably truly has no idea what the Prestige pass was actually marketed as. That is the fundamental difference that he fails to accept or acknowledge. Because this is a pre-purchased item, his argument that "Reducing what is offered is fundamentally the same thing as an increase in price" is an integrity issue with the park. He is caught up on the legal definition of "bait and switch", when to the average consumer, the perception is a bait and switch and is what is spread by word of mouth. A pre-purchased item is much different than going to the store and seeing that the Tide bottle is 8 ounces smaller than previously for the same price. At the store, you then have a decision to make - do I buy Tide recognizing I am getting less for the same price or do I try a cheaper alternative. In this situation we don't as they already have your money. The business model of pre-selling passes is different and if they want to continue to have a healthy presale of season passes the year prior, then they need to fundamentally provide what they are advertising they are selling. If not, everyone (or a healthy majority) will wait until the following year and see what the product is truly going to be - days and hours of park operation, what food stands will be there, entertainment, etc. before purchasing. That will hurt their bottom line without those presales. Since he is hung up on the word unethical, would he accept that the integrity of the park is compromised doing stuff like this? Or reputation of the park is compromised? He seems to be stuck on the literally definition of a word instead of the intent or perception. Certainly there has to be a word that he will accept and acknowledge LOL. Or maybe not Back to regularly scheduled programming - while the park is not offering as many events or shows for Winterfest as prior years, I still feel like 13 is a large number and someone is probably not able to take all 13 events in on one night, so while I wish some of the shows being removed were not, they are still providing enough options that most will not take exception to.

Why do I envision going to the car lot and picking out a car with high-end alloy wheels and while you are filling out the paperwork, he swaps out the alloys for cheap wheels and plastic hubcaps and expects you to be ok with that material change LOL. And probably siphon the gas out too

Yep. The 12 days was getting dated and run-down.

Let's hope at least 2 million of the existing 5 million are still working

In addition to being a great story teller, you are a numbers guy, so I figured if anyone could dispute the arguments against marketing in this thread below it would be you. But of course now that your "gag order" is over LOL (either real or perceived here due to lack of posting), that thread is closed... Given your incredible background and experience, we look forward to you being able to share your thoughts and opinions on topics that in the past you may have had to toe the employer line and not cross. You could end each segment with the famous Paul Harvey quote: “Now you know…the rest of the story."

Then they go to Burger King where they can "have it your way" And Wendy's would resurrect their "Where's the Beef" campaign

So which was it that caused you to not renew - a series of devaluing events that all added up and ERT dewatering was the final straw or just the ERT that you alluded to...you are sending mixed signals... So we accept that you no longer found value in it. Why can't you accept that to many here, there hasn't been enough "devaluing" events to warrant not to renew and these same people are continuing to "inform the vendor" that a continual devaluing of the pass will result in them not renewing at some point? Yes, it is true that reducing what is offered is fundamentally the same thing as an increase in price. It is a way of life. There are not many products one can buy that hasn't had shrinkage. But folks here are saying "you know what, instead of reducing what is offered, how about increasing the price". You apparently chose to ignore that fact. Sometimes paying the lowest price possible for something isn't worth it. Have you ever heard the saying "you get what you paid for". There are many things in life people are willing to pay a premium for, but alas you probably purchase Big K cola instead of the real cola LOL. And you mention you "went on with my life" and yet here you are LOL Is it because you are jealous others are still enjoying the parks while you are not, or that you are trying to convince people to follow your lead and not renew... There are other parts of my life and other forums, etc. that when I decided it was time to move on with my life, that is exactly what I did and completely left it behind and haven't logged on to those forums and even thought about those places again. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming....Which "show" or event that remained would you have replaced with one of the departing shows. I would replace the Holly Holiday's String-A-Long that usually gets a handful of guests with the popular and can't believe it is departed Four Drummers Drumming.