This is going to be a nightmare for the front gate folks.

Definitely a front gate nightmare, especially basically checking photo ID for picture and date of birth of whomever the chaperone is.  And I am not sure how the front gate will verify the actual age of the child.  What’s not clear if this would apply to a family brining their children to the park (was likely intended for those vans that drop off their kids for the day).  If families have to do this chaperone verification for their kids, I can see many just skipping KK and heading down to Holiday World.  Just like those “no bag lines”, hope they have a “no chaperone line” to speed up entry into the park.

Is this a Herschend thing or has this been in the works for a while?

18 year old can: vote, join the military, buy a house, and get married....

......but can't bring their child or young sibling to the park.

Businesses are allowed to make their own policies, but I'm not sure if this is a good business decision.

This is coming on the heels of multiple "incidents" at the park.  Not just the recent two "newsworthy" fights in the parking lot.  Let's just say there's a very bad, underlying problem inside the park that has prompted this.

I hope this change works... but until they make some very difficult, hard-core decisions, the problems that have plagued the park dating back to Six Flags days will continue to happen.

Read through some FB responses to this new policy, and you'll get the general feel of what locals actually think about the park.

 

9 minutes ago, Browntggrr said:

18 year old can: vote, join the military, buy a house, and get married....

......but can't bring their child or young sibling to the park.

Businesses are allowed to make their own policies, but I'm not sure if this is a good business decision.

It is a totally bad idea borderline stupid. I remember when I first got my license at the age is 16 I took my younger brother/s to King's Island by myself and did so at different ages between 16-21. Now Kentucky Kingdom is saying wait no you can't do that? I also when I was age 13-15 would break off from the church group while in the park and rides rides by myself or with friends or family who were under the age of 16 at the time. I do not see why 16 is the magic number. A 15 year old can behave just as well or not for that matter.

I think someone once said Kentucky Kingdom is in the "bad" part of town and maybe the problem is the low season passes and single day tickets. $50 season passes and the $5 bring a friend deal all of May seems insane. At times they run a $30 deal where you get 2 days and drinks. Meanwhile a ticket to Dollywood is 80 dollars and season passes are close to $200.