Dick Kinzel's Revenge! (Shot Glass size Free Water Cups)...

Seriously? The water fountains are inadequate? I've been in amusement parks with 75,000 people in the park and never had to wait more than a minute or two for a water fountain. I don't think that is what this is about.

You dont wait because a vast majority of the people who would use them prefer to use the counter service locations instead. Personally I hate water fountains, they are usually too short for me, never have a good string and I never seem to get enough water from them without loosing my breath.

I would be all for drink stations ala HW with just water at them, that way I could enjoy my glass of ice water anytime I wanted.

Hmmmm... Drink stations? You mean, like, somethere where you push a button and it dispenses water?

Interesting concept.

You know, you CAN refill your ice-filled cup at a water fountain, without bending down/running out of breath.

Clearly, different folks have different expectations. As I have indicated, I never expect any business to provide free water (other than a restaurant). It would never occur to me to expect that. To me, I am responsible for my own needs and that responsibility doesn't change when I go to a public place for a few hours or the day. I asked the question because I was curious as to why other folks thought that all businesses (at least for some people with more folks believing that CP should do so at least in a thread about CP -- LOL) should be "required" to provide "free" tap water. I disagree with the reasons given in this thread and still will hold onto my non-expectation but again, everyone is entitled to his/her own view.

Couple other random responses:

We drank from hoses on occasion as kids too. But it wasn't a regular thing and certainly not daily or multiple times daily. We didn't get thirsty because we didn't have people telling us constantly that we needed to drink every 15 minutes. And none of us ever got dehydrated. And none of our parents ever broke into our play to make us drink. There were a lot of times that we skipped lunch because we didn't want to take the time to go back home.

Experiences differ. Most of the people I know drink way too much water. We are constantly stopping when out with friends who have to go to the bathroom or who are buying water. Kids get chastised for not having a water bottle everywhere they go. When I see the guys on the prostate drug commercial who have to duck out of the football game or the golf course to take a pee, I wonder if there issue has nothing to do with their prostate but is just because they drink too much. People lived for thousands of years without toting around water bottles sipping on water over few minutes. All that drinking constantly does is make you pee constantly.

Folks who go to an outdoor concert in the summer expecting to spent 11+ hours there who have made no provisions for water (or food for that matter) other than hoping that the venue will provide free water are fools.

If you want to save money, you can keep a cooler in the pincic area or your car with bottled water from Target. Though from my trips to CP, I see more people who look like they never miss a meal than I do who look like they are cutting back to save expenses. And from the lines at the food places, it seems to me that there are plenty of people still buying food/drinks.

I would expect most bottled water to have similar problems as tap water. A lot of bottled water (including the two best selling brands) are nothing more than filtered tap water. As I noted earlier, I prefer to drink tap water (water is all I drink anyway) though I don't drink from water fountains. When I am in public places and want a drink of water, I buy bottled water (not because I prefer it -- because I don't -- but because I don't want to drink from a fountain and bottled water is typically cold and more convenient). I think the bottled water craze is funny to watch also. "You mean we can get people to pay $1+ for something that they could get (essentially with the same quality if not better) for just pennies? Lets call it naive. No that would be too obvious. Lets just spell it backwards...."

I think it makes a lot of business sense to provide free water to people (especially when large numbers of your customers are unable to provide for themselves ;) ). But that is different than saying they should be "required" to provide it.

Gobucks...

Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3QBZac3MSY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

Coasters food place at the park has soda fountains. Nobody watches over them. Spend the 3+ dollars and get a drink and refill it at coasters throughout the day. Nowhere does it say no free refills.

When you are broke and 16, you find ways.

Um no, BPH is the cause of frequent urination. Your prostate completely surrounds your urethra (which connects your bladder to the outside world) as men grow older, it gets bigger. As it gets bigger it begins to impinge on that urethra more and more, decreasing its radius which in turn requires more force to push urine down it (provided by your bladder.) Eventually, it gets to the point that your bladder can no longer contract with enough force to completly empty it, which inturn leads to less time inbetween urinations.

Also Superman, you really must have a poor memory about how much you actually drank. Ive personally experienced heat exhaustion a few times in my life, even when trying to stay properally hydrated. You cant spend an entire day outdoors in the middle of the summer and not drink water. Drinking close to a gallon a day when I was on the high school football team I would still lose 10-15 lbs of weight in the first week of practice. It can be extremely dangerous to become dehydrated and creaps up on you, when youre at CP or any other outdoor place in the summer the genreral rule is: more water, and you cant have enough. People needing a water bottle by their desk in school every hour is a different story.

crazy -- Those two clips were funny. Its amazing to me that the bottled water industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Stossel did a taste test with vodka drinkers that was also very funny. It all just goes to show that many Americans are suckers for marketing campaigns. They didn't mention flouride. Since they added flouride to tap water, kids had fewer problems with their teeth. Now that so many kids are drinking bottled water, there are more problems with their teeth. Of course it doesn't help that they a lot of kids today suck down processed sugar products like it was water (pun intended). I still won't drink out of water fountains though.

TD -- Thanks for the biology lesson. My prostate lost its virginity a couple of weeks ago. Learned why today thanks to you. ;) LOL And I put those there because apparently you are lost without them. And just in case that isn't enough of a hint, my statement about the prostate drug commercials was a joke. Sorry if you didn't understand that.

Well, I am glad that you know more about my memory than I do. One big problem with your theory of my memory being faulty. I have talked with my siblings, my parents, my friends and their parents all recently about this very issue. They all have the same memories that I do. My wife and my in-laws have the same memories as well from when my wife and her brother grew up. Now I suppose it could be the case that all of our memories are faulty as you propose though I doubt they would all be faulty in the same exact way. Seems to me though that its much more likely that all of our respective memories line up because thats actually what happened when we grew up. But what do I know? I only lived it. And I have drove around in cars much of my life without seatbelts and most of my life without wearing them, have never sat in a baby car seat, grew up drinking tap water and have ridden bikes tens of thousands of miles without wearing a helmet. And my friends and my wife and her brother all did the same. Maybe all of those things gave us faulty memories? ;)

And your experiences may be different than mine. Before I had kids, I rode thousands of miles per year on moutain bikes. And I have been sailing on Lake Erie for almost 30 years. Almost always take water on the bike (spit vast majority of it out just trying to keep my mouth from drying out). Typically don't take anything out on the lake (and rarely drink anything while out there). Never had an issue with hydration.

To me, the water crazy folks have gone way overboard with water. We have conditioned people to think they need water constantly when they don't (different case in competitive athletic situation though that is absolutely and totally different from spending a day at CP). Your body is perfectly capable of storing fluids and doesn't need to have fluids replaced the very moment they are lost. And all of that is my opinion based on what I have seen and observed during my 4 decades+ on the planet. You may disagree which is fine with me. And I may be wrong. maybe there are thousands of folks who are inches away from dehydration/death each and every time they go to the park. Contrary to my life experiences but certainly won't rule it out.

Alls it will take is one brush with heat exhaustion and you will change your mind.

Do I think some people go overboard with drinking water, yes. Do I think you need to be drinking constantly no matter your location? No. However on a hot day I think it is really important to every few hours get a glass of water. I know back when I was younger and more stupid I didnt really do this at parks, and because of that had quite a few brown outs on rides, since Ive been more cautious it hasnt happened again.

Also, I know Im going to sound like a safety nut but throwing in (nay infact boasting) that you hardly wear a seatbelt or helmet on a bike makes you look like an idiot. I strongly, strongly suggest that you vollenteer to work at an ER on a weekend night, or go talk to people who have had closed head injuries, paralysis or have lost a loved one because they were too macho to put on a helmet or a seatbelt. I suspect that after one of those encounters youll change your mind (not that my mind needed changing but because of those experieces is why Im more vocal about this.) You might only need those things once or twice in your life but the stakes are so high that your stupid to not do so. Yes society has gone overboard with some safety issues, but seatbelts and helmets are not one of those issues.

I think it says something when a thread on ice water, gets more hits than a thread on the new ride for 2010.

Seems to me that before you would say someone looks like an idiot based on a post that you would actually read what they said in that post. Makes it less likely that you yourself will look like an idiot. But maybe I am just old fashioned in that regard.

But before we look at what I actually said, why not look at a couple of things that will help in that process. "Most" means more than half which means that if someone has done something or not done something for most of their life, that means that they have done that something or not done that something for more than half of their life. So if someone is say 20 years old, most of their life is more than 10 years.

And "much" does not mean all or most but something significant. Its not as exact as a concept of most. But turning back to the 20 year old, doing something for "much" of your life would mean doing it for say 5 or 6. years. Some might say 4 years or even fewer would also be much and others may require 7 years or more to get there. But in general, I tink folks understand what "much" means.

Now lets look at seatbelts. Standard equipment on all cars and wearing one, I believe, at this point is mandatory in all 50 states (certainly Ohio where I grew up and live now). Neither of those were always the case. The cars that my parents had when I was very young didn't have seatbelts. They were not standard equipment at the time and when they became standard, you had to have a new car to get them and my parents didn't always drive new cars. My guess is that I rode in cars without seatbelts until I was about 7 which is why I said I drove around in cars without seatbelts for much of my life.

Now, when they became standard equipment, seatbelts were not worn by much of the driving population. When my father in law got the first car he ever owned with seatbelts, the first thing he did when he got home was tuck the belts be between the seat and the seatback because he thought they were uncomfortable to sit on. I can remember driving on vacation with my older brother laying across the entire back seat, me laying on the floor of the back seat on pillows and blankets and my sister laying on the back window ledge. We also slept laying down or played games in the back of a station wagon with no seatbelts worn. No one gave any thought to it back then.

And if I remember right, Ohio's mandatory seatbelt law is about 20 years old. So for most of my life, there was no law requiring seatbelts. And I will admit that I was not an early complier with that law (old habits die hard). So for most of my life, I never wore a seatbelt while in a car. And that is true pretty much for everyone my age or older because that is just the way it is.

And as a kid, no one wore bike helmets. I suspect they had been invented at the time but I just didn't know anyone who had one. And we rode our bikes everywhere. Rode them to school, to sports practices, to friends houses, etc. Over the years, we rode thousands of miles. All without helmets because no one back then wore helmets. Cannot recall a single accident with a head injury that was serious for which a helmet would have mattered. Not saying such injuries can't happen but I don't think there is as great a risk as the helmet manufacturers would have you believe.

No boasting in any of that. Just stating facts/history.

And FWIW, I do wear seatbelts 100% of the time now. Started when my daugther was born for some reason. But it will be a while before I will be able to say that I have ridden in cars for "most" of my life wearing a seatbelt and even a while (though not as long) before I can say that about my driving life.

Bike helmets are another story. Bought a helmet after college and wore it occasionally. Never could get used to it though and after a year or two stopped wearing it. Rode for a couple thousand miles a year for a while with no helmet. Don't even have one now. Do make my kids wear one though. Figure if nothing else, they will get used to it. Guess you are free to think I am an idiot for not wearing a helmet though I would disagree.

Back to the water issue, I think we go in cycles. As I said, when I was a kid, we didn't drink very much water. We drank when we were thirsty. Never carried water bottles everywhere. My brother in law when he played football in high school was told not to drink water while playing because they thought drinking water would cause cramps. And somehow, we all were fine.

Now things have swung the other way. A lot of people think they need to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Yet there is very little medical evidence which supports that amount of water. My guess is that within the next 5 years or so, the entire 8-10 glasses of water per day will be tossed out and we will be back to drinking when we are thirsty. And at some point down the road further than that, we will probably switch to some other rule. Such is life.

Tells me (i) that I should buy Pepsi stock because water idiocy has some more life left in it, (ii) the target audience for this ride doesn't represent large portions of those who post on this site and (iii) the target audience members who do post here aren't as zealous about rides as the enthusiasts. :)

djDaemon said:
Well, that's just like, your opinion, man. I see it as him being passive-aggressive and thinking that he's fighting The Man and making a difference. Maybe he is just thirsty enough to warrant several 20-24oz trips to concession stands each day. I find it rather interesting that he's that thirsty, yet in his many visits he's never thought of a better means of quenching that thirst. Its as if he's going out of his way to be a douche.

I think questioning someone's thirst motives is being a douche. Baiting and name calling isn't much better. If you think it's lame to make a big deal out of it, fine, we get that.

Let it go or I'll put a stop to it.

My main beef with the switch to the tiny cups is the whole "You gotta eat" mantra. CP probably started to see a decline in soda sales and instead of looking at their outrageous price structure they looked at how many people were not drinking their expensive soda and were opting for the free water.

What better way to solve this problem then to shrink the cups to a size where one either:

A) Doesn't ask for a free water again, because it's not worth the wait.

-or

B) Buys that $4 soda with their meal instead of getting the free water, because darn it they are thirsty after chomping down on their $8 'Prison Food' Cheeseburger.

Presumably they looked at the "lower the price of soda" option and determined that making the free water glass size smaller would make more money. Those are the types of decisions that businesses make every day. Not all of the customers like them. And they understand that.

Come to think of it, maybe they should start charging for first aid, too. In case, you know, if you didn't bring the necessary provisions. You should always bring an ice pack in case you bump your head, crutches in case you twist your ankle, and a couple of packs of gauze in case you get a cut or 2.

Don't even argue that it's not the same thing, because on 95 degree days, water can be considered "preventative" first aid.

So you don't see a difference between something which everyone will need each visit to the park (on the hour every hour in large quantities according to many in this thread) and something that the vast majority of people will never need on any given visit to the park (and I suspect most people never will need thru a career of visits to the park) in terms of whether its reasonable to expect people to make provisions for it?

Preventative first aid? Really? How about sunscreen? Is that preventative first aid? Should they be required to provide that for free as well? Comfortable walking shoes? Ever get blisters from wearing bad shoes? Can be very painful and if not taken care of properly, lead to infections. Also qualify as preventative first aid that CP should be required to pay for?

If you go to a park in the summer where you will be walking around all day outside in the heat and you make no provisions for water/food (i.e., bringing money to buy them or bringing your own to eat/drink in the parking lot or picnic area) you lack the most important preventative first aid that exists: common sense. And that is particularly true if you are someone who needs to drink gallons of water every 15 minutes.

FWIW, I think CP and all other businesses should be able to charge people for whatever they want. And people can pay the asking price, do without or go somewhere else. Why should they be required to do anything? Its their land and their business. They should be able to use it and operate however they want. And if they make a profit, they will survive; if not, they won't. If you don't want to charge people for x or y or want to give z out for free, buy some land and start building. I wish you well.

Some people need coasters to live (me) so maybe they should just give free admission! ;)

And when sunscreen and comfortable shoes pour out of a pipe in the ground, I'll ask that they also be provided for free. Until then, we'll just stick to water.

You could easily dispense sunscreen through a pipe in the ground. comfortable shoes will be much harder to get that done. Does that change your view with respect to sunscreen?