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Kings Island overall food concession experience 2015


Tr0y
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I went to the Cincinnati Zoo today, first time I've been there in a few months and it was kinda nice to get quality food service, Kings Island could learn a few things from them. I went to the Skyline at the zoo, there was a line, it moved fast, the cashier knew what she was doing, and I got my food less than 30 seconds after I paid for it. Amazing how that works...

I was there the other day and had their "gourmet BBQ Bacon Burger" It was a GFS meat with lettuce, onion, charcoal bacon, and a oversized bun. It was a huge letdown, even lacked bbq sauce.
Question should be though, how fast did the line move? Food quality is pretty par with Kings Island at the zoo to be honest.
I'm sorry I missed this. It was super slow. The screaming kids inside and 8th graders running around didn't help time go by either.

Out of all the Zoos I've been to, Indianapolis had the best food.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm not sure if there's another thread for this somewhere else (still learning the navigation of the boards), but my friend and I are both food allergy sufferers and I was wondering if anyone had seen any kind of guide or list out there for park eating? As to my experience in 2015, I swear the younger the worker the worse service I received. Maybe it's just a first job mentality?

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I think what could help the food service experience besides more training is more cash registers open.  So many times this season they only had one cashier at places like Hanks and LaRosa's even though more registers are available.  Also do trays even exists anywhere besides Skyline on International Street and maybe the Festhaus (not Panda Express)?  So many places like Hanks and Panda Express NEVER have trays---they need to stock up on getting more trays and maybe even color code them so that each place gets their trays back.  Lines would be shorter if one person or two could get the food for everyone in the family.  Please buy more trays or figure out why certain stands never have them and come up with a solution like color coding the trays.

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Well if you raise the wage of the job (not min wage but the company does) you have a tendency to attract better employees. These employees usually work harder because a good paying job is hard to find. So yeah you are right again terpster!

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Honestly I really thought the selections were very good actually.  You have chicken fingers, pizza, burgers (like you said), but with just a little bit of searching or walking you can get Panda Express, Subway, Chik-Fil-A sandwiches (or fingers), fresh Philly Steak near Diamondback, Skyline, Chicken Wraps or salads in Reds Grille, mexican food at Hank's, cooked Sausage in Soak City....Honestly thats a lot of choices for an Amusement park thats not run by Disney or Universal.  

 

The problem in food service is not the selection...

 

 

Edit: Just read that you wrote most places... yes thats true.  A lot of places do have the same or similar foods.  It would be nice to see a few more places with unique food offerings, but probably Pizza, Chicken, and Burgers are super popular.

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Just hearing Hanks mentioned here was enough to make me crave it intensely today, too.

It was my first year with the dining plan, so I rarely ate meals in the park prior to 2015. But, I heard from others that the chicken this year was sub-par compared to previous years. I tried it once and wasn't thrilled, either. However, their pork was excellent nearly every time I had it. The only time it wasn't, it was because it was near the end of the batch and perhaps due to that it somehow became very intensely spiced with one of the spices I associate with sweets, possibly nutmeg or ginger? It was still good, just not as good as it had been previously.

My current waistline is a testament to how much I enjoyed the food this summer at KI. I have some work to do in the offseason.

The issues I had with dining at KI had very little to do with the food, and almost always centered around the lines at the registers. I don't think I ever saw more than one register in use in either Hanks or Chicken Shack, which becomes a real problem when people who "just want a drink" skip the food line but bog down the register. Worst was one employee in particular at Chicken Shack who was apparently never clued in to the fact that when you have a backup of ten people waiting to pay as their food gets cold, you can stop up-selling everyone for 30 seconds or more, and just get people through.

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That assumes getting people who have largely already paid and are captive customers through as opposed to getting more money from each is the goal.

As I've said all season, I'm not convinced it is.

Meal Plan. Already got your money. People gotta wait. And wait. And wait. And will.

Separate lines for paying full freight customers and for drink refills would be steps in the right direction.

Will that happen? Why should it--park already got its money. Service? Why bother? People gotta eat and they already paid.

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That assumes getting people who have largely already paid and are captive customers through as opposed to getting more money from each is the goal.

As I've said all season, I'm not convinced it is.

Meal Plan. Already got your money. People gotta wait. And wait. And wait. And will.

Separate lines for paying full freight customers and for drink refills would be steps in the right direction.

Will that happen? Why should it--park already got its money. Service? Why bother? People gotta eat and they already paid.

This might---might---be true, if 95% of guests are on the dining plan, and they don't want to sell any of those plans in 2016.  As it is, the majority of food customers are not on the dining plan, and some of the dining plan customers this year got upset and won't renew for next year.  When lines are crazy long, business walks.  The park knows it, I know it, my local McDonalds drive-thru that can't keep up and people drive off know it.

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It's been said/speculated/whatever...that the parks make their true profit on soda sales alone. How do long lines at concessions play into that equation at all?

It's because of the absurd absurd absurd per profit of a drink.

See this as a reason. http://www.pdco.com/node/88289

The link relates that each 20 ounce soda runs the company about $0.22. So if the park sells a 20 oz for $4.99 that means the park is making $4.77 per Coke. If the bottle holds 40 ounces then it's roughly cents per fill up.

So remember if you pay $24 for the unlimited refills you have to drink almost 55 bottles worth of pop during the summer for the park to lose money on you... The mark up is truly significant on pops versus the mark up on food.

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That assumes getting people who have largely already paid and are captive customers through as opposed to getting more money from each is the goal.

As I've said all season, I'm not convinced it is.

Meal Plan. Already got your money. People gotta wait. And wait. And wait. And will.

Separate lines for paying full freight customers and for drink refills would be steps in the right direction.

Will that happen? Why should it--park already got its money. Service? Why bother? People gotta eat and they already paid.

This might---might---be true, if 95% of guests are on the dining plan, and they don't want to sell any of those plans in 2016. As it is, the majority of food customers are not on the dining plan, and some of the dining plan customers this year got upset and won't renew for next year. When lines are crazy long, business walks. The park knows it, I know it, my local McDonalds drive-thru that can't keep up and people drive off know it.

So, are we to believe that after more than forty years of successfully hiring, training, staffing and executing a fast, able, safe and ready food service, the park can no longer do so without long lines, low levels of service and lackadaisical industry in the kitchens?

The only major factor (other than one I will mention momentarily) that has changed is increased demand due to the (perceived) absurdly low priced meal plans.

Well, that and relatively new food service heads both at Cedar Fair and Kings Island.

One thing is clear, both individual efforts and overall staffing seem to be less than in years past. +Increased demand and you have a recipe for not.good.

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I think the park cannot staff properly anymore.  Demand might have increased, sure.  This is just my personal impressions/experiences, but where I live it is SO difficult to properly staff even a small business that needs $8-$9/hour employees.  You hire them, they call off, they're "sick", on and on.  I can't imagine how tough it is for a big fun park.  However, I do believe that "fun"---however you measure it---is what achieves the end goal for the park, which is dollars.  Crazy long lines are definitely not fun, and do not bring repeat visitors or word-of-mouth business.

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If you can't staff adequately, you are either not paying well enough, not treating your staff well, or both.

You're darn right on this!  There's more to it when you're hiring 16-22 year-olds, but still...I think the park would make more money keeping lines short, taking people's money, and hiring adequately...whatever that means for them.

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As I bought my season pass renewal Sunday for $180 (comparable product purchased at Six Flags for $58 or so, including Maryland's 10 percent tax), my mind boggled at the amount of money the seller handles each day. See also parking tolls, food service...

Then compare Matt Ouimet's compensation and benefits to a ride op's....

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