Saturday April 29th trip

[standbyme]

This will be a short trip report since it was more of a “family trip†and won’t excite too many people on here! We got there a couple of minutes after 10:00...not too much of a wait in line. I do like that the old ticket booths are gone…it does open the whole area up quite a bit. We stayed the whole day…but basically we spent 80% of it in the new Nick Universe. The little one that was with us is still a toddler and can not do too many things yet…but hopefully by Summer things will change. As for my thoughts on the appearance of the new area, overall I thought it looked VERY nice. Spongebob’s Underwater World I thought looked great. The paint job was very impressive, plus all of the statues around it make good photo-ops…something I think Kings Island needs more of. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to stay in this great shape long. They have these nice cut-outs of seaweed & bubbles placed around the Spongebob fountain, at the moment they look very nice, but it’s only April and already one has been tore off. (Leaving a sharp screw exposed I might add.) They are really flimsy and I am sure that once the crowds really hit they will be destroyed in no time…too bad. I’m surprised that more forethought did not go into them. I also think the Lazytown Copters mural will suffer the same fate…it is already a little bubbled and I can picture kids (and probably adults) picking at it.

I don’t know if any of the people who dress as the characters read this site, but if so you are doing a great job. The people in the outfits were very friendly with the kids dancing, chasing the kids…not just standing in one place. They really made my nephew’s day.

Not too much interesting to say except that I was lucky/unlucky to be stuck on 2 rides that day…which says a lot since I personally only rode 6 rides that day. Avatar was running…then not…then it looked like it was about to open again so we got in line. We were the first ones to ride when it re-opened. Everything went well on the ride but when it was time to get off the platform wouldn’t come up. We did not sit there too long. (I don’t wear a watch.) I would say that by the time maintenance got there and got it working it was only about 10-15 minutes extra. Everyone was really understanding and the ride-ops were very apologetic as we were leaving. Later in the day the same thing happened on Delirium…the ride went well but then they couldn’t get the platform to come up, this time I think the wait was still only about 10 minutes maybe. No big deal…but I was amazed that it could happen to me twice in 1 day.

I do have a question…when I was in line at Delirium there were 2 employees behind me in their blue shirts…that is the first time I have noticed that…I thought I read on here long ago that employees couldn’t be dressed in their “uniforms†and be "off the clock" in the park?

[cewldre]

you are only partially right, stand. Employees can be off the clock and in their uniforms, but they should not be in line for a ride in their uniform, nor should they be allowed to ride if they do make it to the front of the line. Any employee in uniform should do just that, wear their uniform, and wear it properly. They are not supposed to be walking around, shirt untucked, etc... If they are walking around off the clock, in uniform, they should not be riding rides and should not turn guests away who have questions. If they don't want to be "bothered" or ride something, they need to change their shirt.

[Snake Attack!]

yeah avatar was up and down all day and I saw you guys get stuck, bummer