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Kings Island's twin racing roller coasters debuted along with the park in 1972. This highly anticipated new ride ushered in the Second Golden Age of roller coasters and was the park's star attraction until the opening of The Beast in 1979. Although Cincinnati's Coney Island was extremely popular, it had the major issue of flooding due to its proximity to the Ohio River. The decision was made in the 1960's that Coney Island needed to continue to exist, but in a new incarnation and at a new location and thus Kings Island was born. Traditional amusement rides had been loosing popularity since the 1930's so only a small handful of roller coasters had been built in the previous decades. As a result of this, finding a roller coaster designer was a much more difficult task than one would have been lead to believe. In 1970, Gary Wachs and his father (the operators of Coney Island at the time) met John Allen, President of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, at an IAAPA convention in Chicago. Allen studied under the legendary designer Herbert Schmeck and was the last remaining designer from the first Golden Age of roller coasters in the 1930's. The Wachs' convinced Allen to officially come out of retirement and design a ride for the new park being constructed off I-71 in a rural area about 30 minutes north of Coney Island. As the sun set on Coney Island in 1971, this advertisement was placed outside of the Shooting Star (Coney Island's major coaster) in anticipation for the brand new ride that will be located at the new park. The millions of patrons who visited "Old Coney" during its closing year gazed at the billboard in awe of what the next year would bring. Kings Island opened the next year to much fanfare and the heart and soul of the park was its star attraction: the twin racing roller coasters. With the debut of The Racer in 1972, public interest in roller coasters was stronger than ever before. Parks that hadn't built these massive wooden structures in nearly a half century began construction all over the country and thus the second "Golden Age" of roller coasters had begun. Since 1972, The Racer has given over 99 million rides - the most in park history - and still thrills riders to this day.

Definitely need restrooms by Firehawk and Flight of Fear-never could understand the lack of facilities in that area. Also, after 35 years, I don't feel that it would be a bad idea to give The Beast queue a little TLC in the way of a facelift-maybe bring back the refreshment stand with smiling, live people selling fresh pretzels and cold drinks? ( A person can dream can't they?}

I am playing a gorilla in Class Act Drama's production of Tarzan! Class Act is allowing me to set up a donation table at the June 7th show for Coasting for Kids. My mom will be working the table for me since I will be on stage. If anyone would like to come see the show, all the information is on the picture. I posted this on this thread and the theater thread, I hope that's okay.

A late summer/early fall trip to Alabama just got added to the Terp list of considerations.

We forgive you..your username is Sparky after all

I love that you get a nice view of Racer's lift hill while you are at the top of Banshees lift! Planned or not planned?

I can't stand all of the keep calm stuff. It's just dumb in my opinion.

Shhhh. Don't mention it!

This is me front row on Banshee. I'm 255, and 5'9" and my waist is 46". I had a little trouble but the rides associates helped me with a little assistance. It's all about body proportion. Use the testing seat at the front entrance. It uses the row 4 straps. If it don't fit you must acquit. Hope this helps your decision. Sent from my iPhone using Taptalk

That statement is true. In the early days, during and after a rain, the skid breaks with grease on them were pretty much usless. The trains would fly incredibly fast along the track. I remember once sliding through the break shed and into the second tunnel at full speed. It felt like we would upend over the edged of the track at every turn. Amazingly fun ride!

You aren't going to Stricker's next week unless you're associated with an organization that has paid to rent out the park. They're only open to the public a few times a year, and next week won't be one of them. EDIT: Since you edited it to refer to the whole season, I say why not both?! I love both parks! Each is great in its own way, Stricker's is quaint and charming with a couple of great coasters for their size, and Coney is a beautiful park with some good old fashioned fun, and a great setting. Coney really emphasizes the "park" side of an amusement park! For Stricker's, I recommend going during the Hamilton County 4-H Community Fair between July 9th and 12th. It'll cost you just a couple dollars more in total than during the other operating days (between parking, ride tickets, and admission), but these days typically have live entertainment and very few people are there for the rides. I walked on EVERYTHING every single time last year when I went for this event. And that includes the Kiddie Whip, which I can assure you has a lot less room than it looks.

^^^ I agree with sparky, Its no "how I read it" because I know the backstory, or at least part of it, but I can easily see how it can be read to be something signficantly worse than just the facts. Poor journalism, they could have dug a little deeper and explained it a little better in just a few more lines.

At 11:18 at night? Paula has a house. She does not live in Voyage's station.

truth is, it will be a safe ride operating at Worlds of Fun (and as Terp said, more economical to operate) but just reading the facts at the end, riders stuck for 4 hours, moved it because there are less regulations....if I didn't know better, the facts could easily read as this state doesn't care as much about safety and beware of it breaking down. That wouldn't be the truth, but I could see how someone could easily read into that.

The way the article was written... as is with most media outlets... it makes it look as though CF puts low costs and less hassle above safety regulations on their priority lists. Typical "loose" journalism.

The anticipation of waiting through that queue and riding for the first time still remains unmatched by any other attraction I've experienced. It did a great job of enhancing the experience. IIRC, the first time I rode it there was a ride op there assigning seats that didn't let us turn the corner to see any trains launch prior to our turn. This built up the anticipation even more since we didn't know what was about to happen. I mean I knew it was a launch coaster, but I still didn't know what to expect as I had never ridden one. I'm sure if the GP knew nothing about the ride then they were in for quite the surprise that first time.

Ok, I didn't see a 'vote' that matched but... I would *love* to see a Boardwalk Fries stand, and a Johnsonville stand in the park. I like fast, inexpensive, and made-to-order. I hate waiting in huge lines for rides, and then in huge lines for food. Boardwalk fries are made to order and I'll wait a little for that - they're never just sitting under a heatlamp (fries only last about 5 minutes that way) - and the ones at KD have all sorts of seasonings to put on them - Cajun, Old Bay, Garlic salt, etc. The Johnsonville Brat stands at CP are excellent, fast, and tasty and they offer Platinum Perks (BOGO) on them!

I think they once had real live folks and soft drinks/refills at the beginning of the queue for Beast, but I'm not sure I liked it. People either blocked the queue while they were being served, or wanted to 'catch up with their group' after they got whatever they were after, which is a little like encouraging line-jumping to some. Some would re-join the line at the point where the refreshment line was, which usually was ok with everybody, but it's probably better to keep all that prior to the queue line.

Look up north.

I couldn't really hear it outside of Action Zone. But that reminds me of the only pet peeve I can think of with the ride, which is the timing of the Banshee scream. Eve wails as the train is still ascending, even if you're in row 1. I think the wail should happen as the rear of the train reaches the crest at the very earliest. JMO.

I agree, last time (which was also my first time) at Stricker's was awesome! I plan on going again this year and if I do end up going, I'd like to organize mini-golfing like I did last year

That's pretty ridiculous. I was assigned a middle row and asked for the front and when the op said no, I pointed out that there were 7 people in line for the front (I was a single) and he happily obliged. I understand that on coasters with 4 seats across you might have to assign seats rather than just pulse the line to avoid countless empty seats on a train, but at some point common sense needs to prevail.

I went Tuesday evening with the lady and it was a walk on for Banshee. With it being like this, I would have thought I could ask the ride op to sit in the front row.... nope! Made us sit in the middle of the train. Only 2 people were waiting for the front. I pointed this out to the ride op and was told, "I assigned you a spot and that's where you need to sit." I understand that there are signs posted that prefered seating is not guaranteed, but I thought that was ridiculous and so was the employee's attitude.

Does it seem as if Banshee was one of the only new highly anticipated rides in 2014 to open on schedule? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@SplashinDan on Twitter earlier today : 3 Rampage roller coaster updates throughout the day : "Our critical path is the chain/sprocket. Ordered from John King England. 600 feet of chain 60,000 pounds." "14 men working 60 hours a week. Race to the finish all you coaster crazies!" "Rampage will not open until August at the earliest you coaster crazies! This isn't extreme makeover with us cutting corners!"

I always do the second Sunday in October. Last year we had a pretty large group of KICers meet up. Definitely a fun time. Link, for those that aren't aware of it: http://strickersgrove.com/

A fresh new article in Cincinnati Magazine celebrating "The Beast's" 35 anniversary has been posted online. Here's a link to the article which features invterviews of several Beast fans, fascinating insight into it's origins and early years and includes quotes from several friends like Don Helbig, David Lipniky and more. I too was honored to take part in this interview. It was great fun to reminisce about my early experiences with the coaster. Happy Birthday Beast! Your legend lives on! http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/features/2014/05/29/screeeeeeam

For the record.... not my quote ;-) LOL! I particularly like the article because it pays the proper due respect to certain individuals that often get overlooked in "The Beasts" notoriety. Quite frankly, if it hadn't been for Al Collins and Ruth Voss, The Beast would probably never have happened or become as famous as it has. Those two were key to it's success.

I remember FOF (Outer Limits Flight of Fear...as it will always be in my mind) breaking down a lot at first. I might have spent more time in the hanger than outside in the queue. Therefore I memorized my favorite part of the film.... From rote memory... "Imagine a world where the imperfections of human existence are a thing of the past... Where hunger and poverty are unknown....where we can shape your existence to anything your imagination can conceive... This then is our invitation...come with us....enter our vessel...follow our path across the cosmos and discover that which lies beyond this mortal sphere... You are about to experience the awe and mystery that reaches from the deepest inner mind to....the Outer Limits....." Zap...lights out...screaming....reboot...start over.

I imagine it just a little like your avatar!

What's weird is that even tho Beauty and The Beast was one of my favorite movies as a teen, I never put the two Beasts together.

I always pictured it to be like The Beast from Beauty and The Beast as well, but much more ferocious.

I'm not certain what the last day of "summer" operation is (Labor Day?) but they do have their operating schedule through November posted on their website. So you can see when they're going to be open.

I was not happy and neither was the lady. I can keep it under control for the most part, but if the lady would have went back up there after our ride, it would not have been pretty. Definitely was the better choice to ride and walk away. LOL! She is pretty darn scary when she is mad! Even some random guests said, "Wow! We can't believe how nasty she was to you!" I couldn't imagine if I was a once a year guest or a KI newbie though. It would have left a permanent bad taste in my mouth about the park and would really consider never returning. I have never been treated like that by a ride op at any other park. Also, personal opinion, Incredible Hulk at IOA still beats Banshee. Just thought I would throw that in there.

Just read all the trip reports in this thread and you guys really do have a great time! Would love to meet up with some of you guys sometime. [emoji3] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BoddaH1994, Sometimes a post comes along that is pure gold! That picture alone is wonderful for so many reasons (nostalgia, artistic beauty of the billboard, etc.), and your well-written commentary really makes me stop and think of just how ground-breaking that venerable coaster truly was, and how much respect the ol' ride deserves! We KI fans have all these newer, glossy, big-shot coasters and other thrill rides to choose from all over the park, and sometimes I find myself not even paying any attention to the ol' Racer, as if it's just an interactive, decorative gateway to the southeastern attractions (FOF, FH, DA, AT). It's almost like I think, "It's Racer! It'll always be there; after all, it always has been there for 42 years... right?" ( Just what kind of coaster enthusiast am I to think that?) Thanks for this! Racer is on the top of the list for the next visit.

Last night was walk-on as well. The op was allowing people to sit anywhere. Then when the first row was backing up he would tell people they could pick any row except the front. Seemed like a pretty good system. Since it was walk-on, if you didn't get front you could just exit after your ride and come back around to try again. There's no sense in sending out mostly empty trains only to have the front row line grow and clog up the station.

Obviously, this is him.

Strickers Grove is definitely on my list of must-visits ^ that Sunday in October may just be the day.

Watch the segment about Banshee that aired this morning on Good Morning America.

Opening delayed. http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/27/3477526/opening-of-second-kansas-city.html The article ends by mentioning the ride's previous life...

?????????????????????? How can you access the Internet without an IP address????????????????? Calling malem......

But then we couldn't have music videos and celebrity news updates on FunTV!

This is exactly why we need more theming in the queue. Remember when Maestro used to give you little tidbits of info regarding the theater as you waited in line? Yep. This is exactly what this ride is lacking.

Wait, the ride has dialogue? I never knew that. I blame my bad hearing.

To quote Coney Island of Ohio's famous maxim: You don't quit playing because you grow old, you grow old because you quit playing. Terp, who hopes to be riding Beast when he's too old to care how old he is.

I mean until I hear more about CW Wonder Mountain Guardian, this takes the cake. I mean, two launches, few seconds of airtime, some nice laterals in the helix, neat theming/music, then kinda creepy too. Then a BBW homeage finale. The building is huge I'm sure something like this could go in there, it would be a fantastic addition to the park IMO. The drop track deal is very intriguing to me as well.

Or a Verbolten..first time riding it soon..I still miss BBW though

KI needs to call Vekoma and install the best ride to ever reside inside a Tan Box http://www.thrillhunter.com/Chaos.html

Son of Beast will always be my favorite coaster.