Kings Island event coming in May

Jeff got my card out to me right away. So I was able to register, I'm a platinum passholder and it cost me nothing to attend. But the best part? I am now a proud member of Coasterbuzz Club, and it's about time. Not only does it provide access to events like this, but my membership supports this enjoyable forum. And no more "she married him?"

And CoasterInsider, I have good news for you. On Friday I took a night-time ride on the Beast and it was great. Fast, dark, and pretty smooth, especially around the final helix (where I wonder if they havent had some track work?) The Beast has slipped on certain lists over the years. I've been a faithful rider since the day it opened, and I'll agree it's had good years and bad years. But all it takes is one awesome ride like I had on Friday to be reminded what a great coaster it is and how lucky we are to have it.

And Diamondback at night? OMG. Coasters always seem faster at night, I suppose, but this one surpassed my expectations. The Power Air seemed even more pronounced - in fact on the 3rd hill I had a little panic moment and tried instinctively to hook my heels on something, anything, to keep myself from flying out. There is nothing there, of course, to hook on to and I'm sure I looked like I was pedaling some strange invisible bike with my legs flailing about. And dark back there? Yes. ERT on that ride till 1A is gonna make a night to remember.

Can't wait.

Wow sounds good! I'll definitely have to Diamondback at night with what you just said. Thanks for the heads up.

I joined Coasterbuzz a few weeks ago with this event in mind, but I'm going to hold off for another event.

dose anyone know that the single ticket for next weekend at kings island is for warrior weekend too

The Ride Warrior's event this weekend was great. They did so much right. The park looked great too. I hope they do this annually and I look forward to next year.

Hey everyone --

I hope you had as much fun as we did at Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend! As I'm sure you have heard or will hear, the event was a huge success.

Just to clear a few things up:

For clarification, Coasterbuzz Club members were allowed one guest, as stated on the official RWCW web page. Many members took advantage of this opportunity and it was great seeing you all there!

For those wondering why the park had Jason escort people to the Beast in groups during Saturday's ERT, it was because people have a tendency to wander the park when it's not open which is particularly unsafe in the mornings because there are vehicles and equipment traveling through the park to prep it for the day.

The park had assumed that most enthusiasts in the past 30 years of operation had a chance to experience the awe and mystery of riding The Beast at night which is why Diamondback was chosen for the night ERT and not the Beast... and what a great night ride it was, wasn't it?!?

We'll see you next year!

Ryan

BoddaH1994 said:
For clarification, Coasterbuzz Club members were allowed one guest, as stated on the official RWCW web page. Many members took advantage of this opportunity and it was great seeing you all there!

Ryan,

Just to add more constructive criticism to the pot...it would have been nice to have this clarified before the event. The official RWCW page stated "CoasterBuzz (Club Members Only)" which seamed to me to say 'no guests' instead of 'Registered/Paid Members and guests'.

I don't understand how Ryan is speaking for the park, either. Was your site sponsoring the event? Because I didn't see any official indication of that. That doesn't help with the confusion. I fielded an awful lot of e-mail leading up to the event and in turn referred people to the park. They would then get back to me that they'd get lost in phone queues or unanswered e-mail.

It seems to me that there should be one source of information, and it certainly couldn't hurt for someone from the park to clear things up when necessary, a la Paula from Holiday World or Tony from CP.

BoddaH1994 said:

For clarification, Coasterbuzz Club members were allowed one guest, as stated on the official RWCW web page. Many members took advantage of this opportunity and it was great seeing you all there!

Yeah, that's a buncha crap. Where was this clarification when people were asking this exact question before the event?

It's worse that it's coming out now. It's like you're rubbing it in for people who couldn't attend because of this reason.

I think most people were aware of guest being allowed at an additional cost of $48.00.

The question that arises now is, were guests in fact not charged? That is the clarification I would have liked to see.

The $48.00 guest charge was the only reason we did not attend.

ToledoDan said:
The official RWCW page stated "CoasterBuzz (Club Members Only)" which seamed to me to say 'no guests' instead of 'Registered/Paid Members and guests'.

Agreed. Seems like there was a lot of wording on the event page that was a bit ambiguous.

I would submit that Diamondback is now a better night ride than the Beast. With the amount of floodlights that have pbeen placed along the course for the Beast, its really not all that "all alone in the dark" anymore - Diamondback is. Sure, they have the splashdown pool wel lit, but the main area where the ride does its thing, nice and dark!

How did everybody enjoy that skunk that made its presense known back in Diamondback woods towards the end of ERT.

I do know that guests of club members were charged $48 even if they had their Gold/Plat pass handy. I saw that confrontation take place in front of me while I waited my turn at event check in. I know for a fact one group upon hearing that told them where they can stick their event and headed back to the parking lot. That whole rule just seemed like a low class jerk move by the park, particularly since there was no lunch involved.

Jeff, you should have had a table setup next to the registration table selling Coasterbuzz membership cards! $20 vs. $48, and you get to keep the $20!

Lord Gonchar said:

ToledoDan said:
The official RWCW page stated "CoasterBuzz (Club Members Only)" which seamed to me to say 'no guests' instead of 'Registered/Paid Members and guests'.

Agreed. Seems like there was a lot of wording on the event page that was a bit ambiguous.

Definitely. See, the above says to me that it's Coasterbuzz Club members, and not just anyone registered on Coasterbuzz. What throws me off about the guest thing is this quote from the page:

You must be a registered member of a Kings Island-approved roller coaster club or amusement/theme park enthusiast organization to attend Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend!

That, to me, says "no guests."

I read the page the same way you did, kpjb.

Jeff said:
I don't understand how Ryan is speaking for the park, either.

I was wondering this myself. Why would someone who is a "Media director" (how much dos that pay, anyways?) for a Kings Island fan website be thanking people for attending the event? Unless he is park staff, or a promoter of the event, like Jeff and CoasterBuzz, it looks like he's just trying to make himself look more important than he really is.

Does he expect a "You're welcome" from all of those who attended? lol

---

I really considered going to this event, but it just didn't work out. Next year...

What makes you think CoasterBuzz has higher billing for an event like this than KICentral? They were on the club list just the same as CBuzz.

KICentral may not be in a position to speak on behalf of the park, but they certainly had more information than the average bear on this event. In fact, their site was cited a few times in our threads as a source for more information and by the accounts I can see, they were accurate in the information they had.

Ryan may not have posted directly here with his clarifications prior to the event, but a link was provided that went directly to this same information (provided by Ryan) on KICentral's web site prior to the event.

Gary Dowdell said:

Jeff said:
You must be a paid member to attend this event (and have the appropriate ticket). Guests don't count in this case.

For CP's Coastermania, a club member may bring one guest.

See the following link for additional clarification to this:

http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16162&st=105

* Edit, see post #111 in this thread (middle of page)

I understand everyone's frustration about this as it was about as clear as mud. But let's give Ryan and KICentral a break. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to help.

Edit for spacing on the copy/pasted portion of my post.

Carrie M. said:
Ryan may not have posted directly here with his clarifications prior to the event, but a link was provided that went directly to this same information (provided by Ryan) on KICentral's web site prior to the event.

I understand everyone's frustration about this as it was about as clear as mud. But let's give Ryan and KICentral a break. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to help.

I have no issues with Ryan & KICentral - but was this a KICentral event or a CF/KI event?? Seems KIC folks where up to date, but Jeff and CBuzzers were left in the dark. Like I said before - why did we have to learn about details (some AFTER the fact) from a fan site instead of the 'official' visitkingsisland.com site?

If Ryan was fielding questions about the event and posting replies and answers on KIC, how hard would it have been to update/correct the visitkingsisland.com site? Especially the whole 5pm deadline issue - which was ONLY mentioned on KIC and as early as May 3rd. Someone at KI had to have known about the questions and concerns from what was being posted at KIC.

:::crawling back under my rock until next year:::

Agreed. Kings Island dropped the ball in a big way in terms of sharing information and fielding questions about the event. It was their event and from the sounds of it, they didn't give a lot of attention or concern toward getting attendees the info they needed.

I have no idea how KICentral received the info they had. My point was just to say that they did seem to have information that appeared to be accurate. And they attempted to share the information they had with us prior to the event (one fan site to another, if you will).

That we would have rather received the info directly from KI is a separate issue. It's valid and it's a separate issue.

Hey everyone --

I'm sorry if it seemed as though I was speaking for the park. I think you guys all know that I do not have the ability to do that. I'm not an employee of Kings Island or Cedar Fair, and KICentral is in no way directly affiliated with those two entities either.

I understand that the fact that it said "Club Members Only" could have been taken as misleading, but in the defense of the park it did have a paragraph at the bottom saying that each club/organization member was allowed 1 guest, however they were to pay the $47.99. Additionally, the RWCW site stated that the cutoff date would be May 6th at 5:00pm.

I'm not sure who you spoke to at Kings Island's call center but I know that some of my forum members called on May 7th and were able to be added to the RWCW list. I confirmed with a park official that they had done that.

For those of you who were wondering where I or KIC got the information about Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend, nearly all of it was from Kings Island's RWCW site. Any additional information came from calling or emailing the park.

I hope you guys enjoyed the event. I know that the photo contest caused a lot of excitement on our side of the fence. Mr. Kinzel was on hand for part of Saturday and was more than willing to say hi and converse with guests.

Have a great day,
Ryan

If you're not "directly affiliated" then why do you make posts like this one? I've certainly never seen a fan site do advertising for the park without any sort of reference to itself. Looks to me like that post could have been written by Don Helbig himself.