Kings Island Closing Early Today 5/9/21

[BoddaH1994]

[Jeorby Nanpa]

Too bad the pass preview day was cut short

I like going to KI on Tuesdays, and I also enjoy Beast night rides.  Get in line by 9:15 to beat the fireworks.  But there are only six Tuesdays with a 10PM close.  It used to be more like 10 per year, starting Memorial Day when school is out.

1) I know the season ends earlier each and every year
2) what's the deal?  Why in the world would weekday closes at 10PM only last six weeks.

Six weeks of summer? 

[JimParker85]

The dwindling calendar is just a fact of life for all Cedar Fair parks right now. I really hope to see the trend reverse in 2022, but that's a long way off. Contrast that with Six Flags, who have decided to expand the operating calendar at nearly every park. Just today, Over Georgia announced they were adding more days to start up daily operations sooner. Some parks, like Dorney and Kings Dominion, have shockingly small days and hours listed for this year. 

[coaster sally]

19 minutes ago, Jeorby Nanpa said:

Too bad the pass preview day was cut short

I like going to KI on Tuesdays, and I also enjoy Beast night rides.  Get in line by 9:15 to beat the fireworks.  But there are only six Tuesdays with a 10PM close.  It used to be more like 10 per year, starting Memorial Day when school is out.

1) I know the season ends earlier each and every year
2) what's the deal?  Why in the world would weekday closes at 10PM only last six weeks.

Six weeks of summer? 

Company savings....

[Jeorby Nanpa]

Good answers, thank you.  But it brings up more questions!

1) if closing the park early saves money, why open it at all? 
2) if closing early saves money, why is this the first year for it?

I'd think there are fixed costs daily and you'd want to extend the day as far as possible for food and drinks, etc.

[disco2000]

This isn't the first year they have closed early due to weather...it has been going on for a few years...many times recently they tweet out that rainy days are good days to visit the park as crowds are low....only to tweet out a few hours later they are closing early....

[coaster sally]

Dorney and Carowinds closes all the time for inclement weather.

[disco2000]

As does Dominion...

[super7]

Cedar Fair used to operate as advertised.  They had a good reputation.  But now they are becoming like C class Six Flags parks and Kennywood.  
 

If these parks keep operating like this they will have to depend 100% on locals.  Nobody is going to waste their money traveling to a place that they don’t know will be open.   

[CoasterJack]

I think there are other factors besides just profit and money I was there and it was a decently sized storm with some downed branches. I'm sure they take into account other factors, like guest and employee safety. If they have the opportunity to prevent the workers from standing outside during an absolute downpour and move the coaster trains, railroad engines, and other ride vehicles into storage, they'll take that into account. Also even thought guests may be disappointed about the park closing early, it prevents other problems from arising during a storm. They have safety polices in place.

[BeeastFarmer]

9 hours ago, super7 said:

Cedar Fair used to operate as advertised.  They had a good reputation.  But now they are becoming like C class Six Flags parks and Kennywood.  
 

If these parks keep operating like this they will have to depend 100% on locals.  Nobody is going to waste their money traveling to a place that they don’t know will be open.   

Wow, you seemed pretty bitter 9 hours ago with your posts.  Has the replacement of the tacky picnic tables worn off?

 

[super7]

19 minutes ago, BeeastFarmer said:

Wow, you seemed pretty bitter 9 hours ago with your posts.  Has the replacement of the tacky picnic tables worn off?

 

I am  bitter when I have traveled long distance to Cedar Fair parks MULTIPLE times to be greeted with early and even total closures.   I probably won’t renew my Platinum pass again  as it isn’t worth the risk to go to their parks other than locally.  

[disco2000]

Up until recently I never recall the park closing early and have been at the park far worse days and they stayed open and certainly could have closed early due to the rain and so few guests than some recent years where the threat of rain had passed by 2pm yet they closed early with a decent crowd.

I too have experienced traveling to another CF park to find they closed early despite the rain had passed.

I totally get they are a business, but they had stayed open in the past with far fewer guests on rainy days...but back then people actually had to pay for meals if they stayed in the park and many would grab skyline or LaRosa's and wait it out in the FestHaus, whereas now the business model is different...

KI used to tweet out "with rain in the forecast, today is a great day to get rides in with lower crowds" or something to that effect and then would later have to tweet out park is closing...so I doubt we will see any tweets like that anymore...

[MoreFogPlease]

Anyone who was at the park on that Sunday, would have easily gotten more rides in than people who were at the park all day on Saturday. So, I don't really see what the big deal is.

[disco2000]

8 minutes ago, MoreFogPlease said:

Anyone who was at the park on that Sunday, would have easily gotten more rides in than people who were at the park all day on Saturday. So, I don't really see what the big deal is.

Yep, but the rain had pretty much ended by 1pm when they made the decision to close at 3pm, so many people had planned on heading up after 1pm after looking at the radar and seeing nothing else significant was coming...so yeah the folks that braved it early and walked around with the closed rides due to rain and lightening up until 1pm benefited, but anyone planning on going up later that day did not get that opportunity...

[BeeastFarmer]

1 hour ago, MoreFogPlease said:

Anyone who was at the park on that Sunday, would have easily gotten more rides in than people who were at the park all day on Saturday. So, I don't really see what the big deal is.

I slept in that morning, and was at Jungle Jims when I got the notification around 1:30.  I promptly headed over to KI and arrived at 205.   Was able to eat, ride Dback x2, Mystic Timbers x2 and The Beast x1, so yes, you are correct.  Saturday, I did Racer x2, AE and Orion.  Did eat x2 but that was with being in the park from 1130 until 1030.

I wasn't upset, but the sun was out before I left.  By the time I got to downtown Cincy, the wind was fierce and it was raining buckets.  It stayed this way until Sadieville (in KY), with bad winds and heavy rain.  If that was heading towards KI, they absolutely made the correct call.

[NegativeGs]

11 hours ago, super7 said:

I am  bitter when I have traveled long distance to Cedar Fair parks MULTIPLE times to be greeted with early and even total closures.   I probably won’t renew my Platinum pass again  as it isn’t worth the risk to go to their parks other than locally.  

I can sympathize with you. I've been planning for weeks to go to CP on June 6, 7, and 8 of this year. Today CP e-mailed me to say the park will now be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays during June, because of staff shortages. I purchased a Platinum Pass and a Platinum Season FL+ to make this trip. I can easily visit an additional weekend later in the season, but how many other people also made plans during these days that they must now cut short?  

[disco2000]

1 hour ago, NegativeGs said:

I can sympathize with you. I've been planning for weeks to go to CP on June 6, 7, and 8 of this year. Today CP e-mailed me to say the park will now be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays during June, because of staff shortages. I purchased a Platinum Pass and a Platinum Season FL+ to make this trip. I can easily visit an additional weekend later in the season, but how many other people also made plans during these days that they must now cut short?  

Exactly this!  While it was nice that they extended the passes into this year, there are several unique cases that purchasing a pass in 2019 for the 2020 season and extending it into 2021 didn't help some people and refunds were non-existent.  This list is by no means all the ways, but these are situations where it didn't pan out for an individual that I have heard of:

1. College student that purchased a 2020 pass for their last summer "off" before having the following summer in 2021 take them away for co-op.
2. Person that purchased a platinum pass to visit their home park and Canada's Wonderland and then Wonderland and/or border never open (or switch out to any two parks).
3. Person bought a pass for 2020 knowing they would be moving in 2021 either for a new job or transfer or getting married and couldn't use it in 2021.
4. Person purchased pass for a specific trip like a visit to CP over a Tuesday/Wed in June and now cannot due to reduced operating days.
5. Person that purchased a pass for 2020 because they were entering the service in 2021 and would be stationed away from a park.
6. Person that planned on visiting parks during weekdays in May as that worked for their schedule and those days were removed from the calendar.

And probably dozens of other circumstances folks here probably fall under.  We were fortunate KI opened last summer, but many of the CF parks did not.

As I have said before, this is a risk a consumer takes when they pre-purchase something.  No easy solution to make everyone happy, but for the masses I think CF offered a great deal, but there are specific cases where individuals did get screwed over in the deal and probably will be a while before they become patrons again.  But if that group is small enough, it won't even register in the books.

[SnakePlissken]

At this point I do not know what could be done to fix the problem. As much as I think we all deserve a full pre covid 2022 season given to us all for free. That will make problems like crowds and lines  worse. Giving us discounts on 2022 will create the same issues. At this point the best solution for the consumer would be to just give out mass refunds. I am disappointed in the way Cedar Fair and Cedar Point has handled 2020 and now 2021. I emailed customer service about last weekends issues almost a week ago. Have not got any replies back. I have a reservation good for today and 2 Frontier Festival cards I am not going to use.

[disco2000]

34 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

At this point I do not know what could be done to fix the problem. As much as I think we all deserve a full pre covid 2022 season given to us all for free. That will make problems like crowds and lines  worse. Giving us discounts on 2022 will create the same issues. At this point the best solution for the consumer would be to just give out mass refunds. I am disappointed in the way Cedar Fair and Cedar Point has handled 2020 and now 2021. I emailed customer service about last weekends issues almost a week ago. Have not got any replies back. I have a reservation good for today and 2 Frontier Festival cards I am not going to use.

Unless today turns out a complete disaster, folks at CP on Friday reported a much better experience due to them dialing back the number of reservations.  Now granted it was a Friday in May and the number of reservations for Saturday may be a lot higher, but if they capped it to the same number as Friday, the experience will be better.

But depending on where you live, I totally understand the not wanting to drive all that way for a potential miserable experience.

[coaster sally]

Since it's raining, wondering if they will close early today due to "inclement weather" for budget purposes.

[disco2000]

8 minutes ago, coaster sally said:

Since it's raining, wondering if they will close early today due to "inclement weather" for budget purposes.

Well the waterpark did close for today...

[King Ding Dong]

12 minutes ago, coaster sally said:

Since it's raining, wondering if they will close early today due to "inclement weather" for budget purposes.

Have you checked the Irish betting sites?

3 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

Well the waterpark did close for today...

How would a guest know this other than checking the with the beagle out front? Nothing on the home page or Twitter about it. 

[disco2000]

^ well it is on their social media accounts, and by that I mean they simply changed the website calendar to closed LOL.  Maybe those with reservations got an email?

And no Chef's Plate today, so don't go up just for that!

https://twitter.com/KingsIslandPR/status/1400124711699423237?s=20

[King Ding Dong]

Haha, they can’t start a charcoal fire in the rain. Clearly someone was never a Scout.  

[disco2000]

3 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

Haha, they can’t start a charcoal fire in the rain. Clearly someone was never a Scout.  

Well, Major is a military title and not a title in Scouts 

[SOBwasaSOB]

I really want to go today but I don't want to drive an hr just to have to turn around.  Is there anyway to know they will close early ahead of time?

[disco2000]

1 hour ago, SOBwasaSOB said:

I really want to go today but I don't want to drive an hr just to have to turn around.  Is there anyway to know they will close early ahead of time?

At this point, I think unless a thunderstorm rolls in and will be around past closing time, I suspect they will stay open until 8pm.

[super7]

7 hours ago, SOBwasaSOB said:

I really want to go today but I don't want to drive an hr just to have to turn around.  Is there anyway to know they will close early ahead of time?

This is the mindset they have given their costumers with their reputation for starting to closing early.  Once a park starts doing that, everyone stays away on a rainy day not to risk wasting their time and travel expenses.   It’s a bad cycle.  It also leads to making the nice days miserably crowded as people wait until those days to go. 

Overall, it saves a few dollars when they shut down early. But in the long run it leads to less customer satisfaction and ultimately hurts business

[SOBwasaSOB]

22 minutes ago, super7 said:

This is the mindset they have given their costumers with their reputation for starting to closing early.  Once a park starts doing that, everyone stays away on a rainy day not to risk wasting their time and travel expenses.   It’s a bad cycle.  It also leads to making the nice days miserably crowded as people wait until those days to go. 

Overall, it saves a few dollars when they shut down early. But in the long run it leads to less customer satisfaction and ultimately hurts business

You hit the nail on the head.  I stayed around town instead because I did not want to risk it.  I have only been once so far but i have a trip planned to hit a couple Six parks and BGW and I will hit Dominion on the same trip.  I am more excited for the non FUN parks based upon what I have seen and heard this year thus far.