Kings Island new Coaster 2014

Marvin Miller said:
Off the point, does anyone know why Canada's Wonderland and B&M went with 4 a row seating for Leviathan rather than more spacious V open seating?

Because they took my advice for once? Kidding...but I'm very happy they got what I perceive to be a train that delivers a superior ride...

Marvin, I don't know the answer, but I do have a theory that I pitched back when they announced Leviathan. I can't think of another ride out there with a longer lift chain than Leviathan and I think they needed to go with a lighter train. I would think the smaller chassis would = less weight, but again I don't know the guts of the trains.

Again, that's only a theory. It would be an interesting question to ask if B&M does a Q&A again.

~Rob

I'm guessing they will build a wing rider there, as the excitement around Gatekeeper, and the other wing riders grows. I doubt they will invest in another wooden coaster, since Son of beast was torn down. I'm sure they will try to duplicate the excitement of Gatekeeper, and maybe even build a bigger ride. Probably call it "The Bat" in memory of the old Kings Island "Bat". Sure would have like to have been able to ride the bat when it was there, looked a hell of a lot better than Iron Dragon.

Son of Bat, perhaps? ;)

"This time, we BANKED the turns."

I have always considered Top Gun / Air Platform to be the Son of Bat.

If it's not a 500-footer, leave it out.

You are probably going to be sorely disappointed, SheiKraFiend.

Honestly, I can't think of a better fit for that space/park than a really nice B&M invert, and I've love to see the way in which 20 years of building this type of coaster would benefit its design. The cynic in me, however, thinks it's probably another wingrider, which isn't shabby either. If we're going on pure druthers, a Gravity Group installation would be ideal to me personally, but this discussion already has its share of unrealistic expectations.

LostKause said:

You are probably going to be sorely disappointed, SheiKraFiend.

Absolutely. I do not reasonably expect that they'll be manufacturing such a roller coaster anywhere in the world for a long time if ever, but I would love to see the day that such a monstrosity existed. Hopefully whatever KI gets next year will be great, and I'm sure it will be with CF at the helm.

If it was a wingrider why would they start construction so early when they had no issues getting gatekeeper up on time. My money would be on a b&m giga, hopefully better than Leviathan, that ride just didnt seem complete to me. I think it fell victim to too high of expectations from me, and me being in a bad mood in general because the park was so crowded that day.

Decent point; I hadn't thought about how the date construction begins might rule various types of coasters in and out, or at least affect their likelihood. Was Leviathan's construction commencement on a similar timeline, the very beginning of the previous season?

It seems construction schedules are dictated as much by site access as they are by project scope.

Marvin, if you try Magnum again go with the third car, second or third row. Smoothest (still wouldn't say smooth) with best airtime.

Break Trims said:

Decent point; I hadn't thought about how the date construction begins might rule various types of coasters in and out, or at least affect their likelihood. Was Leviathan's construction commencement on a similar timeline, the very beginning of the previous season?

I agree with the fact they're doing this so early that this has to be B&M Giga. It won't be a bad thing considering there's only 3 Gigas in the world right now. And hopefully B&M learned a few lessons from Leviathan.

CoasterBeagle - thanks for the tip on Magnum. Will try!

Leviathan wasn't started until August if I remember correctly. There are many reasons why they would need to start work on the site this early, it's not necessarily because it's a very large coaster.

If I was the guy who was head of park design, I'd do something like this...

bjames said:

Leviathan wasn't started until August if I remember correctly. There are many reasons why they would need to start work on the site this early, it's not necessarily because it's a very large coaster.

Is anyone aware of work being started this early in the year for anything smaller than a Giga or...?

LostKause said:

If I was the guy who was head of park design, I'd do something like this...

Get a 5 year old with a couple of crayons to come up with the future layout of the park?

(I kid...)

I dont know what you guys are talking about, that land is clearly being razed to build the long awaited and long asked for land of....

Camp Snoopy!

We all KNOW it will be named Banshee and be some sort of B&M.