Kings Island 2020

RCMAC said:

I like <insert coaster type here> so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it immensely.

This is pretty much how I approach any new ride. Definitely curbs disappointment. But then again, I've become less enthusiasty over the years, which probably helps.

I completely get the sentiment that it's a massive ride and almost by default, it will be amazing. It's pretty hard to screw up a ride of that size.

I also agree with the sentiment that if this is indeed the ride's actual layout, I'm somewhat underwhelmed. In my opinion, Kings Island whiffed with Diamondback, missing an opportunity to build a super-Beast that used terrain in a way that megacoasters other than Phantom's Revenge rarely do. I think the airtime moments are clutch, but I feel like Kings Island got a ride so similar to (and in my opinion, inferior to) Behemoth and Intimidator when they could've really gone in a completely different direction and exploited the terrain.

This is the same situation. It has a layout that essentially shrinks Fury and cuts some of what makes Fury 325 so incredible, sticking a little bit of Shambhala in for good measure, but failing to take advantage of their terrain as they have with so many other rides (The Beast, Mystic Timbers, The Bat, Adventure Express, Banshee).

I've no doubt it will be an awful lot of fun, and goodness knows that most people likely won't care, but I'm also of the mindset that sometimes, you should go for the gold because you can, even if you don't have to do it.

Vater- it does and in my old age I’m kind of the same way.

I’ve said it a million times, but I’m extremely fortunate to live in central Ohio. Kings Island has been my (other) home park since I first walked through the gate in 1972. I’ve attended every season since and I’ve seen the park through their best and their worst. This qualifies as neither.

So... yeah. It’s ok.

I must need to turn in my enthusiast card then, because I think Diamondback is amazing and not a missed opportunity in any sense. The two since then border on best-in-class. I always liked the park in the Paramount days, but now I love it.

The only 300+ rides I've been on are Millennium Force and Intimidator 305, both of which are more twisty and turny. I can't wait to see what B&M does at this height.

I completely agree with you on the two post-Diamondback heavy hitters being nearly best-in-class. Banshee is spectacular and Mystic Timbers is my #2 wooden coaster. No disagreement there. I do think that Diamondback is quite fun and not a bad ride per se, but rather a ride that, with just a few modifications, could have easily been a candidate for the best B&M ride out there.

I'll say that if you think it is amazing, though, you're in for a treat when you experience B&M in the 300+ range, because the two already built have levels of aggression that harken back to the early days of B&M, with Fury 325 being especially spectacular. This ride will likely at least have that going for it, which is more than enough to ensure massive draw.

On the plus side, there's no MCBR to "neuter" the ride. That fact right there also means no "lame second part" to complain about. (Gatekeeper, Yukon, etc.) Shouldn't enthusiasts be happy about that?

I haven't been on Fury, but Leviathan left me a little underwhelmed. It just felt a little bit too short and the air just wasn't quite strong enough and the speed wasn't quite speedy enough. It really felt like B&M and CW saying, "Let's build a 300' for the sake of building it." I don't know if I'm just a whiny enthusiast, but I preferred Behemoth by a decent margin. This layout looks a lot like Leviathan.

I know the dead horse is no more dead than it was before I started hitting it, and it's expected (and accepted) of enthusiasts to compare similar coasters hundreds of miles apart, but to me it makes more sense to compare (and contrast) a new coaster with the rest of the lineup in the same park.

Is it too similar? Or does it add additional variety to KI's existing lineup? I haven't been there in eons, but as a casual observer from the East coast, it looks like this may be pretty thrilling, yet different enough to round out their lineup quite nicely. Judging from a photo of a blueprint and a NoLimits video, at least.

If I do that, I'll wind up beating the (dead) terrain horse even harder, haha.

That style of ride certainly suits KI well, vastly more than the recently removed Firehawk. I think back to my first visit in 2005 and my last visit in 2017 and it's basically Son of Beast out, Diamondback/Banshee/Mystic Timbers in. My qualms with their megacoaster layouts aside, KI has become a vastly more appealing, more well-rounded park in recent years.

I’ll agree with that. When Cedar Fair took the park there was a slight buzz in the air that KI would become CP South. (See Dorney...) But that didn’t happen and I’ve seen a lot of the themeing and beauty of the park return under CF’s watch.

When the B&M gigas arrived at both Canada’s Wonderland and Carowinds the enthusiast cry was “Whyyyyyy?? They already haaaaave one of thooooose!” It turns out both people eaters exist just fine next to each other at each park. There’s the usual discussion over which is better, but that’s par for the course.

I admit to being in the camp that wondered why Canada's Wonderland would have two B&M megas, even if one was much larger. Having visited there post-Leviathan as well as Carowinds twice post-Fury, I know longer wonder such things. In both cases, the B&M giants are very complementary.

I was at KI the last two days, and my first trip in many years and I was impressed with the park for multiple reasons;

1. Staff was very friendly, to the point that I thought that CF must be working on that.

2. The landscaping is spectacular.

3. The ride lineup is pretty good, with Mystic Timbers being a great example of a coaster that packs a punch, but doesn't break any records.

I am a bit astonished by the complaints. My home park is WoF, and we would be ecstatic for something like this. I think you Ohioans are somewhat spoiled. Some of us are 1000 miles or more away from a Giga. Enjoy the damn ride!

On a side note, Diamondback went down yesterday afternoon and never came back up. I have no idea why.

If the no limits video is at all accurate, I think this looks like it will be a stunning ride. If I had to bet I'd say it would rank somewhere between Fury and Leviathan on our Top 100 list here when all is said and done (probably 9th or 10th). Which would make it Kings Island's best ride by far, with Mystic Timbers and Diamondback way back in the mid-20s.

So if you look at it that way, KI is getting their best ride ever.

It seems arbitrary to compare it to the gigas at other parks that are hundreds of miles away, doesn't it?

(Edit: I forgot about Banshee, which is at 21. Looking at the list, CP has 4 rides in the top 30 and KI has 3 right now. With this giga they'll have 4 in the top 30 and could knock TTD out of the top 30 which means Kings Island will be the only park with 4 coasters in the top 30! I see very little to complain about here)

I'm not really concerned about a coaster's height aside from college courses in marketing and advertising--height can be an easily protoable selling point.

I believe the tallest coaster at Cedar Point on my first visit (50 plus years ago....) was Jumbo Jet. I wasn't tall enough to ride and wouldn't reach that for several years.

In 1978, a 125 foot tall coaster seemed amazing. Who could imagine going any taller? :-)

I think that if the videos are accurate it looks fun. I can say having just ridden Leviathan, it looks more interesting that they coaster, which was good, but was exactly what I expected it to be when it was announced. I’m glad we got the Marsha at our park, and not Jan.

Tek- Wouldn’t this KIGA be the Cindy, Fury 325 the Jan, and Leviathan the Marsha Marsha Marsha?

To be honest, I said, "meh" when I saw the layout and POV for Mystic Timbers, but the end product is probably one of the most fun, but at the same time most re-rideable wooden coasters I've experienced. I definitely can't denounce this new giga at least until I've ridden it. Even if I find it "boring," chances are the GP will eat it up just like they have Millennium Force at CP (another "boring" ride according to some) for the last 20 years.

I find this layout rather uninspired. Even Diamondback's out-and-back layout has more turns. The turns in Fury are part of its magic and this layout has one less turn. As mentioned by other people, there is some excellent terrain that they could have made another Beast-type coaster and probably the best 300 footer around, but the land they are clearing only has a small amount of terrain change.

B&M speed coasters - particularly the ones built 2006 and later - are all excellent. Of that group, the lowest one in my rankings is Intimidator at 18. All of the others - Fury, Leviathan, Mako, Diamondback, Goliath at SFOG, Behemoth - are all in my top 10. They're the best genre of coasters in the world IMO and this looks to be a nice addition to that already impressive lineup.

Having said that, I think this coaster is two elements short of feeling "fulfilling". One more airtime moment on the way out and one more element on the way in would have made this coaster really spectacular. I would have loved to have seen a (1) small speed hill added just before the turnaround, and (2) a low-to-the-ground Millennium Force-style speed section after the turnaround.

I think the rest of the coaster looks fabulous and it will be a lot of fun. Like some others here, though, I'll always wonder what could have been. It wouldn't have taken much to put this coaster over the top, and it will be interesting at the first big Q & A session after this is officially announced to hear how and why they settled on this particular layout. Part of this stems from the fact that it's unlikely anything of this magnitude will ever be built at this park again, so it feels like there's a sense of finality with this.

Gary you need to get to Barcelona to ride Shambala. If you love those there’s one more you will enjoy. Add me to the camp of “it looks like it’s missing one or two elements”. As someone who grew up at that park and always heard whispers of the plans for the “Magnum down to the river” or later “giga down to the river” (it would never go to the river) I’m just a tad bit underwhelmed. Yes. I’m that guy.