What has become of the Beast?

That would be the lights on the service road, which need to be on unfortunatly.

My only problem with the beast is how rough it can be but if you sit in the front that defenetly helps.

Yep folks...the hallmark of a great coaster: in order to have a decent ride you have to choose a specific area to ride. lol

^I must have a twisted sense of the coasters I like then of my top 5 steel and wood, 8 of the 10 (including all of the wood) provide different experiences based on what seat you are in and in order for me to really enjoy the ride I need to ride them in the right part of the train.

Edit Grammer.
*** Edited 6/18/2007 3:48:21 AM UTC by Touchdown***

^ I agree, although a majority of my top coasters I ride back, it's just because of the out of control feel I strive to find.

I have a friend(I think this should have gone on the 'Ignorance' topic, but it's a little out of hand now), but I have a friend who still claims to know more about coasters than me. Not to sound like i'm boasting, but if anyone of us were showed up by him, you would be shunned. But his Geauga and Cedar Point only coaster experience, CP is good, but he swears up and down that the front is the best way to ride any coaster. I agree with him, but to get him to experience the coaster differently in another row, he'll rather argue his point, and try to make assumptions.

Wait, what happened to the Beast topic?

So, It's time for another "Beast" To appear in the US. We need a 'New' Woody that's longer and can deliver more than the Beast. Personally, I think those 4 minutes of ride time, flew by faster than anything else. More than half of which are wasted on the chain lift.

^ That is a good point. The chainlifts takes up over half the ride. Of course, the chainlifts are more exciting than some other parts of the ride ;) but it would be simple to build a coaster with 3 and say, "haha, my coaster takes longer so I win!" even if it completely sucks. Therefore, I hope noboy else builds a coaster like the Beast, unless its smooth and packed full of airtime. Plus, prices have raised so I wonder what it would cost to build a Beast in present day?

Touchdown - Nice try, but that's not what I'm saying. There is a difference between preference and avoidance.

PREFERENCE: "Every seat on Voyage gives a great ride but I prefer to sit in the last row."

--or--

"Batman The Ride is fun no matter what row you ride in but I prefer the front for the view"

AVOIDANCE: "My only problem with the beast is how rough it can be but if you sit in the front that defenetly helps."

--or--

"Son of Beast is good...if you sit only in the middle row of each car."

The hallmark of a great coaster is one that it delivers in every single row, with the front and back ends being even better. The hallmark of a bad coaster: you have to avoid certain rows in order to get a good ride.

*** Edited 6/18/2007 3:53:48 AM UTC by Mamoosh***

Well said. Coasters you can just sit anywhere and enjoy are great rides. Coasters you have to "learn where to sit to get a good ride", are coasters with problems.

Moosh did not ride the ride until 1984...

The "myth and hype" was created circa 1979 and the ride altered within a year or two...

Therefore my opinion is that Mooch's opinion is useless! :) The ride was unbelievable for the first season (before the tunnel was even completed on the helix) when it ran 4 bench trains. It has been slowly neatured since inception and indeed would seem over-hyped unless ridden at that time.

Sadly...this is the story of many a wooden coaster. The only difference in this story is that The Beast reputation was so damn good. There is usually a reason that ANYTHING gets such a "hyped" reputation. There are always haters of course...but the general public loved this ride.

The same cannot be said for a lot of other coasters...

I'm sure when there was nothing else to compare it to, it was the most amazing, jaw-dropping, mind-blowingest experience of all time.

I've been on no-brakes, no-lights, after-hours ERT and only wondered over and over, Why? Just...why?

Back when FKA CBaby actually was CBaby? She couldn't get enough of it. It beat the living snot out of her poor 7 year-old body and she Just. Wouldn't. LEAVE. She'd hold her ribs, elbows, head and whatever else the last trip battered, all the while refusing to take even a five-minute break.

Will I shuffle, shuffle, shake, shake and stare at my watch while it does its thing? Why not? Will I stand in a long line for it? Nooooooo. Will I drive 700 miles to ride it? *snort* I'd have to pass Wisconsin Dells, with at least three coasters that stomp it to splinters. Not to mention a better one 20 minutes away.

I'm not gonna lie and say it's ever thrilled me. But I understand why it has its fans.

-'Playa

"Villain was much better this year, and if you know HOW to sit in those ****** Gerstlauer trains it's not really that painful anymore...sitting toward the front helps too." ;)

edit: Back to Beast, the finale is still amazing to me....the shallow drop, the gradual increase in speed, the banking, the incredible ferocity of the ride in the tunnel....sweet!

That being said, if the entire first half of the ride were gone tomorrow, I wouldn't be too disappointed...

*** Edited 6/18/2007 5:24:14 PM UTC by rollergator***

The very first time I ever heard the word "tight" - another word for awesome or cool - is when I rode the Beast at night for the very first time back in 1998. The guy I was with at the time had a lazer pointer, and he lit it up in the tunnels. As we were coming back to the station, a gal a few rows up said, "who had the lazer pointer, that was tight!" I LMAO after that!

Just had to share my Beast moment. :)

IMO - Beast would be best riding in the front seat.

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pkidelirium said: Beast is a mess. During the Paramount years it went from a great ride to a severely overbraked, rough mess. My rides on it so far this season, even after some retracking it got this offseason, are rougher than ever.

It needs a SERIOUS refurbishment. Maybe Cedar Fair can get the M&V guys or GCI down here next offseason to do some serious work on it.

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I totally agree pkidelirium!

I've been riding this coaster since I was 11, (back in '81), and while it was fun and exciting as a kid, in the last 15 years or so my opinions of it have changed a lot. As a kid, it was a blast mainly because it was cool to finally reach the height, and gain the courage to ride it. But in my adult years, I can truly say that it is one dull ride most of time, (though riding it at night at Beastbuzz '05 was a fun time!).

1) For one, I've got a lot more wood coasters under my belt now, and Beast keeps on dropping lower year after year.

2) And IMO, this coaster is not getting the TLC it really needs. I've been noticing for the past couple of seasons it keeps getting rougher.

I took my 6 yr. old daughter for her first rides on it last week. I was excited to share the experience with her, and she didn't want to wait, so we took a short line, (car 1, seat 3). We both came off feeling beat up pretty good. But I talked her into a second ride, and we waited for front seat...but sadly, same exact result. I know about the "middle seat" thing from SOB, but never had a reason to try it on Beast until now. It'll have to wait until next trip though.As for my daughter, she talks all the time about The Racers (???), and can't wait to get back to HW and ride Voyage some more.

To me, Beast has been getting bad for the past decade or so. IMO, you can see it by looking at the lines on it. Ten years ago you still had to wait a good hour on busy days. Now even on busy days it's 5-10 min. tops, (many times it's a walk-on). And it can't be simply because of the newer rides KI has been adding over the years, because everybody wants to ride the Beast when they go to KI for the first time, (or first time in a long time). It's like KI's rite of passage.

Growing up in the Midwest, I absorbed plenty of Beast lore, myth, and legend. Saw plenty of picutres and POV of the ride well before I ever rode it. I didn't get it.

Then I finally rode it for the first time in 2003. And I got it.

It's by no means my favorite wooden coaster. But it's unique, and I think that's the key for the people who appreciate it. The ride just feels out of control, and that's a sensation I haven't experienced on many rides other than Hades and The Voyage. And that's probably no coincidence, either, as each of those rides takes elements from the Beast.

After I visited Holiday World last year, I wondered in my Trip Report whether The Voyage would become the new Beast... a ride so incredible, so unique, and so concealed form the park-goer's eye that it's bound to stir up some mythical discussion about it.

Just keep in mind the context of the Beast's debut. At that time, it was the biggest, fastest, and longest ride in the world, and to top it off, it was almost completely concealed in the woods. The ride might not live up to the hype these days, but at the time, I think the hype was well-deserved.

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Floorless Fan said:
Ten years ago you still had to wait a good hour on busy days. Now even on busy days it's 5-10 min. tops, (many times it's a walk-on).

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Everytime Ive been this season (April and Memorial Day) the Beast has had a line that goes down the ramp and sometimes back to the old refreshment station mid day resulting in a 15-30 min wait, which was second only to Firehawk (new ride,) FOF (best steel in the park,) and Face/Off (horrible capacity) and virtually tied with the Italian Job and Delerium. I dont get all this "The Beast is dieing" talk, since my first ride in 2000 I fell in love with the thing (even got a trimless night ride once :).)

Is it rough, yup but its a good roughness that at its worst (and I mean worst) is "Mean Streak rough" which is my personal limit before I begin griping about it, not to mention its a five minute out of control ride, quite frankly the best night ride ever made and has the best finale of any coaster Ive been on.

I think the Beast has suffered from "Magnum syndrome" ever since SOB opened, its a ride that everyone still loves (listen to the locals in the line, they all love it) but its no longer a first priority (ie must get to that ride at opening or risk a long line) ride, that said no one leaves the park without not riding it at least once. Its lines also always build at night as smart park goers know its the ride to be on once the sun goes down.

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Floorless Fan said:

IMO, you can see it by looking at the lines on it. Ten years ago you still had to wait a good hour on busy days. Now even on busy days it's 5-10 min. tops, (many times it's a walk-on). And it can't be simply because of the newer rides KI has been adding over the years.

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Given that theory, Magnum is in the same catagory, even with 2 trains operating.

Beast is an old wood coaster. It may not have the lines like it did 20 years ago, but it is also a different ride today than it was 20 years ago.

How is it out-of-control? There are brakes everywhere and most of the ride is going straight at a 2* slope.

^Obviously no coaster (trims or not) is a true out of control ride, but it feels like it is because you are hugging the ground and trees encroach on you from all sides, and then you have the helix, which is just pure insanity. I dont know how else to describe it but if you dont feel that way on it anymore, I pity you.

Roughness is one thing. If it's too rough, its not fun. SOB just magnifies that statement.

But it's funny how there is the thought that if a coaster lacks airtime, it is not a good coaster. It's shame that there is this train of thought, because it ends up missing a unique experience.

And that is just what the Beast has always been. If you want airtime, ride another coaster. If you want the cool experience of long tunnels, rushing through the woods, picking up speed as you hug the terrain and a raging helix finale, the ride the Beast. It is what it is and there isn't much else like it. Shame not to appreciate the unique experience because everything has to pop one off their seat to be defined "good".

Definitely Beast has lost its touch, but I think we all agree that it's beginning to stink. Not a "they're adding too many trims", "It's not the same when it was without the tunnel" crap. But the fact that, our level of an excellent woody is now raised, and it doesn't fulfill any more.

Sure back in the day, it was rough, and exciting, and well worth the hour or more wait. Well, just to let you know, STILL on the busy days the line is an hour long, and NOT worth the wait anymore.

This is an on going battle of those who rode it in the golden days, and those who ride it now. It was great then, and to some or most, it sucks now. Also, if the Beast kept the intensity it had, and extended it into the second part of the ride, and not just end after the helix, then it would be an awesome ride.

In 1979 as the legend was burgeoning, societal tolerance for particular weeds and aromas was much different than present day. Maybe such societal tolerance has lead to a heightened response and awareness for the particular ride in question. But since I was young and didn’t dabble in such affairs…I’ll opine again.

It is not unnoted that said subject consistently finds homage on these pages. Enthusiasts, through a prism of modern day knowledge and experience are quick to opine with any and all criticism toward a ride that does not compare to modern classics. It is tough to argue that modern-day-critics are off mark.

Just because Farrah Fawcett is no longer pleasing to the eye…does not mean she never was. In fact…there is argument to be made that in her day…Farrah could hold her own with anybody. There are so few Farrah Fawcett’s out there…

The Beast started showing age lines as early as the 1980 season. Modifications…many justified…affected the ride experience. This is not a debate about comparing today's Beast with the top woodies out there. The Beast probably does not deserve to be in any top 20 list today.

The previous sentence does not preclude discussion of all-time great rides though. For a very short period of time…no ride was more intense (in a good way) and frightening than The Beast. For some reason…such statements seem to drive the modern-day enthusiast crazy. We all hope and desire that our experiences are the best…human nature 101. I can only guess that many are sad they did not get to experience “perfection” personified.

Sadly…poor design, insurance regulation, societal changes, trim brakes, train changes, etc have all played a role in reducing a Giant to merely average. Talks of trimless rides, rain-soaked experiences, yada yada…good and bad…really are useless unless you rode it in 1979. There were some fine rides to be had in the early 1980’s…but even these classic memories are of a reduced experience.

I’ve never met anybody lucky enough to ride that thing in the first 6 months of operation who was not completely blown away by the experience. I’ve had many close experiences on coasters since…too many to count…but nothing has quite measured up to the first few rides on The Beast.

I’m completely aware of the subjective nature of coaster experiences and sensationalism inflation associated with time. But I will say that is rather alerting that this subject seems only to come up with one particular coaster. Why would one particular coaster still evoke emotional debate nearly 30 years later? So many other wooden classics have come and gone (Texas Giant, Rattler, Texas Cyclone, etc) and are rarely discussed except among the most hard-core of enthusiast. And yet here we are on the second page of another Beast thread…

That is really all you need to know about The Beast. Never has any ride evoked such fanboy and hater responses for such a long and consistent period of time. This alone…makes The Beast the most classic coaster of the modern era. What park wouldn’t want that in their arsenal?

*** Edited 6/18/2007 9:48:04 PM UTC by Jeffrey R Smith***