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If there is a coaster planned for Outpost 5, I think reviving the name Son of Beast or alluding to The Beast name is not the way to go. The only Beast that should prowl Kings Island is the large Carter era woodie in the back of Rivertown (As well as maybe Woodstock Express being renamed to The Beastie again, though that's unlikely). That being said, they can still use Outpost 5 and the legend of Sonny as a theme. As for the coaster model, this would fit a B&M Giga Dive Machine. Imagine a holding brake and release as high as the Eiffel Tower. That could be extremely marketable. They could even have it do a fly though element through the Outpost 5 station. My reasoning for the marketability of a Giga Dive is anecdotal. Several years back, my cousins were discussing a trip they took to Tampa for a football game. While on that trip, they visited Busch Gardens Tampa and rode Sheikra. They thought Sheikra was one of the coolest roller coasters they had ever been on. Fast forward to a few years ago. I stumbled upon one of those common roller coaster posts on Facebook with the caption "Would YOU ride this???" that we all have seen before. The image was of Yukon Striker at Canada's Wonderland, the animated rendering from 2018 when it was announced. One of my cousins tagged the other and commented "We rode this! This is in Tampa!" With Valravn, another B&M Dive just up the road in the same state, there are still plenty of people who see any Dive Coaster and think it is the exact one they rode when visiting Florida or Virginia. While another B&M might seem like too much, my mind thinks about that post and says "Imagine what my two cousins reactions would be if a bigger Sheikra were built just within driving distance?" As for RMC, I don't think Kings Island would need to go hyper hybrid. Any park that adds an RMC will be an enthusiast Mecca and will still be adding a standout attraction without it being a record breaker. With the closure of Cincinnati's Coney Island last year, an all steel RMC I-box, painted white and built up like a classic traditional wooden coaster, around the size of Arieforce One at Fun Spot Atlanta, would be a fantastic addition to The Vortex spot. I know there are a few people who want to see that back half of Coney Mall to be themed to a new area of the park to coincide with a new coaster, but I'm not one of them. The Vortex replacement should be built to fit in with the traditional amusement park midway theme of Coney Mall, maybe with an old school art deco station. Perhaps revive the Shooting Star name, complete with an intense helix at the end much like the old Star at Coney (The final helix on that ride became inspiration for the final helix on The Beast). Those are my two cents.

I completely agree! It is supposed to be fun being on the forums talking about our favorite park. I just stay away that kind of banter that is argumentative in nature. Get enough of that everywhere else. And, funny story. A person called me a name on another coaster site and really was not nice to me for some odd reason, no matter how I tried to be cordial. We had an event up at KI a year later. I saw his screen name on his sticker on his shirt, and approached him to say hi. The look on his face when he saw me and how big I am was priceless. I was like, you remember the name calling you did. He apologized profusely. I had no ill will, just wanted to make him realize, you don't always know who is on the other side of the keyboard. So, be nice and have fun and respectful.

I just seen this job posting on Six Flags website. It talks about having a regional manager for a group of parks: https://jobs.cedarfair.com/job/charlotte/regional-manager-social-media-and-digital-content-midwest-region/42509/69749220096 It appears that everyone working in the PR / Marketing department at their respective park will have to reapply for a job? What will this mean for Coasterstock?

If I were to guess, either Magic Mountain or Carowinds.

PT was in a bad way at the end of its life. It was worn out. Folks were excited for the refresh. Now its been 20 years and nostalgia has folks remembering PT with rose colored glasses

Enterprise also sponsor's the people mover since it was dropped by Alamo. I think as long as it's not every single ride and a barrage of adverts, it's fine to have a few of there larger attractions, such as Tron, Test Track, etc. sponsored, especially if it's something guests frequently talk about Back in the day RCA paid for pretty much half the build cost of Space Mountain at WDW, about $10M, which is insane for a sponsorship.

I believe Tron Lightcycle Run is sponsored by Enterprise car rentals

Very true. I think I've said before but done right sponsorships can benefit parks, especially when covering a new ride expense. Like let's say KI builds a peanuts dark ride, what if they cover $1-2 million in expenses by having the ride presented or sponsored by P&G. No tacky ride car vinyl wraps, but like their name under the sign enterance, and at the end of the ride as you exit there's Pig Pen washing his clothes using Tide with an cute animatronic promoting their products. Nothing super flashy, but enough to warrant P&G being willing to cover part of the ride construction or maintenace. Then at the end of the contract the company either renews or drops, either way if this is able to expand the ride budget slightly I'm all for it. A run away mine car coaster in the Crypt building, presented by Kroger, maybe a small display at the exit featuring the kroger people running with shopping carts from a temple boulder chasing them, promoting Kroger delivery instead of "adventuring to the store". I think over the course of lets say 5-10 years, let's say 1-1.5 million people ride, or at least see the sign per year. That's 10 million people, would warrant at least a decent amount of companies willing to put some $$$ towards something. Anyways, rant over...

Agreed, micro analyzing back and fourth takes all the fun out of it. Posts that do just that just rile people up for no reason. Those posts will be removed and offending members issued a warning going forward.

I miss the days where we could just speculate and have fun discussions without every single tiny nuance being dissected down to the T. This is a hobby, not a trial. In the grand scheme of things, none of the reasons really matter why piece A went to place B except to the people invested and involved in the businesses themselves. The microscope has no place here and nothing should be taken so seriously that an argument needs to ensue at every turn. Facts will come from the appropriate sources. As for the rest of us, we are just enthusiasts having fun. Afterall, that is the main point of being on these kinds of forums, right?

On the other hand of the coin, I personally could honestly give a hoot about a vekoma madhouse, or the crypt building being used. We're all entitled to enjoy the themes, lore, history, and excitement of speculation about what we each personally enjoy. There's a whole thread for TRTR/The Crypt speculation if that's what you desire to speculate about, in fact, that's the thread that inspired my post here, but you see I brought that speculation here and made my post in this thread, because it keeps it sperated into a thread, where if you desire to see such topics, you'll know what you're clicking into. Absolutely no need to come over here and bash a separate thread of speculation from what you desire to see happen. Secondhand, these comments do not contribute to the intent and purpose of this thread, and are nothing more than clutter now. Ya know for some of us, Son of Beast holds a special part in hearts. I personally grew up intimidated by that monstrous structure, always hearing stories of what awaited behind that giant lift structure. It was like myth to me then. By the time I was finally tall enough to ride it, the loop had been removed, and it was on its way out, unintentionally, my first and only ride on Son of Beast, was on its unexpected final day of operations. So yeah, it's got a special place with me, and if love to see something happen with what was, and in my opinion still would be a killer marketing strategy.

just wanna toss the thought out there, this came to mind following some speculation about The Crypt/TRTR. So ive tossed the thought out there that 2023 was not intended to be AP (which was known to be a last minute capital investment) and may have originally been planned for a major capital expenditure (new roller-coaster?) but with top thrill 2 those plans may have been shelved until 2025 (originally?) my original thought ive shared here prior, is that this was a tide over investment, as a filler to the major capital being pushed? now with the last minute additions of sirens curse at CP being announced along with the noticeable effort put into converting wolf pack into a lantern point, which im gonna add, is oddly far off the path from the other activation points (and the now removed sticky note on the prop stating "remnants of the unloved son", was this maybe not the original intention for these props? the additional thought ive had flowing from all this, is it possible that KI planned on a major addition for 2025, which was pushed again following sirens curse going to CP? additionally, as a response to the multiple delays of major capital, and the park sort of already being down a major attraction with Vortex's sudden, unplanned departure, will KI follow suit now and see two back to back years of major investment? perhaps something with the former SOB station, as well as something else with the crypt building? better yet, RMC has been busy with fire in the hole, maybe these props were turned into a redirect, and well be getting a major indoor attraction from RMC in the former crypt building? ( lore wise: maybe the son has awoken from an eternal rest, revisited its former stomping grounds during this haunt, fought and narrowly escaped the Banshee this time, and will soon find a new home right next to its father in the former crypt building?

Went up to Cedar Point again yesterday, leaving Cincinnati about 6AM and arriving back home about 9:30PM - we arrived on Point just in time for ERT (10:00AM) to begin and stayed until about 5:30PM ERT - was able to hit Valravn (Row 2) and GateKeeper (Row 8) I have All Season Fast Lane. Between 11-5:30, was able to get two rides on Millennium and one each on Maverick, red side of Gemini, Magnum, Raptor, Blue Streak. Even though not on Fast Lane, got rides in on Iron Dragon and Cedar Creek Mine Ride Steel Vengeance had a bucket lift up with maintenance working on track; per one of the CP groups on Facebook, this opened right as we left. Apple Maps took me a different way into Sandusky yesterday, which seemed a lot faster. Took I-71 to Mansfield and came out SR-13 as normal, detouring around the closure on SR-13 by going through Greenwich on US-224, back to US-250 Once we got to Olena on US-250/SR-13, it had me take backroads, passing Summit Motorsports Park, and coming into Milan, rejoining US-250/SR-13, effectively bypassing Norwalk traffic.

2 train ops on Orion tonight. Quoted as 20 minutes, but I think it’s closer to 45 based on how the line is moving.

Congo Falls line.

Totally agree. They need to keep it around at least until they put something in The Vortex spot. We don't need to lose another coaster without any replacement

I've been hearing about this, but haven't personally experienced it on any of my visits thus far. Hopefully whatever is going on with it isn't anything that will have it removed any time soon. I know I am in the minority here, but I actually like it. It's also the only Vekoma Invertigo model operating in the states. If it gets kept around for awhile longer I would love to see it get updated shoulder harnesses. That would really make a huge difference in the ride experience. Granted I have it figured out how to ride it, I would not argue having a more comfortable restraint system. I would argue to say this is one of the more intense coasters in the park.

Has anyone else noticed that Invertigo has been experiencing major amounts of downtime in the past few weeks? Anyone got any idea what's going on with it? It was stopped at the bottom of the second drop before the vertical loop a few weeks ago when I was here and my friend who frequents the park multiple nights a week has said it's been down nearly every evening and will sometimes randomly open back up near the end of the night. I've been here this evening since around 5:30 and it's been down the entire time.

The taller the coaster, the larger every element needs to be to stay within comfortable G-force range. The larger each element is, the more steel is required. And steel is expensive. Have you ever wondered why there are so few coasters taller than ~300 feet? It's because it gets stupid expensive very fast to build even a narrow gauge (e.g. Orion/Leviathan) coaster at that scale. It may be hard to tell without looking at them side-by-side, but dive coaster track is a lot larger than traditional track. The rails are set wider to accommodate 8- or 10-across trains, so that means more massive ribs, and the spine is wider/thicker as well, since the moment about the track axis is much greater compared to sit-down coasters. And then of course the support columns need to be sized up to support the static weight of the track. All of this adds up to a very difficult ROI case for a dive coaster of that size. One constant in the enthusiast community is how freely folks are willing to spend park operators money, as if it were RCT in sandbox mode. In the real world, where budgets exist, things are more complicated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a dive coaster as high as the ET would be about 40% taller (!!!) than the two tallest dive coasters yet (Valravn & Yukon Striker). The only place a dive coaster of that height is likely to be built is Saudi Arabia. It's just too expensive.

I hope they bulldoze that station and all of the rumors surrounding it.