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Beast & Kings Island featured tonight on Travel Channel


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Anyone notice that 2 episodes aired and 2 independent parks' coasters have won? I'm guessing Cedar Fair and Six Flags coasters in the upcoming episodes are in trouble. Is this rigged to get more people to the independent parks? I guess we'll see.

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I could see Son of Beast appearing on a Travel Channel special again...but only AFTER a decision is made with it. Heck, given the history of the ride, you could probably dedicate a whole half hour show to it...example...let's say SOB is demolished...

Travel Channel? No. Perhaps Discovery or History channel, but not the Travel Channel.

What would the opening be: "Travel Channel presents a ride that no longer exists!" :)

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^

Oh...good point. Yeah, perhaps it would be a Discovery channel special, and not travel channel...at the time, I was simply thinking of them because they are the ones who show roller coaster TV shows most of the time (although even they don't seem to show them too often anymore)...although, you can see that "great old amusement parks" show from the late 1990s every now and then on PBS...

Also, not shocked that The Voyage won best wooden coaster in this show's "poll". I'd just want to know if it was a total Voyage blowout, or if one of the other coasters (El Toro, Thunderhead, Beast) actually gave it a run for its money...

PS: These TV shows "ratings" should be taken with a grain of salt. I saw one back in 2001 that called Son of Beast the 2nd best wooden coaster in the world, and The Beast was the only coaster that beat it. At the time, I was a kid, and believed those ratings...I honestly thought Kings Island had a great collection of wooden coasters...but, alas, it only one of those two turned out worthy of such praise.

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although, you can see that "great old amusement parks" show from the late 1990s every now and then on PBS...

What a FANTASTIC show it is!

Rick Sebak turns his whimsical documentary eye on traditional amusement parks, from Connecticut's Lake Compounce and California's Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to Whalom Park in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania's Idlewild. Fans of San Diego's Giant Dipper, Kennywood's Thunderbolt, and Deno's Wonder Wheel at Coney Island will enjoy a return visit, in this unabashedly affectionate look at America's favorite old-fashioned places to escape the heat.

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1962828

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They didn't declare a 2nd, 3rd or 4th place. Basically it was The Beast, commercial, thunderhead, commercial the Voyage, commercial El Toro (commercial? can't remember) winner declared with 1 final "run" thru The Voyage's ride. At each step they talked about the positive's of each coaster and how it compared to the others in those catagories, so in other words, The Beast was mentioned as the longest multiple times, they showed the unique design elements of each, etc.. Really if you had missed the last 2 minutes of the show where they declare The Voyage to be the winner, you would have walked away thinking it was a nicely done "commercial" for 4 different, great wooden roller coasters. Really, no matter which coaster was/is your favorite, you walked away pleased with the presentation of the ride. On top of that, you got a great view of up the other wooden coasters that they featured.

As far as what ride is the best. Personally, I think its a testiment to the greatness of The Beast that a coaster designed and built in the late 70s can compete with coasters designed and built 25+ years later. Just think about how much technology has advanced in those 25 years, how many different ride elements have come and gone, and yet here is The Beast still standing strong amongst rides that have taken advantage of the knowledge gained over the last 25+ years.

Further, I think it also highlights (at least for me) the failings of Son of Beast when you see what these parks were able to accomplish 5-10 years after the opening of SOB. Perhaps they used SOB as a cautionary tale, and rather than making them taller and faster, they actually incorporated a more diverse set of design features. SOB had 2 double bowls, a loop and a large hill. The other wooden coasters have station pass thrus, tunnels, sharply banked turns, decent heights, lengths and speed, etc..

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Further, I think it also highlights (at least for me) the failings of Son of Beast when you see what these parks were able to accomplish 5-10 years after the opening of SOB.

These accomplishments made with a DRASTICALLY reduced initial (before modifications) investment as well.

(costs are reported, not confirmed)

Voyage= $6.5 million

Thunderhead= $7 million

El Toro= $5 million

Beast= $4 million

SoB= $20.5 million

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Is it just me, or did they make Thunderhead look kind of lame. I have never ridden it, and because I don't have the experience, I was going based simply off of what they said. From what I saw, it did not look like it compared to the other three in the contest. I do not know what the ride is actually like, but I have heard good things about it. I just wasn't sure it compared to the others... thoughts?

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Further, I think it also highlights (at least for me) the failings of Son of Beast when you see what these parks were able to accomplish 5-10 years after the opening of SOB.

These accomplishments made with a DRASTICALLY reduced initial (before modifications) investment as well.

(costs are reported, not confirmed)

Voyage= $6.5 million

Thunderhead= $7 million

El Toro= $5 million

Beast= $4 million

SoB= $20.5 million

any idea how much of that cost was site work? I've heard that they had to do a substantial amount of site work back there. If its a good chunk, at least a large portion of that site work will be applicable for whatever replaces SOB down the line. Otherwise, I have no idea why their initial investment would have been so much larger than the 3 modern woodies.

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I have no idea why their initial investment would have been so much larger than the 3 modern woodies.

Combination of:

- pure size. With the exception of Beast, the closest to SoB's 7000' is Voyage at 6400'.

- Height. SoB= 218', next closest is El Toro at 181'

- Engineering costs for new track gauging & loop for wooden coaster.

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Sure those things add up, but to quadrouple the price?

The reason I ask, is perhaps no matter what they put back there, anything of significant size was going to require a $x mil investment in site work. I've read somewhere that the site work back there enabling SOB was significant. It could lead to a cheaper construction cost for whatever takes its place if the significant site work required (if that is the case) has already been done.

they may never recapture the cost of SOB, but they might be able to recapture the site work construction costs down the road, if that makes sense.

If the site work wasn't a significan cost, just imagine rather than having SOB, they could have put in something similar to El Toro, Voyage and Thunderhead with some money to spare.

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Having worked on projects that involve significant movement and grading of earth, my belief (guess) is that the additional cost to prep the land for SoB versus Thunderhead and Voyage is in the +$1 Million Range.

There also look to be more foundation requirements on SoB and much of it seems to sit higher off the ground (look at how high up the transfer track and station are) which would add to cost versus the others.

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Is it just me, or did they make Thunderhead look kind of lame.

They sure made it sound like the "must miss" of the list. Thunderhead is one of the smoothest wooden coasters I've ridden and has some incredible air time.

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Perfect proof you can't judge a ride by how it looks in either pictures or POV. Some of the best rides I've ever ridden don't look like much. Some of the worst, most boring rides look deliciously wonderful.

In some ways, I think we were better off when rides and coasters weren't already intensely familiar to many before experiencing the ride itself.

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Speaking of KI on tv, i just watched an old show called ultimate guide: roller coasters( they called it Paramounts ki on the show so at least 6 years old). They were talking about The Beast and the announcer guy goes "The Beast at paramounts Kings Island located in Kings Island,oh..." i just found that amusing.

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Not too far back, the park was located in Kings Mills, Ohio. Under Paramount, the park was annexed into Mason, with a promise of certain services and not enacting an admissions tax. Just several years back, some in Mason tried to put into place an admissions tax. With strong opposition from locals and other park supporters, the tax was defeated.

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