Beast1979

After talking to Kat, we decided to hit up Adventure Express, but not after making a pit-stop at Outer Hanks bar. We saw this pretty bird by the Oktoberfest lake. Adventure Express anyone? We got in line, then realized it was 10 till 6. So we headed towards the Kings Island Theatre. On our way out of Adventure Express, we saw the line pouring past the covered queue section. I hate, I hate, I HATE Saturdays! Time to listen to Guest Speakers. The topic? Beast, of course! For the most part, this was very boring. They just recited the same speach they gave at KIC Offseason Blues, and at KIC Second Coming. It wasn't a total Waste though, it was the first time I ever went in the Kings Island theatre! When the speech was done, what was left of our group went to Rivertown, then after seeing that even the Bathroom had a half hour wait, we progressed to the Picnic Grove. They gave away these free cups. No wonder, it has Son of Beast and not Diamondback! Hey look, advertising. After a while of introducing and whatnot, they started playing some music. It started off with the Coaster Enthusiast Favorite, Ready to Go by Republica. Then they went to....gah, what was it? I don't know. Most of the songs they played I had never heard, due to the fact that they were made in 1979! Then, these two started dancing. Little Bill lead the dancing for a while! It wasn't long until our entire table (Which consisted of Me, Adam, Al, Kat, Elissa, Phantom Theatre, and a few others) were on their feet dancing! Unfortunately, we were the only ones. Seriously. Our Table Danced the night away, while the entire rest of the group (Excluding a few kids younger then me) sat on there rumps, not doing anything. Ohh well, their loss. The KIC people danced and danced and danced! It started to get overcast around 8:30, and I kept my fingers crossed for the rain to stay away. Phantom Theatre (Who CLAIMS he didn't have too much sugar) and Elissa rocked out. They gave away free cake, but they didn't touch the offical Beast Birthday Cake. The Cupid Shuffle. You knew it was coming. Eventually Scooby replaced Little Bill. How much fun was I having? Enough to not even be able to hold the Camera Steady! If I could live that party over again, I would. It was looking like it would start raining any second, but luckilly it held off. Nightfall. Is it over yet? No Way! Time for Diamondback Night time ERT! Before last night, I had never ridden Diamondback at night. Let me tell you, it is amazing. Beautiful. Fantastic. Spectacular. Awesome. Awestriking. Blissful. Pure Joy. Take the 5 happiest moments of your entire life, add them all together, then multiply by 10, and you've got the happiness Diamondback gives you. I found myself screaming during the ride, "Don't let it stop! Just keep going! Please!" Kings Island, you have done spectacularly with Diamondback. Next post for Day 2.....

135 foot drop! If you look way back there you can see the helix. Poor guys, they just hit the trims. Coming out of the tunnel. People waved to us as we took photos. Here is a group photo of all the KIC members on the walkback. We made up a small portion of the group, most were ACE. Then there were smaller groups.... Jeff Gramke said that during the retracking, the radius of the Helix was increased! People put their hands and heads up against the structure, then looked shocked when it vibrated. It may be hard to tell, but beyond Kings Island the terrain Drops Off dramatically. You can tell by riding The Beast. Right before the last turn before the second lift, look up. You can see Diamondback sitting on what looks like a cliff! Going under and over! The drop into the ravine. Kat takes picture, I say: "Wow, your such a nerd. Let me join you!" and I take the same picture. Kat seems to like Structure photos. So I took some. That's cool! You get some nice views of Diamondback from The Beast. Vortex made a lot of noise! While Diamondback, however, was practically silent. Don Helbig introduced me to some people who work at Kings Island, who's names I can't remember. Don was rooting for me in the photo contest. Great, more pressure. I'll always remember this as the place where I got a piece of The Beast. A splinter came off a piece of wood, and I stashed it in my Lanyard. Nice shot of the Train entering the lift. Diamondback: Where Else? Seriously. Where else can you get this baby? Kings Island. That's where. Our group headed out to lunch! Of course we didn't eat in-park, park food stinks and it costs twice as much! I know it is customary to take pictures of your meal, but I forgot. So what WAS here was french fries and chocolate milk. Yea, I know, I'm a horrible eater. I'm trying to change. Kat broke her glasses, so we went to Wal-Mart! You shoulda seen us, we were a sight, with our lanyards, coaster shirts, cameras, we were hilarious! It wasn't long before Elissa, Adam and I raided the cookie aisle! To quote Elissa: "COOKIES!!!!!!!!" Elissa got Milk Chocolate Milanos (Which were gone by the time we left the parking lot), Adam got Snickerdoodles, and I got Famous Amos cookies (Which are still in Al's trunk! Darnet!) After our Wal-Mart adventure, we went to Adam's apartment so he could get some sweaters. The road there was full of hills, so, us being coaster enthusiasts, yelled for Al to floor it and get some airtime. Luckilly for our safety Al is a wiser man and did not give in to us, so we screamed "Trim Brake!" At the request of one of my fellow riders, here is a pic of the mail truck. Can we go to KI NOW? Nope, we gotta fill up. How crammed were we in the car? Crammed. Finally! We're back at Kings Island! Let's go ride now, right? Nope. We stopped by the drop off area to check out an accident. Apparently someone didn't do their job backing out. Naturally, this brought Kings Island Drive to a standstill. Ok, I know politics are supposed to stay out of this, but I just couldn't help but to give Kat a high five for these two stickers. At this point in time the clouds started to clear out. But with their departure, the wind came in. It was howling! Drop Tower was temporarily closed due to wind. Oooo! Yey! Diamondback! Kat was not feeling well, so while she and the rest of my group sat outside Diamondback's entrance I took some pictures. Sploosh! At this point you're thinking "Jackson, what up with all the Diamondback pics?" Well, there's a photo contest, remember? This, so far, is my candidate for the one I want to send in. Here is a horribly stitched together panoramic view of the Diamondback midway. I would have loved to ride Diamondback (I haven't ridden anything since Flight of Fear at 10:05, this is about 3:30 PM), but the line was an hour long. Kat went to first aid because she wasn't feeling well. We followed after her a while later. I have never been in the first aid building, so I thought this picture was awesome. We sat and talked with Kat for a while. Kat was suffering from some heat exhaustion, so they sat her in front of a fan. Next Post for more........

It's Beast1979 here, showing you Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend from my perspective. Ride Warriors Weekend was fantastic, a great and fun event. I got to meet a lot of nice people (And some hyper ones (cough*PHANTOM THEATRE*cough)) and enjoy Kings Island (And Wal-Mart!) I was also introduced to some people who work at Kings Island, and found out that Don Helbig likes my photography. Speaking of Photography, let's get to the Pictures! It was another early start, I was up at 5:50 AM. This is my Brother Joe, he was up at 5:20! I think he's sick. This is the equiptment of the Famous Trooper Mom. We were out the door at around 6:10 AM. This is the second time in the last month I've gotten up this early to go to Kings Island. And I love it! At around 6:20 we first caught sight of KI. How crowded is the park at 6 AM? It's not. Here is my traditional photo of Invertigo as I walked into the park. After a bit of waiting we were registered. They gave us Lanyards, Free Drink Wristbands, and a schedule. Did I ever show you my Customized Shoes? I was dumbfounded by how many people showed up! There was well in excess of 1,000 people! I thought, "Kings Island was NEVER this popular!" And then I remembered, "Oh Yea. We got a B&M this year." Which is, sadly, the only reason a lot of people came. I enjoy Kings Island in many aspects aside from Diamondback. Although Diamondback is really cool. I mean, look at it! You can't say that's not cool (Theme Park Review People, this is a retorical statement) First Ride of the Day, The Beast. Kings Island made it known that The Beast is celebrating 30 Years of Terror this year. For those of you who do not know where the ACE plaque is, right as you enter the queue look left. The Beast was screaming that morning! I have to say, it was running better then it has in a LONG time. I got 2 rides on The Beast before moving on. What's next? Why, the second major coaster with ERT this morning! Vortex! The Vortex was actually running very well. I rode once with StalkerChick Then once by myself. The Batwing is the wierdest element ever. I stopped over by the famous "Coney Mall Clearing" Quite honestly guys, I don't see anything major over here. The area is way too small. Also, there is no real work being done here. The BungeeDome was removed and they're putting in grass. That's it. I tried to be Artsy, this is what I got. Time to Ride Backlot Stunt Waste-of-Space! I rode it once. It was, ehhh, ok, to say the least. Let's go back to Beast! Why not, right? I marathoned 4 rides on it before I left. "Just be patient, Jackson. Tonight, you'll get your chance." More Backlot? I rode Backlot 3 times in a row with Trooper Mom. Next up, more Vortex! I marathoned Vortex for 9 rides, 8 with Nick (Dare-To-Fly) Once the park opened, I sprinted to X-Base and rode Flight of Fear 3 times, once with Cedar Pointer. Halfway through my first ride, they turned the lights on! They turned them off once we hit the final brakes. Flight of Fear, IMO, is the one of the few good things Paramount gave us. We headed over to Potato Works to meet up with Adam (pkiboy) Once I met up with Adam, Trooper Mom headed home. Our group consisted of me, Adam, Kat (violakat03), Elissa, and Al. This woman, altough not in our group, had an awesome reflection on her glasses. After waiting for quite some time, we went on The Beast Walkback Tour. w00t! Way-To-Small-To-Fit tunnel! The lift and drop on The Beast is very photogenic. And down they go! Next post for more.....

20, easily.

One of the aspects of this area that is decieving is that it is much smaller then it looks. In pictures it looks huge but in reality it's about the size of the Zepher and it's queue.

^2 and a half hours, and I got 4 rides, but that is because I waited for the front seat twice. I also had to leave at midnight (There's a story behind this, it'll be in my PTR) so I only did about 1.5 hours.

You won't be dissapointed. Period. The Second half of the ride is less forceful, but it is still very very fun. I found myself during ERT last night screaming "Don't let it stop! Just keep going!" Fantastic, amazing, spectacular ride.

No, Trooper Mom is too exausted. Heck, I'M exauhsted! We've already had all of the ERT and The Beast Walkback, so I'm done.

With the help of RWCW, I am now up to 12, doubling my previous count.

Here are some pictures of the site as of Saturday: I'm sorry guys, but I just don't see anything major going there. It looks to me like they removed the BungeeDome to get rid of the eyesore, and are planting more grass. There is an area just like it next to Diamondback's Brake run.

Nice PTR, I'm glad you had fun. That's Me, In the front Middle with the bushy hair and next to Avatar, below StalkerChick.

Because they DON'T play I Want you To Want Me, they play a horrible remake!

Took a picture just for the occasion:

I think it's absolutely hilarious how people are scared out of their minds about dying on these rides, when really they are far safer then the cars they drove to the park in!

Math-Science Day? PACKED.

Not at all. I am simply saying that a long line does not necessarily mean a popular ride, and a short line does not necessarily mean an unpopular ride. Of course, there would be no one in line if it was not popular, but a short line isn't a fair judgement of a ride's popularity. I assume you've ridden Adventure Express, correct? How many times have you seen it's line go out of the station? Now try and tell me it's an unpopular ride. The same goes for any ride. And to Terpy: Well said.

Son of Beast always has a long line. That has NOTHING to do with popularity. I've been on this site for a year and a half, and I can't remember how many times we've had this discussion. There are a number of things that affect lines, namely hourly capacity. Son of Beast's happens to be 1,000 PPH. If you went around judging rides by their lines, then heck, Rugrats Runaway Reptar would be an extremely popular ride! If you judged Diamondback's popularity by it's line, then unless you were there on opening day you'd say it was middle of the road popular. I don't know how many ways I can say it. You can NOT judge popularity by line length.

^This coming from the guy who loathes Flight of Fear. Don't listen to the Son of Beast lovers no matter what, it stinks!

Actually, I carry a Sony Cybershot, it's small enough to fit into my pocket. Wow. I'd be glad to! I am not expecting to win this contest, but I will try. There are many other great photographers out there, Ronny, Ryan, Paul, I'm ok. I see pictures by other people and they're better then mine, but I aspire to be as good as them. I'll do my best!

A photo contest? Step Aside everyone!

I remember when I was little, I was a mini-ride-warrior. I would ride anything at Kings Island really. A slightly younger Trooper Mom had to pull me off The Vortex when I first rode it. But there have been times I have been scared. I remember when my brother and his cousin twice removed (Or something like that) came to Kings Island and they rode everything in Hanna Barbera Land. I, at about 8, wanted to ride more, so my cousin first removed (Or something like that) said she'd ride with me. I wanted to ride Son of Beast, but I took one look at the lift hill and I said, "Let's Ride Beast instead." When I first rode Top Thrill Dragster. You can watch a billion youtube videos, watch it a dozen times as a spectator, but when your sitting there, the starting lights going off, it's scary. I had a panic attack! At least I think I did........ But when it comes to conquering your coaster fears, I've always thought that the best way is to face them head on. You'll always feel better once you know you can do it.

In brake section for Diamondback: Guy leans over to talk to his friend, "Gee, this sure is a great park you have here, Mr. Wally!" I knew he was just joking around but I still found it funny.

*clears throat* They didn't have headrests, seat dividers, seatbelts, they had 4 rows per train (Which you can see in the way the station is set up) and a yellow slash down the side, they also had claw marks on the front at one point, when it opened the second tunnel was two individual tunnels and the last tunnel was not added until 1980, the first turn after the first drop was retracked to bank it more, and the origional brake fins were replaced with magnetic fins after a minor incident. Jackson, who remembers things like that without even trying, and wishes he could memorize math formulas that easy.......

So doubtful though, it is currently treating guests at Carowinds as Danny Phantom's Flyers.

Yea, popularity.