Holiday World and many other theme parks (including some Cedar Fair parks) offer kennels on site to guests with pets. Discovering their Holidog Hotel allowed me to take a spur of the moment and lengthily (3 hours drive each way) trip to their park that wouldn’t have been possible without it. They offered indoor air conditioned spaces for about $20 and outdoor covered spaces for $10. They required recent vaccination records along with an agreement that you provide your dog with food and a short walk every two hours. My dog is very small and I was allowed to put a bed and some of his favorite toys in the crate with him for comfort. I absolutely loved being able to take the longer trip and hang out with my dog periodically while riding coasters all day. The kennel was so helpful that I researched other parks that offered this service. Most major chains and Cedar Fair competitors offer some sort of on site pet care. Pet care onsite is inconsistent across Cedar Fair’s parks and I believe this could be a great and inexpensive upgrade (Compared to large scale ride construction) to drive traffic to their parks and add a revenue stream in the difficult economic climate all parks will be opening their doors to when it is safe. 
 

Would any of you take your dogs to the park if it meant you could visit more often, travel from further places, or spend more time in the park?

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by amapan
Left out required field

KI used to have a kennel. I am not certain why it was removed. 

Anyone know when the kennels were removed? I’m curious to know under which management structure the decision came from. Paramount removed antique cars but Cedar Fair decided they were valuable and reintroduced those to the park. Their parks currently offering kennels are Cedar Point, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Canada’s Wonderland, and Knots. Obviously this a valuable service to all of the company’s top preforming parks, except for Kings Island. Anyone else see the value and usefulness of offering this service and would you use it? Super curious. 

Maybe they weren't getting any money out of it to justify keeping it open.

While non-profitability certainly could have been a factor for the closure of the park’s Kennels, I think re-evaluating this service could be advantageous. 
The American Pet Products Association announced in February that during 2019 Americans came very close to spending $100 BILLION -with a B- actual $95.7 B on their pets. These are the four categories they track and the amounts spent in in each. Boarding and pet sitting fall into the Other Services designation. While consumers spent the least amount in this category, Other Services spending increased 6% over 2018 making it the second highest category for year-over-year growth. 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-pet-spending-reaches-record-breaking-high-95-7-billion-301012852.html

I stand behind my hypothesis that adding kennels to Kings Island would have a very low overhead cost, be extremely profitable, and drive traffic inside the park during a recession. 

7 hours ago, amapan said:

Anyone know when the kennels were removed? I’m curious to know under which management structure the decision came from. Paramount removed antique cars but Cedar Fair decided they were valuable and reintroduced those to the park. Their parks currently offering kennels are Cedar Point, Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Canada’s Wonderland, and Knots. Obviously this a valuable service to all of the company’s top preforming parks, except for Kings Island. Anyone else see the value and usefulness of offering this service and would you use it? Super curious. 

The pet kennels were removed for the 2015 season...they had a partnership with a local pet kennel that year that didn't get much use.

Also, KI offered a season long pet kennel pass up to that point!

In 2014, KI had a Dog Days in October event over in the Soak City portion that didn't equate to increased use of the Pet Day Care when patrons were finished on that side of the park. I suspect most did the Dog Days thing and went home.  That may have very well been a last-ditch effort to try to save the kennel.

Given that KI is still a predominantly season pass park, it was probably an easy decision for them.  Plus the changing travel habits as most hotels do not allow pets, some do, but they are the minority..

But that is life in the corporate world, where quarterly reports drive decisions. Bean counters forget that not every service offered has to be a money maker if it enhances the overall guest experience and is ultimately offset by the revenue generated in other parts of the organization.

Let's face it, I doubt that many people will say "Let's visit Kings Island now that the Pet Care Center is gone". However, more will say "Let's not go to Kings Island because we can't take our pet there while on vacation."

Even though I do not have a pet, I would rather the park kept the Pet Care Center and not do the Petting Zoo. I guess ole Ed Alonzo will not be visiting anytime soon (rumor was the animals used in his show were kept at the Pet Care...)

26 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

Given that KI is still a predominantly season pass park, it was probably an easy decision for them.  Plus the changing travel habits as most hotels do not allow pets, some do, but they are the minority..

But that is life in the corporate world, where quarterly reports drive decisions. Bean counters forget that not every service offered has to be a money maker if it enhances the overall guest experience and is ultimately offset by the revenue generated in other parts of the organization.

Let's face it, I doubt that many people will say "Let's visit Kings Island now that the Pet Care Center is gone". However, more will say "Let's not go to Kings Island because we can't take our pet there while on vacation."

This is only further proving my point that the park needs to offer kennels! Especially when they need to increase revenue streams and lower overhead as much as possible. Cedar Fair already has building materials on hand and distribution sources for the specialty items required for building and operating kennels since every top preforming park operates one but KI. Splash City was an terrible location for them, though. I can see no negatives to bring this service back to the park. And I would brag to everyone who follows my dog’s Instagram about his season pass lol. And no. I’m not ashamed to admit that I pretend to be my dog while interacting with other people who also pretend to be dogs for the sole purpose of showing off our pets! Who WOULDN’t want to buy this guy a season pass?

The do allow service dogs in the park. There is a service animal relief station on the right side of Rivertown restrooms.

KI had one up until 2014, in 2015 they partnered with Red Dog Per Resort who is actually a client of ours (my employer). I would really like to see it return for those who are not local and have pets that vacation with them.