Coasterteam

I am; will be primarily focusing on Beast (but with a ride on everything else) will be getting a FLP as soon as those go on sale

Not all the time. BiTech. They've reversed-engineered some parts and manufacture a LOT in-house for Cedar Fair.

either way hopefully not as packed as last passholder preview, that was horrible

I'm curious as to how busy it'll be on preview day. Mainly because of it's placement this season. Not in May nor on a weekend as well as closing earlier. Gonna try and make it down there on opening day (not the passholder preview day, don't think I'll be able to make it) mainly so I can ride Beast with all those new changes (likely will get a FLP so I can lap it). I usually go solo, so if you find a red-head lapping beast over and over, it's probably me.

Do you think they'll keep to that schedule? I presume if they can't find enough people they're going to shoot down the closing times but hopefully they do. They seem to be going overboard on hiring events & I hope it helps them find more people.

A good explanation of the Content Delivery System that modern websites use to distribute assets faster across the internet. That's what seems to have happened. A change to the website that was still pending was likely propagated across their CDN servers, which seems to have been picked up by people refreshing a page. Browsers also try to reduce network usage by caching pages, causing some people to see the same page when it really updated on the serverside. There are ways to force-refresh a page, or especially after a certain time the browser will automatically re-download the needed assets. Long story short, most people were locked out by a system designed to balance load. In the future, my recommendations would be to have a secondary device on a VPN with a location out of state in case your own computer doesn't load it properly. This being in the hope of being connected to a different CDN server that may have the better page cached. I feel bad for those who were unable to obtain tickets.

Hi, I'm back to once again overly fixate on this project. I have composed what we know from blog posts and the KIC podcast (Ep. 20) to concoct my next interpretation of the work they are doing on Beast. The visual to supersede all past visuals I have posted here, showing a combination of everything we know and places where we know work is happening (but aren't sure which parts of these are!). I do hope to eventually post a final visual when we get more confirmations and when we are sure of everything they are doing off-season. Original Photo Credit: Google Maps Satellite Image Everything in green is 100% confirmed, we know these are spots they are working on. Everything in red-green and red-yellow is somewhat confirmed. We know, according to the podcast, that KI is working on the second drop area. What parts of that is unconfirmed, but the entire section is highlighted anyway. I may have placed Sycamore Hollow wrong, as a hollow is typically a valley of sorts. I know that the second drop is in a valley, so that is likely where sycamore hollow actually is, but it's fine where I put it in this visual. The helix, based on the blog post image from Mr. Helbig is speculated to be re-tracked to some degree in-house; whether it's partially or fully re-tracked. I posted a set of images similar to this on my Twitter profile, but this is basically combining those into one photo. Finally, looking at the turn before Coon Tunnel, we know that Gravity Group passed over engineering to KI so they could perform work there too. Hopefully that spot won't be so bouncy anymore! Really looking forward to a backstage tour of this at Coasterstock this year, hopefully that's on the itinerary again! Apologies for the edit, for some reason the site posted the same image a second time after my first paste.

darn really? 6 minutes is twice as fast as last years then.

Of course happy to be able to go, but disappointed in the park for this issue as I would hate to have been locked out by a computer bug out of my control.. Maybe they might do a lottery thing like Cedar Point did for their winter event?

Got mine! First time going!

Tickets are going on-sale in 35 minutes! Get yourself ready by 9:58 for the best chances!

I remember my first time going to Kings Island I had spent the week beforehand binge-watching POV videos of Beast and Vortex and basically rope-dropping Beast. I was young but tall enough to ride. Absolutely loved it, that hasn't changed at all. I chickened out on Vortex but eventually did ride it the following year.

Awesome news! Hopefully we can see the Itinerary by late April or early May; really hoping I can snag a ticket before they sell out! Would be my first time going.

Some interesting updates, from the KIC Podcast with Brian Kosmac. I highly recommend you listen if you haven't already! I'm mainly here to summarize some of the more interesting parts. For those who don't know, the GG engineered pre-cut track takes the stress of trains flexing the boards, which flexes the nails, which causes the nails to lose their strength over time. That's how those coasters get rough. This track takes the nails out of the equation, it's entirely on the wood. Longer lasting + Much more Powerful = Less Maintenance. Keep in mind it is still wood, so there will be maintenance still of course, but just less of it. This is good news for The Beast and Racer, I could easily see GG getting the opportunity to come back and do more work on these rides in the future. Brian goes into more detail over this in the podcast, so I recommend listening to that. Some interesting things to start off, is The Beasts tunnels are especially cold, so that's fun! The original designers took a very MacGyver approach to the project, Brian noting the turn out of the first tunnel was obviously increased in banking early on, the helix, etc. This of course being due to how it was designed, being so long ago without computers and not a full career of experience like John Allen. It was really interesting to hear Brian's engineering views on the old design practice on Beast vs how it's done today. It seems we may have partial confirmation of part of the in-house re-track; the second drop, which is around 400-ish feet long. Brian mentioned how they, the park, were doing work in that area. Next up, what they're calling "Sycamore Hollow", the area before the midcourse tunnel - or what we now know as the Coon tunnel, and the brake shed, is additionally something the Gravity Group is designing but not directly building. This is the 4 foot raise before the tunnel. Moving the ledgers off of the ground basically. According to Brian, GG "did the engineering" and passed it over to Kings Island so they could do it as part of their in-house work. Moving to the Helix, we can expect to see a drastically different structure - partly new, partly old. According to Brian, there will be a lot more steel present. There was no mention of anything relating to trims, so I am unsure if they will remain or not after this work. What I believe is the trims are there to decrease the stress of the trains on the structure, that and make the ride more bearable for the riders. That about covers the main topics, once again would recommend listening to this podcast if you haven't already!

I don't want to see them get rid of those on the top. Cool to see! I really think that it kind of sets in stone how much of a backyard-etch coaster this is. The guests love the ride and the park loves the ride. I'm sure some of those are melted onto the steel too from the summer heat waves.

This was awesome to listen to! An awesome perspective of both Racer and Beast on a construction side of things; really interested to see how that final helix structure looks.

Absolutely would love to see a custom soundtrack whipped up for The Beast, especially since Mystic and Orion have one. Only fitting if The Beast himself got one!

What ever did happen to the audio on the first lift?

Am super excited for this event, going to try and get tickets for my first time. If Mr. Helbig did look at this thread, then thank you for the information on CoasterStock and all you do at Kings Island! Do you have to put in Coaster Club information when you buy the tickets initially or do you get that later down the line?

Seems like that'll an in-house re-profile, don't think gravity group is doing that.

yeah I've thought about it some more, not sure how I feel about this nor how it'll look. Curious though

There isn't a whole lot to ask. The only one that comes to mind would be whether they believe the ride could at some point, with an engineering perspective, run with reduced or no trims. I understand that it's entirely up to the park, but could the longevity of the ride be maintained with the reduction of trims. If no, then what, if any, areas would need to be given a focus.

Updates! See my previous post above for information on other parts of the ride we know are being worked on. I do not intend to make this a thread discussing rumors of other trackwork areas, but this is the best place to put this for right now. Mr. Helbig has posted a construction update on The Beast, you can find the full blog post here: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2022/february/beast-roller-coaster-construction-project-update I recommend you read this first! IMPORTANT DETAILS: Construction is going well The banking of the turn coming out of the tunnel after the first drop has increased from 35 degrees to 50 degrees. [Trim anyone?] The Gravity Group is currently finishing bents in the first tunnel and the engineered precut track will be installed next week. Construction on the 540-degree double helix will begin in earnest the week of Feb. 14. Track before the midcourse tunnel will be raised by approximately four feet. [AHH] (Base image: Google maps Satellite imagery) RED: Confirmed in-house re-track YELLOW: Other hot-spots that might get retracked in-house [UNCONFIRMED] I am very curious by "Track before the midcourse tunnel will be raised by approximately four feet." being mentioned. Could this mean we might see Trims be reduced/removed?!?! PHOTO CREDIT: Kings Island Blog (Don Helbig)

Of course, as a professional corporation I wouldn't expect them to immediately respond with a decision. I personally believe they would likely decline the offer, but that's just my prediction. Curious to see where it goes of course, it may be a benefit in the long-run, it may not.

Certainly not every year kind of spoiled, that I understand. I'm talking CF spoil. They seem to only do one major investment a year across all their parks. That and my post was mainly a theory, just a fun way of trying to predict what might come next. Certainly looking forward to whatever CF brings to the table next, especially with this SEAS bid on the table now.