Banshee media day at Kings Island

@Tek: B-TR is sort of the one exception. I do love that ride, and those clones are actually some of my favorite coasters, period.

Beyond that, though, clones don't seem to stand out that much. The really great rides tend to be unique.

I found Diamondback to be middle of the road for a B&M hyper. It wasn't Goliath oG and after that they're pretty much all the same until Raging Bull which is way, way below. (No Leviathan, Intmidator, or Behemoth for me).

The thing I didn't get was why Paramount didn't build a single hyper throughout the hyper boom of the 90's and 2000's. It seems like after the invert craze, EVERYBODY was getting a hyper and making boat loads of cash off of them. CF put in 4 Morgan/Okamoto designs, and Six Flags responded with the Giovanolas (2), Intamins (3), and B&M's (3) and Busch even got in the act with AC. but Paramount got 0 hypers in their time.

Thankfully, Cedar Fair remedied that almost immediately upon purchasing the chain. Too bad for the bastard children in N. California: the otherwise beautiful SFDK (with it's 150' restriction) and Great America.

Son of Beast was over 200 feet, does that count as a hyper? No?

I would love to have been in some of those meetings.

"We don't want one of those steel hypers, what we want is a wooden hyper! With a loop!"

"Profitable and reliable? Nah, let's build a Top Spin in a box. That will really bring in the cash for decades."

Let me express my love for Diamondback for a moment...

The first drop, and every drop has an awesome, yet slight turn to the right. Every apex of each hill, and every drop makes it feel like you are falling with nothing below you. Your butt comes out of the seat perfectly. Every time the coaster is at the bottom of a hill and traveling back up to another, your butt is planted into the seat hard, and the positive Gs are intense and delicious. The big turnaround way out in the forest is very fast, and perfectly forceful. While it does lose a little of the forces after the MCBR, it's not too bad, and the spiral and airtime-filled drop into the water at the end are so much fun. It is definitely one of my favorite coasters anywhere. Nighttime rides on it are very exciting, like many other KI coasters.

Beast? It rattles your bones for sure, and it is a test of stamina, but The Beast in not just a ride; it's an experience. There is nothing like it anywhere. It's beautiful. The speed never ends, except when the breaks in the shed thankfully slow it down a little. The secluded journey into the woods makes the ride feel adventurous, and dangerous. Speeding around the helix finale through the tunnel is the single greatest moment on a coaster ever. I can't help but to hold on tight and let my scream echo through the tunnel every time.

I can't re-ride The beast too many times, maybe four at the most, but that's what makes it so great. It's relentless. Huh! Relentless is the exact word I used to describe Banshee too. lol

Kings Island feels complete with Banshee added to the lineup of these two major coasters, and with Vortex's and the others' popularity as well. The Bat is very fun, I only wish it were a longer ride and that it wasn't so far back into the woods. Adventure Express is a dandy little Mine Ride. It's jerky with age, and it has a very anticlimactic scene at the end, but it's arguably the best Arrow mine ride in existence. Racers is a classic, perfect for the younger, more timid kids. Flight of Fear is awesome. It has a great theme, and an exciting launch. My only real problem with that ride is how sudden the brakes are at the end of the ride. Firehawk still scares the crap out of me, but people are always willing to wait for its long line, so who am I to judge? Stunt Track is what it is; a well-themed family launch coaster that is not intense for the younger kids.

The park even has a really fun, and slightly scary dark ride shooter, a very large drop tower, a few amazing flat rides, "the best kid's area in the world" for 13 years in a row, and some really good food options, like LaRosa's Pizza and Skyline Chili. The park has an almost perfect layout, a great observation tower, and is absolutely beautiful with foliage and "charm."

I never really got the Kings Island haters. lol

I used to think B&M hypers were boring, but over the last few years, I've gained a new respect for them. Aggressive but graceful, forceful but calculated.

It's like taking a finely tuned sports car for a drive and opening the throttle on a long stretch of road. It's smooth, quiet, and feels luxurious. Sometimes, though, you need to fire up the muscle car and hammer down the road with a loud roar, rumbling pipes, and stiff wheels. That's where the more intense coasters come in. I love them both for different reasons.

At least, that's how it makes me feel.

Yeah, graceful is a good word to use. I could take a nap on Diamondback, but in a good way. Not in an Iron Dragon way. Sometimes it's nice to just ride a coaster you don't have to think about. :)

I think what gets me about Diamondback is that it wasn't a steel version of the Beast. While I find the layout of the Beast generally uninteresting, I still find the ride to be incredible. It's a perfect example of taking the surrounding terrain and just going nuts. I feel like Diamondback more or less attempted to create an Ohio version of Behemoth when they should've really tried to build a very different ride.

I know that one should judge a ride on what it is and not what it could've been, but Diamondback just seemed a bit on the generic side.

Keep in mind that I still very much enjoy the coaster. It's not like I hated it. It just didn't blow me away as much as its siblings.

Raven-Phile said:
I used to think B&M hypers were boring, but over the last few years, I've gained a new respect for them. Aggressive but graceful, forceful but calculated.

This to me is really where the B&M hypers shine. It's really difficult to make a coaster that's moving at speeds of >75 mph and yet still feels like you're gliding comfortably along the track.

The coaster that really exemplifies this is Leviathan. You know you're really hauling after that epic first drop and turn but you never get the sense that it's "too much" like you get with the opening sequence on I305. You don't have to ride Leviathan or any of their other hypers defensively like you do with I305 or even Skyrush. It's just a flat-out fun coaster.

A lot of park enthusiasts really like the "aggressive" Intamin steel coasters like Skyrush and I305, but I'm not sure the general public feels exactly the same way. I305 has consistently had one of the shortest lines every time I've been to the park. I very rarely see someone go for an immediate re-ride on either I305 or Skyrush and to me that indicates that something is off.

The B&M hypers also have one key advantage - the restraints. You can make a strong argument that Intamin restraints as a whole have actually gotten worse with time rather than better. The same certainly can't be said of B&M hypers, because they got the design right the first time.

In defense of I305, nothing other than Volcano ever seems to have a line when I visit KD. Flight of Fear does on occasion, but really, I don't know that I ever really see anything super-crowded at KD.

Leviathan is probably the most utterly-smooth ride I have ever ridden, even compared to the other B&M speed coasters. I also much prefer the shorter trains to the "V" style ones on Behemoth and Diamondback.

I don't think Diamondback has anything really in common with Behemoth aside from the trains... It is much more closely related to Nitro layout-wise, but I think Nitro has the better layout.

Behemoth was also a surprise for me... I expected it to be less fun than Diamondback, but I like it significantly more. Very solid ride.

My track record hasn't cracked 100 yet so I know I'm missing out on quite a lot, but there are only 4 roller coasters that have "blown me away." I've been on plenty of other great rides, but these 4 have that extra special something that just gets me pumped:

Millennium Force - The first drop, overbanked turn and high-speed turn along the ground into the tunnel might be my favorite sequence of any roller coaster.

El Toro - No explanation needed.

TTD - Yeah it's short, but that launch...

The Beast - The double helix gets me pumped. I know the rest of the layout isn't that interesting and it has no airtime, but you can't deny that finale.

So unless I ride something that truly gets my heart racing, it will always be a notch below. They're still exciting and fun, but they lack that extra "umph." That's how I feel about Banshee and Diamondback (and the other B&M speed coasters I've ridden); they're a lot of fun and they're perfect for what they are, but when they're over I'm not jacked like I am on those top-tier rides.

I just looked, and Banshee was my #305 coaster. Well, then...

I guess I have some 'splainin to do.

I wish that I could have been there for media day. My recovery from surgery will end next week. I've been lurking on this forum for a long time. I've taken so much advice from so many members that made my families trips better than they would have been otherwise. Maybe I'll get a chance to thank some of you this year at Banshee Buzz.

My first trip of the year will be a week from this coming Sunday and I can't wait. The glowing reviews that Banshee is getting has me more exited about this season than I've been since I was a kid.

The one question that I will ask myself after my first lap is "Was Banshee & Diamondback worth the wait?" I have a feeling that is will be yes. KI has been the closest park to me all of my life. I've had several trips under the 4 different owners. Cedar Fair is by far my favorite owner. What they have done with the park in a short period of time is exceptional. I'm not very surprised by this though. I remember my excitement when I found that CF was buying the Paramount Park chain. I think that I may have even posted on here about it. Thanks to the CF team for cleaning up Paramount's mess.

With all this talk of Diamondback, I think it's appropriate to announce (to those that might not already know) that there are now seatbelts added to the trains. I heard there was going to be belts but did not see a single one on opening weekend. Sadly, I guess they took the time over the week to add them.

A sad, sad day indeed.

That's a strange decision. Has anyone ever managed to get out of that restraint?

With the restraint properly locked I don't see how anyone could get out. That is propably the same thought that Six Flag Texas had with the New Texas Giant and we know how that turned out.

I305 rarely has a line because it's a people eater, not because it isn't popular.

Seatbelts apparently coming to B&Ms suck.

I've never felt Beast was relentless. I love it, I find it exciting. Especially at night. Voyage? Relentless.

Put me in the camp that like throwjector air. I like to ride angry coasters that wanna fling me 100' in the air (as long as they don't).

I really liked Diamondback. One of the few non-inverts I enjoy sitting in the very front. Not having anything to block your feet, looking down at the top of the lift hill, and the airtime. Yum. Very sad to hear they are adding seatbelts...it will reduce that delicious lift. Glad I got to ride it before it happened.

Could the Beast's layout be better, particularly in the middle? Yes. But the first half, along with the meandering thru the forest, and that killer double helix in the end...it ends up being a pretty amazing ride (at least for me).

Yeah I don't see why diamondback needs seatbelts. Sigh.

I only think seat belts will diminish the ride if you let them. Might reduce capacity a little, but if you focus on how much the ride sucks with them then the ride is going to suck.