Trip Report: Paramount's Kings Island
Date: 4/28/2000
"The ride made it all worth it"
As you are probably aware, tonight was Son Of Beast's General Public debut. So like good local coaster enthusiasts, Eric and I joined half the city and made the journey up to PKI tonight.
Pulling off of I-71 at around 4pm (a full hour before opening bell), the lines for the tollbooths were backed up almost all the way to Barr connector road. (The office entrance). We hit the back of the line about when the tollbooths opened, and as a time saving measure the toll collectors were merely eyeballing parking passes and not scanning them in. Soon we had a parking space in the 2nd class parking area, walked our way through the empty 1st class parking area,and made our way up to the front gate. Upon approaching the gate we noted long lines for the ticket booths, or at least we thought they were for the ticket booths, upon trying to walk around them to wwait directly by the turnstiles, we found that the area between the ticket cages and the turnstiles was a solid sea of people. By opening this sea would extend all the way back to the parking lot.
"The wrong way to open a new ride"
At arround 4:40, a full 40 minutes after we joined the lines for the front gate turnstile, a notice was passed back through the line. you were to read it and pass it back to the person behind you. It said that Due to the fact the Son of Beast would be experiencing limited operation tonight you may not get to ride. At first I thought it was a cruel hoax until I saw them going back through the other lines as well. Ah well, SoB is what we came for, so we'll give it a shot. At about 4:45 they opened International Street, and much to their credit they had every available turnstile open collecting tickets, much to the crowds credit they entered the park in a calm orderly manner. Then we noted that each turnstile was being staffed by two people! One to scan your pass or take your ticket, and another person giving EVERYONE who entered the park a courtesy ticket to come back another day. As I was handed my courtesy ticket I was told "We're sorry, Son of Beast will probably not run tonight" Well probably is not won't so we held out hopes, and proceeded around to the first walkway to the left, by the Paramount Theater where a second gate had been set up. They were honoring the Seasonpassholer walkback! You had to show either a season pass, or a LaRosa's First rides contest pass. (Yep those first rides were to be along with the season passholders.) So we flashed our pass and entered the SoB line which ran down the middle of the walkway back to the Paramount Action Zone, but was being held at the bridge into PAZ. Then they started running Face/Off and Drop Zone to try to divert people away from the line. Then around 4:55 they dropped the rope and moved the line into position at the entrance to the queue area. Not 5 minutes after we were positioned the official announcemet came. "Son Of Beast is not open. We suggest you ride our other attractions and come back and ride SOB another day using your free ticket" They seemed to forget only seasonpassholders were admitted at that point the chant came "What good does a free ticket do for a passholder" So we camped out. A little while later they pleaded again to go ridesometing else. And herein came the problem of having all seasonpassholders up front. Most of us had already ridden everything else and came expressly for SoB and no one relented. Then a poor hapless media crew who had obviously not been informed of the ride closing came around and started interviewing people in line "Are you excited about almost riding Son of Beast" To which the passholders were relentless and yelled "If they ever decide to actually OPEN the ride!" or "Great idea! interview the pissed off park patrons" It did not sit well that most of us had seen it run on TV just before heading out to the park,m and yet the ride is "broken down"????????? The media promptly departed. I think every member of park security or management was nt he Action Zone, holding a pow wow under the water tower. They weren't gonna get rid of us that easy. At around 6:00 they started counting the number of people in line (Season pass holder comments heard "They are counting the number of pissed off park patrons" Oh it was fun (yeah right), but remincient of Shivering Timbers we just claimed our space of turf in PAZ, clinging on to a shred of hope that we might get to ride. Finally at 6:30 the firsttest train made its way up the hill loaded with waterdumies, then another tedst train with two humans in the back seat then more test runs each one with a few more human riders than the last. Finally around 7:15 "We are OPEN!" Ans the line is allowed to fill in the queue area. We got almost all the way up into the station. The atmosphere was magic in the station every triain left to a thunderous applause, every trainr returned with a thunderous appluse from riders and the line. It would be one train operation tonight. And the ride went down about 4 cycles into it becuase a train stopped on the final brake and would not advance into the station. Until a mnanagement type walked to the brake run and pressed a button. We decided that we would settle for no less than the back seat, and to the parks credit after the first few trains, they were really handling the one train operation quite nicely, and in fact hkept a rather decent dispatch interval. Since we did wait for the back seat, it probably took us an extra 30-40 minutes in line. But finally at 8:30, only 4 hours and 30 minutes after joiningthe queue to enter the park (Okay so only 3 hours and 30 mins were actually taken in the line, technically speaking) We boarded the very back seat. The trains seem nice and roomy, the lapbars are of the ratcheting variety, but they did not push down on them hard enough to reach the next click. Then with a thumbs up and a loud cheer we were off. Man were we off a short flat track out of the stion then the 60' drop, mild air, sharp turn left, a fast run to the lift, a turnaround to the left, past the on-ride photo camera, then the lift hill. When you hit the lift hill you hear the most awful sound ever to come from a rollercoaster. The lift seems banked very steerp, possibly even steeper than 45 degreed, and they have the lift chain hot rodded, man you just about fly up that lift hill. It becomes apparent why the cars have headrests, and then just before tyou crest the liift shifts into high gear, a small dip, turn to the right, first drop, DOWN, AIRTIME!, back up enter the firt helix, AIR on the first dive into the helix, laterals througout the helix, come out of the helix, trim brake, but it doens't slow you down too much, as evidenced by the AIRTIME you get about halfway down the drop into the loop. "Here comes the loop!" Man you fly through that loop, no hesitation, and for some reason it just looks right all of a sudden, ourt of the loop more turns more laterals, more headchoppers, then the final dive UP into the final brakes to be slowly paraded past the queue line into the station. Bigger round of cheers and appluase!
WOW! That is what every good wooden coaster aspires to be, good airtime, good laterals, good headchoppers, good crossovers, lots of surprise turns. While I do not keep a top ten list, Eric and I agreed that this goes into that coveted catergory where only the best of the best coasters go, I'll be honest I was not expecting an all out kick butt ride like this when I first saw it. the Speed, the sheer speed of the ride that simply does not let up throughout the entire ride. Son of Beast is everything the Beast isn't. Let it be known that Paramount can build a first rate action filled wooden rollercoaster. three cheers to Werner Stengel, RCCA, and Premier Rides for coming together to produce this coaster masterpiece.
Then shortly after leaving the station "Guest 437 bought an on-ride photo"
If I haven't made it clear I loved Son Of Beast. All the construction delays, all the bad weather, the long wait to get into the park, the 2.25 hours we camped out holding on to a shred of hope, the wait for the back seat, everything was all woth it for a back seat ride on this piece of exemplary rollerocaster craftsmanship. Note to Legend: You have a very tough act to follow now.
Then we decided that after that 4.5 hour wait, a trip to the donniker was much in order, then we headed down by the old Log Flume, the signs don't tell much, just that a 2001 expansion is coming. Then down past Beast. the line was back to the cool zone, but still "too long" and why would we want to do that to ourselves after experiencing coaster nirvana????? So we took a flight on the Flying Skooters. They have replaced the No Single Riders sign with a brand new one that says the same thing "Single Riders WILL be paired" Well the crew is to be commended for not pairing us, though they looked at the line and said to themselves "they'll all probably ride single too" the line wasn't that bad for them to really worry about it. Cable snapping was happening all around. I don't think Eric nor I snapped but I got some chain reaction "jerks" from the cable snapping expert behind me. (Hey it's hard to control a rudder AND thow your weight around, ANd hang on to souvineers!) Then we looked at the new Tramp Thing, walked down Coney, and headed for Adventure Express for another look at SoB. Wow! The mere sight of that ride is awe inspiring. Oh and the replaced the lightbulbs in the dude at the top of the lift. Both eyes are now lit, and the tunnels seemed well lit. Then we decided to beat the crowd that would be flooding the parking lot when 10:00 hot, so he headed out around 9:40, stopped to look at the model coaster exhibit, then headed out to the Olive Garden.