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To be honest, I'm very happy to see it go. When in line for AE, a kid was asking an adult about "That ride", pointing to SOB. Regular patrons know all the facts, but it looked like a dad and his kids on vacation. The adult says, no, that ride's not open, people got hurt, they shut it down. That's a bum deal for a kid to hear. Part of the thrill of KI is the safety. Once you've seen workmen walk The Beast, that reputation is cemented. Then to hear "People got hurt." That's not good. The look on that kid's face after hearing that wasn't something I'd like to see on a ride goer. The idea of rides not being safe is not an image the park wants to convey. I'll be very happy to see that blemish leave, and hopefully fun, safe things to take it's place. The park employees work to hard on KI's reputation to have that big old fat thing blotch it.

From Labor Day 2004:

Yes,we know, that is why this topic is called Cedar Fair shuts down all WindSeekers.

Im ready for it to go. Its been nothing but an eyesore to the park.

You mean you don't throw the word "donkey" into every sentence? What kind of forum do you run?

I will never understand the fascination people get from random ride hardware. Nuts, bolts, etc.

How about we leave the moderating to the moderators? PM them if you have issues. These posts about moderating are just clutter. And how it's done elsewhere is of little to no relevance here. We ain't elsewhere. Glory be!

Maybe there aren't any footings - that's why the ride jackhammered so much! (just kidding)

I just rode Maverick a few weeks ago, and I can not stress how much I want a coaster like this at Kings Island. Not necessarily in River town, but just a face paced mega-lite would be fantastic.

wow. just read all comments on thread. That's about 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I've read things from the park's press release that I am sure was well prepared and rehearsed... From that I would surmise a few things: don't expect anything in that area except grass and weeds for 2013 and maybe a construction zone in some of it for 2014. the words were clear way for future expansion. I think for some on this board that means every acre used by SOB in that expansion... doubtful. from my perspective. a few things: I anticipate an Action Zone makeover with a mid-completion date of 2015 and beyond. in regards to our newbie's critiquing the Board. I'm going to side with Terp on this. not saying that one should have 35k+ posts like terp to critique... but possibly more than 45.

Why do any of us need any of the info on this site? Terpy was just sharing fun facts. Be appreciative.

So basically as the title says I went to Kings Island double times during the weekend. Lets start off with Saturday September 22nd 2012 September 22nd This is pretty straight up simple. We got there and we went for Diamondback. We where at least a hour late because my mom got the Iphone 4S instead of the 5 but got ISO6 (Witch if you didn't know turns the 4S into the 5 just without the larger screen) It probably took us maybe 45 minutes before we boarded the Green train in row 13 (and 14) It wasn't all too cold until we reached the peak of Diamondback the rest of the ride was literally flat out cold. We then went to the new Haunt "Madam Fatale's Cavern of Terror" It took us maybe an hour and 30 minutes to get on that. Funny this is. We found out that one of the rides on Diamondback dropped something onto the bushes. Unknowing what It would be I found it on one of the bushes, right in plain sight and it was one of those tails that you win from the areas RIGHT around it. Just the tail. Why is it funny? I kept it. My sister then found a Ohio State cape that fell off another ride. People are just loosing stuff on that night. After that We went all the way back over to the Planet Snoopy area where we went on Carvevil. That one was fun but wasn't all too special. Other then that tunnel MAN does it feel like you are tipping over. Then we went over to Action Zone where we went on Slaughter House. then on Wolf Pack. now THESE were the Haunts that took us NO time to get into. Slaughter House took maybe 3 minutes. Wolf Pack took us 0 seconds. Why 0 seconds? there was NO one in line. That's all we did. Now this is getting good, one of the girls that is like a vampire I think was coming over to freak me out but she soon stopped when I was trying to ask her to scare my sister in stead (She had hiccups) She asked me her name and I said my sisters name. The girl was following her just screaming here name out. Her last try was SUPER loud and fate would have it those hiccups went away. --------------------End of trip on 9-22-12---------------------------------- Now for the next one September 23rd 2012 Lines lines lines. that's all we had to deal with on 9-22. We didn't have too today. We started on Invertigo then going all the way around until we got to Diamondback. nothing too special. That was really it. I didn't see anything abnormal on that day to Kings Island so I'm just leaving this at that. Thanks for reading guys.

Perhaps they prefer that people who check the webcams page see things other than Son of Beast. The images on their website are posted on the blog, which is primarily of interest to enthusiasts and anyone interested in park developments. Featuring it on a webcam would draw continuous attention in a way a blog post does not. I'm sure the park currently prefers continuous attention to be directed towards Haunt and next season, rather than whatever is planned for SOB's plot in the future. It's great that the park is taking images of the demolition and publishing them, whether they're offering a live feed or not. You should email KI to thank them!

I have never been to CP when maverick of TTD have been shut down. I go all the time too because I'm only an hour away from CP (Man, that drive is horrible, Im used to driving 4 hours to get to KI, but this drive seems so much longer). Weird :/

(Ignore post. Wrong topic ) How It got in the wrong topic don't even ASK. Don't even try questioning it.

That's a bunch of ka.

I didn't attend this tour, but I was a very active poster back then. Reading this brings back so many memories! I don't post nearly as much as I used to, but I still do read the forums just about every day. I'm going a little off topic, but oh well; I really miss being active in the KIC community. I now am in college, have my own apartment, have a full time job, and absolutely no time at all to travel like I used to. I love roller coasters and Kings Island just as much as I used to, so hopefully I will have time in the future to be like I used to. Thanks for bringing this topic back to life, it brought back a lot of great memories!

Along the same lines that I have never understood how anyone could be a paticular sports team's "enthusiast" year after year no matter what...I do not understand how anyone could be a KI Central "enthusiast" year after year. This site, just like a team is made up of a group of people...how can you like either with the same enthusiasm when they are never the same due to their everchanging "line-up"? I consider myself an enthusiast of certain members of KI Central...past & present.

Man you just don't know when you're serving up a softball to the Terp! A wicked wordsmith you are.

Maverick to Action Zone. With a bit of re-theming to fit a car chase/ action movie with close calls and all that jazz. (A better BLSC)

Just now got around to photographing some of my memorabilia I treasure. The first of which is something which I believe is very rare as I have not seen this anywhere else. These are my Face/Off playing cards from the Paramount days. I believe I bought these in 2002 when KI was celebrating their 30th Anniversary Season.

silver2005: Let me get this straight. You come here to gather information for a competing website, and you are complaining it's too hard to find here and there's room for improvement. Really?

Last time I was at KI I took multiple pictures for this topic and I am trying to spred them out, 1 by 1 so this thread wont become "dead" (hey that rhymed!). I have lots more where this one came from. I hope to post some pics of it being torn down, when I go this weeked. Its really hard to get some diffrent pictures of it because you can only see so much of it now from AZ, and the Eifle tower. (And mabey a few other places) Pictures2 588 by KIC-Original, on Flickr Pictures2 564 by KIC-Original, on Flickr Pictures2 584 by KIC-Original, on Flickr

Here: added for emphasis Did you mean for 2013? If so, you should be more clear as to what you meant.

I think that number is a little different now: WindSeeker- 00 riders, Starflyer- 24

I would prefer a maverick style coaster over another BLSC coaster.

Bigger is not necessarily better.

Way back in April I teased that I had purchased a set of photos of the park from 1974. (Random Photo Thread) A lot of the photos are the “same old, same old”…it’s amusing to me that I have seen several different sets of photos that people have taken at the park over the years and it seems like you can count on quite a few people taking the same exact shots. (I wish I could run across someone who liked to take more pictures of the rides back then! ) Anyway, as I was scanning these photos and looking at them I kept thinking to myself just how much the park has changed. (duh) I was also just as amazed of how many of the things that existed all those years ago are still there. This got me thinking…what would these photos look like today if I were standing in the same spot as the person who took them 37 years ago. (Light bulb goes off in head!) I decided to see if I could recreate each of the photos that I had. I could tell that MOST of them would be easy…especially whenever I could use the Eiffel Tower in the background as a point of reference. There were 3 photos that I knew would be impossible for me to recreate…these were taken from The Lion Country Safari monorail. I shared those in TombraiderTy’s (excellent) “Lion Country Safari Spotlight” thread. Due to the fact that EVERYTHING has changed in some of the photos, it became a challenge to figure out exactly where the original photographer would have been standing. (Especially in the Lion Country Safari shots.) To figure this out I poured through old park photos that I have saved up over the years to try and pinpoint each location. As I stated, the Lion Country ones were the toughest…here is how I went about figuring out where to stand to take the new photo: If, after looking at the original photo there was no current visible landmark I would figure out from an old aerial photo of that area where the person was standing when they took the photo….then I would find an exact aerial of the photo of that area today. (Once again, it’s amazing how so many people take the same exact shots year after year.) I would then size match the 2 photos, then layer them, and then make the current photo almost invisible and mark where the person would have been standing and in what direction the camera would have been aimed. After making the top layer visible again I would then be able to see a current landmark to go by. Here is an example of my work in progress: After I had done all of my research, “all” I had to do was take the new photos when I went to the park. In order to do this I came armed with both the copies of my 1974 photos and also my “work” photos of where to stand to get the same shot. In the past I remember a park employee posting on here that security is watching guests a lot more than they think they are. If that truly is the case I would say that the park’s security was not on their toes the day I was taking these photos! I KNOW I had to have looked suspicious while I was completing my mission. I would stop in front of something, start looking at my photos, every now and then holding one up to make sure I was getting everything I needed in the shot. I would then take several shots at varying angles just in case. THEN, since I didn’t want to have to remember if I had or hadn’t taken a certain picture I would walk over to the nearest trash can and throw away any of the photos connected with the one that I had just taken. Tell me this whole scenario wouldn’t have seemed suspicious! I am very proud of how well some of these photos turned out…as you will see some of them are almost an exact match. There are 31 photos in the series. I would say that with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 I really am within’ 3 feet of where the original photo was taken. There is room for error on some of the shots…even though I could pinpoint where to stand…in some of the photos where there was no remaining landmark from 1974 I had to make my “best guess” on the direction of the photo…where even tilting the camera a few inches gives you a different photo altogether. (I will point out the couple of times when this came up.) I PLAN on posting one comparison shot set a day. (Not counting weekends.) BUT, there are 2 conditions! #1. If you feel that I have made an error by all means point it out. (Even though I THINK I have done my homework I do not for one second feel that I am infallible.) BUT if you do think/know that I have made a mistake…PLEASE point it out in a NICE way. And #2, which is a BIG condition! (And some may say selfish.) When I started this project I was excited about sharing these with this community…I must admit that that excitement level has dropped CONSIDERABLY since then…so much that I was REALLY close to bypassing posting them here and just sharing these photos directly to a select few. The reason I say this is because SO many of the viewer’s remind me of that old line from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”…”Here we are now, entertain us”. Many members seem to have lost what made this site so special “back in the day”…courtesy to their fellow members. Over the last year I have seen a disgusting lack of consideration for the posters who have went to a lot of effort to put together either special features or trip reports. These posters spent quite a bit of time putting these together for our benefit and what do they usually get out of it, almost nothing. (I long ago gave up making trip reports.) Here are screen-grabs from the latest trip reports: Look at the difference between the views and the replies! Those numbers just scream inconsiderate…or lazy…take your pick. If a member has the time to punch on a topic, that member should also have enough time to post a simple “Thanks”…or at the VERY least hit the “Like” button to show that the author’s effort was appreciated. SO, here’s where I stand…after spending a nice sum of money to purchase these original photos, then spending time scanning them, digging up old research photos, using a few hours of my (limited) time at the park to take the new shots…and finally putting this whole thing together…J.D. (that’s me) is NOT playing the “Here we are now, entertain us” game. For all of the above reasons I feel like I should be able to rate a little consideration and know that my efforts were not in vain. I DEMAND interaction…and here is how it will work. I will keep posting a new set of photos each day as long as I get a certain amount of either comments OR “Likes” each day. (And just like the park won’t disclose the maximum amount of Fast Lane passes it will sell…I won’t say what my minimum is…but it’s not much.) I am NOT asking for, nor do I want any condescending “Oh this is just the greatest thing ever…” type comments. I am simply looking for a little proof that someone is out there enjoying my work…or else why do I need to bother to keep posting them? I would be happiest to see a little interaction with comments about how someone feels about the changes in the park…but I will settle for a simple click of the Like button. So…will all that said and done…here are today’s shots: 1974 I STILL miss the tunnel walkway…it is one of the few things that I can still remember from my first trip to the park way back in the 70’s. 2011 I thought it was amazing how many structures had survived after all these years. As I looked at each set of photos I would sit back and think…where would I rather be standing…back in 1974 or 2011. With this set of pictures it was pretty easy. 1974 wins easily, to me the area looks serene…and a more consistent theme throughout the area. I HOPE that everyone enjoys the (hopefully) upcoming photos…and just like the Son of Beast posts…I am going to beat this horse one last time: P.S. Looking at a lot of these photos as a "fade in, fade out" type of slide show was (in my opinion) neat...some of the photos are so close you can see key structures change before your eyes. I TRIED to come up with a way also throw on a slide show version but I couldn't figure that out...so if someone else knows how feel free. EDIT: Hendrick was nice enough to slideshow these photos for me/us! Thanks!!!

Best part is they are using The Racers for the clips.

^^Well, thats your opinion. Mabey some people were really, um, atached to it....

In response to the Storm real or fake thing at the top of the page- I don't think it looks fake at all, there's not really a easy way to mimic how the camera shakes. It also looks much too good to be fake. Funny because Dragster is always open when I'm at Cedar Point (along with MF and WT), but Maverick is down for at least 50% of the trip.

Most downtime there, from what I've seen, is fairly short (<30 minutes) in duration. It's gone down multiple times when I've been either in the station or in the queue. Having TTD running probably a huge maintenance priority. That queue is often a frustrating one to wait in. The split doesn't always result in fair wait times, and you have to navigate a station crammed with 4-5 trains worth of people. I agree. I absolutely hate the queue for TTD, and the split is the worst part. For me, it seems like the station is always crammed and its just a mess. Its well worth the wait though!

^ There were also pictures posted on Twitter as well. See: https://twitter.com/KIGMGREG/status/249526170394181633 https://twitter.com/KIGMGREG/status/249526218230226944 https://twitter.com/KIGMGREG/status/249526871266586624

And all ways!

That topic probably exists as well. I'll bet it's buried in the Polls section.

^^ It only counts if you didn't bribe the operater.

^ I wouldn't say that asking for it is very hard at all!

I enjoy seeing that the park is actually putting light upon the dismantlement of the ride. Seeing how many of the posts and updates about SOB continually reference future park expansion, fills me with hope that there are currently plans for the area. Reminds me of how Disaster Transport and Space Spiral were announced for dismantlement before Gatekeeper was announced. But realistically, nothing will be there in 2013, hopefully 2014.

I have the copy right to that picture, which was one of a white snow bunny in a raging snow storm!

That strudel would be mighty stale by then!

That was so last millennium..... How...Forceful. Terp, from my understanding, WAH was in disrepair in the final years. You can thank Lindner, and partially Viacom for that.

It wouldn't be very fresh if you brought it up here. Dollywood's food should really stay in Dollywood. I like seeing these new food options that are local eats, and just the higher quality that we have been starting to get.

I thought Disney took the Abominable Snowman down a while ago...?

This is pretty much the only photo I have of SoB in particular (along with FD). Taken while in line for Flight Deck. IMG_2243 by KIC-Vortex_BFF, on Flickr

I didn't even know they carried cash, debit or credit!

A reaction too great not to post (A year late but its still great). I wish that there would be a "Hitler rants about Boomerang Bay being taken out"

I like every opinion on here. Even the iso-critical meta-opinions seem rooted in a sort of 'tough love,' rather than impersonal harshness towards our new contributors. There's an underlying sense of friendly humor inherent in a lot of the "critical" posts, so don't take them personally.

Took this in 2008:

About the only thing I have is a cup with The Bat logo and some Bat specs on it.