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Photo TR: KI & SFStL.


Looty

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Hi Everyone,

 

Some friends and I decided to hop in the car and go ride some coasters this past weekend. We originally planned on heading down to Worlds of minimal Fun to check out Prowler, but it wasn’t ready. After some brief planning, we decided to go to Kings Island to check out Diamondback on opening day. Let me just say that Diamondback is a fantastic ride that provides some excellent airtime and you all should go check it out. I still give the edge to Goliath at SFOG when it comes to B&M hypers, but Diamondback is a very close second (and it is way better than Behemoth!). With that said, we had a fairly miserable day at Kings Island. It was extremely busy and operations (besides the Diamondback crew) were absolutely terrible! There were 2+ trains on everything, yet the ride ops were moving at Mt. Olympus speed (that’s a bad thing). I wouldn’t say that the park was out of control busy, the crews just seemed to be quite rusty (waiting 40-45 minutes to ride Flight Deck when the line was just at the bottom of the staircase going up to the station).

 

On Sunday, we packed up and decided to drive to SFStL to check out Evel Knieval. The park was absolutely deserted due to crappy weather! I believe I counted 29 cars in the parking lot from the ferris wheel. All of the employees rocked and seemed really friendly and enthusiastic. As a result of the lack of people at the park that day, we were able to stay on all of the coasters for multiple re-rides. We were able to ride everything we wanted to in 3 hours before leaving.

EK is a really fun ride. It’s nothing special when it comes to statistics, but it provides plenty of air, laterals, and it moves at a quick pace. We had a much better time at SF than we did at KI the day before.

 

Enjoy the pics!

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Thanks for reading.

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So long SF. Thanks for an awesome time!

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Batman needed some love too.

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Sexy!

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When we walked by the Boss, there were 4 girls waving us over. They wanted to ride but the employee said the ride can't run unless 8 or more people are in the train. Ok sure I guess we'll ride...

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Where is everyone?

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Tony Hawk's Meat Spin!

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Lots of airtime!

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EK was awesome!

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...Except Robin. "Even I'm not gay enough to dance like that."

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The employees at SF seemed to be having a good time.

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As a result, the park was empty!

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The next day we drove to St. Louis and were greeted by some awesome weather.

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Thanks for a mediocre day Kings Island!

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I finally got my SOB credit. My first trip to KI was a week after "The Accident."

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Good Ride...Awful Crew!

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People still waiting for season pass procesing.

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More photos from the Eiffel Tower

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We didn't ride until close to 4, but we still got our free shirts!

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Everyone having fun?

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Here is some Diamondback love for ya.

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We decided to finally bite the bullet around 4 and score our first ride. Diamondback has a single rider line, but you have to be single to use it. My friends and i were willing to split up and sit wherever if that would save us 1+ hours in line. The entrance lady informed us that if you are with people that you know, you have to wait in line. There was a mentally handicapped man in front of us who had to wait in line because he was with his caretaker. The caretaker didn't want to ride; just get him on the ride...but they had to wait to. This is possibly one of the most ridiculous policies I have ever heard of. I only grew more annoyed by watching train-after-train go by with multiple empty seats! WTF!

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Oh what's that I see? The awesome Beast crew managed to stack all three trains yet again! This happened a lot and was quite annoying. How do you consistently stack all three trains on a ride that lasts 5 minutes???

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We enjoyed our ride after waiting forever.

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I love The Beast...especially at night.

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Backdoor Stunt Coaster entertaining. The crew here was pretty good too.

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We decided to skip Vortex considering that my first two rides were Vekoma's

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Yay for long lines and slow ops who weren't fully trained.

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Since we were all in the park now and "having fun", we decided to go hit up a ride right away that has a terrible capacity before the crowds got there. We waited about an hour and a half.

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We heard the line for Diamondback was like 36 hours long so we decided to check that out later. While Rachel and Cameron waited in the GR line, Sam and I went to check out Invertigo. The ride ended up opening 10 minutes late. We made it on the second train which stopped on the lift. While sitting there, I noticed that the season pass processing line went past the 8 or so buses and was forming in the parking lot! We got off the ride finally by 10:30...so just to recap, Invertigo sent two cycles within the first 30 minutes of it being open!

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What a beautiful day. Sam and I had tickets and got right in. Rachel and Cameron got there season passes at VF and guess what?...they didn't work at the turnstiles. They were directed to go wait in the Guest Relations line that extended back to the parking lot and was easily a 60 minute wait. Apparently an employee had to wait in the line too because his ID didn't work. Cam and Rachel eventually got in and when they complained in GR, the not-so-nice GR lady instructed them that they have all day to have fun so "Have Fun!"

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Check out the new buses.

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The next morning we arrived at KI 30 minutes before the park opened to a nearly full parking lot. Today is going to be a good day...

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OMG there it is! We also noticed nerds camping out at the parking booth.

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Here is our room. The door handles make fantastic bottle openers ;)

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We stayed at the Hyatt Place near Kings Island. It was actually a pretty nice place besides the Thought Control working at the front desk.

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Driving through Indiana was a real hoot.

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Bye Chicago.

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Oh no! Here comes the home of countless cheese, porn, and firework shops. If you are in the mood for some fine swiss and desire to blow a load.....of money on fireworks that is, then Wisconsin is for you. Oh and they have porn too if that's what you're into :)

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So long Minneapolis.

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"Hey guys wait for.." - Shut up Steel Venom!...Nobody loves you anymore.

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Oh god!...Rachel's driving! I better put on a second seatbelt.

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We decided to grab a quick bite at Lions Tap near Valleyfair (on the other side of the river). If you are visiting Valleyfair, make sure you stop and eat here. Best burgers around!

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"Hey guys hey...come ride me. I promise I'll go easy on your testicles this time I swear. Wait...where are they going? Oh man I need a drink."

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Cameron and Rachel needed to get their CF Platinum Passes so everything would go according to plan and our day at KI would be flawless. Oh boy...

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First stop Kings Is...err I mean Valleyfair?

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...and me (with my tongue looking particularly nasty here).

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Here's the crew: Sam, Cameron, and Rachel.

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As an official member of this trip...

yes... Beast was stacking 3 trains, almost every train. The crew was that bad. They sure got a lot better after the park closed and they were rushing to clear the line to go home though...

 

I really cannot express how disappointed I was with KI. I had been there before in 2000, and had a good time. I can honestly say I've never had such a bad experience at a Cedar Fair park.

 

On the other hand, KUDOS to SFSTL... Even though the crowd had a large part of it, the employees were EXCELENT consistantly at Six Flags. Every employee greeted us, was very friendly and ran the rides efficiently(though there were no riders!)

 

I truely believe that Six Flags is passing up CF when it comes to service and efficiency. It's too bad that they can't get thier finances straightened out because they have really turned around.

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Nice TR. Diamondback looks fun! Although that splashdown doesn't even get you or anyone nearby wet unfortunately, its just a decoration.

 

Oh nooo you are wrong! Sit in the back outer edge seat and turn around during the splashdown! The rooster tails will shoot right up into your face at extreme pressure, you'll be drenched! I did it every time I rode Back seat Saturday.

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Thats dissapointing KI sucks at operating the park now, ive only been there once bu its on my list of must go back to parks because of the awesomeness of the Beast and they had pretty stellar operations then. The overall feeling I get about CF though is that their parks are geting worse and SF parks are getting better.

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Thats dissapointing KI sucks at operating the park now, ive only been there once bu its on my list of must go back to parks because of the awesomeness of the Beast and they had pretty stellar operations then. The overall feeling I get about CF though is that their parks are geting worse and SF parks are getting better.

 

I wouldn't say that as KI had a huge turnout due to DB & just wasn't ready to handle the crowds especially on opening day,which happens at most parks as the staff are just getting into their job routines.

 

Seems like KD's opening day was rather nice in comparison even though there was quite a bit of downtime on some rides for most of the day,but then again they didn't exactly have a marquee attraction to debut this year unlike last season.

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Maybe it's nitpicky, and I apologize if I'm wrong, but any photo taking while on-board a ride, even on the brake run (at least when I was on the Beast crew) is a violation of park policy. Just FYI...

 

Also, many of the crew are new and have never worked on their rides with people before, so you can't expect operations to be decent.... Turnover in the rides department is pretty high, and jumping from no crowd to huge crowds can be quite daunting to a new employee.

 

As for the stacking.... Never happened before seatbelts. the GP apparently have never seen seatbelts outside of the themepark, as nobody ever could get the concept of buckling them before pulling down on their lapbars. All it takes is one "larger" person and some seatbelt troubles to stack three trains on the Beast. I've seen it many times, even with good crews...

 

Don't take this wrong, I hate KI as much as the next Mason/Kings local who lives within biking distance of the park, but I think it's unfair to judge a park on opening day, that's all. I'm sure they'll dissapoint people later in their own right

 

-James Dillaman

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I work at a park myself and I can understand new employees not being fast and guests being difficult and the occasional stack, but the Beast crew was stacking like crazy! I also think its poor business to expect guests to understand that the crew is inexperienced and therefore slow. I never hear about similar problems at Disney parks.

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I work at a park myself and I can understand new employees not being fast and guests being difficult and the occasional stack, but the Beast crew was stacking like crazy! I also think its poor business to expect guests to understand that the crew is inexperienced and therefore slow. I never hear about similar problems at Disney parks.

 

Disney parks are not seasonal.... completely different when you're only training one new person on an experienced crew as opposed to one experienced person on a completely new crew. Trust me. It is especially a problem with the 16-17 year old crew members on the rides. Plus Disney tends to hold workers for longer times than KI can. I remember people working for a total of only a couple months on the Beast crew when I worked there. If you expect Disney caliber from KI, then that's a failure of your expectations more than the park. I wouldn't ask for a NY Strip steak from McDonalds....

 

Also, once the Beast IS stacking all trains, it's very tough to unstack them, especially the way the newer blocking system is set up. You don't want trains stacking on the lift....

 

-James Dillaman

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I work at a park myself and I can understand new employees not being fast and guests being difficult and the occasional stack, but the Beast crew was stacking like crazy! I also think its poor business to expect guests to understand that the crew is inexperienced and therefore slow. I never hear about similar problems at Disney parks.

 

Disney parks are not seasonal.... completely different when you're only training one new person on an experienced crew as opposed to one experienced person on a completely new crew. Trust me. It is especially a problem with the 16-17 year old crew members on the rides. Plus Disney tends to hold workers for longer times than KI can. I remember people working for a total of only a couple months on the Beast crew when I worked there. If you expect Disney caliber from KI, then that's a failure of your expectations more than the park. I wouldn't ask for a NY Strip steak from McDonalds....

 

Also, once the Beast IS stacking all trains, it's very tough to unstack them, especially the way the newer blocking system is set up. You don't want trains stacking on the lift....

 

-James Dillaman

 

Which is what they used to do a few years ago...I in 04-07 I vividly remember being parked on the lift for a good 30-60 seconds so they could space out the trains. It happened about 3/5 times.

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There was a mentally handicapped man in front of us who had to wait in line because he was with his caretaker. The caretaker didn't want to ride; just get him on the ride...but they had to wait to. This is possibly one of the most ridiculous policies I have ever heard of. I only grew more annoyed by watching train-after-train go by with multiple empty seats! WTF!

 

Not letting a handicapped, single rider, thats just wrong...I can understand not letting you guys on the single rider line (perhaps you should have pretended like you didn't know each other). I really hope that the caretaker complained because there is no reason why they shouldn't of let him/her on the single line.

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James... you are being an apologist for poor operations. All 4 of the people in our group are current/former park employees with over 20 years in the business between us. WE KNOW the realities and challenges of running a park, but that doesn't make what we saw acceptable. WE KNOW what it is like to be new on rides, ETC. However, like I said before, it should take no more than a few hours for people to start to get into the groove. Loading a roller coaster is NOT rocket science.

 

On numerous occasions we saw bare bones staffing levels checking the trains, while 3-4 people were huddled in the doghouse talking. I don't care if they even had a good reason for this, but it is bad show to say the least.

 

As Looty said, are you going to expect PAYING customers to be OK with waiting 2x as long as a line should be because "The crew is inexperienced!"

 

It may be the truth, but it doesn't have to be as bad, and it IS NOT a valid excuse.

 

/rant

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I never made an excuse, only trying figure out why... A well-run park would take care of these things, but again, you expect possibly more out of KI than any locals do. The fact that Diamondback was running on opening day is amazing for KI. Everything the ride is supposed to do it does (like the splashdown). This may not seem like a big deal, but ask anyone what the Italian job (Backlot) Stunt Coaster was supposed to do... Heck, even the Crypt opened with the season. KI exceeded my expectations. As for the crowds, KI is notorious for bad crowds, and they are never handled well. Those of us who live nearby just deal with it. As for the "my friends and I have been in the the themepark business, etc." That's well and good, but I've been on the Beast crew, and I know what usually casuses stacking trains (guests not putting on their seatbelt before they sit down) and how difficult it is to not stack trains once they start. Trains can't clear the lift until the other train has cleared the second lift. This was a change when they got rid of the skid brakes, as trains can no longer be stopped in the brake shed as there is only a magnetic trim there to slow the train down. Because of this, 3-train operation is bunched up around the station, as it makes the whole back side of the ride one giant block... Again, not making excuses, as a great crew can get it back going, but it is extremely difficult, especially with large crowds!

 

And as for the handicapped person, if it was Robbie, he was waiting for the front seat, so he's used to waiting a couple trains... if it wasn't robbie, I don't know, but from your description, it definitely sounds like him.

 

-James Dillaman

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You criticize KI for poor operations on OPENING DAY with new crews on everyride. Tha park was jammed....

 

Then you say Six Flags St louis is far superior when it had a total of maybe 100 guests that day. Obviously employees will be friendlier if they dont have 200 people in line just to buy a slice of pizza. I know on slow days at my job I'm in much better of a mood than when it's busy.

 

Visit both parks with the same kind of crowds before you compare them to each other.

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Stacking is definately the result of the GP's ignorance. I think a good solution would be some sort of safety instructional video like they have in Disney rides and airplanes?

 

Do any rides still use those videos anymore?

 

~ Jess "It's elementary, my dear general public people" Chan

 

Yes...that's what I sometimes wish I could say to them when I see people like that lagging up the loading process.

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Visit both parks with the same kind of crowds before you compare them to each other.

 

I see your point. And yet, you can only judge what you see. I certainly wouldn't give a park a pass because they were busy (what matters is how they handle it), and I wouldn't not give a park credit just because they were slow.

 

The original poster didn't without any of those details when they made their judgement. There's nothing wrong with comparing apples to oranges if you're upfront about the fact that you're doing it.

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Wow, everyone settle down.

 

Basically, we had a bad time due to lack of efficiency on behalf of the operations (with the exception of the Diamondback crew who did a good job given the crowds). The park was not "jammed" all day, and the efficiency never improved. The lines were manageable but most of the crews were inefficient. LACK OF EFFICIENCY.

 

BamBam, I never "compared" the two parks, I simply said that we had a better time at SF. I understand the circumstances were different, but it is what it is. KI sucked and we had a good time at SF.

 

BTW...The handicapped person I mentioned ended up sitting in the back; not the front.

 

Now, can't we all just get along?

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