New Entries in the CoasterBuzz Top 100

Sucks.

According to the current rankings, Orion is the 4th best coaster at Kings Island.

Feels pretty accurate to me.

And its a rounding error above the 40 year old coaster in the park and thus 5th rated coaster in the park. I didn't make it to park this year for Orion. My son went with one or two of his friends. They pretty much agree with the ranking here. Had you asked me before the ride opened if that would be the case, I would have said no. But given how many people here are able to hate a ride without even riding it, maybe not a surprise to many here. LOL And thats not to say that being ranked outside the top 20-30 means the ride sucks.

Yeah, a top 100 list represents...what? Like the top 4 or 5% of the roller coasters on the planet. The idea that one park has 5 rides that land on the top half of that list is pretty incredible.

Hmmm, and I would take this KI top 5(0) and read it back 5-1 (46 to 22) and think it's more accurate. (The only difference being sliding Timbers from 5 to 3 spot or is that 1 to 3?). To each their own. Now you've got me applying the same formula to the Point.

In fact, the park has more in the top 50 than any other park.

I’d point out that KI has five of the top fifty on an almost exclusively US list. I still imagine that even if the list was more global, though, they’d have an entry or two. Mystic Timbers would make my top fifty, and probably Banshee as well.

Fair.

So according to RCDB there are currently 769 operating coasters in the United States. A top 100 list represents the top 13%.

The top 46 represents the top 6%. Kings Island holds five of those spots. Still impressive.

And interesting, because in this case I don't think the whole equals the sum of the parts.

I don't disagree with the rankings, yet I don't think of Kings Island as a place I'm in a hurry to go. Weird.

Cedar Point has 3 of the top 11 coasters. No other park has more than 1.

Yeah, but Lake Compounce has 1, and that's a much higher percentage per coaster capita.

I think it's important to recognize that while we loved visiting Kings Island and the PR staff back in the day (think early BeastBuzz events), I wouldn't say I was ever particular excited about the coasters as best in class. Cedar Fair made this a pretty great coaster park.

In terms of overall guest experience, I’d argue they’ve turned it into the top park in Ohio. In the last several years I’ve always had better customer services and observed better ops there than CP.

It's a weird phenomenon in my opinion.

I would think the CP top 5 should best the KI top five (plus the former has a much deeper bench).

I wouldn't myself put Bashee or Diamondback anywhere near the best of their respective manufacturer classifications. The polls are all wrong!

And no matter how great the Cedar Fair adds are. (And they are great), Kings Island is the best example I can think of a park having an empty feeling and being better atmosphere back in the early aughts. Though I have gotten that feeling about most parks I revisit (CP, SFGAdv, Geauga Lake...) Hershey Park was the exception that held strong... well until this year's rev. Nostalgia's a b-tch.

I would agree Kings Island's coasters are not best in class, but for me I have to give them credit for replacing 2 coasters that were painful to ride (Son of Beast and Firehawk) with 2 that any park would love to have (Banshee and Orion).

This will happen again when the Vortex land gets a new coaster, although it might not be until 2025 at this point.

Looking at my track record, I like Mystic Timbers, Banshee, and Diamondback. After that the next coaster on there is the Beast down at 91. So, yeah. Pre-Cedar Fair I liked the park ok, but everything was just average at best. No reason to draw me back. Nothing was total crap, but nothing great either. They get the "most improved after the buyout" award for me.

CF definitely brought improvement in terms of rides installed, but I definitely give Paramount credit for at least making them nice parks. Well, I can really only speak for KD and KI, but I thought both were above-average parks by a good margin that just didn’t really have the best coasters. CF took care of that last piece, though, and now both are among my favorites.

PGA/CGA is and continues to be the MiA of the former Paramount parks. It's "nice enough" but other than Railblazer and the conversion from Vortex to Patriot, there hasn't been much investment in the park at all. Here's hoping for that rumored hyper.

Gold Striker? Mass Effect? New Picnic Pavillion? South Bay Shores? Anyway, the hyper you are hoping for at CGA just made it to this list at #43.

Was Gold Striker a CF addition? I didn't realize that. My CGA became my home park in 2016 and my visit before that was when Stealth was still running (2002ish), so everything between then is sort of a blur to me.

I don't really think of Mass Effect, the picnic pavilions, or the not-yet-open South Bay Shores as major investments. They felt like they were thrown bones to stave off a mass exodus, especially since, during many of those years there was evidence that CF was trying to sell/unload the park in some way.