McSalsa

Oh dang. No, not that. I didn't even realize the famous catchy song wasn't even the main theme. I thought this was the Ghostbusters theme...

^ I actually heard that when I was at Cedar Point a week ago for their haunt. It had the vocals and everything though.

^ I didn't. It seemed like a very simple and basic coaster (Drop, Hill, Loop, 2 Corkscrews, brakes), and I figured maybe I'd ride it if it had a short wait, but by the time I was curious about it it had a 30 minute line according to the wait time app. I was also targeting more stuff CP has that Kings Island has nothing like, and I've ridden the same model but more complex & bigger Vortex at Kings Island a lot. (BTW I do enjoy me some Vortex, in spite of it not being in my Top 10 ATM). I only did MaXair because it was right there and had a super short wait while my friends did Giant Wheel, and Iron Dragon to snag a quick credit since I had only ridden 5 coasters at that point. Though both of those were fun so I regret neither (In particular right now I'd like to say again Iron Dragon is probably a perfect starter coaster). My sister is already talking about returning to Cedar Point, next May, on a weekday and going for 2 days this time so I will probably have a great chance of riding Corkscrew- and many of the other coasters I missed- if that goes as planned. Also on that list: Maverick, Top Thrill Dragster, Raptor, Valravn, Wicked Twister, Cedar Creek Mine Ride, and of course new-for-2018 Steel Vengeance. Not to mention I missed a TON of fun-looking flat rides, including Skyhawk and Witches' Wheel. I guess the ad was right- one day at Cedar Point really is not enough!

^ I did actually. Next time I am getting a non-wheel seat for sure. I would have done that on this trip, but they had about half the back cars (save the very back) blocked off and the seat I took had no extra wait. Both sides (Red & Blue) were running though. Magnum XL-200 at the end of the day was doing the same thing, but I still got a non-wheel seat (1-2) because there was no wait for it on that one since it was close to park close. Also I did not get the racing element of Gemini because, and I forgot to mention this in the TR, when the trains were sent out some lady in front of me had her phone out. The ride ops hit the E-Stop for the Blue Train I was on, told her to put it up, and I watched the Red train pull away and reach the top of the lift before we even began to climb it. Also thanks for informing me on the new/different name for monster actor dudes, I wasn't aware it was different at CP (or has changed).

Here's my top 10 favorite ride moments. To keep it balanced, I have limited it to one per ride, so there will be more variety on the rides. I also had to leave out some epic moments IMO. Here we go... 10. Banshee's Zero G Roll I'm talking about the one after the big loop and into the valley- though the slow twist at the end is also awesome though. This inversion sends you way up in the air, and then because the ride is on a large hill, you drop even further than you went up. And the negative g-forces on this inversion are solid. 9. Drop Tower: Right before the drop The only non-coaster moment on my list, this is when you near and reach the top of the 315' Drop Tower at Kings Island. You get a great view, and are looking around at other rides are you anticipate the inevitable. And then you hear the click. 8. Diamondback's First Drop (Back Car) This one kinda only happens if you ride in the very back car, due to how much more airtime there is there. You climb the 230' lift hill, and crest it. The front cars drop ahead of you, and you get whipped over for a full 215 feet of awesome floater air. 7. The Legend's Helix Lateral lovers, here is the element for you. After the initial out-and-back section, Legend dives into its helix, and it seems to vary between fast and slow depending what part you are in. You also get TONS of lateral forces. 6. Voyage's Triple Down After the mid-course brakes, you might expect Voyage would calm down a bit, considering how crazy the twister section previous to this already was. These 3 drops, all in a tunnel, however let you know the truth- your Voyage has only just begun, and still more craziness and airtime awaits you on the other side! 5. Flight of Fear's Final Corkscrew FOF does a great job building up to its final inversion- after the MCBR, you drop, twist, and turn and feel like it is gonna flip a few times, but it never does...until the final corkscrew hits. And when it does, it is pretty forceful, especially if the MCBR happened to be off! 4. GateKeeper's Initial Twist 170 feet up is pretty high, and even a standard drop would be pretty intense from up there. But, Cedar Point's Wing Coaster has something else in mind. Instead of a drop, you flip slowly 170 feet up, and it's pretty darn crazy when you do it. Then you drop into a giant loop and the ride begins proper. 3. Millennium Force's First Drop If the 215 foot drop on Diamondback was thrilling, this puts that to shame. Going 80 feet higher (aka the same total height as Blue Streak or Raven!) and towering over everything puts this drop on a different level, and it still has great floater air on the way down to boot! 2. Magnum XL-200's Final Bunny Hops Magnum XL-200 does not have the best first drop- there is not a lot of airtime, unlike the other 2 huge steel coasters I have ridden. However of the 3, it does end the strongest. The pure strength of the ejector air on the final bunny hops alone is insane, and the last 2-3 are done inside of a tunnel! However, one coaster ending is still better IMO... 1. The Beast's Final Helix Well, this was kinda obvious. Beast has a few memorable moments, but the helix at the end tops everything- especially since the entire ride kinda builds up to it. You crest the 2nd lift, and see Kings Island in all its glory. Especially at night. But then, you turn right, and see a huge 141 foot drop and a tiny tunnel await you! The drop seems to last forever since it is not steep and feels more like a ramp. Faster...faster...trim brakes try to stop you but fail...faster! FASTER! FASTER! Almost there...WHAM! The ride feels out of control and you cannot even hear anyone screaming because the ride is so loud. You get out of the tunnel, get a second to breath...WHAM AGAIN! It happens again. Then you exit, get a nice view of the 2 lift hills as well as Vortex & the Eiffel Tower, do a small drop, and hit the brake run in a sense of awe at what just happened. Note: I have only been to Indiana Beach, Kings Island, Holiday World, and Cedar Point and also have not ridden everything at all of those parks yet so these are just my top 10 I have experienced so far. Will update or make a new post later if this changes, which it probably will.

Hello KICentral! I am back with a trip report that may have come outta nowhere since I don't think I said anything about it. And it isn't for Kings Island this time! Nor did I return to Holiday World. It was my first ever trip to...Cedar Point! Now, Cedar Point trips may be commonplace to a lot of people, but for me, this was special. I have been to Kings Island a bunch, and Holiday World a few times, but every time prior to this in the years 2010-2016 we tried to go to Cedar Point something ruined everything and blocked it, and we had to go to Holiday World or Kings Island instead. While I had fun at those parks, I wanted to get the much-hyped and massive Cedar Point on my list of visited parks. Yesterday, my sister turned 26, and at long last I arrived at "America's Roller Coast" with her for the celebration. We stayed at Hotel Breakers, on-site, so we would not have to drive home stupid tired until 5AM. I guess now is a good time to explain my ride ratings... RIDE RATINGS 10=Amazing 9=Excellent 8=Very Good 7=Good 6=Decent 5=Meh 4=Bad 3=Very Bad 2=Horrible 1=Stinky Poo 0=Ultimate Stinky Poo from Hades Underwear!?!? I'll also say this now: it got pretty crowded and there were some events (I'll explain) that kept me from riding everything. Of the 14 "adult" coasters (there are also 2 kids coasters) I only got 7 of them, or about half. I did ride a few non-coaster rides as well though. It was a Saturday during Halloweekends (aka Haunt), it was not gonna be a ride everything day. Anyhow, let's begin. ARRIVAL AT Cedar Point & HOTEL BREAKERS Our group (Me+My Sister+2 Friends) arrived at the park after a 4 1/2 hour drive at 10:20AM. Seeing Cedar Point for the first time ever is a sight to behold- this park truly has a AMAZING skyline of roller coasters and thrill rides. Driving around it to get to Hotel Breakers and seeing several of the big rides up-close further built the excitement. Since we had a on-site hotel we could have taken advantage of ERT, but we had stuff to unpack and thus had to go to our Hotel first, and we also needed to get our tickets. By the time we had unpacked, ERT was over. I headed to Millennium Force (leaving my group who wanted to start with Iron Dragon because the guy who was scared of big coasters was with us), since it looked to have a short wait. It did- it was about 20 minutes tops. However, with 5 minutes to go in my wait, Millennium Force realized it was a Intamin and broke down. I met with my sister and she said if I wanted to try and wait the breakdown out to meet her at the hotel at 2PM. I agreed, but Millie was not showing any sign of re-opening for a while. With Millie down, I was anxious to get on a coaster at all, so I chose the closest big thriller I could find... RIDE #1: Rougarou Wait Time: 10 Minutes Rougarou, the former Mantis Stand-Up coaster, now turned Floorless. I had heard it was super rough and painful from some, even after the conversion. Well, after riding it for myself, I can say that is mostly false IMO- there was a little headbanging, and it was not 100% smooth, but it was perfectly ride-able to me. The coaster also packs some great forces and elements into its layout. It starts off feeling like Banshee a bit with the huge inversions, but after the MCBR it dissolves into chaos as I twisted and turned and I could not tell where I was going until we hit the final brakes. I enjoyed Rougarou quite a lot actually- I love Vortex, and I think Rougarou just managed to edge Vortex out. Score: 9/10 After Rougarou, I checked out Millennium's line again since it had re-opened, it had grown to 45 minutes. And I watched the ride struggling still- empty trains were going out, and sometimes there were big delays in dispatches and it seemed to only have 2 trains on track. So I decided to go see if Maverick, which had not been running during ERT, was running now. It was but it already had a 1-hour wait and I knew my sister would wanna ride that since it is her favorite ride ever. So I walked past the Steel Vengance construction (in person the coaster looks like it is going to be even more awesome) and Cedar Creek "Mystic" Mine Ride (I loved the nod to Mystic Timbers) and went to my 2nd coaster of the day- which back in 1978, at least Cedar Point claims this, was the biggest coaster in the world. RIDE #2: Gemini Wait Time: 5 Minutes OUCH! I had heard Gemini was one of the smoother Arrows, what the heck happened here?!?! On almost every drop or turn, Gemini kept jackhammering and my back was mildly punished by it. There was some light airtime and if the ride wasn't so rough I probably would have liked it, but this was a horrible first impression for Gemini. Invertigo is probably my least favorite big coaster at KI and I'd ride that over this without hesitation if Gemini is always like this. I'll give Gemini another chance some day probably, but the first ride was meh due to the roughness. Score: 6/10 After Gemini, my back OK but in some mild pain, I headed further down the Midway and to a ride that I was eagerly wanting to ride prior to this trip- but after Gemini, I was kinda worried about this one... RIDE #3: Magnum XL-200 Wait Time: 20 Minutes Dang, the station for this was crazy unsorted because of how big it is and the fact there are no dividers until you nearly board the train. Also for some reason Magnum XL-200 was only running 2 trains- the 3rd was on the transfer track. Probably needed repair or something. Anyhow I boarded eventually and thankfully, Magnum XL-200 was MUCH smoother than Gemini (still not sure how Gemini was that rough- my friends rode it separate from me and liked it). The first drop kind of underwhelmed me, with little air. The 2nd drop was a bit better with some weak floater, then the tunnel hit. The intensity began to increase. The ride hit the trims which sapped some speed but the pretzel knot was still forceful and fun. Then came the next few hills, and Magnum XL-200 came to life. Ejector Air! Over and over, up and down, I felt like I was gonna fly out of my seat multiple times and even thought my glasses, in spite of me using a strap, had flown off in that crazy final tunnel (thankfully they did not as I realized seconds later). The airtime was so strong it did kinda hurt my thighs a bit, but it was not too bad, so it was well worth it IMO. I actually like Magnum XL-200 over Diamondback, mainly due to how crazy the airtime on the final few hills is. Score: 10/10! (EJECTOR AIR FTW) After Magnum XL-200, I had about half an hour before I had to meet my group again. I saw Top Thrill Dragster had a 15-minute wait. I could have ridden earlier but I felt nervous after seeing TTD in person, the launch looked crazy and the noises were insane. But after Magnum XL-200 and all the ejector air, I felt ready. I boarded TTD 15 minutes later. The train rolled out of the station behind the 1st train. The train ahead prepared to launch. TTD then remembered it was a Intamin and broke down. UGH. That's 2 Intamin breakdowns. I had no time to wait to see if Dragster would re-open (it did, but it took about a hour to fix, and it had a huge wait all day after that so I never got to ride) since it was time to meet my group. My sister, who is scared of heights, was actually impressed I even tried to ride it alone. My solo session now over, I rejoined the group, ate a snack in our hotel room, and we went to go hang out on the beach a bit. I took my shoes off and let my feet into the lake water- they felt like they needed it. After washing the sand off, and putting my shoes back on we headed to a on-site store to buy Cigarettes, then we took a shuttle to the front gate because we wanted to ride a coaster near there...no, it was not Raptor or GateKeeper, both of those had huge waits. We instead rode... RIDE #4: Blue Streak Wait: 20 Minutes Yeah, 20 minutes was one of the shorter waits according to CP's wait time app my sister was using, and it turned out to be accurate for the most part. As for Blue Streak itself, it was kinda how I imagined it- like Racer. If Racer was rougher, and was faster paced and had twice as much airtime. I did not expect Blue Streak to pack this much punch! I loved it, in spite of the roughness which I think was partially because we (Me+Sister) rode in the very back. I actually even liked it more than Holiday World's beloved Raven (Raven is awesome but so was Blue Streak). Score: 9/10 After the small but spunky Blue Streak, it was about time for dinner. My sister had pre-bought tickets for the "Night of the Living Fed" event, held in the convention center section of the park. We arrived, rested (and they smoked their newly bought cigarettes at the nearby smoking section), and headed in for dinner...we were greeted by some of the scareactors as we entered. FOOD: Night of the Living Fed The food buffet was great. It was almost all delicious and there were lots of options. However, what really made this event was the scareactors- they were interacting with guests, and IMO, it was hillarious. They even fed my friends and our favorite of the bunch, a guy named Voodoo, put our silverware in my sister's hair! We made sure to get a picture as we headed out. This was awesome, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Score: 10/10 After NOTLF, we decided to go back to Frontier Town and ride Maverick, my sister's favorite ride, since we were stuffed and could wait for a ride now. We got back there as haunt was starting, and got in line. We waited 45 minutes, and then Maverick went down for the day. I cannot confirm this, but apparently at some point bees were on the track and had made a hive, and this may have been that. So I dunno if it was bees, or if the ride just Intamin'd like MF and TTD did earlier. Since there was nothing in the back of the park to ride (Steel Vengeance loomed for 2018 though), and we saw GateKeeper's wait had shrunk to 45 minutes, and my friend and sister wanted to ride Giant Wheel, we decided to go to GateKeeper the fastest way we could: train, then walk. RIDE #5: Cedar Point & Lake Erie RR Wait: 5 Minutes (for train to arrive) Holy cow this was the spookiest ride I have ever had on a train. Haunt was in full force, so the lighting and effects were at max creepout level, and the off-ride props really stand out at night. The fireworks sound the fake guns were making got me to jump. Why can't Kings Island's train be this cool!?!? Score: 8/10 The train got us much closer to our destination, and we walked the rest of the way to Giant Wheel. This section of the park was very pretty at night with all the lights. Me and one friend hesitated to ride Giant Wheel, as I had a bad experience on the one at the state fair a few years ago. My sister and our other friend got in line anyway, and I looked around for something to ride quick while they rode Giant Wheel. I saw... RIDE #6: MaXair Wait: 10 Minutes If you have ridden Delirium, I can sum up MaXair easily: it is Delirium with a longer, better ride cycle. If you have not ridden Delirium these rides dish out some fun positive and negative G-forces at 75+ mph. Delirium was my favorite flat ride...before this. Score: 9/10 After MaXair, I got off, and my sister was not even on Giant Wheel yet! Eventually they bailed and re-joined us, and we went to GateKeeper instead. The app said 45 minute wait... RIDE #7: GateKeeper Wait: 25 Minutes HA! App was off, in a good way, by 20 minutes! I rode in the back of the train on the left wing. Also...I do not get, at all, why some people call GateKeeper forceless and boring. It actually was very fun and had good forces! The first drop with the twist was incredible and nothing like I have ever felt before on a coaster, save maybe Banshee's slow roll. Also the big hill afterwards actually had airtime on it! Add a bunch of fun inversions including the keyholes to this, and a fun helix ending, and you have a great coaster. In comparison to Banshee (since both are newer B&M models with the same restraint system) I think I'd actually take GateKeeper- it's super close, but having even a bit of airtime and a amazing first drop give it the edge in my book. GateKeeper is a incredible roller coaster. Score: 10/10 After GateKeeper, time was running out, as only 2 1/2 hours remained before the park closed. We decided to ride the Sky Ride to quickly get to the Millennium Force section (as I had ridden Banshee previously Millennium Force was higher priority to me than Raptor and both were claimed to be at 1 hour), though I was hesitant since the one at the Indiana State Fair scared me. RIDE #8: Sky Ride Wait: Walk-On Thankfully, this Sky Ride is not stupid slow like the state fair one, and gives some nice views. So it did not scare me as much. It was a nice, quick way to cross the main midway too. Score: 7/10 After Sky Ride, we headed to Iron Dragon since our friend who doesn't like huge coasters wanted to ride it. It had a short wait so I decided to ride as well, just to get a extra coaster credit at least. RIDE #9: Iron Dragon Wait: 15 Minutes Iron Dragon is a fun ride, though unlike The Bat, I would not call this ride very intense. Swinging through the trees and over the pond are fun though, especially since it was nighttime. A fun ride to ride when you don't feel like something crazy. Score: 8/10 After Iron Dragon, me and my sister broke off from our friends (who were gonna go shop, eat, go back to the hotel, etc.) as I wanted to try to ride Millennium Force again. It had a 45 minute wait. We got in line, waited, and my sister called out a line jumper while we waited. We waited some more. We got near the station. We boarded. Millennium Force forgot it was a Intamin, because it actually let me ride! RIDE #10: Millennium Force Wait: 45 Minutes My first INTAMIN roller coaster. My first Giga coaster. These are 2 major coaster milestones for a coaster lover. Would Millennium Force be as awesome as everyone says it is, or is it, as some say, overrated? Millennium Force was, IMO, as awesome as it claimed to be. The sheer size of the first drop is staggering, not even Diamondback comes close (2nd tallest coaster I have been on so far). The speed is crazy, 93mph is very very fast. You blast through the tunnels, and at night, they were pitch black. And it offers some nice floater airtime on 4 occasions (first drop, both big hills, and final hill). MF at night felt like a mix of Beast (great speed through the forest and trees) and Diamondback (excellent floater air and huge hills). Those are 2 of my most loved coasters, and mixing them creates something epic. MF gave me giddly chuckles I previously have only gotten on Beast @ Night. It has (barely) surpassed Beast and become my new favorite coaster (Beast remains #1 wood though). That is one heck of an achievement. Now, can Millennium Force hold on to that title? Fury 325, El Toro, and more coasters I have yet to ride may have something to challenge that...heck, even Beast might try to re-bound... Score: 12/10!!! After Millie, me and my sister went back to check Maverick. It was still down. On the way there, and some of the way to our final ride, we passed through a scare zone which was very well done and very creepy- you could barely see anything, leading to many scareactors coming from the shadows. We finally headed around, towards the beach exit to our hotel, but first we grabbed one last ride... Ride #11: Magnum XL-200 (@ Night) Wait: Walk-On I tried to get 1-3, as I heard that was the "ejector seat", but we got 1-2 instead. However, that's not a wheel seat, so it was very smooth for a old 1989 Arrow. I also noticed that the lift can actually be very fast on this ride. The lake looked like a black void. I noticed there was more airtime on the first drop (still not much, but some) and the 2nd drop had a surprising pop of air come outta nowhere atop the hill. But the real fun once again began at the pretzel knot- the trims were off! So this time we blasted through the pretzel knot, and then got CRAZY ejector air on every hill after! It was not quite as good as the Millennium Force ride earlier, but it did come close. Magnum XL-200 deserves its legendary status in my book. It is also my new airtime king. Sorry Diamondback. Score: 11/10! I checked TTD's line again after we rode Magnum- it was pretty long so we just went back to the Hotel. We grabbed some snacks, and headed out to the beach side patio and chatted with our friends. Then we headed back in and slept. We woke up the next day, and had breakfast at the in-hotel restaurant I forgot the name of, but it had very good food. I got the Chicken Biscuits (no gravy- I'm not a fan) Scrambled Eggs, Potato Bites, Bacon, and a soda. It was delicious. Then we packed up, came home, and now I am writing this trip report for KIC. And that was my first experience at Cedar Point. I loved it, even if the Intamin coasters were having issues. I missed a ton of what are probably amazing coasters, so a return trip is very much needed. Probably on a day where crowds won't be as heavy. Not to mention Steel Vengeance in 2018 is probably gonna be amazing. Also do note that I did make quite a few comparisons to coasters at Kings Island (and one Holiday World) in this report, but that's because KI and HW are what I previously knew and thus would compare with. I still love the rides I made comparisons with BTW- especially Beast, since that one is what got me into coasters in the first place. And now, for the Pros/Cons of the trip: PROS +Amazing roller coasters and thrill rides, and lots of them! +Night of the Living Fed had great food and the scareactors were great +Beautiful lakeside location, and it lights up beautifully at night +Hotel Breakers is great with amazing staff. Will stay there again! CONS -Intamin has reliability issues and it shows here- though Bees may be to blame for 1...I can see why Cedar Fair has stopped buying from them. -Huge crowds, though that was to be expected considering the day we visited Overall I loved Cedar Point and cannot wait to return. Oh, as a bonus, since I got 7 new credits this visit raising my total to 26, here is my updated Top 10 list...note that prior to CP I have been to only KI, Holiday World, and Indiana Beach way back in 1999... #1- Millennium Force, Cedar Point (Intamin) #2- The Beast, Kings Island (Custom) #3- The Legend, Holiday World (CCI) #4- Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point (Arrow) #5- GateKeeper, Cedar Point (B&M) #6- Banshee, Kings Island (B&M) #7- Mystic Timbers, Kings Island (GCI) #8- Diamondback, Kings Island (B&M) #9- The Voyage, Holiday World (GG) #10- Blue Streak, Cedar Point (PTC) The Raven, Flight of Fear, Vortex, and The Bat have been kicked off my Top 10. I still love them though- also Rougarou which did not make Top 10, but I still really enjoyed a lot. I have been on a LOT of really good roller coasters considering I have been on "only" 26 of them (only Invertigo and Gemini are "meh" for me so far, and I may have just caught Gemini on a bad day)! Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this trip report. Questions, comments, and even advice for the next possible Cedar Point trip I make (aka when would be a good time to try and do it for example) welcome.

^ Here you go, it's in PDF Format and has the top 25 steel and wood coasters all listed. http://goldenticketawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-GTA-Results.pdf Looking over this, I have more thoughts. In addition to the best-new-for-2017 and #11 overall Mystic Timbers, Kings Island also had Beast ranked as the #6 wooden coaster...scoring 666 points. So I guess 666 truly is "the number of The Beast", at least this year. Just a ironic coincidence, or something disturbing...? As for my personal taste on Beast vs. Mystic Timbers, it depends. If it is cool & cloudy, or dark (like at night), Beast is better. However, on regular sunny daytime rides, I prefer Mystic Timbers. Mystic Timbers also obliterated everything else on the best new ride poll, getting over 40% of the votes. Then again, 2017 was a "down" year with Mystic Timbers being the closest thing to a major huge new coaster (most of the rest of the rides in 2017 were much smaller). 2018 will probably go to Steel Vengeance. Diamondback continues to be ranked well in the steel charts, placing 8th. Banshee also made the Top 25 this year at #22, which is made more impressive when you consider the golden tickets seem biased against coasters with inversions on the steel list. At nearby Holiday World, all 3 woodies once again made top 25: Voyage was ranked 4th, Raven was 23rd, and Legend 24th. I think this may be closest Legend has ever gotten to Raven. I wonder if Legend could possibly even make the upset and pass it one of these years. (My opinion on these 3: Legend over Voyage, then Raven...) Wildebeest and Mammoth were #1 and #2 waterpark ride again, and they were the cleanest and #2 friendliest park again. Fury 325 won best steel coaster again, but this time it beat Millennium Force by a larger margin. It's looking like it is the new coaster to beat in this category, at least in the golden tickets, and it's doing it in a park that I'd guess is far less popular than Cedar Point overall. Millennium did claim #2, and Superman: The Ride @ SFNE claimed 3rd place. Iron Rattler did well, finishing 4th overall. El Toro- winner of the last 4 Mitch Hawker polls a few years back before it suddenly stopped- can add a 2nd Golden Ticket to its career resume, further cementing its status as one of the most celebrated wooden coasters in the world right now. Pheonix took 2nd place, and Boulder Dash drops to 3rd- they apparently had a minor accident and only ran 1 train most of the year, and they may have lost the golden ticket award because of that. Also of note: Lightning Rod shoots from outside the top 10 to 5th, likely due to being open a bit more this year and more people riding it. If Dollywood manages to keep it running and open on a consistent basis, it could eventually even take the #1 spot. Europa Park is pulling away right now as best park, its lead over Cedar Point is growing. The days of Cedar Point winning that award non-stop also seem to be over. And that's about all I have to comment on for now.

Well deserved. Also, I find it ironic that the relatively small GCI did something that big ol' Diamondback and Banshee both failed to do in 2009 & 2014. (Though I still think Banshee got screwed over since the ride that beat that opened in late 2013, not 2014) Also for those wondering, Mystic Timbers was 11th overall on the best wood coasters list. I was kinda expecting it to be closer or above Beast, given how most people compare the 2 coasters, but I think Beast had a lot more riders due to being open much longer (35+ more years) and thus more votes (This is one of the big reasons the Golden Ticket awards are not my main go-to for comparing how people view coasters- popular coasters, even if they suck- granted Beast clearly does not to most, will get more votes than a great coaster in the middle of nowhere.). I fully expect, so long as the ride quality does not decrease, Mystic Timbers will rise to a higher overall spot in the 2018 wood coaster results, possibly even passing Beast eventually since it is at the same popular park.

Actually I don't think $500 for Kings Island Season Long Fast Lane+ is that bad. They cannot make it too cheap, otherwise too many people will buy it, which will jam up the regular lines and create waits for even Fast Lane, which leads to angry customers and that means in the long run Cedar Fair loses money. Not to mention I have seen Fast Lane+ go for $80+ for even a single day, and someone who has a season pass and this will probably use it a lot on those super-busy weekends like the 4th of July and Halloween Haunt. Also a big reason why Kings Island's is more expensive than Carowinds or Kings Dominion's would be Kings Island gets bigger crowds- Kings Island draws 3 to 3.5 million guests in every year, and for comparison Kings Dominion is usually in the 1.5 to 2 million range if I recall correctly. I don't remember Carowinds specifically but I think they get just a bit more than KD. Cedar Point's Fast Lane Plus+ Season Pass is also going to be crazy expensive, possibly even more than the Kings Island one. Canada's Wonderland, another huge drawing Cedar Fair park, also charges $500 for this (though since that's Canadian it's more like $350 US) and Knott's Berry Farm in California will also probably be very expensive.

Well, I rode Mystic Timbers once again about a week ago, and since it was a few months between my rides, I'll share my thoughts on my now updated opinion. Mystic Timbers has gotten a bit rougher since my first ride in April- not by a lot, but it did actually feel like a classical wooden coaster instead of being smoother than Banshee this time. It didn't cause me any actual pain or anything though, and overall I actually thought it added to the ride a bit. The airtime and forces of all types (positive and lateral) also actually felt a bit stronger. It also helps that the trees around the ride have now grown in, so the "wooded" feeling is enhanced more as well. The shed is better on re-rides when you know what to expect and thus can look for all the hidden little secrets. Mystic Timbers, IMO, has gotten BETTER since its debut. Also I have gotten 2 of the 3 endings on my 3 rides, Bats twice and Snakes once. Now I just need to get a night ride- it'll need to be super epic to surpass Beast as my favorite coaster overall, mainly because that ride gives super epic night rides, but Mystic Timbers does give the better ride during the daylight, especially if it's sunny and hot out (Beast is more fun IMO when the air is cooler). However, no matter how that ends up, I still think this was a great addition and it makes KI's wooden coaster lineup incredibly strong overall.

Hello everyone! Get ready for another trip report, as I went to Kings Island yesterday (8-18-2017) with my sister and two friends. First up, for newbies who have never read one of my trip reports, my ride rating system... 10=Incredible 9=Excellent 8=Very Good 7=Good 6=OK 5=Meh 4=Bad 3=Garbage 2=Horrible 1=Super Garbage 0=Ultimate Garbage Be warned- we were able to do a lot since crowds were light, and we spent the entire day at the park to boot. This is gonna be a long trip report. Me, My Sister, and 2 of our friends arrived at the park at 9:45 AM and since we saw the parking lot was mostly empty, we decided to go straight to Mystic Timbers before it could build up a line. We looked around some of the shops before the rope drop, and then headed straight to Mystic Timbers. Ride #1: Mystic Timbers Wait: Under 5 Minutes The ride has gotten a bit rougher, and is no longer glass smooth like it was one my visit in April (Still pretty smooth though). However, I kind of liked it better that way- it felt like the ride had a bit more of a "edge". The airtime and forcefulness also felt a bit stronger. The shed is actually better when you ride a 2nd time, as you know what to expect a bit more and can look around for the cool hidden secrets. We got the Snakes ending this time, and it played "Maneater" as the song. Mystic Timbers improves from 9/10 on my first ride on it to a full 10/10! It was also my sister's friends first big roller coaster. He was actually OK on it and did want to ride more... Score: 10/10 After Mystic Timbers, we decided to hit 3 more coasters before the crowds could build up, knowing they were all low capacity... Ride #2+3: Backlot Stunt Coaster Wait: Walk-On We walked onto Backlot Stunt Coaster, and got a ride where NOTHING WAS WORKING. The ride still has some fun forces and elements, but it loses a bit of charm when everything is off. On a positive note, the emergency lights in the tunnel were on so we got to see the actual track in there. It's not as crazy as it seems when the lights are off. We then sat on the brake run for a good 10 minutes as a mechanic...fixed the effects. We got off and as it was still a walk-on, we rode it again with the effects on and they were all working the 2nd time. The lights in the tunnel were still on though. Score: 7/10 no effects, 8/10 with effects After Backlot, we headed to X-Base, to ride its "Big Brother"... Ride #4: Flight of Fear Wait: Walk-On This was the classic, a bit rough and super forceful and intense ride I have come to expect from Flight of Fear. All of the effects in the que and on the ride itself (the lights basically) were working. The UFO in the que going dark was creepy and awesome. The alien dude they put sitting at the end of the ride got me to chuckle as we headed out of the ride. Also the MCBR was back on, unlike my last ride in 2016. Our friend, who was just getting into coasters, didn't like this one at all as he thought it was too intense. Score: 9/10 After FOF, we headed to its next door neighbor...which I have not ridden since 2012... Ride #5: Firehawk Wait: 10 Minutes (1 Train- not much of a line though so we waited it out...) As we got on and boarded, we laid back...and we heard the lift hill going. Turns out, they decided to set up and send out the other train for test runs. Afterwards we were sent out and got our ride. The sun was in our faces as we climbed the lift hill, which provides a great view of the park if you look to the right (I did just that to avoid looking at the Sun). The ride packed a bit more force than I remember (then again it has been 5 years) especially in the loop which was awesome. A fun ride I don't get to ride very often due to its usually crazy long lines. Score: 8/10 After Firehawk, our friend who has just starting to get into coasters started to become sick, and he revealed he has a weak stomach and gets sick easily if spun around/flipped, so the 2 inverting coasters we just rode (FOF+Firehawk) were too much. He was still happy to come with us though and carry our stuff when we rode stuff that needed lockers. My sister wanted to head to the waterpark at noon, and eat now (it was like 11:30 AM) but she was OK with me leaving on my own to ride 2 rides solo... Ride #6: The Beast Wait: Walk-On This was my first time solo on The Beast, and my 20th ride overall on it. I accidently chose a wheel seat in the back of a car because I didn't notice the arrows in the station at first. The ride was a bit rougher because of this, but it wasn't horrible. The ride also packed a good amount of speed, and good forcefulness and intensity. However it was also hot out, and for whatever reason it didn't feel quite as good as some of my other Beast rides- I think it was the heat, warm air does not feel as fun to go through fast as cooler air to me. Because of this I think I got better daytime rides on Mystic Timbers instead of Beast. But...well, read on. Score: 9/10 After a slightly rough-but-fun old ride, I decided before I met back up with my group to hit the waterpark, the perfect ride to compliment it would be something huge, modern, and smooth... Ride #7: Diamondback Wait: Under 5 Minutes I took the back car once again since I love the airtime from that car, and I rode with a nice old lady and her grandkids. She had never been on the ride, so I warned her of the airtime that was to come. Sure enough, Diamondback offered up a buffet of airtime as usual. I loved it once again. The lady, however, looked spooked. She calmed down by the time we returned to the station but she'd had enough for one day she said. Her grandkids loved it though, and were trying to get her to go on Banshee next. As for me, I had to meet up with my group again... Score: 10/10 We all met up, grabbed our stuff, and headed towards the main exit (we had to get our waterpark gear). But our now non-coaster riding friend wanted to quickly ride the Eiffel Tower, so we did so. Ride #8: Eiffel Tower Wait: Walk-On The view from atop the Eiffel Tower was amazing as usual. I noticed a tall electrical tower I had seen in Google Maps off in the distance, as well as what looked to be hundreds of water towers. A ride-op asked me how many trees, I said hundreds of thousands if not millions. I may be in the ballpark... Score: 8/10 After the Tower, we exited the park got our waterpark gear ready, and came back in. We decided to ride the train to the waterpark... Ride #9: Kings Island & MV RR Wait: 10 Minutes (Train took a while to arrive as only 1 was running) The train was its usual self for the most part, save us only riding it halfway. Does it still count as a full ride if you get off at the waterpark and never get back on though? Score: 7/10 We arrived at the waterpark, fully changed into our swimsuits, and headed out to find...half the waterpark was closed. Apparently there was not enough staff, which I guess is because KI employs a ton of school kids and it was a weekday. However, we found Tidal Wave Bay was open, so we hit it up. I really didn't mind much as I just wanted to get wet and this would do... Ride #10: Tidal Wave Bay Wait: N/A This giant wave pool has some pretty freakin' strong waves! It was slightly annoying at first, but I found if you don't resist and go with the waves, it becomes pretty fun. Pool was pretty packed. I eventually managed to get a floating ring thing and it became even more fun to get carried by the waves. I enjoyed this attraction. Score: 8/10 After the refreshing TWB, we decided to ride Tropical Plunge, since it was one of the few waterslides open that looked interesting. Ride #11: Tropical Plunge (Blue Drop Slide) Wait: 10-15 Minutes I chose the Blue slide, since from atop, it looked like a good layout. I boarded the "coffin", and the eerie lady voice counted down 3...2..1...DROP! The drop itself was not that bad, kinda like Drop Tower's is to me. However, what became annoying as all heck is that the entire way down, water was snorting its way up my nose and I could not see anything because of it. I only knew the ride was ending when it went dark towards the end. Still fun, but if there was some way to ride it without getting water constantly shot in my face, I'd do that instead. Score: 7/10 After taking "Da Plunge", we were hungry and decided to hit one of the main things we came to the waterpark to try... Food #1: Island Smokehouse Wait: None Island Smokehouse was pretty dead, only a few people were inside. Kind of surprising. I saw the chicken fingers in person, and had to try them as they looked great, and they were. The ribbon cut fries they came with were also very good. I also tried some of my sister's food, she got the chicken wings and mac n' cheese, both of those were also excellent. I got so full I didn't even really need to eat more the rest of the day! Kings Island has a great new restraunt here, and I hope the rumors it is coming to the dry park in 2018 are true. Score: 10/10 After we ate, I sat out a 2nd trip to the wave pool (I was a little water hesitant after Tropical Plunge) and waited while the others swam a bit more. We then headed back to the changing stations, and switched back to our dry gear. We then headed to the car (long walk, may have been a mistake) and dropped off our wet gear. We then headed back into the main park, and into Action Zone. There were still no lines, but when my sister had us hand all our stuff to our friend who didn't wanna do coasters anymore, I knew we were gonna ride... Ride #12: Banshee Wait: Walk-On Banshee has been an amazing B&M Invert since Day 1 in 2014, and there was nothing different here. Great speed, strong g-forces, and smooth elements and transitions. There was still a bit of a rattle but it was not as bad as it was in April. I also noticed (or at least think I did) the never-used trim before the pretzel/heart loop was gone. Banshee: dishin' out epic rides since 2014. Score: 10/10 After Banshee, we tried to get our friend to ride The Bat with us since it lacked inversions and we thought it would be OK for him, but he dumped on us halfway through and we didn't even notice until it was too late. We then rode The Bat ourselves. Ride #13: The Bat Wait: Walk-On I had heard the ride was broken a few days ago, so I am glad The Bat was open for us when we visited yesterday. The ride was the normal fun, swinging coaster that sadly always ends way too soon I love. It may have been a good thing our other friend didn't ride, as we noticed that last swing on the brake run is pretty intense and could have further upset his stomach. Score: 8/10 After The Bat, we planned to start heading down Coney Mall and hitting the coasters there we had yet to ride. However, the others decided to stop and smoke, while I am a non-smoker. I said "OK so we are doing Adventure Express, The Racer, and Vortex next?" "The other 2 sure, but, Uhh, we really aren't down for Vortex right now." I asked if I could ride Vortex by myself while they smoked, they said yes. I headed down Coney Mall, and reached Vortex for said ride. Ride #14: Vortex Wait: Walk-On I rode in 5-1 yet again since it is one of my favorite seats (I debated 7-1 but it would have had a short wait). Vortex was rougher than I recall it being, because in addition to the normal stuff, there seemed to be a occasional awkward shuffle near the start of the ride (first few turns- by the end of the ride it was back to "normal" though). The ride itself also felt faster and more intense though as well. I wasn't in any physical pain afterwards, so all in all I enjoyed the ride. I also for the first time in person saw The Vortex "smile". I cannot unsee it now. Thanks, VortexBFFForever...who may or may not have been working Vortex, I dunno. I rode around 5:30PM... Score: 8.5/10 I met back up with the group, who had finished smoking, and we headed for the other 2 rides they were down for. First up, Adventure Express! Ride #15: Adventure Express Wait: Walk-On I just realized that I rode all 3 of KI's Arrow coasters back-to-back. LOL. Our friend sat this one out as well, even though to be honest it would probably have been fine since AE isn't the most intense or craziest coaster out there. It is good fun though, and ALL the effects on the final tunnel were working for once! Score: 8/10 We then hit up Racer which was next door, which oddly was running both sides even though it only needed to do 1 due to the crowd levels. So much for my "Both Sides Only Run on Busy Days" theory... Ride #16: Red Racer Wait: Walk-On My friend who was doing coasters and sister wanted to do Blue Racer, so when we boarded, just for fun, I hopped onto the same car on Red, 1 seat back because they were on a wheel and I didn't want to do that. I might have been fine though, because Racer was running pretty smoothly. Good amounts of airtime, and the trains were racing (though they started Red out a little ahead for some reason). I taunted my friends on the other train as we headed up the lift hills. It backfired however- even though my train was cheatin', somehow the Blue Racer still won. D'OH! Score: 8.5/10 After Racer, my sister and friend wanted to ride Beast (I already had) and Diamondback next, but took another smoking break beforehand. While sitting with them, I noticed we were VERY near Zephyr, a ride I had not ridden in 17 years. Rather than smoke... Ride #17: Zephyr Wait: Walk-On ...I swung! This ride has a lot of very pretty artwork on it. I do think I slightly perfer Holiday World's Hollowswings but Zephyr is still a fun Wave Swinger ride. Score: 8/10 After Zephyr, we continued with the plan. Next up was The Beast...for me, again... Ride #18: The Beast (2nd Ride) Wait: 5 Minutes For the first time ever, I finally got to ride in the very last car of Beast. I was in 6-2, the non wheel seat in said car. I wondered how much crazier this back car really would be. Turns out...a little bit, but not that much. I did get a nice weak pop of airtime on the 2nd drop, but other than that and a bit more intensity in the helix (and a smoother ride since it wasn't a wheel seat) it felt the same as earlier in the day. So...same rating. Score: 9/10 We then headed over to check the line for Mystic Timbers, looked around 20 minutes or so. While that wasn't a huge wait, Diamondback had a even shorter line than that, so we rode it instead for right now. Ride #19: Diamondback (2nd Ride) Wait: 10 Minutes Waterpark had likely closed by this point, hence why there were now some short lines instead of zero lines. However, Diamondback's crew was really working their butts off, so the wait was pretty short. I rode in the very back car again, though even further back now in the divided seats since my sister and other friend wanted to front seats. I got a little extra airtime from being a bit further back, but other than that and some mist from the final splashdown, same ride as before. Still very fun. Score: 10/10 We went and checked on Mystic Timbers again, but it's line grew a little bit. I wanted to ride again, but my sister and her friends wanted to do White Water Canyon and the log flume (including the guy who didn't wanna do coasters since these were not coasters). So we split up... Ride #20: Mystic Timbers (2nd Ride) (WOOHOO 20+ RIDES IN 1 DAY!) Wait: 30 Minutes (Huge in comparison) The ride itself was the same as before, until the shed at least, so I don't need to mention that again. However I noticed while in line how much mass appeal Mystic Timbers seems to have- Old people, kids, and coaster loving teens were all in line for this one. There was a dad and his 2 kids who were about to make this their first big coaster, or at least it seemed that way. Kings Island truly has found the sweet spot with this GCI wooden coaster. As for the shed, I got Bats for the 2nd time (1st was back in April on my first ride) but since it was sunset and darker out now, the little details really stood out more, like the hidden text and stuff. I also don't know what song was playing on this one, it was cheesy 80's pop but that's all I could recognize. I also was sitting in car #8, so I saw the entire finale video this time. They also put a huge fan in the shed due to the heat- hopefully at some later date AC will be added. Mystic Timbers seems to be a ride that gets better every time I ride it... Score: 10/10 After Mystic Timbers, I met my group, who rode WWC and Surf Dog instead of Log Flume because the Log Flume had a long wait. WWC had also soaked them. My sister was hungry, so she used her meal plan (she had paid $75 for a ticket that included that, admission, parking, and a drink bottle) and got a BBQ sandwich from Tom+Chee. She ate half her sandwich and gave me the rest, so I guess... Food #2: Tom+Chee Wait: None MMm...the sandwich was delicious and the perfect size for someone who was still somewhat full from the Island Smokehouse earlier. She also actually got her chips this time, which they had forgotten back in April. She gave them to another friend of our's though. Score: 10/10 My sister then wanted to ride Boo Blasters, since she loves it. As we headed towards it, we saw Drop Tower running. One of our friends really wanted to ride that after Boo Blasters, but my sister was scared to death of it, and our other friend was reluctant as well due to what had occured with the coasters. But for now we decided to do Boo Blasters. Ride #21: Boo Blasters on Boo Hill Wait: Under 5 Minutes Shockingly, I got some fun out of Boo Blasters, probably my best experience on this since it opened in 2010 besides my first ride! All the effects seemed to be working (including "Shaggy"), and apparently so was my gun because I got a personal best high score of 900! In fact, other than the issues on BLSC at the start, almost all the theming and effects related to rides was working. Good job on that Kings Island. Score: 7/10 After BBOBH, we headed to Action Zone. My sister painic'ed at the mere prospect of riding Drop Tower, and her heart rate was skyrocketing on her fitbit, so we knew she was actually really scared and let her back out. Our other friend also backed out. So it was me and one friend, who in line revealed he actually had never ridden this himself because it was always broken or he was with friends who would not ride. So I got to do it with him. Ride #22: Drop Tower (Night) Wait: 5 Minutes While this ride, due to its sheer height and concept, still makes my nervous I have found ways to distract myself and enjoy it more. I looked at other rides, the highway, etc etc. It was night now so all the rides were lighting up and it was very pretty. Before I knew it, we were 30 stories up and then...KLUNK. The actual drop doesn't bother me, it feels reliving to me in fact. A fun ride overall, my friend enjoyed it as well and was happy I did it with him. Score: 8/10 Since it was dark yet only 9:00PM (park closed at 10), we decided to ride Banshee, since it is a great night ride and was right there. Ride #23: Banshee (Night) Wait: 10 Minutes (Front Row) We waited for Front Row since that is THE row for Inverts and night rides alike. Banshee is great at daytime, but wow, at night it gets even better. The air blowing in my face was cool now, which I liked a lot more, and the awesome lights and scenery around the coaster really popped. The best ride of the day until this point! Score: 11/10! After Banshee, I pitched that we go and ride The Beast, since it is such a awesome night ride and Mystic Timbers probably had a huge (by comparison) line still. It worked and we headed over, but my sister and non-riding friend ditched as we arrived, as they wanted to see the fireworks better. Me and our other friend went and rode Beast though. Ride #24: The Beast Wait: 45 Minutes (15 minutes but fireworks delay) We still got a nice view of the Fireworks, but having recently seen the 4th of July ones from both my current home city and downtown Indianapolis, they underwhelmed a bit. But, where as now my sister and other friend were probably sitting in the car outside the park, me and my other friend got a Beast night ride. We also chatted with some other guests while waiting, and ended up entertaining them with my knowledge. Also encountered some other coaster enthusiasts who told me how awesome Cedar Point and Carowinds are, particullary Millennium Force and Fury 325. I did state I wanted to try both of those before deciding which I liked more. Then, the ride re-opened, and we rode The Beast. And wow. Mystic Timbers may be a better ride on hot, muggy days...but at night, it'll have its work cut out for it. There was no moon, so it was super dark out, and to make it more eerie all the other rides (except Mystic Timbers) were closed already so Beast was the only ride still running. This led to a super zen ride. The speed, drops, turns, and tunnels all felt longer and more intense as you could not see anything. The cool air felt great blowing on my face. The final helix was pure insanity. For me, Beast @ Night is the ultimate coaster bliss. It is gonna take some monster ride to top it. Score: 12/10! Afterwards, as the park was closing obliously, we saw the last few trains head out and then left. We made our way to the car through a closed Planet Snoopy (TBH it is a bit creepy at night with no one in it) and exited the park. We found our friends, got in the Van, and headed home after a epic day. I hope you all enjoyed this trip report. Here are my final pros+cons as usual... PROS +Incredible Roller Coasters. Kings Island has 11 "adult" coasters and I only think one of them is worse than "decent" (Invertigo- which I didn't do this trip) and the rest are all good or better. +Great staff. Everyone I ran into was friendly and nice, and the ride crews were doing great today. +Great food. What I ate was delicious, and service was fast, though there weren't any real lines to test the speed. +All Theming Working outside first ride on BLSC. On rides like Adventure Express and Boo Blasters, this helps a lot. CONS -Half of Waterpark closed due to apparent lack of staff. Since it was my first time ever, not a great first impression. And that'll do it. Another epic trip to Kings Island and I am very happy to have gone. Even the guy with us who didn't do much after Firehawk loved his time there hanging with us so much, he bought my sister a bottle of wine (she did pay for him to take us and bought his ticket though)! He does say next time he wants to try coasters again but no looping rides. I had a absolute blast myself. As usual, questions and comments welcome and thanks again for reading this HUGE trip report!

I would have reacted to this yesterday, but alas I was busy. However, I will leave my thoughts now... ...HOLY TOLEDO THIS RIDE LOOKS INCREDIBLE. Over 200 feet tall, first coaster with a wooden structure since Son of Beast to go that high (even though it is steel track). Which also- as the marketing clearly said- makes it the tallest and fastest of all steel/wood hybrid coasters. All 4 inversions looks great, and it promises more airtime than any other coaster period, which to me is the biggest selling point. I also love how they made a backstory about Frontier Town and how this ride came to be, and they even included Maverick in the story. In fact I am quite happy Cedar Fair under Ouimet has started doing this for the new coasters- I enjoy it when they have backstories. A lot of awesome new coasters were announced yesterday. 2018 in general already looks stacked, and this- at least for now- looks to sit on top of that stack. Unless Six Flags or someone does something really crazy or something. This will be hard to top, however...

^ That already exists, though not at a Cedar Fair park...it is a wooden coaster though. https://rcdb.com/1862.htm

I think the idea of a coaster at Kings Island taller than Diamondback BESIDES the seemingly inevitable future Giga is possible, but unlikely as most of the coaster styles that have broken the 200'+ barrier KI doesn't already have don't seem like rides Cedar Fair would build for Kings Island: -Strata Coaster: Only built by Intamin, whom CF hasn't done anything with since 2010, and these are known for reliability issues. -Impulse Coaster: Intamin again...also I can't recall if one of these has been built recently or not, and the low capacity could be a issue. -Dive Coaster: Not likely due to Cedar Point's Valravn still being very new. Maybe in the later 2020's when Valravn is no longer as big a draw for Cedar Point? -Wooden Coaster: Traditional is out of the question for sure, given how bad SOB came out, and a Intamin woodie would likely break the bank. A RMC topper track coaster is possible, but we did just get Mystic Timbers so KI probably won't be looking at more "wood" anytime soon... -4th Dimension Coaster: These can break the 200' mark and one is actually BIGGER than Diamondback, but only 3 have been built and I assume reliability is a concern due to all the moving parts on the trains. Also seems like a very expensive coaster model. Though if KI actually built one, they look incredibly cool and reviews of X2 @ SFMM have been very positive. -Infinity Coaster: Shockingly, there is one in Europe over 240 feet tall, with a inversion. However I'd bet there would be major capacity issues with the small trains and The Smiler which had a recent accident is this model as well, and that may push Cedar Fair away. -PolerCoaster: As far as I know none have even been built yet, so this is completely untested at this point. I'd think Cedar Fair would wait and see how the one being built in Florida goes first, before adding these to their parks. And that seems pretty much like most of the current models of coaster that KI could add that break 200', besides the hyper and giga coasters. And to be honest once Kings Island gets a Giga coaster, there isn't much else the park would really "need" (Heck IMO the park is fine ATM even pre-Giga) coaster-wise. I could see a B&M Wing or Floorless in the next decade or so, but those are not likely to go over 200', or a multi-launch terrain coaster or Wild Mouse, which also wouldn't break 200' (A 200'+ Wild Mouse would be ridiculous though in a crazy way). In short: While it's possible, other than a Giga, I don't see Kings Island building more coasters taller than Diamondback in the next decade or so.

I'm gonna go with Son of Beast for this. The mere concept of a wooden coaster over 200+ feet tall was very interesting. However, since you are allowing modifications, I'm going to make a decent number of them because as we know the original SOB had tons of issues. First up, RCCA would not be the manufacturer for obvious reasons. Instead, the "reborn" Son of Beast would be made by Intamin as one of their pre-fabricated wooden coasters, to avoid any roughness issues (plus as a Intamin prefab it would be considered wood by most, where a RMC topper track coaster would have debaters). I thought about having a more traditional coaster builder like GG or GCI but SOB was over 200 feet tall so maintenance would probably go overboard quickly due to the ride's sheer size, so computer-laser-cut or steel topped wood would be needed. It would also be made of the highest-grade best wood possible, and have structural improvements all over to prevent the issues the original SOB had. The major change I would also make to the ride's layout would be to remove the entire rose bowl helix, since it was the main area where Son of Beast had issues, and replace it with several El Toro style airtime hills and a overbanked turn-around section. This is because, even without the major issues, since I made SOB a prefab it would also be incredibly smooth and thus the massive helix would probably be boring and forceless unless it was less banked to do laterals, and laterals on a helix that big might become annoying/painful to some riders. The 2nd helix would remain however, since it was smaller and thus COULD be modified to offer up some lateral forces. I would also, in homage to the original Beast, add a tunnel to the bottom of the 1st drop and 2 more tunnels on the now only helix. The first drop would be mostly the same but re-profiled just a bit to offer up some airtime. And the final few hills/turns would be mostly the same, but re-profiled so they would have airtime and the turns near the end would be heavily banked for more thrills. There would still be a MCBR before the loop (yes I would still feature the loop) to run 3 trains for capacity reasons. As for the trains, since this ride is purely fictional, I would instead of Intamin's trains use GCI's Millennium Flyer design due to the comfort factor and how well they track (This is based on that I have now ridden them via Mystic Timbers and love them). Like the old-but-overweight Premier Rides trains, they would be themed to search vehicles that are sent out to look for Son of Beast. Which brings me to the theming aspect of the ride. I'd keep the overall theme the same (You are employees of Outpost 5, a government base, and have been sent out to look for the captured Son of Beast in its enclosure as it has gone missing) but I'd add things like music near the entrance/que just like Mystic Timbers has, and lots of the FUN TV's in the que would be related to this theme by playing video. There would also be some on-ride audio, ala Mystic Timbers, on the lift hill where, as you near the top, someone calls into the Outpost and warns that Son of Beast is still in its containment and to send back the ride vehic (they are mysteriously interrupted in true roller coaster fashion)...then you reach the top, hear a beast roar, and the ride begins. Not 100% sure where in the park it could go however, since Banshee took up SOB's spot. Maybe extend the first drop out of the station into a long tunnel that goes under Banshee, then have the final drop do the same, and have the lift hill go behind Banshee's inversions (if the tunnel must be super long, throw some airtime hills in there for kicks)? Might make it longer than the original Beast, but eh, if it happens it happens. Anyway that's my pick, and what I'd do. Granted what I have thought up is only PART Son of Beast (with some OG Beast, El Toro, and Hades 360 elements making up the rest) and would likely be crazy expensive (but money was never an object). And due to the negative press Son of Beast got, this would also likely never happen. But it was kinda fun to imagine it.

^ Maybe, but RMC would probably have had to rebuild/add a ton of support structure to Son of Beast before they could Iron Horse it given the state the structure was in. Probably would have been crazy expensive (Banshee at $24 million might have actually been CHEAPER than what it could have cost to RMC Son of Beast- and RMC SOB would still have SOB's old baggage to overcome in the GP's eyes), and it's possible very little of the original Son of Beast would have remained, structure-wise. I could see RMC leaving only the pre-lift section and lift hill, a modified version of the first drop (likely steeper and maybe with a Storm Chaser style inversion, if RMC went bonkers) and then giving the rest of the ride a entirely different and new layout (with brand new structure and everything). What they may have designed is anyone's guess. As for Son of Beast itself, I am old enough to remember it, but when I finally got up the courage to ride it in 2009...it broke down as we were walking up to ride it after riding Diamondback. Then all the stuff happened, and it was closed for good. I do vividly remember the structure and it was very cool looking, which makes me wish I had at least gotten to try it once or so, especially since I love its "father", The Beast. However I have ridden Banshee, and that coaster is awesome so I'd say it got a good replacement. Also it kinda saddens me that I may well have missed the boat on nearly all the big bad woodies of the late 80's to early 2000's from companies like Dinn and RCCA. I know the reviews on nearly all of them usually began with "THIS RIDE SUX" but I'd still have wanted to try at least of them. However, in North America at least, it seems none are left. I guess stuff the The Voyage (which I have been on and it can get really rough on a bad day- though it's also usually very awesome at the same time- however it is also more modern opening in 2006) or The Boss (Which I have NOT ridden yet- does Boss fit in with the likes of Son of Beast, Rattler, Texas Giant, Mean Streak, and Hercules? It was built in 2000, same year as Son of Beast, and is pretty huge...) are the closest ones still around. The rest have all either been demolished or RMC converted it seems.

^ I'm not 100% sure, (and using Wikipedia to find this) but a E-Ticket ride is basically "a big, major ride that is sure to draw people to the park just to ride it". Basically, for Kings Island this year, Mystic Timbers is a E-Ticket ride due to its newness and the fact it is a new roller coaster. The Beast is probably still a E-Ticket even after all these years, and Diamondback and Banshee would also be E-Tickets. A D-Ticket would be the next tier down, something that draws but is not quite top tier, such as Firehawk or WindSeeker. Then it goes down to C, B, and A tickets with a A-Ticket ride being the least popular and smallest...aka kiddie rides pretty much.

Oh dang- while this was pretty much expected so I'm not surprised, it's still kinda sad to see yet another woodie bite the dust in favor of a RMC overhaul. This move leaves only the original Coney Island Cyclone, Viper @ SFGam, and Bandit @ Movie Park Germany as the only coasters with the famous layout left according to RCDB, versus now 5 defunct coasters. Also I am kinda surprised how many companies made coasters with this particular ride layout. BTW here is a link for this ride layout on RCDB for those curious what other rides have a "Cyclone" layout: https://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&lo=96&page=1&order=8

Maybe this is part of the reason I keep having very rough rides on Voyage- I have only ever been to Holiday World in very late spring (Memorial Day) or summertime. I've noticed on my many trips to Kings Island the woodies there (Beast & Racer at least- only have 1 ride on Mystic Timbers so far so can't really judge its consistency yet) seemed to run better in cool weather, so the same probably is true at Holiday World, and possibly even more extreme.

In Vortex's defense, I've seen plenty of other rides that are known to have good or even great reputations get slammed on social media sites like Facebook or Youtube. Cedar Point's Blue Streak- known for being a pretty good woodie- Cedar Point made a FB POV post of it, and there were- to my shock- tons of comments calling it garbage. Mystic Timbers- currently ranking as one of the top wooden coasters in the world in the early polls that include it- is also called garbage just because it is "only" 109 feet tall and "only" goes 53mph, even without mentioning the shed complaints. Banshee- giant inverted coaster, something KI fans had been asking to get for YEARS- has people calling it garbage too, and demanding the park tear it down and rebuild Son of Beast (Don Helbig probably takes one look at comments like that and LOLZ). If Kings Island (or any major park) builds a coaster or any ride really, odds are, someone on social media will call it garbage at least once. Also I will mention that of all the people I have met and traveled to Kings Island with personally- which is about 20+ people so far- only 3 refused to ride Vortex, and most of the others liked the ride. One of my many uncle's actually considered it his favorite coaster at the park (though that's just through conversation as I haven't been to the park with said Uncle in years). I also wanted to mention that on my Birthday this year, April 22nd, I went to Kings Island. It was cold and dreary so there were not very many lines at all, and while my sister and I (it was just us) were walking back to Mystic Timbers I noticed Vortex was stuck on the lift hill, broken down apparently. We rode Mystic Timbers with a 15-minute wait, and then walked on Beast and Diamondback. While we were "in line" (more like walking up to the station since there was no line) for Diamondback, I saw Vortex doing test runs, and we decided to ride that next- we went there and suddenly there was a 15 minute wait for Vortex, while Diamondback was still a walk-on. Vortex clearly still has something at least resembling a fan-base left if it can get a 15-minute wait for re-opening after a breakdown when everything else, save the new-for-2017 Woodie, is a walk-on. Vortex may have a few more years in it still, as long as maintenance costs aren't sky high- which I don't think they should be for such a common ride type (Arrow Loopers are everywhere and tons of companies make replacement parts), even at Vortex's age.

^ Maybe, but that would have been a lot more expensive since KI got Firehawk used off Geauga Lake and pretty much just had to pay the installation fees versus a B&M Flyer would have been a full brand-new install, and would have cost $20M+, and they were probably already planning Diamondback. And if I am thinking correctly, Cedar Fair has not yet built a single flying coaster from any company, the ones they do have were put there by other chains they acquired parks from. KI getting a B&M Flyer, even before Firehawk, was unlikely under Cedar Fair. As for Vekoma's themselves, I think they are OK but at the same time of the small # of roller coasters I have been on so far, Firehawk and Invertigo both rank near the bottom. Firehawk is good fun, but it can be rough in spots, and it has terrible capacity so the wait time is often more than I'd like to wait for it. I also have yet to ride a B&M Flying Coaster for comparison though. Invertigo is decent, but several times when I go and do ride it (usually when it has little to no wait) it has the worst un-avoidable headbanging of any ride I have ever been on (So Far- have only been to 3 parks). I have gotten more headaches from Invertigo than any other coaster. Thankfully, painkillers are one of the things we bring along when we visit Kings Island. I much perfer Banshee to get my inverted coaster fix at KI.

I did a quick check on RCDB, according to them, Intimidator SHOULD have higher capacity: it is listed at 1600pph, while Fury 325 is listed at 1470. Though RCDB's capacity numbers can be very, very incorrect at times (Flight of Fear does NOT pull 2,000pph!) and I think Intimidator's 1600pph was from before seatbelts were added. Intimidator's wait times could have also been increased if it's ride crew wasn't doing as good as job as Fury 325's, causing things like stacking and whatnot, increasing its wait to make it seem more popular when in fact the Fury 325 crew could have been kicking butt (like Banshee sometimes does) and thus not allowing huge lines to even form.

Oh dang- I looked on da webcams and saw Diamondback AND Mystic Timbers not running, so I thought it was another power outage, but Vortex and BLSC were both working so that's clearly not the case. Then I looked the Action Zone cam, and Banshee is also down (though also not a power outage since Delirium and The Bat were both running). Beast seems to be the only one of the park's "Big 4" coasters currently working, with Mystic Timbers and both B&M's down. At least the lines for the rides that are working don't look too long... UPDATE: Mystic Timbers is still down apparently, but Diamondback and Banshee are fixed now. Diamondback looks to have around a 15 minute wait.

OK, I already posted in here once (and I quote myself), but here is my "2017 Update". Some things have changed... 1. The Beast (Mainly Due to Night Rides- would be #3 if rated only on Daylight/Early Evening rides) 2. Diamondback (Rises above Banshee due to recent rides on it giving me lots more airtime than what I remember the coaster giving earlier on) 3. Banshee 4. Mystic Timbers (Did not exist in 2015) 5. Flight of Fear (Really threatens Mr. T for #4 when the MCBR is off...) 6. Vortex (From 5-1 or 7-1, ranks lower from other seats due to slight roughness increase and lack of airtime on first drop) 7. The Bat 8. Backlot Stunt Coaster (Little sucker has grown on me in recent years to pass Racer, fun little coaster) 9. The Racer (I perfer Red Side- in recent rides, it was a little rougher but also had more airtime) 10. Adventure Express 11. Firehawk (Surf Dog- if counted as a coaster- would be here. I don't see it as one though.) 12. Invertigo 13. Woodstock Express 14. Great Pumpkin Coaster NR. Flying Ace Aerial Chase (NR means never ridden) Also to be fair I will say that while these rankings are my overall, a lot of these coasters are pretty close to each other and on any given day there can be a lot of swapping places if one gives a good or bad ride.

In addition to everything already posted here, I can offer 1 more tip based on my trips to Holiday World- for a amazing view of the Waterpark as well as Voyage (and now probably Thunderbird- my last visit to HW was in 2013 so it wasn't there yet), while in the waterpark, go to ride the gigantic purple waterslide known as ZOOMbabwe. It is over 100 feet tall, and on the edge of the waterpark, so you can see nearly every other waterslide from there. Also should Legend be running (witch it should unless it breaks down), do note that it passes directly under ZOOMbabwe and when it does the entire structure shakes (same thing happens to the giant funnel slide, Zinga, next door as well as Legend passes by that one too) which can be intimidating. Also after getting the amazing view you'll probably have to ride ZOOMbabwe and it is one of the more intense and scary waterslides they have, given that not only is it huge, but the entire slide is in pitch black darkness. It's fun if you like intense, scary waterslides though.