Kings Island 9/29 - Not the best trip

I look forward to my annual visit to Kings Island. This year my visit was not all that great. I still enjoyed all of the rides in the park. I find the collection of coasters to be very enjoyable. The park was beautiful as always.

I thought that the ride crews on a some of the coasters were not so great. Most of the coasters had stacking issues and loading/unloading times were very lengthy. It seemed very unusual to see all three trains waiting in the station on The Beast.

I was not aware that there was a new policy on The Italian Job that allowed guests to bring beverages on the ride. I was even more suprised when the guest was consuming the beverage during the ride. The ride crew simply did not address the guest with beverage on the ride.

Smoking seemed to be an issue on this day as well. It appears that the guests are not capable of reading the park map to find out where the proper smoking areas are located. I had no problem finding the smoking areas as I walked through the park. I am a non smoker.

I cannot offer any comments about the Halloween Haunt. I was a bit soured by my experience throughout the day and I left the park before 6pm. It is apparent that KI and CF are putting a lot of time and money into the Halloween attractions. I did think it was amusing that the Cincinnatti TV stations were very focused on the new Halloween Haunt. On Friday night they were constantly having discussions about the new event and all of the signs in the park that indicated that the attractions are not intended for younger people. The TV stations appeared to be concerned about the gore, violence, and disturbing images that were supposed to be depicted during this event.

Even though this was not one of my best experiences at Kings Island chances are that I will return next year. It would be a shame to let my CF Platinum Pass go to waste.

I too have seen those problems creep up at kings island. The ride hosts are pretty bad there, for the 5 years i have made my trips down. They seriously are horrendous with operating the rides with intervals. The one thing that reminds of the beverage thing you talk about was a basketball on the track of the station on vortex. A kid casually tossed it after dribbling it the whole time in the line over the airgate and nothing was said.

As far as smokers go, they need their fix and they seem to ignore that there are places to smoke it has happened at a few amusement parks that i have been to. Its not like line attendants are watching them and then you dont want to confront them because it makes a bigger mess than it started, i know i would like them to stop as well. Its just people being ignorant.

Kings Island is the worst smoking park I have ever been to. Their smoke-free policy is a joke, as it is at all Cedar Fair parks. I love this park, but their operations have been less than stellar for some time in many areas...

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Mikewhy said:
Kings Island is the worst smoking park I have ever been to. Their smoke-free policy is a joke, as it is at all Cedar Fair parks. I love this park, but their operations have been less than stellar for some time in many areas...

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I would have to agree with this too...I thought the smokers were bad at CP? They are nothing like the ones at KI. They start on line at the front gate waiting to get in and never stop all day. At CP if an employee or security catches you smoking outside the designated areas, they will say something. Apparently this isn't something that is enforced at KI quite yet.
Love the smokers to try to "hide" their cig by cupping their hand and blowing the smoke up over their heads like no one would notice. Yea right!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 1225 :)

As someone who was with a smoker at CP this weekend and who permitted them to smoke discreetly while walking between rides (though never while in the queue), I told him that the only way the CF smoking policy will be legit is if they're hard-core like some SF parks.

Someone who works at a SF park recently told me there were select SFPD officers who's sole job it was to find unauthorized smokers and boot them without a refund...unless CF is viligant about the smokers their policy will remain a joke.

As someone who IS a smoker, I couldn't believe how many people were roaming the midways or in ride/haunt lines smoking.

It's really not that hard.

I visited the park on 9/28 and 9/30 (on my way to and from Holiday World), and it was not the best experience either. On the Friday night, I had a lot of fun, and finally got to ride X-Flight, I mean Firehawk at its new home.

I noticed on Friday that they had their Skycoaster priced at $5, so I stopped back in the park on my way back home, and was very disappointed.

The Skyflier crew was in-fact so bad, that not only did I write a guest complaint before leaving the park, but I called Skycoaster last week to complain to them about how bad that crew was.

Considering how long it can take to hear back from CF, I decided to complain directly to the manufacturer. I got a call back from KI later that day, but have yet to return it.

I found the rides staff extremely lacking on my visit, and think that place needs some serious help. It is a beautiful park, but cleanliness and beauty only go so far. Good operations are a must in my book.

-Sam

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Avalanche Sam said:
Considering how long it can take to hear back from CF...
...I got a call back from KI later that day, but have yet to return it.

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Kinda hypocritical,don't ya think? You're so ticked about something you make sure to complain to the park...you complain about the length of time the parks take to respond to complaints, yet in the same breath say the park called you later that day. AND then you say you haven't taken the time to call *THEM* back?
Classy.