McSalsa

4 years in a row for El Toro (first to ever do this- and it did it with a broken cable!), though it looks like Outlaw Run and RMC may one day have something to say about "The streak". And Voyage's slow-but-sure drop from that #1 overall spot continues as now it sits at #7...and RCCA coasters now sit at the bottom of the list with Coaster-Express and The Bandit. And Hades 360 stinks that much versus Original Hades!?!? A very interesting poll, to say the least...and all 5 new-for-2013 wooden coasters did well. To which I say...VIVA LA WOOD!!!

Wow...5 years already...and 2009 was my first year on KIC, I joined in Late May, so my 5th anniversary on KIC is coming up as well. Hmm...and during those 5 years, just for hindsight... -Son of Beast operated for the last time, and only co-existed for a few months alongside Diamondback. It was then SBNO for nearly 4 years before being demolished in the fall of 2012...in between, numerous debates and ideas for what might happen to it occured here on KIC. -The Crypt opened 2009 with a insane multi-flip ride cycle, but was mega-nerfed a few weeks into the season. It got some theming upgrades in 2011, but it was for naught, and it was demolished before the 2012 season. -Nickelodeon Universe saw its final season in 2009, before being re-themed into Planet Snoopy for 2010. -Scooby Doo & The Haunted Castle also underwent a transformation in 2010, and it became Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. -Cedar Fair was ALMOST sold to Apollo Group. Almost...but the deal fell through. -Flight Deck gets a new paintjob in 2011, but much to the chargin of KI fans, only the track is repainted and it stays the same colors. -WindSeeker and Dinosaurs Alive! made their debuts in 2011...though WindSeeker's debut was delayed about 2 months due to design flaws. Along with Dinos, Action Theatre gets a new movie, DA! 3D, replacing the long-running Spongebob 3D, but it becomes an upcharge as well...then is free again in 2012. -Matt Ouimet becomes the new CEO of Cedar Fair, and his influence is felt before he even takes office as Fast Lane debuts at Kings Island in 2011, then the rest of Cedar Fair in 2012. -Boomerang Bay Waterpark became Soak City in 2012, with a new wave pool, beach area, and re-configuration of the lazy river as well as theming and paint changes. -Invertigo gets a new paint job, changing from its original yellow & red to blue and darker blue. -Thunder Alley gives its last rides in 2012, as it is demolished along with Son of Beast for "future expansion"...which ends up being the next thing... -Kings Island announced their next major coaster, Banshee, which will debut in 2014- 5 years after Diamondback. Track work is already complete in time for the 5th anniversary of the same event for Diamondback. -Flight Deck is the next major ride/area to get a re-theme, as it becomes The Bat for 2014, and gets a SECOND (this time new colors though) paintjob just 3 years after its last. As of this writing, however, the "transformation" is not 100% complete. Yep...all that happened in one park in just 5 years. And that's not counting the stuff like new restraunts/restraunt changes, etc etc. that also happened since 2009. Makes you wonder what will happen in the next 5 years...

Ehh...I'll just throw out my prediction for Banshee's line on opening day, based loosely on what Diamondback did in 2009. When the park opens, everyone will rush over to Banshee, and the wait will be around 3-3 1/2 hours but will LOOK like a 5-hour+ wait. However, the ride will have enough capacity to ensure this is not the case. After around 2-3PM, most of the crowds will have ridden Banshee, and it's line will decrease down to around one hour or so, possibly even as low as 45 minutes depending on crew speeds and overall crowds. HOWEVER, due to the fact the ride is being hyped up as a major night ride, around 7-8 the line will build up again and will probably surpass 2+ hours once more...dunno if it will get back to 3 hours though, as many will have started to leave the park already to beat the crowds out of the park. Again, this is just my prediction, and I'm not 100% sure it'll come to pass. But I'm just going to throw this out there...

I'm guessing that it looks bigger because the surrounding trees would have grown in the 30 years since the photo was taken, leaving less of The Beast visible above the trees now than was visible in 1984. Plus Vortex being nearly 150-feet high and directly in front probably "hurts" too. Hmm...actually here are some comparison pictures: 1980's: 2000's (Modern) Actually, comparing Beast to the trees, while they may have grown, they seem to be about the same size vs. The Beast's first chain lift...yeah, IMO, it's Vortex being a huge ride that makes Beast look small in comparison...

Wow...I was never alive back then, but this picture gives a great idea of how Kings Island (in the Coney Mall section at least) looked back in the early 80's (1981-1984 since The Bat is visible in the background). I have to ask though- what ride was this taken from? Looks like King Cobra, which would make this a 1984 picture because The Bat and King Cobra only co-existed for a year, and even then The Bat was SBNO... Also is it just me, or did The Beast look a lot bigger and thus more fearsome before Vortex was built?

Well, mine is in, granted I have not been on too many woodies (or steel coasters for that matter)...alas, these rides will be affected: 1. The Beast Kings Island OH,y,n,1 2. The Legend Holiday World IN,y,y,2 3. The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,3 4. My Favorite Steel (Diamondback @ Kings Island) Anypark Anywhere **,y,n,4 5. Raven Holiday World IN,y,y,5 6. Racer Kings Island OH,y,n,6 7. Hoosier Hurricane Indiana Beach IN,y,n,7 8. Woodstock Express Kings Island OH,y,n,8 2013 was not my best year for roller coasters peroid, BTW...one trip to Holiday World was all I got. Granted, that one trip was super fun.

They did. It was called Salt Water Circus. There are even pictures of it on some sites. It was behind the Eiffel Tower, I think where Internatational Showplace is now. I know this post is from over a month ago, but small correction: Salt Water Circus wasn't where International Showplace was, but instead behind it. They both co-existed for ~20 years. Oh...thanks for clearing that up...I was just thinking "general location" type thing, and never actually got to see Salt Water Circus (It was gone when I very first visited Kings Island as a kid in 2000, and even my memories of that are somewhat hazy).

As much as I would like it, if it didn't work at Kings Island, I doubt it'll work at Kentucky Kingdom. Especially as they are even more ride-focused than KI, with only 1 or 2 shows (at least so far revealed)...

Hmm...I was thinking a random thought, and looked it up: What if you went uber-hardcore and ONLY counted old-fashioned, traditional wooden coasters? Even not counting the Intamin Prefabs...then what coaster holds the title of tallest & fastest woodie? Well...I looked it up. Voyage @ Holiday World would hold both titles, at 163 feet tall and 67.4mph. Son of Beast and Rattler were both higher (and SOB faster) but SOB is gone and Rattler's a steel coaster now. However, the "record" for height will be broken in 2015- GCI's new coaster Viper @ Wanda Valley will be 1.1 feet higher than Voyage, though it only goes 62mph, so Voyage would remain champion for pure speed. As for biggest drop? Mean Streak @ Cedar Point, with a 155-foot plunge (if you discredit Voyage for having steel supports, it would also be the tallest one left). And track length...well, this is a KI fansite, do I even need to say it (and in this category, and "old fashioned" woodie beats all anyway)... Just a random thought I felt like posting...

Yikes...with that kind of money, how are they supposed to "add large new attractions" like Ed Hart even seems to want- which would be needed because you know Kings Island will do that (based on Cedar Fair's ownership so far, KI tends to get a new coaster every 5 years or so and in between coasters we could get flat rides, waterpark attractions, kids rides, refurbishments to older rides, etc etc.) and if Holiday World isn't critically injured money-wise from the recent legal battles (they are spending $8 million this year alone though- a good sign?) they will make additions as well. Can KK even do basic upkeep with that money? I'll still be visiting this park though, hopefully. Could change my opinion on its future, and I do want to try Thunder & Lightning Run and some of those new waterslides that look awesome. Part of that though is kind of knowing they might not be there too much longer should KK fail yet again, and do wish to ride these before they are relocated (I could honestly see the fair board selling a bunch of the newer rides at least if the park fails again to make a quick buck) or demolished...

Oops...yeah, I kind of forgot to factor in "other ride soak-up factor" in my comparison. It's true- Legend does have Raven and Voyage to "compete with" and soak up lines, as well as Giraffica (The world's tallest water ride HAS to have some appeal to the same demographic as Legend) and of course the uber-popular attractions in Splashin' Safari waterpark. Kentucky Kingdom's waterpark, with its big new additions, will likely be popular but there is only 1 other major dry coaster...and then you have the target demographic issue, and the location issue...and then the bucket list of other issues (height restrictions for their rides, strong competition from 2 well-known and established parks, no real room to expand to further compete with said rival parks, no control over parking, having to split any profits with the fair board, etc etc...) Ed Hart has an uphill battle here. I hope he realizes "BIG THRILL RIDES!" won't fix Kentucky Kingdom's other issues, and in fact could make them worse... And I'm really trying hard to think but...are they any very successful major parks in large cities in the US? I'm thinking of most of the more well-known parks (Cedar Point, KI, SFGadv, SFMM, SFGam, Disney, Busch Gardens, etc etc) and all of them are at least a few miles outside of major cities, not actually "in" them like Kentucky Kingdom...

Same as Legend @ Holiday World, ironically, at least according to rcdb.com... http://rcdb.com/582.htm So my guess: As long as Kentucky Kingdom doesn't pull way more guests than Holiday World, I'd expect this ride's lines to be at least manageable and not super-duper long on all but the most crowded days, and possibly it's grand opening day. 800rph seems about par-for-the-course for a park of this "size" (1,000,000 guests per year or so)...it works at Holiday World with Legend, and I'm pretty sure Raven is about the same. Now Voyage with only 1 train running...that doesn't work even for the smallest of parks without building up huge lines.

^ Thanks for filling me in. Sorry, I don't know as much about these PTC-train-using woodies as someone who's operated them...I've merely ridden them a few times and done research (my total count on Beast- the higher of the two, in fact the ride I've ridden the most- is 9).

Better Capacity? Racer's already one of, if not THE, highest capacity rides in the park thanks to the fact it is two-coasters-in-one. According to rcdb, Racer can handle 2,640 riders per hour. If that's not good enough capacity, then even Diamondback (Official Capacity: about 1600rph) needs more capacity. Could Racer use a new paint job? Yes. Does it need to be super-overhauled? IMO, nope. They can't. X-Base entrance is in the way. EDIT: Nevermind, I just compared some pictures and the X-Base entrance was NOT in the way of the final drop...why was it removed then? I dunno... 2,640 is a theoretical capacity when the ride opened. The current Racer gets about 500 pph per side on a good day. If everyone in line was 48" or over, bone skinny, and understood the restraints and bins policy plus no handicapped people where in line then it would be about 800 pph per side. If you are in that particular station for a while then you understand that it takes an extremely long time to get one train to load and leave and the next train to arrive and unload. This can be changed if the restraints are more accommodating, the load/ unload process is streamlined, and the cycle time is reduced. Coming from a person who was on The Racer crew I saw problems like these every day that could be fixed easily. Oh...thanks for filling me in on that. I wasn't fully aware of the loading/unloading issues, and was just thinking that the ride had higher capacity due to the fact it pulls about 1.2+ million riders per year and usually has a 20-minute or shorter wait when Diamondback and Beast are 60+ across the park. I have to wonder...does Beast have these same issues? Because both coasters use very similar train configurations...

Better Capacity? Racer's already one of, if not THE, highest capacity rides in the park thanks to the fact it is two-coasters-in-one. According to rcdb, Racer can handle 2,640 riders per hour. If that's not good enough capacity, then even Diamondback (Official Capacity: about 1600rph) needs more capacity. Could Racer use a new paint job? Yes. Does it need to be super-overhauled? IMO, nope. They can't. X-Base entrance is in the way. EDIT: Nevermind, I just compared some pictures and the X-Base entrance was NOT in the way of the final drop...why was it removed then? I dunno...

I dunno. Screamscape somehow is up to 40.38% of the votes. TPR is 5th overall. At least, that's what I am seeing.

True...and poor Gwazi. From what I've heard, rumors are it's on life support and BGT is just waiting to finalize plans for a new ride so they can demolish it and build something else. Though, looking at the list of rides they have made on rcdb.com (which has been seemingly revamped, BTW) everything they made since 2000 (post-Lightning Racer) has been high quality. And GCI's woodies have slowly been getting bigger and bigger, and yet they continue to be rated well...I'm wondering now if GCI can keep this up, will we one day once again see a "traditional" wooden coaster that breaks the 200' mark...only the second time, it works? EDIT: Just imagined a GCI the size of Son of Beast, but knowing GCI, it'd have a curved drop...oh boy, that would be crazy. Especially if it had a tunnel, like Gold Striker...

Well, CoasterForce just posted this video on Youtube, and apparently GCI is building their largest wooden coaster ever... The ride will be 164 feet tall, and is going to be 4,921 feet long. I'm interested to see how well this holds up, because nearly all past traditional (no prefab track, no topper track, etc) wooden coasters from other companies (Dinn Corp., CCI, Gravity Group, RCCA, etc etc.) that were on this scale or larger have failed or become very rough... but GCI has done very well with their coasters so far, and this one is being designed with Millennium Flyer trains and seems to be mostly very low to the ground and all...save one big turn...if this one works, I could see Cedar Fair hooking up with GCI for giant wooden coasters at some of their parks... GCI also showed off this interesting concept "Switchback" wooden coasters, though no park has ordered one yet... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGGRn7wurdE So...what do you think of these 2 wooden coasters? Has GCI gone mad, or could these actually work?

No, I don't really. It just impacts a bit of KK's marketing...possibly. They could still just lie and say they still have the world's tallest waterslide, even though it is no longer true... Would not be the first time a park has done it.

Poor Kentucky Kingdom...don't you just hate it when you build something that's supposed to break a record, then you get one-upped? Other examples of this I can think of... Holiday World announces Voyage, which would at the time of its opening was supposed to have the world's steepest drop on a wooden coaster...then SFGadv announced El Toro. Cedar Point opens Millennium Force, the world's first giga coaster at 310 feet...then they get one upped only a few months later by Steel Dragon 2000, which was 318 feet. And those are the only two I can think of, off the top of my head at least...

More than just 2 close competitors: Stricker's Grove, Camden Park, Kentucky Kingdom, Columbus Zoo, Holiday World, Indiana Beach, Cedar Point... all just within the OH/NKY/WV/IN area. Yikes! Then it's even worse now... I don't think the low price is going to stay must past opening weekend. From the FAQ PAGE: To me the introductory price means that it'll be a short lived price. Then saying buying your pass now ensures you get the best value is saying that the pricing will not last long. I'm sure it'll be like other parks that run specials on their passes and then move the price up later on. Good point, it probably will have to go up. I wonder how large the discount on tickets, if you can get a discount (I'm about 80% sure you probably will be able to) will be...Holiday World offers $5 off tickets, reducing their price to $40 from $45. Kings Island is a big price drop when discounts are used- normal tickets are $56.99, but Kroger stores here in Central Indiana usually have them for $21 off (85% sure that's the discount) so they should only cost $35.99 at Kroger in 2014...

They did. It was called Salt Water Circus. There are even pictures of it on some sites. It was behind the Eiffel Tower, I think where Internatational Showplace is now.

OK, got the page to load, and here's my reactions... KENTUCKY KINGDOM (Adult Rides) Lightning Run: Nice. Looks like an interesting roller coaster... FearFall: Will be a cool ride, but the Hellavataor/Superman:TOP comparisons that will happen...this may not have been a super-smart move. Professor John's Flying Machines: Great, Kings Island's 2 closest competitors have this ride and KI does not. Wink Wink, Matt Ouimet & Greg Schied... 5D Cinema: Interesting concept. I approve. Bumper Cars: You pretty much need these, if you have an amusement park, IMO. My Overall Grade for New Adult Additions in Dry Park: B+ A good-looking steel coaster, a medium-sized drop ride, Flying Eagles, 5D Cinema, and Bumper Cars...not horrible. I'm not super blown away, but still good additions, especially considering their limited budget. HURRICANE BAY NEW ADDITIONS Family Wave Lagoon: Pretty nice to have. Adventure River: These are relaxing and fun, based on my experience at Holiday World with them. Plummet Summit: Can't really go wrong with a family waterslide. Kid's Cove: Hey...the kids need something too! Speed Slide Complex- Deep Water Dive & Wave Runner: Oh Fudge...121 feet of terror, and this is something you cannot find at Kings Island OR Holiday World...I am already scared. Even the smaller slide sounds thrilling. Wikiwiki Wai Slide Complex- WOW...Zoombabwe, Bakuli, and Hyena Falls all wrapped into one slide complex...or at least it appears like it. Grade: A+ The waterpark is where the new KK blows it out of the water. These are AWESOME additions. They are clearly aiming directly at Holiday World with these. KING LOUIE'S PLAYGROUND (even though this section I have no interest i myself, as an adult...) I won't rate the stuff individually here...but it's a few small kids rides...hey, that's really all little kids even need to have fun. Grade: B- PRICING Tickets: $44.95 General Admission, $8 Parking, $59.95 Season Passes Same price as Holiday World, except no free drinks or free parking. Granted, if you're coming from Indianapolis, you do save on gas as it is a lot closer...and wow, those are some DIRT CHEAP season passes. I hope they have good security to keep everything in check, because that's part of the reason KK failed last time...I wonder if the $1 drinks are for all, or just season passholders...if so, then they are really pushing the season passes. I also wonder what the food prices are going to be like in comparison to KI & HW... Grade: B- OVERALL Good additions, especially on the Waterpark side. The park should at least get off to a good start. Can they keep it up, though? That remains to be seen...

Hmm...did Arrow and Intamin have a baby or something? 'Cuz this looks kind of like a Mega-Lite, but from another company. If this ride can offer mega-lite like thrills while being smooth and reliable at the same time...KK may have a smash hit. If this was $7,000,000 as proposed...they got a steal here. Update: Seems Chance-Morgan is the builder from what I have read via comments... Also, their site seems to be refusing to load, so I can't see the other new additions. My guess: THEY ARE GETTING SWAMPED. Which ironically I think is a good sign for at least the short-term future. Oh, BTW...Lightning Run for the name...they have a combo. Thunder Run N' Lightning Run...LOL. In all seriousness, that's not a bad combo at all.

LOLZ...I was checking the thrill rides page of VisitKingsIsland.com, and found this... Thrill RidesYear after year, the best thrills the world has to offer are at Kings Island. Year after year, the best thrills keep getting better. Speed junkies can get their fix on the new Banshee - the longest inverted roller coaster in the world. Challenge The Beast - the longest wooden roller coaster in the world - and Diamondback. There's also The Bat, Delirium, Drop Tower, Delirium, Invertigo, The Racer and Vortex. The thrills never seem to end at Kings Island. I bolded it to make it stand out, LOL.