Tchu

I'd be kinda surprised if they went with this color. Sky blue isn't gonna really pop against the... well... skyline. One would think part of the appeal of a massive roller coaster is seeing it stretch high into the sky. Lot harder to do when it's camouflaged. The dark blue or some sort of bold/neon green would seem to fit the suspected space theme better and would certainly be more of an eye-catcher from across the park (or from out on I-71).

The life-cycle of a new roller coaster announcement is fascinating, if not, ultimately, a little aggravating. I think most people would benefit from taking a deep breath and remembering three things. 1) Kings Island has a customer base slightly larger than just you that they need to appeal to and please. 2) A person's opinion on a newly announced amusement park ride cannot be wrong. It can jaded, it can be over-the-top. It can be lacking in quality supporting information... but it can't be wrong. 3) Zero. That's the number of people who have currently ridden this roller coaster. Zero "haters". Zero "fanboys". Zero enthusiasts. Zero members of the general public. Every time a new ride is announced, someone who is unhappy and states "this is lame" is inevitably chastised by a group of individuals who shout about not knowing that it sucks when you haven't even ridden it... all the while, they themselves shouting how the coaster is "awesome". Currently, Mystic Timbers is neither lame nor awesome. It's concept art. Speaking of which, I'd caution everyone who's very excited about the concept art and the detail and theme to temper that enthusiasm a bit. A quick google search of Diamondback concept art will offer up some amazing drawings of the first ever B&M mega coaster with a splashdown finale. Compare that to the actual splashdown that sits in the middle of RT. Concept art is "concept" art for a reason. With all that said, I'll be cautiously optimistic that the theme and detail will be there for this ride. It's a really cool, and rather different, theme. Kings Island has the opportunity to do some incredible stuff with Mystic Timbers. Really looking forward to what they've done with the shed/barn/mill at the end of the ride. I don't expect a drop-track, and certainly not a launch, but there could be some really cool little tricks and some great story-telling that gives a fun and fantastic finish to the ride. Love that this thing looks like it will stay low to the ground and pack rather relentless speed. I wonder if there might be lights, sound effects etc added back in the woods. Random glows and "eyes" peering at you from the forest. Things to make it seem like the woods are alive. Should be a very nice addition to the park! Think I would have gone with something a little more intimidating for the name, though.

I find it highly unlikely Mr. Helbig meant that no one has guess even the general nature of the ride correctly on in this topic. As a group, we've guessed a wooden coaster courtesy of GCI, RMC, GG, and Intamin. We've had people mention steel coasters (launch/blitz/giga) from all the major manufacturers. We've had guesses of antique cars, and a new log/flume/boat ride. I believe aquatrax or any sort of coaster/water ride combo has been mentioned. Dark rides have been pondered. More likely, Don was indicating that no one had nailed it... ie the type + manufacturer/designer + name. I think everything known to man has been talked about and guessed in this thread. Certainly we've hit on at least the type of attraction. I made my guess many pages ago. In roughly eight hours, I'll be right or wrong, but I'll be intrigued, and happy for the park, either way.

By golly that is Sasquatch hair. Absolutely. Seen it many times myself. Messin with Sasquatch: The Ride. 90% Looks like Ohio Grass,man.

I seem to remember a rather wise, and distinguished, member of this website bumping an old thread on the work going on inside the building that encases FoF, as well as mentioning that some might benefit from thinking inside the box. Based on the clues provided by Kings Island, the hints dropped by members of this forum who I believe to be "in-the-know" and what little I've seen of the building plans, I'm holding firm on a prediction of an RMC, possibly with a launch (lots of straight track in the coaster layout) and making some sort of use of BUB (the Big Ugly Box). Also, this topic was a lot more enjoyable a couple dozen pages ago.

Putting in my official guess as an RMC, though I'm not willing to bet my launch money on it.

Diversions. Thinking inside the box, etc etc.

The track certainly isn't a traditional or "true" red, but it certainly has at least a hint of the hue to it's base. I know a lot of people have expressed that they are very pleased with the color scheme. I'm personally rather conflicted. The scheme is certainly a fairly unique (sigh... something is either unique or it isn't... there is no grey area. Shame on me) one, and the colors should pop and look brilliant in the park. On the other hand, whether the track color is red or purple or magenta or burgundy... I feel it's safe to say it's in the same basic area of the color wheel as Diamondback, and it's a bit disappointing that KI will have two towering B&M coasters in the park with somewhat similarily colored tracks.

I certainly would prefer The Racer to race, but can see the argument for not holding up a train if one side is ready to go well before the other. Still, it's always a treat when the trains are ready for departure at about the same time and you can race against your fellow park goers. I enjoy the rare occasion where the two trains will head up the lift hill, side by side, while guests exchange some clean, fun, good-natured trash-talking. As for specific seats on specific rides... I need to give 5-1 on Vortex a chance. Truth be told, I haven't ridden Vortex since my first visit of last season specifically because of the jarring, violent nature of the ride. Sounds like 5-1 could be a remedy. And, relating to Flight Deck, I have to agree 100% with Terpy. 1-1 is absolutely the best seat on that coaster. I was amazed how much better it was than any other seat one could choose on this hidden gem. I know a lot of people march straight for the back of the train, and to each his/her own, but I'll gladly stroll down the queue, humming songs from Top Gun, while heading right for the front row.

Honestly, I may be alone in this, but I find Flight Deck to be a surprisingly intense and exceptional coaster. I'll take a front seat ride in Flight Deck over anything in the park with the exception of Diamondback and a park-closing night ride on The Beast. Perhaps I've been spoiled by FD's relentless nature, but I found it to be superior to BBW (which had such a wonderful setting and drop over the river, but suffered greatly from a bad case of poor-pacing), and I found it much more enjoyable than Alpengeist. As enjoyable as B&M inverts are, and as much as Kings Island could benefit from one, Flight Deck is a truly great coaster, and I'd hate to see the park lose this rare treasure. Still, with Arrow Suspended coasters becoming fewer and fewer, I fear Flight Deck may be in the danger zone, and too soon, I may no longer be able to indulge in those front seat night rides that take my breath away.

On the particular Math & Science Day that I attended last year as a Platinum Pass holder, the entire park was open to the public, and I can't say I remember any major rides being closed. There were some 'minor' or smaller flats that weren't running, if I remember correctly (Shake Rattle & Roll etc), but all the major flats, coasters, food stands and whatnot were all open to any and all. Looking at the webcam, the park appears to be virtually empty. Not sure what to make of that. The Math & Science day I attended was quite busy up until I left that park around 6:00PM

Friday night was excellent. I think it sprinkled twice for about 3-5 minutes each time. Walked on to everything except 1st row Diamondback and The Beast at the end of the night. Even then, each was about a five minute wait. This is the second consecutive year my wife and I have gone to the park on the first Friday of the operating season, and both times, we've had a great time with minimal waits. Saw a lot of KICers around the park. Hope everyone enjoyed the evening.

The real problem is that there's simply no consistency to the pass-processing. My wife and I made the near-three hour round-trip on Saturday afternoon to renew and process our 2010 Platinum Passes so that we could avoid the typically long lines that are present early in the season. Sure enough, we were able to walk right up to the Season Pass Purchase window and purchase two 2010 renewals of our platinum passes. We were handed a receipt, and two tickets that said "Season Pass Renewal Purchase". We took these two tickets and our passes from 2009 to the processing center, and after 20 minutes of confusion and questions, finally had our passes processed. At first, the attendant thought that we were supposed to have large white forms that we had been given at purchase and filled out with our personal information. A supervisor finally cleared the issue up, saying the scan-tickets were enough since we were a renewing customer. That started the actual renewal process, which, oddly enough, got us new actual passes (even though I know other renewals kept there same card from the year before). My wife got the black and white design with all the rides on it, I got a new pass with the same design that was used last year (with the person on Delirium). And for some reason, we weren't required to take new pictures when everyone else was having their photo taken. Neither my wife and I look any different than we did when we had our photos taken last year, but the whole process seemed inconsistent. -Some people were given forms to fill out at the purchase window, others weren't -Some renewals were told to keep their old pass. Other renewals were given brand-new passes -Some people are getting version A of platinum passes. Others are getting version B -Some people are having their photo ID updated. Others are not I've kept my receipt just in case. From here, its just keeping the fingers crossed and hoping the passes work (everywhere they are intended to) on the first and all subsequent visits this summer. Certainly, Cedar Fair has some serious issues to settle in their pass processing, and it would likely help, as a starting point, to develop of specific policy and use it in the processing of all passes.

As I believe was pointed out earlier in this thread, in the switch to the new website, the page listing season pass processing hours seems to have have pulled a Son of Beast-Park map and vanished. Anyone here happen to know what the pass processing hours are for tomorrow? It's quite a drive, and I'd hate to arrive before/after processing hours.

There are a couple of things that need to be said here. First of all, just because the trains at Kings Dominion on opening weekend were very plain and 'unfinished' looking, doesn't mean the same will be the case at Kings Island come April 17th. We know there will be changes, but we don't know exactly what. It's possible the trains at KD will be updated. It was opening weekend... an early opening weekend compared to many other seasonal parks. My understanding is that much of Kings Dominion was looking and feeling a bit unfinished this weekend. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, while much can be debated about whether or not the agreement with BMW should have been renewed, it needs to be pointed out that all the talk and complaints of Cedar Fair unnecessarily removing headlight decals, doors, plates etc may very well be entirely inaccurate. The Mini Cooper has a distinct look, and, given said distinct look/body design, if Kings Island were to leave headlight decals and license plates and little working doors, BMW could be well within their legal rights to seek atcion against Cedar Fair. It's not just the Mini Cooper logo that falls under legal protection. If the sum of the product is clearly meant to represent a Mini Cooper without the consent of BMW, Cedar Fair could face legal action. The removal of the doors and headlight decals may have been 100% necessary in order to distance the product enough to satisfy legal standards. At that point, as much as people may or may not like it, the park would have two options. Either remove as much as possible in the form of themed accessories to prevent the trains from looking like their original intention, or order entirely new trains in the more general or generic "car" shape so that they may be decorated with decals. The second option would be a very costly choice to make for a ride that isn't considered one of the park's premier attractions.

I think that people often confuse controversial-hype publicity with bad publicity. Controversy does not necessarily mean bad or good, negative or positive. Controversy can create hype, and a business can benefit greatly from hype. For example, the controversial Halloween decorations that were originally intended for this year's Halloween Haunt events created a lot of hype and publicity. Some people hated the decorations and thought the displays were disgusting and/or offensive. Others thought they were edgy and hilarious. Some vowed not to go to the park during the Halloween season if the decorations remained. Others stated they would make a trip they wouldn't have otherwise made because they were happy to see Kings Island going "all out." The result, was that Kings Island's Halloween event got a lot of spotlight and hype it wouldn't normally receive. People began to view KI as a park willing to go all the way, pull no punches. And a lot of people love that for Halloween. In the end, the park keeps the live animals, ditches the celebrity display, but they've garnered the hype as an "all out" Halloween event. But major rides having an accident (or history of accidents and painful rides) that causes numerous minor injuries, or one or two major injuries... that's simply bad news for the park. Some people love crass Halloween decorations, feeling they fit with the theme of the holiday and are amusing. Some people find such decorations offensive and shameful. But there's positive and negative, and the resulting buzz between parties creates a hype that the park can benefit from. There typically aren't dueling parties in regards to major accidents. Everyone tends to find an unfortunate individual suffering massive bodily harm due to ride malfunction to be a bad thing. There were a lot of people who thought the live animals were a nice touch to haunt mazes and that the celebrity display was funny, creative, and in the spirit of the holiday. There aren't a lot of people who think a ride that malfunctions and hurts people to be a cool thing. Lots of people wanted to go to KI during Halloween Haunt in hopes of seeing the celebrity display up close. Not really any people wanting to ride Son of Beast in hopes that the ride malfunctions/breaks/fails and causes head, neck and spine injuries. The end result is that there's no hype, and a lot of bad publicity. And bad publicity is bad news for the park.

I struggle a little with seeing a significant connection between the current trials/settlements from the 2006 accident and any decision on the rides future - It has been estalished that in 2006, the ride experienced a failure that resulted in injuries to ~27 people. Many claims from this incident have settled, some are open lawsuits, but both Kings Island and the State Dept of Agriculture believe that the problems that led to the failure in 2006 were resolved prior to the ride reopening in 2007 - What has caused the park (and/or Cedar Fair, its insurance carriers, etc...) to keep the ride closed in 2009 (my belief) is the ride experience and risk of further injuries like was suffered by the woman in May Bottom line, as was stated many many pages ago, whatever decision and announcement are eventually made on SoB will be driven by the economics of the situation. KI/CF will evaluate costs of the various options (including costs to fix, maintain, insure, remove, "replace", etc...) versus the economic benefits (including attendance) and public relations benefits/risks. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! I would think the park would wait for a handful of reasons, but relating to the trial... I imagine that Cedar Fair wouldn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to the ride while a trial was on-going. If the park were to decide to shut down SOB permanently (or for the 2010 season, or any specified period of time), imagine the bad publicity that would bring. While a trial is looming/in process, with a plaintiff claiming that the park is responsible for injuries sustained from riding an unsafe ride... the park goes and closes the ride, admitting its not fit to run (be that for safety reasons or maintenance costs or insurance costs). To the public, that looks like the park screaming "This ride is too rough and unsafe!". Not the sort of thing you want happening in the midst of a trial about said ride. There's really no reason to make a major announcement about the ride while a trial relating to SOB is about to be in full-swing. That's just unneeded, most likely damaging, attention the park would be drawing to itself at a very bad time.

First of all, I do agree that Kings Island should have their mobile site up-to-date. If you're going to debut, and advertise, a new mobile site, it should be held to the same standards as the main website and should be updated along with the main site. But, with that said, an amusement park can only do so much to deal with weather situations and the announcement relating to such,. Updating the mobile site would be nice, but unless it has been designated by Kings Island as the official and final word on all urgent announcements, its nothing more than an extra method to try and reach customers on top of several other methods. Using the KICentral website is a good method. And while the park shouldn't rely on a fan site, it should use a willing fan site to its advantage... again, as just one of several methods. For that matter, the park shouldn't rely on its new mobile website for the benefit of those with iPhones and other spiffy cell phones. At the end of the day, calling the park (on the same iPhone/cell phone that accesses the interweb) is the best method. Also, I think people are failing to see why the park closed. It's not just because of severe weather... its financial. The park is almost never open on a Thursday night during the fall. As such, many people simply aren't going to know the park is open, which will likely lead to light crowds. Its the very reason several of the people on this website were anxious to go. Everyone was expecting small crowds. Between the fact that it was a one-off occasion that many of the GP wouldn't even know about, many of those who did know of the special event wouldn't be able/willing to attend due to it being a week night and many having school/work the following morning. Throw in predicted bad weather (and all I can attest to is weather.com, but that website was calling for heavy rain and thunderstorms all evening) and eve more people will stay away. If the park remains open during that sort of weather, many of the rides would close anyways. And while this might happen often during the season, its a whole different story to shut down coasters for 2 hours when the park is open from 10AM-10PM. When the park is only going to be open from 7-Midnite (5 hours compared to 12), shutting down the rides for two or three hours would be the equivalent of shutting down the rides for 8-10 hours during the summer. It leaves the rides shut down for the better part of the operating schedule. All of a sudden, the park is looking at: 1) A special operating hours occasion that many won't know about 2) On a weeknight when many can't come due to school and work 3) With nasty weather in the forecast for the better part of the evening The park has to keep its own financial status heavily in mind. Canceling the event might anger some customers and cost them a few nickels, but opening a park, running rides, paying hundreds of employees etc, all for what they had to assume would be a virtually empty park... that's gonna cost them a LOT of needless nickels. This really was an entirely different scenario than a random Saturday in June or July where heavy rain and storms are in the area. People flock to the park in the summer for a full-day of fun in warm (even if rainy) weather, and they'll stay through a couple hours of rain for eight more hours of fun afterward. People don't flock to the park on a cold October Thursday night, and they won't stay through a couple hours of downed rides for just another hour or two of ride time afterward. It all comes down to the bottom dollar and making sensible business decisions. Staffing and running an entire amusement park for a handful of customers doesn't make sense.

Something about all this Son of Beast talk is highly amusing. Especially with people talking like they know exactly what it costs to run SoB, what it costs to maintain SoB during the season and, then, offseason. Or what it would cost to demolish the ride and replace it with something else. I'm inclined to believe that few, if any, members of this website have detailed and accurate knowlege of what Cedar Fair is shelling out on SoB. As enthusiasts, we read around, study up... but there's still only so much we can know. We hear (occasionally from the parks themselves) that certain coasters are costly to maintain. That's information that has floated around about SoB, and given its general size and nature, that's believable. But even still, we don't know exactly what kind of cost Kings Island is looking at. All we know is that SoB has had, at times, a very negative reputation. We know it suffered a major accident in 2006 that sent a couple dozen people to the hospital. And we know its been shut down for a good part of the 09 operating season because of an investigation resulting in a serious head injury to a passenger of the ride. We know that Cedar Fair has left the ride shut down well after completion of its inspection. We know that CF has said they are not happy with the ride in its current operating state. We know that, in small ways, the ride has started to be 'boxed up'. Other than that, its all speculation, and nothing is fact. Some opinions are more realistic than others, but arguing about financial numbers that none of us are priviliged to see... doesn't really strike me as anything worth arguing over. If Cedar Fair deems, that over the course of the coasters expected life, maintenance and repairs and overhauls would be unnecessarily costly, they will remove the ride. And they will "replace" it. That's not to say the next year, or in two years or five years, and that's not to say with another coaster... but eventually, something else would move into that nice big space. Such is the nature of amusement parks. Space if filled, emptied, filled again and so on. But saying that the park won't tear down the coaster and won't replace it because keeping it around would be cheaper? Unlikely. Maybe in the short term, but over the course of twenty or thirty years? If the park tears it down and replaces it, it will be because the financial trade off was beneficial. It's also important to keep in mind, that a coaster's reputation factors in. It might cost more to tear down SoB and build a new woodie (fingers crossed for an Intamin prefab), but it could also bring with it a new experience. A ride that doesn't come with a history of complaints, injuries, accidents, down-time etc. That, itself, has financial benefits.

I've never really kept count of my laps on coasters, but I'd say the answer, for me, is easily The Beast.

Went with the former Top Gun. I really think Flight Deck is extremely underrated, including by myself... up until this season, when I saw the light (not the flash from the on-ride photo that doesn't exist). Truly awesome, intense, and forceful ride from the front of the train. In my humble opinion, far superior to BBW. Flight Deck is short, but it doesn't let up from start to finish.

KI's Flight Deck... front row on a cool evening. Just in-your-face forces from start to finish.

I assume height means everything for you? No doubt MF has an incredible first drop. Taller and even a little steeper than DB. But I'll take the snake in pretty much every other aspect. DB has... -Superior air -Superior trains/restraints -An awesome splashdown finale -Better forces in the the turns (the helix after the trim hill specifically)

Furius Baco isn't a 4-D coaster and has one of the most intense launches on a coaster in the world. While I've not heard that its a particularly spectacular coaster, I certainly think it'd be worth a spin and don't view it as a X2/kiddie coaster of any sort. And I'm definitely in agreement about the park needing more B&M coasters. While I would love an Intamin along the lines of Maverick, I think a B&M Invert is the sort of coaster the park is most in need of. High reliability, great capacity, excellent rides. Montu is easily one of my favorite coasters, and Dueling Dragons is excellent as well.

Diamondback all the way. Magnum gets DQed for being too painful to enjoy what is a rather awesome coaster location and fun track layout. Ther jerky nature of the ride in those awful, lousy trains just leaves me riding too defensively and walking off with too much of a limp for me to to even put Magnum in the same class as MF and DB. As for MF... amazing first drop. Awesome view, awesome height, awesome speed. Unfortunately, there's not much else too it. The first drop is nothing short of incredible, and the final bunny hop gives a bit of air into the really cool overbank right around and above the queue, but between those fantastic first and last elements is a lot of nothing special. Don't get me wrong, the speed is fantastic. And to rocket around the majority of the course at 80+mph is fun... but its not all that special. I can hop on the interstate and do 80mph with the top down and get the same sort of effect. Which is why DB ranks so highly for me. I love the air-time. And, while I understand the fact that not every coaster is built for air-time, it is probably my favorite element on a coaster... and something Diamondback offers in abundance compared to the minimal air on MF. I think the far superior B&M mega coaster trains really help add to the experinece. While I appreciated the lack of sides to the MF trains, you're still rather crammed into the trains, with someone immediately beside you and in front/behind you. Plus the seatbelt/lap bar combo reduces what little air is present and doesn't leave that vulnerable feeling that you get on DB, which just further enhances the rush. The only down side to DB is the MCBR, which shaves off a little too much speed and reduces what could be an awesome final helix into just a prelude to the splashdown. Still, even with the one trim break and the MCBR, DB offers far stronger negative G's then MF. And for its amazing open trains, its incredible first drop, its abundance of varied types of air-time, and its cool splashdown finale... DB takes top prize for me.