BoddaH1994

Extremely lengthy article and this is the KI mention: ”With a record number of stands coming to life, including a kick-off stand at Kings Island on Friday, one stand in Texas and another in Florida, Obert shared this insight with her fellow stand hosts.” Again, this should have been a huge opportunity. The lack of effort and/or competence to get a story out is pathetic. And as far as the social post is concerned, why on Earth would he wait until it’s open? Wouldn’t you want to invite people to the park to contribute to this? Waiting until it’s open is too late. My GF doesn’t have a pony in this race (with KI comms), but she’s passionate about this charity. By the time word got to her, she made a special trip to KI, only to disappointingly find it already closed. I’m sure others had the same experience. I used to think that this level of competence was just kind of sad coming out of a PR/social-heavy place like KI; however, I’m starting to think that you, I, or any aspiring Tik Toker could do a better job. Pathetic.

Would never hold up in court. If someone gets seriously hurt at a park, how do you think, “they shoulda read the back of their ticket!” would go over?

Update: he read my post. Still no press. Bare minimum, at least.

Beggars can’t be choosers, but if I ran that organization I’d be so disappointed. With any level of competence this should have been breakthrough exposure. Instead, they’ll quietly raise a few bucks.

YES! Great organization! Just wish that, in a year without a lot of feel-good stuff coming from the park, there would have at least been a social post…

Not a media outlet in Cincinnati, Columbus, Indy, Dayton or Huntington would have passed on a story about this. This is the only way people would know about this, unless they visited the park. Good job.

Kings Island announced the demolition of Son of Beast on July 27, 2012. Son of Beast opened in 2000 as the world’s tallest, fastest, only-modern-looping wooden rollercoaster. It was Standing But Not Operating (SBNO) after from 2009 until it’s demolition in 2012. Hear what Don Helbig and Ryan Suhr have to say about it on Tower Topics. Don managed the park’s PR during this time.

If they’re doing what you are proposing then that would only be done with unprecedented arrogance.

Same. I eat there if I’m kinda hungry but not really. I have the meal plan so I don’t care. If I paid $25 or whatever for those portions (and quality) + drink then I’d be livid.

I get surveys regularly, but the general survey’s questions are absurd: Paraphrasing: ”A safe park is very important to me.” ”The quality of the food is important.” ”Being able to ride what I want to ride is important.” Literally almost nobody would put anything less than “Very Important” or whatever. A waste of money and data for them and a waste of time for the guest.

Oh I’m sure! What brought this to mind was that my GF and I recently became Disney APs and have received things like a welcome package, magnets, etc from them. She said she wished KI did something like this instead of, for example, charging for a $400 Prestige Pass that gets you free tap water. Thinking back, they did have a program like that about 15 years ago. Who still has this relic of a bygone era?

Let’s find all of the Cinema Sins in someone’s self-indulging descriptions: Would Sally Derrick (Newport Aquarium) have written this? What about Erik Mueller from Watson’s? A track record of solid decision making? Like ill-advised tweets about being fully staffed or Panda Express in Germany? Commitment to customer experience? Like the many, many people who he has blocked on social media for just asking questions or harassed asking for personal phone numbers? Public Relations and Sales Leadership? Like when Adventure Port didn’t make it out of the local markets? Like how there were soft-ball opportunities for live hits, look-lives or stories including most recently, but not limited to, National Carousel Day? Exceptional work ethic? Like when he can’t be reached for comment, or relies on parroting a corporate blurb if there’s any kind of negative news? Or when he’s called out repeatedly for never being actually in the park by several people, and then starts to take selfies with the few park goers that aren’t sickened by him by now in order to prove that he spent 15 minutes “on stage?” This is your spokesperson, folks.

Thank the next lifeguard you see. This isn’t terribly uncommon. https://www.fox19.com/2023/07/25/coney-island-lifeguard-hospitalized-while-rescuing-individual-drowning-deputies-say/?fbclid=IwAR3HpHgU-1_LDDOuC563JMXQzLq4uOIU8NSf1Acv1nPw6205eibV1Vqh1pk_aem_ATA_AXcPWmnU6gx5zJSrq_UFbNaNRPgpCHtUhjKCD76jZolQrz_o-j2GAc4vb1j5k6U&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Honest question. It seems as though there is some confusion as to what time Carnivale starts. According to website, and in past years, it is 5:00. It seems that the food stands open at 5:00, so I get that; however, it seems like several facets of the event seem to think it starts at 6:00: The Bandstand stage: Even the scavenger hunt says 6:00: The people at the booth (who were wonderful, by the way!) told me the QR activates at 4:00 and were shocked when I showed them this photo… and it listed 6:00 on each and every one of them. I understand that the opening ceremony was pushed back until 6:00 this year, but the scavenger hunt, food booths, activities, etc all open at 5:00. Why would all of these things say that GC starts at 6:00? Am I missing something?

Oh, I thought you were saying that you liked the Carowinds street party better.

Although I agree that the Street Party was the weakest part of the 50th Celebration last year, the most important part (at least to me, probably others) was “Fun, Fireworks and Fifty.” The night shows at the other parks don’t even touch that show. I’d rather have that than the better Street Party.

I had a conversation about season pass giveaways in the past (they were like Enhanced Pass Perks, but were actually real). It struck me that enough time had passed that some may not have seen this before, but it was a nice little thing they did for people who renewed early. I think this was 2007 going into 2008. If you want to see one in the wild, meet up with @IndyGuy4KI on a cool day. He is the only person I know that wears one regularly.

The Queen of Kings Island is available on Spotify if you have a hankering for the Wurlitzer Band Organ today.

We were both joking.

July 25 is National Carousel Day! Kings Island has one of the finest examples of a true classic carousel: PTC #79. This beautiful work of art has been entertaining children and adults alike since 1926! Check out the latest Tower Topics where we discuss the Grand Carousel:

So is the other one. They’re just EXAMPLES.

I think everyone should read those links. It’s easy to fall into the trap of, “The park was dead when I was there so attendance must be down.” - or - “I’m disappointed Orion isn’t 300’ tall so no one is buying tickets to ride it.” We ALL fall into that trap from time to time.

I’m sure he’s covering both. But I’m saying that no one is comparing his PR techniques to Don’s. People saying that they saw the media walking around without a cohort, or that he can’t get a story out of Cincinnati, or that he has dismantled the park’s relationship with the enthusiast groups has nothing to do with Don. But since he’s a social media newbie I’ll throw him a bone on this one: Since July 22 is in the past, it’s generally accepted that in situations like this it would be phrased as, “Daily through August 6, 2023,” so that the messaging doesn’t come off as dated. Also, calling out July 24 - 30 on the post but 22 - Aug 6 is both confusing and sloppy. None of this is simply my opinion. This is a widely-accepted style guide in professional social media. So @gforce1994 please ask him to fix this next time he feeds you some lines to post here.

Probably the cam went back up but they haven’t updated the web site to take the preparations thing off. They were rehearsing from 11:00p until like 3:00a or so. They didn’t want you watching that. This is going to sound dumb, but I’m glad they do this. I’d totally be tempted to watch the cams and ruin the surprise for myself.

Who says he’s filling Don’s shoes? Don was Area Manager, Digital Marketing. Chad is Director of Communications. When people point out the lack of professionalism from Chad, it’s not necessarily saying, “Don did it better.” It’s saying “this is the experience I’ve had with that guy.” You can be sad that Don is gone and you can also be frustrated with Chad’s lack of professionalism. Two things can be true at once without one being associated with the other. I do appreciate that you want to maintain this forum’s relationship with the park, but given that Brad clearly doesn’t even get press releases from the park anymore, does it even matter?