Could Steel Vengeance have a media event?

Oh my.

Please, please, don't lump all ACE members together. I've been a member since the 80's, and it's my experience that most ACE members go to events, enjoy what the parks offer, queue up for food, and enjoy themselves.

One of the people I interviewed for an article for ACE's magazine years ago noted that many people join for the coasters but stay because of the people; he described ACE events as family reunions.

That said, there is always going to be the bad apple. Entitled persons are hardly exclusive to roller coaster enthusiasts.

Problem is ACE has alot of bad apples, but that could also be because they are I'd assume the largest enthusiast group out there...

I still think TPR is the absolute worst though...I actually refuse to even watch their videos so they don't get Youtube Red bucks from me..

noggin,

I certainly didn't mean to imply it was all ACE members, or that only ACE members act entitled. That incident just happened to be the most concise one of the day.

That day started off with us standing next to someone out front at registration who was so upset at having to join a "recognized" coaster club that he refused to pay parking. He was a member of another club, just not one on the CoasterMania approved list. He actually bragged about parking at Breakers Express and walking over to employee parking to catch a shuttle to avoid the parking fee.

Belonging to ACE might have made him a better attendee, since If he had been an ACE member, he wouldn't have had that problem to complain about :)

thedevariouseffect said:
Problem is ACE has alot of bad apples, but that could also be because they are I'd assume the largest enthusiast group out there...

Fair enough. ACE has 7,000 members, so the possibility of encountering the bad apples, few as they may be relative to the overall membership, is higher.

Ken P: Gotcha. I'm afraid I'm a little sensitive about ACE, as the club occasionally comes in for criticism that's at odds with my (gulp) four decades of experience.

I actually left ACE because I finally couldn't stand the people in attendance at the events. And I was a member since 1978. I made lifelong friends there, for sure, but I manage to see them anyway, and I still get to a lot of parks. So, there wasn't much in it for me.

I'm considering the regional event at HW this fall, so I guess I'll have to call on an ACE friend to sign me up. I reckon there will be fairly low attendance.

To be fair, I'm high fuctioning autistic; I do tend to stay close to people I know, as a safety zone.

And there are people that I find annoying ... I just can't get into debates of which car over which wheel is superior, I'm just happy to be riding a coaster.

But overall, my experience is that most people at ACE events are there to enjoy the coasters and their friends in ACE.

http://www.wlwt.com/article/gates-open-on-most-expensive-ride-in-ki...ee/2916596

My husband and I made the news during the media day event at Kings Island for Banshee!!!

We also attended the ones for Gatekeeper, Hexed Haunted house and flying eagles! Always thankful for such events!

coast said:
Cedar Point had a great idea with the Gatekeeper media day........ And I saw the PR they got from the event. It should've been enough to promote them to do it continually for all new major attractions. Disney does this stuff, why not Cedar Point?

The PR they get from media day is the cameras rolling and the media people talking about the ride on the various news outlets. They get that regardless of any type of enthusiast participation. The "PR" enthusiasts bring, which is mainly bragging among themselves about how much swag they took or how much food they ate, is pretty much worthless.

Swag and food? Nah, it's all about the ride count. B)

I agree 110% All coaster enthusiasts need to be Very Respectful to all of these Amusement/Theme Parks. Bad behavior from a few puts a black eye on all of us.

They don’t need enthusiasts to fill the seats, they have a couple thousand employees that just started and still haven’t lost that new employee smell yet. They are also more likely to be respectful and not expect anything more than some ride time with TV cameras around.
And on the plus side, they are more likely to be of the right demographic for advertising the park is targeting with more photogenic appearances.

In general, I feel like enthusiasts have less special privileges than before and whenever somebody complains or points that out, they just get bashed on and labeled an entitled, ungrateful person.

When in reality, I was perfectly appreciative of what they did before with media days (GK Media Day in particular being absolutely amazing and one of my favorite days at CP that I've ever had) and don't feel like I should be punished because of the actions of a few people who complain about free merchandise or whatever.

(On another note, the whole "Ohio State guests getting to ride Valravn prior to Passholder Preview and already filling Valravn's line by the time passholders were allowed in" in 2016 kind of left a bad taste in my mouth in regards to how CP thinks of passholder events, which I sometimes feel are receding like enthusiast events. )

If just seems like the passholder and enthusiast events aren't as "special" as they once were, but maybe it's just my imagination. To CP's credit, though, making CoasterMania a ticketed event was a MASSIVE step in the right direction. In 2015, CM was way over-packed, but 2016's ERT was much, much more enjoyable.

As I said before, Mystic Timbers had an ACE-only preview event/media day, so I hope CP can have an "all-club" one just like Gatekeeper.

You have a bad taste in your mouth because CP allowed passholders in on the afternoon of Ohio State Day? How about if they didn't let passholders in at all to intrude on the Ohio State guests and make the line longer for them? Your pass is good for regular operating days through the season, they had no obligation to have a special passholder preview in the afternoon of Ohio State day. The fact that they did and you complained about how they did it speaks volumes about what a spoiled and entitled group certain enthusiasts are. Attitudes like you have leave a bad taste in MY mouth.

^I was expecting that sort of response. But let me just say something.

I was FAR from the only passholder that was annoyed at that. Many passholders were annoyed at how that day was handled and vented that on social media, including (I presume) many outside the enthusiast community. It wasn't just "spoiled, entitled enthusiasts." If it was flipped the other way, with passholders being allowed in first followed by OSU, I'm sure the OSU people would get annoyed just as much as the passholders did!

I totally understand it's CP's decision how to run their business, I just didn't love how the pre-season events were handled compared to years past (particularly GK Media Day, which, I can't stress enough, is a contender for the best day I've ever had at CP.)

Question - Did OSU Day exist before 2016, and how did they do it then? I'm honestly just wondering, I hadn't really heard of it until the 2016 event.

(P.S.: If my last post seemed more crass or entitled, I kind of had to rush it, I was a smidge busy. Sorry.)

OSU Day has been around for decades.
It’s always been technically not part of the regular season, but open to non-OSU alumni for regular day admission. The adding of the pass holder event was new, but it was in addition to the the alumni event.
So I’m with Pete on this, being upset about the freebie is kind of ridiculous.
Some people just like to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I feel like if the roles were flipped and OSU was complaining, nobody would be calling them entitled.

Maybe that’s the point, We haven’t seen any OSU alum complaints about the day.
Surely they don’t like to wait in lines anymore than the rest of us, but perhaps they bring a different mindset to the park and just enjoy their special day.

Nobody was expecting ERT. But some were angry that they came in go a crowded park, not even getting a chance to try to go for any sort of shorter line, and then having 1/2 to 1/3 of the time in the park as the OSU people who got all day... I think a lot of passholders didnt like that.

Now that was admittedly an overreaction, and CP certainly didn't HAVE to do it, but it just seemed like CP was putting the OSU people above some of their most loyal customers. And again, CP doesn't have to do it, and it was very good of them to do something for passholders, but it doesn't mean people can't disagree with how they handled it.

Also, enthusiasts in particular probably compared it to their last major pre-season experience at CP, GK Media Day, which was an amazing event. Obviously, they weren't the same thing - GK Media Day was a more exclusive event - but that's probably what enthusiasts drew a comparison to, and some would have been annoyed that CP got rid of an event that they loved.

I love that CP does pre season events, and I totally understand they don't have to do anything, but I just wish they did it more like they did in 2013. I don't see anything wrong with wishing that would come back, and suggesting so. I'm not saying they HAVE to do anything, just suggesting that I think it would be amazing if they did.

It’s the asking for more of something while complaining about how they did it the last time, that gives off the entitlement vibe.

Wow it’s been half a decade since gk opened. That was a good season, I look to this season to be my favorite ever.