CoasterMania 2015

Ben - we stayed at the KOA Thursday night thru Saturday night. I'll echo what you said. Worst experience I've ever had there, and it's usually a nice place to stay. Unfortunately they were more interested in catering to the bike week crowd than in living up to the KOA standards. Saturday night was by far the worst with a band playing at 1:00am and a burnout contest at 4:00am.

Such attitudes aren't exclusive to coaster enthusiasts. No matter what you're talking about, there will always be people who feel they've been slighted by being given exactly what they paid for.

I agree that attitudes of entitlement are everywhere. Trust me. It's not just roller coaster people. ;-)

If anyone's curious what the puzzle looks like, we put it together. Here ya' go! :)

It's interesting to see though how I witnessed a night and day difference between the general attitudes of guests at the Campout this year than CoasterMania. The Campout, which was $200 a site and had guidelines for registration just like CoasterMania, went as smooth as possible. I heard nothing but compliments from excited guests (who didn't have to be "enthusiasts" to participate) at the Campout, and no one as far as I know showed up unregistered or unprepared. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs at the pavilion and people around me were commenting on how good the hamburgers tasted... other than a lanyard we were given red metal canteens with the campout logo as the souvenir (a nice bonus) and several people were using them for their drinks at the dinner... When Maverick ERT ended at night the whole station was going up to the ride operators and thanking them... it really went well. This leads me to believe that charging something for the event next year would eliminate some of the freeloaders and the complainers. It may also help deal with the illiterate public who show up unregistered and trying to get their group of 10 in with one coaster club card. If you haven't paid, you don't get in. Period. And people who were unhappy with the event this year when it was free hopefully won't sign up next year if it's not.

Top_Thrill_Tyler said:

This leads me to believe that charging something for the event next year would eliminate some of the freeloaders and the complainers. It may also help deal with the illiterate public who show up unregistered and trying to get their group of 10 in with one coaster club card. If you haven't paid, you don't get in. Period. And people who were unhappy with the event this year when it was free hopefully won't sign up next year if it's not.

I've never been to the campout, but yes... This... Absolutely this...

For a short time I made my living as a kids entertainer. That didn't last obviously, but I went through my phase of doing a TON of engagements where I did magic and twisted balloons.

There was this huge event where everything was free to the community. It was put on by a big radio station. They hired me to twist balloons for the first three hours and end with a one-hour magic show.

It was a huge event with thousands of people. I subcontracted two additional balloon twisters to handle the load, but the line was still huge. People we're rude, obnoxious, and insanely entitled.

The radio station loved me and hired me back for several years. This past year I declined because I was sick of dealing with mean people. I also felt it wasn't fair to expose the talented folks I hired to work with me to such obnoxiousness. (Also... I changed the nature of my business. We're no longer focused on variety entertainment).

Compare that to the fairly sizeable events I've done where people had to pay to get in... The attitude was always gracious and I was treated well.

My point here is that free events attract folks with a specific mentality. The moment you charge for it the dynamic changes. I've seen it over and over again in varying circumstances.

I really feel they should make it a FUNdraiser. With 2,000 people... If everyone paid $20 that would have been $40,000... Which would do a TON of good. You're not paying for a ticket. You're making a donation and, in exchange, CP is offering you something nice as a way of saying "Thank You"...

They could even offer packages based on your donation level (like PBS). So the base rate is a $20 donation, but if you donate at the $200 level you get additional perks.

I am 100% convinced, based on real life experience, that if they charged the event would be better for everyone.

X2 to everything he said.

So who was the douchebag walking around in an Alton Towers Smiler shirt? That was tasteless, to say the least.

I think I was in line for Gatekeeper when I saw that guy. Very bad taste and a disrespect to those that were hurt on the ride.

Wait WHAT?? Someone make an effort to find this guy so I can send a piece of my mind his way...

As a combat medic and soon to be practicing RN WOW. One 17 year old girl has an above the knee amputation and four others were injured.

There's a level of being humorous and joking around with tragic events, but pulling that is a straight up trolling low blow..

WOW...

Jeff said:

So who was the douchebag walking around in an Alton Towers Smiler shirt? That was tasteless, to say the least.

Tasteless is an understatement.....

thedevariouseffect said:
Wait WHAT?? Someone make an effort to find this guy so I can send a piece of my mind his way...

As a combat medic and soon to be practicing RN WOW. One 17 year old girl has an above the knee amputation and four others were injured.

There's a level of being humorous and joking around with tragic events, but pulling that is a straight up trolling low blow..

WOW...

Try not to take this the wrong way, but if you truly feel that way then maybe it's time to find a new profile pic.

Are you kidding me?!?! Someone wearing a T-Shirt for a ride is tasteless?!?!? I can see being upset if the person was making jokes or put bandages around his legs making light of the situation; that would be tasteless.

Three people died at the Boston Marathon in 2013. By your logic, anyone who wears a Boston Marathon shirt is a horrible human being. In September of 2009, Xcelerator's cable snapped and lacerated a 12 year old's leg and injured an adult; People who wear an Xcelerator T-Shirt should be severely scolded for their insensitivity. In August of 1999, a 12 year old with a disability fell from the Drop Tower at California's GA. Any merchandise with this ride needs to be incinerated immediately. In 2013, a man died while riding Gatekeeper. CPR was performed on scene in front of park guests. Throw away your shirts, people! You're a bad person if you like this roller coaster!

Where do you people draw the line? A shirt is a shirt. Get over yourself.

There's a huge difference between wearing that shirt the week of the incident and wearing it much later.

No one is saying they have to throw their merch away... The accident was June 2nd. Coastermania is three days later. How about leave the Smiler shirt at home until next year? And yes, wearing a Boston Marathon Shirt three days after the attacks in 2013 IS tasteless. The GateKeeper one is a bad example since the rider's death wasn't caused by the ride. He could have died anywhere with the condition he had.

Ok, then lets just look at this incident. Smiler crashed on June 2nd. When would you "allow" someone to wear their Smiler shirt again? One week? One month? A full year? Where's your line?

And, while you are thinking about that, please explain to me why it's improper to wear a Smiler shirt so "soon" after an incident. I honestly don't understand why it's a problem. Are you afraid of offending their family members? Because common sense says that they were not there. Are you afraid that it is going to conjure up some flash backs for someone who has been in a similar coaster crash? But, if that was a problem for an individual, they probably won't be at CoasterMania.

Furthermore, what makes you think that he/she wasn't trying to raise awareness of the situation? Wearing the shirt to show support for the injured. Reminding everyone there that while we are having fun, others are unable to enjoy the same things we do and we should be thinking of them. Maybe he felt for those people. I wore my Boston Marathon shirt after the bombing for that very reason.

Get over yourselves.

Willijs3 said:

I honestly don't understand why it's a problem.

That's pretty obvious.

Instead of being smug, why don't you explain it to me, Jeff. Why is it an issue to you?

Dara said:

Those were some big issues holding up lines along with some people not knowing their alphabet! One woman was crying on guest services because she and her husband have different last names and they got separated. Suck it up buttercup!

My family has different last names too. I simply asked Tony if it was necessary to separate and he was very understanding and told us we could stay together.

While the check-in process for CoasterMania was definitely rough this year, if they just separated the ticket windows a bit it would have gone MUCH smoother. A-E in ticket windows 1 & 2. F-K in ticket windows 5 & 6... and so on.

It doesn't matter where my line is, although it's definitely longer than three days. It's the same reason you won't hear jokes about the incident, because its not a laughing matter. The family members don't have to be at the park either to see the person wearing the shirt. Its just the kind of thing that gets uploaded and ends up going viral on the internet as "insensitive moron wears smiler shirt at amusement park" It seems like the wrong place to "raise awareness" for roller coaster accidents too... waiting in line for a roller coaster? Were you raising awareness for 9/11 the day after in Times Square...with your Al Qaeda shirt on? You can go ahead and wear whatever shirt you want... but sometimes it can be more than "just a shirt"

In fairness to the guy in question, it is possible he didn't know about the accident. Not everyone is "plugged in" to the same degree. (That's based solely on what I've read here. If he, in fact, clearly knew about the accident.....never mind.)

Willijs3: let me put it this way...

Your best friend is killed by a drunk driver. Two days later, your neighbor, wishing to show support for you, has a t shirt made with a picture of the very car that killed your friend on it and starts wearing it around the neighborhood.

Would that make you uncomfortable?