Paramount sues manufacturers of Son of Beast for faulty construction

In the Cincinnati Enquirer back in April it said that they may add tunnels to SoB eventually. If they are indeed going to refurbish parts of the track over the winter will they add tunnels? I think a tunnel at the bottom of the first hill would be awesome.

Our party of 8 went to PKI this past June. SOB was up, whoops, down, whoops back up again. We were staying at the PKI campground the day the train got stuck on the first lift hill for 3+ hours. Not the sort of thing to look forward for the next day in the park.

Guess the thing that upset me the most was the Maintenance Department always closing something down after standing in a line for a long time. We're talking the big rides here. We traveled 9 hours to get our group together from Pennsylvania for a day in the park. Figure this is an all or nothing deal since schedules and vacations are hard to setup 6 months in advance. To have multiple rides close on a regular basis during our one day visit made the PKI visit sour.

SOB was not the reason we went to PKI. We did have a chance to ride it but it was violent considering other woodies in our travels. My buddy had a sore neck after getting off (not kidding). The Beast was much better and worth the ride wait. SOB has a long way to go before it would ever get my vote as a good coster. Another post said it best: This is NOT the way to build a woodie.

I did write PKI Guest Relations about this situation and our general dissapointment of our visit. They *DID* make it right by offering passes for the 2001 season. Since we camp and travel different states each year, it's unlikely we'll see PKI again. It was just an OK trip because of the continuous closing of muitiple rides. Hey, most folks only get one shot at a park per season or while traveling. Closing down stuff, waiting in hot lines only to be turned away often is not fun.

Not sure if all this maintanence work is related to a June park visit. Hopefully July and August visitors had better luck then we did.

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RVA


*** This post was edited by Robert L. Van Allen on 11/26/2000. *** *** This post was edited by Robert L. Van Allen on 11/27/2000. ***

I've ridden SoB 3 times now, and I don't think you can bash the rides. It's one of the best roller coasters out there, and in my opinion just as good as the father. As far as its amount of down time, the first year the beast was open it had many similar problems. On a different note, I know that pki will be getting a new movie in their ride simulator, I think it was inspired by Stan Lee. I think that Outer Limits: Flight of Fear will be getting a much needed change of some sort. I know that there will be a new themed area themed to the Nickelodeon tv network, which I think will contain a new log flume and a junior inverted coaster, which I think may be done by Arrow. I've also heard that the Vortex is getting a paint job, but I'm not sure, that's just a rumor.

I have been working at Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minnesota. For the past 5 seasons I have been taking trips out to Cedar Point, but this year for the 1st trip I decided to drive down to Kings Island to find out what the fuse of the Son was. I got to Hamelton, Ohio at 12:00am Thursday and stayed at Red Roof Inn. I got to Kings Island around 9:00am Saturday and saw my first sighting of the Son. But instead of riding the Son, I first rode the father The Beast which was excellent. Then I started to head over to the Son, I was noticing some details about the ride it-self and I was wondering why aren't there shoulder restraints especialy on a loop, aslo I noticed no SEAT BEALTS either just a lap bar! In my opion I think the Son is not worth it to ride maybe just for 1 time, it's rough and jerky I personaly don't think it's a safe ride. I noticed when I was half way home to MN I was staring to have some neck pains and I also got A bad head ake from the ride, so thank's Kings Island for building another good coaster needs improvements on the son and the park it self.