GL: No rerides, no cameras in line, NO FUN!

[ZosoBeast]

So the staff over at PKICentral.com decide to head up north to check out Geauga Lake. Since GL's owners, Cedar Fair, just bought our park, Kings Island, we thought it would be a good idea to see how they run other ones. You know, to give us an idea as to what to expect when Kings Island opens up next year under the Cedar Fair family.

And I simply did NOT like it.

I have been to a lot of parks all over the U.S. and the policy I have always noticed is that when your train gets back in the station and nobody is waiting, you can just stay where you are and enjoy another ride.

Well, all summer long, I have had dreams of marathoning Dominator. But it seems your not allowed to do that! Our train got back into the station with only 4 people waiting in the station for the first row (we were way in back) so I told the guys how sweet this was. So we just sat there. Then one of the ride-ops walk up and said "no rerides guys" and my jaw just dropped! There was NOBODY there! What difference would it have made?

I once rode The Beast at Kings Island 17 times without ever getting off the darn thing. I thought this policy was just a standard. A non-issue.

So a long pointless walk to climb on board Dominator again had me steaming. So my dream of getting over 10 rides in on this great coaster turned into 3. I just drove 4 hours for this?

But then the rules just get ever MORE dumb!

Were waiting in line for X-Flight. Were up on the steps on the first landing. We still have a ways to go before were actually in the station. Along with the fact that they were only running one train makes for a longer wait. Wait aside, we decide to get the video camera out and have a little fun with it while were in line.

All of a sudden from above, the ride op says "Your not allowed to do that" and I thought maybe someone was sitting on the rail or something. But he was looking at the guy holding the video camera. "Me?" he said. "Yes, your not allowed to video tape or take pictures while your standing in line."

What the HECK???

Am I missing something here? For what POSSIBLE reason do they have this rule? We were not even in the station yet and they were all over us!

So we decide to ask what the reason for such a rule would be.

When we got to the station, he walked right up to the ride op that yelled at him and asked him for a reason. And you know his reply? Nothing. The ride op just flat out ignored him! I was just shocked. So we took our flight and we left. The park was open another 2 hours, but we were all just so mad that it was not worth staying another minute.

Maybe it is just me and my "silly ways" but you should never leave an amusement park mad at the world. And that's just what we did.

You know, when I first heard the news that Cedar Fair bought Kings Island along with the rest of Paramount Parks, I was excited! But if these "rules" get put into place at my beloved park, then it really will be a sad day indeed.

Thank you for reading,

Bill

Dedicated to one of the greatest Amusement Parks in the world, Paramount's Kings Island! Lets just hope it stays that way.

[Captain Picard]

When it was Six Flags they made use put cams in a locker and didn't get as far as you did.

I had a experience with rule changes a Cedar Point with glasses two weeks ago. It's something you will have to deal with next year at KI I bet. For me it's not as bad if you know before you go. Makes me mad too if you have to get out of line and come back after going to a locker.

The next time you guys get out that far just go on to Kennywood, you will never have a bad day there.

[Browntggrr]

CF has always had a no reride policy, that is not something new. As to why they have this policy, I can only guess.

Now the camera in line rule does not make sense at all.

[Gordon Bombay]

Geauga Lake wasnt that bad, I'm really glad I got to go with you guys. I thought it was a very good park, but it had some stupid rules. When I asked the ride op about the camera he just said "a stupid GL rule". When I worked for Kings Island, we had to explain the reason behind the rule. I dont see what the problem of filming in the line or the station is, what if you wanted to film your son or daughter getting pumped for their first ride on the particular coaster or take their picture. I was shooting pictures with one of my cameras from the back of the station and as I put it away the ride op walked towards me, saw me put it away, then said "thanks". I pulled it back out and he just started and kind of ignored it. I'll post my TR later when I get home, but overall it was a fantastic trip witha good park. Bill, get the video up soon!

Some pictures from the trip:

Geauga Lake

A view from the lake.

Turbo Speed!

[Flying Eagles 1972-2004]

No rerides is a standard Cedar Fair policy. I encountered it at SFKK as well. It's annoying sure, but not that big of a deal.

No cameras in line is just plain dumb. I would have filed a complaint.

[Reclaimer]

Do they have those darned turnstyles at all CF parks on all their rides, or is that just a Cedar Point thing? At Cedar Point, we were told no re-rides were allowed because we had to go through the turnstyles each time for a "count"

[TopThrill]

I've never been to GL, were thinking about going over there next spring before CP. I can only think why no camra's in line, maybe if your holding up the line were your stopping to film and the lines moving. I would like to hear your TR CombatStupendous89. Nice pictures to.

[CoastersRZ]

Well, on most of the coasters at KI, the count is conducted by whoever is driving the coaster. In fact, many of the flat rides in Coney mall used to have turnstiles either at the entrance (Scrambler and I think Monster) or at the exit (Shake Rattle and Roll). They however have since gotten rid of those turnstiles.

Yes, it is annoying that they make you get off for re-rides. But remember, this used to be policy at Kings Island a few years ago as well. (It is policy on Flight of Fear and IJST). Also, if you are at The Beast doing marathons, several instances I have encountered the crew saying that the limit is two re-rides before you have to get off. I totally agree with that rule as after a couple spins, it is not a bad thing to take a little breather. Although some of the best ERT I`ve had on The Beast is when I got six or seven rides in a row without getting off of the train.

Yes, it is a bad rule to not be able to take pictures in any ride line. When I was up there in 2002, when it was Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, I didn`t encounter any problems with taking pictures. Either from the exit of the ride or while in line. Hopefulyl this does not occur at Kings Island, or as otohers have stated, there will be many dissapointed people, and not just us enthusiasts.

[TheKlockster]

At Busch Gardens, they have rules against cameras out on the midway. Thats right. I read about some guy who was taking photos of Sheikra - and a security guard came up to him and told him that taking photographs of their rides was prohibited. Think I read that on TPR.

[The New England Snapper]

You guys need to relax a little. Maybe the worker was an International and did know the exact rules. Maybe he thought u were guys where gonna take it on the ride. wasnt there but I do work with a alot of Internationals from all over the world. Sometimes they do get confussed and thought something else. Yeah a bad employee is gonna ruin ur day. OMG if this happend at KI you would say it ruined your day! CF is good and will do good for KI. Ki has some bad workers and say the worng things to guest. Its normal and it happens at all them parks.

[Flying Eagles 1972-2004]

They were stopping video of SheiKra because they sell souvenir videos of the ride. it's really freaking stupid though...

[Captain Picard]

After you been going to one of the best parks it's hard to have fun at one of the worst. GL is one place that I don't need to go back to. The attendance will tell you others feel the same.

You know it's bad when you just get in and wish you went someplace else.

[The New England Snapper]

After you been going to one of the best parks it's hard to have fun at one of the worst. GL is one place that I don't need to go back to. The attendance will tell you others feel the same.

You know it's bad when you just get in and wish you went someplace else.

They have good coasters, decent flats an incredable new water park and ur saying u wish u wouldve went somewhere else?

[PKIVortex]

When I worked at PKI (1999-2001) we didn't let people re-ride that many times. We were told we had to tell people to walk back around.

[Flying Eagles 1972-2004]

I think it varies widely. Six Flags generally allows it but SFKK was not. PKI usually allows it, and seat poaching*, but sometimes not.

*Seat poaching is when theres someone waiting for your row, but you get out and take an empty seat after it loads.

[Captain Picard]

After you been going to one of the best parks it's hard to have fun at one of the worst. GL is one place that I don't need to go back to. The attendance will tell you others feel the same.

You know it's bad when you just get in and wish you went someplace else.

They have good coasters, decent flats an incredable new water park and ur saying u wish u wouldve went somewhere else?

It's not the rides, I have been to parks all over in the east and GL is the worst one of all I been to. GL has no feeling or life to it. Other parks give you a good feeling just to be there.

The layout of GL sucks, I don't know what they was thinking when they built it. I just don't care for the place at all.

It's just my opinion of it.

[AZ Kinda Guy]

I actually like GL... So you couldn't video tape a ride? Life goes on and it's nothing to get ****y about. Parks have their rules, deal with it.

[Vortex]

I have never got a reride at Kings Island. The person might have thought you where going to take it on the ride. I have seen alot of video cameras get taken away like that this year.

Edited August 13, 2006 by Vortex

[touchdown62]

I was at KI on July 28 with a couple friends. We rode Top Gun 5 times in a row without so much as releasing the OTSR. The ride ops even stopped checking us since we never got off. They just laughed at us. I didn't think they minded too much since we were increasing their ride numbers (not much, I know, but every little bit helps). We then did back-to-back-to-back rides on Adventure Express and back-to-back rides on forward Racer. I've never had a problem reriding if no one was in line waiting.

[ZosoBeast]

I actually like GL... So you couldn't video tape a ride? Life goes on and it's nothing to get ****y about. Parks have their rules, deal with it.

I only got "****y" about it because it seems to be one of the dumbest rules I have ever heard of. I mean, we were not even in the station yet and they were all over us!

And you see, this is what happens with these parks. You end up talking more about the bad time you had at it more so than how cool Dominator was. It only takes one (and in this case, two) negative things to happen to pretty much put a downer on the whole trip!

And believe it or not, I actually had this happen to me at Boomerang Bay this past Tuesday....

I live in Dayton. My kids live in Cincinnati. I took a vacation this week to spend a little time with them. I took them to Boomerang Bay, my first time ever going. We spent a good amount of time in the wave pool. Well, at one point, when the waves stopped, and we were about in the middle of the pool, my youngest, 5 year old Emily (who says Hello to Dane and Ryan by the way) was stepping onto my knees and kinda pushing herself off and into the pool. No big deal. But the lifeguard blew her wistle and told us to stop. So again, instead of talking about how much fun we had on the lazy river, I keep thinking about that lifeguard telling us to stop doing something that wasnt doing anything other than puting a smile on my 5 year olds face. A rare time with Dad.

So flash forward to GL 3 days later, train coming into a pretty much EMPTY station and being told were not allowed to reride? No picture taking while in line? What does that hurt? Nobody!

But like I said, it just boils down to what you remember. I remember the negativity and all the fires that Ryan was trying to start in the back seat!

Turbo Speed,

Bill

[Swanky333]

I think maybe they wouldn't let you use camera, might be terrorism? IDK, like maybe they think you're going to video tape the track and find a certain spot to place a bomb or something XD, how retarded can they be.

[Delirium_Guy]

I actually like GL... So you couldn't video tape a ride? Life goes on and it's nothing to get ****y about. Parks have their rules, deal with it.

I gotta agree with you there! Actually, this policy of no filming the rides and taking pictures of the rides pre-dates Cedar Fair. This was actually a policy that was implemented by Six Flags. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it and I agree that it is stupid. PKI sure has pulled some stupid stunts over the years as well.

As for the Park not having any feeling or anything left, again, not a Cedar Fair issue. Six Flags pretty much took a fantastic traditional park and sucked any life it had in it. The damage has been done and as someone else pointed out earlier, the crowds are a clear indication of that. Its sad, I truly enjoy Geauga. They have a terrific line-up of rides and coasters. I wish Cedar Fair the best in turning it around, but its a long, uphill battle for them.

[Dane]

First off, TURBO SPEED!

Second, I agree, the park has NO life to it. Where there was music in it, it was the same darn song (Jackson 5, ABC). The layout was horrible. And when we decided to go and grab a nice bite to eat, there was only one decent eatery that was open.

Third, alot of rides hurt you in one way or another. Reference to The Villin, a two minute and ten second car accident.

Forth, we single handily agreed that the best ride there was the tram (golf cart) ride from the water park side to the dry park. just cause our driver was so awesome.

I miss Sea World Ohio.

[Flying Eagles 1972-2004]

Six Flags destroyed the place to the point where they still have bad attendance problems. It's going to take a long time for Cedar Fair to continue getting it out of the crapper.

[Delirium13]

What's up with the cushions on the restraint? Did someone get hungry and and take a bite out of it or something?

[BoddaH1994]

I guess it's time to throw in my two cents:

I disagree about the "lifelessness" of the park entirely. I think that they did have a lot of neat ideas to get crowds pumped up, kind of like how the games people would run around with a prize when someone won one. I also found the look of the park to be amazing. The structures, as well as the coasters, were all beautiful and it had trees everywhere.

The rides were really painful for the most part. The Villan puts SOB to shame. Imagine riding SOB while being beaten by an angry mob.

Dominator was cool, but didn't live up to Bill's hype of the ride!

Their SLC wasn't as bad as T2, but certainly wasn't very good.

X Flight was amazing, but load and unload takes forever, and it didn't help that they sidetracked a car on almost all of the coasters a little after 2pm. Great thinking.

The whole time there, we only found 2 bathrooms. One of which we searched for a half hour for.

The no rerides thing was dumb... can't we utilize the fact that the park is failing to our advantage at least??

One thing that was left out was when we asked the ride op why you could take pictures in line he replied, "It's another stupid Geauga Lake rule." Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'd say a good 60% of the food and merch stands were closed. We wanted to buy drinks when we were over by X-Flight and walked down an entire midway of closed shops. I guess that's where the lifelessness kicks in.

The park had some perks, but overall it was pretty bad... not SFKK bad, but bad.

Ryan

[CoastersNSich]

I may go against the consensus here, but I really enjoyed my visits to Geauga Lake since Cedar Fair took over. Was it ever perfect? No. Contrary to what some may believe here, NEITHER is PKI! I don't agree with the no-reride rule, as well as no picture-taking in lines and stations. The latter I don't really understand any harm that it may cause. This happened to me at both Cedar Point and Geauga Lake, but I moved on. However, I strongly disagree with the park being no fun! There are some coasters and rides there I wish KI would have. Face it, the PKI we know and love is going to change after this season, and some of the changes won't be favorable. But will they keep us from going? I seriously doubt that.

If you took a trip there in 2001 or 2002, when I encountered one-train operations on a busy day, rude employees, dirty bathrooms, and some closed rides, I could understand your sentiment. If you want somebody to blame for the park's sad state, blame Six Flags.

[BoddaH1994]

I may go against the consensus here, but I really enjoyed my visits to Geauga Lake since Cedar Fair took over. Was it ever perfect? No. Contrary to what some may believe here, NEITHER is PKI! I don't agree with the no-reride rule, as well as no picture-taking in lines and stations. The latter I don't really understand any harm that it may cause. This happened to me at both Cedar Point and Geauga Lake, but I moved on. However, I strongly disagree with the park being no fun! There are some coasters and rides there I wish KI would have. Face it, the PKI we know and love is going to change after this season, and some of the changes won't be favorable. But will they keep us from going? I seriously doubt that.

If you took a trip there in 2001 or 2002, when I encountered one-train operations on a busy day, rude employees, dirty bathrooms, and some closed rides, I could understand your sentiment. If you want somebody to blame for the park's sad state, blame Six Flags.

I think Cedar Fair has had more than enough time to fix the problems which we have listed above.

...and no, PKI isn't perfect. I don't agree with all of their decisions, but let's face it, we're fortunate to have it as our home park.

[CoastersNSich]

I think that honestly, Geauga Lake has been a little disappointing since Cedar Fair has taken over. The attendance hasn't been good enough to totally justify the no reride rule, the park still has its layout issues. If they'd fix some of the issues, people just might come back. I don't totally like the add-on policy for GL and CP passes, because including each other would help out GL's attendance. But I do stand firmly that Geauga Lake is a great park that I look forward to visiting whenever I can. A great mixture of coasters, from Ohio's oldest standing wood coaster, to a great B&M floorless., as well as a beautiful new waterpark. I don't want this thread to turn into GL vs. PKI. We know where we've gotten with CP vs. PKI threads.

On the same boat, I'm fortunate too to have a park like Kings Island (that's what I'm going to refer to it as from here out) close to home, but I'd argue it's had better days as well.

[AZ Kinda Guy]

So flash forward to GL 3 days later, train coming into a pretty much EMPTY station and being told were not allowed to reride? No picture taking while in line? What does that hurt? Nobody!

It's not hurting anybody, your right, but thas not the point. It's a rule. Deal with it... Why dwell on it when you can just move on and enjoy the ride? A fun one at that!