CoasterJack

The only arcade I tend to wander into is the main one in Coney Mall. Most recent being Winterfest last year. I mainly only venture in there when the lines are too insane to bear. To be honest, most of the games were well kept and there were some pretty modern games, and decent prizes, which honestly surprised me. Has the arcade in the building next to Beast been open this year, I haven't looked yet. Sorry if we're getting a little off topic, but the small stuff like this always intrigues me. You can have the greatest coasters and rides, but I always try to pay attention to the infrastructure and you can always tell a park cares and has self pride when everything is managed down to the smallest little thing.

I agree with this so much! Regarding wooden coasters, I don't know any other coaster that has been around for this long while remaining ever so popular. Especially compared with other coasters from the era, no other wooden coaster still draws in as much of a crowd at 41 years old other than The Beast. Sure there's El Toro, Lightning Rod, The Voyage, etc, but none of those have been around for nearly as long, and Beast stands out as something different. Instead of focusing on elements, it really feels as if it's an experience unlike no other, especially during a night ride.

I've heard it's supposedly packed today. Like worse than some Cedar Point weekends. It it truly that bad? I'm considering heading up in about an hour, but don't know if it's worth the drive if it's so packed I can't ride anything in under 2 hours.

All I can say is Orion didn't have the same effect Fury 325 had on Intimidator. Screw the slight roughness at the bottom of each airtime hill, nothing will be able to beat the floater airtime filled layout of Diamondback, or the splash down. At least for me personally, Orion was a great addition to the park and all, but it's still number 3 in the park for me.

The wood planks are still present down by the first drop, and there are big tire tracks. But in terms of Banshee, it was running fine. In fact, on blue train today I probably got one of my smoothest rides ever at the park.

It could just be wood for a re-tracking over the winter. Don't know if it would involve GCI, or just some yearly maintenance on The Beast.

It would be really hard to match the faded paint as well. The drop would look off, and worse than just a weld. I definitely agree it would be much easier to just weld the existing track already in place.

And this is when I wish the Banshee webcam was up to watch the action over the weekdays

The they added an LED sign a few years back, they sometimes display animations. Source: https://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69924&start=20 P.S. There's multiple threads talking about when they did all this: https://KICentral.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29050-kings-island-is-getting-a-marquee-sign-upgrade/

Quite a bump, but.... Now that it's been a solid 9 years, any change in feelings in management, especially now after Area 72. Would you say Area 72 is better than anything Paramount could have done, or was Top Gun, Action Zone, TR:TR still much better than anything Cedar Fair could attempt? And is the new atmosphere better than before?

Definitely the first time my friend tricked me into going on Flight of Fear. As a kid the biggest ride I had conquered was Adventure Express. So on a cool crisp spring day when we didn't have school, my friend convinced me to join him on the first ride of the day (I had no idea about the launch), I shocked but thrilled at the experience of the ride and it's what really got me into roller coasters. It's been my favorite ride at the park since then and probably always will be.

I noticed this as well. While I couldn't exactly see them relocating or replacing the sign, especially right now, my theory is... They're doing parking lot work this off season to fix the flow lanes into the rows, and they're just marking the electrical to the sign to avoid confusion. Also if anyone says ODOT required them to take it down as a distraction, if I'm driving by on the highway, I'm already gonna be looking at the park regardless of the sign, so I see this as highly unlikely.

The only explanation about the Cedar Fair thing that I can think of is that since Blue Streak is the only traditional wooden coaster, it's probably better to send them off, while at Kings Island they have 4 traditional woodies. Now I know Mystic Timbers is an exception cause sending the trains to GCI, but still, Kings Island has a better in-house department compared to some other independent parks.

I enjoy the current theme, however, if they would ever invest into new trains (I doubt it), on-board audio would make a world of a difference. You can only really hear the theme, faintly in the exit station, or after coming to a halt on the mid-course break run. Also my friend who works the ride says the theme is engraved into almost all his dreams by now

I can concur, it's usually teal train that hammers. The blue train seems to be the smoothest out of the three. Sadly, I almost never get blue train.

Yum! Gotta make my way over there right now...

Agreed, imagine the ride without any tunnels what so ever. It would be an entirely different experience. I don't even want to think what AE would be like as a parking lot coaster with no themeing

I agree with maybe some new lighting and some help with the last tunnel, but you've gotta remember to follow the Eleventh Commandment, and adding projections or removing the statutes would definitely violate violate @TombRaiderFTW's 11th commandment !

Today the specimen lights were operational, a couple other effects in the pre-show were present that weren't working opening week, so they're definitely working on it. Also noticed some small improvements to Adventure Express, so some good signs seem to be present that they're working on effects around the park.

Sadly, no, but I'm pretty sure they have high priorities on their list right now. But the station has gotten a little love, they were using more of the pre-recorded script, and they added blue lights around the launch tunnel.

Also, if you wait till the end of the day, i've been three times and the time to go is like between 6 and 6:10, they'll let you on without an access pass, but they shut off the line depending on crowds around 6;15, so you've gotta time it perfectly.

It still doesn't quite feel like it's 11 yet. It'll be interesting to see how diamond back ages, and if it'll age like older B&M hypers (such as Apollo), or if we'll finally get that repaint job. Also don't know if Diamondback's longer trains or splash down contribute at all.

Agreed, but it would definitely reduce the roughness and maybe less tight cars would be more accepting to larger guests, which is one common complaint I've heard.

Yeah, my heart kinda stopped when I walked by The Vortex plot. The pictures are good, but it just doesn't show how much different it feels. Even for a first time park visitor, it definitely feels empty.

Same here, I'm not expecting anything huge, like the saucer and lighting effects are definitely still there, especially after they just updated the LEDs a few years ago. But I could potentially see a new queue show or props (the tube tvs, and computers are starting to look a bit dated), but I honestly hope they didn't change too much. I kinda wish we got new custom Premier trains for a smoother ride or on-board audio, but I doubt they'd spend that much on a ride approaching 26 years.