Associated parks:
None
The park was mobbed and we rode every coaster once and Beast twice and SOB 3 times. DIdn't ride the 54" height rides or Drop Zone. My daughter didn't want to ride Drop Zone and it shut down later in the night before I could talk her into it. She wasn't tall enough to ride the otheres. We took a break and left the park from 2:30-5:30pm. The kiddie rides were about 25 minutes when we returned. We waited 55 minutes for SOB the first time and 10-15 minutes twice more before the park closed. Very rough on the legs but overall I thought it was a great coaster. My daughter was only checked once on her height and that was right before she got on SOB the second time. There were no ride ops at the entrances checking anyone. When we returned from our break we didn't have a parking receipt because no one gave us one and the attendant said you have to ask for a re-entry pass when you first drive in. And I would know that how??? We got back in with no problem, though.
Top Gun was fun but short. Overalll, I prefer it to Iron Dragon at CP and I preferred Adventure Express to Cedar Creek MR. We left the park at 9:15pm.
Overall, I wouldn't bother going back. The parking lot was filthy upon exiting the park. My daughter even mentioned it. The park's signs with the wait times looked permanent because the time displayed was not changeable unless they brought out another sign. That was weird. SOB didn't even have wait times posted. The ride ops were not that quick. The parking situation we had was an indication of a disorganized park. I am glad we went but I wouldn't rush back.
Also, its interesting you mention PKI's Parking Situations, as I found them weird too, however my story is a little different though. We got to the park as normal, and payed to get in, Now when we got in the parking lot, we suddenly realised that there was absolutly NO ONE directing us to parking places, We thought this was terribly weird, and we were driving round for a couple of mins wondering where the hell to go. Anyway, we finally see a member of staff and ask him
Me and Dad - Excuse me, Where the hell do we park, No one is directing us to spaces
Member of Staff - Oh, you can park anywhere you want
Me and Dad -Anywhere, so can we park in this section(pointing to PKI Gold Section)
Member of Staff - Yeah, if you want too
So there we were parking in the PKI Gold Section(And being very near to the entrance) although we probably was'nt allowed to park in that section, the member of staff we talked too said it was OK, so thats what we done, HILARIOUS, however we didnt mind, we had a 1 minute walk to the entrance, while others were parking really far away, He He.
I feel the same way as you though, PKI was a great park, but it certaintly was'nt the best by any means, I would certaintly go back if I got the chance, But I wouldnt be in a rush to do so.
About the wait-time signs, they aren't meant to show how long the total wait is, like the ones at Cedar Point. They show how long the wait is from the sign. For example, when you pass the sign, the wait is whatever the sign says from there, assuming the queue is full up to that sign.
Anyway, when a 7 year old mentions how dirty the parking lot is, you've got problems. If I had my choice of 7 days at Cedar Point or 6days and 1 at PKI, I would pick 7 days at CP. To me, the parks are like night and day. CP to me is a Ferrari and PKI is a Volkswagen. No contest whatsoever. And my home park is IOA so I don't have any bias whatsoever. I wish I had loved both parks eually. I wouldn't have liked PKI even if it was the only park I had visited that weekend.
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Grant said:
"Why does everything have be compared to CP????"
Because Cedar Point is the end all be all GRAND POO-BAH of all parks. Every park should strive to be like Cedar Point. There focus is on pleasing their guests no matter what! Anyone who has a bad day at Cedar Point was TRYING to have a bad day. Because Cedar Point is THAT DAMN GOOD!!!
(SATURATED WITH SARCASM)
All I can say about this post is I had the opposite experience with PKI both last and this year. They've got the best woodie east of Indiana (Sonny). GREAT operations, and friendly staff. My only knock on the park was the food was nasty. PKI is second only to HersheyPark as being the best all around family park of the ones I have visited (BGT =3, IOA=4).
As for the ops at the entrance checking height, I have an issue with that anyway. I think it's great that park have the signs there (though apparently the brainless seldom use them), but I dont like attendants there barring people from entering the line. For example, what if you have a child who has no intentions of riding, but you want to keep her in line with you to talk and whatnot (she'd simply step through the ride and wait at the exit). At CP, this would not be allowed (I know, I saw it with my own two eyes on Raptor). Maybe you could get an exit pass, but I (like many others) really dont know what all those procedures/requirements are (and on that particular day, the Raptor attendant proffered no such advice).
There are plusses and minuses to each and every situation.
lata,
jeremy
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"When I take action I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive." GWB
2Hostyl said:
My only knock on the park was the food was nasty.
No Way, PKI do some lovely food, I ate in the WINGS Diner, and they do some of the best Chicken I have ever tasted, It was lovely, they also done some Nice Wedges with it too. Very Filling indeed,I gotta admit, It was a Bit Pricey, but Overall, The Food was Great.
As for the ops at the entrance checking height, I have an issue with that anyway. I think it's great that park have the signs there (though apparently the brainless seldom use them), but I dont like attendants there barring people from entering the line. For example, what if you have a child who has no intentions of riding, but you want to keep her in line with you to talk and whatnot (she'd simply step through the ride and wait at the exit). At CP, this would not be allowed (I know, I saw it with my own two eyes on Raptor). Maybe you could get an exit pass, but I (like many others) really dont know what all those procedures/requirements are (and on that particular day, the Raptor attendant proffered no such advice).
I can understand your point, but the reality is that there are far too many people that would say their child is not going to ride and then they would try to ride. The purpose of having the people at entrance and turnstiles is to eliminate all of the potential garbage/distractions (huge stuffed animals, small children, etc.) so that the ops on the platform can work efficiently and courteously to quickly and safely dispatch trains, not having to deal with other things. This also usually eliminates the situation where a party "thinks" their child is tall enough and waits through the entire line only to be turned away right before riding. Situations like this usually are not good.
Cedar Point does have a parent swap policy which works out very nicely for a family with a child too small/scared to ride. The child waits with a responsible person on the midway while the rest of the party enters the line and waits like normal with a purple slip. When they are finished riding, they hand the slip to one of the ops on the unload side, go down to the midway, meet up with the others and send the responsible person (and one other who can re-ride) back up the exit to ride where they are put on within one or two trains usually. In my opinion, this is the safest/fairest way of doing things. It keeps the small child off of the platform for safety, does not require a family to "wait in line twice," it allows the child to have a companion down on the midway (they could even ride other rides with smaller requirements), and as an extra bonus, one person can re-ride with the adult who waited with the child.
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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
Even if I just take the park for what it is I wouldn't go back. It's just not a great experience. Remember, I didn't ride the 54" heightn requirement rides because of my daughter. Still, my displeasure is with the staff and how the park is run, not with the coasters.
As far as the food at the park goes, Skyline Chili and LaRosa`s pizza are both quality restraunts found throughout the park offering great food.
I have visited Paramount`s Kings Dominion and Paramount`s Carowinds as well and I think that Paramount`s Kings Island is the best Paramount Park that I`ve visited. I was at the park on the 23 of september. One thing that makes me mad is that I paid an extra $10 to park in gold season pass parking, and they had no one checking to keep non- gold pass holders out of the area that I paid to park in.
I do not mean to insult anybody, but am just stating my opinions.
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www.geocities.com/coastersrz I`ve ridden Son of Beast 59 times!
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