Buckeye Brad

The Beast's brake run is as long as it is because the ride was built to run four trains. I don't know if it ever opened with four trains, but at very least I believe that it ran with four at some point while it was testing. While The Beast lacks an MCBR, it has its second lift which can be used to serve the same purpose. I believe the brake shed between the "airtime" hill and the second tunnel used to be a set of block brakes. Of course, they're just trims now. I rode The Beast a few hundred times in the late '80s and early '90s. Most of the time, I remember that a train dropped down the first hill BEFORE we crested the second lift (and therefore passed underneath us). If that is true, then the brake shed in question must have been able to fully stop a train, since there was nothing else to stop that train from joining us on the second lift. I wonder if anyone here has ever been fully stopped on that brake shed, and how the subsequent ride to the second lift was. At least once I was on Vortex when it fully stopped on the midcourse brakes. When we were finally released, we crawled through the corkscrew, and the hangtime was amazing! Finally, remember that The Beast was designed for (and operated with for over a decade) single position bars instead of the current orange ratcheting lap bars. Those single position bars were faster to check and dispatch.

So many great memories to choose from… Opening Day, April 1987 I was 13 and obsessed with Vortex. I’d followed every newspaper article, magazine article, and TV spot I could find. I knew it had six inversions, but the layout was still a tangled blur and I had no idea what a boomerang turn was. Finally opening day had come, and I had my first ever KI season pass shiny and new and ready to go. The weather was perfect. I got picked up at 8:30 by my friend Chris’s dad, and by 9 Chris, Ray, and me were at the gates. We were going crazy with excitement! Back in those days you could climb the stairs to the Eiffel Tower’s 50 foot level, and we did to get a closer look at the blue and orange monster at the far side of the park. Ahh, so THAT is the boomerang turn. We waited out the hour in front of the floral clock, and finally at 10:00 they dropped the ropes. We did our best to follow the rules and not run, but we didn’t want to get mowed down either. We were not disappointed in the least that we waited almost 45 minutes. Watching and hearing each train return to the station with cheering riders just got us fired up even more. I’ll spare the ride details since we all know them, but for me it was the perfect combination of terror and exhilaration. Since that morning I’ve never felt that same combo, because once you lose your coaster innocence, it is pretty much gone. Due to the long lines, we took just one more Vortex ride that day, and that one was a 9:45PM dark one. Entertainment wise, there are few times in life when your big expectations are not only exceeded but obliterated, and for me Vortex opening day was one of those times. Just one year later came another great memory… 8th Grade Trip, May 1988 The greatest tradition of St. Michael School in Sharonville was to take its graduating 8th grade class to KI on the last day of school. A day at KI with friends is great anyway, but spending it with all 34 of my classmates and our teacher was amazing. I had planned for months to get all 36 of us on a Beast train, but logistical issues prevented that dream from coming true. I did get to share all my nerdy KI knowledge and introduce rides to kids who had never ridden them. All in all it was a great day, and the last time I’ve seen many of my grade school classmates and our great teacher, Mr. Stouder. Everyone has days that literally mark time periods in their life, and I think of this one every time I’m at KI. Especially when I walk past the spot where our class took over Der Spinnen Keggers for half an hour to end the day.

And his name is Keith, not Kevin.

Unfortunately, true. Hopefully the "investment" will pay off in more profitable businesses, more jobs, more tax money, and less crime in those areas, to balance out the operating loss. It takes a lot of smarts, planning, and luck to pull that off though, and an awful lot can go wrong. I do enjoy the revitalized part of Over the Rhine, and hopefully the streetcar will help that continue out to Findlay Market and beyond.

I don't remember what program he uses to make it, but Kevin Mcveen's company is http://www.3dvip.com. They produced the animation videos for Banshee and essentially everything else in the past 12 years. I remember reading (years ago) on his website that he used 3D Studio Max (by Autodesk). It is a professional level 3D modeling program, costing around $4,000-$5,000 I believe. He wrote that he developed many techniques to help model the track and supports quickly, since the program didn't have any built-in tools for that like No Limits. Before going pro, he posted coaster animations just for the fun of it. Even his amateur videos were miles better than the pro coaster animations out there. On an old computer somewhere I've got a few of them, including a cool recreation of the Crystal Beach Cyclone.

That's not really a fair question...the front seat clearly has a big head start. ;^)

I would ressurect the distinct themed areas. When I was a kid (late 70s) every land had its own music, costumes, decor, and rides that matched the themes. I still remember walking down International Street listening to festive classical music, and the employees there had French looking outfits. In Rivertown, the backwoods banjo music, the gingham costumes, and all the buildings had that weathered timber look. Wild Animal Habitat had real animals, safari outfits, and exotic looking flora. Octoberfest, yep they wore lederhosen. Or faux lederhosen anyway. And the rides were called "Das Viking Fury" and "Der Spinnen Keggers". In those days, a trip to Kings Island literally felt like a magic trip around the world. Now it is still fun, but feels like what it is: a nice park in suburban Cincinnati. Magic Kingdom still has this distinct themeing throughout. It seems like nearly every ride has its own dress code, and the music transitions so smoothly as you walk from Adventureland to Frontierland, or any land. I swear they even talk different based on the land. I love that.

When Top Gun opened, there was fog in the station. I wonder if the fog machines are still there? This would be a perfect excuse to fire them up again! The spookier, the better.

My guess is that any feelings about the court's decision are still dwarfed by heartbreak from the loss of a fine man, 3 and a half years ago.

Legend opened with a single Gerstlauler train in 2000. For 2002 they added a transfer track, and replaced that train with 2 PTC trains. The reasons "I read about" included discomfort with the Gerstlauer lap bars, and the desire to standardize their wood coaster trains (with the PTC on Raven. Interestingly, the station was somewhat different when it opened in 2000. The current loading area was a straight open air pre-ride section. The "dead space" in the the current station (behind a loading train) was the original loading area. This extension to the front gave them the ability to stop a second train while one is loading.

Yes. What a shame that our society has become rather inhospitable to something so classic, so beloved, and in my opinion so necessary (innocent fun that can be shared across generations. Several years ago, my 5 year old son rode Stricker's Tornado with his grandpa, a veteran of Chicago's Riverside and the Bobs. One rider reliving his youth, one launching his. The laughter and joy they shared was priceless. I wish those kinds of memories for everyone.

In the past few years, we've seen two brand new parks fail quickly: Wild West World and Hard Rock Park. Have any new major parks been successful in the past few decades? Disney and Universal have done it, but they have established brands and properties nearby to build from. I would love to see more small parks, the size of Stricker's Grove, Cincy Coney, and Denver Lakeside Park. Each with a nice selection of flats and a classic wooden coaster or 2. I have this romantic notion that back in the early 1900's these parks were all over the country, in small towns and supported mostly by the locals. I suspect that many passionate folks have aspirations to open parks in small towns, but get discouraged by the high initial investment, high insurance, short seasonal operating seasons, limited growth potential, and slow ROI.

My boys (7 and 10) and I loved Adventure Mountain. My wife wanted no part if it ;^) In fact, when we visited this past spring this was the first thing they wanted to "ride". They felt like really big kids navigating the "dangerous" cliffs and rope paths. The line was often slow, but we felt like we got our money's worth because sometimes we were on the course for 15 minutes or even longer. It was such a unique attraction, for a theme park anyway. My guess is it required too many employees to staff it and be profitable. Or perhaps a lawyer or "risk-assesser" got jittery about the whole thing. We will miss it. Hopefully it's replacement will be fun. I would think that Adventure Mountain could be moved to another location or facility. It seemed very heavy duty and well constructed.

"What specifically about the inversion caused the problems?" A lawyer could argue that the loop is at fault here. 1. If not for the LOOP, perhaps a more reliable vendor could have designed and built KI's 2000 coaster 2. If not for the LOOP being 118 feet tall (and in the middle of the ride), the coaster could have been smaller, and therefore perhaps designed by a more reliable vendor 3. If not for the LOOP being 118 feet tall (and in the middle of the ride), the trains could have been lighter, and might not have beat up the track so badly 4. If not for the LOOP, the coaster could have possibly run standard, more comfortable trains 5. If not for the putting all of their eggs in the LOOP, the designers might have designed a more thrilling, well rounded coaster So you see your honor, even though the LOOP was the smoothest, most trouble free part of the coaster, the LOOP is actually behind all of the problems. -Buckeye Brad, who is not really being serious but showing how easy it is to invert the truth.

I sarcastically predict the Timberliner announcement will be in October, 2013. It will state: "Perhaps you have noticed the new trains we ran on the Voyage all this past summer...those are called Timberliners." ;^)

It is ironic that essentially the entire original water park will become an entrance plaza for the current waterpark. A testament to how much the waterpark has grown. I am curious to see the final plans. If you look at aerial views of the 2 slides being removed, you see that they could reclaim a ton of space for the dry park by doing this. They could easily fit a couple of "scrambler" sized flats where the slides are, or more if they reconfigure the parallel paths (one to Thanksgiving, one to Splashin Safari).

"Preemptive strike"? Of course. If KK is to reopen, it's quite logical the Koch Development Corp. would like to be the ones doing it. A better, more timely proposal increases the chances of this happening. "...to discourage Kentucky Kingdom's reopening" I don't see any evidence for this. Look at how aggressively HW and SS have been expanding their business....Voyage, Thanksgiving section, two huge water coasters, Happy Halloween Weekends, etc. It's only natural they would want to expand to another park at some point. They know the Louisville market, it's close to home, KK is similar in size to their own park, and KK was "on sale". Seems to me like a great opportunity to expand. In my opinion, they underestimated both the money needed to refurbish everything, and the government red tape that prevented them from striking a favorable deal. Another thing...even if the Koch's didn't plan to reopen it, I don't see how their bid prevents another party from submitting a bid. Why wouldn't the Louisville government entertain any serious proposal? All my opinion of course. I'm sure much goes on in the "war rooms" of these organizations that I will never know about. Or don't really care to know about. ;^)

How great would it be if Coney could build something similar to Quassy's Wooden Warrior? Pros: -Fits family demographic (42" height requirement on WW) -Appeals to thrill seekers too (based on reports of Wooden Warrior) -Fits in a small area -If designed by Gravity Group, it would make a great story (local company designs their first local coaster) -They could name it "Shooting Star" -It could look and feel unique compared to the coasters at KI Cons: -$2 million+ price tag -Flooding (would using steel supports be better, more expensive?) I know it is just a dream, but it is a fun dream....

Re: Dan Koch and The Raven: For weeks in 2005 Paula had me thinking that their "eggcellent" new section would be Easter. Do not believe those misleading sneaky red herring throwing Holiday World folks for a second. ;^)

My guess for the "renaming" is Raging Rapids. While not a "premier" ride, I think it's fair to call it a "major ride". Plus, it's the only dry ride who's name and logo are not really themed to the area. In the water park, my guess the "the Wave" (pool), for the same reasons. Based on my track record with guessing Holiday World announcements, you can be certain it won't be those. ;^)

KI lover, this past Saturday the lines were mostly short. There was 1 train operation on both coasters, which meant average lines of 15 minutes on the Raven, and 20-25 on Voyage. Depending on the row and time of day, you can probably find 5 minute waits too. I don't think you've got anything to worry about with the crowds. The line for the corn maze looks longer and slower than it really is. Make sure you explore the entire park and look for the dioramas, they are fun. I hope you have as much fun as we did! For more info, check out my post in the trip reports forum.

I never actually said I "rode" it. ;^) It was indeed closed all day, and for the season. Just my little attempt at a humorous spin of the truth. "Forceless and boring" = closed. ;^)

Happy Halloween Weekends Saturday, October 13, 2012 Useless stats: this was my 6th visit to Holiday World (2000, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2011). Saturday morning I packed up my wife, my 10 year old son, and my 7 year old son and we left Cincinnati bound for Santa Claus. This trip was originally set for last weekend, to coincide the Coasterbuzz fall affair. That was ultimately cancelled, and the weather was looking nasty, so we waited a week and were rewarded with a forecast of 70-80 degree temps all day. Fantastic for October in the Midwest. Around 10:30 local time the Holiday World skyline came into view. We promptly drove past and stopped at Santa's Lodge to pick up our park tickets. The Santa Claus attractions are really pushing tourism this month, and we paid $175 for a double queen room plus 4 park tickets (3 adult, 1 under 54"). A few minutes later and we arrived to a mostly empty parking lot, right near Ravens second hill. I like to walk near the Raven fence, comparing the "short" lift hill to the tunnel way down in a deep ditch. It's very deceiving. The hills visible from the parking lot look so gentle... As we approached the front gate, I saw a spunky little "witch" smiling and welcoming guests. She was doing her best to deal with a guest who was disgruntled about something, and who walked away in a huff. The witch, otherwise know as Pat Koch, sincerely and desperately called out... "Sir, this is a business. Have a great day". I don't know what the issue was, but I'm betting the witch was in the right. I shook her hand and then strolled with my family into Holiday World. It was nearly noon "our time", and we grabbed some pizza at Kringle's cafe. The pizza was decent, the breadsticks surprisingly warm and delicious. With the necessities taken care of, it was time for the real fun: a spin on The Raven. The line was just out of the Poe house. While in line my older son asked where the dive show was. "You can actually see it from this line, it's right over"...As a matter of fact it isn't. Totally gone. No concrete, no sign of the dive tank, nothing but a big hole. We did spot the bench lined up neatly near the woods, and a bulldozer nearby. Are they building a 400' tall WindSeeker there for 2013? Or perhaps a new dive theater? We'll have to wait and see. 20 minutes later we climbed aboard the middle of Raven's single operating train. I love the way the entire station shakes and rumbles as the train hits the breaks. It was a middle of the road ride by Raven's standards, which means it was still fantastic. Not rough, not as smooth as it can be, but just fine for an October morning. Raven strikes me as a normalish sized coaster taken at 3x speed. Drop, tunn... Did we just skim the lake..plunge.....leftrighthopleft...brakes. Slam, bamm, over just like that. We all loved it as usual. When I ride the Raven, I like to imagine riding along with Will Koch in 1995 on his first flight. What was he thinking? 1. That was an awesome awesome coaster ride! 2. This huge, risky investment of my family's money and reputation turned out better than I could have dreamed. 3. This changes everything for the future of my park! 4. I've got an incredible coaster in my own park! I believe he was thinking all of these and more, beaming from ear to ear, giddy as a child on Christmas morning, anxious to share the joy of his creation with the world. We all skipped down Raven's exit, jolted by the adrenaline rush and bad hair only a coaster can give. Next stop:Legend. Legend may be my favorite coaster of all. Unfortunately today, I could not have been more disappointed. On the bright side, there was no line. But it performed badly. Dispatch intervals were eternal, there was no grease on the track, and it was horribly understaffed. Instead of the typical crazy lateral filled out of control ride, today it was forceless and boring, a shadow of itself. My worst Legend experience in 12 years. Oh well, I'll have to wait until next year to get a decent Legend ride. Since KI removed their antique cars, at other parks we hop on them every chance we get. Holiday Worlds version, called "Lewis and Clark" is unremarkable but still fun, especially if you are 7 or riding with someone who is. 10 minute wait. Like KI's, these are set in a nicely landscaped area. Come to think of it, this is a big prime piece of real estate in the front of Holiday World. They could squeeze a great little Wooden Warrior style family coaster in there, and link it to 4th of July, Halloween, or Christmas. On the other hand, this is a nice quiet area, and it would be shame to tear it up. Graveyard Smash time. Somehow I'd never gotten around to seeing a show at the Hoosier Celebration Theater. We arrived just in time, finding a crowded theater, yet a few open seats in the front center row. We all loved it. My 10 year old son is getting dangerously close to being too cool for this sort of thing though, but even he got into the fun. You have about 10 monsters ranging from Dracula, Wicked Witch of the West, zombie bride, zombie punk rocker, zombie Jack Sparrow, and so on. All singing and dancing to Halloween parodies of everything from Dynamite to Thunderstruck. Hilarious and fun. Warning, the performers get in your face if you are up close or on the aisles. Next it was Sparkler time, or Spookler time to be precise. A great little ride, it fits this side of the park well. One cycle wait. It goes up, it goes around, and it doesn't give me the goosebumps that WindSeeker does. It also provides some new views, including a maintenance shed with all of Legend's trains neatly lined up outside. That dashed any hopes that Legend might just reopen today after all. To be fair, I'd read on Facebook and even on the map that Legend was closed for the year, apparently getting its winter spa treatment now instead of waiting for Happy Halloween Weekends to conclude. Still a bummer. Later that night we saw "Spookler" lit up in a monochrome yet neat white lighting display. My boys jaws dropped as I told them somewhere in Texas they were building a 400' version of this. I wonder if the entire tower spins on that one like here...I doubt it. We walked up the impossibly narrow ramp to the bumper cars. These are always a hoot despite the smart alecs who decide to drive the wrong way. 2 cycle wait. It was now the moment of destiny: The Voyage. Last year, both of my boys just didn't have the nerve to tackle this monster, the clincher being my report of nasty washboard roughness. It just wasn't that fun last year, for me anyway. Even the first three drops beat me up. Even though the new Gravity Group trains were delayed again, the track improvements were encouraging. One bummer was the one train operation today. There are few quieter, less exciting places than the Voyage station during single train operation. That train is gone Forever, and you begin to wonder if it will ever cone back. When you estimate a good 5 trains until you board, multiplied by the eternal dispatch interval, you get discouraged. But hey, this is one of the most amazing coasters in the world, so shame on me for complaining. It is kind of a miracle that the Voyage even exists. Think about all the stars that aligned: 1. A park (not called Kings Island) willing to build a 6000' long wooden coaster 2. A park with a large enough piece of sloping, wooded, available land 3. A park who really cares about the extras, like tunnels, tunnels, tunnels, station flyby's, tunnels, ridiculously excessive turnarounds and finales, tunnels... 4. A design firm competent enough to engineer the thing 5. A park willing to do whatever it takes to keep it running in top form If those weren't enough, add these improbabilities: 6. This behemoth is actually themed to pilgrims on a boat, in a section called Thanksgiving. Not a snake or something huge and intimidating 7. The fact that all of this happened just 3 hours from my house I got off track there, but my point is that Voyage might be the most unlikely coaster ever, built in a park that really didn't need it. But they built it and I'm so glad. So back to the ride. We were all pumped...my boys have been looking forward to this ever since they chickened out last year. The four of us took our seats in the third car, and off we sailed. In short, we were thunderstruck. What a ride. The only rough spots I detected were on the last sidewinding stretch under the lift hill, and part of the finale, but even these were not bad. Though I forgot to heed my own advice from 2006: don't try to brace yourself too much, instead just go with it and let the coaster have its way with you. It sounds counterintuitive for such a crazy ride, but it works for us. While we loved it, my boys and my wife debated if a second ride would happen, or if one was more than enough. They all leaned towards "one and done". They were stuffed, so why eat a second Thanksgiving dinner on the same night? Time for a breather. We lined up near Pilgrims Plunge, and 20 minutes later we were on a tram headed to the corn maze. There were two actual hayrides, but we got the vanilla tram both ways. The maze itself was interesting in that it was on uneven hilly land, and in some areas the stalks were barely 5' high. So in some spots you were deep in it with zero visibility, in others you have a commanding view of most of the maze. There were panic flags at various checkpoints, which also helped you navigate since many were visible from afar. Overall a nice diversion from the noise and activity of the park. We skipped the kiddie maze. Gobbler Getaway. A hoot as usual, though I never know if my low scoring is caused by my aim or a faulty gun...errr turkey caller. I also wonder if I am too distracted by the shooting/calling deal to miss the fun details of the ride itself. With the exception of Toy Story Mania, I'd rather just take in the view on my dark rides. What else...oh yes, we checked out the Halloween activities in the picnic grove. Face painting, pumping decorating, trick or treating, the usual activities aimed at families with little ones. Worth a stop if you if that fit that group, and very similar to what you'd find at your local fall festival. We did enjoy the many Halloween dioramas throughout the park. These were set up by park employees, using skeleton mannequins and a wide variety of props. Each won an award of some type, like "best use of theming", or "best use of bobble head Pat". All were tasteful of course, and added a humorous personal touch to the park. Another Halloween exclusive was the lone "haunted house", in glorious 3D, in the Holiday Theater. Again , no big scares here, save for a few surprise characters who come to life and startle the little ones. And even me. The 3d effects were outstanding. I am not usually impressed with 3d at the cinema. A great family haunted house, made better by the 5 minute wait. This is getting long winded so I'll try and cut to the chase. My boys are fans of night rides, so we scored another Raven ride (4 train wait), and my family "Thank"fully regained Voyage fever. Two more Voyage rides (front seat at dusk, third seat in total darkness). 20 minute waits for each. Breathtaking. The 2006 Voyage is back, for now anyway. Now it was for perhaps the best attraction of the day: pumpkin spice funnel cakes at Funnel Cake Factory, covered with some sort of cream cheese frosting. These are not as nutritious as you might think. But they are delicious. I will try to clone those for the scout campout next weekend. It's a good sign when you ask the workers in the food stand if these are any good, and they all light up with an emphatic, sincere, "they are sooooo good!!!!". They were right, and we got fat and happy. While munching we walked around the"back stretch" of Holiday World, near the Indian river ride and the "eagle's fright". I like these quiet, mature (tree-wise) paths in parks. This was made all the better by the glorious fall colors and the leaves literally falling by the hundreds and blowing in the breeze. Quiet and peaceful. Speaking of Eagles Fright, it was begging for riders, so we hopped on for a quick spin. We each got our own bird and enjoyed the peaceful flight in the cool, autumn night. We arrived at the Christmas plaza at 8, just in time for the laser show. It was a mishmash of funny laser animations projected on a big movie screen, fog effects, and the big cool real lasers that pierce the night and wiggle around, all set to Monster Mash, Thriller, Ghostbusters, and other Halloween staples. Fun show and a great way to end the day. So that was our day at Holiday Work. It was quite different without the waterpark and the Legend, but I think they did a fine job considering their family market, and taking their first stab at a "Halloween"event. It made for a nice 30 hour fall getaway from Cincinnati. Thanks to HW and the Kochs for a good time! PS: don't get a room at Santa's lodge near the banquet hall. Loud!

I predict that there will be be a new diving show theater for 2013. Yesterday at Happy Halloween Weekends, while in line for the Raven, my boys asked where the dive show was. "It's right over......oh. It's gone." That's right, completely wiped off the map. No concrete, no dive tank visible. No nothing. I did see the benches neatly lined up near the woods, and a bulldozer nearby. Later on the kind employee at Goblin Burger confirmed my suspicions that "they are probably just rebuilding the theater". I hope so, since we always enjoy the dive show.

FOFreak, There may be a sliver of truth behind what you've heard. I remember reading an interview with Will Koch years ago. He made the case that wooden coasters are generally more family oriented than steel ones, and therefore woodies are a better fit for his "family park". Think of Raven vs. something like Raptor or Top Thrill Dragster. Many grandparents and small kids (and coasterphobics) might give Raven a chance but not go near Raptor or Dragster. Now, we know that there are plenty of exceptions (Voyage is much more intense than Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), but I think Will was referring to the bigger, more intimidating steel coasters. Disclaimer: this is from my memory, and years ago, so I might have it all wrong. I did not interpret his words to mean "never" a steel coaster at HW, rather "this is why we build wooden coasters here, not steel". I think I read this before Voyage was built, for what it's worth. Even if he were still with us, it's hard to for me to imagine him building a 4th wooden coaster before venturing into steel.