Cormaster

a. The ride experience is totally different, and the ride itself is not really much bigger than Invertigo... b. Removed and scrapped? Whatever are you talking about? All three of them run today... Magic Mountain...operates reliably and is great fun. Six Flags Over Georgia, sold to Mirabilandia in Brazil and operates reliably as Sky Mountain, by all accounts. Also great fun (at least when it was in Georgia). Six Flags Great America, sold to Silverwood in Idaho, where it operates reliably as Aftershock. Also great fun. Well I stand corrected. I really thought they scrapped them. Oh well.

Well though we can't ride it anymore (and probably never will ever again) Son of Beast, 1-1, dead front seats. In the very front the ride is as smooth as a steel coaster and going down those hills face first is awesome!

Deju Vu. Never rode it, but the idea of an Invertigo thats literally twice as big sounds awesome, and you'd think it would be just as simple as doubling the size and it would work fine, however that was not the case, and it was a problematic nightmare for Six Flags, and was eventually removed and scrapped. Realistically though its Son of Beast. I can't tell you how pumped I was when I saw the blueprints up at KI in 1999

I think I was in a state of denial and i still had hope, but after some good discussion with everyone on here, its over. The very fact the coaster is off the park map, the signage is gone, and the park reduced the coaster count by exactly one is enough to say yah its going to be SBNO until the park decides they need the space for something. After 30 million's been spent on a coaster and it still has problems you gotta give up on it! And even I have to admit, for $30 mil we could of gotten 3 new rides!

Well the more i think about it obviously its for Cedar Fair to decide and not me, but I realize I am in the minority. The Son of Beast has a bad reputation, alot of people won't ride it due to bad memories, and others won't ride it because of its bad rep. And yeah I guess the track layout isn't that great other than the first couple hills. And 10 - 15 million invested could bring us a new coaster, perhaps a new Vekoma SLC, or a used B&M invert that would fit nicely in Action Zone. Honestly though I don't know what their plan is, but as of right now I'm guessing their plan is to leave it SBNO until they have a use for the land. Like Terpy said, its Drachen Fire all over again. I like the Iron Horse idea, but I doubt the park will spend that much money to revive a coaster with a bad rep they basically inherited. Their are better wooden Coasters built that had cost less, so they could tear it down and give us another awesome woody for less than it would cost to renovate.

If $10 to $15,000,000 were that easy, why bother with SoB at all and just start over? El Toro was $12,000,000 Voyage was $6,500,000 Ravine Flyer II was $6,000,000 Each is a great ride with a great layout, whereas SoB has neither. Also, by renovate, exactly what do you believe needs to be renovated that has not already been done? The more we talk about it, I dunno what they can do really to fix the ride. the iron horse idea seemed like a good idea until Terpy pointed out that the track didn't break in '06, no the structure broke and caused the track to break. an Iron track seems like it would just put more weight on the track causing more wear and tear on it. And yes like you said Voyage which is what I hear a great coaster, didn't cost as much as Son of Beast, and is less than it would cost to renovate the current Son of Beast. Overall I look back and wonder why Paramount parks thought it would be a good idea to get "Roller coaster company of America" to build such a big edition to the park. Son of Beast probably wouldn't of had near as many problems had they given the project to someone more experienced at making wooden Coasters.

AHHH!!!! *head explodes* T2 is one of the few rides where I refuse to ride it. It's in the same boat as Son of Beast and Mean Streak. I made that comment before everyone started commenting on how rough and crappy the ride was. I was just thinking invert at the time, and considering it was made by Vekoma, figured it couldn't be much worse than Invertigo.

I'm not even going to answer that. I don't think Son of Beast will get pre fab track or the iron horse track. If you ask me I think the rose bowl should be removed. We get the point you hate the Son of Beast ok? But every time I make a comment about the "iron horse track" you make a comment afterwords "hey you know how much that costs?" and its getting annoying quite frankly. I"m not even the one who suggested no brought the idea up, I'm just another poster on this board agreeing with it. So attack the person who first suggested it.

I rode T2 back in 1998 and thought it was fine, though short and weak in comparison to the previous one I rode, the Raptor at Cedar Point! Though I was only 18 years old at that time, and I never noticed the rough ride on The Vortex back then either, while now at age 30 I'm finding The Vortex to be much more painful and rough! how is T2 in comparison to The Vortex? Yeah I know different types of coasters, I just mean as far as transitions, and roughness! I also wonder why anyone ever went to Vekoma for an Invert when B&M was already an expert in it?

It seems from just talking to everybody on the board, the rides screwed

Its seemed its been a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. Seems though if they shut the park down then Six flags will just repo the rides, and probably put them in at other parks... well what little ones that can be moved. Wooden coasters can't be moved can they?

so basically in order to fund the park they sold all the rides to six flags. interesting... I hear Chang's going up at Great America. I find that odd since they already have "Iron Wolf", another B&M Standup coaster.

Yeah but wasn't Chang built before Six flags opened the park? I remember when it opened, it was still "Kentucky Kingdom: The thrill Park".

I say give it up and let it go. The park has done nothing but gotten worse every visit I've been there. Seems like all they do is remove rides, never add more, and I'm not sure they can add much more considering the small size of the park. IT was a neat little park when I went in 1998, but without chang, I'll never go there again. Besides T2 would like nice at Kings Island! BTW why did they get rid of Chang just to expand the waterpark? MAJOR FAIL! Get rid of your best thrill ride to make the waterpark bigger? Typical KK...

why does it have to be cheap? I'm looking at least $10 - $15 mil to redesign and renovate the SOB, but to the extent it'll be as nice as a new ride, and yet cheaper than the $22 million it cost to build Diamondback!

Then I'm not sure what a heavier "iron" track will do to keep the structure to from failing again.

To understand if the "Iron horse" solution would work or not one thing I have to admit I'm unsure of is what exactly broke on '06... was it just the track or did the structure itself fail causing the track to crack? If the structure held I imagine this would be an idea solution, however at the cost of loosing all its records, but hey oh well. The records don't mean much enlight of its new reputation as the trouble maker of the park. I think they might as well say screw the records lets just make this a good enjoyable ride again!

My wife picked me up a pair of Old Navy Cargo shorts. They have 1 pocket with a zipper, 2 small pockets with buttons and one large pocket with a button. During my last visit to KI I wore the shorts. I put my cell in a ziplock bag and in one of the small button pockets, and while riding I stored my glasses in the other small button pocket. IN the large zipper pocket were my keys, and wallet, and My wallet was also in a ziplock bag. the result? Success! I succefully rode Firehawk without having to get a locker, and i also rode wwc with all my stuff in my pocket and didn't get wet. looks like a simple pair of cargo shorts and a couple ziplock bags were all I needed! Thanks for the tips guys!

I voted iron horse, layout's fine, and new marketing campaign.

I dunno, the SOB cost $20 mil... You think it needs that much work?

I dunno about that... really until the incident in '06 did anyone complain about it much? I rode it in '03 in its original glory, twice in the dead back of the train and got off both times pumped, excited and ready to ride again, and when I went that day it was a pretty dead day yet the Son of Beast had about a 45 minute wait. I honestly didn't find it a fail or a bust, It was everything I expected it to be! my personal opinion is I'd love a massive renovation and new marketing campaign to get people interested in it again. Its still such a beautifull looking coaster and they can pretend its not there, but its still a huge part of the KI skyline. Approaching the park you see 3 things first: Diamondback, The Eiffel Tower, and Son of Beast! I'd hate to see them tear it down and everytime I've been to the park my trips have felt somewhat incomplete without being able to ride it. Its up to Cedar Fair to decide but personally if it came down to either build a new coaster and tear it down, or do a massive renovation and make it an overall better, safer, and smoother ride, I'd take the later. And personally I think they could renovate the SOB cheaper than they could building a new coaster. I mean Diamondback cost what 22 million? Its not going to cost $22 million to renovate.

I really don't know much about the history of it. I just know my wife, then girlfriend in 2007 was very anxious to stay at it from the commercials they had on the radio. I didn't even know it existed till I rode top gun one time and saw it! Our first trip out there was for our honeymoon, and it was paid for with all cash from wedding gifts, so that time I was really impressed with the place. I don't mean to make it sound horrible, but my wife drives me nuts with it. I get sick of hearing "Great wolf lodge" around this house because she talks about it... New Years "we could go to the Great wolf Lodge", Easter "we could go to the great wolf Lodge"... and I don't even wanna tell the story as to why we went this time... So hopefully she's done with it for real, because I've been over the place since the second visit out there!

No doubt Kings Island needs an Invert. Its the one thing the park has been missing since they came out, however I think inverts are officially "discontinued" as of this point except for strange models such as our own Invertigo, or Wicked twister/vertical velocity. I was thinking though theres a nice Vekoma one thats just sitting around at Kentucky Kingdom right now... if they decide not to re-open that park maybe Cedar Fair could purchase that one? Ok so lets get real it won't happen but one can dream right? I don't imagine they plan on adding anymore coasters for a while at Kings Island after the big chunk of change they spent on Diamondback!

It was one bad trip, out of 4, I wouldn't let my bad time at the lodge discourage anyone else from going who was thinking about it. More than anything the main problem was the waterpark shutting down early. This is something new they do, but considering we had actually PLANNED To go to the waterpark after KI, we found ourselves with nothing to do at 8:30. I really don't understand why they shut it down early, personally from past visits because of KI closing at 8PM, the waterpark gets quite a bit more packed at that time! Pretty much now their hours are even with KI 8pm is ridiculous. I think about my own apartment complex, pool/hottub hours are 10 - 10. I think about the resort where their pool house is open till midnight. And I'm thinking if the GWL wants to impose reduced hours during "off peak" times then maybe they need to cut the rates down in half. nope my room was the same cost last time I went out, and I got to use the waterpark until 10! Needless to say the GWL is a nice hotel don't get me wrong, and I imagine kids would love it, but I never thought it was worth the price. I've never felt I've got my money's worth, but my wife's obssessed with the place, and nearly ran me into the poor house by planning trips and making reservations there. I went to the resort one time, and obviously no it wasn't nearly as elaborate or nice as the GWL, but for prices starting at $70/night you actually feel you get MORE Than what you paid for! One thing I dont' get either about GWL is why don't they have transportation to the park? $300/night for a room and they can't provide a shuttle bus? The campgrounds that occupied that spot before offered a shuttle why can't they? This might be the biggest reason I like the resort over the lodge.

So Tuesday we left for GWL and Kings Island. We left much later than I wanted to as my wife had a job interview and couldn't reschedule it. We got to GWL at about 5p.m. and then it took us 20 minutes to check in because some idiot was running the desk. After that we found our room, dropped our stuff off and headed to Kings Island. It was short and sweet: Diamondback White Water Canyon Firehawk Flight of Fear And then we got some deep fried oreos and it was about 8p.m., closing time at KI so we decided to head back and go enjoy the waterpark at GWL before it closed. We got back, changed into our swimsuits, and headed towards the GWL waterpark. When we got there, a lifeguard stops us at the door: "I'm sorry we can't let you in, the waterpark's closed", our response "What? Its supposed to close at 10!", "no it closes at 8, it doesn't start closing at 10 till this weekend". So we walked back to our room dissapointed and angry. My wife was very angry. She went up to the main desk and told a manager off. Told him we paid $260 just to have a hottub in our room, and a waterpark we can't use. The manager tried to say "Well your here during an off peak time thats why the waterpark closes early", but my wife argued back that we have come there 3 times during that time and each time the waterpark has stayed open until 10. She is right too. Everytime we've come there the waterpark has been open till 10 except this past visit. ME personally I think its crap we gotta pay the same amount we always have and we can't use the waterpark as long! So anyway we took off for dinner after that, my wife driving angrily through the GWL parking lot. We had dinner at Sonics and then decided to go get some liquor, which was quite an adventure... where can you get liquor at in ohio? We went to Meijer, and Kroger and all they had was watered down liquor (21%/vol and lower). I used the GPS on my phone to take me to a liquor store and it was closed, closed at 9. Maybe someone can explain the liquor laws to me in ohio because in Indiana they can sell hard liquor everywhere, and liquor stores can stay open as late as 3a.m.! Anyway we eventually gave up and just bought some beer from a gas station. We drank and soaked in the hot tub till midnight then went to bed. Sleeping didn't go quite as planned either. The stupid A/C in the room was loud, and sounded like a jet engine firing up, and it kept clicking on, and everytime it would, it would wake me up. I ended up with something like 5 inconsistant hours of sleep. At 7:30, I gave up, got my wife up and we went to the GWL breakfast buffet. Service was bad there too. Problem was they only had one waiter for like 20 tables, and new tables kept coming in. At one point I was out of coffee and water and I nearly went to just go get it myself until my wife motioned at a GWL employee and told them we needed refills. I'll never understand whats up with Buffets not just having drinks on the buffet. Wouldn't that make more sense? Then I wouldn't need a waiter or waitress for anything! Anyway after that we headed back to the room to clean up and change into swimsuits. Oh yeah and housekeeping nearly walked in on us with our clothes off... it was before checkout time and they didn't even bother to knock! Finally 10a.m. came and we checked out, played in the waterpark for 45 minutes, and took off. overall a bad visit and not worth the money we paid for it. We went back to KI for a little while. IT went like this: Diamondback Beast Vortex Delerium Diamondback And then we had some blueberry ice cream and took off. I had no problems with KI what-so-ever this trip, but I wish my wife would of just listened to me about going to the Kings Island Resort instead. Truth be told, I can't afford the absurd prices at GWL any better than anyone else on this board, and one trip we decided to stay at the resort instead, cost only about $80/night and I really felt like the place gave you your money's worth more than the GWL. I mean for that $80 you got transportation to and from the park, a pool and hot tub that was open till midnight, a full service bar and grill called "Coasters", and they had a breakfast buffet option too! I've never felt like we've gotten our money's worth out of the lodge. The water-park is cool, but its not big enough that you would want to spend a whole day there, and once you get over the water-park gimmick you realize there's nothing much else to do, unless you wanna play outdated video games in the arcade, or do that stupid magic quest thing. I hope my wife is serious because I'm sick of paying there absurd rates!