2023 General Kings Island Discussion

[robintodd]

8 hours ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

Also something I noticed is the park is really advertising Spirit Song this year. Today I went into the restrooms near Sally's Seaplane in Planet Snoopy and they had a giant Spirit Song poster where they usually advertise season passes. They also have been playing a Spirit Song slide on the FunTV's. I find this interesting as I don't think I remember them advertising it this much in past years when they had it. All I remember is a post here and there on KI's social medias talking about it and most of the advertising had been on Spirit Song's social media pages as SS is put on by an outside promoter who also puts on the Winterjam tour over the winter. 

They've done it in the past.  I think the emphasis may be a bit more this year because they haven't had spirt song in 2-3 years and pre-sale may be lacking.  They've been offering 10-20% off tickets for a while now.  Unfortunately with the lack of other concerts this year I think Timberwolf's days are numbered.

[FUN&ONLY!]

A lot of the water slides have been down in Soak City through the week. I know some have been down for maintenance reasons, but is it typical for a few of the slides to be closed during the week at this time early in the season?

[jdf21972]

Landscaping Team has done another fine job this year #KI51


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[MDMC01]

Nice!

So, I was looking on the website to see when Sol Spin would open (EDIT: It’s not yet listed on the site) and I noticed that there is a filter on the ride page that groups the rides by their location in the park (as in, the Action Zone filter lists Banshee/Congo/Invertigo/DT/Delirium/Bat/Skyflier). However, it appears Adventure Express is still grouped with Oktoberfest…

[Tr0y]

Not sure why specifically this part was not painted as everything else around was on Diamondback, but I’m willing to take bets it was missed and it never gets done. Any takers?

[SonofBaconator]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:03 PM, FUN&ONLY! said:

I know some have been down for maintenance reasons, but is it typical for a few of the slides to be closed during the week at this time early in the season?

I don’t know the answer to this question but I do think some slides should be retired.

I posted this on another thread but I think Pinapple Pipeline and Tropical Twister should be removed or at the very least relocated. They could allocate the lifeguards to other water attractions and use that area to redo the train station so people aren’t being funneled through the way they currently are. 

 

[BeeastFarmer]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:03 PM, FUN&ONLY! said:

A lot of the water slides have been down in Soak City through the week. I know some have been down for maintenance reasons, but is it typical for a few of the slides to be closed during the week at this time early in the season?

Well it can't be related to staffing shortages since the park's Communication Director tweeted recently that the park has a wait-list for employees. I guess if anything is closed now we should assume it's for maintenance instead of staffing since Chad has tweeted that applying for jobs at KI is now a futile thing to do. 

[jdf21972]

Canada wildfire haze in the skies from 265’


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[Tr0y]

17 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I don’t know the answer to this question but I do think some slides should be retired.

I posted this on another thread but I think Pinapple Pipeline and Tropical Twister should be removed or at the very least relocated. They could allocate the lifeguards to other water attractions and use that area to redo the train station so people aren’t being funneled through the way they currently are. 

 

If I’m not mistaken nothing has taken the place of the Subway restaurant in Soak City. They could gut it and theme it into a train station. My take on redoing the path would keeping Pineapple Pipeline and removing Tropical Twister. As well as re doing the straw centerpiece.

[CoastersRZ]

A couple issues with that.  For starters, I believe there is an employee break area/first aid station behind the Subway building, which would have to be relocated somewhere else.  Also, the area you noted as Water Coaster, has some fairly steep terrain (it is a valley in that area).  Likely unusable/large development costs.  Although I do agree that area of the water park could use an attraction, just not sure on the feasibility of building there.  

[BeeastFarmer]

16 minutes ago, CoastersRZ said:

A couple issues with that.  For starters, I believe there is an employee break area/first aid station behind the Subway building, which would have to be relocated somewhere else.  Also, the area you noted as Water Coaster, has some fairly steep terrain (it is a valley in that area).  Likely unusable/large development costs.  Although I do agree that area of the water park could use an attraction, just not sure on the feasibility of building there.  

Kings Island is known for using the terrain for their coasters, would it be that much different for a water coaster?  If I recall Jeff Gramke correctly, on The Beast, it actually saved money but having a taller coaster but with less structure. Banshee uses the terrain to achieve the fastest speed on the back portion of the ride and while I don't know if it added speed or thrill, The Bat is built in a tenuous area for terrain and is remote. 

My personal issue with this location is tree removal. 

If the park wanted to invest the money, terrain issues can be overcome by construction firms.

[silver2005]

1 hour ago, BeeastFarmer said:

Kings Island is known for using the terrain for their coasters, would it be that much different for a water coaster?  If I recall Jeff Gramke correctly, on The Beast, it actually saved money but having a taller coaster but with less structure. Banshee uses the terrain to achieve the fastest speed on the back portion of the ride and while I don't know if it added speed or thrill, The Bat is built in a tenuous area for terrain and is remote. 

My personal issue with this location is tree removal. 

If the park wanted to invest the money, terrain issues can be overcome by construction firms.

Except the land around Soak City is pretty flat, at least compared to the terrain needed for a decent terrain coaster.

[BeeastFarmer]

19 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Except the land around Soak City is pretty flat, at least compared to the terrain needed for a decent terrain coaster.

See the post that CoasterRZ quoted for the area .  TroY is suggesting a water coaster in this area that has a steep terrain. 

[LuvingKI]

What time can passholders get into Soak City?

 

Thanks

 

10:30 , I found out.

[KingsMills79]

General observation from the IS webcam....

Great weather day for KI. Nice cool temps. 

The fountain look as if it needs cleaning or maybe a chemical balance. There seems to be a good amount of either debris or algae build-up on the fountain floor.

Also,  I believe some of the jets (the ones closest to the webcam) are not firing / working. Seems like maintenance would be on top of these minor details. 

 

[Tr0y]

5 minutes ago, KingsMills79 said:

General observation from the IS webcam....

Great weather day for KI. Nice cool temps. 

The fountain look as if it needs cleaning or maybe a chemical balance. There seems to be a good amount of either debris or algae build-up on the fountain floor.

Also,  I believe some of the jets (the ones closest to the webcam) are not firing / working. Seems like maintenance would be on top of these minor details. 

 

The water is chlorinated, what your seeing is goose poop.

[robintodd]

4 hours ago, KingsMills79 said:

General observation from the IS webcam....

Great weather day for KI. Nice cool temps. 

The fountain look as if it needs cleaning or maybe a chemical balance. There seems to be a good amount of either debris or algae build-up on the fountain floor.

Also,  I believe some of the jets (the ones closest to the webcam) are not firing / working. Seems like maintenance would be on top of these minor details. 

 

Looks like all the jets are firing now.  Maintenance must have been on top of it  

[brenthodge]

8 hours ago, robintodd said:

Looks like all the jets are firing now.  Maintenance must have been on top of it  

They need a major “refocus” though. The finger jets need to arch more to the center. Even if they alternated left right sides in a diagonal “leapfrog” arrangement with the last two closest to the gate arching to the center. As it is now, they are only “slightly angled” in varying degrees which with the vertical ones along the side, basically just look out of alignment. They need to be arched enough for it to look intentional. 

[jdf21972]

Edit : looks like they removed it as of 9pm 6/19.

Looks like KI is trying to make a strong attendance end of quarter performance with a free admission ticket per season pass and get those free ticket holders to buy add ons for a strong financial reports.

All season pass holders. One free bring a friend ticket per pass online. Literally zero dollars.
Ticket is valid until June 30 , 2023.

http://cedarfair-mid-prod1-t.campaign.adobe.com/r/?id=h35b16698,602425c9,30be70da


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[Taylor.B03]

Seems to be removed

[BoddaH1994]

22 hours ago, jdf21972 said:

Edit : looks like they removed it as of 9pm 6/19.

Looks like KI is trying to make a strong attendance end of quarter performance with a free admission ticket per season pass and get those free ticket holders to buy add ons for a strong financial reports.

All season pass holders. One free bring a friend ticket per pass online. Literally zero dollars.
Ticket is valid until June 30 , 2023.

http://cedarfair-mid-prod1-t.campaign.adobe.com/r/?id=h35b16698,602425c9,30be70da


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Oof. Unfortunately, trying to round up a good finish to a quarter is likely not a reason to give away $0 tickets. 

[PKIVortex]

I don't know if I'm wrong, but I have a feeling this was intended for a few select people, and as soon as they seen what was going on they shut it down?

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[Oldiesmann]

That was my guess as well, since it was a direct link to the part of their online store where you can claim it rather than instructions on how to get there from said store.

[disco2000]

My understanding is it was a Pass Perk sent directly to select individuals.  Some must have felt the need to be first one to share it and be Mr. Popular and get more social media likes instead of realizing this was a perk FOR THEM ONLY.

And crap like this is why Pass Perks has been around for several years and nobody has really seen anything of value associated with it.  They try to offer something to someone and that person then feels the need to broadcast it and in the process gets it shut down and the whole program put on hold because they weren't smart enough to realize it was a specialized perk intended just for them....

Who knows how much this "mistake" or error of judgement of a guest now costs CF (although CF shares in the blame for not having a better system in place)?

They should make the code unique to the person so they can track down who is sharing it and ban them LOL...

All kidding aside, they need to figure out a way to just apply it directly to that persons pass without them needing a code to redeem and that will prevent the ability for someone to post the code for all to go to town on it until their system freezes up because thousands were redeemed.  Just like when Prestige Pass became available, instead of sending a code that was then shared, have it be one of the pass options available for the select few they intended to offer it to.

Here is a clue - if it isn't available on their website or posted to twitter, it is probably not intended for everyone to have access to it, so don't post it LOL.

[TombRaiderFTW]

9 hours ago, disco2000 said:

They should make the code unique to the person so they can track down who is sharing it and ban them LOL...

I agree that they should make the code unique to each person--but as a way of nullifying this issue altogether. Doing it as a generic, enter-the-code-and-receive-it promo code (which, reading between the lines, is what I speculate happened here) is an oddly low-tech way of handling this, with the risk being exactly what happened.

Kings Island already has a passholder portal, both in their app and on their website. Is the technology not already there for issuing passholder-specific ticket offers...?

[IndyGuy4KI]

2 minutes ago, TombRaiderFTW said:

I agree that they should make the code unique to each person--but as a way of nullifying this issue altogether. Doing it as a generic, enter-the-code-and-receive-it promo code (which, reading between the lines, is what I speculate happened here) is an oddly low-tech way of handling this, with the risk being exactly what happened.

Kings Island already has a passholder portal, both in their app and on their website. Is the technology not already there for issuing passholder-specific ticket offers...?

It sure seems like they already have the systems and ability in place to do that. 

[Eric FL]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:39 PM, robintodd said:

Looks like all the jets are firing now.  Maintenance must have been on top of it  

I was just looking at the web cam and the center water jet closest to the camera is again not working. 

[Tr0y]

Is it me or have all but a few bees have disappeared from Kings Island this season? The outdoor Coca-Cola refill stations used to be swarming in them last year. Now the only bees I have seen were carpenter bees around Race for your life Charlie Brown and the swarm in the parking lot that made the news. Has anyone else noticed this?

[disco2000]

3 minutes ago, Tr0y said:

Is it me or have all but a few bees have disappeared from Kings Island this season? The outdoor Coca-Cola refill stations used to be swarming in them last year. Now the only bees I have seen were carpenter bees around Race for your life Charlie Brown and the swarm in the parking lot that made the news. Has anyone else noticed this?

In a cost cutting measure, they watered the drinks down so much not even the bees want them 

[TheBeast54]

1 hour ago, Tr0y said:

Is it me or have all but a few bees have disappeared from Kings Island this season? The outdoor Coca-Cola refill stations used to be swarming in them last year. Now the only bees I have seen were carpenter bees around Race for your life Charlie Brown and the swarm in the parking lot that made the news. Has anyone else noticed this?

As concerning as it is in all of my visits, I have not even seen a single bee; let alone any near hotspots like water sources, flowers, and refill stations.