Son of Beast and PKI's Gamble

I didn't mean to get everyone upset. I'm sorry I did get everyone upset, but "the patrons" I was referring to were the "local patrons". Those are the people that do most of the complaining. They are the ones with season passes that can go almost every other week and ride SOB (like me). They are the ones that need to be patient. When I posted that message I forgot about the travelers. I was typing faster than I can think. I do agree with the travelers being ticked off that some of them had to take vacation days from work to ride SOB, and not being able to. I understand that. Once again I'm sorry for getting everyone upset. That last post I put up was not a flame, it was my opinion. This is a good debate though.

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THE BEASTmaster
www.geocities.com/byostie

As far as we know they thought the kinks were all worked out, which is why they opened. How would you rather they handled the situation? If you just opened a huge new thrill ride, and it broke down the first day it opened, broke down to the point that another ride would have cause injury to your customers. what would you do? just curious.

Id would burn the blasted thing down, thats what Id do. The first ever Hyper Weenie Roast at PKI.

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"May the Force be with you"

Is that why your screen name is revolutionary?? You are way, too funny, man. The first thing you would do is "Revolt"?? Beastmaster, this is a great debate...and debates get heated. I'm not upset with you, just at PKI. Living in Toledo, I WOULD have to take a day off work, plus food, lodging, etc. A ton of people did just that, I feel sorry for them AND some of them probably won't return to PKI for a couple of years. Where, I totally agree with them. PKI has had safety problems in the past (late past), but they rushed SOB to get a cheap thrill (attendance) and we, the consumer, were stupid enough to go for it. Those are two BAD combinations. 1/4 of me feels like a Hyper weenie roast...Hey REV, I'll bring the marshmallows.

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There's nothing like a woodie...

Robert Dole: How would you have handled the situation?? Proper testing of a multi-million dollar project, that's how. The kinks were not worked out, totally...if someone is getting bruises up the 2nd hill, then IT WAS NOT properly tested. Accelermeters, Dummies with water bags (for weight) and pressure meters on the dummies, etc. Did PKI do this with SOB? I haven't heard yet. If they didn't...then PKI is not worth the price of admission, since they jacked it up to support this ride. They didn't take care of the people that feed them in the FIRST place. Yes, it's hindsight, but the testing is what got them into trouble in the first place. It was a Teaser that blew up in their face, they knew it wasn't ready. What would I have done...been honest...reconstruct what needs to be done, but tell the public that it may not be open until June or Memorial Day. Honesty is not what those patrons got in the package last Friday.

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There's nothing like a woodie...

Woodie's on the money...the test phase should have been more thorough. I suspect that SOB was rushed due to being behind schedule. Aditionally, PKI should have advertised a more realistic date of completion in order to iron out any rough spots or problem areas. Had PKI given out a more realistic opening date and finished early...they could easily have opened earlier and surprised the general public. Meanwhile, who knows when the ride will open for sure. All I know is that I booked my vacation and air tickets to coincide with the opening of MF and SOB. If I am unable to ride SOB, it is a good chance that I may not return for a few years. Dallas is quite a ways from the Ohio area.

I rode SOB and that jolt was HUGE. It does need to be fixed, but from what I understand it got worse as the week progressed. They knew that it was going to be closed down most of the weekend and decided to run it for about half the day on Saturday and Sunday. Alot of people were complaining to Guest Relations about the bump (At least that's what they told me...). The bottom line is that they knew that thousands... and thousands of SOB fans would be there, and life would only get worse if they said "Sorry, it won't open this weekend." They mislead us all, and they still haven't made things better. All we get is "We believe it will be open," or "It should be open." Just finish it, put in the tunnels, then open it. Stop jerking us around. And I'm a PKI mark. I can't imagine how you CP people who came to ride it feel.

BTW... That ambulance in the park was actually for someone in the Coney Mall, not the Action Zone. I was on the bumper cars when they came. *** This post was edited by Jacob on 5/3/2000. ***

I did read in todays local newspaper that maintaince found the 15 foot rough spot Saturday morning during their inspections. Why they went ahead and tried to run the ride? I don't know. Does anyone know why they opened it for 2 hours then closed it for the rest of the weekend?

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THE BEASTmaster
www.geocities.com/byostie

Well, how do you like that. I won my high-stakes bet over SoB. If I see you in a future walkback, BEASTmaster, I'll be sure to share the prize with you.

[It's a 1-pound bag of M&M's]

From what I've been reading and hearing, a quick patch was applied to the track on Saturday morning, the ride rushed through a few test cycles, then it opened. But the patch came undone very rapidly. They tried another patch, and then just gave up and closed the ride for the weekend, presumably to work on a more permanent fix OUT of the public eye.

Of course that permanent fix may require a reprofiling of the track at that spot, which could take the ride down for a LONG time. I'm not holding my breath for SoB to reopen any time soon.

Of course, I could be pleasantly surprised, too.

-- Cody Buchmann
buchmann.3@osu.edu
"ArchTeryx"

well, someone was right when they said SOB was gonna be the most talked about ride ;-)

I just don't think this is what they meant.lol

Hey Arch Teryx, I hope that they are the peanut M&M's. LOL! ;)
Mmmmmmmmmm......M&M's. (Homer Simpson phrase)

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THE BEASTmaster
www.geocities.com/byostie

Backseat, when are you flying to Ohio?? I hope it's in June. If that problem is for real on SOB, you won't ride it. Paramount = Money Hungry Bastards!! Once again (mis)leading the public by thrill factor to get to their bottom (feeder) line...$$$$.

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There's nothing like a woodie...

Why not start a boycott of PKI until they get their act together? That means no SOB when it opens... Yeah right.

OK, lets try to see it from a different perspective, the parks. You try to open it before the other huge thrill ride opens in Ohio MF. And to not open too late after you promised it would be open. And to say that they should have tested it properly is accomplishing nothing, you would have been just as pissed off if they closed it down that day to do more testing on it. Which is esentially what they did, no? And besides isn't that why any park is in the business to make money. Trust me CP didn't build MF out of the goodness of their hearts, to help better the community. So to call PKI money hungry, is a waste of time...no need to point out the obvious.

Good point there Bob. I wonder what we would have been saying had they actually put off the initial opening.

I think we would be frustrated, but I know for sure we wouldn't have gassed up the car to drive down there. I think for the long distance folks, that's what really made the situation ugly. If the park was in my back yard, I would have been over it the next day.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Ok, BOB, how's this...Paramount IS money hungry and so is Cedar Fair and Six Flags and on and on and on, but having been to PKI and PKD, I have found three important occurences. ONE: Ride safety and maintenance has been below average at both. When the almighty dollar gets in the way of public safety, that becomes poor PR. Sure, I don't mind getting beat up on a ride, the first times I rode the Beast and Mean Streak created a very sore next day for me, but the beatings that people took on SOB on the first day is downright wrong. (The silly thing is...you know it, too.) TWO: Ride Op's and employees attitudes...poor to say the least. And at both parks, too, that's the mystery. THREE: Overall entertainment value. I have yet to have the admission fee at either park worth the price. Atmosphere, safety, cleanliness alike...When Paramount bought KI, I thought that they are going to make a go of it, and they have, but why treat the consumer like a donkey??? I haven't been disappointed by Cedar Fair or Six Flags. And BTW, money hunger will cost PKI at the ticket booth. Yeah, yeah SOB will bring in more guests than usual, but this is for Riverbeast...I will boycott PKI this year. You don't care, Riverbeast doesn't care and Paramount doesn't care...and that's my whole point. I have many years on this earth left, if PKI can do something about SOB, then I will ride it soon enough, but probably not for 1 or 2 years. I'm patient, I can wait.

Goodness of one's heart... Crap...Can anyone build a coaster with love??

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There's nothing like a woodie...

Actually I have always had good ride-op experiences at PKI. Guest Relations is USUALLY very good. I'd say that the handling of this is a rarity. An unfortunate one, but a rarity. I'd be happy if they just came out and said, "Yeah, we knew it was screwed up. If you didn't get to ride it, bring your ticket stub and we'll let you in."

Acually I do care, but day to day complaining does nothing, especially if PKI doesn't care like you say. Their are plenty of other *great* coasters out there to focus on, maybe it's time to do that. Constant negativity gets boring real fast.

I have a feeling SOB will be like the Rattler and will be overgoing reprofiling to adjust the speeds and roughness.
As for complaing go to the guest relations and complain to them about SOB being down. Tell them how far you cam and how unhappy you are it's not running. They will more than likely give you a pass to comback to the park at a later date for free.
We drove to PKD earlier this year (about 300 miles). Volcano shut down, They stopped running two trains on the wooden coasters, and the new Avaitor was down too. I told them how far we drove and how unhappy we were and the gave us two free passes this year. The moral of the story is the squeeky wheel gets the grease.

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Parks hit for 2000!
PKD,BGW,Knoebles