COASTERSTOCK 2022 TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 10AM!

[Chuck_E_Cheese]

We have tried for years to get in and always ended up at CoasterMania. We got tickets a couple years ago and they shut down the event due to covid. This year, we got 'em ! So excited to attend a new event as Coasterstock has always had great reviews! 

[RedSummit20]

19 hours ago, jbeast said:

Red Summit; That's what I'm thinking too. Cause by 10:05 that's the same error message I got when trying to purchase another ticket.

 

yep i got one so thats all i care about just sucks a few people i know didnt that we usually hang with

[IndyGuy4KI]

14 hours ago, Oldschool75 said:

There was no issue. This is set on the backend of the store site. It basically purges those who show up early. Refreshing does nothing as your session is still there. You needed to close your browser or switch to another one. 

The number of people who had issues beg to differ. It is a little rude to totally dismiss all of them. I did everything you suggested and more. I never got the button to purchase the tickets.

It could have been a certain version of a browser that the people with issues had that never allowed the button to show or just how the page updated as Malem mentioned before. 

[coaster sally]

Hope you get to go indy

[Oldschool75]

The number of people who had issues beg to differ. It is a little rude to totally dismiss all of them. I did everything you suggested and more. I never got the button to purchase the tickets.
It could have been a certain version of a browser that the people with issues had that never allowed the button to show or just how the page updated as Malem mentioned before. 

I work in ecommerce web development. It’s a common thing to have this implemented. I had the same issue because I was on the page before 10. I closed my browser and was able to get right in and buy a ticket. On chrome. Sure there might have been some small percentage that had cache issues but I guarantee you that 98% of the people having issues with the button not showing were already on the page and just refreshing. I deal with this stuff everyday at work.


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[Waltny]

7 hours ago, Oldschool75 said:

I work in ecommerce web development. It’s a common thing to have this implemented. I had the same issue because I was on the page before 10. I closed my browser and was able to get right in and buy a ticket. On chrome. Sure there might have been some small percentage that had cache issues but I guarantee you that 98% of the people having issues with the button not showing were already on the page and just refreshing. I deal with this stuff everyday at work.


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My experience would differ from yours. I was there early from the link from the blog on chrome and edge(windows 10). I had refreshed a time or two with the refresh softkey in browser or f5 key and waited till my clock went past 1000 hit refresh and boom there was the “buy now” tab. I was in and out of the process by 1002 and went back in to double check to see if it was active and it was on both browsers. 
Contrary to this, I had a friend I was texting with set up similarly to how I was and he never got the “buy now” tab. He was able to think quick enough on his feet to use his phone which proved successful for him. 

If there is one thing that Cedar Fair(CP and KI) seem to have issues with,  it’s these special event sales. Look no further to the reservation system last year at CP and Winter chill out along with CoasterStock this year. 

[malem]

9 hours ago, Oldschool75 said:

I work in ecommerce web development. It’s a common thing to have this implemented. I had the same issue because I was on the page before 10. I closed my browser and was able to get right in and buy a ticket. On chrome. Sure there might have been some small percentage that had cache issues but I guarantee you that 98% of the people having issues with the button not showing were already on the page and just refreshing. I deal with this stuff everyday at work.
 

 

I reloaded the page a number of times before 10:00 and didn't have any issue seeing the button right at 10:00. Others, including someone I was on the phone with at the time, did. None of us work on web development at Cedar Fair, so we can only speculate as to what might have happened.

The situation you describe is certainly possible, and I can't rule it out, but I think it's less likely than a load balancing issue (in the specific case of the Coasterstock 2022 ticket sale) based on what I personally experienced.

A high traffic website like Kings Island's has many web and database servers in multiple locations, and different visitors to the site are directed to different ones so that no single server is overwhelmed. The way Cedar Fair's AWS load balancer is currently configured, a cookie is used to map a browser session to a single web server, so that you don't bounce between servers while using the site. Clearing your cookies or opening a new browser would reset this cookie, allowing you to bounce to a different server.

When Coasterstock tickets went on sale right at 10:00, there was a visual glitch on the page (see my screenshot on the last page) that was fixed within a few minutes. During this time, some of the web servers may have been stuck on a bad revision of the page pending changes propagating to all the servers. Opening a new browser would have likely taken you to a different web server, which hopefully would not be stuck on a bad version of the page. Depending on how database replication is set up, it can take several minutes for changes to a website to reach all servers.

Whatever the cause, it's unfortunate that a website glitch prevented some people who showed up on time from buying tickets.

[Coasterteam]

36 minutes ago, malem said:

A high traffic website like Kings Island's has many web and database servers in multiple locations, and different visitors to the site are directed to different ones so that no single server is overwhelmed. The way Cedar Fair's AWS load balancer is currently configured, a cookie is used to map a browser session to a single web server, so that you don't bounce between servers while using the site. Clearing your cookies or opening a new browser would reset this cookie, allowing you to bounce to a different server.

A good explanation of the Content Delivery System that modern websites use to distribute assets faster across the internet. That's what seems to have happened. A change to the website that was still pending was likely propagated across their CDN servers, which seems to have been picked up by people refreshing a page. Browsers also try to reduce network usage by caching pages, causing some people to see the same page when it really updated on the serverside. There are ways to force-refresh a page, or especially after a certain time the browser will automatically re-download the needed assets.

Long story short, most people were locked out by a system designed to balance load. In the future, my recommendations would be to have a secondary device on a VPN with a location out of state in case your own computer doesn't load it properly. This being in the hope of being connected to a different CDN server that may have the better page cached. I feel bad for those who were unable to obtain tickets. 

[BeeastFarmer]

I opened the link at around 0830, refreshed at 10am sharp.  I had no issues buying by refreshing.

My friend was not able to get the buy now button, but went incognito and was able to buy.

[coaster sally]

Has the park said anything about this?

[PappySloth]

I had the same issue with the button disappearing and never reappearing with constant refreshes.  I know KI with certain special events in the past you have to access the event by promo code. So I went and guessed the promo code which took me right to the purchase page. I got lucky but  I'm excited I'll be making my first coasterstock trip with my 7 yr old.