Coasterteam

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.

One comment I found interesting in this, if it were to happen, There would certainly be less corporate bias towards Cedar Point across the entire CF chain of parks if this takeover happened, but I'm on the fence because of how SEAS handles its day-to-day operations; season passes, customer service, etc. Not heard good things about those.

I think your first timeline looks good. I could see a new restaurant coming in 2024, which would be awesome. But yeah, 2024/2025 would be the earliest I'd start speculating about any new major attractions

if that is a teaser, then good on them; we'll find out with time on our side. I don't think we'll see a new major attraction teaser until at least 2024 or 2025, we've been spoiled the past 6 years (2014, 2017, 2020), despite the net going down one (from 12 major coasters to 11) (-Vortex, -Firehawk, +Orion). Kind of going off of the 20 year theory (where KI is 20 years behind CP) 1989 - Magnum -> 2009 - Diamondback 1994 - Raptor -> 2014 - Banshee 2000 - Millie -> 2020 - Orion No Impulse or Strata of course! Kind of interesting, but we'll see what comes next!

I always imagined having some sort of steel coaster interacting with Beast back in the woods of the park, could make The Vortex plot of land not really just a coaster, but an extension of the park down to that level (or raise it up). Having another coaster that is alongside the front of the trees that goes into the woods. Would be so much fun to see that interaction on a whole new level. Introduces some new land to the park, new restaurants or flat rides would be awesome down there too. Will draw up an example later today.

Diamondback came during the early years of CF ownership, where they put a lot of coasters in all their new parks rather quickly, and it surely shows. The only thing I'd be really interested in seeing is having B&M come back to re-track the valley before the trim, that roughness makes it hard to re-ride.

Crypt building is such an eye-sore nowadays. I did not once see that soccer game active at all the past two seasons. I really hope they revisit that plaza, I love all these ideas for it that I'm reading through.

Meant to reply to this sooner; like a non-family bathroom, normal I guess. Something simple; a walk-in bathroom similar to the ones by WindSeeker or Backlot. Moving on, I really hope they reroute the Flight of Fear line, for both standby & FLP. For FLP, I always find it spilling out of the building and blocking the normal exit. For standby, they rarely ever use a good majority of the inside anymore for the line, so if it's a hot day I'd stay away from that ride if you don't have FLP.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Diamondback/Beast[partially] repainted next off-season, but yeah, hope the actual structure for Slingshot is repainted too! That'd be awesome!