The Beast reprofile will extend its length by two feet

No, I don't think I am. I don't think many people outside of a small circle of niche hobbyists is really that upset that a major project is delayed - like everything else in this world right now - and them mentioning the extra 2 feet seems nothing like a tactical diversion and more of a fun tidbit for the masses.

I would think it could run 4 if blocked for it and operated efficiently (no carry on loose articles etc).

It could definitely run 4 if it had a show building. The shed on Timbers is actually genius. It’s designed to stack and keep people entertained.

Damn it, now I have to change all my PIN codes.

The drop is now a cross between the Beast ramp and the American Eagle round hump. A great place to land! Both drops are not given credit for being different, great designs indeed.

I'll take extra time on The Beast no matter how short it is. :)

Looking at the amount of wood they replaced...and knowing the cost of wood right now...it's a pretty sizable investment into the ride. I'm glad they did it...as it was pretty rough last year.

The new track was apparently well received on Racer, so this could be huge for The Beast.

Very well received. The first half was flying and smooth as butter last year. I knew it was retracked, but from the naked eye I wasn't able to spot that it was TGG's new track. In hindsight, it makes total sense.

I loved what they did to Racer last year. If they'd do that to the entire track on both sides, it would be one of the best coasters ever. I don't think they have plans for that though because the ride is getting totally repainted for this season, with a red white and blue color scheme.

But The Beast is well known for being rough. Being a challenge to ride is part of what makes it so exciting. It has been too rough over the last few years though, to the point that I can only ride it about once a day. I welcome smoothing out some parts of the ride, but I have hesitations because I don't want it to lose it's personality. It's going to be strange going from smooth to rough track while on the ride.

I can't wait to find out. I plan to make an entire video for it for my YouTube channel.

The Beast opened today, so I had to make an unscheduled trip to the park to ride it.

How was it? AMAZING! "Butter smooth!"

There is a lot more new track than I expected. A few insignificant rough spots are still there, but they don't affect the ride much. The train seemed to move much faster through the course. The helix is even more insane than before. The trims are a lot less noticeable than before. I assume the trims were changed to allow the ride to travel faster now, because the ride does not give the uncomfortable ride it used to.

Anyway... I'd love to see The Beast reach a top spot on the CoasterBuzz Top 100 again. You all need to get out to Kings Island and give it another chance. Those who knew about the changes today seemed very satisfied after their ride. Lots of clapping and cheering in the station. A lot of very happy people walking down the exit ramp.

I am so thankful that Kings Island did this. The ride is an important part of the park, and needs to be preserved for as long as people still enjoy it.

Now to go back and change The Beast back to my number one in my track list...

I can’t see any situation where the Beast would be in my top ten, even if the tracking was flawless. It just doesn’t do that much in comparison to more modern rides.

I already have it at five stars. Four are for the ride itself, and the last one is for sentimental reasons.

One of my earliest memories of thinking that maybe the enthusiast crowd wasn't my crowd was at an ACE event in Kennywood, where a bunch of dudes were saying how much The Beast sucked because it was like "Amtrak in the woods," just meandering through the countryside. While it's not non-stop action, especially with two lifts, when it has run well, I loved it for the sheer length of time you're on it. Is Mystic Timbers, just down the midway, a "better" ride? Maybe, but I think The Beast is unique and fun in a way that other rides can't be.

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder. That is the trouble with trying to debate stuff like that.

I always think back to a Consumer Reports article from a long time ago in which they judged the flavor of potato chips. With everyone's tastes being so different how can you possible declare a best tasting chip?

This reminds me a little of the Beer Snob Thing.

This was years ago, and two minutes with a search engine hasn't turned it up, but I remember reading an article that said, essentially: "Beer enthusiasts learn to like things in beer that regular people don't like, and vice versa."

The slightly longer version: a beer snob^H^H^H^Henthusiast gets that way by looking for new, different, and more intense flavors over time. That experience leads them to prefer the new, different, and intense in a way that isn't only accounted for by a priori preference. It also becomes a reinforcing opinion circulating among the enthusiast community that, for example, bitter is better.

Eventually, I cam back around to just drinking "regular" beer on most occasions, just like I have with going back to the simpler, more old-school rides.

Not everything has to be a hop-bomb, and not everything has to be an RMC. I just appreciate things on all levels.

Now, bourbon and scotch, OTOH.. I still appreciate the bottom/mid shelf, but the holy grail bottles can really be something that special.

I love the Beast, it’s still my #1. It makes no sense but it’s my favorite wooden coaster. It might lack airtime but I love the feeling (especially at night) of flying through the woods at ground level, and the sheer rediculousness of that final helix is just amazing. I really hope the retracked means I don’t have to restrict my rides to only the middle row of the train cars.

Airtime is great, but I've never considered it absolutely essential. Beast is a fantastic ride. Hard to believe the helix could be any crazier than it was before.

I have seen nothing but positive feedback on Beast 2.0, which is pretty impressive for coaster people on the internet.

The one-two punch of Beast and Mystic Timbers night rides is reason enough to go to that park. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

If I'm being objective, I would say Mystic Timbers is the best ride in the park. But growing up in Indianapolis with Kings Island being my home park, The Beast was a rite of passage, a ride that my parents couldn't wait for me to ride and now that I'm a parent, I couldn't wait for my daughters to ride. It was the first big coaster I tackled when I was kid, the first coaster that I loved, and the one ride that flipped the switch in my brain from "this is terrifying and I hate it" to "I love this and I don't want to ever stop doing it." So yeah, +1 bonus point on my ranking.