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Bad Weather+Rides=Good Day @ The Park


TheCrypt
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So today (6/29), I went to the park with 2 other people (making for an uneven riding group). Now, insead of going on about the same stuff you guys always hear about, I decided to do something different. Instead of telling you what I did at Kings Island, I'll just give out pointers about what I heard and saw today.

  • Delirium was making a couple test runs as the storms cleared out. I find this to be a good sign (it was also making runs yesterday)--I would look for this to open relatively soon.
  • Ride operators were very funny. Despite the hot and sticky weather, they seemed to be in pretty good moods.
  • Ride associates are very good about emergencies and park guests (you'll hear more later).
  • Workers of all sorts were reccommending getting water and staying hydrated.
  • Some Planet Snoopy ride ops are somewhat obnoxious, something I find not appropriate for the younger kids.
  • On Adventure Express, the 2nd lift soundtrack was turned off, but it was the first time I saw Bubba's mouth move?

If I think of anything else about my day, I'll add. But here's probably the better part of my TR.

The Storms- We three saw the storms creeping up on Action Zone. We all said "Hey. It's gonna rain!" So naturally, we headed to White Water Canyon. Thinking it would only be a mild rainfall, we thought "Well, we're gonna get wet anyways, so lets get soaked!" As we headed towards White Water Canyon, the sky began to darken. We rented a locker for 2 hours, then went to White Water Canyon.

We were at the turntable, and they were starting to get people out of the rafts. A ride associate came by telling us that they were closed, so we could either wait it out or seek shelter elsewhere. She did reccommend that we seek shelter, as "it's supposed to get really bad." So we turned around, and I made the helpful decision of "Well, why don't we just stand under a tree and wait it out!" For 500 points, will anyone tell me why that is a bad idea? It was asked legitly, by the way.

It's no secret that White Water Canyon is a bit off the beaten path, right? The humidity dropped immensly as we were walking back, and the winds started to pick up. There were small sticks and branches flying. As the wind began to pick up (it was reported that it was 80 mph at the worst), us three and about 20-30 other people who were in line ran as fast as we could to the first covered bridge that you encounter (goes above the train tracks). We all crammed in there (both the exit and the queue), and ducked. Following that, a huge tree limb snapped right before us, blocking our way to appropriate shelter.

There was a ride op on the queue side of the bridge. When the wind and rain died down enough, she told everyone to get off the bridge, go around to where you could walk across (a walkway between the exit and queue--which wasn't far), and come back through the queue side so you could climb under the limb.

The ride ops all came by to help at this point. The ride op above asked if we were OK, and the other 2 were on either side of the tree limb making sure it wouldn't fall ontop of us. We all had to crouch to get under, but we all got to shelter safely. Thank God nobody was hurt.

Now here's a nice touch that I praise Kings Island highly for: Security, Maintenence, and all the Ride Operators were there to assure us that we would be safe, and to seek shelter immediately. They were all very confident, reassuring, and professional, and helped keep the patrons calmed. Thank you Kings Island!

So, most of us either headed out to A. Rivertown Junction or B. The area behind the World's Greatest Funnel Cake stand. I chose the latter. As I was waiting, I saw the 2 Maintenence officials hop over the Race for your Life Charlie Brown fence with a chainsaw. The thing I liked about this was that they immediately began clearing the path, not waiting for better weather. I don't know if anyone else would understand, but it made me feel a whole lot better.

Now, I don't know if any of that made any sense at all, but if it didn't, tell me and I'll edit it!

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^500 points to markr! At the time, I thought it was a good idea. Under the bridge, I looked at my friend, saying "So THAT'S why told me that standing under a tree was a bad thing!"

At the moment, it was somewhat scary, being that there were a ton of people huddled in a bridge, probably never meant to handle that many people in that high of winds, but when we got out, I was glad that happened. It created fond memories for each of us.

Side note: I need to bring my camera to the park more often! I was stuck taking eerie pictures of Planet Snoopy with my cruddy phone camera!

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Oh wow! I feel like an bafoon/baboon now! Well, I guess that goes under "Guests say the Darnest Things", eh?

Everyone has the right to occasional stupidity. Just as long as it remains purely occasional. :lol:

On a more serious note, I like how the employees responded to the storm damage, getting you guys out and being right on top of getting rid of that big limb.

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I have a ton of pictures both of the limb and of, as Velma would say, a "creepy, scary, and eerie" Planet Snoopy. And Delirium making test cycles! Too bad I don't have a phone/USB cable anywhere.

While I bash on Kings Island for its smoking policy and dress code (of which they don't adhere), I will say that their employees were trained right, and kudos go to todays WWC team (this directed to you, KingsIslandPR/Don)! They should get at the very least recognition.

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I am fortunate enough to have all of my (residential) power lines run underground, so I never lost power. The day at the park wasn't too bad, though. The only dampener on my day was that we had to leave early (right as rides were beginning to open again).

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We are on the same line as a couple grocery stores. So we get our power on pretty quickly. I remember when we had that huge windstorm back around 08'. Most people were without power for weeks, while we were only out for a few hours.

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I was at the Royal Tailor concert when this storm hit. I was quite impressed with KI staff pointing concert goers in the direction of the Festhaus. They also kept the concert goers well informed of when the concerts would resume. Never seen a band run off stage as quickly as Royal Tailor did.

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My friend Beef and I were in the middle of the FoF queue when the storm hit ( lucky us). By the time that the storm cleared so many people had left the building that we were in the spaceship part of the queue. I thought that the staff did a great job keeping the crowds informed and under control.

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Just recently i went to Kings Island in 110 degrese weather. It was 4th of july weekend. We went to the water park... AND MAN IT WAS CROWDED!!!!!!!! We knew it would be, but not this bad. So we went 2 the dry park. We got on everything in under 5 min. (including The Beast) EXEPT white water canyon there was a 2 hour wait. So we went to Planet Snoopy and went thru their snoopy dance splash (no wait). I GOT DRENCHED! Way more than white water canyon. head 2 toe. After that i didnt even notice the heat. We went on The Beast after that and it was COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Uhh... Why did that go into my dead TR instead of your own (which you don't need to create if THAT'S what we have to look forward to)?

Heads up: If you don't capitalize, say "to" instead of "2", etc, you won't get far on these forums (yes, that's right, not a chat room).

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