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The Beast was “unchained” in a steady downpour on Friday, April 13, 1979, for hundreds of media representatives from around the U.S. and Great Britain.

Please capitalize the third and seventh Buffalo, as they refer to the city.

Yes this is the same as the blueberry ice cream twist that can be found around the park, but heavily dyed aka Banshee Twist that was introduced last season version. Interesting observation after returning home after enjoying a Banshee Twist. The heavy use of food coloring to get the bright colors may cause an unintended result when going to the bathroom. Lets just say I was concerned at first and thought a trip was needed to the local hospital, then it dawned on me why I was seeing purple

I'd like to try it, and perhaps a Strawberry/Banana Diamondback twist, maybe a Rocky Road/Coffee Beast twist, and who knows, a Raspberry/Orange Vortex cone might be tasty...

I'm predicting either cold and rainy or hot and sunny. Maybe somewhere in between, like warm and mild with a slight breeze. Could even be some snow. For April in Ohio it could be any one of these scenarios, so pick your favorite one and keep your fingers crossed!

When you random blurt out different park spiels that you have heard so many times that you have them memorized. "Alright Stunt Crew now listen up, as with any driving stunt safety first so stay seated with your head against the head rest and your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Secure any loose articles are leave them with the crew before we roll."

When during the rare, one-day breaks of 70°+ weather, while working on your truck, you hear a summertime song, and the aroma of grease blending with that of sunscreen and someone's nearby barbecue lets you close your eyes and imagine being on Vortex. Dang this cabin fever! Dang it to heck!

Diamondbacker id be VEEEEEEEEWY VEWY (Elmer Fud voice) careful with your shoe selection lol Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I got to see Banshee testing over the weekend, while driving up I-71. Its quite the site to see.

It looks like queue construction is underway this morning at the Banshee site. A cement mixer is under the lift hill where the queue line is supposed to be placed and it also looks like there is another near the brake run. (Image captured from Kings Island's Banshee Construction Cam)

I feel like he's going to invent some horrible screaming sound and do it repeatedly on the ride, and call it "Bansheeing".Aside from, of course, the Banshee-like qualities of his voice that he has already demonstrated in his videos. I have a sock and some duct tape to take care of that. Lol

Today I have something kind of cool. Who remembers the WLWT story about the ride in early August? The one that kind of mentions KIC? http://www.wlwt.com/news/local-news/news-warren-county/kings-island-new-attraction-appears-to-be-a-coaster/21301482 And, this thread started with 49 days left. Now, there are 24 days left, so we area about halfway there from the start of the thread! Just 24 more days until Banshee Media Day and Scream for A Kid Again, and 25 days until Opening Day 2014!

^^^ Forecasts more than a few days out are worth very little. At three weeks out, they're just guessing based on long-term averages and/or seasonal forecasts. Jonathan decided to have some fun with it one year: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/25285-accuweather-claims-25-day-forecast/

The ride is a very fun ride. I got back from Dollywood a few hours ago. Spent most of the day yesterday at the park. I was not part of the Coaster Crew/ Great Ohio Coaster Club even, but ran into several familiar faces from on here. Some who no longer frequently post too. It was kind of nice that they recognized me, which shows what a great community that KIC is. My fiance was amazed at how many people recognized me. The ride is fun, but it is certainly geared towards the younger set. Still a fun ride, but it is not high on the thrills. Going backwards was definitely a unique experience the way it launches backwards. The new entrance plaza with the new Dollywood sign looks really nice. The only real hiccup that we encountered all day, was the several times we tried to ride Blazing Fury (at least twice), the ride broke down when we were in the queue, and they kicked us out of the queue. Seemed very disorganized way of doing it. (We were not allowed to wait in the queue). We also got a big surprise when we watched the Africa show in the Celebration Theater. At the end of the show, Dolly Parton made a cameo on stage, and spent a few minutes welcoming everyone to Dollywood and Festival of Nations. Definitely a real treat, and totally unexpected! All the rides were generally short waits despite the crowds. We waited about ten to fifteen minutes for Wild Eagle around 5 or 5:30, and about ten minutes for Thunderhead after our Wild Eagle ride Only exception was Dollywood Express. Full trains, and they had changed the time of the 4:15 train, unexpectedly, and we barely were able to get on the 4pm train. We had checked the sign on the train station at 3pm and saw the 4:15 departure time, but we were able to make it on, so were not concerned about it. The longest line we encountered was for the trams to the parking lot. (The park was so crowded that they were parking people in the Splash Country lot today!)

I must admit, this off-season has been both exciting and depressing for me at the same time. I cannot wait for Kings Island to open this year, but I am getting a serious case of the winter blues. This trip came at just the right time. There was more my wife zombiejane and I have done in Las Vegas, but that would require a rather large trip report... and some things are best left in Vegas. If you ever visit, don't forget Fremont Street! It is well worth the cab fare. The first roller coaster we've rode for the year was The Roller Coaster, at New York-New York Hotel. I felt sorry I did this to myself later. It is the bumpiest, roughest, most awkward moving steel coaster I have ever been on. Only the most curious or masochistic roller coaster enthusiast should ride it. This is the third most painful ride experience I have ever had, with The Hurler and Berserker at Kings Dominion being the first two. Even if the ride was much more bearable, the track layout still seems strange to me. Not to mention a very awkward twist-then-dive maneuver. The next day we spent some time in the Adventuredome theme park at Circus Circus. Adventuredome is much bigger than you might expect, and turned out to be much nicer than my expectations. The staff there are very friendly and it is kept pretty clean. I thought the canyon theme would make it cheesy, but that is far from the truth. The hilly terrain inside adds nicely to the experience and gives it a good sense of exploration - much needed and welcome for a park this size. I always wanted to ride one of these, and I finally got my wish. It was a very good ride experience There are two fantastic roller coasters in Adventuredome. The better of them, in my opinion, is Canyon Blaster. Like many smaller coasters, pictures and video do not do it justice! This is one of the best coasters you will ever ride. Canyon Blaster is much, much more than your standard looping Arrow coaster. It has an insane sense of speed, tight turns, a corkscrew that doesn't make you feel like you're just hanging upside-down, and two really good pops of airtime. If you ever travel to Las Vegas do not miss it! Canyon Blaster makes very good use of the terrain. You might be astonished. ....and some things that seem the same - really aren't. Even more unique than Canyon Blaster, El Loco also delivered thrills well beyond what I had anticipated. It packs a huge punch in a very compact size, and moves in an almost acrobatic fashion along the track. When you ride it, you will experience gravity in ways you wouldn't normally associate with a roller coaster. The outward banked turn and two moments of hang-time were the most memorable for me. The seats are among the most comfortable of any ride. There is on-board audio, as well, but it is appropriately done and fits the ride experience. I love this part. It leans left, then twists 180 degrees the other way into hang-time and drops onto the brakes. El Loco draws a lot of spectators. Most choose not to ride I also took a ridiculous amount of pictures of High Roller while I was in Las Vegas. Perhaps no other object has ever gained so much attention from me in such a short amount of time. The sheer size and amount of steel in front of you is mesmerizing. I wonder if my wife counted the minutes lost to me staring at it.... "Wow, that's a big Ferris whe.... oh that's right, we're getting our picture taken." Another reason to ride the monorail.

Can someone PLEASE point me to that topic, please? I need a good laugh haha. Unfortunately, it was deleted, probably due to the creepiness factor. Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain

^ Would you say that this thread is... haunting the boards? jcgoble3, heading for the exit Transmitted from Wild Space via my datapad's DROID brain

I believe it is the same.

I will try it as long as purple does not = grape.

Who asked about pouring concrete for the queue lines? It sure as heck looks like they did. There is (what looks like) a lot of freshly poured concrete back there, and it looks like that will be quite a large queue line area I hope they tarp it like they have with most other queue lines so we aren't standing out in the sun baking! Image captured from Kings Island's live Banshee webcam, which can be viewed here or here

Kat, I'm 17 and 6'5". If I keep growing (projected to be 6'8") I will be a sad camper.

Don't die..curiosity seemed to do that for said animal

Looks like they are going to go vertical with something in the circle today.

Yes, I myself had just noticed the other day about the MAXIMUM ride height of 78". I myself am 76". it will probably be first time in my life I may hunch down a little to NOT go over the ride height line....haha

I'm really happy to see Dan back in the industry because he clearly has a passion for it. I didn't necessarily like what was happening to Holiday World under him (you could see a change in employee morale if you were a regular visitor, as well as prices jumping by leaps and bounds, especially on food) but I think in his own park he'd do great. My dislike of the Holiday World situation I think was just because he was taking something that ran a certain way and changing it to his way. With a clean slate and a blank drawing board, I think Alabama Adventure will end up doing very well. I doubt it will be the "Holiday World of the South" as a lot of people seem to be expecting, because Dan isn't Will and didn't run things the same way Will did. That being said, I think Dan does appreciate a good wooden coaster (especially a CCI) and I can't wait to see Rampage up and running again. I'll be very happy to finally get that credit, and I know a Koch will make sure it's well cared for and will run beautifully. I also think he's going the right direction in focusing on making it a family-friendly park, because that's where the crowds come from for smaller parks like that. Overall, I'm just really excited for this news and I think that this park will be a much better fit for Dan than Holiday World.

Coaster looks fantastic in this POV..CCI Designed ride makes me wonder a bit, but one of the key designers is now at GCI which is fantastic..The other deals with highway engineering, which is disappointing. Sad though this has a limited capacity, such a cool looking twister

I was under the impression that the plan was only to focus on making a great water-park..... But after reading Dan Koch's Twitter page today....... .....I'm glad I was wrong....... A series of tweets about the Rampage roller coaster told me otherwise...... @SplashinDan on Twitter : "Wicked finish into the station on Rampage! Whoa!" "Complete re-track needed. Coaster cats! We call it like we see it! Where is my hammer?" "Trains need TLC too! We can get this animal going. Stay tuned. Not opening soon but it will open." "Rampage is very fixable. Need a chain gang to emmm fix the chain!" "I love Rampaggggeeee!!!!!!!!" All of the photos and tweets above belong to Dan Koch and were found on his Twitter page. All of the photos and above can be found here.

Here is what I have to say about the max height. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo ! Darn caps lock. (If you get that sentence, you deserve some sort of prize that you will never get, so take a breath of air and consider that your own prize that you gave yourself instead) I'm interested in what we will see under the tent now, yet, I have heard that we cannot camp at that region?

KI is opening a week earlier than it did from 2011-2013, and Easter falls on a later date this year than in many years. Amusement parks are typically open on holidays during the operating season.

They're open on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day as well. I don't see why Easter should be any different.

Had to post this here. I love how The Bat looks right now. TheBat3 by Diamondbacker, on Flickr EDIT: I do not own this image. I found this image on Kings Island's website, and the image can be found here.

^^Im 76" too but it think we'll be good. Im more worried about losing my lower legs where the ride bottoms out! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Dominator is fantastic, favorite floorless coaster It's current location I don't like, it was at a much better lakeside venue before.

There are only so many intellectual properties to go around. Maybe someone will start a breakfast cereal mascot area. Tony the Tiger, Lucky the Leprechaun, Cap'n Crunch, etc... $8 bowls of cereal for everyone!

I was really just joking.

He could pursue a career in being the GM of KI. Then he can ride whenever you want.

One must remember, it's called Media Day for a reason. Cameras and reporters will be in the front row. You can ride there other days.

Ever is a long time.

Meanwhile, over at new park Louisville, they be closing most days at 7 PM. Astounded Terpster, who can't make up crap this good.

If that were all those trips cost---financially, emotionally or metaphysically.....

CoasterForce has posted a POV of the new ride: My opinion of the new addition: wow! Not only does the roller coaster appear to be a thrilling, enjoyable attraction, but it's very unique and noteworthy for multiple reasons: there's both a launch(es) and a lift hill, the ride travels forwards and backwards, it utilizes remnants from the former Adventure Mountain, and, for a seasonal park, it has some great themeing and effects. But the best part, in my opinion? The 39" height requirement. The only coaster a 39" child can ride at Kings Island is Great Pumpkin Coaster, which is tiny compared to Dollywood's new attraction. And don't get me wrong, Banshee looks great. But our park could really benefit from future additions similar to this one, which can accommodate whole families.

Elvira's Superstition use to play during Fear Fest. The years of operation I don't recall.

I don't know if it has been mentioned on here yet or not but the ride height for Banshee is 52 in. https://www.visitkingsisland.com/plan-a-visit/rider-height-requirements From Kings Island's website.

Let it Go, let the storm rage on, the map will come some day!

This particular attitude drives me bonkers. No, not all change is good. To try and fail miserably has drastic consequences. From a park losing all kinds of money, lost opportunities for far better rides (how much time, money and space did/do Son of Beast, Hercules, the old Texas Giant, Mean Streak, Drachen Fire, etc. take up?), lost careers (Mr. David Focke comes immediately to mind), bored or unhappy guests to injuries, to a park merely being stuck with a bad ride/investment for years (Six Flags and Ninja now at SFOG, the Vekoma messes Deja Vu)...Sometimes doing nothing or at least doing something else is a far better choice than a wrong-headed bad choice. Final Thought: What would Kings Island look like today, and what would 2014's new addition be had Son of Beast never been built in Mason? What would NJFTP look like? Who would own Kings Island? Dare I say it?--Who would own Cedar Fair? I submit ALL these questions would have different answers had either Son of Beast not been built or had it actually been built to the design specifications without client cost cutting that greatly negatively affected its reliability, rideabilty, comfort, thrill factor and guest and park satisfaction. Kings Island would not be the same place. It might be better. It might be worse. The alternative ride was a re-creation of the Rye Aeroplane, for which Kings Island had purchased the blueprints. A ride that, by all accounts, was simply one of the best...ever. Instead, innovation was selected. Risky choices were made. It is hard to say they benefited the park. Doing nothing would have been, in my opinion, a far, far better option than building the trouble prone, litigation causing, uncomfortable, maintenance nightmare, not even very thrilling, tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster on the planet. (Why do I hear Jeff Seibert saying those words?). This is just my opinion but SOB was the best coaster at KI. Even more so when it still included the loop. Far more thrilling than the original Beast in my eyes. Take no offense but I believe that if Son of Beast was built today rather than 15 years ago you wouldn't have a trouble probe maintenance nightmare of a coaster. But to each his own.

I feel like this is needed, and I'm sorry for not adressing this before: Thank you for your photo contribution to the discussion Kat!

Bingo. jcgoble3, not understanding the uproar over these photos

This particular attitude drives me bonkers. No, not all change is good. To try and fail miserably has drastic consequences. From a park losing all kinds of money, lost opportunities for far better rides (how much time, money and space did/do Son of Beast, Hercules, the old Texas Giant, Mean Streak, Drachen Fire, etc. take up?), lost careers (Mr. David Focke comes immediately to mind), bored or unhappy guests to injuries, to a park merely being stuck with a bad ride/investment for years (Six Flags and Ninja now at SFOG, the Vekoma messes Deja Vu)...Sometimes doing nothing or at least doing something else is a far better choice than a wrong-headed bad choice. Final Thought: What would Kings Island look like today, and what would 2014's new addition be had Son of Beast never been built in Mason? What would NJFTP look like? Who would own Kings Island? Dare I say it?--Who would own Cedar Fair? I submit ALL these questions would have different answers had either Son of Beast not been built or had it actually been built to the design specifications without client cost cutting that greatly negatively affected its reliability, rideabilty, comfort, thrill factor and guest and park satisfaction. Kings Island would not be the same place. It might be better. It might be worse. The alternative ride was a re-creation of the Rye Aeroplane, for which Kings Island had purchased the blueprints. A ride that, by all accounts, was simply one of the best...ever. Instead, innovation was selected. Risky choices were made. It is hard to say they benefited the park. Doing nothing would have been, in my opinion, a far, far better option than building the trouble prone, litigation causing, uncomfortable, maintenance nightmare, not even very thrilling, tallest, fastest and only looping wooden roller coaster on the planet. (Why do I hear Jeff Seibert saying those words?).

Why would Cedar Point store their Halloweekends props so far away?