disco2000 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 15 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said: Maths is hard in the morning but that only applies if you bought less than 10 gallons. A full 10 gallons would cost $29.99 which is cheaper. Again true lol - math is harder in the morning...ok those so obsessed with 2.999 versus $3.000 are the same ones that say give me "$10.00 on pump number 3" instead of just filling 'er up lol 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
decyferite Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 6 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said: I heard the operator at the Zephyr say loudly into the microphone, “Enjoy the rest of your day at Kings Island, the home of the world’s shortest giga coaster!” In any other company that person would be looking for a new job by the end of the day. Companies typically don’t take kindly to their own employees shaming their new products publicly while on company time. We got on The Bat on saturday and the spiel was "Enjoy your ride on The Bat. It's the exact same as Top Thrill Dragster, except this works more than 25% of the time" 4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KI FANATIC 37 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 10 hours ago, disco2000 said: I get that they can't please everyone, but if their 5 year plan in 2015 called for a 300 foot tall coaster in 2020, then a 300 foot tall coaster scope item for this install should have been nonnegotiable from the very beginning. I highly doubt the 5 year plan called it a "300 foot drop" coaster. When B&M came back with 287 feet in a schematic design meeting, KI should have questioned that and maybe suggested lowering some other hills to make that happen within the budget. They made it a harder sell for the marketing team. Especially with stat sheets pointing at the obvious. Engineering it 300 feet tall from the beginning and shaving 30 feet off the 207 foot hill and 20 feet off the 174 foot hill would have provided a better ride experience in my opinion on those two hills and would have been cheaper and would be more marketable.... We got the floater air Diamondback already, so shave off the height of some of those hills to give us a different experience. But it is more than "just to keep enthusiasts from arguing." Perception is everything and this is one item I believe within the budget could have been accomplished more so than lots of other complaints and not sacrificed ride or theme experience. From a psychological standpoint, $2.99/gallon of gas seems less expensive than $3.00/gallon to most people. One of the reasons why everything is priced just under a threshold number - businesses know that people tend to round down when looking at a number, thus a car is $24.9k instead of $25k - sounds a lot cheaper. Same with this... Most of us will never be privy to those discussions and most here are armchair coaster designers, but when it is that close and B&M had already successfully met a 300 foot lift hill, then why? But most of us will agree that regardless of the height complaint, passes will still be sold and the naysayers will still come to ride anyway, so in the end it doesn't really matter...but the "is it a giga" debate will live on...and of course now for years to come people will be asking when does KI get the coaster greater than 300 feet tall. I respectfully disagree with a lot of what you said. I am almost certain CF didn't just ask B&M to make a giga and they just gave them a 287ft tall coaster and CF was like "welp okay looks like we have to build this now"! This coaster was planned by CF and B&M gave a design based on the company's request. Also, it is easier said than done to just cut out 30 feet of a hill and add it to the first drop. B&M gets paid the big bucks to design structurally safe coasters. You have to take into account the speed and forces the coaster will be traveling through on every part to make sure it is safe. Simply making other hills taller/shorter is not the proper way of doing this at all. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestar92 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 8 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said: I heard the operator at the Zephyr say loudly into the microphone, “Enjoy the rest of your day at Kings Island, the home of the world’s shortest giga coaster!” In any other company that person would be looking for a new job by the end of the day. Companies typically don’t take kindly to their own employees shaming their new products publicly while on company time. At the software company where I work, product support representatives get a talking-to from management if they use the word "bug". I think the problem is that KI gives ride ops a lot of freedom with their spieling (which isn't inherently a bad thing as a fun and energetic ride op can make time standing in line more interesting) but some don't really know how far is too far. And that's a tough thing to train since I'm not sure you can really draw a clear and exact line. The longer I am a follower of the industry, the more I find myself agreeing with Terpy that auto-spiels are probably the way to go. Just as long as they aren't like Verbolten... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifetimecoaster Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 11 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said: I heard the operator at the Zephyr say loudly into the microphone, “Enjoy the rest of your day at Kings Island, the home of the world’s shortest giga coaster!” In any other company that person would be looking for a new job by the end of the day. Companies typically don’t take kindly to their own employees shaming their new products publicly while on company time. One of the ops on Racer Saturday said something about "go ride Firehawk in Area 72 now, if you can find it!!" then off the mic he said "I don't like that name". Honestly, it's ok to have an opinion, but I could see how the supervisors would probably have an issue with some of those opinions being voiced by the employees. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoddaH1994 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 1 hour ago, lifetimecoaster said: One of the ops on Racer Saturday said something about "go ride Firehawk in Area 72 now, if you can find it!!" then off the mic he said "I don't like that name". Honestly, it's ok to have an opinion, but I could see how the supervisors would probably have an issue with some of those opinions being voiced by the employees. I'd hate to keep swaying the convo in this direction, but I've brought up before that several members of the train crew last year (they seem to spiel less this year) would say, "Diamondback cost $22 million dollars and that's why drinks are so expensive here." These are young kids so they don't always understand the implications of what they're doing. It makes the company look greedy, the guests feel dumb for paying into it, and most importantly it gives the perception that management has little to no control over its people, which can be a little scary to think about. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brent Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 4 hours ago, homestar92 said: At the software company where I work, product support representatives get a talking-to from management if they use the word "bug". I think the problem is that KI gives ride ops a lot of freedom with their spieling (which isn't inherently a bad thing as a fun and energetic ride op can make time standing in line more interesting) but some don't really know how far is too far. And that's a tough thing to train since I'm not sure you can really draw a clear and exact line. The longer I am a follower of the industry, the more I find myself agreeing with Terpy that auto-spiels are probably the way to go. Just as long as they aren't like Verbolten... I think auto spike should be instituted for every ride. I’m so tired of the off brand remarks that I hear all the time. It’s not your job to decide what’s funny and what’s not. The experience should be consistent for each guest. I don’t care that “hey, it’s Lisas birthday, when the boat stops rocking everybody go ask Lisa what her favorite fish is on your way out” It’s just uncalled for and unprofessional. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoddaH1994 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 19 minutes ago, brent said: I think auto spike should be instituted for every ride. I’m so tired of the off brand remarks that I hear all the time. It’s not your job to decide what’s funny and what’s not. The experience should be consistent for each guest. I don’t care that “hey, it’s Lisas birthday, when the boat stops rocking everybody go ask Lisa what her favorite fish is on your way out” It’s just uncalled for and unprofessional. I agree 286%. It's also a true safety concern. I told a story in another post some time ago about the time when the driver of Diamondback was playing some sort of word game or whatever with the other ride ops. This distracted them enough to not only close the gates with someone on the outside and even sent the train about 10' before they realized it. This 100% could have been avoided if people were paying attention. Doesn't help that it's so loud too. I've seen instances on both DB and Banshee of people waiting in line holding their ears because it was literally painful to be in the station with how loud it was. I also saw a family of four get up, take their food, and leave the patio behind Hank's because they couldn't hear each other over the nonsense coming out of Viking Fury's speakers. Unfortunately even with some change in management in the rides department it seems like they are either unwilling or unable to do anything about this problem. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flightoffear1996 Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 I believe B&M puts its giga coasters (all of them) under the hyper model. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.