Skramp

Yeah, it's not showing on KI's fast lane website grid anymore either (Fast Lane). Guess that means it's down for the rest of the year. Hopefully they can get it fixed.

Who knows what it's for, but KI loves to mess with us enthusiats! I've always thought it would be cool to have a walkthrough haunt in the woods of The Beast. It's so dark out there at night and could be very cool.

Man, I think we expect too much out of things. Yes, there are a lot of rough coasters out there, but does that make them bad? The GP loves Vortex. Go there during the summer and see the hour long line all day long. That is the only sit-down looping coaster in the park, so why would they remove it? I know they have Flight of Fear, but that's a different monster.....I'm talking in the traditional sense. KI has a great mix now of varying rollercoasters for everyone. As enthusiasts, I think sometimes we are much more critical of rides than the GP. If you think Vortex hurts, then don't ride it, but it is a great ride that most people ride at least once every visit.

In my many years on this site, this may be the first time I've heard someone complain about Monster being down! I know it's not meant seriously, but just caught my attention.

Hershey isn't huge corporate backing? Am I correct in assuming that they're still backing the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company that owns the park, arenas and teams that play in them along with a ton of hotels? Yes, Hershey itself is a huge corporation, but what I was referring to is that their main business is not amusement parks whereas you have Six Flags that all they do is amusement parks. Hershey Entertainment has their hands in many things from arenas to zoos to a very successful amusement park. I understand what everyone says about location being perfect for Hersheypark, but it really is the only draw. It's not like it's located next to a huge metroplex with tons of things to do. And I don't really seeing it being a draw for the Baltimore/DC area as you have Six Flags America and Busch Gardens much closer. I see Hersheypark as being a destination location, where you plan to go there, it's not like a local park. KI has jumped up because it has become a better park and draws from a large area from Columbus, CIncinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Charleston.....basically there are a bunch of decent sized cities within a 1-2 hour drive from there so it makes it easy for people to get to.

How is it that we are 4 pages into this discussion and no one has mentioned that a regional park like Hersheypark beat any of the Six Flags parks in attendance? I find that astounding!! I mean SFMM and SFGADV are the two flagships and they both are behind a small, chocolate funded regional park with no huge corporate backing. That is amazing that Hersheypark can do that. Kudos for them for doing the things to bring visitors in and provide them with what they want. I think bigger corporations lose sight of what's really important and only worry about the "turnstyles" and forget about the guest experience aspect.

I don't know why it would be surprising if it was open either? I mean, it's a motor. I'm sure a smart place like KI has a couple spare motors laying around that they could easily switch out for the bad one? They would be really stupid not too. They have extra parts and wheels for all the coasters don't they? That would be like have to have The Beast closed for a month while waiting on a new brake set to come in, I'm sure they have an abundance of spare parts. Yeah, a motor burnt up and started smoking, so you wait til it cools down, clear the smoke, change the motor and do some test runs. Doesn't seem like rocket science.

I think you also have to take in account the steel itself. Over time, steel can stretch, bend and deform. even a small flat spot could cause major bumps. Also, the wear on the wheels has a large impact. Yes, that's right. But those are all things that come with age and that makes it a bit weird that new rides like banshee have some rattle issues while some quite older ones (also manufactured by B&M, and, probably, with less sophisticated technology) are still running very smoothly. You are correct, but there are so many numbers of things that could be in play.......wheel compound, alignment of wheels to track, spacing between wheels and track, track itself, alignment of seat supports to car structure.......I mean there are probably over 100 variables that could be in play to cause the rattle. Who knows what it is, but does it really affect the enjoyment of the ride that much?

I think you also have to take in account the steel itself. Over time, steel can stretch, bend and deform. even a small flat spot could cause major bumps. Also, the wear on the wheels has a large impact.

Another set of pictures: http://www.weather.com/travel/abandoned-theme-park-spreepark-germany-photos-20140508

There are about 4 Krogers within a 10 mile radius of Kings Island that you could swing by and pick them up at. Also, you can print them online for a discounted price ($44 online, $60 at the gate. And you can add Fast Lane on the website too if you want it). Also, if you are near a Meijer, they might have them, at least they do around here.

I couldn't agree more. I just don't believe that kids need all that stuff that parents think they'll need. I never see actual babies in Strollers I just see it loaded up with garbage. I was at the new Living Planet Aquarium we have here last Saturday (I know not a theme park, but it is relevant to the conversation) and it just seemed like parents just used them to crowd other people out of the way and they just carried their kid around anyways, they were never actually in the stroller. I don't know why they can't use the small basic strollers, why does it need to have "shade" and a million pockets and cup holders? I don't have kids, I don't plan on having kids, but if I did have kids, I'm not sure I would have these giant strollers that seem to be infiltrating everywhere. As a parent of two young boys who just visited Disney with strollers, I can understand your comments. We just had two small collapsible strollers, but saw many "small suv" strollers which I think the parents use so they dont have to carry anything. We were courteous and polite, but ran into one of my BIGGEST pet peeves, not just in amusement parks, but generally anywhere there are people. My pet peeve is people or groups of people who just stop in the middle of a walkway and think it's ok to just stand there and talk as long as they want. They never move and always seem like you are inconviencing them. Its stupid, if you are going to stop in a path where people walk, have some common sense and move off to the side, but most people don't, they just stand wherever they want.

It could be a State of Ohio or OHSA thing also. Unless you know someone on the inside, there's really no way of knowing the true reasoning. Maybe CP sent out a questionnaire and asked people what they thought would make them feel safer. Who really knows, but these 5+ pages of whining about seatbelts is getting old. Would you rather that they have taken the coaster out instead of adding the seatbelts? I bet not. Just go enjoy the ride and the extra 5 seconds it takes you to get into your seat and relax.

Here's the video it's on, the CET (local PBS station) in their retrospective about KI. The Beast stuff starts around 3 mins and if you watch close, you can see a portion of video where the train is completely hauling through the mid course break run area. http://www.cetconnect.org/video/riding-history-limits-rivertown The whole series is here: http://www.cetconnect.org/KingsIsland

The old Theatre building is a Haunt as is SOB station. Inside of Flight of Fear's spaghetti bowl are King Cobras trains. There's also a field out behind the Racer where a lot of Cobra's track is. The ride location next to the bathrooms probably is the old Flight Commander que area. I always thought it was neat to try to find this stuff at other parks. Also, if you look in the Vortex station, you can see the cutouts above for where the Bat's track used to hang.

I think this video was done during initial testing before it was ever opened to the public. The people walking around are probably park execs, construction workers and the designers seeing how it was running. It obviously is still "under construction" with it missing pieces like handrails. This may have been a video of one of the first ever complete course runs the Beast made as you can see how slow it is. Also, notice the double-helix isn't enclosed yet, the wood tunnel connecting the two concrete ones in the middle of the course isn't there and it barely makes it up the hill to the second lift hill. I would bet this maybe a video of one of the first 5 test runs of the coaster ever, if not the first ever complete circuit.

So i'm sure this has probably been asked before.....but is it just the angle of the camera that makes the first turn look really weird? I mean it looks like it's slanting inwards and ridiculously skinny.

Being a KI native, I understand the hoopla. It's kind of like an urban legend. It dwells in the woods where no one can see it. I like it for many reasons. The speed is crazy, but having ridden it for 20+ years I will say it has definitely been tamed. I can remember when it was sheer madness without trims just screaming through the woods. Is it the tallest? No. The fastest? No. But it's still a damn good ride. Night rides are amazing because there are zero lights out there, just darkness. But, the main factor I love is that it was built without computers. Think about it, back then everything was drawn and calculated by hand. And in that time, they were able to create this monster. That speaks volumes about the designers.

That's insane that the line is so long!!! But here's my question.....You can see the line snaking back towards the Eiffel Tower, but there seems to also be a line on the service roads too. If you look behind Slingshot, you can see people there and also on the other blacktopped path by that. Wondering if one line is for GP and other for FP+. Anyone on site that can tell the difference?

They were stacking because they had camera crews running the on-ride video in row 2. Cut them a little slack. Most media days I go to they are only running ONE train and the park doesn't invite tons of people like Kings Island did. I wasn't bashing them at all. I expected it be one train also, surprised they ran two, but completely understood the stacking, no issues with it at all.

And another note, for all the locker enthusiasts, you must get a locker before going on Banshee. Even today they were not allowing backpacks or anything. There is no place in the station to put them (think Diamondback bins). The lockers are right across from the Banshee entrance so not too far away. Also, it seemed that Action Zone has really been opened up. There seemed to be a lot more room to move around there. And for people who really know KI, they took out all the entrance booths up front and redid all the brick so it's all concrete from the parking lot to the front entrance. My only complaint here is this, the visible front entrance now has NO pizzazz! It's just a plain building with a Banshee banner on it. Maybe it's in the works to add some nice big lettering or something to it coming up or something, but I noticed when I walked up this morning it seemed very bland.

Just got back from media day also! Banshee is a great addition! Not the most forceful overall, but from the zero-g roll down the hill and through the pretzel section, you are stapled to your seat. The last barrel roll is pretty slow and gives you that nervous "fall out" feeling. They were only running 2 trains and stacking them, but that's to be expected. I'm sure once the crew gets into the swing, they will be doing 3 trains with no stacking. My only complaint is the "screaming banshee" sound. Everytime a train crests the hill it goes off, and the videos in the que play it also. So on those days when you are waiting 2 hours in line, you will get pretty annoyed by it. On another note, there really isn't a "tombstone" for SOB, it seriously is a large stone structure with a plaque on it "SOB 2000-2009" and it has an eternal flame on the top of it!! Hilarious and classy!

You got that right!!! 80 on Sunday, 35 on Tuesday with snow on the ground!!

Robb, after staying on Disney property a few weeks ago and having the Magic Bands and FP+, my only complaint is the following.....that you can only reserve 3 things per person. The only reason I say that is that there were 7 of us using the system (2-60+, 2-30+, 1-14, 2-6 ages) It just makes it hard to plan things for everyone and give everyone what they want. The 5 younger ones wanted to do all things together, but the 14 and wifey, wanted to do some other things. It just would have been nice to have maybe 5 selections or so. But, it seems the new system where you can add a 4th, 5th and so on will make it right. The easiest part was changing things around. We had a FP+ for the Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor, but it was a 5 minute wait, so we just GP'd it, then went and changed our FP+ reservation to something else. And, if you download the Android/iPhone app for My Disney you can change it on the fly as you are going. By day 3, we ended just changing tons of stuff on the fly, it was cool.

If you're sure this has been asked, then why are you asking? Wouldn't it make more sense to go back through the thread and find where the answer might be? It certainly would reduce the time you waited for an answer from people who might be annoyed and ignore this inquiry entirely..... You could have reduced a lot of time by just answering the question... It will be crowded on Easter weekend, yes. At least thats what Ive found in my experience. Fast Lane Plus should be your friend. You're assuming I know the answer to the question....which I don't......I don't make it a point to be there opening weekend. Personal preference. So you didn't know the answer to the question, but yet you felt the need to take the time to chastise someone about their question? That seems kind of dumb and self-serving, kind of like me replying to your response. Sometimes, when you have a thought, it's better to just leave it as a thought, not a post.