19 minutes ago, robintodd said:

The only thing I would suggest is using the International Showplace as a relax zone.

 

I thought for sure they would do that as well.  

I don't know if you noticed or not, but on Thursday when I was there, all the shade screens (roof) are gone above the seats!  Would be a HOT place to "rest" now...

4 minutes ago, Driver8rws said:

 

I thought for sure they would do that as well.  

I don't know if you noticed or not, but on Thursday when I was there, all the shade screens (roof) are gone above the seats!  Would be a HOT place to "rest" now...

No didn't notice.  That would have changed my opinion.  But at the same time would be worth putting back up to have and additional relax zone.  Maybe they will do that later this year.

They do have Tower Gardens as a RelaxZone which is very close to the International Showplace, and it is also much more shaded.

Sitting in the garden you smell conel BBQ and it so nommy nom nom and I can't waite

I noticed today they were playing the old drum soundtrack from Tomb Raider The Ride, in Adventure Express station today. Haven't heard that in a long time.

4 hours ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

They do have Tower Gardens as a RelaxZone which is very close to the International Showplace, and it is also much more shaded.

The zones do seem to at least be evenly dispursed.  We frequented Tower Gardens the most and didn't use the one near Planet Snoopy, thought they would have had a larger area for them. 

Security was definitely enforcing the mask wearing. Even a few times I saw Security catch up to people to tell them to put it back on their nose. 

We did see a yellow shirt yesterday that seemed to have the heat getting to them near the Action Zone restroom. Kinda concerning because there are not many employees in that area. Husband hung out for a few to make sure he didn't need a call made. We saw the EMS quite a few times throughout the day. 

Employees were all extremely positive and fun talking with, I don't know how many times daughter just wanted to give someone a hug because she's happy to be back. Alot of rides are using a dismissal procedure so everyone isn't exiting at once. After a couple times telling kid she just has to wait outside the exit gate when they dismiss her separate from us (she didn't want to lose us) it just seemed the routine for now and no big issue.

The only negative we saw was someone cussing the Mystic Timbers line employees because they had a souvenir cup and didn't want to get a locker. 

Does anyone know the songs they play on the FunTV's? I work near a FunTV at the ET and some of the songs they play are really catchy to me. Does anyone know the playlist? Thanks.

Last year there was some stone temple pilots...pretty great if you're not familiar...dont recall any of the others but I do remember digging some stuff I'd not heard before as well...that doesn't happen as often as it used to, but that's a whole other topic.

My daughter and I visited KI yesterday. We were really impressed with how the KI ride attendants kept visitors to social distancing guidelines. We rode Orion twice, but that was too much for my 10-year old. I’ll return alone next Saturday to enjoy more rides. It was awesome to see KI open and people enjoying themselves, while being both healthy and safe.

Does anybody know why the park website said that somebody in your group needs to have the app on their phone? I've always had it on my phone anyway, but I think the only time I used it this weekend was to activate our meal / drink plans. We just scanned our cards like normal to enter the park.

I know the health questionnaire is on the app, but does your questionnaire completed status actually link to your pass? It seems like it is there just to get you to read the questions ahead of time. They ask the same questions in the temperature tents.

So I wonder if the app is actually required in any way.

I've found no reason you need a phone. Also, there's really no reason to complete the health survey on the app.  

On 7/3/2020 at 9:25 PM, FUN&ONLY! said:

I found this on Reddit, and I think it is a great (and funny) mini-show. Have any of you seen it this season at Kings Island? Stuff like this actually really adds to the experience during COVID-19!

 

I would have quit on the spot if they made me do that in Park Services.

58 minutes ago, MoreFogPlease said:

Does anybody know why the park website said that somebody in your group needs to have the app on their phone? I've always had it on my phone anyway, but I think the only time I used it this weekend was to activate our meal / drink plans. We just scanned our cards like normal to enter the park.

I know the health questionnaire is on the app, but does your questionnaire completed status actually link to your pass? It seems like it is there just to get you to read the questions ahead of time. They ask the same questions in the temperature tents.

So I wonder if the app is actually required in any way.

From the faq 

Quote

Downloading the Kings Island mobile app allows you to store your Season Pass and/or tickets digitally, to enable contactless entry into the park with no paper tickets or plastic cards exchanged. In addition, enabling the Location Services feature allows us to send you real-time updates about social distancing and procedures when you are visiting the park.

Elsewhere the park has mentioned and has been extensively discussed on KIC the intent to monitor the location of guests to assist in crowd control.

The main problem I see with this and have complained about for years is with location services enabled the app (both KI and CP) drain the battery at an alarming rate.  I have noticed greater than 20% per hour in the past. This is a result of poor programming and utilization of GPS/Wifi and the app being unnecessarily chatty with the servers.  
 

Perhaps they have rectified the problems with the new updates this year, but if you choose to have location services enabled I would monitor the drain closely. 

32 minutes ago, teenageninja said:

I would have quit on the spot if they made me do that in Park Services.

Are those actual park services people? 

3 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Are those actual park services people? 

I would assume so.  They don't really have the "Entertainment" look.  

55 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Are those actual park services people? 

They are definitely entertainment employees. They were inside the festhuas all day yesterday unless they moved out side in the half hour.  But it's definitely a choreographed made for entertainment skit not just a random happenstance.  It's really funny and clever and making the situation fun without taking away the seriousness of it.   And I'm pretty sure two of the cast  were in the carnival group last year they looked familiar. 

Season passholder preview has been shortened by two days - park is now open to all guests as of July 10.

Fast passes also now available for purchase.

They've also added reservation times all the way to 6pm, and expanded capacity for every day.

This place is empty

This place is empty

Great, I’ll be there tomorrow.

1 hour ago, chibul said:

Season passholder preview has been shortened by two days - park is now open to all guests as of July 10.

Fast passes also now available for purchase.

They've also added reservation times all the way to 6pm, and expanded capacity for every day.

That echoes what we heard yesterday from a security guy saying the weekdays were very lightly booked. Maybe they hope opening it up more will increase the numbers. 

1 minute ago, brenthodge said:

That echoes what we heard yesterday from a security guy saying the weekdays were very lightly booked. Maybe they hope opening it up more will increase the numbers. 

Or it might just be time to face the reality that we're in a pandemic and lots of people either aren't in a financial position to visit amusement parks or put their families safety ahead of fun. 

22 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

That echoes what we heard yesterday from a security guy saying the weekdays were very lightly booked. Maybe they hope opening it up more will increase the numbers. 

19 minutes ago, NightlyBeast said:

Or it might just be time to face the reality that we're in a pandemic and lots of people either aren't in a financial position to visit amusement parks or put their families safety ahead of fun. 

Yeah, I've been kind of down about this whole thing personally. I still haven't purchased a pass, and neither has my mom for herself and my younger brothers. It just seems like such a bad time to go anywhere. I cannot bring myself to go to KI with the chance that I won't be riding Orion lingering over my head. It's completely stopped me from making any plans to go at all this season. I am really bummed out. Hopefully the ticket thing for Orion ends, otherwise I probably won't go this year  

 

3 minutes ago, Phantom Theater said:

Yeah, I've been kind of down about this whole thing personally. I still haven't purchased a pass, and neither has my mom for herself and my younger brothers. It just seems like such a bad time to go anywhere. I cannot bring myself to go to KI with the chance that I won't be riding Orion lingering over my head. It's completely stopped me from making any plans to go at all this season. I am really bummed out. Hopefully the ticket thing for Orion ends, otherwise I probably won't go this year  

 

Do you have a long drive and you’re worried the tickets will be gone by the time you get there? The ticket system has been a great change, in my opinion.

The park is most likely going to struggle this year with record low attendance. Already we have no live shows, limited hours, no waterpark, limited ride capacity, and many events cancelled. People just don’t want to go during this time. I hope Cedar Fair does okay financially, but this is really concerning. Next season will also be lower attendance most likely due to some people cancelling their passes, people being in poor financial positions, and others still not feeling safe. Last season, in an earnings call, Cedar Fair mentioned Kings Island was around record attendance with roughly 3.5 guests. This year, we will be lucky to hit half a million guests. Next year, hopefully we can regain most of our attendance, but I think it will be years before we get back to 3.5 million guests.

9 minutes ago, MoreFogPlease said:

Do you have a long drive and you’re worried the tickets will be gone by the time you get there? The ticket system has been a great change, in my opinion.

Yeah, that's exactly my concern. I don't live that far away, just two and a half hours. If I drove all the way there and didn't get to ride it, I'd be very upset and not want to do anything else. 

1 hour ago, chibul said:

Season passholder preview has been shortened by two days - park is now open to all guests as of July 10.

Fast passes also now available for purchase.

They've also added reservation times all the way to 6pm, and expanded capacity for every day.

That echoes what we heard yesterday from a security guy saying the weekdays were very lightly booked. Maybe they hope opening it up more will increase the numbers. 

I've seen some things on here about Orion passes. I'm going to KI tomorrow, do I need to pick a pass to ride Orion? (Not asking about a fastpass?

16 minutes ago, ImissVortex said:

I've seen some things on here about Orion passes. I'm going to KI tomorrow, do I need to pick a pass to ride Orion? (Not asking about a fastpass?

Yes. Go to entrance of area 72. We got there yesterday at 1 and got tickets for return 3-4. Come back during that time to ride. We came at the end of our slot and pretty much walked right On (I even MADE the kids walk through the preshow as the line wasn’t even routed through there.) when we got off right before 4 the next grouped was backed up all the way to the area 72 entrance, so they hold the line until the next time opens. 

1 hour ago, FUN&ONLY! said:

The park is most likely going to struggle this year with record low attendance. Already we have no live shows, limited hours, no waterpark, limited ride capacity, and many events cancelled. People just don’t want to go during this time. I hope Cedar Fair does okay financially, but this is really concerning. Next season will also be lower attendance most likely due to some people cancelling their passes, people being in poor financial positions, and others still not feeling safe. Last season, in an earnings call, Cedar Fair mentioned Kings Island was around record attendance with roughly 3.5 guests. This year, we will be lucky to hit half a million guests. Next year, hopefully we can regain most of our attendance, but I think it will be years before we get back to 3.5 million guests.

I agree, this echoes a lot of what I was saying leading up to the reopening - that the average person simply isn't going to go to an amusement park in the middle of a global pandemic. It's absolutely concerning for Cedar Fair, as I can't imagine they're making any sort of profit by being open at this point. Definitely worrisome. 

5 minutes ago, chibul said:

I agree, this echoes a lot of what I was saying leading up to the reopening - that the average person simply isn't going to go to an amusement park in the middle of a global pandemic. It's absolutely concerning for Cedar Fair, as I can't imagine they're making any sort of profit by being open at this point. Definitely worrisome. 

They wouldn't be open if they weren't going to make money.  They know what it takes from an attendance stand point to be open.  Also, keep in mind, they are still in passholder previews, the system was only allowing two reservations and its the hottest it has been all year, with no water park.