https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/warren-county/mason/kings-island-closes-early-over-suspicious-item

A big thank you goes out to the associates of Kings Island and he various police forces for their professional handling of the situation.

To be honest, there wasn’t a completely professional handling of the situation from the KI side. People were being told the fireworks were still going to happen and to sit and wait for them. They need a protocol for things like this and their cast members need to be taught how to follow it.

4 minutes ago, mustbeaweasley said:

To be honest, there wasn’t a completely professional handling of the situation from the KI side. People were being told the fireworks were still going to happen and to sit and wait for them. They need a protocol for things like this and their cast members need to be taught how to follow it.

I don’t know who told you that the fireworks were still going to go. Might have been the plan at the time. I knew something was up when it was 10:03 and they hadn’t started, which is a mistake that wouldn’t be typical of them. Security guards were going to groups who were waiting at the front of the fountain politely informing them that the fireworks were cancelled. There was a bit of confusion, but that’s inherent to the situation. None the less, thousands of people left the park in a safe and secure manner after a day of fun.

5 minutes ago, mustbeaweasley said:

To be honest, there wasn’t a completely professional handling of the situation from the KI side. People were being told the fireworks were still going to happen and to sit and wait for them. They need a protocol for things like this and their cast members need to be taught how to follow it.

if the park was told to shut down ASAP by the Mason Police, then not much they could of done

1 minute ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I don’t know who told you that the fireworks were still going to go. Might have been the plan at the time. I knew something we up when it was 10:03 and they hadn’t started, which is a mistake that wouldn’t be typical of them. Security guards were going to groups who were waiting at the front of the fountain politely informing them that the fireworks were cancelled. There was a bit of confusion, but that’s inherent to the situation. None the less, thousands of people left the park in a safe and secure manner after a day of fun.

exactly! all that matters that people were safe! 

A “basic fire cracker” can shut down the whole park?   Maybe this should be in the “I Cant Make This Crap Up” thread.  

Makes everything make sense in a way. Situations like that always make me go hmmm, because on one hand, you don't want to tell the general public that you're shutting down the park for a possible explosive device because you cause mass hysteria, but at the same time, that would be good info to know. 

The webcams were shut down, because if it was a situation, chances are good that whomever had planted the device or devices would be watching via webcam to see what they had done. 

2 minutes ago, lifetimecoaster said:

Makes everything make sense in a way. Situations like that always make me go hmmm, because on one hand, you don't want to tell the general public that you're shutting down the park for a possible explosive device because you cause mass hysteria, but at the same time, that would be good info to know. 

The webcams were shut down, because if it was a situation, chances are good that whomever had planted the device or devices would be watching via webcam to see what they had done. 

true, im just glad everyone was safe 

Yes, there’s a fine line. Don’t know exactly what is the best way to handle things. You can’t tell people that there’s a suspicious object that’s been found because then you potentially have people stampeding for the exits but you also need to keep your employees somewhat informed so they aren’t just telling guests “we have no idea what’s going on, just sit and wait.”

 

Glad it was just a scare and everyone is safe, of course.

1 minute ago, mustbeaweasley said:

Yes, there’s a fine line. Don’t know exactly what is the best way to handle things. You can’t tell people that there’s a suspicious object that’s been found because then you potentially have people stampeding for the exits but you also need to keep your employees somewhat informed so they aren’t just telling guests “we have no idea what’s going on, just sit and wait.”

 

Glad it was just a scare and everyone is safe, of course.

You don’t always tell everyone everything you know in a situation like this. There was no reason to induce panic. Most people didn’t notice a difference. They went home happy like it was any other visit to the park.

I heard they also found sidewalk chalk. 

14 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

You don’t always tell everyone everything you know in a situation like this. 

Didn’t say, nor do I think, they should.

20 minutes ago, mustbeaweasley said:

Didn’t say, nor do I think, they should.

Not saying you did. It’s a blanket statement. Guests were going to ask what was going on and sometimes an honest, “I don’t know” is both the correct and the best answer.

Edit: The stories are rolling in-

https://local12.com/news/local/suspicious-item-closed-kings-island-early-tuesday

In the society we live, regardless of which approach KI took - either make an announcement and immediately close the park OR do as they did last night, people are going to complain about how it happened.

For safety reasons, the park will not elaborate on the decision making process, but they took the information they had and determined a course of action to minimize injuries.  The fact that everyone got out of the park safely means they did their job.  Most probably left like oh well things happen no fireworks, some left furious that they sat there and waited, and some left without realizing anything was going on.  Those that are observant though could have noticed the subtle differences occurring in the final two hours to know something was up...

It's always easy to play armchair quarterback and say they should have done something different...

1 minute ago, disco2000 said:

In the society we live, regardless of which approach KI took - either make an announcement and immediately close the park OR do as they did last night, people are going to complain about how it happened.

For safety reasons, the park will not elaborate on the decision making process, but they took the information they had and determined a course of action to minimize injuries.  The fact that everyone got out of the park safely means they did their job.  Most probably left like oh well things happen no fireworks, some left furious that they sat there and waited, and some left without realizing anything was going on.  Those that are observant though could have noticed the subtle differences occurring in the final two hours to know something was up...

It's always easy to play armchair quarterback and say they should have done something different...

Plus... hindsight is 20/20.

We now know there was no real threat. They could have operated as usual. They didn’t know that at the time. 

Plus a “suspicious package” quickly turns into “there’s a bomb in Action Zone!” as the rumor mill turns. It was way, way better to have people leave confused and maybe a little disgruntled rather than having a trampling incident of people trying to get out. The story came out after everyone was safe. Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

3 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Tell that to the Sidewalk Chalk Lady.  

Just now, King Ding Dong said:

Tell that to the Sidewalk Chalk Lady.  

Eh... probably would have sought out permission on that one first. 

Wondered as we were there and decided to head to the car about 9:50. Had the idea to put on “greatest show” so we could have our own soundtrack to watch them as we drove of and at 10:05 figured something was up. Noticed a lot of rides were shut down by 9:30 but thought maybe because it was so dead they just were doing a rolling close and as queues emptied, they shuttered. 

Where was the package found?  I heard it was outside of the entrance.  Wouldn't have been safer to keep the guest in the park so everyone wasn't walking past the package?  

13 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

Where was the package found?  I heard it was outside of the entrance.  Wouldn't have been safer to keep the guest in the park so everyone wasn't walking past the package?  

“Perimeter of the park” is what was reported. Since DT and Bat were closed first the best guess would be it was outside of AZ.

How in the hell does someone mistake a basic firecracker for a “suspicious package?”

On the face of it finding a firecracker anywhere less than a week after the 4th shouldnt raise an eyebrow.  I can find find tons of them and many unexploded in the street gutter just taking my dog for a walk around the block.   There has to be more to it than than just a basic firecracker.  But giving the public details of what was found probably doesn’t serve any purpose and could lead to copycat issues and we certainly don’t want that,  

3 hours ago, Fye Coasters said:

if the park was told to shut down ASAP by the Mason Police, then not much they could of done

 

3 hours ago, Fye Coasters said:

exactly! all that matters that people were safe! 

Please start multi-quoting. Thanks!

 

I'm just glad everyone is safe and the park is open again today. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, sixohdieselrage said:

 

Please start multi-quoting. Thanks!

 

I'm just glad everyone is safe and the park is open again today. 

 

 

are you a moderator??? 

18 minutes ago, Fye Coasters said:

are you a moderator??? 

Doesnt matter if he is or if he isn't. Its against the terms of service to double post:

"...This counts for non-KI related threads or posts, double posting (you have an EDIT function!), as well as one-word responses, intentionally bad information, or ignorance of previous posts."

 

I think it was a friendly reminder to not double post. It is against the Terms of Service.

 

On topic: Would you not want KI to error on the side of caution no matter what it "looked like."

1 minute ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

I think it was a friendly reminder to not double post. It is against the Terms of Service.

 

On topic: Would you not want KI to error on the side of caution no matter what it "looked like."

how was this a double post sorry still kinda new here...

is this what you are talking about? that was not a "one word" response? 

 

One-word responses - One-word responses are unacceptable for anything with the exception of the forum games. This is simply because it's unusual for a one-word response to actually have any merit or thought put into it. If you agree with someone, let us know why, don't just leave us hanging with "^agreed". This is also specifically hard on our dial up users who have to download the whole template constantly with really no content in it.

 

might want to fix the dial up too just saying 

Double posting means you have posted twice in a row without someone else posting between your posts...like you just did again lol

Quote

@AnyPancakes

I heard they also found sidewalk chalk. 

Oh no they're back!!!  

 

We try to answer a few questions within one post,   if you want to post again shortly after you just posted, just hit edit Fye.