silver2005

Things I forgot to mention in the trip report- 1. malem and I went up the Eiffel Tower early on, but it closed for wind whilst we were up there. It was enough wind that required bracing, the first time I've felt the tower sway THAT much, elevators went about half their usual speed 2. In the evening, our group later broke Flight of Fear in the unload station. It stopped 18 inches before it was supposed to and couldn't let the lap bars up, probably a good 10-15 minutes there

Could they at least bring this part back from Phantom Theater? At least put some sort of music in Boo Blasters. And yes, the music was my favorite part of the ride. It sounds like its the lovechild between Phantom of the Opera, Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice. Its simply glorious, especially the music starting at 2:01 in the video.

My TR from 5/9/14. I got a bit of a late start as I wanted to sleep in plus I had to run a few errands before heading up. Got to the park at about 9:40, just in time for one ERT ride on Banshee in the back, which I have to admit, is a pretty darn good seat. I also met up with malem. I wanted to get most of the rides I missed on opening day, so then we went to Bat. I didn't notice the decal logos on the sides of the trains until then, though it was a nice touch. It runs pretty good, but overall, its just nice to see it in an actual color rather than being the color of paint primer for all those years. Who knew a little color could do so much. We then headed towards the back of the park getting on rides as we went, though we skipped Adventure Express initially. Go on Racer, Flight of Fear, Firehawk, Vortex, and Beast during that next stretch. Diamondback was on the list initially, but it had a stroke of downtime as we got to it, which turned out to last most of the morning and into the early afternoon. We then ate at Chicken Shack right as the only real rain threat of the day came upon us. This was my first time at Chicken Shack, and though there was a slight off-taste to the chicken due to the oil or some added salt, but its still leagues better than the chicken I'm used to eating at the park. I also like the sauces they provide. Its also a nicer building than what they had set up for the Action Zone Grille. Banshee and that added TLC to Action Zone has really done wonders. Hopefully they can get Drop Tower up and running soon to complete the area. I needed to burn off food, so we walked around the park for a while. It was also getting close to the statue unveiling, so we headed towards Rivertown/Planet Snoopy. Rode the train to burn some time, then rode Aerial Ace and Woodstock to burn more time. We met up with Jonathan before the ceremony. Overall, its just cool to see Kings Island doing something like this. I kind of hope other Cedar Fair parks so something similar, especially Cedar Point given their reputation. This started various attempts to pass #jonathan with Jonathan in toe in attempts to get him in a picture with the almighty noodle. None succeeded, but hey, a little shenanigans thrown in the day makes everything better. I admit, the noodle is growing on me. We decided to stick around Rivertown in hopes Diamondback would re-open. We saw it re-open, but we were set on Backlot before hand. One thing of note on that ride for me, it had a few moments of some nice floating air at a few points which I never get on it. Kind of a nice surprise. Then we did Diamondback which was a relief for me as I skipped it on opening day and it was just so nice getting back on it after so long. I know most of this site praises Banshee, but for me, Diamondback is still my favorite steel coaster in the park. I will say Banshee is better at night though if you've seen my reaction in the Banshee experience thread. At that time we met up with ohiocolts as well as the group who came from Indy soon thereafter. Some of the rides we got to were 2 more on Banshee, Delirium which was walk on or 1 cycle wait all day, Adventure Express, a few Coney flats (Dodgems, Monster, Scrambler), I think Racer, FoF and Firehawk were in there, and Vortex. We headed to Viking and met with Duncan (Fire-Beast-OF FEAR), rode Viking, then got dinner at Festhaus. Went back to Action Zone, and one group did Invertigo while malem and myself did Bat. I wasn't feeling up to Invertigo that day, the g-forces get to me more on that ride as it sustains them longer. We decided to start towards the back to get a Beast and Diamondback night ride in, and with time to spare, we did Boo Blasters. I have to admit, I'm not the biggest Boo Blasters fan, but doing it with a KIC group is just loads of fun. We then did Beast at night, and with a 23 minutes to go, got to Diamondback which the group rode during the finale of the fireworks show. With the day being ERT night, we obviously went to Action Zone. Boy was it packed. We decided to try Bat first and hope the Banshee line would die down, but Bat had a bit of a wait, too. I was hoping to get a few rides in, but only did one on each. However, both were equally as awesome. Bat at night was a nostalgia trip for me as my first ride on it, back when it was red and called Top Gun, was at night, and it is among my favorite night rides at Kings Island. Banshee was just pure liquid awesome at night. I won't go into as much length as I did the Banshee experience thread, but it just blew me away. I still prefer Beast at night, but to be honest, it isn't by much. Kings Island really did a good job in creating that atmosphere at night for Banshee. I'm looking forward to seeing how they'll dress it up for Haunt.

So, I took my first night ride tonight. I'd like to go into some length about it. First off, I was completely blown away by the little details they've added for the night experience. The colored lights, the specific colors of the lights, and how they angle them off the buildings and sign just set up the experience perfectly. I was gawking at the lighting package so much that the semi-lengthy wait for the night ERT passed rather quickly, or so it seemed. There's one thing I've grown to like about Banshee's presence in the Kings Island skyline, which would be a commanding presence. Its right up front, bearing its teeth at you saying 'come and get me'. Its clearly visible throughout the entire park, and with how it coils through its inversions, its a fun ride to watch from about any angle in the park, even from across the park at Diamondback's queue. That said, that aspect seemed magnified at night. It just dominates over Action Zone. I can't wait to see how they deck it out for the Haunt. But alas, we have 5 months before we see that glory. Now to the ride experience itself to me. Having ridden Vortex at night, doing the loop based inversions seemed pretty standard to me, at least in having a familiar presence to it. Doing the 0g roll and barrel roll at night was quite the unique experience. There's just something unnerving about seeing the train do that at night. More than anything else though was the sound. Banshee has a bit more of a roar to it than Diamondback, and couple that with Banshee's intense layout, the night time atmosphere, and the brilliant lighting package, and it just completes the ride. One thing I've found today is that I prefer the middle seats to the outer seats. The reason why is because its closer to the center of the train that B&M uses in making heartline maneuvers. I feel the outer seats tend to have a bit of a rattle to them. Its absent in the middle 2 seats. This could just be me, but I foresee myself riding in the middle 2 seats, contrary to what most people view B&M's as being better on the outer seats (I will agree with that notion on Diamondback though). Having said all that, I still can't convince myself to put it above Beast as the better night ride. Its probably a lot of bias on my part, but overall, I still think Beast pulls of the night excursion better. There's just something wilder about a wood coaster like that, and with how long it is plus the fact it has a nice layout sprawled out along a densely wooded Ohio countryside. But that's taking nothing away from Banshee. If I could show the margin of error between the two, it'd be quite slim. Its still really, really good at night.

I was thinking more of the area that lies around Diamondback, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Grand Carousel, and Dodgems.

From what I understand, a lot of rides that were moved out of Six Flags AstroWorld, Batman The Escape included, were damaged during their transportation. Also, its been sitting for so long, the elements might have taken enough of a toll that it would be incredibly time consuming to refurbish the current pieces. It's probably better off as scrap metal.

Both Mack and Intamin label their respective products as 'water coasters' so I'll continue to refer to them as such. Just sayin'.

I think the perfect addition for a next coaster would be a Mack water coaster. I think Kings Island needs more intermediate rides; rides that are more exciting than what's in Planet Snoopy, but not up to par with the likes of Banshee, Beast, Vortex and Diamondback. Specifically, something with a height requirement between 36-48 inches. I also think Kings Island could use one more water ride in the 'dry' park. Mack water coaster fits both roles perfectly. If going log flume specific, I'd go for a Hopkins flume. I really enjoyed Daredevil Falls at Dollywood; I'd love to see something like that in Rivertown. I also have to agree with others wanting flat rides. Maybe Kings Island can get a wild mouse and a few flats to go with it, much like Knott's did with their Boardwalk expansion.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice capacity in order to get more unique rides in. Look at how many low capacity rides Kings Island still has, yet they manage to do fine.

Actually, this reminds me of something Alton Towers did. They had a Vekoma looping coaster called Corkscrew, it was about 70 ft tall, 2 corkscrews, had a lot of turns and a helix section, fairly simple coaster. Its significance was it was the first looping coaster in England. It was pretty well loved by Alton Towers' fans. They did have to remove it in favor of Thirteen, but they kept Corkscrews' corkscrews and put them in the front of the park as a memorial to the ride. It actually looks pretty sharp. Photo courtesy of RCDB.com.

Walt Disney World is built in the middle of a wetlands preserve which they maintain, it would need a LOT of rain to flood.

I think it boils down to that some parks are better at maintaining wooden coasters than others.

^Yes, but there's a fine line between that classic rattle that give wooden coasters their character and being uncomfotable. I don't buy that argument for a second. Also, a lot of you need to realize people perceive the sense of touch differently. Our nervous systems are wired differently. Some people have higher tolerances for pain than others or are just more sensitive to certain touch sensations than others, hence why there are people out there who enjoyed Son of Beast while others wouldn't ride it after the first time.

It suffered from being rough over its life, which led to low ridership, and thus the park decided it wasn't worth keeping. For those who don't know Dorney very well, Hydra: The Revenge, a very unique B&M floorless coaster, replaced Hercules. The name was chosen as Hydra was a multi-headed beast Hercules fought in Greek mythology.

To be honest, most of the rides I'd like to see at Kings Island are overseas, thus don't exactly pertain to this thread. If you really want something out of me, I'd probably choose Storm Runner, Thunderhead, any Mack/Gerstlauer spinning coaster or wild mouse, any B&M floorless or stand up coaster which uses 3 trains, or Outlaw Run.

1. I don't understand why the V-seating vs the original 4 across seating would suddenly make a train require seat belts. The seat design is still the same between all the B&M hyper coasters. How does the seat configuration make them so different to get seat belts? 2. Why is it just the Cedar Fair B&M hypers? There are over a dozen other B&M hypers across the world; what makes them different to where they don't have seat belts (let alone Leviathan which is 308 ft and has an 80 degree first drop)? B&M hypers (or heck, any of their coasters) have a perfect record when it comes to ejections (0), thus it seems like a knee jerk reaction to the New Texas Giant and making people feel more comfortable. Yes, safety is paramount, but nothing has shown B&M hypers, in their configuration without the seat belts, to be dangerous. B&M designers are perfectionists, they've designed their rides to not necessitate seat belts.

Unless you make bridges or move a lot of dirt, it'll be tough getting midway paths down in those hills and valleys between Action Zone and X-Base.

Well, this got real weird real quick.

A dive coaster would be nice...except for the fact there's one right down the road at Busch Gardens. I've heard a B&M inverted coaster rumored as well, and unless B&M radically starts trying new design ideas or they make a 200 footer to pass Alpengeist's height, then that's probably out of the question, too. I feel they should get themselves something to differentiate themselves from Busch Gardens, if possible (they could still get one of those 2 anyways). A B&M flyer would be something that would stand out in the area. I really would rather see a family coaster at KD next since their last 2 coasters were thrill oriented (Dominator and I305). Despite having 4 bigger wooden coasters, a GCI would be a nice addition.

Or Mammoth Cave National Park for that matter.

The first drop is what stood out to me. Most other B&M inverted coasters I've ridden have it where their first drop is more gradual. Banshee's really grabs you into its intensity right off The Bat, its a REALLY steep drop with a quick twist as it starts to curve, it lets you know it's not messing around, and the rest of the course stays true to that intensity.

Except B&M hyper coasters have existed for 15 years and have had 0 ejections. It feels more like a knee-jerk reaction to the public's reaction over the New Texas Giant incident more than anything else.

I don't see anything wrong with this. This is akin to the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile showing up.

I gave it 8/10. Don't know if anyone else had this, but throughout the section between the batwing and that upwards curve into the inline roll there was a bit of a shimmy/rattle to it, almost like Diamondback's. I do rank coasters I've been on, separating wood from steel (its just how I enjoy being an enthusiast), and I currently have it 7th on my steel list (seen on my profile's About Me section).

I feel they should move the place where they launch the nightly fireworks to somewhere else. Where they have it now, they always have to close Beast 15 minutes prior and nearly 10-15 minutes after to keep the area clear for the show. There has to be some other clearing somewhere that won't interfere with Beast's operations at night.