No re-entry after 7? Kings Island.

Kings Island seems to have a policy that you cannot re-enter the park after 7 pm during Halloween Haunt.

This was not made clear until we tried to leave the park at around 7 as it was beginning to get colder.

Unfortunately, we did not arrive at the park until 3:30, but that wasn't my choice. Anyway, I decided to purchase premium parking because: 1) I'm a weirdo and have to brush my teeth after I eat or I'll be miserable; and 2) because it was rather warm when we got there and we wanted to be able to go out and get some extra clothing when it cooled down.

As we entered the park, no of us noticed any signage telling us that there were restrictions on the time we may leave and re-enter the park; it did not become clear until we left. I saw the sign as we were trying to leave and I asked one of the employees if I was correct in understanding the sign; I told him that we simply wanted to get our sweatshirts. I walked back over to my small group and told them. Then, I walked back over to him and informed him that I was a passholder and asked if I would be able to go out and get them and come back. His response was, "you can only use your season pass once."

He was rather rude about it and showed no sympathy that the reason was so we did not freeze. In fact, it almost seemed as if it were funny to him and as if he enjoyed it, but I am hoping those were not his intentions. He gave no explanation. In essence, I purchased premium parking for no reason.

After this, we chose to walk around the park for a little while longer and try to get into some of the haunts. We expected it to be busy, but we did not expect to be waiting for several hours for a single haunt. We waited well over an hour for Club Blood and were disappointed by the haunt. We then checked out some of the others and they all had substantial lines. To summarize, the entire day was rather disappointing. Never in my life have I had to wait 30 minutes for Top Gun (and this was around 3:45).

I don't want this to sound like a trip report, but I am curious on other peoples' thoughts of the no re-entry after 7 pm and if anyone can provide me with any logical reasoning behind this. I'm certain there has to be a reason and I'm only hoping it's a good reason. I'm considering contacting the park; I really feel rather cheated that there seemed to be no attempt at "crowd control" and I purchased premium parking for essentially no reason (by the way, the other two people in my "party" were not passholders).

*** Edited 10/15/2007 4:42:39 AM UTC by Infamy***

A lot of Six Flags parks are doing the no re entry after 7pm thing as well... it is used to actually better the crowd control... at least in Louisville..

I also think they do it at Universal Studios Florida, where the park reopens at 7pm and there is a no re entry rule, to keep people from going to their cars to get drunk or else...

Its because the demographic that attends these events (teens) are more likely to drink/smoke/do drugs in the parking lot and keeping them in the park keeps them more civil.

The policy has been standard at Knotts since the inception of the Haunt there.

There are multiple signs before the metal detectors regarding this...

Infamy, I guess I somewhat feel your pain as the same policies are in effect at King's Dominion on Saturdays and Sundays, and Friday nights have no re-entry at all.

On Saturday at KD, it started out rather chilly, but then got up into the low-70's. A large amount of us had a similar type layering system where we took off our jackets/sweatshirts and wrapped it around our waist during the warmer part of the afternoon. I looked at the hour-by-hour forecast on Weather.com and planned accordingly.

Of course, by late nightfall it dropped again. I had a t-shirt and windbreaker on and was okay, but when I left at 10:30 p.m or so, and was having trouble finding my car, I definitely wanted my pullover on as well.

Since I was at KD for an event and we checked in at 9:15 a.m., I don't recall any signs about the 7 p.m. rule. Where they put out later? I never went back out to my car. But if the only method was to have a person holding up a hexagonaly-shaped sign at the exit saying no re-entry after 7 p.m., well that does no one any good if it's already past 7 p.m.

We found a lot of the same things you did:

1) Long lines for all the mazes and haunts. I thought they could've cranked things up a lot more than what was advertised. At least Club Blood had good taste in music. Hearing Juno Reactor's "Masters of the Universe," and the remix of New Order's "Confusion" as seen in the opening scene of "Blade" while going through was pretty cool.

As anyone who has seen Blade knows, Club Blood is the meatpacking plant/nightclub the regular guy gets taken to, and then everyone turns into vampires. There's a lot of color and brightness in that scene, while still being scary. I think that's one thing that a lot of haunted houses/mazes don't get.

I was talking with someone in agreement on Saturday about how scary Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet was opening year at SFA. There were different genre's of horror going on in each room, while still passing out into wide-open spaces at times too with lots of lights.

Timing is everything as well. Ill-timed scares, or characters that only pick on the young teenage girls leaves the rest of us scratching our heads as to why we wait so long for so little payoff.

2) Low capacity on some rides due to not enough workers--example: two-checkers on Elvira's Superstition at the Action Theater. We saw the pre-show three times in a row after waiting easily 45 minutes or more. Thankfully, I liked the film once inside.

3) Some rides closed either all day, or later on at night due to mazes. ex. Club Blood shed inside the far turnaround of Hurler, Flight of Fear used its queue for its maze. Thanks goodness I was there for an ACE event as we got ERT in the morning on FoF.

Well, the obvious beneficiary is Cedar Fair if they're putting the numbers in the park like they did on Saturday. *** Edited 10/15/2007 8:27:30 AM UTC by Intamin Fan***

I gotta be honest. That rule would piss me off a little. Not being able to go out for a sweatshirt, etc. I guess they can do whatever they want as long as they let people know in advance so they can plan for it, but I just don't get it.

I've only experienced this at Knott's haunt, but they made it very explicit as you entered, so if you wanted to run and grab something you could.

It's most definitely to avoid naughty acts in the parking lot. It sucks, but I totally understand the reason for it. It's just one of those things where you end up being treated like a kid that can't be trusted even though you're a grown up, but given the demographic these events attract, I can't say I'm surprised.

At SFNE on Columbus Day, there was no re-entry after 4pm...

I wouldn't be too shocked if the no "re-entry policies" espoused by Snyder and Shapiro in the EARLY stages of their tenures didn't come to pass....gradually.

---

...given the demographic these events attract, I can't say I'm surprised.

---

Having seen that demographic firsthand a couple of weekends back - I can't say I'm surprised either.

And I wasn't surprised as the park had big yellow signs posted before you enter informing all of the policy.

I consider myself to be rather observant. I simply never saw any signs. The only signs I saw were over the "check-in people" as we tried to leave the park. Does that mean that there were not signs as we came into the park? Absolutely not. I obviously missed it.

It's simply rather disappointing and unexpected. The whole day was disappointing, really.

The policy also has the added benefits of (A) forcing people to pay for exorbitantly priced lockers for anything they might need in the evening and (2) forcing anyone who didn't think of (A) to buy exorbitantly priced Cedar Fair jackets and sweaters. Either way, it's a win/win profit-wise for CF.

---

rollergator said:
I wouldn't be too shocked if the no "re-entry policies" espoused by Snyder and Shapiro in the EARLY stages of their tenures didn't come to pass....gradually.

---

:)

Notice how much more accepting people seem to be with it this time around. Nothing like the outrage when the SF no re-entry rumor hit.

Infamy, I'm just assuming you visited the park on Saturday based on what you said in your post. If that is true, then yes..there were signs. There were signs before you even walked in the park stating "No re-entry after 7pm". The Haunt maps (aka "Escape Route") also clearly state "No re-entry after 7pm". You get warning before you even enter the gates and you get another warning when you pick up a map. (and while I don't remember for sure, I'm thinking there were signs inside the front gates as well stating this policy)

Honestly...It's not too difficult. It probably was funny to the employee that you didn't understand the rule...considering you passed up multiple warnings of said rule.

Also, you complain of "several hour" waits for the haunts. Did you just see the lines and think "oh, that's awful!" I visited on Saturday and was able to go through every single haunt, some multiple times (CornStalkers and Work Site). The longest wait I had was about 45 min. to an hour. You've got to remember the lines are going to look a lot longer to you because these lines don't usually have too many switchbacks, if any at all..unlike the rides that have permanent queues designed with switchbacks in order to create a more compact-looking line. Death Row, for instance, had a line extending from its entrance all the way back to Zephyr. The wait? About 30-45 minutes.

As for people accepting the policy. I think it's fine for events like Haunt. They're allowing people to re-enter during the day...just not at night. If they were to go to a flat-out all day no re-entry policy, I'd be a lot less accepting. *** Edited 10/15/2007 4:45:32 PM UTC by kirk06***

Well, right now it's being passed off as a FrightFest policy...

...for now... ;)

AmusementBusinessBuzz.com would certinaly get some of MY traffic...LOL! :)

Gonch, there is a huge difference between keeping people from leaving a park during a special event that lasts only 6 hours, at night in the fall (wear layers of zippered clothing people, its not that hard) where all attendees are supposed to be over 13 (and most likely under 65) and not letting people out during your normal 12 hour operating day in scorching summer when you have families with young kids and elderly in the park who really shouldn't be out in the middle of the day (or in the case of kids) cant last a full 12 hours in the park.

I don't necessarily see that difference.

Flat out, we have pretty much everyone here ok with a 6-hour no re-entry policy.

12 hour day = two 6 hour windows.

If a park is open 10-10, then have an 'after 5pm' re-admission policy. The beauty part is that this re-entry window would also coincide with when most big parks do the reduced price "twilight" admissions.

This presents the perfect opportunity to spin the policy and explain it to guests. No re-entry after the 'twilight' session begins (at 5pm). No re-entry for 'daytime' guests until the 'twilight' session begins.

So in reality what you're doing is no re-entry after a certain time just like what KI is doing now with the Haunt and limiting daytime re-entry to one-per-guest with the limitation that it has to be after 5pm (similar to KI's current Haunt policy but with the time limitation).

No one has to be in the park for more than 5 hours at a time and they can leave for as long as they'd like during the day and return at night.

(I can't believe I give the parks all of this for free ;) )

I think the main reason for the non re-entry thing has nothing to do with people in the parking lot doing stuff. I think it has more to do with. it gets more packed at night because of the spooky things. Thus, if more people just want to come for nightime, they will be able to get in because they won't let people come back when they leave.

In other words the park is so packed, that if they would allow people to re-enter the park after a certain time, it might be a mayheim. People would be complaining left and right. People leave at 6:00 pm for dinner/shopping outside the park, and than they come back later at 8:30 pm because it's really dark, and it's the best time to get scared.

Well, if everyone does that and more people are entering the park (Season pass people can enter the park anytime they want without worrying about going to the park the whole day. They do it for any coaster ERT thing at parks at night.), guess what happens? It's about money.