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https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1128440032657017&set=a.644361881064837

Surprise guest Gary Wachs.

Adventure Express and Flight of Fear tour.

A bit from the Orion/Racer tour.

Welcome VP of Ops/Park Manager Tony Carovillano! https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/kings-island-shakeup-gm-retires-new-park-manager-employee-layoffs

Here ya go:

Same stuff happened when CF bought Paramount, then they had to go through years of trying to get back what those people brought to the table. Many of whom were around since early KI days.

The company railroaded all of their park VPs. This is NOT a good sign of things to come. These parks are going to the Six Flags level.

How do you start The Beast tour? With Beast Feast!

It is starting to look that way for sure. As much as I want to see Six flags flourish and be successful, I think they are in way over their heads right now. You can't get rid of the most experienced and dedicated people and expect it to keep running good or better than it was before.

All valid points. My quick take: They held a dog and pony Investor day to try to oversell their efforts and generate positive buzz and the investors saw right thru and asked the pointed questions. They are falling well short of the pre-merger synergy savings they touted as a reason for the merger. Eliminating a bunch of rides and counting the reduced O&M savings as a synergy of the merger was called out. Once you take the shine off the sell, they only have about $60M on hand, upcoming $350M in notes due, and carrying almost $6B in debt. They need money and they need it fast. Stock price down over 30% this year. With the dumpster fire of an Investor day, they feel a sense of urgency to act quick to try to gain investor confidence. We are now seeing the knee-jerk reactions and direction changes based on whatever direction the wind is blowing the Six Flags over the HQ at Charlotte. The media has latched on to the park head honcho terminations (or um retirements), but there are lots of other positions let go and at several levels below head honcho level that folks thought wouldn't get that deep. That is their story to tell, so I won't share how deep, but expect to see more cuts....just because you never heard about it or didn't know them doesn't mean they didn't provide tremendous value in your day at the park. Buy your silver pass....

Slaughterhouse tour.

That's for keeping us updated @chad_1138! Much appreciated.

Worth noting that Mike didn’t retire. He was laid off.

Backwards train ride into the shed!

Today, Saturday, May 31st Kings Island announced it is Mike Koontz Day. Mike was always supportive of KIC and answered any questions when asked. I am personally very sad to see him go. KIC admin wish Mike all the best in his next adventure in his life. Let's use this thread to post your congratulations , appreciation, and wish Mike all the best! Here you see KIC interviewing Mike at the opening of Adventure Port.

Wish I was there today (at Dollywood) really like Mike. Looked for him the other day (Tuesday) when I was at the park.

I believe its a local, regional and system team effort. For instance, Kyle Kruthoffer from KD is helping oversee it.

Jason McClure is the General Manager of about five parks. Tony will be park manager. Think of him as the manager on duty, while all decisions run through Jason. The park manager is well-below the rank and pay grade of what the General Manager/VP was. The park manager will be a point man, while still maintaining their duties - in this case, Tony will also be VP of Operations along with Park Manager.

Can someone explain to me exactly what has been restructured with the retirement of Koontz? What job positions have been eliminated/combined by having Tony as the new manager of the park? I'm assuming there has been some restructuring and that Koontz wasn't simply replaced. Any explanation is appreciated. I do like the idea of our new manager having ties to the park from back in his early career so hopefully we are in good hands

This was actually added in 2019. I was a little surprised the original Beast Canyon sign was visible again. I think they just did some touch ups of this sign during the offseason.

I hope they don't cut the fireworks and live shows.

He's a good guy. Glad to see this, although I'd rather see him be the General Manager, but y'know...

Congratulations Tony! Photo credit: https://www.worldsoffun.com/blog/2020/from-16-year-old-ride-operator-to-gm-tony-carovillano

Blog Post from his Role at Valleyfair: From 16 Year Old Ride Operator to GM: Meet Tony Carovillano Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't he our assistant GM and current VP of Ops already? I know he was GM of Worlds of Fun for a bit as shown in the blog post.

Don't miss rhe bubble show preview at 7pm!

Maybe instead of the Q&A they will show the episode of Ghost Hunters

What ever became of the glass blower and his shop? I know he was an original concessionaire...just wondering.

Great photos Chad!

If I had any position in this company, I would be making a back up plan. How stable are these park level social media positions? How stable are the executive chef positions? Logic would dictate very stable as food is seen as a key metric for future growth. Will they say " hey Chef Major can handle everything east of the Mississippi River, and Chef X can handle anything west if it. On the park manager position...if that person knows the market very well, but the regional person doesn't, would they be targeted for advocating for their park vs a copy/ paste from another? Have you noticed how much the stock price is down? Are investors unhappy with the direction? I watched about half of the investment day video, and besides horrible audio, it looked like a dumpster fire to me.

They're at half-staff for Mike's last day . In all seriousness though, there is a banner on the Eiffel Tower today with his name on it. At least I can see it from the webcams. Anyone able to snap a photo today at the park?

Straight out of the Mickey Mouse playbook. https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2024/08/29/we-paid-29-for-dessert-in-epcot-was-it-worth-it/ That being said, I hope it meets expectations.

Ah, train guy. Think we’re in good hands. Congrats!

I mean. If they built the swim up bar/adult pool near the power lines they could call it "Electric Eeel Lounge"

He used to be located in the Spanish building where Sweet Spot is. His old spot is now Sweet Spot's "Slam Bam" register. He moved across the street to the German building outside of Emporium.

Bought a few glass blown pieces last season for our daughter’s room! Still there as far as I know.

I think the Skyline Pavilion would be a lot better if they cleaned/painted it and replaced the lights/fans/tables with newer versions. It always seems a bit disjointed/dirty, so that would almost definitely help. A few TVs would also make it more like the covered Jukebox Diner patio. Maybe the park can put in a small food stand across the path from it, blocking the view of QCSC but giving it some more purpose. The Saltwater Circus lawn would be an awesome spot to put a new flat ride. I'm choosing to believe that is why the spot next to the Grand Carousel was chosen, in addition to being effectively right next to Tower Gardens. Kings Island still has a lot to do when it comes to improving their summer festivals. I do hope the park puts one of their little stages under the tent and has some small live entertainment there.

A look at Country Crossroads in 2025 in the Festhaus!

She may become the point person for the event, but everything should have been in place and ready to go by now.

So is Elizabeth now in charge of this event?

I received my items today - via Fed Ex. I'll not spoil it, but it made my day. The T-shirt is my fav design to date! There's another surprise in there too ;-)

Daughter just saw a posting of someone who got their stuff today. Not sure if by FedEx, UPS, ....

We have not. The packets were said to be shipped this week, so whether that meant on Monday or Friday? I’m anticipating them showing up next week. 20 days to go!!!

The Coasterstock schedule/itinerary is now on the KI website. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/events/coasterstock

We not going to go because we are going to go to holiday world. I don't know what the big deal is because people were mad they didn't get into holiday world so having coasterstock as another choice would be a good thing. Lots of people think Kings Island has gone down hill ( just like Diamondback lolol). But I still love it and I ride Diamondback all the time but I like now beast and Orion. Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

It annually sold out three months ahead of time in minutes before this year, which took seven hours. They didn't create the level of demand as in previous years. They didn't have three times the capacity ready to purchase tickets when they went on sale at 10 a.m. That's the difference between this year and previous years. It is always exciting to see old friends and make new ones at Coasterstock. That's what the event was built around, what made it the success it has been.

With it being the same weekend as Holiwood Nights, I feel the demand isn't as high as it was in past years where it was the only coaster event happening within the general area. Either that, or they raised the attendance cap.

As of 10:17am tickets still available. You do get a t-shirt.

We got ours too! (my wife and our youngest son (15)) It'll be our first Coasterstock!

Daughter and I just got our 2025 Coasterstock tickets.....