King's Island Opening Day

Anyone else making the trip to King's Island this Saturday? Just got my cedar fair platinum pass yesterday, can't wait to ride Diamondback again this year!

Yeah, we'll be up there later in the day. Weather should be rain-free so that's a bonus. I'm curious to find out how much my opinion of Diamondback has changed and I'm sure that we'll be spending most of our time there trying to find that out!

Yea also loving that the high is only 58 that day, should keep the crowds low even for an opening day.

http://coasterbuzz.com/Calendar.aspx

I would, but don't want to go through the "process CP pass at KI again"... It is a pain... I don't know WHY CP won't do pass processing one Saturday or something before KI open so we can use our pass there without the hassle.

Stupid...

I will be going down to Thunder over Louisville this Saturday and will drive right past KI, but won't stop in for the reasons above. :)

Yep I'll be down there opening day! My wife couldn't get off of work, but I'm going with a friend who hasn't been there in 10 years. I too am not to happy that I can't renew my pass and get it processed before opening day. Now I have to take my e-ticket down there and deal with all the opening day crowd.

One thing I learned about opening day is that Kings Island has an EXTREMELY loyal fan base. Crowds WILL come out as long as it's not raining. I'll take the cooler weather, but it's still not cool enough to keep the crowds away I'm guessing.

-RollerCoasterGod

I'll be down there. Hopefully not having too much hassle getting my CP bought pass processed later today, then enjoying the park all day tomorrow!

Last year it was a mess opening day at KI to process your CP pass. First off, it's like they didn't expect anybody to do this. They had a Team Lead or Supervisor basically come out to the line (which stretched what seemed to be a mile), and gather anybody and everybody who had a CP pass to give them additional paperwork and stuff to fill out. Then eventually they were able to print you your pass and get you on your way, but the process was complicated, long, and they were NOT prepared.

Maybe this year they will be... But I still do not know why CP can't open processing for one Saturday last weekend or the weekend before for some to process their CP pass early so they can go and enjoy KI without waiting in the mile long pass processing line and go through the hassle of filling out additional paperwork.

Just my .02! Maybe it will be improved this year!

Ill be there tomorrow, but I plan on getting there early so I can process my CP pass and get in for ERT. We will see, last year the line did not look horrible but I was there early.

I'll be there also for the ERT, and the Blue Ice Cream!

Steve, something to consider for 2010. KI was processing 2010 PP the last few months of the 2009 season. We purchased our vouchers from CP but they wouldn't let us process. KI had no issues and it only took about 5 minutes with no line what so ever.

I am going the following weekend. Opening weekend(day), is only one day. They are only open on sat.

So I am going to hit sfog this weekend, and kings island in the next week or 2 when they are open for the whole weekend.

I'm hoping that the whole pass fiasco is easier to manage this year, at least for those of us who are in the exact same mess that we were in last year...because I already have a Kings Island platinum pass and a Cedar Point certificate, I am hoping that they can just take my certificate and renew my pass.

This is all because in September, Cedar Point sells passes at a discount while Kings Island is closed for buy-outs...and in April, Kings Island is open and Cedar Point is not. This seems like it should be a solved problem, but it is exactly the kind of thing that Cedar Fair likes to make a lot more complicated than it should be...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I got my '09 CP platinum pass upgraded to a 2010 in October so I am good to go tomorrow :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

I don't have a pass, but I did notice the extremely long line for SP processing during the SECOND Saturday of the season.

I had a few comp tickets waiting for me, and it was in and out, quickly, through the Guest Relations office.

I know that it's probably pretty difficult serving the many people in the SP line efficiently, but they really should figure out a way to make it a better experience. Those people pay a lot of money to be able to stand in that line.

In fairness, Kings Island has got season pass processing down to something of an art. Their season pass line gets very long, but it tends to move with surprising quickness. That's one thing I hope Cedar Fair hasn't fiddled with too much this year.

Now Cedar Point on the other hand.....

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I'm not sure how it works for you chaps in North America, but here in the UK I've just renewed my passport entirely by mail. No waiting in line, no pointless conversations with ill-informed staff, no delays etc.

So if the renewal of a personal document as important as a passport can be managed in this manner, how come season passes to amusement parks can't?

Just saying.....

Jeff said:
http://coasterbuzz.com/Calendar.aspx

Crazy.. I never knew that calendar existed.. I need to randomly click links more often..

Pretty nice though.

Just a couple of notes from yesterday:

1. It was on the chilly and windy side but the beautiful sunshine helped a lot, crowds were light early but built throughout the day until I had a 50 minute wait for my Beast night ride.

2. The coaster fka as Italian Job has had some revisions to the trains. Gone are any reference to them being Minis including the racing stripe and doors. They also have orange seat belts like FOF now too.

3. The Beast's queue has been modified as well, they now have it so that you no longer have to snake through the left side queue house and you can proceed directly up the stairs when the line is short. They have also ripped out the center rail on the stairs so that you dont have to pick the front or back of the train until the back of the station. That queue could use some new paint. After the fireworks KI had turned off all but one light on the back road which made for an even greater night ride.

4. Diamondback's electronic victims have been partially removed I assume to make room for some new ones this year.

5. FOF had the cheezy video working (I love it)

6. Boo Blasters is I think a great upgrade of that ride, and its full queue was still full of families.

7. Planet Snoopy looked good.

8. Way too much TV is a surprisingly entertaining and humorous show.

9. Firehawk was behaving badly but was open sporatically the same could not be said for the other 2 Verkomas in the park which Im pretty sure never opened all day.

10. The train was open for the first time I can remember in April, bravo KI for doing that.

11. The female sweeps are still in the Oompa Loopa overalls, I feel bad for them.

12. Action Theatre was not open but the sign still read Sponge Bob 3-D

13. Red Racer never opened the whole day.

LuvRaptor said:
I got my '09 CP platinum pass upgraded to a 2010 in October so I am good to go tomorrow :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

What a lie this was!
Where as my pass got us into parking no problem neither my hubby's or my pass got us into the park. We both (and like 60 other people with us) had to go into guest relations so they could write down our names and pass#s. Then we got into the park.
It will be interesting to see if the passes work when we finally go to CP.

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)