McSalsa

The Beast's epic final helix. Especially at Night... (You didn't say it had to be an inversion) Also, I think this might belong in polls...not 100% sure though.

I will try to awnser your question, at least roughly. It's a blurry picture, but I'm 90% sure that's some form of Wolf Spider. They are big and scary looking, and their bites hurt, but they are not "deadly" like Black Widow Spiders (and even then I'm using "deadly" generously, if you are bitten by a Black Widow it will hurt like heck but the odds of dying with proper medical treatment are very low). And in these parts (Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc.) they are fairly common so that's what I'd go with. McSalsa, who was also afraid of spiders in the past, but did research on them and now is simply "curious" and finds them interesting. Still just a wee bit creepy, though...

OK, a bit late but I had a Kings Island dream last night...or the night before, I'm not 100% sure ATM. First, I rode the new Banshee, which had a pretty accurate layout and everything. Afterwards, I rode The Beast, but the dream skipped over everything after the first turn after the first tunnel. Then, I returned to Action Zone and rode...Son of Beast!?!? And Banshee was still there somehow to boot, with SOB right behind it, as I viewed them from the AZ midway...I even thought "Wait, Son of Beast AND Banshee?" ...the layout for Son of Beast was accurate, save for one detail- the "Rose Bowl" helix & MCBR was INDOORS, in pitch black darkness, similar to Flight of Fear, but only that section of the ride for some reason... (After the first drop, you entered the building via a tunnel, and exited via another tunnel into the old section where the loop was). In the dream, the Rose Bowl section was kinda rough, but somehow not too much, and had decent laterals. Then I hit the MCBR, and creepy music started playing as build-up for what I think was the loop, but I woke up before the train exited the building and did the section where the loop was, so I dunno if this was looping or non-looping SOB... And that was yet another of my weird KI dreams. Ehh, still not as weird as SOB and Diamondback fighting each other, though.

Well, better late than never: This is cool. And in a sense, ironic...The Bat was the first-ever Arrow Dynamics suspended coaster (it wasn't the first ever as there are records of suspended coasters under the track as far back as 1902!) and the coaster formerly known as TOP GUN/Flight Deck was the last one they ever built. Now, they have the same name. Hmm...random thought here... Alpha: "The First" Omega: "The Last" So, this is technically "Bat Omega" and the original Bat would be "Bat Alpha"...

Yep. Here's another of my once-per-year polls. Sigh. The 2013 season at Kings Island is tragically over...now, it is time to look back at what this season had for us, and look ahead to a big reddish B&M Invert next year. How good was, in your opinion, the 2013 Kings Island season? Great? Average? Bad? Etc Etc...also, what event that occured this year did you see as the most noteworthy? Enjoy the poll. If you dislike, click back.

Wow...congrats Don. 12,000 rides on a single coaster...unreal...

It's funny you say that. I'm pretty sure no one died on The Bat, and if memory serves, a woman died after riding Flight Deck (Top Gun, at the time, I think) on Black Sunday. It was due to a heart attack or preexisting condition. Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk Uhh...the deaths at Kings Island on "Black Sunday" were not on Flight Deck, as Black Sunday occured in 1991. Flight Deck was, at best, still in the planning stages as it did not open until 1993. What did happen on Black Sunday, according to the old KICentral history page (which I have saved to my computer in a text file for some odd reason for offline reference )... "On June 9th, there are three deaths at the park on the day known as Black Sunday. Around 8:00 PM, a 20-year-old man entered the Oktoberfest pond, apparently to retrieve a lost hat. He was electrocuted instantly, and two people entered the pond to rescue him. Both the man who originally entered the pond and one of the rescuers died at a local hospital, and the other rescuer had serious injuries. The accident was linked to a faulty water pump, which had short-circuited, electrifying the water. An hour later, a woman boards the Flight Commander ride in Coney Mall, which allows riders to pitch the cars and flip them upside down. When her car flipped upside down, she lost consciousness and slipped out from underneath the shoulder harness, falling 50 feet onto concrete. She was later found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident." The most noteable incident to ever occur to Flight Deck? In 2002, during a morning test run, it crashed into a truck parked too close to the ride's track and one of its trains was badly damaged. But no deaths...same with The Bat, save it never hit a truck as far as I know.

Last night, I had a dream that I rode Beast, and after the final helix, the ride launched me out of my seat and I landed near Flight Deck, which had a brand-new q-line that was patriotic colored and themed. However, upon trying to ride Flight Deck, I kept falling down the entrance ramp (Flight Deck has an entrance ramp? Only in my dreams) because it was slippery. And I realized a while ago...wow, Beast launched me over to Flight Deck? WOW...that's quite the launch.

I dunno...when it comes to waterparks, Splashin' Safari is a VERY tough one to beat. They have a lot of high-profile, massive water slides and attractions. However, if Ed Hart adds several new multi-tower slide complexes like the ones I saw in his pitch to re-open the park, the fact Kentucky Kingdom is 70 miles closer than Holiday World would suddenly become a huge factor at least in my family & friend's cases, and it might warrant a closer look at both- as well as Kings Island, of course, which will have a 168-foot, 68mph, 7-inversion inverted trump card next year...

That article has so many flaws...for one, it says Thunder Run last ran in 2008, but I'm 99% sure it was open in 2009 and ran that full season...also, T"3" in 2016? I thought 2016 was supposed to be the Twisted Twin's re-opening, and T2/3 in 2015...did they switch or something?!?!

Well, I'm bumping this topic because an animated video of the new family coaster, FireChaser Express, has been made and posted. I got it from Coasterforce. Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_UZcXOpteU If this ride is anything like the video, it looks like a pretty solid family coaster.

If I am correct, I recall from somewhere that Beast's terrain elevation difference is over 300 feet from the top of the lift hill to the lowest part of the valley. Not 100% sure on that, and can't give the exact number though... Also, these latest Banshee pictures...this ride is looking awesome.

Suddenly, this ride runs up (somehow), screaming "NO! ONLY I AM WICKEDLY TWISTED! Banshee IS JUST REGULAR TWISTED!" (Sorry, could not resist...)

I'll awnser: "Officially" it's the former Iron Wolf @ Six Flags Great America in Illinois, a stand-up coaster that wasn't exactly known for comfort like later B&Ms would come to be known for. It opened on April 28th, 1990. However, after the 2011 season, the Iron Wolf was closed and re-located to Six Flags America, where it became Apocalypse. Iron Wolf's RCDB page: http://rcdb.com/6.htm Update: Darn it! Terpy beat me!

Just my guess, but because it will be closer from the angle in the last picture above and not in a ditch (SOB was built into a ditch), Banshee may well look nearly as big if not bigger than SOB from that angle, even though it's not the case (SOB was 218', Banshee will be 168')...I could be wrong though. I will be really interested in seeing how Kings Island's skyline will look once Banshee is complete as well...

He means Colossos @ Heide Park, in Germany. It was the first ever Intamin Plug N' Play (prefab track) wooden coaster, and currently holds the world record as the world's tallest wooden roller coaster now that Son of Beast is gone. http://rcdb.com/988.htm It's 196.8 feet tall, but only has a 159 foot drop for some odd reason. Still, Intamin's wooden coasters have shown they can handle speeds of over 70mph (El Toro @ SFGadv reaches this speed), without ripping themselves apart doing so, so it can be fairly assumed they would be the proven go-to for trying a 200'+ wooden coaster. RMC might be another option, but they are still very new so the test of time has not been done on their rides yet. GCI really hesistates to build overly large wooden coasters, and Gravity Group's 2 attempts at massive wooden coasters with steel supports (Voyage & Hades) are starting to get reviews claiming the rides are very rough, even after rehabs and Timberliner trains were added to Hades. So, If I was to build a 200'+ wooden coaster with 70mph+ speeds, Intamin it would have to be...granted the big problem here is I have heard Intamin Plug N' Plays are expensive, so a SOB-sized one could easily cost over $30,000,000... However, there would be ONE other flaw with the 200'+ wooden Intamin prefab...you would NOT get the classic wooden coaster feel, where it is bumpy and a bit jerky and feels out-of-control. Son of Beast was an attempt at creating a coaster that still had that feeling, but that stood at over 200' and reached insane speeds. (Alas, it failed) Can THAT be done, without prefab or topper track? I don't know, and looking at the history of what has happened to most giant traditional wooden coasters, I'd be very impressed if any company could do it, even with or without steel supports...

Very true...I have found my own personal list to be different from what "conventional" thinking is. For example, I liked Legend better than Voyage or Raven at Holiday World, even if nearly every poll says otherwise. Still, I do respect other's opinions, and a balanced poll can show the overall opinions of a coaster. Sadly, this is not it...at least not yet. Too much Amusement Today Poll & Coaster Size influence right now... Also, YoungStud, in case you were wondering or were too lazy to look it up...Skyrush @ Hersheypark was rated a 94. Very far from bad, but it doesn't even make Top 50 in this poll...it shows up on Page 3 in search=all mode. Update: In a WTF discovery, this page thinks Gemini @ Cedar Point is wooden, even though it has steel track. Ironically, New Texas Giant and Iron Rattler are considered steel coasters by it. Uhh...so much for consistency...

Uh-Oh. It's a industry poll. TIME magazine has attempted to rate the USA's Top 10 roller coasters. However, instead of just having a fan vote or picking the author's personal favorites, they have instead tried to come up with a formula to rate the country's best roller coasters...and here is their Top 10 list. Well, it's pretty flawed, but worth a look I guess. http://techland.time.com/2013/09/19/the-top-10-roller-coasters-in-the-u-s/ And there's more, they also rated tons of other coasters...the full page, with search, can be found here: http://roller-coasters.findthebest.com/ PERSONAL OPINION While this has potential, and could work, there are big flaws- first up, using the biased Amusement Today poll alone is going to heavily skew the results. I'd add more polls (noteably the Mitch Hawker poll for example, others as well, getting more info will give a better view on how people actually view these coasters) and try to get a decent sample of user ratings for each coaster as well, to try and get a less biased opinion on these rides. Also, while they do try and keep stats being important down, it still seems too strong...Mean Streak at Cedar Point has an 87 rating, which on the 0-100 scale makes it a B or B+ coaster. Now, I have yet to get to Cedar Point myself, but most reviews I've heard from people who HAVE ridden Mean Streak make it out to be far worse than a "B" coaster...I'd bet this 87 rating is largely due to the fact that at 161' tall, 65mph, and over 5400' long Mean Streak has great stats for a wooden coaster. Son of Beast probably would have at least cracked 90+, based on its stats alone...and we know how most people viewed that coaster. Roller Coaster @ NYNY Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is also rated at an 88...and from what I've heard about that ride, that is WWWAAAYYYY too high. Now, the search feature on the site is actually pretty cool. You can compare different coasters, look for coasters close to a certain city or town, compare coaster types, etc etc. They also have some nice pictures. Hopefully, the ratings system can get fixed to better reflect the actual opinions on these coasters, which could make this site very useful. Oh, and for those who don't want to bother to visit the page but want to know how Kings Island's coasters were rated...you can probably get an idea on how the ratings are flawed from this alone: The Beast- 97 Diamondback- 97 Vortex- 88 Firehawk- 86 Flight of Fear- 85 Invertigo- 81 Racer- 70 Flight Deck- 69 Adventure Express- 67 Backlot Stunt Coaster- 55 Flying Ace Aerial Chase- 54 Woodstock Express- 52 Comments welcome. Questions also.

That's actually been posted here before, I think, 95% sure. And yes, they have the incorrect date for Drop Tower's opening...it opened in 1999, not 2001. And that is a cool video, BTW... ...if only we knew what was to become of Son of Beast back then...

I did! I'm guessing it's because they were more along the lines of family coasters, where King Cobra, Bat, Demon, & SOB were major thrill rides...and Banshee is a major thrill ride itself so...

^ (YoungStud) Possibly, but...they'd be small ones. Like Wild Mice and stuff. The Six Flags CEO at the time of the Cedar Fair-Paramount purchase was actually quoted during an interview where he pointed at Six Flags Over Georgia's Goliath (a massive B&M hyper) and said "No More of These!". And he did not mean just B&Ms, but ALL massive, uber-expensive coasters such as Hypers and larger rides, as buying too many of them is a big part of what caused Six Flags to have money issues. And since then, the only noteable large coaster additions at Six Flags parks? Re-locations, Full Throttle (which itself is a bit short on length), Iron Horse Conversions, RMC Woodies, and X-Flight...a B&M Wing Rider that is way smaller in size than Wild Eagle & Gatekeeper. Everything else was much smaller in scale, and there really is nothing that jumps out the way the Superman Ride of Steel's, Kingda Ka's, Nitro's, Goliath Hypercoasters, Titans, etc etc. do... The biggest thing I think we might have under current Six Flags would likely be an Iron Horse'd Son of Beast (and that's a stretch considering Kinzel once said it would cost 20 million to do so!), and perhaps a massive Star Flyer instead of WindSeeker. If we were lucky, a X-Flight Clone B&M Wing Rider...All those new additions Six Flags is adding this upcoming year (2014)? All of them look cheap & affordable- wooden coasters are cheaper than large steel ones, flat rides are almost always cheaper than steel coasters, and large new steel coasters are few and far between in the new Six Flags...all of this points to a company that is coming out of bankruptcy and is watching what they are spending. But, it does seem to be working...Six is back on the rise now, according to most, but I don't expect them to add that many new massive coasters to their parks like they did in the late 90's to early 2000's...it'll be more like one or two new steel coasters a year maximum, spread across all their major parks, and I don't think we're going to see hypercoasters (and larger- Gigas & Stratas as well) from this Six Flags anytime soon. Oh, and at Kings Island, you'd have $20 parking and The Beast would be presented by Snickers. Yeah, that's another Six Flags issue. Season Passes would not be expensive though- I've looked at Six Flags' prices and they are in fact very reasonable when you consider most of them get you into EVERY Six Flags for like $100 or less. So, that's my own realistic prediction on how Kings Island would be under Six Flags had they bought it in 2006 instead of Cedar Fair...

Wow, someone actually did this before me based on my old topics. I am actually kind of suprised...and pleased with this. I'll try to do my own, but...I've only been to Kings Island, Indiana Beach (Back in 1999 so you won't see anything from it here) and Holiday World, and my only so my choices are very limited here...BUT I WILL STILL TRY! Best Amusement Park: Holiday World by a hair Haven't been to any true theme parks... Top 5 Wooden Coasters: #1-Beast, Kings Island #2-Legend, Holiday World #3-Voyage, Holiday World #4-Raven, Holiday World #5-Racer, Kings Island Top 5 Steel Coasters #1-Diamondback, Kings Island #2-Flight of Fear, Kings Island #3-Vortex, Kings Island #4-Flight Deck, Kings Island #5-Adventure Express, Kings Island OMG Kings Island DOETH A COMPLETE SWEEP!!! (If I ever even manage to get to CP though, I have a feeling this list would likely get butchered) Best Flatride: Delirium, Kings Island Best Water Ride (Non-Waterslide): Giraffica, Holiday World Best Waterslide: Wildebeest, Holiday World Best "New" Ride: Mammoth, Holiday World Best Dark Ride: Gobbler Getaway, Holiday World Best Park Food: Kings Island Cleanest Park: Holiday World Best Park Staff: Tie- Kings Island & Holiday World Best Show: Dive Show, Holiday World (wins by default as it is the only show I have ever seen at any park!) Best Kids Area: Kings Island I still really need to get to more parks.

Hmm...mostly it's the same old-same old, but there was a suprise: Boulder Dash @ Lake Compounce narrowly edged out El Toro @ SFGadv for best wooden coaster, which is suprising. Voyage dropped to 4th, the lowest I think it ever has been on the GTA awards. Outlaw Run debuted at #7, I was kind of expecting it to be higher, could it do better in the Mitch Hawker poll...perhaps.

A NoLimits Coaster...this is cool, but...not real. In the actual program itself though, you could actually see the amount of g-forces (airtime, laterals) the ride actually makes as well as exactly how fast it's going, etc. It's an awesome program...kind of hard to build a good coaster with it though, as it's "build" features can be a bit complex and to be good, you have to keep the track smooth and g-forces (the program has color changes on the meter when you're going to far) in check...it's an awesome program though, even if you just download rides built by others. It has a good variety of coaster styles, too...Intamins, B&Ms, Arrows, Vekomas, Premier Rides, Various Wooden Coasters, etc etc...and you make rides those manufacturers would never actually build too! (Aka, you can go crazy and unrealistic...like a 400 foot wooden coaster with barrel rolls, for example!)

Very possible as well...although if that is the case, which it could well be, Holiday World needs to end this "who owns the park" thing ASAP before they are really penny-pinching and taking major damage by not being able to add any noteworthy new attractions while their main competitors, Kings Island and the soon-to-return Kentucky Kingdom, do just that and steal away their customer base. (Sigh)...I really hope Holiday World can come out of this legal battle in good hands, and without taking too much damage. It really is a great little amusement park, combined with perhaps one of the best water parks in the country, and it's clean, friendly, reasonably priced, and usually well-run for the most part. I'd hate to lose it, or watch it become a shell of its former self...