Kings Island 2019 Discussion

[JonahWilliamson]

1 hour ago, brent said:

I hate “live spiel” for that reason.  You need to stay on brand dude. I don’t find it funny, just unprofessional. 

Im with you a little bit. But these ride ops are working minimum wage jobs some yes are enthusiasts but most are not and just need a summer job, and when I was 16,17,18 I didnt enjoy my minimum wage job but i did it because i had too. If i was in that heat all day dealing with hyped up people (they are about to ride a coaster they all excited as hell) and you do it 4-7 days a week. Ya id say some stupid shiz like it being longer then windseekser

[cdubbs727]

When we were there a few weeks ago, the ride ops were great. On The Bat, they told us to enjoy our ride on "Firehawk" and welcomed us back to Cedar Point; they also sang songs. The Beast's operators had long rhymes they'd say as we left the station. 

But yeah, I cut them some slack. They're mostly kids working a low-paying, often repetitive job in the heat. And they have to also be emcees in addition to doing safety checks? I'll allow it. 

Having said that, the food ops definitely need some more thorough training. I received a lot of blank stares or mumbled replies. Retail employees were great, but almost every food service employee just gave us an "uhhh..." with a question or seemed very disinterested, in a job that is very customer-facing. The worst was when we went to Hank's Mexican Grill. We needed to get our meal plan wristbands. I told the kid behind the counter this and he muttered "f***" and was very curt. We didn't go to Guest Services because I didn't want to drag my kids all the way across the park, but it definitely was the worst service we received at Kings Island. 

[radishman]

I'm surprised at how enthused most ride ops are. Never really encountered any grumps but I wouldn't fault any given the heat and stress for minimum wage. Only time I see any tude is when the "how was it" reply gets silence lol. Think it was DB and he told us to go ride the carousel.

Food service... yeah usually goobers.

[teenageninja]

The people who work in Food Service are almost always people that were passed over for other jobs.  It's the worst job in the park.  

Being a ride op is generally a fun job.  It (at the time) paid more than most other places and you got to have a fun time.  It can get a bit monotonous though.

[BeeastFarmer]

I was riding The Beast this week.  There was a delay in dispatch as a ride op was talking to a guest who was being belligerent.  They had to release the restraints and recheck the entire train after taking the guest off the ride.  The guest behind me apologized for the removed rider, saying he was with his party, what happened?  The ride op said he had been asked repeatedly to stop shaking the gate and wouldn't.  She gave him the option of stepping off the ride, or being met by security after the ride and escorted out of the park.  He had cussed her out.  The guest behind me said he would take away his Fast Lane band as punishment and offered an apology stating "he's young."  (he looked about 23 to me.)

I was curious to see if the guest followed through, unfortunately the guest who said he would take away the Fast Lane (who appeared about 30) just laughed with him about it.

All this to say, the ride ops endure a lot, I don't mind them cutting up.

 

[Fye Coasters]

Taken today. All the blue track is up front and ready to ship. 

[SnakePlissken]

On 8/9/2019 at 11:18 AM, cdubbs727 said:

When we were there a few weeks ago, the ride ops were great. On The Bat, they told us to enjoy our ride on "Firehawk" and welcomed us back to Cedar Point; they also sang songs. The Beast's operators had long rhymes they'd say as we left the station. 

But yeah, I cut them some slack. They're mostly kids working a low-paying, often repetitive job in the heat. And they have to also be emcees in addition to doing safety checks? I'll allow it. 

Having said that, the food ops definitely need some more thorough training. I received a lot of blank stares or mumbled replies. Retail employees were great, but almost every food service employee just gave us an "uhhh..." with a question or seemed very disinterested, in a job that is very customer-facing. The worst was when we went to Hank's Mexican Grill. We needed to get our meal plan wristbands. I told the kid behind the counter this and he muttered "f***" and was very curt. We didn't go to Guest Services because I didn't want to drag my kids all the way across the park, but it definitely was the worst service we received at Kings Island. 

I thankfully haven't experienced anything that bad at Kings Island this year. I did however have problems at Carowinds.It seemed like many of the employees there did not speak or understand English very well. There was one guy who I had to keep saying mac and cheese over and over and he just kept staring at me. Another lady was confused when she tried to tell me the ride was down when I pointed out the train with people on it running.  Another dude gave me a blank stare and a shrug when I asked if he knew what time it was. It was 9pm + my phone in a locker and I needed to time things just right to get my Fury night rides in.

[Magenta Lizard]

Some parts of the Carnivale floats have appeared back in the new storage hanger next to Racer

[brent]

7 hours ago, Magenta Lizard said:

Some parts of the Carnivale floats have appeared back in the new storage hanger next to Racer

Interesting that they came “home” to KI. Maybe this bodes well for a return next year (or we are just the storage site for one of these event sets that will be allocated elsewhere next year) wonder if the floats from Kerns went back there. Those seemed to be “rented” since they were slightly different between sets. The floats made here in blue ash were the same for both parade sets. 

[pkiknex25]

Does anybody know what's going on with Diamondback right now? It's been closed for a good chunk of yesterday and today.

[King Ding Dong]

It’s depressed.  

[spooky21]

16 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

It’s depressed.  

I really miss seeing you around here lol

[BeeastFarmer]

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a pain of glass was broken on a 2nd story window of the Swiss Building, with the curtains blowing out.  Then later in the day, I saw the same thing on the Italian building.  Now yesterday, I saw it was on the French, Spanish and German buildings.  It's not like a rock was thrown threw the windows, they entire pain is gone.  Does anyone reading this know why this has been done?

[MDMC01]

In honor of National Roller Coaster Day, I made it up to the park for a few hours and managed to ride every coaster, minus Red Racer and Diamondback (the former because to me, Blue counted as "riding The Racer" and Diamondback was down, which I was totally ok with!*). Though a few of the rides were bumpy/jerky, I'd have to say the highlights were Invertigo (had NO WAIT and the ride experience was pretty decent), Adventure Express (jerky, but that's to be expected; also there was this kid who had pretty much memorized the AE spiel and was doing it continually, which was cool- he wasn't making fun of the ride ops, he was 100% legit!), Mystic Timbers (very crazy/fast and fun) and The Bat (first ride was intense, second ride was nice). The lines weren't terrible with the worst probably being Mystic Timbers (probably 30 minutes-ish). Also, got to see a piece of Orion track from Blue Racer, so that was awesome. Speaking of Area 72 (gonna have to get used to calling X-Base that now lol), Chaos's sign was up and I couldn't be happier! Also, I loved seeing the giant Orion posters cover the fence and the ride itself being advertised (with Gold Passes) everywhere I looked! On the flip side, Flight of Fear was pretty harrowing; I was in Row 2 and it was a very rough ride! Overall, it was a good time and I'm glad I got that many coasters in in such a short amount of time. I'll be back in the park Sunday for two showings of Gravity and it'll likely be the last time I make it to KI before Haunt.

*Though I am bummed for the people who want to see it running as I know a lot of people (enthusiasts and GP alike) love Diamondback. But also Rivertown was a lot quieter, so there's that.

EDIT: Also ran into @VortexBFForever and Brenden (the guy who loves Banshee) during my trip.

Also-also, I feel like somehow the park (or some entity) should keep track of people who are "superfans" of a ride and have ridden a particular coaster an insane amount of times (like on a leaderboard or something...)- for example, we have Carl Eichmann for Beast, Brendan for Banshee, me for The Bat, Gary Coleman for Diamonback and Carolyn for Vortex (let me know if there are others I'm missing).

[decyferite]

@MDMC01 Any idea on why it's been down?  Someone else mentioned it's been down for 2 days now.  Were headed over tomorrow so I'm curious

[CoasterWorks9]

1 hour ago, decyferite said:

@MDMC01 Any idea on why it's been down?  Someone else mentioned it's been down for 2 days now.  Were headed over tomorrow so I'm curious

Yeah same I want to be able to get some rides in but if its closed that's not happening obviously 

[MDMC01]

I'm not sure why, but all I can say is that I was told they were working on it last night and hoping to get it running today (Source: I had a cool conversation with a ride op who was "guarding" Diamondback's entrance telling guests that it was closed for the rest of the night; we talked about Diamondback and Haunt! ).

[disco2000]

11 hours ago, decyferite said:

@MDMC01 Any idea on why it's been down?  Someone else mentioned it's been down for 2 days now.  Were headed over tomorrow so I'm curious

Diamondback is operational today.

[Rivertown Rider]

11 hours ago, MDMC01 said:

Also-also, I feel like somehow the park (or some entity) should keep track of people who are "superfans" of a ride and have ridden a particular coaster an insane amount of times (like on a leaderboard or something...)- for example, we have Carl Eichmann for Beast, Brendan for Banshee, me for The Bat, Gary Coleman for Diamonback and Carolyn for Vortex (let me know if there are others I'm missing).

Racer would be Don.

[upstop]

13 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a pain of glass was broken on a 2nd story window of the Swiss Building, with the curtains blowing out.  Then later in the day, I saw the same thing on the Italian building.  Now yesterday, I saw it was on the French, Spanish and German buildings.  It's not like a rock was thrown threw the windows, they entire pain is gone.  Does anyone reading this know why this has been done?

I noticed them out during Carnivale. Maybe for a speaker system or something for Haunt. Maybe they are gone so that projection mapping equipment can be installed for Haunt! They would project across the fountain to the other sides buildings.... one can dream right?

[KIBOB]

1 hour ago, upstop said:

I noticed them out during Carnivale. Maybe for a speaker system or something for Haunt. Maybe they are gone so that projection mapping equipment can be installed for Haunt! They would project across the fountain to the other sides buildings.... one can dream right?

I’m pretty sure that is where they were hiding the confetti cannons for Carnival.

[decyferite]

A bit OT, but DB stopped on the lift hill currently... Someone had a phone out

[brent]

10 hours ago, decyferite said:

A bit OT, but DB stopped on the lift hill currently... Someone had a phone out

That picture reminds me how much I hate those sun shades. They have NOTHING to do with the context and look of “Rivertown”. Wish they would replace with something like a wood pergola or metal roofed building. 

[MDMC01]

The discussion of texting security re: smoking outside the designated smoking areas prompted me to think of this: While in line for DT one time, I tried to text the “HeyFunTV” number (54040) with my suggestion and it came back with a message that said “The keyword you’re trying to use is not available on our short code 54040”. Perhaps this is because I have a flip phone?

EDIT: Or maybe I should have just texted “HeyFunTV” and waited for a prompt?

[MDMC01]

Sorry to double post, but I just figured it out... you text “HeyFunTV” to the number and get sent to link to an online survey where you can give feedback on FunTV. 

[coasterfanatic83]

The fountains at KMAA are not working today. Has this been going on for a while? I haven’t been to the park in several weeks, but they were functioning last time I was here.

Hopefully the beautiful area of our brand new ride isn’t already falling apart. 

[Benjamin22]

1 minute ago, coasterfanatic83 said:

The fountains at KMAA are not working today. Has this been going on for a while? I haven’t been to the park in several weeks, but they were functioning last time I was here.

Hopefully the beautiful area of our brand new ride isn’t already falling apart. 

One of them (The one closest to Vortex) seems to go down more often then the other fountain. They were both down on Thursday.

[pianoman]

I’ve noticed that also about the fountains being off on KMAA. I guess there wont be any fountain ERT there today.


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[FUN&ONLY!]

I noticed the fountains were not working on the antique cars also when I went on Friday. I also noticed that the fountain by Viking Fury was not working, and I think I only ever saw that working one time this season.

[MDMC01]

Speaking of fountains, I didn’t see the Royal Fountains go at all during the fireworks show Friday Night (IIRC, they were working earlier in the day).