McSalsa

WOW...a freaking B&M breaking on its MEDIA DAY (aka first day)!?!? I'm hoping they fixed that quick... As for the Diamondback breakdown, I was talking about the kinda-well-known 2012 breakdown, I think it was May. They were able to do a quick fix of some kind, re-open the ride with 2 trains running or something, and then closed it for a week for repairs. Beast was put on ERT duty that week, since 2012 ERT was Diamondback & Invertigo. This was really horribly timed- WindSeeker had yet to open for the 2012 season, Delirium was having major issues, Drop Tower had been struck by freaking LIGHTNING... And the Millennium Force cable incident, I found this, it happened in 2009: http://pointbuzz.com/Forums/Thread/24106.aspx

Ouch. Reminds me of when Millennium Force's cable lift broke a few years ago...granted chain lifts can break too, but that rarely happens on new rides, and here's a coaster that opened in 2010...well then again even Diamondback went down several days a while back, due to a broken footer or something...

Well, I read the Late 2012 version of the Ed Hart proposal (PDF format) to the state last night...I am no longer thinking this will be an Intamin Impulse, because on one of the "new ride location" diagrams, there was a map drawing of GL's old location and one of those "red lines that show layout" for the new ride...it didn't take much room, but it appeared to at the very least be a full-circuit coaster of some sort, apparently with a helix. So, unless plans have changed, this appears to not be some shuttle coaster of any kind...though I could be wrong. Also, there were pictures of Ed Hart's proposed waterpark expansion's slides that will be going in Chang's old spot along with the Action River- I did a quick search and was able to find a picture of them on google: I have to say, based on the slides I have been on at Holiday World...these look awesome, save the fact I may be forced to haul an inner tube up 75+ feet of stairs. As for Kings Island's new-for-2014 coaster being superior to KK's...I'd say there's a 90% chance it will be, since the Kings Island ride is probably going to be massive and cost over $20,000,000+ and this will either be some small/used attraction...unless Ed Hart has somehow gotten this coaster used for $7 million... In which case, I will already be buying one of those $60 Kentucky Kingdom season passes when the park opens . But even though this ride could fit in KK, I don't see it selling for under $10 million at the cheapest...so I doubt it. Ed Hart has also said this ride would be "new", and since he didn't call GL new when it was added in 2003, I don't think this is a re-location, but some form of relatively cheap new coaster. And, as Terpy did just bring up (I was taking forever making this post BTW and this topic got fairly active)...yeah, there is still a chance KK won't be able to re-open at all, or will fail horribly and only last a few seasons at most. Then you have the whole Holiday World fiasco, will Lori Koch be willing to build onto and add to a park she might not even own depending the outcome of the court battle (possibly hurting the park)? Meanwhile, Kings Island is about to add a new monster roller coaster, and for now is under stable management...so many possible outcomes from this scenario...head hurts now...

The ride was also 35 years old. Most steel coasters from this era have a "normal" lifespan of 25 years or so, so Greezed' Lightning was already living on borrowed time, so to speak. It was just so old, being SBNO for 3 years and numerous re-locations were just too much for it, pretty much.

In an ironic twist, before its removal, Greezed Lightning was the tallest coaster at Kentucky Kingdom once Chang left for SFGadv. That title is now held by T2, which means for at least the 2014 season, KK's tallest roller coaster will be SBNO- unless the new-for-2014 coaster is taller. Given that the park has stated the location of the new coaster will be GL's old spot, I cannot help but think...the Intamin Impulse KK never got under Six Flags could finally cometh?

Yep, it once did, according to rcdb, but train #3 vanished. Though to be fair, that 3rd train may not even be needed much anymore now...the ride often gets 15-minute or less waits with just two. Cedar Creek Mine Ride @ Cedar Point is the same way.

Beast1979- I see some bunk with a few of those capacity numbers: Official capacity numbers, in many cases, are complete and utter bonk. For example, both from Kings Island: Firehawk- 1,430 riders per hour capacity Beast- 1,200 riders per hour Uhh, yeah, that's not right at all, for obvious reasons- A 1 hour wait for Beast would actually probably be more like a 3+ hour wait for Firehawk. Also, Flight of Fear pulling 400 more riders per hour than Diamondback? Maybe when it ran 4 trains (Rcdb says it once did) but now that it's only running two (and with only 5 cars per train to boot), no way. If it did, it would be one of those rides with a 30-minute wait or less on a super-crowded day... These capacity numbers are also complete estimates, and many factors are not taken into account. As a rule of thumb though, a coaster with at least 3 large (7-car+ or several 6-riders-per-car) trains, and some means (like a MCBR or something) to send a second train out when another is already on the course, that doesn't take forever to load/unload will have good capacity. If a ride is fairly short, like Flight Deck, 2 trains can do pretty well too. Rides that take forever to load/unload (Flying & Stand-Up Coasters) and rides with tiny trains that can only hold a few riders (like Wild Mice, BLSC) will have long lines. Capacity is one area where I would not 100% trust what most manufacturer's claim it is. My two cents on the whole capacity topic, which I may be a bit late to...

A 40-minute wait...for Flight Deck? On a day when Beast was 45 minutes!?!?!? Wow, this is one time when I am actually happy to hear a ride is getting a decent wait time...looks like the 2014 construction alone is drawing people down to ride Flight Deck. Probably bumping up Drop Tower & Delirium ridership, too. I can only imagine what may well happen when Project 2014 actually opens...

Hmm...that last post above mine made me remember something about my childhood trip to Kings Island back in August 2000...if I recall correctly, Action Zone was PACKED with numerous guests, if not for the brand-new Son of Beast then for the then 1-year-old Drop Zone and FACE/OFF...hopefully Project 2014 gets lots of guests into Action Zone, hopefully sending lots of them down to the the good-on-capacity-but-often-overlooked Flight Deck...and drawing people away from X-Base. Seriously, Firehawk and Flight of Fear could really use less crowds...

Halloween Haunt 2010, a Saturday in October. My one and only to date ride on Invertigo, ever, which is kinda odd given I do like the ride. Sign said 90 minutes. Wait was actually 30 minutes at most. As for some wait times for "full queue" rides...I can list a few...this assumes the ride doesn't break and the ride-ops are working at a "normal" pace for the rides, so these times can be either a bit longer or shorter on a given day...also, this is when the rides are running all of their trains... The Beast- 60 Minutes. (An hour and half is the longest I have ever waited, the queue was overflowing into the midway that time and was even near DB's helix...but that was also my best ride on any coaster ever so I'm not complaining!) Vortex- 20 Minutes. ("Overflows" are common for this ride though.) Adventure Express- 15 Minutes. Flight of Fear- 90 Minutes. Those are the only ones I can remember at the moment. I think Diamondback is also around an hour or so, and don't think I have ever seen full queue lines for most of the other rides before...and have not waited in them.

The original skid brakes were replaced with the current magnetic ones for the 2002 season, following a minor incident in October 2001 where during a heavy downpour a train failed to completely stop on the final brake run and bumped into a train unloading passengers in the station. No one was seriously injured, but it was enough that it warranted the change. This was due to the original skid brakes not working as well when wet, which caused the minor incident. The main drawback from the change to skid brakes to modern fin brakes is that since the old skid brakes didn't work as well when wet, the ride ran faster after it rained. I read a few trip reports on some web site, I forget which one, from the early 2002 season and Beast actually didn't open with the park that year, but a few weeks in, for these changes. Also, this is according to Terpy, but for a brief time early in 2002 after it had re-opened, some of the trim brakes on the ride had yet to be placed, mainly the one before the final helix. I can only imagine how violent and intense that helix must have been with no trims beforehand... UPDATE: Checked another thread and it was not the one before the helix. Sorry.

"Minor" news...got this from Kings Island's Facebook page. 35 Years Ago (July 10, 1978): Construction began on what would be the tallest (by drop), fastest, and longest roller coaster in the world- The Beast. Months later, in April 1979, riders were treated to drops of 135' and 141', speeds approaching 65mph, and over 7,359 feet of track for the first time ever on a roller coaster. The ride remains one of the world's top-ranked wooden coasters, and retains its record as the world's longest wooden roller coaster to this day, nearly 35 years later. Happy, uh, conception-day Beast!

GIGA INVERTED!?!? Wow...that would honestly be terror inducing, and put Alpengeist to shame for sheer scale...and funny thing is, that may well happen one day, if not for Kings Island Project 2014 then for some other coaster at another park in the future...

I can give some advice on this, though some of it comes straight from the park- if you don't have Fast Lane or FL+, I would strongly avoid Diamondback & The Beast during the AM Hours, as they are the 2 biggest draws in the park and thus everyone rushes to them in the morning- plus lines may have already built up for the stated ERT. I'd wait until later on in the day for these two, when the crowds have spread out more. Instead, I suggest heading under The Racer and going into X-Base for Firehawk and Flight of Fear. These rides are not as high capacity as the others (Firehawk has uber-slow load times and Flight of Fear's trains only have 5 2-row cars, according to rcdb.com) and should be hit up as early in the morning as possible to avoid their massive lines (1 hour+ is not rare) later in the day. Next up- some rides that will probably have short lines- Vortex's line may often look long, but the ride is so high capacity and doesn't have many "hidden" q-lines so it moves very fast and you're usually riding within 20-25 minutes. Adventure Express is the same way, often with an even shorter line. Racer is an older wooden coaster and has lost a good chunk of its popularity to newer rides over the years, but the fact it is really 2 coasters in one makes it the highest capacity coaster in the park, if both sides are running at least. Flight Deck is so far out of the way that many don't bother to ride it, resulting in short lines, but even if a lot of people head down there it has good capacity in spite of only running 2 trains, so it can handle crowds pretty well. Diamondback and The Beast also have great capacity, but these rides are so popular that this is often negated by the sheer crowds that come to them. As for the other adult coasters (Backlot Stunt Coaster, Invertigo, and the previously mentioned Firehawk & Flight of Fear)...ehehe...you're going to have to wait, or get Fast Lane, their capacity stinks compared to the other coasters. And one final tip- when the sun goes down and the lights come on, head to Rivertown and get in line for The Beast. It will probably have a 1+ hour wait, at least, if you don't have Fast Lane...but the ride you get at the end is totally worth it.

^^^ Yep. Steel Dragon 2000 also cost $50,000,000 (was another record when the ride opened, but this one has since fallen to the insanely expensive Expedition Everest which was $100,000,000)- and it put Morgan into bankruptcy to build it. Granted, a good chunk of that was because it's in Japan and hence must survive strong Earthquakes, but still. Then there's another issue- Steel Dragon 2000 was SBNO for 3 years, according to RCDB. And it just got new trains from B&M not too long ago... If Kings Island does want to go the 8,200'+ Giga route, I'd estimate it would take at least $30,000,000+ to do so, especially if they want a respected manufacturer like Intamin or B&M to build it. I don't know if Project 2014 has that big a budget or not... BTW, here is a picture of Steel Dragon 2000's lift hill and support structure...not hard to see why this thing cost $50,000,000! And for comparison...Millennium Force, a Intamin Giga that opened the same year...and was roughly about half the price...

I'd seriously doubt it would be the world's longest for most ride types, but that is a possibility if this is a Giga Coaster...but most inverted, floorless, dive machine, and wing rider coasters (the other types I have seen considered here) don't go very far past 4000 feet, however, and the record to beat is currently 8,133.2 feet- held by Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan, which is also still the world's tallest (318ft) and fastest (95mph) roller coaster that isn't launched. It has held these records for nearly 13 years now, as it opened in August 2000...

Hmm, I didn't make this jingle up, someone else here on KIC did, but if I recall correctly it went... "Six...Six...Six-Dollar Six Inch..." Yeah, I'm guessing about that much. I think this was from a few seasons ago, though, so it may be even more now... PS: If you made this jingle or remember who did, please remind me.

You aren't alone there, I also like the Legend the best of the three. Though to be fair, it is still really close between it and Voyage...the real tiebreaker for me is that I've found Legend more consistent in its ride quality, offering great ride after great ride...while Voyage ranges from amazing to good-but-uber-rough...sometimes even in the same ride (My 2012 ride on it started off amazingly well, but everything after the triple down was super rough and just not very fun). However, all 3 wooden coasters are awesome rides. I've kinda found it funny that this park, who's motto is #1 for family fun, would have such intense wooden coasters... "Yeah! We are #1 for family-oriented fun...but our wooden coasters are all aimed directly at uber-thrill-seekers and will scare the pants off coaster newcomers! And they are like, our main draw outside the water park..." The one thing Holiday World really needs is a mid-level, as far as intensity goes, roller coaster, in my opinion. Like a Mine Train Coaster or something...I would love to see how Holiday World would do one of those, actually, since they always come up with such weird ride concepts and themes. Turkey-Themed Mine Train Coaster? Only at Holiday World...

Great trip report, being one I can kinda relate to having gone to HW a few weeks earlier (granted it never rained and the lines I encountered were much shorter than what you described). I can attest to the pure intensity of Holiday World's wooden roller coasters- Voyage is simply the most intense coaster I have ever been on (granted I have limited experience as I have only only been to Kings Island, Holiday World, and a looong time ago Indiana Beach) and Legend isn't too far behind that. I still perfer Kings Island's Beast overall for pure fun factor by a hair, but as far as intensity goes, it usually loses by a good margin (save that one ride in 2011 where it had strong laterals for some reason, that one kept up with Legend & Voyage a lot more in intensity). BTW, Legend is actually my favorite of the 3 woodies there, ironically. (And it's the one that according to all the polls and such should have been my least favorite...) If you ever do return to Holiday World on a less crowded day, try the waterpark again and hit up the water coasters. They are very fun rides, hence why they get such long lines. Epic ejector air on Wildebeest, and maximum soakage (for lack of a better term) on Mammoth...fun.

^$37.275 million is a lotta roller coaster. Or at the very least, a lotta theming...even most big Hyper & Giga Coasters usually run around $25,000,000-$30,000,000 or so. You could buy a HUSS Giant Frisbee, ProSlide Mammoth Water Coaster, and a decent-sized wooden coaster all for that price...and possibly have some money left over depending on how much you spent on the roller coaster! Yet ironically, there are some coasters that that much still cannot buy- like Steel Dragon 2000 ($50 million) or Expedition Everest ($100 million!).

Yikes...makes me imagine what would happen if Drop Tower @ Kings Island started swaying...would they shut down the entire park, or just the section near Drop Tower...

^ Yeah, I know.

^ I didn't mean literally...that would be horrible if that ever did happen. If all the wood in a wooden coaster ever went rotten at the same time, we are talking collapse...and injured/dead riders, who likely have families who will sue whatever park the ride was in...and even larger parks like Kings Island would likely be killed off by such a disaster. FYI, I meant rotten as in giving poor ride quality, aka a rougher-than-usual or less-fun-than-usual ride...which wooden coasters can do... Though wood does go bad on wooden coasters, actually somewhat regularly...it is not uncommon to go to Kings Island and when looking at Racer or Beast, to find "fresh new wood" supports or even track that obviously was not there a few weeks or even days earlier. On Racer, it can be very easy to see if they don't paint it...wooden coasters need constant upkeep, or else. But the benefit of this is they can almost always be fixed somewhat easily, and hence the 100+ year lifespans for popular wooden coasters.

^ Oops! So sorry about the Invertigo bit, I missed that part apparently.. Silly me. As for Racer, I just don't know...from what I've heard, that ride can be "moody" when it comes to the ride experience it gives. I have yet to have a bad ride on it at all, but I have heard stories of it running badly as far as both roughness and airtime are concerned (aka very rough with little to no airtime) and yet it can also dish out very smooth rides packed with good airtime (I have had one of these before, from the front seat of the Red Racer, first ride of the day on my only trip in 2012- it was actually the smoothest ride I have ever had on a wooden coaster). Then again, this is also true for most wooden coasters- they are notorious for often being super smooth and fun one day, then suddenly going rotten, and vise versa- though some are worse than others at this...

^ Of the 3 rides visible in that picture, two are now gone, a ride that would have been built there came and went, and the other one got a name change and color scheme change. And lots of trees got cut down. McSalsa, stating ze obvious for no reason.