Cormaster

It may have not been designed that way but I remember the commercial for it and thats how they advertised it. "Now you can fly just like the fighter jets in Top Gun". I was only in 6th grade then. I was confused when I saw the commercial I was like What's Paramount's Kings Island? Is it like the Kings Island I've been to several times in Cincinatti? LOL I remember the typical little kid rumor mill stuff too, somebody had "been to the park" and yes its the same Kings Island, and Top Gun isn't actually a new ride, they just repainted The Vortex and redesigned it a little bit... blah blah blah. I was glad to find out it was all BS

Actually that would have been that it would lose its loop for the 07 season. The incident occurred in July of 2006, and the decision to remove the loop was not announced until the offseason after 2006... Thats what I meant actually. But it really was on MSN. It actually caught my eye. "Son of Beast looses its signature loop for '07". I didn't know about the incident at the time nor did I have any idea they were removing the loop.

Well I think the men at Arrow Dynamics were geniuses and yeah The Vortex may have horrible transistions and a lot rougher ride than a modern day B&M steal coaster but thats to be expected. You start with an idea, and then you make it better, than your competitor fix what your doing wrong, etc. Also Coasters have come a long way since the Arrow Dynamic Custom looping battle that happened in the 80's where every park was out to get the tallest, fastest, and most inversions out of every new Arrow that was built. I doubt the last Coaster Arrow built, X has the horrible transistions.

somethings not right about that model. The train moves a LOT faster than it would in real life! Its supposed to be a 3 minute ride but it takes under a minute for the train to do the whole course!

I do know in my older age the corkscrew is harder to tolerate than when I was younger... the ride is rough, and your head gets jerked around quite a bit during it. The Vortex trains seem to go down the hill perfectly, go through the 2 loops perfectly and then they just stop, and seem to struggle through the double corkscrew and batwing. I think with maybe more speed the the corkscrew wouldnt' be as bad, but its just that the train goes through it so slowly! IF this is what people talk about when they say "horrible transitions" than I do agree. with the way the brake run works where its at and the slow speed through the corkscrew, it almost seems like they just slapped 2 coasters together to make one gigantic record breaking coaster (and yes I know right now the 'tex ain't breaking any records but when it opened it broke a bunch). While it would shorten the ride length, if the coaster would go through the double loops, then around the helix, and through the corkscrew and batwing without a brake run, the transition would work perfectly instead of feeling like 2 coasters bolted together!

yeah I heard Flight of Fear would of been moved had Cedar Fair not bought the park when it had.

Here's something I've been trying to figure out. When people refer to "horrible transitions" on Arrow Custom Looping coasters what are they referring too? Only thing I can think of on per say Vortex is the break run. You drop down the hill, go through 2 loops then the ride almost slows to a stop, and then it goes through a corkscrew, and a batwing before taking you back to the loading station. The transistion from the double loop to the corkscrew/batwing sucks and I admit that. is this what everyone is referring too? Just curious.

LZTR seems to be the only reason to visit HRP. Nothing else seems interesting. A arrow dynamics custom looping coaster, except made by B&M. No horrible transitions, six inversions, 155 foot drop, and speakers on the trains that blare "a Whole lotta love" in sync with the ride. Great Idea, just too bad the rest of the park sucks. Anyway its just an idea really. I for one would be happy if Vortex just lasts 10 or 20 more years! Still my favorite ride in the park!

I don't think Paramount's ownership hurt the park much. Yeah they named most of their rides after paramount TV Shows/Movies, so what? I know Top Gun was kind of small, but that wasn't their choice to build that either, that was something that started with previous management, it just got the "top gun" name after Paramount took over the same year it was supposed to open. Flight of Fear is really an awesome coaster! don't let the size of the building fool you, its a really uniquely designed coaster, and very intense and thrilling. I can't tell you how many times I've rode it but nothing can prepare you for that initial launch, and then of course its so dark in the building the feeling of suprise always catches me off guard. you really don't know whats coming up next and thus have no way to prepare for it. And as for Son of Beast, I understand the quality and roughness of the coaster, but the point remains that Paramount at least tried to give everyone a great new coaster. They spent like 20 million on it, who would of known it would turned out that way? In a time when hyper coasters were proving to be more popular, Paramount thought they'd try something unique and different and give everyone a hypercoaster made out of wood, and also make it the only wooden looping coaster in the world! They had no way of knowing how it would of turned out. As for Italian Job, well it is a family coaster but it ain't bad either. The initial launch and speed up the helix is well worth the ride alone! Overall I don't think the Paramount Era was that bad. It was still the same park, still had awesome attractions and Paramount continuously brought us good new attractions, just as Cedar Fair is doing now, and just as the owners before it did.

I meant Indianapolis. There are still some around Indiana but none in Indianapolis. I really hope they return someday. But it still was one of the best meals of my life! LOL I figured it might taste different, you know like maybe indy put their own twist on it, but nope, it was the same sonics. I also had a banana cream pie milkshake for desert. Yum yum! BTW when people say "indy" they are referring to Indianapolis, not Indiana. Thats Indianapolis's official nickname.

Great America is my favorite Six flags park. and its shaped a whole lot like Kings Island too! I've been dying to go back. I went with my family in 1993, and it left a lasting impression on me. Since then they've taken away Shockwave, but added Raging Bull and Superman: Ultimate flight. They've also added a waterpark. Great America is cool just because it has a high coaster count just like Kings Island. I still remember Demon, Iron Wolf, Great American Eagle, and Shockwave. I didn't get to ride batman that day as it was still a new ride and it broke down constantly. I hear the new Dark Knight ride is pretty worthless though.

doesn't led zeplin the ride have the same trains? Anyway I was thinking the same type of trains more or less, but ones that only seat 2 across. if B&M could make us some awesome trains for The Vortex it really would be a massive improvement. just kinda hate how the back seats of the current trains feel like the back seat of a camaro, and the front seats have that stupid wheel well. needless to say the ride's awesome, but the trains really aren't.

I'm guessing that they were closed because they do no thave enough life gaurds to work this late in the season with most of them going back to school. I have not gone to Boomerang Bay this year but last year we went about two weeks into August and they were already running low on staff over there. That was my assumption but I wasn't sure. Thought I'd check.

so how come S&S doesn't support the Arrow Products? From my understanding Arrow still exists, but S&S bought them, and they are now called S&S Arrow. Shouldn't they support the Arrow coasters? Anyway I know I"m dreaming but speaking of other companies supporting Arrows, who wouldn't want some new modern day B&M "sitdown coaster" trains for The Vortex? Trains like the ones on "led zepplin the ride" at HRP or "kumba" at Busch Gardens Tampa. Like i said its far fetch but I'd love it. I'd like to see them do that and repaint The Vortex to dark blue and dark red. These are the custom looping trains I'm referring too.

you would of heard about it all over the place if it happened, and the slide probably wouldn't be running for a while until they fixed the flaw. its not true thats for sure!

Well for once i have little to complain about. Just got back from KI about an hour ago. We left on Tuesday the 19th, just got back today. We originally had great wolf lodge reservations for 2 nights but we canceled them and went to the Kings Island Resort instead. Honestly much better bang for the buck. Don't get me wrong GWL is awesome, but no matter how good your experience is, the place is just overpriced. you can to florida for a week for about the same price you spend on 2 days at the Great Wolf Lodge. I had low expectations for the resort but my experience was really good. Staff was really friendly and helpful, and the huge indoor pool and hottub were nice. spend my last 2 nights at Coasters, not a bad little bar. Also enjoyed the free transportation to the park and back. Only thing I didn't like about the resort was the Hard beds. Comfortable when you go to sleep but you wake up sore and aching. The Breakfast buffet was good in the morning. Didn't have a whole lot but they had the bare essentials, ie biscuits and gravy, french toast sticks, bacon, sausage, eggs, cereal, and bagels. So we got there at about 4pm Tuesday evening. We checked in, got settled in our room, then had a drink at coasters. Then we hopped on the bus and went over to the park till it closed. We rode Adventure Express, Vortex, Son of Beast, and Invertigo twice in a row, thanks to our gold pass. We finished the night by going up in Eiffel Tower and checking out Diamondback construction... pretty impressive. We left the park at about 7:30pm then headed back to the hotel. We went and swam in the indoor pool for a while and then it was time for dinner. Jackie wanted to try LaRosas so she asked a sherriff where one was at. He gave us directions and told us it was right next to Sonics. My ears perked up immediatly! I LOVE SONICS! You see poor indy was stripped of our all sonic restaraunts in early 2005, a big mystery that even the Sonic franchise doesn't know what happened. Apparently the owners decided to hang up shop over night and put their property up for sale, even the employees didn't realize this until they showed up to a shut down restaurant in early 2005. One is still standing as a stop-and-get-robbed car dealership called "rock and roll motors" the other one I went to was bulldozed and became Panda Bear Express or something like that. Regardless, we ended up going to La Rosa's Pizza instead because Jackie wanted it real bad, but she promised me Sonics the next night. After that we came back and finished our night at Coasters, then went to bed. Next day on wednesday we got up early and went to breakfast, then we got to the park a little after 10. We rode Firehawk first as its always the hard one to get on. Shortest wait I ever had to get on it, only 10 minutes or so. Then we rode Vortex, and Beast, and then headed back to the car so we could get our swim wear and we headed over to Boomerang Bay. First time I've been since its been called boomerang bay, in fact first time in like 14 years or so! We first went to the lazy river and went around it twice, then we hit up Down Under Thunder and Sydney Sidewinder. Wanted to enjoy Awesome Aussie Twister and Bondi Pipeline but they were closed for the day. After that we headed over to the Outback shack to get some drink re-fills via our braceletts. From there it was on to the Wave pool for about 15 minutes, and then the Tasmanian Typhone. After that we were wore out so we made a speedway run then headed back to the hotel for a break. during the break I had some coffee and an energy drink to get some energy and we had a couple snacks, then we relaxed in the hot tub and pool for a while. We headed back to the park about 6. After getting back to the park we hit up Son of Beast, Flight Deck, Vortex, Back Lot Stunt Track, and The Beast. After The Beast the park was closing so we headed back. Then I finally got the meal I've been craving for 4 years... foot long chilli cheese dog, sonic size chili cheese tater tots, and a watermelon Coke. Oh man I now know why Harold and Kumar were so excited to get White Castle. lol I felt like I was in heaven! I really missed that place. Now I have something else to look forward to every time I come out there! After that we once again finished our night with Coasters. We woke up today and were completley wore out. We had breakfast, got cleaned up and checked out. Jackie wanted to do some shopping, I wanted to hit up the 2 coasters I hadn't rode yet. Jackie has a hard time riding both Flight of Fear and Racer so we tend to avoid them, but i wanted to hit them up. while she shopped, I first walked right on to Flight of Fear, then right on to The Racer. I was done in about 20 minutes, and so was she, so we were off, and now we're back. We both had a really good time. It was a more relaxing trip than most. This was my 4th trip out there this year so there was nothing I just had to ride. Jackie also wasn't denied a ride on anything for once! it took the help of friendly staff to get her harness latched on Firehawk and The Beast, but other than that no problems! The trip was an absolute blast! Only thing I was disapointed with was it seemed like half of boomerang bay was closed. They only had one side of the sidewinder open, and both Aussie twister and Bondi Pipeline were closed. oh yeah and Snowy River Rampage was also closed. Pipeline paradise was also closed. Are they getting rid of these attractions or were they just broke? I was a little irritated since I was looking foward to the pipe slides that I hadn't rode since i was a kid, and I really wanted to try out that surfing simulator. Other than that no complaints.

we never were talking about the Son of Beast getting demolished The topic basically implies we were talking about Son of Beast being demolished

One day i opened my web browser and found on the front page of msn that the Son of Beast will loose its signature loop for the 06 season. At that point i hadn't heard about the accident either so that was very upsetting news to me!

Holiday world DESPERATELY needs a Steel Coaster! And a lot more to do! You go to that park in the middle of the week when its not busy and you could probably conquer everything in about an hour!

Someone surely still builds parts for Arrow's. After all, KI has 3 Arrow's (Vortex, Adventure Express, Flight Deck). Wouldn't S&S power support Arrow coasters since they own whats left of the company? I want to see them keep both Flight Deck and Son of Beast. Flight Deck isn't bad, it's decently intense, and I agree, if it were a minute longer it would be a much better ride. The ride que is also redicolous for this thing... if they demolish any thing they need to take down part of that que! However it has seemed to be a reliable ride for the last 15 years and its one of those that you just gotta ride every visit for the hell of it. Just like Adventure Express I always find myself on that coaster every visit! I don't see them removing it just because well there money is probably tapped for a while after building Diamondback, and its not really hurting anything in the corner of the park its in. Also its good for the coaster count. I don't see them tearing down Son of Beast any time in the near future just because, like others have said it seems like it would be an even bigger waste of money to tear down Son of Beast. if they were going to do that they probably should of done it after the incident of '06. I still don't think it improved much on the smooth side of things, but I have found its the smoothest coaster in the park in the front of the train, and the roughest in the back. Why is that anyway?

I had been bugging my parents to go to Kings Island ever since I saw The Vortex Advertisment on TV. In 1989, me being 9 years old, they finally took me. It was the first year of Water Works, so we spent most of the day there. Even as a child at age 9 I could care less about the "kiddie area" which at the time was hanna barbera land. Afterwords we hit up Hanna barbera land and I rode my first coaster ever, The Beastie. I mistook it for The Beast and I was wondering "is that it, is this the legendary coaster everyone talked about?" I then re-read the sign and found out it said Beastie not Beast. After The Beastie I told my dad I wanted to ride The Vortex. So he took me to The Vortex. Even in its 3rd year, an hour wait still meant 15 minutes, so the line went fast. As we first went up that hill I was really nervous and scared but played it off. But as soon as it went down, lol it was like the craziest thing I had ever experienced. I closed my eyes and screamed like crazy, and honestly the thing scared the hell out of me at age 9, especially only being the second coaster I ever rode in my life. After that we went to The Racer, and then The Beast. Neither of which scared me like The Vortex. While The Beast is an intense coaster, it didn't have inversions, and the inversions are what really got to me at that age. After riding 3 of the "fearsome 4" we ate dinner somewhere near where King Cobra used to stand. MY dad asked me if I wanted to ride it and I said "no, standing up is too much I've had enough". He said "Are you sure, you rode The Beast and The Vortex, and those are both more intense than that thing!" and I said "no I've had enough". So I watched my dad ride the Cobra. at the end of the day we watched the fireworks and I told my parents that I had the best day of my life. At that point in my life, it really was the best day of my life. While the coasters scared me, one thing stuck in my head: they didn't kill me. From that point on I became a coaster addict, and from that point on I never rode The Beastie ever agian, and probably have rode The Vortex over 50 times. Some trips I've gone and hit it up 5 times! I think thats why I like The Vortex so much... sentimental reasons. It was the first intense coaster I ever rode, and honestly I think I'm going to cry the day they tear it down. EDIT: I also remember riding some monrail thing and looking at animals on that trip. It was located where Action Zone stands now. What was that thing and what ever happend to it?

I'm an impatient person so I'd just leave and come back when the ride's dead. I'm not really willing to wait more than a half hour to ride anything! I used to have patience with rides until I went to Cedar Point on a Saturday. Shortest wait was a half hour to ride Corkscrew. I remember waiting 3 hours to ride Raptor, 2 hours to ride mean streak, 2 hours to ride Magnum XL-200, and an hour to ride Gemini! I was at Cedar Point for 12 hours, Only rode like 5 or 6 rides! Back then I didn't have a driver's license ( was only 14) so I didn't really have much of a choice when I went. My youth group at church was going so I took advantage of the opportunity. Of course being a Youth Group, its most convenient for Parents in their 30's/40's to go on a weekend. So I guess my answer is 1/2 hour. Thats really it for anything. Don't get me wrong I have waited up to 1 1/2 hours to ride Firehawk recently, but thats just because I wanted to try out the new ride.

Yeah I probably did put too much thinking into it, but honestly I do like it. I guess my point is its not a bad name, not by anymeans. Its not "flight Deck". It fits the coaster pretty well, and looks cool with the Diamondback snake logo. Just don't think its awesome, lol.

lol theres no such thing as a Scary ride in my eyes. I fear no ride ok well maybe one. And thats Drop Tower. I literally fear for my feet on that thing! Anyway I don't really care. Some people are more easily thrilled than others. Different people have different ride taste. Some people are scared to death to get on a coaster, and for those people "viking fury" is pretty intense!

you know I have had some of my worst trips at Kings Island, but thats mostly just because I've been there probably easy 30 times in my lifetime. At least. I could probably sit down and figure it out but thats just too much thinking. Its hard to blame the park for most of those trips because mostly there were other factors involved: ie bad company, crowded lines, bad weather, etc. Nothing the park could control. While Holiday World definitly gave me the worst impression, I here where people are coming with Kentucky Kingdom. My First visit was in june of 1998, in which I went with 2 of my friends and had a blast! At that point of time it was still called "Kentucky Kingdom: the Thrill park". Twisted Twins was the new attraction but hadn't yet opened, however all the rest of the coasters were operating great, and I rode Chang and Vampire 3 times during the visit! Later in the day some bad weather overtook the park and hurricaneish conditions were present and we had to take shelter to avoid possible tornados which was fun. However Later in the summer I went back with my family after Six Flags Management had taken over, and I didn't have the same great experience. I don't remember much but I remember a bunch of the rides kept breaking down, prices went up, and management was rude. I didn't go back until June of 2004. I was disapointed to see Six Flags had not expanded the park what-so-ever, and took out one of my favorite rides, Vampire. Twisted Twins was closed that day, and I could care less about riding the 80 year old "Greased Lightning" (yes I know its not 80 years old, but it might as well be). I rode Chang, T2, and the rest of the rides were packed, and didn't seem worth waiting for. so I rode Chang again and took off. IMO Six flags killed Kentucky Kingdom.