TheSonofBeast

it is not because it is too cold to run, at least when a few people i know were there last friday. it was low 60s and stayed in the high 50s all night and there wasnt a single person anywhere near the ride, so that is not it. what else it maybe i have no clue.

when was the last time it was open? i know i rode it opening haunt weekend that saturday...

ridership has nothing to do with popularity. it is limited by how many people can actually ride it in any given day. top thrill dragster and maverick both have their share of downtime. The point is, everytime i talk to people that have gone, i ask what rides they liked and none ever mention maverick. its always millenium, dragster, or magnum. one like raptor... im betting that whenever a new coaster is here the lines for maverick will dwindle down signifigantly... and i am not oblivious as to how popular el toro is. I simply dont care, i have no desire whatsoever to ride it. and seriously, the biggest complaint with the general public for Diamondback is it had no loops. they flock to it because you can see it and how gigantic it is. They dont care that its a B and M or that its glass smooth they jsut see some giant new coaster that was built. When i go to the park with a completely unbiased never heard or been to Kings Island before group i tell them what the rides are, and they always flock to the big ones, a lot of the time asking me what they see that is tall and we end up going there first whether it be Diamondback, Son of Beast or Vortex. I had no requests to hit up top gun right away, even though i mentioned how unique and interesting it was.

when people go tomorrow, or saturday could you report if drop zone is open or testing or anything? im really hoping my friend will finally get a ride in on drop zone sunday before they leave....

its not because of the roughness or the smoothness, its all about the uniqueness. you can build woodens using many methods and when they age some get quite rough and others dont, but the thrill is in the fact that it delivers varying rides based on the weather temperature, time of day etc...

more people would care than you think. So many people just make up stuff to sound cool. Even if they didnt care for the ride, or even ride it it would become the new thing to talk about. If you think about it, maverick at least in my opinion is the most under rated ride at Cedar Point. it is amazing, but except for the educated coaster lover no one really gives a flip because its in the back and isnt all that tall or unique visually. now add in the fact that the coaster would be in spot that occupied something gigantic it just wouldn't sit well with most people. Its like going from a hummer to a toyota prius. sure, you get better gas mileage, but every time your friends look at you driving it you get the look like this car is puny, and when hummers pass they just roar on by... just saying... Have you even rode El Toro? nope. and i dont plan to. it goes against the whole concept of a wooden coaster. It loses the uniqueness and becomes like every other coaster out there without loops. Its billed as smooth, and is just created so that maintenance personnel dont have to do as much work as a traditional coaster. I dont care how awesome it is, it simply at least to me is a trend that could very well end the wooden coaster and i will not be a part of that trend.

Its more than fitting. Son of Beast makes Kings Islands skyline. It wasthe tallest ride in the park, and its smack dab in the front. Removing it is more than super obvious. If you put ANYTHING and i mean anything that is in the low 100 ft range, people will know it. No matter if it smashes every other coaster in terms of awesomeness whether it be with airtime, laterals, g forces, or a new type of ride it wont matter, the general public will think of it as that puny coaster Kings Island put in place of SOB. I certainly hope not. I would be MORE than upset if we got a prefab of any kind in place of SOB.

you must first upload it to a picture uploading site. flickr, photobucket, among countless others come to mind... then it will have a few links. when you get that far, find the direct url,and post that in the url box of the add image thing and voila! you have an image here!

could this be why we got xflight and not dominator, since they already had the area and everything surveyed for it years ago?

A coaster does not have to be REAL record breaking to be a great ride (i.e. El Toro, Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Maverick, DB, etc.) And if SoB is taken down, do not expect anything to take it's place til 2015 at the earliest. I didnt say that it had to be record breaking to be a great coaster. Im just saying that the plot of land SOB stands on will have great expectations. you put in something no matter how great there will be thousands of people for 5-10 years talking about how awesome Son of Beast was and how puny this new coaster is.

now that is awesome! but im glad neither happened... im guessing they scrapped the monorail idea because it took up so much space and it wouldnt be a big huge draw...

from what he posted it doesnt even look like he cares about the houses...

i would expect a terrible day to visit, unless it doesnt rain. if it rains, all the rides will be running one train except Diamondback, and even if there are only a few people there that makes lines atrocious... plus a lot of the outdoor haunts dont operate in a good steady long rain either.... and add in the fact its halloween weekend...

nothing. they would have subtracted Flight of Fear, and turned it into a storage shed.

they still have them today, i believe. they did put them out for the 07 haunt out front with skeletons with broken necks and backs lol! but i agree, they do need to get this mess over with. you have 192381023820 people just either spreading rumors or getting angry it isnt open all year when they walk up to it. its adds up to being a nightmare for not only Kings Island, but for the workers who have to deal with that question id imagine on a daily basis. Id hate to want to answer it with my mouth tied behind my back.

on the bottom is says 2006. so its not an old picture.

first off, i have no idea what movies you are talking about except for with Flight of Fear. And Flight of Fear was named under paramount.... ugh. It was themed after The outer limits but it wasnt awful when that was dropped and it was just called Flight of Fear. and what is ADD anyways?

i feel that if Son of Beast were to go, something crazy, REAL record breaking, not just stupid mundane record breaking coaster... Something along the lines of another awesome woodie (ie not a pre-fab under any circumstances), or the mentioned, but never built intamin 12 looper.... Here.

And you both would be correct...here is the e-mail that I dug up: haha thats great!!!!!

found this interesting. went to Werner Stengels website here and this is under the history section. When you go to the projects section, you see Son of Beast mentioned, but not here. I know they don't put every little detail into the timeline, but i think its odd that the record breaking coaster would be not only omitted but the whole year skipped and all that is mentioned are the prefab coasters... 1999 Establishing of the patent of the new, improved, pre-fabricated and long-lasting wooden roller coaster track. Realizations so far: "Colossos", Heide Park, Germany and "Balder", Liseberg, Sweden. Colossos, Heide Park 1999 Establishing of the patent of a "Freefall Tower for a Roller Coaster". 2001 Werner Stengel retired from his daily operations and has appointed long year employees Harald Wanner and Andreas Wild to Managing Directors. Werner Stengel still works as a consultant to the industry and of course as an consultant to the office he founded back in 1965

i got a ticket, and im psyched!!!!

was it due to a part being needed like before during the sfkk accident or whatnot? the thing is, im thinking about going this coming sunday with someone who hasnt yet to ride drop zone and wants to before they move away and yeah. It sounds like that wont happen.

I went to haunt opening weekend on saturday, and it was open. the next time i went, it was not. Some friends of mine went the second sunday, and it wasnt open. Ive seen many trip reports saying that drop zone has been down, but mainly determined that weather was the factor. Then, some out of town friends went friday night, where the weather was perfect (60s then into the high 50s at night...) and according to them Drop Zone never was even intended to be open with no lights around it, no maintenance, noone standing in front of it etc. so now i ask what is up with drop zone?

to be back on topic, i wouldnt touch next saturday with a ten foot pole. halloween night, and the last haunt night of the season adding in the fact that a ton of people will show up because its SATURDAY will make the night beyond unbearable barring some freak thunderstorm/snowstorm combo (in which of course the park will remain open, unlike certain other days....)

opening day this year, i rode amongst other things, Son of Beast. Waited a good 45 minutes (something i rarely EVER do), and finally got into the station. i pick a random row somewhere in the middle with my friend. While in that row, a group in front of us is trying to even out. they ask if we will go in front of them so they can ride with their group. so of course we accept and get on. Halfway up the hill, the train comes to a stop. we sit there for around 5 minutes, and we spot one of the ride ops sorting through keys trying to open the gate to walk up the son of beat lift stairs. about ten minutes later, and enlisting the help of another person, she climbs up the ride, closes down a empty lapbar one more click or something along that nature, goes back down, and 5 minutes later we are on our ride! When we return to the station cheering ensues of course, but I had totally forgotten about the people who we switched trains with. They look at us and say oh we are so sorry we should have been the ones that got stuck. I thought it was hilarious that they felt guilty about somehting they had no control over. I just thought it was awesome to sit up high and enjoy the view for a while! my only disappointment was when the ride started going again and i relalized my dream of walking down a lift hill was ruined again...