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I finally made it there yesterday. I can confirm it is indeed reopen. It was running very well.

The longest wooden roller coaster in the world gets an overhaul within a matter of months, but the carousel at SFSTL is going to take at least three years to complete.

and they JUST updated an hour ago. . it's opening to the public tomorrow! UPDATE: After more than six months of retracking work, The Beast is scheduled to re-open to guests on Sunday May 8. The 43-year-old wooden roller coaster -- the longest in the world at 7,361 feet -- has received over 2,000 ft. of replacement track and a steeper first drop.

Kings Island just posted an update on Youtube: BEAST UPDATE: Track work has been completed on the world's longest wooden roller coaster, and trains have begun cycling. The exact date the ride will open this month has yet to be determined. #KI50

you not only have no idea what the fuck you are taking about . . . but that you felt the need to drop BS Florida politics into the DisneyLAND thread? yeah . cements your stats as a troll. so I guess. . .

https://youtu.be/Dw8iMMel9uU&t=59s

This is just tradition at this point

If they do some GCI steel retrack bullsh!t and don't RMC this POS I swear to god I will flip the entire park over.

Did you say ...... Buffet???? LOL. Great look at all the stuff being renovated, replaced and/or repaired. (3 'R's - who knew?)

is this guy serious

just curious but what about the park layout do you think is bad? I mean it's pretty big and spread out, but I don't particularly find it to be bad, but it's really not that different than any other theme park out there. A crossover between Stanleyville and the plaza by Falcon's fury would be nice, but it's not that far of a walk really.

^^

With Spring Break over for most (or all?) of the US, I was interested to see how Iron Gwazi's wait times were going to be considering the wait times haven't been too bad overall since the ride opened. Before the ride opened to the public, I thought with it being a RMC and a brand new hyped up ride it was still going to have a 45-60 minute wait even on a slower day. I stopped in for 90 minutes yesterday around 2:30 and it was only 1-2 train wait. If that's how it's going to be normally on a weekday when schools are in session, anyone who can visit on those days is going to have a great opportunity to marathon the coaster.

In 2016 the head PR person at the park told me that part of the problem was that the bands people were able/willing to pay to see had such high performance prices that it wasn't financially feasible anymore and bands with lower costs just didn't sell enough tickets (or tickets at a high enough price) to cover the cost. So essentially the park would lose money on most performances. The days of the park providing a "free" show are also no longer cost effective for them. She also indicated that the bands the park could afford to pay brought in a crowd that created a lot of security issues. So in other words higher costs for musicians coupled with worsening crowd behavior pretty much made all performances untenable. At that time other than the cheer and band performances, they were still having the Christian music festivals, although I cannot remember if those were free with park entrance or an extra cost.......I'm sure someone on here remembers. Too bad. I can remember seeing Chuck Berry play there around 1974 or 1975, when I was 6 or 7 years old. My Dad insisted on getting there super early to get good seats and it was so hot my Grandmother's cheap hair dye started to melt and run down her face, lol. I can also remember, like a lot of you I'm sure, seeing some great bands in the 70's and 80's there. It bums me out but if there is no way to resolve that, and it doesn't appear that there is, then I say use the space for something new. It's just a waste and kind of sad to see it sitting there empty plus makes the park junky looking when there is no reason to maintain it.

Those shin guards really hurt RMCs for me. They make me feel paralyzed from the waist down. Having recently ridden both SV and IG, it's a near tie for me. But I'd give IG a slight bump due to making me literally run like a kid to ride it again. It's just so damn fun. I also hate the final hops on SV.

+1 for Iron Gwazi. Twisting out the bottom of the death roll on the right side of the train in the back 2 cars is so nuts. That and the sideways airtime hill are more intense than any element on SV. I do like the abundance of head choppers on SV though. Iron Gwazi is also both easier and harder to marathon at the same time. Easier because of Busch Gardens' amazingly crowd-free weekdays, harder because the more intense airtime and elements destroy my shins. I can see why someone might prefer SV for a more comfortable ride, but in terms of intensity/thrill, Iron Gwazi is significantly better.

^ I totally agree. I couldn't marathon Steel Vengeance, if I wanted to. I was at Busch Tampa for the platinum season pass previews last month. In a little over 3 days, I rode it 91 times. No that's not a typo. I had 2 more days there and wanted to hit 100, but it was closed both days.

I think Gwazi's lack of a MCBR helps its case so much. When I rode SV last August it was trimming very heavily on the MCBR and made the second half just so repetitive and tedious IMO. By the final bunny hops it was like, "Is it over yet? Is it done yet?" The first half is excellent though. Iron Gwazi feels like SV's first half the whole ride and it never lets up and powers to the end with speed. Obviously SV needed the edge with capacity though, so I understand CP's reason for adding a MCBR. Iron Gwazi is just consistent from top to bottom, beginning to end, without a single dead spot or trim. When I rode SV that was very much not the case. But I can see anybody's reason for preferring either coaster based on personal preference and taste. Neither is a bad coaster and they are both some of RMC's best work.

Trip report from my 2 days at the park, Tuesday March 29th, and Wednesday March 30th. First I’ll start with the area around the park. Some said it wasn’t the best of area’s, but I thought it was fine. I walked a mile and a half to and from the park from my hotel both days. This wasn’t my first time at the park so I’ll start with what’s new: Iron Gwazi, and it’s a masterpiece! The most intense coasters tend to be my favorites, and Iron Gwazi takes my #2 overall spot. Bumping I305 down to 3, and sitting behind Steel Vengeance. Everything that makes RMC’s great makes this great, but at a higher level. And it being a walk on for most of the second day was just fabulous! The addition of Iron Gwazi also shot BGT up my park rankings to #3 behind Cedar Point and Kings Island. But it wasn’t JUST Iron Gwazi that did that. Some of the coasters were a lot more fun than I remember. Cobra’s Curse was closed on my first visit, so this was a new credit for me. And no coaster has ever exceeded expectations more than this one. I thought it would be a fun family ride, but this ended up being a top 50 coaster for me. Ranked ahead of quite a few inverts, wing’s, dive’s, and a couple hypers. Maybe I just LOVE spinning coasters, which means I need to get myself to Silver Dollar City this summer! Another ride that surprised the crap out of me was SheiKra. Now I’m not sure this is true, but it seems like they hold you up there a split second longer than the other North American dive coasters. It’s still very smooth, and very enjoyable. And it moved up to #2 in the dive coaster rankings behind Yukon Striker. Montu and Kumba were both running great as usual. Montu’s new paint job is AMAZING. Montu’s first half is still the best part of any invert, but it’s second half is below average IMO. Which is why it stays at #3 on the invert list behind Afterburn and Raptor. Kumba I’m still in love with. Still glossy smooth, intense, and overall just an awesome ride! I still prefer it to Maverick… The rest of the coasters are fun, but they ran as I remembered them. The only ride I dislike is Cheetah Hunt because of the hard restraints, they dig into the top of my shoulders, and the seat isn’t comfortable at all. That ride just wasn’t designed for me at all. And unfortunately Falcon’s Fury was closed both days due to high winds, and the sky ride was closed. Overall my visit was very fun, very enjoyable, and with the addition of Iron Gwazi I think this is now one of the super elite park’s in the country!

So basically no change?

Let's add Silver Bullet and Hangtime to this list and we'll be all set https://www.knotts.com/scheduled-ride-closures