KI Gold Pass Perks Questions

I was checking out the Gold Pass Perks on the Kings Iland site and I have a few questions - potentially stupid ones.

It seems they mention perks - such as discounts or early ride times or the speed lane thingy - but they don't offer specifics.

How do I find out which rides offer early ride times and when? Or what discounts I get? Or which ride is doing the Speed Lane thingy and when? Or which restaraunt is offering a meal deal?

Basically, where do I find specifics on the general concepts outlined on the page I linked to?

Also, am I reading the bit about parking correctly - that there's a special lot for passholders, but you have to pay $10 to use it or have a parking pass? I'm assuming that you're also covered with a Platinum Pass (which includes parking), correct?

Sorry for all the silly questions - we just got our passes and I'm hoping to utilize tham at KI a little more than we did last year. :)

Call the park?

Someone over at KIC posted the following list from a brochure given upon request at the park.

GOLD PASS SPEED LANE: May 31st - August 30th.
Every Saturday the first 1500 Gold Passholders to
stop by the Return Visit Booth on these days can
pick up a Gold Pass Speed Lane ticket day that will
allow them to speed past the lines on Delirium,
Drop Tower, Backlot Stuntcoaster, and Wild
Thornberry's River Adventure. Tickets are
distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

However, there is no mention of food discounts, etc. Apparently they are releasing new info month by month?

http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13007

^^I agree, definitely head on over to KICentral to ask!! But it seems that most of those perks like early ride times and Speed Lane are not in effect until once daily operations have started, however, at the moment it does regrettably seem to be more secretive at this time!

As far as parking, I haven't been to KI this year yet (but am planning on my first trip this Saturday), but it seems like parking will be similar in year's past for Gold Pass/Platinum Pass holders, only I believe it's being enforced more or maybe if you have no Pass at all then you can pay an extra $10? (on top of the standard $10??), but unless the Gold Pass lot changed (which knowing CF I doubt!!), it's not *that* good to justify another $10!?!

Anyway, hopefully you can make it to KI more this year if for any reason to get some good shots of the new coaster once more work happens!

Cool. Thanks for that little bit of extra info, guys. I'm certainly going to ask once we actually get a chance to visit the park.

We got our passes yesterday and I didn't even think about the perks thing until today. When I looked it up the info seemed so vague that it was almost silly.

Any idea how they enforced the Gold Pass parking lot in the past? I was there on Sunday and expected to get something to put on my dashboard or something. Instead, it was just a free-for-all. Are there other parks with special parking for pass holders?

I thought you knew it all Gonch :)

There is a Gold pass lot thats included. The ten dollar lot is preffered parking and I believe without the pass it's 20 dollars. A gold or platinum pass gets you in the lot free but not the preffered.

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Charles Nungester said:
I thought you knew it all Gonch :)

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Well, you'd be wrong...yet again. ;)

I was looking at the page and thought the same thing Gonch. It's very vague.

The thing I wonder about is the early ride entry. Is that going to be separate from the ACE walkback, which just basically gets you on for the first ride of the day, or will they actually have a couple rides open a half hour early for Platinum pass holders? Kind of like the way CP does it for their resort and Platinum holders.

^^I went to KI a lot last year and noticed the park open early many times for non-GP'ers, however, I do not believe it is a daily situation like CP since KI is not actually of resort status...

The meal deal for this month (although I think it was the meal deal for *every* month last summer, lol) is a large pizza, four salads, and four drinks -- or some such -- for $29.99.

The only other perk I utilized last year is the speed lane... it's kind of a ghetto version of Disney's FastPass, I guess. Last year's was five rides... the now-Backlot Stunt Coaster, Beast, Wild Thornberries, and Scooby Doo, plus you got to choose Drop Zone or Delirum (which each had their own card.) Basically when you stop by guest services, they give you a strip of card stock for the four rides (neon green the one time I did it.) The strip is perforated into four tickets, which you tear off in order. Each ticket has the name of the ride and your speed lane time (along with the ride graphic, etc.) So, for example, last year, it would say "Backlot, 1:00-1:15," on the first ticket, and then each time went up by fifteen minutes -- so "Beast, 1:15-1:30, Thornberries, 1:30-1:45, and Scooby, 1:45-2:00."

When you got to the rep at the front of the line, you gave them your ticket and got in the 'speed lane.' I was skeptical about it being every fifteen minutes, but we made it without a problem. I don't think they checked our passes when we picked them up, and the only line they checked them for was Scooby Doo, incidentally the last one of the sequence.

If you got the platinum pass, you can park in the passholder lot... but good luck getting to it. You have to go around the world to get there. (If you get there early, I've found that it's the same distance -- and considerably easier -- just to park in the regular lot.)

I was in guest relations last weekend filling out a comment card when someone came in and asked for the brochure -- they did indeed say they're varying the perks monthly and so you have to have the brochure to know what they are. Um, dumb much?

Hope some of that helps.

Carrie

Very helpful. :)

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Pagoda Gift Shop said: However, there is no mention of food discounts, etc.

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Then again, how much of a loss is it to not eat at KI.

I am glad Gonch brought this up. I just bought a CF MaxPass at KI and was vague on all the "perks."

-Tina

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CarrieR said:
I was in guest relations last weekend filling out a comment card when someone came in and asked for the brochure -- they did indeed say they're varying the perks monthly and so you have to have the brochure to know what they are. Um, dumb much?

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Just want to point out that this is indeed how it is working this year. You'll have to stop in and get the little brochure each month to know what the perks are...esepcially if the website stays so vague.

...which is another reason to entice passholders to come back. Sort of the "Lottery" marketing appraoch, "maybe this month will have something useful..."

That's exactly how it felt after looking at the brochure we were handed yesterday.

It appears this was released over the weekend.

http://www.pki.com/images/products/08ki_goldpass.pdf

Geez. Less than 24 hours ago the lady in Guest Relations explicitly told us they were doing monthly brochures instead of a calendar this year and that we'd need to get one monthly to keep up with it.

Thanks for the link, man.