Paramount's Kings Island - 4/18/04
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Mason, OH
April 18, 2004
"The 2004 Coaster Season has begun"
Today started the serious coaster season of 2004 for me. Sure, I did
cheat a little in the off-season and ride a Miler coaster a few times,
but today marks the official return to the parks for me.
The usual suspects, Dave Althoff, Jr. and I headed to PKI, and arriving well after the walk back we proceeded into the park where we noticed the self-serve admission lanes have been removed, but there seemed to
be fingerprint readers in place in all the admission lanes. While
they were not in use today, I wonder if Paramount will be the next
chain to go with fingerprint validation of season passes, or two day
tickets.
We then safely avoided the photo taker ambush, and headed directly to
the Flying Skooters. My last ride of 2003 at PKI was the Flying Skooters, and so we started there today. I must say it did not take
long for me to warm up, and I had nice snappy ride. Say it with me
"KER-CHUNK" It appears as though the Eagles may have gotten a fresh
coat of paint. At any rate, it is good to see the park taking such
good care of ithis classic. Flying Eagles - Soaring, Graceful! Yeah,
Right!
After our Flying Eagles ride, we joind Sean F. and company and headed
down to Flight of Fear. On our way to Flight of Fear we noted the
signage was gone for the helicopter ride attraction, we then entered
the hangar, and could we have a little light on those stairs before
somebody gets hurt. If not light how about some glow-in-the-dark or
UV paint to make the steps more visible in the dark, We made our way
to Flight of Fear which was just a station wait. I am happy to report
I did not have any trouble getting into the train, and a few moments
later we were off.
Flight of Fear is a poster child for dramatic ride improvement, from
1999 to 2001 it made great strides in quality, mainly related to
losing the shoulder bars. Today, only the theme lights were on in the
bowl, and the mid-course was on light. Flight of Fear, however may
be the best operating coaster in the entire park right now. More on
that subject later.
We walked down to Racer, and while Sean F. and company were debating
whether or not to actually ride Racer, we took rides on both Racer a
recaR. First a note about seatbelts, if you can't fit under these
seatbelts, there is just no hope for you. Let's just say the belts
will fit anybody who can be accomodated by the lap bar, and some who
can't. Now, I want all the other wood coaster operators to come look
at this seatbelt arangement. It accomodates anybody the train will
accomodate, will self-retract to fit the person, and is very easy to
fasten. These belts did not seem to slow down loading at all.
Now onto the ride, the forwards side of Racer was running rough.
Rougher than the profile suggests. I mean out and back rides are
ususally pretty smooth, but Racer seems to vibrate and bounce its way
through the course. Shame, I can remember when Racer was a real
smooth, fun ride.
We then took a ride on backwards Racer (recaR). Our ride was slightly
delayed because of a rider that was having so much fun they couldn't
contain themselves. recaR always seems to run smoother than Racer.
Maybe its becuase it doesn't seem to operate as much as Racer. It
looks like backwards is the way to go for a fun Racer ride this year.
We then noted that we lost Sean F. and group, so we headed to yet
another walk on, Adventure Express. Adventure Express seems to have a
new sound effect in the second tunnel, and the service lights were on
in tunnel 3, and the door open in tunnel 4. They seem to not want the
tunnels to be dark. Theming elements asside, Adventure Express is
still a real fun ride.
We then went to join the crowd in the Action Zone. We first rode
Delirium which had a 3-4 cycle wait. Delirium still has it! Its one
of PKI's best newer additions, it has spin, it has swing, it has
power, and it has some weird g-force sensations. What's not to like.
After Delirium we headed over to Drop Zone, and noting only a 3 cycle
wait, we got in line. We spotted Sean F. while we were entering the
queue ( It seems we would be near each other most of the day). As
you may have heard Drop Zone has new seats, well at least new seat
covers. The seats are now black instead of yellow. The restraint
system appears to be the same. Soon, we were loaded onto the ride,
and I learned that my struggle with the shoulder bars on Drop Zone are
not cuased by my gut! Instead the bar hits my relatively hard
shoulder blades long before it hits my relatively cushy gut. In fact
when I first looked, I thought there was no way the seatbelt was going
to reach. Then I slouched down in the seat, At this point we were
more fighting my gut, rather than my shoulders to get the bar locked
but my gut has more give. Long story short, we finally got the belt
fastened (that is I got the belt fastened while Dave Althoff, Jr.
played the role of stapling ride op to help me)
What I noticed is that in order to fit in the seat, I had to slouch
way down to the point where my back was 4 inches or so off the
seatback. Well, anything for a ride, right? We went up and I
thought you used to get 2 revolutions, but they seemed to have cut it
down to 1 revolution., Then WHAMO, 300' straight down! I'm Awake!
Drop Rides, so much goodness packed into so little time.
We then looked around, and decided to ride the coasters of Action
Zone. We had heard Jeff Siebert talk about some new tracking
technology that was going to make Son of Beast a better ride. So,
against our better judgement "I have a very bad feeling about this",
"I'm going to regret this" we boarded Son of Beast. Hardly any wait
for it, so why not? We took a ride in 6.2 . I now know why they put
the on-ride camera at the base of the lift hill. Photos of smiling
riders sell better than photos of grimmacing riders. Whatever they
did to it, did not do anything to improve ride performance. If only
we could replace those two helixes with nice out and back segments,
maybe all would be well. So after our 2004 Son of Beast ride, the
ride remains an unrideable mess.
After that awful coaster experience, we went and rode Top Gun. Top
Gun may be short, and it may be a long walk back there (especially
with the re-ride gate closed), but it is a fun ride, its actually a
great suspeneded coaster, just a wee bit short. I noticed they
replaced the tarps under the bogies. The new tarps have even more
grommets than the old ones. I'd stay off this ride in the rain, if I
were you.
We then headed over to Face/Off. Face/Off has a bit of a wait, but
nothing serious. Face/Off is a really fun Vekoma coaster. No, I
really mean that! Face/Off is a great, if short ride. Face/Off seems
to have gotten new OTSR's as well. The new ones are mostly black,
with a big yellow section at the bottom.
Leaving Face/Off I checked my watch, and it seemed we had accompished
a lot in the three hours we had been at the park so far. We then
walked past the Making of the Movies show which was to start in 34
minutes, but decided against it. We headed around past the front
gate, again dodgin the photo patrol that was still posted, and made
our way to Hana Barbera Land.
Our next stop was Scooby Doo and the Hauned Castle. The line waqs
just across the the bridge across the Moat ("MoatLand: Have your X
coupons ready!), we then entered the Entrance Hall "Entrance Hall
Land, (have your Y tickets ready)", and proceeded down in Stairland
("Have your Z tickets ready") [Footnote 1]
A while later we were boarding our Mini Mystery Machine, and riding
through Ghastly Manor. After our first ride, I sorrowfully admit I am
0/1 for Scooby rides this year, I lost by about 100 points. We even
had a wheelchair rider head start! (The ride slows down while
loading wheelchair riders)
We then went over to Beastie, and after a a while we were in the back
car of Beastie. Beastie is the best running wood coaster in the park,
but of course they could not have it flawless, they had to add a trim
brake just ro remind you that "You can't have it all".
From Beastie, we continued our tour of the park with Reptar, noticing
a longer than we wanted to wait line for Ghoster Coaster, anyway
Reptar's line didn't look all that long, but it was moving slower than
I recall it being in the past. After a longer wait than expected we
boarded Reptar. Reptar is another fine Vekoma ride, no I mean it,
Reptar is another fun Vekoma ride! No complaints about this one,
though I would rather be on Flight of Fear.
By this time a snack was in order, and so noting that the Krusty Krab
Snack Shack is STILL out of Krabby Patties, I settled for a Smurfberry
Ice Cream is a very smurfy dish. How was it? Just Smurfy! It should
be for $2.50. I mean $2.50 is what I am used to paying for two dips
of Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream at Graeter's (the nations best ice
cream flavor, at the nations best ice cream shop, not that I think
highly of it or anything :) )
We then took a walking tour of Rivertown where we saw that parade they
must be talking about. I didn't notice any elaborate floats, but we
did see about half a dozen people marching around with pool noodles,
inviting us to Come Along, Come Along, to the ,ooops, wrong park,
sorryy. Anytway they were pushing the Meet the Nicktoons Live show.
We declined.
The two water rides looked to have a bit of a wait, and with each of
us having camera gear that we deem valuable, we decided against water
attractions.
We did take a nice sit in the train station and waited for a train to
arrive, then we took a nice relaxing train ride. Of course, our main
purpose for riding the train ride was to check on Boomerang Bay. It
sees to be coming along, with Zinga, ooops, sorry, that wrong park
thing again, all these parks just blend together after awhile, the
Tazmanian Typhoon, and Coolangta Racers are showing great progress,
and thats really about all we could notice from thet train excpet that
al lot of our favorited are back under new names. Enjoy them folks, I
won't be able to join you, as the copy of the PKI Park Guide 2004
states that "All Crocodile Dundees Waterslides are not recommeded for
guests in excess of 250 pounds" Have Fun! Tell me how they are!
David then re-reads the guide, WAIT thats a recommendation, not a
prohibition - Boomerang Bay, here I come. Whats the WORST that could
happen. :)
Speaking of the Boomerang Bay guide, it seems that while the "Awesome
Aussie Twister" (Ultra Twister), and Bondi Pipeline (Bonzai) require
their riders to be 46" tall, there is a big fat "X" in the 52" column.
does that mean riders for those two slides must be between 46" and
52". If so, thats a drastic change, as I ahve been on both of them in
the past, and I can't recall when I was under 52",
Also on the Park Map, there was no reference to Kookaburra Bay, did
that attraction fall victim to budget cuts???
Anyway, the tran then returned to Losantiville , which looks awfully
similar to Rivertown. BTW: take a close look at the two small
American flags on the fronts of the locomotives, take a close look at
the field of stars. Its not 50, its not 48, I will leave as a trivia
question the actual number of stars on those flags.
I noted the Kettle Corn place is still there, despite rumors to the
contrary, then we headed back to Beast.
They had the new Beast video playing in the queue area, too bad the
volume was turned down so low, and with the sun, the glare on the
screen I only caught bits and pieces, but from what I saw it looks
pretty good. Wonder if I can get the DVD in the gift shop. I noted
the signs changed in the station, then we boarded the train, and
headed up the first lift, with a new annoucement with safety
annoucements alternating with assorted scary noises broadcaszt over
what looks like a bunch of speakers they picked up at a closeout sale,
I mean they must have half a dozen different models up there.
Then the Beast went over the first drop.
I wish I could have nice things to say about the Beast on its 25th
anniversary, but all for naught. The car we were in must have had
square blocks for wheels, cause it Bumpda-BumpDa-BumpDa,
bounce-bounce-bounced, jack hammered its way around the track. I mean
there was not a shred of fun in that ride. That was bar-none, the
worst Beast has ever run. Ick, get me our of Rivertown, that was
HORRID. That actually made me start to think there was hope for SOB
(Okay, not really, but the SOB ride was SMOOTHER than the Beast today,
and that's saying something, and I thought the SOB ride was rough)
Maybe PKI can send its wood coaster maintenance crew to Holiday World
to learn how to maintain a wood coaster. Just a thought.
We then finished up our tour of PKI's coasters with a ride on Vortex.
Vortex was running about its usual self. Mediocre, but then maybe my
judgement is cluded by that massive headache Beast just handed me.
We then inspected the arcades for Pinball, no machines to be found
excpet a 4 player derby race redepmtion game that uses a pinball like
mechanism. The Indiana riverboats should give PKI a bonus for
teaching cincinnati children that gambling is cool. I mean redepmtion
games these days aren't even skill based, they are essentially
gambling machines. Luck seems to be the predominant decider between
winners and loosers.
We then watched a mechanic climb into the center of the Wave Swinger,
don't know what that was about, but the ride was operating later that
same day.
We then headed to Festhaus to use one of the cleanest restrooms in the
park, and I grabbed a soda, right before heading to Macking of The
Movies.
Making of the Movies is the big new show this year in the masively
upgraded Paramount Theater. Real theater seats (well they forgot the
cup holders but its a step in the right direction), new AV equipment,
all around a much upgraded facility.
The show itself, well I don't want to give too much away but here
goes:
*Montage of Paramount Movie Hits
*Demonstration of Foley Artists in "Sleepy Hollow"
*Movie trailer for an upcoming Paramount Movie
*Demonstration of green screen using "Titanic"
*The secret finale which I won't give away
All this with some comedy thrown in. All in all a pretty good show,
and on par with what movie studio parks offer in this regard. Its a
nice addition.
After the show, we toured the Emporium, and looked but did not buy a
wide variety of merchandise. After the Emporium we took a ride up
Eiffel Tower, where we noted the newly rehabbed elevators are ready.
The biggest visible changes are the cars arre now lined in stainless
steel and some of the metal grillwork in the door windows is gone.
My oh my, was it windy on top of tower, but we looked around, got some
photos, decided that there are certain big buildings the park could do
a better job of making look asthetically pleasing from the tower. Then
headed back down the tower to spend the last half hour riding Coney
Mall flat rides.
We took a ride on the newly rehabbed Scrambler, there seems to be a
lot more than just fresh paint here. It looks like someone really did
a nice job on this one. We then walked over and took a ride on
Monster, then headed over to Wave Swinger, then onto Troika, and
finally finishing up with another SNAP-TASTIC ride on the Flying
Eagles.
Till next time,
[1] If you caught those obscure references, youtoo must have seen the
fractured fairy tale, "Sleeping Beauty", which poked fun at
Disneyland, if you didn't catch those references, there were from the
fractured fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty".
David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville
My Blog -> http://coasterville.blogspot.com
Hilarity aside, you do tempt those who live within striking distance of Kings Island.
I too thought look at all the speakers...here comes the hill...tunnel..OOoooooOOOoooCHHhhhhhh
Does anyone know what PKI did to these trains to make them so bad? My ride was as bad if not worse then SOB last year. To the point where I only took one ride even when there was no line.
As for the Racer:
My wife and I rode only the foward (since the backwards was only testing). We thought we were in for it (especially after just riding Beast), but we found it to be so smooth we could have taken a nap. Though I don't know if it seemed smooth, since we just rode the Beast. But I thought it was CP Blue Streak smooth.
"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com
*** Edited 4/22/2004 12:58:03 PM UTC by RollerCoasterGod***
It was nice seeing you on Sunday.
As for Beast rides, I had one of the best Beast rides I have ever gotten, on the same exact train, at the same exact time.
I have never been a huge fan of riding the coaster in the back so perhaps that is why I enjoyed my ride. The front row was smooth and felt like The Beast should.
I was kind of surprised to see the trims on Flight of Fear to be on as every ride I have taken on that coaster in the last 3 years has been trimless. Perhaps a light trim was needed though as it did feel as if we were going faster than normal. At least it wasn't a full stop. =:^)
-Sean (who will be back on Sunday depending on the weather)
I did appreciate the in-park physical improvements, from the new elevators with more glass, to the theatre with the real theater seats. The show was a good laugh too.
My favorite improvement was Son of Beast, never a bad ride so far this year in any seat!
Dental Plan! Lisa Needs Braces.
Anyway-my trip to PKI 4/10 was miserable. Both Flight of Fear and Son of Beast were closed. My kids insisted on a back seat ride of Beast, resulting in headaches all around. The front is the only place to ride this one.
Sean Flaharty said:
I was kind of surprised to see the trims on Flight of Fear to be on as every ride I have taken on that coaster in the last 3 years has been trimless. Perhaps a light trim was needed though as it did feel as if we were going faster than normal. At least it wasn't a full stop. =:^)-Sean (who will be back on Sunday depending on the weather)
Sean, the reason you are noticing the trims this year is because FOF is moving a bit faster than in past years. I am not sure why but know that is the reason.
The 'Making of the Movies' has to be one of the worst shows I've ever seen. The first segment was vintage 1930's radio, not exactly new stuff. The green screen segment was OK, but most people probably have already seen one of those in action. And how many times did they have to do that 'so who wants to be a movie star' gag? The audience was pretty much bored into a coma by the end.
So comparing there maintance crew to Holiday Worlds maintance crew is unfair based on the amount of wooden feet of track to maintain and the complexity and size of PKI's wooden coasters. Holiday World has two of the best wooden coasters, but they are relatively new midsized wooden coasters, that are designed by CCI, who used much more advanced computer programs to engineer there rides. Paramount Kings Island wooden coasters were designed with the exception of Son of Beast, in an era before CAD, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and other computer programs were around.
Having worked at the park and seeing how hard the maintance crew worked at maintaining the Beast, and the other wooden coasters, I know that they do there best effort to keep the ride running as smooth and as enjoyable as possible. When I was a ride operator they would take several hours to complete there morning check up before they oversee the block test with the ride operators and take there morning test run. Just by talking and conversing with them, I could tell that they took there jobs seriously and took pride in making sure the ride was a safe, smooth, enjoyable ride.
Another thing I would like to add is the addition of the magnetic brake on the first drop. For those that might not have known, this brake was added late August 2002. At the time some ACE members and other fans of the Beast were disappointed and confused why they did this. However what these people did not consider was how considerably rougher the Beast was without any brake on the first drop. If you consider that during this time without the magnetic brake on the first drop, there were more guest complaints about the ride being rougher, the ride was closed for the whole day two times during the year to do track work, and the first turn after the first drop was completely rebuilt for the next year, the reason for adding the magnetic drop appears to be a logical smart move. The Beast with the skid brakes, also had a long skid brake on its first drop and the speed with the skid brakes at the bottom of the first drop is about the same with the new braking system.
In my opinion the Beast has been runing great this year. I have ridden it in the front seat and the second to last seat and have
felt the ride has been runing as smooth as ever. The days of the out of control rides on the Beast are more than likely over, however the Beast is delivering consistantly good rides, and not much different than a typical Beast ride with the old skid brakes. I am not the only one with this opinion, because the Beast was voted the best wooden coaster on the coasterbuzz's 2004 coasters' choice awards. *** Edited 4/26/2004 8:55:18 PM UTC by Beast Fan***
Kudos for your time spent on Beast crew, they really have had one of the consistently better ride crews at PKI.
I'm sure the park goes all out to provide the best Beast experience possible, however that doesn't change the fact that the car I was riding in had wheels that felt like they were square (or a the very least had an abnormality or chunk taken out of them), resulting in a routine bump throught the ride, resulting in a jack-hammer effect, resulting in a huge headache for me. Perhaps by my next visit that errant wheel will have been changed out.
However, a trip report is not meant to be "How the park always is" a trip report is "How was the park today", and on the day of my visit, Beast delivered an absolutely horrid ride.
BTW: I don't recall mentioning the Beast's brakes once in my TR.
David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville
My Blog -> http://coasterville.blogspot.com
You did not mention anything about the brakes on the Beast, however I thought I would mention how it was running much rougher in 2002, and now with the magnetic brake on its first drop and the retracting of the first turn is much smoother. Also I remember back when they added the magnetic brake on the first drop there were a lot of coaster enthusiasts that were upset that they added the brake. I thought I would give a possible explanation to perhaps why they added the brake. *** Edited 4/26/2004 9:10:06 PM UTC by Beast Fan*** *** Edited 4/26/2004 10:27:27 PM UTC by Beast Fan***
Several things contributed to the decision to add magnetic brakes to Beast.
First, a minor accident ocurred two seasons ago (final season with skids) where the hydraulics failed on the final block brakes before the station. This resulted in a train rolling forward and bumping another train being loaded in the station. No one was injured luckily.
Second, the skid brakes were very antiquated. They required constant attention by the Wood Coaster Maintenance Crew. They had to monitor speeds constantly throughout each day at least every hour. As speeds increased or decreased, they would manually adjust the skids over and over. To do so, they would literally add or remove weight in the form of nuts, bolts, rocks etc. (no kidding)to a can suspended from the brakes. This raised or lowered them as needed.
Third, it allowed for a better safety monitoring system. The magnetic brakes are much more dependable than the skids. The skids were easily affected by outside elements such as rain, snow and freezing temperatures... that is why all the braking points (except for trims) are covered. Obviously now without the skids, the coverings over the block braking areas is unnecessary..... hmmmmmmmmmmm.........
Fourth, cost and upkeep had a lot to do with it. A simple magnetic brake requires little to no maintenance. However the skids were very long runs of lumber with their length covered in brake pads. Those pads had to be replaced and maintained.
Anyway, there it is in a nutshell. Basically, Beast's skids were deemed as ancient, undependable mechanics and PKI deemed it necessary to bring Beast into the 21st century.
Finally, this year on openeing weekend I experienced the best ride I have had on Beast since the magnetic brakes were added. It actually felt like the old days were back again. However the best Beast ride I ever took (or ever will take) was during a Fearfest media event a few years back. I was tipped off by someone at the park that the skids were drastically lowered and maintenance was on their way to raise them. I scrambled over for a ride and beat them to it. It was, without a doubt, an incredible ride I'll never forget.
Shaggy
*** Edited 4/29/2004 5:50:11 PM UTC by Shaggy***
Shaggy
Shaggy said:
Finally, this year on openeing weekend I experienced the best ride I have had on Beast since the magnetic brakes were added. It actually felt like the old days were back again. However the best Beast ride I ever took (or ever will take) was during a Fearfest media event a few years back. I was tipped off by someone at the park that the skids were drastically lowered and maintenance was on their way to raise them. I scrambled over for a ride and beat them to it. It was, without a doubt, an incredible ride I'll never forget.Shaggy
*** Edited 4/29/2004 5:50:11 PM UTC by Shaggy***
This may show my age a bit, but I can remember riding the beast back from the first month it was open. I must confess to having good, o.k., and poor rides over the years. It seemed as if some of the runs on the pre-SOB media day were some pretty good ones. I remember riding in front of Herr Stengel and someone from his "posse", looking back and seeing a wry smile from them.(I took it as one of enjoyment. Not of one, others out there are thinking at the moment).
Also have to admit, "back in the day", part of the enjoyment with the Beast was the feeling you had in line. The crowd was there to have fun. The music played in the QUEU seemed to be the right music. People shared the music, the atmosphere, the ride, and the moment together.
I took my family on Easter Day, and we had a few enjoyable rides on Beast. We always seem to have a good day when the park is open Easter Sunday.
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