05/27/09 Nightmare Trip Report..Linejumping, Please read and help..

[rypie91d]

That's the thing with CP,they employ officers from the Sandusky police dept. to help keep order in the park while all of the others rely on rent a cops to enforce the rules & of course most people aren't half as concerned about getting busted by an underpaid,overworked rent a cop than they are a fully fledged law enforcement officer so it's no wonder things like line jumping get so out of hand.

When we were at KI two weekends ago, I walked right by a KI police officer as well as a Mason police officer. I was rather impressed.

[markr]

I am truly sorry about your negative experience at KI. In my 37 years of going to KI, I can say that yes, I have had some sour apple experiences with employees. But I have found that for every sour apple, there are about 20 times more people who go out of their way to make KI a wonderful experience. People like Alyssa at the train ( hopefully her back will be ok so she can go back to her beloved Beast. ), Al in the Emporium, Tyler who used to work The Beast and Adventure Express but got deservedly promoted to ride operations( Not sure exactly what his position title is.), the other Tyler at DB and the rest of of the wonderful DB crew, Brian who is the head of of Ride Operations, of course Ronny at Crypt-these are just the tip of the iceburg of the wonderful people who have kept me coming back to KI over so many years.

[TopThrill]

I remember see Mason police all the time while I worked there. but you see more KI police.

[cassie_KY]

The original post has brought something to my mind that I had not considered before. I don't consider myself a shrinking violet. I do feel some shame that I have had an absolute fit when a bunch of kids cut line directly in front of me at Haunt in 2008. Supercrowded conditions meant employees were working hard and were not able to watch lines. As I had been in line for more than an hour, I was not going to have some teenagers jump in front of me just to be with their friends. Ignoring me was their first course of action and I wasn't having a part of that. Seeing I was serious, they left line. I didn't give a second thought that I could have really ticked one of those kids off and there could have been repercussion from my actions.

Granted, I am never attending Halloween Haunt again. We had made plans to go to KI for this past weekend until I found out about all the special events being held. No, I don't think it is fair that people have to avoid something they enjoy because a small percentage of people won't behave, but what other options do we have?

Yes, letting the "Big Giant Heads" know what is going on is helpful, but parks are big places and staff can't be everywhere at once and some people seem to think it is ok to act ugly when they are away from home and no amount of security will change that for them.

Pardon my soapbox guys and gals. My mom taught me better and I try to be "the nice person" and it is upsetting when people aren't nice back!

[HTCO]

I remember see Mason police all the time while I worked there. but you see more KI police.

Ive been to the park 8 times this year so far, and Ive only seen 1 mason police officer...

All in all, the line jumping and rule breaking leads to the park not taking enough action. The more examples the park makes, then more people will stop. It all leads to the training of the workers. I know when I start to work at the park, and I see something wrong. I will guarantee you I WILL say something to the person/party.

[Hoeter]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I want to share some experiences that I had on Friday May 22.

1. Sitting on handrails- On every single ride I went on (The Beast, BLSC, Vortex, FoF, Blue Racer, SOB, Diamondback, and Invertigo), people were sitting on the handrails. Handrails were designed for you to hold your hand, not to sit on them. The person in the drive box on The Beast, and Son of Beast called these people out over the loudspeaker. The person on Son of Beast called the same person out twice, and the second time he said it over the loudspeaker, he called this person out by row and clothing.

2. Basketballs- People were bouncing basketballs like crazy. As stated many times on this board, give it to the winner deflated! I even saw people throwing basketballs to other people in their party and other guests having to run out of the way to avoid being hit. If one of those would have hit me, I would have popped the d*** thing. A prime example of this is over by Slingshot, Delirium, and Viking Fury. A security guard stepped in and stated to the two individuals that if they threw it again, they would be ejected from the park.

3. Ride Abusers- The only time I experienced something like this was after the park was closed on The Beast. A train comes back into the station and unloads, and a group of college kids are aboard, about 5 or 6 of them. All of the kids leave except one, he gets out of his seat, watches the ride operators very carefully, and hops into the last seat of the train and two people were about to get on in that seat. The people about to get on were furious, and the ride operators saw and knew what he did but did not take any action whatsoever.

Again, sorry to hijack this thread, but I wanted to share these experiences with you. Now back to regularly scheduled programming...

[erniebald57]

I too have been on a few days where it seems that some attendees of the park are downright rude and inconsiderate. There are also some employees who should be downright fired. I'm a pretty forgiving guy, and I understand that it's a pain to put up with some customers who are never pleased and seem to do nothing but yell at their kids all day, but it doesn't excuse employees from doing their job and being nice to a good customer such as myself. It doesn't happen a whole lot, but it shouldn't be happening as much as it does.

I don't have any problem at all confronting a line jumper, even if they do have a crew they are running with...I can defend myself just fine, and they are probably posers anyway. Not to say it's happened to me a lot, but when someone does cut in front, they usually leave. Perhaps it's the look of death that they receive. Getting rid of line jumping starts with the people in line, and I'm sure that you aren't the only one in the queue that is annoyed by line cutters. Let a few people know what happened, gather a few witnesses before you complain. A lot of times the line can police itself as long as people speak up.

I do think that the park could use some more security, especially on high volume days. Cedar Point employs the Sandusky Police Dept to station a handful of officers among the regular security guards, and I've seen them doing their job (and doing it well). I don't see many problems with park guests when I'm at CP. Granted it's not as close to a metro area as KI is, but I've simply not seen as many issues at Cedar Point as I do at Kings Island. I would love to see a major crackdown on line smoking and line cutting. I'm fairly sure that ejecting people who practice those things would eliminate those and other problems as well. Start kicking some people out....visibly.

[HTCO]

^ That post right there sum's up everything Ive been trying to say in this thread. Very well said.

[TrainedBeast]

Kings Island is becoming more "trashy" and the employees don't seem to care at all.

That, is a very untrue statement. Yes, there are some employees that don't really care.. but that's a small percentage. There are alot of employees that really enjoy working at the park and work their hardest to make Kings Island an enjoyable experience for everyone. That statement is really hurtful to those who do their best.

This type of behavior is becoming more apparent in today's society.

But for employees to make a mockery or light of a serious situation is unacceptable no matter where it occurs. Ecspecialy in a customer oriented business providing amusement. And if the so called manager was acting in this manner it's not expected for the employees under them to act any different. KI will almost certainly take care of this, sorry to hear your misfortune.

I agree with the first statement and Disagree with the second. Some employees will have a crappy manager, but act by their own morals and will do much better with their attitude and how they work. I do agree that there should have not been any mockery and the situation should have been handled professionally.

I just want someone above Katie, and her co-workers to understand. Katie told us several times last night that she was the "highest" person we could talk to.

Yes I did mean 5/22 I was so angry when I was typing last night...

We did fill out an incident report. We actually had to ask for something, because we felt the issue would be swept under the rug.

It took Katie 7 minutes to get a xerox of it.

Again thank you for your help.

Sean

There are a few people above Katie, such as Dan or Liz. Her statment of herself being the highest person you can talk to is false. If all else fails and you still feel like nothing has been rectified, you can always talk to the PR Manager Don Helbig. I'm terribly sorry that these incidents occured, but as others have said, this was just a holiday weekend and alot of people who do not normally go did. I'm sorry for the display of unprofessionalisim, but I can ensure you that it's not always like that and there are alot of employees who take great care in what they do.

I have to add that as I was experiencing the "couldn't give a rat"s **s" ice cream girl, my sister, two cashiers down, had a "delightful" young man waiting on her. When we walked away from the stand and I made a comment about my cashier's short comings, she said her cashier was "delightful". So there were some bright points to our visit. We all enjoyed Diamondback very much and my nephew, who just became tall enough to ride everything, had a great time on the rides. Although he did ask why people were smoking in line and why some girls were almost naked.

But as stated before, I got my fill. I'm good for amusement parks for a while.

As I said before, there are some who don't care and some that do.

Those two things and line jumping need to have something done about them. I see women with little children walking down the midway with see through swimsuits. It's just really annoying, because they say you have to wear shirts and pants in the park, but they don't enforce it. Shoot, what rules DO they enforce? I couldn't even tell you how many times I see little kids having coughing fits because of some idiot smoking in a non-smoking area. Don't even get me started on line-jumping. If Kings Island keeps this up, I don't know if I'll want to come back anymore. And that's saying a lot.

I know there are alot of employees enforcing the rules to the best of their abilities.. You have to remember, some of them have limits as to what they can do.. That's when they turn it over to Security.

I too have noticed the way line jumping is pretty much overlooked at Kings Island. We shouldn't have to repeatedly call the park and tell them it is a problem.

Four of my friends from the Cleveland and Detroit area drove down to Kings Island on opening day, and even they noticed the line jumping issue on just that one day. One of them even noticed ride ops directing line jumpers to their party, and the four of them were so disgusted with the situation that they all left after only two hours, and said they aren't coming back to the park. These are the kind of people that base park impressions on guest experience, no matter how big and bad the rides are or how great the park looks.

I agree with the beginning statement, but remember.. If you don't notify someone.. Say a Ride op or Security officer.. when it happens.. Nothing happens.

And that Situation below shouldn't have happened..

Kings Island is getting more and more trashy... I am not saying everyone from SW Ohio and Northern Kentucky is "trash." And i am sure there are many nice people who attend, but that is what KI draws, many locals. They return year after year and they feel the own the place and can do whatever they want. You also get locals who are employed there.

This is another kind of hurtful statement. I know quite a few locals that come to the park and work there and they don't act nor feel like they own the place. Especially with the employees.. tell me, would you rather have someone come in.. Say from another state and have NO CLUE about the park, it's history or what it means to work at Kings Island; or, would you rather have someone with experience in the park, knowledge of the rides, attractions there at the park, knowledge of the area and a love of their workplace and local community? In my honest opinon.. THAT makes the experience much better when someone has love for what they do.

And I don't think you meant it, but you did sound like you were saying all the locals who come to KI are "trash".. and as a West Chester resident who's been coming to KI for 12 years and has nothing but respect for KI and most of it's employees.. I find that offensive.

[thunderbeast1968]

I was there on Sunday may 24. I did not have too much problems except, the single riders line at Diamondback. There were clearly groups of people in this line that were together, trying to get a ride with a shorter wait. There was a family of 6 in front of me riding in groups of 2. As the line went on ride ops were puting groups of 2 from the single riders line. This makes no sense. WHen I got to the front of the line the ride ops pointed to me and said "single rider, row 13 please" Which was fine with me but, like I said groups of 2 were being sitted from the single riders line?????? The way I was handled was the correct way,not sitting 2 at a time.

[Diamondback FOF]

At this point security has the group. There were people in the line who were thanking us for turning them in.

My friend asks Katie if they are going to be kicked out of the park. She responds "NO, but security has warned them to leave us alone"

...

At this point my friend wanted nothing to do with Katie. I wanted nothing to do with KI. My friend went into guest services to complain only to find Katie there, telling her co workers "those are the two I was just telling you about".

My friend starts explaining to one lady what happened, and RUDELY asked him why a 37, and 42 year old felt threatened by a group of kids.

If security just tells a group not to do something or tells them not to bother you, will the group listen? 9 times out of 10 no. That security guard should've definitely thrown the group out. I know some people are rude, unfortuneately even if they serve the public, but for Katie to talk about you guys like that is terrible. There is no excuse. I am 15 years old, so I know how teens are because I'm around them everyday. I will tell you that you had good reason to be fearful because some teens are VERY immature. If you come across the wrong person, especially a teen, they might, or even WILL pull a knife or some sort of other weapon on you. I wouldn't and I think of myself as sort of mature and better than that, but some people would.

And that's what makes this so frustrating. There's always those few bad apples that ruin it for the bunch (both in terms of guests and employees). There's little that can be done about the line-jumping. It happens at every park to varying degrees. And while that's not to say the park shouldn't step up their efforts to enforce line-jumping policies... there's only so much they can actively do. Having security police the line of the brand new roller coaster is a good move and a step in the right direction.

You may think that, but that's untrue. I know you mentioned stepping up efforts, but there is more to it. There needs to be more security guards, and they need to watch the lines and guests, and not just walk around showing a presence. People need to feel a presence of security. Also, the ride ops need to do something about line jumpers when they see it happen. I know they can't do seomthing to someone if they're in the middle of the line, but something CAN, and should, be done when that individual person gets to the station.

Yesterday, Cedar Point had a zero tolerance policy for line jumpers. Security was straight throwing line jumpers out of the park left and right. The ride ops were watching the queues and picking up the phone to call security every time they saw a line jumper. I was impressed.

i would love to see that cause the mental image i get is security holding patron bye shirt collar and belt loops and just straight chucking them out like you see in them old black and white cartoons.

Why would you imagine security doing that. I'm sure giga meant that security was literally doing that .

We proceeded to get in line for Son of Beast. Some one wants to pass us. My friend becomes very angry and says no.

The person trying to cut in front of us has a group (6+ people) that see a an argument is breaking out. They come towards us, I tell my friend to just let him pass. I was worried about getting jumped at this point. At this point we were on the stairs going up to the station. I'm in my late 30's and my friend in his early 40's. This was a group of young hostile men and women. I was scared.

There is something about SOB's queue that makes you feel isolated, like if something did go down, there's really no one around.

The "queueing" experience for that ride has always stood out as being not good in my experiences.

I have only been through the SOB line a few times, but yeah, it does feel like you're isolated. I think it is becasue most of the line, it is the ramp going up, so it is only you with no other lines beside you. Also, there is chain-link fencing, so you feel caged in.

We have seen the same sorta problem with the staff at the drink counters. They chat up with their friends and don't pay attention to the customer.....

We also had an incident in line for Firehawk during our last trip, 2 weekends ago..... we were almost through and only had 2 lines to go to get to the front and separated by the attendant..... A guy, two rows back, lit up a cigarette and started smoking in line..... We yelled at the attendant and he just nodded his head at us and did nothing.....

Something similar happened last year. We were in line for Firehawk and it was afterdark, so you could see the light on the end. The ride op did tell the individual to put it out, but the guy only ducked down. He was told again, but he didn't. He finished his cigarette, and didn't light up again. So, at least something was sorta done .

[MrTools]

When we got up to the station I got the attention of the attendant. I refused to get on the ride. I told the attendant I wanted security to escort me to Guest Services or the gate of the park, as I felt unsafe. The attendant quickly had security come, and

"Katie". Katie works in guest services, or is a Manager...but would not give us her exact title, name, or name of her boss, as "she did not feel she needed to".

At this point security has the group. There were people in the line who were thanking us for turning them in.

My friend asks Katie if they are going to be kicked out of the park. She responds "NO, but security has warned them to leave us alone"

I know how you feel here, last year i went on a school trip just me and my friend Rachel, and somthing very simmilar happened. We were in line for shake Rattle and Roll (last rides of the day) when we noticed just a single kid possibly 14 start line jumping very quickly to a place past us. we let it go since its just one person and we would still get on but then he signald to somone and this is the worst part. a group of about 16-19 people started jine jumping everyone behind us and were getting closer thay were all about 16-17 and much bigger than us. At this point we leaned back on the que line bars and put one foot on the other as if relaxing to prevent then from getting past us, and the next part was just sad. they actualy walked up to us said "exuse me" politely and pused through us . So here we are, not going to get our last ride in and would have to leave the line to get back in time when , as the next group was getting on, not the ones in front who line jumped they didnt go to far loaded onto the ride and when i got to there group there were two seats left. now i thoght one pair of them would get on but they werent paying attention so the operator said "is there a group of twou people in line?"

we quickly made our presence clear and while going back in front of them we couldnt help but to chuckle at their poor luck. But all in all bhen you have a group of irate looking teens line jumping twords you there isnt much to do.

[TopThrill]

To add on top of that on Friday while riding Adventure Expree, going into the first tunnel we smelled the very foul smell. Think they had a sewage line bust or something, because man it smelled, and the hot air trapped in there didn't help ether. And the second to last tunnel had that smell to, very thankful the last tunnel with the lift hill didn't have that, or the hole train might have passed out. We also smelled it that back in Action Zone to. And a week ago from that on Friday after the rain the restrooms by DB, they had two or three pumper trucks, setting there with a hose going under ground.

[StalkerChick]

Granted, I am never attending Halloween Haunt again. We had made plans to go to KI for this past weekend until I found out about all the special events being held. No, I don't think it is fair that people have to avoid something they enjoy because a small percentage of people won't behave, but what other options do we have?

try going on a friday not near as many problems or teenagers thanks to football games

but I'll agreewith TrainedBeast... not ALL employees are bad, many people, such as her, are AMAZING employees and pretty much overcompensate for those lack luster ones