Mikewhy Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 My girlfriend and I went to Kings Island on Sunday, August 14, 2005. We are Gold Season Pass holders and so we decided to take advantage of the Walk On Weekends and get passes for various rides which allow us to bypass the normal que line and get almost directly on the attraction. This is a very nice perk and one of reasons we opted to upgrade our season pass to Gold this year. We used these passes to quickly get on Italian Job, The Beast and the Wild Thornberries River Adventure with no problem at all. The day was going very well, and we saw that the one hour window for us to walk on Scooby Doo and The Haunted Castle had begun at 5:45. So we made our way over to Scooby Doo, got in the special line for the Walk On Weekend folks, and handed our passes to the nice lady at the doorway. After you hand your pass to the employee at the door to the ride's building, you walk a while down a dark hallway, which takes you almost to the room where you board the ride. However, before you do this, you have to merge with the people already in line and then go another 15 feet to the rotating loading platform. This is a very bad situation, because the people already in line who are not aware of Walk On Weekends simply see people coming up the other side of the line in the dark and then cutting in front of them. There is no indication of why this is happening, and no employee present to control the situation. We came up to the merge point and of course no one would let us in. We waited until there seemed to be a gap between families and stepped politely into the line. We waited patiently and were in no way pushy or arrogant about it. Immediately, a woman starts to loudly complain that we had no right to get in front of her like that. We tried to explain to her that we had a Gold Season Pass and were using a Walk On Pass to board the ride, but she insisted we had no right to get in front of her and that we had something against her group because we picked THEM to get in front of. We insisted that we only waited until there was a natural gap between families and then got in line, and it was nothing personal against her. But she continued to loudly protest, and was quite verbally abusive. But by the time we got to the loading platform, members of her party were insulting us, threatening us with violence, and being very intimidating. I tried to bring this to the attention of the worker showing people to the ride, but he simply shrugged at me and pointed out a vehicle for us to ride in. This was very upsetting to myself and especially my girlfriend, who was unable to enjoy the ride at that point and needed about an hour to recover from a very tense and unpleasant incident. I did report this to Guest Relations, mainly to suggest that they post an employee at the line merge point at all times who would escort people with a Walk On Weekend pass to the line and at least explain to anyone upset why this was happening. The very nice lady at Guest Relations told me that there was *supposed* to be someone there doing just that. However, we stood in the regular Scooby Doo que line a few hours later so we could have another ride, since the last one was rather tainted. As we were in line, we noticed some other families coming in with their Walk On Weekend Passes, and while they did not endure what we did earlier that day, they did have a hard time getting into line because no one wanted to let them pass. Once again, there was no PKI employee to help with the merging. Kings Island really needs to change this. The incident was very disturbing, and could lead to some real conflicts from people who do not understand what is happening. If anyone here works on the ride or knows someone associated with it, it would be nice if you mentioned this. I would hate to see another guest go through what we did. I realize that Walk On Weekends are over for 2005, but they will likely return again next year. Thanks for listening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOF/Z 4-ever Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Wow. I am sorry that you had to go thru that. I would be really ****ed too. I'm glad GR was nice about it. This is one reason why I never liked walk-ons b/c of what exactly happened to you. You are right, they need someone at ever ride that accepts walk-ons and help with the "merging" process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRTR Guy Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Usually there are seperators working the position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOF/Z 4-ever Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Keyword is usually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI_Diana Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Staffing is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye-Beast Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 That is the only ride I've been uncomfortable using walk-ons for. I think that it is because it's in the dark where the line merge happens, and the people who have been waiting don't know why we are merging with them. I enjoy all the other Walk-ons but it got to the point that I just look for another family of 4 at the end of the line to give our passes to. It may be worth posting this on Paramount parks message boards. http://www.parkfeedback.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastersRZ Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Yes, I was at the park on Saturday and also noticed this situation at Scooby Doo. All the other rides (especially The Beast) were doing a good job of regulating the merge point. The problem I would assume would be staffing related, as I saw a couple of the guest relations people that took us on the ACE walkback manning the entrance to The Beast and other Walk on Weekend rides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastergirl Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 We have noticed this at the Scooby Doo ride all summer long with our walk on passes. Only once has there been someone to help with the merge. I'm sorry that this happened to you. It makes it even worse that they were using bad language becuase it really is a "kids" ride. With that many kids around it probably scary for them to see also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOF/Z 4-ever Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Some people just dont care. They will say whatever or do whatever they want, no matter who is there. I just wish people will take the timie to calm down, and ask why they are doing that. If they did that, I dont think it would have been a problem. Again, Im sorry that you had to deal with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoddaH1994 Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I imagine that the employee who works the merger gets a lot of abuse with people accusing him of allowing his or her "friends" to cut in line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral Ackbar Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Yeah last time I did the Walk on Weekend at SDATHC, there was a seperator standing there where the two lines would merge. They made me and Mrs Admiral and Baby Admiral wait a minute or two then we got in. They had to explain to the people we were jumping in front of that we were gold pass holders and it was one of the benefits of it. The people were like oh ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOF/Z 4-ever Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 It works the same why for a wheelchair coming up thru the exit of rides. Or for FoF, the load station. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 If staffing was an issue, why didn't they just move the person from outside taking the tickets, to inside where the line merges? I think it would work better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOF/Z 4-ever Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 yea, but thats a smart thing to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIVortex Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Yeah that's the truth! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikewhy Posted August 18, 2005 Author Share Posted August 18, 2005 Thanks for your replies and comments on my situation. I am glad that there are sometimes separators working there. I certainly understand staffing shortages, and I can also imagine that it would not be a very fun job! Thanks for the link to the Paramount forums. I will be sure to post there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Bowser Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Iam so sorry that happened to you ! PKI gets a lotta loud mouths everyday I really hate it when a parent brings a kid to NC/HBL and the parent is using the F word every 4 seconds. I also hate it when people when wear shirts with offensive wording and/or graphics and if people would read the park guidlines they would know not to! But the thing that really gets on my nerves is when people smoke in line or while walking in the park. Also I hate when punks rip and shred the que theming of a ride.. example:SDATHC ..paramount needs to up keep there themes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tattooblood Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Thats terrible for what happend to you in scooby doo! When I am in line for something and I see the gold pass holders all I say is that they are lucky and I wish I had one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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