Kings Island to announce 2020 operating calendar on January 16, 2020 at 3 P.M.

[SnakePlissken]

47 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

I'm not all that upset about the earlier closes.  Yeah, it sucks,  but it's all a trade-off.  After all, I consider the pass one of the best values for my money I get all year (except for Woohoos at Kroger sometimes).

 

I can't remember the exact time they open daily in May, but it does seemed bumped up a week to me.  Which  I am over the moon for that since I work weekends and the park is usually subdued during May weeks.

I think the park went to daily operations about the same time last year but I could be wrong. Its nice being there on May weekdays even Fridays. The only problem is they dont fully staff the park until the kids are out of school for the evening. Usually 5pm. Even on a large field/bus day. Restaurants and drink stands are mostly closed or understaffed during the day. I was told on a busy hot Friday that most of the people in the park at that very time were field  trip people bringing in packed lunches or passholders with meal and drink plans. So the park did not expect much money to be spent in park by patrons until about 5pm when the high school crowd got out.

[robt]

1 hour ago, SnakePlissken said:

So what you are saying is since you cant have more than the 5 days in April that you want aka feel entitled to, that you don't want the park to open in April at all. You want the park to open in May. Which in turn makes May even more crowded because those who wish to get a jump start or just visit in April now in theory couldn't? That makes no sense to me. 

As a paying season passholder, yes, I do not like the April schedule at all. There are several Sundays they should be open. 5 days is ridiculous for the entire month. I will not be visiting because I know the hell those days will be. If they had more Sundays it would get spread out.  Instead, we'll get lucky if 3 of those 5 days in April are ok weather-wise, which makes going to the park not at all worth it. Might as well park on I-71.

May weekdays is iffy because they have schools visiting for math/science days.

[KI Guy]

1 hour ago, robt said:

Yes, with such a light April schedule it takes the fun out of going to the park unless you like 2 hour wait times and being packed like sardines. If they added 1 - 2 more Sundays this schedule would have received my thumbs up. It'll be time to take the kids to the ballpark in April instead.

1 hour ago, SnakePlissken said:

Would you rather the park not open until mid May like Cedar Point? I sure don't. A wise man once said don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Gift horse? How is Kings Island giving a gift to us by having less operating hours than last year or (still) more than Cedar Point?

Kings Island provides a park and we decide whether it's worth going to for x amount of money. I don't see anything wrong with expressing a little criticism, a paying customer has an amount of discretionary income and businesses have to compete for it.

[super7]

I doubt that the cut hours are noise relate but yet another penny pinching move in the theme park industry.   Much like closing when it rains instead of following the posted schedule. To save money and at the same time reducing guest experience.  
 

longer hours on crowded days allows people to see all the attractions. Cutting hours will not accomplish that. The theme parks really don’t care anymore since most of their ticket sales are passholders and they already have their money. 
 

This will backfire in the long run. If the only time the parks are going to be open as when they’re crowded people are eventually going to quit buying season passes for such an unpleasant experience

[PKIVortex]

As a paying season passholder, yes, I do not like the April schedule at all. There are several Sundays they should be open. 5 days is ridiculous for the entire month. I will not be visiting because I know the hell those days will be. If they had more Sundays it would get spread out.  Instead, we'll get lucky if 3 of those 5 days in April are ok weather-wise, which makes going to the park not at all worth it. Might as well park on I-71.
May weekdays is iffy because they have schools visiting for math/science days.

April 12th is Easter when the park has been open in the past on Easter the park was a ghost town. The park probably figures it's better to stay closed. April 19th is probably the park buy out that usually happens in April each year.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[CoastersRZ]

A couple of things.  The park has traditionally been closed on one of the first Sunday`s of the season for a private company buy out.  That is why the park is closed on April 19th.  The park is closed on April 12, because that is Easter.  Having been to KI in the past when they were open on Easter, the park was a ghost town.  The amount of staff outnumbered the guests in the park.

Yes, it does stink that the park won`t be open as late on Haunt nights.  But consider this, back in the day, the park didn`t open on Friday`s until 8pm originally.  Then they moved it to 7pm, and then finally they moved it to 6.  The original years of Haunt (when Fear Fest was a separately ticketed event, the hours of operation were 8pm to midnight).

EDIT:  PKI Vortex, looks like we were saying the exact same thing at the same time!

Edited January 17, 2020 by CoastersRZ

[Phantom Theater]

KI had me spoiled... when I moved to Florida and found out Disney/Universal closes usually around 8/9 PM I was upset lol. I don't think the trimmed hours will do much honestly. The park being open until 10 most days is great. I think cutting back an hour on Haunt won't do much, I bet it has something to do with the noise. 

[bjcolglazier]

My parents and extended family will be happy the park is closed on Easter, again. Personally I found visiting the park a great way to celebrate...

[King Ding Dong]

I am overjoyed with the new calendar and the biggest improvement I have seen in years.   Finally they dropped that stupid color coding and just put the hours in the box so now I don't need to use color filters to figure out what is going on. 

[BeeastFarmer]

2 hours ago, super7 said:

I doubt that the cut hours are noise relate but yet another penny pinching move in the theme park industry.   Much like closing when it rains instead of following the posted schedule. To save money and at the same time reducing guest experience.  
 

longer hours on crowded days allows people to see all the attractions. Cutting hours will not accomplish that. The theme parks really don’t care anymore since most of their ticket sales are passholders and they already have their money. 
 

This will backfire in the long run. If the only time the parks are going to be open as when they’re crowded people are eventually going to quit buying season passes for such an unpleasant experience

It may be a combination of both--noise and being good stewards of the money that has been entrusted to them.  Kings Island rarely and I mean RARELY closes for weather, at least since I have been an enthusiast in 2014.  

I'd venture a guess that the majority of folks in the park until midnight or 1 am are locals, and will have seen everything multiple times in a season.  

People, even the GP, know that going to a park on certain days is going to great or miserable.  I think you are overstating any kind of backfiring.  I am very happy with the calendar this year, especially the extra week in May.  That is awesome for me.

[super7]

3 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

It may be a combination of both--noise and being good stewards of the money that has been entrusted to them.  Kings Island rarely and I mean RARELY closes for weather, at least since I have been an enthusiast in 2014.  

I'd venture a guess that the majority of folks in the park until midnight or 1 am are locals, and will have seen everything multiple times in a season.  

People, even the GP, know that going to a park on certain days is going to great or miserable.  I think you are overstating any kind of backfiring.  I am very happy with the calendar this year, especially the extra week in May.  That is awesome for me.

I was talking in general how it is now a practice in the theme park industry to not stay open as advertised.   Kennywood is the worst for that.  But Kings Dominion, another CF park, is also getting a bad reputation for that.     If is acceptable at one CF park, it’s probably going to spread to them all as common practice.  Carowinds closed five hours early this fall with no bad weather on a Saturday because of low attendance.  

[bjcolglazier]

Also glad to see they are open all the way to November 1st. I think they should always stay open up to the weekend of or right after Halloween. Closed one weekend too early in 2019, IMO. But I know Winterfest cramps their schedule depending on how the calendar plays out.

[BeeastFarmer]

2 minutes ago, super7 said:

I was talking in general how it is now a practice in the theme park industry to not stay open as advertised.   Kennywood is the worst for that.  But Kings Dominion, another CF park, is also getting a bad reputation for that.     If is acceptable at one CF park, it’s probably going to spread to them all as common practice.  Carowinds closed five hours early this fall with no bad weather on a Saturday because of low attendance.  

But you also have to remember...if people are not in the park, the park looses money.  They have to weigh the goodwill of keeping an open park or angering 1000 people for a day.  Kings Island rarely does that.

But on the flip side....Kings Dominion, while it does close early more often, also has added in November bonus days several years.  It was open in November this year for Haunt.  It was open for Winterfest on the night of January 1.  I mention KD specifically because I follow that park closely.  I dont know about the other CF parks except for Knotts, which does seem to close a lot too.

[SnakePlissken]

3 hours ago, KI Guy said:

Gift horse? How is Kings Island giving a gift to us by having less operating hours than last year or (still) more than Cedar Point?

Kings Island provides a park and we decide whether it's worth going to for x amount of money. I don't see anything wrong with expressing a little criticism, a paying customer has an amount of discretionary income and businesses have to compete for it.

This has nothing to do with less operating hours. If you read up I complained about that too. This man I quoted is complaining about the number of days the park is open in April which is the same or more than last year. It's even a week earlier. The guy I quoted would rather make us all suffer by having the park not open in April at all and wait till May like Cedar Point. 

Editing this to say KI Guy took my quote out of context and didn't even quote the first half. 

[139Signal27]

The fact of the matter is the park has decades of data that informs every decision they make regarding the operating calendar. You may anecdotally think a certain aspect of the calendar is popular, but if folks aren’t voting with their feet (showing up/staying), then it’s not worth being open. Have a little faith that the park that can add multimillion dollar attractions every year knows what they are doing.

[Snowball]

Haunt will certainly be interesting on Halloween!

[Klabergian Empire]

Just remember that these times are subject to change and as we get closer to later months the times operation may change.

[brenthodge]

16 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Allow me to pose the questions:

How will this affect attendance at KI?

Will it be more, less, or unchanged?

If there was a drop, would Orion and Grand Carnivale offset that?

Why?

I have thoughts on the matter. I will share after I hear some of yours.

 Not at all. The drop off in numbers and spending probably made it easy to justify closing an hour earlier. 
 

orion and Carnivale will more than compensate for the few people who stayed and spent that last hour

people complaining “I’m not renewing my pass because of getting less hours for my money” will still renew because they just like to complain. 
 

my thoughts. 

[brenthodge]

17 minutes ago, Klabergian Empire said:

Just remember that these times are subject to change and as we get closer to later months the times operation may change.

Right, and Dollywood (which closes much earlier) is known to add an hour or two if attendance warrants it. I could even see them doing this. It’s all about numbers, profitability, making nice with the community leadership in a balancing act. 

[Joshua]

Is it possible some if not all of those Sundays in April are bought out? 

 

[King Ding Dong]

3 minutes ago, Joshua said:

Is it possible some if not all of those Sundays in April are bought out?

I think that is very possible.  My guess is Orion has made the proposition of a buyout more enticing, and if so that is great for the park.  I could also see bundling of buyouts so it is UPS/Mercy Health Day.

Seems a bit odd to me that with such a major investment and expected demand revenue opportunities would be scaled back, but as others have said, they know what they are doing.  Once employee schedules start coming out we should have a better idea.

[robt]

14 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

...The guy I quoted would rather make us all suffer by having the park not open in April at all and wait till May like Cedar Point. 

Editing this to say KI Guy took my quote out of context and didn't even quote the first half. 

And so you completely do the same with me?? lol. I clearly stated that the number of days in April is way too few IN MY OPINION. The park shouldn't be closed on so many Sundays. Period. I said nothing about your "suffering" or extending to May.

[Pagoda Gift Shop]

Seems like Media Day/Charity Auction day for Orion will be on Thursday April 9th.

[IndyGuy4KI]

17 minutes ago, Pagoda Gift Shop said:

Seems like Media Day/Charity Auction day for Orion will be on Thursday April 9th.

Media Days are usually on Thursdays.

[SnakePlissken]

1 hour ago, robt said:

And so you completely do the same with me?? lol. I clearly stated that the number of days in April is way too few IN MY OPINION. The park shouldn't be closed on so many Sundays. Period. I said nothing about your "suffering" or extending to May.

 

22 hours ago, SnakePlissken said:

Would you rather the park not open until mid May like Cedar Point? I sure don't. A wise man once said don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides sometimes the weathers still not great in April then you get a fun day in the park without many people. Like opening weekend last year. But I would like to know if there is April buy outs. Last year Coney BBQ was roasting lots of chickens near the end of the day on opening day Sat. The next day Easter Sunday they were closed. So I wondered what they were doing cooking all those so late.

 

22 hours ago, robt said:

Yes, with such a light April schedule it takes the fun out of going to the park unless you like 2 hour wait times and being packed like sardines. If they added 1 - 2 more Sundays this schedule would have received my thumbs up. It'll be time to take the kids to the ballpark in April instead.

As you will see I asked you if you would rather the park be closed in April and open in May instead. Your answer was yes. I don't take quotes out of context like you claim. Also nothing was said of this "extending" into May. You clearly want the opposite.  Extending into May would imply they didn't open in May in the first place.

[Joshua]

17 hours ago, robt said:

And so you completely do the same with me?? lol. I clearly stated that the number of days in April is way too few IN MY OPINION. The park shouldn't be closed on so many Sundays. 

The park may not necessarily be "closed" on those Sundays. They could be blacked out for company buyouts. Usually, there's at least one Sunday in April that's bought out. 

[radishman]

I usually only go on Sundays, so the April schedule is a little disappointing. Guess it's either wait for May or just put the Season Fast Lane to good use on those first few weeks. That or just pray it's really rainy and it becomes a wash anyway.

[King Ding Dong]

8 hours ago, radishman said:

I usually only go on Sundays, so the April schedule is a little disappointing. Guess it's either wait for May or just put the Season Fast Lane to good use on those first few weeks. That or just pray it's really rainy and it becomes a wash anyway.

If you have the all season FL, what is the problem with the Saturdays?  Food and drink lines might be long but way KI works the FL line you are almost guaranteed a walk on, except maybe for Orion.

[SnakePlissken]

On 1/20/2020 at 4:14 PM, King Ding Dong said:

If you have the all season FL, what is the problem with the Saturdays?  Food and drink lines might be long but way KI works the FL line you are almost guaranteed a walk on, except maybe for Orion.

I'm beginning to think Radishman and robt are the same person. They are complaining about the same thing and seem to be like minded. Like you said if they really have all season Fast Lane then there should be no problem. 

[radishman]

Sundays were my go-to day at the park this past season because it's my only guaranteed off-day (the life of a postal worker). I live really close to the park (I can literally see the top of orion, Drop Tower and the eiffel from my balcony) so I could go almost any day, but I'm usually too tired after work to venture out and be around people. It's slightly disappointing is all. Doesn't really change anything as I still plan to go around 20x like I did in 2019.