PHOTO TR:Kings Island 2012

[thrillrider]

I can confirm that windseeker at cedarpoint was running ths weekend. Has kings islands opened yet?

[Geauga Dog]

I was there yesterday (the park was slammed with Music In The Park folks) and Windseeker was still closed. Maintenance was working on it. At one point during the day they did raise the carriage to the top.

 

I agree with you and Real - the Beast was running great yesterday. Got a front seat ride and seen all the new wood they put in on the turns. Should make night rides seem even faster (I didn't stay all day to find out).

[accelerate]

...extremely boring.

 

^This FTW. It just doesnt do anything. It goes quickly through the woods. What makes me sad is looking at rides like Voyage, Boulder Dash and what they did with the terrain and I look at the MASSIVE area that Beast takes up and imagine "What if?". Then I get sad. lol.

 

Although your point is valid, keep in mind that the Beast is much, much older than Voyage or Boulder Dash. It's definately gotten worse over the years, but it's been around for a while, which is a disadvantage for it.

[adamico2]

I stopped by the park for a few hours that Saturday, from about 9 to 1. The Beast was closed during that time; I checked several times. I assume this was for the Travel Channel shoot. By about 9:30 AM, still during ERT, Diamondback's line was already about 20 minutes long. The park was a lot busier than I had anticipated.

 

If I had known Racer only had one queue, I probably would have hopped in line. I was under the impression only one track was operating, and the line was long.

 

Operations on Flight Deck and Flight of Fear were abhorrent. I've never seen operations that bad at Kings Island. On the other hand, the Firehawk team was flying!

 

I can't wait for the Coasting for Kids event in just a few weeks!

[Real]

...extremely boring.

 

^This FTW. It just doesnt do anything. It goes quickly through the woods. What makes me sad is looking at rides like Voyage, Boulder Dash and what they did with the terrain and I look at the MASSIVE area that Beast takes up and imagine "What if?". Then I get sad. lol.

 

Although your point is valid, keep in mind that the Beast is much, much older than Voyage or Boulder Dash. It's definately gotten worse over the years, but it's been around for a while, which is a disadvantage for it.

 

Age has nothing to do with it. I have ridden some very good old coasters. Its just that Beast was never designed to do more than be a really fast ride through the woods. It doesnt take full advantage of the hills by actually having hills. It just goes...straight...a lot. Which is fun, at night under a full supermoon in the fog. But just about any other time, its just fun. Its nothing Ill drive 3hrs for. Diamondback though, yes I will. And I have. Beast is like the wooden version of Millennium Force. Its good for one thing mainly - speed. It does it well. But thats about it. Not a bad ride, just not crazy either.

 

I will say that this year it was riding about as smooth as a traditional wooden coaster gets. The work done to the track was marvelous. It tracks superb! Very tight to the rails which happened to be very smooth as well.

[accelerate]

 

^This FTW. It just doesnt do anything. It goes quickly through the woods. What makes me sad is looking at rides like Voyage, Boulder Dash and what they did with the terrain and I look at the MASSIVE area that Beast takes up and imagine "What if?". Then I get sad. lol.

 

Although your point is valid, keep in mind that the Beast is much, much older than Voyage or Boulder Dash. It's definately gotten worse over the years, but it's been around for a while, which is a disadvantage for it.

 

Age has nothing to do with it. I have ridden some very good old coasters. Its just that Beast was never designed to do more than be a really fast ride through the woods. It doesnt take full advantage of the hills by actually having hills. It just goes...straight...a lot. Which is fun, at night under a full supermoon in the fog. But just about any other time, its just fun. Its nothing Ill drive 3hrs for. Diamondback though, yes I will. And I have. Beast is like the wooden version of Millennium Force. Its good for one thing mainly - speed. It does it well. But thats about it. Not a bad ride, just not crazy either.

 

I will say that this year it was riding about as smooth as a traditional wooden coaster gets. The work done to the track was marvelous. It tracks superb! Very tight to the rails which happened to be very smooth as well.

 

What I meant was that ther is a large technology gap between the rides. TGG had a lot more to work with on the Voyage than the Beast had. I'm just saying that the comparison isn't that great.

[thrillrider]

The beast is a special ride in its own way. What other coaster has a drop into a double helix like the beast?

[adamico2]

^ It's just too bad that drop now has a magnetic trim on it and the helix was re-profiled. That being said, I still have never ridden a coaster with a more successful and intense helix than the one on the Beast. (The Legend at HW is probably the closest any ride has come.) It's hard to imagine riding on the original trains, without seat dividers. The laterals right at the helix entrance must have put the T-Bolt to shame.

 

One of the other things I love about the Beast is it reaches, or at least used to reach, it's top speed after the MCBR. If I had to guess, it's top speed has probably dropped a good 10 mph from what it was once capable of (after a rain storm).