disco2000

Did you not see any of the videos from that night or hear stories? When a fight among a big group happens out in the open and you happen to be stuck between them or in a queue, there isn't much you can do as a family, especially in the middle of a queue. Kinda hard to disperse in the confined area, plus people behind you trying to get in closer to the action to see what is going on. You don't have to be part of a fight to have someone shoved into you or your kid or take a wild punch that the person missed their target and gets you in the face instead...

Unfortunately, it is the same argument people are making against a chaperone policy - people claim why create a policy that punishes all the well behaved teens.... So in this instance, if it were a group, say for example Jeffersontown High School and KI bans that high school from ever attending as a group, isn't that punishing all future kids from that school, and this doesn't prevent those same kids involved from visiting KI as an individual or with another group... So what is the proper punishment for a group and does it apply to the individuals? But KI should take a page out of KK book, they should publicly state they are aware of who the troublemakers were and banned them from the park...or give a glimpse into some of the measures they are taking to make people feel safer and not rely on the overused buzz phrase cliche "does not align with our core values" statement... Everyday that goes silent hoping it disappears just fuels the fire of folks saying KI is unsafe. In the digital age, this story has been republished all around the world and the silence on the park is deafening...

People can say all they want about KK, but when they put out a statement like this and gets media attention, it stops...Will we ever see CF post a pic of a banned person and say don't be like him LOL... https://www.wave3.com/story/35658459/kentucky-kingdom-shares-photo-of-now-banned-coaster-rider-with-his-phone/ And for those interested, here is the KK chaperone policy and make sure to read the last one (would CF ever state a refund)... https://www.kentuckykingdom.com/policies-and-services/ Our Policy: Kentucky Kingdom welcomes families and guests of all ages. It is the intention of this policy to enlist the cooperation of parents and other adults responsible for children to ensure that our park continues to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for all. Responsibility for children attending the park rests with the parents/guardian/assigned chaperone, not with Kentucky Kingdom personnel. Details of the policy are as follows: Guests aged 15 and under must be accompanied by an adult chaperone. Guests with a chaperone who cannot provide identification proving they are at least 16 years of age will not be permitted entry. Kentucky Kingdom considers chaperones as a parent, guardian, or other supervising adult age 21 and over with a valid ID, including a photograph and date of birth. Valid types of identification include driver's license, non-driver ID card, passport, visa or military ID. Each adult chaperone can accompany up to 6 guests aged 15 and under. The chaperone must be present at the time of entry and remain within the park for the entire duration of the party's visit. To further clarify, for sake of convenience, the chaperone does not need to accompany the entire party for the entire time. Guests aged 15 and under should have the telephone number of their chaperone. Organized and ticketed group events, such as school, church, corporate, summer camp, sports, and other pre-scheduled group visits are exempt from the policy as these groups have established chaperone policies and practices already in place. Identification will be checked at the park entrance and the policy will be enforced throughout the park by management and security. Once in the park, management and security may request youths to identify their supervising adult if found out of compliance with the park's code of conduct. The chaperone must be present at the time of entry and remain within the park for the entire duration of the party's visit, but does not need to accompany the entire party for the entire time. Management and security may request youths to identify their supervising adult if found out of compliance with the park's code of conduct. If necessary, park management or security will contact or seek to locate the chaperone. We will accompany the guest until their chaperone is located. 2021 season pass holders affected by the new Adult Chaperone Policy may request a refund for any 2021 season pass purchased prior to May 22. Refunds must be requested no later than May 31. To request a refund, visit KentuckyKingdom.com/ChaperoneRefundRequest.

Exactly, and if it is simply a deterrent with no teeth, then it is back to no enforcement of policies that gets them in these situations. They make announcements about no smoking, ride ops will announce put the phone away if they see one out on a lift hill, signs are posted about no videos and no line jumping, yet how many times are those policies really enforced? Not often. They should make an announcement to the violator with the phone out and if they do not put it away, stop the lift hill, go up and take the phone and toss it over the shoulder...that will stop it LOL. But seriously, I rarely see them stop a ride when the cell phone comes out. And even less that security is called. And I have witnessed times where security is called and the person just gets a talking to, but a name isn't taken or anything. Saw same dude later that day take phone out on ride, announcement was said, security talked to him and he was on his way again. Until people are tossed out and word gets out that they mean business and enforce their policies, these incidents will continue to happen. Until then, all of their existing policies are simply deterrent in nature...

And because of the age limit, no ID equals no admission LOL... People are way overthinking how a park will know the age of someone...implementation and reality are different though. Carding guests will bottleneck up admissions even more. The bigger issue is how do you address the policy within the park itself...we all know parents would simply walk in with the kid and turn around and leave...so do kids wondering around the park without parents get stopped by security and a call made to the parents to meet them in 5 minutes at the front of the park to see if the parents meet up from outside the park or within? Are kids allowed to be in a line for a ride without parents? Or food? Or restroom? Can underage employees work there without their parent next to them LOL? If a chaperone policy is implemented, these are much bigger components of said policy that need to be addressed than the "how will they know if they are a kid or not"...

Other parks have implemented a similar policy...I guess they card you at the entrance

Anyone remember this marketing slogan

One way to increase the number of staff will be the chaperone policy. All the underage employees will need to be accompanied by their parent, so the parent will get hired as well

Should our resident pollster start a poll on what the measures will be that KI is referring too... "We are taking immediate steps to address the situation so that our guests enjoy their future visits." https://www.wlwt.com/article/parkgoers-say-weekend-kings-island-fighting-was-scary-terrorizing/36512698

On the plus side, it didn't deter many from not going today!

All great points. On the other hand, if the gate is being given away, the entertainment value per dollar spent spread out over a season cannot be beat and that is a great motivator for many people to keep coming back. Where else can you get fed two meals per day all summer for the price of the season long meal plan? At this point, I think the larger crowds not allowing for a Best Day ever experience will turn people off more than the chaperone policy. Time will tell if that policy comes here. Has anyone done an analysis of attendance and revenue for parks that have implemented similar policies - if any exist with a long enough history to see a trend? I would hope though that KI doesn't knee jerk this and implement the policy that then becomes another policy they cannot enforce. I'd rather see a beef up of security and enforce the policies already in place. I mentioned here many years ago that instead of having ride-op's station the front of rides and the occasional roamer in queues, the changing behaviors of guests over the years probably needs to make those positions as security personnel instead. The abuse ride-op's take trying to enforce the policy of no bags for example is horrible. Now these same people would probably mouth off to a security guard as well, but it would stop some from making a scene and those that do make a scene can truly be dealt with. A 16-year old wants to be a ride-op not a security person...

I have posted this in another thread somewhere, but I think daily will be attended more than in the past as well. I do not think season attendance records will be set due to shorter schedule, but I fully expect the per day average number for each day of the week to be up a lot. Too much pent up demand. I can see Q2 call now - "The parks that are open are rebounding nicely with an increase of over 10,000 guests per day over historical numbers" A typical light Tuesday of about 15,000-20,000 guests with 10,000 more turns it into a not so light Tuesday... Basically, I am trying to say if we are telling everyone to manage their expectations that the park will be crowded because it is right now weekend only operations, I think we have to lower our expectations for the coming weekday operations as well. Especially if CP will have to continue with reservations to keep attendance somewhat in-line with available staff, people will come to KI instead. And for Tuesday's and Wednesday's in June, that is a certainty... CP loss in attendance will be KI's gain!

As @BoddaH1994 posted, many articles are hitting the rounds now, but most are a repeat of the same article...nice investigative journalism doesn't exist anymore LOL. The Enquirer at least talked to some people and could add a little color to the situation, albeit still lacking in many details... https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/05/23/fights-and-unruly-guests-prompt-early-closing-kings-island-saturday/5231933001/ A dad's quote "I was hoping this would be the year we could let our 12-year-old go to the park with friends. I don’t know that I am comfortable with that now." Sadly I have seen siblings even younger than this dropped off at the park for the day while the parents work or socialize or whatever they did...load the pass up with meal and drink plan and cheaper than a sitter...one set of siblings I would see at the park quite often and they were well behaved and went through food lines and got their food and the two would eat together, but never saw a parent...they looked maybe 10 and 8 and that was being generous. Maybe they were small for their age LOL.

Kentucky Kingdom did it. Shopping malls have done it. Stores around schools have done it. A few bad characters results in measures to prevent it from happening. The gold pass did not substantially go up when they added Winterfest and they could have legit made that a reason for an increase. The price of passes have not kept up with inflation. Many have used KI as summer daycare. The price of a gold pass and add-ons is less than a week of daycare. Granted this isn't the demo that the policy is targeting, but it doesn't take many bad characters to ruin it for everyone... But all age groups have bad characters that ruin it for everyone, but the under 21 crowd is an easier policy to implement... The pricing model is another story though happening in other threads LOL.

You mean like chaperone policy that Kentucky Kingdom just implemented ...

Back to the 80s operation LOL.

Don't give away the gate!

Yep, I mentioned in another thread that I predict that while the parks may not see record attendance for the year due to reduced operating days, their per day average number metric will probably be the highest it has ever been. A typical slow Tuesday average number may have an increase of more than 10,000 more guests than a typical Tuesday attendance pre-pandemic... Too much pent up demand for the parks. And I said the issues being experienced at CP for the last few years will end up driving the KI attendance up as well. With all the reservations gone at CP this weekend, folks came here...

I do not believe that is the case. I believe it is more as Bodda mentioned - more of a deterrent to maybe keep some folks from showing up later as not many are having a Best Day experience right now.

About 70,000 are

Year round operation would be one more way to increase season pass costs and daily admission cost as well...or an incentive to give away the gate even more...

LOL - yeah we both know what the answer is...

So do the pulled employees from other parks make the rate at their home park or the park they are pulled to? And if they get the bump (or decrease) depending on from which park to which park, do they stay at that same rate when they go back to their home park.

But that is just it - between the meal plans for passholders and the daily $30 meal plan for a meal every 90 minutes, not many are paying $14 for pizza...these add-ons keep people in the park when 10 years ago folks would leave to eat and come back. If at any given time 10 years ago 3,000-5,000 or more guests had left to go eat, the infrastructure in the park could support the remaining number. But now there is increased demand for everything in the park even if the total number of people for that day didn't change from 10 years ago. While increasing the starting hourly rate is nice and all, the overall quality in the park doesn't improve just because of increased wages since it doesn't draw experienced employees back into the park. For most of these employees this is still their first job ever. It may draw some returning employees back that had considered passing on working in the park this year, but they had been upping the pay for recent years in the food department to try to get employees and most here do not feel like the service improved substantially during that time.

The bigger question will be do they raise admission and season pass rates next year to pay for the increased hourly rate...because there is no putting this genie back in the bottle. Higher pay is here to stay or they get nobody to work next year... Or do they follow the slash the prices even more and give away the gate like never seen before and try to make it up on volume? One would hope they learned that lesson from CP at the end of 2019, last year and the start of this year... Or do they truncate the season to keep it within the same budget? Or something else we don't see coming? It will be interesting to see come August. But they have to recoup this increased hourly rate somewhere AND put away enough nickels to pay that note off so they don't lose their parks...