New Coke Refill & ICEE Stand Coming To Action Zone

[IndyGuy4KI]

Discussions have been going around on KICentral about this new slab of concrete as you enter Action Zone since opening day. Ideas like a new a band stage setup area, a new beer stand location, or a mist cool down area since the area has drains. 

The park has confirmed with KICentral that this will become a new Coke Refill and ICEE Stand. In addition to Coke Freestyle machines.  It will also serve ICEE's to go along with the new upgraded drink plan that includes ICEEs. 

Additionally, the park let us know that more ICEE machines are being delivered to the park to accommodate the extra demand for ICEE's. Construction on the new stand will begin in the fall of 2024. Be on the lookout here for updates. 

[Kenban]

I have wanted another Coke freestyle location, hopefully with more than 3 machines for some time now.  When people mentioned the permit, and I saw the price tag, $354k, if I remember right, I was pretty confident it was more than just some water misters.  But it does seem like there is a lot of drainage for a some drink and icee machines.

The park needs more freestyle machines and more icee machines.  This feels like a good start but I hope we see more in the future.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Now will it only be open when @King Ding Dong is not in the park?

[SmartCat7162]

I will be interested to see if this is done by the start of daily operation. I am starting to think it is going to have to be a pre-fabricated building, but I could be wrong. 

[IndyGuy4KI]

3 hours ago, SmartCat7162 said:

I will be interested to see if this is done by the start of daily operation. I am starting to think it is going to have to be a pre-fabricated building, but I could be wrong. 

I think you might be right.

[thoe124]

Not saying it'll look like this but i think it'll totally look like this

[disco2000]

5 minutes ago, thoe124 said:

Not saying it'll look like this but i think it'll totally look like this

Maybe it is still in storage for an easy setup

[thoe124]

11 minutes ago, disco2000 said:

Maybe it is still in storage for an easy setup

Knowing them i'd argue that this is probably true lol 

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

42 minutes ago, thoe124 said:

Not saying it'll look like this but i think it'll totally look like this

Honestly I think it will look like this imo. It's easy to set up and wouldn't take long to set up. It would also work in AZ since AZ has no specific theme lol. 

[BeeastFarmer]

And it's machines vs free refills so money making opportunities. Perhaps a small area for Prestige Passholders to come and pay for a bottled drink, with a trough off to the side where they can put out yesterday's leftover Skyline Chili ®

[SmartCat7162]

Not saying it'll look like this but i think it'll totally look like this

The only issue with this is that a Coke freestyle will need a hook up to the syrup boxes and also to carbon dioxide which usually requires and enclosed area. But they totally could run a line to maybe the back of chicken shack and get it to run from there.

[thoe124]

1 hour ago, SmartCat7162 said:

The only issue with this is that a Coke freestyle will need a hook up to the syrup boxes and also to carbon dioxide which usually requires and enclosed area. But they totally could run a line to maybe the back of chicken shack and get it to run from there.

Actually the beauty of Coke Freestyle is that some models use onboard syrup cartridges rather than utilizing an off-site BiB syrup system. I would guess that the Oktoberfest location uses the traditional setup since it's been there since 2014ish, but with newer machines all they would really have to hook up would be water and possibly CO2. 

[SmartCat7162]

2 hours ago, thoe124 said:

Actually the beauty of Coke Freestyle is that some models use onboard syrup cartridges rather than utilizing an off-site BiB syrup system. I would guess that the Oktoberfest location uses the traditional setup since it's been there since 2014ish, but with newer machines all they would really have to hook up would be water and possibly CO2. 

That is awesome, thanks for letting me know. I am a little bit behind in the Coke freestyle technology. By the Oktoberfest location do you mean the adventure port one. Not trying to be smart just trying to figure out if their is another freestyle I did not know about.

[thoe124]

3 hours ago, SmartCat7162 said:

That is awesome, thanks for letting me know. I am a little bit behind in the Coke freestyle technology. By the Oktoberfest location do you mean the adventure port one. Not trying to be smart just trying to figure out if their is another freestyle I did not know about.

Yes adventure port, I always forget nobody calls it Oktoberfest anymore lol

[IndyGuy4KI]

Oktoberfest who? 

[disco2000]

On 5/14/2024 at 9:29 AM, SmartCat7162 said:

The only issue with this is that a Coke freestyle will need a hook up to the syrup boxes and also to carbon dioxide which usually requires and enclosed area. But they totally could run a line to maybe the back of chicken shack and get it to run from there.

Yeah the newer ones like like printer cartridges LOL

 

 

 

 

[Kenban]

4 hours ago, disco2000 said:

Yeah the newer ones like like printer cartridges LOL

 

As far as I know all Coke freestyle machines, new and old, use those cartridges, the different shapes of machine are just where did they hide them.  At Kings Island the bottom half of the machine is a door and they are all located down there.

The secret to the whole system is the sweetener is separate.  The calorie free sweetener is located inside the machine down near the bottom typically, and the High fructose corn syrup is a traditional bib located in the back room.

The machines might appear to be free standing except for the water, power, CO2, but in reality they still have one traditional bib not in the machine.

[SmartCat7162]

Any update for if anything is there now that we are in daily operation?

[Taylor.B03]

No action yet, assuming once Camp Snoopy is finished, projects like the coney bar and the az icee / refill station will kick into high gear.

[BoddaH1994]

On 5/15/2024 at 11:00 PM, Kenban said:

As far as I know all Coke freestyle machines, new and old, use those cartridges, the different shapes of machine are just where did they hide them.  At Kings Island the bottom half of the machine is a door and they are all located down there.

The secret to the whole system is the sweetener is separate.  The calorie free sweetener is located inside the machine down near the bottom typically, and the High fructose corn syrup is a traditional bib located in the back room.

The machines might appear to be free standing except for the water, power, CO2, but in reality they still have one traditional bib not in the machine.

I think that it’s also worth noting that, at least according to Coke, this way of creating the drinks makes the taste “fresher” than they do out of a normal fountain… or even a can or bottle. Can you taste the difference? I feel like I can. I’m a big Coke Zero guy. Out of a normal fountain it’s drinkable, but out of a freestyle it’s delicious. 

[thoe124]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:59 AM, BoddaH1994 said:

I think that it’s also worth noting that, at least according to Coke, this way of creating the drinks makes the taste “fresher” than they do out of a normal fountain… or even a can or bottle. Can you taste the difference? I feel like I can. I’m a big Coke Zero guy. Out of a normal fountain it’s drinkable, but out of a freestyle it’s delicious. 

I can taste the difference! 

Coke freestyle peach Mello Yello: YUM 

Normal fountain peach Mello Yello: [does not exist] 

[disco2000]

Drink stand in Action Zone isn't open (so lets add another one there lol), nor are the usual normally closed stands.  Alcohol stands are open for the 1% of guests today of legal age lol

[IndyGuy4KI]

New Update. The Coke Refill Station coming to Action Zone that we had reported was going to be a Freestyle station was incorrect. It will be a Coke Refill and Icee station. Construction will begin this fall. I apologizes for the confusion.

[Stoan]

Haha. This comes across as just "hey Kings Island it looks like we had 65,000 people buy the new drink plan, so we need to probably do something about this... I know we can move all the employees to alcohol sales, close most of the regular drink refills and maybe order some more machines so they can be ready in... the last month of regular operation"

 

My goodness, taking a trip to Holiday World has RUINED my already dwindling opinion of Cedar Fair operations, I'm super excited for Six Flags Management

[SmartCat7162]

Haha. This comes across as just "hey Kings Island it looks like we had 65,000 people buy the new drink plan, so we need to probably do something about this... I know we can move all the employees to alcohol sales, close most of the regular drink refills and maybe order some more machines so they can be ready in... the last month of regular operation"
 
My goodness, taking a trip to Holiday World has RUINED my already dwindling opinion of Cedar Fair operations, I'm super excited for Six Flags Management

This totally may have been the case. However, I think construction in the park as a whole was behind and of course getting the new camp snoopy area was a priority, so 21 and colder and the new drink station wasn’t a top priority item. As it is looking now it appears to be a ground up stand instead of a pre-fabricated one which of course takes more work. The alcohol stands that they did add probably were shipped like that and did not need that much work to set up. Another thing is the food and beverage people who do all this maintenance and oversee it also had the Jukebox upgrade, and the Chicken shack upgrade as well, so their have already been a ton of new additions and upgrades that one forgets about and doing all of that is a monumental task.

[IndyGuy4KI]

No inside information here, but it could be as simple as waiting on permits. Sometimes it's the red tape that delays It, then it snowballs into a few month delay instead of a week. 

[BoddaH1994]

On 5/30/2024 at 12:37 PM, IndyGuy4KI said:

No inside information here, but it could be as simple as waiting on permits. Sometimes it's the red tape that delays It, then it snowballs into a few month delay instead of a week. 

I think they’re waiting until the park is closed during the week. 

[DJSkyFoxx]

Another non-alcoholic drink stand is definitely needed. But my fear is, will they actually keep it staffed?

I know Tower Drinks is on and off staffed. The drink station over by the train is often not staffed. And what is with the drink station by LaRosa's in Rivertown never being staffed? I get that a lot of you have said because they don't turn as much of a profit for the all day/all season drink options, but goodness it's frustrating trying to find a place to get something to drink and either having to wait in a long food stand line to get one or walk across the park for a drink to a station that happens to be open. 

I was truly shocked to see Tower Drinks opened yesterday ( and sadly without my beloved fountain Cherry Coke-albeit the fact that I have all but given up soda, this was a treat to myself that I later got at Tom&Chee ). The drink stand in Adventure Port was open as it normally seems to be. But other than that I didn't see the River Town drink station open which is fairly common anymore except on busy days. I don't recall seeing the drink station in Coney Mall open either. It just felt like I had to work a lot harder to get a drink and that was pretty frustrating. It really makes me almost wish they would upcharge the ticket and pass prices to just include unlimited drinks with the cost of admission so one can self service much like Holiday World does. That way you can drink as much as you want without having to staff drink stations and not have to worry about whether or not this place or that place will be open and so on. 

I get it though. It makes too much sense and not enough cents 

[IBEW_Sparky]

"They already have your money", and mine this final season for that matter, and until people stop freely handing over said money, CFSIX (sux) actions and feelings about us will not change.  It was no different the 19th, there were more closed than open by far unless you wanted to waste 30+ minutes in line at one of the food joints.  Hell, they didnt even open the concession stand that they paid all that money for over by Orion until 5pm!!