Was Son of Beast a Bomb?

I think it's a very good ride. I liked it a lot two years ago, and can't wait to check it out with the improvements that have been made since then.

It's agressive, but I don't think excessively so. I've never felt the ride was violent or painful. It's big, it's bad, and it'll kick your butt.

The restraints I really don't have a problem with. I do find them to be a tad uncomfortable while waiting for the train to dispatch, but once the ride starts I really don't even notice them.

I hate Son of Beast; that ride is zero fun for me; it is just a brutal beating. I have ridden it 3 times now in different cars and each time it has just been painful; there is absolutely no leg room! It is a nightmare if you are 6' or taller.

I go to PKI at least once a summer, but I highly doubt that I will ride SoB on my next visit; it just isn't worth it. But I love the Beast (especially at Night!)
One of my favorite memories of PKI from this past Saturday was riding the Beast at night; as the park got closer to closing time the atmosphere in the Beast's station was just awesome. I got in about 3 rides between 9:30 and 10:00; the ride ops were getting everyone clapping and yelling before leaving the station; it was a blast.

The best part was that the ride op would ask all the riders if they were ready for the Beast. And everyone would yell and clap. And then she would ask if we had been on Son of Beast yet, and we would all yell yes. She would then ask; "is it as good as it's Daddy?" And everyone in the car and the station would yell "No!" It was a lot of fun. We would then all start clapping in unision in the station and up the lift hill. I love the Beast!!! Puire adrenaline rush! The SoB is a red headed stepchild (imo).

I agree with everything zombie said!

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Give me wood or give me B&M! :-)
(330 plus and rising)

Those who know me know that I am tolerant of almost any rough coaster; I love every Togo I've ridden, and though I've only ridden two Vekoma SLC's, only one I found to be a bit painful, and that was probably due to me riding near the back of the train. Even so, I still enjoyed it somewhat. Sometimes I get a rush out of getting my ass kicked on a ride--not much compares to a back seat ride on the CI Cyclone.

Basically what I'm saying is that if I complain about a coaster, that coaster damn near tore me apart. That said, my first and only ride on Son of Beast in August of 2000 gave me the worst beating I've had in my 25 years riding coasters. It wasn't the restraints (although they were definitely less than comfortable), as my legs endured no pain whatsoever (unless the headache I received made any pain I may have had in my legs seem non-existent). I literally felt like I received some brain damage after exiting the ride. The positive Gs at the bottom of every hill, which caused my head to violently shake uncontrollably to the point that I couldn't see straight, made my brain feel like it was bouncing around inside my skull like a damn basketball. I was literally wincing in pain. This may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you this is exactly how I felt.

I couldn't ride anything for two hours. I thought I'd be out of commission for the rest of the day, but fortunately I did recover enough to take one more spin on The Beast before I left PKI with only a slight headache.

The pain I felt may have been caused by a number of things--dehydration, perhaps; lack of food; slight fatigue due to the fact that PKI was last stop on a trip that began with one day at Hersheypark, one day of driving, two full days at Cedar Point before driving until I arrived in Cincinnati at 3am the night before--I don't know. The one thing I'm sure about is that I was feeling pretty good before boarding Son of Beast.

Aside from the near-death experience (fortunately I didn't see any bright flashes of light :) ), the coaster itself, while quite beautiful and impressive to look at, offers no airtime and I found the pacing to be quite lousy. It certainly can't be argued that SoB is a powerful coaster, but when the only good part of a massive ride like that is the steel loop (that loop is awesome), what's the point?

As hypocritical as it may sound, I'm actually looking forward to my second trip to PKI (this year, hopefullly) so I can ride Son again. I will be more selective about where I sit this time (the very front was where I sat 3 years ago), but I really do want to like this ride. Hell, as much as I wanted to hate it after my first ride, I just couldn't--certainly solidifies the statement, 'I never met a coaster I didn't like.'

Son of Beast will never hold a candle to its poppa, though.

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-Mike B.
Son of Hulk

I hate it!

First off, the restraints are uncomfortable.......I mean I guess I don't notice them *too* much when riding, but I still don't like them. But anyways, I love rough coasters (SLC's, Mean Streak, etc) but the roughness on SoB plus the lap bars don't go well with me. And sorry, but that layout is so boring, I think it's cool that it is the height that it is and how it has the loop, but the layout still bores me.
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CCI Lives On!
-Patrick

Like I said earlier, I usually like the ride a lot, but I rode it a few days ago and I got brutalized. I'm still pretty young so I can hands some jarring, and I like to be thrown around on a wood coaster to an extent, but for some reason my last ride just seemed REALLY ROUGH. I do have one theory. Each car has 3 rows of seats and I always make a point to sit in the middle row so the seat doesn't absorb as much direct shock from the wheels. I sat in the front row of the car last time, so maybe that was the difference. I'll try it again next time. Maybe it was just having a bad day.

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Vater said:

I literally felt like I received some brain damage after exiting the ride. The positive Gs at the bottom of every hill, which caused my head to violently shake uncontrollably to the point that I couldn't see straight, made my brain feel like it was bouncing around inside my skull like a damn basketball. I was literally wincing in pain. This may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you this is exactly how I felt.

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Vater - I had the exact same experience on my only two rides on Mean Streak in '98. Since then, it's become my benchmark for measuring ride roughness.

I rode SOB for the first time two weeks ago - I knew about the middle seat strategy, but I opted for the last row instead so I could have a riding partner. It wasn't as brutal as my Mean Streak experience, but it came close. The vibrations were definitely jarring to my head and back, but my ribs seemed to suffer the most from slamming into the side of the car. I was convinced I had popped something after my ride.

Still, I'd put SOB at my 3rd roughest ride, below The Rattler and Mean Streak, and just above The Beast. While I won't ride the top two ever again, I might consider riding SOB again... in a different seat.

darn this quoting function...
*** This post was edited by Olsor 6/12/2003 1:31:14 PM ***

Olsor, the first time I rode Mean Streak was in '97, and while I experienced some crazy Gs at the bottom of the first drop, that was the only head-pounding I received. And let me tell you, the pain I felt was sheer bliss compared to my SoB ride.

I rode Mean Streak again in 2000, and I might as well have been on a carousel. It's far different from what it was a few years ago. I didn't enjoy it that much, but you might if you're worried it may be a bit too rough. Trust me, it isn't anymore.

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-Mike B.
Son of Hulk

My friend Christen went to BeastBuzz with me this year. She is one who normally HATES wooden roller coasters, but for some reason LOVED SOB. I can't figure it out! I like the ride but she LOVED it! Beast is still my favorite ride at that park, but she like SOB better!

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I WILL marry The Legend. Please only refer to me now as Mrs. Legend.

I like it. It's big, very powerful and it's one of a kind. The lap bars is the down side but the visuals are cool. PKI did good in extending the Beast legacy. The Beast is the King horizontally and SoB is King vertically. What else can you do? Build a 2 mile long wooden coaster? Both Beasts are in my Top 7 for Wooden so it serves me well. The general public likes SoB for the most part so PKI did good (and continues to do good as far as new ride selections).

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When was the last time you drove 251 km/h (156 mph)?

Koaster King said:

But I have a question that has been bugging me for awhile. If The Beast is the dad and SOB is the son, what's the relationship of Beastie?

The pet gerbil

*** This post was edited by Antuan 6/12/2003 2:57:23 PM ***

I want to ride it and see wht ya'll talking about. Has anone riddden a wooden Intamin coaster and is it rough or smooth?

I visited PKI for the first time last year. I had read all of the bad reviews of SoB so my expectations were pretty low. Oh yes.. it was brutal! But despite that I still thuroughly enjoyed the ride. The drop, helix and loop more than made up for the pain I endured.

SoB is not a coaster that I would hop right back into line for. But it's definitely a highlight for the park. It's brutal, yes.. but extremely intense. There's nothing else like it in the world.

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Kevin Stone
NoLimits Roller Coaster Simulator
http://www.nolimitscoaster.de

I have ridden 3 Intamin Wooden Coasters.
American Eagle @ SF GAm = A decent coaster but don't remember it too much.
Pegasus @ Efteling (Netherlands) = a nice small woodie along some water. It was not rough but not as big either.
Colossos @ Heide Park (Germany) = a wooden hyper that doesn't feel like a wooden coaster at all. It feels like a steel hyper with it's drops and turns. Pretty smooth and fast and if I remember right, it sounds weird too. That's all I think I've ridden from Intamin.

Genesis said:

...PKI did good (and continues to do good as far as new ride selections).

I don't know about you but I'm gettin tired of the flat rides. I think Tomb Raider is lame and even though Delerium is pretty cool it's time for them to build a new, SMOOTH, steel coaster. I hyper coaster would be great, maybe even a terrain steel coaster.

*** This post was edited by Bakeman 6/12/2003 3:28:13 PM ***

so I guess parks who want tall wooden hyper coasters sould try Intamin. I wonder if they can do loops too. Man I wanna ride a tall wooden coaster already. So far, Mean Streak is the tallest I've ridden. Mean Streak is good wooden, not as good as the Villain, but I want more.

Well Bakeman, if you are gettin tired of the flat rides, think of it as this. Let PKI built a few flat rides, and wait patiently for the next coaster (I agree that a huge steel coaster is nice and will be next, and usually a new huge steel coaster = smooth). When it comes, there will be plenty of other attractive flat rides out there that people will also want to ride and get in line for. This will make the new coaster (as well as existing coasters)'s line that much shorter, and make rollercoaster fans like yourself able to get more re-rides per hour/day.
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When was the last time you drove 251 km/h (156 mph)?

Derrick, Mean Streak is the 4th-tallest wooden coaster in the world. Wooden coasters that are tall for the sake of being tall don't do it for me. Of the 3 Top 10 tallest wooden coasters that I've actually ridden, Texas Giant is by far the best (which isn't saying much since MS and SoB are #25 and #30, respectively, out of my track record of 32 wooden coasters), and its spot in my top 10 has nothing to do with its height.

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-Mike B.
Son of Hulk

Vater, I know that's it's the 4th tallest. I was just saying that Mean Streak is the tallest I've ridden.